First Day of Classes

7 Mensis Aprilis, Year 704

The first day of classes had now begun. Maxim had just made it to class on time, and was still setting his books down on his desk when the teacher in the class, an average-looking woman named Yura Danro, introduced herself. “Good morning, class. Today is the first day of the three most important years of your life up to now. Rimnan Castle School is not just an academy. It is an institution that has kept many aspects of Tamara running for almost half a century. The boys and girls of this school have gone on to be generals, politicians, scientists, magicians, and many more things our society needs to function. Whether you are a part of our empire’s nobility or you are a commoner, you will be expected to live up to our standards and be the best you can be. There is no room for favoritism once you are a student. No amount of legacy admissions or priority for nobility depending on rank will help you once you’re through the gates.”

Maxim had heard this exact speech before. As he sat at his desk, he thought to himself how everyone had their English dub voices, and pondered if perhaps this is how they always sounded or if this was merely a case of the world translating itself for him. His own voice did not sound too different from the voice he had in the real world, albeit he sounded a little younger, which made sense given he had gone backwards in age.

He then looked over at Yuna and Victoria, who sat next to each other, as the teacher made another announcement. “Anyways, class, we have a last-minute addition to our group. Everyone, please welcome Kana Demas.”

A girl with long black hair then walked into the room, stoically going up to the whiteboard and writing down her name for everyone to see. “Good morning,” the girl said. “My name is Kana Demas. It’s nice to meet you all.” Her expression was one of indifference and neutrality.

Kana was the fifth and final main character of the original story, and the last to be introduced in its first episode. With that, Maxim had seen all of them. However, something unexpected happened as Yura told Kana, “Take a seat anywhere you like, Miss Demas.”

As Kana went to get her seat, she looked at Maxim with a long and hard stare of suspicion. She then took the seat next to him, which was something that had not happened in canon. Confused, Maxim decided to try to talk to her. “Uh… Hey there.”

“Hello,” she replied to him rather coldly. “Meet me after this class is over. I need to talk to you.”

Maxim was speechless. This was a development that he never would have guessed would happen with Kana. For her entire time in canon, Kana had largely been focused on Yuna and to a lesser extent Victoria. To top it off, Kana was one of the only characters in the series who was explicitly confirmed to be gay despite the massive amounts of yuri subtext that existed. In his mind, it made no sense as to why a character like her would want to meet with him.

…

As told by Kana, Maxim waited outside of the classroom, and when she walked out, she immediately turned to him and told him, “We need to talk about you.”

Half-playing dumb and half-genuinely confused, Maxim asked her, “How do you know me? Who are you anyway?”

“I know you’re not normal,” Kana replied. “The aura your body gives off tells me you’re not exactly who you claim to be.”

Maxim now understood why Kana had been so apprehensive around him. You see, everyone in this world had an aura attached to them. The size and intensity of this aura would determine their capabilities to use magic in the world of Rimnan Castle School. People like Lena and Victoria had rather large auras, while Yuna had a small one and therefore had less magic to work with. For most people in this world, it took specialized training to be able to unlock your aura and use magic, and Rimnan Castle School was one such place that taught people how to do so. Some people, such as Kana, had the capability to actually see someone’s aura if they wanted to, and it seemed as though Maxim’s was unusual, perhaps due to his status of having woken up in their world. In her case, she could see an aura as a giant light surrounding a person if she desired to see it.

“Who are you really?”

“I’m Maxim Ran-“

“Bullshit,” Kana cut him off. “Your aura is stronger than his is supposed to be. I saw you at the open house event last year, and your aura was almost half the size it is now. Who the Hell are you and what did you do to Maxim Ranka?”

Maxim, or Jordan rather, knew he could not keep lying to her, at least not completely. “Okay, okay, calm down, Kana. I’ll tell you who I really am, but you need to promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”

“As long as you don’t pose a threat to Yuna Miller, I won’t tell anyone else.”

“I’m in the body of Maxim Ranka, but…” Maxim struggled to find the words he needed to fully explain who he really was. “It’s like… How do I put this? I guess you could say I’m from another world, but I woke up in Maxim’s body and inherited all of his memories plus the ones I originally had in my world.”

“Another world… Hmm…” Kana then looked him up and down, once again studying his aura as indicated by her eyes changing color to all white for a time. “Well, it would explain your aura being larger. Whoever you really are, you have a much greater potential than the original Maxim.”

Maxim was floored. Not only had he woken up in one of his favorite anime series, but he apparently was actually powerful enough to stand toe to toe with its protagonists. He would not have to be a bystander to the events of the story. He could instead be an active participant. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope,” Kana shook her head as her eyes returned to normal, blinking several times as she re-adjusted to the light of the hallway’s rustic electric lamps. “Have you fully unlocked your aura?”

“No.”

“You’ll learn that soon enough here.” Kana then turned around to walk away from him, but not before giving him a stern warning. “But if I were you, I would make sure you never lay a hand on Yuna. If you hurt her, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

As Kana walked away, Maxim sighed in relief, knowing that for now at least, he was in the clear. “Thank God that’s over. For a sec, it felt like she was gonna fucking kill me.”

“Hey, Maxim.”

Startled by Paulo, Maxim jumped slightly before turning around and replying, “Oh shit, you scared the Hell out of me, dude!”

“Sorry, man. Anyway, what did Kana want from you? I saw she was talking to you earlier in class.” Joking with him, he smugly asked, “Was she asking you out on a date? Are you already picking up girls on the first day of school, Maxim?”

Maxim laughed, replying to him, “No, no, no. Trust me, I’m probably the last person she would be into.” He knew that that was true in more ways than one based on his knowledge of Kana’s character, so the fact Paulo had even asked such a seemingly ridiculous question was hilarious to him.

“You never know, man.”

“I think in this case, I do.”

Paulo then pointed out, “Aw, come on, Maxim. I’m sure there’s a girl here that you think is hot.”

“Well, I guess you could say that.” Maxim did find all of the main girls in Rimnan Castle School rather good-looking in his old world, along with his teacher, so this was not entirely wrong.

Paulo pestered him with, “Who is it?” When Maxim refused to answer, he asked again, “Come on, who’s the girl?”

“Well, uh…” Maxim did have an answer, but it was not a girl he would go after because of his own biases from his past life. “It’s, um… It’s not a girl from our class.”

Confused, Paulo questioned who it could be. “Wait, is it a girl from another first-year class?”

“No.”

“Then who the Hell is it?”

Taking a deep breath and admitting the truth, Maxim answered, “It’s Lena.”

Paulo was stunned, remaining silent for a few seconds as he processed his friend’s answer. In his mind, the idea of either of them being with an upperclassman, let alone someone of such a high rank in the Tamaran nobility, was preposterous. It was so preposterous, in fact, that he could not help but break out into laughter. “Woah, woah, woah, what the fuck?! Are you serious, man?!”

“Come on,” Maxim chided him. “It’s not funny.”

“I’m a noble, and even I have a better chance of winning the lottery than dating a girl from a family of dukes, let alone a girl who’s already a duchess. No offense, man, but you have a better chance of seeing the sun rise in the East than getting with her.”

Maxim was briefly confused as to why he mentioned the sun rising from the East as an impossibility, as such a thing was normal, before remembering that a running gag in the show was that the sun followed the opposite path in the sky compared to the real world, with the sun rising in the West and setting in the East, and therefore the Japanese phrase referring to improbability was reversed. Getting back on topic, Maxim replied, “Listen, a man can dream, okay?”

“That’s fair. Nothing wrong with having dreams, after all.”

Maxim did find Lena rather attractive both in the old world and now especially that he was living in her world, but also felt conflicted about such a thing given he shipped her with Victoria. Her well-kept and always neat brown hair, her hazel eyes, her… ample assets, all of that drew him to her in a more physical manner. However, it was her backstory and her personality that was a decisive factor in her becoming his favorite character. There were plenty of hot anime girls out there, but it was Lena as a character beyond her appearance that made the difference…

“Hey, you alright, man?”

Realizing he had drifted off into his own thoughts again, Maxim blinked and turned his attention back to Paulo. “Oh, sorry about that. I was just thinking.”

Paulo teased him with, “Fantasizing about what you can’t have?”

“Shut it, Paulo.”

…

In the small town that Rimnan Castle School was located in, also known as Rimnan, the best access to the closest city, known as Chanan, was by railroad. Often, students would hop on the train to Chanan, which was also the capital of the Tamaran Empire and therefore its most important city, for recreational purposes or to see their families. As Maxim and Paulo waited on the platform of the small and rather antiquated station, the latter noticed that Lena was also waiting. “Hey, Maxim, she’s here.”

“Huh?”

“Look.”

Maxim turned and indeed saw Lena waiting for the same train they were on. As soon as he turned his head and saw her, she noticed him and turned her head as well. “Oh, uh, hey there, Lena.”

”Good evening, Mr. Ranka. Are you going to the city, too?”

“Yeah. Me and Paulo are gonna head out to Chanan for a bit. We noticed there’s not a lot to do in Rimnan.” Maxim noted in his head how it seemed so weird to hear her address her own peers in such a formal and yet also cold and distant way in English, a consequence of adapting it from the show’s original Japanese dialogue.

“You can say that again,” Lena chuckled. “Everything here closes by 8 PM, maybe 9 PM at the latest. By the way, how are you after this morning?”

“I’m fine,” he replied. “I was just… Well, I wasn’t expecting to see that shit on my first day.”

“That’s good to hear. Monster attacks are more common out here in the rural areas. Most of the students at our school aren’t trained enough or even capable of being trained to fight like me and Victoria did, nor do many want to.” Lena must have felt like she was bragging too much, because she quickly got flustered and backtracked. “Ah, uh, my apologies. I didn’t mean to put you guys down. I ran my mouth again, didn’t I?”

“Nah, nah, it’s fine,” Paulo assured her. “So, what are you gonna do in Chanan, Your Grace?”

Lena assured him with a smile, “Mr. Rimas, you can drop the formalities here. We’re not meeting in a formal context, after all. When I’m at school or with my peers from school, my title as Duchess of Vale shouldn’t really matter. Anyway, to answer your question, I’m meeting with my uncle.”

Maxim felt a chill run down his spine when she mentioned meeting her uncle. He knew from having watched and read the series that Michael Vale, the brother of Lena’s deceased father and the regent of the title of Duke of Vale due to Lena still being a teenager, was not a good person. A part of him wanted to tell her to skip the meeting, but he knew that doing so would only raise suspicion on his part, so he kept his mouth shut for now. Paulo meanwhile, none the wiser, asked Lena, “You mean the regent of your title?”

“Correct. As I’m not legally an adult yet, he’s the one who does the actual political tasks and jobs that comes with being a noble, especially one as high-ranking as me. He sits in the House of Peers on my behalf, for example.“

Maxim took a deep breath, clearing his mind of the worries he had regarding the meeting. In fact, he knew that, assuming certain events were going to happen just as they did when he read and watched the story, this planned meeting would soon be postponed. He then looked down the tracks and saw a relatively modern-looking train about to pull in, blowing its horn to indicate its impending arrival. He asked Lena, “Are you getting off at Chanan Central?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Normally, I’d get off at Western Chanan, but that station’s under renovation, so it’s closed for a few days.”

When the train pulled in, all three of them entered together, with Maxim and Paulo sitting in a row of three seats while Lena sat next to them in a row of two seats. There were only a few more people in the car they were in as well as in the other cars, indicative of the rural nature of the area before they approached the capital. Maxim remarked to Lena, “Busy day with that monster attack, huh?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I know the school doesn’t particularly care for its magic-capable students using their abilities out in the wild, but the only other option was letting that beast run amok and hurt someone. Besides, I’ve had my powers awakened longer than most of the other students at school.”

“I’m surprised that other girl isn’t with you.” Playing dumb, Maxim asked her, “What was her name again…?”

“You mean Victoria? She’s back at school. I told her she could come with me, but she insisted that it was family business she had no part in.”

“I’m surprised,” Paulo replied. “She’s usually with you a lot, even before you went to Rimnan.”

“That’s what being born to a servant of the Vale family

will do for you.”

As the conversation between the three of them continued, Maxim began to think about how the story progressed from here. If things were to play out like they had in canon, there was a good chance that Yuna and Sarah were also on the train, albeit in a different car. In another few stops, another major event would soon take place, assuming once again that nothing would deviate from canon too much. As he anticipated this major event, he took a few deep breaths and began to get somewhat worried.

Paulo noticed this and asked him, “Hey, dude, you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Maxim assured him, doing his best to not look like he was crazy despite the suspense killing him. “I just got a lot on my mind right now since it’s my first day at Rimnan. That’s all.”