Chapter 1: Where everything begins

The anime My Life at the Royal Blade Academy has finally aired its final episode tonight. After four seasons, 52 episodes and 5 OVAs, I only had one thought.

The. Ending. Was. Very. BAD!

Let me give you a simple synopsis of the anime. In an alternate Japan, the main character, Takuto Yuuji, was from a well known family that have polished their skills in swordsmanship for more than ten generations. When Yuuji was old enough to go to high school, he was tricked by his grandfather to enroll into the Royal Blade Academy, where students are trained to fight otherworldly invaders called Destroyers. And so, our main character’s life as a warrior begins.

And did I mentioned that this is a harem anime?

Throughout the four seasons, Yuuji fought tons of Destroyers and saved countless lives. However, Yuuji has no interest in being a hero. He wants something much more. He wishes to get a girlfriend.

After all, Yuuji is an adolescence boy going through puberty. It’s normal for him to want to go near girls, since he’s not gay. The only problem is, Yuuji is not someone a normal girl would wants as a friend, much less a boyfriend.

See, Yuuji is a huge pervert who loves to peek on girls when they are changing their clothes during P.E. , or when they are taking a bath. He would also spent considerably huge amount of his pocket money on buying lewd magazines, so he is always broke. He is loud and loves to show off. Although he has tremendous potential, he tends to get cocky and most of the time he would have his behind handed to him. He would loudly proclaim ‘I will protect everyone!’, and fail to do that due to being reckless and overestimate his ability. Seriously, how can someone like him become popular?

But wait, the gods of harem anime have not abandoned our poor lamb! With a timely rescue and a smile that shows his brighter-than-sun teeth, coupled with the kindness that he shows every once in a while, any girl would fall for him! With this killer combo of the ultimate action harem main character, seven girls around his age and a widow had fallen to his charm. Forget a girlfriend, he has a freaking harem now.

This is it! This is Yuuji’s golden age! HE! IS! NOW! POPULAR!

Except he tossed the chance to the sewer.

Even though Yuuji is an irredeemable pervert, he is surprisingly loyal when it comes to love. With all these girls showing their affections to him, he became indecisive on choosing one. After much pondering, he finally has an answer at the last episode. So who will he choose? Who will get to be his number one? WHO?

No one. He chose no one.

At the final scene, Yuuji gathered everyone and told them that he is happy that they are in love with him. However, he could not choose just one of them and abandon everyone else, so he decided to live a live of solitude, and wishes to remain friends with all of them.

What in the absolute bull? What kind of crappy answer is that? After all the skirt-chasing he did, this is the best he could come up with? Unpopular guys like me would kill to get a chance to be surrounded by girls. He might as well castrate himself and live his remaining miserable live as a eunuch.

On this frustrated note, I turned off the television and lied down on my sofa. The only reason I put up with Yuuji’s insufferable attitude is because of the girls. I mean, seriously, who would watch a harem anime just to look at the guy? He’s just a lucky bastard that every unpopular guy wants to brain and kill.

Well, for better or worse, the series is finally over. I closed my eyes to think of other animes to watch, but could not think of one for quite a while.

I must have fallen asleep, since it was already morning when I opened my eyes again. Oh man, there’s an exam today, and I’m totally not ready for it.

I realized that something was wrong when the first sight I saw after I opened my eyes is an unfamiliar ceiling. I was lying down on an unfamiliar bed too, when I was supposed to be lying down on my sofa. I’m also wearing a shirt that I was definitely not wearing the night before.

I got up and look around. I’m inside a small room with just a bed, a study table, a small and short dining table, a small kitchen, a small fridge, a closet and a full length mirror. A room that’s not mine.

I walk to the door to find out my location, but I stopped when I pass by the mirror.

Someone who is not me is looking at the mirror. I touch my face, and the reflection did the same.

What’s going on? Did my soul had an astral projection and accidentally possessed someone? To find out more about this body, I rummage through the drawers of the desk and managed to find a wallet. Inside are some bank notes that I do not recognize and an identification card. I pull it out and take a good look.

Name: Kagenashi Akira

Status:Spearmanship: AMagic: CStamina: BSurvival: ASpirit: ARank: C

Wait a minute, isn’t this the ID given by students of the Royal Blade Academy? I open the closet and sure enough, a uniform that consists of a red long sleeve jacket, a white long collared shirt, a pair of black pants and a red tie are in the closet. The uniform wore by the male student of the Academy.

I forced myself to calm down and gathered up my thoughts. Somehow, I became a character that appeared at My Life at the Royal Blade Academy. I have never heard of this Kagenashi Akira, so he must be a mob character. His tie is red, indicating that he’s a first year.

Oh man, can’t I at least be a side character? I mean, I won’t last long in this world with a lousy status I saw at the ID. Still, it beats going to the college and take classes after classes without any friends to hang out with. I hope I at least get to kill a Destroyer before I get killed off.

I looked at the time on my phone. It’s currently 6:26am. Students are to arrive at the Academy before 8, so I got plenty for breakfast.

All students are required to live at the dormitory provided by the school, but meals are not provided. Therefore, each student must either buy or cook meals of their own. To assist in students to cover their expenses, the Academy provide them with allowances according to their rank and the number and rank of the Destoyers they killed. I opened up the fridge, half expecting it to be empty, due to Akira’s low rank.

Surprisingly, the fridge is well stocked with food, and there are two bags of rice under the sink. I’m guessing that Akira is from a well-off family, or he managed to kill lots of low-ranked Destroyers. Either way, I thanked him silently and started to prepare my breakfast, and lunch too since I still have time after I was done cooking and eating my breakfast.

After I was finished, I packed up my lunch and changed into the uniform. It feels kind of weird changing into a high school student’s uniform when I’m a college student, but then I remembered that I’m currently inside a high school student’s body.

I put Akira’s… my wallet inside my pants pocket and pick up my bag and my lunch box. After a final check of my uniform at the mirror, I left my room and head for the Academy.

The Academy is right next to the dorm, so it’s practically impossible for the students to be late. I slowly walk towards the school gate and saw two figures standing next to it.

The first one is a female student who wears the typical Academy’s girl uniform which features red long sleeve jacket, black skirt, black thigh-high socks and black shoes. The ribbon on her uniform is blue, indicating that she is a second year. Her blond hair and emerald eyes really makes her stands out among a bunch of black-haired, brown eyes Japanese.

Her name is Morifuji Sakuya, the student council president of the Academy, who is also the daughter of the school principal Morifuji Agito. Due to her overwhelming skills and magic, she was dubbed The Strongest Sword of the Academy. Many tried to dethrone her, but all was defeated mercilessly.

That said, Sakuya herself is not merciless nor cold-blooded. On the contrary, she is your typical elder sister who is always available if you have any trouble. Right now, she is greeting every students that passes through the gate with a greeting and a warm smile.

By contrast, the female student standing next to her is merely nodding towards any student that greeted her, her face devoid of expression. Like Sakuya, she is wearing the Academy’s uniform. However, her ribbon is red, and instead of thigh high socks she is wearing black pantyhose.

She is Kurogane Ichika, the vice president of the student council. Like Yuuji, Ichika is descended from an ancient family of swordsman. In fact, the two families are rivals. Unlike Yuuji, however, Ichika’s upbringing was extremely strict, making her personality very serious and uptight.

If Sakuya is a bright flame that warms everyone around her, Ichika is a block of ice that constantly gives people the chills. Her icy gaze sees through everything, and none ever escapes her wrath for bringing something they’re not supposed to to the Academy.

Both of them are part of Yuuji’s harem, and played a huge part during Season 1.

‘Good morning.’ Sakuya greets me when I reach the gate.

‘Good morning, president. And good morning to you too, vice president.’ I greet the both of them.

Sakuya smiles at me, while I get an expressionless nod from Ichika.

Once I’m inside the Academy, I’m at a total lost. There are six first year classes.Which one am I suppose to go? Luckily, I remember that I can check it from my phone.

It’s Class 6, the class for the students of the lowest ranks.

I should have known. My rank is C, so it doesn’t really surprise me. And so, I head for the class.

Everyone’s seat was shown on a piece of paper stuck at a billboard that's next to the white board, and I managed to find my seat by looking at it. I put my bag at the side of the table like everyone else, then put my lunchbox inside the drawer. While waiting for the teacher, I took a peek at the students. Some of the are lying down at the table and fell asleep, some of the are chatting with each other, some are messing with their phone.

None of them came to talk to me.

Are you serious? I’m already a loner in the real world, am I suppose to live the live of a loner over here as well? Curse you, mob character’s setting!

Ten minutes later, the teacher is finally here. I don’t recognize him from the anime, so he must be a mob as well. I am a mob character getting taught by a mob teacher in a classroom full of mobs. Fantastic.

The teacher stood in front of the podium and started to give his lecture. It was quite boring, so it was not long before I start to zone out.

It was around thirty minutes after the lecture has begun. Remember I said that it was practically impossible for a student to be late since the dorm and the school are right next to each other? Well, seems like there’s always an exception.

BANG!!!

‘EXCUUUUUSE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!’

The classroom’s door opened with a loud bang, followed by an even louder voice.

The teacher sighed. ‘Takuto-kun, how nice of you to join us.’

Here comes our main character Takuto Yuuji. I grimaced. I have totally forgotten that Class 6 is his class as well.

‘Sorry teach, I did set my alarm, but I accidentally destroyed it when it tried to wake me up.’ Yuuji explained while coming inside.

‘And I take it that you continued to sleep after that?’

‘Yes sir! I am so sorry for that!’

‘Yes yes, I’m sure you are. For now, please take a seat.’

‘Will do, sensei!’

Yuuji went to his seat, which was thankfully much further than mine, and sat down.

After Yuuji sat down, the teacher continues with his lecture. However, not five minutes later, a loud snore was heard from Yuuji’s direction. Everyone looked at his him and realized that he is sleeping with his face planted on the desk.

If I remember correctly, the reason he is so sleep deprived is that he had spent the entire night tried to sneak out of the Academy to buy porn magazines, but was constantly stopped by Ichika.

Yup, a model main character right here.

The teacher’s veins are popping all over his face, but he chose to ignore Yuuji. It probably wasn’t his first time to sleep in class.

In a flash, it was lunchtime. Yuuji bounced up faster than a bullet the moment he heard the bell and goes outside, presumably to the cafeteria. As for me, I take out my lunch box and goes to the courtyard to look for a place to eat my lunch.

I manage to find a huge tree, so I sit down under it and start to eat my lunch, all the while pondering on what to do next.

Now that I’m in the world of an anime where I know what will happen next, I could use this knowledge to replace Yuuji as the new main character. Unfortunately, I’m just a weak mob character, so there’s no way I could do that.

I pick up a piece of egg roll with my chopsticks and put in inside my mouth.

Chew, chew, chew…

Stare…

In this anime, there are three methods to become strong. One, inherit some crazy skills from your family like Yuuji and Ichika did. I don’t even know what my, or rather, Akira’s family do for a living, and really strong families won’t even bat an eyelid with a weakling like me for a student candidate, so this method is out.

Stare……

Second, be born with an extraordinary amount of magic. This is even more impossible. I mean, look at the rank of my magic.

Third, and the only method that might work for me. In this anime, there are treasures called the Regalias, lost artifacts used by ancient warriors to fight the Destroyers. It was said that the special weapons used by chosen students around the world are based on Regalias. If I manage to find one of those, I can surely become stronger. The problem is, they’re called lost for a reason, and even clues of finding one is very hard to come by.

I take some fried chicken and put it inside my mouth. What to do…

Chew, chew, chew…

Stare……….

Right in front of me squats a tiny little girl. She is wearing the Academy’s uniform and wears a pair of white thigh high socks on her legs. On her neck, there’s a choker made of steel, and on the choker there’s a metallic lock. She also has a red ribbon, indicating that she is a first year like me.

I was planning to ignore her when she first appeared out of nowhere, but eventually she came so close to me that that’s no longer an option.

‘Um, may I help you?’

‘Mashiro is hungry…’ the tiny girl tells me with a quiet voice.

Naturally, I know of her, as she is one of the support characters in the anime, and also one of Yuuji’s harem member.

Her name is Fuyukaze Mashiro. Despite her petite stature, she is really 16 years old, and did not skip any grades. Her combat skills are quite poor, but her insanely quick summoning skill is so hard to ignore that she is awarded with a S Rank.

‘Didn’t you buy anything from the cafeteria?’

‘Mashiro tried, but it was too crowded, so she could not squeeze in.’

‘I see. Well, you can have some of my food if you like.’

Mashiro nods. ‘Thank you.’

And so, I shared my lunch with her. Since the portion was halved, neither of us was full, but it will have to do.

Right after we are done with the lunch, the bell rings once again, indicating the end of lunchtime.

‘You should go back to you own class. I’m going back to mine, as well.’ I tell Mashiro.

‘Okay. Your food was very delicious, thank you.’

With that, the girl runs back to her classroom. This is the first time someone ate my cooking, and she even said it was delicious. I’m kind of happy.

But the happiness was short-lived. I looked at the date, and its one week away from the first arc of the anime. If I don’t do something soon, replacing Yuuji will be a pipe dream.

Somehow, I managed to survive the first day at school (the first for me anyway). On my way back to the dorm, I keep thinking about getting my hands on a Regalia. And then, it hit me. I do know where to get one. It was unearthed during Season 3 by the Lost Children, who are the main villains in this anime. If I manage to obtain it first, not only will I get a huge power boost, I can prevent a major tragedy that happened in Season 3.

I have two problems, though. One, the place where the Regalia is? It’s an underground cavern with tons of animated sentinels and lots and lots of dead traps. The Lost Children has lost three of their best fighters and countless others just to get to the treasure trove. They used hundreds of members to raid the cavern and still barely scraped by. Imagine how far can a C Rank  like me go.

The second problem is a much bigger one. By taking something that the main villains use in a much later season, I am directly messing with the timeline. If by some miracle I do get the Regalia, who knows what worse tragedy I might cause? For example, if the Regalia was stolen or taken by them after I obtained it, the tragedy will hasten instead.

After I cook my simple dinner of simmered mackerel in miso sauce, a salad with sesame dressing and rice, I place them on the table and sit down. As I am about to dig in, someone knocks on my door. I get up and open the door, only to see Mashiro standing outside.

‘Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?’ I ask her.

‘Mashiro is hungry again, so she is here for dinner.’

‘I don’t mind but, why didn’t you ask the girls in your dorm? I’m pretty sure they will be more than happy to cook for you.’

All of you have probably guessed it by now but, with Mashiro’s cute and tiny body, she is the mascot of the Academy. Girls often squeal when they see her and will line up to feed her snacks.

‘Mashiro prefer yours.’

‘Is that so? All right, come in then.’

I rummage through the fridge to pick ingredients to cook. All the while, Mashiro is staring at the food I already cooked.

‘Sorry for disturbing you when you are about to eat.’

I have mixed feelings when she apologized. In the anime, Mashiro never had any qualms on demanding Yuuji to buy her meals, although it was later revealed that she just wanted to spent more time with him. If she is apologizing to me, does she mean that she does not want to get intimate to me?

What am I asking, of course she doesn’t. Yuuji is her fated one, while I’m a random stranger whom food she happens to like. I’m nothing more than a chef to her.

‘Nah, it’s fine. For the food, I don’t have time to prepare anything complicated, so will livers and onions do?’

Mashiro nods. ‘Yes.’

It only took a while to cook it, and I made extra salad and scoop up the remaining rice I cooked on a bowl. I then put the food on the table and got Mashiro a pair of chopsticks.

‘Let’s eat.’

Mashiro nods and lifts her chopsticks. We eat silently for a while, since I don’t know how to open up a conversation, and I just realized that a girl is inside my room. Eventually, Mashiro was the one who spoke first.

‘You look like you have something on your mind. Want to talk about it?’

I looked at her sheepishly. ‘Am I that obvious?’

Mashiro nods. ‘You had that look ever since Mashiro came in.’

‘Well, the things is, I know the location of a certain Regalia.’ I started.

Mashiro’s usual poker face slightly changes upon hearing this, but she says nothing and continues to listen.

‘This Regalia is extremely powerful, so much so that I don’t even dare to speak its name. I was thinking that if I could get my hands on it, I can become very strong. The problem is, its inside a cavern with scary guards and lethal traps, so I can’t do this alone.’

No you idiot, that’s the least of your problem!

‘But the worse thing is, it might get misused if it falls to the wrong hands. Hell, I’m not even sure I can keep on being a good guy if I manage to get it by some miracle. So I don’t know what to do.’

After listening to my trouble, it took Mashiro quite a while before she starts to speak again.

‘This might sting a bit, but Mashiro feels like she needs to say it. If you’re weak, you should train yourself, not looking for a shortcut. Furthermore, it’s meaningless to become strong if you have to make someone else suffer in the process. Trust Mashiro, she learned that the hard way.’

Naturally, I know what she’s talking about. As a child, Mashiro was hopeless in swords and magic. To compensate her lack of talent in both fields, she studied summoning magic like crazy, and became very skillful at it. But it wasn’t enough for her, who was ten years old at the time.

She attempted to summon a SS Rank Destroyer, one that could control storms, and tried to make it possess her, thereby obtaining its power. The Destroyer possessed her body like she wished, but it ended up controlling her body instead. As a result, her entire clan was wiped out.

Before things could become worse, Morifuji Agito, our school principal, managed to seal off the Destroyer’s power. The choker and the lock on Mashiro’s neck are the only things that are holding back the Destroyer’s powers.

Oh man, I totally forgotten about her backstory, and told my trouble to the wrong person. How insensitive can I be! But I’m not supposed to know that, so I didn’t comfort her or anything.

I sigh. ‘I guess you’re right. First thing in the morning tomorrow, I’ll go tell the president about the Regalia.’

‘Why not now?’

‘What do you mean “why?” Students are not allowed to visit the opposite gender’s dorm, remember? That reminds me, you broke the same rule too.’

Mashiro ignores the last part and takes out her phone. ‘Mashiro will ask her to make an exception.’

‘Wait, you have her phone number?’

‘Mashiro got lost on her first day here, and she helped Mashiro out. To prevent the same things from happening, we exchanged numbers.’

Huh. The anime definitely did not mention this. Oh well, it’s not that important anyway.

‘Um, just tell her that I need to speak with her, and it’s urgent. I want to tell her everything myself.’

‘Alright.’

Mashiro whispers to her phone for a while, and eventually nods at me, signaling that the appointment is successful. And so, we quickly finish our dinner and head for the girls dorm.

On the way, she suddenly says, ‘Oh, right. Mashiro still doesn’t know your name yet.’

‘It’s…ah, Kagenashi Akira.’

That was close, I almost blurt out my real name.

‘Mashiro is Fuyukaze Mashiro. Nice to meet you.’

‘Likewise.’

The security guards that were guarding the girl’s dorm let me pass without asking any questions, probably due to Sakuya giving them a heads up. Even so, I’m still nervous for going into the girls’ dorm.

As an additional encouragement, the higher the rank of a student, the bigger room he or she gets, and those ranked A or above can even modify their rooms to their liking. Being a S Rank, Sakuya lives in a room three times bigger than the apartment that I rented in real life, and has a really expensive piano at one corner,  with a canopied king size bed at another corner.

At the middle where it’s probably the living room, there are two long expensive and high class leather sofas facing each other. Mashiro and I sat at one side, while Sakuya and Ichika, who happened to be there since she was asking Sakuya something related to the student council, sat on the other side.

Both of them are only wearing bath robes, so I’m trying my utmost best to not stare at them. I also try not to freak out, the reason being Ichika is staring daggers at the both of us. She’s probably wondering what were we doing in my room.

‘So!’ Sakuya starts the conversation while clapping her hands once, smiling all the while. ‘I heard from Mashiro-chan that you want to talk to me. You’re Kagenashi Akira-kun from Class 6, right?’

‘Uh, yes senpai. I, uh, that is…’

‘Don’t be nervous. Take a deep breath and relax. And stop glaring, Ichika-chan. You’re scaring him.’

‘Yes, president.’ Ichika turned her expression from demon-scary to expressionless, which is not helping much.

I took her advice and take a deep breath. After I’m sure that I have calmed down, I open my mouth.

‘I'll get straight to the point. King Arthur Pendragon’s sword Excalibur. I know where it is.’