Night at Arkwright Hero Academy was always lit by the glow of training towers, but within the vast simulation forest, only the artificial moon hung above. The air was cold, the grass damp, and the chirping of programmed insects made everything feel almost real.
"Hurry up! If we don't finish this within the hour, our score will get cut!" Aurora Veyra shouted, her blade of radiant light blazing to life. The golden glow sliced through the darkness, making her appear like the very symbol of courage.
Behind her, several cadets followed.
Darius Falkenhayn, massive and loud, slammed his fist into a tree and laughed.
"You talk too much, Aurora! Let me crush all these simulation beasts myself!"
"Idiot. If you act alone, your entire team fails." Isolde Reinhardt's silver hair shimmered under the moonlight as frost spread across the ground with each step. Her gaze was as cold as her words.
"Ahaha, I agree with Isolde. Sometimes Darius acts more like a monster than the ones we're supposed to fight." Selene D'Artois smiled faintly, her voice soft and clear. Even in jest, her Gift bled into her tone, stirring emotions in those who heard it.
And behind them walked a boy most had already forgotten. Black hair, plain uniform, dark eyes steady and unhurried. Leonard Krauss kept his pace, calm and constant.
"Leonard, you never say a word. Do you even have a Gift, or are you just dead weight?" one cadet mocked.
Leonard glanced at him briefly, then looked away.
There's no point in answering. To them, I'll always be the bottom-ranked cadet.
They didn't know. Behind those calm eyes hid a mind far older. Sharper.
Conscious in ways they couldn't imagine.
Ten years. I've lived in this world for ten years. From the moment I was born, I knew—my mind wasn't that of a baby. I remembered another life. Knowledge, logic, history from a world beyond. But none of that matters here. This world runs on Gifts, on power, on a stage they haven't realized they're standing on…
He watched his classmates laughing, treating the trial as a harmless game.
Leonard exhaled softly.
…They'll learn the truth soon enough.
It began with a sound that didn't belong.
The forest trembled, a low rumble rolling through the soil. At first, the cadets thought it was part of the simulation—a staged quake to heighten the atmosphere. But then came the tearing noise, like glass shattering across the heavens.
A rift split the air.
From the jagged tear spilled creatures that no academy instructor had programmed. They crawled out—fangs dripping, claws like blades, bodies warped with Rift energy. The stench of blood and rot followed them.
"W-what the hell—?!" one cadet screamed as the nearest beast tore his arm clean off.
There was no respawn.
No safety net.
The simulation had become real.
"Monsters don't… they don't do that! This isn't part of the exam!" Aurora's voice cracked, her radiant sword shaking in her hand.
Cadets scrambled in every direction, their formation collapsing instantly. Some tried to fight, their Gifts flaring in desperation. Others simply ran, only to be torn apart by the fanged horrors pouring through the rift.
"No… no, this isn't training…!" Selene fell to her knees, her voice trembling. Her Gift instinctively burst forth, her voice carrying a desperate melody that made the panicked cadets hesitate, hearts steadier for a moment.
Darius roared, smashing his fist into a monster's skull, gore splattering across his uniform. His laughter was gone. Replaced by fear.
And Leonard… stood utterly still.
So it begins.
His eyes narrowed on the sky as the rift widened, cracks spreading like fractured glass across the simulated heavens. The artificial moon shattered, shards of white light falling like meteors.
And then—
From beyond the rift descended a figure.
A being with one wing of radiant white feathers and one of charred black ash. Its face was beautiful in the way a cathedral's statue was beautiful, and wrong in the way nightmares were wrong. Its lips curled into a smile too wide, too sharp.
The forest fell silent. The world itself seemed to hold its breath.
Seraphiel, The Smiling Herald.
---
> "Ahh… finally. The stage has been set."
"Salutations! , little actors. Tonight, the curtain rises!."
The voice wasn't just in the forest.
It reverberated across the entire world.
---
Cut to Novastadt—people froze mid-meal, staring at the same rift in their sky.
In Albion, knights dropped their swords in the cathedral.
In Ruskar, necromancers paused their chants.
In Zephyra, merchants fell silent in the bazaar.
Everyone, everywhere… heard the Herald's words.
And then, before their eyes, glowing windows appeared.
---
[System Initialized]
Welcome, humanity.
From this day, you are no longer people.
You are actors.
Stage 1: Trial of Beasts
Location: Arkwright Hero Academy
Duration: Until only 30 remain alive.
---
The world screamed.
The air rippled.
All across the forest, and indeed across the world, glowing blue windows burst into existence. They hovered before every human eye, transparent yet undeniable, like commands etched into reality itself.
---
──────────────
[System Initialized]
Welcome, humanity.
From this day forth, you are no longer people.
You are actors.
Stage 1: Trial of Beasts
Location: Arkwright Hero Academy
Survive until only 30 remain alive.
[Warning: Escape Function Disabled]
──────────────
---
"Thirty… only thirty?!" a cadet shrieked.
"We're over two hundred in this trial—!"
"That means the rest of us are—no, no no no!"
Panic exploded. Screams. Tears. Some cadets clawed at their windows as if they could rip them away.
But the glowing blue text didn't budge.
And then… came the voices.
---
The System flickered. New text appeared, but it wasn't the cold commands of a machine. It was messy, scrolling like a live chat feed.
> 「Ahh, look at them panic. Delicious.」
「That shining girl with the light sword—she's my pick!」
「The dragon boy will die first. I bet 50 coins.」
「Cry louder, humans. Make us laugh.」
Cadets froze. Their horror deepened as they realized… the world was watching.
Aurora fell back, her sword trembling.
"Wh-what are these voices? Who's talking?!"
Selene shook her head, tears streaming.
"They… they're watching us. Like a play."
Darius snarled, punching a monster into the dirt—yet his hands trembled.
"I'm not some goddamn puppet!"
---
But in front of Leonard's eyes… a different window appeared.
Not blue.
Black. Ink-black, as if written with a quill dipped in shadows. The edges shimmered with faint silver, like the torn page of an ancient book.
He heard it, not as a chime, but as a scratch: scritch… scritch… The sound of pen on paper.
╔════════════════════╗
[System Box Activated]
╚════════════════════╝
You are not an actor.
You are a writer.
─ Hidden Note Detected ─
Leonard Krauss was fated to die in this Stage.
(…Do not repeat my mistakes.)
---
Leonard's breath caught.
The words didn't feel like a command. They felt like a whisper in his ear, intimate and heavy.
He looked at his trembling classmates, their blue windows filled with screams from cosmic spectators.
Then back at his own black page, where ink dripped across letters that only he could see.
So this is it… the difference.
They're actors. And me… I'm something else.
The forest erupted into chaos.
Rift-born beasts lunged, their roars shaking the cadets' bones. Screams filled the night as one after another fell, blood splattering across what was supposed to be nothing more than a training field.
"Stay together! HOLD THE LINE!" Aurora shouted, her radiant sword blazing. She cut down one beast, light searing its flesh—but three more replaced it.
Darius slammed his dragon-hide fists into another, splattering gore across the dirt. His laughter was gone, his face twisted with fear.
"There's too many! They just keep coming!"
Selene's voice rang out, trembling yet powerful:
"—Fight! Please, don't give up!"
Her Gift surged, her song bolstering the terrified cadets. For a moment, their fear dulled. Their hearts steadied.
But then a monstrous fang tore through the chest of the boy beside her. He collapsed, blood gurgling from his lips.
"No… NO!" Selene screamed.
The cadets broke. Their formation shattered into scattered cries of survival.
---
Leonard stood in the center of it all, dark eyes steady. Around him was madness, death, despair.
And then—his System Box stirred.
Ink bled across its black page, letters forming with a slow scritch… scritch….
[Shop Available]
Spectral Coin Balance: 50
Available Items:
- Mask of the Forgotten (30 Coins)
- Minor Healing Draught (20 Coins)
- Empty Slot for Copy Power (???)
---
Leonard's gaze flicked to Selene, whose trembling song was still holding back complete collapse.
Her voice quivered, yet it carried hope into the hearts of the cadets.
Hope… the one thing about to be devoured.
His page bled new text:
[Copy Power Available]
Target: Selene D'Artois – Gift: Siren's Voice
Cost: 20 Coins
Proceed?
---
Leonard clenched his fist.
Her Gift… if I take it, even just once… I can save them.
He pressed YES.
The ink on his page writhed, dripping down his arm, seeping into his throat.
And then—
---
Leonard opened his mouth.
"—STAND!"
The single word exploded through the forest, thunderous, shaking the air like a command from heaven itself.
Cadets froze mid-panic, their despair forced back. Even the monsters flinched, claws pausing for a heartbeat.
Selene's eyes widened.
"That… that's my voice—!"
Aurora gasped, spinning toward Leonard.
"Leonard?! You—how—?!"
Darius stumbled back, staring at him as if he were something alien.
"You… you stole her Gift?!"
L
---
The System Windows above flickered. A storm of cosmic comments scrolled in, faster than any cadet could read.
> 「What?! That actor wasn't supposed to do that!」
「How did he copy her power?!」
「A new variable—delicious!」
「He's not following the script…」
And one message, unlike the rest, lingered in Leonard's black window alone:
「So… another one tries to write.」
---
Leonard ignored their cries. His dark eyes burned as he opened the Shop again, Coins draining. A plain, white mask appeared in his hand—the Mask of the Forgotten.
He slid it over his face, the plain ivory cracking faintly as if it resented existence.
Aurora stared at him, her light faltering.
"Who… who are you?"
The mask hid his face, but his voice—powerful, borrowed, stolen—rang clear.
"I'm no actor."
His gaze swept across the battlefield, monsters snarling, cadets trembling.
"I'm the one rewriting this story."
---
With Selene's Gift in his throat and a mask hiding his name, Leonard Krauss stepped forward.
Not as a cadet.
Not as a pawn.
But as the beginning of something the Spectators had not scripted.
The Black Scribe had taken the stage.