The Devil's Cage

In the shadowy spot outside the freshmen dorm, a few dark figures were whispering to each other.

“Cameras are everywhere in the dorm, there is no blind spot!”

“What about the rooftop?”

“Same thing, it might be even more heavily guarded!”

“Can we disguise ourselves and sneak in?”

“Impossible, the extra guards around the dorm carefully check every single person who goes in and out!”

“Damn it, why is this happening?”

“It’s because many important figures are paying attention to the target!”

“Our employer, Theorate’s research labs, and even the school admins are very interested in our target.”

“I suggest we abandon the operation.”

“We won’t get anything good if we get sandwiched in this.”

“No!”

“Our employer isn’t an easy-going person.”

“Seems like we have to change what we are good at.”

The voices got softer and softer until it was too soft to hear.

Soon, the dark figures scattered away.

Throughout their little conversation, they did not notice a pair of eyes above their heads, watching them very closely.

...

In the evening, Marv appeared in the public hall in clean attire and a nice smile.

The freshmen had just finished dinner and were chatting in groups, laughter heard occasionally.

Everyone greeted Marve when they saw him; some were transient students, some were official Theorates.

As the representative of the transient students, Marv replied to everyone similarly. He wasn’t overly humble or arrogant but sounded very passionate, adding more smiles on the students’ faces.

Since the students had barely begun their life here at Theorate, an unfamiliar environment, the helpful Marv proved to be a good friend to make. With his ‘decent strength’, the freshmen would instinctively forget Marv was a transient student.

One needed to know Marv lasted a minute when he sparred with Maica, the aide to the First Seat, and after Maica won the 2nd year senior, he was already known as the strongest aide of the First Seat.

The strongest freshman?

As long as one wasn’t an idiot, they knew who the title belonged to.

“Aide Standler, do you know where is Aide Maica?”

After going through the public hall, Marv knocked on the aides’ door and Standler answered it.

“He should be in the public training ground,” Standler said in a hurried tone with a pen in his hand.

“Do you need help? If it’s just taking names and preparing homework notes, I think I can be quite useful,” Marv said with a smile.

“Really?” Standler looked at Marv with a happy face.

After Kieran dumped all the work of the First Seat on him and Maica had zero intention to share the burden, Standler had been busy.

He even had to eat his meals fast and sleep an hour less everyday.

If there was someone offering help, Standler would be more than happy to accept it.

“Of course! It’s my pleasure to be of help,” said Marv.

He then walked into the room and after Standler briefed him about the work, he immersed himself with helping Standler.

With Marv’s help, Standler finished all his work an hour before sleep.

Both of them then sent the compiled documents to Kieran’s room together.

Standler thanked Marv for the help but that wasn’t the end of Marv’s day, quickly voicing out his challenge to Maica, who had just returned to the room.

Maica did not reject.

An hour later, at the public training ground, the beaten, exhausted Marv finally parted ways with Maica, who was panting heavily.

They agreed to practise again tomorrow.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Throughout the consecutive nights, Marv would help Standler finish the recording and compiling of documents before they sent it to Kieran’s room. Marv would also practise with Maica after the paperwork.

Everything seemed normal for a student. It was as normal as Marv’s usual attitude: hard-working and helpful.

Marv and the two aides were getting closer without knowing but unbeknownst to them, message after message was sent out.

However, when the watcher in the dark received the message, the watcher frowned.

He didn’t think Marv’s intel would lie to him but after compiling what he got from Marv, the watching got a detailed report on the freshmen First Seat.

Eating, attending lessons, borrowing books from the library etc. Everything was exactly the same with the other students who had just started their first semester.

It was normal, too normal to be exact.

If the freshmen First Seat didn’t cause all that commotion, the watcher would think he was watching a common Theorate student who was a bit cold at most.

“This shouldn’t be! He has nothing to do with all the incidents back then? It’s all a coincidence? Or... our watch is exposed?”

The watcher was deep in thought.

While his mind was pondering upon the question, his men sent him a message.

“Want to go to the gymnasium during the weekend, at midnight?”

When the watcher saw the message from Marv, he further sunk into his thoughts.

After hiring Marv as his ‘eyes’, the watcher wasn’t just after Kieran’s detailed report, he was also watching the aides to the First Seat.

“This may be a chance.”

He clenched his fist as the sudden realization hit him.

...

“Treasure in the gymnasium?”

Standler’s eyes shone as he looked at Marv.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it from others too. When you told me you and Maica were going to explore the crying gymnasium this weekend, I collected more info from the upper years who I was familiar with. At first, the gymnasium is similar to our cafeteria, it holds the legendary treasure but after a couple died a horrible death in the gymnasium, the crying gymnasium got its name.”

Marv nodded and spilled the script he had prepared.

It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t really the info that he got about the gymnasium.

“It’s just some hoax and you guys believed it?” Maica crossed his arms and teased them with curled lips.

“No, no, the cafeteria really holds some secret technique! And based on what I know, our First Seat has gotten his hands on said technique! Remember the repair crew that performs repair at the highest floor, they are there to repair what our First Seat did.”

Standler turned around to his friend and said seriously.

“He is the First Seat, and we are not him!” Maica turned a white eye at Standler.

The longer the time, the more he experienced. Maica had learned to revere Kieran more; from the ambitious heart to chase after Kieran to completely willing to submit to his power, Maica had gone through a significant change.

Maica even had a thought about Kieran achieving things others couldn’t.

“Well, I guess you are right,” Standler was stunned for a moment and nodded with a bitter smile.

Compared to his friend, Standler, who was responsible for liaising with the school, knew more about Kieran.

When all the rumours appeared to be facts before Standler, the shock in his heart was indescribable.

All he had left for Kieran was reverence, utmost reverence.

When Standler and Maica fell into silence, Marv saw his chance and spoke in a timely manner.

“Maybe we can tell the First Seat about this. With his strength, he could easily locate the secret treasure.”

Standler and Maica looked up en masse, both of them exchanging a gaze before nodding together.

...

“The secret treasure in the gymnasium?”

Kieran looked at the three of them in front of his door. His eyes were concentrated on Marv, since he knew what the transient student was up to.

As for Marv being bought over? Kieran wasn’t surprised at all.

When person deemed himself great but unlucky, no matter how hard he concealed it, crucial weak spots would always be exposed.

Exploiting the weak spot to control him was too easy for Kieran.

However, in order to confuse the enemies in the dark, Kieran didn’t mind playing along.

“Yes, we’ve verified it! Before the crying gymnasium, there were rumours about the treasure but it was covered up and replaced by the couple’s horrible death,” Standler said.

He purposely verified the rumours before he knocked on Kieran’s door.

Similar to what Marv said, the gymnasium did hold some secret treasure but as for what, no one knew.

“Gather what you got on the gymnasium and pass it to me,” said Kieran.

“You agreed to it?” Standler was utterly surprised.

“I need to have a look at this, come back to me in the evening.”

Kieran took the paperbag, and closed the door.

Standler and Maica, who had stopped outside the door, weren’t all that concerned, both of them already used to their First Seat acting on his own.

From the day school started, they had never stepped into Kieran’s room before. Although curious about the inside, their sanity told them to keep their curiosity in check.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Marv, who was behind the two aides, revealed a cold grin.

‘Got you!’

Marv knew what Kieran would do since he had gathered information about the First Seat.

Perhaps the First Seat would not fight without a reason but against an unowned item, he would not hold back at all.

‘You really think a Bento class can buy my loyalty? Let them fight, it’s better if both of them are badly hurt in the process! And then I will make my entrance!’

The unwillingness in his heart turning into primal greed, Marv showed coldness in his eyes but when Standler and Maica turned around, he replaced it with a warm smile once again.

“We will just have to wait patiently. The First Seat will not let us down,” Marv said.

“Em. The strength of the First Seat will not let us down!” Maica was looking very confident.

“But I am afraid the First Seat isn’t interested in this,” Standler was a little bit worried.

As Kieran’s aide, Standler had experienced the recklessness first-hand, and until now, Kieran had never properly written a lesson record as First Seat. Standler had to deal with all of them, and in the end, Kieran would have to just sign it to finish it. He could be considered the most irresponsible First Seat since Theorate was founded, not even the legendary upper year First Seat did such lazy work.

Standler was a little distracted by his thoughts, so he did not notice that Maica had stopped in front of him, bumping into Maica’s back.

“Hey, Maica...”

Just as Standler was about to say something, his eyes were captivated by two ladies.

Both ladies were tall and slender but one of them was cool and the other one was passionate; both of them had distinctive charms and together with their beautiful features, both of them stood out and would captivate eyes easily.

All the freshmen in the corridor were captivated the moment the two ladies appeared, including Standler, Maican, and Marv.

However, unlike the others, the three of them quickly reacted to the situation.

“Isn’t that the First Seat of 3rd year and First Seat of 4th year?” Standler wasn’t very sure.

“Em. Other than those two, I can’t think of anyone else having such graceful bearings, this is really... unexpected.”

Marv nodded, trying to search for a word to describe his shock but the best he could do was ‘unexpected’.

A sense of hotness flashed over Marv’s eyes, far hotter than witnessing something beautiful. It felt more like the desire to dominate or even destroy.

However, Marv concealed it pretty well by distracting himself.

“What’s wrong Maica? Can’t handle the beauty of the First Seats?” Marv pushed Maica with hus shoulder.

“Powerful! They are so powerful that I can barely catch my breath! They are like a lioness or tigress walking in front of me.”

Maica heaved a heavy breath as he looked at the two ladies going away, his forehead smeared with sweat.

“Are you serious? You don’t even behave like this in front of our First Seat.”

“Could they be stronger than our First Seat?” Marv continued to tease him.

“No! Our First Seat has far surpassed what we know. Both of them looked like lioness or tigress, but out First Seat is like the sky, the land and the sea. He’s on a completely different level! In our First Seat’s eyes, both of them were like kittens and puppies!” Maica said seriously.

“Hey, hey, hey! You’ll get yourself into some serious trouble by saying that! But why would they come here...”

Marv joked but as his eyes locked on the two First Seats, he already knew what were they doing here.

As a matter of fact, every freshmen knew.

Who were they looking for in the freshmen dorm?

The freshmen First Seat of course, no one else would get the honor.

Everything unfolded exactly like the freshmen’s expectation.

Both beautiful figures stopped before Kieran’s door and knocked on it.

However, out of the freshmen’s expectation, when the door opened up, both of them walked in!

They walked in? THEY WALKED IN!!

Wasn’t it a forbidden area?

Every single freshmen widened their eyes in disbelief.

Marv, however, showed jealousy.

They stared at Kieran’s door until it was shut.

Bang.

It wasn’t that loud but it sounded like a clap of thunder in the freshmen’s heart. It shook them, and unknowingly, a never before felt nervousness rose from their hearts.

The situation was similar to a little boy spotting another, better boy beside the girl he liked.

However, the pure and persistent little boy wouldn’t give up just because of strong competition, unless he ran into something that taught him despair.

This moment was exactly the moment of despair.

Unusual clatters and heavy pants came out from the room, which silenced the entire corridor.

...

Kieran retracted his fist inside the room.

He glanced over the twitching and grumbling in pain Jemara on the floor before looking at Renata.

“It’s your turn.”