First world

Northern hemisphere

Headquarters of the marines

The day Gaus came to the Multiverse...

***

A middle-aged man sat on a chair with both his feet resting on the table in front of him, one foot on top of the other. The table was wide, its top was black and shiny. The room was also painted black from the ceiling to the floor.

The man's eyes were also black, from the sclera to the iris. His shoes were as black as the table. His clothes were even darker than the table, with not a speck of dirt on them. The only thing not black in the room was the man's skin. He was so pale that people would assume he'd white-colored blood in his veins.

He stared at the wall in front of him in silence. He looked composed and majestic. Like a carefully carved sculpture of a king judging his subjects.

Knock.

One faint sound came from the door. The person knocking must have been afraid not to disturb the man inside the room.

"Come in," the black-eyed man whispered.

Slowly the door opened and a young lady entered. She had black eyes just like him. She bowed in greetings.

"Admiral, the class is ready," she said.

He looked at his watch and took a gentle breath. On his face, there was boredom as if he was tired of this endless repetition that was life.

After a moment of silence, he straightened up and left without saying a word. And the girl followed behind him.

They reached the door of the classroom. The girl hurried in and placed the papers in her hand on the table in front of the classroom.

The ten students in the class fell silent, each braced themselves in their seat. When the Admiral came in, the students stood up in awe.

"Good morning, Admiral," they said together.

"Morning," said the Admiral. His voice was like a whisper that they had to focus on it to hear what he was saying.

He picked up black chalk on the bench and went to the whiteboard in front of the classroom and started writing. When he finished, he asked the class to read it to him.

"Chronomancy as a weapon," they read loudly and together.

The Admiral squinted his eyes a little as if awakened from his slumber.

"How long have you been in the loop?" He asked. The ten students looked at each other. They were strangers to each other and everyone wanted to hear the answer of the person sitting next to them.

"One loop year," said a young man from the front.

"Ten loop months," said another.

"Eighteen loop months," said another.

One by one, everyone said their age in the loop.

"Does any of you know why we invited you into the loop?" The admiral said after they were done.

"To protect the marine headquarters."

"To defend the first world."

"To defend the palace."

In the same way, each one of them mentioned what they thought was right. After they finished, the Admiral sighed with a shake of his head.

"That's not correct," he said. "All of your answers are wrong. The MIA defends the first world. The Admirals defend the marine headquarters. And the palace does not need protection." He was silent as he watched them like a lion watching rats. "We invited you only because of your tribe."

The ten people looked at the admiral in amazement. Some of them felt good about his answer, and some were visibly sad.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"We fought when the loop was created," the admiral continued. "And, rightfully, we won the battle. Now there isn't a worthy opponent left. The war has been won. Our enemies are dead. The survivors are working for us. You have nothing to do now but watch. We'll teach you magic so you can stand watch over your respective Houses. That is all. Is there any question?"

A woman raised her hand.

"Admiral, if there are no more enemies then why are the great Qatalans always ready for war? And why is the loop still not over?"

The admiral smiled for the first time since entering the classroom.

"To be complete," he said. "We won the battle even before X, we won in X, and we won in M, do you think there is anything that will stop us from winning again? Or do we, the magi of Old who fought in X and M, need help from you?"

"But Admiral..." The admiral frowned, which made the woman hesitated and chose her words carefully. "There are enemies in LA who still hate us. Do you think we are still not needed?"

The Admiral closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Well," he shrugged. "It seems it will take some time before you can understand the new reality. Just remember that if an army is strong, you would find that it's complete. Only a weak army needs more to close the gap. And we are strong and complete."

The class members looked down. All their enthusiasm and joy were gone. They kept thinking: what good was the lesson if they couldn't join the MIA or the marines.

"Maybe," said the Admiral. "In the next hundred years, you will replace some of the warriors we have in the lower worlds. In that time what you learn today will be useful."

"I'll wait a thousand years to join the Qatalans," said a woman.

"I will as well," said another.

The Admiral smiled. He wasn't sure if they would need the youngsters by then but their courage was impressive. He always wanted to tell newcomers the truth so they wouldn't live their lives chasing a hopeless dream.

"We'll see then," he said.

The class regained some of its colors. Some of the students had determined looks and others were just happy to be sitting in the same room as the admiral. And the lesson started.

Then it happened. It was sudden and unexpected. The world turned black and he couldn't see anything. It was as if someone had forced him to close his eyes. When he regained his vision a moment later, he saw a very familiar albeit slightly different message from the system.

Magiwatch has saved 5 seconds.

At first, the admiral saw it as a joke. He stood there dumbstruck, silently staring down at the floor.

"Admiral?" One of the students called out to him seeing he had stayed quiet for so long. But the admiral didn't answer.

"Admiral?"

"Admiral?"

Seeing that the teacher still didn't answer, the class began to get agitated. Why was he silent? Did they say something wrong?

For his part, the Admiral was immersed in thought. He was the only one with Rewind. All the people he had invited into the loop and the people they had invited could not turn time back. Only he could do that. But he just saw a rewind. The world had turned back for 5 seconds. Was it a glitch?

But then it happened again.

Magiwatch has saved 40 seconds.

He turned and walked out of the classroom without giving the lesson. There was no longer any calm or arrogance on his face as he left.

"Admiral? What happened?" Zulia, his secretary, asked him.

The Admiral didn't stop or even respond to her in any way. He ran to his office. Once inside, he pulled out the drawer in the central table and removed some papers and books. At the bottom of all the documents was a diary that had already collected dust.

He picked up the book and wiped the dust off with his hands. Zulia wanted to dust the book for him but he wouldn't let her.

She had never seen the admiral acting this way. It was unnerving, to say the least. For a long moment, he opened the book and read the text inside.

"Quickly invite Porasak of the Old World," he said.

"Ok... okay," Zulia said, stuttering. She ran out of the office.

A couple of minutes later, the secretary brought back an old woman. After they entered, Zulia stepped back and left the two alone.

"Red," said Advisor Porasak. "What happened?" She looked at her watch. "You should be in class by now."

"Sit down," he said. It was a command, so she sat down without complaining. "There's another Rewind user."

Porasak looked at him silently, waiting for him to tell her he was joking.

"Another Rewind user?" She asked, unsure if she heard him right.

Red nodded. Then he explained everything to her, including the Rewinds he had seen.

The two were immediately thrown into a reverie. For ten minutes none of them said a word.

"I thought it was over," Porasak said. "I thought we were done with the enemy. No matter, we'll win just like in the old times. Have you identified where the Rewind was used?"

Red shook his head. "No, not yet. But I can sense it between the sixth and the seventh world."

Porasak frowned in confusion. Despite the distance, Red should be able to pinpoint the exact location of the user. Unless if...

"I sense him," Red said. "But he is very weak. I can't tell exactly where he is. It's like his mana is not even tamed."

Porasak frowned at the statement. A weak Rewind user? Just what did that even mean?

"What should we do now?" She said.

Admiral Red took a deep breath. He thought that when violence came he would get a job, which would make him happy because he was tired of sitting idly, but he didn't think the violence would come to him in that form.

"The King and the other Admirals will need a report on this. What shall we tell...?" Porasak said.

"Do you think the parallel timeline is still affecting us?" Red interrupted.