…A shadow passed through the hall of a school building at night.
The name of this person walking in the dark without a sound was Zenon Ash… The young man who earlier that day, beat the most hated person in school, Yuugo Clay, in a duel.
Ash’s name matched his gray hair, which contrasted greatly with his shining golden eyes.
The beautiful young man with these two distinctive characteristics stopped in front of a certain classroom, and after looking around him, went inside.
He squinted as he felt the presence of people inside, who then spoke to him from the darkness.
“You’re late. What have you been doing?”
“Mostly being celebrated as the hero who defeated that scum Yuugo, and pampered. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit late, because it all felt so good.”
“And how was holding the lovely Claire in your arms, Zenon? Or should I call you Seto?”
“Stop. Don’t call me by that name. I don’t want to use that lame name after being reincarnated here in Luminous History.”
“Hahaha! Sorry sorry, my bad. I was just messing with you.”
“But still, Zenon Ash… Kuku! That name just screams chuunibyou, doesn’t it?”
“…Who are you people to talk? You’re in the exact same position…!”
There was silence… As everyone got quiet after what Xenon said.
Xenon… Or rather, Haino Seto, silenced them by touching upon something they didn’t want touched, and continued talking, in a mocking tone.
“Well, let’s not argue now. We all got reincarnated here, so we might as well get along.”
…Everyone gathered here shared a secret. Everyone attending this secret meeting had reincarnated from another world.
Also, they all knew that this was the world of Luminous History, a game they all played.
To put it bluntly, they were all too into this game, and were pretty addicted.
Not long before this, they all died in unrelated ways, and were guided to this world by god.
And then, they all created their alter egos as main characters in the game, and joined the stage where this game was set, the Luminous academy.
Luminous History was a classic school fantasy game where players improved themselves over the course of their school life, deepened bonds with other students, and formed parties to solve various cases and face many battles. It also split into many different paths, depending on the choices made by players over the course of the game.
The story changed a lot depending on how players dealt with the hundreds of different characters, so it was said that even people who were really into it did not know all of its routes and endings.
And the people who reincarnated here wanted to use their knowledge from their previous lives to make their wishes come true in this world.
“Our stats are on the high side, as a bonus for being reincarnated, and our proficiency with our favorite weapons has been set to S rank. That means that at the very least, some random weakling isn’t going to beat us.”
“And who’s going to get closer to being the hero as we follow the scenario… Who’s going to get the best ending?”
“Playing solo is fun too, but competing to take achievements from each other sounds fun too. There’s only one player character too, so we strong characters are also going to be fighting for that spot!”
“I don’t care about endings or heroes. I just want to live a nice school life with my harem of cute girls like Claire!”
“Uwah! Seto, gross!”
“Don’t call me that name! And aren’t you all the same!? Aren’t you dying to meet and touch your favorite characters?”
Those words put vulgar smiles on the faces of all the reincarnated students.
Yes, in Luminous History, if the players deepened their bonds with characters in their parties, it was possible to take their relationship further than being friends.
In the actual game, it was possible to make it seem like the player had intercourse with their lover in said game, although the game being for all ages meant that rather than actually show it directly, it simply put on a sort of ‘mature’ atmosphere. This was known as one of the charms of Luminous History.
Being reincarnated into this game world, meant being able to actually experience it… Naturally, the reincarnated students had very strong expectations.
Zenon in particular, was already working towards achieving that goal. In fact, he defeated Yuugo earlier that day specifically to make his favorite character his.
“In the game, that scum Yuugo would only be defeated a month after school started, right? Taking him down right after school started was really funny.”
“Well, what else could I do!? If I left him alone, he’d steal my dear Claire’s first kiss! I couldn’t let that happen!”
As one of the reincarnated students said, in the original scenario, the duel with Yuugo did not happen so quickly.
He was basically a prologue boss, and around the time when the player was getting used to the gameplay of Luminous History and life in the academy, Yuugo would steal a kiss from his fiancee Claire Rouge in front of everyone and make her cry, starting a confrontation with the player.
Claire Rouge was also known as the main heroine, and she was the one on the cover of the game.
Claire was a classic heroine, with blonde hair, voluptuous breasts, and an overall beautiful and tidy appearance. And to Xenon, who loved her from the bottom of his heart, the event where her first kiss was robbed by the lowest of the low was something he absolutely could not allow to happen.
And so, he acted preemptively. He took her from that heinous trash of a boy before that event could happen.
Being equipped with the knowledge of someone who was too into Luminous History, along with the status improvements typical of someone who was reincarnated, meant that Xenon took Yuugo down easily. But clearing that event a month before it should actually happen left the other reincarnated students a little exasperated.
“Don’t go off the game’s scenario! What if that scum got powered up when you fought him?”
“Ah! So? He’s always weak, no matter how many times I fight him. Making him a bit stronger would actually make it more fun.”
“Hahaha! I guess! I feel kind of bad for his little brother Phi, but I guess there’s no way to save him. We should just give up on him as a necessary sacrifice.”
The boy they called scum would meet a miserable end.
He was disowned from the Clay family, had his fiancee taken from him, and lost everything… After his fall, his resentment towards the main character and the others would lead him to listen to the whispers of a demon, and fall into a dark path.
In the end, he would offer the little brother that loved him despite everything as a sacrifice to summon a magic sword, but would be defeated by the main character and his party because he was unable to control the power of the magic sword.
In the midst of his despair as he learned he was used, he ranted and raved, and died a miserable death.
It was a fitting end for scum that was loved by no one and lived his life looking down on others, which left a lot of players with a pleasant feeling.
The reincarnated students looked forward to seeing the scum die in reality this time, and after talking about him, they decided to stop for that day.
“Well then, I’m going to be starting my lovey-dovey life with Claire tomorrow! I’m so happy about getting to be with her one month ahead of schedule!”
“You really are gross Seto! But oh well, this is the tutorial period without any real events, so I guess we’ll all try to deepen our bonds with characters we like, and take our time getting ourselves in shape!”
“Stop calling me… Fine. I’m in a great mood because I got engaged to Claire ahead of the game, so I’ll let it go today. Gufuh. Gufufufufufufu….!”
Seto Haino let out a creepy laugh that did not suit his handsome appearance, as he imagined his school life starting tomorrow with his favorite character, but… At that point, he created a big change.
As said previously, Yuugo was a character that was defeated by the main character a month after school started.
His arrogant behavior throughout elementary and middle school meant that he was already pretty hated at that point, but removing the events of that month that poured salt into the wound, meant that his likability stopped going down before he was irredeemably hated.
Furthermore, there were many students who only joined Luminous academy in high school, and while they heard bad rumors, they had not actually seen any of Yuugo’s wrongdoings for themselves. That meant that all Yuugo was to them was someone rumored to be hated.
Originally, Yuugo’s likability would go lower than zero, to a point where it could never recover. But since the duel happened a month before it should, it stopped at a point where it could be salvaged.
There was also another change. Inside Yuugo, there was now a good-natured hero otaku.
With the newly reincarnated Yuugo now living in a world he had no idea was actually the game Luminous History, Xenon and the others’ plans would slowly start to go astray… None of them could know at this point, as they thought about nothing but the rosy school life that would start the next day.
Thank you for translating this. I do love me some sentai ranger stuff. More power to you😁