The Day I Realized I Was Possessed

Ensi realized the fact that he was a reincarnator and a possessor only after entering the academy.

If there was anything interesting about it, it was that there wasn’t a special trigger for this realization like in other possession stories.

No, perhaps that is exactly why it could be considered special.

“You, you’re a possessor, aren’t you?”

Ensi’s self-awareness began with that secret question from someone who suddenly approached him.

Even Ensi, who had always maintained a detached attitude, couldn’t help but be startled by the sudden sound of his mother tongue from his past life during the entrance ceremony.

As if that reaction was a sufficient answer, the other person whispered in the continental common tongue this time, wearing a satisfied smile.

“Let’s talk.”

He frowned slightly at the somewhat selfish and inconsiderate notification, but regardless of that sentiment, he nodded at the nameless woman’s words.

This was because he had become interested in her calling him a ‘possessor.’

Thus, he skipped the entrance ceremony, which was equally boring in both his past and present lives, and followed the nameless woman as she led him to a deserted place.

“My name is Lily. Lily Florence. And you?”

“How were you so sure I was a possessor when you didn’t even know who I was?”

When Ensi asked back with a stiff expression, Lily tilted her head to the side.

Her expression suggested she didn’t understand why he was even asking such a thing.

“You knew I was a possessor before you knew my name, too. Naturally, I found out the same way you did.”

He fell silent at her confident voice.

Perhaps that strange conviction he felt when he saw her was indeed correct information.

“Anyway, what’s your name?”

“Ensius Alemier.”

“Ensius, Ensius… Ah! That runner-up from the Knight Faculty!”

Lily clapped her hands as if she finally remembered, and then reached out her hand, saying it was nice to meet him.

“Sorry, I feel like I unintentionally stole what should have been your grade.”

“I have no lingering attachment to grades, so it’s fine. More importantly, if it’s possession, what exactly did you possess?”

“What, did you not watch ‘I Refuse the Romance’? How did you end up possessing something without even reading it? No, wait, since the possession itself is beyond common sense, I guess it doesn’t matter? It’s a work I dropped because it was boring anyway. The male lead was totally not my type.”

Whether she was excited to meet a fellow possessor or just naturally talkative, Lily began to chatter about information Ensi hadn’t even asked for.

For instance, information such as the original work being a romance novel set in an academy, that she was originally the female lead in the Department of Business Administration but intentionally entered the Knight Faculty, and that the original story begins in the first semester of the second year.

She even mentioned that the catalyst for the male and female leads getting involved was Florence’s family bribing Agniele’s family with a newly discovered diamond mine as a dowry to finalize the engagement.

She also shared useless information about how she preferred a man with a pretty, faint smile, a moderately sly side, and a simple nature rather than a stiff, blunt, and old-fashioned male lead like Agniele.

Honestly, he wasn’t curious at all about a stranger’s ideal type, so he considered cutting her off, but he just listened quietly since she was pouring out her heart.

“Anyway, that’s why I entered the Knight Faculty! I didn’t want to end up with a male lead like Agniele, who isn’t even my type, just because there’s an original story.”

“That Agniele should be in the same Knight Faculty, though.”

He had even entered at the top of the class and took the oath representing the freshmen.

Despite Ensi’s point, Lily waved her hand with an indifferent face.

“It’s okay, I only read the beginning, but I know Agniele has no interest in his surroundings. Maybe the author’s taste is a bit unique, because they even put in a setting where he can’t remember the face of an attendant who served him for three years.”

“…Then how does he distinguish people?”

“By mana. Everyone’s mana has its own unique characteristics, so he distinguishes them by that. So, unless it’s something extraordinary, Agniele might remember a person’s mana, but he’ll never remember their face.”

It was a truly self-indulgent setting.

As Ensi let out a hollow laugh because it was so absurd, Lily nodded as if she understood.

She added that those kinds of settings were part of why she dropped the story.

“So, what is my role?”

“You? You are, well…”

Lily, who had been speaking without hesitation, rolled her eyes at Ensi’s question.

Somehow, she seemed reluctant to speak.

“Am I a villain or something?”

“Uh… you’re not a villain, you were just an extra. A one-line extra, at that.”

At Ensi’s subtle urging, Lily finally confessed the truth.

She secretly watched his reaction, wondering if he might feel offended.

“I’m an extra?”

“Yeah, you were an extra.”

When Ensi expressed disbelief because he was absurdly shocked in a different sense this time, Lily drove the point home even while gauging his reaction.

It was as if she wanted to emphasize that she wasn’t wrong.

“…For an extra, my life seems quite colorful.”

Since Ensi was someone who had never read the original work, he readily accepted the fact that he was an extra due to her confident tone.

However, a hollow laugh escaped him at the fact that his tumultuous life was defined as a mere extra, and he muttered self-deprecatingly.

“Eh? What did you say?”

Because his voice was so small, Lily missed what Ensi said.

So Lily, wanting him to say it again, asked back, but Ensi slowly shook his head.

“It’s nothing.”

When Ensi swallowed his words, Lily pursed her lips but didn’t ask further.

They hadn’t built enough rapport for her to cling to something the other person wanted to move past.

Instead, she decided to speak of information she hadn’t delivered yet.

“Then, do you know this?”

“What is it this time?”

He wondered what kind of absurd information she would tell him now.

Strangely, he felt a bit expectant, so Ensi listened quietly.

“There are other possessors besides us in this academy.”

And not just one or two, but several?

Lily, raising the end of her sentence, had eyes sparkling as if she found the current situation very interesting.

Unlike her, who was full of life, Ensi, who had a somewhat lethargic side, couldn’t help but frown.

Somehow, he had a hunch that this would be a very troublesome academy life.

After that day, Lily busily moved around the academy looking for other possessors.

Before a month had even passed, she gathered six possessors and even founded a club named [Romance].

Under the leadership of the highly driven Lily, six people gathered in the club room that had been created on a whim.

Interestingly, they each claimed to have possessed characters from different genres and different novels.

“I am Luke Glancia of the Rehasel Kingdom. I was reincarnated as the villain and younger brother of the protagonist in ‘The Reincarnated Sword Genius’.”

“Huh? Was there such a novel? Anyway, I am Titania Maylin of the Duchy of Celine. I’m the female lead of a reverse harem novel called ‘When Deep Darkness Falls’.”

“I am called Cyril of the Holy Kingdom of Asgard. I am the female lead of the novel ‘The Beloved Saintess,’ and I’m still a saintess candidate.”

“Uh… I’m Donovan of the Nordic Kingdom… I possessed the protagonist of an adventure story called ‘To the End of the Horizon’.”

“Lily Florence of the Ingrid Empire. I’m the female lead of ‘I Refuse the Romance’.”

“Ensius Alemier of the Ingrid Empire. I’m an extra in the same novel as Lily.”

Once everyone’s introductions were finished, a heavy silence fell for a moment.

The one who broke that silence was the trembling voice of the one who introduced herself as the saintess.

“Wait, just a moment. Did we really all possess completely different novels?”

“Are you doubting my words?”

“It’s not so much doubt… as it is that this situation itself is unbelievable.”

Cyril responded calmly despite Luke’s displeased reaction.

As she said, everyone felt the same way about the situation being unbelievable, so silence fell once more.

Clap!

“Whatever!”

Lily clapped her hands together and refreshed the atmosphere with her characteristically bright smile.

“Rather than that, let’s talk about how everyone ended up entering the academy. Isn’t it a bit amazing that characters from different novels have gathered in one place?”

As if they agreed with her words, everyone nodded silently.

At that, Lily drew a deeper smile on her lips and spoke first.

“To speak for myself first, it’s because I thought it was necessary to follow the flow to some extent to avoid the original work. There are clichés where simply avoiding it recklessly actually makes things flow like the original.”

Starting with her story, tales followed about wanting to settle internal family conflicts, wanting to avoid a mage’s obsession, wanting to distance oneself from political strife within the Holy Kingdom, and wanting to study history professionally.

After sharing the fact that they had entered the academy for various reasons, the gathered possessors were marveled.

“At this point, our meeting feels like destiny beyond mere coincidence.”

“In the first place, the way we became aware of each other’s existence was bizarre, so it wouldn’t be strange to call it destiny. To suddenly make one realize the other is a possessor is a violent and merciless method.”

Truly ridiculously, the moment they recognized each other’s existence, the secrets they had hidden their entire lives were engraved in each other’s minds.

It didn’t tell them which story the other possessed or what their role was, but the essence of being a reincarnator and a possessor was engraved without filtering.

Perhaps because everyone had the same experience.

Those who expressed their agreement with Luke’s words through silence and simple nods were soon talking about the original works they had possessed.

The recognition that they had found comrades with whom they could share secrets they couldn’t tell anyone else instantly tore down the slight walls remaining between them.

As Ensi watched them naturally intertwining while laughing and chatting, his eyes soon sank low.

Unlike him, they each had an original work where they were the main focus.

That meant they had a goal, and even if they achieved that goal, it meant a new task of maintaining the status quo would arise.

Ensi thought quietly as he watched those in front of him chattering noisily about the original works they possessed.

Unlike them, he was an extra; why was he reincarnated into this world?

What was the goal of someone like him, a one-line extra even in the original work that served as a kind of guide?

Within the questions for which he could not find an answer, he wore a self-deprecating smile.

It felt fresh, but his life felt like a floating weed.