<<Trigger Warning: This chapter has depictions of Sexual Harassment. Readers Please be Advised>>

Chapter 4

He had heard a huge sound.

Maybe it wasn’t a sound, but Shirone couldn’t think of any other way to express it.

It felt like a mouth was attached to every object around the world and had conveyed something to Shirone. All the sounds came together and eventually became one.

‘I’m not who I thought I was.’

It was the world itself.

As he was recalling what the world had conveyed to him, one enormous truth hit his head.

‘I’m Infinite.’

“Heuk. Huk.”

Shirone, who was immensely moved, closed his eyes and dashed off.

He needed to run.

Despite being trapped in his earthly body again, his mind still remembered what it was like being in the Spirit Zone.

‘I’m free.’

‘How much time has passed?’

Shrine, who wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, suddenly felt something impact his face.

“Urgh!”

When he fell on his back, he looked around and saw a sickening scene in an alley.

‘How did I get here?’

He was so affected by his emotions that he couldn’t remember what happened a while back, but now reality had woken him up.

“What the hell?! So annoying.”

A group of tramps were staring at Shirone, eyeing him like how a predator would eye prey.

The guy pushed by Shirone grabbed him by the collar.

“Hey, you! Are you crazy?”

“S-Sorry.”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it! Be honest, you were sent by the Wolf Gang to humiliate me, weren’t you?!”

“No! I wasn't!”

They noticed through Shirone’s eyes that he was a kid who didn’t even seem to have the courage to hit a person, let alone use a knife.

All that was left was to go through his pockets, but they didn’t think he would even have a dime with that attire of his.

‘Even so, with that face of his, he could be sold for quite a lot of money.’

‘It’s obvious that he’s one of the lower commoners out there… That’s even better! I won’t have to take responsibility for anything that happens!’

While engrossed in their thoughts, a woman’s voice was heard outside the alley.

“What are you guys doing? Did something fun happen?”

The men all turned at the same time.

“Miss Amy!”

Shirone looked at Amy as if he had met his savior.

‘So young!’

She had red-colored bangs covering one eye. She also seemed to be a girl of his age.

“Hehe, what brought you here? Are you bored again?”

He talked in a light tone, but the hands of the man approaching Amy were modestly clamped together.

It was a natural behavior for those who knew her identity.

Amy Karmis.

She was part of the Karmis family, a family labeled to be just below the royal family in terms of hierarchy. They were the 1st-ranked nobility.

It was out of the ordinary for the youngest daughter of such a family to hang out with tramps, but for the adolescent girl who was tired of living, being defiant was her only joy in life.

“This kid tried to kill someone, so we’re just trying to teach him some lessons.”

“N-No! I bumped into him without realizing it.”

“Ha! As if! You want me to believe that?”

When the burly man raised his foot to kick Shirone’s stomach, Shirone curled up in panic.

“Ugh.”

“You got to compensate, boy! Where’s your mom? I said go get her!”

Shirone was shocked.

Don’t they have parents as well? How could they curse the parents of other people like that?

“The look in your eyes has changed. Are you upset?”

The tramps who noticed the anger in Shirone rushed in and started beating him down.

“Stop it. You’ll hurt him too much.”

As soon as the tramps backed away, she jumped down from the wooden box and approached Shirone.

“You okay?”

“I-I didn’t do anything.”

“Nobody said anything. I’m asking if you’re okay.”

Amy stared at Shirone’s face.

‘Don’t make such a face with just that. It’s as if someone just kicked your puppy. I’ve lived a much harder life than you!’

In the eyes of others, being the only daughter of the Karmis family would seem like a privilege.

‘I’ve lived a harder life than you. I worked my ass off to get to where I am today, so why must I sympathize with you?’

It was also her who conquered the tramps in this back alley, where all kinds of crimes were prevalent.

Even if it was a childish thought, the story changes depending on one’s status.

Amy turned her head to the tramps.

“What are you going to do now? Do you have anything more interesting in mind?”

Shirone, who thought he was going to be let go, was surprised.

On the other hand, the tramps, who knew of Amy’s bad temper, spoke calmly.

“We were planning on just checking for money then selling him away to a brothel after.”

Amy smirked.

Of course, she had no intention of going through with what the backstreet tramps were planning to do.

She was planning on moderately bullying him then sending him home.

“Hmm.”

Amy, who was carefully examining Shirone’s appearance, came up with a sadistic prank.

“There shouldn’t be any defects on a male prostitute. Why don’t you take off your clothes so we can check for any?”

She was actually a bit curious about him, and considering the fact that Shirone was a lowly commoner, she wouldn’t have to take any responsibility.

‘And to be honest, he has the looks.’

His looks were certainly decent.

“Take it off. Who knows? If you do as I say, I might let you go.”

Shirone was absent-minded.

He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. These so-called humans in front of him looked like demons in his eyes.

“How could you? That’s a really bad thing to do.”

“Don’t you know? This is how the world runs. After all, you’re just labeled as a victim because you’re being harassed. Whether it’s this or that, it’s all the same for weaklings. Everyone only cares about themselves.”

The leader of the tramps snorted.

Because if you were to blame the world, you’d feel like you’ve become an adult, you’d feel like you’ve outsmarted others.

‘You’re wrong, you immature girl!’

‘You talk about artifice when you haven’t seen nothing. You talk about pain, yet you haven't experienced true pain.’

‘You don’t know anything.’

‘Life lasts much longer than you think.’

“Hey! She told you to take off your clothes! You wanna get beat up again?”

At some point, Amy began to feel a little uneasy at the unresponsive sight of Shirone.

‘Did he go crazy?’

However, Shirone didn’t go mad.

Rather, he was focused on the changes in his brain more than ever before.

He entered the Spirit Zone as his strained mentality became extremely sensitive to the violence he experienced for the first time.

‘This is…?’

It was definitely different from the first time he experienced it. This second time he experienced it, he was levelheaded enough to understand the information flooding his mind.

He could almost hear eyes blinking.

With the boundary between himself and the outside world torn down, Shirone sent his consciousness along the instinctive path.

The place his consciousness ended up in was at the memory of Alpheas teaching magic at the magic academy.

“Ah…”

His insight began to collect superficial information about Alpheas’s emotions, senses, mind, actions, demeanor, and attitude.

The information was combined in a limitless pattern that went on forever. And eventually, the essential information was brought into Shirone’s consciousness.

“Hey! Quickly get out of your clothes! The miss says she wants to see!”

As the tramp grabbed him by the collar and shook him, Shirone almost got thrown out of the zone.

The Spirit Zone, which required high concentration to enter and maintain, was vulnerable to outside influence.

The danger was comparable to someone shaking the tightrope you were walking on.

Amy shouted as she detected the change in Shirone’s eyes.

“Wait! Wait a minute!”

However, it was already too late. Shirone’s will strongly distorted nature.

“BOOOM!”

As the ferocity of the winds rose, all the physical things in the alley came to mind.

The wooden crates, the pebbles on the street, the thugs, and Amy, were no exception.

“AHHHHH!”

The scream brought Shirone to his senses.

A desolated empty alleyway appeared before him as things began to drop from the sky.

Thud! Thud! Thud Thud! Thud!

The heavy sound that gave Shirone goosebumps drummed the ground.

As gravity was a familiar thing, it was often overlooked. But the force called gravity was a much more powerful force than most people of this time could imagine.

The tramps who fell on their limbs, hoping to use them to survive the fall, experienced first-hand the pain of fractured limbs.

“Auughhhh…”

“M-My arm… My leg…”

Their legs were grotesquely bent and the bones of their forearms pierced through their skin.

Shirone was taken aback.

He didn’t expect to produce such a disastrous result.

Meanwhile, the only person who had their body intact and in good health was Amy.

Nobles have their bodies honed from infancy, so it goes without saying that 1st-class nobles were the best skill-wise.

Amy, who came down while holding her fluttering skirt, turned to Shirone with dumbfounded eyes.

“You… Who in the world are you?”

The scene created by Shirone a while ago clearly showed why mages were existences to be feared.

Even Amy, who often boasted about her unique athletic body, could not resist against the brief appearance of a whirlwind.

“Answer me! Where did you learn that magic?! How could a commoner…!”

Amy stopped talking.

The guards came running to the site after hearing the screams in the alley.

Amy clicked her tongue because she knew her family. If she were to get caught, they wouldn’t let this one go.

“Tsk.”

She stepped on the building, leaping and zig zagging up the walls.

Shirone, who had been staring blankly at those impressive, inhumane movements, quickly snapped back to reality.

‘I’m in trouble.’

If the guards saw him here, they would interrogate him about what exactly had happened here.

‘Dad!’

Shirone realized on that day in the city… That the world was cruel to the weak.

‘No one would believe me!’

Shirone turned away and frantically ran towards the only person who he could trust.

* * *

The Karmis Family.

A 1st-class powerhouse of the kingdom.

Although they were not nobility from the capital, the outstanding individuals produced by the family spread throughout Thormia.

The only Karmis’s now left in their estate were Lord Shakora, the family leader who had retired, and Amy.

“I’m back.”

“Where have you been? I heard you skipped your training again.”

Although he was over 60 years old, he had the visage of a man in his prime.

He was tall, had intelligent looks, and wore glasses. Yet despite the scholarly look, knowing he was the best in the kingdom, he could not hide his pride.

“I’ve learned everything I needed to learn. It’s not even fun.”

“So you played around with the tramps? No matter how much of a tramp you think you are, if you continue with that attitude of yours, kids of your age will end up catching up to you. Even gemstones have to be polished to become jewels. If you let your guard down, one day, you will come to regret wasting those days away.”

“Gosh! That nagging of yours.”

Shakora smirked.

He understood the peculiar, pubescent child. He also understood the dissatisfaction she had toward the family.

‘The grass always seems greener on the other side.’

The reason he was not correcting her behavior was because, unlike her brothers, she had inherited his talents.

‘When you realize what you have, your tilted axis will automatically find its place, for that is the fate of a genius.’

Amy suddenly stopped. Thanks to her dad’s nagging, she remembered the morning incident from before.

“Who the hell was that?”

She trained wholeheartedly because she hated the rumors that insisted she was where she was only because she was born into a prestigious noble family.

‘He looked to be around the same age as me.’

‘He definitely wasn’t taught how to fight, so how did an uneducated individual master magic?’

‘An accident… Or is it perhaps the awakening of talent…’

That was the only thing she could think of.

‘…If you let your guard down, one day, you will come to regret wasting those days away.’

Amy bit her lower lip.

‘I will never lose!’

She swore to herself that she would never lose against someone from that social class.

“Dad…”

It was a surprise to hear Amy starting up a conversation with her dad first. So to sincerely show that he was listening, he lowered the newspaper in his hands.

“Yes?”

“I’m not really saying that I want to fully get into it… But there is a subject I’m interested in.”

“Oh?”

Shakora’s eyes shone in excitement.

She was a bright kid who could understand with just half a word.

“Tell me. I will actively back you up.”

“No, I’m not saying I want to devote myself to it, I’m just interested in it.”

“Then I’ll support your interest.”

Amy was a bit bitter.

‘Yes, I know!’

There was nothing difficult in the world if you had the power and wealth of a 1st-class noble family.

‘How foolish of me to think that my parents would exert any effort in trying to raise me themselves… But I have no choice but to go with it.’

Amy did not understand how childish it seemed to other people to deny the Karmis family until she was beaten by a commoner.

‘I’m gonna become the best!’

Amy, who made her decision, spoke.

“Magic.”

“Mm? What was that?”

“If you know anyone from the magic academy, please introduce me.”