Chapter 2: A Familiar Time

Chapter 2: A Familiar Time

“Was there something else you wished to speak about?”

Cal blinked sluggishly, wondering who this guy was... and where this place was.

He shouldn’t be wherever here was, but the problem was that he didn’t know why he had that feeling.

“Trainee, is there a problem?”

Trainee. Cal felt that should mean something to him. Something significant, judging by the excited jump of his heart.

“... I must be feeling under the weather,” Cal mumbled, his legitimate confusion helping greatly to sell his claim.

“Right on Selection day? How convenient.”

Selection day. His heart was thundering in his chest. He could practically hear it, and apparently, so could the only other person in the room.

“Uncertainty,” the man spat, “is not an excuse I will accept. You have already delayed your Selection once before, and the only way I will allow another is if you get a permission slip from the Overseer!”

Cal stiffened as hazy memories started coming to the front of his mind.

“Would that really be enough?” He couldn’t stop the question from leaving his lips even if he wanted to. He remembered asking this before. Just like he remembered what the reply would be.

“Please, I welcome you to give it a try,” the man said with a mocking smile.

Cal had to stop himself from collapsing in shock as the rush of information slammed into him like a runaway train.

The man was called Jon, a plain name for a man with a matching, plain appearance and personality. He was the bean counter, the minder of Trainees like Cal, making sure they were accounted for and did as the Celestial Order demanded of them.

In other words, a failed Initiate that was forever stuck in a role nobody aspired for.

But Jon wasn’t important.

He was a blip in the hierarchy of the newly created Celestial Order. A grand name for a very ordinary guild within the Union Territory. No, instead of caring about Jon, Cal needed to make sure he wouldn’t make the same disastrous mistake he did—or would—in the near future.

Cal had the memories of what was to come and his fate—a pointless death—if he didn’t make any changes. He was given a second chance, and he wouldn’t waste it.

He purposely pushed aside the clear memory of the two beings—gods, world masters, time mages, whatever they were—resetting time. He also pushed aside the fact that he remembered a life that he wasn’t supposed to—according to the beings’ words.Fiind updated novels at novelhall.com

“If that’s all, I have better things to do than stare at you.”

Cal’s eyes caught a glimpse of Jon’s annoyed expression before he turned to leave. Another image lay over the man’s face in his mind. Blank, unseeing eyes staring at the sky as a hopeless fight raged around Jon’s dead body.

He left the small, standalone building and walked out to a vast, isolated training ground where other Trainees like him were being ’taught.’ Of course, that description was questionable since he was aware of the high failure rate to get into even the most basic [Class].

Most guilds within the Union had an attrition rate of around fifty percent among their Trainees, while the Celestial Order had over ninety.

The Order claimed that this was due to their selective nature, but Cal’s death to another guild’s ‘low-level’ member proved that was a blatant lie.

He could be considered the cream of the crop here, and that was telling of the scraps the Celestial Order had to work with once the more powerful guilds in the Union had their pick.

“Cal!” A lanky, bright-faced young man ran towards him. “Did you get to delay your Selection again?”

He couldn’t help but stare. This was Oleg, a formerly close friend he hadn’t seen in years. After failing the Selection, Oleg had given up on having a [Class] and settled down to live a quiet life.

Cal had scoffed in disgust at that decision when he heard of it and wrote Oleg off as useless, but now, it sounded... heavenly.

“Cal? What's wrong? Did Jon say something? We can get one of the masters to tell him off for talking back!”

It also helped that Cal thought her diligence only made her more attractive than she already was. But that was all he knew about her since he never cared to know more than her surface qualities.

Tavia was another that Cal had never seen after the Selection... which was strange. He had not seen her go through the test in his first life, but he couldn’t imagine that she had somehow failed.

“You really have it bad for her, don’t you? I’ve never seen you zone out this long.”

Cal blinked rapidly and looked away from Tavia. “Nothing like that. It’s just the Selection occupying my mind, nothing else.”

“Sure it is,” Oleg snickered as they walked to their usual spot at the center. “I’d believe that if you weren’t practically drooling at her.”

Cal shrugged, not minding if that was what Oleg assumed. It wasn’t like he could admit that he had lived through all of this and was constantly getting hit by buried memories that were distracting him.

“Let’s leave Tavia alone,” Cal said when they stopped, hyperaware of the eyes on them. "It’s time to stop playing around.”

“... That’s a first. And speak for yourself. I’m not the one constantly bothering her.”

He met Oleg’s eyes with a raised brow. That was an exaggeration... or maybe not. His self-awareness at this point in life had been close to zero, and only when he was humbled close to the end did he realize how his actions were viewed.

“Fair enough,” Cal nodded. “Let me rephrase that. I intend to leave Tavia alone.”

“Sure you will.”

He ignored Oleg’s doubt as he locked eyes with the Overseer, a man with sharp, angular features that gave him a somewhat hollow appearance. The Overseer's robes hung loosely on his body, highlighting his overly lean frame.

It was strange, but he had never learned the Overseer’s name, even in his first life. Their only one-on-one interaction was when Cal asked for the second delay, which wouldn’t happen in this life.

The Overseer broke eye contact after a moment and continued to watch over the Trainees.

“When was the Selection supposed to start?” Cal asked as he glanced at a Trainee close to them that yelped in pain. A bone was sticking out of a girl’s arm—nothing serious.

“... It should be any time now,” Oleg said, looking a little green as he avoided looking at the injured girl.

Cal was confused as to why until he realized that his view of what a ‘serious’ injury had been skewed by his experience. Oleg had never seen death.

“Halt your training! It’s time for the Selection to begin!” The Overseer’s voice boomed. The area he occupied rumbled slightly before a blood-red pillar rose from the ground to tower behind the Overseer.

Cal had forgotten about this. All the Trainees had been frantically practicing their spells and reviewing concepts before the Selection since the Celestial Order didn’t tell them any information of how it was done.

It hadn’t been amusing at the time, but Cal had chuckled at the memory of the Trainees turning red when they were told all they had to do was touch the pillar.

“Today is when you will discover if you were blessed at birth. And for those who weren't, if your hard work made up for your deficiency. The activation pillar behind me is the decider. If you activate your interface, your rank will be automatically raised to Initiate!”

Cal hadn't gone through the Selection with this batch, but the reactions were the same. Confused grumbling.

“Form a line before me!” The Overseer ordered. “I hope that many of you join my guild.”

A few Trainees shifted in place but didn’t make a move.

They’re nervous. I can use this to put more pressure on Oleg.

“Come on,” Cal spoke up. “We don’t want to look like cowards. We’ll be the first ones to go.”

“What—Wait, Cal!”

He ignored Oleg’s protests and walked confidently to the Overseer. It wasn’t necessary to look back and check if Oleg was following. There was no doubt that he was.

Cal didn’t know what he had done to deserve Oleg’s friendship, but he wouldn’t squander it this time. He would start by making sure Oleg failed the Selection... again.