Without any warning, Zeno’s hand went to the old man’s neck, tightening around it.
“You should be exterminated,” he muttered.
Master As looked up at him with calm eyes.
“No human should know about us,” Zeno muttered.
Instead of shrinking back, the old man leaned in closer, his white brows furrowing in sympathy rather than defiance. “Come on. Do it. I’m old. I don’t have much time left on Earth anyway. And like I said, I’m ready to die in peace.”
Zeno didn’t budge. His hand remained in place, but it didn’t tighten at all. His heart was steady but conflicted.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to,” Master As said softly. “You’re a good one. I can tell. Your soul is old, but it doesn’t contain evil.”
“I am evil,” Zeno said. “You don’t know the things I’ve done.”
“I don’t,” Master As replied, simply. “But I also know you didn’t have a choice. Otherwise, your own life—maybe your entire existence—would be in jeopardy.”
Zeno’s eyes narrowed. “You know, even about that?”
Master As didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stepped away from Zeno and sat back down on the grass. His eyes looked distant as an old memory unfolded before him.
“I was an orphan,” he began. “My mother was a pharmacist. However, she passed when I was ten. After that, I had no one. I slept in shelters and lived off donations.”
“When I was twelve, an orphanage took me in; however, it wasn’t any better. While they gave me shelter and food, they never gave me something a child needed—acceptance.”
“Twelve years old was considered old in the orphanage, so I watched as the others came and went, leaving me to stay there until I was sixteen. However, I couldn’t take it at that time. They were all such horrible humans. So, I left.”
“At that moment, I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach my dreams. I couldn’t help people the way my mother did.”
Zeno stood silently.
“However, somewhere along the way, I stopped feeling all sorts of things. From the age of seventeen to thirty-seven, I didn’t feel like myself.”
Zeno closed his eyes in frustration.
“Thirty-seven,” he muttered softly. He remembered that guy. He always bragged about his achievements, but in the end, he suffered the same fate as others—he failed his mission and presumably died.
“When I turned thirty-eight,” Master As continued, “I felt like I woke up. I remembered things—flashes of movement that weren’t mine. Decisions that didn’t feel like mine. Places I had never been to. Names I had never heard. But more than that… I started to feel like someone else had lived my life for me.”
Zeno’s fists clenched.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. The body, once returned, should forget. The host should return to their timeline, as if time never skipped.
“I didn’t understand at first. I thought I was going crazy. But then the memories started coming in waves. Missions. A deep, suffocating tiredness… and a desire to protect something. I was remembering him. The one who lived in my body.”
Zeno shook his head. “Impossible.”
“I thought so too,” Master As said, smiling faintly. “But over time, I stopped fighting it. I accepted it. And then something strange happened. My energy changed. I began to sense things. I started hearing people’s real desires beneath their words. That’s how I knew you weren’t from this world.”
Zeno felt something crawl up his spine.
A glitch in the matrix.
And if it had happened once… it could happen again.
Then, unexpectedly, Master As rose slowly, his knees popping in the process as he bowed in front of Zeno.
Zeno’s brows shot up. “What are you doing?”
“Showing gratitude,” Master As said, his voice calm and reverent. “You probably haven’t met the people you’ve helped. But here I am. A product of one of your kind’s missions. Someone who lived because you lived in him. Because of that, I changed. My fate changed. So… thank you.”
Unbeknownst to them, Jace had gone down to the kitchen for some water. As he passed the window, his eyes caught a strange scene outside. His hand froze mid-reach for the glass.
Was Master As… bowing?
To Zeno?
His eyes widened like saucers.
“What the hell…” he whispered to himself, peeking harder through the window. “Zeno’s amazing.”
Outside, Zeno looked lost.
“I…” Zeno started, unsure. It was true that he had never met those whom the Rennis had helped.
“I didn’t ask to be thanked.”
“And yet, you deserve it,” Master As replied. “As payment, I gave you that past-life memory.”
Zeno sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Can you tell me more about it?”
The old man reached out and gently touched Zeno’s hand. “Fine, I’ll give you another present,” he said. “I’ll tell you something about this young boy right here. The owner of this body.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and began convulsing again. Zeno was used to it now, surprisingly, even if he had only seen it a few times.
“This body,” he started off, “belonged to someone ordinary.”
“A young man. He wasn’t unhappy because of anything tragic. He wasn’t in pain. He didn’t lose anyone. He wasn’t broken. But he was dissatisfied with himself… because he felt he didn’t matter.”
Zeno’s brows furrowed.
“Because he was ordinary,” Master As murmured. “Utterly, completely ordinary. He hated that about himself. He hated that he didn’t have any great burdens or deep wounds. That he wasn’t brilliant, or broken, or larger than life. He envied those who struggled, because they at least had something that made them unique.”
“His greatest wish wasn’t to be extraordinary, but to be at peace with being ordinary. Because he believed that ordinary people didn’t suffer. That they had nothing to cry about. He hated himself for not being grateful. So when you entered him, and started living through him… something changed in both of you.”
Zeno’s eyes showed confusion.
“You gave him peace. While he gave you a human vessel.”
There was a knowing smile on his lips as he asked another question. “What did you feel when you were on stage during that memory?”
Zeno hesitated to answer.
“My heart was racing. The cheers were loud. The pay was shit but I guess, I didn’t care.”
“You were happy,” Master As said gently.
“Truly happy. But you couldn’t stay there. You were pulled back. And maybe, that regret followed you. But now… now you have another chance.”
Zeno looked up.
“I told you once,” Master As whispered. “That we get four lives. One to plant. One to wait. One to harvest. One to enjoy. I think this is your fourth, Zeno.”
He placed a hand on Zeno’s shoulder, eyes kind. “This life? It’s your harvest. So this time, just let yourself enjoy it.”
“That way, I believe you can become the greatest actor you will ever be.”