It’s been almost a week since the incident.

From what I’ve heard, the trio of Grant, Connie, & Joseph were all sent to the hospital because of what happened to them. While they were all sent to the hospital, none of them actually were in any danger of some sort, much to my relief. The funny thing about it is that Grant refuses to tell anyone what actually happened, since he simply says that they roughhoused way too rough. I can imagine that he’s doing all of this because he really doesn’t want to be on Raina's bad side.

It seems like Grant’s willpower is a lot stronger than I thought.

Time slowing down, it’s something that I don’t have full autonomy over, as it simply awakens whenever I am in danger for my life. A defense mechanism that initially awakened when I woke up from the tragedy of 10 years ago, in the hospital, where innocent people got caught up with my instability. The people who were affected by this phenomena suffered long-term effects that they are still going through this day. I really made a mess on that day, with my emotions being in flux and all. I still wish that I could do something to make it up to all of them, but I’m afraid that their condition would become worse if I did something.

The only way I can stop it is by calming myself down. It’s inefficient, because it’s not that easy to calm down anyway. Sooner or later, it’s not going to be a viable option and I might not be able to stop it from happening. I should probably find another way to fix this issue, but I don’t know where to start.

I really need to find a way to fully control this.

While I was thinking about all this, I heard a knock on my door and it was Raina saying, “Hey, are you busy? Can I come in?”

“I’m just meditating here, you can come in.”

She opens my door and enters my room. She’s wearing her reading glasses, which she doesn’t usually wear outside the house. She’s also wearing her pajamas, a blue buttoned shirt with cat patterns and long comfortable pants that have the same color and pattern. She really likes coordinating clothes, I’ve noticed that. But those glasses, they’re not a fashion statement, huh? Is her eyesight that bad? Great, here I am drifting off and finding the most insignificant subjects to be curious about.

“What’s up, Raina? You don’t usually come over in my room,” I ask.

“I know, this mansion is big and it takes 20 minutes to get from my room to yours. But there’s something that I need to talk to you about, Rolo,” she says.

“Oh, what is it?”

“So, we know that Grant and his friends are still recuperating in the hospital, right?”

“Yeah, that’s where they were.”

“Well, I actually paid him a visit earlier this morning. And other than the fact that he was very happy to see me… way too happy for my comfort, he said something very interesting and I want to hear what your thoughts are about it,” she says.

My eyes opened widely. I was already feeling a bit groggy at that point, but hearing her say that really woke me up. She met up with that man and he said something to her that she wants to talk to me about. Does it mean that he blabbed to her what I did to him? I know he didn’t say anything about the incident to anyone, but if he told Raina, he basically just told the one person that I’m hoping to not hear about it!

“What did he say?” I ask trepidatiously.

“Apparently, they were knocked unconscious because of a Carbon Monoxide leak. I was confused, but I have heard of those things happening without any warning. It’s still quite surprising to hear about, since I figured that our college’s maintenance people would’ve fixed that by now. It’s crazy, right?” she says.

“Totally… unexpected,” I replied.

“I know, right?” She is so interested in all of this and she’s even a lot more animated than usual. She then continues, “It’s a good thing that people found them before things got worse for them. Even if they were poisoned, it’s good to hear that they found out about something serious. That way, no one would get in danger.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Why am I feeling frustrated here?

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I mean, I’m glad that I’m not in trouble here. But something is chipping away in my head and it’s frustrating. Am I feeling some sort of way? LIke, am I jealous of something that never actually happened? I was there and they haven’t done anything noble like that, they were simply there to bully me because I was connected to you, Raina. And they didn’t find anything dangerous like a Carbon Monoxide leak, the dangerous thing that they found was me! I knocked them out cold, my accursed ability knocked them out! They don’t deserve any type of praise, no one does!

“You were right, big sister. It was Rolo’s fault why those goons were knocked out.”

“Regina?! How long have you been here?” I asked in a panic.

“Ever since big sister knocked on your door,” Regina smiles slyly and proceeds to skip her way out of our field of vision.

I seriously messed up, I didn’t think Raina would bring Regina to spy on me. And that’s not the worst part… the worst part is now, Raina knows what happened.

“So, what did you do?” Raina asks.

It’s ridiculous how one simple question is enough for me to feel existential dread around my body. I can’t even look her in the eye because I’m so scared. But I braced myself and told her, “Grant told his friends to come and kidnap me, and he was so pissed off at me that he threw rocks at me. Now, the rocks were huge and they would totally send me to the hospital, which awakened my time slowing ability. I thought it would be enough punishment for him to just be stuck there, but when he got out, he tried to stab me in the eye with a knife and I got pissed off, my ability awakened again, and I gave him the beating of a lifetime, ending with a haymaker to his face.”

I closed my eyes tightly after telling her everything, fully expecting her to be seriously angry at me because my ability was revealed to more people, and she might do something frightening to me. For some reason, my ability doesn’t activate when it comes to Raina, so I’d rather just close my eyes and be in the dark for whatever ungodly thing I’m about to be in. And as the clock ticks by, the seconds seem so long that it’s making my throat dry up.

And as I await my judgment, I was met with laughter instead.

I open my eyes to the sight of Raina dying and rolling around the room in laughter.

“Are you doing alright?” I ask in confusion.

She couldn’t answer me properly, she’s just stuck in a state of pure joy and laughter to the point where the words she tries to say comes out as absolute gibberish. It was amusing to see her in this state, but after a while, it starts to be worrisome because eventually, she starts to have trouble breathing because of it. I had to go out of my room and ask Claris for help.

It took us a few minutes to get her into a stable condition.

“I’m sorry for my outburst, that was not very elegant of me,” she mutters embarrassingly.

“You really scared us for a moment there. I’m glad that you’re okay, but you’re seriously way too excited in hearing that story,” I said.

“Oh come on! I’ve always wanted to smack that creep in the side of his head for the longest time. Unfortunately, my position as the president of the student government prevented me from doing something so brass and violent. So, let me live vicariously through your actions, Rolo! I’m seriously so over the moon about this!”

“Man, you never fail to surprise me,” I replied.

“Of course, as much fun as it was for me to hear of what you did to him, it’s still quite troublesome to hear that your ability activated on his own once again. We know that extreme emotions like being in danger activates it, so you really have to be in tune with your feelings at all times,” she says.

“I know that, but you know…” I mutter.

“Yeah, he seriously put your life in danger,” Raina sighs and rubs my back. She then proceeds to say, “Your accursed blessing, time dilation, we really need to find a way for you to get a handle of it. We wouldn’t want the same thing that happened in the hospital to happen to others again.”

“I’m well aware of that,” I replied.

“Anyway, why didn’t you tell me sooner that this happened?” she asks.

“I was scared,” I replied.

“Of what? Me? I mean, you shouldn’t be scared of me,” she says.

I could say something that would definitely make her realize why she’s scary, but for my own sakes… wait, Regina are you still outside the room.

“Crap, he caught on!” Regina mutters outside my room.

“You’re learning,” Raina laughs.

That was pretty much where the conversation about what really happened ended. There was really nothing else left to talk about by this point, and anything about my time dilation would just be threading old things we’ve already discussed in the past.

“Since Grant said it was a carbon monoxide leak, you won’t be punished by the school for what you did. And since there are no witnesses, you don’t have to worry about anything else. But I’ll have to warn you, please don’t do anything like that again,” she says.

“Well, that’s all I came for. See ya’ later, Rolo.”

“Wait, I have a question!”

“Huh? What is it?” she asks.

A question that I’ve always wanted to ask, because she’s never told me before. I ask her, “What is your accursed blessing?”

She looks at me for a moment, opens the door to my room, smiles and says,

“That’s a secret.”