I hate being powerless. Unable to do a thing.
But it seems this is fate's way of telling me I can't defy my destiny. As long as I choose to run from it, I will forever remain powerless. And without power, I can't alter the course of the plot.
If I can't alter the course of the plot, I can't change my fate.
So I have two choices.
One, keep running from my destiny until the day I meet death face to face.
Or two, accept this cursed fate of mine and become what I was always meant to be in the story.
The villain.
...
...
"Eloisa," Eloisa said with a smile, offering a handshake to Selena. They all proceeded to introduce themselves after that.
Sigh.
Food arrived just then, though at this point I had already lost my appetite. I could only stare at Eloisa, who was eating without so much as glancing at me.
Whatever. I might as well just let it all play out. It's not like she's stranger than Selena, right?
The story had deviated a lot from its original direction, at least where Eloisa was concerned, but it was already realigning itself as the cannon events drew closer. She was now engaged to Allen again, just as in the original storyline.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot," I heard, and turned to find the blonde-haired girl looking at me with a smile.
Why is she even here? Right, my actions today must have brought her closer to Ariana, which didn't happen in the original storyline. But that wasn't my problem.
"Go fuck yourself," I replied, and began eating.
I had made my choice. I wasn't going to become her object of curiosity or whatever the hell it was called.
"You really won't change, will you?" I turned to find Ariana glaring at me.
Here we go again.
"You know each other?" I heard, and tensed immediately.
Selena.
I saw Ariana glance at her for a moment as though considering something. "Yes, in fact a lot of us did," she said, and I could only rub my temple in exhaustion.
"Why not find something better to do with your time than gossip?" I said, and she looked at me for a while, then smiled, probably thinking Selena was my girlfriend and already plotting how to ruin a nonexistent relationship.
"Like what?" she asked.
I paused, stole a sideways glance at Silver, who was sitting there smiling like a complete idiot, clearly enjoying every second of this.
"I don't know, maybe masturbate like you always do?" I said, not looking at her once as I cut into a steak.
This tastes incredible.
"Hm?" I looked up and even Selena had a look of shock on her face, and Eloisa too, not to mention Silver, who was shifting his gaze between us with obvious interest.
Then his lips parted. Of course the idiot was going to join in.
"How do you know she does that?" he asked, and I caught the sound of metal scraping against ceramic, and through a side glance I saw Eloisa struggling to cut a steak.
"How dare you?" Ariana said.
I smiled. "Look, it's just my opinion. I didn't say you had to go do it right now, you can always do it later."
At this point I was genuinely gambling with my own life. If she chose to kill me right now there was nothing I could do about it, but she wouldn't, right?
"At least I didn't try to ra-" she started to say when something snapped.
I looked over, and my scalp went numb.
"Oh, sorry. I couldn't control my strength for a moment there," Eloisa said, then stood up and walked off to get something.
"Why are you so rude to everyone?" Rizel asked.
"Why should I tell you, bit-" I started, when Ariana cut in.
"I think I'm falling for this one guy in class," she said, and I rolled my eyes.
Classic Ariana. She had probably been planning this since the lecture. Trying to make me jealous or something. It wasn't going to work.
"Really, who?" Rizel, ever curious, walked straight into the trap.
"His name's Lucas, I met him yesterday," she said, putting on a dreamy look. If I didn't know her inside and out I might have fallen for it.
[Keep your emotions in check. I can sense that hatred growing again. At the rate you're going, the merging will begin on its own before long.]
'I know. But I can't explain it, whenever I'm around these heroines I just can't stand them. The worst part of me takes over.'
"Lucas Macendial?" Selena asked, and Ariana nodded, launching into an overwhelmingly glowing description of him.
A smile crossed my lips anyway. "Yeah, instead of what you normally do, why not go do it with him? You two would look good together," I said.
She froze and looked at me.
Oh.
In that instant every instinct I had told me one thing.
Run.