New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Alexander came to, an hour after collapsing. His body was aching from the severe beating he had taken, but also from profound exhaustion.

He could easily surmise that he had overused his little mana, which disappointed him.

'I need to expand my mana capacity. But how can I do that here?'

As he looked at his penthouse ceiling, Kary finally noticed his open eyes.

"You're awake! You scared me, passing out like that. What was all that about?"

"It was nothing–Ow!"

Kary punched him in the stomach lightly when he said it was nothing. Her angry stare dissuaded Alex from lying again.

*Sigh*

"It was payback from the Bellemare family, for putting Violette in danger. I was expecting at least that much…"

"But it wasn't your fault. Why would they lash out at you?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. I will need to go to their home and apologize in person. To Violette and her parents. I owe them that much."

"Even after they sent a goon squad to beat you up?!"

"I'm almost certain they didn't send them. Alfred, the one that led them, had already warned me to keep her safe, or else. So I think he acted on his own."

Kary looked at him with a stare of disbelief. But that wasn't her priority right now.

She fetched a bowl of hot water and a soft towel to clean up Alex's wounds. Some cuts on his body were bleeding again from his moving.

Alex let her take care of him, knowing by her occasional inquisitive looks that she had another question burning in her mind. She didn't seem willing to ask it, but he could feel it was important that she did.

"What did you really want to ask me?"

"..."

"Is it about the form I took?"

"No. That I already recognized. Although I'm curious how, that's not what's bothering me…"

"Then what is it?"

Alex grabbed her hand, which was wiping away blood from his face. There was a slight twitch when he grabbed her hand.

'Is she scared of me?'

"Kary. Did I scare you?"

Tears started rolling off her cheeks. When she turned to look at Alex, there was worry and fear in her eyes.

"They say you killed the men in the park, on the news. I know it was self-defence. But seeing you earlier, ready to claw out that man's throat, it scared me."

Alex understood her underlying fear. She was wondering if he was turning into a cold-blooded killer.

The pattern he was establishing surely wasn't painting a pleasant picture. Even if he was justified both times in his mind, it didn't mean it would be enough justification for others.

In this case, Kary worried that she had badly judged him. No sane woman would want to date a man that had no qualms with killing to defend himself.

Alex reached his arms around Kary, embracing her slowly into a hug.

"I wasn't going to rip his throat out. I was aiming at his chest. The threat to my life was quite real, and I needed to establish a threat in theirs, too. But I wouldn't kill anyone in cold blood. I promise."

Kary wept for a while, letting Alex console her, as he assured her he wasn't a psychopath or anything similar. When she stopped crying, the bowl of hot water had run cold.

But Alex's wounds had already clotted up, so there was no point in whipping them anymore.

Alex felt like this was as good a time as any to reveal to her the secret he had been keeping. It took him well over two hours to get her to wrap her head around what he was saying.

After all, it wasn't a rational truth, and a rational person like Kary couldn't accept it at face value. Of course, what she saw earlier helped her a lot, in believing something was indeed changing.

When Alex convinced her about the incoming future, he then tried to have her feel the surrounding mana. Her mana sense was either too weak, or the surrounding mana was still too little, but she wasn't able to sense it.

This lightly enforced his theory that kids were more sensitive to it than adults. He could infer that his Perfect Mana Sense had helped him greatly.

But then he wondered how Khalor had used it. He had probably been the first to use it, too.

Then again, with his knowledge of the future, he probably had a better way of sensing and using it than him. He would need to ask him the next time they talked.

Alex then remembered he was supposed to meet Clark today. He gulped as he reached for his phone to call the trainer.

But before his hand could make it to the device, it vibrated in his pocket.

'Shit.'

He took his phone out, seeing the caller ID. It was Clark.

Kary saw his palling face and then saw the ID on the phone screen. She managed a soft giggle, even though she was still feeling weirded out by the revelations Alex had told her.

Meanwhile, the phone kept vibrating in Alex's hand.

"You should answer before he gets even madder."

"I know. I know. But we were supposed to evaluate my progress today. But I can hardly move, let alone go train with him."

"Then tell him that."

"He's gonna be mad at me. I've been skipping for many days, lately."

"It's not like you don't have a reason."

"You tell him that. The last time I tried explaining, even though I was at the hospital, he chewed me out."

"Stop making excuses. Your phone is about to hang up automatically."

"I might just let it–Hey what are you? Stop–Heeeeey, Clark."

Kary had reached out and tapped the answer button before it sent the call to voicemail. Alex looked at her with wide eyes, slightly angry.

But he knew it was better this way. Not answering would only make Clark even angrier, and then his next training session would be absolute hell.

At least, this way, he saved himself from too much pain. He spent the next ten minutes pitifully explaining the situation to his angry trainer, getting yelled at for being reckless again.

Try as he may, Alex couldn't get Clark to understand he wasn't at fault here. Clark ended the call after telling him to be ready for the next time he showed up at the gym.

Alex was tempted to cancel his membership then and there. He spent the rest of his day relaxing, since his body was still hurting all over.