Chapter 0: When the World Ended Quietly and a Boy Without Magic

Ten years ago, the world ended quietly.

There was no warning.
No prophecy.
No sign in the heavens.

Just a single moment where the earth trembled…
and the sky cracked like glass.

From those cracks surged pillars of black light that swallowed everything—streets, homes, families—until all that remained were ruins drenched in silence. The event would later be named The First Ground Wave.

The Ground Wave did not simply destroy.
It rewrote.

Sensing the disturbance, creatures that had no place in the human world emerged—things with shapes that made no logical sense, beings born from twisted mana and emotions of the dying. Some walked. Some crawled. Some drifted above the ruins like shadows grieving for the living.

Cities burned.
Borders collapsed.
Japan was forced to rebuild itself from a wound that refused to heal.

Ten years later, the scars remain everywhere.

Regions swallowed by the First Ground Wave remain uninhabited, forever frozen in a strange half-existence where the laws of reality no longer apply. People call them Silent Zones—places where lights flicker without electricity, where echoes linger long after a footstep, and where even sorcerers refuse to stay after sunset.

To counter the threat, nations formed new structures:

• T.U.A.D.F (Tactical Unit Advance Division Force), a military force specializing in anomaly suppression.
• The Sorcerer’s Association, an organization rebuilding magecraft from the chaos.
• Magical academies across Japan, established to train the next generation of sorcerers before the next catastrophe arrives.

Because the Ground Wave never stopped.

Every few months, somewhere in Japan, the ground will quiver—just slightly—like something enormous beneath the surface is turning in its sleep.

People pray it never wakes.

And in the middle of this unstable world…
in a society divided by fear, power, and prejudice…
one boy—an ordinary boy without magic—fights simply to exist.

A slave whose name should have been forgotten.
A young man who carries nothing but wounds and stubborn hope.
A person the world never expected anything from.

Yet destiny chooses the unlikeliest hands.

And on the day he falls into the ruins of a forgotten era,
the future—his future—begins to move once again.

A BOY WITHOUT MAGIC

Morning air drifted softly over Chiba, Funabashi City.
A young man with black hair and yellow–gold eyes had just woken up.

From downstairs, his mother called out:

“Kamito-kun! It’s morning—time for breakfast! Don’t you have a work shift today?”

My name is Kamito Ryuga. I live in Chiba Funabashi City. I work as a magic-stone miner not far from here.
he introduced himself silently.

His younger sister, Kamito Shion—long brown hair, the same golden eyes as him—responded:

“Mom, Oni-chan is awake!”

“Oh, Shion. Good morning.” Kamito greeted her.

“Big brother, I heard you were rejected again by the Magical Academy.”

“Shioon… I told you not to remind me of that.”
Kamito muttered, embarrassed. He had already been rejected three times for one simple reason: he possessed no magic at all.

“Maybe next week. I hope you get accepted soon, Oni-chan.”
Shion tried to cheer him up.

After breakfast, Kamito prepared his work clothes. He headed to the Kurotsuki Arcane Quarry, where magic stones were mined for weapons and technology. The stone—called Lunaris Veinstone—was a blackish-blue mineral glowing faintly like moonlight, its cracks pulsing with vein-like energy.

Kamito boarded the bus, arriving at the quarry.

“Oh, Kamito-kun, you look motivated today. Are you trying for the Tokyo Magical Academy again?”
asked Hiro, a senior worker and supervisor.

“Hiro-san, of course I am.”

“You really never give up, huh, Kamito-kun.”

They laughed, and Kamito moved deeper into the caves. His eyes caught sight of a group of archaeologists.

“Makoto-san, who are they?” Kamito asked the older miner beside him—Makoto, age 47, sturdy build, years carved into his hands.

“Those are archaeologists from Tokyo Magical Academy.”

“Seriously? I didn’t expect to see such important people underground. What are they looking for?”

“Beats me, but Hiro says they’re searching for ancient ruins. They’ve looked for days but found nothing.”

“What a shame.”

Kamito continued working. At only 22, he worked tirelessly to support his mother and sister after his father’s death in this very mine.

He gathered several Lunaris stones, holding one up.

“This is amazing. If only I had magic… I’d forge you into the strongest weapon.”

The break bell rang.

“Kamito-kun, break time. Stop working.” Makoto reminded him.

“Coming, Makoto-san.”

But as Kamito turned—
a woman’s voice echoed from the darkness:

“Kamito-kun… so that is your name?”

The mysterious voice sent chills down his spine. He rushed to the break area. Makoto told everyone proudly that his daughter had been selected as a student council member at the Magical Academy. Kamito congratulated him enthusiastically.

“I can’t wait to meet her once I get into the Academy.”

“But are you sure you’ll pass this time, Kamito-kun?”

“I’m sure. I’ll never give up.”

The others applauded his determination.

Returning to his post, Kamito froze—
a girl stood before him: pink hair, green eyes, dressed like a deity.

“I have found you.”

Kamito blinked in shock.

“W-What do you mean?”

“At long last… I’ve finally found you.”

And then, she vanished.

Kamito assumed it was a ghost—and the end-of-shift bell rang.

He went home, fell onto his bed, and wondered why that girl felt strangely familiar before drifting to sleep.

The next morning, he walked his usual route to the quarry—
when an elderly woman dropped her groceries. People passed by, ignoring her.

Kamito hurried over.

“Let me help you, ma’am.”

“Thank you, young man.”

“But your food is stepped on… it’s ruined.”

“It’s fine. I can still eat it.”

Feeling guilty, Kamito offered her all of his packed lunch.

“Here, please take mine instead.”

“But what about you? Won’t you be hungry?”

“Don’t worry. I can hold out until midnight.”

The old woman knew he was lying.

And then—
she transformed back into the pink-haired goddess.

“As I thought… he is the one.”
“No wonder she was so fond of you. You truly are different, Kamito-kun.”

Then she vanished.

Hours passed. Hunger gnawed at Kamito, but he worked anyway. Beside him, Makoto prepared the drilling machine—

—when the ground shook violently.

“An earthquake!?”

Panic swept the workers. Everyone fled.

Only Kamito and Makoto remained. A falling boulder crushed Makoto’s leg.

Kamito refused to leave him.

Makoto cried out, urging him to escape, but—

“What about your daughter? She’d be devastated if you died on her special day!”

“Forget that—go, boy!”

But before Kamito could argue, a massive tremor ripped the ground open beneath him.

“KAMITOOO!” Makoto screamed—

Kamito plummeted into darkness.

He landed hard.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying inside a vast underground chamber—
an ancient ruin, untouched, forgotten, and unmistakably magical.

The very ruins the archaeologists had been desperately searching for.