Within a few minutes, the room was crowded. Zaen barely registered a few familiar faces when the stick he had just summoned was sealed back into his inventory.
"We’re sorry about this, Zaen," Eira said. "We have to take precautions after what happened last night."
Upon hearing her words, Zaen lost his cool.
"You sent strange anomalies my way to fight them, and when I did what you wanted, I got imprisoned?"
At that mont, the humiliations Zaen had gone through in the ntal institute flashed before his eyes again. The rage in his mind swelled again, and coupled with the loss of his ’sight’, pushed him into despair.
The next mont, Zaen began struggling to free himself. Ann sensed what was wrong with him and wanted to help, but before she could, a few instructors rushed ahead, forcing Zaen to stay still.
Eira also saw the scene and sighed, shaking her head as she did.
"Undo the restriction," she mumbled. "He can’t see without the stick."
"But, director—" the person next to her disagreed, only to change his mind under Eira’s intense glare.
He undid his ability, and Zaen imdiately called for the stick. Only when his perception kicked in did he relax. However, the feeling of being wronged had already taken root in his heart.
Just like that, all the goodwill he had felt from the academy in the few days was forgotten by him. His thod of self-preservation kicked in, quickly locking away everything good he had felt about the academy and its faculty.
"Everyone out."
This ti, no one disobeyed Eira and walked outside, leaving Eira, Zaen, and Ann behind. Both won worked together to undo the restraints around Zaen, knowing it was causing him discomfort.
Perhaps they expected Zaen to return to normal, but he didn’t. He sat there as he had been with the restraints around him.
"Look, Zaen, we’re sorry, but the position we got put into last night wasn’t sothing the higher-ups could ignore. The three operatives you injured last night won’t ever be able to work in the field again. Hence, the restraints..."
Eira waited for a response, only to continue when Zaen refused to speak.
"That skill you used made you lose your sanity at an alarming rate. According to Ann and other researchers, the skill made you unable to differentiate between anomaly and ally."
"For your safety, and for the others, I’d recomnd you not use that skill anymore. At least not until we have figured out a thod for you to get it under control."
Ann and Eira both tried explaining the situation as best as they could, but neither Zaen said a word, nor did his expression change from the beginning to the end.
Just when the two were about to give up, the doors were flung open again. A mont later, a middle-aged man with white hair and beard, seemingly in his early forties, entered the room.
He wore gold-rimd glasses, a white shirt with a tie on his black suit, and leaned on a cane. For soone to be in his forties and still have a hunched back said a lot about the organization’s working conditions.
Eira and Ann both jumped off the bed and quickly saluted the man with the utmost reverence.
The man, however, didn’t even spare them a glance. His wrinkly eyes were focused on Zaen. Specifically, he was staring at the ring on his finger.
"So you’re the brat my granddaughter chose for herself?" the man asked.
If not for his hunched silhouette, Zaen would have thought he was talking to so young guy. The old guy’s voice was just that much thunderous.
"Tsk, I expected more from her," the old man shook his head dismissively.
"Sir, I—" Eira said, but stopped when the old man raised his hand.
"I heard a lot about you, boy," he continued talking to Zaen. "However, after seeing you, I can’t help but think all the reports were filled with exaggerations. Soone as pathetic as you does not deserve my granddaughter."
The old man kept blabbering. Eira was just about to tell him to stop the nonsense. Senior or not, no one would talk to Zaen like that in her presence... especially given his frail condition.
But before she could, Ann grabbed her hand, shaking her head. Only then did Eira realize that the patriarch of the Cho family was deliberately provoking Zaen to get a reaction.
Seeing Zaen not reacting to his provocation, the old man sighed. Sothing was seriously wrong with the child.
"Nothing to say?" the old man scoffed. He tapped his cane against the floor once. "Or are you too broken to even bark back?"
This ti, Zaen did react. In the blink of an eye, he was standing before the old man, showing the ring to him.
"Can you take this off?" he mumbled. "Having it is burdenso."
Before old man Cho could say anything, Zaen turned to Eira and Ann and said the sa thing.
"Everything here is burdenso."
"Zaen..." Ann mumbled, reaching out to him.
"No need to act familiar with ," he said, slapping her hand away. "Compared to the so-called saviors, I find the anomalies much easier to live with. At least they don’t pretend to want to help you, only to push you into despair."
No one said a word.
After all, it was true. They wanted to test his capabilities, forgetting about the feats he had achieved all over the world.
In their greed to find another ’Paragon’, they completely forgot that Zaen wasn’t familiar with their world. They only saw him as the son of the last ’Paragons’.
While his parents treated everyone with respect and cared for them, the academy couldn’t show the sa patience and value to Zaen. Perhaps that’s why he was on the edge of snapping.
"There hasn’t been one day that I’ve lived peacefully ever since this happened," Zaen sighed, pointing at his eyes. "Compared to you, even those broodlings treated better. An anomaly, treated a human better than humans."
Eira realized where he was heading and imdiately rushed to clamp his mouth shut, but the words had already left his mouth.
"Perhaps I joined the wrong side after all."
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