16 Wretched Memories I (1/2)

After leaving the small village of the inhumans all those years ago, we had travelled to a number of cities and towns. With Valerie's award-deserving potrayal of a pure-hearted High Priestess from the Royal Church, it wasn't too hard to make up stories that would prevent people from suspecting us.

So, using that to our advantage, we had been travelling for a good total of 2 years. It was then, finally, that we had arrived to the city we lived in for those 8 years.

And the reason I decided that we should stay in that city was simple - it was the education hub of the region.

It was filled to the brim with talented people who, of course, were quite useful.

Also, openly practicing Dark Arts would have caused problems. However, in order to disguise ourselves as 'able members of society', we needed to have a good grasp at some Art. So if it was inevitable that we, I and Hena, had to learn some Art in addition to Dark Arts, why not learn it from the best?

That, at least, was the thought in my mind when I had walked into the school grounds.

But there, the first thing I saw was-

”Trash! How dare you!” -a girl of my age beating up another.

”I'm sorry, Yasmine! Please forgive me!” The girl being beat up grovelled, but,

”Yasmine? You dare address me without any honorifics?!”

It all only lead to her getting more beat up.

It was strange though. Even though I had no reason to care, I felt disgusted by that girl named Yasmine.

She was nobility, had good looks and people flocked around her. For whatever reason, that irked me so much.

Normally, I would have just ignored all of it. But, as long as I tried to ignore it, the uneasy feeling in my chest kept growing.

And so, one day, when I saw Yasmine was making her 'friends' beat up one of the other kids in the school, I decided to do something.

That incident was happening outside school premises and during a short 4-day break the school was on. And it was happening when I was 8 years old, i. e., an year had passed since coming to that city.

”What are you doing?” I asked as I approached the lot of them.

They all looked at me with annoyed and threatening faces.

”Can't you see what we are doing? Are you blind or something?” Yasmine mocked me.

”What has that boy done?” I asked, ignoring her mocking, which agitated her quite a bit as she clicked her tongue while answering.

”This 'boy' caught us doing something that's, well, against the school regulations, and man, he just couldn't keep his mouth shut about it.”

Before I knew it, my face had twisted with disgust and I had said, ”What a joke!”

They all looked at me, cracking their knuckles, looking about ready to beat me up. And then,

”AAH!”

-all of them went silent with surprise and confusion.

”AAAHH!!!”

”...”

”AAHH!!! AAAHHH!!! AAAH!!!”

They watched me repeatedly kick the boy they all were already beating. None of them understood why I had done that. And so, they all just gawked at that sight for a good one minute.

”W-what the hell!” And finally their silence was broken when I stopped kicking and Yasmine asked, ”W-what's ... what're you ...”

”Your bullying wasn't nearly impactful enough to teach anyone a lesson.” I said. ”You guys are too soft. You are only wannabe delinquients.”

I walked away after saying that.

When the school break ended and we all saw each other again, their little 'gang' asked me to come meet them at the same spot that incident had happened.

I complied.

And so, we came face-to-face again.

”You sure were acting like a hotshot back then. Wanna show us what you got?” A person I deemed unimportant enough to not remember his name challenged me while looking like an annoying idiot.

”Yeah, then we will be able to tell who is the real wannabee here.” Yasmine mocked me with that.

I sighed and said, ”I won't hold back.”

They took it as a mockery to their strength, which it partially was, and charged at me all at once. There were about 13 of them who charged while only Yasmine, the leader of that wild pack, remained behind with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

I knew this was gonna happen when they had asked me to meet them there, and so I had come prepared - to wipe that smirk off her face.