9 Chapter 9 - Un-Tempted

Ever since meeting Francis, we've been hanging out quite often. He's sort of a weird fellow, but I grew to like him, at least in some ways. He has a certain endearing quality about him.

We mostly been in the gym, working out, as that seemed to be the only time we're free to do whatever we wanted. Although that was about to change shortly.

As I said earlier, every prisoner was required to either work, or attend school. I presonally chose the latter, which meant that my schedule would alter greatly. Francis was a few years older than me, and thus he opted for not learning, but using this opportunity to further his non-criminal work experience. This would ultimately lead to us barely meeting at all.

Not like we depended on each other, but it was sort of a problem, when it came to getting to know each other. As he seemed to be very keen about following me, even after we got our freedom back, this was a crucial time to build trust and comradery between the two of us.

Nonetheless, that would have to wait for a while, after all, we can reconsider our chosen "worktype" every month. If we felt like working a bit, we could. If we felt like studying, well, let's say the classrooms were never entirely empty.

One night, a question that's been on my mind surfaced, while talking to the Old Man in our cell.

"Say, have you ever heard of a 'Godly One'?" I asked him.

"How d'you know that term?" he asked back.

"That's what the Inspector called me the other day," I replied.

He stopped for a few seconds, seriously considering how to follow up on this topic.

"Well, most I can tell you," he started, "is that there's a sect out there. A sect, that worships people, who have similar [Powers] to yours."

"Okay, yeah, I thought as much," I said plainly. What an absolute dumbass would I have to be, to not realize that bit? I'm not some dense main character of a novel, "Are there others out there, right now, with the same powers?"

"If we get technical, and say the exact same as yours, then no. But, similar ones? [God-Tier] powers can only exist once. There's not a person out there with [Temptation], but there might be someone with [Lust] or [Charity]," he explained.

"Right, you said there's Fourteen in total, right? So I'm one of Fourteen people, who can be called these Godly Ones, then?" I tried to explain it to myself.

"As you say. Although, there's two groups within this Fourteen. I'm not familiar enough with them, but you'll eventually meet them, and join one side."

With that, we ended up going to sleep. It was quite late, to be fair, and I had my first day at school the following day.

I had quite the surprise waiting for me in front of the classroom. Upon turning the corner, I noticed a huge, bulky man, quite out of place, as usual. He looked around, not entirely sure about whether he should enter. I walked up to him, tapped his shoulder, and he jumped up a bit, with a slight chill obviously going down his spine.

"Hey Baulder, how've you been?" I asked in an uncharacteristically happy-go-lucky manner.

"Uhm- Sorry, I actually-" He started, when I realised!

"Sorry! I forgot to introduce myself, name's Dan. Nice to meet you," I introduced myself.

"Yeah, uhm- Actually-" he stumbled around with his words, "Have we met?"

What? Does he not remember me? Is that part of my power? I can't really tell though.

"Yeah, in the mess hall, remember? The fight we started?" I asked him casually.

"Ah, sure. The fight. Everyone tells me I'm the MVP. I don't remember though," He sounded quite sofisticated, contrary to how he looks. I mean would you really expect a huge buff dude, with a scruffy looking beard, and fairly long hair, to be anything, but a muscle for hire? I legit thought he'd be dumbass. Especially now, that he's standing in front of the classroom, even though he's probably at least ten years older than me.

"Well, you kinda joined me in defeating that Bossman guy, his name was Sto, I think?" I said.

"Yeah. I guess I'll have to thank you for that. I wanted to leave his group years ago, but I'm kinda shy, y'know? I can't really go up to people. I'm barely able to hold long conversa-" he said, and he held up his hand to his mouth, "I never-"

"Yeah, I kinda have an effect on people, don't worry," I threw that factoid in casually.

"Is that your [Power]?" he asked.

"Something like that, yeah."

We entered the classroom, after I convinced him that no one would want to kill him inside, but then I remembered we're in prison, so I ensured him he wouldn't be killed immediatly. I don't know anyone who'd wanna elongate their sentence.

Outside of us, there were about ten inmates already inside. I was surprised to see, that half of the folks in there were actually chicks. That's a rarity. I was actually curious, whether my newfound muscles would give me a chance with them, but I had no way to check that.

Upon entering, I noticed that exactly that half of the class looked in our direction. The rest were of course, looking in theirs. Again, I couldn't tell if their eyes reflected admiration, or a slight amount of hatred, or disgust. I was already quite used to those eyes.

Y'know what's wild? I could command all of them. They'd me mine in seconds.

That'd be boring, wouldn't it? RIght? Right...?

So, we made our ways to two of the remaining seats, and sat down. I didn't have a problem, but my makeshift bodyguard couldn't sit down that easily. After breaking a chair, he opted for sitting on the floor, and the desk was still in a decent height for taking notes, funnily enough.

A few minutes later the lecture started. We'd start with some law classes in the morning, I assume in an attempt to delure us from committing crime, but it didn't seem like it was working all that much. I didn't care too much.

After law classes, we had some general education, like maths, literature, biology, and so on. I was especially interested in biology, yet it seemed like I was the only one. Isn't it nice to know how a human's body reacts to stuff? Hey, murderers, why aren't you paying attention, huh? As for my Big Buddy Baulder, he seemed to be quite fond of literature, and geology. Quite a weird duo, if you ask me.

After our morning classes were over, we were taken to a closeby mess hall, specifically for the students. We opted for sitting at the same table with Baulder, as we didn't really know anyone else.

I noticed, that while eating, all the girls were glaring at me still. Problem is, I didn't know if they want to jump on me, or murder me. Either way, they seemed annoying, so I decided to ignore them, mostly.

"Hey Baulder, so you know, you don't seem like much of a literary guy, right?" I said, kinda being a dick, but what can you do.

"Is it weird? There's nothing much out on the sea, y'know," he started, "It's mostly silent out there. You can hear the ship cracking about, the waves moving, hitting your ship, and some rocks, birds who fly past, and your mind."

"Wait, wait, wait. You're a sailor?" I asked, quite surprised.

"Aye! Quite a good one at that!" he replied.

"How the hell does a sailor end up in prison though?" I finally asked. I don't know if he'd be offended, but I just had to ask. This is really against all stereotypes out there.

"I started as a usual sailor, y'know. But, eventually fishing didn't work out, so I sorta, kinda, accidentally might have joined a little itty-bitty pirate group..." he said, while muffling the end of his sentence.

"I see," I said, still quite surprised, lamenting if I should ask about it, but I decided it'd be better for a later time.

"Hey, is it okay if I ask about that time? The Mess Hall?" he asked, slightly more shy, then his usual self.

"Sure, ask away," I replied. He kinda saved me from an awkward silence.

"What did you tell me? I wouldn't normally fight at all," he said, rather embarrassed.

"Oh, I used my [Power] on you. It sort of uses others' supressed feelings, or something," I tried to explain really vaguely. I didn't really want to tell him about [Temptation]. It's sort of a really badly kept secret at this point though.

"Uh-huh. So you realised I didn't want to be there, and used that?" he asked."

"Yeah. You stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought you might wanna leave," like me.

I guess I sorta saw myself.

"Can I test soemthing on you, quickly?" I asked. I was really curious about this.

"Sure...? Is it gonna hurt?" he asked back timidly.

"Probably not."

"Go for it..." he consented.

I focused [Temptation] on him. I should be able to still control him.

"Stand up!" I commanded.

"Why? Is it part of the test?" he asked, confused.

No haze, or purple in his eyes.