Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Restart
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“Expelled, Daniel.”
The dean, whose face was etched with kindly wrinkles symbolizing compassion, declared coldly to me.
Expelled.
Me, getting kicked out of Aios Academy, the finest on the continent?
Why? How come?
“There’s no place in our academy for a student like you, with no camaraderie, who’s violent and rude.”
I couldn’t utter a single word.
Tears threatened to spill from the sheer injustice of it all, but I held them back with effort, not wanting to feel like I’d truly lost.
“If you’ve got nothing to say, then go.”
After her icy declaration, the dean naturally turned her gaze to the papers on her desk.
It was a silent signal telling me to leave without another word.
In the end, I left the dean’s office without voicing a single grievance, the injustice tearing at my chest, letting out only quiet breaths.
‘Maybe it’s for the best.’
Yeah, sticking around the academy would just be a nuisance anyway. Aside from my two childhood friends from back home, I had no friends, and plenty of students despised me for my lowly bloodline.
Under the pressure, the sabotage from fellow students, and the faculty’s discrimination, I’d been branded an incompetent failure.
“At least Ares and Rin...”
My childhood friends who’d entered Aios Academy with me. I wanted to at least say goodbye to them.
But then I spotted them walking together outside the window.
Watching them side by side as they headed out the gate, I suddenly recalled how the villagers always said they made such a great pair.
The tears I’d held back in front of the dean finally fell.
“Guhk.”
When I opened my eyes again, reality awaited.
A dense, dark forest. I’d been napping briefly, leaning against a tree trunk amid it all.
The dream had felt so vivid that I checked my body over once.
A sturdy body in my twenties. Covered in ugly scars, with my shoulder bandaged from an injury.
“Are you okay?”
To Eris’s question, I steadied myself and told her not to worry. Even with her elven ears—the hallmark of her kind—severed in battle, she remained poised and resilient as ever, her beauty undimmed.
“The army?”
“They’re still at a distance, it seems. Thanks to the traps you set.”
“It’s just buying us a little time.”
As I grabbed my gear and stood, Eris gripped her staff and sword, then spoke.
“But where are we headed?”
“Deeper into the forest. The beasts will keep the army from advancing carelessly.”
The Army of Death that had blanketed the continent.
Made up of the undead, they’d overrun everything in an instant, wiping out every kingdom, turning the world into a place of death alone.
Any living humans left?
Probably not.
The spot we were in was the Demon Realm Forest, known to humans as hell itself.
The army marching this far meant no corner of the continent remained untouched by them.
This infamous forest, once called hell by humans, had bizarrely become our sole sanctuary.
Of course, even that was about to end.
“What if.”
Eris, following behind, spoke up.
I was running, every second counting, so I didn’t reply at first—but then a shocking line slipped from her lips.
“If everyone’s dead like this, and it’s just us two left... will you marry me?”
“What?”
I’d never expected such words from an elf. Stunned, I whipped my head around to see her blushing unusually.
“Well, humans are extinct, elves too... you’re the only one left to pair with.”
“That’s... true, I guess.”
“We’ll be the start of a new humanity. The day half-elves rule the world...”
Seeing Eris chuckle softly, her face lit up, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh myself. It almost felt like that future was really unfolding before us.
Though, of course, it wouldn’t.
That’s why I smiled and gave her an answer to a promise that could never come true.
“Yeah, sure.”
“...!”
Had she not expected that response?
She’d always kept her walls up around people, so my reply startled her briefly. Then she flashed a smile—bright and shy, one I’d never seen before.
Suddenly, she jolted in surprise and asked.
“Come to think of it, what’s your name? I’ve just been calling you Sherpa this whole time.”
“Oh, right.”
Now that she mentioned it, I’d never told her.
Well, our first meeting was as a Demon Realm Forest guide and an elf gathering materials there.
“I’m...”
Pfook.
A black spear, oozing ominous energy, plunged into Eris’s chest—the one who’d been smiling just moments ago.
She vomited blood, her mouth opening and closing as if desperate to say something to me, but in the end, no words came. Her hand fell limp, and her warmth seeped into the ground.
“Eris!”
I rushed over desperately, but from behind her emerged a figure in black armor.
“You’re the last.”
The master of the Army of Death.
The monster said to be the god’s scourge upon the continent met my eyes.
Its name, age, gender—nothing was known.
Expressionless, it drew its sword and aimed it at me.
Last what?
The question crossed my mind, and as if reading it, the figure answered.
“You’re the last human left on the continent.”
“Ha...”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I’d never dreamed the day would come when those words, sounding like nonsense, would hit so hard and real.
We really were the last of humanity.
I wanted to tell Eris, but she’d already stopped breathing.
I drew my sword and said nothing more.
I knew whatever words I offered here, it’d kill me anyway.
And so the duel began.
The Army of Death that followed encircled me and their master, ensuring no escape—but I had no time to care.
Knowing my life was already forfeit, I burned it all swinging my blade.
“I’ll kill you and go!”
Objectively, my swordsmanship held the edge.
But I couldn’t counter its magic.
I’d always struggled with magic, and while I knew a few countermeasures, they were mere tricks against a mage of this caliber.
Would it even die if I killed it?
What was this monster’s purpose in shattering the continent?
“Damn you!”
I roared, swinging my sword.
Its helmet flew off, long black hair spilling free. If I’d struck right then, I could’ve ended it—but I froze.
“...Rin?”
My childhood friend from the village, the one we’d played with together.
Always beautiful, with a gentle heart.
My first love.
Pfook.
Intense heat and pain exploded from the sword piercing my heart, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Rin mercilessly withdrew her blade, and I just stared at her vacantly, speechless.
Tears pooling in her lifeless eyes.
That’s how my story should have ended.
A life where I never clarified a thing, always just running away—it was a mystery in itself. But now, I had no chances or time left.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
“Expelled, Daniel.”
So I figured this was a dream too.
The dean with her wrinkled face.
The dean’s office scent of talcum powder mixed with old books.
The sunset filtering through the window cracks, and the expulsion notice held out before me.
‘Is this a dream?’
Not a life-flashing-before-my-eyes thing.
Those happen before death, and I’d definitely died.
“There’s no place in our academy for a student like you, with no camaraderie, who’s violent and rude.”
I thought it was some kind of dream, but oddly, unlike the earlier one, I could move and act of my own will here, and all my memories remained intact.
“If you’ve got nothing to say, then go.”
The scene replayed exactly like the dream or my memory. The dean turned to her papers, issuing her dismissal.
I, who’d been staring blankly at the expulsion notice, looked at the dean now focused on her own work and raised my middle finger.
“Fuck you.”