My dorm room was a one-bed, one-desk room with barely anything else able to fit in it. In the corner was a chest where I could leave my clothes and other personal things.

A part of me revolted at this, but that part was the leftover memories of a spoiled kid. Who grew up in a clan compound with servants attending to his needs.

In my last life, I didn’t even have my room until I moved out. Do you know how it feels to have a younger sibling constantly nagging you in your ear? The only benefit of sharing a room with a younger sibling was that you could bully them. But even then the next thing you know mom is throwing a slipper as if it was a homing missile.

I took out a notebook and sat on the bed. With a pen in hand, I realized something.

This world’s technology was weird. They had things like—pens, fireworks, radios, and television.

Yet as far as I knew this world didn’t have heavy firearms except for some old-style flintlock-type weapons.

There were no cars either.

I could just put it up to shonen logic, but this was now a real world that worked on its own rules. So there had to be a reason for this big deviation from what could be considered a ‘standard’ development of technology that was my last world.

My curiosity was endless. I wanted to learn everything about this world. Who wouldn’t if they were reincarnated in a fantasy world?

Rummaging through my luggage, I found a couple of talismans that the original owner of this body found boring.

“Activate!”

One of the talismans turned into water while the other burned into a small ball of light.

I stared at the magical sight for a while. Soft heat came from the light ball used to light up dark places.

This was magic. Real magic, not sleight of hand.

I want to learn this! I want to learn everything about it!

Talismans, barriers, and even the demon's strange powers. Not to mention special abilities.

My body shook, and I felt like a kid who just went to a carnival for the first time. I was filled with endless energy, and I couldn’t wait to learn about it!

Taking deep breaths, I tried to wipe the smile off my face. It would be weird if someone saw me.

Before learning to use exorcist powers, I must fix something. The body’s previous owner had already messed with the main character. For a side character like me, that was a death sentence.

But how do I fix that asshole’s mistakes?

What happened in the original story? C'mon brain, aren't you supposed to be good at memorizing weeb things?

Instead of a normal memory coming up. A memory of the original Kon messing with a young boy played out. It felt weird, like watching a movie in my mind.

The other boy had spiky black hair with purple stripes, a wide smile, and almost black, dark purple eyes. He had that shonen protagonist look. Foolish and weird, but very eye-catching.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The original Kon picked on him because the main character announced to the whole stadium during his acceptance exam that he would become the strongest Exorcist. Despite being a commoner who didn’t know anything about Exorcists, which was an arrogant statement.

From Kon’s perspective, the main character insulted every exorcist family. He essentially said that he would surpass their hundreds, and in some cases even thousands of years of progress some of the Exorcist Families had.

Now I understand better why people try to beat up the main character. However, I don’t necessarily agree. In that situation, instead of physically trying to beat Agon, it would have been better to beat him with results.

“Also they were wrong about the talent part,” of course as the main character he would suffer a lot. But on potential alone, everyone was shit compared to him.

I shook my head. Dismissing all thoughts about Agon. Now wasn’t the time to think about this. It was Saturday, and I only had about a day and a half until classes started.

Getting up, I went and took something out from under my bed.

It was a dark-sheathed katana. Pulling out the weapon, it showed a real katana. Something I had never held in my hand. “Better train with this while it’s sheathed.”

Kon had experience holding a real katana. I didn’t, so to be safe and until I got used to the weapon, I would train safely.

…

Time passed fast when you were living in a world of magic. Monday came in the blink of an eye.

Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!

I felt the blisters on my hand burning a little. Yet the sheathed sword I was training with didn’t slow down.

It was morning, and I almost never left my room except to grab some food from the cafeteria.

Without the internet, games, Youtube, or Google, there was nothing else to do except train.

My hands hurt a bit, but this was a shonen manga, and the thought of overtraining wasn’t really a thing that even entered my mind. Why? Because what I was doing was considered child’s play to some people.

Though I should probably put some bandages on these blisters before they get infected or something. This body was more used to pain than my last one, that's for sure.

“Maybe I should start yelling out ‘Youth’ to try and encourage myself,” it worked for some people.

I might be in a shonen manga, but improving in two days is a shonen protagonist thing, not the thing that a second-rate mob like me can have. At least I had gotten used to swinging a sword.

I’m sixteen years old, and this body was already many times stronger than my previous body. Hundreds of pushups were easy to do. By exorcist standards, I wasn’t anything special.

I dressed up in gray pants and a dark gray shirt. Something that wouldn’t stand out. I didn't wear all black either, since in a shonen setting that would stand out. Actually, it would stand out even in the real world.

Jesus, my mind was going to strange places.

Being alone with almost no contact with people seems to be getting to me… Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? In my last life, there were a couple of times when I went months with almost no human contact. I remember the pandemic being the time when I enjoyed myself quite a lot, playing video games and reading manga.

At one time, I ran out of things to read and went down the isekai rabbit hole. The super cliche kind, with harems bigger than football teams.

I took a pair of big, circular, transparent Harry Potter glasses out of a drawer. The kind that increases the nerd looks by 1000% and makes me look completely harmless. Also, I squinted my eyes so that they looked almost closed. Something I had practiced for a couple of hours.

Until now there had been no proof that this world was a Manga. Except for the memories I had in my mind of course.

Every person here had a story, and a life. They were real people. Even I had a background and history in this world. Something the manga hadn’t shown.

I was prepared to change my character template. Though the world doesn't revolve around shonen logic, I couldn't be 100% sure of it. So instead of becoming the bully character who dies, I want to become the squint-eyed character who wears glasses.

Any veteran shounen watcher would know that a squinty-eyed character was a bad guy. But I couldn't be any other dispensable character that won't die in the first arc.

Was my decision logical? No. But even if it increased my chances of survival by 1%. I wouldn’t know without trying. If it doesn't work, well that doesn't matter either. I didn’t lose anything.

After ensuring I had everything, I walked out of my dorm room. Passing many students and none taking a second look at me.

This was the life of a side character. No one cared about my existence. I loved it!

Once I arrived at the front door of my new classroom. I stared at it for a couple of seconds. When this door opens, there won't be a chance to turn back. There won't be a chance to run away after this.

Sure I might not live long if I escape, but at least I could live a couple of years in relative peace.

But such thoughts were smashed soon by reality. Even if I escaped, there wasn't anything remotely entertaining to do in this world. There was still the risk of a random demon killing someone untrained like me.

Also, learning cool magic powers.

As soon as I opened the classroom door, I was greeted by the sight of many characters. The purple streak-haired main protagonist had a wide smile. There was also the long dark-haired, and feminine-looking rival to the protagonist. Overall, with me included there were thirty students.

Amongst these thirty, within the next week or two… only nine will survive. I would also be amongst those dead.