The Beginning
The morning sunlight struck the main building's glass windows, scattering gentle sparkles through the air. The light was dazzling yet warm, and at the same time, it felt like a neat, orderly summons to wake me. I stood by the window of my dormitory room, looking down at the vast academy plaza spread out below.
Students had already gathered in front of the school. After the tension of the entrance ceremony and the aftermath of the exam, it was a peaceful yet strangely hushed morning. In the air where a light breeze seeped through, the students' quiet laughter and footsteps mingled together.
The exam is over… and now the real beginning begins.
I lightly tapped the bracelet on my wrist, and a soft glow pulsed calmly. It wasn't the wild surge from yesterday's battle, nor was it sharply intense. It simply soothed me in quiet silence.
Feeling the texture of the silver bracelet on my left wrist and the black one on my right once more, I opened the door to the dormitory. As I stepped out, the new students I encountered were greeting each other and laughing. There were faces I'd brushed past in yesterday's battle, but today they all looked like peaceful comrades.
Sunlight shattered across their hair, the breeze brushed their clothes, and every small movement seeped one by one into my senses. Everything was peaceful, yet deep in my chest, a tension slowly crept in.
I crossed the plaza within the academy grounds and headed toward the main building's auditorium. Before the class assignment announcement, students were lining up in orderly fashion under the professors' guidance.
In the distance, a head of hair gleaming golden in the sunlight caught my eye. Aurelia. She was still standing alone. Her expression was calm, her gaze difficult to read. When that gaze briefly brushed past me, my heart trembled subtly.
…As expected.
I let out a small internal sigh. She didn't mix with the other students. Yet her very presence of quiet solitude seemed to make the surrounding air tense for a moment.
At that moment, the sound of neat footsteps approached from afar. Click, click. It was the being I'd seen yesterday, the one with stats beyond human limits. Valterion professor ascended the stairs to the auditorium.
When he stepped onto the platform, the entire plaza held its breath. The noise that had filled the space sank as if crushed. Even the remaining murmurs vanished, as though silencing themselves. Silence slowly but surely overtook the area.
He didn't rush. Only after every sound had completely died down did he finally open his mouth.
His words were sharp at the end, yet carried a softness within. The professor's statement was simple, but the power it held shook the students' hearts. When his gaze swept over them, an atmosphere of mingled tension and excitement could be felt.
For a moment, the professor's gaze brushed over me. It seemed indifferent as it passed, but the instant it landed on me, my heart trembled subtly. Instinctively, I looked toward Aurelia. She, too, glanced at me for a brief moment. A short eye contact. No words were spoken, yet that faint tremor brushed across my chest. A strangely nerve-wracking yet familiar sensation.
Valterion professor continued.
Having said that, he paused for a moment without speaking and tilted his head ever so slightly. Then his right hand slowly rose to his ear. At his fingertips was a small artifact resembling a wireless earpiece.
He stopped, his gaze lowered briefly. It seemed as though someone's words were quietly flowing in through the device. A short silence. Then his eyes sharpened once more.
The moment his words ended, the students checked their bracelets and showed various reactions. He continued explaining that common subjects would be taken with classmates from the same class, while elective and department-specific required courses would proceed regardless of class, so students would act according to their respective departments rather than their classes.
The students' eyes sparkled. Gazes mixed with expectation, tension, calculation, and curiosity scattered toward the platform.
After Valterion professor's explanation, introductions of each department, lectures, faculty, and key figures followed. And then, at the moment the entire plaza held its breath—without any warning, she revealed herself.
There was no tearing of space, no surge of mana. She simply… appeared as if she had always been there. My gaze was instinctively drawn to her.
9th Circle. Not merely a level of power, but a name alone that could halt an entire nation's movements—a deterrent force. The incarnation of war. A rank called the realm of demigods. The current principal of Arcadia Academy. And—a race chosen by the mana of myth. A dragon.
On the continent, countless dragons existed. Beings who fell short of being called true dragons yet clearly inherited their blood. Sandworms, drakes, wyverns. From those that retained only fragments of draconic essence—called remnants of dragons—to dinosaurs crawling the earth, pterosaurs slicing through the skies, and sea dragons swimming the abyss. Their forms, abilities, and natures were all different.
And then there were those whose names remained in countless myths. True dragons, led by the Dragon Lord who existed in the age of myths. They still dwelled somewhere in this world, and some continued to interact with humans.
Even among those many dragons, there were beings to whom humans had given names filled with awe and terror. One of them—the red fire dragon that breathed unquenchable inferno. Igniel.
The moment I looked at her standing on the platform, my gaze was naturally drawn there. Deep pink hair tinged with red energy flowed down to her waist, fading lighter toward the ends like a melting sunset, glowing softly. Within her eyes, red and gold mixed, creating a strange light that shifted with the sunlight.
The small horns on her head looked so natural that it was impossible to tell if they were decorations or her original features. Short, solid, and darkening toward the tips, they cast subtle shadows whenever she tilted her head.
As if already aware of the gazes focused on her, the corners of her mouth lifted lightly. A smile as natural and relaxed as a flower just beginning to bloom.
After a brief silence, she spoke first.
The single word flowed out softly, yet spread through the space with strange clarity. She tilted her head slightly and added,
In that instant, the students began murmuring quietly. The small sound quickly spread, and soon the entire academy was filled with buzzing noise. It was inevitable. A being who rarely showed herself. The principal who appeared whimsically, only very occasionally and without any warning—this was the first time she had revealed herself at such an official event.
The murmurs didn't subside easily. Then she lightly snapped her fingers. A fleeting motion. But immediately after—the noise filling the air was cut off as if severed. So naturally, so perfectly. Silence descended once more, and the scattered gazes gathered one by one, focusing solely on her.
She shrugged lightly.
She spoke in short bursts, then lifted the corner of her mouth slightly. And—
In that moment, the air shook. The small murmurs that began spread in an instant. The sound of heartbeats pounded in everyone's ears. Those pulses overlapped, making it feel as though the entire auditorium was faintly vibrating.
She looked down at the reaction lightly and continued.
At the end of her words, her gaze swept over each student one by one.
A very subtle pause.
The moment she finished speaking, she vanished in an instant. In that moment, only a hushed silence remained, a mixture of yesterday's tension and today's strangely calm peace.
Immediately after, the interior of the auditorium began to fill with the chaos created by the students. I quietly slipped out of the now-noisy hall. The murmurs grew distant, and the sounds broke off one by one.
In front of the stairs, I stopped walking. In the gap where footsteps didn't reach, the surroundings were strangely quiet. As if slipping into that gap, I slowly began organizing my thoughts.
In my chest, tension and excitement boiled together. And from deep within my heart, an unnamed fear slowly crawled upward.
There was only one reason the demons had begun to move. It must mean they were paying attention to Aurelia, the one chosen by the god of life and order. Aurelia herself probably didn't know. Not even the fact that she was a messenger of the gods.
I slowly descended the stairs. In the sunlight, the students' movements seeped in softly.
From now on, it's the real thing.
Life at the academy. Growing together with comrades, protecting the important people, and above all, making myself stronger. And—uncovering the reason I came to this other world.
A new variable that didn't exist in the original story. The being who inherited the power of the Seven Sins had already revealed itself to the world. Simply following the original story might make it possible to eliminate all seventy-two demons. But—the sacrifices required in that process would be too great.
Therefore. While contributing to the subjugation of the seventy-two demons—I must also identify the entities that brought me here.
The Seven Sins race were beings avoided by the current gods, not the evil gods. There was no reason for them to deliberately summon me to this world and grant me such power. There were two possibilities. It was either an error caused by a flaw in the world—or, the far more likely one…
It could be the evil gods' scheme.
In the original story, like the Seven Sins race, the evil gods had not revealed themselves since the age of myths. Their very existence was barely recorded. Yet now, the power of the Seven Sins had reappeared in the world. In that case, it wouldn't be strange if the evil gods revealed themselves again.
Especially their leader, the father of all gods—the god of death and chaos, Tartaros. An overwhelmingly powerful being born from the very foundation that sustained the world. He was the most threatening, yet had no choice but to be sealed along with the other evil gods. The idea that such a being would simply remain sealed and do nothing felt even more bizarre.
No matter how much their power had weakened with their true names erased, as long as black magic—the byproduct of their power—remained on the continent and the concepts of death and chaos did not disappear from the world, they would gradually regain their strength each time birth and death repeated and the earth was engulfed in the flames of war.
There had been several wars on the continent. Thinking they were merely weakened was a mistake. In a space without light, time, or scent, countless beings writhed in confinement, waiting to emerge into the world. The entities sealed there were trying to use me as their vessel.
I walked forward without a word. The path leading to the training grounds, lecture halls, and dormitory. Every sense awakened sharply—the students' small movements in the sunlight, the flags swaying in the breeze, even the faint smells within the dust.
I reflected on my personal goals one by one. In front of the dormitory door. Laughter and footsteps could be heard through the cracks. Sunlight and shadows brushed the door, and the new curtain of academy life quietly rose.