by L. Taro
Arlen Weiss was torn from his world without a goodbye. No prophecy. No choice. Only an emotionless voice—and a cruel promise: complete the trials, and you may earn what you desire most. Arlen wants one thing: to go home. In Valenrith, a kingdom held together by war, the transported are not guests—they’re resources. Evaluated. Classified. Trained. Discarded. Aurelion Academy doesn’t forge heroes. It forges survivors. Some learn magic. Others master aura. Others sign contracts with higher entities. And Arlen… has nothing. No affinity. No talent. No place in their hierarchy. But what he can’t wield, he can understand. Arlen begins to study this world like a system—its rules, its costs, its limits. Because on a battlefield, raw power doesn’t always win… sometimes the one who knows where it breaks does. Amid discrimination, violence, and fragile alliances, Arlen faces an ugly truth: if he wants to go home, he may have to become someone he doesn’t like. And when the world treats you like a tool… the only way out is to become indispensable.
