"My name is Tyren Onis, I'm 23 years old. I was born on the 6th of April, standing at 183cm, and weighing 65kg. Please take care of me."
It was difficult to know the first person who started laughing in response to Tyren's 'thorough' introduction. His voice was so timid like the squeal of a trapped bunny. Only Gaus knew what was behind that timid voice
Gaus cleared his throat and the class shut up in response. "I'm sorry for my classmate's behavior," he apologized.
Tyren bowed courteously. He looked around for an empty seat.
"You can take that one if you want." Gaus pointed at the teacher's seat.
"Thanks, but I'll just stand."
Gaus shrugged. It was an obvious trap and he didn't expect Tyren to fall for it.
Linc came. During the lecture, Gaus reluctantly returned the swords beneath his seat to his inventory, but his eyes remained fixed on Tyren, taking note of every move the man would make.
It wasn't surprising when Tyren also requested to be tested in private.
As soon as the class was over, Tyren followed Linc and Gaus went to the reception hall.
"Hey, I'm looking for XM0033," he asked the guard at the entrance.
"And who are you?" The man asked.
"I'm Gaus Lake from..."
"What's your designation?" He cut him off.
"XM0000."
"And you think a bloody initiate that can't even greet his seniors can disturb my peace with questions?"
The way the so-called upper echelon treated the initiates was ridiculous. They were so arrogant it was impossible to relate with them. The higher the designation of a looper the more arrogant they became.
Gaus came back later to check it out himself. As it happened, XM0033 wasn't in the reception. He came back in the next loop, but the guy wasn't there. At one point, he managed to meet an easy-going temporary looper.
"Good evening, senior. I'm looking for XM0033, have you seen him around?"
"He's out on a mission."
A mission? He was told any number below one hundred were mostly working in the academy.
Gaus was out of options, so the next day after class he followed Linc to his office. He knocked only once and Linc himself opened the door.
"Class rep?"
"Sir, can I come in?"
"Of course," he let him in, "I just wasn't expecting you, that's all."
The office was big, almost twice his room, with an exquisitely carved desk at the center. By this time, Gaus was no longer affected by the cleanliness of everything in the academy. Even the toilets were polished enough to be a bedroom, so it wouldn't be surprising if the teacher's office looked like this.
"You haven't visited even once," Linc said after they were seated. "Class reps pester their teachers with complaints about their colleagues and timetables and teachers. They even ask for extra classes in exchange for their 'meritorious' services. You haven't done any of those yet which seems quite extraordinary to me."
Gaus didn't know about this.
"Can I ask for a one-on-one advanced class?" Gaus asked taken aback by the new information.
"You can sign up for the mentor-mentee program if you want," Linc said with a shrug.
What?
"You see, the mentor-mentee program isn't in the curriculum because it's not a regular thing. The academy left it at the hands of the students and the teachers. If a teacher likes you well enough and you like their teaching in return then you can both sign the form and start it. The academy can't assign a mentor to every student because there aren't enough teachers. So, instead of canceling the program or giving mentors to only a selected few, the academy let the teachers and the students decide for themselves."
"It's far better than selecting a few students and teaching them in secret," Gaus said and it was only after Linc had frowned that he realized what he did.
"I'm here to actually complain about my classmate." He quickly changed the topic.
"I didn't take you for a crybaby, but go on."
Gaus was still not sure about his decision but he just couldn't sit back and watch Tyren do as he liked.
"The new transfer student that came four days ago, do you remember him?"
Linc furrowed his brows but he nodded.
"I should probably start by asking this question: is it possible for the academy to bring a looper back to become an initiate after he was erased?"
Linc tilted his head to the side in thought. "Theoretically, yes. The Master can do as he wishes, after all, this is his academy. But I have never seen it done in all my stay in the academy. None of my friends or their friends have. So it's safe to assume it hasn't happened recently, or at all."
After a moment of hesitation, Gaus threw caution to the wind.
"Tyren Ayurvada Onis is his name. Some time ago, I heard someone addressed him as XM0911. Sir, I'm not the jealous type, but I still don't want to be bested by someone from the upper echelon. If I'm going to lose my seat as the class rep then it's better I know who I lost it to."
Linc immediately 'called' the hall of the dread through the massive tablet on his desk and they told him that there was really someone named Tyren Ayurvada Onis that was erased not long ago. He then crosschecked the class members and he found out there was someone in the class with the same name.
"How careless of us," he said, sighing. "Thank you, class rep, but I'm gonna have to stop our meeting here in order to check this out. If The Master has chosen to reactivate him then he must be special."
Gaus was almost at the exit when Linc decided to add something. "Will you keep this between us, please? I don't want any of my colleagues to claim the prize or something. You may not know this but The Master often throws a challenge in this format to test the upper echelon."
Gaus nodded and left. Whether his decision would yield something positive was to be seen.
The following day was spent between tracking down Tyren's movements and waiting for Linc to get back to him. He didn't think it would take this long before he heard from the man.
The next class came. Gaus was the first to arrive as usual. Linc was next.
"Hey, class rep, where is everyone?"
"It's still eight o'clock, sir, it will take another two hours before everyone comes," Gaus answered.
"Well, I guess I'm unusually early then. By the way, I looked into that thing you told me earlier."
Gaus straightened his shoulders and leaned forward.
"I've been trying but the management has refused to tell me much about it. I think even they aren't aware of the actual reasons behind it. Sometimes The Master does things like this because he can and no matter how much you look into it you won't find any credible reason. I'll take you and this Tyren guy to the chief secretary after class to see if we can fish something out."
"The chief secretary?" Gaus narrowed his eyes in question.
"She's my friend and we have decided to investigate the matter at our own level."
"Can I refuse?"
Linc frowned. "Why?"
Gaus shrugged. "I came to you in secret because I don't want Tyren to think I'm sabotaging him or something."
Linc narrowed his eyes thoughtfully before he nodded. "You are right. I'll devise some ways to interrogate the guy. You've done enough already."
Anybody came into the class and saw Linc would subconsciously check their watch to see if they were late. Gaus was looking for Tyren among the newcomers. The guy should have come to the class already.
"Alright, it's ten, let's start. Who will be the first volunteer today?" Linc asked. He wanted someone to come out so he could stone him, no wonder none of the students volunteered.
"You," he picked randomly, "come out."
It was the same mana sense. By now, more than half of the class had already gotten it.
The class was almost over and Tyren still didn't come. During the last few days, Gaus had managed to find out more about Tyren. The guy was supposed to be in district 4, room 56. But he had never been there, not once. In fact, he barely stayed in the academy after class. He came directly to the class in the morning and left immediately after class. Despite this, he'd never been absent except for today.
"...and the class is over. Most of you have already grasped how to sense mana, so we'll have a new skill added to the set in our next class. Thank you, everyone." Linc dismissed the class.
Gaus was back in his room trying to figure out why Tyren was absent. He paced around the room with knitted brows and narrowed eyes. One, Tyren could just be absent for mundane reasons and there was no cause for alarm. Two, Tyren could be absent because the academy was after him. The second option was only possible if Tyren was really erased from the loop but he found a way to remain in it. Somehow none of the possibilities calmed him down. There was just so much he didn't know.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Gaus frowned at the door. He didn't have an appointment.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"I'm coming." He yelled.
He opened the door. His visitor thrust a spear at him so fast he only saw a flash before the spear pierced his throat. The masked man lifted him off his feet and pushed him into the room with the spear that was still stuck in his throat and closed the door behind him. He wrenched the spear from his throat and put it back in his chest. This time it passed through Gaus and went directly into the wall behind him. With his throat torn, he couldn't even scream. Despite his failing consciousness, he tried to touch his watch, but his assailant created a massive black orb in their other hand and blasted him with it. If his last memory was correct then the entire room exploded from the attack.
His last vision was of a blue panel.
Gaus's immortality is assessing the severity of soul damage...
You'll be returned to 20 seconds before sustaining damage.
----------------------------------------
ERROR.. skill was interrupted.
Assessing ERROR...
The ERROR has been evaluated and rectified.
You'll be returned to 20 seconds before sustaining damage.
----------------------------------------
ERROR.. skill was interrupted.
And the blue panel disappeared together with his vision.
***
Suddenly his butt hit the hard surface that was his seat; his consciousness and vision cleared. He was whole again.
"Vuiblooour."
"No, no, no. You're doing it wrong, stop trying to use your tongue, use your nose instead. Vubuluur."
Gaus stared at the teacher for a whole minute before he looked around the class, trying to ascertain his suspicion. The last thing he remembered was being hit by the black orb and... he died? But why didn't he start the loop as usual - with a nightmare and in that backstreet? Besides, this whole scene seemed eerily familiar.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Hey, is this the first enchantment class?" He asked the person by his left.
"Yo, patriarch, you look like hell. What happened to you?"
Now that he mentioned it, Gaus realized he was profusely sweating for no apparent reason.
"Just answer the question, Gatan," Gaus whispered with a hint of annoyance.
"It is, why?"
"...nothing."
If this was the first enchantment class then he'd somehow traveled back in time to this class.
The assassin damaged his soul. In order to protect him, Gaus's immortality stepped in. But the skill was supposed to take him back to twenty seconds before his soul was damaged, that would be just a few seconds before the assassin came in, but there was an 'error' and everything went blank. Whatever caused that 'error' was responsible for sending him back in time to this class.
Why would anyone want to assassinate him? It could be Tyren but he doubted it. Of all the ways Tyren could have confronted him sending an assassin was the last. He thought about Linc and anyone who might have known about Tyren. But that also didn't make any sense. Just knowing about Tyren shouldn't be a death penalty unless the man wasn't who he said he was. Or maybe the man was really erased from the loop but he found a way to remain in it.
"Hey," the old woman shouted at him, "what's the last thing I said?"
The woman commonly asked about the last thing she said whenever she realized someone wasn't paying attention to her lecture.
Gaus quickly checked the library for the last record of this class and found the answer.
"Nulerrmoer."
The teacher narrowed her eyes in surprise. She had never expected him to speak the word with such fluency.
"You feel you don't need the lecture since you are already proficient, right?" She scrutinized him for some seconds before she looked away, uninterested.
The class continued for the next hour before the teacher left.
Badwin came and gave them the test on how to tame a spirit. Just like the last time.
Gaus was already in a twenty-four-hour loop and now he was sent back to relive the previous loops with the full knowledge of everything that had happened. In other words, he was looping the previous loops again. That shouldn't be possible unless the previous loops were treated as normal days. Or the twenty-four-hour loop wasn't what he thought it was.
After the class, Gaus went directly to the hall of the dread and checked out Tyren's status.
Tyren Ayurvada Onis
Time left: 3 days
Gaus went to the garden where he met Antelina and Raya in the previous loops to make sure they were there. Everything was exactly as he remembered. He waved at them from a distance and they waved back.
He was really reliving the previous loops in what seemed like a second time loop imposed on the already existing twenty-four-hour loop.
On the positive side, his skills were intact, Antelina didn't know his affinity for time magic, and Linc didn't know about Tyren.
Now back in his room, he went over everything again. What caused the 'error' in Gaus's immortality? He was happy he didn't die, but he still had to deal with the situation. The assassin was muscular and taller than anyone he knew. He was also masked and shrouded in a voluminous cloak, not an inch of their skin was visible. Would they still be coming to kill him?
It was late already and Gaus decided to sleep on it. He would probably have a better answer in the morning.
At three o'clock in the morning, the loop restarted and he found himself in the backstreet, standing at the mercy of the colorful walls.
He spent some time debating whether to even go back to the academy. He ultimately went back and continued his lectures. The academy already had enough information and resources to hunt him down wherever he went and he didn't feel like running when he didn't even know what attracted the assassin. Was the academy even involved in his death?
Halfway to the class he branched in the cafeteria and took a bite to strengthen his legs before he proceeded to the class.
"Yo, patriarch, what are you doing with that?" Gatan pointed at his backpack.
Gaus was shocked to find out he was still carrying the backpack. He couldn't say why or even when he started carrying it. It was almost compulsive - an unusual desire that bordered on instinct to reserve a seat so he could sit beside the red-haired girl in class. It was subtle and he couldn't have picked it if someone hadn't called his attention to it.
Gaus threw the backpack in a nearby dustbin, growling at the absurdity of the situation. Why must he reserve a seat for the red-haired girl?
When the class started, Raya was four seats away from him but he still found a way to stare at her every few minutes without even realizing it. It took everything from him to stop himself from following her after class. He wasn't okay; he knew he wasn't.
Everything in the academy was screaming at him to chase the red-haired girl. The more he stayed away from her the more he missed her. For the first time since joining the academy, Gaus fled back to the city library. His plan was to follow the usual protocol and try to solve his problems by reading.
He should have known his little endeavor would turn out fruitless, after all, he didn't even know what he was searching for. As ridiculous as causes of sudden and intense desire for red-haired girls, of red hair and lust, class love escapade, red-haired witches, sounded, they were what he was looking for. Even Abbas didn't have the answer to his problems.
"You already liked her that's why you're falling hard for her now," Abbas had said.
Gaus left the library empty-handed. He later decided to talk to Antelina when she wasn't together with the red-haired 'witch'.
"Hey, Antelina, I was reading this novel in the library and there was some mentioning of red-haired witches in the first century and how they can bewitch people to love them at first sight,"
"What are you talking about?" Antelina asked, frowning. "Are you trying to accuse my friend of bewitching you or your friends?"
Shit.
"Look, I just want to know if there's a skill that can make you love someone at first sight?"
Antelina narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. He thought she was going to answer his question when she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue at him.
Shit.
"Everyone in the class is going to hear about this unless you tell the name of the girl you want to bewitch."
Damnit. He Rewound to erase her memories and just left. No matter how he coined the question people always thought he'd a crush on Raya. He even went back to Linc's office and ask the teacher about it, but all he got was: "don't let a simple crush ruin your future, boy."
This was bullshit not love.
Currently, Gaus was sitting in class with his eyes fixed on the entrance as he waited for Zeir to bring Tyren. If there was one good thing about Tyren's arrival was it completely erased his 'love' for Raya. For this reason alone, Gaus strongly suspected Tyren to be related to his predicament. How? He didn't know.
Just when Tyren was supposed to enter, Linc came into the class. From his future memories, Tyren would come before Linc. What had changed? Nothing except his self-enforced lifestyle to socially distance himself from Raya. He didn't book a seat for her, take her to the cafeteria, or visit her room. There was also no rumor about him having a crush on the girl. Would that prevent Tyren from coming? Apparently, yes, because Tyren didn't come that day or the next.
His 'love' for Raya became increasingly difficult to ignore as the days went by. At one point, the two crossed paths in the corridor.
"Hey, class rep, where are you going in such a hurry?" Raya asked, merely surprised at his shortness of breath from seeing her.
Gaus stopped his stride and faced the red-haired girl. "Raya?"
"Yes, rep?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I just saw you passing by and I decided to come and greet the honored rep." She was blushing which didn't help at all.
"Thanks," he said, quickly looking away from her. "I'm looking for that enchantment teacher's office."
There was some confusion in her eyes as she tried to puzzle out why someone would be seeking the old woman out.
"It should be around here. Check out those offices." She pointed at the offices on the second floor of the building in front of them.
"Okay. See you later." He started walking hurriedly.
But Raya wasn't ready to let him go just yet. "Hey, wait for me, I'm also heading in that direction."
Urgh. Not only was she walking beside him but she grabbed his hand as they approached the building. There was no helping it now. The girl was just beaming at him; she liked him. This was the best time to make his move. It was now or never.
Gaus bit his tongue until he tasted blood. He used the pain to distract himself.
"This is the office you're looking for," she pointed at office 03, "would you like me to come with you?"
He wanted to say yes more than anything in the world. "No, you don't have to."
"Okay. See you in class." And she left. It took everything he had to let go of her. But it was the right thing, he knew it was.
Knock. Knock.
"Come in," a familiar voice answered.
He pushed the door open and went inside.
"Sit down." The old woman pointed him to a seat.
"Thank you, ma'am. My name is..."
"Gaus Lake?" She interrupted.
Gaus nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"What brings you here at this hour?"
Gaus was pretty sure the woman wasn't speaking to him directly. Her lips moved but not in line with the words spoken. It sounded somewhat detached, like a... malfunctioning machine. This wasn't how she spoke in class.
"I really appreciate how a member of the senior generation has taken their time to teach our class and I definitely have no complaints whatsoever. But I've seen the curriculum for this month and I personally feel a bit down. You see, I learned a lot about enchantment even before coming here. If possible I want to learn something new as soon as I have the opportunity."
The woman sighed. "Judging from your performance today in class your pronunciation of the syllables is below average, and you need to learn runic writing and mana insignia to even start enchanting. Yet here you are complaining about the curriculum when many of my colleagues are already saying I'm rushing you."
"I've learned mana insignia and runic writing."
The woman was silent for some seconds before she retrieved a small stone and a quill from her inventory and threw them at him. "Make that glow."
Gaus snatched the stone with his left and the quill with his right.
Runic writing activated.
----------------------------------------
Mana insignia activated.
He used the quill to inscribe the word for 'glow' on the stone. Then he pushed mana into it to turn it into a rune.
It glowed brightly, creating a lamp of a sort.
"Change the color." The woman said indifferently.
He slightly altered the inscription by deleting a few aspects and adding some more. It took him ten minutes but he did it. The glow changed from red to orange.
"Change the color."
He added another part to the rune and it changed to yellow.
"Another color."
He gave her a blue.
"Another."
He gave her a green. It went on until he produced the seven colors of a rainbow.
"I want all the colors together."
Gaus rolled the stone in his hands, gauging its size. "Ma'am, it's not feasible to produce all the seven colors on a stone of this size. There's no space to write all the seven runes at the same time. I'll need a much larger stone."
"Until you can make all the colors glow at the same time then you don't deserve an extra class." She deadpanned.
"But there's just no space to put down all the seven runes on this size," Gaus said, puzzled.
"Compress them."
"What? But I don't know how to do that."
Instead of answering, she threw one book at him. "These are some exercises that'll help you to compress runes without destroying everything. Don't ask for an extra class if you can't even master compression."
Challenge accepted.
He left the old woman and went to Linc's office. The man opened the door immediately after the first knock just like the last time. Gaus was beginning to think he was waiting by the door just to answer calls.
"Class rep?"
"Good evening, sir, can I come in?"
"Evening, class rep, how're doing?"
"I'm fine, sir, thank you."
There was some silence as Linc waited for Gaus to speak.
"May I?" Gaus pointed at the opposite seat.
"Please, sit."
The conversation started just like last time with Linc asking if he was there to complain about his colleagues.
"I'm afraid not. A friend of mine told me about a mentor-mentee program going on under the ground. I just want to confirm if the academy has the right to pull something like this behind our back?"
Linc furrowed his brows slightly. "You made it sound as if we are running a cult."
Gaus opened his mouth to respond but Linc stopped him by raising his hand. "I don't want to hear it. Why are you here?"
"I want to be your mentee if you will have me." Gaus went straight to the point.
Linc laughed. "That's not how it works. Even if I want to teach, you need to show your worth before I can select you."
Gaus was confident in his ability to impress the teacher. He retrieved a finger size dagger from his inventory.
Sharpening activated.
He channeled mana into it and the reddish smoke immediately appeared. He levitated it above his palm and then spun it clockwise.
"Stab it on the floor," Linc said.
Gaus did as he was told and the small dagger went into the ground with ease.
"Pull it out with levitation," Linc said.
The dagger was buried in the ground such that only the hilt was visible, but Linc wanted him to pull it out using just levitation.
Levitation activated.
He tried, but the dagger didn't budge.
"Unless you can do that then I can't be your mentor."
"But you've already promised to give me one extra class every five days," Gaus complained.
"And I intend to fulfill that promise, but don't forget the extra classes are for the introductory classes you have missed. But if you can pull that little thing out of the ground using levitation then we can talk about the mentor-mentee program."
Both teachers considered his levels and skills to be inadequate for any special teaching. But he wasn't going to give up easily. It was just pulling out a small dagger from the ground and suspending it in the air using levitation, and inscribing seven colors of the rainbow in one place. He could pull it off.
Gaus didn't realize how much trouble he got himself in until he started. Let's just say trying to compress the runes distorted their structure thereby inactivating them. Even if by some miracle he created a functioning rune, it became exponentially difficult to channel mana into it. At some point, the runes started to explode as soon as he channeled mana into them.
Also trying to wrench the dagger out of the ground was proving to be... not so easy. A simple levitation involved focusing on the whole dagger, but now he'd to focus only on the hilt in order to exact more force and try to pull it out. That hadn't only proven to be difficult but actually impossible at his level. One book advised him to try levitating multiple objects all at once before he tried to do it.
It had already been six loops since he came back and he wasn't assassinated. Nobody seemed to care about him. Tyren was erased four days ago and for some reason, he didn't show up in the academy. Gaus's desire for red hair was still there but he'd learned to live with it.
It was late and Gaus had nothing to do at the moment but sit in the cafeteria and hear the heroic deeds of XM9999 and the other legends of the academy from the waiter. The muffled chattering of the other students from nearby seats keeping him company whenever the waiter left to serve his customers. It was surprisingly peaceful. He started to doze off as the morning breeze hit his face.
The blue panel suddenly flashed in his vision.
Gaus's immortality is assessing the severity of soul damage...
You'll be returned to 20 seconds before sustaining damage.
----------------------------------------
ERROR... skill was interrupted.
Assessing ERROR...
The ERROR has been evaluated and rectified.
You'll be returned to 20 seconds before sustaining damage.
----------------------------------------
ERROR... skill was interrupted.
And the blue panel disappeared.
***
Suddenly his butt hit the hard surface that was his seat; his consciousness and vision cleared. He was back in class again.
"Vuiblooour."
"Hell, no!" He shouted.
"Excuse me?" The teacher glared at him murderously.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I really didn't mean to..."
"Keep your thoughts to yourself and don't ever shout in my class again."
Surprisingly, he got off easy. But that wasn't even his concern. Why was he repeating the loops again for the second time? The first time it was the assassin who tried to destroy his soul and Gaus's immortality brought him back, but there was no assassin now. He was fully alive and well, sitting in the cafeteria and enjoying the company of the waiter when it happened.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that the reason behind it all was someone trying to mess up with his soul. Gaus's immortality detected the silent attack on his soul and tried to rectify the problem by Rewinding, but there was an 'error'. If someone was secretly messing with his soul then it was no surprise he was experiencing adverse effects and unusual behaviors. Whoever was messing with his soul would also be responsible for his sudden and unexplained desire for red hair. The only person he could think of that had the motivation to mess up with his soul was Tyren.