Room 202... was surprisingly hard to find.
Like, judging from the number, you'd think it's on the second floor right?
No, it's not.
It's on the first floor, where the office is as well.
'Damn, Jayce wasn't lying to f*ck with me.'
Finding the room 2 hallways from the office...
Man, I don't wanna do this already...
I decided to just head to the office and ask Maria for help.
I knocked on the door before receiving a 'Come in!', and entered the room.
The office was now devoid of blood and gore, with Maria sitting behind the secretary's desk.
"How may I help yo- oh, hello Shaun!"
I smiled at her energetic greeting, "Good day, Maria."
"So why are you here? Don't tell me Jayce did something stupid..."
I wish I was here for that.
"No, that's not it. I just need help finding room 202. Jayce's description was very... vague."
She leaned forwards with a curious face, "What kind of description did he give you?"
I deadpanned and replied, "The room 2 hallways from the office. He didn't even tell me which way it was.
"Yeah, that sounds like him alright. I'll help you find room 202, let's go!"
She shot out of her seat and grabbed my hand, almost dragging me through the hallways.
She stopped just before a room that said, '202 - Archeology - Stephen Stein'
"Just a heads-up for you, don't be too surprised if you can't find any humans in that room. Most people use some kind of technology to attend class. Usually the teacher is the only biological lifeform in that room.", Maria said to me before going back to the office.
That's surprisingly not that strange for a civilization with access to magic-tech.
I opened the door and it showed me a wide room, with 'students' seated in a Roman senate meeting style, and the teacher was standing at the podium.
The noise of the door opening attracted attention from the robots filling in, and the teacher as well.
"Are you Shaun Iginer?", a dignified voice sounded out from the podium.
"Yes."
"Alright. Go sit down in the seat next to robot #1453."
I scouted the room for a robot with the nametag 1453 and found him quickly enough. I headed over and sat down next to him.
The robot turned and nodded to me, its mouth opening and a robotic voice coming from it.
"Good day, Mr. Iginer. I am the robot of Lord Alvaro attending the class for him. He would like for me to extend his greetings to you. If you wish to converse with him, I shall be the intermediary."
I nodded, replying to him. "Nice to meet you, Alvaro."
We ended our conversations with that.
...
The lecture was boring. Mainly because I don't know jacksh*t about archeology.
After class was over, I headed back to the dorm to meet with Jayce for our first experiment.
As I entered the mansion, Jayce was waiting for me at a table.
When I saw me, his face brightened and formed a grin, "You made me wait a while. I thought you'd ditch class with the description I gave you."
This f*cker...
I forced a smile and replied, "I asked Maria."
"Haha! Anyways, are you ready for the experiment?"
"If I say I'm not, would you stop?"
"Nope!"
I sighed and walked with him to the laboratory in the mansion.
When we reached the door, a password from Jayce was needed, along with energy recognition.
"Right, I should set up a profile for you too, in case you need to use the lab."
Yes, do that please.
We entered the lab, and it looked everything like I expected it to.
There were tubes and containers holding strange liquids, many equipment that you would fine in a typical lab etc...
We headed for the testing grounds, but not before Jayce grabbed a notepad to write things down.
"So, what effects do you know that your ability has on yourself and others?"
"Strain. A huge strain. When I use it on myself, I usually passed out immediately afterwards. I think the strain could be related to the physical fitness, or your innate mana levels."
"Alright. Well, I have both, so test it on me."
I rose an eyebrow, but I didn't say anything.
I really hope he passes out. He deserves this.
Uttering a single word from my mouth, knowing the world would break down around me. "Rewind."
This time, instead of only 1 lines of screens, 2 appeared.
Damn, what is this now?
I looked at the first line, and was relieved that it still showed the body.
On the second line, it was the place.
"Wait... this is broken as hell..."
I knew that I needed to test something first, and on the first line, I scrolled to the time when Jayce was eating breakfast.
On the second line, I scrolled to when he was just outside the lab.
After selecting the combination, I uttered the magic word once more, "Rewind."
Instantly, the world started rebuilding itself around me, but this time, Jayce was nowhere to be seen in the lab.
I walked to the entrance and opened it, seeing Jayce sprawled on the ground on his back, and instinctively, a grin found itself on my face.
He must've seen the grin as he instantly made a mock angry face and asked for my help.
"Won't you help your best friend up?"
I paused, pretending to consider it for a moment.
"Mmh... I might like you this way more."
He tried his best to sit up on his own, but he couldn't. The tired groan told me that.
I kneeled down and helped him get up, trying my best to move that mountain of muscles to a bed in the lab.
"Well? How did the rewind work out? How did you feel?"
I fired a barrage of questions as he sat down on the bed, in a rush to know how my abilities worked.
"Well, at the exact moments when you said "Rewind", I ended up outside of the lab. Then, I felt like I was full, as if I'd just eaten a meal, and finally, the exhaustion hit me like a truck. My body was drained of energy, both magic and physical, although I didn't pass out like you or Maria did."
I was right. The time-bending power only puts a strain on the person who experiences it.
"But, one thing I DID feel was it coming from somewhere on your body."
I stiffened.
He leaned forward and grabbed my collar, shaking it until something fell out.
That something was the pocket watch.
"So THIS is the time-bending machine..."
Greed showed itself in his eyes for a moment, but it disappeared just as it came.
He channeled his magic into the pocket watch and uttered the same words as I did, "Rewind", but nothing happened.
We were both bamboozled by this newfound development, but then I snatched the pocket watch out of his hands.
"I see... that pocket watch isn't the source of your powers. It's only a way to channel it. The power that you have is innate, something that no one else can imitate."
No, it's not innate. It came from the hex crystal. Maybe it linked itself with me when I picked it up...?
"Welp, that's fine. I wouldn't like using something that I didn't make myself anyways."
He shrugged his shoulders and laid down on the bed.
I tried my best to ignore his earlier actions, but I just couldn't.
There was a bitter feeling in my throat, but I shoved it down and asked, "Is there a way to transfer the strain to something else?"
"There probably is. The real question is, what is something that can handle your power, both physically and magically."
I had no answers to that, and Jayce didn't either.
"Hex metal might work, but when you deplete its energy source, it'll take some time to refill. And knowing how much energy your powers take, hex metal would only be enough for one or two tries before needing to recharge."
We were stumped on this problem, but it hit Jayce harder than it did me.
After all, he was the #1 genius of Piltover. Someone who has almost never faced a problem he couldn't solve before in his life.
"I'll find something that will work. Now, as an apology, what do you want? I'll do everything in my powers to get what you want. My apologies for taking your pocket watch without permission."
The bitterness disappeared almost instantly as the words came out from his mouth, being replaced with a sweet, honey like feeling.
I smiled as sweetly as I could, but stopped when Jayce looked at me like he just saw a ghost.
"Don't ever do that again. That look does not fit that face of yours."
That was uncalled for.
I took a deep breath and asked, "2 hex crystals."
Jayce's smile, one that was almost always on his face, became strained.
"You just had to ask for the impossible, didn't you?"
"So, you can't do it?"
"I could, but it's gonna take literally every favors that I have."
"Well, do it. It's an apology after all, you have to do it."
He clicked his tongue and mumbled, "Damn."
Our moods were polar opposite that day.
...
The weekend has finally arrived.
I guess no matter if I transmigrated or not, weekends will always be exciting for me.
"Wanna come with us to Jayce's house?"
Maria invited me as I was packing up to return home.
I paused, thinking about all the things that might happen at Jayce's home, and replied, "Of course. How could I pass up an opportunity to see the genius of Piltover's house?"
"It probably won't be anything exciting for you", a voice came out from behind me.
I teasingly replied, "Oh dear, how could I not be? After all, the genius of Piltover must be the perfect man! He's so organized, charming..."
I would've gone on if he didn't interrupt me with a tired look on his face, as if he'd heard this joke many times before.
Well, he has. From me, too.
"Seriously though, does he live far away from the academy?"
"Nope, he lives in Central Piltover."
Well, that wasn't unexpected.
"Does he lives with anybody? Is Jayce a mama's boy?"
"My mom's dead.", Jayce replied with a monotone voice.
I paused before sincerely apologizing for my insensitive joke.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. It's been a long time. To answer your question, yes, I DO live with someone. I live with my little sister and a caretaker for her."
"Speaking of little sister, isn't your little sister the same age as Shaun?", Maria butted into our conversation, asking some very important detail.
Jayce froze, before turning to look at me with narrowed eyes.
'I could make a I-F*cked-Your-Sister joke right now...'
Well, that's probably not the best idea, especially not with the murderous aura radiating off of Jayce.
...
We headed to a train station and got on a train heading to Central Piltover.
The train was surprisingly mediocre. At least from my perspective.
It looked everything like a normal train from Earth. The interior as well.
I don't know why I was expecting a train to look different anyways.
The trip was relatively quick, and we got off at the Central Piltover train station.
We headed straight to Jayce's house, and boy was I impressed.
It's even bigger than the dorm that we're staying in. It's a f*cking castle!
"Hey Jayce, how many people work to keep this place clean?"
"1."
"You trying to kill somebody?"
"Nope. She wanted to do all of this on her own to repay me."
"Did you get her into debt or something? Do I call you Jayce the Loan shark now?"
He sighed and replied, "I saved her child."
When we arrived at the foot of the castle, someone was waiting for us.
"Welcome back, Jayce. I see you brought some friends."
"It's good to be home, Dorothy. Dorothy, can you please show Maria around the house?"
He smiled at the caretaker before beckoning me to follow him.
"Since you're my best friend, I'll personally give you a tour."
"Should I be honored and grovel on my knees?"
"Yes. Bow down to the mighty genius of Piltover."
I rose an eyebrow and he did too, both realizing that he referred to himself as a genius.
"Haaa... I've been hanging out with you too much."
We walked through the hallways, with him introducing me to each rooms that we passed by.
Most of the rooms in the castle are actually laboratories, with Jayce's reasoning being, "If I mess up in one lab, I can go to another one."
Finally, we got to the room that was most decorated from the outside.
"Ava? Are you in?"
He knocked on the door while asking if anyone's in there.
"Jayce? You're back?"
There were sounds of someone rushing and objects falling to the floor, before the door busted open and a blurry figure pounced at Jayce.
I would've been knocked over by that figure, but this was Jayce, so he easily held her in his arms.
"I missed you a lot, Jayce."
He smiled and ruffled her head, "I missed you too, apple."
"Don't call me that!"
"Haha!"
I watched the two siblings being happy at their reunion, waiting for them to stop hugging each other and notice me.
'Am I really a protagonist or a background character?'
Finally when they snapped out of it and noticed me, Jayce introduced me to his sister.
"Ava, this is Shaun, my roommate and my best friend. Shaun, this is Ava, my cute little apple."
"Don't call me that!", she pouted at him before turning to me, smiling sweetly, "Nice to meet you, Shaun!"
Damn, she's an angel.
Her light blonde hair was so light that it could've been mistook as white from a distance. That, along with her innocent face made her seem like an angel.
My face must've told Jayce what I was saying because Jayce immediately got between us and looked at me with warning eyes, "Well, I bet that Shaun's tired from the long journey, so he needs to rest and wash up."
The journey wasn't even long...
"Shaun, the bathroom is right this way!", Jayce led me as far away from his sister as possible.
He shoved me into the bathroom with my belongings and warned me with his eyes, which was a polar opposite from his face.
I closed and locked the bathroom door, undressing myself and getting into the bathtub.
My body was submerged under hot water, and it relaxed every muscles of mine.
I cleaned and dried myself up before getting out of the tub, going to the mirror to brush my teeth.
When I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized it was my first time seeing Shaun's appearance.
I had black hair, yellow eyes, and a sort-of triangular chin. I'd say I'm pretty far above average. (Look in comments)
I dried my hair and put my clothes on before exiting the bathroom.
On the floor, I noticed that there was a letter left for me, inviting me to dinner at a ball.
My looks could be the reason why I'm invited or it could've been because of Jayce.
Me and Jayce are friends, but with benefits for both of us.