"Haak! Cough, cough!"
Drip drip
"Huff.."
'What the fuck is going on?'
Wiping the tears away, Isaac caught his breath and looked around.
He remembered coming home drunk and playing TKS, but anything beyond that didn't come to mind.
'It's unfamiliar.' He thought as he looked around.
The room he was in was completely new to Isaac.
As Isaac took in his surroundings, he couldn't help but be confused.
He was currently in a hospital bed for some reason.
On top of that, his left arm was bandaged up.
'What happened?'
Thump!
"Ack!"
Isaac grabbed his throbbing head with tears in his eyes.
The moment he tried to think of how he ended up here, his head started hurting as if warning him against it.
Then Isaac noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
Flowing down his neck was hair, which by itself wouldn't have been anything strange since Isaac's hair was normally long, but for some reason the colour was completely different.
Snow white.
That was the colour of the hair flowing down.
'Did I go insane or something?'
He had heard that there were people whose hair went completely white from stress or trauma, and even started considering he might now be one of them, but he quickly shook that thought off.
While Isaac was trying to piece together what on earth was going on…
Swish!
…The curtains surrounding him swung open.
Standing there was a woman.
But when Isaac looked up at the woman, his head tilted in confusion.
'Is she cosplaying?'
The woman standing in front of him was wearing a nun's outfit, and on her arm was a symbol.
Looking closer, it was a symbol that Isaac recognised, but when he tried to think about where it was from…
"Ack! Fuck-!"
…His head began throbbing again.
"Student Soren, are you alright?"
'What?'
"Student Soren?"
He took my hands off his throbbing head and looked up at the woman, and he noticed she was looking directly at him.
'Me?'
The only thing that came to mind was that the woman had gotten his name mixed up.
"Hmm.. maybe you need more time to rest.."
Hearing her words, Isaac quickly spoke up.
"Ah- No, I'm fine, thank you, don't worry."
"Thank goodness, I came to inform you that your body has healed enough to be discharged. The only thing you need to keep in mind is not to overdo it with your left arm for a while. Feel free to return to your dorm whenever you're able."
With that, she lightly bowed, then turned and walked away.
"What is going on…?"
'Soren? Dorm? No, seriously, what on earth is going on?'
"Ack! Fucking—! Damn it! And why does my head keep suddenly hurt—!"
Then Isaac suddenly remembered something.
The symbol she was wearing on her armband.
"But isn't that impossible..?"
The symbol was from ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱; it was the symbol of Stellaris Academy.
"But that doesn't make sense, does it?"
'What's going on?'
'She mentioned that I could go back to the dorm… but where is it?'
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
After stumbling around for a while, Isaac was finally able to find his dorm room.
Click
The moment the door shut behind him, the neutral expression on his face crumbled and a wide grin appeared in its place.
"Hehe.. ehehe…"
On his way to the dorm room, Isaac had figured something out.
"I've transmigrated.. hehe.."
It was impossible to wipe the stupid grin off his face.
At first, it wasn't completely obvious since the place he woke up in was a hospital room, but the moment he stepped outside, it became clear to him immediately.
'And it wasn't just that.'
If it were just transmigration, Isaac would have been happy but cautious, not knowing where he was, but…
"Hehe…"
He had transmigrated into his favourite game, ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱.
He had played TKS for over half a decade, from day 1 until the EOS announcement.
"But wait, isn't something wrong here?"
Isaac couldn't help but question something after realising his transmigration.
'In novels, don't the main characters usually get status windows or something?'
Isaac bit his thumb, lost in thought, before opening his mouth.
"Status."
He calmly spoke the magic words that would usually work in novels, but…
'Nothing happened…'
He felt his cheeks slightly flush in embarrassment, but thankfully, nobody was around, so he tried to ignore it and move on.
He moved over to his bed and was about to sit down when…
Ting-♪
.
[Initialisation Complete]
.
"Ow! Shit–! Again?!"
Thud!
He collapsed onto the floor, clutching his head as it began throbbing once again, not even given a chance to read the words that appeared before his eyes.
His vision blurred and his head continued throbbing in pain… but this time it was different.
Isaac's brain suddenly flooded with memories.
Memories he had forgotten, memories he only faintly remembered, they all flooded his brain.
But now it was different.
He could remember every single detail of those memories perfectly.
The pain slowly dissipated, and Isaac wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Huff, huff…"
He was completely out of breath and soaked in sweat, but none of that took away the grin on his face.
'I knew they wouldn't leave me empty-handed.'
Isaac quickly pieced together what had happened the moment the pain disappeared.
Then a sound rang out.
Ting-♪
.
[Status Window now available.]
.
A translucent silver window appeared before Isaac.
Seeing that his eyes widened, and so did his smile.
As someone who had been an avid novel reader on earth, Isaac couldn't help but be ecstatic at the sight of a status window.
If he could remain calm in a situation like this, he would be the weird one.
In a situation where he had suddenly been transmigrated into his favourite game with a status window, it was as if his dream had become reality.
"「Status」"
However, as everyone knows, reality is usually worse than fiction, and since this world was now Isaac's reality, there was no way it could be all sunshine and rainbows.
.
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden
Age: 18
Race: Human
◈ Titles
- Transmigrator (Year 1)
◈ Unique Skills
- Library of Memories
- ???
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.2 (F)
Strength - 0.3 (F)
Agility - 0.4 (F)
Mana - 0.3 (F)
Divine Power - 0.0 (F)
Charm - 8.4 (A+)
◈ Skills
- Life Magic
- Basic Magic
└ Aqua (F+)
└ Gaia (F)
.
.
"Ughhh…"
He groaned at the sight before his eyes.
He knew it was a common trope in novels to transmigrate into third-rate villains or mob characters, but he couldn't help but be disappointed since it happened to him personally.
1★.
It was a rank that didn't even exist in-game.
The lowest rank character you could find was 2★.
It was a painful sight.
'At least you can increase the star rank in game…'
Sadly, though, that wasn't the only problem with the status window.
'These stats are painful to look at.'
Five F's and a single A+… and that A+ is in Charm…
A+ rank Charm is pretty much useless; it's just a numerical value that shows a character's likability/ appearance.
'...Although 8.4 is higher than even most maxed-out characters.'
But unlike characters in TKS, it was useless for someone like Soren, who was nothing more than a mob character at best.
'Anyway, let's check skills now…'
"Wow… Even the skills are awful…"
Life magic was something that pretty much every mage had as a standard, and even some warriors learned it since it's so basic, so it was a given that Soren would have it.
'But these basic magic skill levels are awful…'
Firstly, there are only two spells here.
'I would've been okay with that if they were at a decent level, but…'
'... F+ and F'
This meant that the original body pretty much never used magic ever, even [Aqua] being F+ was probably just because of the entrance and placement exams.
And to make it all worse..
'There's not even a levelling system.'
Usually, below a character's name and star rank, there would be an exp bar, but instead, there was nothing.
'Seriously, what am I meant to do with this stat sheet?'
At least in TKS, you could level your characters and choose skills from the skill tree, but here, there isn't even that option.
.
"Oh? Wait, there is something decent here, actually."
[Library of Memories], Soren's unique skill.
'This must be what made all of my memories crystal clear.'
At first glance, it seemed to just be an ordinary memory skill, but thanks to Isaac's excessive playtime bordering on insanity in ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, it's ended up becoming a cheat-like skill.
"But what's this other one?"
Sitting there right beneath [Library of Memories] was another skill, but for some reason the name was blanked out with question marks, without even a description to go off of.
'Well, there's nothing I can do about that.'
He was curious about the hidden skill, but there were far more important things to think about at this moment.
Swipe
He swiped the status window away and looked around the dorm room.
'It looks brand new.'
Those were his honest thoughts as he took in his surroundings.
The room looked completely unlived in.
There were only two items that looked like they were belongings.
A two-handed axe leaning against the wall. A school bag filled with items needed to attend the academy.
Seeing these items that seemed to be belongings of Soren, he decided to look at them closely to try to see if there was any information he could gather.
First, the axe.
His first impression upon seeing the axe was that it looked expensive, so expensive that he thought it might even be a display weapon, but on closer inspection, it was clear that it was real.
'Is this Soren's weapon?'
He momentarily thought that, but instantly shook it off.
'There's no way.'
Looking at Soren's stats made it obvious that he wouldn't have even been able to swing such a thing, never mind use it in battle.
"Hmm…"
He ran his hands over the axe, trying to figure out why Soren had this with him.
Then his hand stopped right below an inscription.
Freya.
That was the name inscribed on the axe blade.
He sorted through his memories, trying to figure out who Freya could be.
Only seconds later had he pieced together who the two-handed axe in front of him belonged to, thanks to his cheat-like unique skill.
'If it's who I'm thinking of, then I've figured out who this body is.'
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, there was a family called the Arden family, who were a Count in the Fialova Kingdom.
They weren't a very important family; in fact, they were only mentioned a total of twice.
The first time they were mentioned was because of a character named 'Freya Arden.'
Freya Arden was known as a once-in-a-millennium genius; her skill with the axe was unmatched even by active knights, never mind her talent in mana manipulation.
The reason for her being mentioned in the game, though, was that she died.
A few months before the protagonist of TKS enrols, Freya Arden was on a campaign fighting back monsters and demons that crossed over the demon realm's borders.
Then tragedy struck. On the final mission of her campaign, she fell victim to a demon's trap and, unfortunately, passed away.
This was a pretty big deal for the Fialova Kingdom, as Freya was not only the heir to the Arden County but also a person who, in the future, was expected to become a member of Trinity, consisting of the three strongest fighters in the Fialova Kingdom.
The second time Arden County was mentioned was because of the current Countess and head of the Arden family, Sofia Arden.
She was once a general, which is the second-highest rank in the Fialova army; if you don't include Trinity, that alone speaks for her strength.
On top of her strength, though, she was known for being a shrewd woman when it came to politics and money. Her reason for appearing in the game was from a part of the story where the protagonist needed to secure sponsorships to help with his upcoming adversaries.
'I remember her being a pain in the ass to deal with in that event.'
But that was the extent of his knowledge of the Arden family.
Soren Arden is a character who simply does not exist in the game.
'Honestly though, that's fine with me.'
It might have seemed like a strange thought for someone like Isaac, who read all kinds of web novels with plots similar to his current situation, but he was genuinely glad that he was put into the body of a nobody rather than the protagonist.
Shudder
'Ugh, just the thought of having to deal with all that responsibility sends a shiver down my spine.'
Then a terrifying thought crossed his mind.
"Wait… does the protagonist even exist in this world?"
It was something that he hadn't even considered until just now.
There were countless novels that Isaac had read where someone is transmigrated, and the original protagonist is nonexistent or just completely useless, which alone would have been fine, but to someone like Isaac, the scariest part of those novels was the fact that the new protagonist was always training, unable to enjoy his life.
It was even a common occurrence in novels like that for the main character not to end up with anyone until the ending.
'I'll have to find the protagonist.'
No matter how much Isaac liked the idea of being transmigrated, there was no way he would suddenly like the idea of training all day, every day.
'Wait… why did I even assume that I was even in the same year as the protagonist?'
As he thought about it more, it became more plausible that he could've been transmigrated into a completely different year from when the story takes place.
'How nice that would be…'
.
The next thing Isaac had to check was the bag sitting on the desk.
Pulling out all the contents helped him figure out a few key bits of information.
The main thing is Soren's ranking.
"Magical studies, class F.."
It was to be expected with a status window as bad as this, but…
'Rank 96…?'
Each year, there were a total of 100 people in each of the 3 departments, meaning Soren Arden was the 5th lowest ranking student in the magic department.
"Hahhhh…"
The other piece of information he had found was that today was the 21st day of the Birch Sun, meaning that the academic year had already begun not long ago.
There was also something else.
If Soren was in the same year as the protagonist, then…
'The story would have begun by now.'
He swallowed a groan that threatened to escape and collapsed onto the bed, falling into a deep sleep within seconds.
————「❤︎」————