บท 24: Later That Night

After we took a bath, we went back to the table next to the window as usual.

We wore casual clothes except for Garth. He wore a CADPAT uniform. In short, he wore a dark greenish uniform and a marksman chest rig. He carried Maria's MSG-90 on his back and a Glock 18 on his thigh. He put 4 blocks of C4 on his chest.

"Ok, let's go," I said to them as I grabbed the car keys from my pocket.

"Let's go," they replied, and Garth raised Maria's rifle.

I opened the car door and let them come first. I turned on the car engine and drove as usual.

"Wilson, can you teach me how to drive this thing?" Cecile asked.

"Sure, after we leave the town," I said as I held the steering wheel.

When I arrived at the academy gates, one of the guards asked me, "Can you state your purpose of visit?" He asked.

"Just want to hang around," I opened my window, and the back one and Maria waved her hand to the guard.

"Ok, you may pass," He said as he opened the gate.

"Thank you," I closed the window then drove the car through the gate.

The academy has a large park in the middle that has a large fountain with a principal statue in the middle.

Unfortunately, the road to the statue was closed because the statue was under repair.

I parked the car near the big building in the middle. From the looks of it, it looks like the building was used for the principal's office and the teacher's office.

I turned off the car, then we got out of it. Garth followed us while holding the MSG-90 on his hand. We head to the center of the academy, where fragments of stone were scattered.

We walked to the principal statue, "Looks like the statue is broken," I said.

"No doubt, this is the fragment of the tungsten dart," Garth said as he picked a piece of metal from the ground near the statue.

"Behold, the masterpiece of Wilson," Maria said sarcastically as she put her hand on the broken statue.

"C'mon, it was better than before, right?" I pointed my finger at the statue.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" A voice came from behind us.

A group of students wearing a black jacket with black trousers approached us. They wore a red armband that read "D.C."

"Just hanging around," I said.

"Who do you think you are? This is the academy. Not a place for a commoner like you," He said to me, rudely.

"Garth, stand down!!" I shouted as I looked behind at Garth, who was aiming his rifle.

"I'm sorry, but we are also a student in this academy," Maria said to him politely.

"I apologize, your grace, but I am talking to this person," one of the girls said.

"You three, follow me!!" He said.

"Garth, give Maria the rifle!" I shouted at him.

I approached Maria and said, "Find a vantage point, ok," I whispered.

She nodded.

We followed the group of students to the large building on the western side.

The large building was the student council building and the disciplinary committee.

"Well, we are fucked," I whispered to Garth.

"You damn right," Garth said as he put his hand on his pistol that was located near his belt.

"Please don't do that," I said to him.

They separated us from Cecile, and because of my bad feelings, I told Garth to prepare.

"How many blocks do you bring?" I asked him.

He opened his chest rig pouch and checked every single piece of C4 that he brought, "About 4 large sticks of C4," He said.

"Ok, I have a bad feeling," I said to him.

They guided us to their room and opened a large brown door in front of us.

A brown-haired boy with an intellectual look was sitting in front of a desk. He was shorter than both me and Garth. He was wearing glass and had a light-colored skin. His face was too odd for a boy, but I ignored it.

He let us sit in a chair in front of him and told the others to leave.

"Do you know why we bring you here?" He asked with a high-pitched voice.

Garth and I leaked our killing intent and asked him, "First of all, who are you?" I asked with an intimidating tone.

"My name is Anton Collins. I am the vice-president and ex-officio of the Brofnora student council and disciplinary committee," he said proudly.

"Nice to meet you, Collins, my name is Wilson, and he is Garth," I told him.

"Nice to meet you too, Wilson" He shook my hand.

"What is your intention of bringing us here?" Garth asked aggressively

"Nothing, I just wanted to know who are the new students that suddenly barged in into our schools, and the first thing they do are looking at the broken statue. Do you happen to know what happened to that statue?" He asked.

With an eye gesture that indicated confusion, I looked at Garth, "I don't have any idea about what happened to our principal statue," Garth said while looked at me back.

"Neither do I," I said to him.

"Of course, both of you won't know," Collins laughed at us.

Garth felt that he had been played like a fiddle. So his emotion started to take over his decision. He almost grabbed the pistol from his hip, but luckily I successfully took the gun away from him.

"Garth, not right now!" I shouted at him while putting his pistol behind my shirt.

"Haha, are you both are childhood friends?" Collins laughed at us.

"Sort of," I answered.

"What do you mean by sort of?" He asked.

Garth closed my mouth just before I wanted to say something, "Don't tell him, Wilson, It's only between us," Garth said.

"Ok, Fine," I said to him.

"A group secret, huh? You are the servants of Duke of Grassland, right?" Collins asked.

"Yup, but only for his daughter," Garth said.

"Oh, I see," He stood up and headed to the cabinets.

The cabinets were covered in glass. Some of it filled with trophies, and the others were filled by miscellaneous things. He grabbed three glass and a bottle of wine from the cabinets.

"This wine is 25-years-old. The student council keeps this for special occasions even the school doesn't know about this," Collins said as he opened the wine cork.

"I see," I said as I looked at him.

He poured the wine to the glass and said, "I know that boys from our age shouldn't drink alcohol, but because this is a special occasion, and you are my honorable guess tonight."

"Nice," Garth said as we stood up to make a toast.

"For the change of this school tradition," Collins said as he raised his glass.

"For a better education in the future," I said

"For our health," Garth said.

"Cheers," Collins said as our glass were hitting each other.