Epicenter [2]

"Stop struggling," Myra said coolly, "you're only making it tighter."

"Y-you're squeezing it too hard!" the boy cried, squirming in pain.

"Don't move," she said, looping the rope around his wrists.

"Please, I swear, I didn't mean to touch your ches—Agh!" 

Myra punched his back.

"Then why were your hands shaking like that?" she asked, tightening the knot with a faint smile.

"Because you are sitting on me!" he yelped.

At the doorway, Leon stood frozen.

His eyes twitched with uneasiness.

"...What the hell did I walk into?"

Noticing Leon at the door, Myra turned and greeted him as if it was the most natural thing to do at the moment.

"Young master, welcome."

"Ack!" the boy screamed under her weight as she finally knotted all of his limbs to his back.

Myra stood up, dusted her maid uniform, and adjusted her apron.

Leon glanced around him.

He was greeted by a room filled with evening light coming from the window, with all of his stuff placed where it should belong. A round wooden table at the corner, to its right a sofa, a single bed opposite to it all, and just near it was a closet, whose door was dangling from its broken hinges.

Standing in the middle of it was Myra, who turned to glance at the boy with light grey hair and green eyes, tied up with a rope on the floor.

The left side of his face was bruised, as if someone just hit him with a hammer.

Leon was going to ask why he was in this state, but Myra spoke before he could.

Her tone was as empty as ever.

"...He was trying to steal your stuff, young master."

"I am not a thief—Ack!"

SMASH—

The boy protested, but Myra kicked his face.

'Oh… that must have hurt,' Leon thought, glancing at him as a bead of blood dripped out of his nose.

"Haaa…"

Leon sighed, walking inside and closing the door behind him.

Walking close to the boy on the floor, he asked,

"What were you trying to steal, anyway?"

"I was not stealing anything!" He replied almost instantly.

'Then, why the hell are you tied up!' Leon wanted to ask, but held himself.

He already had his hands filled with Princess Eula, and now this…

'What did I even do to deserve this?'

Anyway, thinking hard, Leon recalled that he didn't bring anything precious worth stealing, and looking at the boy on the floor, he didn't look like a thief either.

Leon's eye fell on the boy's feet.

He was wearing the Eclipse Institute's boots, which were a part of the first year's dress coat.

'Does he not have any other shoes?'

Who even uses their school uniforms in daily life?

Clearly not Leon.

'He's a commoner.' He deduced.

Ignoring his shoes, and class, he turned to Myra.

"Why did you beat him up?"

Violence between students was a crime inside Eclipse. Even if the boy was stealing, Leon had no right to beat him up this bad.

'She must know the rules, then why…?' he thought.

To his question, Myra replied, glancing at the boy near her feet disgustedly.

"He touched my chest, young master."

"Hey hear me ou—Ack!"

SMASH—

"Oh…" 

Leon was surprised. But not by the fact that someone touched her chest. Instead, he was stunned to see that there existed some pervert capable of getting close to an elite member of the Blood Tower.

"How did you do it?" 

The words slipped out of Leon's mouth.

"Young master?" Myra blinked.

'Shit,' he inwardly cursed.

"No, I mean, how did you let him get close to you?"

He said, instantly turning at Myra.

To which she replied, "Uh, he was hiding in your closet, and when I opened it, he grabbed my chest."

Leon once again looked down at the boy.

Tears were falling from his eyes, and he looked at Leon as if Leon was the one bullying him.

"..."

If anyone sees this, they'll get the wrong idea.

"Huuu…"

Rubbing his forehead, he instructed Myra.

"Untie him."

"But—"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

Myra didn't dare to fight back. She had to obey his every order, after all.

"As you command," she said, feeling disappointed.

As the maid was untying the boy, Leon took the seat on the sofa.

Resting one foot on top of the other and spreading both arms to its ends, Leon glanced at the boy as he stood up from the floor.

He still looked afraid of the maid.

Dusting his old shabby pants, he thanked Leon.

"Thanks for saving me, dude."

It was only now Leon got a good look at his face.

There was a scar across his left eye, and his build was the same as Leon's.

'Who is this guy…'

Leon didn't recall ever creating him.

'An NPC then?'

That's the only explanation he could come up with.

"Alright, I must leave now."

The boy said, turning around, about to leave.

Just then—

"Did I ask you to leave?" 

Leon's cold voice echoed in the room.

It froze the boy in his place.

The boy turned around. He saw a pair of golden eyes glaring in his direction.

It felt dominating.

"Y–Yes?" he asked hesitantly.

"What were you doing inside my closet?" Leon simply asked.

"Oh, that…" the boy replied, stiffening in his place, "I was actually hiding."

"Hiding?" He raised his brows. "Whom are you hiding from?"

"I don't know her name," he said. "She just started chasing and cursing me out of nowhere!"

He looked genuinely scared of the girl he was talking about.

Leon thought, then asked. 

"You must have done something."

No girl in this whole wide universe would do that without any reason.

And this dude literally looked like a thug with that scar.

"So?" 

Leon was curious actually. This whole situation looked funny in his eyes.

"Umm… about that," the boy scratched his cheek, "I was just passing in the corridor, when my foot slipped and I accidentally fell on this girl who was passing by. After that, she started cursing…"

His body shivered, and he wrapped himself with his own arms. "Her words still give me chills."

"..."

'Does this guy go around accidentally touching girls?'

"Haa… I'm wasting my time here," he muttered.

Waving his hand, he told the boy to fuck off.

Minutes passed, and it was only him and his maid in the room.

In the game's original storyline, there wasn't any maid he remembered adding beside Leon's character.

He was always alone in Eclipse, from birth till the day he died.

And this thought pushed Leon—aka Haru—into deeper thought.

'The game centered around the protagonist, and not Leon.'

That means, if there was supposed to be any maid beside Leon's character in the game, it was just that she didn't appear on-screen.

'It might be possible.'

Still, Leon can't just make any move against Myra.

'Veronica probably sent her inside Eclipse with me for a reason.'

He doesn't know the reason why.

The whole game revolves around the protagonist.

It was hard to pinpoint what exactly happened off-screen.

This made Leon aware of the fact that he now needs to be cautious of both the in-game and off-game events.

Either way, right now Leon doesn't have any time to worry about Veronica.

He needs to deal with that Primordial-ranked demon named 'Lucian' first.

'If my strategy alone can get him killed, then the members of the Twilight Order will have no choice but to take note of me.'

He wanted to achieve both outcomes at once.

See, there was a reason Leon was dead set on becoming a part of the Twilight Order.

'The world's biggest secret organization.'

How amazing would it be, to have control over such an organization?

A grin spread across Leon's face.

Unlike those typical transmigrated characters in overly used isekai tropes, where the protagonist tries to live quietly in the background…

Haru was the complete opposite.

This was his life now. He got to choose how he wanted to live in the world he created.

'You cannot find peace by avoiding the life.'

With that in mind, he opened his skill window.

— — —「Unique Skills」— — —

◆ Skill Deconstruction — A+ 

 ∟ Type : Active

 ∟ Allows replication of a witnessed skill.

 ∟ Replication needs complete understanding of the skill's mechanics.

 ∟ Cost : 1 Fate Point

◆ Voiceless Incantation — A 

 ∟ Type : Passive

 ∟ Allows casting any spells without speaking a single words.

 ∟ Reduce skill casting time by ½.

◆ Command of Grace — B

 ∟ Type : Active

 ∟ Create a voice-based charm that forces obedience through mana-infused speech, effective on any target up to one rank above the user.

 ∟ Requires direct eye contact at close range to take effect.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

For his plan to work, he needs to begin preparing starting tomorrow, in his very first class at Eclipse Institute.

[A/N]: Targets:

300 Power Stones : 2 Extra Chapters on weekend.

100 Golden Tickets : 4 Extra Chapters on weekend

Thanks for Reading! 

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