How annoying, my disguise's been blown out.
Without a slither of hesitation, the thick starry-like film surrounding my body disappeared.
After doing that, the back of my head throbbed intensely. Likely a side-effect from maintaining stealth for almost three days straight.
I had it coming to be fair, but I didn't expect it to be so painful.
Keeping my expression cold and stone-like, I pat my pockets as if I were searching for some ticket a divine spirit might've accidentally dropped.
"A-Ah."
My voice came out in a rehearsed, heart dropping tone.
"What?"
The woman in front of me raised a brow, tapping a foot to the hard stone below as a show of impatience.
"Uh well..."
I scratch my temple with my finger. The next words flowing out with natural ease.
"It appears I've lost my ticket...Can I just pay with cash?"
From my breast pocket, money, just the right amount for a ticket shone like gold in my eyes.
"Haaa...Yes, that's fine~"
The young woman took the money and allowed me entry. When entering the train, the first thing I noticed was the lack of artistical ingenuity inside, not exactly a luxurious train, but I never was one to care about such things in the first place.
'If it does the work, then it's good enough.'
Anyways, after taking a seat next to an old man, my gaze slowly shifted toward the woman who had noticed me instantly.
She didn't realize I had used stealth...Meaning she wasn't some random awakener with an above-average talent.
Because of that though, her talent can blind someone.
'Not quite at the same level as Ender, if I could compare her talent...Maybe her potential is about a fraction of Ender.'
Ender was a monster, someone that even I, a regressor could never hope to reach head on. Her existence is so important in this world that most of the runs with her dying ended rather quickly.
Without my interference, the world will likely end far faster.
'Should I at least guarantee the 20 year lifespan?'
I seriously didn't want to fight again though....I mean, struggling is pointless anyway since 'that' exists.
So did I really have to go out of my way just to extend this world's life expectancy?
To this question, the answer to me is yes and will always be yes.
The logic however is quite flawed and very much hypocritical.
If Ender were to die, the world would end fast. I didn't want that.
Was I tired of doing countless of planning and preparation just for it to fail in the end?
Yes, very much so in fact.
So many of the resets were for naught, the only thing I could think of doing was try to save the world, to try and save something despite the lack of abilities glowing and becoming more prominent as my mistakes kept piling.
To prevent those mistakes from clouding my judgement and mental health further. I had erased my memories numerous and countless times, writing down everything I knew and what was important on a notebook and passing it down to a more refreshed me to efficiently figure out a way to save the world without my emotions getting in the way. That was the most optimal route I had chosen.
It hadn't worked. So I gave up, and with that giving up, my holy blessing also seemed to have been wiped when I gave up strangely.
'Is it connected to my will being shattered?'
There wasn't any evidence backing anything up, so I took this theory with a grain of salt.
Eyes blank, stared at the flickering lights glued to the ceiling. The train soon hummed to life, when it moved, it rocked my body, making it sway slightly from right to left.
I didn't want the world to end.
Not yet anyways.
My Life had been wasted on a destined to die world. Each run, death and excruciating pain with no reward in sight, chipped away at everything that still held the desire to save the world.
I was done with that kind of life. I wanted to have a vacation, a long but sweet vacation, a desire so festered into my bones that just the thought of trying to do something as useless as saving the world made my fist clench tightly.
As the train moved, a familiar serene calm filled me as the passengers kept chatting and chirping around.
Thoughts surfaced, dissipating into the peace and quiet just as quickly as they surfaced.
'It's a good thing that I had some money with me. Still, it kind of hurts that that my snack money went to waste just like that.'
Not having a lot of money stung, unbelievably so, going at the academy would solve that problem, but.
'The events are most intense there then outside.'
I didn't want a fiber of my being even remotely close to the academy of entitled shits.
Not because I hated them, although that was part of it, the actual reason laid on the fact that interfering would cause more problems than actually solve them.
Throughout the previous runs. I never once interfered early on, only interfering as much as needed to get the main protagonist at the pre-requisite requirements for the next event.
But even then, there wasn't much to do early into the academy until the second semester ended.
After that, my interferences became more frequent. Boosting my prestige, power and infamy across the world.
That was when my presence became undisputed as a national treasure.
Perhaps that was my mistake from the beginning, so I tried to lay low in the run. Well....That one ended in especially excruciating pain.
—Section 15's station in Baltan City is approaching.
A mechanical voice boomed from the speakers, the chattering passengers stopped at once. With a huff, fingers coiled around a pole, dragging me up from my uncomfortable seat.
Soon, the chatters of passengers resumed, an elderly man resumed his story of the past to his grandson, a woman kept making her advances toward her boyfriend, a small dog barked at me and coiled around my leg.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I have no idea what has gotten into him."
"No, it's fine."
Lips part into a thin smile as my stop came and the trains rushed steps slowed down.
The doors in the train clacked open, before anyone could even leave, my legs took me out of the train before anyone else, already making a beeline for the exit the moment the train stopped.
The crowd in my way moved away as my steps kept its rushing pace.
Light spilled from the exit, noise from cars, people and construction kept ringing in my ears as I moved forward. Heart hollow, and spirit shattered into millions of tiny pieces.
*
"Oi! Medea!"
A young boy kicked a desk, a desk so worn out and old with rust it wouldn't have been a surprise if it had bended right at the moment of impact.
"Mmm~"
A young girl groaned as the sharp sound screeched against her eardrums. Arms stretched and red eyes locked in with the skinny boy's small frame.
"What is it?"
Medea rubbed her eye, dark-green, unkept hair cascaded down to her legs as she raised her body upright.
"You stole my bread!"
James shrieked, voice broken and tears evident. Something that surprised Medea to a whole other level.
"I was going to eat that!"
James flailed around, his weak fists tried to strangle Medea's stomach of his food, but Medea stood tall, hunger satiated, and entertainment in the process of satiated.
"Yeah yeah, sure you were~"
Medea yawned, minutes passing in the classroom as more and more students came in, and James was still prickling toward her about food.
It seemed that after what she said. James took it as a challenge to scream in her ear more.
A strange phenomena. After all, doing this wouldn't give him back food.
So she ignored him, making him more and more angry, she didn't pay much attention to him and instead focused on the talks the students around her had.
"Hey, you heard?"
"About what?"
"That a new teacher is coming silly!"
"Seriously? But that's like the fifth one this month!"
"I know...Just what are they thinking?"
Medea sighed, eyes slowly inching toward the door.
The door, an old, manual door that required human hands to open was made out of wood, wood so dirty with dust that the dust seeped inside the very wood itself, giving it an ashy look.
Beyond that very same door.
Step.
A step dragged itself to her sensitive ears.
A step so confident in its strides that it had reached the room all of them were in at the moment in a mere 2 seconds.
With not single hesitation staining his sound judgement.
He entered, doors spraining open as light spilled, a silhouette casted onto the mahogany floorboards.
A step he took, then.
He stopped.
Thud!
A sharp thud of heavy bricks woke the entire classroom.
A cliche type of prank stubborn children with no concept of empathy would play.
And just then.
Step!
The figure took another step, sharp with his presence prominent and for the first time in a long while.
The annoying chirpings of the young ceased.
Medea felt it when she looked at the man. The unease wafting from him, an unease that seeped into her skin, with its haunting grip on her heart.