Chapter 16 Not Anymore

On his way back, Zavier followed the same route that Alissa would have taken to go back home and continued to keep an eye out for her.

He was quite worried about the girl who had been his only friend ever since they had been in the same class, the only two students who couldn't wield the slightest of magical power.

Yet one of them had gone and awakened magical power. The other one should have felt jealous, angry or at the very least lonely. And yet the kind girl had not uttered a single complaint. She silently left so as to not affect him any longer.

She had known that if Zavier continued to associate with her even after he had gotten stronger, he might have been ostracized by the rest of the class.

Or worse still, he might have started to think of her as a burden.

Therefore, she had retreated into the darkness without saying a word. This worried Zavier a lot knowing that she was just like him and was bullied quite a lot in routine.

Zavier's eyeballs madly and frantically moved here and there in an attempt to locate the girl he was worried about but she was nowhere to be seen. He thought that she might have boarded her carriage that day.

He still didn't veer away from her route and continued to look for her.

Soon his ears picked up a voice, it seemed to be that of a girl crying.

It was like something got stuck in his throat. He could almost envision Alissa crying in an alley on the way home.

He threw himself forward and rushed towards the voice. It was a deserted alley with a dead end that was quite inconspicuous as well.

When he turned the corner, the scene in front of him infuriated him to no end.

Three girls who were similar in stature to Alissa were standing over her while Alissa had fallen on the ground on her bottom.

The expressions on the faces of the girls were enough to tell Zavier the whole story. These girls were clearly bullying Alissa.

If it had been the past, Zavier might not have been able to do anything to them but now he was perfectly capable of protecting her.

He wasn't just going to stand around.

"Bitch, how dare you show your wretched face in front of us again? Didn't you hear us tell you never to appear in front of us again? You have some nerve, don't you?"

Alissa could only shake her head in her defence and was unable to say anything while choking on her sobs.

Zavier was unable to hold back when he saw one of the lanky girls raising her hand to slap Alissa, on the face.

He rushed in and stopped her by grabbing her wrist. He couldn't help but put in some pressure that made her scream out in pain.

He saw their class badges on their uniforms and could immediately tell that these girls were sophomores. In other terms, they were Alissa's juniors.

At the same time he felt the extent to which Alissa's self-esteem had fallen. She wasn't even willing to stand her ground in front of her juniors.

She felt herself to be inferior to everyone else in the school. He knew, because he had the memories of a similar person in his mind.

Zavier decided to teach those bullies a lesson in her place being their senior.

He twisted the wrist that he had caught and the girl turned her whole body instinctively pushing her back towards him to avoid pain.

Zavier wasn't about to let her go so easily. He twisted it further until the bully was bawling her eyes out.

Alissa, who was until then in shock, had not noticed how Zavier had arrived at the scene. She had been too busy shedding tears.

Alissa could see that Zavier was putting in too much force. The girl would have had her arm broken, had Zavier applied a little bit more force, therefore she intervened on their behalf.

"Zavier, let her go. You are going to break her arm."

Zavier looked at Alissa and wondered how someone could be so kind. He understood what she was saying but he wasn't about to relent.

Because if he did so now, the bullies would keep coming back to torture her thinking that she was weak.

Zavier had a calm on his face while the girl kept shrieking with all her might, seemingly to divert her own attention away from the pain.

"You are still standing up for them. But are they worth it? How dare they try to bully their seniors? These girls need to be taught their place and I am more than willing to teach them."

"Stop it. I don't want to see you acting like that too."

This sentence was uttered in an almost hysterical voice. Alissa was afraid that Zavier would change after he got stronger, that he would act the same as the rest of those arrogant bullies.

Zavier stopped at once. He could see that Alissa was close to her breaking point.

But before he left her wrist he used hypnosis on the girl. One of the first level illusionist skills that he had learnt.

He looked the girls in the eyes and said: "You will never bully her ever again. Make sure to be respectful to your seniors, otherwise I just might change her mind. Your senior might not be around to save you next time."

The girls seemed to be terrified and subconsciously nodded before retreating with hurried steps.

Zavier stopped caring about them the moment they left because he had already seen the system message earlier.

[Hypnosis has successfully been cast.]

[The targets are now susceptible to suggestions. The more complicated the suggestion, the higher the chances of resistance. Chances of successful hypnosis can be increased by increasing skill proficiency or mental strength.]

[Current skill proficiency is 0.05%]

Fortunately, even though his skill proficiency at hypnosis was quite low, his mental strength had far surpassed the minimum requirement for this skill.

After he was done taking care of the girls, he moved forward and picked the sobbing girl up from the ground.

Even after that Alissa did not stop crying. Zavier did not know how to calm her down in such a situation.

In the end he took a gamble and just used his thumbs to wipe away the flowing tears as soon as they came.

His tone turned surprisingly gentle when he looked her in the eyes.

"You don't need to be afraid any longer. I promise I won't change no matter what. I will stay the same Zavier you have known until now. As for magic, can't I teach you now? I will never let you be bullied again no matter what."

Alissa stared at him dumbfoundedly. She didn't know what to say. His words had managed to touch the innermost part of her heart.

Opposite to what he had done, she had just decided to leave without putting any effort to sustain their friendship.

When Alissa had calmed down enough, Zavier adopted a slightly heavier and stern tone to question her.

"Tell me then, why didn't you believe in me? Why did you decide by yourself that we didn't have anything to do with each other? Alissa I am very angry at the moment. Tell me, aren't we supposed to be friends, or was I wrong to believe that?"

The tears that had just then dried up, started to flow once again.

"I…I am sorry, don't be mad anymore. I will listen to you from now on."

Zavier seemed satisfied with her answer and dropped the topic.

Alissa lowered her head and continued in a voice that was only audible to herself.

"I won't leave you again, no matter what, not for anything in the whole world."

What Zavier failed to notice was the ambiguous and the cherry red face of Alissa as she stumbled on those words.