Reincarnator - Japanese

“Friday is the night of the Freshmen Ball; you are required to wear formal dress and find a partner to attend with,” Miss Emilia said at the end of their 2nd homeroom. “You don’t have to come with a member of the opposite sex or even with a romantic partner. There’s nothing wrong with coming with a friend or in a group. If you’re struggling to find a partner, you come alone.”

“Didn’t you just say is was required, Miss Emilia?”

“I did, but I can already see one loner right in front of me, Arc.”

Emilia’s comment earnt a few snickers from those nearby, but Reiss was occupied with something else.

The first event pick.

Yesterday, he had, like the protagonist, triggered the initial flags with each main heroine: Kara, Erica, Angela and Ria. He’d done each event as good or better than the Reiss in the game, but only Angela seemed to have started harbouring romantic feelings for him.

Once Instructor Emilia had left, Angela excitedly turned to Reiss.

“I’ve heard that lots of delicious food is served each year. I wonder what there’ll be.”

Reiss smiled. “I’ve only ever been to a few small parties at Yelanvan, so I’m excited to see what it’ll be like.”

“O-oh, you’ve never…t-then.” She turned a little to the side as she scratched her pink cheek. “D-do you want to go together?”

“Oho?” Kara, with her long silver hair, smirked as she walked over to their desks. “To think that spring had come so early for you two.”

“K-Kara!”

“I’d be happy to go with you, Angela,” Reiss said. “Though, I do hope Kara doesn’t feel left out or lonely.”

“Oh?” She smirked. “Do you think I’d be unable to find a match, Reiss?”

“Far from it. I imagine there’d be too many and you wouldn’t know who to pick.”

Kara chuckled. “Perhaps. Then, should we go together, Reiss?”

“W-wait!” Angela jumped out of her seat. “Reiss has already agreed to go with me.”

“Actually, Reiss just said he’d be happy to go with you. Didn’t say he would.”

“…Ria, why did you slide onto my desk?”

Ria, with her short red hair and neutral expression, turned like a lazy cat to face Reiss. “Is it bad?”

“Bad isn’t the right wor-”

“Reiss.” Angela pulled gently on his sleeve. “You meant that you’d come with me, right? Right?”

“The envy of all Japanese boys.”

“Huh?” Reiss spun around and found Arc standing there, looking down at him. “What did-?”

“Find me this evening, protagonist, but don’t ruin your relationships.”

…I wasn’t the only one who was reborn.

“Reiss?”

“A-ah, sorry, it’s nothing,” he chuckled nervously.

‘Don’t ruin your relationships’…

***

Arc left after speaking to Reiss in Japanese.

Little did they know that, across the classroom, Alice and Charlotte had been listening in.

“What language was that?”

Like I thought, she’s not like me. Yay! Charlotte smiled blissfully and said, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a secret language they invented.”

Prince Vladik laughed. “What a cute idea, Char. Maybe you and I should-”

“Your highness, I think that we, as fellow gentlemen, should-”

“Your highness, young lord, let’s not jump ahead of one another.”

As her harem clambered over one another for her attention, Charlotte was watching Reiss as he reapplied his mask and talked with the girls.

Three Japanese reincarnated into the same game franchise - what are the odds?

***

Surely, Charlotte isn’t interested in getting Reiss’s affections too, right? Alice wondered.

***

“Boss Peter! Ow! Why’d you hit my forehead?!”

“I’m just Peter here, Sayla,” he reminded her. “How’s Matilda?”

“She misses you but still enjoys bragging about her childhood sweetheart.”

Peter turned red. “That’s good. So.” His demeanour changed. “Was there anyone targeting or harassing commoners?”

“A few, but nothing too serious right now. It could escalate quite quickly if we aren’t careful. What should we do?”

“Observe for now but get ready to protect them if there’s any trouble. Stick to legal methods and the school’s regulations to protect them. Violence and such means are our last resorts.”

“Of course!”

“Thank you for your hard work, Sayla.” He patted her head gently.

“Of course, boss!”

Peter flicked her forehead again.

***

“Chairman Kingsley?” The headmaster was confused by the identity of his anonymous caller. “I never expected to get a call from you through such a backwards channel.”

“It’s because I don’t want this to be on an official record. There’s some worrying signs of a potential coming disaster that I needed to warn you about.”

Even with our soldiers, staff and the strength of the adventurers, you think something could go wrong?

“...Go on.”

“The Pale Corpse case,” the chairman said. “The mysterious identity of the killer is Samantha.”

“...I thought she was dead.”

“Sadly not.”

“...Can you send anyone?”

“Discreetly. I’ll let you know when they arrive.”

“Thank you, but I do hope your keen intuition is wrong this time.”

Chairman Kingsley laughed. “How often I’ve hoped the same.”

***

“You’re here.”

Reiss grunted as he locked the rooftop door behind him. “I could hardly ignore you after speaking to me in Japanese.

They stared at one another intensely.

“You too, then?”

Arc nodded. “My old name was Tetsuko Haruki, 15 years old. You?”

“Yamada Aoi, 17 years old. I don’t remember a character called Arc in Class 1.”

“That’s because he was originally an NPC in Class 5 with a handful of unvoiced dialogue lines.” Arc grinned. “He had talent, but he wasn’t super smart or hard working. I changed that. You though.” He scowled. “How much have you changed?”

“Only my relationship, or Reiss’s, with his sister and the encounter with Angela. I didn’t do anything that would’ve resulted in the incident at Tartarus or that would cause the Silent Sect to go into hiding.”

“...Like I feared. There might be more people like us messing with the original scenario.”

“Well, if you’re telling the truth, then neither of us have done anything major.”

“Not unless the Butterfly Effect has come into play or if the world itself is trying to correct itself. There are stories like that.”

Reiss shrugged his shoulders. “As it stands, our knowledge from our previous lives has limited uses. It’s not useless, but it’s far from ideal. Either way, you haven’t told me what you want.”

“I just wanted to confirm what you’d done and if you were like me,” Arc said. “I don’t mind if you want to try and get a perfect harem, as long as you help stop the events in the scenario and try to keep the narrative on track.”

“And if I don’t?”

Arc smirked. “Who knows?”

“I won’t do anything stupid, so I hope you won’t either.” Reiss stared daggers at Arc. “Try not to contact me unless it’s necessary.”

“You realised it too, right?” Reiss stopped in his tracks. “Alice Eagold - she’s still alive.”

“…Yeah. Do you think she’s-?”

“She must be, right? If not, why isn’t she dead? “

“Someone else could have saved her.”

“And then put her on a pedestal to remove Rikard from his position as the Star Student?"

He makes some good points. “Should we try asking her some questions in Japanese?”

“It worked on you.”

“…True. Fine, let’s do that tomorrow.”

With that, Reiss left.

“He’s stronger than the game one. That could be a problem,” Arc mumbled.