The morning sunlight entered Azariah's eyes as he woke up.
As soon as his eyes opened, he heard loud knocking on his door.
Startled, he quickly looked at the clock on the front wall. The moment he did, he realized that he was done for.
9:30 AM.
The first class was supposed to start at 9:40.
'Fuck.' He cursed.
Immediately, he got up and rushed to the closet while shouting,
"I'll be there in 5 minutes!"
The moment he said that, the knocking finally stopped outside, and he was able to let out a sigh of relief.
Within minutes, he got into the shower, got out, put on his clothes and fragrance, grabbed two slices of bread, splashed jam on them, and then stepped out the door.
Alyssa stood against the wall, waiting for him patiently as he came out.
He could already see the slight annoyance in her eyes, though she tried to hide it well.
Azariah didn't feel bad. In fact, he felt elated because of what she did to him yesterday.
"My bad," he apologized fakingly.
He saw her eyes momentarily go to the bread in his hand before turning back and walking away.
Rather than minding it, Azariah followed behind with his breakfast.
Azariah gazed with awe at the huge academic block in front of him.
As someone who had seen the most marvellous of buildings back on Earth, it was enough to leave him staring at it for a moment.
It also made him proud that his team had done such a good job.
The whole building was built like an arc stretching out wide into space, with a height that could rival skyscrapers from his world.
As the best academy in Nippon, the government made sure to equip its students with the most advanced and state-of-the-art technology possible.
The whole academic block comprised everything—labs, classes, restrooms, cafeterias, libraries, simulation centres, and more.
It showed Azariah how modern and futuristic the technology in this world really was. One that he had designed himself.
Walking behind Alyssa, Azariah was once more subjected to a million stares.
It had become a habit for him in just a day, and with yesterday's incident, he knew it was only going to get worse.
'Not the best start of my life in this world.'
As they entered the academic block, the students were already aware of which classes they had to report to.
They had been informed through their terminals.
For Azariah and Alyssa, it was D1A1.
D1 stood for Division 1, and A1 for the first-ranked class in Sector A.
There were a total of eight sectors, A–H. Each sector comprised five classes.
But there were duplicates of classes as well—meaning that D1A1 was not the same as D2A1.
It was because both divisions had the same number of sectors and classes, including the names.
It made for a total of eighty classes for just the first year alone.
Since they had gotten late, Azariah knew they needed to hurry up. Otherwise, they'd be in for an earful from the teacher.
And he knew how touchy Alyssa was about her respect.
Fortunately, he knew the way to the class by memory.
"Follow me," he said before overtaking her to go in front.
Azariah didn't check to see if she minded or was annoyed.
When he heard her following him seconds later, he knew that she had let it go.
She too knew that they needed to hurry up.
Navigating through the hallways, he was able to get them in front of their class within minutes.
"Here we are," he said as they reached the door.
He saw her looking at him with contemplativeness.
She was probably thinking about how he knew the way already.
Pity for her that he was in no mood to tell.
Opening the door, Azariah went inside the class before stepping aside, from where Alyssa emerged a second later.
Immediately, they became subjected to tens of stares, but both of them paid no heed.
As Alyssa's bodyguard, it was his duty to find her a seat as well.
From the left side of the door, he found two empty seats in just the second row.
As he looked in the higher rows, however, he found the people he had been looking for.
In the sixth row, a whole line had been occupied by familiar faces to him—and Alyssa.
From the right, there was Yvan, then next to him Igor, and next to him Rosalia and Anastasia.
Just next to Anastasia, there was an empty seat for someone to come.
Originally, the prince of Clan Ignisius, Victor Ignisius, was supposed to take this seat.
But he wasn't here yet.
And Azariah was going to change the plotline from here on out.
He wasn't some dumb man who hadn't already seen these tropes or scenarios.
While he could benefit from the side quests and cheats available in the game, he already knew the plotline of the game had been changed from the very moment he came into this world.
From the very moment he had gotten them late for the orientation ceremony.
Maybe he could utilize his knowledge of the far future that was untouched as of yet, but for the current plot, it was over.
Everything had changed.
And he was going to change it even more now.
"Come." He gestured and took Alyssa straight up the stairs to the empty seat, even though she was already heading towards the two chairs.
"Alyssa! Come, we have saved a seat for you!" Anastasia wasted no time in calling her out.
She gestured to the vacant space beside her.
Stepping aside, Azariah watched Alyssa go forward to take the seat.
With her seated, it would complete the row, leaving no spot for him.
Fortunately, Azariah didn't care much about where he would be seated.
He didn't want to involve himself with those strong people for now anyway. Especially Yvan.
Currently, the first step of his plan had been successful. Alyssa was now going to be seated with the main cast.
Before she took the seat though, the door suddenly swung open with force.
'Ah, shit.'
With fiery crimson hair, a boy walked into the class like he owned the place.
Three more boys followed behind him as well, making it clear they were his friends—or lackeys.
His hair color was already enough to tell it was the latter.
There was only one clan in Nippon who possessed such fiery crimson hair with those characteristic ruby eyes.
The Ignisius Clan, famous for their influence in Pyrokinesis.
And in front of them all was their second prince, Victor Ignisius.
Immediately, the class went silent as his eyes scoured the room to find a place.
And a second later, his eyes landed on the row of the main cast.
Or more specifically, Alyssa Indrath.
It was well known that Alyssa was very beautiful. When designing the game, he had made sure to make her the most charming out of all in D1A1.
Yes, he did that while keeping in mind that she was a villain, not a heroine.
He just didn't want to give the most beautiful girl to the main character. Was it petty? Yes.
Did he care? No. He didn't want his game to be cliché.
In any case, Victor Ignisius was a boy whom everyone knew for having a big crush on Alyssa in their first year.
No—a crush was an understatement. He was obsessed with her.
And the moment he saw her not seated yet, he began walking toward her in an instant.
'Man, why can't I have a single moment of peace?'
As Victor walked up the stairs, his lackeys followed right behind him.
"Princess Alyss—" he tried to call out, but was interrupted midway.
"Princess Alyssa has already chosen her seat. She will not go anywhere else."
It was Azariah, who had come to stand right in front of Victor, halting his path.