Don't Leave It to Someone Like Me
By the time I came to, I had already fallen into a world I didn't know.
"Where… is this?"
I was sure of it. I'd come home from work, crawled into bed, and started reading a web novel before sleep…
Right.
I'd been reading a romance-fantasy novel called Love in the Moonlight.
Romance fantasy wasn't a genre I cared much about, honestly. But I'd stumbled on a webtoon adaptation of some novel, figured the original might be decent if it had gotten that far, and gone looking for it. That was how it started.
Then, right around the time I finished the prologue still lying in bed, the screen suddenly flared with light.
"……."
What stretched before my eyes now wasn't the familiar scenery of my room. It was a ceiling I'd never seen, and a room to match.
No. My body, the one that had been lying down, was gone entirely.
I was sitting in a chair set in front of some desk.
…What the hell? Did someone kidnap me in my sleep?
The interior was completely foreign. Like someone's office—no. Looking again, it also resembled a neatly kept university professor's research room…
I still had no idea what had happened. I started to stand and step out from behind the desk when—
"What is this…"
Passing a mirror by chance, I caught my own reflection—and it wasn't the face I knew. It was a man's face and body I'd never seen before.
…What in the world.
If this whole situation was someone's idea of a prank, I could at least call it a pretty nasty one.
But writing it off as a simple joke felt… inadequate.
Tall frame. Black hair. Dark brown eyes. And the clothes I was wearing, among other things.
This was Kyle Edelrein's appearance.
It matched the description of the protagonist of Love in the Moonlight without a single difference.
Don't tell me I'd been transmigrated into the world of the novel?
…Hard to believe on the face of it.
But I was already somewhere I didn't recognize, and the person in the mirror was no longer me. That was the present reality.
How was I supposed to process this?
"……."
No amount of thinking produced an answer.
…Can I even get back home from this?
Even amid those thoughts, today's date floated up unbidden.
I'd only read the prologue, but in the story Kyle held a professorship at the academy.
If that was still true now…
I looked around for a calendar and found one without much trouble.
"Let's see. Today's… a Friday, huh."
Early March.
In the prologue I'd read, it had been the start of the semester, so this was probably the end of that first week.
I wasn't exactly thrilled about any of this.
But… whether I could return to my old life was a secondary problem for now.
For the moment—no, for the foreseeable future—I was going to be stuck living here. So pretending to be Kyle was probably the priority.
A thoroughly bleak situation.
Still, I didn't have any clever solutions either.
The first thing I needed to do, if I was going to play Kyle, was get used to this body… right?
The silver lining was Kyle's memories. They weren't complete, but enough residue remained in the flesh that I could lean on them a little for support.
I was just steeling myself to that resolve when—
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A crystal sphere the size of a baby's fist, sitting on one corner of the desk, lit up and began chiming with something like a notification tone.
Not too loud, not grating—the kind of small sound you'd only notice if it were in your own pocket.
This was…
In other words, this world's communication device.
A magic tool that ran on its owner's mana as a power source.
Seeing a magic tool that had only ever appeared in novels right in front of me like this was almost moving, in its way.
I set those feelings aside for a moment, stepped closer to the crystal, and laid a hand on it. The glow steadied, the sound cut off, and a single message rose across its surface.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
I tapped the door of the principal's office lightly with my knuckles. From inside came a soft, gentle voice granting me entry.
"Pardon the intrusion."
I opened the door. Across the desk of her office sat a young blonde elf with pointed ears.
Astria Felonia… A figure who had already been around a hundred years ago, during the transitional period when the Silvahrt Empire—on whose land Belheim Magic Academy now stood—had been elevated from a kingdom to an empire.
A living piece of history, and yet she still looked like she was in her late twenties. It was astonishing.
And that was only if you were being generous.
In truth she was probably a little over two hundred years old. An e—
"Professor Kyle—?"
"Ah. Yes."
As if I'd been thinking something I shouldn't, Principal Astria cut through my idle thoughts at a suspiciously sharp moment, her green eyes—the color of grass—catching the light.
Creepy.
Was she using telepathy or something?
I straightened my posture and looked at her properly.
Her dignified figure caught the light from behind, glimmering faintly like a soft halo.
Even in a principal's robes, she had an elf's allure—her body's lines alive and elegant, with something that snared the eye and wouldn't let go.
And yet, at the same time, the authority and presence of a principal flickered through now and then.
"I'm sorry for calling you in so late, with the weekend ahead and your workday nearly over."
Principal Astria smiled sweetly as she offered the apology without the slightest awkwardness.
Well, I'd answered the summons so readily myself because I wanted to get a better sense of my surroundings on the day of the transmigration.
"Not at all… I didn't have anything else to do at the moment anyway."
"As expected of Professor Kyle. Every bit the hero who ended the Continental War of five years ago in a mere one or two years."
"…You flatter me."
War hero or not, it had only been a small-scale conflict with a coalition of several mid- and small-sized nations neighboring the Silvahrt Empire…
Or so the fragments of his memory told me, in a dim, half-felt way.
"Even so, what matters is that you had the strength to end a war in such a short time. You were only twenty then, and already commander of the Holy Knights, weren't you?"
Twenty-five now.
Even setting the war aside, Kyle's experience as Holy Knight Commander until last year—traveling and performing wherever he was needed—was the real thing.
But from the standpoint of someone who'd only just taken over this body, it was all in the past, and none of it was anything I'd done with my own hands…
It didn't land with much weight. It felt a little like someone else's story.
In any case, Kyle had stepped down as Holy Knight Commander and now held nothing more than the position of an ordinary professor at Belheim Magic Academy, here to teach students.
"If it were up to me, I'd like to do something more for you… but I don't know what else there is left to offer."
The principal—the highest authority in this academy—was already praising me this much. What more could I possibly need?
Besides, when Kyle first arrived at the academy, he'd already been guaranteed enough benefits to live without inconvenience. Anything more would be excess.
"What business did you call me for today?"
"Hmm… You seem rather different from the rumors, Professor Kyle."
"Pardon?"
…Rumors?
Ah.
"I'd heard you were rather fond of women."
This bastard Kyle…
Triggered by the principal's remark, the reason he'd been pulled from Holy Knight Commander and dispatched to the academy—memories that had been buried incomplete under the surface—surged up.
Awkward… Looks like I'll have to do something about my reputation, one way or another.
"……."
I didn't know what to say, so I paused to choose my words. Then—
"But more than whether Professor Kyle is fond of women or not, what matters more to me is the future of our academy."
Excuse me??
I stared blankly at the principal's face, trying to make sense of that, and she simply went on.
"The teachings a man of Professor Kyle's caliber can pass down to our students. How could I not look forward to that?"
The same professor who was so fond of women that he'd been sent here not as a proud appointment but as a demotion—or exile—and the academy's future was more important??
What exactly did she think I was going to do to the students?
Come to think of it, she'd been praising me nonstop since I walked in. What on earth was she basing that confidence on?
"Well, anyway. The reason I called you today is nothing more than this—it's been about a week since you took up your post, Professor, and I wanted to ask whether you've been settling in well. Whether things are livable."
…A completely trivial reason, then.
But if the highest person in this academy was curious about that…
I ought to answer.
For all that, he'd only been here a week, and I'd only transmigrated today. Skimming the memories, nothing particular seemed to have happened.
"Yes, well… thanks to you, I've been doing fine."
"I'm glad to hear it. And as I told you before—I respect Professor Kyle's career. For as long as you serve at this academy, if there's anything you wish to try, I hope you won't hesitate."
Anything?
"I'm not sure I follow…"
"I don't think it's a difficult idea. Simply put—whatever Professor Kyle chooses to do going forward, I intend to accommodate you as far as I can. So use your discretion, and get along well with the students."
Get along with the students, huh.
If that was all, it wasn't a hard ask.
Do what I could, look after the kids' mental well-being—that sort of thing?
"If that's the case, then… I understand."
At my answer, Principal Astria's eyes curved into crescents with a smile. Then—
Clap!
She lightly brought her hands together with a soft clap and spoke with the air of someone who now had no further business with me.
"Well then—that's everything I needed to tell you. I'll be counting on you going forward, Professor Kyle. And if you ever have business, please come see me anytime."