High-Time: Fantasy

Once upon a time, Rin woke up in a field of grass, stared up at a deity who had apparently decided his story wasn't finished yet, and was reincarnated into a world he hadn't asked for with a name he hadn't chosen and a power level that made the family doctors wince.

That was nineteen years ago. He's mostly moved on.

Now Rin Populi is, by every measurable standard, the family disappointment.

Born into a lineage of Knights who can shatter mountains and stop tanks with their bare hands, Rin got the short end of the genetic lottery. Low-tier strength, a white streak in his hair that the elders call a defect, and a personality so relaxed it borders on a medical condition. His sisters carry the Populi name on their backs so he doesn't have to. His friends carry him to class so he isn't late.

He's fine with this. Genuinely.

But when a suspicious assignment drops him into Sector Seven, the most dangerous territory in New Tasia, he finds himself partnered with two of the most volatile students in the Adventurer Department, hunted by a crew of underground contractors with a kidnapping contract, and surrounded by monsters that very much want him dead.

Somewhere in the chaos, a dull golden ring is making its way toward him. Tossed aside, called tacky, dismissed as a paperweight by everyone who's touched it.

The deity never did explain why they brought him here.

Maybe the ring knows.