Phineas Mantel, the narrow-eyed, dark-brow-haired holy man climbed up the stairs towards the teachers' lounge with his protégé, Grace Suitor, an ever expressionless follower of the holy church. The two were still in their food stand uniforms as they were in the middle of preparing the lunches for all the students within the school.

“We’re not done with the orders.” Grace complained as they walked up, face so still one could mistake her for a robot, “The food will arrive late.”

“We’ll be back down in just a minute.” Phineas assured her. She was extremely dogmatic when following orders, which made her useful for missions, just a bit annoying to talk to and persuade into following new orders.

“I thought we were to leave Lilith alone.”

“Yes, but I sensed a demonic presence. I want to just make sure our favourite professor is doing alright.” He said with a kind smile. To anyone else, that grin would make their skin crawl, but Grace seemed unperturbed by it.

“But I didn’t sense anything.”

“Which is why I’m here.” Phineas said as they made it to the main hall. Empty as it usually was at this time. They casually strode over to the teacher’s lounge and were surprised to see the door half open already.

“Professor Lilith?” Phineas asked as he opened the door all the way.

There the two saw Lilith sitting in her chair, keeled over and taking large breaths. With a trembling hand she tightly gripped a water bottle as she looked up at them.

“C-c-can I help-p you?” She managed to say.

“What happened?” Phineas asked, eyes narrowing. He could sense that something happened with Lilith, but the fact that he couldn’t see a cause bothered him.

“O-o-h, nothing… I-I think I’m just overworked.” Lilith said quickly, her sixth sense telling her to be quiet about what had happened.

“Really, do you need me to-” Phineas said taking a step towards her before someone called out to him.

“Hey, what are you two doing?” A girl, Julia Ming, said spotting the two and running over, “What are you two doing here? I went to your stall and found it abandoned.”

“Oh, well you see…” Phineas trailed off as he blanked on an excuse.

“Is that Professor Lilith? What happened?” Julia said quickly barging past the two to stand next to Lilith who still looked to be recovering.

“Oh, we found her like that.” Phineas began before Julia quickly continued.

“Hey, could you two do what I paid you to do and finish out order?” She snapped, “I’ll take care of the professor so you two can actually do your jobs.”

“I-” Phineas began before Grace quickly interrupted.

“Right away. Your meals will be delivered down to the club soon.” Grace said quickly.

“Uh, right.” Phineas said glancing over to Lilith wanting to investigate her more, but knowing that it was better not to cross Julia Ming for now. Her family had enough influence that it would be a headache if she opposed them. Besides, it seems that Lilith was a false alarm for now.

Once the two left, Julia and Lilith were alone inside the teachers lounge, Julia carefully studied her. She looked drained of energy, something definitely happened to her.

“Are you alright?” Julia asked.

“Uh, yeah, well. Maybe not.” Lilith said, “I was feeling a bit paranoid before you came along. I don’t know what happened earlier, maybe I ate something wrong? Or maybe I didn’t eat enough?” Lilith said with a shaky laugh, “I hallucinated two students fighting.”

“That is strange.” Julia said as she figured that she knew at least who one of the students probably was.

“Yeah, uh, I guess I haven’t slept either.” Lilith rambled.

“Why don’t you sit down and have a nap?” Julia advised.

“But my work.”

“I don’t know how much work you can get done right now.”

“Well… maybe a quick nap.” Lilith said nodding her head as Julia guided her to a couch.

“Here, rest up first and then you can finish your work.” Julia said.

“Okay, just, just wake me up in thirty minutes okay?”

“I will professor.” Julia promised as she watched Lilith close her eyes and immediately fall asleep. She really was tired, “Remind me never to become a teacher.” Julia muttered.

“Yeah I hear it’s very stressful.” Archer said as he opened the door to the teacher’s lounge. There was a black-haired girl hanging off his back, “Thanks for the assist, I really was worried that I would need to reveal myself to help Professor Lilac.”

“Were you anyway?” Julia asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl.

“Hiding.” Archer said with a shrug.

“Right.” Julia said, “And what beauty did you save this time?”

“Beauty? Oh, right.” Archer said remembering the girl he was carrying, “Right, she was temporarily possessed like Luna, but this time by a demon. I exorcized the demon back to hell so she’s safe now.”

“Of course you did.” Julia said no longer surprised by Archer’s wacky adventures now, “So what happens with her now?”

“If I’m lucky, she’ll remember nothing.”

“And if she does?”

“Who would believe her?” Archer said and Julia couldn’t argue with that point, “Now I just need to take her to the infirmary.”

“I’ll handle it.” Julia offered as Archer removed the student from his back and Julia took her instead.

“I appreciate it.” Archer said before pausing with a frown.

“Is something wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just that every student I’ve helped so far has been a girl.” He said before mumbling, “I’m not even related. Is this stuff inherited via name alone?”

“What are you talking about?” Julia asked.

“Uh, nothing.” Archer said quickly shaking his head, “You sure you want to carry her?”

“I can handle it playboy.” Julia teased, “Besides, you didn’t plan on being here right?” Julia then stopped as she asked, “Wait, how did you find out?”

“Someone told me, I have no idea who though. I think it’s likely another agent but I find it a bit annoying that I have no real idea who they are.”

“Not happy when you’re the one kept in the dark?”

“Hypocritical, I know.” Archer said with a shrug.

“Pfff. Okay I’ll take her to the nurses room, it should be empty so she can just sleep away. I need to get back before everyone gets suspicious.” Julia said.

“See you back at school.” Archer said as Julia carried the girl outside the lounge.

Archer then turned to see the slumbering Lilith, she wasn’t waking up anytime soon. Archer looked outside the window, surely there were plenty of things he needed to do today. His eyes then drifted back to the sleeping Lilith Lilac and then towards the stack of paperwork.

“Hmm.” Archer grunted as he moved over to her desk and sat down. He then picked up a paper from the pile and woke the computer up.

***

Petyr Powl walked his way through the busy city streets in his casual wear. It was a Saturday evening and that meant that a lot of people were walking about with several stores open. Petyr was not of this world, mentally at least, he had found himself awakened in this world a little more than a month ago inside another’s body.

Now Petyr’s body wasn’t bad, above average in looks and very athletic thanks to his awakened powers, however pathetic as they originally were. Petyr knew about this world thanks to his otherworldly knowledge. What he knew was that this world was based on a game that he played in the past, two actually.

The Great Grand Awakening in Trinity Academy was the name of the series he had played in the past. It featured playing as Ran Almer and trying to make his way through the Academy while getting stronger and gathering friends at school.

It was a fun pair of games that Petyr played for several months back-to-back. Though he never had time to finish the second game before he found himself in this reality. Nor was he able to even start the third game which wasn’t released.

Still he had almost two years' worth of knowledge when it came to this world and he was going to make the most of it. Petyr Powl in the original game was a side character. Mentioned offhandedly here and there when a name needed to be dropped or a body was required. They were as NPC as an NPC could be.

In fact during an event in the second game he might have even died. Petyr couldn’t know for sure because of how little the game focused on him. Either way, whether he lived or died in the original, he was not going to fade into obscurity. With his knowledge of knowing every event that will happen in the future he was going.

Or at least that’s what he originally thought, but even after only a month in everything has been just a bit weird. Characters that never appeared in the game popped their heads like that weirdo who lives in the woods, Evan, and the girl Luna who’s now part of Ran’s team. At least the girl is cute, but he has no idea where she came from.

Though Petyr did find it hard to get close to female characters. Being in a different class from them was a hurdle he had to climb over. Still he managed to integrate himself well enough to be on friendly terms with them but never any further.

Selena Schenn seemed infatuated with Ran. Petyr still couldn’t understand why, Ran was a pushover and a failure. He loses and gets humiliated so often that it was one of the main complaints of the games. Ran was a beta that kept getting beat.

Yet here Petyr was in the world of ‘The Great Grand Awakening in Trinity Academy’ and a gaggle of the female students were already flocking around him. Including women who weren’t even in the game originally. It was fine though, one of the major challenges in the game was after the first major defeat.

The duel with Igor is a scripted loss for Ran, no matter how much the player prepares, Ran will simply not be strong enough to win. After losing, many of those who supported him lose hope and their favourability all drop. Petyr remembered getting so mad the first time he played, all that time grinding for gifts became useless after all the penalties losing accumulated.

After that it was all crisis management for the player as they needed to maintain relationships while being able to level up their character. It was extraordinarily difficult to maintain positive relationships with everyone and many became permanently unattainable in a short period of time.

With what Petyr had seen of Ran so far, this was going to be the case. One of the first to always go is Selena. And I know just what to do to get her to love me. Petyr thought with a hearty chuckle. He was stronger than Ran already, he was sure of it and soon after Ran falls, he’ll be the one who everyone will look up to.

Petyr then stopped as he noticed someone standing around looking a bit lost. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he recognized who he was. Alex Murphy, Ran Almer’s best friend, who in many endings tends to betray and leave Ran.

If Ran was a pushover, then Alex was a full-on worthless coward. His stats sucked and they were only good when he became an enemy. Trying to raise that character was a fool’s errand and lo and behold, Ran still kept that traitorous idiot around. Petyr always made sure to abandon Alex as soon as possible whenever he replayed the games.

Petyr genuinely hated Alex, when he turned evil, he really turned evil. Excessively cruel towards the protagonist and their allies. Honestly Petyr planned to get rid of Alex by the end of the semester, whether that meant kicking him out the school or killing him, it didn’t really matter.

Looking at Alex, he saw that he noticed that he was rather lost, he seemed to be searching for something. With a shake of his head, he quickly slinked past Alex who was trying and failing to get some help. While Ran and co were going to fruitlessly train for this fight, he was going to get himself some items from the black market.

As Alex Murphy debated whether or not he should just go home and apologize to his team later, he saw the flash of a school uniform. A first-year, F-rank student uniform that was pristine and well-maintained, he had short black hair and was on the shorter side himself. At only five and a half feet tall, he was a good six inches shorter than Alex.

Alex thinks he recognized this student. He was in his class, he thinks. What was his name again? Alex recalled that Luna talked to him a bit, and Selena didn’t really like him much. Honestly Alex was a bit hesitant to call out to him, he seemed very standoffish and stayed away from the rest of the F-ranks.

“Oh good evening, Alex right? We share the same homeroom?” Archer said spotting Alex as well.

“Oh, uh yes, uh. Hi, um.” Alex stammered out.

“What are you doing here?” Archer asked quizzically.

“Uh, well, uh, I- uh, looking for a…” Alex said as he waved a small piece of paper, finding himself tongue-tied.

“Oh lost?” Archer said, filling in the blanks for him, “Would you mind letting me take a look at that note for you? I might know the place.”

“Uh…” Alex said as he handed Archer the note.

“Oh, potion store right. Yeah there are a few places. I’m sure there are some more artisan shops, but you can go to the general store down the street to the right. They have a sale for bulk purchases, or at least that’s what the ad said on the window.” Archer said handing back the note,

“O-h, thanks, uh, why, uh…”

“Oh I was, well…” Archer now took a pause, “I was helping out with an issue all day, heading back home now. Take care, pleasure to see you.” Archer said waving goodbye before leaving.

Now alone again, Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He also lambasted himself, wishing that he could’ve said something. He was so helpful to him, even if Alex still had no idea what his name was. He also couldn’t help but feel ashamed at his own ineptitude, he couldn’t even talk to another student.

But where did he come from? From the school? That was the only place Alex could think of. No matter, he needed to hurry and get some potions for the dungeon trip tomorrow. He hoped his classmate was right and that the place had a sale on, the group didn’t have much money to pay for consumable equipment, so every little bit helped.

***

Lilith Lilac slowly opened her eyes hearing the sound of footsteps. With a groan she sat up from the couch inside the teacher’s lounge and blinked a few times. She then bolted straight to her feet as she remembered everything. Oh gods, the work!

“Oh, Lilith you’re awake.” Another professor, Oscal Tral, who taught the second-year defensive styles classes, greeted her as he flipped through a binder, “You don’t need to be alarmed, you deserve the rest. Good job, I appreciate the help.”

“Huh?” Lilith said dumbfounded.

“I have no idea how you did it but you managed to get everything done, very well written as well. Though next time try to write some of it down on paper, saves on printer ink. Oh yes, and Electa’s secretary wants you to deliver her papers yourself.” Oscal said as he took the binder of paper from the desk and left without giving Lilith a second thought.

“Huh?” Lilith repeated again, still clueless. She then walked over to her desk and checked her computer and the papers she needed to complete. They were all done.

“How in the world?” She murmured as she looked around confused. She fell asleep at around noon, she was sure of that she never woke up until now. Yet here was proof of the opposite. What happened? What happened all day in fact?

Placing a hand to her head she questioned things for another moment until her head began to hurt. Deciding that she wouldn’t figure out anything right now, she then got excited as she realized something. With her work done, that meant she was free for the night and that meant booze.