Chapter 3: A Family of Strangers
The screen had vanished.
The room was quiet again—too quiet.
Noel stood alone, unmoving in the center of that ornate, absurdly polished chamber. The air still carried that faint buzz of mana—something warm, something powerful—but his attention was locked on one question:
When the hell is this?
He paced slowly, eyes scanning the walls, the décor, the clothes laid neatly over a nearby chair. Everything felt pristine, untouched. Not yet shaped by conflict or blood.
'If I'm in Echoes of a Shattered World, then I need to figure out where the story is right now,' he thought, running a hand through his messy blond hair.
The beginning of the novel... it all started with Marcus entering the Imperial Academy.
That was the point where everything spiraled into war, betrayal, forbidden magic, political chaos.
So if he was here now—alive, in this body, not forgotten or killed off already—
'Then this must be just before it all begins.'
He turned toward the window.