Kael felt as though he had fallen into a trap the moment Robert smiled. For a moment, he could believe he was gay—but never that Robert would smile at him in any good way.
As he looked at Robert with a twisted mouth, a sudden sound came from his stomach.
Growling~
Kael clutched his stomach tightly; it felt like it was on fire.
He hurriedly ran to the washroom without saying a word, his dagger-like blue eyes stabbing at Robert as if he truly wanted to kill him.
SLAM~
He shut the door so loudly that Robert could hear it from the canteen.
"AAAHHHHHAHHH MY ASSSSSS!" A painful and embarrassing sound, like a twisted melody, reached Robert's ears.
"HAHAHA! This will teach you idiots to never mess with me." Robert gave his trademark smirk.
As he listened to what he considered his victory 'cry,' Robert grabbed his hamburger.
"Finally, I can eat it," Robert sighed, thinking of all the trouble he had gone through.
He gently took a small bite first to appreciate the taste.
"Mnnnn… wHAHAH—SPICE! SPICE! AGHHH, HOT!… WATER, WATER!" But instead of a delicate taste, it felt like he was eating raw spices.
Robert was practically dancing at this point. The burger in his hand also fell to the ground.
"So it was you, huh?" Robert suddenly heard a voice from behind. With his tongue sticking out like a dog's, he turned to look.
He saw an old man standing with the support of a cane. It was Max, the warden—a man as old as the school itself, Dawnfield Academy.
"ALd wan tosd yiwe aesp ne jsd eatsw (Old man, help me get water)," Robert hurriedly spoke in a language only he could understand.
"What are you saying… and what the hell have you done to the canteen?" Max angrily looked at the scattered glass pieces and the food thrown about.
Even though it wasn't his duty to manage such work—especially when it involved a normal student—he was here now, which meant anyone could blame him for any trouble that might arise.
"You kids have no manners. I'll make sure to complain to your teacher, hmph!" With that said, Max walked out with a dark face. He had come to eat, but instead he got dragged into this mess.
Behind him, Robert protested—or at least he tried. Tears streamed down his cheeks, not only from the injustice, but also from the burning sensation in his mouth.
---
SPACE-TIME DIMENSION
In the vast, empty dimension of nothing but darkness, a small crack formed. Slowly, it grew larger, and from within, a handsome black-haired boy stepped out.
He didn't stop there—another crack formed in front of him, and he walked straight in.
---
PRESENT TIME
Atop a skyscraper, a faint rift appeared. It quickly grew larger, and the same boy walked out—obviously, it was Alex.
After telling Kael to run, he had left that timeline, feeling he had done enough. For now, it was a good test of his talent.
Alex looked at the once color-filled world with a deep gaze.
"It's so fascinating… we see the world as colorful mainly because of our eyes. Does that mean the world hasn't lost its color, but I have? Or have I simply bent reality to make the colors fade like this?"
As Alex looked beneath him, he saw the once lively city—quiet, peaceful.
A very scientific thought flashed through his mind, but in the end, it didn't matter. No one was there to tell him otherwise, at least until he wanted them to be.
"I should get going." He walked off the building, letting gravity take control.
"WOOOOO!" Alex shouted as he free-fell, his heart pounding from sheer excitement—not only because of the current situation, but also for the bright future ahead.
As he neared the ground, the most logical sense for such a case didn't occur. Instead, a portal appeared at the spot he was about to hit, and he passed straight through it.
The portal opened onto Dawnfield Academy's Awakening platform—the very place where Alex had started his "short" tour.
He looked around: the teacher's hand was still mid-air, and the students were frozen, staring toward the platform.
Returning to what he assumed was his initial place before leaving, he snapped his fingers.
And just like a switch being flipped on and off, the gray-and-black world was replaced by the normal one.
"You o—huh?" The teacher looked at his hand, which hadn't caught Alex but only air. In amazement, he shifted his gaze to Alex, who was standing just a few inches away.
A big question mark hung over his head as he tried to make sense of the situation. At this level, it was impossible to make such a low-level mistake.
"Kid, did you awaken a space talent?" he asked, but quickly thought it rude to press further—after all, not everyone wanted their talent known.
"Leave it… Next!" he shouted, calling for the next person to come forward.
Alex was surprised when the teacher suddenly called out to ask if he had a space talent, but equally surprised at how easily he dismissed it.
Well, what could Alex do? He didn't know this teacher Jack was just like that—indifferent to all things except, of course, his paycheck.
If it had been any other teacher, he might have even tried to use this information to his advantage, but it was bad luck for the principal that this guy had been chosen by the government to handle awakenings this year.
For now, the principle was in bliss—until later in the evening, when he read the document recorded by Jack about the talent: Blank. Even when many students revealed their own talent, it was still blank.
Shaking his head, Alex descended from the platform. While going back in line, he heard the teacher call for the next person again, this time more loudly.
"That person must be fucking nervous," Alex smiled inwardly.
The sequence for awakening had already been given to everyone.
'Mnnn, wait a second… after me wasn't it—'
"Kael Sunstride, come in one minute or your awakening will be canceled!" Jack shouted.