Flames ate the shelves like starving wolves.
Aiden Lee coughed through the smoke as he hugged the stack of ancient books to his chest. The old archive building trembled. A beam cracked, groaned, and collapsed behind him.
He didn't think, didn't hesitate — he simply moved.
He wasn't brave.
He wasn't heroic.
He simply couldn't let history burn.
He reached the fire exit, flung the door open—
—and the world turned white.
---
Aiden awoke lying on cold marble.
He blinked.
Above him stretched a cracked throne room ceiling painted with constellations he didn't recognize. Black pillars twisted into shapes that defied geometry. In the distance, he heard the howl of something not quite alive.
He sat up.
"Where… am I?"
A girl stood before him.
No — not a girl.
A queen.
She had silver hair that flowed like moonlight and eyes that shimmered with quiet fear. Her long dress carried faint runes that pulsed like a heartbeat.
She bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty," she whispered. "You have finally awakened."
Aiden stared at her.
"…My what?"
"You are the Demon King," she said, as if reminding him of his own name. "Reborn two centuries earlier than the prophecy predicted."
He blinked again.
"I'm an accountant."
She tilted her head. "Is that a type of battle mage?"
Before he could answer, the doors exploded inward.
A creature of shadow slithered across the floor. Its form flickered between wolf, smoke, and a hole in reality.
The girl gasped.
"An Eraser! But how—?!"
The creature lunged.
Aiden froze.
No fear.
No panic.
Just emptiness.
The Eraser's claws tore through the air—
And then the world… glitched.
Aiden's vision filled with text.
[ARCHIVIST AUTHORITY—ACTIVATED]
[WRITE REVISION?]
A quill of light formed in his hand.
His body moved on instinct.
He scribbled a single sentence in the air:
"The Eraser hesitated."
Reality warped.
The creature stopped mid-attack.
The girl stared at him in shock. "W–who are you?"
Aiden looked at the floating quill, then at the frozen monster.
"I don't know," he said softly. "But I think… I can rewrite what shouldn't have been erased."
The creature screamed as time snapped back.
Aiden wrote again:
"The Eraser dissolves into dust."
Light swallowed the monster.
Silence returned to the throne room.
The girl fell to her knees.
"Your Majesty… your power… it is just as the legends foretold."
Aiden lowered the glowing quill.
Emotionless.
Calm.
Empty.
"…Then I think we have a problem," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't feel anything," he murmured. "Not fear. Not anger. Not even relief."
His voice echoed in the ruined throne room.
"I don't know how to be your king."
And somewhere deep within the castle, something whispered:
"Then learn."