Von was bewildered.
This was most definitely a classroom from his youth. And with illusions incapable of affecting him, it had to be true.
He had returned to the past!
Upon this realization, a wide, sinister smile crept up his placid expression, scaring a number of his classmates.
"Kahaha! I'm back! I'm actually back!" He announced, unbothered by all the weird looks he was getting.
'I don't know how I managed to return to this point in the timeline, but if I'm here in one piece, then that means it has nothing to do with those bastards,' he thought, recalling the indifferent gazes of the Cosmic Ancients. 'And it also means… I have another chance.'
A chance to re-do things.
To become stronger many times faster than his first run-through.
And it also meant…
"Mom!" He suddenly shouted, dusting off an emotion that he hadn't felt for a very long time.
With a jump and a dash, he was already halfway out the door. It was then that he heard the voice of Teacher May:
"Wait, where are you going, Von!? Come back here!"
Briefly turning around, Von showed a smile so genuine that even he wasn't aware of what he was doing.
"...May Mistborn, was it?" He commented, just now recalling her name.
Getting a closer look at her, he gave a gesture of approval. "Your physical form is brimming with 'huge' potential. I'd love nothing more than to explore every inch of you in an attempt to excavate that potential."
He paused.
"But seeing as I have something more pressing to attend to, let's save this discussion for later."
The eyes of Teacher May and the students suddenly widened, their minds instantly going to the gutters.
"Y-You…" Teacher May was at a loss for words.
Meanwhile, Von was already skirting down the hallway outside the classroom. He ran as fast as his feeble mortal body could possibly allow.
He had to confirm something first.
Even if his pitiful body would give out first, he had to confirm it.
And so he ran.
He ran and ran.
Out of the school. Down several streets. Across town.
Until eventually… he captured with his meagre mortal sight what he had so desperately yearned to see.
There, in a hospital room where the only source of light came from the rays of sun filtering through cheap shades, a woman lay.
This woman, although barely in her late 30's, appeared as if she were over 60.
Heavy black under-eye bags. Deep wrinkles. Long gray hair.
Yet in spite of her ill appearance, her hair was brushed neat. Her occasionally showing teeth also shone white. Even her brows and lashes were nicely trimmed.
She was obviously being taken care of.
However, with the health-care plan Von could afford, it was not the hospital staff that took such great care of her.
No, it was Von himself that took on that responsibility.
For his mother, he was willing to do anything.
"Mom…" Von said with a trembling voice, his generational terror as the Dark Overlord of the Universe nowhere to be seen.
Falling on both knees, he knelt beside the bed of the peacefully sleeping woman. In his grasp was her frail hand; he held onto it like it was the most precious and fragile treasure.
Yet even as emotions once forgotten to him welled up within him, he refused to cry.
In his first life, he had shed enough tears at this bedside.
Now it was no longer the time for tears.
Rosalia Crow, his dear mother, was worth more than mere secretion of liquid from one's eyes.
"I'll give you something better," Von promised, seething with a vengefulness verging on insanity.
"For what THEY did to you, I'll ensure they feel every bit of what's coming to them. I swear it on my name and my life."
With a hardened expression, Von let go of his mother's small hand. He then rose from the cold ground and went back out the way he came in.
He planned to leave the hospital as well. However, on his way out, a snickering young man suddenly called out to him.
"Why if it isn't the trash of the Crows!"
The owner of the voice was an 18-year-old boy, the same age as Von. He had short blonde hair and viciously curved blue eyes. He was also moderately muscular, a byproduct of sports and physical training.
Arrogantly approaching Von, Matt's lips morphed into a cruel smirk.
He was accompanied by several other pompous-looking characters. They kept their distance behind him, indicating their lackey-like relationship with their blonde boss.
"I can't believe this garbage is still coming to see his mother. What's even the point? Does he actually think she's going to come back to him??"
One of the lackeys, a brown-haired young man of great stature, mocked.
The other lackeys soon followed suit.
"Ha! Don't make me laugh, Steven," said a short young woman with a pixie-cut. "Even if the disgrace of the Crow Household is untalented trash, there's no way he's so much a fool that he believes there to be a cure for the Everstill Affliction."
"Yeah, you're right Priscilla," Steven agreed with grating laughter. "He may be a useless idiot, but there has to be at least one brain-cell in that empty head of his that listens to reason."
Von only now turned towards the peanut gallery. The coldness in his eyes instantly made the group halt in their approach.
"T-This trash actually dares to look at us this way!?" Priscilla was furious.
Matt's brows also furrowed in anger as he focused a glare on Von.
However, Von hardly even registered their meaningless existences. After the brief glance, he looked away and continued to leave the hospital.
All of the hospital staff and patients were staring at him as he left the building.
They also looked at the dumbfounded group wearing the same school uniform as the guy who just left the Hospital.
Their judgemental eyes incensed Matt and his gang more than ever before. They immediately rushed out of the building, and under the watchful eyes of everyone on the first floor, they confronted Von once more.