-Chapter 7- New Development; Old Pain

In a completely white realm, you could see two women talking to each other. One seemed to be agitated about something, the other one seemed to be amused.

“IT WASN’T THAT GUY?! “, Esere shouted at Ione, who had trouble holding back her laughter.

“Pfff- No, that was Klye. My subject. D-did you really curse him. Pfffff “, she held one hand in front of her mouth, but she couldn’t stop a tear to gather in the corner of her eye. Her face was red and she looked like she would have exploded at any minute.

“Tha-that couldn’t…. How…. The soul was completely…. “, trying to understand the situation, Esere walked in circles.

“Hahahahahaha, d-did you really think hahaha he would be that evil pffff ahahahaha, can’t take it hahahaha- “, Ione reached her limit and started to laugh, which got stopped by one glare of Esere.

“Meanie…. Not even allowed to laugh at funny things… “, such a glare made Ione pout in a corner. She couldn’t handle Esere’s evil look. No one probably could.

“Who is that bastard than? Where is he? I have to redo that curse…. I get myself more in trouble, because of you! “, with every word Esere took a step towards Ione, who was crouching in a corner and drew circles with her finger on the floor.

“Huuuh? But you can’t redo curses riiiight? Oh, and didn’t you say that person was a bad person? It should be fine riiight? “, Ione didn’t really mind the curse. She thought, it made everything much more interesting. She couldn’t tell Esere about her actions either. She already had enough mess ups gathered for her to be send to hell as a guard.

“Hey! We both have to do something about this. You made a lot more mistakes than me! I can tell Alastos about the incident in the Celestial-Demon war- “

“Hey! That wasn’t my fault! That was Karios fault! “, Ione now jumped up and was just an inch away from Esere. They didn’t have eye contact though, because of the height difference between them. Esere had a wonderful view of Iones chest and Ione nearly fell onto her.

“Yes, I know and he got punished for it. I heard he is doing okay as one of the hell guards. He was at fault, but you were, too. Wasn’t it you who made him do this. When he asked which race you preferred, didn’t you say the design of the demons was a bit better than the one for the celestials? You should’ve just played along. You knew he was one of the gods who created that race. Everyone knew he favoured you a lot. “, Esere turned away from her and crossed her arms

She thought, she finally got Ione to do her bidding.

“But~ buuut I didn’t know that! “, she did know about the feelings Karios harboured, but she couldn’t answer these feelings. In fact, she thought he was far too annoying to even give him a chance.

“And this doesn’t have anything to do with your stupid revenge plan. Oh, by the way. Did you know, you did something much worse? “, Ione remembered the subject files and the mess, which they caused.

“In your file was written, you shouldn’t pair Kyle and Marcus together right? Did you even look at it? You know, Alastos wrote it and I bet you will be punished a lot for something like this. “, this situation, similar to the war incident, was not only her fault, but someone else’s too.

“What? Why? Wasn’t Kyle-….. Wait… you mean that bastard is the good one and Kyle the bad one? This can’t be! Besides I didn’t pair him with anyone! “, as this conversation continued Esere got more and more nervous, whereas Ione wore a victorious smile, even though it was her fault, too.

“So. Do you still want to curse- “, Ione was interrupted by a small cough.

“I see, so you caused trouble again? I expected this from Ione, but Esere? “, It was Helena the origin of the pairing mess. She had her arms crossed and looked into the surprised faces of the other two.

She brushed her long, wavy, brown her over her shoulder and elegantly walked over to the small childlike Esere.

“Abusing your power isn’t good, you know that, right? “, she had a smug smile on her face. She was clearly looking down on Esere. Ione couldn’t do much about her, as Helena had a higher standing in the realms of the gods.

“Ohh? Weren’t you the one, who caused that famine, because you were too lazy to adjust the intensity of the sun? “, it didn’t matter to Esere if a god had a higher standing or more power than her. She would say what she thought no matter what. This is a good and a bad point about her character.

The shocked face of the taller goddess was enough to prove her guilt. Helena was quite lazy, even though she looked like someone, who would take her job seriously. She would forget to turn down the intensity of the sun or turn it up, made coordination mistakes with the sun and moon movement and nearly destroyed the world with meteorites. These occurrences, caused by her laziness and procrastination, were as countless as the ones caused by Ione’s thoughtlessness. She only got away with it, because there is no replacement for her.

The goddesses didn’t move an inch. Esere and Helena were exchanging glares, which could have killed. Ione looked uneasy as she watched these two.

This situation would not end well for them.

Welcome back. Did you sleep well? I hope, you did. I know the floor with just a blanket is quite hard and cold, but I can’t really help it right now. I will get you a decent bed sometime, I swear.

Want to hear more of the story? I was getting to a rather …interesting part.

I stopped at the after school part, did I not?

Okay. The situation was pretty clear. If I would have walked to the group of kids, I would have gotten beaten up. The best solution I came up with was a well-known tactic. Retreat or run away like your life depends on it. Call me coward, but the first thing you learn in self-defence courses is to avoid conflict.

I heard the angry shouts of Logan as he instructed the other kids to run after me.

I still didn’t have much stamina, so I had to find a fast way to lose them. I ran past the school building, past the dorms, past the library. Then I got an idea.

The most complicated maze here in this temple was Adella’s library. If you didn’t spend a lot of time in there, you would get lost instantly, even if you walk just a straight line.

I made sure the kids could see me in front of the library, before running into it.

I ran past the history section, took a turn into the novel section, then into the erotic novel subsection. This is the best way to find your way out again.

The kids ran a straight line, like I did the first time. They were fools for running after me into MY domain! Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to get that excited.

The confused kids weren’t able to find out, until Adella came back into the library. It seems, like they cried their eyes out and shouting senseless words.

Like this they wouldn’t disturb me here and would think twice before running after me. This tactic was a good pick.

My stamina was drained completely after I reached Lilika’s room, closed the door behind and dropped to the floor.

I didn’t even notice Lilika was there, sitting on a chair and healing a wounded bird. The soft green light looked comforting. “Z-zeki! Why are you- “, she moved closer to me, obviously worried, trying to scan me for wounds. She stopped when she noticed my sticky, still dripping wet hair. “Did the kids do this? Did they pour the Mallaka snake liquid over your head again? “, there was slight anger in her voice. This was the first time I saw anger in Lilika and the first time I heard the official name of this brown liquid. It was a poison of low potency, but it still caused damage to the body.

If it was applied to the skin it did not affect you in the least, but if you drank it, it will make you cough up a black substance and cause a temporary state of insanity. The effect isn’t long lasting and the dosage had to be high for such an effect, but if you drink it on regular basis the effects will last.

In the past it was used to “bring out the true nature of sinners”. It got abolished after the origin of the liquid got public, though it still gets used like holy water. Meaning, if you see a black haired person dump it on their heads and it will ward them off. It doesn’t work, of course.

Lilika tried to free my hair from that liquid, with success. You can’t get it out of clothes, but if it’s hair it is easy to remove. “It’s nothing. “, I didn’t want to worry Lilika further. I wonder what she would have done, if I told her who used me as a brown liquid dump. That would have been something good to see.

“Zeki…please, don’t try to act tough. It makes me worry even more. “, She looked continued to look for wounds. The small cuts she found were promptly healed with the same magic she used on the bird. You guessed right. She used healing magic, which means her affinity was light. It fits her personality quite well, doesn’t it?

Personality is a great aspect in developing an affinity. The special magic you can use fits with your personality most of the time, too. It’s all about the mind-set. It sounds a bit cheesy, but it was not my idea to put it like that.

“Well, if you don’t want to tell me… then I won’t ask anymore, but if it gets too dangerous I want you run away from here “, she looked into my eyes, while she healed the small cuts. It was a serious look. Not the pitying look or the kind look.

I did want to leave someday, but this was too early and she didn’t say anything about her leaving with me.

She couldn’t hold this look for long. “So. How was your first magic lesson? Did you find out about your affinity? “, she smiled again after she completely healed the wounds. It made the unease in my heart disappear, too. She had this kind of effect on others. She was the motherly type in a lot of ways.

“It exploded. The crystal. “, my poker face was still active. I didn’t show my unease or relief. It probably would have worried Lilika even more.

“It exploded? That never happened before. You must have been scared. “, she petted me with a soft smile. Her smile felt like her healing magic. It was warm and seemed to radiate a faint glow. “Mister Konrad told you to come to him before school, right? He knows other methods to find out your affinity…. Less dangerous ones, I hope. “, I witnessed a new expression yet again. Do you know what a shadow smile is?

She changed her expression much too quickly for my taste. Even my almighty poker face broke for a bit. The most gentle person is the scariest when angry, huh? It was actually true.

“Lilika! Come here already! You have to wash the clothes today! “, this was Lilika’s cue to leave again. She gave me an apologetic look and a last hug, then left though the door. With nothing better to do I simply layed down on the bed and thought about the situation again. Yes, I really couldn’t do anything else now. If I would have left the room again and met some of the kids, who were chasing me, I would have gotten scolded or beaten or whatever the priestesses thought would have been a good punishment.

Staying in the room was the least painful option.

I first thought about the sudden change of attitude. Most of the kids didn’t even care about me, or better said, about my hair. They did say some things, but it was just on a jokes level. Then suddenly they change again and react violent. Was it a childish whim or an overreaction maybe?

Then there was the thing with Sheila. She just simply came to me and apologized after announcing I was a sinner and should be killed before. This situation was just too strange. A cultural belief, which is burned into the brains and hearts of people, even kids, aren’t that easily changed.

I talked about this before didn’t I? Well, now you won’t forget it.

Next was the affinity test incident. I tried to think about a reason why this crystal ball could have exploded. My first theory was it had to do with my race. Maybe it was some kind of holy object or something just meant for the most prominent races on this country. My next theory was my magic capability was too big. Maybe I accidently inserted the mana into the ball without noticing and made it rampage inside it.

Both theories were rather unlikely, but I couldn’t explain it differently. While I thought about these various things, I slowly fell asleep. That day was a bit to exhausting for a 5-year-old who spend most of the time in a small room or the library.

I dreamed.

I wasn’t in my usual black realm and I wasn’t in Ione’s dream realm either.

I stood in a park. There were trees and plants, benches and some people.

I couldn’t see the people clearly. It was like a view though water.

It was a nice day. The sun was shining. I heard some birds. I was cold.

It seemed warm, but I felt really cold.

I walked in different directions. I just felt the way I was going would lead me to my goal.

I walked further and further and further. I couldn’t hear birds anymore. The plants looked dry and dead. The sky got darker, but I continued to walk.

The featureless people disappeared from my view, too. I was alone on a single path.

It lead me to a single person. It was a girl crying her eyes out. She wasn’t featureless. I could make out some details.

She had straight brown hair which fell over her shoulders. She was quite small and had the body of a 13 year old girl. She wore a grey top and a red skirt.

I didn’t know why, but this scene made me feel guilty. It hurt me to see her cry.

Shortly after that I woke up. The Idiot I am fell out of the bed. The feeling of guilt didn’t disappear for a while and I was pretty disorientated. Was it a memory form the pas? Was it a premonition of the future? I didn’t know at that time.

Don’t you have such dreams sometimes, too? Dreams so vivid, you simply can’t ignore or dreams which made you feel a déjà vu a few days later. It’s not really important, but it’s quite interesting, is it not?

It was morning. Lilika was already gone, but she didn’t forget to place a meal for me on the small table. Today would be the day I would earn about my personal magic. This time without incidents. Not that I was interested or something, hmpf. I ate and then took off.

I looked for Lycus first though. I expected him to show up in front of my door again, but he was not there. Alycia wasn’t there either. It was really early after all.

without looking any further I ran to the school building. There were some priestesses jumping out of my way and some kids, who were up already, tried to trip me. I did fall some times. Ah~ I bet Miss Floor just missed me a lot. Hey, don’t look at me like that.

On one such encounter the pendant I was wearing under my shirt was visible. Lilika told me to not show it to anyone. No one was there to see it, so maybe I was lucky.

Hm? I never described it, did I? Well, it wasn’t much. Just golden with some cravings in it. I still have it. It’s kind of valuable in another sense, you see. Ah, but I don’t want to spoil everything now.

Anyway I reached the school building without any other incidents. The next challenge was to find the room, in which I should meet that Konrad person. I hoped for some teachers coming earlier to show me the room. I got careful with walking into places I am not familiar with since the library incident.

After walking back and forth in front of the main entrance, I decided to go in alone. I looked like someone going into a hard fight. It looked strange from another persons’ view, I bet. I didn’t even think about the possibility of the magic teacher maybe waiting for me in the entrance hall or somewhere visible in the school.

There he stood. A straight posture, arms crossed, one foot tapping on the floor impatiently and a strict look on his face. Sounds like a person happy to help a cute little kid, right? I did break something pretty expensive after all, but that wasn’t a reason to show his discontent that clearly.

“Ehm, Mister Konrad? “, I called out to him, but I wasn’t able to say more. As soon as he saw me his face got grumpier than it already was.

“Tch “, with a click of his tongue he glared at me. “Took you long enough. Didn’t they teach you manners? Coming this late and then calling me in such a manner. What did I expect from someone such as you? “, such a charming gentleman, right? I bet he had a lot of friends.

The smile I had on my face twitched slightly. I didn’t know what he meant with “someone such as you “. He didn’t say when exactly I should show up either. I had more manners than some certain somebodies.

I could hold back though. Patience is a virtue, right? It would have been to my disadvantage, if I told him what I thought.

He turned around and walked in a fast pace. I didn’t realize I should follow him at first, but after some seconds my brain cells, who were busy with preventing me from blurting out my retorts, processed the current situation. That guy didn’t wait for me or slowed down for me. No, he continued his marathon.

We went past the classroom I had math, history and writing in. Climbed some steps to the floor on which you could find the classrooms of the older kids. I nearly lost that guy there. There is a big difference between a 5-year olds leg length and an adults of around 34. That person really didn’t want to have anything to do with me.

After nearly falling three times and exhausting my stamina we reached a small room. It was filled with shelves with books, devices and bottles with suspicious looking substances in them. There were some tables, too. Papers were scattered across them. This room looked like it had never seen a vacuum cleaner.

Did vacuum cleaners even exist? That would make the whole cleaning thing much easier. There is no magic for that unfortunately. This place we both are at now didn’t get this clean without my efforts. You can eat from this floor!

…..

Okay, I continue. Thanks for your heartfelt appreciation of my efforts. Ha.

In the middle of the room was a similar crystal orb as the one I somehow broke.

“Put your hand on this crystal. This one is a stronger version. Breaking this shouldn’t be possible. Don’t focus any mana in it. It can read your affinity without any other means. “, his voice was calm, but his face didn’t support that feeling. His face literary said “If this crystal breaks, I will kill you and get the money back from this temple. “

Greedy, rude, racist, arrogant. Wonderful character traits, right? The most admirable person you could meet. I walked towards the crystal. It was a lot bigger and emitted a stronger glow.

After I placed my hand on it the orb started to get warmer. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it still reminded me of the accident the other day.

With my eyes closed I waited for the teacher to tell me the results. The heat got more intense. It felt like cooking water.

“That’s enough! “, the teacher shouted while he ripped my hand from the crystal. “E-eh? Did it- ? “, “No, it didn’t break… “, his face looked pale and nervous. He put a hand before his mouth, while looking like he saw a ghost. He didn’t seem to care about the nearly broken crystal. It didn’t take him long to snap back into his normal pace.

“We can’t determine your affinity. You probably don’t have one. Sorry to say this, but without an affinity it will be hard to be a magician, so you should try your best with the sword….. Fits people like you better anyway. “, the last part couldn’t be heard clearly, but I felt just slightly irritated. Just a bit. No affinity? These balls were just shit. Expensive, useless shit. Wait, I can leave out the useless. All needlessly expensive things tend to be crap.

There was this new, expensive headset. It lasted for a week, but my old, cheap one continued to function flawlessly until death parted us. I wonder if it still works. Knowing my mother, she probably still has all my stuff somewhere.

Hm? Nah, I don’t really want to see her. It’s not possible anyway.

That gentleman gracefully threw me out of the room, leaving him alone in there. That person was a charming person, indeed, but he seemed to know something about me. Like my race for example. I dismissed that thought, because he didn’t seem to have any motivation to say something to the oblivious priestesses.

I wondered how such a guy could spot it at first glance and the priestesses, who “took care of me” for years were so sure I wasn’t a demon. I didn’t know who the celestial could have been though.

The next thing, which hit me was my non-existent affinity. If I didn’t have an affinity, I couldn’t use unique magic, which is varies from person to person. It made you special and different from the others. You could use elemental basic magic if you practiced long enough, but it could never beat unique magic.

It was a problem, but it didn’t reach my brain right away. I had to walk for some time to finally understand the meaning of Mister Konrad’s words. It is said that bad news reach the brain slower than good ones.

As I reached outside I got greeted by Alycia, who accompanied Sheila as usual. “Zeki! Why are here so early? “, she forgot about my appointment with that charming magic teacher. “You done with that affinity test? “, Sheila asked while smiling at me. That smile reminded me of the “nice girl” types at school. They talk to you with a smile and as soon as they turn around they talk shit about you. Ah, Cassie wasn’t like this.

“Ah… Yeah. It was nothing important…. “, I looked cool on the surface, but I was shouting inside. Well, it’s not like I looked forward to using magic, the essential thing found in fantasy novels, or something. I didn’t want to have some cool power and say stuff like “Ah, I- can’t- awaken- noow! “. I’m an adult after all.

A tear formed in the corner of my eyes. Why, I wonder? Well, it was a great disadvantage in this world. Magic is something important. There are always disputes between the swordsmen, who don’t use magic, and the magicians, who depend only on magic. Magic swordsmen are rare. Assassins and similar jobs do use magic, too, but these types of jobs are looked down upon, because they are “dirty”, shady jobs.

The sword and the basic element type magic was all I had left. I just had to be at the top at both. I still had time before the lessons, so I decided to run laps around the school. I caught the attention of the walking by people. I was being weird and was too ignorant to notice the looks of the people.

Ah, I was embarrassing.

There was a lone man in a badly lit room, which reminded you of a storage room. He muttered some things though his hand, which he held in front of his mouth. “This can’t be…… Why does he have it…… How did that happen….. Why? “, the questions did not change for a while. This mans’ name was Konrad von Terria. He was part of the royal family, which controlled Terria and other regions. He was 14ths in the line of succession and would never be the one ruling.

It frustrated him. He acted all important, but he wasn’t in the least. He was proud of his magic talent, but he was soon outrun by his older brothers. He wasn’t treated harshly or was hated. He had some influence in the city, too. It frustrated him even more. His life seemed unimportant.

He bought slaves to feel superior. He let his frustration out on them. It wasn’t uncommon in that city. Demi-humans were used as slaves. It wasn’t forbidden by law nor was it deemed as something bad by the people.

Konrad took this job as a magic teacher just because of his desire to feel like someone special, too. He wanted to make the kids feel like he is an existence out of their reach.

He did this job for some years now. He always felt like a king in the classroom. The students had to obey him and he could decide over their future. This year there was a disturbance of his normality.

He was confused seeing a demon child and a celestial child sitting in one room. He recognized these two quite easily. No one notice it, which seemed weird as it was really obvious. He was just suspicious at first, but he confirmed it at the affinity test. The celestial child, Cealius, was the first one of the two. After he turned around to walk back to his seat after having checked his affinity, Konrad felt over his back as if he would shove him forward. There were two little bumps. They would grow into wings after some years. His suspicion was right.

The second kid, Zeki, was the last one to take the test. He was drenched in brown liquid. It had a very distinctive odour. Through his wet hair he could see the soon-to-be horns. Just as he was observing this the kid stared into his eyes. He didn’t move his head to look at him. It was a stare, which a child shouldn’t have.

It didn’t end there. That kid broke the magic crystal, which took him so much time to extract from the original Crystal of truth. The kid didn’t even change expressions after the crystal burst into two parts. The mana around the crystal first was circulating around it, which caused heat, and then it vanished completely. It made the crystal break.

He didn’t hear about something like this in his 26 years of life.

He was in this state, because of that boy, too. He made him come to this room to try the affinity test again. He used a better quality crystal. It could withstand any type of magic, so it wouldn’t break because of some kid.

The boy put his hand on it and the same thing as the day before happened. The Mana began to circulate wildly around the crystal, but this time there was a short reaction before the mana could disappear again. It was a complete black. It did not have any impurities, a perfect black colour. This was not the colour for the darkness element. No, it wasn’t a black violet mix, but a perfect black. This element is called Void. It is a rarity and it is not much known about it, except some of its effects.

Anti-magic. This was the only type of magic of this system known. No one knows the other effects. It was strong, but it had weaknesses as it negates the own magic, too. Moving mana is possible, but adding elements is impossible.

If he had this power he could over power his brothers and finally be a superior being. Why did some demon orphan have such a rare ability? Why was he stuck with some common element?

He lied to the boy. He lied out of jealousy. He wouldn’t report this demon just yet. He had to do something about him himself.

Okay, let’s have a time skip. I think you don’t want to hear about every day in my life, do you? I can’t remember everything, too. So let’s skip some stuff.

Some weeks passed. It was winter now. Lilika gave me some sandals and a shirt to wear under my robe. She even fixed my ripped pants. The robe couldn’t be cleaned though and I couldn’t get a new one.

Don’t ask why. I don’t know either.

I made sure to keep my hair on shoulder length and I got a little good at cutting my own hair. It still didn’t look really good, but it was enough. The bumps on my head grew a little bigger, too. It got a bit harder to hide them under my fringe.

That day was a perfectly normal day. I walked to school with Sheila and Alycia. I did see Lycus outside of the school sometimes, too, but every time I tried to walk up to him he vanished within the blink of an eye. I did see his drawings though. There was a PC- like drawing with the word “Piss-e” written under it. It didn’t make sense at all. What did that word even mean? I still was questioning his intelligence.

The school day was proceeding normally, too. The math teacher still tried to make me look like a cheater and someone who can’t even solve simple things without help. Well, if a person is frustrated it will turn into aggression. With her looks, I bet she had her share of slander. She looked pretty ordinary in comparison to all the beautiful looking elven priestesses here.

History lessons were interesting, but I noticed some animosities between some kids of the human race and demi-human race. This won’t end well. Kids get swayed by things like that.

If you tell them “You are something much better than the others “, the kids will believe it. It didn’t cause any server damage yet, but it would later on. Even if I say kids are easily swayed, but these kids were even easier to manipulate.

Cealius got most of them warped around his little finger. They didn’t even flinch by his slip-ups. He would turn, shout insults at some kids or get violent. I didn’t know what happened to him, but I enjoyed it. Too bad these kids were too stupid to get any of this. Or was it something else?

Sometimes I would feel a chill when he was shouting something. The addressee would freeze and proceed to do what he asked for.

Sheila and Alycia seemed to ignore it. I would spend my breaks with them behind the school building. I would have preferred a rooftop though, but that place couldn’t be reached.

P.E. was painful for me. I didn’t really get hurt, but teacher S would do her best to torture me. She changed her method every day. I didn’t get to do the strength exercises together with everyone else, no, she made me do endurance training. I didn’t like sports in general, but endurance training was the epitome of torture to me. I would normally skip these types of lessons, but I couldn’t in this world. I didn’t know what S would have done if I skipped once. She would know where I was, too.

It’s like having your teacher as your neighbour or as your parent.

The magic classes lost its glamour for me. I tried using the spells we were taught, but every time I tried it the mana would cause a small implosion. We learned three more spells excluding the Flame spell.

The first spell after Flame was a spell from the Earth system it was called guard wall. This spell will create a small wall of earth. The incarnation was something like “Was ich wünsche ist Schutz. Was ich suche ist Erde. “. The second one was a spell from the water system called Heal. It was inferior to the Light system spell, but it was still useful. “Was ich wünsche ist Erlösung. Was ich suche ist Wasser. “, this was the incarnation. The wind system spell was called needle. It was like a small needle of air you could control. It was an interesting spell. “Was ich wünsche ist Blut. Was ich suche ist Wind. ”

I couldn’t use any of them. I could get the effect for a second before the mana imploded. Well this could be used as some attack, if I could send the mana to another person to let it implode, but that’s another story. I explain that later.

I don’t want to dump all that on you now…. I’m not letting out my frustration. No, I’m not. I wasn’t annoyed by the kids jeering at me or anything. It was a pleasant feeling, like being thrown into a pool full of shit.

The magic teacher wasn’t any better. He kept on pointing out to the other kids how I am a perfect example of a hopeless case. Very adult.

Oh yeah, my after school activities consisted of finding ways to shake off these kids. It got easier the more I did it. This day was different. I planned to go through the main temple this time to shake them off, but no one came. I just saw Sheila running towards me. Her face looked flustered. “Sheila? What is it? Did you forget something? “, I didn’t care less about her reasons to come back, but I didn’t want to piss her off.

Well, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. “A-a-Alycia *pant* She got- Alycia got- “, by the mention of Alycia I turned to face Sheila.

“What’s with Alycia? “, trying to stay calm I thought about every bad situation she could be in. Every situation was worse than its predecessor.

“She- Logan and the others, they- Cealius took her, but- at the forest entrance. *pant* you have to- huh? “, I started to run before Sheila could finish her sentence.

Ah, I was foolish, wasn’t I? Trying to play hero with no means to even defend myself. Ah, stupid me.

I ran along the edge of the forest and finally found the group of people. Every person, who chased me plus Cealius and Alycia. They pulled on her hair and drained her in the brown, sinner-repelling poison. They shoved her into the dirt. I saw someone hitting her.

These kids were as horrible, if not worse, than the people I had to deal with. How could kids do such a thing to such a small girl?

Cealius was just standing there with a cruel glimmer in his eyes. His eyes, which were nearly white now looked like dark pits. His smile stayed on his face while watching the kids tormenting Alycia. The kids had the expression of starved beasts. They were going insane, without reason, without a humane aspect to them.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to defeat every single one of them. I didn’t want to have a painful experience, but I couldn’t just go without doing anything either. I was and still am a fool for trying to do things like that.

You should know it, too. Acting like a hero doesn’t get you anything but pain and trouble. The saved one will forget you, the beaten ones will come at you for revenge. They will make you the next victim. Just because you called a teacher or the police, it doesn’t even have to be direct intervention.

I stepped on a branch and made my existence known. Involuntarily, that is. The kids didn’t turn around. They just continued with what they did. Cealius was different. He turned his head in my direction.

“Oh, Zeki. I didn’t want you to see something this unsightly. Why don’t you play with us, too? They told me they were getting bored by playing hide and seek all the time. “, with this comment the kids stopped. They simply stopped moving and slowly turned around. It was creepy.

This confirmed it. Cealius had something to do with this unnatural behaviour. It was like Cealius controlled their actions. If he did it knowingly or not wasn’t something I could answer.

The kids came closer to me. First slow then faster. The first one to reach me was Logan. He let his big fist rain on me. I stared at the fist and it seemed to travel in slow motion. I didn’t move physically but my brain kept on working.

What should I do? Can I evade? Should I fight back? Should I run? I don’t like pain. He is just a kid. I can’t hit kids. How do I solve this? Is Alycia okay? I should get a priestess. I can’t win against him.

I prepared for a sharp pain to hit me, but it didn’t happen. I evaded. I didn’t know how, but I did it. Maybe it was adrenalin. I saw him stumbling forward, right over my foot. He fell with a loud thump. The other kids started to run towards me. One tried to grab my leg, but it was again in slow motion. I ran to the side of the kid before redirecting his movement into the mass of kids trying to run me over. The next person threw a rock at me. Other than the kids that stone flew at a normal speed at me. I couldn’t avoid it. It hit me at the side of my head. I saw stars in front of my eyes for a second before snapping back into reality. A fist was making its way to my face. It seemed to stop in front of my face.

That scared me. It’s like waking up to see someone sit next to you staring at you. That kind of feeling. I moved my head a little and observed that fist flying past my face. The kid crashed into me, which made me fall, too.

The other kids didn’t wait long to start running at me and preparing to bury me under them or kick the living hell out of me. Both options weren’t what you would call favourable outcomes. I rolled myself to the side avoiding a stomp by a demi-human girl. Now on my stomach I crawled away and tried to pull myself up again.

I got up just in time to avoid another stone, which was supposed to hit my body. Evading the other kids I made my way to Cealius. If he was the origin of this cliché like event, I would just have to knock him out to stop the children.

As I reached him, his facial expression didn’t change. It looked kind of creepy. His eyes were half open and a big smile was on his face. If you would have met him in a dark corner you would have thought he was a murderer.

Now came the hard part. How does one knock someone out? I learned the theory but I was never really able to use the things I learned. Teacher S came into my mind.

The only thing I learned from her was the sword swing. I didn’t have a sword or even a stick to use it, so I just took a stance pointed my hand, like a sword, towards my opponent and begin the motion. Cealius looked a bit startled. I thought I already won. I could let out 18, no, 23 years of frustration on him.

I never thought about that kind of revenge. I didn’t like pain. Causing someone pain would result in my own pain, too, so I never really tried to fight back with violence.

Just as I thought I could finally server this bond with my own hands, I felt a sharp pain. Something blunt hit my head. It was bigger than the stone and a lot faster and stronger. Someone attacked my back while I was letting my guard down.

“Oh? Did you want to hurt me? Why would you do that? I think you should take your medicine. You know the Sinner repellent. “, I could see a girl moving next to Cealius. She had curly short hair and red eyes. She had a wooden sword in her hand and she looked at me with sneering eyes. “Who would be friends with an evil monster? “, it was Sheila.

Betrayal. I didn’t taste this bitter thing for some time now. The last time was at the beginning of middle school. The friends I thought would know me better sold me out. The girl who laughed while talking with me in a normal way, told her boyfriend to beat me up. Ah. It had a bitter taste to it. Like biting into a chocolate bar, expecting a sweet sensation on your tongue, just to realize you bit into a bar of dark chocolate

Alycia was lying there probably crying and I couldn’t do anything. Playing hero is useless, right? You think so, too, right?

You don’t? Well, the story hasn’t finished just yet.

Cealius came closer and closer with a bottle of that liquid. If I drank that I would go insane. I would hurt people and probably be locked somewhere or my health deteriorates to a level, that I couldn’t live a life without help anymore.

“Say “Aaah” “, Cealius held my nose, so that I would open my mouth. Just as he wanted to dump the poison into my mouth I heard someone call. “Ah… What are you doing at my favourite place? Oh! Zekki what are you doing there… Oh yeah! You wouldn’t remember. “

I leave it at that… Hey, I already was telling you more than usual so shut up… I need my rests, too.

See you later. Have fun thinking about the outcome~

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Author’s Note

Hey again~

It took longer than I planned ^^” Real life is cruel… moving out of my house, having my pc partly destroyed, exams coming up Christmas, new year…. Haaa…

But I did finish it!

Anyway I hope you enjoy it!

And as always if you find grammatical or writing errors, write them down in the comments, I try to fix them. If you have suggestions regarding the story write them into the comments, too. I am always searching new ideas for this story. If you just liked my story please write that, too. A boost of my non-existent confidence and a motivation to keep on writing!

I thank you for reading this story

And see you tomorrow ^^