Gratitude

The atmosphere around Jayce was quite awkward.

There was a mix of gratitude, shocked, puzzled, and a healthy dose of envy.

Well, maybe the last one isn't that healthy, but it's a normal reaction.

Of course you would want a power that could save someone's life in an instant.

I bet he's aware that saving her life wasn't the only application that my watch had. No, knowing the genius that he was, he probably had an idea about it.

There was an awkward silence, both of us waiting for each other to make the first move, but Jayce ended up breaking it.

"Thank you."

Those were the only two words that were needed.

I replied, desperation mixed in it voice, something that I didn't have to fake.

"Please keep this a secret."

Jayce nodded his head solemnly, understanding the implications that would happen if my power was to be leaked.

First I, his newfound friend and savior, would undoubtedly be seized by some shady people.

Next, Maria, his lover, would also be seized as an experiment to see how my powers affected her.

Not a good thing to happen, not at all.

"What do we do now?"

That question rung in the air for a while until Jayce finally answered.

"We have to hide your power. We'll disguise it as spirit magic. The spirits are invisible to most people anyways, so they shouldn't question you if you were to use it again."

I agreed with him, but I just remembered about something.

There are different types of magic in this world.

Spirit and elemental are the main ones in Piltover. Why? Because they are used to create hextech.

Other than that, there are other types of magic.

And there is one that I'm very, very interested in.

The magic of Ascension.

The thing that Azir did to become the Emperor of Shurima.

If I could do that... I would become powerful.

Extremely powerful.

Sh*t, now I'm getting tempted.

I reined in my thoughts, trying not to get ahead of myself by setting impossible goals, and snapped back to reality.

Jayce was already in the progress of dialing Piltover's police, and as he was reporting the incidence, he mentioned me.

"Someone saved Maria by using spirit magic on her..."

Yeah... we'll go with spirit magic for now. Fake it til' you make it.

...

The Piltover police worked fairly quickly, arriving only a few minutes after the emergency call. They even brought a paramedic with them.

Well, that was kinda useless because no one was injured, but the thought is all that matters.

They were about to bring me in for questioning, but Jayce used his unspoken authority as the #1 genius of Piltover to stop them.

What a nice guy.

Some opposed it, but what can they do against Jayce himself? Punish him? Not if you want to lose the brightest mind. Fight him? He's gonna beat your ass.

My point is, there's nothing that they can do against Jayce.

Jayce beckoned at me to follow him after Maria was administered to a hospital, and we went to his dorm.

Well, it was not really a dorm as only he was living in it. It was more like a mansion.

We sat at a table and Jayce ordered robots to bring us refreshments, and he started the conversation with me.

"What is your power?"

Damn, that was straightforward. I thought that he would scurry around the topic for a little bit.

I hesitated. If I don't tell him, would he get mad at me?

Probably not, but would it lower his opinion of me? Possibly.

"I'll respect it if you don't want to provide an answer. I'm just curious."

Making dumb decisions after one another... I'm turning into a real protagonist.

"I can manipulate certain aspects of time, but you probably already guessed it.

His smile confirmed my guess, but he didn't reply.

"I have a proposition. Would you like to stay with me?"

Slow down, buddy. People might misunderstood if they heard us.

"Why?"

"Gratitude and curiosity. You saved Maria, the most important person in my life. As for the second part, I'd like to test limits. I want to know the extents of your powers, how much you can do, so on and so on."

Those are the exact reasons I was thinking of.

"What do I get from this?"

"Protection and resources. Now that the news got out that you have an 'affinity' for magic, many people will come after you. After all, elemental magic users are more common than spirit magic users. If you have two, you can basically make your own hextech factory. As for resources, well, not to brag, but I'd say that I'm ahead of competition in this school by a long way, so naturally, I'd have access to large quantities of rare resources like hextech cores and metal."

Damn. This guy also knew what I needed the most.

Sure.

...

The news of the incident spread quickly.

Within a day, people were already hounding me wherever I go, forcing me to stay in Jayce's dorms most of the time.

Well, that's not a bad thing. His dorm is comfortable.

It's basically my new home now. I just need some official documents or 'useless papers' as Jayce would put it.

I got up from my bed and walked out to the common area, which is more like a living room now.

"Good morning."

Jayce was sitting at a table while drinking 'coffee' and reading the school's daily news on his tablet.

"You're quite popular, according to the news at least."

"I'm aware of my charms."

He bursted into laughter, the sound echoing itself throughout the mansion.

"So? What's my first class? I mean, we went to the office for that, after all."

At the mention of the office, it seemed like he remembered about our original purpose going there.

"Ah! Right, your first class is archeology. It's in the room two hall ways apart from the office."

What the f*ck is that description?

"Room number..?"

"202"

There we go. Now I know where to go.

I headed to Jayce where breakfast was awaiting us, and we dined.

After finishing, the robots took our dishes and started cleaning them, and we headed off to do our own things.

"By the way, after your first class, you'll return to our dorm. We have experiments to do, after all."

He can do that? He can just sign me out of classes? Holy sh*t, is he an angel?

I was excited at the prospect of him being able to sign me out of classes any time he wanted to, but I was even more excited about the experiment.

But first, class is in order.