"N-No, stop changing the subject. What do you mean by 'ability'?" Aria shook her head, trying to push her feelings aside.
It was impressive how quickly she got herself under control, even though most people would have completely lost it by now.
She wiped away her tears with the palms of her hands and slowly stood up, favoring her leg a bit as she did.
Her uniform was a mess, dirt smudged across the fabric, but none of that seemed to matter to her.
.net
She was laser-focused on what Professor Aven had to say next.
"Huh? Why the shock? I figured that since you saw my title as a Villain, you'd have pieced it together by now, right?" Avendial acted surprised, carefully crafting his words to avoid any mention of his past life and the whole time-travel thing.
He wasn't sure if his title made it obvious or not, so he worded it in a way that he hoped would clue her in without him spelling it out.
'Wait, what?!'
'He knows?!' Aria practically froze, her eyes wide as she took a small step back, disbelief written all over her face.
She was aware of his title 'regressed villain.'
Panic bubbled up inside her.
She had always thought that if anyone figured out what she could do, it could lead to two things: either people would think she was crazy or things could get really dangerous, thanks to human greed.
As her back hit the tree, she realized she was subconsciously backing away from him.
But the surprise in Aven's eyes made her hesitate.
Did he expect her to already get it?
But how in the world did he know about her ability?
"Aria? You can't be serious. Don't tell me you haven't awakened yet... No, wait, you told me before that you've had this ability since you were born," Avendial said, pretending to be confused while rubbing his chin as if he were deep in thought.
To him, this was more of a confirmation.
But right now, being overwhelmed by emotions, her mind was hardly processing at its usual capacity.
This was a simple and very popular method he learned inside the tower: if you want to kill anyone, just make them flow and drown in their own emotions.
"Ridiculous, doubt? Tell me everything; it's me who would decide if it's true or not." Aria wasn't in proper control, knowing well that she needed to know everything now.
This was the time.
She didn't care about the students, given no one was hearing their words. If they looked from far away, it didn't matter. A student was talking to a professor.
Not a big deal.
"You want to hear it? Fine. You said you were so madly in love with Lin Diego that if I said anything against him, you would never trust me; no, you would even consider me an enemy?" Avendial targeted the first obstacle in his way, knowing very well that he could convince her of everything except matters regarding Lin Diego.
In the end, it was clear that he would kill Lin Diego today or tomorrow, given he just needed to deal with him.
If Lin was of some use, then he would live longer, or else he would be killed.
So it didn't matter more. What mattered was the fact that he needed to be thrown out of Aria's mind.
In the end, Avendial was always possessive. If something belonged to him, then it should only belong to him or shouldn't exist.
'!?'
"Wh-what?" Suddenly hearing the straightforward words of Aven, Aria's mind went into a trance. Given that, his words made 100% logical sense.
She kept looking at him, trying to understand if she should trust him or not.
But it all seemed that this was the most likely thing: if some misfortune happened to her due to Lin in the future, her future self would want to tell her past self this very thing.
She herself knew that Lin was her weakness.
"....Please, tell me everything." Aria shook her head, thinking that if it's true or not, she should decide it in the future. But first, she needed to know everything.
What her relationship in the future was with this man?
How he was able to travel back in time?
And why he was talking as if she was close to him in the future.