Earth was invaded by another dimension.
Monsters appeared, and hunters emerged to hunt them down.
SSS-rank hunter Kenny Bark was one of them.
Kenny had worked his way up from the bottom, but at twenty-five, he suffered a serious injury. He lost all his magical power and could no longer participate in combat.
One of fewer than twenty SSS-rank hunters worldwide was forced into retirement just like that.
But it wasn't complete retirement.
He accepted the Hunter Association president's offer to become a teacher at Hunter Academy.
For over ten years, Kenny trained countless hunters. Among them were SSS-rank hunters who made significant contributions during the final battle.
And thirty-eight years after the initial invasion.
Humanity succeeded in defending Earth.
***
When the monsters disappeared, the hunters began to fade away one by one.
Some lived it up with the money they'd saved, while others returned to their hometowns to live quietly.
Kenny was somewhere in the middle.
He bought two five-story buildings, planning to live without money worries.
Just enjoying hobbies and living a normal life.
But his ordinary daily routine completely changed starting today.
Actually, it got completely destroyed.
"Wahaha! So what happened next?"
"Hey! Someone take our order!"
"Buddy, sorry, but can we share this table?"
From people with flushed faces drinking heavily.
To folks enthusiastically telling stories with excited voices.
The tavern was packed with a rowdy atmosphere.
And there, Kenny muttered in a daze.
"...Huh?"
His thoughts stopped cold.
After a moment, he spoke again.
"What the hell is..."
A wave of confusion crashed into his frozen mind.
That's when it happened.
Tap tap—
"H-hey. Ferda."
Someone tapped his shoulder.
A burly, bearded guy. He spoke with a somewhat pale face.
"Um, I think those people are looking for you?"
What? Looking for who?
At that moment, a cold voice came from behind him.
"Ferda Inosid."
A tone as dry as a desert.
Soon after, the person grabbed his shoulder tightly.
"Come outside. We need to talk."
***
A back alley reeking of terrible stench.
Footsteps echoed in the street where darkness had settled heavily.
Step, step—
Two sets of footsteps.
One of them belonged to Kenny.
'What the hell is going on here?'
This is confusing.
He remembered reading the novel and grabbing his neck before falling backward.
But he couldn't remember anything that happened after that. Not why he was in this place or why he was following this guy—nothing.
'But more importantly...'
Kenny's eyes narrowed.
He recalled what he'd heard in the tavern just now.
'They called me Ferda.'
That was a name from his memory. Who was that again?
Stop!
The man suddenly stopped walking. Kenny stopped too.
And at that moment!
Shing—
A sword was drawn from the scabbard at the man's waist.
The blade gleamed softly in the moonlight. The man half-turned and swung the sword.
Whoosh—!
"...!"
The sword barely missed his nose.
He'd instinctively leaned his upper body back after seeing the gleaming blade, otherwise his face would've been sliced.
But the man's attack wasn't over yet.
More fierce sword strikes came one after another.
He was startled, but that was all. He'd already regained his composure after the first attack.
Whoosh! Whoosh—!
He perfectly dodged the second and third attacks.
Even though he was retired, this was still the body of someone who used to be called an SSS-rank hunter. If he couldn't dodge this much, he'd be too embarrassed to even call himself a former hunter.
"Interesting."
A glint appeared in the man's eyes.
Then his aura changed. A sharp, sword-like intensity. As if everything up until now had just been playing around.
Alright, let's do this then?
Kenny decided to fight fire with fire. Just as he was about to raise his own aura in response—
Click—
The sword returned to where it belonged.
The intimidating aura from the man also vanished without a trace.
"Your skills are much better than I heard."
Muttering in that same dry tone, he reached into his coat.
"You pass the test."
Toss—
With those words, the man threw a small pouch.
A few coins that looked like silver pieces spilled out.
"The Count is looking for you. Three days from now, come to the Arcdute estate."
The man said only what he needed to say and turned around.
Kenny looked baffled at this sudden situation.
"Why should I..."
"You don't have a choice."
At that moment.
A fierce aura erupted from the man's body.
At the same time, Kenny's shoulders trembled slightly. Not because he was overwhelmed by the man's presence.
'What is this?'
A dark back alley, a man throwing down a money pouch and making threats.
This scene—he felt like he'd seen it somewhere before.
Just as he was thinking that.
Suddenly, the content of a certain 'novel' came to mind.
"...Suddenly the man began emanating a terrifying aura. With his hand on his sword hilt, he looked down at Ferda with an intimidating attitude.
All Ferda could do, overwhelmed by the pressure, was prostrate himself on the ground and tremble. After a moment, the man spat out the words 'Don't forget. Three days.'"
"Don't forget. Three days."
The moment the man finished speaking, Kenny's eyes went wide.
The man had just spoken the exact same line from the novel he'd been thinking about.
Standing there stunned, Kenny reflexively recalled the next line that should come.
'You'd better not think about running...'
"You'd better not think about running away."
"...!"
His face filled with shock.
Meanwhile, seeing Kenny standing there in a daze, the man smirked.
"Though you don't look like you have the guts anyway."
With that cold sneer, the man melted into the darkness and disappeared.
That scene too perfectly matched the description from a certain 'novel.'
"Ha, haha..."
A bewildered laugh escaped through his lips.
It really didn't make sense, but there was no other way to explain this.
"I'm inside a novel?"
And not just any novel—the very 'novel' that had made him grab his neck in frustration.
***
A long-running series that had been serialized for twenty-two years and six months.
A novel that gradually gained fame through eight repeating cycles.
A novel that had never once reached a proper conclusion: The Savior.
Kenny had loved this novel.
No, more than loved—he'd been obsessed with it. He'd been reading it since before becoming a hunter, read it while hunting monsters, and even after retirement kept up with the latest chapters.
"...Though I never loved it enough to actually enter the story."
He sighed in frustration.
"And if I had to end up here, I should've at least been the main character, not..."
Kenny frowned.
The man had called him 'Ferda.'
Having read the entire novel, Kenny knew exactly what kind of character 'Ferda' was.
The tutor who taught the protagonist of The Savior.
A character with quite a bit of importance.
But that importance only lasted through the 'early parts.'
From the middle section on, 'Ferda' no longer appeared. Why?
"...This guy dies in the early chapters."
To be precise, at the very end of the early section, he gets stabbed while trying to save the protagonist from danger.
A supporting character with confirmed death.
Realizing his situation, Kenny's face crumpled in despair.