As If I Was in a Dream

May 2025

Jordan Ramirez was a college sophomore at the end of the academic year, and he could not be more lost in his life than now. He had lost his job, his girlfriend had left him, and while he did well academically, he was beginning to doubt if his business administration degree was what he wanted to do with his life. As he finished watching a show on his laptop while staying up late on a Friday night, he stretched his arms and remarked, “Looks like I’m staying in again.” His roommate had left to go out with his own girlfriend for the night, leaving Jordan by himself.

He looked at the list of shows offered on a streaming service and then selected an anime called Rimnan Castle School, a series about a private high school in a fantasy world and monsters that a group of students fought, whether it was with magic or by more conventional means. He had followed the manga since shortly after it had come out when he was still a senior in high school, and he had subsequently followed its 13-episode first season from January to March. He had been a fan of the series, even meeting two of its English voice actors at a convention a few weeks prior, getting a small autograph signed by both of them and having it stored in his backpack as well as selfies on his phone. The autograph featured the two characters they voiced, second-year student Lena Vale and first-year student Victoria Kristen, sitting at a table together.

Needless to say, he really, really liked the series. Between the action during fights, the drama between characters, and the heavy emphasis on yuri subtext, there was a lot for him to enjoy.

As he rewatched the first episode, Jordan remarked to himself, “It always feels good to come back to Rimnan.” He was caught up with the manga, which had extended well beyond the first season of the anime, meaning that he had foreknowledge of events well after the cutoff point of many others who had only seen the show. After sitting and watching the first episode, he yawned and looked at the clock on his laptop before remarking, “Screw it, I got one more episode in me.”

Soon, a second episode turned into a third episode, and then, in the middle of the fourth episode, Jordan passed out from exhaustion and fell asleep in his bed, the show still running on his laptop.

Little did he know that he would wake up in a place far from home, but still familiar…

…

“Maxim,” then called a voice as he slowly woke up. “Maxim, get up! You’ll be late for school!”

The same young man stirred awake, slowly opening his eyes and finding himself in a room that was completely different. While it looked like a dorm room, it was nothing like the modern and drab grey and white room he had before. This room was largely wooden and looked far older than he was used to. It was as if he had taken a step back in time, although there were other oddities that indicated something else was off.

“Hey man, come on,” then said the same voice. “Get up, dude!”

The young man got up and looked at the other young man in the room with him. “Wait, what the Hell?”

“You don’t have a lot of time to get dressed,” said the other young man, who had a small name tag on what appeared to be a red and brown school uniform indicating that his name was Paulo Rimas. His combo of slicked-back brown hair and red eyes were another indication that this was not an entirely normal world. “Max, I don’t think you wanna be late for the first day, especially not here.”

Jordan, or now Maxim, got up out of bed, perplexed by what he was seeing. “Max… Maxim…”

Thoroughly weirded out, Paulo asked him, “Hey, are you okay?”

Realizing that his behavior was not normal, Maxim looked at Paulo and replied, “I’m fine. I just woke up from a dream, that’s all.”

In his mind, Maxim was panicking. He had suddenly found himself in a totally new world in a totally different body and presumably in a totally different situation than he had been as Jordan. However, he knew that he could not show it to this Paulo character, no matter how much he wanted to, because it would only raise further questions.

“Let me go get dressed,” he told Paulo. “I’ll see you later.” He then walked into the small bathroom of his dormitory and looked into the mirror. As he did, he noted how different he looked in comparison to his old self. Jordan Ramirez had short black hair and brown eyes, but Maxim… Whatever-his-last-name-was had hair that was more of a dark blue, which perplexed him as such a thing should not have been possible. His eyes were black, which was more in-line with what he was used to. He also looked somewhat younger than his old self, and began to wonder more about who he had apparently become as he took his clothes off and stepped into a shower to clean himself. To top it off, he also seemed a bit more well-built and handsome compared to his original self, although he was by no means bad-looking as Jordan, either.

As he was showering, Paulo suddenly opened the door to the bathroom and yelled inside, “Here’s your uniform.”

“Paulo?!” Maxim was startled by his sudden appearance. “Wha- What the Hell?”

“I didn’t see anything,” Paulo assured him. “I’m just giving you your clothes, man.” He then closed the door, leaving Maxim alone again.

Maxim sighed as he asked himself, “How did I remember his name? I’ve never seen him before, but it feels like I’ve known him for at least a little while.” He wondered to himself about this new world he had found himself in as he continued his shower, and as he did, he began to feel like the uniform that Paulo was wearing seemed familiar. “Ugh, Jordan, what the fuck are you getting yourself into?”

When he got done with his shower, Maxim got out and began to get dressed. He saw his own name tag on his uniform, which indicated that his full name was Maxim Ranka, something that he also began to remember as if he had seen it before. The tie issued with it was red, something that he also seemed to recognize. Once he was ready, he got out of the bathroom as Paulo asked him, “Are you sure you’re okay, man? You’ve been acting weird this whole time you woke up.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure you’re not worried since it’s our first day of classes here at Rimnan?”

That question immediately caused Maxim to freeze in place as he was picking up his bookbag. Thoughts raced around his head as he mentally questioned what he had just heard. In his mind, there was no way that Paulo had just referenced the anime he was watching when he fell asleep as Jordan in the real world… If the world he was in now was not also real to an extent.

“What’s up? You kinda just blanked out.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Maxim replied, “Oh, uh, yeah, that’s probably it. I worked hard to get here, so I’m a bit worried. Maybe it’s like Impostor syndrome or something.” He hoped that this explanation would be enough to get Paulo to stop pestering him with questions.

Confused, Paulo asked him, “Impostor syndrome?”

“You know, when you can’t believe what kind of situation you’re in so much that you doubt you are actually good enough to be in it.” Maxim then shrugged. “I don’t know, man, that’s the best way I can describe it.”

“Hmmm… I see. I can see why you’d think that way. It’s not every day they admit a lot of commoners or even lower-ranked nobility into the school. People like us would have never dreamed of going here even five years ago, let alone when Rimnan Castle became a school over a century ago.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Maxim said, playing along as he continued to freak out internally about the world he had found himself in. “I guess things just happen sometimes…”

As the two walked down the hallway, however, they heard what sounded like a loud boom from outside and stopped. Paulo asked Maxim, “What the Hell was that? It sounded pretty loud.”

Maxim had a feeling he knew exactly what it was. If it was indeed what he thought it was, it was the event that kicked off the anime in the first episode. He looked at Paulo and told him, “We need to go. Right now.”

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘right now?’”

“Just trust me on this, Paulo.” He then took his hand and practically began to drag him down the hallway. “Come on!”

“Okay, okay,” Paulo replied, still confused as to why Maxim had suddenly gotten so worried until they passed by a window to the outside of the dorm building they were in. “Woah, what the fuck?!”

Outside, a twelve-foot red-furred beast with three horns was walking on its hind legs and had trampled through the gates of Rimnan Castle, flattening them as other students who were outside fled for safety and shelter. The beast roared into the sky before crushing a flower garden, spreading its contents all over the ground. A small female student with pink pigtails, who was also a brand new first-year like Maxim and Paulo given that she also had a red tie, screamed as the beast made a run for her, “Somebody help me!”

Paulo and Maxim both made a dash for the stairs before opening an emergency exit door to the outside, giving them a better look at the chaos. Paulo recognized the girl that was seemingly about to get trampled by the monstrous beast, calling out to her, “Yuna, look out!”

Maxim recognized the name and realized that the girl Paulo knew was in fact one of the main characters of the story: Yuna Miller. He yelled out in disbelief, his suspicions finally being confirmed, “Yuna?! No way!”

Then, right as Yuna was about to be seemingly crushed to death by the monster, another girl with brown hair kept in a ponytail swooped in, grabbing her by her uniform shirt collar and dragging her away just in time before the monster stepped on her. She then held out her right arm, which began to glow a bright gold yellow before a beam of light fired from her right hand and struck the monster, causing it to scream in pain. The girl told Yuna with a warm smile, “That was too close. A few seconds later, and you’d be dead, but don’t worry. This won’t take long!” Unlike Yuna, Paulo, and Maxim, she had a blue tie, indicating she was a second-year.

As Paulo and Maxim stopped, the former recognized the other girl and said to the latter, “Wait a minute, I know that girl! That’s Lena Vale! I didn’t realize she had honed her skills so well at our age!”

Maxim, of course, knew exactly who Lena Vale was. She was one of the main characters of Rimnan Castle School, and a favorite of his to boot. Having seen her through the story, he found himself drawn to how she looked as a real person. Indeed, he found himself drawn to how the entirety of the school and the characters within it looked as if they were real people, although Lena captured his attention the most. Not wanting to reveal who he actually was so early, Maxim just nodded along with Paulo and replied, “Yeah, I guess she is.”

“She’s even an actual noble,” Paulo pointed out as they watched Lena battle the monster and push him back with a second attack. “Not just an heir to a title, but one who actually holds a title. It’s not often you can say you go to a school with a Duchess, after all.” He noticed that Maxim seemed to be staring at her and lost in thought, assuming he found himself attracted to Lena’s looks. He chuckled and told him in an attempt to let him down gently, “I see how you’re looking at her, dude. There’s no way we’re in her league. She’s an upperclassman and a high-ranking noble. She’s probably already pledged to some man when she gets out of here.”

“Me? No, no way,” Maxim replied to him, assuring him he was not trying to get with her. “I know I’d have no fucking chance in Hell with her. Why would she want to be with some lowly commoner like me?”

There was, however, another reason why Maxim would not want to be with Lena, and that reason was about to make her presence known.

Lena readied both of her arms for a second attack, aiming at the monster and firing at its head at point-blank range. With this attack, the monster’s head exploded in a fireball, causing some blood to splatter onto the ground and end up on her face. However, she did not seem too concerned by this, and as the beast fell to its knees, another girl with very short red hair soon ran over, with this one carrying an empty sword hilt in her right hand. Disappointed that the battle had ended already, she said to Lena, “Aw man, he’s already dead?”

“Sorry,” Lena replied with a chuckle as she wiped some blood off of her face. “He was threatening a first-year, so I had to act quickly.”

“Wait, which first-year?” The third girl then turned around and saw Yuna standing behind Lena. “Wait a minute, I’ve seen you before. What’s your name?”

“Oh, uh,” Yuna replied rather timidly, indicative of how shy she was as she looked away slightly. “My-… My name is Yuna Miller, daughter of Count Leonard Miller. I think, um… I think I saw you as well. You’re Victoria Kristen, right?”

“That I am,” Victoria replied as she put away her sword hilt in her book bag before pulling out a towel. “Here you go, Lena.”

“Thank you,” she replied before wiping her hands and face. The two then faced the monster Lena had just slain and pressed their hands together in prayer, closing their eyes as they chanted a saying in unison.

“May the Lords of Light take this foul beast away and return him to the soil below our feet. Amen.”

With those words, the monster’s corpse dissipated and turned into dust, flying away in the air with a slight breeze. Yuna, clearly amazed by what she had seen, remarked, “Wow, that was… That looked so cool!”

Paulo and Maxim then began to walk towards them, with the former asking the trio, “Hey, you guys alright? That monster attack was a Hell of a way to start the first day of classes.”

“We’re fine,” Lena assured him. “You two must be new students here like Lena and Victoria.”

Victoria asked the two boys, “What class are you guys in? I’m in Class 1-2.”

“Same with us,” Paulo replied.

“Me too, actually,” Yuna also added.

Maxim could not believe his luck. He had been placed in Class 1-2, the class that got the biggest focus in the series. He would be privy to some of the biggest moments in the story by merely being a classmate to several of the main characters. Again, of course, he had to play dumb, asking Victoria, “So, how do you know the Duchess?”

“I’m one of her servants,” Victoria explained. “Been that way for about two years now.”

“Oh, come on,” Lena replied while putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’re not just a servant. You’re my best friend, Vicky.” She then told Maxim, “You don’t have to call me by my title all the time. Sure, I may be a Duchess, but when I enter these walls, I’m a student just like you, Maxim. It’s fine if you just call me Lena.”

Again, Maxim knew all of this already. In fact, Victoria was the reason he would not have been interested in any theoretical relationship with Lena, even though he found her to be, in his own words, one of the hottest girls in the show. You see, he was one of many people in his old world who shipped Victoria and Lena together, hence why he had the poster signed by their English voice actors in his old world dorm room. That said, Victoria was not always shipped with Lena, and the other girl she often found herself put together with was about to make her appearance assuming that the canon of the first episode still largely played out the same.

A girl with braided white hair and a green tie on her uniform, indicating she was a third-year, then ran out to the group, clearly worried based on her facial expression. As she stopped and caught her breath, she explained, “I came out here as fast as I could! Yuna, are you okay?!”

“I’m okay, Sarah,” replied Yuna to the fourth main character of the series, Sarah Grisha. “Lena and Victoria saved me before that monster could get to me.”

“Oh, thank God,” Sarah replied as she sighed with relief. “It would have sucked if you got killed on your first day.”

“Speaking of,” Lena then said as she checked her wristwatch and got a bit worried, emitting a nervous laugh. “We should probably all head in before we’re all late for the first day of the school year.”

“Oh fuck,” Victoria blurted out. “You’re right. We need to hurry!”

As the group all ran towards the main school building, which, as the name suggested, was indeed a rather large and ancient castle reaching many feet into the sky, Maxim began to wonder about the situation he got himself into. To recap, Maxim:

Woke up in the universe of one of his favorite anime series

Woke up as a background character who probably did not even have a name mentioned in the show

Roomed with a minor character

Was in the same class as at least two of the main characters of said show

Was now faced with the task of repeating all of high school while in a fantasy world

While he certainly did not mind the first four points, the fifth point was a bit annoying. After all, he had completed his own high school journey as Jordan Ramirez two years prior, only to now have to repeat it all. Perhaps this time, however, he could avoid certain mistakes he made in his original teenage years. With his advanced knowledge of the series he was in, he could also change future events.

You see, Rimnan Castle School had gained a reputation in Jordan’s old world for starting out as a mostly lighthearted manga and anime series about girls (and some boys) at a prestigious academy who fought monsters. That was true… Until the fourth episode, that is.