"Well..."
"Shit."
I stared at the floating blue window in stunned silence.
The letters hovered in front of me like some cruel joke.
[Reminder: Your talent "Golden Generation" has been successfully removed.]
[Enjoy your regression experience.]
My eyebrow twitched.
"This cheeky system is trying to mess with me."
I let out a dry chuckle, though the sound lacked any real humor.
But jokes aside...
This was a massive problem.
Even if I ignored the coming Calamity, there were already enormous hurdles ahead of me.
First of all—
How could talent even be removed?
I frowned as I thought about it. Talent wasn't something physical you could just rip out of someone. It wasn't a sword or a limb.
It was potential.
A gift.
Something that shaped your very existence.
So how exactly had the system taken it away?
I pondered the question for a moment.
But my gaze soon drifted back to the far more pressing issue still hovering in front of me.
---
[Alert!]
[Past discrepancies detected!]
[The Goddess Personna is dead.]
---
I read the message again.
And again.
Cold sweat slowly gathered on my forehead.
The true savior of this world...
Dead.
And humanity was now left with me.
A fraud.
A fraud who didn't even have talent anymore.
"...Did she sacrifice herself across all of time?" I murmured quietly.
The thought made my chest feel heavy.
Personna.
In truth, I had only spoken to her for a few brief moments that day. Her voice had been calm and gentle, even while the world was collapsing around us.
But the exact words she spoke...
They were frustratingly hazy.
The harder I tried to remember them, the more distant they felt.
Suddenly, a splitting headache tore through my skull.
"Ah—!"
I grabbed my head and stumbled back a step.
Fragments of memory flickered through my mind like shattered glass.
Golden light.
A warm voice.
A feeling of overwhelming kindness.
But before I could grasp anything clearly, the pain faded, leaving only a dull ache behind.
"...Damn it."
I exhaled slowly.
Whatever she had said...
It felt important.
Very important.
But for now, there was something else I needed to confirm.
Despite everything that had happened—
There was still one thing no one else in the world should possess.
The System.
A smirk slowly spread across my face.
After all, I had read more than enough regression novels to know how this worked.
I straightened my posture confidently.
"Status window."
Silence.
"...Activate."
Nothing.
My smile slowly stiffened.
"...Status."
For a brief moment, it almost felt like the system was deliberately ignoring me.
Then finally—
A blue screen flickered into existence.
Relief washed over me.
But that relief lasted exactly half a second.
---
[Your system privileges have been revoked.]
[Enjoy your normal human experience.]
---
"...What?"
I stared at the message.
Then I furrowed my brows.
And finally—
I started laughing.
"Of course."
Of course it wouldn't be that easy.
Why would the universe suddenly start being generous now?
But despite the absurdity of the situation...
A wide grin slowly appeared on my face.
Because even with all these obstacles—
I still had something.
A chance.
No matter how small.
My smile faded slightly as memories began creeping into my mind.
The screams.
The blood.
The battlefield.
The faces of everyone I had cared about...
Being torn apart one by one as they were sent into impossible battles.
Battles that felt like slamming into towering walls made of steel.
And now...
Those walls felt even bigger.
I slowly stood up from the dingy hotel bed.
The cheap mattress creaked beneath my weight.
Walking toward the small mirror mounted on the wall, I stopped and stared.
A seventeen-year-old version of myself stared back.
No scars.
No hardened expression carved by years of war.
Just messy jet-black hair, storm-gray eyes, and a lean body that lacked the dense musculature I had built over decades of fighting.
"...So this is me again."
I leaned against the sink and muttered quietly.
"991 AC."
Nine years before the Forty-First Calamity.
If I was staying in this cheap hotel...
That meant tomorrow was the day of the Valstalla Academy entrance exam.
I remembered scraping together every coin I could just to make the trip here.
Valstalla Academy.
The first prestigious knight academy to accept commoners like me.
And yet somehow...
It had become the greatest knight academy in the world.
But now a new realization dawned on me.
"...This exam is going to be a nightmare."
Back then, I had been physically weak.
Even among applicants, I was near the bottom.
The only reason I barely passed was because of my incredible mana control.
Without the Golden Generation talent, I should still retain that control.
Which meant the system must have removed something else.
Not my technique.
Not my knowledge.
But the explosive growth and raw physical prowess that defined the Golden Generation.
I crossed my arms thoughtfully.
"So what I lost... is the absurd potential."
Could overwhelming skill and fierce, diligent training compensate for that?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
My thoughts slowly drifted as exhaustion suddenly crashed down on me.
My eyelids grew heavy.
Before I even realized it—
Darkness claimed me.
---
The next morning...
I finally saw it again.
Valstalla Academy.
Even after everything I had experienced in my previous life...
The sight still left people speechless.
Massive pure-white buildings rose like palaces crafted by the gods themselves. Sleek magitech domes covered enormous coliseum-like arenas. Towering spires pierced the sky, gleaming beneath the morning sun.
At the center of it all stood the "main academy building".
A colossal castle-like structure with countless windows stretching across enormous wings that wrapped around the central training grounds.
A long stone path led straight to the towering front gate.
As I approached, luxurious magitech-powered carriages belonging to nobles rolled past me toward the designated parking area.
Their polished frames glittered in the sunlight.
Massive airships released blue fumes from combusting huge quantities of liquid mana: a purified substance stemming from mana crystals.
Meanwhile, applicants like me followed painted arrows toward a massive training field roughly the size of five football fields.
A huge podium had been constructed at the front.
Thousands of applicants crowded together.
Some looked nervous.
Some arrogant.
Some stared at others with clear disdain.
Shoulders bumped. Voices overlapped. Tension hung thick in the air.
Then a man stepped onto the podium.
My eyes narrowed instantly.
I recognized him immediately.
White hair.
A stern face etched with permanent expression lines.
Sharp features and a single scarred eye that somehow still functioned perfectly.
His glare alone could silence an entire room.
Commander Morgan.
Well...
He would become Commander Morgan nearly a decade from now.
In my previous life, he had been one of humanity's greatest defenders.
A stubborn, unyielding warrior who endured countless battles during the Calamity.
Right now though...
He was simply Professor Morgan.
The terrifying instructor responsible for practical combat training.
And the man every student feared.
"What a fall from grace..." I silently remarked with a chuckle.
His voice boomed across the field as he amplified it with mana.
"Welcome to Valstalla Academy."
The crowd fell silent instantly.
"My name is Professor Morgan of the Practical Martial Techniques Department."
His sharp gaze swept across the thousands gathered before him.
"For every knight..."
He paused.
"...there are countless monsters."
"To reflect this reality, we train knights capable of slaughtering those monsters."
His voice hardened.
"Knights capable of standing against the traitors of our society."
"The Dark Knights."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
Morgan raised a hand.
"For this purpose..."
His voice echoed across the massive training grounds.
"...out of the ten thousand applicants gathered here today..."
He raised one finger.
"Only one thousand will be admitted."
Gasps and whispers spread instantly.
The odds were brutal.
But not surprising.
Morgan continued.
"There will be three exams."
"One: The Independent Practical Exam."
"You will fight mana projections of monsters."
"The difficulty will increase from low-grade F-class to high-grade F-class, then E-class monsters... until you can no longer continue."
"Two: The Group Exam."
"You will be placed into a simulated dungeon using our academy's spatial magitech."
"Three: The Theoretical Exam."
His gaze hardened.
"This will determine whether you possess the knowledge required of a knight."
Then he crossed his arms.
"Good luck, future cadets."
"I look forward to your performances."
Honestly...
The last time around, I had barely scraped through these exams.
And that was with my Golden Generation talent.
Now?
I was even weaker than before.
But I still had one advantage.
Knowledge.
I knew the weaknesses of nearly every monster used in academy exams.
I knew their attack patterns.
And I had decades of combat experience.
I glanced down at the cheap sword resting at my waist and grinned.
Then the system chimed again.
---
[A sword?]
[Sword wielders are a dime a dozen nowadays.]
[Thanks to the hero Severed Lotus, everyone uses one.]
---
"...Who?"
Another alert appeared.
---
[Debuff Applied: Swordsman's Bane]
[Effect: All stats reduced by 99% when wielding a sword.]
---
"...Huh?"
I stared at the screen in disbelief.
Then glared at it.
"Are you serious?"
The system responded calmly.
[Your true talent does not lie with the sword, Lucien Variell :) ]
"My true talent?"
I frowned.
Then my gaze slowly drifted across the academy courtyard.
And froze.
There was a statue I had never seen before.
A tall cloaked figure wearing a strange bird-like mask stood carved in polished stone.
Despite myself, I had to admit...
It looked incredibly cool.
Sunlight reflected off the metal plaque beneath it.
I squinted.
And read the name.
---
Severed Lotus
---
A name that had never existed in my lifetime.