CHAPTER TWO: THE TEACHER IS BACK! (2)
1806 Words
MOMENTS after the darkness are rather familiar to Ceres. It isn't cold like he used feel back when he first died. His body isn't in fetal position like when he gain conciousness when he was still inside his birth mother's womb. In fact, he felt like he was sitting? His brows furrowed at the thought. He also became aware of the mild kisses of the sun on his skin.
And his face… Wait, why does it hurt? It was like he was jabbed right into his face.
Memories flashed in his mind. Right, he just saved a student and got hit and run by a car.
He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Ceres almost cursed when he unable to open his right eye, it was swelling.
Damn it. What the hell happened? Am I still alive?
A sense of relief when he thought of the posibility that he survived but he immediately frowned when he saw his surroundings.
If he indeed survived the accident, then he should be lying in the hospital. However, this is far from the white ceilings and walls of the hospital. The air in this room was stagnant and a few dust particles of dust are visible in the sun rays that penetrated the glass windows.
This is the worst place for a patient who just cracked his skull.
Ceres surveyed the whole room. He was sitting on a wooden chair and there is a huge table a few meters from him. The room has tons of books in the bookshelf and a small marble sculpture of a woman was mounted in the wall. Somehow, this room gives him a sense of nostalgia.
It looks like an office white all the huge books and paper that was placed in the table in front of him. There is also a colorful quill.
Ceres subconciously smiled. It's been a long time since he saw a quill. It is different from the weak looking feathers that were sold in the department stores which are mainly for display. This one, on the other hand, looks sturdy and functional. The glittering effect on the tips of the velvet makes him reminisce his first life. It looks like it is enhanced with mana. A typical magic tool.
Wait, mana?
A dreadful feeling brew in his stomach. That isn't possible, right.
There is no way that he will be sent back to Estin, right? He already lived in Earth.
To satiate his growing dread, he instantly stood up and walked towards the table. His heart beating like crazy. He reached for the quill not minding the tremors in his hands. He did't even noticed that his arm was way too small for someone in his mid 20s. All he can feel is his nerves and the erratic beating of his heart.
He was about to hold the quill but immediately stopped as his sight met with the reflection in the glass vase. He took the vase instead and removed the flowers.
Once again, he looked at the unbelievable sight that is reflected the glass.
"No f*****g way." he was oblivious of the profanity that accidentally slipped out of his tounge. Ceres is more focused on the surface of the glass.
There he saw a familiar image of a young boy. He is about five to seven year old. His face, even though bruised, looks so angelic with his short silvery white hair. And the boy's eyes… they are the colors that he once abhor, bright ruby red.
Unbelievable.
Ceres' breath became heavy as realization crush onto his head. His current form cannot lie and this room… the reason this office gives off a sense of nostalgia is because this is the office of the orphanage director that once took him in before he moved to Duchy of Cassidy.
He is once again, Parzelus Richter.
He gasped. But how?
Ceres was once reincarnated as Ceres Isaac in his second life. That is unbelievable itself. But being reborn and regressed at the same time? And back to his first life at that?
That doesn't make any sense!
"What are you doing, Parzelus?" a soft voice snapped him out of his daze. Because of shock, his hands slipped and he accidentally dropped the vase.
"I-I'm sorry." he hurriedly bend and tried to pick up the broken shards. But a smooth pair of hands pulled him up before he can even touch the broken pieces of glass.
"Don't touch that and just go back to your seat." the woman sternly said.
"Oh, come on," the woman sigh with a bit of frustration in her tone. "You just got yourself a bruise in your face and now you will prick your fingers. Do you love pain so much that you always got hurt in every move that you make?"
The woman nagged at him. She made him sit at the wooden chair and she took out a white ceramic bottle at the small puch that is dangling in the lace that hugs her slender waist. Ceres looked at the lady, he is wearing a white cloak and a white veil that is commonly wore by the people of Hestina. She is a priestess. The orphanage that he was in belongs to the White Church, no matter how run down the building looked.
"Look at me, child." Ceres reluctantly do so. Sister Annie, the priestess, opened the ceramic bottle and poured out its contents to his pale palms. The fluid is green and a strong aroma of herbs assaulted his nosetrills. He tried hard not to puke at the nasty smell.
"It stinks." Ceres said as he tried to block his nose with his index finger.
"Bear with it. You've been treated with Nagicha Cream for too many times during the past weeks yet you're still not used to it? How laughable." Sister Annie chastised Ceres once again. After putting the ointment on the bruised skin. She waved her finger on top of it and a shining string of green colored mana shoot out of the tip of her finger. She weave a magical array. After that warm green light covered his swelling right eye. In an instant, the swelling subsided. She then moved on to his wounded knuckles and treat it.
Ceres widened his eyes at that.
It was a healing spell! It's been so long since he saw magic. Excitement filled his chest as he saw something that he thought will never see again.
"Honestly, why do you always put yourself in the harm's way? This is the nineth time that you fought with the kids that his elder than you and each and every time you will come out with multiple wounds and bruises!"
"It's not like I want it to happen" he unconciously mutter. Upon realizing that his thoughts escaped his mouth, he immediately looked at the 30 year old priestess.
Ceres gulped as he saw the crease on Sister Annie's forehead. He is doomed.
"And now you talk back to your elder." priestess reprimanded him.
"No! It's just that…I-I'm stating the facts. That's right! They are the one who initiated the fight. Jaxon said that I am hogging the attention of the sisters just because I am a bearer!" Ceres almost smacked his head as he thought that he said that childishly.
For Pete's sake! He is already twenty seven before this and if he were to add his age in his first lifetime. He should be in his fifties.
And wait, how come that those words come out naturally? A little while ago, he doesn't know where he got his injury. Now, he can clearly remember how he punched and kicked the boy Jaxon. The kid is clearly bigger and older than he is but he somehow made him lose two front tooth.
Somehow, he felt content that that boy is in a worse shape than he is. Ceres smiled, looking smug.
"If that is all the reason then the next time someone tried to provoke you try not to engage in a physical fight. Tell it to the sisters here and we will talk to them."
"But that will only make them believe that they are right! It like I'm proving that I am an attention seeker!" Again, his lips are not cooperating! Ceres wanted to say that he can maturely handle the situation. His mental age and accumulated expirience as a teacher is more than enough for him to handle the matter. But somewhere in between of speaking and thinking, there is an anomally that makes him speak child like!
Ceres subconciously bit his lips. Is this an adverse effect of reggression?
How uncool!
"Still, you should be more careful of your body. Your body is blessed by the goddess Hestina. You are still growing and what will you do if you body is badly damaged to the point that any healing and treatment is useless? It would be bad for you."
Ceres understood the last statement of the priestess.
Being a bearer means that he, although born with a body of man, is capable of giving birth. His body has a dormant womb that enables him to bear a child.
However, if he did reggressed and this is his first life then his body will be damned the moment his inner core gone out of control in the future.
He needs to prevent that from happening since that is the gate way to his hell.
Ceres became silent after that.
"You know Parzelus, sometimes you just need to be deaf to the things that will wound you, specially petty things."
"But what if they told me that I am born to become a w***e… just like my mother." Ceres sullenly said. Memories flood his mind after he said that. There was a nauseating flashes of images and swirling of multitude of feelings in his chest. It was like his memories as Ceres was being pushed back and the memories of the young Parzelus surfaces.
This alerted him. Ceres clutched his chest. He is afraid that he will forget the memories in his two lifetimes. His life as Ceres albeit full of hardships, it is more fulfilling than his life as Parzelus. There he found friends, became close with his students and find a deeper meaning in his life. So if he were to live as Parzelus once again, he wanted to live it the way Ceres does.
Ceres, lost in his thoughts did not see the attempt of Sister Annie to speak as there is a hurrying knocks on the wooden door of the office. The priestess did not even get a chance to answer as the door burst open.
"Sister Annie! Quick! Magic Knights!" Rafaello, the eldest among the orphans and acts as the errand boy, gasped for breath as he said those words.
- Writer
