Guilt

William's POV:

"Ugh... what happened? Is that the man who saved me!?! Is he okay!?!"

I run over to the man who saved my life and see him dying on the ground. What can I do! Wait, I'll just stop time for him!

I cast a spell to stop time in his vicinity. I'm not as powerful as Jess, and can't make spells that hold themselves up like her, so I need to constantly feed this spell MP, but there's not much you can do about that. I owe this man my life.

He's still dying? How is that possible? Time is stopped! It shouldn't be possible to die if no time is passing! Why can't I stop this?

"Young man, it's too late for me, save your MP."

"Just who are you?"

"*COUGH* Excuse me, I'm the man who created Mind magic, Quetstal. I knew the man who was attacking you guys so I felt a responsibility to stop him."

"Mind magic? The taboo? Why would you make such a thing?"

"I wanted to better humanity, however the government of my country stole my research under the pretext of paying for it. They weaponized it and made it for brainwashing."

"How did you know that man then? You were just a magic researcher!"

"He and I were close friends when we were little. I have no clue how he became like this... please do one thing for this dying old man and stop him, I managed to seal his magic, but that will only slow him down. He's a psychopath."

"How can I do anything?!?"

"I see potential in you, this is something I can trust you with... *cough*, It's my time to go... I hope I was right to trust you..."

I-I've never seen a man die in front of me before. Sure in movies, but never real life. Seeing the life fade from someone's eyes, the stop of the heart, the coldness of their body. This man who was breathing and talking a second ago is gone forever.

Is this real? What is happening? Why is this happening? All these questions flood into my head as the police finally arrive.

===

Jess' POV:

I hope William is okay! I mean, I would be surprised, but he's not stupid enough to run into danger! I mean, only an idiot would just run and fight a group of terrorists! Hypocrisy, what do you mean? I would never do something like that! ;P

In all seriousness though, I really do hope he made it out fine. He's a Sapient, so there's a good chance he was targeted. It seems like the police finally made it to the building, that's good. Seems like everything will be okay now.

Sometimes I feel like a bad luck charm. The crazy stuff only ever happens to the people around me. If I didn't go to that school, would the students there still suffer? If I didn't compete in the tournament, would people still have gotten hurt?

Every bad thing recently has happened to those around me, and I feel so guilty. Maybe it would be best if I just stayed away from people for a while...

=== The Next Day ===

Another day and more information about the attack on my school has come out! I already knew the attackers were the Magic Liberators, but the surprise is that they caught the leader. Apparently, he can't use magic for some reason.

They also found a dead body by a student who went to the school. Apparently, the student tried to save the man's life but failed. Who the dead body belongs to still hasn't been identified, and the student refuses to talk about the matter, possibly due to trauma.

Still haven't heard anything from the school. Obviously, the school was let out again, and the students who were hurt by the attack are being monitored for the sake of their physical and mental health.

I was lucky to have missed the incident this time, but I seriously don't know what to do. I feel guilty, like it was my fault, like I'm a bad luck charm. Is that even possible though? Is this stuff happening because of me, or just an annoying string of coincidences that are constantly affecting me?

I decide to take a walk outside and get some fresh air. Being couped up in my house will probably not do any good, so I go to walk on the nature trail by my house. It is fall, so the leaves have started to change color, and the forest looks beautiful.

While walking, I see a familiar sight, is that King Chiron? What is he doing here? Well, I should probably head back before I get in any trouble.

"I know you are there, don't just walk away."

Great, he knows I'm here, I'm not gonna be silenced, right? I don't want to die yet!

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you, were you going for a walk?"

"Uh... y-yes your highness!"

"Pft, I see, well what do you think of the forest. I think that this place is so beautiful this time of year."

"Y-yeah, I was just admiring it."

Talking is already hard enough, but now the person I'm talking to is the literal king! AHHHH!!! Well, now I just think the universe is messing with me. I mean, the Shift and everything that's happened after is just evidence in my favor.

"You know, your soul is pretty special, I haven't seen one like it in centuries."

"Wait, there was another person with a soul like mine?"

"Oh, so you know how special your soul is then."

"Uh, I-I ran into a crazy man who told me he could see souls. He said that mine had shape, but couldn't tell what it was."

"Haha, yeah that man is a little banged up in the head huh."

"Yeah, you're telling me! ... wait you know him!?!"

"You're talking about Osiris, right? He told me about you, and how you kept ending up in his lab."

"Uh..."