A book he had never seen before lay on his bed.
"Who put this here?"
Kevin muttered out loud as he turned his head around and once again scanned the whole room from top to bottom.
'...Did anybody come here without my permission?'
He wondered to himself.
Even though he had never seen the book before, the more he stared at it, the more entranced with it he became.
It was as though the book was begging for him to pick it up.
This made Kevin more and more apprehensive about the book. There was something wrong with it,.
Yet.
He took a step forward. Towards the book.
—Gulp!
Stopping right at the edge of his bed, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Ba..dum! Ba..dum! Ba..dum!
Unbeknownst to him, his heart started to beat faster.
It wasn't out of fear nor nervousness, but something different…
Something he couldn't explain.
"Huuu…"
Taking a deep breath, Kevin reached out for the book.
Even though his mind was telling him not to touch the book, his body moved on its own. Refusing to listen to him.
It was as though someone was controlling his body.
His finger soon touched the book, and it was at the exact moment that a static current ran down his body.
"Arrgghhh!"
Pain.
An almost unbearable pain coursed through his brain, threatening to tear it apart.
"Huuueeeaaaaaghhh!"
—Thud!
Falling face-first onto the ground, Kevin directly passed out. The pain was too much for him to handle.
Next to him, the now open red book mysteriously glowed.
As though a breeze of air had entered the room, the pages soon started to flip by themselves.
***
Only darkness enveloped Kevin's thoughts and mind for an unknown period of time.
He couldn't hear, see, or feel anything.
Like when he was travelling through a portal, his mind drifted through an endless void.
"Kevin!"
A faint voice reached Kevin's ears.
It was a familiar voice, one that he had heard not too long ago.
"Kevin!"
The voice once again called out for his name.
This time the voice was a lot clearer.
Kevin's mind slowly cleared up, and he opened his eyes. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a devastatingly beautiful girl looking at him at nose length.
With a small pout, she muttered.
"Geeez, class is about to start; just for how long are you planning on sleeping for?"
"…Emma?"
Kevin blinked a couple of times.
Raising his head, he glanced around. Then, much to his surprise, he found himself inside of the classroom.
He couldn't quite remember what happened before that.
"Strange…"
He muttered as he looked around the classroom.
"What's strange?"
Emma tilted her head.
Her short auburn hair gently fell on her shoulder.
Kevin pointed at the classroom.
"Did we have this many people in our class before?"
"Hm? What are you on about?"
Emma's brows furrowed.
She then put her hand on his forehead.
"You're acting strange, Kevin. Are you sure you're okay?"
"But…"
—Clank!
But before Kevin could ask any more questions, the door to the classroom opened up, and a familiar figure walked in.
It was Donna.
Entering the class with her usual elegance, she gathered the attention of all of the boys in class.
"Alright, class is about to start. Everyone, please be seated."
With both hands by the side of the podium, Donna's amethyst coloured eyes scanned the room.
Soon her eyes paused on Kevin and the others.
A satisfied smile appeared on her face.
"Let's start with the register."
Tapping on her tablet, Donna started doing the register.
This was a routine that everyone was used to.
"Rank 1, Kevin Voss."
"Present."
Kevin instinctively answered.
His mind was still a mess. No matter how much he tried to remember what had happened the moments before waking up in the classroom, he couldn't remember.
Something was wrong, but he couldn't quite place his finger on what was wrong.
"Rank 17, Troy Derekz"
Donna called out, to which a youth with yellow eyes raised his hand and responded.
"Present."
"Rank 18..."
As time passed, Donna continued to do the register. Kevin, who was lost in his own thoughts, frowned as he listened to the register.
'Why is it taking so long...?'
Usually, the registration would've taken a lot less time. Instead, it was taking a lot more time than expected.
It was then that something caught his attention.
No, rather, it took away all of his attention.
"Rank 1750, Ren Dover."
"Present."
"—!"
Kevin instinctively stood up and looked towards where the voice came from.
Sure enough, he didn't hear wrongly.
Sitting on the left side of the classroom by himself was a youth with deep blue eyes and jet black hair.
Leaning back, he had an expression of someone who was super bored.
He was exactly as Kevin remembered him.
'Ren! You're alive!'
Kevin wanted to shout out loud as he looked at him.
However, he refrained himself.
That was because he suddenly realized that something was wrong with the situation.
"Is there something wrong, Kevin?"
Donna asked by the podium as her brow raised.
Staring back at Donna and realizing that everyone in the classroom was looking at him, including Ren, Kevin seriously shook his head before pointing at Emma beside him.
"No, it's nothing. Emma poked me by the side."
"H…huh!?"
Kevin's answer caused Emma to be flustered.
Her face became red, and she menacingly glared at Kevin.
"Y...you!"
"Sit down for now."
Donna impatiently said from the front of the class.
Maybe it was because she favoured Kevin due to his hard work, but she didn't pursue the matter anymore.
"Thank you, Miss."
Kevin sat down, much to Emma's annoyance.
Leaning towards Kevin, Emma hatefully glared at him.
"You better explain to me why you sold me out like that…"
"Sorry, I owe you one."
Unfortunately for Emma, Kevin did not care that he had sold her out as he immediately apologized and went back to his own world.
Despite the many times that Emma wanted to talk to him, Kevin was too busy being in his own world to respond.
At the moment, his mind was a mess. He couldn't think of anything else; less needed to be said about Emma.
Glancing at his watch, Kevin checked the date.
[September 24, 2055]
—Gulp!
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
'2055...'
The date coincided with the time of his first year of the academy.
'Have I gone back in time? Or is this a dream? An illusion?'
"Uk.."
Pinching the left side of his cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming, Kevin opened his eyes widely when he realized that he was actually feeling the pain.
This wasn't a dream.
Everything that was happening around him was real. Supporting his head with both hands, Kevin's mind blanked.
He didn't know what was going on.
'Just what in the world is happening, and why am I here?'
A flood of questions rammed through his mind as he tried his best to remember what happened before arriving here.
But.
Regardless of how much he tried, his mind remained blank.
"Kevin!"
Starling him out of his thoughts was Emma's annoyed voice.
Throwing him an annoyed look, Emma packed up her things before standing up and sulkily leaving the classroom.
"I was planning on asking you whether you wanted to follow me back to the dorm, but it looks like you're not in the right mind today."
Before Kevin could reply, she had already left.
Glancing around, Kevin realized that most of the class had already left as well.
Before he knew it, the class had already ended.
"I should also get going..."
Standing up, Kevin packed up his stuff and exited the classroom.
Once he exited the building, the all too familiar academy campus was what met his sight.
Everywhere he looked, everything felt the same as back in the real world.
The same clean air, the same smell nature-like coming from the vegetation, and the same noisy students who hung out after class.
Nothing was out of place...
Kevin absentmindedly walked around the academy campus for the next hour or so. Throughout the walk, his mind tried to come up with as many reasons as possible as to why he had gone back in time, but regardless of how much he tried to rack his brain over the matter, he couldn't figure it out.
Just why was he here?
"Huh?"
It was then that before he knew it, he had stopped in front of an unfamiliar building. Rather, he had seen the building before but had never actually set foot inside of it.
[Horned sheep]
Was engraved by the gates of the buildings.
Staring at the sign, Kevin's brows jumped up slightly.
'…if I'm not wrong, this is where Ren lived during this time period.'
Back when he was still hiding his strength.
Unbeknownst to him, he stopped right in front of the building Ren was living in.
He didn't know why or how, but his instincts told him that this was the place that would clue him about the reason why he was here.
Ci Clink—!
Entering the building, Kevin walked up to the dorm guardian and flashed his student ID.
"Excuse me, may I know which room a student named Ren Dover stays?"
Since it wasn't secret information, the clerk at the front desk of the horned sheep building immediately told Kevin where Ren's room was.
It also had to be noted that Kevin's status was extremely high. Being the number 1 ranked student, his status was far above some of the other students.
As the building guardian spoke to Kevin, he maintained a cardinal, subservient attitude.
"...if you follow that path, you will be able to find student Ren Dover's room."
"Thank you."
Thanking the guardian, Kevin followed the guardian's instructions and soon arrived before Ren's room.
"Huuu…"
Stopping in front of the room, Kevin took a deep breath.
This was the first time he was going to talk to Ren ever since his death.
If he said he was nervous, that would've been a lie…
But.
More than anything else, this anticipation within him dispelled any nervousness within him.
Finally, he was once again going to see his best friend.
Kevin just wanted to talk to him even if he was a fake and didn't remember him. He just wanted to see his friend.
To Tok—
He knocked on the door.
"…"
But he got no response.
'Is he not back yet?'
Kevin thought to himself.
Given that the horned sheep building had no private training facilities, Ren could've probably gone towards the public training area to train.
Checking the time, 6:30 P.M., Kevin realized that this was probably the case.
'I guess I'll go ch—'
However, just when he was about to leave to check the training grounds, the door opened.
Creak—
Kevin's footsteps halted.
Turning around, he called out.
"Ren?"
"…"
No response.
Frowning, Kevin opened the door slightly.
"Ren, are you in th—huh!?"
The moment Kevin opened the door, Kevin's mouth shut, and a shocking scene appeared before his eyes.
Laying on the cold floor with terror strike eyes was Ren. Standing on top of him was a black humanoid figure with a sadistic smile on his face.
"...Took you long enough."
As the humanoid figure turned its head to face Kevin, a raspy voice rang out.
Raising its long skinny arm and pointing it towards Kevin, the black humanoid's figure smile widened.
Seemingly taking pleasure in seeing Kevin's shocked face.
"Ku, ku, ku, this is on you."
"Ukk!"
Grabbing Ren's figure on the floor by the neck, the sadistic smile on the black humanoid figure widened. Staring at Kevin who was on the opposite side, the grip of Ren's neck tightened.
"I am the sin you created."
As those words sounded, chills ran down Kevin's spine.
Licking his lips, the humanoid figure turned its attention back towards Ren and tightened the grip on his neck.
"Uek!"
"...I am the consequence of your actions."
Glaring at the black humanoid figure, Kevin snapped out of it and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Don't you d—!"
Spurt—!
But it was too late. Before Kevin could do anything, Ren's head exploded into millions of pieces.
"Nooooo!"
Kevin's blood-curling scream rang out.
Not long after, the world started crumbling down.
However, right before the world could completely crumble, the same raspy voice travelled through Kevin's ears.
"…never forget…I am the one sin...you will never get rid of...."
