The Rain That Fell on My Fake Grave
The rain was pouring down in the middle of the cemetery.
Between the black umbrellas, the sound of quiet sobbing drifted through the air.
A few people had gathered to mourn a death.
"Eid Rain... you're really gone...."
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes.
"I'll bring you back... no matter what it takes...."
The girl who made that vow clenched her teeth, her voice trembling.
But I'm not actually dead, you know.
A little while later, I opened my eyes inside some room.
"How was your first taste of death?"
A curvaceous older woman with blue eyes asked me.
"Do I have to die again?"
"Of course not!"
She laughed.
I looked down at my body. It was exactly the same as before I died.
White hair. Red eyes.
An albino suffering from albinism.
I had transmigrated into the body of a man with strikingly sharp features.
"What about when I re-enroll at the academy?"
My death had to be thoroughly faked in the eyes of the public.
I was a secret agent tasked with preventing a crisis that would engulf the academy.
I had succeeded in stopping the academy's downfall, but in the process my identity had been exposed to the enemy.
So I showed them my death.
A clear, undeniable death right in front of everyone.
Because I had collapsed with a bullet lodged in my head.
"Do you have any idea how hard it was to dig you up and save you?"
The woman with blue eyes and blue hair was the headmistress of this academy.
"Those girls have been waiting for you for so long, watching your every move. Just how many of them did you seduce?"
"Seduce?"
"Why? You're popular, aren't you?"
"Me?"
I used to be an ordinary college student.
A guy who lived alone and spent his free time playing games at home.
I had three or four friends and almost no contact with girls.
On my way home after being discharged from the military, I got hit by a truck.
And then I woke up inside the game I used to play all the time.
"You'll be redeployed to the academy."
"Redeployed?"
I had already helped the game's heroine, Sophia, and stopped every single incident that was supposed to happen at the academy.
A massive terrorist attack.
Natural disasters.
Monster rampages.
I had resolved every event that appeared in the game.
The problem was that the game's story had officially ended.
The game had been made with future DLC in mind.
At the end, the appearance of an organization called the Black Star Society had been hinted at, but the game cut off before that could happen.
I had no idea what came next, so I could only stumble around blindly.
The higher-ups decided I had to die because they believed my information had been leaked to the Black Star Society.
Of course, they didn't actually kill me.
But at the time, I really thought I was going to die.
The sensation of a bullet piercing my skull was still vivid.
"What are you thinking about so deeply?"
"Just looking at you, Headmistress, is giving me a headache."
I clutched my head and pretended to be in pain.
"How cute. Anyway, you'll be working under a new name from now on."
"Are we trying to stop the Black Star Society's activities?"
"That's right. There's no one who knows the academy as well as you do, is there?"
The headmistress handed me an ID card.
Winter Rain.
"The setting is that you're Eid Rain's younger brother. We can't completely change your appearance, after all. That's why we went with this."
The headmistress rested her chin on her hand and looked me over.
"As for your personality... yes, let's go with a rude and rough student."
"...Excuse me?"
"This time we need a very clear character concept."
Eid Rain had been a warm and considerate protagonist.
Since I didn't know how the original story would change, I had acted according to his personality.
But now she wanted me to do the complete opposite?
"That seems a bit much, don't you think?"
"You can do it. Look at the name Winter. Doesn't it give off a strong, cold feeling?"
The headmistress's expression slowly grew serious.
"Besides, this Black Star Society is on a completely different level from the threats you've faced so far."
She was right.
The Black Star Society had been preparing a terrorist attack targeting the academy's students.
As a result, many students had nearly been hurt, but Sophia's efforts had barely managed to stop it.
Still, a few students had ignored my control during the process, creating huge variables.
If I had been even a little slower back then, dozens of people might have died.
"So this time, you're telling me to go in with a very solid character, right?"
"Exactly."
The headmistress smiled.
"I'm looking forward to it, Winter Rain."