"…Mr. Voss."
A voice echoed through the classroom.
"…Mr. Ethan Voss."
The voice sounded distant at first, like something heard through water.
"…Mr. Voss!"
A piece of chalk struck the wooden desk.
Ethan's eyes opened.
The first thing he saw was sunlight.
Warm golden light streamed through tall academy windows, illuminating rows of wooden desks and shelves filled with thick books. Dust particles floated lazily in the air.
For a moment, Ethan didn't move.
His gaze slowly shifted across the room.
Students.
Uniforms.
Stone walls.
And at the front of the room stood an elderly professor glaring directly at him.
"So you are awake," the professor said dryly.
A few students chuckled quietly.
Ethan blinked once.
Then he straightened slightly in his chair.
"My apologies, Professor."
Professor Halbrecht crossed his arms.
"This is Aetherion Academy, not a place for afternoon naps. If my lecture is too boring, perhaps you would prefer training duty instead?"
Ethan calmly shook his head.
"That won't be necessary."
More laughter echoed across the classroom.
The professor stared at him for a moment longer before sighing.
"Then try to remain conscious."
He turned back toward the blackboard.
Ethan leaned back in his chair.
His heart was calm.
But his mind was not.
Because this scene—
He had seen it before.
Exactly like this.
The same classroom.
The same professor.
Even the same sunlight falling across the desks.
Ethan quietly looked down at his hands.
Young.
Unscarred.
Steady.
"…So it really happened," he murmured under his breath.
A few rows ahead of him, someone turned slightly.
But Ethan was no longer paying attention to the classroom.
Because his mind was already racing through memories.
Two sets of memories.
Two different lives.
The first life was simple.
A world without magic.
Without swords.
Without monsters.
Just cities, technology, and ordinary people.
Earth.
Ethan had lived a normal life there.
School.
Work.
Routine.
Nothing extraordinary.
But he had always been someone who observed things carefully.
Someone who preferred thinking before acting.
Someone who believed every situation had a logical solution—if you looked closely enough.
Then one day, his life ended.
The memory of his death was strangely unclear now.
He only remembered darkness.
Silence.
And then—
A new beginning.
He was born again.
This time in a completely different world.
A world where magic existed.
A world where swordsmen could shatter stone with a single strike.
A world filled with kingdoms, noble families, monsters, and ancient ruins.
At first, Ethan believed it was simply reincarnation.
A second chance.
But years later, something strange happened.
He realized he had seen this world before.
Not in reality.
But in a story.
A tragic fantasy story about heroes, heroines, and a world that would eventually collapse under the invasion of creatures from the abyss.
The more Ethan learned about the world, the more certain he became.
The characters existed.
The locations matched.
Even the academy he now attended—
Aetherion Academy.
The most prestigious academy on the continent.
It was the central stage of the story.
At first, Ethan had been shocked.
But eventually, he made a decision.
He would not interfere.
Stories had protagonists for a reason.
The hero of this world—Adrian Valcrest—would eventually gather powerful allies and defeat the forces threatening the continent.
At least, that was how the story was supposed to end.
So Ethan lived quietly.
He studied.
He trained.
He watched.
While the real story unfolded around him.
But that story…
Had ended in disaster.
Ethan's gaze darkened slightly.
He still remembered the final night.
The sky breaking.
The academy burning.
The hero falling.
The heroines dying one by one.
And the creature that stood above them all—
The Abyss Sovereign.
That had been the true ending of the world.
Not victory.
But annihilation.
And Ethan had died with it.
The memory made his fingers tighten slightly.
Yet here he was.
Back in the past.
Back in the classroom where the academy year had just begun.
Back at the moment where the story itself was only beginning.
A quiet voice beside him interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey."
Ethan glanced sideways.
A boy with messy brown hair leaned slightly toward him.
Lucas Hartley.
One of his classmates.
"You okay?" Lucas whispered. "You looked like you saw a ghost."
Ethan considered the question.
Then he replied calmly.
"Just thinking."
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"You were definitely asleep."
"That too."
Lucas snorted quietly.
The professor continued writing across the board while explaining the fundamentals of mana circulation.
Ethan's gaze moved back to the front of the classroom.
Everything looked normal.
Too normal.
Which meant something important.
The story had restarted.
Or more accurately—
He had returned to the beginning.
Ethan exhaled slowly.
Unlike most people in this world, he now carried memories of the future.
Memories of mistakes.
Memories of deaths that had not happened yet.
Which meant he had something no one else possessed.
Information.
But information alone didn't guarantee success.
In his previous life here, Ethan had chosen not to interfere.
He believed the protagonists would solve everything.
That had been his mistake.
Still…
Rushing into the story blindly would be another mistake.
Ethan had spent years observing how events unfolded.
He knew where the key moments were.
Where the turning points happened.
Where the world began to fall apart.
Changing everything at once would only create chaos.
Instead—
He would move carefully.
Slowly.
Like adjusting the pieces on a chessboard.
Small changes.
Subtle influences.
Helping certain people grow stronger.
Preventing certain mistakes.
Nothing too obvious.
Nothing that would attract unnecessary attention.
Ethan looked out the window.
Students were crossing the academy courtyard below.
Among them were people who would one day become legends.
And people who would die before their time.
"…This time," Ethan murmured quietly.
He didn't need to become the hero.
But he would not allow the same ending to happen again.
Not after seeing how the world truly fell apart.
The professor suddenly turned toward the class.
"Next week we will begin the first combat evaluations."
Several students immediately straightened in their seats.
Excitement spread across the room.
Ethan's eyes narrowed slightly.
He remembered that event.
Very clearly.
Because that day—
One particular student would reveal her talent for the first time.
The girl who would eventually become the academy's greatest sword prodigy.
A future heroine of this world.
Ethan leaned back in his chair quietly.
The story had begun again.
But this time—
It would not follow the same path.