-”Look! It’s the freak!”

-”You’re right!”

I’d already gotten used to the insult by now. In fact, I could probably scare those kids off by just glaring a bit at them. However, the teachers would definitely hound on me for apparently “misusing my Magic eyes of Fear,” so it wasn’t worth the trouble. Thus, I kept my eyes glued to the ground.

By the way, me acquiring this Magic eye at the age of five was exactly the reason why my eyes turned dull gray instead of blue…not that I really cared, though.

What I did care about was the snowballs that the kids were throwing at me. Seriously, were they stupid enough to not use rocks? 

Oh, it looked like I jinxed myself. One of them did use a rock, and it hit me right in the head. I felt dizzy…and a little bit hurt. And I could feel a drop of blood running down my forehead. So, I decided to just plop down to the soft snowy ground. Maybe it would shield me from t—

Nope, it didn’t. The snowballs and occasional rocks kept coming my way. This was another reason why today sucked. The bullying normally wasn’t as bad as this, but I could still endure it.

Suddenly, I could feel several seconds of snowballs not hitting me. Frowning and opening my eyes, I saw a familiar brown-haired figure towering over me.

“Raun…”

“Well, isn’t this just a bad day for you, Ast?”

I sighed and slowly got up while dusting the snow off my clothes. I then looked straight into Raun’s brown eyes and said,

“Thanks for chasing them away.”

“It’s nothing.” He shrugged. Then, he lightly jabbed me in the shoulder. “Come on, if you keep staring at me like that, I might think that you’ve fallen in love with me.”

“Like hell I will!”

It would make sense if I’d fallen in love with him. After all, he was the only one not really affected by my uncontrollable Eyes of Fear, and he was the only one that standed up for me in school. In fact, I had to admit that I had a little crush on him when I first met him.

But now, he was no more than a friend to me. The reason?

“Are you sure you still want to build a harem, Raun?”

Yeah, I wasn’t into that. 

Raun looked at me weirdly for a bit before nodding.

“I am. A true man dreams of having a harem!”

“Well, we’ll see how well it goes when you confess to Amelia.”

Suddenly, Raun stopped and turned around to face me. Placing both of his hand on my shoulder, he pushed me against a wall with an annoying smirk on his face.

No, he wasn’t doing anything indecent.

“Would you like to make a bet?”

“On what?”

“On whether Amelia accepts my confession or not.”

“Hah, of course I will bet on something I’ll surely win!”

“We’ll see about that.” 

Then, I reached into my pocket and took out a twenty-Lumen note. 

Similarly, Raun took out twenty Lumens and handed it to me.

“You’d better keep it safe,” he said. “I’ll come collect it very soon.”

“As if!”

Then, we continued our journey into the school.

I spotted Amelia as soon as Raun and I entered the school’s courtyard.

She had brown hair, much like Raun’s; but her eyes were green. Ummm…uhhh…she had a nice personality? Kind and caring and uhhh…fuck this, I didn’t know enough about her to say anything. All I knew was that I envied her beauty.

Anyways, since I shouldn’t do anything but observe, I dived into a nearby bush and watched as Amelia approached a still-confused Raun.

I darted my eyes around, scanning for any potential douchbags that aimed to ruin Raun’s confession. Luckily, everyone present opted to stay put and watch the situation. Even the boys that admired Amelia didn’t dare to do anything because it was Raun who was confessing to Amelia.

Amelia had arrived before Raun, and they were now within arm’s length of each other. It was time for the main event. 

“What did you call me here for, Raun?” Amelia asked with her usual kindness.

Unlike his confident self, Raun was shaking a little. Heh, one thing memorized to tease him later.

“A-Amelia, I-I-I like you.”

“...”

“W-Would you l-like to be my g-girlfriend?”

‘Ah, he said it!’

Even though I was watching from a distance, I couldn’t help but feel nervous for him. Watching Amelia slowly opening her mouth, I involuntarily gulped in anticipation.

“I’d love to. Please take care of me.”

Total silence,

That was what ensued after Amelia gave Raun her answer.

The silence was only broken several seconds later by the painful cries of the boys from afar; with the happy cheers of the girls following soon after. 

After all, apart from the obvious Raun x Amelia ship that the girls had in their minds, the fact that one pretty girl was out of the competition was a good thing.

Then, it was my turn to recover from my shock. At first, I was happy for him. However, my face soon darkened as realization sank in.

‘Amelia accepted. T-That means…!’

MY MONEY! NO! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN THE BET!

Not just that, my plan of getting teasing materials was completely ruined!

.

.

.

.

I had to hand Raun his money back along with mine. And, I had to endure him making fun of me in class for ever doubting the success of his confession.

Yet another bad thing to add to this shitty day.

After school ended, I parted way with Raun…and Amelia, now, I guessed. Apparently, they were going on a date right after school. I didn’t want to be the third-wheel, so I decided to go home.

I stood outside of my house and twisted the door knob, only to find out that it was locked.

‘Strange…’

Luckily, I always had the key with me, so I could unlock the door. Then, I went into the house, only to be met with deathly silence.

I checked everywhere; living room, kitchen, and even upstairs. But Mom was nowhere to be seen.

However, I just brushed it off with a shrug.

‘She’s probably buying groceries or something.’

With everything happening today, from waking up too early, getting bullied harder than usual, to losing twenty whole Lumens, I was getting pretty tired.

So, I went into my room and fell asleep.

.

.

.

.

I woke up and immediately checked my alarm clock out of habit. Only two hours had passed.

As I was about to fall asleep again, I realized something.

‘I’m so fucking stupid!’

It was the first of November—my birthday! No wonder I couldn’t find Mom! She probably went out to buy my some gifts!

As if confirming my thoughts, I heard some scuffle downstairs. That meant Mom was home!
I excitedly jumped out of my bed, ran down the stairs and opened the door to the dining room hastily. 

However…

“W-What? M-Mom?”

…I was met with a traumatic sight that rendered me speechless. There she was, my mother, sitting on a chair. I could see the dried tears on her cheeks. A metal pipe was embedded in her throat, with blood occasionally spurting out of its hollowed core.

I immediately ran up to her and checked her breathing.

“She’s still alive!”

It wasn’t too late! I quickly ran toward the cabinet, frantically trying to find the high-grade Recovery potion Mom always kept for emergencies. It would definitely sav—

<ᚱᛖᚹᛁᚾᛞᛁᛜ ᛏᛁᛗᛖ... ᛈᚱᛟᛊᛏᛟᚱ ᛊᛖᚾᛞᛊ ᛁᛟᚢ ᚺᛁᛊ ᚱᛖᚷᚨᚱᛞᛊ>

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|Ah, failed again. Now that I know what went wrong, things will really be different next time. See you soon, Monarch of the Storms.|

 

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<7ᚦ ᚱᛖᚷᚱᛖᛊᛊᛟᚾ ᛊᛏᚨᚱᛏ>

I excitedly jumped out of my bed, ran down the stairs and opened the door to the dining room hastily. 

However…

“W-What? M-Mom?”

…I was met with a traumatic sight that rendered me speechless. Mom…wasn’t there. Instead, the sound I heard was produced by a stray cat that entered the kitchen somehow. I wanted to pet it, but it ran away immediately upon noticing me.

Just as I was about to go upstairs to sleep again, I realized that there was something on the table.

“A piece of paper?”

I picked it up and inspected the first line. Yep, definitely Mom’s handwriting. 

It started out innocent enough, but as I read further and further, things got more…absurd.

“W-What’s all this?”

Abandoning me? What was all this about leaving me in the care of her friend?! WHAT?

N-No, this couldn’t be true! I read the letter a second time, a third time, and even a fourth time to make sure that I wasn’t reading wrong. On my fifth read, an excruciatingly painful headache assaulted me.

The pain was so great that I fell to the floor and clutched my head in pain. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the paper falling onto the floor; the word “I LOVE YOU, ALWAYS” strangely becoming clearer and clearer as my vision slowly turned dark.

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.

 

It was dark…

There wasn't anything around but eternal darkness.

In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d woken up, or this was just inside my own mind.

Just as I was questioning my sanity, a figure appeared before me. I physically recoiled and took a step back and looked at the figure, only to find Marcela’s face staring back at me.

I tried calling out to her, but no sound came out of my mouth.

In fact…I was now entirely paralyzed. Thus, I could only watch as Marcela moved closer to me and put both of her hands on my head.

Almost immediately, I started feeling very drowsy. 

That was to be expected, I thought. After all, I fainted and even hallucinated meeting my dead grandmother.

‘Looks like I’m going unconscious for real this time.’

Just as I was about to close my eyes and allow the bliss of sleep to overtake me, a voice that shook the entirety of my being rang out.

|Scram.|

One simple word was all it took for my drowsiness to vanish into the void.

I darted my eyes confusedly and eventually looked at Marcela, fully expecting her to be the one that had spoken the powerful word. 

However, all I saw was her body shaking in absolute fear before bursting into a million fragments of light.

Then, the powerful voice rang out once more; this time with a slightly annoyed tone.

|Got here just in time. You gotta thank your mommy for this one, blasphemous bastard.|

Before I could respond to the voice, a flood of information suddenly flowed into my brain.

"Wh- What?", I clutched my head with both of my hands like a madwoman. "Novels? Artoria? Wh- What's all this!?"

I'm confused... wh... what? No, NO! STOP! I'M GOING INSANE—