Mined Games chapter 27

I scrambled back out of my bed, falling to the floor in shock as terror and nausea filled me. I had to stop and breathe heavily for a few minutes to prevent myself from vomiting at the sight of the dead body of someone I had known (however adversarially) for years. I couldn’t stop looking into his eyes. They were so glassy and blank. So empty.

Terry had been a right bastard, no doubt about that, but we were still young. He might have become better over time. Might have turned his life around. Now he wouldn’t do any of that. He was just gone. Just meat. Just dead.

Dead in…my room. My eyes went wide with horror of a different kind. Not the existential fear that comes from seeing someone my own age dead so young, but the fear that I was the last person seen fighting with Terry. Someone had fucking killed him and dumped him in my BED to be discovered. Probably with me standing over him.

Sure enough, I heard footsteps outside coming down the hall and froze. If someone was going to go through the trouble to frame me for murdering a noble, they would make sure I would get caught with the body. And that was what was happening, I had absolutely no doubt.

Maybe they arranged for Alec to come back, or for Cecily to visit, or for a fucking TEACHER to come poking around. Regardless of what they did, if I got discovered with the corpse of a fucking clan scion in my room I was going to be in shit loads of trouble.

Panicking I scrambled forward, and almost on reflex, grabbed a hold of Terry’s body and dumped it into my inventory. I almost cried with relief when it fit, but then I had other problems. I hadn’t seen it at first because of the low light, but Terry’s THROAT had been slit. There was blood all over the bed, and all over me.

I grabbed my sheets, mattress, and blanket, dropped them in the inventory and did the same to my clothes just as the door opened, and I turned to see Alec walking into our room, only to freeze as he found me sitting on the floor in my underwear with my hands on my now matressless bed frame.

He looked me in the eye, seemingly about to say something, then just shook his head. “Nope. Don’t want to know.” Then he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Exhaling so deeply I thought I might pass out, I slumped onto my back, relief flooding my body. That had been close. Sure, this was a weird position to find me in, but it linked me exactly zero percent to Terry’s death. I had no doubt Alec would connect the two incidents, but I’d have an excuse by then, and without a body there was no way to link it to me.

But…I needed to move. Needed to replace the mattress and sheets and get new clothes on. Arranging for Alec to come back was fine, but they had to have alerted the teachers too. Word of Terry’s death shouldn’t be out yet. Hell, it might not GET out without proof, but I didn’t want to be caught with my pants down (or off) again.

Bolting for the door I used it to enter the mining company, sprinting for the company building where I found all my stuff, just as I’d left it when I packed up and left dad’s house. I hadn’t unpacked most of it because I didn’t have the room, and I’d been too busy to move back in yet, so I was in an ideal position here.

I grabbed my mattress (thankfully it fit) and some clean sheets after dressing myself and hauled ass out to my room where I hurriedly put my bed back together before slumping onto it, staring at the door in heart pounding terror. No knock, not yet at least. Ok, so I had time, I needed to think through how to handle this.

There was no body, which meant if the person who tried to frame me sent a teacher there would be nothing to find. Which meant there was no proof Terry was dead. I was spiraling. I needed to calm down and think this through logically.

First off, the good news. Whoever this was didn’t know about the mining company. If they had they would know about the inventory and would have done this differently. It wasn’t a big risk, since I hadn’t told a single living person, but at least I could be sure someone hadn’t used magic to figure me out or something.

That meant they wouldn’t be able to search it, which meant I had probably a few days until Terry was officially considered missing. If I was an evil mastermind plotting to frame an innocent half-elf, I’d have been waiting nearby to see if my trap worked. When Alec walked in and back out without screaming for guards I’d have bailed to try to scope out the situation at a later time.

I sprang to my feet, bolting to the door and opening it…to find Tanya standing there, looking a bit confused. Forcing myself to calm down, I smiled at her brightly. “Tanya! Good to see you. How can I help you today?”

I forced myself not to leak any sign of discomfort or distress, and apparently I was either a better actor than I’d thought or she mistook the sloppy deception as embarrassment. Either way she gave me a comforting smile. “I was just coming to check up on you. Someone said that you were rushing to your room earlier and they were a bit worried about you. You seem alright though.”

Damn, that was smart. You could see the whole room from the door given the size. I’d have been screwed. “Oh wow, no I’m alright. Who was it who mentioned it? I don’t want someone worrying about me for no reason.”

She just waved it off. “Oh, no one you know. Just one of the third years who you passed in the hall.” Shit. I’d guess whoever did it set someone up for the job. It had to be someone in my combat magic class, didn’t it? My tussle with Terry was absurdly recent, and no one else would know. Or was this based on previous run ins?

My head hurt. I wasn’t a plotter, and I didn’t like this shit at all. After confirming I was ok Tanya said her goodbyes and left me to my nap. I shut my door and thumped back onto my bed. That would buy me some time. The asshole who framed me could hardly just say ‘hey, Terry’s dead’ without looking suspicious as hell. They would wait for it to come out on its own.

Given the size of noble houses and Terry’s penchant for wandering around being an asshole at all hours, mixed with classes, I probably had a day, maybe two, before his absence was noticed. I forced myself to get my mind back on track. What did this mean for me.

Well, I’d be accused of killing a clan scion. Which would be…bad. Dad would stand up for me, and he might be able to smack them down, but while the Halford’s didn’t have a Magician ranked mage, the Baron himself was a Magician. He wouldn’t just sit by and let dad wipe them out for trying to kill me.

There was the headmaster too. He was a Magician like dad and the Baron were, and he would obviously side with the guy who ran the city. Especially since Terry was a student. Which meant my ONLY option here was to figure out who the hell did this before I went down for it myself.

Even after Terry was discovered to be missing I was betting they would search before accusing, but after a while they would assume he was dead, and I would be the logical choice for a suspect, being the guy who fucking STABBED him the last day he was seen alive.

So, what did I know about investigation? Anything useful? Not really. Dad was the leader of the Baron’s secret police though. If anyone would know how to go about finding a killer it would be him.

I climbed to my feet, heading back to my door after making sure that no blood had dripped on the floor or soaked into the actual bedframe. It hadn’t, which probably meant Terry hadn’t been there for long, so that was something.

Closing the door behind me, I headed out of the guild, forcing myself to walk slowly instead of bolting like a babbling lunatic. Once I got out onto the street I headed for home. As I walked though, I felt like I was being watched. I couldn’t spot a sign of anyone, had no reason to suspect it, but there was just this…FEELING of eyes on my back, like a crystal beast breathing on the base of my neck.

Unsure if I was actually being followed or if I was just paranoid, I headed straight home. My dad could handle anything in town that would be trying to hurt me, and he should know what to do about this whole body thing.

Though I would have to tell him about the mining company. I…honestly I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t want to tell anyone. Not because it was dangerous or because it could be taken away, even when I still thought he was an absentee asshole I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, (and I didn’t think there was another way to take the mining company from me) no I didn’t want to tell him because it was mine.

Having this big secret was…exciting. Knowing something no one else did. Talking to Barew, finding gems, even the mining itself. Plus it made me seem more impressive. Just magically speeding through the ranks and becoming strong while no one knew why sounded like so much fun.

That happened sometimes too. Not as dramatically, but mages had secrets, it was a known thing. Convenient tricks of artifacts or magics that let them blitz ahead of others. It wouldn’t have been that weird, as long as I slowed down a bit, which I had been doing anyway to learn everything I could at the guild.

Arriving at the shop, I barreled inside, slamming the door and bolting for the back of the shop where I HOPED dad would be. I almost passed out from relief when I found him at the table. He looked up, taking in my state of disarray and wide, panicked eyes, and his expression hardened. “What’s wrong?”

I held up a finger, doubling over and wheezing. I might be a mage, and condensation might have made me stronger, but running is one of those things that is always exhausting if you do it to the best of your abilities. No matter how strong your muscles were, if you pushed them to their limits they would get tired.

Once I finished catching my breath, I stood up, staring at him fearfully. “Dead.” I gasped out. “One of my classmates is dead. They got left in my room. I think someone is trying to frame me. I cleaned up the body and all the evidence, so no one will know he was there, but I had an altercation with him earlier today, and he died like twenty minutes later.”

He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “Ok. That isn’t ideal. I can help with this, but I need you to calm down and start from the beginning. Take a deep breath and tell me EVERY detail of what happened to you today, from the time you woke up until right this instant.” I swallowed hard and nodded, slumping into a chair as I started telling my story. I hoped he could get me out of this.