Was I… wrong?

  Jack thought as he blankly stared ahead. Nova’s words echoed in his mind over and over, and he couldn’t help but reflect on his recent actions.

  But even though he was thinking back on everything he had done, it was hard for him to immediately find the answer he was looking for.

  Thus, for a long time, he sat as still as a statue in his reclining chair.

  //////

  The first thing Cassidy did after collecting all the resources Nova had given her wasn’t to return to Quarath but instead, she fished out her communication device and brought Thomas, Samuel, and Rachel up to date on Jack’s situation, telling them to stop visiting him for the time being.

  At first they weren’t sure whether to follow her words or not and voiced out their worries. After all, with Jack being as he was there was no telling what would happen and, having learned from Amelia’s quick personality switch, they were even more apprehensive about the situation.

  However, when Cassidy finally mentioned that those were Nova’s words and that he’d already talked with Jack they relaxed.

  If Jack needed some time for himself to think things through then they were almost too happy to give it to him, already expecting to soon have the old Jack back.

  Then, after having informed her friends, she tapped Ysara’s name.

  A mere second later her voice, tinged with boredom, rang through the device.

  “I have the three students ready, where do you want me to bring them?”

  As soon as Cassidy told her to have those three students at the ready she sprang into action and, without wasting time, she quickly gathered them but…

  That was three hours ago.

  With how quickly Cassidy left, Ysara thought it would only be a matter of minutes and told the three students the same. Turned out it wasn’t a matter of minutes, and they had all been waiting idly by the whole time.

  Cassidy’s lips twitched when she heard Ysara’s voice.

  She thought she could have Jack teach those three students and, if everything went well, he could also teach the rest. That would have solved both the generals’ problem and, most likely, also Ysara’s bet.

  Things didn’t go as planned… I hope she won’t take it too badly.

  A short pause later, she, as calmly and apologetically as she could, said, “Sorry for wasting your time. You can send the students back. I didn’t manage to find anyone willing to teach them.”

  Ysara didn’t immediately answer, and Cassidy had no idea what was going through her head, but she had to admit that the current silence was heavy.

  It was only a minute or so later that Ysara’s voice rang out once more. This time, it was far more neutral than earlier.

  “I understand. Is that all?”

  She didn’t take it too well, but there was nothing I could do. Her timing was just too bad.

  Cassidy sighed and said, “They’ll have to rely on their own prowess and understanding for this Birth of Deities, but starting from the next, we should be able to find a teacher willing to teach the best students.”

  “All in all, we’ll make sure you win the bet.”

  Although the bet was something that Ysara alone had accepted, none could deny that if they managed to win, Quarath would take a big step forward.

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  And, while one might think that Univara would lose a lot… its losses only amounted to a nick in its otherwise sturdy armor.

  Ysara curtly said, “That’s good to hear,” before ending the call.

  Cassidy lowered the device and muttered, “Problems everywhere, but at least the elemental training rooms can be opened once again to the soldiers.”

  She only took a few seconds to relax before her eyes regained the usual sharpness that the Nemesis’ manager had to have, and she rushed back to Quarath.

  /////

  Unbeknownst to the Federation, the highest-ranking member of Nemesis, its leader, someone who should’ve been apprehended and thrown into jail on sight, was currently walking the busy streets of Univara amidst throngs of people.

  His steps were slow, and his gaze was lost in thought.

  ‘What am I supposed to do if that idiot doesn’t come back to his senses? I thought we were going to rise through the ranks, travel through outer space, and visit different planets together, but he’s already given up at the first difficulty. Wasn’t his dream to become… broken? The strongest there is? Eh…’

  A scoff left his lips.

  ‘To think he laughed at me for wanting to become a thief, but now he doesn’t even want to train. I wish I could go back in time and show his past self just how ridiculous he’ll be.’

  Nova laughed as he thought about past Jack’s face looking at his current self.

  He could picture it clearly in his mind. The scorn and anger that past Jack would feel toward future Jack, wondering just what in the world went wrong for him to be reduced to such a pitiful state.

  His laugh earned him a few weird stares from the passersby, but there were so many people, making it common for strange ones to be there, that they quickly lost interest and turned their eyes away.

  Too immersed in his thoughts, Nova didn’t look where he was going. He didn’t even notice the number of people around him slowly thinning out as he walked away from the main streets and into more residential ones.

  His mind was too busy coming to terms with his best friend’s situation.

  He hadn’t felt this lost even when he came back after nine years, but instead experienced it after just two short months. It was safe to say he never even dreamt about the current situation.

  ‘I won’t let him enter the Lesser Orange portal if he stays like this. It doesn’t matter even if Erevan is against it, I’m not going to gamble his life away, and that means I’ll have to find someone else to take his place…’

  “Pass it! Pass it!”

  A shout snapped Nova out of his daze and made him look over in curiosity.

  In front of him was a park, where a handful of children were playing ball, with several parents sitting on the benches by the side. Chatter and laughter echoed all around the place.

  The scene didn’t look any different from the past, a time when there was no mana and before Earth had started its evolution.

  “This is…” Nova murmured to himself. He took a closer look at the surroundings that had a few changes over the years and noticed where he was.

  “Greenwood Park.”

  He whispered as he stood still. His eyes were looking at the kids playing, but at a certain point, they became devoid of focus.

  In his mind, two kids, barely over ten, stood in their place. One of them was crying, the rims of his eyes bright red, while an arm was slumped around his neck, belonging to the other kid, who seemed to be trying to comfort him as best as he could, but it seemed to have no effect, as the crying kept going for a very long time.

  Nova’s mind couldn’t form a single thought, or maybe it didn’t want to, as forming a thought would have dashed that image away. And so, for an indefinite amount of time, he watched the old memory play in his mind like a video.

  While he was watching an act play in his mind, outside, his cloudy eyes had been fixated in the direction of the kids playing ball, and it wasn’t long before the parents noticed him.

  At first, they thought he was just passing by, but as time passed and he stood there in the same spot, still staring at their children, they quickly started whispering amongst each other.

  The more time passed, the louder those whispers became, their faces creasing into frowns. When it finally reached a tipping point, one of the parents couldn’t take it anymore and shouted, “You! If you don’t walk away, I’ll call the guards!”

  They expected the shout to scare the man away, but contrary to their predictions, forget walking away, he hadn’t even flinched and that made their frowns deepen.

  Inside Nova’s mind, the play continued. The kid who had been crying the whole time finally stopped and looked at his friend, whose mouth moved before he smiled, but Nova couldn’t hear anything.

  Then, the play slowly came to a close.

  The parents, afraid to scare their children, didn’t continue to shout. Instead, one of them, a man in his fourties, stood up and walked toward Nova, whose eyes started to regain some clarity.

  When the parent was about ten meters away, he said, “Did you not hear us? This isn’t a place for you. Scram.”

  Nova didn’t even spare him a glance and thought, ‘I forgot about that, I guess I have no other choice.’

  He took a deep breath. ‘If you want to relax, then I’ll work double. If you want to train, then I’ll help you. And, if you want to be the hero, then…’

  The man, seeing how unresponsive the person in front of him was, raised his fist and said, “I’m talking—”

  Nova’s gaze swept across him, barely for an instant, but it was enough to make him feel like he’d been plunged into the coldest place he could’ve imagined. His mouth remained wide open, but no words came out as his whole body froze.

  Unbothered by the parent, Nova turned around and walked away.

  ‘… I’ll be the villain.’

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