Scumbag Fate System-Chapter 68: Awakening Students

Reinhard glanced at the bed filled with emotionless dolls.

Or more specifically, students.

Their eyes were open but vacant, while their breathing was steady but mechanical. The students were alive, but their lack of emotion made them no different than being dead.

Its only been a couple of days, and their state is already this bad? How terrifying would it be if she really erupted and covered the entire continent? Reinhard thought inwardly, suppressing the shiver.

Yor’s steps faltered when she saw them all laid out like that.

"Miss Noctyne," Adam said gently as he gestured toward the nearest bed. "Whenever you’re ready."

Yor approached the first student slowly. It was a girl with brown hair whose blank eyes stared at the ceiling without seeing. She raised her hand, then hesitated, and began furrowing her brows.

Reinhard’s hand touched her shoulder from behind. "You can do this. It will work, and you will be fine."

Yor eyes widened before smiling and nodding. She took a breath, then placed her palm on the girl’s forehead.

Reinhard watched as Yor body began to glow with a black-white light. It started from her hand and spread over her body, then rushed over the woman in the bed.

The emotionless brunette trembled before black-white mana began seeping out of her body. It started to form a swirl above the girl, and then, a void orb was formed. Yor blinked before grabbing the orb and watching as it sank into her body.

The girl blinked.

Her eyes began to focus while color returned to her cheeks. Emotions began to appear on her face, with the first being annoyance and then confusion.

"What... where am I?" The girl asked in a raspy voice that hadn’t been used in days.

Victoria’s eyes widened dramatically. "Remarkable."

Professor Chen leaned forward with professional interest written across her stern features. "Complete restoration of emotional capacity and consciousness. I’ve never seen anything like it."

Adam rushed to the girl’s side and then checked her vitals with practiced efficiency. "Pulse is normal. Pupil response is normal. Cognitive function appears intact." He looked up at Yor with something approaching awe as he spoke each word. "How did you do that?"

"I found the void energy I’d left in her," Yor explained as she moved to the next bed. "Then I pulled it back into myself where it can’t hurt anyone."

She repeated the process with the second student, who was a boy with red hair. Thirty seconds later, the void energy was extracted. The boy’s eyes cleared as he gasped and sat up suddenly.

"This is incredible," Adam said as he followed Yor from bed to bed. "The precision required to extract foreign magic without damaging the host’s own energy is extraordinary. Where did you learn this technique?"

Reinhard held his chin while trailing behind. Well, I did expect him to be curious.

Yor smiled as she moved to the third student. "Someone taught me the theory behind void manipulation. How to sense it and control it properly."

"Who?" Adam pressed with his curiosity clearly piqued. "I’d very much like to speak with them. Their understanding of void magic surpasses anything in current medical literature."

"I promised that person I wouldn’t tell," Yor said softly while keeping her gaze on the student. "It’s their secret to share, not mine."

Adam sighed heavily but nodded in understanding. "I respect that. Still, I wish I could meet this person. They’ve done far more to help you than I ever managed in all my years of research."

Yor paused halfway through healing the fourth student before turning to look at Adam with genuine warmth in her eyes. "No, you helped me a lot, too, Mister Adam. You put your career on the line to help me when no one else would."

Reinhard’s eyebrows rose as surprise flickered across his face. The others exchanged confused glances before Sirin asked, "What does she mean?"

Yor finished extracting the void energy from the current student before speaking. "At the beginning of the school year, the academy board wanted to keep me completely isolated. No clubs or shared classes. Just private tutoring in a locked room."

Her smile grew as she looked at Adam. "But Mister Adam pushed back. He argued that isolation would worsen my mental state and increase the risk of episodes. He convinced them to let me join clubs and attend classes with supervision instead of complete quarantine."

Alice’s mouth dropped open. "He did that?"

"He risked his position by vouching for me by stating," Yor continued as she moved to the fifth bed. "If I’d had an incident during this time, his career would have been destroyed. But he believed I deserved a chance at normalcy."

Adam shook his head, though his expression was pleased. "I just didn’t believe any student should be excluded from education and social development. The risks seemed worth it for your well-being."

Victoria laughed, then her voice was rich with amusement. "I always knew you were a softie under that professional exterior, Adam. Putting your neck on the line for a student you barely knew."

Professor Chen’s stern face softened into something approaching a smile. "It was admirable. Foolish perhaps, but admirable."

Adam chuckled as a faint blush colored his cheeks. "Yes, well, someone had to advocate for her."

He watched Yor heal two more students before speaking again. "We should still set up weekly checkups for you. Just to monitor your control and ensure the seal remains stable long-term."

Yor nodded without pausing in her work. "That’s fine. I understand the need for precaution."

They continued talking as Yor moved methodically through the beds. Each healing took about thirty seconds, with Reinhard noting a strange pattern. Each student had an expression of irritation or annoyance as if they were having a good dream and someone was forcibly waking them up.

It couldn’t be...

The medical staff rushed to attend to each newly conscious person with warm blankets and water and gentle explanations.

...

The group reached the end of the long room where three beds sat slightly apart from the others. Three students who looked familiar, even lying unconscious. The ones who had confronted Yor in the mall.

The siblings of the third-years whose emotions she’d taken.

Yor stopped walking as her hands trembled slightly.

These three had insulted her friends.

Had pushed her to break.

Had been the trigger for her most recent loss of control.

And now she had to face them.

"Yor?" Rika asked softly. "Are you okay?"

"These are the ones from the mall," Reinhard said quietly, then his hand found hers. "You don’t have to do this if-"

"No," Yor interrupted firmly. "They’re victims too. I hurt them because I lost control, and they deserve to be healed just like the others."

She approached the first of the three, a tall boy with dark hair whose face had been twisted in anger the last time she’d seen him conscious.

Now he just looked empty like all the rest. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Yor placed her hand on his forehead, then began the familiar process of drawing out void energy. The black-grey tendrils flowed from him into her orbiting void orb as thirty seconds ticked past.

His eyes focused before his consciousness returned, and he displayed an irritated look. But then that shifted to confusion as he gazed at Yor. Recognition dawned, followed immediately by something complicated, anger? Fear? Realization?

"You," he said hoarsely as his voice was rough from disuse. His hand shot up suddenly, then grabbed Yor’s wrist in a surprisingly strong grip. "You’re the one who-"

He stopped as awareness caught up to him.

"What did you do?" he asked with his tone shifting from hostile to bewildered. "I was... I couldn’t feel anything. Everything was gray... But now..."

Yor pulled her hand back gently as his grip loosened. "I’m healing you. Taking back the void energy I accidentally left inside you."

The boy sat up slowly, then looked at his hands as if seeing them for the first time. Tears gathered in his eyes unexpectedly. "I can feel again. I can actually feel things."

Victoria, Chen, and Adam watched intently from a respectful distance as the other two confrontational students still lay unconscious in their beds. Reinhard and the others stood close enough to intervene if needed but far enough to give space.

"Your siblings," Yor said quietly as she met the boy’s eyes. "The third-years. I can heal them, too... If you’ll let me. I can give them back what I took."

The boy’s expression crumbled completely as more tears spilled down his cheeks. His mouth opened, but no words came out. He looked at Yor with an expression that mixed gratitude, confusion, anger at past wrongs, and desperate hope all at once.

Then he looked at the other two beds where his companions still lay empty and waiting.

"Heal them first," he finally said with his voice breaking. "Then we’ll talk about my siblings."

Yor nodded then moved to the second bed. A girl with short black hair who had screamed the loudest insults in the mall. Her healing took the same thirty seconds before her eyes cleared and consciousness returned.

She gasped, then sat up fast before her gaze found Yor immediately. "You’re... you’re here. Why are you here?"

"I’m fixing what I broke," Yor said simply.

The third student.

Another boy with glasses woke moments later with the same annoyed look and then confused recognition. The three of them were awake now, and all three were staring at Yor with expressions too complicated to read.

The room held its breath as everyone waited to see what would happen next.