Chapter 2: Shadows Beneath the Surface

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“Ms. Woo, you must get up. You are going to be late for the application.”

Jewon slowly opened her eyes. She was exhausted. She always woke up exhausted, it was a requirement of her sealing. She turned towards her maid who had woken her up. Her maid was dressed in a long black cloak with a white apron in front. She was rather tall for a woman, being 5’ 8.

“How long were you trying to wake me up?” Jewon asked.

“Almost an hour this time.”

Jewon looked at the ceiling. An hour was pretty standard for her. It would be difficult to figure out how to deal with it while at AGH. If she didn’t learn how to control it, she could very well end up expelled from class absences.

“How much time do I have to get ready now?” Jewon knew that she was likely late for the application process. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to have an easy morning.

“You have 20 minutes to be down at the car, after which we will transport you to the application building Ms. Woo.”

20 minutes. Not enough time at all to get herself ready. Despite the small amount of time, Jewon showed no signs of panic on her face. She quickly got out of bed and left for her bathroom. Her bedroom was massive, filled with ornate items and detailed designs across the wall. Gold lined a large amount of it. The bathroom was also spacious. The entire bathroom was filled with marble, the shower was larger than a king-sized bed and the sinks were all hands-free and automatic.

Jewon began brushing her teeth. Back and forth, left and right, in and out, forwards and outwards. A repetitive dull motion for a repetitive dull life. But this life was ending. Soon, everything would change. Life would become a story of excitement and action.

‘Soon I’ll be able to escape this life.’

Jewon was going to apply for the Academy of the Greatest Heroes. She had been waiting for this day since childhood. It was a chance to escape her life, a chance to escape the same life she always lived day in and day out with her family. It was so restricting all the time, living with such a family. It had been over 10 years since she was allowed outside without a bodyguard present or attended a school where she could even talk to people her own age.

About 20 minutes later Jewon was outside of her mansion. Due to being rushed she was only able to do her hair slightly and had to skip breakfast. Her hair was frayed around her, making her look lazy and tired. In front of the door was a massive courtyard, large enough to be a small sports field. There was a road that looped around a giant fountain the size of an apartment. Sculptures of fish and people sprayed out water and on top was a powerful geyser, shooting water into the air. There was a car in front of her, its chaperone already holding the door open for Jewon. The man quickly bowed to her.

“Ms. Woo, your vehicle is ready. Your father has asked me to remind you to visit when possible and to remain in touch. He will also be sending a guard to monitor you while you are there, although they will not be allowed inside the dorms and will not be able to monitor you during the application. Also, he says to not reveal your true identity to anyone who doesn’t pass the application process. Such an act would be unbecoming of someone of your status.”

“I understand. Thank you for the information. Please tell my father I shall be contacting him daily.”

“Understood Ms. Woo.”

Of course, this is how it was. Her family couldn’t even be bothered to come to see her in person or give her a call. In fact, it was likely that her father didn’t even really ask that, it was probably some servant who did it to keep up appearances with others in the family.

The drive was smooth, not a bump felt in the road and not a hard stop across the entire way. The driver was incredibly skilled, easily navigating through the toughest of traffic and making the entire journey smooth. But it was silent. Jewon had no words to give the driver, she didn’t care about anything at the moment. If anyone had seen her face, so emotionless and still, they might’ve thought she was a statue.

It wasn’t long before she arrived at the application building. She was about 15 minutes early, largely in part thanks to the driver having wormed his way through all the traffic. Jewon exited the car and opened up the trunk. Inside was a large suitcase and a gray bag with art materials. Jewon was a rather successful artist online, having quite a few followers. Of course, all her posts were audited by servants of the family.

As the driver departed she looked around. Most of the places to sit were taken and the entrance was crowded. She moved to the outskirts, hoping to find an unoccupied bench. She was surrounded by statues and plaques of famous heroes who had graduated from AGH. She was uninterested in them. She felt almost no emotions at all.

‘This is a good time to use Soul Seer. There might be some useful information I can use.’

Soul Seer was a Unique Power. While simply named, Unique Power summarized the main concept of such powers perfectly, it was a power that was almost completely unique or extremely rare and it was impossible to teach or pass down. One simply had to be born with it. In Jewon's case, Soul Seer allowed her to see a person's soul. It revealed their hidden desires, thoughts, and deepest secrets that one might have kept deep down.

Stolen story; please report.

She began analyzing the applicants around the field. An especially nice positive is that it allowed Jewon to see through walls to look at the soul. She activated Soul Seer and her eyes turned a dark purple. Her vision became filled with black human-shaped silhouettes, inside of them was a small white orb, the soul. As she looked at the souls she could sense their desires. One applicant was extremely desperate for attention, wanting everyone to look at her. Another was smug and wanted everyone to see his superiority. Most of them, however, had small black marks covering the soul, preventing Jewon from seeing further than these superficial desires.

It was extremely common. Those black marks indicated a dark secret, something that an individual wanted nobody else to know. While it required more focus, it was possible for Jewon to forcefully peer deeper, allowing her to hear such secrets. She began looking at those who had the largest black marks.

‘I want to apologize to the family of that man. I killed him.’

‘I want to take all of them as my wives, and live in pleasure forever.’

‘I want to kill these damned pig-headed brutes.’

These desires flowed into Jewon's brain. Her head began pulsing and her eyes started to build up pressure behind them. She was absorbing too much information. She wasn’t very surprised by these desires. A decent amount of the applicants would come from conflict-ridden countries where strength was needed to survive, such places weren’t exactly known for having the most morally upstanding citizens. Quickly, Jewon deactivated Soul Seer and began to look around for a place to sit down again. She came to a spot far away from the crowd.

‘There.’

She noticed a bench with only one person on it. He was somewhat handsome. His skin was tan and his hair was black. He wore a dark blue jacket, a plain white shirt, and some black sweats. He seemed to be an applicant but he had no suitcase or bag with him. His eyes were closed yet he seemed to be in deep focus, as though he were picturing all the possibilities the future held for him. A small smile crept around his face.

She began to approach him, hoping that he would let her sit down on the other side of the bench. He gave off a strange sense that Jewon couldn’t quite identify. It seemed to almost be lightly pushing against her, it was just barely noticeable. Ignoring this she walked over to the bench.

“Excuse me?” she said to the boy.

The boy, startled, jumped slightly as he looked around. His eyes focused on Jewon's face and his face went blank. Oddly enough he remained silent. Or actually, not that odd. Jewon knew that she was considered extremely attractive by a majority of men. It wasn’t the first time that someone had been struck dumb by seeing her face. She stared back at him, her face cold and dead.

“Are you ok?” She said after several seconds of silence. She added a slightly annoyed tone to her voice although in truth she felt nothing at all.

“OH yeah sorry. What do you need?” the boy answered. Despite the embarrassing situation, he didn’t look embarrassed at all. Rather abnormal for someone who had been awestruck just a moment ago.

“I just wanted to know if I could also sit here. Everywhere else is taken.” Jewon said, this time without even the slightest tone of emotion or feeling.

“Yeah, sure.” The boy scooted to one side of the bench and allowed Jewon to sit down.

Jewon placed her bag down on the side of the bench and placed her suitcase in front of her. The boy slightly fidgeted.

‘Looks like he’s uncomfortable. Is it my appearance or is he just someone uncomfortable sitting in silence when someone else is around?’

“I’m Mark, what's your name?” the boy asked, his face, holding a warm smile.

‘My name?’ Jewon thought to herself. Having not been in normal social situations since she was young, Jewon was somewhat shocked by this question. Everyone around her knew her name, her parents made sure of that. She was surrounded by people who knew her name, face, habits, personality, and nearly everything about her. It would be no exaggeration to say that some of them knew Jewon more than Jewon did.

Jewon considered revealing her identity to Mark. Unfortunately, her father had asked her not to reveal herself. But, he didn’t tell her how much to not reveal. She was well aware of her family name and the influence it had on the world. It was why she was constantly monitored, it was why she wasn’t allowed to interact with other people her age. She decided to reveal a part of her identity to Mark.

“Violet Woo.”

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‘It went up…’ Violet thought to herself.

The boy's jaw suddenly dropped for a moment before snapping shut again. It was understandable, the Woo family was famous worldwide. While Woo was originally an extremely common last name, in the Great War, the most widescale and destructive war in history, the name had nearly vanished. The remnants of them led Rokea through the War and the leaders of them became the Woo family almost 2000 years ago. All others abandoned the name out of respect for their leadership.

In the modern day, the Woo Family was one of the most powerful families in the world. They had a net worth of almost 7 trillion dollars and across their multiple branches, they had almost 10 S-Rank psychics and even an SS-Rank. In Rokea especially they had an incredible amount of influence and power, often having high-ranking roles in the government. On top of that, branches of the Woo Family did not use the Woo name. It was exclusively used by the head family who were almost always the most powerful and wealthy of them all. The fact that Violet had used the last name Woo, indicated that she was a member of the head family!

Mark averted his eyes downwards towards his lap and began to shuffle uncomfortably. He fidgeted slightly with his hands.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Ms. Woo. I’m sorry if my previous behavior was disrespectful.”

Violet looked at him, unsurprised by Mark's reaction. It was something she had come to expect from meeting people who knew her identity. Unless they held a similar social standing they were often just as uncomfortable as Mark.

‘At the very least though, this is a good time to use Soul Seer on him. The more information I can collect on my competition the better.’

Violet's eyes once again turned purple as she peered into Mark's soul where she saw…

‘This can’t be right. What is this?’

Mark's soul had a black mark, but it was massive. Usually, black marks only covered about 5% of a person's soul, with the most she’d ever seen being 15%. But an entire 50% of Mark's soul was covered by a singular black mark. Even more, this mark felt different from all the others she had seen, it felt almost alive, as though it was fighting to keep whatever was hidden concealed forever. Violet couldn’t see any actual movement but she nonetheless felt as though there was a creature underneath desperately crawling for a chance to escape the prison Mark had entrapped it in.

‘What secret is he hiding that requires so much protection? This guy could be dangerous, I have to know more.’

Violet began to once more pull back the black mark. The black mark on Mark’s soul began to fight against her, refusing to relinquish protection. It pulled back hard enough to force Violet to let go despite her power granting her incredible strength over black marks.

‘This has never happened before. This guy is definitely hiding something big.’

She poured more psychic energy into her eyes and forced back the black mark at last. She caught a glimpse of what was beyond Mark's black covering. For a moment a voice of unimaginable power seemed to cry out from inside of her head.

‘ŕ̸̡̛̠͎̑̂̄͐͋̓̐́͆͐̀͋͝ļ̸̟̭̙̮̮͍̤̦̖̼͚͎̭̫̆͋͂͑̒̍̀͐̐̈́̈̄̚s̷̛͖̆̃͛̽͌͑͌̌͌̓̽̓̉e̵͓̻̮͉̰̼͇͎̫̦͕̰͕̝͐͐̀̇̾͊̀̀͒̓́̚͜͠͝ ̵̨̧̡̻̳̳̫̠̦̬̦̏̈́͒͜m̷̨̛̜̣͚̹̲̟̬̘̖͂́͋̽̒͐̊͛͐̌͘’

However, the words were unintelligible. She attempted to see more but before she could sense anything she suddenly blacked out, falling to the ground as blood seeped out from her eyes and nose. The last thing she saw was Mark, one side of his face radiating extreme hatred, the other side filled with utter horror.

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End Chapter 2