Chapter 7 The Monarch of the Red Tower

The four-hour school day finally ended, and every student was required to return their desks and chairs to the back of the room. Once the furniture was put away, Nolan turned to Nina.

"Can you come with me?" Nolan asked.

"Where to?" Nina asked.

"We need a quiet place to talk," Nolan answered.

"Yo... yo... don't go forgetting about me," Rico chimed in.

"Of course. Let’s go," Nolan replied.

Nolan, Nina, and Rico walked out of the classroom, moving against the flow of traffic. While almost every other student was heading toward the exit, the three of them headed deeper into the building. Naturally, the male students passing by stared at Nina without blinking, practically drooling as they went.

Nolan, noticing the attention and hating being the center of it, grabbed Nina’s arm and pulled her closer to him. He swapped places with her, shielding her from the eyes of the students trying to steal a glimpse. Nina looked at Nolan and then back ahead.

"Thanks," Nina said, her face looking slightly relieved.

"Yeah," Nolan replied shortly, walking with his hands in his pockets, acting indifferent.

Unbeknownst to them, as they passed the staircase for the seniors, a few large guys with thug-like faces sitting on the steps spotted Nina. Cruel smirks instantly spread across their faces. They stood up, walked down the stairs, and turned to follow Nolan, Nina, and Rico without a word.

Nolan, Nina, and Rico exited through the back door. A quiet garden stretched out behind the building. They headed toward a pavilion covered in graffiti and littered with cigarette butts and snack wrappers. The three of them sat on long benches facing each other inside the pavilion. A heavy silence fell over them, the only sound being the wind rustling through the leaves of the surrounding trees.

"So... what did you want to talk about?" Nina asked, breaking the silence as she looked at Nolan, who sat in the middle between her and Rico.

"The girl in that photo you showed me... she's my foster sister," Nolan said, getting straight to the point.

"Huh... your foster sister?" Nina asked.

Nina opened her smartphone again and looked at the photo, focusing on the girl she hadn't really paid attention to before.

"I see... but why is she with this man?" Nina asked.

"I don't even know... that loan shark told me he was holding my sister until I could bail her out. He promised me he wouldn't sell her as a slave... that was a year ago," Nolan answered through gritted teeth, staring straight ahead.

"I see... and then you saw your sister in this photo from a month ago," Nina said, looking at the screen.

"Yeah... it means that loan shark broke his promise," Nolan muttered in a heavy voice.

The atmosphere turned silent again as both Rico and Nina could feel Nolan’s anger radiating from his body, even though his expression remained flat and unchanged.

"Sorry, Nina, I have to ask—why are you looking for the man in that photo? This Harold Winston guy," Rico asked, breaking the silence, knowing his friend was about to explode.

"So you recognize this man too, it seems," Nina said.

"Of course... I’m a gladiator at the Colosseum myself," Rico replied.

Nina fell silent for a moment. She looked down at the smartphone in her hands, let out a long sigh, and began to speak. Three years ago, when Nina was fourteen, her hometown—a simple, quiet town of five thousand households—was suddenly raided by monsters. Many residents were slaughtered until only about three hundred survived. In that attack, Nina lost her entire family, becoming an orphan overnight. She survived by taking shelter in an underground bunker with the remaining residents.

They were safe inside the bunker, but after six months, their food supplies began to dwindle drastically. This forced the adults to head back out into the city, not only to scavenge for food but to scout the situation above. Nina, still grieving the loss of her family, stayed behind in the bunker and never ventured out. A month passed, and the young adults and children left in the bunker began to panic; not a single adult had returned, and the food was almost gone. Finally, a young man named Jasper, who was Nina’s boyfriend, decided to head out with the other young men.

Nina and the other young women stayed behind to look after the children. Two weeks later, the bunker doors finally opened. Nina and the others rushed to welcome Jasper and the rest, but instead, they were met by Harold and his private army. They claimed the residents were safe now. There was no sign of Jasper among the men who arrived with Harold. The other young men who had gone out earlier tried to persuade everyone in the bunker, telling them that Harold and his troops were their saviors. Having no other choice, everyone eventually came out, including Nina. They were told they would be moved to a big city and housed in a residence that supposedly belonged to Harold.

But before Nina could board the bus, someone suddenly covered her mouth from behind and dragged her into an alley. Nina was terrified, until she heard a voice.

"Quiet, Nina... it’s me."

Nina turned and saw that the person holding her was Jasper, draped in a cloak. She immediately turned and hugged him. That was when Jasper told her the truth: the monsters that attacked their city had actually been released by Harold. He planned to graft special new Orbs into the town’s youth to turn them into gladiators for Pandora. If they weren't compatible with the new Orbs developed by Harold’s company, they would be turned into slaves or tossed into the real arena if they ended up broken. Then, making Nina shudder, Jasper pulled back his cloak to reveal an Orb embedded in his chest; his body had already begun to mutate.

Jasper explained that this was Harold’s true plan, showing his own body as proof. He was determined to save Nina before his consciousness was completely overtaken by the mutation. Shortly after, they were spotted by Harold’s troops and shot. Nina watched Jasper die right in front of her before she closed her eyes, but suddenly, she woke up a year later in a city that was already ruined and dead. After that, she decided to head to Pandora to find Harold and get her revenge.

"So that’s how it was," Nolan said, turning to look at Nina, while Rico remained dead silent after hearing her heavy story.

"Yes... once I found out that man was in the big city called Pandora, I came here immediately," Nina replied.

"But how did you get those photos?" Nolan asked.

"From... my friends back there who were forced into slavery. They were the ones who told me he was in Pandora. They kept sending me information for an entire year, but then they were caught. Now they’ve been thrown into the Real Arena for their betrayal... the last photo they sent was that one of your sister from a month ago," Nina answered, looking down with both hands clenched into fists on her lap.

"Wait a second, sorry, let me ask... you said you were shot... and then you just woke up a year later? I’m still not following that part," Rico said.

Before Nina could answer, "Bang!" Nolan, Nina, and Rico looked toward the pavilion entrance. Four large, brutal-looking young men carrying chains stood at the door with mocking, irritating smirks.

"Yo... Nolan, looks like you’re having a good time here... wow... that girl would make a nice little toy for me," said the guy in front, who wore earrings and had thick dreadlocks.

"Chad... what do you want," Nolan said, standing up casually.

"You know what I want. Give the girl to us, and we’re good," Chad said, pointing at Nina.

Just as Rico stood up and Nolan opened his mouth, "bwoooosh," a red shadow blurred past. Suddenly, a fist cloaked in fire slammed into Chad’s face, sending him and his three friends flying out of the pavilion. Nolan and Rico were stunned, slowly turning to look at Nina, whose fist was still wreathed in flames. Nina looked back at Nolan and Rico with a smile, a fierce, fiery energy burning in her glowing red eyes.

"Why did I wake up a year later after being shot? I died back then. Then I opened my eyes and found myself in the Red Tower... as the Monarch of the Red Tower," Nina said with a smile.