Chapter 11 - Training

'But how could he know about something that happened in another world?'

Kairen looked at the notebook again. He read it all but the only thing he could somewhat understand was that one paragraph.

'Oh boy, so many questions.'

He closed the notebook and picked up his phone. It was the same phone that he used a few days ago in the hospital to call the police. Come to think of it, he called the police and told them he was kidnapped and forcefully hold in a place that trained military agents. The memories of his foolishness stabbed his heart like knives.

'Let's not think about it, yeah, there are better things to ruin my day by thinking about than this.'

He went back to what he was doing. Kairen searched the phone completely in hopes of getting any information out of it, but there was nothing. It just had a few numbers and some games in it.

He then opened the browser's screen and searched the words "Philomns" "Bordkly" "The Special Military Forces" and anything related to them. He truly felt so happy that he could connect to the internet in this place. What would he do if he ended up in a place with no phone and no internet? Just imagining it was scary! He felt like he would die from lack of internet just in a few days.

'Internet is a blessing!'

Nodding his head with a happy face, he continued his search and collected as much information as he could about those topics.

To sum it up, Philomns was a terrorist group with an unknown leader and unknown origin. No one knew what their goal was. They attacked ordinary people, military bases, high-ranking officials, and lots of other places in different countries. It seemed like they have existed for a long time but they have gotten more active in the recent 25 years. Their attack method was what was making them really horrifying. They didn't use unique skills or gun power, what they used was an unknown power able to cause massive destruction. There were pictures of weirdly burnt and torn flesh of the victims, Kairen couldn't even look at them since it was… you know… not a really good sight.

And also Bordkly was the neighboring nation of Hainston, the country he was currently in. Hainston and Bordkly didn't have a really nice relationship but the conflict between these two countries has gotten more since this terrorist group started targeting people of Bordkly a few years ago. There is a belief that Philomns originates from Hainston, of course, there wasn't any evidence about it but it was still somehow accepted by some of Bordkly's higher-ups, and that was what was causing conflict between the two countries.

"Haaa."

Kairen sighed. His head hurt from thinking too much and he was tired. He just wanted to lie down and sleep like… 3 days in a row! But there was still something he needed to do, studying!

With all that happened today, he was sure he needed to stick to the ordinary… maybe not that much ordinary life of the previous Kairen if he wanted to find a way back. It was the first, only, and probably the easiest way he could find right now. And to be honest, he was dying to test doing magic since he saw professor Exell do it.

He was scared back then but thinking about it now, it felt kinda amazing! Just think of it, he moved his hand and a tracker appeared out of nowhere, and it had lots of options as well…oh… a tracker… really, it felt like shit knowing that someone has placed a tracker on you!

With a somewhat heavy feeling in his heart due to remembering how miserable his life was, Kairen went back to studying.

3 days later, Monday, students written exams began. After one week of mage unit's practical exam came 2 weeks of written exam for both subjects, the exams were held on different days or different hours in a day for those special students to attend both. And after written exams, it was time for the knights unit's practical exam. Their way of arranging exams was weird. Academy administrators seemed to highly value those special guys for some reason.

Kairen was stupid, but he wasn't dumb! He was even considered really smart by his teachers at school! Well, it seemed like he couldn't really use that big brain of his after being thrown into another world for some reason… anyway. Even if he had zero knowledge about this world, he could now understand things to some extend by studying day and night and spending countless hours on the internet. Most of the exams weren't such a big deal for him cause even if he couldn't understand all of that complicated and new stuff, he could just memorize them! So, written exams weren't that much of a problem right now. What bothered him was something else.

"No matter how much I try; I still can't do magic!"

Kairen was really disappointed, none of his actions had a result! Reyan, who was looking at his poor friend's struggles, sighed and shook his head.

"I've told you everything I knew. I am not a mage so I don't know how they do magic. Besides that, you can't even sense your mana, I'm not sure if you can use mana without sensing it."

"AArghh!"

Kairen plopped down on the floor. It isn't good, he would get expelled at this rate.

"Can't we… can't we just ask Serria for help? She is a friend and also a mage, so why not just tell her?"

Serria… she was visibly dying from curiosity! She did everything… literally everything she could do to find out what they were hiding from her in these few days! Kairen could somehow understand how frustrating it would feel if your two friends suddenly started hiding things from you… He even felt a little bit guilty for a moment!

"Do you really think it will be ok? I am not sure what her reaction would be, and considering that she was the one who hit you…"

"Do we have any other option? I have to pass the exam!"

"…You are right."

"Haaa!"

Just like that, they made a decision. Let's talk to that crazy girl.

***

"…."

Sitting on a bench in the dormitory's yard, three people were staring at each other. To be more specific, a certain girl was staring blankly at a light brown-haired boy, and the blonde dude was glancing at the two of them.

Kairen, under the continuous gaze of Serria, was now starting to regret his decision. She has been like that from the moment they told her about Kairen's memory loss. Kairen even felt he could see the massage [Serria.exe has stopped working.] written all over the girl's face.

After some time Kairen decided to break the silence as he couldn't stand the gaze anymore.

"T-then, will you teach me how to use mana?"

"…"

"Since I can't even sense it so…"

Serria opened her mouth finally.

"This… you are joking right?"

She had asked that question before, but it was still hard to believe. To lose one's ability just by being hit with a magic attack… she felt like they were making fun of her. She turned to look at Reyan's face. His face wasn't like someone who was joking right now… not to mention that he wasn't the kind of person who had the ability to make jokes…

She then turned to look at Kairen, who smiled awkwardly at her. Serria had noticed that he was strange these days, but never imagined that he had lost his memories!

Serria didn't know how she was supposed to react right now. She was dumbfounded. She wasn't someone to take most matters too seriously like Reyan, nor she was one of those who would move to tears seeing their friend's trouble… again… like Reyan… but she wasn't a shameless person who could turn a blind eye to his troubled friend, also, she knew that even if it wasn't completely her fault, she was still responsible to what happened to Kairen to some degree.

"Ahem, so are you gonna help me?"

That's why she felt like she had to help Kairen. She didn't show any worry or sadness, instead just answered his question briefly.

"Yes."

Her simple answer caused Kairen to heave a sigh of relief, unaware of the hell he would go through the next few days…