Ion Graham, the MC, was a mere villager. He had a childhood friend named Ella.

Her mother was a lady-in-waiting from a famous aristocratic family.

She was pretty and popular among the boys. Ion couldn't leave her alone, so he took her in the group of boys. They were playing the knight and the princess. Ella longed to return to the capital.

Ion made a promise with Ella to take her in the capital. One day, Ella just fled the village with some mercenaries to start a new life and just left a letter to Ion asking him to not look for her.

Heartbroken, he enlists in the army to get as as far away in the capital as possible. Ion fighted like a crazy guy on the frontline. With how crazy Ion was, nobody approached him except for the Sister Charlotte.

Her healings skills were amazing. She cares about him more than other soldiers and prioritized him over other seriously injured people. If it wasn't for her, he would have died several times already. Ion tried to push her away, but the more he did that, the more Charlotte got clung to him. Both of them eventually got closer to the point that he brought the story of Ella to her. Charlotte consoled Ion and healed his heart.

However, she suddenly decided to join the Hero's Party and asked Ion to never meet again. The war against the demon king has begun and the prince of the empire chosen by the holy sword gathered allies in his journey to defeat the demon king. Charlotte was reverred as the saint of the battlefield. Ion used his resentment, anger, and sadness as a fuel and became a war hero as he killed demons in dangerous territories.

Years have passed and the fire in Ion's heart that motivated him finally extinguished.

At the recommandation of his superior, Ion becomes an instructor in the academy.

1-Ion, having been on the battlefield for 20 years since he was 14, is socially inept. Through his time in the academy, he struggles on some aspects, but he is aware of his shortcomings, so he is able to ask help from his colleagues. You can see his growth as a person.

2-The students of the Ion each have their own motives and their own pasts. They are not just here to show how incredible the MC is. The author is able to slowly build up their characters and develop them.

3- The author takes his time to build up the story and develop each character which I really like.

It is not like other novels with the regret tag on novelpia where childhood friends or hero's party abandon the MC.

In fact, Ion being abandoned is only from his POV and the entire truth was not revealed yet. The heroines are all virg*ns and there is no NTR. The author clearly states that in his first chapter.

1- The pacing might feel off for some people.

2- The fact that Ion still thinks of his ex-lovers even after all this time might be annoying.

3- The students might be some potential love interests. However, the age gap between the students (18) and the MC (34) is weird.

4- MC's lack of pride over his achievements is sometimes annoying.

Ion is one of the Seven Continental Heroes who played a great role in the war. He wore a black armor that covered his entire body, so not many people knew about him.

Ion teaches in a new class for students with very special standings.

1- Elizabeth von Galatea, the 3rd princess of the empire and little sister of the hero.

2- Marianne von Karlstein, granddaughter of the commander-in-chief from the army.

3- Gwynn Triss, disicple of the sword saint.

4- Oznia Hebring, youngest disciple of the sage.

5- Schurz von Valier, the son of the prime minister of the empire.

6- Battar Kun, a descendant of the great warrior of the steppe. He is a typical barbarian like in the korean novels.

7- Titania el Elendrin, the Elven Princess of the Great Forest.

8- Saladin Al-Kamil, the 1st prince of the Al-Kamil Kingdom.

The writing in this series is shallow and what prompted me to write this review. And the writing is what I'll focus on, as some reviews suggest this series requires 50+ chapters before reviewing the plot.

The writing in this series has three glaring issues. First, there is an excessive amount of exposition (telling rather than showing), which is a rookie mistake. But it's quite bad with the series starting off with a non-stop info dump of exposition for a straight chapter. Specifically, we are "told" the MC's 34-year life story... Really now, seriously?

Second, the author's writing treats this more like a visual medium rather than a written medium. This is a newbie mistake where it's written from the perspective of a movie or manhwa, whereas a written medium should help the reader get into the head of characters. That's not to say no internal thoughts are conveyed, but they are generally quite superficial. The story is predominantly told through dialogue and exposition, which is not proper utilization of the novel medium.

Third, the writing itself is quite shallow. This is a resulting combination of the first two issues but also extends beyond them. As an example, the author is quite in-your-face about how handsome the MC is (another review also points this out). At one point, the author dedicates a full 1.5 chapters with girls gushing and thirsting over the MC, again demonstrated through exposition and dialogue. The execution was so cliched and immature I had to check that this was actually a KR webnovel rather than a JP one. And despite all that fuss, we still don't know basic things about how the MC looks, like his hair color or overall appearance.

Having said all that, if you ignore the first few chapters (which are quite terrible), the writing does become tolerable since the info dump expositions become more spreadout. I expected a lot better though as this series is ranked #2 at the time of this review. This puts it right below "The Extra's Academy Survival Guide" yet the writing quality is like night and day when comparing them.

As for the plot, at 25 chapters it's still not clear what plot dilemma the MC is supposed to be facing yet. Supposedly I am supposed to read 50+ chapters before I can pass judgment on the plot, but from a writing and storytelling perspective it is a problem that a purpose and "why should we care" has not been properly established 25 chapters in.

He allowed for a mob to turn violent in a market when there was no indicator that it would be a problem for him to stop it from escalating. He has already suppressed a group of highly trained teenagers/young adults who are stronger than average male. Why couldn't he do the same then? Why did he allow it to escalate out of control? Why didn't he use his military position to make the protestors rethink their actions?