Reassurance

With the remaining weeks I had, other than acquiring the few remaining codes, artifacts, and important objects that were hidden around the city, I spend most of my time playing with my little sister.

Rubi was without a doubt, the cutest being in the entire world and if anyone disagrees, I might have to challenge them to a duel to the death.

If she was a star in the universe then she'd be the brightest.

After a gloomy shower of rain, she'd be the rainbow that comes after to bring a little bit of color and happiness back into the world.

"How does it look?" I asked.

"Perfect," said Mother. As the season was changing, I needed to change into the Autumn uniform.

Patting the "dust" off my shoulders, she asked me, "Are you sure you're ready to return to the academy? If you're not... I don't mind you staying home a little longer. I like you being at home with me anyway."

"I'll be fine Mother," I responded with a gentle smile, appreciative of how thoughtful she was.

"Are you sure? I know I'm coming off as overprotective but I'm worried that everyone in that academy will believe in that stupid false accusation and they'll ostracize or even bully you," said Mother, extremely worried for me.

She was wrong about the accusations being false because they were as real as they can get.

But she didn't need to know the truth.

Even if I did tell her, I reckoned she might even shake her head and send me to the mental hospital to see if something was wrong with my brain.

"I'll be okay Mother," I assured her. "I'm an Agnus."

Hearing my response, she couldn't help but smile. In a soft voice, she said, "Yeah. That's right. You're an Agnus. Nobody can take that away from you."

Feeling a little bit better about sending me back to the academy, she hooked her arm around mine and said, "Come. Let's go shopping together."

That was another way of her telling me to accompany her as she purchases everything that piques her interest without taking even a moment to glance at the price tags.

The first thing she did was drag me along to this store that you couldn't even enter unless you had a golden membership card that was made out of real gold.

She bought some new shoes for herself.

"How do these look on me?" she asked, trying out a pair of heels that matched her blue eyes.

"They look wonderful on you," I told her.

Next, she went and bought some clothes for Rubi. As an expert on what she liked, I joined her as we went through what must've been the entire children's section of this designer store.

We ended up picking out and purchasing almost half of the entire catalog that was out there.

After that, she wanted to go buy Father a new watch. She asked for my advice and as a man and the son of the man whose gift it was for, I could proudly say that I chose a watch that I knew he'd love.

She offered to buy something for me but I refused, making an excuse that I had bought too many things for myself the past month and I wanted to cool off a little bit on spoiling myself.

"Fine," she reluctantly said in response.

Cyro didn't get anything. Not because Mother hated him.

That'd be hilarious but no. It was because his birthday was coming up soon and Mother already had something in mind for his gift.

When we got home, I spent an hour on my bed, looking up at the ceiling, going over the memories in my head, both Bell's and my own.

There were a few things I needed to be wary of once I reenter the academy and I had to remind myself of them so that I didn't accidentally place another obstacle on my journey to gaslighting everyone.

How am I going to gaslight the school?

You'll see.

Gon/Junipa had still yet to wake up but it would in a few days' time which was right before one of the major events of the first volume occurred. That wasn't a cliche but rather perfect timing on my part.

My other artifacts had already woken up and Vaulheshia wasn't used during the battle against Diamesca so I wasn't worried about being in danger even with Gon being asleep.

I also had two new artifacts.

The first was Urisha, a right earring that didn't look too bad paired together with Kimi, my left earring.

The second, Yanari was in a less common form, a patch of hair. It stood out from the rest of my hair because while Bell's natural hair was a beautiful golden-white color, Yanari's was a black color so black that light didn't dare touch it.

They all had their unique personalities and stories to tell so often, I just asked them questions about what they'd seen or what they'd been a part of while laying there on the bed.

Well, not exactly just laying there on the bed.

Whenever I'm resting my body but my mind is still awake, I take that time to speed up the circulation of mana in my veins as a way to train.

Most people were taught to sit down in the lotus position to cultivate their mana but I knew from the dragons in the novel who hibernated hundreds of years at times that it was possible to train the mana even while resting.

I wasn't to the level where I could train it while sleeping but doing it while resting on my bed and talking to my artifacts, wasn't an issue.

It was a little more complicated than just circulating the mana around the veins but that was roughly the entire concept behind it.

I could do it even when I'm walking or eating dinner once I get a little better at the technique.

It was clear during the daily family dinner that everyone, excluding Rubi who was unaware of my circumstances, was worried about me and my return to the academy.

I'd already spoken to Mother earlier so she was a little more relieved than the others but she still couldn't help but worry.

Only after keeping my composure, speaking with confidence and clarity for around half an hour was I able to convince all of them that I was going to be okay the next day.

"Everything will be alright," I reassured them.

Waking up the next morning, I looked outside my window and said out loud, "I'm going to see these poorly written characters in person now."

I have memories of some of them through Bell and I knew all of them closely through the terrible novel but now that I was actually going to see them with my very own eyes, I was feeling slightly nervous about it.

But as someone who faced a demon in less than two weeks since he arrived in a foreign world full of dangers and fantastical wonders that only existed in a novel, I quickly set those nerves aside and jumped out of bed.

Taking a cold shower, I then got dressed in my uniform.

Mother must've asked one of the maids to prep it for me because it was warm, ironed, and without any wrinkles.

Putting it on, I headed downstairs where Mother was already waiting there for me with breakfast.

The other men in the family were still asleep so she must've woken up early just for me.

"Good morning," she said.

"Good morning Mother," I responded.

I ate the breakfast that she prepared for me and as I was about to walk out the door, she gave me a tight hug and told me, "If anything happens, just know not to blame yourself. Don't let those lies get to you. Be strong. And if you can't... it's okay to return home."

"Thank you Mother for the concern. But... I'll be okay. Your son is strong," I told her.

"Yeah. My son is strong," she chuckled. "I'll see you after school."

"See you soon," I said before entering the car where Jerman was waiting for me.

As we entered the academy campus, which was around the size of a small town, I couldn't help but begin to recognize certain places that were written about in the book particularly this one candy shop on the corner of a street.

I told myself that one day, I'd have to visit that place someday because the shitty god described the candies as "the tastiest candies ever".

Again, an elementary level of describing something.

"We're here, young master," Jerman told me before getting out of the car and opening the door for me.

As I got out, Bell's memories of this place overlapped with what I was looking at.

'Indeed we're here.'

"I'll see you once school is over," I told Jerman before walking into the massive main academy building. The architecture looked like it was a mixture of the Gothic and Modern eras.

As soon as I opened the door, a few students walking by turned in my direction without thinking much of it.

But, the moment they saw my face, it was like all of them were struck by this spell that had them freeze in their spot.

That only led to more people turning to see what they were looking at, which only further increased the number of ice statues in the hall.

Their eyes, the gazes emitted by them, it felt like they were staring at a demon, one that they all wished to exterminate.

If I was the real Bell, I wondered if I would've had the strength to move from where I was. But I wasn't the real Bell so without even giving a single ounce of care about these negative feelings that were being thrown my way, I began walking to the headmistress' office.

She had sent me an email a few days ago asking me to head to her office before attending any of my classes.

She had some questions she wanted to ask me.

I had a feeling I knew what they were and having practiced my answers in the mirrors over the past few days, I was confident that my acting would be perfect.

Even if my confidence was false and my acting ended up being exposed, I already had enough evidence to back up my "truth" anyway so I wasn't worried whatsoever.

As I walked down the hallways, the ice statues followed me around with their eyes.

A few meters away from the headmistress' office, I saw the face of the other party who was a part of Bell's downfall, one that he and the shitty god was to be blamed for.

The female protagonist whom Bell had sexually assaulted, Diana, the ice mage who would later on tame an ice dragon which she would ride into battle.