"You’re not human, are you?"
Agiel scoffed. Did it really take Jason this long to figure it out? Agiel spoke up with a small shrug/
"I might not be human, but I’ve lived here for more than twenty years now. So just like you, no one can deny that I’m basically human."
"What world are you from?"
Agiel sighed as she put her hand on her hip and leaned to one side while scratching the back of her neck. She really didn’t like talking about her past. There was just too much to unpack in all of that, and it was honestly not the best time for her. But she also knew that it wouldn’t hurt to tell Jason more about herself. In fact, this might help them get closer. Agiel scoffed at her own hopefulness before she answered.
"Do you know of Jadar...? Of course you wouldn’t. It’s a world in the third Primordial Domain under the Elven King, Farlow. He and your father were pretty close, and he was also a close friend to my family. But something happened to my homeworld. My mother and father were... killed. So your father took me and brought me to Earth with him all those years ago."
Jason was shocked to learn all this, and it was obvious from the look on his face. Jason remembered the name Farlow from the third entry of the Book of the Apocalypse that he got from his father. In that Entry, his father told him that he needed to keep an eye out for a man named Farlow, and that even though Farlow was the sort of person to have a stick up his ass, he was still trustworthy. So right now, Jason could tell that Agiel wasn’t lying to him.
But Jason also remembered that his father had done something to Agiel’s mother in the past, and Jason couldn’t stop himself from asking.
"What did my father do to your mother?"
Agiel’s face seemed to immediately darken once Jason asked this question, and Jason could tell that this was not something Agiel wanted to talk about! Agiel tossed her towel away angrily and ran a hand over her face, and even though there was a wave of anger pouring out from her, Jason waited patiently for her to finally give him an answer. Agiel looked up at Jason with a scowl when she saw his expectant look, and she finally spat out.
"Your father abandoned my mother when she needed him the most. He could have saved her a hundred and fifty years ago, but instead, he chose his fucking duty over her. Your father thinks that just by saving my life, he somehow makes up for what he did to my mother, but I will not stand for it! That man is the reason my own mother lived a miserable life, and I swore that I was never going to forgive him!"
The room descended into silence once Agiel finished her rant, and Jason could only stare at her in shock. Agiel’s harsh breathing was the only sound echoing off the hotel walls, and for a long time, no one could say anything at all. Jason let out a silent sigh as he ran through everything that he had just heard, and he really didn’t know what to make of it. It was almost like he was learning something new about his father every other day, and the image of the simple shop owner that he had of his father a long time ago was slowly being overshadowed by this deep, complicated lore.
Agiel put her hands over her face and let out a harsh breath before she finally said:
"Look, I don’t like talking about this, alright. All this happened long before either of us was born, so there’s no need to focus on it."
"Why didn’t you stay with my family if my father brought you here? Do you hate him so much that you’d rather go join the military than stay with him?"
Agiel huffed and she shook her head.
"I might not like your father, but... I owe him my life, and for that I’ll always be grateful. But that doesn’t mean I wanted to be around him all the time. I told him to help me get on my own feet, and he gave me some money and let me go. I used the money to build a martial arts dojo for a while, and then I joined the Enforcers after Gifts and Magic became well-known. I was already part of the army on Jadar, so it just felt right. Look, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t like remembering it."
Jason nodded along to that, and he thanked Agiel for telling him what she knew. Agiel shrugged nonchalantly and told him that it wasn’t that big of a deal, but Jason told her that it definitely was. Jason had been trying to find out as much as possible about his father, so the fact that she told him so much was a big help. Agiel could feel another strange emotion rising from her heart when she heard the earnest tone Jason used, and she felt her face heating up again, but she took a single calming breath and forced the blush to die a brutal death. She wasn’t some child who blushed over some stupid compliment and a few kind words! What the fuck was wrong with her!?
Jason spoke up without noticing the turmoil going on in Agiel’s mind.
"I have something."
Agiel turned to Jason in surprise, and she saw that Jason was looking into space with a small frown on his face. It was almost like Jason was listening to someone far away from him, and Agiel was even more surprised when Jason suddenly pushed off the wall and spoke to her.
"You might want to put on your uniform and come with me."
Agiel raised a brow and asked Jason where the hell they were going, and Jason’s answer was shocking enough to leave her speechless.
"We have to get to Core City. Yuslev is planning to blow up the Superhuman Academy and kill all the kids."
...
[Los Angeles, America]
What was the true worth of a human life? This was a question that every human would find themselves wondering about at least once in their lives. The topic of life and death was a very delicate concept, and it was something many people constantly ran from in an attempt to escape reality. But it didn’t matter how much you ran from it; there was no escaping the thought of how much worth a life truly possessed. When looked at from the perspective of a single individual, there was no doubt that life was truly precious. The experiences and emotions that a human possesses are deep and powerful enough to change the world around him for the better or worse, but at the same time, when you look at the worth of a single life from the perspective of the world itself, it is easy to see that one life doesn’t make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Even after a human dies, nature will still thrive, just like it has always done, and the rest of the world will simply move on. And it is this understanding of their own worthlessness that has allowed humanity to grow and thrive. Weapons, technology, transportation, and medical care. These were all things that humanity developed due to its weaknesses! None of these things would exist if humans were not aware of that weakness!
But after humanity discovered and acquired the ability to use mana, things greatly changed in the world. Now, humanity had begun to lean on Mana and Magic far more than anything else. Superhumans could be seen in all walks of life, making things easier and faster, and cutting the time taken to accomplish tasks to nearly nothing. But as a result of this, humanity was losing something even more precious.