Rico at the End
Rain hammered against the windows, and the classroom smelled of damp fabric and chalk. Normally, Rico was the loudest of them all—the one who wrecked lessons with his jokes and pushed even teachers to their limits.
But today, nothing of that remained.
He sat slumped in the last row, his face buried in his arms. And he was crying. Loudly. Unrestrained. So much so that even Lukas and Basti's usual laughter died in their throats.
"He's making more water than the rain outside," Manuel whispered half under his breath—but his voice sounded uncertain.
Tobia elbowed him sharply. "Shut up, man."
No one had ever seen Rico like this. Not angry. Not swearing. Not loud.
Broken.
Every lesson was the same. He sat there, sniffling, sobbing, dragging in air through his nose. When the teacher addressed him, the only answer was a hollow, "Don't care."
And yet everyone knew why.
His girlfriend was gone.
Xin.
Jenny turned around several times during class, her face a mixture of pity and curiosity. Katie shot mocking glances and whispered something to her sidekick. Vania demonstratively placed a handkerchief on Rico's desk, even though he didn't take it.
"I have to go to her," Rico muttered one day, so quietly only Marion really heard it. "Screw whether it's forbidden. I'm going into the forest. I'll find her. I'll bring her back." His voice broke. "She can't manage on her own…"
Marion's stomach tightened.
He felt the invisible pull of the chain between himself and Nix. Yes—she was alive. Somewhere out there.
But he couldn't say it.
Couldn't say that she was bound to him.
"Rico, don't," Leon said carefully from beside him. "The teachers are already searching. If you just run off, they'll kill you."
"I don't care!" Rico shouted, and the whole class flinched. His eyes were red, tears streaming down his face. "You don't understand! I… I kissed her! She looked at me like I was—like I was everything to her!"
Silence.
Even Lukas and Basti said nothing.
Marion felt heat rise to his face.
Someone.
That word.
The same one that haunted him every night.
"Rico…" Tobia raised a cautious hand as if to calm him. "She was… a monster. If you run out there, that's suicide."
Rico shook his head violently. "I've never had anyone. Never! Everyone laughs at me—my face, my jokes. But she… she wanted me! And now? Now I'm supposed to sit here and pretend nothing happened?"
He slammed his fist on the table so hard tears nearly splashed onto their notebooks.
The teachers tried admonishing him a few times, but eventually they gave up.
What were they supposed to do?
How do you comfort a seventeen-year-old who lost his first love to a world he didn't understand?
Marion stared into his notebook, unable to write.
The words from the ancient books echoed in his mind:
A Named one cannot rise against their Namer with lethal intent… but they retain their will.
Nix lived.
But she was bound to him.
Not to Rico.
And still—watching Rico sob in raw, genuine despair—Marion felt smaller than ever.
Rico was a chaotic loudmouth, an idiot.
But he loved for real.
And Marion?
He was the one in the background. Silent. Knowing.
And forbidden to speak.
He pressed his lips together.
Down the Wrong Path
It was late afternoon. The final lesson had ended, and students streamed out of the classroom. Outside, a light drizzle coated the cobblestones in a dull sheen.
Marion was just slinging his bag over his shoulder when he noticed Manuel was missing. Normally, Manuel was the first to dash across the courtyard, shoulders hunched, feet dragging.
Not today.
"Where is he?" Tobia muttered, pulling a sandwich from his bag.
"Probably blowing up the toilet again," Marion said—but he already felt something was off.
They found him behind the gymnasium, in the shadow of a wooden shed where a few older students liked to loiter—the "big ones" with stubble on their chins and the constant smell of cheap alcohol.
Manuel stood with them, nervous, hands buried deep in his pockets, while one of the older boys spread out a dice game on the ground.
"Five copper buy-in," one of them growled. "Double or nothing. You in or not?"
Marion and Tobia exchanged looks.
"He's insane," Tobia hissed. "He doesn't even have five copper!"
Manuel laughed shrilly—too loud. "Of course I'm in! I've got money!" He pulled out a few coins, letting them clink together as if trying to look cool. But his hand trembled.
"Oh God," Tobia muttered. "That's his tuition money, isn't it?"
The dice fell.
Manuel lost.
Of course.
Laughter. Rough claps on the shoulder. They pushed him toward a second round.
"Come on, one more time, kid. You're not scared, are you?"
Marion felt heat rise in his chest.
Normally, he stayed out of things. Stay normal. Stay unnoticed. That was his survival rule.
But this?
This was their friend.
"Manuel!" he called, stepping forward. "What are you doing?"
The older boys turned, sizing him up with hostility.
"Oh look, the babysitter," one sneered. "You wanna play too, princess?"
"Leave him alone," Marion said—but his voice sounded thin.
Tobia stepped up beside him, broad and sweating but resolute. "Yeah. Get lost, you losers."
Laughter.
One of the older boys shoved Tobia. "Losers? You want trouble, fatso?"
Tobia staggered but stayed upright. "If I have to." His voice shook—but he didn't move.
For a moment, only the rain dripping from the roof broke the silence.
Then the leader laughed dismissively. "Ah, screw it. The kid's broke anyway." He snatched the remaining coins from Manuel's palm and stuffed them into his pocket. "Get lost. Before I call the supervisors."
The older boys wandered off laughing.
Manuel stood there, shoulders slumped, face ghost-pale.
"Shit," he muttered. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Are you completely stupid?" Marion snapped. "You'd have been in debt up to your neck!"
"I… I thought I could turn it around," Manuel stammered, hands restless. "Just once. Just one lucky break. Then I wouldn't be the loser anymore."
Tobia sighed and threw an arm around his shoulders. "You are a loser, yeah. But you're our loser."
Marion snorted despite himself. "And you're staying with us. Not with those idiots."
For a moment they stood there in the rain—three drops beneath a gray sky.
Manuel sniffed, half laugh, half sob. "You guys are idiots. But… thanks."
"Obviously," Tobia said. "We stick together. Even when it's embarrassing."
They walked back toward the academy, soaked through—but closer than before.
And Marion felt that this afternoon, insignificant as it seemed, mattered more than many magic books.
Here, they were just friends.
No vampires. No goblins. No names.
Just three boys catching each other before one of them fell.
Fire in the Dormitory
Night had only just begun. The rain from earlier had faded, and in the girls' dormitory only a few oil lamps were still burning, casting shadows that looked like faces on the walls. Jenny lay on her bed, holding her substitute for a phone—a small crystal orb—while the other girls whispered around her.
Rumors, of course. Boys. Parties. Kisses.
Katie sat upright like a queen, her heavier friend glued to her side like a shadow. That friend had barely spoken all day—just stared. At Jenny. At nothing. Jenny had felt the look, but she was too tired to react. She was sick of being "the sexy prude," the girl everyone looked at but who never let anything happen.
"You're just a doll," Katie had snapped earlier. "Don't play so innocent." Jenny had rolled her eyes and crawled into bed.
Soon after, the smell started.
At first faint. Like burnt paper.
Then stronger.
Smoke slid under the doors, gray tendrils writhing in the lamplight.
"Do you… smell that?" Vanessa sat up, her voice trembling.
Then a scream:
"Fire!"
Panic exploded.
Flames were already licking at the wooden floorboards somewhere nearby. Girls stumbled over one another, coughing, pushing toward the doors. Smoke clawed at their lungs, tears streamed from stinging eyes.
Marion woke when the first screams tore across the courtyard. He bolted upright, shaking Tobia and Manuel. "Dorm's on fire!"
They ran outside barefoot, half asleep. Smoke already billowed over one wing of the building. Teachers were rushing in, torches flaring, but the corridors were narrow and chaos reigned.
"Come on!" Marion shouted, racing toward the dorm entrance.
Hot smoke hit them like a wall.
Inside, girls were screaming, coughing, yanking at windows too narrow to climb through.
"Jenny!" Marion grabbed her arm, dragging her even as she staggered. They stumbled into the courtyard, cold night air cutting through the smoke. Jenny collapsed, coughing violently, tears streaking through soot on her face.
"There are more inside!" Vanessa cried, pointing at a window.
They rushed back in and found Katie's friend standing in the smoke, eyes wide.
But she wasn't screaming.
She wasn't running.
She was just staring.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Tobia shouted, grabbing her.
There was something else in her gaze.
Not fear.
Hatred.
Later it came out: it had been her.
Jealousy.
Because Jenny had supposedly been "dating a guy she wanted."
She had lit a candle against the curtains—smiling—while the others slept.
Now, in the courtyard, the teachers dragged her forward. She screamed, kicked, face twisted red with fury.
"She was supposed to burn! They were all supposed to see her scream! She acts so innocent, but she's a slut! She takes everything from me!"
Silence fell over the crowd.
Jenny stood trembling, coughing, her face blackened with soot.
No one laughed.
Not even Katie.
The teachers hauled the girl away. Smoke still drifted across the courtyard. The burned-out windows gaped like black eye sockets.
Marion stood beside Tobia and Manuel, faces pale.
That's how destructive jealousy is, he thought.
No magic. No vampires. No goblins.
Just a girl who couldn't bear being overlooked.
And it had almost killed them.
Aftermath of the Fire
The next morning, the academy felt different.
The dorm still smelled of smoke. Even in the courtyard, a faint scent of burning lingered. Students huddled in whispering groups.
"Did you hear? She wanted to grill Jenny!"
"Over some guy? That's sick!"
"She always looked kind of weird."
Jenny was at the center—unwillingly.
She entered class with her head lowered, her hair still faintly smoky, her arms reddened from the heat. Normally she thrived on attention.
Today, she looked small.
Katie sat pointedly in front of her, arms crossed, as if declaring: I have nothing to do with her.
Her former sidekick was gone—"in the academy dungeons," they said. No one knew what would happen to her. "Re-education," the teachers murmured. But everyone suspected it meant worse.
Rico sat two rows ahead, still hollow-eyed. He didn't even react to Jenny's presence. The fire hadn't pulled him out of his pit. His thoughts were still with Xin.
"Imagine sleeping and suddenly everything's on fire," Manuel muttered, chin in his hands. "That's insane."
"What's insane is that she wanted to kill Jenny," Tobia replied. "Over a guy."
"As if Jenny ever really had one," Basti chimed in with a snicker. Lukas joined: "Heh-heh-heh, Jenny with a boyfriend…"
But this time hardly anyone laughed.
The topic was too serious.
Even the teachers were subdued. Lessons drifted half-finished, as if no one quite knew how to restore normality after something like that.
Marion watched silently.
Jenny, who usually carried herself so proudly, seemed fragile now. Some girls looked at her with pity. Others with envy—as if even an attempted murder proved she mattered.
He remembered the heat. The smoke in his lungs.
And deep inside, the books he had read echoed again. Reborn. Names. Demon kings.
His secrets were far more dangerous than a jealous fire.
"Hey," Manuel whispered, nudging him. "Crazy, right? First Rico's girlfriend disappears and turns out to be a goblin, now the dorm almost burns down. That's not normal."
Marion forced a faint smile. "Just our academy."
But he knew.
This was only the beginning.
The girls kept whispering. Jenny avoided their eyes. Vania quietly slid her a note: If you want to talk, I'm here. Jenny barely shook her head, but her eyes shimmered.
During break, half the class gathered outside.
"She'll never get out again."
"Maybe they'll burn her like a heretic."
"Over a guy! Can you imagine?"
Marion looked up at the gray sky over the academy.
And while the others gossiped, he made himself a quiet promise:
He must never stand out.
Not with his names. Not with his truth.
If a girl was willing to burn her classmate over jealousy—
What would the Church do if they found out he was reborn?
He glanced at Rico, silent in a corner.
At Jenny, trying to hold her head high.
At Tobia and Manuel, already arguing again about bread and dice.
And he understood something simple and heavy:
The world didn't need monsters to burn.
People were enough.