A short piece of the past. (Rose’s POV) [325/4280 days until Eve]

I panted, Rayne going over to the boulder to think on what he learned. We had just finished our ‘session’, so I needed some time to recover. My mother was sitting down next to me, closer than she had ever been before when I was in this state.

She placed a hand on my shoulder as a form of reassurance.

It didn’t exactly go as she planned. I screamed out in pleasure, every part of my body too sensitive for my own good. My body spasmed against my will, robbing me of my movement. I could barely manage to curl into a ball, trying to hide my face.

At least I still had my reason and wasn’t trying to do anything I would regret.

Much later, I walked in on my mother sitting in front of Rayne, sounding angry. It was the first time I had heard her sound angry, so I hid and tried to hear what they were saying. I could only hear a few words here and there. Something about staring and sex.

A few minutes went by, the angry words getting softer and softer. They stopped all at once, the silence filling the air. I didn’t know what was going on anymore. After a minute, I decided to take the risk of looking at the scene.

Rayne was doing his ‘session’ with my mother. My first feeling was jealousy. But I quickly put that aside for my more important thought, why is he doing it with my mother?

From what I can remember, my mother hated it when he did it to me, saying something about how improper it was for me to show that side of me. I spent another minute wondering how exactly this counted as anything of that sort.

But then I saw that she was trying to resist it. I think she was attempting to find some way for me to not end up like that every time. I smiled and left her to it, knowing deep in my heart that she would just end up like me in the end. Nobody could resist those eyes for long.

Two days later and she succumbed to it. She was brought into the schedule with the rest of us. I can’t help but feel a sense of ‘I told you so’ whenever I look at her. A slight sense of rage is also there since now I have to wait an extra day for my session.

But it’s fine. We’re all one big happy, slightly erotic, family. Or maybe we aren’t. As long as Rayne is here, I’ll be fine.

In fact, wouldn’t I get more sessions if the others just… disappeared?

A small laugh escaped me as I slowly turned down the yandere path, nobody noticing enough to stop me.

School? No way! (Rayne’s POV) [5/3960 days until Eve]

I’m one month old. Right about now is when I’m supposed to be going to school. Keyword: Supposed.

You really think you can put me back into that hellhole?! I’ve had enough of school for two lifetimes! All those people, talking and making remarks about every little thing.

Who cares about my choice of clothing?! I was poor! I couldn’t afford new clothes! You think I’m going to buy some $800 shoes just for show when that money could feed Eve for a few weeks? Hell no! I can’t stand them!

I grip the walls as my mother pulls on my right leg, Elliot taking the left.

“You will be going to school! It’s not an option! If I’m taking the time out of my fun sessions with you, you will be using it on learning about what you want to do in your life!”

“I already know what I’ll be doing! In fact, I literally can’t do anything else! There’s no point for me to go to school! I don’t wanna!” The words poured out of my mouth, sounding childish even to me. Not that it stopped me from continuing.

“I hate people! They’ll ask me questions! And I really don't like answering them!” Emphasis was placed on the ‘really’.

Mana exploded through the room, dwarfing my huge stores from my vampiric transformation.

“YOU WILL BE GOING!” My mother boomed, the very air shaking from her voice.

My fingers lost all control, going numb and cold from fear. I was torn from my spot, dragged into one of the more… whole rooms. Curtains were strewn across some of the holes, to preserve any privacy possible in the poor condition of the house. It didn’t really help that the curtains were also full of holes. Everything in this house was old.

One day I would have enough mana to fully repair this house. I already spread my mana into every piece of wood, so I know how much I would need for the remaining pieces. In order to fully repair this house, it would take around 509,648 mana. Probably not that specific, but oh well.

However, repairing this one room was well within my capabilities. I was not going to get changed with 4 women watching me from the holes in the walls. My mana exploded from me, filling the holes in the walls. I activated my knowledge of the correct sub-skill, {Mana Construct} and {Molecular Mana} to turn the mana directly into the wood that the rest of the house was made of. The curtains were also repaired, having no frayed parts or odd stitches.

I nodded, satisfied with my work. Locking the door, I began to change into the school uniform. At least I don’t have to worry too much about trying to figure out what type of clothes to wear. I’m more concerned with a number of disappointed voices I could hear from multiple ladies as they realized I had fixed the walls.

With my school uniform on, I looked over it one last time. A mainly white suit, gold trimmings at the ends of each standalone piece of cloth. Things like the two pieces of cloth that folded away from the V-shaped neckpiece, or the collar of it. It was honestly a white tuxedo with gold trim. The pockets, at least, were actual pockets. But they weren’t much larger than ¾ of my hand to fit into. They might be good for holding an ID or something, if I get one.

I miss having a jacket with large pockets. Those were the best. I wore them all year long, even when it was too hot to wear them.

The pants of the outfit weren’t much better. This time, there were outright no pockets in general. At least the pants were a shade of light brown instead of white. I would have been seriously doubting any form of keeping the outfit on if they were made out of materials that would get dirty on the walk to school.

“Hmm? Or is an academy? I think it’s an academy…” I couldn’t help myself and began muttering as I thought over the differences between the two. I’ll refer to it as an academy from now on.

Exiting the room earned me some gasps. I straightened out my sleeves and puffed out my chest, making the pose of somebody who had found some new land. I stayed like that for a few seconds, enduring the laughs as best I could. Eventually I broke out of character and joined them. I scanned the room, looking at the four women. The fox wasn’t there, but I knew she would turn up eventually. I felt a feeling of euphoria as well as a little bit of an unknown feeling. Over the past few days, they had come to terms that their ‘sessions’ would no longer happen.

But I was happy they still helped me. I bowed deeply, speaking with both my mana and my voice.

“Thank you all for being with me this past month. I’ll be going now.”

…

Yeah, I know. I’m not all that great at expressing things through words, alright?! Luckily for my pride, they teared up, at least faking their emotional discord. I gave an awkward smile, not sure what else to say. Scratching the back of my head for another few seconds, I caught the sight of something running at me full speed.

I caught the little fox as it leaped at me, wondering why it was so distraught. It barked and yipped at me impatiently, tiny little tears in its tinier eyes. After spending nearly a month with it, I developed some sort of translation to this tiny animal.

“You want to go with me?!” I turned to the others, as if asking if that was a thing. They shrugged. “Well… Not to disappoint you or anything, but I don’t know if they allow animals in the academy…”

Another few yips. “The- They are? Oh, alright then, let’s go!” I was actually glad to have her come along. I thought of something. “But you should pay attention to the teacher, so that you can find a way to tell me your name!” I pointed a finger at the fox, close to her nose. She playfully bit it, barking an affirmation.

I waved backward, towards the four who were silently watching, as I left. I was walking to the city, as another little bit of training, I could do every day. A 2-hour walk, you say? That was a month ago. It takes me 15 minutes, walking, and 3 minutes running to get to the city. It gives me a nice view of the sunrise and sunset each day.

I suppose I should explain how school works. It is mostly just a portion of your day in which you are ‘suggested’ to interact with others and study your dream job. It lasts from 20 minutes after sunrise to 2 hours before sunset. It allows people to wake up from the morning sun and still get ready, and then give them time to play without worries of the sun being down. I mean, school in this world doesn’t really ‘teach’ you per se, rather, it gives you a little push on studying on your own.

Honestly, this sounds like the best teaching system a school could have. Without teachers and peers constantly teaching you material in a classroom, where you feel like an idiot if you ask a question, you study at your own pace here. Which means you can request help at any point in time, without feeling like you are less than adequate in terms of academic capabilities.

See how I used big words there? It impresses people if you do that, so they are less likely to pick on you and ask questions. A big mistake is that, by using those words aloud, you seem like a reliable person that people will ask for help from. So, you don’t use too large words. Just enough to make you seem a bit smarter.

You also don’t show any of your powers. I’ve already limited myself to only using 20 mana. I’ve even turned it into a bracelet that I can use to make my letters. Having leveled [Mana Construction] so much, each letter, made from solid mana, is only ½ a point of mana. So I can make up to 60 letters at a time, using liquid mana. I’ve already come up with some excuses about the solid mana bracelet, since children can't utilize it until 1 year old. I’ve forgone some of my meditation time these past few days making this and my backstory.

I am the son of ‘the witch’, who made me this bracelet to talk with, as a form of helping me control mana. It’s something that only I can use, but it contains enough mana for me to create words with. I’ll also take some more time when summoning my words, sometimes even closing my eyes for effect. Honestly, just the part about me being the son of the witch, as my mother is called, should be enough for my story to be believable. After all, she’s the greatest prodigy in mana control since the birth of the king.

I sat down, near enough to the gates for them to see me, but far enough away that I had a perfect view of the sunrise. My little fox sat down next to me, mimicking my actions as she stared off into the sunrise as well. I rested my hand on her fur, feeling its softness. I still had another 5 minutes to waste until I had to get up, so I decided to watch the sunrise with her.

“I’m really far away from home, aren’t I?” I whispered, looking up at the still dark sky. If I looked closely, I could barely see one of the two moons still in the sky.

The small fox at my side whimpered, hearing the amount of thought in my voice. I petted her for a few seconds, giving it my full attention, before my thoughts turned back to my old world. Even if everything there was multiple times worse than it was here, I still missed it. Or, more accurately, I missed my simple life with Eve. Sure, it was hard work and painful, but it was simple. No worry about making sure my mana didn’t kill somebody, stealing a god’s power from other gods. No worries except for getting money. That was easily solved by getting a simple job, so it doesn’t even really count. Another year and everything would be fixed. Eve would get the operation, she would see again, we could live our life in peace and harmony.

I looked to the sun. I had spent too much time here.

“Come here, I’ll need to run.” I extended my arms to the fox, who was all too happy to leap into them. Grasping her tightly so she wouldn’t fall, I began to run towards the center of the city, where the academy was located.

A high-class building, it towered over the rest of them. Honestly, it would be better to call it a tower, as it extended nearly 400 stories tall. It was just huge. Pointlessly huge. Half of the stories hadn’t been touched in years. But this year, they say, all of the stories will have at least 10 students in them. Having 4000 students is quite the feat, I must say.

Each story required you to climb a flight of steps to get to. So whoever is on the 400th floor, will be needing to climb 400 flights of steps. It’s actually an endurance test to get to class. I’m somewhat surprised.

I reached the bottom of the building but was held up by a huge line of students. At least 200 of them had arrived, making me look to the sky. It seemed I was actually a few minutes early. Instead of putting down the fox in my arms, I began to pet it as I sat down, not expecting the line to move for a very long time.

I was half right. The line didn’t move for a long time, but it moved all at once. The first 100 or so people rushed forwards, leaving me rushing to follow the people who were filling in the gap created. I hurriedly stood, nearly throwing the fox to the side as I sprinted the short distance. She barked at me, offended I nearly tossed her aside. After some apologies, she calmed down and settled back into my arms for some more petting. I caved in and followed her wishes. The scene had gained me some attention, but I didn’t bother looking around.

Nearing the front of the line, a man was standing at the gate just before the building with a clipboard. He looked me over once, freezing for a second once he saw my eyes. Are golden eyes all the special?

“Name and age?” He asked, shifting the writing utensil in hand.

I put out my right wrist, which had the bracelet on it, and used the mana to tell him both of those things.

“Normally now would be where I ask you to spell it, but it seems you did that already…” He said with a dry tone as he finished writing it all down.

“Rayne, you have the 400th floor. Wait, what? We haven’t even filled up the first floor…” He commented, but it seems he had his orders. I looked to the top of the tower, grinned, and began walking. Or climbing. Whatever you want. Lots of stairs were involved.

Nearly 30 minutes later, I reached the top floor. 400 flights of steps is a lot of effort, especially taking them all without breaks. My legs were burning from the strain, and I got two points in endurance. But, because of how much stamina I have, I wasn’t even out of breath. About a third of the way up, the fox who had been climbing with me up until then begged me to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way. I chuckled a little bit before complying. After all, I aim to please.

Walking into the classroom, I was a bit surprised to see nobody in the room. I wasn’t surprised to see no students, but even the teacher wasn’t there. The tower wasn’t actually circular, but it had 20 sides. A icosahedron, or something? One of the sides had a door, the others all had windows. At least, every other side that I could see. Two large stone walls blocked off - I quickly counted the number of sides I could see - 12 sides, so 60% of the floor. A door adorned (Ha, get it? A door a-door-ned. No? Ok…) one of the walls, probably leading into the other portion of the floor.

But I was not yet done examining this room. 5 two-person desks were aligned with the same number of windows, covering all on that side of the door. A bookshelf was aligned with the other stone wall, next to the window next to the door.

*Be careful, there are very complicated details that are completely unnecessary in here, as well as some details missing that should be there for accurate map making.*

Alright, that was complicated. Let me just describe a map for you. A regular icosagon, a twenty-sided figure. Starting from the very top, the right side, that wall is labeled ‘1’. Continuing clockwise, each wall is assigned the next number in the line. ‘3’ is the door, it opens outwards, onto a 4 foot wide pathway that follows the wall, becoming a flight of steps just before ‘4’. Walls ‘2’ through ‘9’ are the outside walls of the room I’m in, with the dividing walls continuing towards the middle between ‘9’ and ‘10’, as well as between ‘1’ and ‘2’. About 1 foot from wall 4, there is a desk that extends towards the middle, it’s measurements being 2 feet wide, 8 feet long. Copy and paste that shape, still extending towards the middle, for walls 5, 6, 7, and 8. Wall 9 does not have a window, same for wall 2. Label the two dividing walls ‘A’ and ‘B’, ‘A’ being the one between 9 and 10, ‘B’ being the one between 1 and 2. ‘B’, on its right side, inside the room I’m in at the moment, there is a bookshelf spanning approximately half the wall, centered perfectly. It is about a foot in width, I’d say about 6 feet in height.

In the next room, using the door on wall ‘A’, the hinges connecting to walls 9 and 10. It swings both inwards and outwards. Inside this room, there are bookshelves. Each of them has the same measurements as the one in the other room, except instead of spanning half the wall, they cover each wall completely. At the corner, where walls ‘A’ and ‘B’ meet, there is a table. It would be a circle, but there’s two walls in its way. (‘A’ and ‘B’) As it stands, the table stands about 3 feet off the ground, and fills in 4 feet to the wall, making a 60% circular shape, with walls ‘A’ and ‘B’ cutting into it. Wall 10 has no bookshelf, but walls 11-1 do. Climbing atop one of them, there is no triangular space, meaning the bookshelves are actually trapezoidal prisms in shape.

*Alright, all the stupid details and measurements are through*

I returned to the main… actually, it’s only 40% of the floor. Doesn’t that make it the lesser room? I’ll differentiate between them by calling this one the ‘Classroom’ and the other part the ‘Studyroom’.

I returned to the Classroom, and sat down at the farthest desk back, staring out the window. I was high enough above the stairs I couldn’t see the people unless they were freakishly tall. The sun had fully risen by now, casting a nice yellow glow on the city below me. Nobody was coming to the classroom yet, it seemed. I cracked my knuckles, creating a satisfying popping noise, before crossing my arms on my desk and lying on them.

No need to worry, I wasn’t going to fall asleep or anything, just rest my eyes…

I awoke to a large amount of yipping. Or, more accurately, I was jolted awake like I had been struck by lightning as a yip louder than thunder sounded in my ears. I put my hands over my head and pulled back, afraid of the karate chop that was coming.

Nothing came for three seconds, so I unclasped my hands and looked around. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, making sure I was slightly more presentable before taking in my surroundings. My little fox had awoken me, I was sure of that, but where was she now? I saw a girl near my desk begin to run across the room, a series of muffled barks echoing behind her. Still half-asleep, it took me a second to realize that she had kidnapped my fox.

Once again, I was still half asleep. My coordination wasn’t all that great, my senses were dulled, and my reason was a bit laggy. So I am not to blame for the amount of damage that I wrecked. I pushed my chair back, not hearing the clatter as I lunged forward at the girl. Stop! Foxnapper!

Alas, my 500+ strength stat is not something that should be used when half asleep. My lunge carried me forward at a speed unimaginable for such a small body. The girl was tackled to the floor, my fox barely escaping the same fate. Well, ‘tackled to the floor’ doesn’t quite give it the same effect. She was hit by a speeding bullet of white, the momentum carrying her halfway across the room as the football-player-tackle knocked the breath out of her lungs. The fox was ripped from her arms like a bolt of lightning. One moment it was there, the next it wasn’t.

The sound came afterward. The chair hit the ground, clattering with a large amount of racket. Then the burst of wind tore through the room, blowing papers into the air and flipping pages on open books. Then the girl’s scream from the pain. That one was cut short, though, as she lost consciousness.

Holding the fox in one arm, I used the other one to rub my eyes. I yawned, covering my mouth with my hand. I looked back to the girl, wondering if she was alright. Noticing that she was unconscious, I set the fox on my head, making sure it was stable before picking the girl up, princess style. Again, 500+ strength makes something like this near nothing in terms of difficulty.

She was light, though. I probably could have lifted her even with my measly strength that I was born with. What was it again? 6 strength? Something like that.

Skinny, not much muscle on her body. Short brown hair that didn’t go below her shoulders, but long enough to send the impression of femininity. Her eyes were closed, so I wasn’t sure what color they were. However, I also wasn’t sure whether or not to be happy that they were closed. Her face was delicate, almost fragile. Like porcelain from a doll.

I tossed her into the seat in front of mine, too tired to care about the details. It was the only seat open, besides the one next to mine.

My mana made my thoughts come to life. ‘I’m tired. Wake me up if something important happens.’

I lay down in my previous position, the fox still on my head. From a third perspective, it was quite serene.

“Umm… Hello? You should wake up for class…” I could hear a voice gently stirring me from my slumber. Judging by how I felt, it seemed only a few minutes had passed.

Without moving, my mana gave voice to my words. ‘No.’

A few seconds of silence. “Could you at least introduce yourself?”

A few seconds passed without a movement from me. I was contemplating whether or not it was worth the effort to follow her orders. Then, as I had spent enough time awake, my brain kicked in. I stood, disturbing the fox on my head. It yipped in annoyance for being awoken in such a crude way.

The mana on my wrist began to pulse as I remembered to use it for once.

‘My name is Rayne. Nice to meet you.’ Sweet, simple and to the point. I looked to the person who asked me to introduce myself, and it was a nervous woman, looking to and fro with worried eyes.

“I… I suppose that’s good enough for now… I want you to make some friends this month! No exceptions!” She stopped stammering at the end, making a cute little yell that sounded more like a squeak. But it was what she had said that gave me a little bit of worry.

‘Ma’am, we are supposed to have 10 people in this class, correct?’ After her nod, ‘Then why are there only 9 people here?’ ‘Nobody seems to have sat next to me.’

She seemed to have just come to that realization, as she began to show the same worry filled eyes and stuttering like a record on repeat. “Ah! A- ahh, u-umm, umaaa…” I was surprised. She actually perfectly fused together the first two noises she had made into a third.

She was obviously thinking as quickly as she could. Running back and forth while doing so, however, wasn’t the smartest of ideas. She kicked the leg of a table, falling flat on her face.

I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. Even as an invasion of privacy, I [Inspect]ed her.

Name: Effret Loli

Level: ??

Experience needed: (%)

HP [???]

MP [??]

SP [800/1437]

Race: H̸͟u̶̕͠͏m̷̴̸͟͞a̧n̡͏͏͏͟

HP [?/sec]

MP [??/sec]

SP [10/sec]

Satiety: 72%

Strength

102

Endurance

304

Luck

74

Perception

????

Dexterity

?

Agility

68

Intelligence

???

Wisdom

??

Leadership

109

Vitality

??

Faith

?

Willpower

?

Skills:

???

??

?

??

?

???

?

??

?

Effects:

Clumsy

More prone to accidents involving the body.

?

???

????????

Titles

?

?

??

I couldn’t hold back my laughter. I couldn’t see many of her stats, but the ones I could see were hilarious. Her last name was ‘Loli’ and the only effect I could see was legitimately ‘Clumsy’. Her agility, endurance, and strength were all much lower than mine as well.

This was going to be an interesting teacher.