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‘Kafka Sonder’ was the main culprit behind the failure of the novel version of “Knight of the North Wind.” In a way, he was a character who deserved to die.

Therefore, it was only natural that ‘Kafka’s’ existence was cut out during the webtoon adaptation of “Knight of the North Wind.” People who had their blood pressure rise while reading the novel wept with joy at the news of ‘Kafka’s’ deletion.

The webtoon version of “Knight of the North Wind,” which boldly adapted the original story, known as a disastrous failure, earned the title of ‘masterpiece’ and concluded its five-year run with a so-called perfect ending…

The day the final episode was uploaded became someone’s death anniversary.

In a university hospital where dozens of people died every day, it was the anniversary of an extremely ordinary man who closed his eyes due to cancer, the leading cause of death for modern people.

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In his previous life, he enjoyed reading “Knight of the North Wind” quite a bit, but that was it. He wasn’t passionate enough to seek out the original work, which everyone in the comments section called a failure.

Still, he knew the name ‘Kafka Sonder.’ This was because those who had read the original constantly repeated in the webtoon comments how happy they were that the damned Cancer-Kafka had disappeared.

As someone battling cancer, the term Cancer-Kafka wasn’t very pleasant, but on the other hand, he understood how detrimental the character ‘Kafka’ was to the plot. Just as cancer cells gnaw away at the body, he must have slowly led the world of “Knight of the North Wind” to its death.

Therefore, when he realized that his reborn name was ‘Kafka Sonder,’ he was certain that no matter how he lived, his end would be a premature death. Unlike the webtoon, which ended with a happy ending, he remembered seeing comments that the novel “Knight of the North Wind” ended with everyone dying and the world being destroyed.

He didn’t know how much of a role he played in that absurd ending, or how it came to be that way. As he said, he wasn’t an avid fan who would even bother with the disastrous original work—so only the webtoon plot, where ‘Kafka’ didn’t exist, remained in his memory.

┕ Guys, this is a work that has been completely adapted. The novel is really… really sigh-worthy. There’s no coherence, the character breakdowns are ridiculous, the settings are inconsistent, and the ending is a complete mess. Even an elementary school student could write better than this. Please just watch the webtoon and save your money.

‘Few people would spend tens of thousands of won to read the original after seeing comments like that.’

Kafka thought as he looked at his face in the mirror. It was his own face that he had seen his whole life, but it felt strangely unfamiliar, perhaps because he was aware of his past life. Black hair and light sky-blue eyes. A stern impression and a face marked by illness.

Still, he had a fairly handsome appearance, perhaps because he was a somewhat important character in the novel. The problem was that it was utterly useless in a world where everyone would die and be destroyed.

‘Well, nothing can be done about it.’

The webtoon version of “Knight of the North Wind” had undergone a massive adaptation, so the content was quite different from the original. It was practically a separate work, with only the important settings and framework remaining, and everything else completely overhauled.

But what could he do when he was reborn into the novel version, as a character who was deleted from the webtoon? He had no choice but to live and obediently wait for the approaching death and destruction.

Of course, since he remembered the webtoon plot, there was a chance that he could change the fate of the world if he ran around and tried hard enough. But Kafka didn’t feel the need to go that far.

The number one culprit behind the original novel’s collapse and disastrous ending. The character who was purged and scattered into pieces in the webtoon version.

But this was ultimately just the opinion from outside the world. According to fragmented information gleaned from comments, the novel version of “Knight of the North Wind” was a ‘strange world where everything goes wrong because of Kafka, but no one blames Kafka.’ In other words, if he lived quietly as he was, he wouldn’t have to suffer much.

So, let’s just do nothing.

He had made that decision long ago. Kafka took a puff of the rolled Millenka herb cigarette and exhaled, enjoying his extremely idle time.

It was a scene that would make academy professors and staff members faint. But for some reason, Kafka had a very faint presence. He had been hiding in the emergency staircase and smoking Millenka cigarettes for almost half a year, but he had never been caught. Occasionally, someone would ask, ‘Why do you smell so much like grass?’ but that was it.

Millenka cigarettes were the only thing he had used from his past life’s memories since being reborn. This was because the only way to alleviate the incurable disease ‘Eleanor Syndrome,’ which he had suffered from since childhood, was to inhale the smoke from burning Millenka herbs regularly.

He could light incense and smoke it in his dormitory room, but he couldn’t do that outside. So, the alternative he came up with was to make cigarettes out of Millenka and smoke them. The academy strictly prohibited underage smoking as a school rule, but if he could avoid the pain, demerit points didn’t matter.

‘Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to get caught and expelled.’

As he exhaled the smoke he had held in his mouth, a thick fog formed around his face. The bitter grass smell permeated his clothes and hair. Leaning against the waist-high railing made of stacked bricks, Kafka looked up at the sky for a moment. It was the dry season, so the weather was very nice today as well.

If he were expelled, he wouldn’t have to run into the main characters, and underage smoking wasn’t prohibited outside the academy, so he could smoke Millenka to his heart’s content, and he wouldn’t have to learn magic that would be useless when the world was destroyed.

Earning the name of a hero and enjoying honor was for the protagonist ‘Soren’ and his companions anyway. Kafka had no intention of joining someone else’s feast. His only goal was to live as comfortably as possible and die before the world was destroyed in eight years.

“……”

Of course, this body was a major cause of the disastrous ending, so he didn’t know when he would be called upon by the world and dragged into the mud.

It seemed like someone else’s problem, but he wouldn’t be completely uninvolved in the story after all. He didn’t know if he would be sharing the feast or kicking it over…

‘Is it about time for the original story to start?’

The original story begins when the protagonist Soren belatedly enters the academy at the age of eighteen. According to the webtoon, he was the same age as Kafka, so if the novel had the same setting, he would be turning eighteen this year.

Soon, when the dry season ends and the rainy season arrives, Soren will come to the academy with the title of ‘special transfer student,’ and the original story will begin.

Afterward, despite his late admission, Soren will show outstanding talent and become the envy of many students. Since he also had the good excuse of being a bastard, resentment will soon lead to bullying, but like a true protagonist, he will discover true friendship in adversity and succeed in gathering companions.

This is the content of Part 1, called the ‘Academy Arc.’ Of course, based on the webtoon.

‘Which way will I go?’

Will he be the one who envies and bullies Soren, or will he become his companion? Kafka frowned, sucking on the noticeably shortened cigarette. He couldn’t imagine either scenario.

Before and after realizing his reincarnation, Kafka was an unmotivated and unambitious person. In the first place, his Mana Heart wasn’t well-developed due to Eleanor Syndrome, so he wasn’t good at magic. The whole academy ridiculed him as a half-wit, which meant there was no reason for him to suddenly envy Soren’s genius and bully him. He didn’t have the power to do so either.

On the other hand, he was too lacking in ability to become Soren’s companion. He was already in his eighth year, but Kafka’s current level was barely using basic magic.

In Part 1, Soren and the main characters awaken as Sword Masters and become immune to disease and even poison. Nevertheless, the reason Kafka knew about Millenka herbs was because in the middle of Part 2, Soren’s teacher, Professor Manoha, contracted Eleanor Syndrome, and there was an episode about finding a cure.

┕ It seems like Kafka’s setting went to Professor Manohaㅠㅠ But it’s definitely better for the story this way. Great adaptation!

In this way, he was suppressing the disease using his past life’s memories, but Millenka herb could only control the pain and seizures. Since a fundamental cure would never be found, Kafka’s magic skills were destined to remain at a meager level until the day the world was destroyed.

In other words, he was in an ambiguous position to become either Soren’s enemy or his companion.

‘Then how exactly do I become an obstacle to the plot?’

Wow, I’m really not looking forward to this at all.

Kafka rubbed the Millenka cigarettes against the heel of his shoe to extinguish it, then stood up from his seat. As he brushed the dirt off his pants and robe, cheers erupted from the training grounds behind him. Kafka stopped trying to leave the emergency staircase and leaned against the railing.

As always, swordsmanship students were training in the training grounds. Other children were surrounding a pink-haired student in the center, and upon closer inspection, a blue aura was swirling around the blade of the sword held by the pink-haired student. It was Sword Ki, commonly called Aura.

Kafka was rarely surprised, but he doubted his eyes. The pink-haired girl manifesting Aura in the distance was none other than his twin sister, ‘Aisha.’

┕ Ooh, it looks like Aisha is joining the protagonist’s party instead of Kafka.

┕ Aisha had no talent for swordsmanship in the original work lol It looks like she’ll become a Sword Master in the webtoon and play the heroine role properly.

A few comments suddenly flashed through his mind. Aisha uses her Aura-infused sword to beat up the delinquents who were bullying Soren, forming a bond with him, in episode 6 of the webtoon, ‘First Meeting with Aisha.’

‘But this is the world of the novel.’

But why is she manifesting Aura now?

Kafka stared blankly at the scene in the training grounds with his mouth slightly open. He watched his sister, who was said to have never become even a third-rate swordsman in the original novel, successfully complete the first stage of Sword Master awakening, with a feeling that something was wrong.