Chapter Text
Riz Gukgak was not having a good day. No, scratch that. Riz Gukgak was not having a good few years. But the day that is getting referenced was particularly bad. He got put in detention on the first day, which was just inconvenient for gathering information. He was also stuck with an adventuring party full of idiots. That was inconvenient for different reasons. Said reasons were that Kristen and Adaine seemed to think something was up with him. He knew that he didn’t give anything away; he’s been dodging the questioning and gaze of his mother since he was young. These two teenage girls who didn’t know anything about him had no way to know.
Now, not only could he not ask any remotely invasive questions about them without them getting suspicious, he couldn’t slip into the shadows without them stopping him later and asking where he went. Frankly, it sucked. A lot. He didn’t ask to get placed in an adventuring party. All he was here for was to gather information that Kalvaxus may have hidden from Kalina in their agreement to be allies and to make sure that Kalvaxus did not betray them. No where in his assignment did Kalina say that he was going to have to partner with other students.
Riz made sure to leave the school as soon as the monstrosity made of corn was destroyed. He didn’t care that Kristen and Gorgug were dead. Why would he? They were nuisances and he would kill them if it wouldn’t blow his cover. He slipped into the shadows after he left the school. Walking away from an active crime scene never did you any favors when you were trying not to get caught. He just needed to talk with Kalina and see if she could pull some strings to get him out of this adventuring party.
Riz walked and walked and walked until he finally made it to their meeting spot in the nearby forest. The meeting spot was a large clearing with trees supernaturally bent to block out the sun. The grass was burnt and dead from the repeated use of dark spells in the clearing. They had used it as a training spot before they used it as a meeting spot. Riz needed to hone his warlock and rogue abilities to near perfection before Kalina had allowed him to go out on even the simplest of missions. At first he had hated walking to the clearing as it was a very long walk. Then he learned spells which allowed him to get there almost instantaneously, which lightened the load. Sometimes, such as this moment, he preferred the long walk.
“Kalina!” Riz called out. He wasn’t afraid of someone hearing him, they were too far in the forest for sound to travel to anyone passing by the edge of the forest. He didn’t cast a spell to summon her, he was just hoping that she decided to actually show up and talk to him.
His wishes were granted as a black tabaxi woman stepped out of the shadows. “Hello, darling. How was your first day at school? I know it was good, I was watching. Great job on killing the monstrosity, by the way. Good aim, but not good enough. You missed the first few shots, dear.” Kalina’s tone was dripping with affection that was almost certainly fake.
Riz shook his head. Kalina’s words did not matter. He didn’t need her praise or criticism. He just needed to get her to remove him from the group. “Look, I don’t care what you say about that fight. I was annoyed, okay?! I just need you to get me out of this stupid adventuring group. They couldn’t figure out how to get on tables, they certainly can’t help with our goal.”
Kalina laughed a hideous laugh. The laugh was actually a fairly normal laugh, but the fact that she was the one who was laughing made it hideous. “That’s where you’re wrong. They can be useful. They can be a distraction. You also need to socialize more, sugar. Your social skills are pathetic and need work. Now, you’re going to stay with this group and keep them alive until prom. Then you’ll be able to do whatever you want to them.” With those words, Kalina returned to the shadows and disappeared.
Riz grumbled under his breath. Of course she would be no help. He didn’t need to socialize! He had all of the social skills he needed, which were none. He didn’t need friends or people. They only got in the way of his missions. But Kalina seemed to be implying that he had to hang out with his adventuring party, which was terrible. He may follow most things Kalina said, this was something he was contemplating not doing.
As Riz left the forest, deep in thought, his instincts kicked in when he almost bumped into someone. Someone should not be at the edge of the forest unless they were trying to find out his secrets. He instinctively grabbed his father’s gun and pointed it at this person’s head. While messy, shooting someone’s head would kill someone instantly. It didn’t matter if they had a different placement of heart or vital organs, the brain was always in the head and, if shot, would always make the body cease functioning immediately. However, once Riz was able to get his bearings, he saw who it was that he almost bumped into. Fabian Aramis goddamn Seacaster.
Riz narrowed his eyes and he lowered the gun. Notably, he did not put the gun away. “What are you doing here, Fabian?” He asked. Even with the gun still out and the way he tried to make himself as intimidating as possible, he was a whopping three foot four and was noticeably distraught. This act of intimidation did not work in the slightest. It failed so hard it actually made Fabian burst out laughing. “St-Stop it! Stop laughing!”
“I’ve known you for a day and that was the least scary thing you have done, The Ball! Oh my god I need to tell the rest of the party about this!” Fabian said between laughs. Fabian pulled out his crystal. The rest of the party could not know about this moment of weakness. Riz shot the crystal before Fabian could type anything. The crystal shattered in Fabian’s hands, guaranteeing that the only way this would get out would be Fabian telling people about it in person.
Riz leveled his gaze with a glare. “How’s that for scary, Fabian?” He chuckled humorously to himself. Fabian did seem to be a bit scared now. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you’re at the edge of the forest?” This was not a fun situation. He didn’t know how to evade Fabian’s questioning like he did his mother’s. He barely knew anything about this supposed popular kid.
Fabian faltered a bit. “I, uh, Adaine said she saw you heading out here and she said she thought you were going into the forest. I decided to see if you were alright and followed to where I thought you were,” He explained. Riz just sighed into his hand, putting his gun away. Without ceremony, Riz started to walk back to Aguefort Adventuring Academy with Fabian following behind.
How could these children keep finding trouble? Riz couldn’t protect them if they got into fights every goddamn day. Sure, the first time they didn’t provoke the enemies. But this time they did. What did they expect to happen when they decided to confront Johnny Spells? To not fight him and his lackeys? They were foolish.
Here he was, speeding down the highway with his group screaming either in delight or fear. The ones who were screaming in fear clearly had never committed a worse crime in their life. Riz was silent as he stood up on his seat. He narrowed his eyes as he took out his trusty gun. He lined his sight up to Johnny Spells’ forehead. Despite how fast they were moving, he was able to line his shot up perfectly. It’s what years of rigorous training to perfect your aim does to you. He took the shot and knew for a fact that Johnny Spells would be dead the second it pierced his brain.
Riz ducked back down once he took the shot. As he sat back down, he heard the skidding of the motor cycle and the goons slowing down to freak out over it. It was just a little murder, there wasn’t any reason to get that freaked out over it. He didn’t get why they were getting all emotional over their leader, if Kalina died and he witnessed it he would just laugh and not help her. In fact, if someone had gotten Kalina to a point where she could be killed, he would help said someone. It was an impressive act that should be rewarded
“Riz! What the fuck was that?! That guy was a person!” Figeroth shouted over the radio. She turned the radio down and pulled the car over. Riz, ever the opportunist and someone who didn’t care for other people’s lives, took the lessened speeds to stand up and shoot the rest of the people who were attacking them. Once he heard all of them drop he sat back down.
The others looked at him with expressions Riz could not decipher. They clearly did not like what he just did, so he inferred that they were looking at him in either shock or disgust. He rolled his eyes. It was only like 7 deaths! It was fine!
“Look, they were going to kill us if we didn’t kill them. You all clearly weren’t going to or couldn’t, so I decided to help. Don’t think that this is something that happens every time you get in trouble,” Riz said with a huff. The other people in the car started to exclaim in protest, but Riz was completely done with it.
Riz pretended to look surprised or in shock or something that could get him away. He took a quick glance at the others to make sure they saw him look surprised. They saw his expression, which made them look confused. With that momentary distraction, he Misty Step -ped away. He used all sixty feet he was able to get away. He grumbled as he walked back to the school. He would never understand why Kalina made him interact with those good for nothing screw ups.