“Who are you? What did you do to the kid named Horas Spencer? You better not lie because my abilities will tell me if you do.”
Horas’s neck was getting crushed. His hands tried to push Jack’s hands away but Horas had no strength in his arms currently.
“I a-am Ho..r…as…Sp..en..ce…r”
Horas could barely get his words out of his mouth when he was let go of them. Jack’s face had an almost shocked look when he noticed the bruises on Horas’s neck. It seemed like he had used his powers to see if Horas was telling the truth or not.
“I s-see. My apologies for what I did. It seems like the dungeon I last went into made me a little more sensitive than I needed to be. Once again, I apologize.”
Horas looked at the shocked man in front of him. Now that he looked closer, Jack Hollow did not look stable and his eyes were dilating.
It was almost as if he was over-using his ability to find the truth behind Horas’s current condition.
“You know, your apologies are good and all but I still need an explanation from you. What do you want from me?”
Horas was not going to let Jack Hollow get out of answering his questions so easily. He needed answers regarding what Jack Hollow knew and why he was so busy pushing Horas around.
‘What ability did I give Jack Hollow again?’
Horas wanted to remember but it was just not coming to him. Did he ever even properly define it? There had been so many things he had taken for granted when he wrote the novel and now he regretted it.
“You are not like a child and that threw me off. You are right to say that I should tell you what I am planning if I want you to cooperate.”
“Horas Spencer, how much do you believe in ‘fate’ and ‘destiny?’ what would you say if I tell you that everything in this world is ‘pre-determined’? And that no matter what we did to change it, things would find a way to return to their destined path.”
Horas felt his brain shut down for a second there.
Jack spoke almost as if he knew that he was in a fictional world that followed a story someone wrote.
“Pre-determined? What do you mean by that?”
Horas asked the question in hopes that maybe he was wrong and had misunderstood Jack’s words.
Jack looked disappointed but not overly so by Horas’s question. Instead, he had a determined expression on his face and he started to explain.
“Take our world as a river of sorts. No matter what we do, it will continue to flow. Even if we place a rock in between or build a dam, it will eventually go back to its course. This is our current world.”
“And what will happen if we cause it to deviate? Won’t an obstacle ‘too big’ cause it to change paths toward a new one?”
Jack finally smiled but it was not a reassuring smile.
“Well, who knows if its end destination would be a blessing or a disaster, right? Do you know that my current ability allows me to see these ‘small fates’ and see where the world is heading? But once, just once did I see it - a deviated fate that was worse than anything I could ever imagine. It was-”
“No stop. Don’t tell anything to me since I don’t want to hear it.”
Horas was interested in Jack’s talk but he also did not want to listen to it. He was going to go back home as soon as he could.
What happened to this world did not concern him at all. Horas would not burden himself unnecessarily with the burden of this foreign knowledge.
“Fine, if you don’t want to know then I will not burden you with the knowledge of it. I will just tell you what I want you to do”
“My abilities told me that ‘Howard Spencer’ would become someone extremely important for this world’s protection. As such, we need to ensure he cultivates his abilities and overcomes the upcoming disaster for the human race.”
“But he’s a little special and would not be able to reach his potential alone. What he needs is a ‘rival’ and that is where you come in.”
Horas was starting to get a headache just by listening to Jack’s words. Anyone else would have labeled Jack as a lunatic and stopped listening to him already.
*cough*
“Anyway, I will not ask you to believe me and my crazy talks if you don’t want to. I was just answering your question because I felt bad for injuring you. Once again, it is my fault so I will like to ask you for forgiveness.”
Jack collected himself once he noticed that his ‘speech’ was getting out of his hand.
Horas was not sure if he believed Jack fully or not but it did seem like Jack knew a lot about this world.
His words also concerned Horas since there seemed to be some truth behind them and that was the problem. Did the fate of this world truly not change? Then, what would it mean for Horas who only knew a portion of it?
Will he have to go ahead in life blind?
…………………………..
It was a silent but stressful ride after that confession from Jack Hollow. The man was pretending like nothing ever happened between the pair and Horas preferred it like that as well.
Meanwhile, Jack took Horas to a familiar place. Horas had hoped to never see this place again.
“The orphanage? Are we here to see Howard?”
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to see your brother?”
The question came out of Horas’s mouth on its own and his startled expression said that he had not meant to ask that question. Howard was a chapter in Horas’s life he wanted to close.
Howard Spencer was going to have a happy ending by the time this story ended. Horas needed not to be a part of that story for Howard to attain happiness.
And somewhere inside Horas, he did not want to take responsibility for Howard Spencer and form a bond with him. Every time he thought about leaving his ‘brother’ behind, something terrible and overwhelming arose in Horas’s mind.
It could not help but make him wonder if he had left his family behind in his original world. He might not be able to consciously remember, but maybe his subconscious did and it was reacting to his fears from before.
“It’s nothing like that. I just…I told you that it would be better for Howard Spencer to grow up without having any knowledge of his brother. He will be able to start fresh that way.”
‘And so will I.’
Horas was beyond selfish for believing this but he did not care. It was human nature to try and lessen one’s upcoming pain.
“I see. It seems that your beliefs from last time have not changed. But since we’re here already, we might as well take a look around, right? We should not let this trip be wasted.”
Horas wanted to take a step back from the unnatural grin that appeared on Jack’s face. He did not like it one bit and he wanted to run.
But there was nowhere to run and the only way for Horas to go back to Esper’s academy was through Jack Hollow. Horas was too young to have money in hand anyway.
‘Darn. I need to set up a way to earn money once I am back in the academy. I will have to ask Mark to help me out.’
Money had not been an issue for Horas this far but he would be in trouble once he would need to buy resources for his magic and other experiments. He could not keep on leeching off Mark forever.
“Cheer up Yohan and enjoy your time here. You will be sounding time doing community service in the orphanage while I attend a meeting nearby. Ah, here comes the person I had been looking for. Miss Julie, we are here.”
Horas froze once he heard Julie’s name. Once he turned around, he was not surprised to see that it was the same ‘Julie’ he knew - Howard’s foster mother.
And she did not look glad to see Jack.
“M-Mister Jack. What brings you here? Howard is still too young for your program so let’s not speak about it now.”
Julie looked uncomfortable when she talked to Jack and Horas could relate. The elder man had a way to make anyone nervous.
“Of course, I know that Howard Spencer is too young and I will respect your wishes. I am not here for that today. You see, I have a small meeting right now so I need someone to look after my student. Do you think you can do that?”
Julie looked confused before she looked down and noticed Horas. She seemed not to have recognized him which was good.
“This is Horas, a student of mine. I’ll collect him in the evening, so can you take care of him?”
“Yeah sure. If that’s all then I can help you out.”
Julie agreed easily, not recognizing Horas at all. It was going to be an eventful day.
