"Oh, and professor Exell wanted to talk to you. He asked me to tell you to meet him at his office tomorrow morning."
Serria added up before putting her spoon in her mouth.
Kairen glanced at Reyan who was looking back at him.
Who is this professor Excel?
Serria continued. The way she talked seemed like she was quite close with Reyan and Kairen and know them more or less.
"Anyway, aren't you two acting weird?"
"....Weird?"
Serria pointed at Kairen with her fork.
"Yep. Especially you. You have been staring at me with that stupid look since I came."
"…"
"Yes, exactly that stupid face."
"…"
'What? Was that an insult now? Should I get mad or something?'
But he didn't need to do so as Reyan skillfully changed the topic.
"Why does the professor want to meet him?"
"Hmm? How would I know? Ah, you as well Reyan, what's with you these days?"
"What?"
Or he tried so.
Rayan and Kairen glanced at each other again.
Although Reyan had informed the academy about what had happened to Kairen to some extent, other students and most probably professors still didn't know about it. Reyan just told them that he needed some rest to recover. He explained to Kairen that it would be best if they didn't tell people about his memory loss this soon as people's reactions would be hard to deal with. And also, there was a possibility of Kairen being expelled if the academy knows that he had lost even his basic abilities. What was the point of keeping someone with zero knowledge?
That means, Kairen's current situation was a secret, or most parts of it were. Even if this girl was their friend, it was best not to tell her everything. The said girl looked at how they exchanged meaningful glances as she opened her mouth in an irritated tone again.
"What the… Stop glancing at each other!"
Serria, who was clearly annoyed at how they didn't answer her, tapped the table with the back of his spoon.
'Argh, why does she talk so much?'
Kairen forcefully stuffed all of his remaining food into his mouth and stood up. He felt like he would mess things up if he was to stay here any longer. Kairen could see the look of 'Don't leave me alone with her!' in Reyan's eyes but he ignored his friend's begging eyes and started walking away.
'Sorry bro but I'm running away.'
"What? You are running away! I am sure now, you are hiding something! Hey Heeeeeey!!"
Kairen ignored her words and walked away. Just like that, he went back to his room. He had to study again.
"Haa! No matter how much I read them, I still don't understand."
Ha nagged loudly in the empty room as he sat on the chair again.
"Don't they have a guidebook for beginners or something like that?"
He recalled Reyan telling him to look at his old notebooks before. Kairen opened his desk drawer. He could see a few notebooks and lots of papers there. He picked up all of them and placed them on the table. He bent down to check if there were any left in the drawer.
"Hmm?"
In the bottom of the drawer, there was an old notebook. He wouldn't see that if he hadn't moved all the papers. He picked it up. The numbers 2548 were typed on its cover, indicating that this notebook was for the year 2548, 10 years ago. Kairen opened the first page without thinking much about it.
"What is… this…"
The notebook was old and its pages weren't in good condition, some were torn, some seemed to have been dried after getting wet. Ink marks were here and there. But that wasn't what was important. The words, the words were written in a language that didn't exist here, but Kairen could fully understand them. The words were in his mother tongue. When Kairen first came to this world, he realized that the language people spoke wasn't his language. But he could somehow understand them.
In this world which was completely different from his own, there didn't exist the languages of his past world as well. So, there shouldn't be someone here who could write in this language, but the notebook in his hands clearly had meaningful sentences.
[I don't know… I … can't remember the past…]
The words were scattered here and there as if the author himself didn't know what he was writing.
[I keep forgetting them… so… I will write them down.
The tiny bits of the past…. And … the dreams… those weird memories… the memories of the future…
The only thing I remember… my name… Kairen. It's Kairen. Kairen Steyton.
I shouldn't forget it… never… my age… Ah, how old was I again?]
Kairen couldn't understand the notebook's contents at all. Was the author Kairen 1? He thought it may be a diary but it doesn't seem to be the case. Was his mentality alight? The memories of the future?
[I keep seeing it… in my dreams… that dark gray light… dark gray eyes… beautiful, those eyes were… clear and beautiful…]
'What? Dark gray light?'
[I don't know when… or where… I was there… A hand… reached out towards me… chaos… it was collapsing… I felt that… it hurt so much …]
'What are these supposed to mean?'
Kairen had an ominous feeling, and the feeling grew more intense as he continued reading. The gray light… he was sure it was what he was looking for, but he didn't expect to find a clue about it in this place. Kairen felt like he had done something he shouldn't have...like he read something he wasn't supposed to read. His heart was beating fast but he still turned the page.
[was it the future? … Or a dream? … it was a vast stadium… and a black-haired girl in front of me… then it shook. Everything shook…. It cracked… and vanished. It hit me… it… wasn't a dream…]
'Huh?'
Wasn't this scene the same that he had heard a lot about in the past few days? Wasn't it when Kairen was hit in the test? How did he know about it?
'And he doesn't seem to be sure himself, is it just a coincidence?'
Click.
It was the moment that the door opened and someone walked in. It was Reyan.
"Hey, how could you leave me alone with that girl!"
Reyan walked towards the desk as he continued.
"Do you even know what I went through to…."
But he couldn't continue his sentence when he looked at Kairen. He was sitting on the chair staring at an old notebook with a slightly pale face. Kairen looked up at him, thinking that he had arrived at a perfect time.
"Was this notebook mine?"
"Yes…"
"What are its contents about? Do you know?"
"No, you used to write in it in a weird language. I didn't ask about it since it seemed something personal."
"I see."
Reyan stopped for a moment as if thinking about something.
"Ah… but, you once said that it will help you remember…?"
Reyan paused on his words and glanced at the notebook as if he just understood his own words' meaning. He blinked a few times and then frowned.
Kairen on the other hand had chills all over his body.
'Holy shit, was this guy a prophet or something?'