CHAPTER 1: Rewind a bit

It all started in elementary school, in 2nd grade, when I first recalled my memories. 

It was very sudden I barely felt anything, but I also felt everything.

I was just sitting at my desk in the classroom when my head started aching painfully. A rush of information overwhelmingly drilled through my mind like a tsunami.

I clutched my small, seven year old head, silently whimpering, until the pain abruptly faded away into confusing silence.

My seven year old self was very puzzled, but then I realized…

'What the hell!?'

I looked around. It was almost as if I never knew this place.

I looked down at myself, and I was surprised at how small I was.

I realized that I was a seven year old with above-average-intelligence.

I turned around, observing the various kids who were sitting next to me on their colorful desks. 

Then I looked at our teacher, Ms. Eun, who was blabbering about numbers.

I sat upright, then raised my hand in a poised manner and asked.

"Miss Eun? Does this elementary institution consist of a library?"

Ms. Eun turned to me, and the whole class followed suit, looking at me with flabbergasted faces.

Miss Eun looked slightly flustered as she spoke, "y-yes… we do have a library. Why?"

"May I excuse myself to the library? I kind of need to do some research."

"B-but we're still in the middle of the lesson…!"

I didn't give her much thought, because I'd already walked to the door and slammed it shut behind me, before I rapidly marched towards the library's direction.

It was easy to find it, since there were path indications all over the walls.

Since the elementary school I was in was quite prestigious, the library contained slightly high-level books for normal elementary kids, so I was able to quickly get the books I needed.

I grabbed some more books before I plopped down on a chair.

I was desperate to eat any book I could find so as to clearly understand the world around me. 

Of course, that level of books wasn't sufficient, no matter its amount, but it at least satisfied my desperate need of information.

My situation turned out to be way too shocking.

According to history books, the world I was currently in was a fantasy world.

In the far far history, humanity was living in peace, until meteor showers suddenly crashed into earth. 

They inflicted horrible damage to the people and nature, causing various natural phenomena such as tsunamis and earthquakes and such. 

After two weeks, the meteor showers stopped.

Humans, being the curious creatures they are, studied those mysterious meteors. 

After a bit of studies, scientists found  mysterious crystals hidden within those meteors, and they theorized that those crystals may possess some healing properties. So, they detached and gathered a good number of those crystals, boiled them up, crushed them, and turned them into a drinkable liquid.

They scouted a few test volunteers, and made them drink it. 

The first volunteer was an old woman, who was suffering from pneumonia. 

She said that after drinking the liquid, she stopped coughing for a week, then she felt as if her body regenerated on its own. She said that she could run a marathon.

Soon after, a volunteer reported how great and as good as new his back felt, which was initially exhausted.

Various reports from countless testers showed extremely positive results, and so, scientists officially announced that these crystals would be very helpful in the future of medicine.

And so, that crystal water, now known as Crystomilurium, became widely used. 

All countries around the world decided to use it, by pouring the crystal water into wells and rivers, making all small-to-medium-range water sources obtain the same healing properties. 

It became usual and familiar to see a mother feeding her newborn a few drinks from that water now.  

Things may have seemed to have turned to humanity's favor, but it didn't. At least, not mostly.

The meteors have taken a great effect on earth, their impact being much stronger than just countless casualties.

The meteors' strange effects affected animals and plants. They seemed to radiate magical radiations that made animals and plants manifest mysterious mutations of various kinds.

As time went by, they started attacking humans, feasting on their flesh and wreaking havoc all around the world. 

It became a dark age for humans, and all hope for survival diminished everyday.

But with every curse comes a blessing.

It seemed that the Crystomilurium water didn't only possess healing properties, but also magical properties that mutated and evolved the human body into something much more. 

And so, various superpowers appeared all around the world, and it was when the amazing job of a Knight started.

Vowing to protect their people, they endlessly trained until they honed their abilities, creating unmatchable heroic figures and writing them down in history. They fought night and day, and their efforts were quite useful, because their powers were immensely effective in defeating those monstrous mutated animals and plants, named Fei and Ran respectively.

But still, even with the Knights' efforts in protecting their people, evil still lurked.

Various reckless teens and criminals used their newfound abilities to spread chaos all over the place, resulting in the infamous Ancient Wars, where numerous countries fought for dominance, and also civil wars between clans and noble families, trying to fight off criminals. 

And so, the Global Security Union (G.S.U) and the Universal Knight Committee (U.K.C) announced an order to confiscate all superpowers since birth as to avoid any further complications and future deviations, stating that the individual will only be granted freedom with his abilities until coming of age.

But even with all these aforementioned security measures, villains and criminal syndicates started kidnapping orphans and breaking their confiscation spells, and training them to become vigilantes to "fight for their rights", but they're really just fighting to take control.

Things grew dire between Villains and Knights, and so, the UKC started creating training institutions all around to scout new faces and build a new generation of youthful Knights. 

And one of the famous and well-known schools is the private Lanternn Eoa Academy, also known as LEA .

LEA is the most prestigious school, only having one sole institution, located in Korea, possessing great, cutting-edge training technomagical advancements. It became very well-known, considering the amount of amazing Heroes it graduated.

But things haven't been going so well, even with these safety measures and great efforts to create hunting guilds and such. 

The economical state of many countries have been going down as a result of the mysterious decrease of Hero graduates, since the more Heroes there were, the more advanced the country became in all aspects.

'Hm…'

I stared down at the words written down in this economic history book.

But why has there been a decrease in Hero graduates?

Have there been any murders or kidnappings related to this case?

I pondered for a few seconds, but I couldn't find anything in my ingenious mind's numerous files database. 

Flap!

I closed the thick book shut, then I leaned into the chair, staring above at the ceiling, where an elegant chandelier was hung aloft. 

"Now what?" I mumbled.

"I recalled my memories as a seven year old, realized I'm in a fantasy world, and learned all about its history… what should I do now…?"

I had to think of the future. I wasn't living in any normal world. I could die any second.

I crossed my arms.

Maybe my best solution is to become stronger. My survival could only be measured in my strength in this world, so I ought to.

'But… '

 'What if I attract attention…?'

'That'd certainly be troublesome…'

I exhaled from my nose.

Just as I was about to get up, the door to the library loudly slammed open.

Slam!

"Miss San! There you are!" 

It was Ms. Eun. She looked tired, panting heavily. Was she running around the school looking for me or something?

"I ran all around the school looking for you!" 

Yup. She was.

"I was just here, in the library. Didn't I already tell you?"

"I thought it was just an excuse!"

"Well, it wasn't." 

I smiled.

Ms. Eun sighed, rubbing her temple.

"Anyways, your father has arrived to pick you up."

"Oh! Dad's here!" 

I happily hopped off the chair and ran back to my classroom, picked my bag up, and ran out the school doors.

"Dad!" 

My father looked out the car's windowsill and smiled at me.

"Hey kiddo. Get over here." 

I smiled, then I walked up to the car and went in.

"How was school?" He asked, starting up the engines.

"Good."

"Just good?"

"Yeah."

My dad and I were both introverts, so the ride back home was mostly silent, with me staring out the window, dazed in thought.

'I wonder…'

'What's gonna happen…?'