Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 544: Mac & Gene

'Gretel needs to take revenge for the Doctor.'

Despite not moving and remaining completely silent, a very strong thought hovered in Gretel's mind ever since she saw the disheveled man collapse and disappear into nothingness.

'But not now.'

However, as much as the hatred ate away at her, Gretel was well aware that she couldn't do anything against the man who killed the Great Doctor within seconds.

The evil man who took away the most important person to her was treating them just like victims, not knowing what he did. In due time, he was bound to drop his guard and once he did…

'Soon.'

Gretel stealthily held onto the knife hidden and tucked to her side, this was something given to her by the Great Doctor to protect herself. Today, she was going to use it to kill his killer.

'I will follow soon.'

Whether the attempt was successful or not, Gretel had already decided that the knife's second target would be here. She had no reason to stay if he left.

'Ah.'

However, nothing went along with her expectation, the evil man initially checked on them, but his attention soon moved to her as if he knew everything.

"For now, let me first try and help her."

The man had just arrived, but it was as if he knew everything. Even if he had been listening for a while, he didn't ask her the same questions that the Doctor warned her about.

He didn't ask her if she was pretending to listen or ask her where her family was, he just acted as if he knew something was wrong with her, something that the Doctor completely disagreed with.

'Nothing is wrong with me!'

At this point, Gretel was ready to abandon her first plan and start struggling, but before she could do anything, something bound her to the ground. She couldn't move a finger.

'What… What is happening?'

Her head stung for a second before the scenery in front of her completely changed. She still couldn't move, but someone was holding her, and their face was full of smiles.

The sky was clear, the birds were chirping, and nothing but green surrounded them. For the first time in a long while, she felt happy.

'M… Mom?'

A forgotten memory. Someone who Gretel thought never existed was there for her, and her heart found that someone to be far more precious than the… Who was it again?

The disheveled man's image appeared in the far distance, but rather than the deep connection she felt with him, Gretel felt fear, disgust, hatred… A pile of negative emotions echoed in her head as the sky turned dark.

Whatever he was, once he came closer everything would be lost!

"I told you, didn't I? I said…"

The disheveled man was only walking angrily in their direction, but he seemed to cross long distances with each single step. With each scream, the peaceful world came apart piece by piece.

"Listen to M-me. Listen!" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

'No!'

As lost as she was, Gretel… Was that even her name? Whoever she was, she knew what she wanted.

'I don't want to listen!'

The hand stretching toward her didn't listen, but all of the sudden a shadowy claw grabbed hold of the angry man dragging him back as the man outfitted in black appeared in the distance.

With a single flick of his hand, the shadow claw strengthened its grip, popping the disheveled man like a bubble.

The actual evil man's deep dark essence dissipated away as the girl's memory of his face dissipated alongside it.

'Ah, I was taken.'

She could no longer remember what he looked like, but she finally remembered being kidnapped on her way back while running an errand for the orphanage.

After suffering under his mental torture for month, her subconscious opened itself and let him parasitize over the few memories she had of her late family.

All of this was already something inconceivable, but what was even more surprising was that the man in front of her somehow managed to pull her out of it.

Yet, the one thing that perplexed her the most was the man's identity.

'Why is a Villain doing this?'

After all, it wasn't just her memory of the incident that returned. All the memories that her brainwashed persona deemed useless had returned.

"Cassian, Cassian! Why did you decide to be a secret Hero? I bet you would be really popular if people knew about you!"

The other boy didn't seem to have joined the Cassian hype back then, but watching television was one of the very few things that could be done at the orphanage; she was naturally aware who the infamous Cassian was.

"Well… You can say that I'm actually pretty popular, but probably not in the way you are imagining it."

Turning to see that the girl was back on her feet, looking livelier than ever, Leo pointed at the door with a hearty smile.

"Now then, are you ready to leave this place?"

"Yes!"

'Is he also after us?'

The boy was obviously enthusiastic to follow Cassian wherever he would take him, but the girl had doubts. However, his half covered face left too deep an impression on her subconscious.

Rather than an enemy, her mind viewed him as a savior. She felt the need to give him a chance before judging him.

'Thankfully, it seems to have worked.'

Although the girl didn't answer, she started walking next to the boy, making Leo breathe in relief.

The whole Shadow Cleansing attempt was still too theoretical for use. That being said, Leo was at least sure it wouldn't cause any damage, but whether it worked or not was a totally different story.

'I would have waited, but the timing is completely wrong.'

Since Aurora was the one that fixed her in the novel, Leo wanted to leave it to her at first. However, whatever Aurora did, she did it on the spot. There was a chance that something unsavory might happen if the process had to wait.

'Shadow Nightmare is just too crazy.'

Was anything possible as long as it conformed to the rules of a nightmare? Leo still felt that this wasn't the ability's limit.

"Alright, hang tight."

Once they exited the building, Leo had no plans to stay in this district for too long. Since they couldn't follow him into the shadows, Leo had to use a familiar makeshift method for quick travel…Only he adjusted it to be a bit more friendly.

Spreading an extra layer of stealth over the two kids, Leo covered them in soft shadow cocoons before shadow tendrils held them softly in their standing position, then…

Woosh!

Leo slipped into his own shadow as the kids' perspective shadows sped behind him, each holding their respective owner.

"Here we are."

In just under three minutes, they arrived at the next district's closest police station and Leo let the two out. Thanks to the fact that everything was blacked out inside, they didn't appear to suffer from motion sickness, they just looked really shocked.

"Woah, awesome!"

One surprise after the other, the boy almost forgot the entirety of his trauma for the short-term. He was too excited to care about the bad memories.

"Now, why don't you go inside and make a report? I'm sure your parents are worried about you."

First things first, Leo turned to the boy. He only came to a place like this to drop the kid, this was the safest option. He had roughly discussed the details of what he needed to say on their way out of the building

"Are you sure you can't go in with me?"

The boy looked at Leo with expectant eyes, but Leo couldn't be persuaded that easily.

"Like I already said, I'm not popular in a good way, things will get troublesome if I go in."

He could disguise himself as a random passerby, but that would mean he had to waste a lot of time giving a statement and signing some useless papers. Besides, he still had a much more cumbersome task ahead of him.

"...I get it, you are trying to keep your identity secret. Don't worry, I won't tell a thing about you!"

The boy gestured with great determination as he shook Leo's hands before stepping forward, but just a few seconds later, he turned to shout in Leo's direction.

"Mac! That's my name, please don't forget it!"

"You got it…"

Mac only left once he received an answer, and Leo immediately started walking away after that. The girl looked at the police station with some hesitation before following Leo.

"You aren't going to tell me to go in as well?"

She couldn't keep up her silent act for too long, she was just too curious to find Cassian's objective from all of this.

"You? You can go in if you still want to go back to the orphanage, but I have a more interesting destination in mind, you are free to follow me if you want."

Mac was bound to return to his parents, but the girl's destiny was a lot different. Although Leo had no qualms changing the story, that only applied to necessary changes.

Taking down the future Ability Eraser was one example of such necessary change, but ordering the girl to go back to her orphanage wasn't one, it was only the most convenient solution.

As such, Leo was willing to spend some effort to mend, if even, a part of the original scenario.

"I understand, I will follow you."

'...This was easier than expected.'

Leo thought he had to do quite a bit of subtle convincing to rope her in, but it didn't even take him more than one try.

"Then keep up, we will walk for a bit before we take the next leap."

"Wait."

Just as Leo was starting to wonder if the girl was going to go back on her words, it turned out that she just had a few more words to add.

"The name is Gene, you can use it instead of just 'you'."

'I know, though.'

It was yet another piece of information that Leo just happened to be aware of.