Leo started changing from his sleepwear into his tracksuit since it was easy to move. As he wandered around the room he saw the book he has gotten from the principal, he moved his hand to push it away, destroy it but before he did his hand stopped. He wanted to think that all of it was just a bad dream but he already had too many proofs that it wasn’t to do it.

Was it not something he worked hard on. No, it was not him. He didn’t want to accept that. He sat on his bed pressing his hands against his head.

It was strange, the memories of Arthur he now had seemed like if they were his own, he felt that he was Arthur or at least have been. The memories of everything up to the moment of Arthur’s death felt like something that happened recently despite the fact that Arthur lived in year 430 after Olympius defeated the demon king, so it was over 370 years ago.

He didn’t want to run away but he knew that in his current state there was no way he wouldn’t be discovered soon, especially when his next examination was supposed to take place today after school and he didn’t want to have to go through such death again, the thought alone frightened him to the point where he nearly puked.

Standing up he wanted to scream, why would the principal even gave him this. He wondered if he could ask someone for help but who would stand up for him when just hours ago he himself would have called the current him a demon. He was human though and Arthur was human too, and while Daniel memories were weird because they felt more like a movie he was sure he was a human too.

Maybe that darkness covered guy who he met during the attack on the school was right. Maybe demons were just one big lie, but who would do something like that he couldn’t tell.

For now, he needed to hide and his house wouldn’t be safe after he was absent for the examination, the forest behind their house may be a good idea. It was big and hiding in it would be easy he thought. The only people that visited it were patrols that checked for fallen trees and the likes. People who wanted to relax in nature would usually go to one of the parks that were taken care by the city where there was no bugs or other inconveniences.

The forest only stayed there as a way of preserving a natural way of nature, Leo actually has never been in there before.

Still, before leaving he would need something to help him survive, his clothes would be okay since it was warm outside but he needed something to eat. He opened the door as quietly as he could and went down the stairs to the kitchen and took out food that would be ready once mixed with water and few botels of the liquid.

He was getting ready to leave the kitchen but he wondered about his parents, he wondered if he should leave some kind of note. He returned to his room and wondered how he should do it. He thought about writing a message with his communication device but that would go through the network. Then he thought about the paper but he discarded the idea as even if he used the pages of his book he would have nothing to write with.

In the end, he took his communication device and started writing a message that he wouldn’t send but left as a draft and hope his parents would see. Maybe he was just paranoid but who wouldn’t when their life was on the line.

He wondered what to write, he started writing how he loves them and how he was human. That he would run away and he didn’t want to mix them with the situation and he is sorry. As he did tears gathered in his eyes. He tried wiping them off but they wouldn’t stop. He looked at the message once more and deleted it. What he wrote instead was more simple ‘I love you, I’m sorry.’. closing the communication device he left it on his desk. He looked at the book once more and sighed. He hated it, it destroyed his life twice now but at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to destroy it in exchange.

After he finished packing the food he opened a window in his room, looking outside he saw the forest and the fence that separated it from the city. He was currently 13 feets away from the ground and the fence was six an a half feet high and 17 feet away. Making the jump would be easy.

He fuelled his body with mana and jumped off. He floated through the air and in the light of the moon his blond hair fluttered. Soon he fell back to the ground, now on the other side of the fence. He stood up and looked back at his home one last time. He felt tears gathering in his eyes again. Turning around he started walking towards the forest.

Walking forward he looked around and with the little light that the moon provided he could see quite well. He could hear the leaves and bark cracking under his feet, he wondered why the trees were placed in such random way but for some reason, the forest illuminated by the moon and the way it was seemed beautiful to him. It was something neither him nor Arthur saw before. Maybe the natural way of nature was something precious after all.

He wondered about Daniel, he travelled a world a lot and probably saw much more breathtaking views and now that he knew it was most likely real he felt envious. But maybe now he would get a chance to travel the world by himself even if hiding and looking behind his back constantly. He smiled at the thought.

Then he wondered about Mary, he never got to answer her. He wanted to return back and get his device but it was too late for that. He felt sorry but he didn’t have much choice, he could only hope they got to see each other again.

Suddenly he heard something to his right turning around he saw something move in the shadows of a bush. Stepping as silently to it as he could he, looked around the bush. There he saw a white ball of fur running away. He sighed and relaxed, that scared him a lot.

“What are you doing here Leo?” he heard someone calling him from behind in feminine voice. Jumping around he tried to find the source of the voice. There he saw Miss Anna Robinson his magic theory teacher and once his homeroom teacher, he looked confused. She was the last person he expected to see here. “I suddenly got a call to come for you from Master and I hate waking up so early.”

Leo stepped back. “Ah, ehm… I’m just taking a walk.”

“Right…” she said. Where she usually wore quite a formal wear today she was wearing a black jumpsuit for some reason, that put him off even more. “Then I will ask you to come with me. My Master wants to invite you.”

“Master?” Leo asked confused.

“Oh, you know him. He promised to come back for you one day. You surely haven’t forgotten.” She said.

Leo at first was not sure of who she was talking about but then he realized and his face showed some fear. He hastily turned around and enchanting himself with mana he started running away. He moved fast through the forest but as he ran his foot got stuck in one of the roots and he fell over, rolling few times before stopping. Fortunately, he didn’t injure himself too much out of few scratches.

Pulling himself up he looked around. He couldn’t see her anywhere but still, he decided to keep moving as she would be somewhere close for sure. Before he could take next step suddenly black veins caught him by arms and legs and brought him up in the air causing him to scream.

“It’s not nice to run away when someone is talking.” He heard a voice. From shadows appeared the figure of miss Anna again. “But I’m little happy you decided to show disobedience now I can roughen you up a bit.” As she said she flung him and hit him against a tree. In last-second he enchanted himself with mana and didn’t take too much damage, despite it, it still hurt, the tree bark itself broke a little.

“You are quite hard aren’t you. That means I don’t have to hold back!” as she said she smashed him against the tree again. He tried to use his absorption magic to get rid of the veins but even as he felt the mana dissipating the veins themselves just regenerated faster then he could absorb them.

“It’s useless!”

He was smashed again and again and soon the tree broke in half and he was bleeding from his head and his whole body hurt. “That should be enough. You know despite the fact that I should thank you since it was you who caused me to meet master I still hate you. Since all he needs of me is to watch over you. Doesn’t that mean I’m less important to you than him? I even needed to start taking those pills just control my anger. Still, I can’t betray him so I can’t kill you…”

As she said the dark veins around his body started growing and soon nearly all of his body was covered in them. No matter how hard he used his magic to strengthen himself he couldn’t tear them and his absorption magic was too slow.

“Now let’s go.” he couldn’t see anything at this point as the veins covered his head. He tried to scream but one of the veins blocked his mouth and he could only breath with his nose now. He felt that he was being moved in darkness for a long time.

Then he felt sudden shaking and felt that he hit the ground. The veins around him started getting weaker and his absorption magic soon got rid of them. His body hurt still, he stood up with some help from his mana. Looking around he saw miss Anna laying on the ground and a man with white hair was standing above her.

“Goodmorning, Leo.” The figure turned to him. It was Mr Etan, he has saved him again.

Still, Leo looked at him warily. Right now he wasn’t sure if he could trust anyone.

“You don’t need to be so wary of me. I’m not here to hurt you.” he said picking up miss Anna over his shoulder. “Poor woman though, after her husband died in that attack she was on a sick leave with depression. It must have been then, someone got to her and used her weakness to control her mind with magic and they even engraved magic in her soul.”

“Will she be alright?” asked Leo.

“Maybe, I’m not expert on souls.” he answered and started moving away before stopping and looked back at the bloodied boy. “Let’s get moving. The principal is waiting for you and I’m sure he has some of the answers you want… or do you want me to carry you too.”

Leo shook his head, he hesitated for a second but he didn’t feel any malice from the vice-principal and at the same time he was sure that there was no way he could run away from him. With tired steps, he started following behind him.