Zavier needed to adjust himself to the new pace that he was preparing to follow in the upcoming days. The days where he had to be worried about his life constantly even at home had come to an end. He knew that there were people who were worried about him and were protecting him at all times. But that didn't mean that he stopped being cautious; it only meant that he stopped being paranoid and started to change a little.
Zavier meditated during this time using his original body and started to work on adjusting his mindset. Not only was his strength increasing at a visible rate, he had also become steadier.
[User has increased his understanding of mana surrounding him. User is now able to feel the existence of mana like another element of nature.]
[The amount of mana that can be extracted from the atmosphere has been increased permanently by a small amount.]
[User has achieved a state of selflessness during meditation.]
[Perception range has increased by a small amount. All senses will be heightened and all passive perception skills will have an enhanced effect during the period that the user maintains the selfless state.]
[User has gained a higher understanding of mana circuits within the body and has understood some of the principles governing the storage of mana in the body.]
[Mana capacity of the user has been increased permanently by a small amount.]
[User has immersed himself in the profundities of the mental realm for an increased period of time.]
[User's increased mental activity has resulted in a permanent increase in mental strength.]
The meditation not only increased his strength gradually but also improved his mental realm as the more he thought about his way forward, the more he felt his burden easing away slowly.
The main reason that Zavier had decided to adopt this approach was that the wishes that Val had for him were the same as the wishes he had after his first death.
Even the reason that he had been sent to this world by the cosmic consciousness was because of the regrets and the paint that he had suffered in his previous life. This life was supposed to have been a sort of compensation for him but instead his life had been filled with danger, death and pain for the most part.
The cosmic consciousness had wanted for him to experience all the good things that he had missed in his previous life and instead he had been experiencing different forms of pain during this period. He had died more than three times and had brushed death countless times despite the advantages that he had in this second chance of a life.
He had yet to experience most of the joys that the world had to offer but he had already experienced many of the pains that were on the menu. He had already felt the pain from being strangled, the asphyxiation that it resulted in, the pressure on the lungs and the eventual death. He had also felt all life leave his body as he committed suicide. The despair was still seared into his memories. He had felt his body disintegrate after using Blood Blade after all. Such a memory definitely was enough to leave a lasting impression.
His original purpose of finding happiness that he had been initially denied had been turned into something that only brought him pain and death.
That was the reason he wanted to get back on track so he could go back to experiencing the joys that the world had to offer. He deserved that at the very least. Yet he himself had been the one to chase after misfortune. The only one standing in between his happiness and him had been his own curiosity and apprehension regarding his enemies.
Multisystem had been given to him so that he could control his own destiny by gaining a strength that far surpassed his peers and was able to help him reach the pinnacle of the world in the shortest amount of time. Only then could he be truly free to enjoy whatever he wanted and to experience everything that he deserved but had to miss out on due to his disease.
Compared to his previous world, this world was truly filled with endless magic and wonder. The things that he had always thought of as a work of fiction had turned into his life and yet he had been unable to appreciate everything regarding it. He had yet to witness even the daily routine of a common mage in this world not to even mention the wonders of the world.
Multi-system did not exist so that the cosmic consciousness could keep him at the edge of his seat the entire time. It was intended to pay him back for all the pain and suffering.
Zavier felt that all this was going in the wrong direction.
Instead of experiencing the things that he had missed out on, he was too busy playing games that included putting his life at stake.
Realization dawned on Zavier after he had meditated for a while. He decided to take the laid back approach. To take a break from all the fuss, Zavier invested himself fully into playing his time away as he continued to recover from the injuries that he had suffered.
Even though the black fog had been sucked out of his body through magical means, it had burrowed too deep inside of him for a speedy recovery.
Zavier made use of this time that he wasn't allowed to move around, and enjoyed himself fully.
The relationships that he had never had in his past life, the joys that he had missed out on, the smiles that were never directed towards him, he had the chance to get it all.
Zavier got very busy playing around with Nadia whom he liked the most among his cousins. She was straightforward, kind and had always been the one who never cared whether he had any magic or not. At least towards this cousin of his even the original Zavier had never harboured any grievances. She had always been the one to keep him company whenever he felt alone and depressed in their household.
It might have been because she was the youngest one but she was never under any constraints and was pampered by everyone else. Zavier had previously thought that the girl was only so friendly towards him because she wasn't forced to do anything in the house. Otherwise even she might have been told to stay away from him considering the fact that he thought that everyone else in the house hated him or didn't care about him at all.
Valerie looked down on him which felt more than real to him while Kacie was completely indifferent towards him for whatever reason. Val was already negligent since he was barely ever home. How could it ever have felt like home to him?
Therefore, the only playmate growing up who was willing to play with him was Nadia.
Only now, he was enjoying every bit of it without any stress or worry crowding his mind.
Other than the fun and games, Zavier had not forgotten what was important.
He still had to grow stronger since he needed to be capable of handling the answers that he might receive from Val in the future.
Therefore, the clones were busy practicing the relevant systems that would contribute to the increase in Zavier's strength and power in the future. Their training routine was strictly being controlled by him so as to bring out maximum efficiency.
Of course during the course of this leisurely time, Zavier didn't forget the girl that he had gotten close to and had shared an intimate moment with. He had previously even planned to meet her parents but had yet to fulfil that promise as well. That girl was none other than Alissa who had been Zavier's only friend for a long time and had later taken the next step with him too.
Zavier remembered her innocent smile and carefree nature and then recalled the moment when he had found her in her most helpless state because of him. He had later learnt from the girls that her transformation had started after she had fallen into despair because of his death at the hands of the giant faced monster.
From this he had been able to ascertain the extent of her dedication and her lover for him. That was the very moment that he decided to never let her go in this life. He was willing to wait for her as long as it took for her to take control of her situation.
Therefore, he was looking forward to her return and their coming reunion with fervour and impatience.
In the meantime, the environment of the Adam household took a turn for the better. The previous situation where each meal was carried out silently like a chore was nowhere to be seen. Valerie looked happier than she had ever before and her treatment of Zavier had turned a hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction.
The most surprised with the sudden turn of events was not Zavier himself since he was already aware of the reason for the change. The affected included Kacie and Nadia mainly and Rainbo to some extent.
They had never seen Valerie being so chipper and chatty and acting like her age before. She had been more like their parent in the absence of Val. She was always strict and hardly ever looked at Zavier for more than a few seconds due to her hatred for him.
Only now, they could see Valerie being more and more attentive towards Zavier. She would constantly smile at him at dinner table as if there was something that they had been unaware of. They wondered what could have brought such a huge change in her attitude towards Zavier.
Kacie who was a little more sensible could feel the change to a heightened degree. She felt that the change that they were witnessing had only occurred after the two had returned from the mission that they both had left for two weeks ago.
Nadia didn't think much about it since it was a positive change after such a long time. She was happy that Valerie would get along with Zavier in the future so she didn't care much about the reason for the change at all.
So when Kacie raised her doubts about the reason for Valerie's change in attitude towards Zavier, Nadia agreed with her hypothesis but didn't care about the answer itself.
Kacie on the other hand couldn't let it go and tried to investigate the reason by herself. She even approached Dahila to learn about anything worthwhile that might have happened during the mission but of course there was nothing she could get out of Dahila.
Although she was weaker, Dahila wasn't a pushover. She knew that the information about the mission was strictly being managed and had been classified as top secret by the government and if she tried to divulge it in any way, it would have hurt her family.
Therefore, Kacie couldn't find anything at all. She looked for Alissa as well but never found a single clue about her whereabouts. The school records showed that Alissa was on leave but no one knew the reason for that.
Alissa was unreachable, Dahila was unwilling to tell her anything, she couldn't directly ask Valerie as she might return to her previous self if she was doing this unintentionally, and Zavier couldn't be approached regarding the subject at all. All her sources of information had been blocked and she was unable to dig out a single clue about the unnatural situation.
Valerie's hatred for Zavier was something that they had seen with their own eyes so Kacie was sure that it wasn't something that would vanish in a day. She was even considering the scenario that the Valerie who had returned was someone else since the Aunt Valerie that she knew was incapable of showing that much concern regarding Zavier.
The world where Zavier had been reborn in this life was rigid in some aspects. For example, the information that was classified as top secret could not be divulged to even family members.
The disclosure of information was almost always followed by a severe punishment so as to deter such an act in the future. The punishment came even if there were no serious consequences despite the breach of trust through the disclosed information.
But no matter what it was in the world, it couldn't survive without changing just like all rules were meant to be broken, all kings were meant to be toppled and all mountains were bound to crumble at some time. The terrain was supposed to shift in the direction that was more favourable whether one liked it or not.
This was the way of the world, a way for it to evolve into something greater, something the audience had yet to witness.
Before long Zavier was all patched up and was ready to face the world once again. He was started to attend school as usual as if nothing had changed from before.
But something had changed something that he could not ignore no matter how hard he tried. He kept rubbing his temples in an attempt to throw that person out of his mind or to dull the pain and sadness that he was feeling but there was no medicine to the emptiness that he felt inside his heart.
It was not as if the school was a very happy place for him or the previous Zavier Adam. He had been constantly bullied, extorted and tortured just because he couldn't use magic at the time. In short, that was not something he missed very much. The only thing that he lacked this time was the company that he previously enjoyed. Despite all the hardships someone had stood by him all this time and had shared his pain in its entirety.
This time his sole companion through those adversities and his only friend at school, Alissa, was missing from his side which made him sadder than he appeared. Moreover, the sorrow was heightened considering the fact that their relationship had already gone beyond friendship.
Even though there were so many things on his mind, Zavier had somehow managed to stay composed in front of everyone else. No one could tell what he was feeling on the inside despite the number of gazes that lingered around on him these days.
There were two reasons for that. First was that he had suddenly grown in strength and had been revealed to have powerful magic that was even capable of beating a monster like Shiranui from the other class. The second reason was the result of the recent mission that they had been sent on.
To cover up the story of the monsters and the S class magicians' ambush on their team, a false story had been released in the school.
It was stated that the mission had ended up being a failure because of both Zavier and Alissa. Both of them had been the reason for the failure so a penalty had been imposed on the both of them.
Alissa, being the one who was responsible for the major damage to the mission and the reputation of the institution, had been suspended indefinitely and had been asked to reflect on her actions while she recovered from the illness that had been plaguing her after her return from the mission so that she could try to get stronger in order to alleviate any weakness that she might bring to any of her future teams.
Anyone who heard the story was able to believe such a scenario that was being recited in front of them because the whole school thought that Alissa was just a waste of space who couldn't even do a speck of magic. But only Zavier and the mission party knew of the existence that slumbered in the depths of her tiny body and the potential destruction that the monster was capable of causing once the monster escaped its confines within her body.
This was the lie that was more believable for the audience since it contained an inkling of truth that was generally accepted by the public.
On the other hand, the things that were being said about Zavier hardly made any sense to anyone who heard that he had been one of the reasons for the failure of the class mission.
Not only was Zavier the most accomplished amongst all the students in his class and the parallel classes, he had also shown immense talent in the field of magic so it was hard for people to understand what had happened. The more they thought about it, the more curious they became.
That was the very reason that the number of gazes that were focused on Zavier had grown exponentially after his return. It was like a group of hungry hyenas looking at gourmet food from outside a glass window. Even though they were unable to satisfy their hunger from the information that was available, they were still trying to discern something from his attitude or from the few words that he uttered.
Since the authorities had to make a false announcement in order to cover up the truth, they had to make it believable for the audience. The two losers were the best way to cover it up without any difficulty.
Zavier might have become a big shot in the past few weeks but he had been a loser without magic for a lot longer. People wanted to believe that he had been having a lucky period and someone like him could never accomplish the things that he had, therefore they were quick to believe the announcement that Alissa and Zavier had been the ones to drag the feet of the rest of the members of the mission group even though the opposite was probably true.
If it had not been for the two of them, there would not have been a single survivor amongst the group. Unfortunately, those who knew the truth could not say anything and even Zavier did not have an inclination towards such an idea.
Zavier acted aloof as if the announcement that was currently tarnishing his newly built reputation had nothing to do with him at all. He was acting as if the people weirdly staring at him from everywhere were nothing more than bugs that he constantly ignored. He didn't want to crush every single one of them to convey the truth of the scenario to them. Therefore he let them be and bypassed every opportunity to tell them the truth.
The reason for this was that Zavier had long since gotten past the point where he would care about such trifling things like reputation, fame and what other thought about him.
He did not have to care what other thought about him since he had already lived a life that was full of misery, judgement and pain. He had long since stopped caring about those who didn't hold any meaning in his life.
On top of that, this life of his was meant for him to live a worry free life. It was supposed to be compensation for his misery and he had somehow even turned this life into a miserable existence.
Zavier did not want to continue on that path that brought him more and more sorrow. Even though he did not care about clarifying his side anymore, there were some people who took it to mean that Zavier could be messed with again. They thought that he had gone back to becoming the weak lamb who could be bullied and suppressed whenever they felt like it.
One of those people was an old acquaintance who had regularly bullied the old Zavier. Baird was someone who didn't know when to back off and was too self absorbed to even imagine that the target of his bullying would be someone who could snuff out his puny life with his pinkie finger if he wanted to.
Baird had been treating Zavier like his own personal ATM which he could use whenever he felt like he was lacking money. The old Zavier had always given in to his excessive demands since he really was weak as he had no magic.
Both Alissa and Valerie had known about it for a long time. Alissa knew since she had seen it happen in front of her countless times as she too was a target of such bullying being the only other person who was just like Zavier. Even though she hated Baird and wanted to help Zavier, she could never have done anything to help him out because of her weakness.
On the other hand Valerie knew everything, had the power to help him out but still did nothing, not because she did not want to but because she had to keep up the pretence. In reality she wanted nothing more than to tear apart those who had hurt Zavier but she had remained stern throughout and had been merciless when it came to Zavier. The whole school had known about her prejudice about Zavier therefore bullies like Baird never even thought for a second before hurting him.
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