Chapter 1
> "In a world ruled by magic, power, and prestige... Hoshino Kaiser couldn't care less."
The sun had been up for hours, but Hoshino Kaiser had not.
He lay on his bed like a corpse, limbs tangled in thin sheets, a single leg dangling off the side. His hair was a nest. His uniform looked like it had been used as a mop. His phone buzzed under his pillow—eighteen missed alarms.
"KAI—SER!!"
Ryuka's voice cracked through the house like a lightning spell. A boom followed, probably her slamming his door open with mana.
"Breakfast is cold and you're late for school again!"
"I'm conserving energy," Kaiser mumbled, face-first into his pillow.
"You're not a spirit animal!"
She yanked him up by the collar with zero mercy. His half-lidded eyes blinked once, then drifted toward the window, where a dragon-shaped shadow glided past the academy skyline.
Another normal day.
---
Konton Academy was anything but normal.
Its campus spanned miles, towering spires etched with glowing runes piercing the clouds. Students whizzed past on enchanted brooms, swords clanged mid-air as duelists practiced, and somewhere in the distance, a dorm exploded with a BOOM followed by screaming.
> "Konton Academy… Where magic determines status, and the weak are seen as background noise."
Here, rank was everything. From F to S. Copper to Kyawthuite. Those who couldn't cast even a fire spark? They were treated like... background blur in a flashy anime opening.
Kaiser yawned.
---
The world ran on mana. Everyone had a "pool"—a limited well of energy. Spells, abilities, artifacts—they all drained it. The gifted trained to stretch it. The elite were born with oceans. And if you could solo an A-rank Gate?
Welcome to Kyawthuite tier.
Gates were dimensional tears, spitting out monsters and disasters. The Guilds handled them, each competing for prestige. Kaiser idly passed a screen flashing red:
> "Gate Threat: Rank B. Sloth Guild dispatched."
Students buzzed.
"The Sloth Guild again? Don't they only send one person?"
"They're terrifying…"
"Who is their Guildmaster?"
Kaiser kept walking, sipping cold vending machine coffee.
---
He passed a group of C-Rank students laughing at an F-Rank getting knocked over by a broom-tornado spell.
"Get outta the way, background mob!"
"Should've gone to Taka—you'd fit in with the magicless trash."
Taka City banned magic entirely. Tenno embraced vice. Konton stood at the top. That divide bled into every hallway, every glance, every smirk.
No one even looked at Kaiser.
Perfect.
---
He reached his classroom and took his usual seat by the window. As a mana test orb floated down the rows, glowing brighter for each student, Kaiser casually spilled his coffee across the floor.
"Whoops."
The teacher sighed and skipped him without a word.
One girl, seated three desks over, narrowed her eyes.
> "I swear I saw his eyes glow blue once…"
He blinked lazily. "Hm?"
She looked away.
---
Lunch came. Ryuka cornered her friends and beamed.
"My little brother's the cutest, smartest, most misunderstood prodigy ever!"
"You mean the guy who wore his shirt backwards for a week?"
"He was expressing anti-conformity!"
Ryuka crossed her arms. "Kaiser should've been born as my little sister. You'd be cuter in skirts!"
Nearby girls whispered about him.
"He's kind of mysterious…"
"Does he even use magic?"
Ryuka's glare silenced them.
---
The wind shifted.
As Kaiser tossed his lunch tray into the bin, a girl with obsidian-black hair and icy silver eyes brushed past him.
She wore no emblem, no colors, no rank.
But students parted like the sea before her.
She glanced at Kaiser. For a split-second, a smile curled on her lips. Then she vanished.
He blinked.
> "In the shadows of this academy… the most powerful guild silently watches."
---
As the bell rang, a ripple shot through the sky. A Gate formed above the west courtyard, spiraling mana clouds crackling.
"A real one?!"
"Back away—it's unstable!"
One student panicked, tried to cast, overloaded—
BOOM.
A wave of force knocked people to the ground. Kaiser stood untouched.
Principal Chika arrived in a blur of gold feathers and heels, her staff shimmering with restraint spells. She scanned the crowd… then locked eyes with Kaiser.
She stared.
Too long.
Then she turned.
Kaiser yawned.
> "The world's strongest Guildmaster didn't want power… he just wanted to nap."