2 Avalon

Instructor Keno stretched his arms as he looked into the distance. The landscape has completely changed. More than four hours have passed since the start of the journey; by now, Instructor Keno already had a short nap and even ate some snacks by himself.

'I wonder how the kid is doing? We are going to arrive soon, let's take a look at him' thought Instructor Keno

He slowly cracked his finger joints as he took one last look at the city. Within those four hours, the bus slowly made its way through the rural areas and eventually reached the coastline. In just a few more minutes, the bus will finally reach its destination: the coastal city of Anathem.

Instructor Keno glanced at Alexander. As soon as his eyes landed on the young man, the instructor narrowed his eyes; he instantly felt triggered. "Hmmp, in the five years I have been picking those kids, it is the first time I see someone like that. How can he be so relaxed to the point that he even fell asleep?"

"Hey kid! Wake up, we are about to arrive," exclaimed Instructor Keno. At the same time, he lightly nudged Alexander.

The latter jumped on his feet and looked around him. "Huh? Where are we?"

"Kid, you've been sleeping for a while. I don't know if you've got guts or are just lazy. Anyway, just prepare yourself, we'll soon be arriving at Anathem. Make sure you know the rules by then," said Instructor Keno while frowning. He has already noticed the document on the seat next to Alexander; it was still clean and undamaged as if it just came out of the printer. Either Alexander was very careful when reading books or he simply did not touch it at all and Instructor Keno was willing to bet on the latter.

Alexander looked through the window and saw the large city in the distance, "Ohh, Anathem... That's where we'll board the cruiser. Thanks for waking me up."

"..." Instructor Keno did not know how to react to the student's indifference. Without saying a word, he returned to his own seat. Whenever the student was ready for the academy or not had nothing to do with him; his job was only to pick the student and bring them there.

'People used to complain about millennials but this generation is even worse than that. No respect at all,' thought Instructor Keno.

Alexander yawned as he scratched his head. The journey had been long. His muscles were already sore. Although the bus was a private one and was very well equipped, sleeping in the sitting position was still rather uncomfortable.

'Anathem... It has been a while since I've been there...'

...

The bus soon stopped at the private area of the harbor where hundreds of other buses were already stationed.

"Alright, follow me!" declared Instructor Keno.

Alexander wordlessly stood up and walked behind him. He dully looked around him and smiled to himself. He remembered how he was so excited and amazed the first time he came here. But that was ten years ago and at that time, he was just a random country bumpkin going on a crazy adventure.

The pair quickly made its way toward the one and only ship on the dock: the Avalon, one of the private cruisers of the Earth Academy.

They wordlessly walked up the platform and soon boarded the cruiser. The cruiser was a rather luxurious one. If he did not know better, Alexander would think he had just boarded a yacht.

Instructor Keno quietly brought him to one of the cabins and lightly knocked on the door. "After this, my job will be done. Good luck kid, I hope you'll like your stay with us."

Before Alexander could answer, a loud roar came from the cabin, "Who is it!?"

"It's Keno. I have brought with me Alexander Vagras."

The door of the cabin was wildly opened, revealing an aged man with a tired expression. Large dark circles could be seen right under his eyes; his uniform was messy, and a few sleep marks were clearly present all over his face.

With one look, Alexander could tell that the man was rather irritated. 'He probably just ended his shift.'

The man nodded to Keno and turned his attention to Alexander. "So you are the latecomer. All your friends are already there, we can finally depart. Just one more day and we would have been late. Why did you have to live so far away... Why did they have to restrict the budget so much..."

As he complained, the man quickly scanned his messy working table and picked up something. "Here, your room card. Since you've read the introductory documents, you should know where to find your room. The journey will last for a whole week. During that time, you are free to do whatever you want as long as you don't cause any trouble! Questions?"

The man spoke rapidly and did not bother to hide his mood. He handed a white card to Alexander as he said the final word, but he did not release his grip yet. Instead, he stared at Alexander with an expression that clearly warned him that the correct answer was no.

"No, am good," answered Alexander.

"Good, good, in that case, you are free to go." The man's expression instantly got better, and he quickly let go of the room card. The next second, the cabin's door was slammed closed with a loud "Bang".

...

As the man has said, the trip lasted for exactly one week. It turned out that the tired man was, in fact, the captain of the cruiser. Despite the unsightly first look that Alexander had on him, the captain was a very competent man. During the last few days, he had been under a large amount of stress as he was running late on the schedule. It was not exactly Alexander's fault but as he was living the furthest from Anathem, bringing him here took a huge portion of his allocated time.

As for Alexander, excluding his time at the canteen, he spent most of his time alone in his room. Many students were on board and were probably socializing, making friends before reaching the Earth Academy but Alexander was not interested in meeting anyone.

His only company was his Personal Android Assistant, one of the perks of joining the Earth Academy. A personal assistant was a small robot designed to perform all sort of menial tasks such as cleaning the room of its owner and surf the internet, but it could also hold a conversation with a human.

Alexander came from a small village but that did not stop him from being up to date with the technology. Besides, it was not the first time he was meeting the small robot and knew he could keep ownership of the robot until he left the academy.

"Your name shall be Alpha. I am Alexander Vagras. Set a daily alarm at 8 pm and call it: Remember to call mom. Aside from this, do not disturb me for the rest of the trip," said Alexander as soon as he saw the robot. As he spoke, Alexander's face became emotional; he started remembering the events of his past life.

"The alarm has been set," declared Alpha with a monotonic voice. The small robot beeped and swiftly returned to its original spot near the door.

The rest of the trip was very peaceful for Alexander. He spent most of his time in bed and would occasionally jump to the desk to take a few notes. In his past life, Alexander might have been very excited and eager to meet the other students but this time, it was different.

Yes. Alexander was someone who traveled back in time. He did not know how he achieved such a feat, but he would not complain about it. On his death bed, as all his mana has been exhausted, Alexander closed his eyes and waited for him to pass away but to his surprise, he found himself back at home, back on Earth.

He did not believe he really traveled back in time. His first thoughts were: "Did I read too many novels? Or maybe that's what paradise looks like?" However, he soon confirmed that he indeed came back and maintained all the memories of his past life.

The jump in time brought Alexander a few days before he was supposed to meet with Instructor Keno and during these days, Alexander spent all his time with his mother. His family was the owner of a large hydroponic farm. Most of the work was performed by an automated system but there was still a lot of work that required actual human intervention. As he was going to leave his mother for a long period of time, Alexander tried to get as much work done as possible to alleviate his mother's workload.

Alexander was exhausted after doing so much work but fortunately, the one-week trip on the Avalon was more than enough to recover. During that time, Alexander tried his best to remember the important events of his past life and tried to derive an appropriate path for him. Every time he would think of something, he would not hesitate to note it down but unfortunately, Alexander's memory was not omnipotent.

He did not even remember what he ate yesterday; how was he supposed to remember events that took place a decade ago? Although he did not remember much of his school life, the one thing Alexander remembered very well was magic!