Chapter 190 - Memory Lane

*Warning: Suicide*

"Huh? What happened?" Heize said after opening her eyes and finding herself in a completely different place.

"Why am I here?" She asked after recognizing the place and looked around to check if her guess was right, but as she was roaming her eyes around, she noticed that her human limbs and body were back, in fact, she was also wearing her school uniform which was totally weird and out of style.

"Why am I wearing this thing? And my hat!" she exclaimed after feeling a familiar spiky thing on her head, "Ughh."

While Heize was being concerned about her outdated fashion style and her being back to her human form, a loud explosion suddenly shook the ground up, making Heize fall to the ground for not having proper control with her limbs and for spending her time as a four-legged animal the whole time.

"What the hell?" she said and pushed herself up, even trying to remove the witch's hat that was covering her vision.

But as if the explosion was not enough of a shock in Heize's memory lane, suddenly, a lot of students came rushing away from the explosion and inevitably making a stampede towards her direction.

"Hey! Hey! Don't run! I can't stand up!" Heize said but the students ignored her.

And when they were a few inches away from her, Heize had to close her eyes and cover her face from the chaos, but surprisingly, even when the stampede was happening, Heize felt no one stepping on her.

In fact, she could not feel anyone else.

Heize opened her eyes and removed her arms from in front of her face.

The students who were running away from the school beyond the forest seemed to just be a fraction of a memory that was playing in Heize's mind.

"That's weird," Heize said and stood up.

She even tried reaching out to these students who could not see, feel, nor hear her to make sure it's not real.

"But why was I affected by the explosion earlier?" Heize asked while the students were still passing through her invisible body.

"Heize?" a familiar voice called out to her from behind.

When Heize turned around, she saw a very familiar child with silver hair, very peculiar and special in their kind.

The child was looking at her as if she could not believe she's here with them.

"You can see me?" Heize asked the child and human version of Petunia.

"What are you doing here? I thought you'd been banished from our city for experimenting on animals?" Petunia asked, walking closer to her and also passing through the panicking students like they were just air.

"What happened here?" Heize asked, ignoring her question.

"Have you heard the news? They're offering our kind as a prize or tribute to the Dekadalaw tournament," Petunia said with a blank face.

"And?" the Heize from the future asked, already knowing everything that happened to Majesta from the perspective of an outsider but wanting to know more, probably from Petunia who experienced it all and was the only one who survived the genocide.

"The elders ordered us to kill ourselves, they said we'd rather die than be sent to another country."

"That stupid nationalism. Even after being treated as outcasts and criminals, our elders still love this country, don't they?" Heize said and pulled Petunia out of the way even though the students could not touch them.

"Was that their work too?" Heize asked and pointed at the school.

"No, that was the government's attempt to scare us and make us participate in the tournament as their prizes."

"What?! Why did they think that kind of thing would work?! That's so outdated! But did it work though?" Heize asked even though she knew the answer to her question already.

"Of course not," Petunia answered. "But it worked for the elders who told us to kill ourselves. Even the teachers tried making us stay inside the school even after knowing that a bomb was going to be dropped there, thank goodness a lot of people jumped out of the window on time."

"And you?"

"I skipped class and was out trying to cross the border," Petunia confessed, "You left me here alone so I thought I should still continue all the things that we used to do, but who knew it would save me from something as big as this?"

"If you were out there trying to cross the borders, then why do you have this in your memories?"

"My what?" the human Petunia asked.

"Your memo- never mind."

"You mean how did I know about all of this?" the young human Petunia asked.

"Yeah, probably."

"You know that the border's not that far from here, right?"

"Uhuh."

"When I heard the loud explosion, I immediately flew back here to see what was happening. A lot of witches died here, Heize. And that's all my fault. If only I knew that the effects of my actions were like this then I wouldn't have done it… If only I knew that this would be the consequence of me rejecting that proposal," Petunia said, confusing Heize about something that she has never heard of before.

"What proposal?"

"You know that most of the prizes just ask for a few representatives to be sent to another country, right?"

"And you were one of them," Heize said after realizing what it was immediately.

"Yes,"

"And the elders did not want to give you up because you're special," Heize added, which made the little Petunia amazed by her guessing skills.

"How did you know all of that?" Petunia said with a smile which she immediately removed after seeing Heize's irritated expression.

"So you're saying that the elders sacrificed all of our people just because they did not want to give you up?" Heize asked, trying to stay calm even after hearing about something very absurd that she had no idea was the reason behind all of the things that happened in Majesta.

"Well, not just me, there were six of us which the government requested for but the elders did not see it as a favorable deal. I mean they picked all the aces in our school and even partnered me up to that prick Jon!" 

"W-Wait, what do you mean partnered you up?"

"They were going to send three couples so we could keep the blood going in that other country!"

"What the hell?! You were just a child!"

"I know! But even Jon did not want to be a prize for that silly tournament, so I guess it's not just my fault."

"But why did the elders order for a genocide if the country only needed six representatives?"

"They said that if we won't give up these six handpicked people by the leaders of the other countries then they would rather just send the rest of the Majestians excluding us," Petunia said.

"So that's what led to the elders ordering everyone to kill themselves," Heize said and was suddenly interrupted when the setting changed.

"Mom! I'm scared! There was a big explosion in the school and all of my friends died!" another little Petunia cried after opening the door of their house only to see her parents drinking a bottle of the deadliest potion in their house.

"Petunia!" Her mother choked and spit the potion out after seeing her daughter well and alive, not expecting her to survive the bombing in the school which made Petunia speechless.

"What are you doing?" Petunia asked in a low voice after a few moments of silence.

"Come here," her mom said which forced Petunia to walk towards her mom and her dad who was also on the verge of drinking the potion of death but still managed to smile at her.

"Do you remember the potion we were making with Heize's family?" her mom asked.

"The animal potion?" Petunia said, which made her mom look at her with proud eyes.

"Can you go to Heize's place and grab that potion for us?"

"Why?"

"I want you to drink it, baby, I know the elders ordered us all to die instead of surrendering to that silly game but you're still young and full of wonders, I don't want your life to end here yet."

"And yet you thought she was already dead after being bombed in that school," Heize commented while watching the most traumatizing event in Petunia's memories.

"Will you do that for us? Baby?" Petunia's mother said in tears.

"Okay, but promise me you won't drink that potion while I'm gone," Petunia said innocently to which her parents agreed.

"Hurry, the elder's people will come and visit our place later to make sure that we're all dead."

"Okay," Petunia said and rushed outside of their house, clutching her wooden broom tightly while holding her tears back.

"I just need to grab that unfinished animal potion from Heize's house and we will be safe," Petunia whispered to herself several times on her way but instead of following after her, Heize chose to stay inside and watch Petunia's mother who could not even see her.

"You broke your promise, did you?" Heize predicted and watched as Petunia's parents gulped the potion of death straight to their throats with regret in their eyes and falling down on the floor lifelessly.

"I thought so," Heize said before the scenery changed in front of her eyes again.