Z's Guilt

"It was because the blood could finally be active with Magecraft after getting used to the human body. And because Old Man Pond didn't have a preference, the people he helped were all from diverse cultures. But like I said, that was way back before Ysabeau had joined the Congregation."

"By the time I had started the Unknown Children program, Old Man Pond had changed for the worse after the humans treated us so poorly. He used emotions to fuel the group's plans for the future. I'm only thankful that Gillian did not allow his feelings to steer his mindset."

"As the number of children grew, I could no longer hide the profiles from Old Man Pond's eyes. Then, one fine morning, that guy did something to invoke my anger. Get this, and I haven't been angry for a very long time. About a few centuries and not much can tilt me as bad as that morning."

"That guy brought me into one of the chambers underneath the Congregation's headquarters. It was one of the meeting halls, so I thought he wanted to show some kind of attacking plan, but I was wrong in every way possible. The Old Man Pond brought me to a room filled with cages."

"In those cages were children under the ages of 10. I recalled that Old Man Pond thanked me for finding each child out for him to research. I rushed to see if the children were fine since, during the investigation, I would find and meet them to ask about their life and Magecraft."

"I got quite attached to them since the whole point of the program was for me to teach them how to use their powers safely like what Mavislin is doing with the Five Chosen Ones currently. But the Poisoned Pond took that aspiration from me by drugging the sanity out of the kids."

"Every single one of them, all 999 of them were gone cases. They couldn't respond to any of my calls since they've been forced into a catatonic state. I freaked out and started lashing out at him. It turned ugly quite soon as I ended up using my powers to knock Old Man Pond out."

"Before the Poisoned Pond could wake up, I wanted to crush his skull, but Baldwin was there to stop me. I recalled sitting in the middle of the room as Baldwin called Gillian to aid us in trying to fix the children, but all three of us couldn't do anything. The children were all human..."

"They didn't even have the chance to grow up before they were taken into that place. But, of course, it was all my fault... I shouldn't have made that program in the first place. But as I checked back to the profiles..."

"I found a glimmer of hope that at least one of them survived the hands of Old Man Pond. She was the only one who had a stronger connection with me from the other kids because she thought I was a giant bear instead of a human."

I'm sorry... What?

"And I'm guessin' this kid was Astria Faust, right?" I asked, folding my arms while glancing at the screen.

"Correct. Astria was the girl I found within the village of Lumacie, at the coast of North Albion. But when I first talked to her, she had just turned nine years old. The reason why I found her was because her Crystal Element was showing at a very young age. Astria was a playful kid."

"Old Man Pond had missed her out from the count, be it by accident or on purpose. And the true reason the villages tried to burn Astria and her mother? It was because of me. Because Old Man Pond couldn't trick that Crystal Mage into going with him."

"Thus, Old Man Pond paid the village to kill the mother and daughter. I was devastated by what had happened, and no one could find me for several weeks as I took the time to find Astria. I didn't know what to think or feel at that time. All I knew was that I was the one who caused kids to die."

"Had I not met them... Had I not found them because of my interest in bonding Mages and humans together... They'd still be alive. And it wasn't only them that suffered. Baldwin was the intel officer of the Congregation, so he knew how to lurk in the shadows to gain information."

"But the difference between the Angry Man and I was that he did not confront Old Man Pond about his findings. Instead, that Dark Mage shrugged it off as something he saw in everyday life. So it was a shocker when Baldwin went berserk and against Old Man Pond's orders."