# Enhanced Translation
"How about we introduce ourselves? I'm Yevgeny. Yevgeny Novikov Karamzin. I'm Kim Yu-jin who's possessing the body of the Karamzin Duke's son!"
Yu-jin wrote his name in Korean on the whiteboard at the front of the club room.
He stood before a terrified female student from the Knight Department, an elf with a languid expression whose thoughts were impossible to read, and the murder-Santa Claus brother who still made his knees weak just by looking at him.
"The last novel I read was [The Northern Duke's Rogue Sword Genius], and now I'm enrolled in the Theology Department to become a priest! Oh, and I can see the Status Window too. Anyone else here see a Status Window?"
He raised his hand enthusiastically, trying to establish some common ground, but everyone just exchanged awkward glances.
No one?
Maybe the Status Window was something really special...? Yu-jin lowered his hand awkwardly and continued.
"Hmm. Umm... Anyone else have questions?"
"The ending."
"...Pardon?"
"Explain the ending, setting, and storyline of the novel you read."
Yu-jin fell into thought. Where should I start with this?
Typically, long-running novels meet one of three fates.
One, normal completion.
Two, hiatus.
And finally, life support.
The novel Yu-jin had read was a work that had been on life support to the bone. A super long-running series with over a thousand chapters.
The kind that's good for emptying your mind during commutes, flowing smoothly without any rough patches, and not having much substance.
In other words, there wasn't really an ending. The protagonist just goes to the academy, collects hidden pieces, starts fighting evil wizard families, then suddenly a world war breaks out...
The mastermind turns out to be ~~, a sentence repeated every hundred chapters to extend the lifespan...
The kind of novel where even the author probably couldn't imagine an ending anymore.
"Hmm..."
Ivan listened to Yu-jin's explanation and thought to himself. This was definitely unfamiliar content, an unfamiliar novel.
From the beginning, Ivan—that is, Kim Seon-woo—had been "serious" about novels.
Which meant he had strict standards for choosing novels. He had the self-respect not to read long-running life support novels with BL undertones and no romance that prominently featured on the main portal's front page.
"Next."
As Ivan turned his head, Oswald hesitantly stood up.
"Oswald Eastvelpen. Second son of the Eastvelpen Viscount family. My father is a current Privy Councilor, and I'm an elf from Kalion, as you can see. My Korean name was Park Jae-young. The novel I was reading was, um... um."
Oswald closed his eyes tightly and spoke with difficulty.
"A genius magician obsessed over by a villainess... that's what it was."
"Ooh! Romance!"
"Shut... be quiet."
Oswald gritted his teeth at Yu-jin's interjection.
"I didn't even read 30 chapters! The content wasn't great, and by that point the angst was already over, and after that it was just forced drama!"
"Ooh, an expert."
"Shut! Up! Please!"
"How old are you? I'm thirty-one in Korea, fourth year as a transmigrator!"
"...I was twenty-seven in Korea, also in my fourth year as a transmigrator."
"So you're definitely younger than me! Want to call me big brother?"
"Hey, Ivan? I can't work with this guy."
So this one doesn't know the ending or much of the content either.
Ivan nodded, ignoring the two who were bickering.
"Next."
"Eek!!"
Yu-ri, who had been shrinking back the whole time, stood up with difficulty.
"I'm Yu-ri... Franck. In Korea, I was Lee Yu-ri... I was an illustrator."
"Wow! A working professional!"
"I, I... was twenty-nine... fourth year transmigrator... I have no parents."
"Gasp! Immune to family jokes...!"
"Is this guy seriously crazy?"
Yu-jin was extremely excited about the emergence of fellow transmigrators from his "generation." He seemed thrilled just to be sharing information about home with others in this pre-modern otherworld.
Meanwhile, Yu-ri remained shrunk back.
"I, I didn't mean my parents aren't alive, but that this body has no parents... I go by Yu-ri Franck..."
"The original work?"
"Eek!"
Yu-ri flinched at Ivan's question and avoided his gaze.
A moment of silence fell as everyone focused on her lips.
"What is this, a riddle? Let me guess! Let's see. Academy genre, harem... then this must be a ts work...! That's the flow! M-maybe you were actually a man in Korea...!"
"No!!"
"Or maybe it's suddenly a streaming genre... ah, it could be traditional fantasy too...!"
"W-well, you see..."
"Shut up, Yu-jin. Now, Miss Yu-ri Franck. Let me cast a calming spell on you."
Oswald raised his hand with a warm smile. He was a Mind Sorcery major, meaning he specialized in mental spells.
In other words, he could use buff skills like [Bestow Courage] or [Guide Wisdom].
As the mysterious purple mana began to ripple, Yu-ri panicked and jumped backward as if having a seizure.
"H-hypnosis!! No!!"
"...What?!"
"W-what are you trying to do with that! Y-you all know, don't you? You all know! You rapist wizards!!"
"I can't follow this conversation. Ivan, what do we do about this?"
Ivan thought for a moment.
She's hesitant to reveal the original work, and she's suspiciously frightened despite everyone's ordinary appearance.
A normally handsome noble youth, the same with Yu-jin, and even with Oswald who always wore a gentle smile and had a kind impression.
Ivan's eyes widened in shock at a sudden "idea" that came to mind.
'A feminist...?!'
While Ivan was shocked, having barely recalled a term from Earth thirty years ago, Yu-ri closed her eyes tightly and stammered:
"I-I was dragged here while w-working on illustrations! T-the original was r-r-rape..."
"Aha! Correct! Rape fantasy!"
"Aaaaaaah!!"
Yu-ri covered her face and collapsed to her knees. I want to go home, I hate everyone, I'm scared...
She never wanted to attend an academy with a golden sun, a squinty-eyed hypnotist, and a suspiciously strong gardener...
As Yu-ri sniffled, Ivan suddenly muttered:
"Everyone's in their fourth year."
"Ah, this gentleman here is in his thirtieth year."
"How old is he this year...?"
"He's thirty-four in body age!"
"Oh... I see."
Oswald looked at Ivan's beard and sighed dejectedly. How difficult it must have been... Oswald nodded, thinking he should understand even if Ivan sometimes acted like a madman.
"Come to think of it, we all arrived around the same time! What happened four years ago? Hmm..."
"The Demon King died."
Ivan scrutinized them with serious eyes.
"The Hero killed the Demon King four years ago. And both of them were transmigrators."
"Uh..."
"There is no 'Story' in this world."
Because this is reality.
Ivan barely affirmed this sentence and continued.
"But there are individual 'stories.' Each person's story... Like the 'original works' each of you saw. Maximillian, who came here after reading a traditional hero story, became the 'Hero.' The Demon King was probably the same."
"Oh, then..."
"Northern Duke's Rogue Sword Genius."
Ivan gestured to Yu-jin and then turned his fingertip toward Oswald.
"A genius magician obsessed over by a villainess."
"Hah..."
Oswald shook his head with a sour expression.
"...And. An unnamed rape fantasy..."
"Huaaaaaah...!!"
Yu-ri began to sob and cry.
"You all started your stories in backgrounds similar to your original works. The duke's rogue, the magician loved by a noble daughter, and an unnamed rape fantasy..."
"P-please stop emphasizing that...!"
"Fine. But the rest of the story is different."
Ivan's eyes deepened.
"There's something a woman who knew previous transmigrators once told me."
-Live your story and end your story. What ending that story will have isn't determined by fate or the world. It's something you have to decide.
-At the end of each story is each person's ending, and the direction leading to that ending isn't necessarily determined by a predefined fate.
"There is no fate. Whether on Earth or here, life isn't trapped in a story with predetermined rails."
-Don't wait for fate to finish your story, my disciple. Turn your own pages. Until the end.
Ivan nodded, recalling Enrique's words.
"After spending 30 years in this world, meeting the Hero's party, and seeing you all again, I've formed a hypothesis."
Ivan walked to the whiteboard.
"While fate may not determine a person's future, I believe that fate at least intervenes in a person's past, in their 'beginning.'"
Let's assume the world wanted a Demon King and a Hero, so it caused transmigrations into those roles.
And here, there are three different transmigrators who appeared right after the Demon King's death.
Each transmigrated through completely different stories, but surprisingly, with "starting points" similar to their original works.
And they all gathered here, at St. Yansk University. Is this tremendous coincidence? No, this is some kind of "design." It must be.
In other words, there might be a tendency in the stories the world desires.
What can be inferred at this point is...
"It's an Academy Genre."
"I knew it! Yes!"
"And we have the ability to grasp the 'official' flow in real-time."
Ivan gestured to Yu-jin.
"That guy has a 'Status Window.' It suggests the direction of the story in the form of quests. The kind that changes dynamically to reflect the current situation."
"Oh..."
"So from now on, we..."
Ivan began writing large letters on the whiteboard.
-What story we all need.
-What ending we all will reach.
-What we should do in this world.
"We band together to figure this out. We understand each of our stories, analyze the flow of the world, and move forward toward our 'ending.'"
"Ooooh...!"
"Ah, wait."
As Yu-jin was exclaiming "Ooh," Oswald raised his hand.
"We haven't heard what Ivan's story is."
"Oh, that's right! I don't know either. What was your story, sir?"
"...I don't know."
"Huh?"
Ivan scrutinized all of them with serious eyes and spoke calmly.
"I left nasty comments on over thirty works to get transmigrated."
"Oh... wow."
"My goodness..."
Madman.
Three red underlines were drawn under Ivan's name in the minds of the three people.
That night, they all stood on the highest spire of St. Yansk University, gazing at the sky.
"Then, Korean Patriotic Corps, let's go!"
"I told you, we're the Returnees Party."
"I'd prefer if we didn't have a name at all."
Ivan was secretly thinking of naming them the "Volunteer Club."