There were no expensive furnishings or ostentatious jewels cluttering the space,
yet the room brimmed with refined elegance. A pair of violet eyes glared at me, radiating intense pressure and murderous intent.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Unique Trait {Defying Heaven} nullifies the abnormal status 'Fear.']⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Unique Trait {Defying Heaven} nullifies the abnormal status 'Dread.']
'For {Defying Heaven} to activate like this... how much killing intent is she even emitting?'
Ever since we'd moved to the Chairman's office, I'd felt an overwhelming pressure unlike anything before—a crushing sense of intimidation.
The fear and dread induced by her killing intent had been nullified,
but the sheer aura emanating from her, incomparable even to the Black Ghost, bore down on me relentlessly.
After a tense moment passed in the heavy silence,
I finally couldn't hold back and spoke up.
"Summoning someone here and blasting them with this much killing intent... you're more rude than I expected."
"Hah... you're completely unfazed? Even most professors would faint from that level of killing intent."
'Is she insane?'
That thought popped into my head unbidden.
Academy professors were, for the most part, powerhouses just shy of peak strength.
'Killing intent strong enough to make them faint...'
This wasn't something to unleash on a brand-new freshman.
At minimum, it could cause severe trauma—or in the worst case, shock death from the intent alone.
"Ha... no matter how you slice it, that's not killing intent for a freshman, is it?"
"Not for an ordinary freshman, no."
"Thanks for the high praise and all, but at this rate, I really might go into shock."
"Hard to buy that when you're sitting there so calmly."
In truth, without {Defying Heaven}, I—having lived my previous modern life—might've actually gone into shock.
"Whatever. You don't even flinch... pointless, then."
With those words, the overwhelming pressure crushing my body and the stabbing killing intent vanished in an instant.
"Truly fascinating... your physical stats look like a total freshman's."
"That's 'cause I'm just your average freshman."
"Average...? You're not seriously saying that, are you? If you're 'average,' then every other student at this academy is subpar trash."
"Whoa, that's some dangerous talk. So, why exactly am I having a one-on-one with the Chairman?"
"Hmmm... can't exactly let an unknown irregular like you roam free in the academy, now can I? I may not look it, but I love this place. So, tell me—what's your goal?"
With that, an even greater wave of killing intent and pressure erupted.
This aura was on another level entirely, as if it were physically grinding my body to dust.
A pained groan escaped my lips from the unbearable agony.
"Urgh... haa..."
My vision blurred. Even if {Defying Heaven} was purging the fear and dread,
it couldn't do anything about the raw physical force pinning me down.
It was different from anything before—a profound helplessness that left me powerless,
a despair where death loomed yet I couldn't even twitch,
and a strange detachment from my own lack of fear or terror amid it all.
Those emotions flooded me.
My goal...?
Well, before possessing this body, I'd lived a purposeless life.
Just sinking my existence into a single game,
occasionally posting on communities for some attention—a pathetic nobody,
nothing more, nothing less.
'Was there even anything less than that...?'
It was a life anyone would call pathetic and the absolute worst.
And nothing had changed now.
Just a pathetic fool drunk on some accidental power,
or crushed by aura, doing absolutely nothing—pathetic...
Such a person.
Irregular...
The Chairman was right.
Suddenly dropped into this world without a clear purpose,
an anomaly.
A negation.
Irregularity.
Maybe she wanted to eliminate that anomaly... that disorder.
Maybe she didn't want it tainting her academy.
The Chairman loves the academy...?
Of course. I was more confident than anyone that I knew that fact better than most.
Her willingness to sacrifice herself to protect it—I'd seen it dozens of times, even if it was just a game.
I still didn't know.
Why I'd been dropped into this world,
why this power had been given to me,
but if I had a second chance,
if this became my second chance...
— "What Mommy wants...?"
This life...
— "Is for you to go all out...!"
"All out..."
— "And live happily!"
"I'll live happily."
Without regrets,
as happily as I possibly can.
So what if I'm an irregular?
Anomaly...? Disorder...?
She's a dragon who's lived centuries—she can deal with it herself.
"So... cut this aura already...!"
My final, squeezed-out shout,
a hoarse voice filling the room.
The killing intent and pressure vanished in a flash.
The crushing force lifted from my body.
"Happiness...? Pfft... pffahahahaha!"
The room's heavy aura dissipated, replaced by the Chairman's laughter echoing off the walls.
"For the greatest monster to appear in an entrance exam, that's an awfully modest goal. But... that's why I like it! You're in."
"In...?"
"Just a simple test. I was uneasy about admitting an irregular from who-knows-where."
A test...?
She'd unleashed that on a kid who'd just taken the entrance exam... for a test?
"Ha...! You blasted me with that for a single test? I nearly died."
"So what? You didn't. I was anxious too—can't have some sudden problem crop up in my precious academy."
A surge of irritation and anger welled up, then subsided.
Her absurd answer left me hollow instead of furious.
"Haa... fine, whatever. I'm exhausted—can I really go now?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. You're good."
I turned to leave at her words.
Fatigue weighed heavily on my body; I just wanted to rest.
"By the way... aren't we acquainted?"
Her question from behind halted me.
It came out of nowhere.
"No? This is our first meeting."
I'd seen her countless times on my screen in the game,
but in reality, it was my first time.
Caught off guard by the sudden query, I shook it off and headed out.
Creeeak—
Rather than ponder her intent,
I just wanted some rest today.
Just as I was about to leave the academy,
'Ah...!'
One realization stopped me cold.
'I don't have a home...'
Day one of possession,
forced into homelessness.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Inside the Frontier Academy Chairman's office,
the Chairman slumped back in her chair.
"No matter how I think about it, I don't remember him."
She was mulling over the man who'd just left.
Aden, the perfect scorer on the written exam,
and the top student of this incoming class.
"Truly mysterious."
Even by her standards, having lived nearly seven centuries, he was an enigma like no other.
Average freshman-level physical abilities and mana.
He looked utterly ordinary, yet with that power, he'd claimed top spot among the golden generation's elites.
But that wasn't all.
His golden eyes, devoid of any vital spark—enough to chill anyone who saw them—made him seem half-dead already.
Not even a soldier who'd rolled through frontline battlefields for decades could possess eyes like that.
And just now, too.
No fear or terror even against killing intent that would fell Academy professors.
Just a slight grimace, as if annoyed by the discomfort of the pressure bearing down on him.
The same with the fiercer intent I'd unleashed after.
Even with death breathing down his neck, only a twisted expression from the grinding aura.
No fear, no terror.
'Not afraid of death...?'
No, it went beyond that.
Eyes of one who'd experienced death... multiple times,
so worn and jaded they felt nothing anymore.
That's why it was strange.
Those eyes were undeniably dulled, feeling nothing.
No fear, no dread.
Yet when he looked at me, they held faint but unmistakable emotions.
Affection.
Regret.
Worry.
Attachment.
Distinct feelings, directed squarely at me—not projected onto someone else.
And that subtly familiar tone, as if he knew me.
But dragons, living over seven centuries, forget almost nothing.
So she remembered clearly.
She'd never met a man named Aden.
Utterly bizarre.
The secret crisis response evaluation conducted within the academy.
A test no one could predict, yet he handled it with the natural ease of someone who'd done it many times.
'And that power at the end.'
Everyone else glossed over it,
but her draconic eyes saw it plainly.
She couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but some magic surging upward,
defying the world's laws,
casually ignoring causality.
A terrifying power beyond imagination.
One that negated the laws even gods couldn't defy and rejected the world's principles.
That alone made him an existence too dangerous to ignore,
so I'd pressed him hard.
'I'll live happily.'
Happiness... such a light, modest goal from lips so perilously dangerous.
His mana hadn't wavered once since entering the office.
That simple aim wasn't a lie.
Yet he spoke it as if it were the hardest goal of all,
his eyes brimming with longing and resolute determination.
"Well... it'd be weirder if I didn't suspect at this point..."
Emotions clearly aimed at her, despite no prior meeting.
Eyes and feelings worn to numbness, despite not even being of age,
mana control more precise than a sword master's and overwhelmingly efficient movements, despite average freshman power,
actions like he'd taken the test countless times, when he shouldn't know it,
longing and iron will in a goal others would call simplistic,
and above all, the power to deny principles and defy causality.
"A regressor..."
A monster who'd defied heaven's fate, overturned the world's laws, rewound time—and would one day be worn to nothing.
Normally, she'd dismiss it as nonsense,
but with evidence staring her in the face, denial was impossible.
"Looks like... Mr. Irregular is far more unpredictable than I imagined."
Anyone seeing those eyes would think the impossible: a being who'd looped regressions multiple times.
"What on earth is coming...?"
How many loops had he endured
to become so utterly jaded?
What happened in the future
to make him show her those emotions?
She knew none of it.
Still...
Creeeak—
"Um... Chairman...? Could I maybe use the dorms early...?"
"Pfft!"
With that impudent regressor still holding onto a human heart, she decided to wait expectantly for the day he'd tell her.
Waiting was a dragon's specialty, after all.