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━─────── Eve lounged on the plush, oversized couch nestled in the corner of the library, his posture unbothered and far too relaxed for someone who was supposed to be studying. Books on the History of the world were scattered in front of him, but his focus seemed to drift more often than not. His fingers flipped through the pages idly, eyes scanning the text with little interest. The world around him, a dull hum of quiet rustling pages and the scent of old paper, seemed so far removed from the chaotic game he found himself trapped in.
If he were correct──and he often was, though he'd never admit it aloud──this game was clearly designed around a slightly modern world. The difference? It's not just any world. No, it was one constructed by a madman. On the surface, everything seemed cliché──typical heroic tropes, your usual "save the world" type of deal──but beneath that thin veneer lay a world drenched in blood.
Gory, brutal, and unsparing.
Eve's lips curled into a faint grimace as his mind wandered to the darker aspects of the game.
But it wasn't just the world that irked him. No, there was something that grated at him more than that. His thoughts drifted back to a particular realization, something that caused his chest to tighten with mild frustration.
Although the characters around him were dealing with mere mortal problems──training, growing, falling in love──none of that applied to Renze. His character was older, much older, and had already seen the dangerous dance of political intrigue and magic. While the five main characters were still squabbling like children, all of them still barely thirteen, Renze had already been a student at River Dawn Academy, a well-established school for budding mages. The protagonists were just infants in comparison to him, mere toddlers navigating their way through a world that he had already mastered.
And now, Eve has to play exactly that.
"This is going to be troublesome..." Eve muttered under his breath, the words slipping out as he ran a hand through his already messy hair. His gaze was distant, his thoughts far from the dusty tomes scattered across his lap. The problem wasn't just his age or his knowledge. No, it was the magic. The powers he was supposed to wield. More specifically, his dual element.
Renze, his character's original persona, had been a revered student at River Dawn──powerful, righteous, and one of the academy's finest examples of what it meant to be a model student. He had been so well-loved, so well-respected. But that does not apply to the future of the game, Eve thought with a frown.
