The Cursed Extra: Twin Souls Against the World

Xane gulped down as he realized that she must have used some kind of lie detector hex art on him.

He never thought such a thing was possible, but then he remembered there were hex arts that worked around emotions and memories.

It might be one of those, but one thing was for sure: he had to be careful when lying to these hex masters.

The only good thing was that he could sense whether the person before him was using hex art or not. But there might still be some way to hide that.

Xane made a mental note of all of this.

Hex master Plena frowned a bit as she mumbled, "True, interesting."

Xane relaxed as he stopped feeling the pressure from her. He could see that she was calmly writing something on her paper.

He noticed her looking at him from time to time as if she wanted to ask about this hex art, but then she shook her head.

Xane sighed. <Looks like our Zenaris family lineage is finally handy.>

[True, but in the opposite way, actually.]

<Opposite?>

[Dude, she is likely one of those neutral hex masters present in the academy. She probably doesn't want to be involved in the political mess that would come with that knowledge. There is a portion of hex masters like her in the academy.]

Xane looked at the Hex master Plena with interest. It was a great development, as he also wanted to avoid talking about his hex skill.

He even wanted to wrap this up as fast as he opened his mouth. But then Plena looked at him and asked, "Hey, what kind of hex art have you learned so far?"

Xane stared at her with wide eyes. It took him a moment to collect himself as he said, "Hex master, I have a pick summoning hex art, though I did not learn any hex art so far."

She clapped with excitement. "Great, how about you switch your teacher and come under me?"

Xane just stared at her, baffled. <What the fck is going on here?>

[I don't know, man.]

Xane did not rush to answer her as she continued. "Viyron, the only reason you even came out of the coma was because you did not use much of your hex energy."

"It was only a matter of time before your mind would get filled with chaos, but if you are under me, I can promise you this: I will provide you all the help to control the madness." She said that line while staring directly into his eyes.

Xane grabbed his head and stared back at her. He took a few moments and asked, "But, hex master, why are you going so far for me?"

She just smiled at him. "Let's say I see some potential in you."

Xane smiled back at her. "What's the point of that potential when all I have is a couple of months? I am not even sure what is going to happen after that."

She chimed in, "Hey, but with me as your master, you could survive for a long time. You just have to be very careful about when to use your hex energy."

Xane shook his head. "Hex master, I am very grateful for your offer, but I don't want that."

She raised her eyebrows. "Wait, you don't want to live?"

Xane rubbed his eyes as he said in a sad tone, "Hex master, it would be false to say that. It's just that I don't want to live a miserable life."

Xane looked up into her eyes. "If I have to die, then wouldn't it be better to live my life to the fullest before that and do the stuff I wanted to do?"

She asked with interest. "Oh, and what do you even want?"

Xane closed his eyes for a bit and thought of all the stuff he envisioned himself doing in this world.

Multiple things flashed through his mind. There was a lot of stuff, but just one of them stuck with him.

He remembered Zayn had mentioned the top 10 teams from each year.

He still didn't know what that was about, but he knew being one of them would give him power, the power to decide the life or death of others.

Inside his mind, Zayn did not disturb Xane at all. He even wanted to know what the leader of the biggest mafia wanted to do in this world.

Both Zayn and Plena waited for his response with interest.

Xane opened his eyes, and for the first time, he smiled at her and said what was truly on his mind. "Hex master, for starters, I want to be part of the very best. I will be part of one of the top 10 teams."

[What!!]

"What!!"

Both Plena and Zayn shouted at the same time.

Xane looked ahead in confusion. He was about to ask Zayn when Plena burst out laughing. "Hahaha, you are funny, Zenaris. Don't tell me you already forgot where you are?"

Xane looked around and just smiled. "Hex master, I know it may sound like nonsense, but let me promise you that by the end of this year, you are going to have a couple of extra specimens."

He expected her to smile more, but instead, she stopped laughing altogether.

She stared at him seriously and said in a cold tone, "Are you taking me as a joke? You are already 3 weeks behind the others. Looks like the chaos is already messing with your brain."

Xane stared at the shift in her personality with interest. One moment she was all happy and smiling, but now she was behaving like he had cursed her or something.

He asked Zayn in confusion. <What's going on here?>

Instead of jumping at him like Zayn always did, Zayn asked in a low tone. [Hey, is it true? Do you really think we should go for the top 10? I thought we agreed to stay hidden and not attract any attention.]

Xane looked down as he stopped thinking about Plena for a moment.

He thought about Zayn's question and said, <Zayn, I won't lie. At first, I even wanted to have a carefree, relaxed life, but I don't think it is possible here.>

<Also, didn't the first plan of hiding already result in an enormous failure? We almost lost our lives while not even knowing why that happened.>

Zayn asked in an uncertain tone, [But Xane, you don't understand. If we aim for the top 10, then more powerful people will come after us. It won't be as simple as some students attacking us.]

Xane did not rush to answer as he thought about the Void. He knew it was a decision that he needed Zayn to be on.

So instead of just words, he started explaining his experience and the reason behind his decision. <You know, Zayn, when I opened my eyes in this world, I always felt this sense of regret. I know it sounds strange that I was regretting a second chance, but it's just that this second world had no meaning to me.>

<It was not the world that I hated. It's not the world that I want to change. I just feel like this new life of mine has no purpose at all.>

Zayn remembered his own regret of half-finished revenge.

He understood that for him it was just a couple of family members, but for someone like Xane, there must have been many more people.

Xane continued, [You know, in that void I had to think about each second of my life. I always had these few regrets where I always thought, What if I didn't do this or that?]

[Maybe my life would be different in that case. Maybe others wouldn't call me a devil and a monster.]

Zayn remembered the different stories about the Black Crown King. How people used to curse him on the internet and media. It was more like living against the whole world.

Zayn asked in a low mental voice. [It must be hard when the entire world hates you, right?]

Xane mentally shook his head. <Not hard, but yeah, nobody wants to end up like that. Me not being able to do anything about it used to be one of the things I regretted.>

Zayn instantly caught the "used to be" phrase and asked, [What's now?]

Xane said relaxed tone. < I mean, sure, I like to avoid all the wrong decisions, but at the end of the day, I regret none of them. They might be illogical or foolish, but those were decisions that shaped me. They were what I wanted to do? And that is most important to me.>

Zayn mentally froze as he thought about his own crossroads.

Zayn sighed for a long time. [Yeah, you are right. There was no point in living just for the purpose of surviving.]

Xane nodded with a smile. <Yeah, that's what I am saying? What's the point of running away? Don't you think it would be more fun to stand against the world?>

Xane cringed and thought about the sixth manic voices that sought fun in everything, but that version was also a part of himself, so he didn't care.

Zayn also mentally nodded, but then he asked, <But Xane, there is a problem. I don't know how I want to live.>

[Wait, what?]

At that moment, Hex Master Plena waved her hand before his face. "Hello, are you still there?"

This snapped Xane out of his mental talk as he looked up at her.