Paulo's Fate

12 Menses Aprilis, Year 704

Maxim was getting ready in his dorm room as Paulo asked him, “So, are you ready for your second week at Rimnan Castle School?”

“Sure am,” he replied as he buttoned up his uniform shirt. As he looked at Paulo, however, his expression turned from one of content to one of slight despair. “Yeah…”

Paulo, confused, assumed he was getting homesick already. “You feeling alright, man? Maybe you’re homesick?”

“I guess a little,” he replied, feigning homesickness in front of his roommate and now friend. “I’ll get used to it, though.” This answer, as well as his reason for being sad, was a lie.

In reality, if Maxim did not change a key part of the story, Paulo was going to be dead by the end of the week. None the wiser to his seemingly predestined fate, he stretched his arms as he put on his shirt as he told Maxim, “Yeah. I get it. I wrote to my parents this past weekend, and I should be getting a letter back from them soon.”

This fact caused Maxim to feel even more sad, since in the unchanged story, said letter would come too late for him to read it. Covering up the dread of possibly having to witness such a fate, he smiled and told Paulo, “Your parents really love you, don’t they? I’m glad they keep in touch with you like that.”

“Me too. Not everyone who goes here gets to speak to their parents on such a relatively frequent basis. Sending stuff through the mail costs money, after all, even for nobles, much less commoners.”

…

At the start of homeroom, Yura began the day with another one of her rousing speeches. “Tell me, class, do you believe in fate, or do you subscribe to the idea of free will? Raise your hand if you believe in a predestined fate for all.” Several people in class raised their hands. “Alright then. Raise your hand if you believe in free will.” Maxim raised his hand, one of a lesser number of students to do so, among whom was Kana. “I see. Now, finally, how many of you are unsure of what you believe in?” A majority of the class, including both Paulo and Yuna, raised their hands. “As expected. To be honest, I doubted I would get as many of you that would answer definitively either way. I personally believe in free will and the idea that nothing is predetermined by destiny, but at the same time, I want you all to come to your own conclusions. I chose my own destiny long ago when I was your age, and while some may say that I chose poorly, I have no regrets about that choice.”

As Yura continued on, Maxim knew that that last remark was regarding her marriage to a commoner despite coming from a high-ranking noble family, something that had led to her effectively becoming an outcast among her former peers. He looked down at his notepad, wanting time to move a bit faster so that he could get to what would be an important part of the early story. As he did, he focused on a pencil next to it for a few seconds before it suddenly began to vibrate, prompting him to recoil in his seat in shock.

Yura, interrupted by the incident, looked over at Maxim and asked him, “Mr. Ranka, is something wrong?”

“No, no,” he assured her. “I’m fine.”

“…Alright then. Now, where were we before I was interrupted…? Ah, now I know!”

Maxim looked down and saw that the pencil had stopped moving. He began to think about what Lena had told him regarding his potentially large and rather unstable magic powers, and wondered if perhaps Maxim the character had always had these powers in the background in the original story. He then looked over at Yuna, feeling bad for her as well as everyone else who was an actual main character given what would soon happen.

…

During a basic magic and science class later in the day, Maxim, Paulo, and Kana had been grouped together to study the biology and forcefield of a dead frog. As he wrote down everyone’s names on a sheet of paper given out to each group, he asked the other two, “So, which one of you wants to go first?”

“I’ll go,” Kana offered with a rather neutral stare. Even though her expression seemed blank and uninterested, Maxim could tell that she was not necessarily pleased with the people she was grouped with. “I want to get this done and over with as soon as I can. I think you two would agree.”

“You’re not wrong,” Paulo admitted.

“I’ll start with dissection of the torso,” Kana replied as she put her hands together and applied a small red forcefield to them before picking up a tiny scalpel. She then sank the blade into the frog, dutifully making an incision down the body.

While she went to work, Maxim was writing down what Kana was doing. Meanwhile, Paulo was putting on rubber gloves, not being magically-inclined like Kana was. He remarked to his friend, “Yeah, I got nothing on her. My family isn’t into magic at all.”

“That’s why they still have gloves, I guess,” Maxim joked. “For those of us that aren’t magically-inclined.”

When Kana was finished, she handed Maxim the scalpel and told him, “Okay, your turn.”

“Got it.” Maxim put on rubber gloves and took the scalpel so he could make an incision of the frog’s head. As he carefully cut open the frog, he thought about his own past experiences doing this exact same thing in his old world, albeit without the help of magic to act as gloves. However, as he finished, he was interrupted when the scalpel suddenly left his hands and hovered before setting itself down, astonishing both him and Paulo. “Holy shit…”

“No way,” Paulo gasped. “Did… Did you do that?”

“I… I guess I did?”

Kana was surprised to see Maxim had magical powers, remarking, “So you’re saying you never knew you had those powers until now?”

“They’ve… They’ve never manifested until now.” Maxim was rather shaken by this, both excited about what he could potentially do in this world but also worried that he would be unable to properly control his seemingly newfound powers. “I had always assumed I wasn’t magically-inclined, you know, like Paulo.”

Not amused by his comparison, Paulo replied, “Hey!”

Ignoring him, Kana explained to Maxim, “Unlocking powers this late into your life tends to lead to people having more unstable abilities. You can either have great power, or you’ll have dangerous powers that will do you more harm than good. I honestly cannot tell what you will have from just that incident with the scalpel alone, though.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Maxim sarcastically replied with a hint of worry. “I mean, Lena already told me that when she saw me accidentally spray myself with a water fountain.”

“I see…” Kana then turned to the sheet of paper and began to write her own notes down on what she did. “Just be careful. Don’t abuse your powers, whatever they might be.” She then stopped writing and looked up at Maxim rather intensely, confusing him at first before he suddenly heard her words being broadcasted into his mind. “And don’t bring harm to Yuna Miller under any circumstances. If I find out that you and Lena Vale are trying to drag her into the world of monster-hunting, you will pay. I’m still suspicious of you.”

Maxim was taken aback. He had known that after honing one’s magic abilities to a certain point, one could telepathically communicate with other magic users. What had shocked him was that he was already capable of such a feat despite not even knowing he had magic abilities until a few days prior. Deciding to give it a try, he told Kana telepathically, “So I ca-… T-… -ou? I th-… certain people co-… -at.”

“Looks like your abilities aren’t there quite yet,” Kana replied. “If you give it time, you’ll be able to properly communicate this way.”

Paulo, confused as to why Kana and Maxim were staring at each other and not talking, asked them, “Uh… Guys, are you okay? Did someone have a stroke? What the Hell’s going on?”

“It’s nothing,” Kana replied, giving a false reason as to why she had stopped talking. “I just spaced out, that’s all.”

…

14 Menses Aprilis, Year 704

Yuna and Sarah were waiting outside the gates of the school after the day had ended, intending to see both Lena and Yuna’s brother Werner. As Lena and Victoria walked out, they both noticed the duo standing by the gates. “Looks like they’re waiting for you,” Victoria remarked, suspicious of their intentions.

“It’s fine,” Lena assured her. “They seem like good people.” She waved over to the duo, telling them, “Hey, girls!”

“Hello, Lena,” Yuna replied with a smile. “Are you going out on a monster patrol tonight?”

“I sure am.”

Sarah then asked, “If so, can we go too?”

Victoria, unsure of bringing two people who had no experience in hunting monsters along for a patrol, pointed out to Lena, “I don’t know, Lena. These guys haven’t done this before.”

“It’ll be fine,” she assured her with a hand wave. “I’ll make sure they won’t be in any real danger. Besides, I have a good feeling about these two.” Lena then turned to Sarah and Yuna, answering their question with, “You guys can go with me.”

“Hell yeah,” Sarah replied with excitement. “This is gonna be so much fun, Yuna!”

“I’m really excited for this,” Yuna added, her eyes beaming with anticipation. “Thank you, Lena!”

“Yuna,” then called her brother, an older boy in Sarah’s class, as he walked over. He looked remarkably similar to Yuna, albeit as if she had been born a short-haired boy instead. “How was your day?”

“Hey there, brother,” she replied to him. “I had a pretty good day. Nothing too unusual. I’m gonna go out with Sarah, Lena, and Victoria for a bit before we have to be back at the dorms.”

“With Lena and Victoria, huh?” Werner then looked over at the other duo. “What are you guys gonna do?”

“Oh, uh,” Lena replied, taken off-guard. “We’re just going into town. Nothing too wild.”

“Just be careful, girls. It’s been crazy these past few days between that forest fire over the weekend and the monster attacks. Mom and Dad won’t be happy with either of us if you get hurt this early into the school year, Yuna.”

“I know, I know,” Yuna assured him. “I’ll be fine.”

Werner then turned to Sarah, which prompted the latter to blush slightly, as he told her, “Keep an eye on her, okay?”

“Ye-… Yes, Werner… Also, uh… Would you mind if we studied together tomorrow after school for that math test on 16 Menses Aprilis?” Sarah had wanted to study with Werner to get closer to him, hoping that maybe by doing this, she could deepen her bond with him and maybe even start a relationship.

“Sure thing,” he replied, eager to study. “If you need help with it, just let me know. A math test this early into the school year is unusual, but not unheard of.”

As the two of them continued to talk, Lena whispered to Victoria, “I think someone’s got a crush on Werner.”

“And water is wet,” Victoria whispered back with a chuckle, pointing out how obvious Sarah’s feelings for Werner were to them.

…

Later that day, Paulo was in town, visiting the evening market to see if anything piqued his interest. As he walked past the various wooden stalls set up around the small and quaint village square, he saw one stall selling fruits and vegetables, one of the former of which interested him. “Hmmmm…” He went over to the stall and asked the farmer manning it, “So, how much for that red and orange fruit right there?”

“This one?” The farmer then held up the aforementioned fruit, which had two wide leg-like protrusions coming out of an oval-shaped body. “This is a Unasa fruit. It’ll set you back about three pounds, or you can get four for ten pounds. You’re lucky anyone’s selling this given the forest fire that wrecked quite a few of the crop fields near the village over the weekend.”

“I heard,” Paulo nodded. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, it sure does. It happened right after a few people in the village vanished, too. Shit’s getting pretty fucking weird around here.”

“I know, I know. Shit’s crazy around here these days.” Paulo then pulled out two banknotes from his bookbag, passing them to the farmer. “I’ll take the four for ten deal, please.”

“Sounds good to me.” The farmer then placed all four unasas in a large paper bag. “Here you go, son. They taste pretty good based on when I had one recently.”

“I bet they do.” Paulo then set his bookbag down and put the paper bag inside before putting it back on. “Have a good day, sir!”

“You too, young man!”

Unbeknownst to him, two hooded men were watching him from an alleyway, both of them armed with knives and seemingly ready to strike at him. One of the two men, the taller of the duo, waved the other over to take a closer look at Paulo. He then whispered, “Come here.”

The shorter of the two men asked, “Is that our guy?”

“According to Father Thomas, it is.”

While both hooded men continued to discuss among themselves, Maxim had also been secretly following Paulo into the village. In the original show, Paulo had been killed offscreen, but it was known that he had been found dead in the village, and as such, Maxim knew that if he kept trailing behind Paulo, he would inevitably run into the same people who murdered him. He also knew that doing such a thing as interrupting a murder in progress was incredibly dangerous, but he felt motivated both by his friendship with Paulo as Maxim and his curiosity of how far he could bend the plot of Rimnan Castle School as Jordan. As he walked down an alleyway, he turned his head and saw both of the hooded men. He could not recognize them as Paulo’s killers, but they seemed suspicious enough that perhaps following them would get him what he wanted.

Apparently, both of the hooded men noticed him fairly quickly, as the shorter of the duo tapped the taller one on the shoulder and said something indiscernible to him. This was followed by both men leaving the alleyway and unhooding, to which Maxim quickly followed. As the two quickly walked behind several stalls in the village square, they tried to throw their stalker off by ducking quickly onto a side street, but Maxim stayed right behind them, determined to keep following them. The taller man remarked to his compatriot, “What the fuck is this dude’s problem?”

The duo then found a church and ran up the steps and through the wooden double doors. Maxim trailed behind, but when he walked into the church, he found only an empty nave with rows of pews in front of him. The inside was very well-furnished, although there were no distinct religious symbols inside, presumably due to the creators of the original story not wanting to attach a specific real world religion to their show. Maxim looked around, finding the church seemingly devoid of any life as he walked towards the altar. He muttered under his breath, “Where the Hell are they…?”

Then, he saw two shadows run from behind the altar to a hallway in the rear of the church, prompting Maxim to chase after them. A set of smaller double doors was then flung open by the two hooded men, and to Maxim’s shock, Paulo happened to be on the other side. The shorter of the two men shouted at him, “There you are!”

Maxim screamed as he ran as fast as he could, “NO!” His heart was pounding, hoping that he would be fast enough to stop the duo from killing Paulo. Then, a scuffle was seen, and screams followed. Maxim feared the worst as he reached the duo, thinking that he had arrived too late.