For the first three years of his second life, Kaien Arclight had a problem.
He couldn't talk.
Not because he didn't know how.
Because he was a baby.
And being trapped inside the body of an infant while possessing the mind of a teenager was one of the most frustrating experiences Ethan Cole had ever endured.
He couldn't walk.
He couldn't properly control his hands.
He couldn't even scratch his own face without accidentally punching himself.
And worst of all—
everyone thought he was adorable.
“Look at you!”
His mother lifted him into the air.
Kaien stared at her with the most serious expression he could manage.
His mother laughed.
“Oh, don't look at me like that.”
Put me down.
He tried to say it.
“Ba.”
His mother froze.
Kaien froze.
Then her eyes widened.
“Did you just say something?”
Kaien's stomach dropped.
Oh, hell.
She immediately turned toward the hallway.
“Come here! He said something!”
Footsteps approached.
His father appeared in the doorway.
He was a tall, dark-skinned man with broad shoulders and thick black curls that were beginning to gray around his temples. His face was calm, but the moment he saw his son, a smile appeared.
“What happened?”
“He talked.”
His father looked at Kaien.
Kaien stared back.
His father crouched down.
“What did he say?”
His mother smiled.
“I don't know.”
Kaien looked between them.
These two are really about to celebrate me making a noise.
His father picked him up.
“Say it again.”
Kaien stared at him.
“No.”
“Ba.”
Kaien's eyes widened.
Did he just—
His father laughed.
Kaien's mother covered her mouth.
“You heard that too, right?”
“I heard it.”
Kaien sighed internally.
His second life was already embarrassing.
The Arclight family wasn't wealthy.
They weren't famous.
They weren't powerful.
They weren't connected to any major adventurer guild.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
They were just a normal family living in a normal city.
And Kaien loved them.
That realization had surprised him.
At first, he had kept thinking of them as characters.
People who technically belonged to the world of the comic.
But they weren't characters to him anymore.
His father taught him how to tie his shoes.
His mother cooked his favorite meals.
They argued over stupid things.
His father complained whenever Kaien left toys lying around.
His mother threatened to throw those toys away.
His father would secretly buy them back.
It was ordinary.
And Ethan had never realized how much he'd missed ordinary.
One evening, when Kaien was four, he sat between his parents while watching television.
A news report showed an adventurer clearing a dungeon.
The reporter was practically screaming with excitement.
“Another A-Rank dungeon has been successfully cleared!”
Kaien stared at the screen.
He remembered this.
The world was already developing along the same path as the comic.
Dungeons.
Adventurers.
Mana.
Awakened abilities.
But there were differences.
Small ones.
A name he didn't remember.
An event happening a few months earlier than it should.
A dungeon appearing in a different location.
Nothing major.
Not yet.
Kaien frowned.
His mother noticed.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You've been staring at the television for five minutes.”
Kaien shrugged.
“Just thinking.”
His father laughed.
“At four years old?”
Kaien looked at him.
“Yeah.”
His father raised an eyebrow.
“About what?”
Kaien paused.
Then smiled.
“Food.”
His mother laughed.
“That's my boy.”
Kaien smiled too.
But inside, he was thinking about something else.
11 years.
According to the comic, the academy's main story wouldn't begin for another 11 years.
He had time.
A lot of time.
And if he remembered correctly...
The Arclight family wasn't supposed to be around by then.
His smile slowly disappeared.
He looked at his parents.
His father was laughing at something on television.
His mother was preparing tea.
They looked happy.
Alive.
Kaien lowered his gaze.
I won't let it happen.
He didn't know exactly what would happen to them yet.
His memories of Kaien Arclight's original appearances were vague.
But he knew enough.
Something happened to this family.
And in the original story...
Kaien Arclight wasn't there afterward.
Years passed.
Kaien grew.
And grew.
And grew.
At seven years old, he was already taller than most children.
At nine, he was taller than some adults.
At eleven, his mother finally stopped buying clothes in his size.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
Kaien looked down at himself.
“I'm not doing it on purpose.”
His father laughed from the couch.
“You sure?”
“Bro, what am I supposed to do? Stop growing?”
His father nearly choked on his drink.
His mother stared at him.
“Where did you learn to say 'bro'?”
Kaien paused.
“...The internet.”
His mother narrowed her eyes.
“Right.”
Kaien quickly walked away.
Damn.
He'd forgotten how different his speech could sound when surrounded by people from another generation.
But he didn't care.
For the first time in either of his lives, he had a family he genuinely didn't want to lose.
And then came the braids.
It started when Kaien was twelve.
His hair had grown into a thick black afro, already difficult to manage.
His mother had been trying to work with it for nearly an hour.
“Hold still.”
“I am holding still.”
“You're moving.”
“Because you're pulling my hair.”
His father sat nearby, trying desperately not to laugh.
His mother finally separated two small sections of hair.
“These.”
Kaien looked confused.
“What?”
“Two braids.”
His father smiled.
“Your mother and I used to do that when you were little.”
Kaien looked at the two tiny braids.
They were uneven.
One was slightly thicker than the other.
He laughed.
“They look terrible.”
His mother gasped.
“You're ungrateful.”
His father started laughing.
Kaien grinned.
“I'm just saying.”
His mother flicked his forehead.
“These stay.”
“Why?”
“Because we made them.”
Kaien touched one carefully.
His mother smiled.
“They're yours.”
Kaien looked at his reflection.
Two tiny braids disappeared into his growing afro.
They looked almost ridiculous.
But he kept them.
He didn't know then how important they would become.
At thirteen, Kaien discovered mana.
It happened completely by accident.
He was sitting alone in his room, staring at his hands.
He had been thinking about the comic again.
About awakening.
About abilities.
About everything that was coming.
He closed his eyes.
Mana.
He didn't know how to explain it.
But somewhere inside him, he could feel something.
A tiny warmth.
Almost like a heartbeat.
He focused.
The warmth moved.
Kaien's eyes opened.
A tiny spark of light flickered between his fingers.
He stared.
“...Oh.”
The spark disappeared.
Kaien sat there for several seconds.
Then—
“OH, SHIT.”
He jumped out of his chair.
His mother shouted from downstairs.
“Kaien!”
“I'm good!”
“What happened?”
“Nothing!”
Silence.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah!”
Kaien looked back at his hand.
A grin slowly spread across his face.
Finally.
He had awakened.
But there was something strange.
There was no sword.
No fire.
No lightning.
No obvious supernatural ability.
Only a message floating in front of his eyes.
For the first time, Kaien saw something nobody else could see.
[Unique Class Detected.]
His smile disappeared.
Another line appeared.
[Class: Weapons Master]
Kaien stared.
His heart began pounding.
He knew that class.
He remembered it from the comic.
And he remembered exactly what people thought about it.
A useless ability.
A dead-end class.
A joke.
Kaien slowly smiled.
“...You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
The message changed.
[Weapon Evolution System Activated.]
His smile vanished.
Then returned.
Much wider.
“Oh.”
He cracked his knuckles.
“Now we're talking.”
Outside his bedroom window, the city continued moving.
Cars passed.
People walked beneath streetlights.
Somewhere in the distance, an adventurer team was returning from a dungeon.
The world was exactly where it was supposed to be.
For now.
Kaien looked at the system again.
[Beginner Weapon: Unlocked.]
A small black pistol appeared in his hand.
He stared at it.
Then at the weapon.
Then back at the system.
His grin became almost impossible to hide.
“...Yeah.”
He raised the pistol.
“I'm definitely gonna have some fun with this.”
And for the first time since his reincarnation—
Kaien stopped thinking about surviving the story.
He started thinking about how he was going to change it.