The video opened with her face filling the screen.
Alexandra.
"I’ve been raped by Maximilian Vice."
Her expression was fragile, devastated, a woman whose soul had been used up and discarded. Her eyes were swollen red. Her hands clutched a small handkerchief, already damp from tears.
She looked into the camera with trembling lips.
"Truthfully, I feel that saying I was raped does not even begin to tell the truth of what I went through. Honestly, I WISH that being raped was the end of the story." Her voice broke, tearing apart as fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. "But it’s not. My entire life has been ruined by Maximilian Vice, the CEO of ChronosX."
She buried her face in the handkerchief for a moment, trying to stifle her sobs. But the tears kept coming, and she forced herself to keep speaking.
"When the mana apocalypse broke out, no one knew what to do. Humans were awakening left and right. People were gaining powers and new futures that were beyond belief. Men and women working dead-end jobs suddenly had their lives turned around. It was chaos, but it was hope. Back then, I was only ten years old. That was when a man approached my parents. He said he had deep connections with the government and that they were researching the mana apocalypse. He told them he was starting an academy for promising youths, and that if they enrolled me, I would have a future as an awakened. All they had to do was agree to a contract, a tuition fee. It was nothing, he said. Once I awakened, I would earn enough to repay him in a month."
She wiped her eyes again, her voice trembling.
"It was all lies. Now we know well that no amount of training and preparation can make a person awaken. Awakening is fate. But he made my parents believe him back when everyone dreamed that in the next moment, they would miraculously awaken. So they signed a contract with him."
"That man’s name was Maximilian Vice. I grew up in his academy, believing in his promise. And when the truth finally came to light, when his lies collapsed and our hope turned to suffocating reality, my father had a heart attack and had to be hospitalized. My mother became stressed so much that she somehow lost herself, often staring into nothingness with lifeless eyes. Even now, years later, they are still emotionally crippled by what happened back then."
Her whole body shook as she spoke with grief filling every word.
"In America, facing immense debt should mean that we could at least declare bankruptcy. But Maximilian had not lied about one thing; he was well-connected to politicians. He made sure we could not do that."
She clenched the handkerchief tight in her fist.
"The academy was shut down soon after as more and more people pulled their kids out, aware of the scam due to it being well known that awakening couldn’t possibly be forced. But the contracts did not vanish. The obligations did not vanish. My parents were left with millions of dollars of debt and a daughter who not only didn’t awaken but also struggled with basic academics because I grew up in that scam instead of a normal school."
Her voice grew weaker.
"I begged Maximilian Vice to let us go. He laughed in my face. I begged government offices to help me, even if it meant declaring bankruptcy, I would be willing to grasp at any straw. They told me it was not possible. I wrote to politicians, asking for help. My emails were never answered. The only ones who answered me were the collectors. They broke down our doors and beat my poor mother and father up when we tried to escape our ’obligations.’"


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