…Juin tried to put on the most intimidating expression he could muster on his face as he walked toward the two.
"Y-you!" he snapped as he looked down on those two.
Patrick and John exchanged glances before looking up at Juin. They were a little nervous since they did not know the extent of Juin"s power.
"We need to talk," Juin said before turning around. He then glanced back at those two before snapping, "Do I need to invite you guys?"
Without waiting for an answer, he then walked out; all the while, he was grabbing his right hand with his left hand tightly to stop them from trembling. In his mind, he was patting his own back for a job well done.
Juin then took out his phone and typed.
[Are they still following me?]
Lucifer, who was floating above Juin while being on his usual recline position, glanced at those two who were following from a distance and nodded. "Yup, they are."
As they walked, Juin typed.
[What if someone heard us?]
"Any supernatural beings that could hear you guys would know the information that those two would be giving you, so there"s no need to worry about that," Lucifer said nonchalantly. "At most, you would be giving them the information that you are completely clueless… which you are. But that would work on our favor, since they would think that you are a complete weakling… which you are. "
Juin sighed and quickly typed.
[Can you stop insulting me? :( ]
"Get stronger, then I"ll stop."
Juin thought about a thousand curses that he would like to throw at Lucifer one day, when he was strong enough to withstand whatever torture that the guy might throw at him. For now, he just did what he used to do; lower his head and be quiet.
Since he did not know where to go, he walked around until he found an empty room. Inside the room, there were only four huge tables, kind of like those that CEOs used in dramas, and each of the tables had a computer on it, and the arrangement of the seating was as if the students were not supposed to be talking to each other, as the chairs were all facing the walls.
"Study room 05…" he murmured as he looked at the plaque. On the door, there was a sign that said, "Self study in progress. Do not disturb". There was also a name list outside the door, along with time slots stated next to the names on the list. Thank G.o.d that it was currently not in use; otherwise, Juin would lose whatever brave front he was trying to present if he had to continue walking around without any fixed destination.
He walked into the room and sat down at the huge desk with the number 05-01, and when Patrick and John finally walked in a minute later, Juin said, "Lower the blinds and lock the door. I have something important to ask you guys."
Patrick clenched his fists, but John immediately calmed him down by whispering, "Are you nuts? He"s not normal! Have you forgotten the incident?"
Patrick sighed angrily as he glared at Juin, who seemed to be a completely different person than before. Before the field trip, just a glance from Patrick would send Juin scurry far away. But now, that guy was sitting on the chair with his legs crossed and arms folded, as if he were a king facing his subjects.
"Look," John whispered, "we can"t create trouble here. Let"s just see what he wants to know."
After a moment of hesitation, Patrick nodded reluctantly, and he went to close the blinds as John closed the door behind them. Once all the blinds were down, they went to stand in front of Juin.
"What do you want?" Patrick asked rudely, which earned him a glare from Juin.
At this point, Lucifer slowly released his aura, taking care not to push them too hard as it might alert the others outside the room. He did his best to contain his aura within the room.
Even just a little was already stressful on Patrick and John, who immediately felt the urge to get down on their knees, as if they were facing an almighty king.
"It"s the same aura…" John mumbled under his breath as he tried his best not to fall on his knees again. He would never forget the humiliation of being on his knees in front of the boy whom he used to pick on on a daily basis.
Patrick could not even reply him. With beads of sweat slowly appearing on his forehead, he looked at Juin and asked, this time more politely, "W-What would you like to know?"
Juin knew that it was Lucifer who caused those two to be so polite all of a sudden, so he told himself not to mess everything up.
"How many supernatural beings are currently here at this school?" Juin asked as coldly as possible. He saw those two exchanged glances, and he quickly added, "Don"t even think about lying. I know what you guys are, and I know that there are quite a few of you guys here. I want to know the names and levels of every supernatural being that you know of."
Patrick was hesitant to reply, as this was about the information of the Order, so John took over. However, John only talked about the things that were commonly known to everyone in their world. "It"s not that we don"t want to tell you, but we only know those who are in the Order. There are people from other groups as well, which we have no idea of."
"What Order is this?"
"Order of the Supernatural Code." John then explained the Order and what it was. He then said, "I"m sure, with your ability, the Order would accept you as well. They don"t care about how one gets their ability. As long as you proved yourself, the Order would accept you."
Juin did not say anything about that. "The names of those that you know then. Oh, is Luca Rockefeller part of the Order?"
This time it was Patrick who replied, "Yes, he is."
"He"s stronger than you guys."
"He"s human, but he"s an Elementalist, and a strong one to boot. Normally, due to the difference in strength, Elementalists are kept away from the lower-ranked members of the Order, and they are trained by the higher-ups. Luca Rockefeller is a unique case. He"s one of the few that"s trained by President Presley personally, and he has never appeared in any of the gatherings at the Order. And up until he appeared at our school, we only knew him by his name."
John nodded. "We didn"t know that he"s at the school to look for you. Really!"
Juin dismissed their fear of retaliation and asked instead, "Are there a lot of Elementalists?"
"Not really," John said, looking at Patrick briefly. "Elementalists are rare compared to natural-born supernatural beings. And whenever one appeared, the different groups would clamber to get the person to join their ranks."
"Groups? How many are there?"
"There are two main groups in this country. The Order of the Supernatural Code is the largest, which consists of humans and supernatural beings. Then, it"s the Nakamura Order, which consists of mostly humans who have learned how to wield magic by getting their hands on numerous magical items brought over from other dimensions. They migrated over a long time ago and have been slowly expanding their control."
"The Nakamura Order?" Juin frowned. During the rollcall earlier, he vaguely remembered that there was a Nakamura in his cla.s.s. "Tell me more about this group."
John nodded. "Ryotaro Nakamura, the forefather and creator of the Nakamura Order, was an extremely powerful priest who was famous for exorcisms. It was a piece of common knowledge. Every now and then, portals connecting multiple dimensions would open either through someone"s manipulation or because of an unknown natural occurrence.
"However, roughly about 600 years ago, there was a breach in the s.p.a.ce between different dimensions, Earth included. Many portals appeared all over Earth. And during that time, many supernatural beings crossed over onto Earth; our ancestors included.
"The worst part was that, many demons from different dimensions crossed over as well. Most of the low-ranked demons could not survive long in Earth"s atmosphere and perished naturally over a short period of time, until they learned that they could continue living by placing their souls in vessels… namely, humans."
Juin glanced at Lucifer, but he did not say anything. He then nodded at John and signaled him to continue.
"Demon possessions were appearing in huge numbers in j.a.pan at that time, and Ryotaro Nakamura was the leader of the group of priests who went around j.a.pan to banish these demons."
"How did he know how to do it?" Juin asked, curious that a human would suddenly develop enough strength to deal with demons. "He was human, right?"
Patrick and John exchanged glances again, and this time, it was Patrick who said gloomily, "He made a pact with a high-ranked demon in exchange for the powers."
At one point, Patrick"s ancestors were hunted by the Nakamura Order, so he did not think too highly of the Nakamura Order, especially since they made such a pact with a demon.
"What?" Juin was surprised to hear that. A pact between a human priest and a demon? Seriously?
"For 10 generations, the Nakamura Clan would sacrifice every daughter that they had to the demon on the girl"s 18th birthday…"
Juin"s eyes went wide when he heard this, and he nearly missed the next part of Patrick"s sentence.
"And the Asian girl in our cla.s.s, Mika Nakamura, is the 10th generation, and the last Nakamura girl to be sacrificed as well."