The Present Past
Noises filled the air and surrounded him. It sounded like voices, chattering voice more specifically. Ren tilted his head a bit.
'Wait. Something not right.'
He opened his eyes and blinked a few times as the sudden light made it difficult to adjust his view. He surveyed his surroundings with a confused look. Hundreds of young teenagers, probably in their teens were chattering among them. They were dressed in white uniforms and stood in ten irregular lines.
'...this looks familiar..'
As he glanced around, he saw a few of familiar faces. Then, he looked down and realised, the burn mark on his left hand that he got years ago was completely disappeared. It looked likes he never got it in the first place.
He touched his face and realised that the scar and rugged skin which were supposed to be on his cheeks were gone and replaced by a clean and fair skin. Then, he casted a spell and conjured a thin ice on his palm and looked his reflection through that ice. He shocked as it was not his face that he saw on the reflection, but his younger self.
'What the hell happened? I thought I was dead? Why did I become younger?'
He stood there looking confused and doubts were running through his mind, until a sound of footsteps disrupted his thoughts.
The sound of footsteps attracted everyone's attention to the front. A beautiful young woman dressed in a fully black clothes smiled as she ascended the stage. As the chatter died down, the woman started speaking.
"Pleased to meet you, applicants of Varion Academy. My name is Cecilia, one of the professors here."
Ren stared at the woman blankly. It supposed to be the first time Ren met her, but strangely he felt that he had known her for a long time.
"I know that many of you are from far places and it was quite a long journey to come here. For that, I sincerely thank all of you."
She paused a bit and took a breath before continuing her sppech.
"However, I regretfully inform you that not all of you here would be admitted to our academy. As Varion Academy's tradition, all of you here will be required to take our entrance examination, which the results will determine whether you will be admitted or not."
There were some murmur among the applicants. Professor Cecilia raised her hand in the air to silence the applicants and continued.
"We will conduct your first test right now. Your first objective is just simply-"
As Ren heard the speech from that young professor, he realised that he had heard it before many years ago, long before the invasion of demon army.
"Do not get word," the words came from Ren and Professor Cecilia's mouths and the same time. While muttering those words, Ren jumped backwards as far as he could. Luckily for him, there was no obstacles behind him so he could jumped quite far. He saw the ground that he stood previously started to shake and crumble.
Other applicants began to panic with the sudden change. Ren saw the sudden collapse of the ground in front of him created a massive hole. There was a large pool of water inside of the hole. As Ren looked what was happened inside the hole, he saw a large number of applicants were already in the pool, wet.
However, there were some applicants that survived the fall. There was a young girl floating on the air, a boy clang to a sword that embedded on the cliff while holding a hand of another boy below him. There was also quite number of people that survived which Ren never bothered to look how they survive the fall.
The incindent that happened before him made Ren realised that this was not a dream. Ren Ballard had returned 12 years into the past. The event here was exactly the same with what he vividly remember from his memories. But why all of this happened? On what purpose, Ren had returned to his past. As many thoughts racing in his mind, he turned his attention towards the a voice.
"As I said before, the first test is for all of you to avoid getting wet. Applicants that are outside of the hole are passed to the next round. For those that are fall into the hole, as long as you are not wet, you are also passed. And the others, I am sorry to say that you are disqualified."
The noise from the applicants' murmers once again filled the surrounding air. Some were filled with joy while others were regretted and disappointed with the outcome. Then, a young man spoke with angry, dissatisfied tone.
"What the hell with this test? You should test with our aptitude in magic, not with this nonsense shit."
After that, some of the failed applicants started to spoke up agreeing with what that young man said. Professor Cecilia smiled a little and then turned into a dark, cold expression before she began to spoke.
"This test is for Varion Academy to check your abilities to think and react to unexpected situation. If you cannot pass this basic test, you are not suitable to be magician. You would be long dead if you were fell inside of deadly poison instead of water."
People that were argued before were speechless with the explanation given by Professor Cecilia. With disappointed face, they accepted the decision made by Varion Academy and dispersed from there.
"For those who passed the test, I need you to gather there for your next test,"
Ren and the other passing applicants moved and gathered to the place that Professor Cecilia pointed at. Then, they were brought to the new place by two men, who Ren thought were the students there by looking at their uniforms.
After walking for a while, they were surprised with the huge wall gate in front of them which was surrounded by tall wall. Before the gate was a man who wearing same uniform with Professor Cecilia.
"There were quite a lot people passed the first test this year."
The man spoke while touching his beard. Ren smiled a little upon looking at the man in front of him. Siegfried Forlan, or in this academy, people called him Professor Siegfried or Professor Forlan. One of the great magician that specializes in martial arts that combined with magic. Professor Siegfried although looked like he already hit 50s in age, but his body still in good condition and he looked extremely energetic like a young man.
Ren had been acquainted with Professor Siegfried during his previous life. It was a little bit nostalgic for him to see Professor Siegfried in front of him still alive as Ren still remembered clearly how Professor Siegfried die in the hand of demon.
"My name is Siegfried Forlan and I am the proctor for this second test."
The applicants s started to murmur after Professor Siegfried introduced himself. Ren heard one of the applicant said to another one.
"Is not that Sir Siegfried Forlan? Why is member of 'Council of Elsgard' here?!"
'Council of Elsgard' was a group of great magicians who gathered to ensure the stability and prosperity of Elsgard Kingdom. The council were consist of seven powerful individual that possessed a great deal of reputation as mage and also as leader of their own organizations. Firaz, the Sage of Quintet Elements and Stella, the Saint of White Lotus were also the member of this council.
Ren chuckled while looking the confused looks of other participants as he was sure that they would shocked to know the reason why Siegfried Forlan was here in the examination ground.
"For this second test, there was two ways for you to succeed. First, you can force yourself to enter this premise. You can either climb the wall or simply pass through the gate here. There would be three gatekeepers that would guard the gate, my assistants here and also me. If you had been captured by either gatekeeper while trying to pass through the gate, you would be disqualified. But if you decide to climb the wall, you can try it as much as you want until the time limit run out."
As Ren listened to the explanation, he looked at the wall and analysed it. The wall was 100 metre tall and the surface was smooth and flat, so it was nearly impossible to climb it by ordinary mean. Then, he shifted his gaze towards the gate and the 'gatekeepers'. This option also quite difficult to face. Even if he can somehow overcome the other two gatekeepers, but how he could manage to beat Professor Siegfried.
Then, Professor Siegfried continued, "Second, you can get a 'pass' from me. You can go through the gate and the gatekeepers will not stopping you. To get the 'pass', you just need to impress me. That's all."
Once again the examination ground was filled with the murmurs of the confused applicants. A young man then raised his hand and asked Professor Siegfried a question.
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's up to you. You can do anything you want as long as it can impress me."
As there was no more question from the applicants, Professor Siegfried continued, "The time limit of this test are two hours. You can start now."
As Professor Siegfried finished, the gatekeepers including Professor Siegfried suddenly were frozen by ice magic. Then, a young woman emerged from the crowd and walking through the gate passing the frozen gatekeepers. That was the youngest daughter of the current king of Elsgard Kingdom, Princess Elena Elsgard.
After Princess Elena entered through the gate, a group of applicants running towards the gate to follow her, but their efforts were useless as the gatekeepers were no longer in frozen state and then subdued those applicants.
"That was a good one."
Professor Siegfried smiled.