Chapter 1: A Rude Awakening

Han Juseong.

Age 28.

Occupation… well, a freelancer for now.
Just a guy who likes games.

After a day like any other, he fell asleep, and when he opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar scene.

“What the…?”

‘Minorus Academy’

Juseong started playing this game because an internet friend recommended it.

He first met that friend in LOL (League of Legends) solo queue.

They ended up on the same team twice in a row, with the friend playing top and ADC respectively.

Impressed without realizing it by the friend’s embodiment of a top lane degenerate and an ADC degenerate, Juseong sent a friend request for fun, and the connection began when they accepted.

[TL Note:ADC (Attack Damage Carry): A high-damage but fragile champion in League of Legends who shines in late-game fights and needs protection from teammates.]

When asked later why they accepted the friend request, they said they saw junglers as tools for top laners and supports as tools for ADCs, so they accepted thinking they were acquiring a useful jungle/support tool, impressing Juseong once again.

“It came out about four months ago…

Looks like a simulation game mixed with a dating sim, kind of like Princess Maker…

The protagonist is female.

There are routes for both male and female targets.

From the looks of it, this doesn’t seem like our usual type of game, but you want me to play it?”

“When has my recommendation ever been wrong?

Just try it first, and if you have complaints, tell me then!”

A low-toned female voice heard over Discord.

When Juseong first got on Discord with the friend from LOL, he was surprised, having never imagined that the person making such reckless, aggressive plays could be a girl.

Along with a slight flutter in his heart, he also felt a bit uncomfortable thinking she was a girl, but soon, the barrage of curses coming through her voice calmed his mind.
‘This one’s the real deal.’

‘Hmm.

Anyway, should I look up some information first?’

According to one reviewer’s assessment, it’s basically a female-oriented game with various elements added to attract male users as well.

The female heroine routes, the yuri aspect, leaned more towards male-oriented yuri, while the battle system aimed to cater to both those who just wanted to enjoy the dating sim and those who wanted battles too, through detailed difficulty adjustments.

However, the story wasn’t well-received due to lacking coherence, plot holes, and content reminiscent of Korean soap operas, while the battle system, though simple, was quite praised for its appropriate difficulty and balance.

Most reviews praised the battles and criticized the story.

However, the over-the-top story surprisingly suited Juseong’s taste, so he quite enjoyed playing it.

[Keke, I told you it would be fun, right?]

[I’ll admit it this time ;;]

[You always admitted it, what do you mean ‘this time’?]

Juseong casually brushed off her triumphant words, palpable even through chat, said goodbye via chat, and lay down on his bed, looking up information on his smartphone about the upcoming DLC (Downloadable Content) for ‘Minerent Academy’.

They’re releasing DLC while also preparing a sequel; I thought they were a small developer, but it seems they’re enthusiastically focusing on development, perhaps because the game was more successful than expected.

The DLC content included minor additions to combat and character raising, and the main feature: added capture routes for the two villain characters from ‘Minerent Academy’, plus a hidden route, epilogues, and so on…

Filled with anticipation while reading the information, Juseong gradually drifted off to sleep.

And then—

When he opened his eyes from sleep, he saw the inside of an unfamiliar room he’d never seen before.

His usual sleeping place, a folding mattress with a single blanket, was replaced by a wide, plush bed covered with luxurious-looking bedding.

Not only that, but instead of his own small, bleak room crammed with a computer, wardrobe, microwave, and fridge, a gorgeous room exuding a distinctly feminine feel entered his view.

‘Ugh!’

The bewilderment of waking up in an unfamiliar place was brief; to clutch his suddenly throbbing head, Juseong raised his ‘small, white hand’.

Juseong was tormented by the increasingly severe headache and the thirst felt in his parched mouth.

‘Definitely… on the table…’

‘Remembering’ that there was water in the bottle on the small table beside the bed, Juseong reached out a trembling hand and gripped the bottle’s handle.

But his hand, weakened by pain, lost its grip, dropping the bottle, and the glass cup placed next to it was swept along and also fell to the floor.

Crash—

The cup shattered loudly as it hit the floor, but Juseong, overwhelmed by the worsening pain, had no capacity to worry about the broken cup and writhed on the bed, clutching his head.

He felt like screaming loudly, but all that came out of his mouth were strained groans.

“Nnghh…!”

Knock… knock…

The knocking sound echoed as if heard underwater.

Voices, unintelligible like static from a poorly tuned radio.

Suddenly, the intense pain vanished without a trace, leaving only a hazy, dazed feeling.
Feeling vaguely indistinct for a moment, Juseong’s consciousness sank away.

And three days passed.

“My lady.

Your meal is here.”

“…Leave it and go.”

A dignified-looking middle-aged maid placed a simple meal on the table, speaking in a polite voice, and the reply, sharp and laced with irritation, came from a girl in pajamas sitting on the bed.

Dark blue hair falling to about mid-back.
The beautiful girl, with large, slightly drooping reddish-brown eyes that gave a gentle impression, and remarkably pale skin, wore a blank expression, yet it was filled with unconcealable irritation, displeasure, and other such emotions.

As the maid bowed and quietly closed the door behind her, the girl immediately let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her face with her hands.

“Huu….”

‘What should I do?’

The man once called Han Juseong was now Sayoreinne Meirel.

He had become the noble young lady, commonly called ‘Sayo’, from the game ‘Minorus Academy’.

Three days ago, when Han Juseong—now Sayo—woke up after fainting, it was dawn, dimly starting to brighten as if a day had passed.

The headache felt before losing consciousness was gone as if it had never been, but a slight dizziness remained.

Sayo, sitting on the bed with eyes closed for a moment to quell the dizziness, felt memories stirring within her mind – memories that weren’t his, weren’t Juseong’s.

“This is…”

‘These are Sayo’s memories.’

Becoming conscious of it made her head dizzier and her stomach churn.

It seemed the dizziness she felt now was likely due to the memories of two different people tangling and intertwining in her head.

‘Was yesterday’s headache also because Sayo’s memories settled in?

…No, that’s not right.’

‘If this is transmigration, something seen countless times in various media, then this body belongs to Sayo, so it would be correct to say that ‘Han Juseong’s’ memories have settled into Sayo.’

‘In that case… ‘I’ am… ‘Juseong’ is….’

Once her thoughts felt a bit more organized, Sayo tried to trace ‘Sayoreinne’s’ memories.
They were her memories now, supposedly, but they still felt foreign, like someone else’s.

Although Juseong, not Sayoreinne, should be the ‘other’, Sayo currently perceived herself as Juseong.

Recalling the memories felt somewhat like reading a book, and the first things that came to mind were major events deeply ingrained in the mind.

‘Her mother passed away two weeks ago.’

“My lady, are you awake?

I’m coming in.”

Startled by the woman’s voice from outside the door, Sayo realized the morning sun was already shining brightly.

Before she could answer, the door swung open abruptly, and the middle-aged maid entered the room.

“Ah, you’re awake.

Here is your breakfast.”

The maid bowed lightly and placed the meal on the table.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“There’s nothing, so could you please leave now?”

Sayo had intended to simply say ‘I’m fine’ to the maid who asked with a slight smile, but the reflexive response that came out was a sharp remark filled with irritation.

In reality, inexplicable irritation and displeasure were boiling inside Sayo, but the maid’s face remained smiling.

“Very well.”

The maid, seemingly accustomed to Sayo’s irritation, showed no reaction, maintained her smile, bowed, and left.

Sayo tried to calm the boiling emotions and compose herself, but she just felt annoyed and stifled.

Even things like the placement of the meal the maid left or the washbasin displeased her.

The lack of any significant reaction despite the marquis’s daughter collapsing, and her own familiarity with it, irritated her.

For Juseong, who originally rarely showed emotions and had little emotional fluctuation, this was bewildering, and he felt annoyed once again by emotions he couldn’t control.

‘I should just eat and cool my head.’

Seeing the breakfast—consisting of a small white bun, vegetable soup, a few sauteed beans, a fried egg, and a cup of milk—Sayo felt slightly hungry and decided to organize her thoughts while eating.

‘These unfamiliar emotions must belong to Sayoreinne, right?

I suppose I’m being influenced by them?’
Suddenly, thinking in polite speech felt strange yet familiar.

Sayo tore off a piece of bread with cleanly washed hands and thought about her situation.

She woke up from sleep and found herself possessing ‘Sayoreinne Meirel’.

It was too vivid to be a dream, especially considering the headache experienced right before fainting.

‘Setting aside Sayoreinne’s memories for now, or where this is in the original story’s timeline…’

‘The bigger immediate problem is the uncontrollable emotions and the mannerisms, behaviors, and habits that aren’t mine, emerging so naturally I don’t even notice them.’

This meal too was far removed from what ‘he’ usually ate, yet she was eating it familiarly as if she always had.

‘It’s not much food… but I can’t eat anymore.’

She thought it was just the right amount for breakfast, something she could finish comfortably, but she felt full and couldn’t even finish that small portion.

She drank the milk and looked at her arm.
White and slender.

Her figure, visible through the thin pajamas, was incredibly slender at the waist and legs, excluding only the chest area.

It definitely didn’t look like a body that could hold much food.

For some reason, that also felt irritating.

‘I want to wash up.’

She felt like taking a shower might make her feel better.

Sayo headed towards the small attached bathroom in the room.

After taking off her pajamas and underwear and placing them in a basket set to one side, she naturally turned to look at her body in the full-length mirror placed nearby.

“…”

When taking off the clothes, she had done it familiarly, naturally, without much thought… but seeing ‘her own’ naked body in the mirror was quite….

Sayo, who had been blankly appreciating her own body for a moment, entered the bathroom with a flushed face.

Perhaps because the embarrassment and excitement were greater, the irritation and anxiety she had felt until just moments ago had disappeared.

Sayo’s shower time that day was quite long.