For some time after being discharged from the hospital, Richard did nothing. He rested, recovered, and regained his strength.
More precisely, that was how it looked to everyone around him. In reality, the transmigrator was trying to experiment with his mutant abilities. Naturally, he took every precaution, keeping a low profile and did this alone.
For his experiments, Richie tried to wind himself up—artificially provoking different emotions. Anger was the easiest to summon. It was enough to recall various unpleasant memories to begin genuinely hating everything around him. But since that hatred needed an outlet, the boy used various objects for the purpose.
It is very difficult to hate, say, a plush toy. Difficult—but possible.
The toy was not chosen at random. Richie assumed that hatred would only allow him to cause harm, and what exactly would happen to an object was known only to God. If he took something solid, like a chair, who knew—what if it exploded? Getting killed or maimed during experiments was not part of Richard's plans.
On the very first day, the experiment proved viable. At first, Richard simply hated the toy, but that wasn't enough. Then, at the peak of his emotion, he decided to add intent.
"Just explode already!" the boy shouted.
POOF!
With a dull pop, the plush rabbit burst apart, showering the entire study with scraps of fabric and stuffing.
Fortunately, the sound was quiet enough that the valet and servants didn't hear it.
For the first time in his new life, Richard had to clean up personally to hide the traces of using supernatural abilities. Despite the labor, the boy was immeasurably happy. He had managed to consciously use his mutant powers!
Over the course of a week, dozens of experiments were conducted in a similar manner. Richie destroyed enormous stockpiles of toys in every conceivable way—exploding them, slicing them apart, grinding them into dust, crushing, tearing—everything using his superpowers. Destroying objects turned out to be the easiest task. The only issue was that after destroying three plush toys, exhaustion would wash over Richard.
By the end of the experiments, the boy had accumulated two large bags of trash. Since the house was full of servants, getting rid of the evidence unnoticed was impossible. Richard thought:
Damn it! If my superpowers fulfill my wishes, why not wish for something even more supernatural? For example, shrinking the objects so I can quietly throw away the evidence.
However, he didn't have time to put that plan into action. The bruises faded, and Mr. Grosvenor decided it was time for his son to return to his studies.
Another mad marathon of lessons with tutors began—covering the school curriculum for the second grade of secondary school. In addition, Rolf Edling started coming to Richard's home: a Swedish fencer, a two-time gold medalist at international competitions in individual events and the Olympic champion of 1980 in the team event. A two-meter-tall blond man with a neatly trimmed beard. At forty-six, he looked no older than thirty-five, had a good-natured disposition, and taught superbly.
Angry at his own helplessness in his confrontation with Mr. Vince, Richard decided to seriously commit to fencing. As a result, Mr. Edling trained the boy six days a week for two to three hours a day.
Only on Sundays, when Richie finally had a day off, did he manage to train his mutant ability. And that's when a problem emerged—negative emotions did nothing to help with fulfilling positive wishes. With their help, it was easy to destroy, break, and smash things, but shrinking the bags of evidence simply didn't work.
Then Richie decided to try inducing different emotions. Unfortunately, studying and training consumed all of his free time. By evening, the boy had no strength left for anything except one thing—to crawl to his bed, lay his head on the pillow, and close his eyes.
Because of his packed schedule, Richard ended up practicing his supernatural abilities only on Sundays.
After two months of torment, something finally worked. But instead of shrinking the bags filled with the remains of plush toys, Richie, in a burst of anger, wished for them to disappear. And a miracle happened—both bags vanished. They dissolved, as if erased from reality by a giant eraser.
And although he should have been happy even with such a success, Richard was frightened. After all, instead of bags of trash, a living being—or even he himself—could end up in their place.
Richard made a vow to himself that from now on he would never wish anything bad upon himself, not even in his thoughts. It often happens that a person runs into trouble and starts berating himself out loud, calling himself an idiot or wishing he could fall through the ground. If you imagine, even for a moment, a mutant with superpowers whose wishes sometimes come true, it becomes terrifying.
Still, if a person has an innate ability, it should be trained and developed. That was exactly how Richard thought.
There were several options for training his supernatural powers.
The first was to continue practicing in secret. But there was a major downside—everything hidden sooner or later comes to light. And it would be good if his father discovered the secret—though even that wasn't guaranteed to end well, since his reaction was impossible to predict. But what if one of the servants caught him? Trouble would be unavoidable.
The second option was to tell his father everything. But again, no one could say how Gerald would react. What if he became afraid of his own son? After all, he had already driven his wife out of the house, even if she hadn't been the best person.
🙌Bonus chapter for 50 power stones!
🎁The next bonus chapter will be for 100 power stones.