Lie

Rail's body collapsed on the ground with a dull thud.

While his hands were still covering his crotch, his body began twitching wildly.

"That must hurt a lot…but what else did you expect from a super-effective hit?"

I laughed and looked at the miserable state of the 'strongest' student in the academy. It was quite funny, how easy it had been to knock out this muscle-headed fool.

Looking at his face, the blood that oozed out of his nose, and the two white teeth that lay not too far away from him on the ground, I could hardly contain my smile.

It was childish but I didn't really care. In fact, I was not yet satisfied just looking at the writhing figure of the musclehead.

Taking a step forward, I used all my might to stomp on his head, making the floorboards crack and pushing it down harder. The wood creaked but to my disappointment, it didn't break in.

"You're too heavy for me to wipe the floor with your face…but I like this kind of revenge even better!!"

A pained groan escaped Rail's mouth when I spoke and I had to take a second glance at the young man.

He wouldn't die due to a few kicks…probably.

Rail was a tough guy and he had already accumulated enough soul particles to create his first Soulring. A Normie, aka me, who had yet to gather soul particles for my first Soulring, shouldn't have enough strength to do anything to him. But, I had knocked him out.

My eyes turned away from Rail and I took a look at the five bullies, who had obstructed my path before. Their jaws hit the floor and their eyes began quivering involuntarily, their earlier confidence now replaced with hesitation…

There was no trace of mercy, or hesitation in my eyes, nothing of that sort.

"Make a choice. Get out of my sight, or…" I took a deliberate pause, my ice-cold voice cutting through the stale air in the corridor as I pointed at Rail's hardly moving body. "...pay him a visit on the ground."

I took a small step forward and it was as if I put a spell on the bullies that made them take an involuntary step back at the same time.

Their bodies began to tremble and cold sweat trickled down their temples.

Even if I didn't want to bully them because it was childish, I couldn't help myself at this sight.

'This is really fun!'

I didn't really do anything special. Not a single soul particle had circulated through my body to eliminate Rail. There was no Legendary Martial Arts I used to defeat the bullies' leader either. However, that was exactly what inflicted the fear deep inside their hearts.

In their eyes, I was just a loser, someone who had neither a system nor soul particles.

But that loser defeated the strongest Blessed they knew and he didn't show a trace of hesitation to do exactly the same to the five bullies as well.

It was quite obvious that they had yet to face the cruelty of the real world because my attitude and behavior were nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't think that it was anything special, at least.

I held back a lot today as well, otherwise, Rail would be dead, right now.

'They should change a lot after this incident. That is if they learned from today…' I could only think while looking at the retreating figures of the five students when they scurried away like mice. I lunged forward as if I was about to pounce at them and tear my former bullies apart.

I jerked backward after a moment and straightened my back again.

"Being too arrogant will just kill you, sooner or later…" I mumbled when I looked back at Rail one last time.

Afterward, it was time for me to leave the academy.

But before I left for good, I made a short stop at the student dorm.

Every student who needed financial support was given three meals a day and a room in the student dormitory. Neither was anything special because the meals were plain and the room was small, but it was far more than I could have hoped for from this world when I was brought over.

I didn't really anticipate anything when I came to this world, probably. I don't remember much about my life before I came to this messed-up, yet, somewhat peaceful world.

It had been surprisingly easy to survive when I woke up in an unknown forest more than eight years ago.

At that time I had even fewer memories of my past than today.

I was Zayn Noir, 25 years old, and my Soul was bound to the Grimoire of the Ancient…or was it the other way around?

There was no way for me to know for sure.

Everything about my life before I arrived in this world was blurred, seemingly sealed, and only a few memories had resurfaced since then. I was still not sure how to interpret most resurfaced memories either because they included some rather useless facts about the world I came from and some more pieces of useless information.

Only a single memory was vibrantly etched on my mind.

I was shivering like a willow leaf in the cold wind that created hollow noises as they rustled through the mysterious forest I woke up in.

Only I was there, surrounded by huge trees that towered over me like giants, plants overflowing with life, and animals with supernatural strength and unique powers.

Not sure where I was, I even began to question my identity for quite a while. After all, it was impossible for my mature, and handsome body to have shrunk into that of a tiny child whose height didn't exceed a meter…

I didn't even have a single strand of hair all over my body!!

When I tried to ruffle through my long hair, I found myself grasping a smooth bowling ball.

'...Not even eyebrows…'

While I was sttill struggling to cope with the emotional damage I received at the shocking realization of my absolute lack of hair, I was hit by another fragmented memory.

In that memory, I saw myself looking up in the air, where I saw…myself…or was it a Divine being that looked like me? I didn't really understand.

The Divine being looked down at me with a gentle smile on his face.

…I watched myself, looking at myself in my fragmented memories…

We had the same lean, muscular stature, black hair, and ocean-blue eyes. But there were still very clear and noticeable differences between the two of us.

The most memorable differences were the overbearing and overwhelmingly charismatic presence of the Divine being and the pressure he naturally exuded while levitating in the air in front of me

However, that was not what I meant when I thought that we were different.

I just knew that it was me…both of them. But at the same time, the Divine being was not actually me…

I instinctively knew that this was a different me, even if it didn't really make any sense.

[Zayn Noir…my world needs you…]

What a lie…