Max was exhausted when he got home. After clearing all mess on the road and properly disposing of the body, Not wasting any time, they drove back right away.
Fortunately, Layla had spare tires on her car that they didn't need to stay for long in that dark road.
No one would notice that there was a fight last night in there even if people were to go through that same road. Max made sure to return the entire road and the areas around it to its former condition using his Reverse Time Skill, gaining the amazement of his two spectators.
He had to take some time to rest as the energy needed for his Reverse Time Skill was taxing. He also proved his assumption that the Reverse Time Skill doesn't care what the object it was reversing was.
It only reverses the time around the target, and the energy needed never changed whether it was using it to heal his wounds or when he restored the road. Living or not, it was just the same.
Analyzing it further, he found that nothing was wrong with it since this was about time, nothing else would matter as anything can be restored by reversing time.
He considered the potential of the skill after they upgrade it. He thought of using his Reverse Time Skill with significantly less energy needed or increasing the amount of time reversed.
Currently, he succeeded in reversing a few minutes before running out of energy. He wondered what could happen if he could reverse a few hours of time or a few days.
Max went to their room upstairs after not seeing his sister anywhere.
"What happened to you? Why do you look like that?"
Yu'er turned to the sound of the door opening and stared as Max walked in. He appeared to be sleepy that it piqued her curiosity, wanting to know more about what happened.
Max laid down, closing his eyes as he began to tell her in detail everything that happened.
Starting from meeting another Awakened named Alice, his thoughts about her to what they did at the party. Then he went on to Xiao Ming being an idiot and explaining all his doing, especially that he asked someone to attack them.
Max didn't forget to say that they don't have any evidence to claim that it was Xiao Ming and that it was only their suspicion.
He also mentioned the attack in detail, what happened before, during, and after the fight, telling Yu'er about him being seen healing his wound using his skill and what their reactions were.
"Is it bad?"
"Hmm, let me think about this properly."
Yu'er looked serious as she contemplated everything that Max said. She thought that what a night it must be for him to experience all that.
Seemingly coming into a conclusion, Yu'er lightly smiled,
"No, that might be the best decision you could have done in that situation."
"What??"
Max was bewildered about what his sister said. He was expecting his sister to console him that it was fine and tell him to not worry about it too much, but he never thought that his sister would praise his decision.
"Let me explain it."
"First, it's fine if they knew that you're an Awakened. Why? Most Awakeneds are being called Awakened because people already know that they are one."
"That's why it's fine if they knew. Second, it's your skills that you should never tell anyone. But why did I say that your decision was good?"
"Look at it like this, they tried to protect you by letting you stay inside the car, that shows that they don't want you to be in danger."
"Even when they knew that they would be exposed if they used their skill, but they still used it to fight, protecting you in the process and not caring about the consequences."
"You can see it right there that they chose to stay with you over hiding their skills. They fought and risked their lives when they could easily run away, leaving you to die as they didn't know you're an Awakened.
"From all of that, we can see that we're lucky to have great friends like them. They won't leave you to save themselves. Not a lot of Awakened would risk their lives for someone who they thought was a normal person."
"The best move you did was when you saved Layla and used your skill in front of them as it showed that you're not scared and also willing to save them when they're in danger."
"There will be severe repercussions if you didn't use your skill at that time. Imagine in the future when they knew you had a skill all along. They won't feel safe around you, knowing that you were ready to let them die to keep your skill a secret."
Max's eyes went wide realizing that he was close to potentially destroying their future relationship, internally applauded his unintentional ingenious success.
Of course, there's a possibility that Max didn't have a skill at that time, but with no proof, they will have some doubts about him in their minds.
"This is crazy. If Layla didn't fall for me even a tiny bit, then I don't know what to do anymore!"
"What? There's no way that would happen. A lot of people were asking her out at school, but through the years, no one was successful. You're dreaming if you think it's that easy."
"Hey, I'm just joking, but she must have felt grateful for that no?"
Yu'er rolled her eyes, making fun of him. Max didn't bother with her continuing,
"Okay, back to what I wanted to ask. Would you admit that you're an Awakened too?'
"If they asked, I will."
"Why?"
"Because in time, they will know about it. I can't have them think of me as a liar."
"What if they asked about your skill?"
"They won't. Well, you've seen their skills and even with that, if you asked them about their skills, they wouldn't tell you."
"Oh actually, they might tell you something like Lydia has a Lightning Skill, but they will never tell you about the specifics, how it works, and how strong it is."
"Many Awakeneds are known to have a strong skill by others, but not a lot of people would say that they know exactly how their skill works as no one was stupid enough to share it with others."
"There might be families or groups out there that share their skills among each other. Though that's a different story as they trust each other, the same with us."
"Also, other Awakeneds understand why they were doing that, as they know the importance of keeping their skill a secret and asking someone's skill would be like asking someone their weakness to blackmail them."
"Naturally, that's not going to work, at the same time, knowing too much might be troublesome for them."
"If an Awakened you know got in trouble, there's a chance that you might be implicated by it, so there are Awakeneds who chose to distance themselves from others."
Max is an idiot, at least his sister has some brains
Yea :D
Blob Neutral
Do you also carry 4 spare wheels with you?
Exactly my thoughts. And why he just didn’t use time reversal to return wheels to pre-damaged condition? Well, maybe Layla simply expecting some attacks during ride so she carry spare wheels, spare engine, spare transmission, spare fuel tank and so on