"Sit. Let's talk about a certain Tuesday that has refused to go away?"

Magiwatch has saved 75 seconds.

You have Rewound for 75 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.

It was a reflex Rewind originating from his intense desire to survive. Gaus wanted to go back to the time before Tyren arrived at the restaurant or even better to the beginning of the day to start everything over, but his power could only go back for 76 seconds at the most.

Tyren was there for about 30 to 40 seconds. Say he took another 40 seconds in the restaurant before talking to him. That would be 70 seconds. In other words, Tyren wasn't in the restaurant 70 seconds ago, so by Rewinding for 75 seconds Gaus should be able to escape him.

The world blurred and disappeared. When it became clear again he was sitting alone in his seat. He looked around and once he didn't see Tyren, he fled to the exit door, bumping into a passing waitress and a couple on his way. It was a small price to pay for escaping a veteran time traveler that could Rewind for twenty-four hours.

"Move." He half-shouted at a man standing at the exit with his red-haired girlfriend.

The man turned around and, with a unique timid voice, shouted back, "Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?"

Dammit. So, he was here longer than I thought?

"I was just about to come to your seat to talk to you about an important matter," Tyren said. He whispered a few words to the red-haired girl. The girl hesitated for a moment before she nodded and left. "Let's go back to your seat before someone takes it."

"Do I know you?" Gaus asked with a frown.

"Of course, you know me. Look, we are blocking the way. Let's talk over there." His tone made it clear it was an order.

Niama was a busy place. So busy Gaus could make a run for it and hope to survive.

If I can cross that road...

He glanced at the road from the side of his face. Maybe he could really escape if he put his heart and soul on the line, but why the hell was he just thinking about escaping? He should be more concerned about how Tyren found out about him and how he was able to locate him. He'd been pretty discrete so far, so how did it happen?

Tyren cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Sit. Let's talk about a certain Tuesday that has refused to go away?"

"Huh?" Gaus gasped in bewilderment.

"Oh, please, don't. Let's sit and have a civil conversation." Tyren said with a dismissing tone.

Gaus grimaced.

Tyren cared very little about his grimace. He turned to the person on a nearby seat and whispered something. The guy vacated his seat just like that.

"Sit, please." He told Gaus, sounding both timid and intimidating at the same time.

Instead of taking the seat, Gaus decided to go back to his seat. Tyren smiled and, after a second of delay, followed him behind humming a little tune. Even his footsteps sounded like a horror tune. Gaus didn't know that having a time traveler walking directly behind your back could be so unnerving.

They reached the empty table ten seconds later. Gaus took a step to his seat, carefully watching every move Tyren made as he walked to the opposite seat. He pulled the seat a few inches away from the table before he sat. Tyren did just the opposite by pushing his seat closer to the seat.

After silently staring at each other for a minute, Tyren crossed his fingers and leaned forward. "Who are you? How're you able to retain your memories through the loops?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gaus asked.

Tyren frowned. "I'm a straightforward person and I like dealing with similar men." He stopped a passing waitress with his hand. "Bring me a bottle of wine, please."

"The same red, sir?" She asked.

Tyren nodded.

After she left, Tyren sighed softly. "I believe I should introduce myself first. My name is Tyren Onis but my friends call me XM0911, and I need your help."

What the hell is XM0911?

"You need my help?" Gaus was startled at first but he quickly came to an understanding, "oh, please, don't ask for money."

"Money?" Tyren frowned. "Interesting. So, even you think it's a good idea to use the loop to accumulate material wealth? Very interesting." Tyren asked thoughtfully.

Gaus furrowed his brows. "If you don't want money then what do you...?" Gaus was interrupted by the waitress coming back with a bottle of beer, a tray, and a cup. She put them on the table, beaming.

Tyren smiled at her before sending her away. He casually filled up the cup and passed it over to Gaus. "Try it." Meanwhile, he raised the bottle and emptied it in his mouth.

"It's g..."

Belching.

"It's good. Really good." He pointed at the cup, "you should try it."

Gaus glanced at the half-filled cup and shook his head. "I'm good. Tell me, are you always like this, timid and on edge?" Gaus asked, unable to resist.

Tyren stared at him with wide eyes for several seconds before he frowned. "That's slander."

"Sorry," Gaus said not at all sounding sorry.

Tyren sighed. "It's my voice, isn't it?"

Gaus shrugged. "Don't know and honestly don't care. Tell me, XL119, if you don't want money then what do you want?"

"It's XM0911 and only my friends call me by that name. By the way, aren't you tired of pretending? You've been pretending ever since you came into the loop, and you're still pretending even after meeting a fellow looper. It'll be a lot easier if you stop it and just discuss things openly with me. You don't know how that will ease the pressure and the loneliness and..."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"What loop?" Gaus cut him off.

Tyren visibly deflated. "I understand why you may want to remain anonymous but isn't it futile now that I've already found you?"

"I'm sure you are mistaking me for someone else," Gaus said nonchalantly.

"Well then, allow me to prove I'm not. Eighteen restarts ago, a certain mister Lake came to La Magia. I teach a couple of subjects there, usually in the evening. On his first visit, Mister Lake met my colleague, doctor Arna, who tested his affinity for magic and found it to be zero. She wanted to teach him physique modeling but he refused. He came two restarts later and opted for the same physique modeling class that he had vehemently refused earlier. Probably, mister Lake didn't know we keep the record of everything going on in the facility, or maybe he didn't know I would be checking everything at the end of every day, or maybe I was just lucky." He stopped to take in the expression on Gaus.

Gaus was losing the game and he knew it.

Tyren went on, "later on, mister Lake changed his mind and stopped taking physique modeling; he opted for battle alchemy. Arna sent him to the arena to see how experienced battle alchemists fight. As it happens, I'm a battle alchemist who was also fighting in the arena. On that very day, I leveled up from level 21 to level 22 and as a result, I extended my fight with Nazára. Mister Lake didn't miss it. He knows only loopers can level up and improve their physique as long as we're inside the time loop." 

Tyren sighed with exasperation.

"I've wanted to give mister Lake some time to at least know where he starts the loop before I confront him, but he just decided to just disappear without a trace and stop coming to La Magia. And with how reckless mister Lake has been acting around the city, I fear one of the predators will pick him up if I wait any longer. So I tracked him down to Niama and confronted him."

He waited for a response from Gaus but he probably wouldn't be getting any (if the look of disinterest on Gaus was any indication), so he went on, "alright, lemme give it to you straight, mister Lake. I know you are a looper. But that doesn't interest me. What interests me is that you are not a temporary looper, you are not a permanent looper, and you're certainly not The Master. So how the hell did you come into the loop? How?"

He took another gulp of the beer and gave Gaus an expectant look. After a minute of silence, he slapped the table, "oh, come on! You've got to be kidding me. That should ring a bell, mister pretender Lake."

"It doesn't," Gaus said matter of factly.

A few surrounding people glanced over at their table in response to Tyren's outburst, but when they couldn't identify any sign of violence they ignored them and went back to their businesses.

Tyren glared at him for some seconds before he took another gulp of the cold drink and quieted down.

"You seem to be getting the wrong idea," Tyren said, "I'm not here on behalf of The Master. You can suspect me but you can't stay mute forever."

"Maybe if you had explained everything from the beginning like a gentleman then the conversation wouldn't have been so boring and I wouldn't have stayed quiet," Gaus said.

Tyren closed his eyes and stayed still for a minute. He was probably contemplating something, or maybe he was meditating, Gaus didn't know.

"Do you want to know everything?" He finally asked.

Gaus nodded. "It will be a good start."

"That will require some privacy and this place isn't best for that, in case you didn't notice," Tyren said, referring to the restaurant and its thirty to forty patrons.

Gaus shrugged.

"Dammit, mister Lake, you're forcing to use my privacy ward." He ground his teeth and mumbled a few sentences about how unfair the situation was before he chanted something in an unknown tongue and put his hands together in a gesture. "It's done. What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Gaus said flatly.

Tyren hesitated for a few seconds before he started, "it happened so long ago that nobody knows when or how. The world was 'cursed', or so they say. This 'curse' forbids the world from going past 3 am Wednesday. Everything starts at 3 am Tuesday and ends at 3 am Wednesday. A time loop of a kind.

"The Master was the first to become aware of the loop. Before him, there was no one and because of that nobody knows what happened then. Later on, The Master acquired the ability to add other people into the loop so they can also level up and improve their physique. That's where we, temporary and permanent loopers, came in. Temporary loopers are designated with XM (X for the unknown period before The Master, and M for the period after The Master has joined) and then a number that determines how long they will stay in the loop if they fulfill their quests. I don't know how permanent loopers are designated.

"Only The Master and his loopers are allowed to control the loop. So when an unidentified looper suddenly appears everyone was worried. It was initially just a rumor. They said an archmage has joined the loop without The Master's blessings. That was last year." He sighed as he shook his head.

Last year? Gaus knitted his brows as his heart pounded. He wasn't in this world then.

Tyren didn't miss the change in expression on Gaus but he decided to let it go and went on, "ten months ago, the most powerful loopers amongst us were asked to find the archmage. But even they couldn't catch him. Even as we speak, powerful loopers are out there looking for this archmage. They would be shocked to know that I'm having lunch with him at this very moment."

Hell, no! Gaus screamed internally. Apparently, there had been some bitter conflicts going on even before he arrived.

"How did The Master know about the archmage?" Gaus asked.

"How should I know? It isn't as if I get an audience with The Master, you know. It's a miracle that we even heard about it at all, although I believe the Master has intentionally let the rumor out. I don't know why don't ask me."

This conversation had completely turned his world upside down. It had changed everything he knew about the loop. He wasn't alone. There was an army of loopers recruited by a superior looper called The Master. How did The Master bring the others into the loop? Even more concerning, who was this archmage that joined the loop one year before him? Just imagine a few days ago when he thought he was alone in the loop. Let's just forget about the loopers and their quarrel for a second and ask the most important question: how did the loop come into being? It was clearly the work of the finest magic. What's the purpose behind it? How did he come to be involved in all this?

"Ehem.." Tyren cleared his throat to wake him up, "do you know what the number 0911 means? It means from the day I came into the loop I have 911 loops to live before I expired. When a looper expired, The Master deletes them from the loop and they go back to living their previous mundane life. They would lose the memory of the loop. As for their skills, levels, and physique, it all depends on The Master. If you have impressed him, he might give you 20% of your entire gains in the loop, maybe less. Do you know how many days I've left? 5 days. I'm sure I haven't impressed The Master in any way, so he would probably leave me with nothing. I would rather die than lose everything." For once his timid voice became more masculine and intimidating.

He remained silent for a minute before he sighed and reached out to the bottle. He almost touched it when he decided against it and withdrew his hand.

"Now, mister Lake, do you deny being part of the loop?" Tyren asked.

Gaus opened his mouth to answer but Tyren stopped him. "think before you answer," he said, "either way, I'm not going down without a fight. Either you tell me how you joined the loop and let me join, or I'll take my chances and inform The Master of your existence."

"There is a third option, perhaps. One that doesn't involve you leaving this place alive." Gaus said, making the threat clear.

Tyren smiled wryly. "I didn't come here unprepared. If something were to happen to me in this restaurant then five temporary loopers all across the city will receive an anonymous tip about a certain mister Lake. A tip that will lead them to Sizea hotel, room 44. The tip will also contain a hand sketch of mister Lake's face. I would also like to tell you that I know about the two bodyguards that have been secretly watching over you every loop. They're the police, aren't they? So, don't even think about it."

Bodyguards? The police? You've got to be kidding me.

Tyren went on, "Trust me, I have done some research before coming here."

Gaus frowned. Tyren could be lying about the people following him but what if he wasn't? What if the police were after him and he didn't even know?

Dammit.

Gaus scanned the nearby tables and the seemingly harmless patrons. What if they were spies and loopers?

"I'm alone." Tyren said, mistaking his interest on the patrons, "but I'm prepared. You see, I'm a man who's about to die after accumulating all the wealth in the world. What do I have to lose by destroying everything?"

The air became tense as they stared at each other.

Tyren was a temporary looper who was about to be erased; he probably had nothing to lose. If Gaus were to refuse him then he would make sure he went down with him. But Gaus didn't have any way of bringing Tyren into the loop. Would Tyren agree if Gaus told him so? No, absolutely not. The only way out of this mess was to promise to help Tyren. But, what if Tyren was lying and there were no temporary loopers, and it was just the two of them. What if Tyren was there to get information about him? There had been some glaring inconsistencies in what Tyren had said about the loop. First, about physique. According to Tyren, he and the other loopers could retain their physique through the loops, which went against what Gaus practically knew. Second, Tyren didn't mention the Rewind even once. It was as if he didn't know about it.

Tyren interrupted his thoughts by tapping on the table.

"I'll ask again: mister Lake, do you still deny being part of the loop?"