Julie Wartin, for instance. If I was going to avoid making immediate, devastating enemies of the powerful, old-money Wartin family, I absolutely needed to find a way to stay on her good side or, failing that, ensure I never landed squarely on her bad one.

But Julie Wartin was… difficult.

A woman with unnervingly sharp instincts, a powerful cunning streak, and a natural, intuitive pull toward the darker, more efficient magical path. She was not someone who trusted easily, nor did she ever forgive easily. Dealing with her would be like walking across a battlefield littered with hidden, magical blades.

Still, if I managed the nearly impossible task of winning her over as an ally, the benefits political, magical, and informational would be immeasurable.

…Though I wasn't sure if I could succeed in the first place, or if the risk was worth the reward.

Anyway, I'd cross that bridge when I reached it. For now, I had to focus on the immediate, tangible progress.

Thanks to Lindy's determined efforts, I had been granted the position of Honorary Researcher of the Crowe Group. It was a grand-sounding title, deliberately crafted to be one without actual duties, but granted with full institutional rights and privileges. I didn't have to lift a finger in a lab if I didn't want to, yet I was officially, publicly tied to their massive organization.

The message from Lindy Crowe was crystalline clear.

She wanted me on her good side and within her sphere of influence. And she had taken another deliberate, calculated step toward her long-term goal by publicly making me one of her invaluable pieces on the corporate chessboard.

It was a positive, quantifiable sign of her commitment.

And for me, it was now an essential, official anchor to Lucian, an excuse to interact and monitor.

Whatever happened from now on, I needed him to remain within reach.

Things were already complicated. They would only grow more so as my past knowledge bled into the present.

But if I could manage all this maneuvering properly, if I could keep all the threads of this sprawling, complex web from snapping…

Maybe I could truly enjoy the rest of my life later.

I should start preparing the next phase

"…Huh?"

I blinked, my intense internal thoughts breaking apart and dissolving as I re-focused on the classroom.

Across the training grounds, Selene Whitmore was smiling.

A genuine smile. Not her usual calculated smirk, not her customary calculated grin, not the sardonic, teasing expression she usually wore when interacting with others, especially Julie.

It was soft. Bright. Almost painfully unguarded. It reached her cool, grey eyes and softened them entirely.

Why?

Did she win her argument with Julie Wartin? Possibly. But even a profound victory in their eternal conflict wouldn't have made her this openly, purely happy.

No, this smile was different. It spoke of private, unexpected contentment.

And for some reason, seeing her like this, without any filter of cynicism or caution, made me feel intensely… strange.

Unsettled, almost.

As if I was witnessing something profoundly personal I wasn't supposed to see, a flash of her true self revealed.

Or maybe, as if her unexpected, powerful joy was somehow spilling into me, dragging me abruptly into a torrent of positive emotions I hadn't mentally prepared for.

I frowned slightly, a faint tightening around my eyes, and forced myself to look away. But the vivid image of her fleeting expression lingered stubbornly in my mind like an afterimage burned into my eyes by a blinding flash of light.

"…What in the world is going on with you, Selene?" I muttered under my breath, the question directed more at the lingering sensation in my chest than at her.

The teacher's voice faded once more into background noise.

"By the way… it should be about now."

Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!

The training grounds were instantly thrown into chaos. The earth beneath their feet shook violently, not with the familiar tremors of a simulated battle, but with the raw, terrifying force of a real-world catastrophe. A massive explosion erupted from deep within the core of the academy grounds, followed by a chain of shuddering tremors that rattled the very walls, sending deep, jagged cracks spider-webbing across the sturdy training floor.

"What is happening?!" a cadet shrieked.

"Kyaa!"

"Aack! It's an attack!"

Screams, panicked shouts, and the sounds of scattering bodies instantly replaced the celebratory cheers.

Kael Vi-rel raised his head calmly amidst the chaos, his expression utterly unreadable to the panicking masses. He stood as a pillar of stillness while the world around him fractured. Then, a faint, razor-thin smile a smile of cold, calculated anticipation tucked itself into the corner of his lips. He whispered the truth only to himself:

"Finally. The main story has begun."

A crisp, unmistakable ding! echoed in his ears, a sound audible only to him, the notification of the System acknowledging the new reality.

{System Notification

[MAIN STORY – 01]

Academy has been attacked. Find the culprit and uncover their goals for striking the school.

Keep yourself safe within the academy grounds.

Monsters have been released into the academy. Good luck.

[DING!]

Number of Terrorists: 200+

Number of Released Monsters: 800+

Current Casualties: 30+

Time Elapsed: 00:03}

Kael's eyes narrowed slightly as he skimmed through the brutal efficiency of the system notifications. The immediate casualty count thirty people dead in the first three minutes was a stark measure of the violence unleashed.

"The first main quest… and it's already this difficult," he muttered, his voice barely audible over the rising din. "Over two hundred armed enemies and eight hundred released monsters? It's happening exactly as the real story did. My presence hasn't shifted the main flow of events that much."

He welcomed the familiar reality. The unpredictable variables were his business ventures and relationships; the predictable ones were the catastrophic plot points he remembered.

His hand tightened instinctively on the hilt of his heavy weapon.

"Experience… yes. I need the experience from this. There are too many unchecked variables in the future to leave this opportunity for combat and growth unused."

All around him, students were breaking down under the weight of sudden, existential fear.

"What are we going to do?! We're trapped!" one cried, tears mixing with the training sweat.

"I don't want to die here!" another shouted, clutching their head and rocking back and forth.

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