Mind Reader – β

[Dictatelion]

After a particular encounter, Wren finds out he became able to read minds. With information being synonymous with power in the modern world, he is now almighty.
...Right?

*************

This story is completely unrelated to Mind Reader - α. Check the tags!

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 1 – Atypical Encounter

The automatic doors opened with a slight ringing sound. The employee manning the place glanced at me for a second before going back to observe the rest of the convenience store. He has been working here for quite a while and we recognized each other. This was the extent of our relationship.

As I came in, I managed to guess the reason he was so idle. Except for me, only a few people were going around the shelves. I swiftly found what I was looking for and headed for the cash register. My hands held various snacks which I intended to consume during the day. Today was the last day of summer vacation and school was set to start on the following morning. I was planning to spend my last few moments of freedom enjoying my favorite activity: playing games while snacking.

One of the other customers had reached the cash register before me. I recognized a soulmate when I saw one. This black-haired girl seemed to be around my age and had her hands full of Caramelt, an old brand of caramel-based candy that was still quite popular even to this day. I wasn't too fond of it but I knew quite a few people who loved it.

My instincts told me that this girl had similar plans to mine for the day. She put all her loot on the cash register without a word, and the employee winced. He counted them one by one and input the result into the machine before announcing the price. The girl paid without a word and left the store. It was now my turn. I put my three snacks down.

"These three, please."

He scanned them one by one and announced the price.

"$6.27."

I paid and after another basic exchange, I was out of the shop. Even though my grandparents had generously gifted me a lot of pocket money on new year's Eve, I already didn't have much left. I often told myself to save enough to last until the following year but my resolutions always fell apart in front of sweet temptations. Just like today.

The convenience store was only a few minutes away from home, deserving its title of being convenient, at least to me. When I was right under the apartment building where my family was living, I suddenly felt extremely dizzy. This was a weird feeling, the sort where you lose your sense of up, down, left, and right.

Dazed, I tried avoiding falling on the ground and this pushed me to take steps in a random direction. This was a mistake because I hit my head extremely hard on something and my vision went white. I couldn't avoid falling to the ground this time but, with the dizziness still ongoing, I wasn't sure if I was lying on my back or my belly. The pain in my forehead assaulted me.

"Owwwww!"

It hurt, and it hurt a lot, too. I put my hands to my head and rolled on the floor in pain for a long time. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain abated enough that I could start thinking again. The dizziness was gone too and I realized I was on the floor on my back.

I looked around to see I bumped my head into a street lamp. Did I just have the worst sort of encounter one can have with a street lamp? Plus, it was the one I had seen so many times in the past since it was right next to the entrance to where I lived.

I stood up and cursed my bad luck. At least, the street was currently empty and my pathetic display hadn't been witnessed by anyone. Or so I wished. I heard someone laugh hard above my head and noticed my sister at the window of our apartment. The window was opened and she was looking down at me, chuckling so hard she had to hold her belly with one hand. Why was it that little sisters had this ability to always be at the worse place at the worse possible timing?

("What a moron! He bumped his head into the street lamp so hard he was down for a whole minute!")

I wasn't going to let this go without a fight. Sure, I did something stupid, but that didn't mean she could mock me like this. I shouted to her.

"What did you say, you pest? Wait until I'm home!"

She stopped laughing for a second before resuming even stronger than previously.

"Hahahaha! I didn't say anything, stupid! You looked so dumb crashing into the street lamp like this!"

I gnashed my teeth, picked up the bag of snacks I had let go of when I fell, and hurried up to our apartment, furious. When I reached home, my mother reading a book while was sitting on the living room sofa. And of course, my little sister was hiding behind her, sticking her tongue out at me.

No matter how angry I was, I knew there was nothing I could do in this situation. My little sister Elodie was three years younger than me and was the apple of the eyes of my parents. On the other hand, I was just a dirty boy. The power relationship in our family was decided the very moment our parents learned of her gender while she was still in our mother's belly. This was my sad fate.

That didn't stop me from looking at her with all the anger I could muster. My mother turned toward me with a frown.

("What's wrong with this kid again? What did he do this time?")

Her words annoyed me even further. It was as if she implied it was automatically my fault. And what was with the third-person pronoun when I was right in front of her?

"What do you mean by that, Mom? It's all her fault!"

My mother looked startled.

"Uh… What? I didn't say anything, though?"

("Is there something wrong with him for real? Now that I look at him, he's got a bump on the head. Did he crash into a wall or something?")

'Huh?'

It was at this moment I recognized that something felt a little wrong.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 2 – Understanding the Change

'Mom talked… while talking?'

I looked at my mother as if she was a ghost. I wasn't aware she could do that!

'How did she manage to hide it for so long? Wait. How is it possible to do that in the first place?'

"Are you okay, Wren? Why are you looking at me like that?"

("What's the number for the mental hospital?")

She was doing it again. There was no doubt anymore.

"How are you doing this, Mom?"

"Doing what?"

"You know, talking about two different things at the same time."

"What? What do you mean?"

("I lost my son today. I hope they'll take good care of him when he's there.")

'What's with your obsession with mental hospitals? Do you want to get rid of your son that much?'

Right now, I wasn't sure about anything anymore. Was she acting? Or was I the crazy one? At this point, my little sister intervened.

"Hey, stop that! You're creeping us out!"

("You're already creepy enough as it is! No need to add more on top of it!")

'She's doing it too! Alright, either my whole family has supernatural powers or I'm going insane. Speaking of which, I hit my head hard just before. Should I listen to Mom and go to the mental hospital? Can't I go to the normal hospital first?'

The situation wasn't going well so I opted for a tactical retreat. In these cases, it was good to act fast.

"Bye!"

Before they could react, I ran to the front door, opened it, and exited the apartment. Soon enough, I was back to my newly made friend, the street lamp. Everything was its fault, I assumed, which pushed me to stare at my friend angrily. I wanted to give it a good kick but I stopped myself. I knew by experience that it was much stronger than me. I didn't stand a chance in a straight fight.

After one last disdainful glance, I snorted and walked away. I needed some time to understand what was happening to me. Or to others. I didn't know.

After a bit more walking, a passerby came my way from the other direction. He was a man and didn't pay any attention to me. I would normally do the same, except that he was talking to himself quite loudly.

("After shopping for groceries, I need to buy a present for my nephew. After that, go to the bank. Oh, wait, today's Sunday. Banks are closed. Darn it.")

It was already strange that he would talk about his plans for the day out loud but that wasn't the strangest part.

'I wasn't dreaming, right? His lips didn't move when he was talking!'

He quickly went past me and I couldn't confirm it for sure. That incertitude didn't last too long. The next person I passed by, a woman, was also talking about what she thought about her new boyfriend. And her lips didn't move either. After a few more tests on other people, I couldn't deny it anymore.

I was the weird one and not the others. And if my guess was correct, their "talks" looked very much like their thoughts. My being able to hear their thoughts meant that… I became a mind reader.

For a long time, I was dumbfounded by the revelation.

'How did that happen? Was it when I hit my head on the street lamp? Or perhaps the weird dizziness that happened right before? How is it possible to get such power just like that?'

However, no matter how many questions I asked myself, no one would be able to answer. Unless I met another mind reader. I found a bench on the street I was on and sat there to think about my situation. No matter how I thought about it, I had no idea how this happened. First, I had to calm down and find out what to do next.

While I sat, many people passed by me. And for most of them, I was able to hear their thoughts. After a few minutes and when the realization that this was really happening set in, my first idea was that I had to try more things. I needed to get a better understanding of this ability before I could conclude on it.

Since I was already in a good spot with a lot of test subjects around, I stayed in place and attempted this and that. Fortunately, I still had my bag of snacks in hand. I spent a long time on the bench while sometimes also walking around for some specific things I wanted to try. In the end, I realized a lot.

I was confident I was able to hear anyone's thoughts. Whenever I couldn't hear someone's thoughts, it was because they weren't thinking about anything at that moment. I made sure of this by following a few silent people until a thought came to their minds.

But that wasn't all. If I focused on someone, I was able to go deeper. Much deeper, in fact, so much so that it was scary. I could read someone's memories and thoughts related to those memories. Basically, I could read someone's whole life. I was able to know everything about any single person, perhaps even better than they could because I wasn't limited by memory loss issues. Or selective memories, memories embellishments, and any of those things.

One piece of bad news was that I didn't manage to learn how to turn this power off. It wasn't all that bad, though. After trying a lot of different things, I figured out I could change the range of my power at will. Reducing the range to zero was almost the same as turning it off. As for when I tested extending my range, I soon regretted it. The thoughts overload almost fried my brain. I was surrounded by buildings full of people and hearing hundreds of people's thoughts at the same time wasn't pleasant in the least.

After some more tries, I also managed to extend it in a single direction if I wanted to. I had no doubt this might come in handy at some point.

Now that I had a better understanding of this power, the truth of my situation hit me. If I could read minds and even memories, who would be able to stop me? Don't people say that information is power? I now had access to an infinite amount of information. I was all-powerful.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 3 – Beginner's Mistake

I stayed a little longer, mostly to get used to my ability some more. I believed it was important to be able to use my power as smoothly as possible. In addition, I wanted to get better at reading people's memories. Receiving a full life's worth of information was no small feat and it initially took me a long time to make sense of it. I planned to reduce this delay as much as possible, to the point where I could get a quick overview of everything in a few seconds. After a couple of hours more, I was partially successful. The trick was to trade speed against useless details, to skim over unimportant information.

Speaking of information, people's thoughts were a lot less interesting than one could expect. At least in the context of walking in the street, most folks only had mundane things in mind. It was mostly about their plans for their current course of action, complaints about this or that, random idle thoughts about any subject, and the weather. It wasn't a joke when rumor said that the weather was the most talked about topic in the world. People also thought about it all the time, after all.

("Darn it, I'm so late. Should I get a taxi?")

("Alex is so sweet. I can't wait for our next date.")

("I don't want to go to work tomorrow.")

("This girl is cute.")

("Nice weather today.")

I was now much more confident in handling my ability. This gave me global confidence in myself too. Wouldn't human relationships become a breeze with such power? There was no need to be afraid of anyone, not even my parents, and especially not my sister. On top of that, I might even be able to find a girl who liked me and get a girlfriend!

Contented, I returned home. It was now evening and I felt very hungry. Due to receiving this unexpected blessing and testing it, I had only eaten the few snacks I had on hand since breakfast. When I was in front of my building, I extended my mind in the direction of my house. Soon enough, I knew what we would have for dinner by checking my mother's thoughts: grilled chicken and fries. Not bad. I had only gotten this power today but I already loved how useful it was.

My father was home when I entered the apartment. He was reading the news on a tablet in the living room. Just like me, my whole family was brown-haired and brown-eyed. My mother was usually a nice person, even though I didn't feel it that much myself. By my estimate, 90% of that gentleness had gone toward my little sister. My father and I shared the remaining 10% but even that wasn't evenly distributed. He would get 9% while I received 1%, on the good days. It wasn't that she didn't like me, though. She just didn't care too much about my affairs and focused on more important things, in her opinion.

My father was a strict person. He had no tolerance for nonsense and had educated us strongly. Or should I say, he had educated me strongly. As soon as he noticed I behaved barely acceptably according to his measurements, he adopted the same attitude my mother had toward me.

My little sister wasn't stupid and she understood early on where we all stood in our household. She usually behaved nicely in front of my parents, who doted on her in return. Behind their backs, she wasn't nearly as gentle. And this only got worse when she felt our parents' disinterest in me.

It was this little family group that gathered when dinner was ready. My mother served the meal and chatted with my sister for the rest of the time. My father was mostly silent during meals. He didn't mind other people chatting but didn't imitate them unless there was a good reason for it. As for me, I quietly ate my food without a word. Talking was pointless. The best reaction I had gotten from my parents in the last few years was their small surprise when I told them I was admitted to the best high school in the neighborhood, a few months ago. This lasted for about a minute and everything went back to normal after that. Congratulations? Compliments? Those only existed in my imagination.

Anyway, this was the perfect time to try my newfound ability. First of all, their surface thoughts were what I expected. My mother and my sister thought about what they were talking about, mainly the new school year that would start on the following day. My father wasn't that different. Even though he didn't talk, he was still listening to the conversation and his mind mainly revolved around that, with some occasional random thoughts about work.

Next was the deeper levels. I inhaled mentally and dived right in, starting with my parents. I was very curious about what I would find.

And this is where I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life and realized one of the downsides of my power. I learned things that I… really didn't want to know. Some of the things were so unexpected that I looked at my parents like they were strangers. Some others were just absolutely weird.

'My father did what? And my mother… Oh my gosh. What the hell? Are they for real?'

At this moment, I knew I would never be able to see them the same way as before. I uncovered facts that I should never have known. And now, I regretted it. Learning all of this wouldn't change anything but I wouldn't be able to forget about it. I gained nothing and lost a lot.

I now knew I should avoid reading the memories of the people close to me. The knowledge forced me to change my opinion about them, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. Of course, they did those things so they weren't blameless. But now, it felt like I shared their dirty secrets which made me feel bad in turn.

I changed my mind. Mind reading was awesome, but only on the correct targets. I trembled thinking about what I could learn about my grandparents if my parents were like this.

No, never again. Not on someone close to me.

 

[xThomas3]

Hahahaha, dis he not expect that?

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 4 – Back to School

It was good that no one was paying attention to me or they would have noticed me trembling and sweating. It goes without saying that I didn't "scan" my sister's memories. Who knows what sort of things I would find this time? Let the people close to me keep their dirty secrets.

As soon as dinner ended, I did the dishes and went back to my room. I needed some time to digest the day's events. To think my normal self would suddenly get such an overwhelming ability. And who would have thought this power had such a downside? I winced once more at the information I discovered today.

I needed to change my mind for a while. I booted my computer and played some games for an hour or so. But soon, I felt I was getting distracted. With my mind wandering, I let my power expand slowly in all directions.

My little sister was chatting with her friends on social media. My father was watching the TV but only kept part of his attention on it. My mother was sitting next to him, the same book as previously in her hands. Her main focus was reading but she still kept a part of her attention on the TV and my father. All this only took me a few seconds to find out.

My field of reception grew further and I reached the apartments around ours.

("I'm already sleepy. Time to get to bed, then.")

This was an old lady living under us.

("Nothing interesting on TV. Let's watch a series.")

This was a young man residing next to our place.

("How long is she going to use the toilet for? I'm going to leak here!")

That one was from one of the siblings from the family situated right above us. Just like that, my range extended leisurely. After experimenting during the day, I knew I could handle a few tens of people at the same time. This was fortunate because I would be surrounded by a lot of people at school from tomorrow on. On top of that, I could focus on one person specifically if I wanted. I would still hear the others but they would become something like background noise.

I reached an apartment situated at the other end of the building, diagonally from my current position. This one seemed to be rented by a young couple and I had "arrived" right at the perfect time. I now realized one more advantage of this power. It was the perfect tool for voyeurism.

We all took care of our businesses and a long time later, I finally got sleepy. I decided to go to bed. For the first time in my life, I was slightly looking forward to going to school. With mind-reading powers, there was no doubt I would fare much better than usual. Tests also would never be an issue for me, not like I needed to cheat much anyway. I was a decent student.

Monday. The thoughts of the many people around me woke me up. I was sure I reduced my range to zero before going to sleep. I would need some time to get used to it, probably. It was still early but I was a little excited to go to school and meet my new environment. Plus, I was finally in high school. Goodbye, kids who were barely better than snotty brats. Like my sister.

Since I had a lot of time, I chose to play some games before going to school. I became engrossed in it and when I checked the time, I almost swore. I would be late if I didn't hurry now. I took a quick shower, ate a few pieces of bread from breakfast, put on some clean clothes, and sped toward school. My family didn't force the children to attend breakfast, even though there would still be things to eat on the table.

Fortunately, my school wasn't that far, fifteen minutes on foot. It was yet another reason why I wanted to get admitted there. The other options were much farther and I would have needed to use another means of transport. The only downside was that I was the only one who managed to get admitted here out of my friends. I would need to make new friends from my class. It probably wouldn't be too difficult considering my power.

I reached the place soon after, just in time not to be considered late. This school only consisted of an enormous building, probably because it was close to the town center. As such, there wasn't a campus or anything similar. You were either in the building or out of school. The building itself was both large and tall. It had five stories with the three first each dedicated to a school grade. The other two were for special classes, like art and science, as well as for the library and teacher offices.

I already received an email from the school indicating that I was assigned to class 4, the fourth class among freshmen. It was also on the first floor, where all freshmen classrooms were located. I soon reached it. The door was still open, indicating I wasn't late.

I sighed in relief and entered. It was already almost full of students, leaving me only one seat. It was the second seat from the window in the last row, not a very good one, unfortunately. I didn't mind too much. Seats weren't assigned to specific people and I could always change the next day.

Now seated, I took time to look at my classmates. At first view, there wasn't anyone that looked particularly extraordinary, except a couple of attractive girls. The gender ratio seemed to be equal. The only noticeable aspect was that we weren't that many people in the class. Around twenty-plus or something?

On my left, next to the window, was a black-haired girl that looked like she didn't know why she was there. On my right sat a black-haired boy who was frowning quite heavily.

The homeroom teacher entered the classroom at this moment. He was a blond-haired man and looked like he was in his thirties. He looked at us like we were bugs and spoke.

"My name is Cas Reiziger. I'll be your homeroom and math teacher for the year. Anyone who doesn't behave will get immediately punished. I'll explain the school system during the next hour so listen well."

He started to talk about things I already knew after this. I didn't have any other thoughts about him except he gave a bad first impression. What a shame. He didn't look like someone who wanted to be here in the first place.

Anyway, it was now time for the interesting part. I wanted to scan all my classmates to get a good understanding of them for the future. I glanced at the girl on my left and began with her.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 5 – Charming Classmates

'…Huh? What?'

The result couldn't have been more unexpected. Just to be sure, I checked her one more time but it was still the same.

'How is that even possible?'

I watched her again. In appearance, she was as normal as one could be. Long black hair, black eyes, skinny. No one would pay her any particular attention if she were to walk on the streets. Her dress looked a bit old-fashioned, perhaps? But with new fads, it was hard to say what was normal or not. The only thing that was special about her was that she still looked as lost as before.

I had a hard time believing what I learned. Still, it wasn't like staring at her would give me any answers. For now, I focused on the next classmate. After a few seconds, I received another shock.

'Oh my gosh! What in the hell even?'

This one was even worse than the previous girl. I scanned another one and it was something incredible again. I was now trembling, both in fear and incomprehension. What was happening here?

As if in a trance, I went through the next classmate, and the next, and again. As time passed, I felt my mind going blank. I didn't know what took over me at that moment but I continued to scan all of them, including the homeroom teacher.

When I was done, I felt like my brain short-circuited. Hard.

'O|*+#$_@*{%)#8~=}$%&???!!!'

I stood up and shouted with all my strength.

"O|*+#$_@*{%)#8~=}$%&???!!!"

I ran toward the door, opened it, and sprinted toward the building's exit as quickly as my legs permitted. When I was outside, I continued to run at full speed in the direction of home. My mind was still completely blank, a veil of terror obscuring any of my thoughts. I only had one goal. Take refuge as far as possible from my school. I ran and ran, not looking at anything and just going forward.

I quickly reached home. My legs were burning from the effort but I didn't care. I climbed the building's stairs until I was in front of my apartment door. I struggled with the keys but finally managed to open the door. I entered, slammed the door behind me, and took refuge under my bed's comforter.

I rolled myself into a ball, shivering in the dark for an unknown amount of time. My mind was scarred, recalling the horrors I witnessed in a loop.

'What the hell? What the hell? What the hell, seriously!? What's wrong with these freaks? Why are they here? Why do they even exist at all? What's wrong with this world!?'

My panic had reached enormous levels and it took me an extremely long time to barely manage to stop trembling like a newborn.

A normal person might come across one of the sordid hidden truths of this world during their lifetime if they were unlucky. However, in the few minutes that I used to scan my classmates, I reached more than twenty of these, all more insane and terrible than the previous ones.

'Why me? What did I do to get myself into this situation? I'm just a normal person, unlike them! Why did I end up mixed with them? Why?'

Like, what the heck was a World Destroyer? A being that enjoyed a planet for 500 years and destroyed it afterward? And that thing was on its 497th year on Earth? We were all doomed to die in three years?

And that was just one of them! My thoughts were going round and round, half in terror, half cursing my situation. I lost track of time.

After that, I slowly, very slowly, stabilized my mind as best as I could. There was only one thing I could do in this situation. If I didn't want to die, I would have to transfer to another school. A school as far as possible from this town. Actually, I should move to another country. Even better, to another planet.

It was then I heard the front door open. I took my phone out to check the time. It was already late afternoon and I could sense that it was my father who was back from work. My father was the one I needed to convince if I wanted to change school. It wouldn't be easy but I had no other choice if I wanted to escape a sad fate.

I finally exited my comforter. Once I got up, I went to the living room. My father had already taken his usual spot on the sofa and was using his tablet to read some sort of article. I went to him, revolved to persuade him no matter what.

"Dad."

He didn't even glance at me and just hummed.

"Hm."

"Dad, um, can I transfer to another school?"

"What?"

He looked up at me and frowned.

("What's wrong with him? Uh? Why is he shivering?")

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. I want to change schools. Please."

"Right from the first day? Why?"

This was a tricky question. I couldn't tell him the truth because he would never believe me. He would ask my mother to put me in a mental hospital just like she dreamed of.

"Because… Because my classmates aren't normal. They're dangerous."

"Dangerous? In that school? How?"

I had no choice but to lie a little.

"I heard them talking about killing people. Please, Dad, they're really dangerous! Let me transfer to another school!"

If it was only to this level, it would be paradise. Unfortunately, the truth was so unrealistic it wasn't even worth considering talking about it.

("What nonsense.")

He sighed.

"Stop talking nonsense. Go away now."

"No! It's the truth! Please, believe me, Dad!"

"I said no. Stop insisting."

"You don't want something to happen to me, right? Please, Dad!"

His frown deepened.

("It seems it's been too long since I disciplined him last. If he begs me even one more time, he won't be able to go to school but for a different reason.")

So much for parental love! I didn't know if I should love or hate my power in this situation. I was now stuck in front of him, not sure about what to do. I wanted to continue begging him but I knew very well that his mental threat wasn't a joke. He would really do it.

Eventually, I had no choice but to execute a tactical retreat in front of a stronger force.

'Darn it! I just need not go to school! What can he even do in that case? It's not like he can take me there by force!'

'…He can't, right?'

 

[cyrix22]

The suspense is killing me...
What are the thoughts of the parents?!?
What's wrong with his classmates?!?

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 6 – That Girl

I returned to my refuge under the comforter.

'Why can't he understand? This is a matter of life and death! I'm his only son, okay? Can't he trust me once in his life?'

Once again, I grumbled and despaired at my situation. My only comfort was the darkness under the sheets. Here, I was safe. Well, not really considering what I learned today. But it was still safer than outside of it. Some more time passed with me being depressed. Right now, I was by far the unluckiest person on the planet, no doubt about it.

'It's all those guys' fault! Why did they have to appear in my class? Like that psycho! And that freak! And that… whatever the hell it is! And that one too! And even that girl…'

'…'

'Ah…'

'That girl.'

My brain received a new shock of a completely different type. I left the comfort of my hiding place to sit on the bed.

'That girl…'

If I was the unluckiest person on the planet, then what about her? I knew about her. Everything.

Her situation couldn't even be compared to mine. She was far, very far, less lucky than me. If my luck was 0 due to my current terrible situation, hers would be around -100. No, luck was an insult to what she had gone through. She had seen and experienced the worst of the worst.

And the problem was… I was the only one who knew about it. No, even that wasn't completely true. But that didn't matter. If left alone, that girl would most probably die soon.

What should I do? Should I let her die when I could easily save her? Any normal person would answer no to this question. The only problem was that she was probably still at school. And I didn't want to go back there.

'Ugh, what now. It's late, right? All those freaks probably left already. There should be no risk… perhaps. Come on, Wren. You know the risk is more global than immediate anyway.'

And that was true. If not, would everyone in class have been sitting and listening to the teacher naturally? Well, naturally was perhaps an exaggeration, but at least most of them had no intention to initiate a bloody massacre in class. For the very immediate future.

Some more time passed and I tried to convince myself. In the end, knowing that the girl's situation was very unstable forced me to move. She could be dead by tomorrow, or even in the next hour, for what I knew.

I exited my room and checked the circumstances in the apartment. Elodie was in her room, my father was still on the sofa, and my mother was preparing dinner in the kitchen. I decided to simply leave the place. Indifference applied both ways, after all. No one would care if I left home at this time of the day. My sister would immediately be stopped by my parents if she tried to do this but I was free to move as I wished. Both my mother and father noticed me leaving the apartment but neither said anything about it.

I headed back to school, still very unwillingly. It was hard to forget what I learned just a few hours ago. That girl should be grateful to me for doing this for her.

'Not really. If anything, I should apologize to her in humanity's name. Poor girl.'

I wasn't someone to be empathetic with or pity others that much and I believed most people were the same. I had "read" a lot of folks' memories and people's normal tragedies felt bad, but that was it. However, that girl's past was just on another level.

After a while, I was in front of the school. I hesitated once more but there was no point in delaying this any further. I entered the premises.

It was late afternoon and school wasn't closed yet. One of the good things about being in high school compared to middle school was that entry was free for students. One could enter and leave school as one wished. All consequences of attending or missing classes would be on the student and not on the school.

The building was quite deserted at this time of the day. A minute later, I was in front of my classroom. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. My power told me it was safe but I couldn't help trembling internally. When I was ready, I crossed the threshold and looked inside.

There she was, sitting on her seat as if she hadn't moved all day. She was surprised to see me and stared at me warily. I had to be prudent here. The last thing I wanted was for her to take me for someone suspicious.

("He's… the crazy boy who ran away while shouting something incomprehensible in the morning.")

'Alright, let's forget about not being suspicious and look at things positively. She does remember me. Great.'

I entered the room completely and went to sit as far away from her as possible. I didn't want her to feel threatened in any way. I then watched her from that position. She was mostly expressionless except for the small amount of wariness she exerted toward me. Even this was only shown as a very slight frown, almost unnoticeable. I boosted my courage before starting the conversation.

'Okay, I can do this.'

"Hi. I'm Wren. I'm the one who was sitting next to you in the morning."

She looked at me without saying or thinking anything. I deliberately didn't talk anymore, waiting for the right opportunity. However, no matter how long I waited, it never came.

"I, uh, actually, I would like to offer my help."

Her frown deepened.

("I shouldn't trust people who say that.")

'I know why she reacts like this but what else can I say? It's the truth, after all.'

Some more time passed and I was left with no other choice than to just go for it.

"Listen. First, let me tell you I'm not responsible for your current situation. But I do happen to know a little bit about it. Everything must feel very foreign, right?"

Her wariness level reached a maximum and transformed into anger.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 7 – The Advantage of Knowledge

("So, he's the one responsible for all of this?")

Her piercing look now blamed me for everything.

'I just told you it wasn't me! Darn, this is so hard. I'm so bad at talking and convincing other people.'

"Don't look at me like this. I swear it wasn't me."

I tried to speak calmly to not make her even angrier. For the first time since I entered the classroom, she opened her mouth. Her voice was soft, not in a gentle way but giving a tired-of-everything kind of feeling.

"Why do you know about me if it's not you?"

She had a heavy accent which would be hard for anyone apart from me to pinpoint where it was coming from.

'What should I answer in this case? I don't want to reveal my only advantage in life. I can only be evasive.'

"Do you remember when I got scared and left the class this morning? Well, one of the reasons was because I found out about you."

"So, how?"

"I… can't tell you that, sorry."

("So untrustful.")

There was another pause in our discussion. I tried hard to find a way to persuade her. She was in a very unstable mental state and I was only adding to it, unfortunately.

'Fine. I just need to use what I know about her. Let's focus on the positive side of things.'

"But you know, isn't it a good thing? That you're here, I mean."

Her frown deepened once more.

("A good thing? I'm alone in this strange place. I don't understand anything, I don't know anyone and I don't have any money. How's that good?")

I raised my hands palms facing her to calm her down and explained.

"What I mean is that, in this place, no one will force you to do what you don't want to. You won't need to do what you did before. You're completely free."

("Free? Free… Maybe so. No one bothered me the whole day and I was allowed to move as I wished. But what is freedom without any means to live? I'll just end in the same situation as before.")

"You don't know anything."

"I do. That's why I'm here. I want to help you until you can find a way to live by yourself."

"Why would you do that?"

("No one does anything for free in this world.")

Now was the crucial part. I didn't think telling her I felt pity for her would be convincing enough. After a second, I came up with a plausible idea.

"Actually, you were just one of the reasons why I ran away this morning. I can't tell you the details but this class has a lot of dangerous people. Ah, do you know where we are?"

"…A school?"

"Right. And this is our classroom. We're supposed to study here for the next year, five days out of seven every week."

I knew by checking her memories that she had been called by name when the teachers had taken attendance during the day. As weird as it sounded, she was part of this class. This whole farce felt like someone was manipulating events from the shadows. However, what kind of being would be able to manipulate the freaks that were in this class? I trembled just thinking about it.

She nodded very slightly. She was in such an incredible situation that something that small couldn't bother her anymore.

"In exchange for helping you, I'd like you to be my ally during this year."

("Hmm. Is that true? He could be lying. Men are all untrustworthy. Not that women are any better.")

I stayed silent. There was no point in talking anymore for now.

("Should I just end it all? I'm so tired of everything.")

Her thoughts had suddenly taken a very steep dive. This is precisely what I feared the most and why I came here in such a hurry.

"I live with my family! There's my father, my mother, and my little sister. They'll never let me touch you in any way! I want you to live with us for some time until you get your bearings in this town. I swear I'm not lying. I'm also taking a risk by letting a stranger live with my family, see?"

This was a bit of an exaggeration. I knew she would never harm anyone. Still, convincing her was more important. Failure meant death, after all. Perhaps for me too. Any ally I would have in this class would be a great boon toward my survival. That was the truth.

She was lost in her mind for some time and I followed her thought process. On the one hand, life had been extremely hard on her. Her only hope was a vague promise of freedom in the future. Every day, she was thinking of ending her life. On the other hand, if there was one thing she trusted about her current situation, it was that she had gotten the freedom she so much wanted. However, she had gone from being provided with all necessities but having no freedom to having absolute freedom without any means to provide for herself. On top of that, she knew nothing about her current situation, this world, and almost anything and everything around her.

("What's the worst that can happen to me? Going back to my previous situation? Then it would be as if nothing changed. I could try to go on my own but how long would I last in this foreign place? In that case, should I follow him and see what happens?")

The last thing that convinced her was that she was a little curious about this world. Since the start of the day, she had seen many things that intrigued her. At the very least, she thought she could get me to teach her about this world.

"Fine. I'll follow you."

I smiled, relieved. It was hard but I had done it.

"Good. That's good. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Wren Tamtri. It's nice to meet you."

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 8 – Strategizing

I wasn't stupid enough to go for a handshake. She wouldn't understand the gesture, anyway. Even now, I was careful not to get too close to her.

"…I'm Aginaci."

I smiled at her and concluded our discussion.

"Let's go now. It's not too far from here, we can go on foot."

("Does that mean he possesses another means of transport? Does he own a horse? Is his family rich enough for that?")

Since she was sitting next to the window in the classroom, she had seen cars driving around but she hadn't realized that those were means of transportation.

Before leaving, I remembered to fetch my bag next to my seat. I had cowardly abandoned it when I escaped from the place in the morning and now was the perfect time to get it back.

We exited the building and went to the streets, me in front and her a few meters behind. It was her safety distance in case she needed to escape from me.

It was now early September and the temperature was still warm enough at this time of the day. I only had a T-shirt while she wore a light dress but we weren't cold at all.

Now that our destination was settled, I thought it might be a good idea to explain a few things to her. I rotated to walk sideways so I could talk to her while still going forward.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your head right now. I'll try to teach you as best as I can but first of all, I need to tell you about our next move."

She slowed down and looked at me warily once again.

("Didn't he say we were going to his home? Did he trick me?")

'I hate being so bad with words.'

"What I mean is that my parents don't know about you and they don't expect you either. I just want to warn you that I'll need to convince them about letting you stay at our place."

She stopped frowning, nodded, and resumed walking.

"And so, how good are you at convincing strangers?"

("If I was good at it, would I have found myself in my previous situation?")

"…Terrible."

"…Yeah, thought so. I'm also terrible at it. It sucks."

I sighed and she looked slightly worried. I could only give her a most pathetic grin.

"Well, I'll try my best. If it doesn't work, we'll find another solution. Something. Yeah. Okay, anyway, can you try to look pitiful in front of them? That might help a bit."

"Yes."

("I don't even need to fake it…")

"Great. And about your reason for staying with us. Hmm… Well… Let me think for a second."

("What's a second?")

'…I have a lot to teach, I see.'

I wondered how to explain the circumstances to my family.

'What does a guy say when he wants a girl to stay at his parent's home for a few days? Wait, does that situation even happen at all?'

'Hey Dad, Mom. Can you let this total stranger girl live in our apartment for a few days? Hahaha. No, it's not a joke. The door? Okay.'

This is how I envisioned my very near future. I needed a good idea. What could convince them to allow this to happen? Explain that something bad happened to her? That she had nowhere else to go? That she got into trouble with her family? All of these might work, maybe. Or maybe not.

Then, I suddenly had an interesting idea. Perhaps, I could transform a previous defeat into victory. I just needed to be strong. What was the worst that could happen? I was already close to death by being part of my current class. Being sent to the streets together with Aginaci was nothing in comparison.

When my thoughts became clear, I explained my idea to her. We then agreed that she would keep quiet unless she needed to talk. She was too out of sync with this world. She was bound to say something strange at some point. If my parents found her weird, that would lower our chances even more.

We were still some minutes away from our destination and I decided to start satisfying her curiosity.

"Alright. You must have a lot of questions. Ask away. I'll try to answer as best as I can."

For the first time, an emotion other than distrust or anger appeared on her face. She looked at me with slight curiosity.

"Where are we?"

Even though this question was vague, I knew what she meant.

"It might be hard for you to believe but you're still in the same place."

"What? What do you mean?"

"You didn't move much physically. You moved in terms of time. It's hard for me to say how much exactly but something between 500 to 1000 years into the future?"

She stopped moving to glare at me like I was crazy. However, she also couldn't immediately deny it. When she woke up in the morning, she had been sitting in her seat in the classroom. She had panicked hard at the impossible-to-understand situation. For a long time, she even thought she was dreaming. Her usual environment was completely gone, everything around her was foreign, and she didn't recognize anything.

And then, the first few other students had started to enter the classroom and she didn't dare to move until lunchtime. She didn't recognize any other person either. She believed she had gone insane due to her lengthy suffering. Even more so when her name was called by the teachers.

However, no one cared much about her. She still felt pain normally when she tried pinching her arm and someone was teaching the other young people things in front of her. Even though she didn't understand much of the content, she realized that she probably wasn't crazy. For some reason, she had moved to this foreign place. Her thoughts continued to rotate for the rest of the day and she wasn't sure what to do in her situation. And that was when I came to meet her.

I waited for her reminiscence to finish and made my move. It wasn't too hard to prove my words. I took her picture using my smartphone and showed it to her. She moved back when I turned the screen in her direction but I didn't stop what I was doing.

"Look at this. It'll help you understand."

She slowly approached me and checked the screen. A mix of surprise and curiosity flashed in her eyes.

"This is… me? What does that mean? How's that possible?"

"It's proof that this is the future. This thing I have in hand is a tool that can do many things. And one of them is to instantly make a painting of someone or something. Interesting, right?"

Her mouth was now opened wide in wonder. For the first time since I saw her, she looked like her actual age.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 9 – Surprise Present

I gave her a few moments before adding.

"It'll take you a long time to get used to the current world. I'll try to help as best as I can."

She eventually closed her mouth and nodded. However, she couldn't stop from following up on the topic.

"How's something like this possible?"

("How does it work?")

I was hoping she would go with the classic "Is this magic?" question but she didn't. What a shame. Less than a day in modern times and she was already breaking tropes. I felt great potential in her.

"That's a very good question. Unfortunately, with your current knowledge, you wouldn't understand the answer. Hmm, do you know about windmills?"

I knew the answer but I still had to ask. This was to be my fate from now on if I didn't want to reveal my power. Windmills were one of the most advanced pieces of technology in her time as far as I could tell.

"Yes."

"You can think of this tool as something a lot more complicated than that. Like, a lot more. Next, do you see this?"

I pointed to a car parked on the street.

"This is what we use instead of wagons and carriages. We call those cars. People go inside and drive the cars from there."

She had another look of wonder on her face. If I had to say, this was a bit funny. I continued to teach her this and that as we got close to our destination. A few minutes later and we were there.

"This is the building where my family lives."

("His family owns all of this? Is he rich, as expected?")

"My parents own one of the apartments inside the building. Let's go."

Just before entering the building, I turned my head toward the streets and watched the scenery.

'Those psychos are probably doing insane stuff all over the place, right? Damn them.'

I sighed and took the stairs home. I had more pressing issues for the moment. In front of the door, I marked a pause to look at Aginaci.

"Ready?"

She nodded. I took a deep breath and opened the door. My mother, who liked cooking, was still in the kitchen, making the last preparations for dinner. My father was in the living room, his back to us. I closed the door after Aginaci. I chose to go with the easier target first and headed to the kitchen.

"Mom."

She turned in our direction and was surprised to see the unknown girl.

"Who's this?"

"She's a classmate, Aginaci. Mom, she ran into trouble today. Can she stay at our place for some time until her situation stabilizes?"

("My son found himself a girlfriend on the first day of school? There's no way, right?")

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No."

"Why would you take someone who's not your girlfriend home?"

"Isn't it normal to help someone in need?"

("Yeah, right. Is he interested in her? Hmm, should I help him with his crush?")

"It depends. What sort of trouble?"

"Her parents are away because they're on a mission abroad. She got assaulted by some people in our class and she's too afraid to stay alone."

("I can tell he's lying.")

My mother turned to Aginaci.

"Is that true?"

She nodded obediently, trying to look sad. She was doing a decent job at it. Even I felt like I wanted to comfort her when she looked like this.

"Hmm… Ask your father."

I knew it would turn out like this. It was her typical answer when she couldn't be bothered to make an important decision. It was now time to confront the true boss. We went to the living room to stand next to my sitting father, who was watching the TV.

"Dad."

He turned in our direction and was startled to see the unknown girl.

"Who's this?"

"She's a classmate, Aginaci. Dad, she ran into trouble today. Can she stay at our place for some time until her situation stabilizes?"

("There's no way he made a girlfriend on his first day of school, especially after begging me to transfer to another school so much.")

"What's your relationship with her?"

"She's a classmate."

"You want a girl that you know from today to stay here?"

"Yes. We must help each other when in need, right?"

("Not in the real world, kid.")

"No way. Who would let a stranger stay at their place for no reason?"

"There's a reason. Her parents are away because they're on a mission abroad. She got assaulted by some people in our class and she's too afraid to stay alone."

("Bullshit. I can tell he's lying.")

'I swear I need to take some acting classes or something.'

Just like my mother, he asked Aginaci.

"Is that true?"

She nodded and I could feel her doing her best to look dejected. I might ask her to teach me her trick in the future. Even my father frowned at her appearance. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to convince him.

"Anyway, that's a no. She'll have to find something else. Or call the police."

'There's no police in this world that would move based on those circumstances.'

I didn't want to have to use my trump card, if possible, but he left with no other choice.

"Isn't this your fault, Dad?"

"What?"

As a no-nonsense person, he was relatively quick to get angry when provoked. I tried my best to keep looking at his ferocious expression and continued with all the courage I could muster.

"I told you there were some dangerous people in my class but you completely ignored me. Now you have proof that I wasn't lying. This is your mistake. Take responsibility for it!"

All my life, he had told me to take responsibility for my actions. I was now using his logic against him. He was strict and insensitive but wasn't a hypocrite.

("Is that how a son is supposed to talk to his father? He's in serious need of some reeducation!")

I saw his level of anger increase instead.

'Uh-oh.'

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 10 – The Power of Silence

"Responsibility? What does a brat like you know about responsibility?"

Even though I was terrified, I shouldn't let him gain any more momentum.

"I only know what you taught me. One should always take responsibility for one's action."

"You little…"

I wanted to run away right this instant. However, it wasn't so bad when thinking about it. He was scary but that was nothing in comparison to the people in my class. Or so I tried to self-hypnotize myself with.

The most important part was to look confident and never break eye contact. I crossed my arms on my chest and stayed silent. My message my clear. I was right and he was wrong.

("Heh. Look at him, trying to look good in front of the girl. So young.")

For some reason, he lost his anger and even smiled a little.

'How long has it been since he smiled at me?'

("Guess I didn't completely fail his education. He barely looks like a man like this.")

'What?! Was this what he had been expecting of me for so many years? Argh! So much suffering just for this? Why didn't he just tell me? Why couldn't I get this mind-reading power earlier? I wouldn't have needed to endure so much pain!'

His grin didn't last long. His face went back to normal soon after and he uttered.

"Fine. Five days. No more."

My mood made a full 180 degrees shift.

'I did it! I can't believe it but I did it! I won an argument with my father for the first time in my life! What a day!'

I turned around to rejoice with Aginaci but we were interrupted by the loud noise of my sister slamming her door open with a bang.

"Are you serious, Dad? Yes! Hey, your name is Aginaci? What's your relationship with my brother? What happened at school? Come chat with me!"

Just like a tornado, she took Aginaci to her room and closed the door with another bang. No one was able to react to the event, not even Aginaci herself. My father and I looked at each other with a weird look before he turned back to the TV as if nothing had happened.

Since my sister would never let me in her room, I had no other choice but to go to mine.

'Good luck, Aginaci.'

I laid down on my bed and finally relaxed. One good thing done. Five days weren't a lot but it was better than nothing. In the meanwhile, we could think of another solution. Plus, if my family liked her, she might be able to stay longer.

Ten minutes later, my mother called everyone for dinner. We all gathered at the table, Aginaci included. My father was sitting at one end of the table and my mother was at the other end. One could think that my father had the dominant position in the family but that wasn't the case. My parents were equal and each specialized in different things. My mother liked cooking so she handled meals for the family. On the other hand, she hated shopping for groceries so my father would do it. And the same was true for tasks around the house. But the most important factor was my mother's character. She was usually mild but became terrifying when upset. That was why we all were careful not to anger her if possible, including my father.

Today's dinner was doner kebab. My mother's cooking variety was amazing and she even prepared this sort of food from time to time. Aginaci was seated next to me and was looking at the bread, meat, mixed salad, and sauce with both an expectant and hesitant look.

("Is that meat? Are they rich enough to afford this? Or is this normal here? And such a nice-looking bread. It smells so good.")

She was almost salivating at the view. She hadn't eaten anything all day long, after all. I made eye contact with her and showed her how to prepare her doner. I took one of the pieces of bread and put some meat, salad, and sauce on it. I then rolled it and closed the extremities. She looked at what I was doing but hesitated some more. When I smiled at her encouragingly, she finally went for it. She imitated me clumsily until she had her doner in hand.

I took a bite of mine and she did the same. It tasted as good as always. The bread was warm and soft, the meat was spiced perfectly while the mixed salad and sauce enhanced the global taste. My mother was such a great cook. When I glanced at Aginaci, her eyes were opened wide, drops of tears running down her cheeks.

("This is… food? This is… This is… I don't know. It's just… otherworldly. How can food taste like this?")

I couldn't blame her. She had only eaten meat a few times in her life. Plus, it wasn't anything comparable to this. It was just hard meat that needed to be cut into small pieces and would be added in tiny quantities into large stews. The rest of the time, she was happy when she could eat some hard bread. During the worse periods, she even had to starve many days in a row.

Unfortunately, my little sister only saw her crying next to me.

"Hey, Wren! Why did you make her cry? What's wrong with you?!"

"I didn't do anything! She's just happy to eat because she didn't eat anything all day. Right?"

Aginaci went out of her reverie and rescued me by acquiescing. I sighed in relief, happy to finally have an ally in this place. My little sister wasn't so jolly with this development and resumed eating with a slight pout.

For normal meals, my mother and sister would chat during the whole thing. However, they had a new target today. My mother was the first to open the conversation.

"You're Aginaci, right? So, what happened at school?"

Because the story came from me, she would have a hard time answering these sorts of questions. As expected, she sent me a look that asked for help. I had no choice but to intervene.

"It's a bit painful for her to talk about it so I'll do it."

If you like the story, please consider supporting the author as well as reading 100+ chapters ahead over many series, with 30 chapters ahead just for this story https://subscribestar.adult/dictatelion

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 11 – Common Sense

"Be quiet, Wren. I'm not talking to you. I'm asking her."

This was my mother and sister's usual way of bullying me. However, I was a different person after winning an argument against my father. Well, not really. The only thing that mattered here was that Aginaci was on my side. I turned her way to confirm it.

"Aginaci, do you want to answer her question?"

She shook her head.

"See? Are you going to force her to talk after what she has gone through?"

"But I want to thank you for allowing me to stay here. Thank you, I'm very grateful."

My mother smiled widely.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. Make yourself at home. How's the food?"

'She's acting as if she was the one who allowed her to stay here. How shameless.'

This was yet another typical attitude from her. In her mind, her family's accomplishments were her accomplishments. It was simply obvious.

"I've never eaten anything as good as this. It's incredibly delicious."

"Oh my! How nice of you to say this."

("What a sweet girl. At least Wren has good taste.")

Elodie couldn't bear to stay silent any further and was the one who fired a question next.

"Hey, what should we do after dinner? What do you do in your free time? What are your hobbies?"

"Uhm…"

("What are hobbies?")

She looked at me again, not knowing how to answer correctly. This was also how their short time together before dinner had gone. Elodie had asked a ton of questions and Aginaci had tried her best to answer her and not say anything weird. I had to intervene again.

"Don't ask so many questions at the same time. Oh right, can you teach her how to take a shower after this? She's from a very retired part of the countryside and she doesn't know much about modern stuff."

"Really? In this day and age? Are there still people living like this?"

My sister might be able to believe it but my parents weren't fools.

("Even in the most obscured parts of the country, people still have running water, electricity, and even possibly internet access. Why is he lying like this?")

("Is that the backstory these kids came up with? But why?")

"Yeah. So, can you do it, please? You don't want me to be the one to show her, right?"

"Of course not! Fine, I'll do it. We can take a shower together after eating. Is that fine with you, Aginaci?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Sure!"

One more good thing accomplished. Even though my parents didn't believe my story, it didn't matter. Now, it wouldn't look so weird even if she didn't have much common sense about modern appliances.

"Also, she only has these clothes on her. Can you share some with her for a few days?"

"Clothes? Hmm…"

("I'm not so sure about sharing my clothes with someone else.")

"I don't think my clothes would fit her…"

My mother interceded.

"I can lend you some of mine if you don't mind wearing clothes from someone my age."

"No, of course not. Thank you again."

"Don't mind it, this is nothing. Come to my room after showering. I'll get you some pajamas for the night too."

("This family is treating me better than I expected even though I'm just a stranger and a sudden burden on them.")

'It's all because you're a girl. On top of that, your sad look is working wonders. You're polite and nice too. If you continue like this, my parents might adopt you.'

Of course, this was a joke. I knew this would never happen, even if I explained her exact circumstances to my family. They were nice because she would only be here for a short while and had no reason to be mean to her.

The rest of the meal went on like this, with my mother and sister trying to learn more about Aginaci. I was helping her whenever she had trouble answering. When we were done, the two young girls went to take a shower while I cleared the table and did the dishes. It took them quite a while to finish and they immediately entered my mother's room when they were done. I used this time to take a shower too.

Another long time passed and Aginaci came out wearing one of my mother's pajamas. She was carrying a bunch of clothes in her arms and was being followed by the two other females.

"We don't have an extra bed for you so you'll have to sleep on the sofa. I'll give you a blanket so you're not cold during the night."

My little sister couldn't help adding.

"Wren, you better not go to the living room during the night. Aginaci, if he tries anything, just shout and we'll throw him out of the house."

'So, you're going to keep the stranger girl and throw away your brother? I'm always feeling so loved at home.'

"I won't. Aginaci, we've got a lot of things to talk about. You can put the clothes on the sofa for now."

"Hey, I was first. Let's chat some more in my room, okay?"

Aginaci was yet again unsure of what to do.

"There's a lot of things we need to decide about her future. You can talk to her later. Let's go, Aginaci."

"Hey!"

Aginaci knew this was more important and followed me into my room.

("Darn it, Wren. You'll pay for this.")

I could only sigh inside at my sister's vindicating personality. It wasn't that bad, though. She would soon forget about it, like usual.

I closed the door behind us. I had time to think about our next steps while she was busy with my mother and my sister. As weird as it might be, Aginaci seemed to be registered at school. As such, the best way forward was for her to graduate and make a living on her own after that.

The first step in that direction was to teach her contemporary common sense. The problem was that we were in a hurry. I also wasn't confident in my teaching. I didn't know how well I could explain things like how a computer or a car worked if she asked.

However, there was a magical shortcut to fix all these issues in one go.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 12 – Practical Teaching Method

But first, I had to confirm her will. Here, it was important to put her in a comfortable position. I sat in the chair in front of my desk and pointed at the bed.

"You can sit here."

When she was ready, I continued.

"Let's talk about the future. I don't want to force you to do anything so I'll ask first. What do you want to do?"

("Even if you ask me, I have no idea.")

She shook her head.

"I don't know. I don't know enough about this place, this… time."

("Ah, but there's one thing that I want. I want to earn enough money to eat something delicious like before.")

"But the food was delicious. What's it called?"

"Doner kebab. Doner is the shape that you make with the bread and kebab is the mix of meats that you put inside."

"Doner kebab…"

("I want to eat it again.")

'It's not expensive. We can get it again whenever we want. There are a few kebab places around and some are decent enough.'

"So, since you're not sure, how about you better understand the world first? Are you willing to learn?"

"Yes. Are you going to teach me?"

"Well, not exactly."

She suddenly looked saddened.

("He doesn't want to teach me? He must have his own things to do. It's a bit of a shame.")

"You see, I'm not super confident that I can teach you well. We also don't have that much time. In the worst case, you'll need to have basic common sense in less than five days."

She nodded.

"Are you going to ask someone else to teach me?"

"In a way. To be exact, I'm going to teach you how to teach yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see. You can read and write, right?"

"A little."

She was being slightly modest. I know she could read just fine. Her writing might be lacking due to a lack of practice but that wouldn't matter too much for now. I booted the computer and explained.

"This machine here is a computer. Ah, a machine is what we call a complex tool. You can consider this one as… um, something that can answer all your questions."

("Answer all my questions? Is that even possible? What if I ask something that only I know?"

'She's sharp.'

"Is that really possible? How does it work?"

"That's a very good question. You see, I don't want to teach you because I think my explanations for these sorts of questions would confuse you. But for now, you can just think of this machine as a sort of book with a lot of knowledge. You can ask it a question and you'll get lots of answers. I want to teach you how to use it so that you can learn by yourself. This will be much more efficient and it'll also explain everything a lot better than I ever could."

("I should try not to be surprised by everything from now on. Perhaps I should think that anything and everything is possible.")

"I'll try to learn."

"Good. It's not complicated once you get it. Don't feel overwhelmed."

I opened a browser window and went to a search engine. I beckoned her to come closer.

"This part here is the screen. It's just here to show things to you. This one is the keyboard. You use it to write words and sentences. And this is the mouse. You use it to select things on the screen. Let me show you how it works. Try to think of a question."

("A question? Hmm…")

"…What's my name?"

This wasn't the sort of thing that people usually searched for but it didn't matter. I typed her question exactly as it was while showing her the process.

("I see. Each small part corresponds to a letter and if you press it, it shows up on the screen.")

'That's… extremely brilliant of her. Is she much smarter than I thought? Is it because she never had the opportunity to show it before in her life?'

One might think she pointed out the obvious but it wasn't like this. Everything was completely foreign to her and she didn't even have the most basic common sense about the modern world. Instantly making the connection between peripherals like this was quite impressive.

"When you're done typing the question, you press this button or click here with the mouse. And here we are. Look at all these answers to your question. You can click on any of these to get more details about them."

In our case, we received many songs called "What's My Name?". It wasn't the best example so I showed her a few more times with different questions. It worked best when searching for specific words and I explained this to her.

"Whenever there's a word you don't understand, search for it. This way, you'll progressively learn everything. How is it? Do you think you can do it?"

("This is incredible. I have no idea how it works but it really does. How amazing.")

"Let me try."

I gave her my seat and she typed a question, one letter at a time, taking a long time to find where each letter was on the keyboard. This wasn't a problem. Everyone started like this and she would get used to it soon enough. When she finished, she tried to move the mouse and the pointer went wild on the screen. After some more time, she finally managed to click on the search button.

And there we were, success. She clicked on one of the results and avidly read what was written. After that, I showed her how to go back to the search page and she made another query. And another one. And one more. And again. She was glued to the screen, fascinated but all the knowledge she had access to.

When I saw she was handling herself without any problem, I concluded.

"Great. Call me if you run into any problem."

"Hmm."

She barely hummed as an answer, too focused on what she was doing. It seemed my plan was a good idea. She was now pretty much able to learn anything by herself. I left her to her task and lay down on the bed. I had many other problems to think about.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 13 – Unnecessary Interruption

There were many topics I had to ponder about but one of them took absolute priority over the rest. It was about how to survive. Now that Aginaci was with me, I couldn't abandon her to her fate by letting her go to school alone. She needed to graduate to have a chance in this world. And this also applied to me. Since I used the school card to get Aginaci to stay with us, my father wouldn't tolerate any nonsense from me ever again on this topic.

Most of my new classmates were dangerous, on different levels. Aginaci and I were only easy prey for them. Fortunately, not everything was hopeless. While it was true that they were dangerous, some of them weren't evil. This made me think of a possibility. In the heat of the moment, I previously blurted that I wanted Aginaci to be my ally. Now that I wasn't under so much stress, this seemed like a pretty good idea. What if I applied this concept to some of my classmates?

'If I can get a few strong classmates as my friends, they could serve as bodyguards for me and Aginaci. Brilliant.'

It was bad to think of future friends like this but beggars couldn't be choosers. I also had the incredible advantage of knowing everything about them. I thought this would be doable.

Speaking of knowledge, another idea came to mind. What if I used their knowledge to get stronger? Some of them weren't freaks from the start and became strong progressively. I could do the same, using the fact I knew what they had done.

However, there were two issues with this solution. One, it would take some time for me to get any results. And two, I shouldn't get caught by them. If they noticed that someone was doing something they weren't supposed to, it would be hard to guess how they would react. In the worst case, it could be a direct game over.

My thinking was interrupted by Elodie's thoughts, right in front of the door.

("Why is it so quiet in there? What could they be doing? No way, could it be…!")

I sighed in advance at the incoming headache. A fraction of a second later, she barged into the room, the door opening with another bang. Slamming doors was one of her many special skills and she proved it once again at this instant.

"You can't do this sort of stuff in here!"

I wasn't surprised by her intrusion but that wasn't the case for Aginaci. The poor girl jumped so hard that she almost fell from the chair. My sister looked around the room and let out a very dumb noise.

"Huh?"

There was obviously nothing happening that she expected. I was still lying down on the bed and Aginaci was on the computer. We were far enough from one another that there could be no misunderstanding, no matter how one tried to push it.

"Hey! Look at how you startled Aginaci! You almost gave her a heart attack! What do you think you're doing?"

It was the perfect opportunity to get back at her for once. She still looked dumbfounded for a while and blushed a little.

"N-no, I thought you two were…"

"We were what?"

"Ugh…"

"I know what you're thinking about. You're such a pervert."

"What? You're the pervert! I know what you have on your computer!"

"S-so what? Look at your dirty mind, trespassing into my room and scaring the hell out of Aginaci. You should apologize to her!"

"I…"

("Maybe I was a little wrong here.")

'Yeah, not just a little.'

She turned toward Aginaci.

"Sorry…"

"It's fine…"

"Alright, get out now."

"Wait. You're letting her use your computer?"

("Even though you hate it so much when I use it?")

"Yeah. So what?"

("Wow. Does he like her so much? Didn't he only meet her today? Was it love at first sight?")

"Huh… Let me stay here too."

'Why is it that little sisters never let their brother in their room but still consider his room as an extension of theirs?'

"Not even in your dreams. Get out, you and your dirty thoughts."

("I can't believe he's treating me like this in front of her! Who does he think he is?")

"Oh yeah? You'll pay for this!"

She scrambled out without forgetting to slam the door real good on the way out. Even my mother got angry at her this time.

"Stop slamming doors, Elodie!"

Not that the storm passed, I faced Aginaci.

"Sorry about this. She's at that age."

She shook her head.

"It's fine."

("I can see she's doted on a lot by her family. How envious. If only I had a fraction of this back then…")

We looked at each other for another moment until she continued.

"I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

"Why are you doing all of this for me? Why are you helping me?"

("What do you want in exchange? Is it my body?")

That was a bit more than one question but it was natural for her to ponder these things.

"Do you want the raw truth or the embellished truth?"

"The raw truth."

("Better to know now and regret it than getting trapped later. He could still be lying too, anyway."

"In that case… The raw truth is that I took pity on you. After what happened today, I thought I was the most unfortunate person on the planet. But then I thought about you and I felt silly. You were in a much worse situation than mine. So yes. There's nothing beautiful about this. I just took pity on someone in a worse situation than mine."

("Pity? I've been pitied a few times in my life but there's still a long way between cheap pity and moving to help a stranger.")

"That can't be all, right? Even if you did pity me, would you go out of your way to do all of this for me? Please, tell me the truth."

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 14 – Late Evening

'The truth, huh? I don't want to reveal my power. Then, let's go with that. It's fine even if she doubts me.'

"Sigh, well, if you insist. I knew that you were close to taking your own life and I didn't have the heart to let it happen. You can say that life is slightly more valuable these days than during your time. Also, if I didn't do anything, I would remember that I let you die for the rest of my life, even though it wasn't so hard to help you. Is that answer good enough for you?"

It wasn't correct to say life wasn't valuable during her time. To be more precise, it depended on the circumstances. Newborns weren't truly considered alive until after they reached a certain age because stillbirths, neonatal deaths, and newborn deathly diseases were so common. In the same manner, provincial lords would draft peasants and serfs in high numbers and grind them against other drafted peasants in horrific wars. In these two cases, life was indeed very cheap.

On the other hand, skilled serfs were extremely valuable to small lords and nobles. This was because their income depended mostly on these people. That was why serfs were usually forbidden from leaving their birth territory. Most of the people in those times lived all their lives in the same place. Losing even a few skilled serfs due to a disease or any other sort of incident was a big loss for these lords. Any smart small noble took care of the people under him since they were his lifeblood. In a way, it was the same concept as companies did with their employees in the modern world.

("He didn't want me to die? But then, why does he know all of this, including my what I was thinking about? He was only sitting next to me for a few minutes in the morning.")

"Why do you know all of this? This is weird."

("Or is it normal in this future world? I don't know.")

"You're right. But I can't tell you about this. Everyone has a secret they want to keep to themselves, right?"

'Except that no one can keep their secrets from me. Well, that's just how it is. I'll use what I must if that allows me to survive. I'm already in a weak enough position as it is.'

Aginaci frowned, unsatisfied by my answer.

"I can only say this. I don't want to harm you. I don't want anything from you except one thing, and that's for you to be on my side. That's all. Now, you're free to believe me or not. It's all up to you."

("If he's telling the truth, I'm being rude to someone who helped me. But I shouldn't let my guard down. I've had enough of being betrayed.")

"…Fine. I still owe you my gratitude. Thank you for what you did today."

("Even if it's just for the "doner kebab", it was worth it.")

'I guess I'll have to treat her to it again soon. But, my finances…'

"You're welcome. Now, I think you still have a lot to learn. I also need to think some more."

She nodded and went back to the screen, entering a new search.

'Now, where was I? Oh right, finding a way to grow stronger without alerting these people. Hmm. What if I get them to teach me? I can make them my friends and turn the discussion in that direction. Maybe.'

I would need to think about it some more. The last thing I, or more exactly we, had to worry about was what to do after five days passed. Taking the worst scenario where Aginaci would need to leave, what then? We couldn't throw her to the streets.

In the best scenario, she would have a place to live. That means renting something, which implies a lot of money. Perhaps not that much if she got something small and cheap but still much more than whatever remaining money I possessed. Plus, she would need money for other expenses, like food, clothes, water, electricity, and so on.

So, it was all about money in the end. The most money I had ever gotten my hands on was the salary from a small summer job to repair a house. It had only lasted a few days and I had gotten less than a hundred bucks. With school and my other plans going on, there was no way I or Aginaci could do this.

Was there an easy way for a mind reader to earn money? I thought about it for a long time but no good ideas came to mind. I even took my phone out to search the internet for more inspiration. There were a few topics about people talking about what they would do if they got my ability. On the money side, some said that playing money games would be the easiest way. Some others said that scamming people would be even more effective. There were a few opinions about trying stocks while having insider knowledge. None of that was appealing or realistic to me, a simple high schooler.

During the rest of the evening, I spent my time thinking about all these issues while Aginaci was glued to the computer. Eventually, it got late enough that we had to get to sleep if we wanted to be able to wake up tomorrow.

There was a blanket on top of the living room sofa, probably prepared by my mother. I made sure Aginaci was comfortable enough and went back to sleep in my room. Until the end, Aginaci wondered if I was going to ask her to sleep with me. She was more bewildered than relieved when I didn't do anything. However, with everything that happened during the day, she was quite tired. I soon noticed she fell asleep when her thoughts became blank. I wasn't in a much better state. Not too long after, I followed her in the dream world, or more probably, the nightmare world.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 15 – New Day

I woke up with a start, breathing hard. I could still feel and hear the many ways I perished in my nightmares. With so many lethal people in class, there were way too many different manners for me to meet my end, each more original than the last. My body was drenched in cold sweat and felt very unpleasant.

After calming down a little, I scanned the apartment to find out that everyone else was sleeping. Checking the time, it was still 5 a.m. I wanted to take a shower and clean the sweat but knew that it was a bad idea. Not only passing through the living room right now would be prone to misunderstandings, but basic communal lives in apartments also dictated that waking the whole family by having a shower so early in the morning wasn't the best way to begin a pleasant day.

I had no choice but to wait until later. I passed the time by idly playing on my phone. Around one hour and a half later, the rest of the household woke up one by one. I exited my room to check on Aginaci. Her long hair was a mess and she looked sleepy. Still, her expression was a lot more relaxed than yesterday.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yes. It was very warm and comfortable."

("Is it how the lords sleep? And it wasn't even a normal bed.")

She eyed my bed from the door's opening.

"That's good."

I smiled and went to the bathroom to take another shower since the sweat felt gross.

("He's bathing two times per day? How extravagant. I was lucky when I could find enough clean water to rub myself clean every other day. I need to learn more about what's normal here.")

This made me stop and turn back to her.

"We still have some time before we need to go to school. Let me boot the computer for you."

She nodded happily and I headed back to the bathroom when she was settled. After I was done a few minutes later, I had to ask her to leave the room for a moment while I put on some clothes.

("He doesn't like his body to be seen? How strange.")

Some more time after this, Elodie rushed into my room. She remembered me throwing her out the previous day and had a vengeful expression on but came to a stop when she saw Aginaci.

"Oh my gosh, your hair! You can't go to school like this! Come, I'll brush it for you."

She took her without even considering she could receive a no. After that, I could hear them in my sister's room, with her commenting about Aginaci.

"Your hair is too dry! What conditioner do you use? You must take better care of it."

"You're too skinny! Are you even eating correctly? You need some more flesh on your bones to emphasize your forms."

"Your skin is too rough! What moisturizer are you using?"

"This is terrible! What were you even thinking about? Sigh, come, I'll do it for you."

Instead of staying in the room, they also went to the bathroom. There, they took a shower and Elodie applied all her care products on Aginaci. The poor girl was completely helpless against my energetic sister and she barely managed to get a word out here and there through the whole process. As for my sister, she enjoyed herself quite a lot. She felt like she had gotten a sister, or perhaps a human-sized doll. Both were a lot more interesting than a brother, that was for sure.

The result wasn't bad, though. After some more hair brushing, both girls looked clean and neat. Aginaci's long hair was now straightened on her back, a little glossier than before. Even her complexion looked healthier. It was no wonder women spent fortunes on these products.

We ate breakfast with the whole family plus one guest. She enjoyed everything that entered her mouth and ended up overeating. With yesterday's food and today's breakfast, she wasn't used to eating so much. Her stomach was an organ that was ready to handle starvation at any time and wasn't used to process so much intake. The result was that she got a stomach ache after the meal. My mother gave her some medicine and she was put to rest on the sofa for a few minutes.

Fortunately, she got better soon enough. She put on some clothes from my mother while her previous attire went to the laundry. She was even handed a bag and some school supplies. We were now ready to go. It was time to try and survive one more day in the classroom of hell.

After fifteen minutes of walking, we were there. I was still very apprehensive about the place, especially because I knew the other students would be there. My only comfort was Aginaci's presence.

'I don't think I could do this without you, Aginaci. Please give me strength.'

We entered our classroom and more than half of the other residents were already present. Most of them stared at me weirdly when they recognized me.

("That's the crazy guy from yesterday. I wonder if he sensed anything about me to panic that much.")

("Oh, he's back. What's he going to show us today, I wonder.")

("Trash.")

("Did I fail to restrain my aura yesterday? Or he is more perceptive than most?")

("Did he come together with that girl?")

As expected, opinions about me varied a lot. Quite a few of them were worried that I understood something about them.

'Sorry, freaks. It's not just something. It's everything.'

Maybe I shouldn't think about them so generally, however. A few of them weren't bad people and were the ones I wanted to become friends with. I should organize them into separate categories.

'Deadly, deadly, very deadly, one shot kill, high scale danger, absolute annihilation, very deadly, deadly. Well, okay. For the current me, it's all the same. Getting on the bad side of most of these people means death. The only difference is how much of the surroundings goes away together with me.'

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 16 – Making Friends

Our seats at the back from the day before were available and we sat there. This position was good. Aginaci only had me as a neighbor and the two of us could see everyone else. One by one, the other students arrived. One minute before the bell rang, a teacher came in and started class.

One could think I would be called out for rushing out of class and not coming back yesterday. Not in this case. I knew that our homeroom teacher couldn't care less about what I did and would never go out of his way to do anything about it. That was how passionate he was about his job.

During the lesson, I scanned the history teacher and found out that he was a normal person. When I extended my power all over the building, everyone was completely normal. The only exceptions were the members of this class and our homeroom teacher. This was obviously not a coincidence.

'But who could do something like this? Are they having fun watching me almost pissing my pants every second that goes by?'

Some of the teenagers in this class had a valid reason to be there. However, some others could have been anywhere else. Whoever it was that arranged this insanity, I definitely didn't want to meet them in this life.

Because the teacher was normal, the content of the class was also very standard. The first trimester would be about the industrial revolution and I could see Aginaci listening to him with voracious attention. This was still skipping a lot from the Middle Ages she lived in but it explained content that was highly important to understand the modern world. It would be beneficial to her to learn about all of this. I just hoped her brain wouldn't get an overdose of information.

On the first recess, I carefully watched what my classmates would do. I had checked them all once more during the previous hour to be sure my plans were correct. This also allowed me to learn what happened the previous day when I was absent. The answer to that was: nothing much. Perhaps because they weren't used to the new environment, most of them kept to themselves and there wasn't much trouble either.

Today wasn't the same. An overweight black-haired boy approached a black-haired skinny boy, who had his eyes closed.

"Hey man, what are you doing? Are you sleeping?"

The boy opened his eyes and made and terrible grimace. It was as if he was looking at something dirty.

"Fuck off, trash."

"Huh…"

The overweight boy could only look at the other one dejectedly and go back to his seat. This small event puts a damper on everyone's mood in the class. I leaned toward Aginaci to whisper in her ears.

"See that one? Try not to associate with him if possible."

She nodded at my words. Our little exchange didn't go unnoticed. The same chubby boy came our way this time.

"Hi, you two. Do you know each other?"

'It's good that you came to us on your own, my future friend.'

"We only met so it hasn't been that long. Oh, I'm Wren Tamtri."

I looked at Aginaci and she introduced herself.

"I'm Aginaci."

"I'm Kit Hval. Nice to meet you two!"

"Nice to meet you."

"Yes."

He smiled at us, happy that his second try at making contact went much better than the first one. This guy wasn't faking his attitude. He was one of the few friendly people in this class. Still as lethal as the others, of course.

("This girl fits my taste perfectly.")

"Aginaci. Would you be interested in a relationship with someone as great as me?"

'Here we go…'

Aginaci was surprised but then looked at me, unsure about what she should do in this situation.

("We've only talked for a few seconds and he's already proposing to me? Is this normal? I don't know!")

I went to her rescue. This guy was generally harmless so it didn't matter how she responded to him.

"You can answer him the way you want. Ah, sorry for the interruption, Kit. Aginaci's not used to these sorts of things."

"Hahaha, it's fine, I don't mind."

Aginaci thought for a moment before answering.

"I'm sorry. I prefer not to start a relationship at the moment."

Kit sighed, looking slightly sad.

"I see. That's a shame. Tell me if you change your mind. I'm a great prospect."

I noted.

"Perhaps you should get the people you're interested in to get to know you first before you ask for a relationship."

"Hmm, really? Am I not naturally attractive?"

'Not in this neighborhood, my friend.'

"Everyone had different tastes, after all."

"You're right. There's bound to be a few girls unable to see my greatness."

At this moment, the bell signaling the end of recess rang and he went back to his seat. The next lesson was physics, something that would be troublesome for Aginaci in her current state. She probably wouldn't gain much from the content but there was no helping it.

On the following recess, Kit came to us again to chat some more. This time, two other boys followed his movements. The first one had short blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hi. Can I join your discussion? I'm Jeon Juin."

The second one had long red hair together with green eyes.

"Ah, me too. I'm Dukun Phapsu. Nice to meet you all."

We welcomed them and re-introduced ourselves. We four boys were all around the same height, around 175 cm tall, which gave a harmonious feeling. These two newcomers were my special targets. It was good that we could get to know each other before I asked them for personal favors.

A few of the other students stared at our group with very different kinds of feelings. There was one girl in particular who was scrutinizing us very closely.

("Look at this group. The gender ratio is very unbalanced, right? I think I need to join them. Plus, he's there. Hehehe.")

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 17 – Unwelcome Integration

'Please don't! Not you!'

She didn't immediately move, choosing a wait-and-see attitude for the moment. As for our small group, there was a lull in the discussion. Everyone was thinking about the same thing.

("What now? Is no one going to talk? Should I say something?")

That was awkward teenagers for you. I wasn't such a great talker in the first place. Aginaci was hopeless and the two newcomers weren't so good at socializing either. Our savior came in the form of Kit.

"Why so silent, everyone? Oh, I know. What sort of things do you do in your free time?"

He was kind of an unusual mix too. He was very sociable but wasn't so good with words. Fortunately, this was compensated for by his bright personality. Dukun responded first, with a relaxed expression and a small grin.

"I like nature. I enjoy taking walks in forests and parks."

"That's a quiet hobby. What about you, Jeon?"

"I usually spend my free time training my body."

"Training? For sports?"

"You could say that."

"What kind of sports?"

"Martial arts."

"That's cool! You must be very strong?"

("Maybe I should ask him for a spar?")

"No, I'm still far from being anything good."

("That's a shame. Well, I don't think a normal human being could do anything against me anyway.")

'You would be surprised. You just didn't get he was being modest.'

Maybe because the exchange between Kit and Dukun made the latter feel uncomfortable, he switched the focus elsewhere.

"What about you, Aginaci?"

("What should I say? I never did much in my free time. At most, talking with some of the other women.")

"I… like learning new things."

"You're the studious type, I see. I'll come to you when there's something I don't understand, then."

"Huh… Well…"

'Out of everything, you had to say that. Rest in peace, Aginaci.'

In her desperation, she turned to me.

"And you, Wren?"

"I like sports too. And Gaming."

"What sort of sports?"

"You like gaming? Me too!"

Jeon and Kit spoke at the same time. They looked at one another and Jeon excused himself first.

"My bad. Go ahead."

He was a very straight person. This was why I wanted to be close to him.

"Thanks. So, what games do you play?"

"A bit of everything. FPS, RPG, RTS. What about you?"

"I'm totally into MMORPGs! Do you know GG14?"

"Of course. I heard it's pretty good, right?"

"Yeah, man! It's the best! Why don't you join me? I'll carry your ass!"

"I wish I could but my computer is a hand down from my father. It's not good enough to run the game."

"Darn it. Too bad. Any chance you're going to upgrade soon?"

"Probably not."

'This is the last of my worries these days.'

Kit sighed in regret and Jeon took the opportunity to ask again.

"What sort of sports do you play?"

"I played football and basketball a lot. But I like badminton the most."

("Nothing related to martial arts. Well, that's normal, I guess.")

Here was my chance.

"But I've always been interested in martial arts. What kind of martial arts do you practice?"

"You could call it mixed martial arts. It's sort of my own style."

"Wow, you're good enough to create your own style? That's amazing."

"It's not that great."

("I can't really tell the truth.")

"Can I ask for a favor? Would you be okay to teach me? I think I would be at ease if it's with a friend."

("Just like that? Weird guy. It's normally forbidden to teach just anyone but it doesn't matter now, right?")

"Well, I'll need to check how suited you are for it. It's also going to be quite harsh. Still willing?"

"Yep, that's fine. Sports are meant to be harsh."

"Good spirit. I'm busy today but we can start tomorrow after school."

"Nice. Oh, wait. Aginaci, are you interested in learning martial arts?"

("Martial arts? Fighting? He wants me, a woman, to learn how to fight? How strange. Why would he want that?"

I kept signaling her with my eyes and facial expressions to accept and she hesitated.

("He wants me to do this. Should I say yes? Now that I think about it, if I were stronger, I could have avoided so many problems in my life. It might be a good idea. Perhaps it's normal for women to be strong here.")

"Yes, I'm interested."

"Jeon, could she participate too?"

"Sure, that's fine."

"Nice! Thanks."

"No problem."

I turned toward the other two, not because I sincerely wanted to invite them but because it was normal to try to include them. I knew their answer from the start, anyway.

"What about you two? Interested?"

"I'm good, thanks."

"Same here."

"Okay."

There was another lull in the discussion and the next class started in the meanwhile. On the last recess before lunch, we got back together and talked some more. She chose this moment to attack. Her melodious voice rang behind us.

"Hi there. What are you all chatting about?"

And there she was, the personification of trouble. Her black eyes seemed to suck people in like a black hole. Her long black hair matched well with her light clothes. Even though it was still summer, her blue mini-shorts and white tops exposed too much of her voluptuous forms to the world. She had a seductive smile on her lips and sported a playful expression.

All the boys in our group reacted in similar ways. They either blushed lightly, glanced at her body, or were left speechless. I knew everything already but I didn't fare much better than the rest, to my regret. And our dumbfounded looks pleased her very much.

("Hehehe. Look at them. Even those scary guys are left breathless. You can stare as much as you want, it's free. Whoops, I shouldn't forget what my instincts are telling me. They're all too dangerous for my taste. Except you, Wren. Hehehe. In this class full of weirdly threatening people, you're a sheep waiting to be devoured by me. Just you wait.")

'I'm good, thank you!'

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 18 – Counter

Her charm, which she had reined in so far, was now released for all to see. A few heads turned her way from the rest of the students.

"I'm Reve Iblis. Nice to meet you all. Oh, no need to introduce yourselves, I was listening to your conversation. Sorry about this, hehe."

She didn't look sorry in the least and her smile only deepened. The first to react was Kit, once again.

"Reve, I feel like we're a match made in heaven. Would you be interested in starting a relationship with me?"

"No thanks."

There was no hesitation in her answer, and the poor boy dropped his head in dejection. Dukun took over.

"You're welcome to join our conversation, of course. We were talking about hobbies. What are yours?"

("Increasing my sexual knowledge through the study of videos and books. Intercourse self-practice. Preparing my body for my first mate. But I can't really say this now, can I?")

"I like watching movies and reading books."

"Any specific genre you're into?"

"Well… Romance, I guess?"

We nodded at her answer and she continued, looking at me and Aginaci.

"There's also something I'm curious about. How do you two know each other? Especially since you were absent most of yesterday, Wren."

This was my chance! While Aginaci wondered how to answer, I swiftly blurted out.

"She's staying at my home for the moment."

"What!?"

Even though everyone looked surprised, Reve was very shocked.

("No way! Did she get her hands on him already? How sneaky! I can't believe she beat me to him. Argh! …Whatever. I can just steal him. That's what we do in these cases. No one can hope to compete with us in the game of seduction.")

Aginaci and I living together wasn't something I would normally reveal but it allowed me to give a hard strike on Reve's plans and confidence. She might antagonize Aginaci a little but that wasn't a problem. From start to finish, I would always be the one in danger.

Reve stared at Aginaci, upset, but soon focused back on me.

("Nice trick, Wren. But you're not going to escape so easily.")

After she calmed down, she forced herself to grin once more and opened her mouth to say something. Unfortunately, she was interrupted by the teacher entering the room for the last lesson in the morning.

At lunch, our group moved together. The school cafeteria was situated on the ground floor and a large flow of students headed there as soon as the bell rang. We did the same and went into the line while discussing this and that. Reve was trying to make friends with Aginaci, to "learn her tricks", while her target was just happy to have a girl the same age to talk to. She observed her and used her as a reference for what a normal modern girl should be like.

'Please don't. She's terrible reference material.'

Everyone thought lunch was acceptable except Aginaci, who loved everything. After that, we went to one of the school's rest areas. Because the school consisted only of one large building, they had decided to dedicate some space to resting and relaxing. Some schools had an interior courtyard, some had some greeneries in between separate buildings, and some were even built close to a park or a forest. But this wasn't the case here; they had no choice but to implement something for that purpose. If they didn't, hordes of students would roam the streets during breaks, and incidents were bound to happen.

The rest area was both nice and comfortable. It had a lot of space, was painted in relaxing light colors, and was furnished with comfortable sofas and armchairs. There were a few vending machines in a corner and a water dispenser for the poorer students. This school had the best students in the area and one could feel it trusted the teenagers quite a lot by creating such facilities for them.

Teachers also had access to nice amenities in the teacher's room to avoid them having to come to the normal rest areas and create an awkward mood for the students.

We spent our time relaxing and chatting. Kit was interrogating me about games, the two girls were monitoring each other's moves, and the duo of Dukun and Jeon were talking about nature's impact on martial arts, a topic that went far over my head.

The rest of the day went similarly and it was soon time to go back home. We all said goodbye to the others and went our way. Aginaci, Reve, and I ended up going in the same direction. Aginaci asked the other girl innocently.

"Your home is also this way?"

"Yes."

"That's good, let's talk some more while we walk."

'What a lie. You're living in the opposite direction. You stalker.'

There wasn't much I could do about it, unfortunately. She normally wasn't violent or harmful, but that didn't mean she couldn't overpower us if she wanted to. It was better to let her have her way instead of making an enemy out of her.

The problem was that I also wanted her to stay as far as possible from me, which was a contradiction to the previous statement. Such was life. The strong could do whatever they wanted and the weak could only shut up.

We arrived in front of our building and said goodbye to her.

("I know where you live, now. You cannot escape.")

"See you tomorrow!"

The contrast between her waving while smiling brightly and her thoughts was refreshing in a way. Aginaci waved back and we entered the building. We were the first people to reach home today. My parents would still be at work and my sister was probably either on her way or doing something with her friends.

"Can I use your computer?"

"Go ahead."

Aginaci eagerly booted the computer. She had already learned how to do it after seeing it twice. I hoped her learning speed would follow the same pace too. She was my most precious ally and the better established she was, the more chances we had to handle what was in front of us.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 19 – Step by Step

I wanted to relax at home but there was no way I could do that. After a day of pondering, I found what I believed was the path to the highest chance of survival. Once I made sure Aginaci was settled, I prepared myself to go out again.

"I'll be out for some time. Are you going to be fine here?"

"You're leaving? Do you have something to do? Should I come with you?"

("Come to think of it, he said he liked sports? Is he going to do that?")

"No, it's fine. It's more important for you to study for now. Don't let Elodie disturb you too much. It's fine to tell her to leave you alone."

("I don't know if I can do that.")

"I'll try."

"Alright. See you later."

"Goodbye."

My first destination was the supermarket. The convenience store was close by but the supermarket was slightly further away and it took me around fifteen minutes to get there. I bought two kinds of different snacks, a foldable table, and foldable chairs. There went most of the rest of my savings. My arms were now full and I struggled to make my way back home.

Aginaci was indeed being bothered by my sister when I reached my room, as expected. Aginaci was surprised to see me back already. Her eyes asked for help but I didn't have time to play with them. After putting down the table and chair in my room, I went out again. My goal this time was the closest forest to the town. It took me around twenty minutes of walking this time.

When I was there, I extended my power in every direction to locate my target. This was yet another advantage I had. My ability could act as a radar. If I paid attention, it would be hard to ambush me.

'I mean, not really, but I might be able to detect them just before dying. Maybe.'

I corrected myself. I should say that it would be hard for normal people to ambush me unless they were a sniper or something. My scan was successful and I found the person I was looking for. I headed in his direction and waited for the correct timing by monitoring his thoughts.

It didn't take long and less than thirty seconds later, I resumed closing on him. And there he was, in the middle of the forest, eyes closed and one hand against a tree. This would normally not be a special sight, except that vegetation was growing at a visible pace around him while enveloping him. There was a tame green light around his body, pulsating slowly. He was smiling softly, enjoying his communion with nature.

As soon as I got close enough, he opened his eyes and turned in my direction.

"Oh, it's you."

This was the most apathetic possible reaction to someone witnessing him using a clearly abnormal power. His expression stayed neutral, neither agitated, surprised, angry, or even happy.

"Dukun… What was that?"

("So he saw me. Well, it was just a matter of time before something like this happened.")

"Well… I'm not sure what it's called exactly. I personally refer to it as shamanic power.

"Shamanic power? You have superpowers? What the hell, man?"

I could only hope my acting skills weren't too laughable. Fortunately, he didn't seem to doubt me, probably because he didn't care too much anyway.

("I suppose that's the normal reaction in this world.")

"As you saw."

I stayed silent for some time, acting as if I was trying to assimilate what he said.

"Are you for real? That was amazing! How did you do it? Can I learn it too?"

"You want to… learn it? Aren't you afraid?"

"No way! It looked awesome!"

("It's awesome? I guess that might be the case for a normal person.")

"I see. Why do you want to learn it?"

"Why wouldn't I want to learn it? Who wouldn't want a superpower?"

("I guess that's true.")

"It's not really a superpower. It's more similar to talking to plants and vegetation."

"Talking to plants. Haha. That would normally sound crazy but I saw it with my own eyes. So, can I learn it too?"

"You wanted to learn martial arts too. Do you like learning new things?"

"I sure do."

'I just want to get as many cards in my arsenal as possible.'

"Well, that's fine. Why not?"

"Seriously? Thanks, man! I owe you one."

Dukun grinned a little and immediately started his teaching. The whole exchange between us was extremely weird but I knew why he reacted like this. Any normal or abnormal person would have reacted more aggressively to being seen in such a situation. Some of my classmates would have silenced me without any second thoughts. But not him. Not only was he completely fine with me witnessing his power, but he also even agreed to teach it to me. A good way to describe his current attitude was that he was kind of floating through life. I didn't target him for no reason. I knew there was a high chance that things would turn out like this.

"It's not that complicated. Come here. Put your hand against the tree. Close your eyes and free yourself from upsetting thoughts."

I did as he said and when I was ready, he continued.

"Good. Now, recite after me."

He uttered a long sentence in a very foreign-sounding language. As he did so, the vegetation around him vibrated slightly.

"What language is that?"

"You can consider it as nature's language. It allows you to communicate with all and any plants."

"Wow, nice."

A normal person would have asked how he learned about it but this was the last thing I wanted to do. He would have trouble answering me. Plus, I already knew the answer. Making things awkward between us was something I was actively trying to avoid.

Following his example, I recited the sentence. Whenever I forgot about some parts, I just read them directly from his mind. My power didn't make me powerful but it certainly was convenient.

 

[Dictatelion]

Chapter 20 – Nature

As soon as the last syllable left my lips, I felt something hot entering me. I prepared myself for what would follow. The sensation started warm and comfortable but became hotter and hotter until it felt like my insides were burning. The pain was terrible and I bent forward while groaning.

("Oh right, there was this the first time. I forgot.")

I hadn't forgotten, though, probably because I inspected his memories in detail during the day. The sentence he made me vocalize was a sort of contract with nature. It forcefully opened my flesh and blood to accept nature's power and the process was extremely painful. Fortunately, it didn't last that long and after rolling in pain for a while, my body cooled down.

I breathed hard to recuperate. I could feel the warm sensation much more stable inside me now. I was officially a shaman, albeit a fledgling one. I stared at Dukun with reproach in my eyes.

"You didn't tell me it would hurt so much."

"Sorry, I forgot."

'Why is it that people who are excusing themselves don't feel sorry at all these days?'

"But anyway, congratulations, I guess. You can now use nature's power. I hope you don't misuse it."

I stood up and dusted my clothes.

"Thanks. It feels a bit weird. How does it work?"

"Now that you have nature's energy inside you, you just need to attune yourself to your surroundings. Then, think about what you want to achieve and let the power out. The image in your head is important. Also, at the start, everything is related to plants and vegetation. I can show you an example."

He extended his hand to the tree next to him again and closed his eyes. When I could only see a green light around him before, I was now able to feel the flow of energy. He was focusing it on his hand and sending it into the tree. Soon after, the tree bloomed flowers on many of its branches even though it was almost autumn. I gave him the expected exclamations.

"Wow, amazing!"

He opened his eyes a grinned a little. I could feel he was a bit proud of himself, even though he really shouldn't.

'Praising people is always an effective move.'

What he had done was almost nothing and I knew that he could do so much more than this.

"Does that mean you can make plants grow almost instantly? What about vegetables and fruits? Wouldn't that be the best power ever for farming?"

"Not exactly. There's a large downside to it. It still consumes energy from the earth… I mean, soil nutrients, as if it had happened naturally. If you abuse it, the soil will dry up very fast and you won't be able to grow anything for a long time. This power is best to use during emergencies only."

"I see. I guess it makes sense. It's magical but not omnipotent."

"Precisely."

"Can I try it?"

"Go ahead."

I didn't go for anything special and just aimed to do the same thing as him. I put my hand on another tree, closed my eyes, and tried to move the warm feeling inside me to my palm. However, it didn't go that well. I couldn't manipulate the energy to move at my will. No matter how I tried and focused my mind on it, only tiny little bits of power aggregated to my hand. And the second part wasn't any better. I didn't manage to send any of those scraps of energy inside the tree. It was like there was a wall blocking me from doing so.

After trying for a long time, I felt drained and removed my hand from the tree. Manipulating the energy was quite exhausting and I was already out of breath. Dukun patted me on the back.

"Don't worry. It's normal not to succeed at first. You'll need to train for some time. It took me a long while to get used to it too."

I nodded, having mixed feelings. I knew this was the expected outcome but I guess I somehow hoped I would be a genius at it or something. I was in a race against time and being able to use this power at will would have already increased my odds by a lot.

For the following two hours, Dukun taught me some more about how to use nature's power. While he guided me, I could feel he wasn't unhappy to have someone he could share this with. He would sometimes also look at me and get lost in his memories while I followed his pieces of advice.

Eventually, it was getting late. I asked to stop for the day. Dukun was fine staying in the forest forever but even he had a home and a family to go back to. More importantly, I still had one thing I wanted to do before calling it a day.

We went out of the forest and headed in different directions at the first street intersection. I thanked him for teaching me about nature's power and he waved carelessly as if saying it was fine. I watched him go on his way and when he turned the street corner, I went back to the forest.

A previous scan had told me where the second person I wanted to meet was located. After walking for a minute in a different direction from previously, I reached a clearing. The last rays of the setting sun were falling on a patch of grass next to the edge of the trees.

And there she was, sleeping rolled in a ball on the grass, precisely where the sun was hitting the strongest. It was now time to wait patiently. The sun was setting quickly and she would be forced to move.

As soon as more than half of the rays from the sun stopped warming her body, she lazily stretched on the ground with a big yawn and stood up.

'Here we go.'

I walked toward her.

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