I'm the Bad Guy

by Kenneth Arant

  If he wanted to play games with me... Then I'll just have to change up the rules a little bit...

  * * *

  Chapter 13: The 'Incident'

  * * *

  The day it all went to hell, began like any other.

  We'd been living in our ten-person cabin for a little over a month and things were going fairly well for me.

  My self-studies were going great. I'd managed to get the cast time for my open gate spell down to a mere three seconds and my supply of 'meat-shields' has been steadily increasing by the day... The Imps have also been rapidly increasing in number. Though I've tried not to think about them ever since I accidentally walked in on an Imp orgy... Yeah... I don't stick around to count them anymore. God knows I have enough problems without adding nightmares to the list.

  Likewise, the diet and exercise regimen Gabriel designed for me has been working wonders. I've managed to drop a pant size in the last month and my chest and arms have a little definition to them now... I still have man boobs. But I'm getting there, damn it!

  The only real downsides over the past month were my inability to decide on which electives I would take and the near constant butting of heads between myself and Markus.

  I'd managed to discover a little more about his identity by discreetly asking around and sending a letter to Lucian back in the capital. He was happy to receive my letters and the updates on Kami's day-to-day life I was prone to send him. So, when I asked him to do a little digging into the background of a 'Markus Venton,' he was only too happy to accept my request.

  Markus Venton was apparently the third son of Baron Venton, the ruler of a small territory on the far edge of the empire. No one had heard of the baron being able to do magic, so it was possible that Markus was a 'new mage'. A person born into a predominantly non-magic family. But from the magic I'd both felt and witnessed him using... I somehow doubted he was.

  ...

  Of course, with all the good things to happen over the past month, the other shoe just had to eventually drop.

  I woke up a few minutes before sunrise, as I'd taken to doing, and went for my morning two and a half mile jog. My goal is to eventually be able to run five miles every morning. But from the way my lungs burned, and my body ached after only two and a half miles... That goal was still a ways away.

  I finished my run with sweat clinging to my skin and my white T-shirt sticking to my body. I stepped into the cabin and noticed Markus sitting with Kami on her bed, facing away from the door. The two of them were sitting close enough for their knees to touch and were whispering about something.

  As they were the only two still in the cabin, it looked like an intimate moment between two young lovers.

  Now, if I were the previous Aren, the one that loved Kami from the moment he saw her, I would have just gotten insanely jealous at the mere sight of them getting along so well and probably would have run away.

  ...

  But I wasn't that Aren.

  I picked up my bathing utensils: a bar of soap, towel, washrag, the usual stuff. And walked around my bed to stand beside them.

  A quick glance at Kami's semi-glazed eyes, while she continued whispering to him, confirmed my suspicions and I nodded my head.

  "Yeah, I thought so."

  Markus seemed to notice me at that point and turned his head to look at me.

  "Oh, hey Aren. Didn't see you the—Ack!!" He yelled as I used the towel I'd wrapped around my fist to bash his face in. He fell backward onto the bed while holding his nose in a vain attempt to stop the flow of blood that exploded out the moment my fist made contact with his nose.

  I ignored his cries and hopped onto the bed, then mounted his chest. I pressed the towel to his nose as hard as I could, causing a muffled scream to tear its way out of his throat.

  He swung his arms widely and kicked his legs futilely as he tried to throw me off, but his actions only served to further annoy me.

  "Shut. Up." I commanded as I twisted his nose through the towel, prompting another scream.

  He stopped moving and stared at me through wide, tear-stained eyes. I could feel his bottom lip trembling through the towel, but I ignored it and returned his stare.

  "I don't care about your excuses. I don't care about your goal. I don't even care about what kind of sad, twisted backstory you have. Do not use magic on Kami again."

  "I don't—AHH!!"

  I released my grip on his nose and glared hatefully into his eyes.

  That Kami only reacted to what was going on after he screamed for the second time was a testament to how powerful his magic was.

  She jumped off the bed and pressed her back against the far wall.

  "What happened!?"

  Her voice was shaking, her body was shivering, and her pupils were dilated.

  She was on the verge of a panic attack.

  "Kami, calm down."

  "Don't tell me to calm down, Aren!"

  "Kami, help me! He—Guff!"

  I punched his nose through the towel, then covered his mouth with my hand. I knew that he wouldn't be able to breathe through both the towel and the broken nose... But right now, I didn't particularly care.

  "You need to calm down before you have a panic attack." I replied in the calmest voice I could manage.

  I was perfectly fine with him trying to use his magic on me. Sure, it was annoying and it kinda pissed me off, but I saw it as nothing more than a kid trying to assert his dominance. Which is why I only sought to annoy him over the past month.

  ...

  But, using that magic on Kami... Was out of the question.

  My words seemed to register in her mind because she took several deep breaths, then closed her eyes and began whispering something to herself.

  I turned my eyes from her to the boy I was still suffocating and removed my hand from his mouth.

  He took several deep breaths in... then began screaming bloody murder.

  His cries for help were so loud I thought my eardrums were going to burst.

  He thrashed wildly around on the bed and a lucky swing of his arm smacked into my mouth and knocked me off his chest. He took the brief moment of freedom he'd given himself and used it to run away at full speed, screaming for help the entire time.

  I wiped the blood from my bruised lip, then stood in front of Kami as calmly as I could. I desperately wanted to chase the little twat down and possibly feed him to the imps... But I had a feeling that Kami needed me a little more than the imps needed a skinny eleven-year-old.

  "Kami?"

  Her breathing hitched in her throat.

  "It's okay. He's gone."

  Her eyes sprung open and she immediately turned her eyes away from the bed.

  "Kami, you need to look at me."

  Slowly, ever so slowly, her eyes turned in my direction and she stared at the bed with a haunted look in her eyes.

  "I'm going to tell the teachers what happened, okay? Hopefully, they'll either kick him out of school or, at the very least, move him into another cabin."

  I stood up, grabbed her hand, and made to move towards the door when it suddenly slammed open and a large balding man, wearing the standard black teacher's robe, came barreling in with Markus hot on his heels. The man had to be almost six and a half feet tall and probably weighed in excess of three hundred pounds with salt and pepper hair and beady black eyes.

  Since his nose was no longer bleeding I assumed he'd rushed to find a teacher and they'd somehow stopped the bleeding.

  "Aren Ulvani! You need to come with me!" The teacher sternly said as he made his way towards us.

  "Okay." I simply said as I held onto Kami's hand.

  That seemed to take the wind out of the teacher's sails as he stopped short of grabbing my arm and stared quizzically at me.

  I glanced at Markus out of the corner of my eye and noticed a mildly surprised expression on his face. I held back the grin that threatened to rear its ugly head and looked solemnly at the teacher.

  "I'll
gladly go with you while you escort Kami to therapy. The poor thing is probably going to have nightmares about this for months!"

  "Wha—"

  "I mean, what kind of school is this that you let a novice Illusionist practice his magic on other students. Honestly sir, what would the emperor say?"

  The teacher's face paled slightly at the mention of the emperor and he looked over my shoulder at the still pale-faced, and slightly shaken, Kami.

  "Are you alright, miss?" The teacher asked after a minute or so of silence.

  My internal grin grew even wider and my eyes involuntarily moved to stare into Markus' wide eyes.

  You messed with the wrong girl.

  Something in my eyes must have spooked him a bit because he turned pale and began to slowly back out of the room.

  Yes, run.

  The teacher stepped around me and placed his hand on Kami's forehead.

  She flinched at his touch.

  "She's running a fever." He stated. "We need to get her to the infirmary and run some tests."

  "What about Markus?"

  The teacher looked over his shoulder and, for the first time, noticed that Markus was missing.

  "Where'd he go!?"

  "He ran out the door a few seconds ago."

  "What!?"

  He ran over to the door and began looking for Markus.

  "Take her straight to the infirmary! You got that!" He yelled as he ran out the door.

  "Yes, sir." I sardonically replied.

  I turned to Kami and scooped her up into a princess carry... The Irony was not lost on me.

  She yelped at the suddenness of my action and wrapped her arms around my neck. Presumably to maintain her balance.

  "I can walk, you know... I'm not broken." She mumbled into my ear.

  "Never said you were."

  I carried her out the door and through the double doors at the front of the castle. By the time we got there, my arms were starting to feel like lead.

  "You can put me down now. I can walk from here."

  "I saw your face earlier, princess." I whispered into her ear. "You can put on a brave face in front of the teachers, but that crap won't work on me."

  What I left unsaid, was because I'd watched you for years through a television screen. I watched your every movement, I remembered all of your favorite things... And I remembered how you would shut down and put on a brave face whenever something went wrong.

  She let out a rather cute 'Hmph', then folded her arms under her chest.

  About two or three minutes later. I walked into the infirmary, which was located on the first floor of the castle, and placed her down on one of the empty beds.

  I told the nurse on duty what was wrong and ensured that she knew exactly who was responsible for it. Then, I left the infirmary and went looking for Markus.

  I figured it was way past time that we settled our... disagreement.

  I spent the rest of the day looking for him. I searched high, low, inside the castle and out. But either he left the academy all together... Or he knew more illusion magic than I gave him credit for.

  Around dusk, after almost an entire day of searching the castle and asking his 'friends' if they'd seen him and receiving negative responses each time. I returned to the infirmary expecting to find a rather pissed off Kami.

  ...

  Instead, I found the nurse in an almost catatonic state and Kami... Kami was nowhere to be seen.

  I grabbed the nurse's shoulders and tried to shake her awake. I railed at her, screamed at her, I even slapped her a few times... But it was to no avail. Whatever had been done to her was strong and I lacked the power to do anything about it.

  Kami was gone and my only lead to her whereabouts was practically brain dead at the moment.

  I blew out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding and opened my gate as wide as I could.

  "Find her." I commanded.

  Seconds later, a horde of Imps and Ghouls poured out of the gate and spread out to search the castle and the grounds beyond.

  ...

  I could only hope that I wasn't too late.

  * * *

  Chapter 14: The Pursuit

  * * *

  I shook my head as an intense pressure formed in the center of my head. Mentally tracking and directing this many summons as they raced through the castle's halls was incredibly taxing on my brain, but I was determined to push through it. Though the fact that all hell had broken loose in the castle definitely wasn't helping my concentration. I could hear adults and children alike scream in terror as my horde searched every room in the castle.

  ...

  And I do mean every room.

  The princess was missing, and the only thing that made sense was that she'd been taken by Markus... But why? What could he be thinking to not only use his magic on the princess but to abduct her as well?

  I raised my head at the sound of someone shouting in the hallway. It sounded like two adults. One was clearly a male if the rough voice I could barely make out was to be believed. And the other voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman.

  "I'm telling you, they came from the infirmary!" The rough voice yelled.

  "And I'm telling you, that's impossible! How could a horde of that size have come from a room inside the building!? They must have come from the forest behind the castle and somehow managed to find their way inside!"

  "I know what I saw!"

  "You've been drinking since noon!"

  "So have you!"

  I don't have time for this...

  I stepped into the hallway and sure enough, I saw an older man and a young woman arguing while they walked down the hallway.

  The man looked to be in his middle to late forties, with raven black hair, electric blue eyes, and a thin build. He wore the standard teacher's robe over a disheveled white shirt and a half tied tie dangling from his neck.

  The woman was young, possibly in her early twenties, with fiery red hair, bright yellow eyes, and a lithe frame. Like the man, she wore a teacher's robe. Though, her's was cut off at the knees making it look more like a dress than a robe.

  "Oi!"

  The two paused their argument long enough to look at me.

  "We have a serious problem." I stated as I walked up to them.

  A wordless conversation seemed to pass between them as they glanced at each other, then they looked me up and down.

  "Aren't you one of the new kids? What are you doing out here? All students have been ordered to return to their rooms until its safe." The woman said sternly.

  "Nevermind that." I waved away her comment. "The nurse in the infirmary is catatonic and I believe the princess has been abducted by another student."

  "Look, kid, We don't have time to play pretend with you. Come on, I'll escort you to the great hall so you can be with the other students. "

  I felt my annoyance at the two of them grow.

  "Don't believe me? That's fine. Just go check on the woman in the nurse's office. I'm going to inform either the arch-mage or the head-mage about the princess's disappearance."

  I stepped past the two without another word and continued to head towards the castle's front gate.

  One of my ghouls managed to get the attention of the arch-mage, while an Imp threw fecal matter at the head-mage... It was promptly destroyed, but it certainly got her attention. Both of them were being led on an interception course with me by a small portion of my overall summons. I could only hope they didn't destroy them all before they were in position. Ghouls took a long time and were a pain in the ass to make while Imps were just a pain in the ass, but they were mine.

  I heard the two teacher's surprised yells as they saw their colleague and a faint smile appeared on my face. Only to be replaced by a grimace moments later.

  I could enjoy being proved right, later. Right now, I had a princess to find and a brat to punish.

  I arrived in the front courtyard in time to see the last of the ghouls I'd sent to find the ar
ch-mage get crushed beneath the foot of a huge golem.

  I quirked an eyebrow at the twelve foot tall stone golem and wondered if I could get one for myself... I disregarded the thought almost as soon as it appeared and turned to the two mages standing almost casually amidst the twenty or so summons they'd turned to mush.

  "Do you have any idea how annoying it is to replace those?" I asked mildly.

  Arch-mage Millinis spotted me before his companion did and he waved cordially at me.

  His actions drew the attention of the other teacher, the one I assumed to be head-mage Le-Doux, and she turned to face me.

  She appeared to be in her late fifties, with black hair pulled into a tight bun, dark eyes, and alabaster skin. Her face was wrinkled in a way that made me think she frowned a lot and her lips were set in a grim line.

  "Is this your doing, child? Did you let these beasts into the castle?" She asked in a tone that would have sent most children running for the hills.

  "Something like that."

  "He's a summoner, Annika." arch-mage Millinis said in a jovial tone.

  He was apparently in an extremely good mood.

  "Surely you're not suggesting these were all summoned creatures?"

  "Well, I—"

  "Sorry to interrupt you, arch-mage, but we have a problem... A serious problem."

  "Oh?"

  I quickly explained what happened over the last few hours, with each 'incident' with Markus bringing an ever-increasing frown to the arch-mage's face.

  "No... No, that can't be right."

  "Sir?"

  "Annika, has any of the other teachers or students came to you about Markus?"

  "No, sir... In fact, I don't believe I've heard anything about him. Why?"

  "Because Markus Venton took his M.P.E.E shortly before our young Aren did. And I'm certain he was predicted to be a slightly above average arcanist. I will need to look over my records one more time, but I don't remember us having any new Illusionists this year."