The rune on my wrist began to pulse intensely, as if trying to get my attention.
I lowered my gaze.
The golden symbol was trembling slightly.
Then came the burning.
It didn't really hurt. Even though the heat was spreading through my arm, it felt more like the rune was boiling, trying to release something that refused to come out.
Instinctively, I moved my wrist, but it was useless.
In front of my eyes, tiny particles began to rise—like black dust—detaching from the rune's surface and floating in the air.
What the hell…
I stood still, watching them.
There was no wind, yet they vanished one by one into nothingness.
I quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching, but from the way people were moving, they didn't seem to notice anything.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the golden glow faded, and the pulsing stopped.
It returned to being just a simple symbol on my skin.
I raised my arm and looked at it for a moment.
At a glance, nothing seemed different, and I didn't feel any change in me. Yet after all that, I doubted nothing had happened.
Was part of the negative karma removed?
Since the rune had only activated after I helped that man, it was the only explanation I could think of. But what were the effects?
Had the rate at which misfortune occurred decreased?
Was the danger reduced?
Or maybe, would I just have a few days without worrying about bad luck, only for it to return as usual?
As I thought about these things, a wave of dizziness caused me to lose my balance for a moment. I managed not to fall by leaning on a pole, but then I felt one of the strangest sensations of my life.
My head became light. I grabbed the pole tightly, but it was no use. My vision blurred, and I felt a hollow in my chest, similar to the one I had felt when I traveled back in time—as if something was pulling me away.
Then everything went dark, and the next moment, the scene around me changed.
In front of me was the man I had helped—but he was different. He looked much more worn out, as if he were dying.
The man was struggling to reach one of the few pharmacies. He was clutching a small bag, different from the one I had given him.
"I did it..." he whispered in a broken voice. "Now I can buy the antidote..."
He staggered forward and, perhaps due to his weakness, tripped and fell.
The bag rolled away, opening up.
All the coins spilled out, rolling onto the street as if fate itself were mocking him.
Luckily, they fell near him, and the man managed to gather them—except for the last coin, which bounced further away, hit the edge of a drain... and fell inside.
Clink.
With a soft sound, the coin was lost. The man crawled toward the opening, his trembling fingers trying to reach it.
"No... no, no! That was the last one... I was just missing one!"
My point of view shifted to the coin. I saw it flowing quickly through the sewer system. Sometimes it changed direction when a path was blocked by accumulated dirt, but even so, the coin didn't stop.
It kept going until an obstacle knocked it out of the drain, placing it near the curb.
"Damn it! How do we still not have enough money?!"
Hearing that nostalgic voice, I opened my eyes wide. I turned to the group of kids talking loudly and recognized them immediately.
It was the group I had befriended and escaped with from the archipelago.
My gaze landed on one of them, holding a pale "me" foaming at the mouth. Seeing this, everything clicked.
This was a scene I remembered from the old timeline. While we were exploring the jungle, I was bitten by a venomous snake and was on the brink of death.
There was an antidote, but it was expensive. My group had to use every coin they had saved to buy it, and even then, they were still ten valis short when... wait.
Don't tell me…
"I'll go steal from someone."
"We don't have time! Look at him, he's dying!"
"Then tell me what to do!"
"Wait, guys! It was ten valis, right?"
One of the boys spotted the coin and showed it to the others. They froze for a second, then burst out laughing.
"Lucky bastard. Let's go!"
I watched them leave, then my body was pulled back to the man, who was still reaching into the sewer, trying to retrieve the lost coin—but his eyes were already blurred, his breath weak, and his arm barely moved.
Cough!
He coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
"Yuro... daddy... daddy's gonna be... a bit late... don't cry... my beloved... son..."
The man lost all strength. He collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down his face, dying with his eyes still open.
****
I suddenly returned to the present, heart pounding, throat dry.
I was still leaning against the pole, the world around me once again real.
After a moment, I looked up at the sky and let out a bitter sigh.
Saying I felt nothing would've been a lie, but I didn't feel guilty about that man. For starters, I wasn't the one who had stolen his money, and secondly, in this new timeline, I had already more than repaid him—so any debt I had toward him had been settled.
In any case, the fact that my existence stole life from others didn't make me feel anything, except when it came to the people I cared about. I had killed so many people that I had become numb to the outcome.
That's why this feeling of... melancholy wasn't because of the lives I had taken, but because of my life.
Even though I was born without a destiny, my existence stole from others just to keep going. But for what purpose?
Thinking back, I had been incredibly lucky when it came to life-and-death situations, but that was it. I had nothing else.
I kept losing the people I cared about and lived a life of pure survival. In all the life I had lived, not once had I truly been happy. When I got close to it, it was torn away from me, only to throw me back into the abyss of suffering, where I barely managed to climb back up... just to start again.
Was that the price of my life?
I, who couldn't live without feeding off someone else, was I doomed to never have anyone by my side?
It almost made me laugh.
After everything I had done, and what I had become, part of me still longed for someone's warmth—but let's be honest, it would end badly.
I doubt I could give the other person what they wanted. I was simply too broken.
Anyone who spent too much time with me would realize that fact, and there would only be two outcomes: they would try to change me and then give up, or they would run away, scared.
Maybe that's why, once my revenge was complete, all I could see was my death.
Now that I think about it, even the gods didn't want me, according to what the Will of the World said.
A chuckle escaped me at the thought—then I froze.
Wait... then why did Noctis give me his stigma?
For a moment, I thought it was because I was still young back then, but the Will of the World had known about my condition since birth and had already warned the gods of my existence.
Then why had Noctis ignored that?
Granted, as a mortal, I couldn't understand a god—but now I couldn't help being curious.
Who knows, maybe he liked me or saw something in me.
In any case, I was grateful to Noctis for helping me grow stronger in the old timeline, and to repay him, once the archipelago was liberated, I would ensure that his temple was accessible to others.
Leaving aside philosophical questions about life and the unknown thoughts of the gods, I focused on finding some message left by the Will of the World, hoping to understand what had changed in me—and finally, I found something.
[Adel, if you are reading this, it means you've managed to purify part of the negative karma within you.
I wish I could tell you everything is fine now and that you won't have any more problems—but unfortunately, that's not the case. The negative karma in you is enormous, and it won't be erased so easily.
In any case, I want to start by saying that not all lives have the same value.
I know it might sound cruel, but it's the truth. The decisions and actions made by a farmer can't be compared to those of a king. The same goes for the karma you purify.
If the person you repay has a particularly important destiny, like the Hero, the amount of karma you'll purify will be significantly greater than that of a fisherman, whose fate would have affected few or none.
As for the result, even I find it difficult to say what it is exactly, but it's very likely that the interval between each surge has slightly increased.]
Finishing the reading, another sigh escaped my lips.
It looked like I still had a long way to go.