Chapter 3 - Freya Larsen
I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache.
Not because my brain was busy merging two lifetimes anymore.
That part, surprisingly, had settled.
No.
This headache came courtesy of my own memories.
"Fuck."
I buried my face in my pillow.
Last night hadn’t been a fever dream.
Mira had really hugged me.
Really rested her forehead against mine.
Really looked at me like...
I immediately rolled over.
"Nope."
I wasn’t mentally equipped to process that before breakfast.
Future Evren could deal with the emotional consequences.
Present Evren needed toothpaste.
After washing up, I stopped in front of the bathroom mirror and studied my reflection.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
A face I’d seen every morning for eighteen years.
"Still me."
Apparently, recovering another lifetime’s worth of memories didn’t come bundled with the mandatory "become absurdly handsome" protagonist package.
A shame.
According to roughly eighty percent of the web novels lodged inside my head, this should’ve been the point where my jawline sharpened, my eyes gained mysterious depth, and women within a ten-meter radius collectively forgot how to breathe.
Instead, I looked exactly the same.
Not that I had much to complain about.
I wasn’t movie-star handsome, but I cleaned up well enough.
Ironview High wasn’t some backwater school where people showed up wearing whatever happened to be lying on the floor.
It had a reputation to maintain, and graduation day meant everyone would be dressed as though reporters were waiting outside.
Besides, looking presentable was free.
The apartment was unusually quiet.
"Mira?"
No answer.
She’d probably left early.
Heroes rarely got the luxury of fixed schedules.
Just as I reached for my keys, I noticed a covered plate sitting on the dining table.
Beside it rested a neatly folded note.
Heat it before eating.
And don’t skip breakfast. — Mira
I stared at the note for several seconds.
Last night had definitely happened.
"Damn it."
I couldn’t even pretend she’d imagined everything.
Neither could I.
A faint smile escaped before I caught myself.
"This is going to be awkward."
I folded the note and slipped it into my pocket for absolutely no reason.
Breakfast consisted of toast, scrambled eggs, and enough vegetables to remind me that Mira had spent years trying to improve my eating habits.
I finished everything.
Twenty minutes later, I found myself walking toward Ironview High School.
The morning air carried the familiar buzz of New York waking up.
Commuters hurried toward subway stations, cafés opened their doors, and somewhere high above, a Hero streaked across the skyline in a flash of emerald light.
Seeing Heroes fly overhead had never stopped feeling normal.
Seeing them up close.
That was different.
Every child wanted to become one.
Most eventually accepted reality.
I hadn’t.
Not yet.
Ironview High stood at the end of the avenue, its modern steel-and-glass campus surrounded by banners celebrating the graduating class.
Students poured through the front gates in neatly pressed uniforms, chatting excitedly.
Today should’ve felt nostalgic.
Instead, for me it felt different.
Maybe because I knew this wasn’t just graduation anymore.
It was the point where the story I’d half remembered and the life I was actually living would begin to overlap.
Assuming my memories weren’t completely wrong.
Which, knowing my luck, was entirely possible.
I glanced at my smartwatch.
The holographic display flickered to life above my wrist, showing the time along with half a dozen unread notifications from classmates.
I ignored every single one.
There was only one person I was waiting for.
Right on cue, someone waved both arms over his head as though trying to direct aircraft traffic.
"EVREN!"
I sighed.
Fu Jun.
Accepted as "Fatty" by everyone except his mother.
The nickname had survived years of puberty despite becoming increasingly inaccurate.
He wasn’t that fat anymore.
He jogged over with his usual grin.
"Damn, you’ve been smiling a lot lately."
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"You got a girlfriend?"
There it was.
His favorite conspiracy theory.
I looked at him.
"If I said yes, would you believe me?"
"Obviously no!"
He answered before I finished asking and I smacked the back of his head.
"Ow!"
"This motherfucker..."
Fatty rubbed the back of his head dramatically.
"I ask one simple question and violence is immediately your answer."
"You’ve asked me that same question ten times this month."
"Because eventually it’ll be true."
I looked toward the school entrance and sighed.
"That’s exactly what worries me."
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
Well.
Not exactly nothing.
If my memories were even halfway accurate, my future had just become a lot more complicated.
Somewhere inside Ironview High was Freya Larsen.
Silver-ranked. Ice Powers. Daughter of a Diamond-ranked Hero.
The sort of girl teachers called "a once-in-a-generation talent."
One of the academy’s brightest prospects.
And, according to the scattered memories of a web novel I’d read in another life...
Someone who was an important side character, and made their first appearance at the Nexus Academy.
Fatty noticed me staring toward the school entrance and immediately followed my gaze.
"You’re looking for someone, aren’t you?"
"I’m looking at the building."
"No, you’re looking through the building, Ahh, I can feel you burning gaze! My body can’t take it!"
"..."
I frowned at his usual antics.
Then I laughed.
Fatty glanced sideways.
"See?"
"What?"
"You smiled again."
"Shut up."
We walked through the front gates together.
Ironview High looked livelier than I’d ever seen it.
Teachers hurried from one building to another carrying clipboards with the grim determination of soldiers preparing for battle.
Graduation ceremonies had a remarkable ability to turn perfectly reasonable adults into logistical nightmares.
Colorful banners hung from the main building.
Congratulations, Class of 801.
A little dramatic. And yeah, the year we were living was 801.
Even I don’t know how we have yet to cross the thousand year mark.
Then again, I am living on a planet where dimensional disasters occasionally interrupted celebrations.
As we crossed the courtyard, familiar faces greeted us from every direction.
"Morning, Evren!"
"Fatty!"
"Good luck after graduation!"
I waved back instinctively.
"Do people usually talk to us this much?"
Fatty shrugged.
"They’re just saying goodbye and we would never like to see your face again."
"Oh."
That, made sense.
I’d spent four years walking these halls.
Four years wondering why I still hadn’t Awakened.
Funny how places only became nostalgic when you were about to leave them.
"You know, I’m going to miss this." Fatty said.
"The training?"
"No."
"The cafeteria?"
"No."
"The old principal?"
"Let’s not ruin the mood."
I chuckled.
"I get it."
He looked at me.
"You do?"
"Yeah."
I looked around for one last time.
"I kept thinking my real life would start after graduation, maybe I will join the Nexus Academy."
"And?"
"And we will never meet again, because you are a spy for the chines-I mean the Dragon Empire."
I corrected myself midway, as Fu Jun looked like my brains cells have finally rotted.
"Take my advice and go to a doctor." Fatty Fu commented.
The auditorium doors opened and students began filing inside.
Fatty and I found our assigned seats somewhere near the middle.
Good enough to see the stage.
Far enough away that the teachers couldn’t make eye contact.
’Perfect.’
The hall gradually filled with conversation until nearly every seat was occupied.
Then, the room became noticeably quieter.
I followed everyone else’s line of sight toward the entrance.
A small group had just entered.
Even among future Heroes, some people naturally drew attention.
Freya Larsen was one of them.
She wasn’t wearing anything extravagant—just Ironview’s formal graduation uniform, but confidence had a way of making ordinary things look expensive.
Long platinum-blonde hair framed a calm, composed face, while clear blue eyes swept across the auditorium with effortless confidence.
She walked like someone who already knew exactly where she belonged.
Several students whispered as she passed.
I couldn’t blame them.
On the other Earth, she’d probably have been the kind of girl who accidentally became an internet celebrity simply by existing.
Fatty nudged my elbow.
"Don’t give that look bro."
"What?"
"I know that look."
"What look?"
"The ’she’s pretty’ look."
"I wasn’t thinking that."
"Really?"
"I was wondering how many people accidentally had their hearts shattered because of that icy look."
Freya continued toward the reserved seats near the front.
Halfway there, she paused.
Her gaze shifted across the auditorium.
Then, for the briefest moment.
Our eyes met.
"..."
She blinked once.
And before I could decide whether I was imagining things.
She gave me a small nod.
Then continued walking as if nothing had happened.
"..."
Fatty Fu slowly turned toward me.
"Evren?"
"I have talked with her seven times in total, don’t doubt me Fatty."
And that was the truth.
I remember our every conversation, and somehow, she and Mira knew each other.
This way we came to talk, otherwise, she was like those cold aloof beauties that literally hate men.
If my memories from the other Earth were accurate.
Freya wasn’t supposed to interact with a male even till the end of the story.
Unless.
’So I really don’t exist in the novel, fuck, what a shitty feeling...’
Somewhere at the front of the auditorium, the microphone crackled to life.
The principal stepped onto the stage, smiling with confidence and nearly every student had mentally prepared to ignore it.
Beside me, Fatty leaned over.
"This will go at least an hour."
I looked at the growing stack of speech cards in the principal’s hands.
"You’re right."