I immediately raised my aura and expelled hers, but the pain I felt in my soul persisted for a long while. It was worse than everything I had ever experienced.

Her face went white. Both her expression and the intent I had felt coming from her aura convinced me she hadn’t foreseen it. She hadn’t tried to hurt me deliberately. Mixed in her aura, there was something incompatible with what I was.

“I’m sorry! It’s not supposed… I don’t know…” she started gibbering.

I put my left hand on her shoulder.

“Calm down now,” I told her in a firm tone.

She obliged and stopped talking. Behind her, the two men who accompanied her had brought their hand to their weapons.

“What is your name?”

“Chloe Ortiz”

“Good good. Listen, Chloe, it has been a long day for me and I’m too tired for this. Let’s just say it was an accident and not worry about anything, ok?”

Relief appeared all over her face.

“With your permission”

She bowed rapidly one more time and hurried behind the human caravan that was leaving. The way she squirrelled away reminded me of a small animal.

I turned my attention to the two remaining young men.

“Chloe is a good person. She would never hurt anybody on purpose,” Isaac intervened.

I rolled my eyes. I’d expect nothing else but for the should-have-been hero to protect the honour of one of his comrades.

“I believe you. Now, please excuse me, I really need to rest,” I simply told him.

Although he was not my favourite creation, he was still a person I had designed. He was a good fellow and I didn’t want to unnecessarily be rude to him.

“Wait a moment. You go Isaac,” Caleb intervened.

I stopped and stared at him. Isaac seemed conflicted, probably not sure about leaving the two of us alone, but he ultimately walked away. Once he had distanced himself, I opened my mouth.

“Just so you know, I really, really want to hurt you. Badly. Say what you wanna say and get out of my sight”

I despised him with all of my being. It was not only for what he had tried to pull out previously, it was an instinctive feeling.

He started to shake in anger, his face entirely red.

“Do you really think I would let you defeat me again?”

“It’s not like it’s up to you. If I decide to beat you up, you will get beaten up. Period. Anyway, let’s get to the point”

He gripped his weapon tighter and his transparent aura rose from his body. My eyes were reduced to two thin slits. He finally took a big breath, recalled his aura and calmed down.

“I don’t want to fight. You are strong enough to make me think twice about it. I’ve just two questions for you”

I sighed. If I tried to leave we could end up fighting and as I had told previously, I was too tired.

“Fine. Ask away”

He let go of his weapon and straightened his back.

“You are incredibly strong. What are your plans for the future?”

“I guess I’ll take your place, seeing how incompetent you are”

His eyebrows twitched but he managed to maintain his composure.

“I see. Then, one last question”

He approached me until our faces were inches apart. Having him so near disgusted me.

“Are you a reader?” he questioned in the most serious tone I had heard since coming to this world.

I burst out into a laugh. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was an absurd question. I, the maker of this world, had been asked if I was a mere reader

Caleb was taken aback by my reaction and, after several minutes of uninterrupted laughing, he clicked his tongue and left the area. I let him leave purposefully, because I was barely holding back the impulse of ripping his heart out, and I just couldn’t risk it. I had explicitly been ordered not to hurt him and as much as I didn’t like being commanded, I couldn’t yet go against Tobias’ instructions carelessly. After all, he would consider it to be very rude and direspectful.

I continued laughing for a long time until I was able to stop. I looked around and found myself utterly alone. I sat on the ground and tried to relax, but the footsteps of an approaching person disturbed my peace and quiet.

“Mr Doe? There is someone who would like to see you,” Jonah’s haughty voice reached my ears.

“Coming~” I said cheerfully, standing up and following behind him.

We walked in the middle of the comings and goings of people. Wherever and whenever Jonah passed between a gathering of people, they made way and dispersed to let him pass, proving the authority held by the heir to the Delta Perimeter, the actual centre of the world.

Soon enough we reached a wide inside area devoid of the characteristic buildings of the Alpha and covered instead by crates, tents and refractory carriers. A great number of people were moving around, doing a variety of different activities necessary to have everything in the camp run smoothly.

Although they were technically tents, many of them were larger than the actual houses of the local inhabitants. I could see some of them even contained amenities, like sofas or bathtubs. The Delta was the only one who could splurge resources that way and it had made sure to let its heir have his own retinue.

We stopped in front of one of the smaller tents. There were no people around, ensuring privacy.

“She is waiting inside,” he said, still looking at me like I was a little more than a rabid animal.

I already imagined it as I had been the one to give him his character, but he was truly an arrogant prick who thought of himself as above all others, except for maybe some exceptions like Tobias. Fortunately, he wasn’t just a haughty prideful bastard, as he also kept a strong sense of responsibility which helped him redeem himself.

In the future war he would most likely be instrumental in ensuring the scarce supplies were delivered not only to archs but also to normal humans under his authority. If nothing else had gone wrong, he should have been raised in the name of “noblesse oblige”.

Nevertheless, I still thought he deserved to get hurt a little.

Before stepping inside the tent, I thought back to Caleb’s question one more time. A small sneer escaped my mouth, but my eyes turned ice cold. I knew there was something wrong in this world, but I never imagined I would be asked something like that.

I may have lost most of the memories of my previous life, but there was one thing I was sure about: I never wrote anything in my life.