Chapter 12: An Outlier Ability

Not soon after, I was currently back inside the car, being taken back to Aunt Mary's mansion.

I had managed to evade all of the guards and leave the manor without being noticed. And by the time I had left the premise, I was able to spot an inconspicuous black car lingering outside.

I now had some time to think by myself, and wonder what I had just done.

Staring past the shifting scenery, in my reflection, I could see my eyes starting to tinge a light blue at the bottom of my pupils.

My mana circuit had most likely started to accumulate mana again, although it wasn't enough to fully turn my eyes blue.

As far as I had experienced, I had come to the conclusion that mana accumulates naturally over time, and would generally increase with more life experience.

This meant that if I experienced something out of the ordinary that would have changed my life, for example, I would start to gain more mana, more quickly.

This was probably why I had managed to get a pin drop of mana in my mana core when I was fighting the chairman of the Lotus Group.

Anyways, I started to recollect my memories from the brief time I was able to use magic.

I had to start from scratch first.

What was magic? Why does it work? And how does my body know how to use it?

Aunt Mary had once told me, that magic was the implementation of mana into the outside world, bending energy to reciprocate other elements and things.

The difference between my 'body mana manipulation' and magic was that I simply just strengthened and weakened the flow of mana for my body, exhausting the mana inside as it would slowly escape my body naturally. Like a leaking circular straw.

However magic forced me to use this mana outside, rapidly depleting my energy, and burning away at my mana core.

The more I thought about it, the more I understood that mana manipulation was really pointless if you could use magic, but was undoubtedly a saviour for a person like me.

The next thing I needed to address was, why did magic work at that specific moment in time?

Thinking back, I remembered having a strong will to live, so was this why my body unconsciously activated it?

I had too many questions, but not enough answers, so I had to wait until I was alone to start experimenting.

******

A few hours had passed, and I arrived at the mansion while being escorted to my room, being left alone until I would be called to meet Aunt Mary.

Deciding to spend this time usefully, I sat down on the marble floor and started to bring in the scattered mana inside my mana circuit to my mana core, with sweat dripping down my face.

Thinking back to the feeling when my body used magic, with my perfect memory, I replicated the burn of my mana core, feeling the same ecstatic tingle in my body.

A slow, blue flame-like aura enveloped my body, time started to slow down, and I felt myself being forcefully pulled back into thin air, disappearing like dust.

WOOOSH

A second later, I opened my eyes to see myself standing in the same position I was in a few moments ago, about to sit down cross-legged.

"Interesting..."

There were two possible attributes to my magic, both being outlier abilities.

I either had 'Self-time Reversal magic', where I could drag my body into the past, albeit for only a few seconds.

Or, I had 'Space-Time magic', being able to manipulate reality itself.

Both of these abilities sounded impressive on their own, but I had extremely limited choices, as none of them was necessarily offensive magic.

Either way, I definitely had a rare outlier, so I was definitely satisfied.

'I have to find a way to use these abilities for attacking, otherwise, magic would be pointless.'

After thinking, I decided that my magic was not powerful enough, nor researched enough, so only time knows the limits of my abilities.

"I will get stronger, that is all that matters."

Perhaps indoctrinated, but I now felt a strong will to become the strongest hero, even though I could not even remember why I wanted to in the first place.

My perfect memory slowly developed during my time in isolation, so I could barely remember the things before that.

"Haaa... I'm so pathetic, all I can manage is a measly time reversal spell, which is only a second long, and it already burns so much mana." I said in a flat voice.

BANG BANG BANG.

Three knocks resonated on my door in quick succession.

"Yes?"

"Please go to Lady Mary's study now." called out a voice from behind the door, who I presumed to be a woman.

"Okay."

******

I was now sitting in front of Aunt Mary's desk, staring at her finishing off signing some documents on her table.

I had a vague itchy feeling being here, it was as if something was definitely not right here.

Ignoring my intuition, I could only wait until Aunt Mary started to talk.

"Well, Ray, how was it, your first kill?" she asked in a sweet tone.

"Alright."

"Hahaha, I presume that everything went to plan?"

There was no way this woman did not already know what had happened, and it seemed that she was just testing me.

And I was going to play along.

"There were slight hiccups, but I had confirmed the kill afterwards," I said coldly.

While Aunt Mary might have known that the chairman was already dead, she could not have known about my recent discovery in magic, as it was something that had happened in private.

I suddenly started to feel the temperature in the room rapidly drop, and an eerily tense atmosphere stood between us.

"Surely, that wasn't all... right?"

'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How does she already know? This shouldn't be possible. She must be testing me. There just is no other way!'

Losing my composure, I started to dread all of the possible outcomes that could happen if I lied to her. However, on the outside, my face still just had a plain, bored look.

"It was, I had managed to infiltrate the manor, steal a guard's weapon, and push him off a building."

Aunt Mary continued to stare at me for another minute, not breaking eye contact.

"Very well, I will believe you. So you managed to kill everyone without using magic once?"

The temperature in the room started to return to normal, and I answered her question.

"I had used my mana manipulation to increase my physical prowess, to ambush him and push him off of the balcony."

My heartbeat began to slow down, and I started to tell lie after lie.

Aunt Mary only watched and listened to me tentatively, as I explained everything that had occurred.

By the end of it all, I had bent the story using white lies and linked everything to each other to make it seem less suspicious and believable.

"Very well, I will say that you have finished your mission. Now, it is time that you start to attend Athena Academy, where you will learn how to use and hone your magic."

"Your mission there is to assassinate a girl named, 'Liss Everstone'. I don't care how long you take, just do it before you graduate."

"Afterwards, you will return to me, and by the time you are 16, you will complete your hero ceremony, and train to become the strongest hero. That is all."

Starting from now, I had 5 years of freedom, where I can do whatever I wanted.

Despite this, I still felt a strange feeling of emptiness, and only wanted to do whatever Aunt Mary planned for me.

'What is wrong with me?'

A part of me wants freedom from her, while the other wants to stay and listen to her. Something was definitely not right, since I couldn't choose between the two.

"Now, you may head to your chambers for rest, and tomorrow, you will depart once again."

Life was currently speeding ahead, and I had to be ready for it.

By the time I had left the room, my face showed a neutral expression, but my eyes had turned a full light blue and were glowing violently as I braced myself for a new beginning.

______

Authors note:

I have finally reached the start of the academy arc. Please write a review, and add this book to your library, as I promise this will get better.

Hopefully.