81 Karen Miller (3)

Luke hung up after my aunt thanked him again.

"Karen wants to play with older brother Luke all- day!" Karen declared to Luke while sitting in his lap.

Luke opened his textbook again to resume his studying that was interrupted by me.

He started to show Karen all the pretty pictures in the book as she asked what each of them meant.

Time passed by quickly as Luke forced me to read another chapter in the textbook he previously held in his hands as he played with Karen.

The doorbell rang as my aunt came at the time she promised.

I went upstairs to wake up Evan who was still sleeping deeply in my bed.

"Evan," I shook him while whispering his name into his ear.

Evan groaned as he slowly started to wake up from the loud noise coming from downstairs.

"Noooo!" Karen screamed.

"We have to go home to eat dinner Karen," my aunt tried to convince Karen to go home.

Evan and I walked down the stairs to see Karen in tears as she threw a great tantrum.

"I don't want to go home! I want to spend more time with Luke!" Karen kept on shouting repeatedly.

My aunt looked like she was in a great dilemma as she sighed.

Evan obediently walked to his mother as he stood behind her as if he was used to Karen's tantrums.

"Come on Karen," My aunt with no patience left started to drag Karen out the door.

"Noooo. I won't go home right now and you can't make me," Karen didn't stop yelling.

Karen's golden eyes started to glow as she threw in the last part of her sentence.

"In fact, you can't." Karen smiled.

The air suddenly felt heavy. It was strangling my neck as if the oxygen wasn't flowing into my brain properly.

Luke seemed to feel the same pressure as he coughed in response as if he had a lack of air in his throat.

When the hard pressure of the air lifted, it was like a veil being lifted as the sticks in the clock spinned back to ten a.m. on July 8th of 3020.

My aunt disappeared as Evan lost his cheerful and stared warily of us like when we first met.

"Now Luke can play with Karen even more!" Karen brightly smiled as she pulled on Luke's arm to continue showing her the pretty pictures in the book he placed on the coffee table.

'Did Karen just use mana?' I silently asked Luke with a questioning quick glare.

Luke nodded as he momentarily showed his disapproval in his brief frown.

"When were able to turn back time Karen?" Luke asked Karen very gently as she leaned back while sitting in his lap.

Karen deliberated on whether to tell Luke or to keep this great power to herself.

However, Karen decided that her prince would never tell mommy about this as she confided in Luke while forgetting that Evan and her cousin were in the same room.

Karen started to recall the events of yesterday when she got this mysterious power when she finally recovered from her fever.

"Karen got a very bad fever last week. But, Karen was able to get better yesterday all of the sudden like magic! And ever since then, Karen was able to use this magic!" Karen explained.

"A mutation," Luke concluded as he softly whispered for me to hear.

"Would it be ok if Rika and I have a brief talk?" Luke asked Karen sweetly like honey dripping down.

"Only less than ten minutes, or else Karen won't forgive you," Karen pretended to be angry as she crossed her arms.

Luke and I walked into my room for a private conversation as Evan kept Karen busy for a while.

"Karen has mana?" I immediately asked Luke.

Luke nodded as he started to explain, "I think she's unconsciously releasing mana in the third district in small outbursts. That's why we feel that it's easier to use our mana here."

"Then how did she turn back time?"

"It often happens with young children who can't control their mana properly. That's why, after it's quickly detected, we bring them to the first or second district." Luke recited like it was a passage he read from a textbook he always carried.

"Is that what happened with me?" I curiously asked indirectly if that's how I came to be partnered to Luke.

"Apparently, you were merging the districts together into one big continent as you changed the landscape and weather while changing the flow of time every minute," Luke recalled one of his earliest memories.

"Karen probably had a bit of innate mana within her but got more prominent from a mutation caused by her fever," Luke finished explaining.

Maybe my whole family possessed a bit of mana from my father's side. Luke's explanation did make sense to a certain extent.

Since Karen was seven, it was highly possible that she possessed a stronger vessel to contain her volatile mana.

When I learned about biology in kindergarten, I realized there was a great difference from what I knew from my past life.

Since there was mana involved, almost everything about the human body revolved around the use of mana in class.

"But from what I remember, people who usually develop mana after kindergarten usually have a low amount of mana anyways," I casually pointed out to Luke.

"But even very small amounts cause big ripples in districts that generally don't contain any mana in the air. That's why a small amount of mana that is totally uncontrolled will cause a result like this up to the fourth district."