[No Title Provided]
“……Mars, Mars!”
“Ow, you scared me. What?”
“I’ve been calling you forever with no answer. Get up, we’re almost there.”
“Already?”
I’d only meant to close my eyes for a second, but time had flown by just like that. When I woke and opened them, the sight before me wasn’t some blushing childhood friend beauty who’d been watching me sleep—no, it was just this lanky guy born with a third leg like mine. A bit depressing, but I didn’t let it show as I stretched.
“Your face tells me you were thinking something weird again, Mars.”
“……What’re you talking about.”
Damn, he’s sharp about this stuff. If only he’d used that intuition in the original story too.
“Mars, look at that! It’s the academy!”
“I see it, so don’t stick your head out the window.”
My name is Mars Noctus. Second son of a backwater viscountcy, freshman at Amor Academy. And the childhood friend of the protagonist named Polo—a total nobody extra reincarnated into the world of a dating sim game.
I died.
I reincarnated into a game world.
Two lines summing up my life. Just those tell you how wildly eventful it’s been.
I don’t know why I reincarnated. It wasn’t because I criticized the game’s quality the day before getting hit by a truck, or because I sent a 5,700-character rant of a complaint, or because I fell for the characters and wished for a girlfriend like them. I just noticed a dating sim on 99% sale, gave it a shot. Didn’t even play for 30 minutes before quitting and refunding it.
Reincarnated into another world because of a refund? If I’d known, I would’ve refunded a bunch of steamier, sexier games from my library instead.
The game I reincarnated into was called Love Academy. Yeah, even the name reeks of trash, right? Love Academy—or LoveAca for short—lived up to that instinct with its utter garbage gameplay. Cliché characters, cliché story, cliché content… The character art was at least clean and pretty to look at, but who cares if the food looks fancy on the outside when it’s rotten inside?
And ignoring the core audience of dating sim players—guys—with no fanservice scenes full of skin or exposure, just pure wholesome textbook romance? No wonder it flopped and faded into obscurity. Whether the devs were some old Japanese guy or a neckbeard otaku who only knew Japan from anime, the events felt like boring 80s anime filler narratives.
No surprise they slashed it to 99% off to move copies. Anyway, I didn’t realize I’d possessed this trash game until 10 years after reincarnating.
‘Ah… hi? I’m Polo.’
Polo, the son of the neighboring count’s family. Something about him felt familiar, and digging through memories, it hit me quick: his face matched the male lead from LoveAca perfectly. Sure, adult version in the game, but even there he looked young, so spotting him at age 10 wasn’t hard.
Mars Noctus—the guy I possessed—didn’t even appear in the original, so it took time to connect the dots. No status screen perk from being a reincarnator either, so I resented whatever god dumped me here. But then another idea hit.
Polo’s the protagonist. His heroines are from top noble houses—royalty, dukes. Stick close to him, and maybe some crumbs fall my way. Shameless? Sure, but in this world, status is everything. As a viscountcy second son with no inheritance, I’d lick the soles of my guaranteed-future friend’s boots to impress his future wife and snag the luxuries I never had in my past life.
“Mars, hurry up!”
“Take it slow. We’ve got plenty of time before the entrance ceremony.”
After that, I threw myself at befriending Polo shamelessly. Landed the best friend spot entering the academy with him—my retirement plan one step closer. Showed off our bond to his count parents too, acting all sweet, and they officially stamped me as his real deal buddy.
“Mars, look at that! Chandelier’s huge! Windows huge, frames huge—everything’s huge!”
“……You’ve been to the imperial palace, dude. Why freak out over this?”
Sorry, but where I lived in my past life had buildings dozens of times bigger. At 20 now—nearing 40 with past life—my jaded mind just found wide-eyed Mars’s excitement cute, like watching a nephew play. Our territories are rural backwaters far from the capital, so yeah, not many chances to see flash like this.
His dad, the count, could snag a central seat anytime but hates the hassle, so he holes up in the countryside. Polo grew up a country bumpkin too—no formal social debut, so neither of us are well-known.
That innocence drew eyes; whispers gathered around us.
“Whoa, that face. Insane……”
“Who is he? Not a familiar noble face.”
“Foreign nobility? Gotta be at least a marquis with looks like that.”
“The guy next to him his servant?”
I’m a noble too, you prick. I’ll track down that last one for payback.
The murmurs stung, but I swallowed it. Polo’s killer looks—idol-level, acquittable by plot logic—were turning nearby guys into sea creatures on the spot. Me, closest to Expert aura? Long since devolved into a squid. Ink dripping down my cheeks.
Makes sense he needs that face to snag those haughty ladies. Jealous as hell, but endure this humiliation and someday he’ll hook me up with a pretty noble miss. So I etched the 9,125,560th “endure” into my heart.
“Huh? What’s up, Mars? Something wrong?”
“Nah. Let’s grab seats quick.”
Polo, blind as a bat to romance, probably didn’t even clock the stares were for his face. I tell him it’s his looks constantly, but he denies it, saying I’m cooler. Too handsome and it backfires? He pulls that dense protag denial often, but knowing it’s genuine keeps the envy away.
I’ll just babysit him till a heroine claims him, then scavenge the scraps. For that, this humiliation’s nothing.
The auditorium for the entrance ceremony was packed by now.
“Mars, how many people fit in here?”
“Dunno. More than our whole territory, easy.”
Amor Academy. The empire’s pride, continent’s top school pumping out talent yearly. Not legally required, but good for peer mingling—and crucial for Polo meeting heroines—so I convinced the count couple to enroll us together.
“First, greetings from the student council president.”
Clack-clack. At the announcer’s cue, a girl strode to center stage. Her radiant blonde hair caught the lights, haloing her like an angel.
“Ooh, that’s her!”
“As expected. Rumors didn’t do her justice.”
“Goddess incarnate.”
No one argued the blasphemy. She’s the empire’s second princess—and one of the game’s heroines.