Edward

Edward is an exceptionally gifted all-color magician and an apparent earlier recipient of Restart. In Sungjin's failed timeline, Edward was a friendly member of humanity's final party before attacking its defenders and leaving Sungjin to die last. Later observations establish that the attack was deliberate and connected to future sight, but only Sungjin's interpretation—not confirmed testimony—assigns it the purpose of choosing a successor. (Chapters 116–118 and 150–176)

Appearance

Edward is a pale, blond, blue-eyed young man in his twenties, with tidy hair, a sharp nose, and a notably handsome face. In the current timeline he wears a pointed magician's hat and a crimson robe with a magical sheen, and he carries a staff set with three blue crystals. His polished, approachable appearance intensifies the contrast between Serin's first impression and Sungjin's memory of him as a killer. (Chapters 113, 117, and 150–151)

Personality

In ordinary company, Edward is energetic, sociable, and optimistic. He enters other people's conversations easily, jokes that the final survivors will become wealthy celebrities, praises good teamwork, and helps companions without demanding repayment. He also prefers improvisation and tells an older teammate that he is strongest when doing what he wants. These observed traits make his later violence harder to reduce to a consistent public temperament. (Chapters 117 and 150–153)

His current behavior is controlled, tactically alert, and apparently generous. Edward rescues Serin Han, coordinates a silent assault, heals a dying teammate even though doing so reduces his own reward, and tries to avoid a direct fight with Sungjin. None of those acts proves innocence about other timelines, just as his former betrayal does not explain every present choice. The corpus leaves the private objective behind his repetitions and future sight unresolved. (Chapters 151–164 and 167–176)

Biography

Friend and betrayer in the failed timeline

In Sungjin's remembered final party, Edward is a trusted young spellmaster among humanity's last ten survivors. He provides magical protection, jokes with Sungjin and Nada about life after the raids, and imagines the group returning as famous saviors of humanity. Araujo complains that Edward tends to act independently, but the exchange reads as familiar friction within a functioning team rather than warning of imminent murder. Sungjin remembers Edward as a companion, which makes the later attack feel personally incomprehensible. (Chapters 116–117)

The observable break occurs in the Demon King's castle. While recovering mana, Edward activates the star-shaped El'tarim and returns from its future vision with a disturbed expression. During the boss fight he then casts Spear of God into Illich's back and follows with another spell against Hildebrandt, allowing the Demon King to kill both defenders and collapse the formation. When Sungjin asks why, Edward gives no answer; he shows a slight smile, dies to the boss, and leaves Sungjin as the final survivor who receives Restart. (Chapters 117 and 167–168)

Those events establish planning, not motive. Later dream evidence shows that Edward had already lived through repeated failures and that he could have maneuvered to be the final survivor again. Sungjin therefore concludes that Edward intentionally transferred the chance to Restart to him, reframing the massacre as an intervention rather than ordinary malice. The conclusion is plausible and explains the order of deaths, but Edward never confirms it, and the future he saw through El'tarim remains unseen within the supplied corpus. (Chapters 168–176)

The magician in Serin's party

In the current timeline, Edward appears in the Great Plains of Barrastan as a stranger assigned to Serin's party. He saves her from a demon, blocks hostile spells, and combines precisely timed fire, ice, lightning, and control magic with her archery. During a stealth attack he creates a silence field that suppresses the party's noise without preventing his own casting. Serin's attempts to test him reveal no immediate discrepancy between his statements and surface thoughts, and she observes no trolling. (Chapters 150–153)

Edward's cooperation continues through the main battle. He summons Thor from Myths of Northern Europe, helps break the demon army's formation, and later uses specialized white magic to save the poisoned Juggernaut despite the loss to his raid contribution. When the hidden boss demands a recovered gem, Edward agrees with Serin's cautious surrender rather than chasing a reward through a likely fatal fight. These are witnessed actions, not merely Serin's impression, and they explain why the party protects him. (Chapters 161–162)

Sungjin arrives intending to kill Edward for the prior timeline, but the current Edward appears confused and asks why he is being attacked. He does not recognize Sungjin, restrains him with ice, heals the party, and asks to talk; the request also buys enough time to summon a tiger and escape behind the hunters he assisted. Serin refuses to shoot down his mount because she trusts the man she has observed. The encounter divides her from Sungjin while leaving Edward's knowledge and intentions unsettled. (Chapters 163–165)

Evidence across repetitions

The Ever Dream eye mask lets Sungjin view scenes outside his own remembered experience. He sees Edward begin the hunts with unusually high Magic Power and Mind Power, cooperate against trolls, reach late chapters, and eventually die as humanity's final remaining player. The Operator awards Edward Restart, returning him to the first hunt with his memories. A later dream shows another cycle progressing farther before he dies last and restarts again, establishing at least two repetitions before Sungjin's current one. (Chapters 170–171 and 175–176)

Across those observed cycles, Edward uses foreknowledge much as Sungjin does: he anticipates raid mechanics, improves his contribution, obtains the Ring of the Great Sage, and reaches increasingly late stages. His meetings with Sungjin are not fixed; in one repetition they do not meet where Sungjin remembers meeting him, showing that the timelines can diverge. Edward's reliance on magic also limits some hidden-boss attempts because he cannot safely hold a melee enemy away from himself without cooperative front-line fighters. (Chapters 167, 170–171, and 175–176)

Sungjin combines those repetitions with the final-party massacre and infers that Edward chose him as the next regressor. The chronology supports the inference: Edward views a future, changes demeanor, kills the tanks, dies before Sungjin, and does not reclaim Restart for himself. It does not reveal what El'tarim showed, why Sungjin was selected, whether exhaustion influenced the decision, or whether Edward expected a specific end state. Edward therefore remains a dangerous mirror to Sungjin rather than a solved predecessor. (Chapters 167–168 and 175–176)

Relationships

• Sungjin: The two are friendly companions in the failed final party until Edward destroys its formation and makes Sungjin the last survivor. Current Sungjin initially treats Edward as an unforgivable murderer, then interprets later evidence as a deliberate transfer of Restart. Because current Edward does not recognize him and past Edward never explains himself, their relationship remains divided between observed history and Sungjin's unresolved theory. (Chapters 116–118, 163–168, and 170–176)
• Serin Han: Edward repeatedly protects Serin and coordinates closely with her during Barrastan. She judges the current man by those actions and blocks Sungjin's attempted execution, even refusing to shoot Edward's escape mount. Her trust does not settle what another iteration of Edward did, but it forces Sungjin to confront the difference between remembered guilt and present conduct. (Chapters 150–165)
• The former final ten: Edward fights beside Nada, Illich, Mustafa, and the other last survivors as a familiar teammate before attacking the party's defenders. His silence at the moment of betrayal deprives the group of any explanation, while the later evidence that he had already repeated the hunt makes their deaths look calculated without making their cost less real. (Chapters 116–118 and 167–168)

Skills and abilities

Broad-spectrum spell mastery. Edward commands attack, defense, healing, control, movement, illusion, and summoning magic across multiple colors. Documented applications include Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Lightning Bolt, Anti-Magic Shield, Silence, Ice Cage, Cyclone, Blink, Rejuvenation, God’s Hand, Holy Fire, and the high-class Spear of God. He changes schools quickly and selects spells for the formation rather than merely maximizing damage. (Chapters 117, 151–153, 162–163, 168, and 175)

Magical specialization. The Ring of the Great Sage lets Edward specialize by color, as when he changes it to white before using powerful healing. His unusually high starting Magic Power and Mind Power and the experience retained across restarts give him a foundation comparable to Sungjin's foreknowledge. The resulting mana and spell selection make him a dominant rear-line fighter even in late raids. (Chapters 153, 162, 167, 170, and 175)

Restart. When Edward dies as humanity's final remaining player, the Operator returns him to the beginning of the hunt with his memory intact. Sungjin witnesses this happen in more than one dream, and later cycles reach farther than earlier ones. Restart preserves knowledge, not automatic physical supremacy; Edward must rebuild his statistics and equipment and can still die when a party collapses. (Chapters 170–171 and 176)

Future sight. El'tarim's Starlight ability shows a short interval of the future while little or no external time appears to pass. Edward uses it shortly before the Demon King battle, and his demeanor changes afterward. The item can reveal a future that subsequent choices alter, but neither the content of Edward's crucial vision nor the exact reason it leads to his betrayal is shown. (Chapters 167–168 and 175)

Tactical limitations. Edward's strength depends on room to cast. He is physically poor with weapons and cannot reliably occupy a powerful melee hidden boss while attacking from range. He experiments with Dexterity but ultimately commits to magic, skipping some dangerous hidden encounters when allies cannot protect him. Current Sungjin nearly reaches him in close combat, forcing Edward to rely on control spells, party loyalty, and a summoned mount to escape. (Chapters 163–164 and 175–176)

Equipment

• Edward's Staff: A staff fitted with three blue crystal spheres is the visible focus of Edward's current-timeline casting. The corpus repeatedly shows him directing elemental, defensive, and control magic through it, but does not provide a full item inspection or name beyond its association with Edward. (Chapters 151–153 and 163)
• Ring of the Great Sage: Edward obtains the same major magical artifact later used by Sungjin. Its color specialization supports different schools, including the white-magic healing that saves the Juggernaut, and its presence in the failed final raid demonstrates that Edward followed a comparable high-reward path. (Chapters 162 and 167)
• El'tarim: This star-shaped accessory contains a clouded blue gem and activates future sight through Starlight. Edward uses it before his decisive betrayal; the vision itself remains hidden, so the artifact establishes a causal turning point without explaining his purpose. (Chapters 167–168 and 175)
• Myths of Northern Europe: Edward uses this summoning book to call Thor, whose lightning-clad hammer disrupts the demon army on Barrastan. The supplied chapters establish the summon and its combat role but do not provide a complete item inspection. (Chapter 162)