Chapter 9 Story Was Changed?

On the way home, Lucas cursed his bad luck. Not only did he publicly display his magical powers, but he also met his school teacher.

"Fuck." Lucas clicked his tongue in annoyance.

No way the teacher was going to keep quiet about this incident. For a moment, Lucas paused and turned to look back.

"How about just killing him?" Lucas said to himself, but quickly pushed the thought away.

"No, no no. I don't kill needlessly." Lucas shook his head. But another thought quickly came to mind.

"But still... To keep my secret identity." Lucas muttered.

Then he realized that if he wanted to live without worrying about witnesses, he needed to learn magic. In the novella, there were many ways to silence the witnesses, for example, memory erasure.

"If only I knew how to use magic better." Lucas said, knowing full well that visualization wouldn't help some spells. Spells such as 'memory wipe' required not only strong magic and willpower but also a clear understanding of how curses worked.

To learn this, he could not simply force his way through criminals and experiment on them. Of course, killing one or another criminal was quite fun for Lucas; this way of learning magic was not effective.

"I need to... Oh god..." Lucas suddenly paled when he realized what he would have to do to learn magic.

"I need to go to school..." Lucas said with a dejected look on his face.

What the hell, by now Lucas hadn't really planned on going back to school; it hadn't crossed his mind. However, the criminals wouldn't wait for Lucas to master magic on his own. It was the quickest way to learn the workings of mana and the history of this world.

"I can't believe this..." Lucas said as he walked down the dark alleyway. It had been one of his habits since he passed. He used to walk down dark alleys, always pretending to be a weak, seriously ill guy to attract thugs.

But he didn't think it would work in this world; appearances weren't everything in a fight. Even a sickly, helpless-looking old man could have the mana reserves to wipe out a group of muscular thugs on his own. Speaking of looks... Lucas wore magical-looking armor that would scare off the bravest of daredevils...

Lucas could barely feel his legs as he approached the house. The rain had added to the fatigue Lucas had been feeling even before he got back to the city. All he dreamed of when he stared at his house was his bed.

"Goddamnit." Lucas said as soon as he walked into his room. The floor of the room was burning from Lucas's heated mana armor. Lucas removed his mana armor, ran to the faucet, poured water into a bucket, and extinguished the burning floor.

After checking to make sure he hadn't accidentally set himself on fire anywhere else, Lucas collapsed straight into bed. The next morning, a loud knock at the door awakened him.

'What the fuck?' Lucas groaned as he slowly got out of bed and walked to the door.

Outside the door stood a young girl holding a bouquet of yellow flowers and a card. Her hair was bright white, her eyes were light pink, and she was wearing a school uniform.

"Uh..." Lucas opened the door wide, not knowing what to say.

"Uh..." the girl mumbled as well, averting her gaze from Lucas' naked body. But she didn't say anything to him.

Lucas looked down and a red tinge of shame appeared on his face. He quickly slammed the door shut and lay back on the bed.

"Well, that was... embarrassing." Lucas said as he pulled the covers over himself, trying to go back to sleep. Completely ignoring that, the girl was still standing behind the fisticuffs, hoping Lucas would get dressed and show up.

Ten minutes later, she started knocking on the door again. Her eyes darted from side to side; it was as if she had something important to announce but didn't know how.

"What." Lucas asked from behind the closed door. He'd put on his trunks and pants for good measure, but he still didn't want to see anyone.

"I... I..." the girl stuttered, and never said what she wanted.

Lucas remembered the girl, whose name was Jessica. Novel Jessica had betrayed Lucas for the hero who later killed him.

"Is your name Jessica?" Lucas said in a bitter voice. A spark appeared in his eyes, showing hatred.

If it was Jessica, he wouldn't mind getting rid of her. Right? Lucas heard a voice in his head. But he didn't react to it and waited patiently for the girl to say something.

"Sarah..." Sarah said, surprising Lucas. Her eyes lowered to the ground, and her face flushed slightly.

"What?" Lucas's eyes became normal, and he found himself confused. 'Who the hell is this Sarah?' even the voice in Lucas's head questioned.

Lucas was so surprised because there had never been a character named Sarah in the novel. No matter how much Lucas thought about the backstory of Lucas Ciffer, such a girl was never mentioned. 'After all, even that loser, Mr. Weiward, Lucas' teacher, was mentioned.' Lucas thought to himself.

"Eh, Lucas? Lucas Ciffer?" Sarah asked after getting no answer or question from Lucas. For a moment, she even thought maybe she had come to the wrong house.

"Yes?" Lucas said as he opened the door and looked at the suspicious girl. The girl tried to avoid eye contact and stared at the ground. But she held out the flowers to Lucas and bowed her head.

"They... They... they have assigned me to work with you on a school project to help students who don't have mana." The girl said as she continued to hold out the flowers to Lucas.

The girl said quickly, stammering. Lucas only understood every third word. After another minute of the girl staring at the floor, she repeated. This time without stuttering.

"The school assigned me to work with you on a school project to help students who don't have mana." The girl said, raising her voice as if trying to sound professional.

Lucas stood speechless. He stared for another minute at the bowed girl, who obviously needed to work on her shyness. And then, with a furrowed brow, he asked.

"What the fuck?"

'Since when does the school care about those who don't have mana?' Lucas asked himself. Wait, that's wrong. This wasn't in the story...

'Something's changed.' Lucas thought as he continued to stare at the shy girl, not even realizing that she was so shy because she had seen him naked a few minutes ago.