Chapter 9: fear and jealousy

"Hey grandma... Is life fun?"

"Hmm? Why are you asking that, William?"

"I don't understand everything. I understand a lot of things, but feel like I don't understand everything. Why do humans have to live a life without a clear direction? Hasn't our fate been determined since we were born? Why do we have to strive for something that has already been decided?"

"Will...," at that moment, my grandma's face looked strange. She seemed sympathetic towards me, but I didn't understand why.

But now I understand, she felt sorry for me because I had been thinking about it since I was a child.

"Hey Will! Why are you daydreaming?" shouted a girl sitting in front of me.

The girl was Beatrice, and now I was in the cafe that had been promised to her.

Her casual clothes that looked simple and the yellow skirt made her look very bright when looked at.

Her blue eyes were now looking at me in confusion.

Feeling like I should explain, I started to reply, "I was just thinking about something."

"Hmm... About what?"

"My family."

"Huh? What's wrong with your family?"

"Never mind, I'm here with you not to talk about this."

"Ehhh? You've already made me curious and now you don't want to talk about it anymore? Come on, tell me."

"It's not important, and it has nothing to do with you."

"Of course it has to do with me!"

"Hah?"

"We're friends, right? My friend's family is having problems, that's reason enough for me to know what's going on. Tell me, what's happening."

I fell silent, looking at her serious eyes. I knew I couldn't escape from her when she looked at me like that. She seemed very eager to help me, and that was clearly visible on her face.

"Actually-"

I didn't get the chance to tell Beatrice about my grandmother's condition at that moment. Because my attention was diverted elsewhere, to a truck that seemed out of control and heading towards the cafe where I was.

In that brief moment, my first thought was to find a way to move deeper into the cafe to reduce the impact of the threat of injury, or even worse, death.

I grabbed Beatrice's hand, who was still in a panic but hadn't started running because she was still shocked and couldn't quickly read the situation.

As I had expected, the truck crashed into the front of the cafe, including where Beatrice and I were sitting. But we managed to survive, although Beatrice looked very shocked after witnessing the incident.

I looked outside the cafe to assess the situation. Everyone near the cafe started entering to check on the people inside, including myself.

"Ahhhh! It hurts! Help! Help me!" Someone shouted from inside the cafe.

Everyone rushed to help the woman trapped between the truck and the cafe wall. There was also someone whose leg was broken as they managed to dodge but their leg was crushed by the truck's wheel. But I didn't look back even a bit, even though I already knew. Because I was sure that there would be many other people helping them.

It's not that I lack empathy as a human, but this was more efficient for me, as I felt the need to do something else.

What I had actually anticipated but didn't expect to happen was finding someone lurking from a distance and disappearing by running into narrow alleys.

I saw the direction they ran off to and disappeared for a few seconds with my own eyes. I could have done something about the person who fled. But I thought I didn't need to. Because I saw the color of their eyes. The person was a girl, and her eye color was blue.

I knew that the person they were targeting at the moment was only one person. And that person was Beatrice, I was just a victim who wasn't originally planned to be harmed, because I wasn't on their list of targets.

Beatrice was a talented person, not only in piano but in other things as well. Her blue eyes were a symbol that she had esper talent within her, and the blue color indicated her affinity with the element of water was very strong.

In this world, sometimes people are born with talents from birth. Everyone calls them "gifted" as "esper." And Beatrice was one of those talented individuals. And those at the top of the talented individuals are called "extraordinaire."

Extraordinaire is slightly different from regular espers. Because their eye color changes every hour or even every minute, depending on the emotions that arise in that person's heart. Their abilities are also very different and diverse compared to other ordinary espers who can only rely on the natural elements on Earth.

But honestly, I didn't care too much about issues like this. Getting involved in this would only disturb my peaceful life.

I returned to the cafe and approached Beatrice, who was trying to help calm the injured people while others started calling an ambulance.

Seeing me approaching her, Beatrice ran towards me.

"Um... Will... Can you?"

"Can I what?"

"...," she fell silent, looking towards the injured people.

I realized what Beatrice meant by her question to me.

"Sorry... I never studied medicine. And even if I could, I don't have the equipment to use. But at the very least, their pain should be alleviated temporarily before the ambulances arrive."

"How can we do that?"

"Cold water... Just apply it to the wounds. Or if you don't want any hassle, just use the alcohol in the emergency medical kit. That should work if they're willing to do it."

"Cold water? Alright..."

Beatrice immediately ran and spoke with the store owner. And not long after, the store owner looked at me, then went back to talk to Beatrice before going somewhere and returning with a bucket full of water and ice cubes.

Commotion started near the car that caused this incident.

I didn't need to see clearly to know what had actually happened. The driver had been dead from the start, specifically when the side of the truck was directed towards this cafe. Someone had done it intentionally, they even dared to kill innocent people just to complete their task.

But this was the dumbest murder I had ever seen. The killer who targeted Beatrice seemed so cowardly that they had to do something as complicated and foolish as this.

That person could have pretended to be nice and friendly when approaching Beatrice and then stabbed her with a knife. But they didn't do it, it was clear they were an amateur. An amateur killer who intentionally involved innocent people just because of their cowardice and foolishness in their actions.

"Who sent this foolish person?" I thought even though I already knew in general who had ordered it. And I was very certain that person was afraid of Beatrice's talent as an esper. Because Beatrice had the potential to surpass their child, family, or even themselves who also had an affinity with the element of water.

In conclusion, all of this happened out of fear and jealousy.

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