Prologue
A long time ago—or rather, in a web novel I'd read back in the day. There was this one story famous for pulling off a cosmic horror drift right at the end. Everything up until just before the finale was your standard academy romance fantasy web novel. Then, out of nowhere, the author must've lost their mind, because they slammed us with cosmic horror. The protagonist hits third year at the academy, right on the cusp of graduation, when an outer god sealed underground awakens. Not just the protagonist and the male leads, but every student in the academy—and the entire world itself—meets its doom. By the time we neared the ending, it was chapter after chapter of all the major characters who'd been prominent throughout getting butchered in the most wretched ways by freakish monsters. It was already fairly popular, but that batshit drift turned it into a massive phenomenon. Hell, even I—who barely touched romance fantasies—picked it up purely out of curiosity.
Why had that memory resurfaced so suddenly? Nothing major, really. It just happened that I was about to start as a teacher at an academy. After dying on Earth and reincarnating into the new world of Hypnia with my past-life memories intact, more than twenty years had passed. Leveraging my Earth knowledge as a cheat, I'd risen to become the head of a massive trading company. I was at the point where I figured the rest of my life could be a leisurely soak in wealth and comfort. That's when an invitation arrived, asking if I'd consider taking a teaching position at an academy.
Of course, for someone like me—guaranteed a cushy retirement without lifting a finger—there was zero reason to stand at a podium babysitting kids wolfing down cafeteria slop. But the instant I laid eyes on the name "Everlight Academy" scrawled on that invitation, a jolt of intense déjà vu struck me. No, it wasn't mere unease. It felt like dead certainty.
Ah. This world is straight out of a web novel.
I couldn't pinpoint exactly which story it came from. Twenty-plus years since reincarnation—no way a single academy name would jog that level of detail. Still, I clearly remembered it as the academy from some novel I'd read long ago.
Feeling like a kid queuing up for a fresh thrill ride at an amusement park, I set off for the academy to savor the original tale. This world was peaceful to a fault—no magic, no monsters. So in a place this serene, was it one of those romance fantasies packed with political intrigue or messy love quadrangles? Ah. Not my cup of tea at all. Especially romance fantasies—I hardly ever read them.
"Teacher Allen! Homeroom's starting soon. Hurry to the classroom!"
The female teacher's voice calling out snapped me back to reality. Musing on which novel's world this was had dragged that ending-ruining drift fiasco back into my head. Whatever. No chance this is that story. Countless novels out there—odds are zilch. Besides, even if the plot escaped me now, getting to the academy and running into the protagonist and their crew ought to refresh it all, right? With those sunny thoughts of academy bliss, I took my first step forward.
...
That was the memory from the morning my life truly began to unravel.