Feeling the concerned gazes of civilians walking by me, I calmed my chaotic thoughts and adjusted my posture to fit in.
Replaying the scenes that had occurred only a few minutes ago in my head, I reaffirmed that the scenario I had just witnessed was not a dream. There was no way it could have been.
Then, is this a dream or even the afterlife? Did the heroes reporting to Mirror House think I was the djinn and accidentally shoot me? If so, that's quite the way to die.
No, that's too unrealistic. The guards wouldn't dare attack me with my student uniform visible, and adding on, I felt no pain.
Checking my time on my smartwatch, I immediately ceased all thoughts about my "time travel" and decided to focus on the task at hand.
Assuming this was true reality, I had the opportunity to fix everything.
Taking off the backpack I had brought, I peeked in and saw the pair of school-issued daggers, a pencil or two, a light red napkin, and a notebook.
A sense of dread immediately overwhelmed me.
"... well at least, I have a weapon."
This was one of many careless mistakes I had made that led to the death of Irene and Liam, being severely underprepared. Then again, how was I supposed to know that my most vital ability, Dragon's Will, would be completely useless?
Thankfully, I could get my weapons past the security without them noticing. Or, I guess I shouldn't be thankful because they also let a djinn in?
"What even is the point of having security?"
Replaying the start of the fight in my head, I began to analyze it bit by bit: After Liam made his move, the djinn's body was suspended in the air temporarily so I could try to finish it off there with my daggers. However, if Liam, whose attack was more powerful than mine, was only able to stun it, then how could I expect even to make a scratch?
Go for it's tentacles? The djinn only revealed it when it was on the brink of death from Liam's attack instead of at the start, so it can be assumed that the tentacle is a weakness. However, the tentacle's speed is too fast.
I could see the tentacle with the passive but couldn't react on time without my time-slowing ability.
"This exact problem has occurred at least a hundred times now, hasn't it...?"
To ensure that both daggers would be readily available, I concealed both of them in my jacket pocket and continued thinking; however, no plan came to mind.
I was just another extra background character without my dragon's eye ability. It was the only thing that made me special or gave me power. Otherwise, my stats, rank, and combat ability were average for the school.
At some unknown point, I started caring more about maintaining the plot structure than my survival. I could have just taken a bunch of overpowered times to ensure my survival, but I had settled for just one.
It vaguely made sense as I would essentially know the future, but at the same time, what good is knowing the future if I'm not there to witness it?
Knowing the time of the djinn's inevitable arrival was approaching; one thought kept repeating and replaying in my mind.
"Why don't you just run away from the mirror house? Who cares about their deaths? Your survival is paramount."
At the same time, another thought kept clashing with that one.
"For some unknown reason, you were given a second chance. What does that mean? What if you were given a second chance because the first scenario caused the destruction of the entire world, or worse, your death? Why were you sent back in time?"
A decision needed to be made. If my attack and attempt to make a change failed, my death was all but guaranteed. So, then running gave me a 100% chance at survival rather than survival?
However, based on my intuition and the hundreds of novels I've read, time loops or travels don't happen for no reason; there must be a rationale for whatever caused it.
Some say the fear of the unknown is the greatest. Only now do I understand.
I always used to think that is bullshit. I mean, isn't the fear of dying, being kidnapped, or being tortured much worse?
But, if I ran away now, the rest of my life would be spent worrying about the consequences I would never be able to relax or enjoy myself again. Those thoughts would plague my mind until the day I die.
Living while knowing that some impending doom could occur at any moment would be impossible. Realizing that, I decided to stay.
Deciding on that was simple, but now what?
Snapping me out of my thoughts, a familiar scene occurred.
*RUMBLE*
I had survived through my trip to the mountains and done all that training for what?
In the end, it was all useless.
The ceiling collapsed, and a figure surrounded by a dark red aura descended down in slow motion.
"Wait, slow-motion, why is it so slow...?"
Blinking once to confirm, I realized that after hearing the sound, I had subconsciously placed my right hand on my right eye. It was like a natural instinct for me.
An act of desperation.
After all, it had already saved me once during my hopeless fight with the mountain tyrant, and what else what there to rely on?
All that work just to rely on some item.
Pathetic
Looking at the people around me slowly turning their heads to the noise source, I realized that, for whatever reason, it had worked.
I had been saved once again.
But why had it worked? Does it react to my feelings of desperation?
No, that's not possible. I was definitely desperate when I watched the two main characters die at the hands of the djinn.
Feeling the blood swelling in my eye and my mana dissipating, I immediately removed my hand, and the time around me immediately sped back to normal as the djinn's descent returned to an average pace.
There was no need for me to use it yet.
The conversation between the djinn and Irene was the same, and Liam snuck up behind the djinn.
Dashing at the djinn, Liam plunged his sword into the same exact place, and moments later, the djinn's body remained upright in a suspended animation.
Yet, I stood still, watching like a sedentary observer.
I mean, I mentioned it earlier: attacking the djinn's body would fail as if Liam's attack only did that much; what more could my attack possibly do?
*RUMBLE*
Again, the floor shook, this time not due to the collapse of the ceiling. The djinn's body slightly twitched, revealing that it was not yet dead.
At that moment, my right hand touched my eye, activating the first stage of the Dragon's Will.
Why did I use my right hand to activate it instead of just doing it mentally as I used to?
I was worried that activating it mentally wouldn't work, resulting in the loss of seconds in a scenario where milliseconds could change the outcome of the fight.
As time slowed, I dashed forward to the center stage, specifically where Liam was.
Arriving at Liam's body, I saw his expression remain the same. From his point of view, I was just a blurry figure, so he must have just thought that he had dust in his eyes. And there was also the djinn's body occupying his attention.
As for everyone else, it was the same. I was simply too fast in their eyes, and why would they focus on some random blurry figure instead of the body of a djinn that could potentially kill them?
Standing a few inches from Liam's body, I shifted my gaze to the suspended djinn.
From the bottom of his jet-black coat, a small purple tentacle flew emerged and flew out. Even with my passive and time-slowing ability combined, the tentacle still moved relatively fast, displaying its incredible speed.
Wasn't this guy a bit too overpowered for the first villain? This tentacle could probably still one-shot Liam 3 months after this incident.
Taking my daggers out of my pocket, I slightly cut myself on my hands, revealing crimson red blood.
Now, only a few yards from Liam's body, the tentacle raised itself to align with his heart and plunged forward.
Moving my daggers to waist height, I waited until the tentacle was within reach of my daggers.
As the tentacle inched closer to Liam, his expression transformed from confusion to horror as he had presumably noticed the tentacle. Its speed was much lower than mine, so he could somewhat make it out.
The other civilians and Irene remained neutral, as the tentacle was blocked by the djinn's body from their point of view.
Finally, when the tentacle was only a few inches from Liam's heart, I swiftly raised my daggers, and they moved upwards through the air until they reached the height of my head.
Looking downwards, I saw the tentacle split into pieces and fall forward onto Liam's body and the ground below. If not for that sight, I wouldn't have even noticed anything was cut by my daggers. They had gone through the tentacle like it was butter.
Upon touching the ground and Liam's body, the tentacle pieces immediately disintegrated, leaving no trace.
Were they actually made of butter?
Swapping my gaze to the djinn, I saw its suspended body fall face-forward onto the ground. Besides Liam's sword plunged into it, there was no other evidence of how it died.
Seeing the corpse on the ground, I moved a few steps away from the scene, preventing people from suspecting that I had anything to do with the djinn's death, and deactivated the dragon's will.
Almost immediately, a surge of pain coursed throughout my entire body, nearly causing me to collapse to the ground.
It felt like I was one who got stabbed by the tentacle. Well, it felt more like a truck had hit me, and I actually knew how that felt from my original death.
If not for my being somewhat accustomed to the pain from my training sessions, I would have started howling like a wolf and fallen onto the ground.
Without looking at my reflection, I already knew that my eye was covered with blood, but thankfully, I was equipped for such situations.
Ignoring the pain, I grabbed the napkin from my bag and immediately pressed it to my face. Everyone else was too occupied with the body of the djinn, so no one even noticed me.
Irene and Liam rushed towards the djinn's corpse to confirm it was dead.
Would have been nice if you did that earlier.
The civilians carefully watched the two students and the corpse until, finally, Irene announced.
"It's dead."
Instantly, some civilians around the room collapsed onto their knees and presumed a praying stance while mumbling something.
Hey, shouldn't you be thanking someone else?
Others hugged their family members and fell into tears. A few moments later, the sound of applause echoed throughout the room as people rushed to thank the two heroic students who stood up the djinn.
Irene, being the brat she is, basked in this glory even though she did nothing. Liam was still somewhat dazed and confused as, after all, he had just seen a tentacle that was about to kill him randomly splinter into pieces.
It was possible he could connect the dots to me as I was the only other awakened person beside him and Irene in the room, but he also thought Ren was out to get him. He would probably just assume the djinn had prepared some final attack, but it had failed as his sneak attack had killed him.
A minute after the death of the djinn, the heroes conveniently arrived and cleared out the room.
Since there were plenty of witnesses to interview, I wasn't needed, so I began my walk back to the portal.
The outside world seemed completely oblivious to the situation as they rode the roller-coaster and continued playing the carnival games with happy expressions.
As I left the amusement park's premises, silence descended. After finding a bench on the way back to the dorm, I practically collapsed down on it.
My mana supply was exhausted, and overall, I was completely and utterly drained from everything that had just happened.
As I stared out into the deep blue sea, a sense of serenity washed over me. Shifting my gaze back down to my bleeding hands, that peacefulness was immediately replaced.
After watching two people die right in front of me and realizing how helpless I was, my mindset and mental had been remade.
[A/N: Would you guys like to see the POVs of the other characters more, or focus mainly on Ren]