The smell of herbs, antibiotics, and a metallic tang filled the small infirmary.

Doctor Aki was an old man with decades of experience in his profession. Very few out there were as good as him at what he did.

He stared at the only other person in the room, a young teen lying on the bed. The sleeping youngster had a black eye, and a bandage around his head.

Despite his appearance, Doctor Aki’s most recent patient wasn’t heavily injured. He was just another kid who fought with someone at the Entrance Ceremony.

‘Since it was the first day of school, I didn’t think some Junior Exorcist would get injured.' Doctor Aki thought as he leaned on his blue recliner chair.

The youngster had dark hair and could be considered handsome, but his looks wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. But his background was something worth keeping an eye on.

He was from the ambitious Dark Sword Clan. They were an Exorcist Clan that wanted to become one of the four great clans. That family was the perfect representation of the words: shady and suspicious.

The Dark Sword Clan was also known for being arrogant; youngsters who came from it always had a rough temper—using the name of their clan to try to take advantage of others and the system.

‘Why does Exorcism have to be all about politics? Their job is just supposed to be to get rid of monsters.’ Aki scratched his bald head.

He couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days when he had hair.

Well, he wasn't old yet. He was only eighty-five, in the prime of his youth. He could live a couple more decades with his medical and supernatural knowledge.

There was still time to have a wife and some kids.

But the Dark Sword Clan would cut his life short if one of their clan members died in his hands.

'Damn it, why do I have to get involved with that shady clan? I knew I should have followed my dreams and become a barista!’ Doctor Aki cried internally, but he kept a calm outward appearance. It was still working hours, so he had to be professional.

But really, he was doing the work of ten men here. Why didn’t those stuck-up upper brass send him a cute nurse?

As he thought of having a cute assistant, Doctor Aki smiled at the thought of developing a workplace romance.

He imagined himself with two kids, one in each arm, and his wife saying how much she loved him.

Though knowing the headmaster, he would probably send an ugly male nurse.

He could imagine the older man cackling like a madman at the distress he would cause his employee.

That headmaster bastard was so annoying!

"Ugh," the youngster opened his eyes. "Where am I?"

"Seventh Exorcist Academy, hospital room. You tried bullying some commoner, and got punched in the face and knocked out. Possibly got some brain damage too." Doctor Aki got a better look at the young man.

The youngster hadn’t woken up screaming or swearing revenge, which was a good sign. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would pick on someone weaker than himself.

In his sixty years of working here, Doctor Aki has had the ‘pleasure’ of working with the Dark Sword Clan members, and they weren’t pleasant people. He still remembered that one awful girl from some years back. She was just the worst!

'Did someone use an Exorcist Ability on him to entice his emotions?' Doctor Aki wondered. But he doubted any of the brats were at a level that they could have developed an Exorcist Ability so soon.

As far as he knew, the teachers wouldn't do something like this, and none of them had a special ability like that.

Oh well, not like it was his problem.

Doctor Aki had more pressing matters, like getting the academy's headmaster to hire a cute assistant.

The doctor glanced aside as the brat absentmindedly clenched and unclenched his fist.

He continued doing that for a couple of dozen minutes.

Did the Dark Sword brat really have brain damage?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

***

It was unreal! I couldn't believe it!

The only reason it was too wild to think it was just a mad hallucination was because of another set of memories in my brain.

I felt, saw, and heard everything clearly and ran calculations in my mind. People couldn’t do math calculations in their dreams.

Forbidden knowledge poured into my mind like a tsunami.

I had tried to bully the main character and got punched so hard that it knocked out the soul of the previous occupant of this body.

The first feeling that hit me was excitement.

Who wouldn’t want to learn some cool shounen magical powers?

In my previous life, some places and creatures only existed in mythology or fantasy books. But the reality was harsh, and I remembered there were monsters in this world who could easily blow up mountains.

The third thought that came to mind was how useless I was.

Anyone who has read a shounen manga would know that unless you were the main character or the rival, your chances of becoming anything more than a stepping stone were close to zero.

Background characters always died like flies!

It was scary!

This world is a manga world from my previous life, where logic and probably the laws of physics aren’t the same.

No, I had to think about the positive. Agonizing about how much in deep shit I was, wouldn’t help anyone.

I had read the manga up to chapter four hundred.

Though I didn't know the ending of the series, one thing was for sure; the world got messed up.

Demons had swarmed from that mysterious place. It was the so-called climax of the story.

Many characters died. Of course, most were side characters. A group I was a part of.

Back then, I worried little about how the story would have ended. The author had written a fantastic story until now. I trusted him to make this an entertaining read.

But now that I was in it, my heart shook at the thought of a bad ending.

There was nowhere to go or hide!

"Have classes started yet?" I asked, trying to remember the beginning of the Manga. It had been a while since I read it.

Keeping my mind occupied was better than the alternative.

I knew the general story. But minor details like—what happened in the days between the entrance ceremony and classes weren’t something most readers remembered, and neither did I.

"They start on Monday," the doctor stared at me with an unreadable face.

When the hell was Monday? What date was today?

A sharp memory popped into my head. It was a memory from the original owner of this body.

Today was Saturday, the day of the entrance ceremony.

From how hungry I felt, it didn't seem like much time had passed.

My eyes wandered around the medical room, trying to take in every trivial detail.

The doctor looked old as hell, with wrinkles all over his face. So many of them that his eyes looked droopy.

Could he even see anything like that?

His name was Doctor Aki. How did I know the name of a side character who barely appeared in the manga? Well, the nametag on his cloak helped.

He was a helpful old man. I think he had an Exorcist Ability that helped with healing? It was never really stated directly. Maybe the characters healed freakishly fast because it was a shonen.

He should be an Expert Exorcist to work here. Exorcists of that rank were powerful at the beginning of the story.

"Since you're alright. You can go to your dorm room," Doctor Aki waved me off and went to write something down.

Nodding, I went out and tried to remember where my dorm was.

The original memories of Kon rushed to my head. They were somewhat spliced up but still usable.

It didn't matter who I was, the modern man, Kon, or a fusion of both. What mattered was to find the dorm room where I had to stay.

I was Kon of the Dark Sword Clan. My family wasn't in decline or an awful state, nor did it have some ancient history. So it was clear I wasn't the main character or a major villain.

The Dark Sword Clan was an Exorcist Clan created around three hundred years ago. Which was quite young for an Exorcist Clan, but they had thrived and used their newer traditions to grow in power exponentially and were almost considered equal to one of the Four Great Clans.

Kon, that name was familiar. Well, actually it wasn't. But I remembered what happened to a guy like me in the Manga. He was the first bully of the Main Character, bullying him about his commoner background.

The previous Kon had bullied every commoner.

I was the punching bag to show that the main character was still strong despite his background.

The Dark Sword Clan got eliminated later when they tried to challenge one of the four great clans. They tried kidnapping one of the great clans' heirs and got slaughtered.

When I thought about it. Whether it was the Dark Sword clan or I, weren't we just stepping stones to show how strong other people were?

I wasn’t going to be anyone's stepping stone!

I walked through the maze-like hallways of the academy. The cold stones reminded me that this building was ancient.

At least there was good lighting with the electric lamps. There weren't windows or much sunlight.

The whole place had this creepy vibe, as if it was haunted.

Since this was an Exorcist Academy with a long history, it was probably haunted as hell.

Though the thought of living under the roof of something haunted was nerve-wracking, there were so many other terrifying future dangers in my mind that getting haunted by a ghost didn’t seem like a big deal.

Also, I had bigger things to worry about. In about a week or two, Kon in the manga died.