This is a story that happened not too long in the past. Or rather, it literally happened just a week ago.

Several hours has passed since the departure of those weird women from this world. All they left here was me, a human male inside his own cell, awaiting the judgement for the sin of being wrongly summoned to their world.

The lifeless stone ceiling. The dead silence of the castle. The cold winds flowed through the wooden windows. Lonely, with no one to talk to, I spent most of that time just lying on the bed. I wasn't sleepy, despite feeling rather tired at that moment. I just lay there, deep in thought, kept thinking about the future I can not foresee.

And within that trance, time passed. Slowly, like it was trying to outslow an injured turtle. Before long, my mind was in a blank, half-dead state made to escape from reality and long for something to happen, anything. A state of nihil and ennui.

At least, until the soldier outside walked into the room, or rather, he suddenly barged in, knocked the door after it was opened and said:

“The headmaster summoned you. Stand up.”

Half-sleep half awake, I followed the soldier’s order despite my mind was still being a mess. I loudly yawned after standing up. The soldier just shook his head instead of wiping out any witty comments. With his spear held firmly in hand, the soldier ordered me to follow him. I obligated and walked outside after him. Didn't want more holes in my body, of course.

The hallway has lines of light bulbs attached to the wall, which helped illuminate the pathway for nightwalkers. Rather than the traditional electric light bulb, the ones used looked more like a bunch of fireflies trapped inside a bottle. While not as good as the works of our science, they were useable as light sources for this castle. Seemed like people learn new things everyday when they went out of their comfort zone for a bit, heh?

The hallways were long and lifeless. No sign of other people except for me and the soldier. I took a peek outside of some nearby windows. The moon was at its highest in the sky. I guessed the time was roughly midnight. Of course, people usually went to sleep at midnight, not going outside and haunt the night like a certain vigilante in bat costume, so the lack of people in this place was completely natural.

The soldier led me to a bunch of stairways at the end of our fourth hallway. The stairway he and I took was likely a way to some sort of tower. After another five minutes passed from walking the stair, finally, we arrived at the destination. This was the highest place of this tower. Before me, there stood an iron door, with two door knockers that has faces resembling that of western dragons. The soldier knocked on the door using one of said knocker.

“You can come in.”

The permission from room's owner has been granted. The soldier just stood there, he opened the door, showed me the way and that was it.

With no hesitation, I entered the room. The door quickly closed after I got inside. Before my eyes were lots and lots of books, which were left there randomly into piles and piles. Not just books, but I also saw scrolls, staves, random generic wizard’s strange stuff…They were all over the room, not unlike that of a typical shut-in’s room, except this one added a more mysterious charm to the atmosphere, to the point its messiness become bearable.

“I’m still waiting.”

Said the voice behind mountains of books. I made my way through this maze to find the person who asked me to come here. Near the center of the room, the Headmaster - Nilrem Erramun, was sitting behind her wodden desk – which was also full of documents and books lying around. She was leisurely having her late night tea with a fancy tea cup as she waited for my appearance. I could smell the aroma of the tea even at the place where I was standing, though with my lack of knowledge of such sophisticated hobby, I could not tell what type of tea she was drinking. Or rather, I wouldn’t have any ideas of the types of tea in this world. Hell, I couldn't believe this world even has tea in the first place.

However, I quickly put the random gibberish thoughts aside. Time for business.

“You called me here. I guess that means my verdict has been decided, right? Though I expected it to arrive at my room, never have I thought I have to go and grab my death sentence myself.”

The woman in grey subtly smiled as she put down the tea cup on her desk.

“There were some changes of plan, so your presence are needed. That’s why I called you. “

“Please cut out the gibberishs and get to the point.”

“Most women don't enjoy the company of a hasty man, you know? “

The woman gave out another smile. She put both her arms on to the desk and supported her chin with them, all while continuing to smirk.

“Like I said, there were some changes of plan. Instead of us giving out your verdict, I think that’s rather unfair for you, so I changed the plan myself. Now…the choice is yours to make. You will have to choose your verdict yourself.”

“Me…?”

She told me to decide my fate? That was nice on paper, but for some reason, I felt a bit anxious.

“What are the options?”

“It’s very simple, really. The first option is to send you back to the place you came from.”

“You can?”

I asked, with a bored tone. Or rather, a dissapointed tone.

“It’s pretty easy. If you want to, I can get the ritual ready in just five minutes, and you’ll get to go home again. We will pretend all this fiasco never happened to begin with. It’s win and win for all of us. Mr.Akuma, don’t you want to go home?”

“…”

Usually, this was the part where the protagonist said “Yes”, right? Yeah, I’ve heard stories like this before. A common man got summoned to god-knows-where. He have to fight his way to earns the ticket home. And here I was, with my round-trip ticket already laid out before my very eyes.

I briefly bit my lips. Why did they have to show me an easy escape way? Why didn’t they go with the usual “You have to do this long, dangerous, epic quest in order to go home”?

I felt a little furious, but managed to keep my unreasonable rage down. Seemed like I picked out the short end of the stick again.

“Mr.Akuma? You’re listening?”

“Ah…right. Sorry.”

I answered.

“And what is the other option?”

The woman didn’t let her smile wear off from the mask of a devilish woman, like she was expecting me to ask for this second option, rather than picking the escape switch the very moment it was proposed to me. Just what was her plan?

“I will allow you to join our Academy as a cadet.”

“!!”

Join this academy? That meant…living here as a student, as a resident of this world. If the first option was somewhat a let down, this option however…was infinitely more interesting and worthy to be called the music for my ears.

“Are there any conditions?”

Of course there has to be some sort of conditions. After all, things that were too good to be true usually aren't what they seem to be at first.

“Of course. First things first, there’s no way I’ll allow an enigmatic figure like you to freely walk around in my academy. There’ll be hidden supervisors to monitor every places you go and every steps you make. Please don’t think bad about it. This is just for insurance. As a Headmaster, of course I need to give you some restrictions. Can’t let you go and freely harm my cadets behind my back, can’t I?"

She has a point. Although despite my bluff I gave her earlier, I was just a normal human being, a teenager with average build. I doubt that I could even strangle a chicken, let alone superpowered fantasy high school students. Those glasses on my face probably didn’t help.

“The names of those who were assigned to supervise you are a secret. But one of them will be a person you met today. That is cadet Deborah.”

Did she mean that girl with long red hair?

“She’ll be your main supervisor. After all, she’s technically your master, yes? And a master needs to keep her dog tight with a leash in its neck. That’s why, if you choose to study in this academy, you’ll have to live in her room from now on and obey her command like a good familiar would.”

Let's put the cliché development aside, did the headmaster of an academy want a man to live together with a female student of hers? I knew I was talking with a witch, but I bet even normal witches have more common sense than her.

“You do know I am a man, right?”

“I have a pair of working eyes, Mr.Akuma. And is there a problem?”

“I bet you know what happens when two people of different gender live together, right? There’ll be troubles, big troubles! As Headmaster, isn’t it your job to worry about your students?”

“You mean Deborah? If it’s that girl, then it’s not her that I’m worry about. More like…you are the one who should be worry.”

I gave up. There was no winning against her in a nonsense contest. Still, if what she said has an ounce of truth, then what was the problem with the red hair girl I met? I saw that she wasn't much different from a normal girl in my common image, aside from her taller than normal height, her unnatural red hair and eyes, and practically everything else. Then what was her problem?

“Let’s get back to the topic at hand. The first thing is your supervision. The second thing is about your tution fee.”

That meant money, which I didn't have any, and I doubt my world’s money would have any economic value in this world.

“I’ll be generous this time, since with your…special circumstance, I don’t think you’ll have what it takes to pay for the tution fee. That’s why, you don’t have to worry about the tution fee of the first year...for now.”

“That’s kind of you.”

“You don’t have to remind me that, hoh hoh.”

The woman in grey calmly laughed, she then sip another drink from her fancy tea cup before getting back to talk.

“But nothing in life comes for free, you know? I’m fully expecting you to pay for the following years should you choose to pursue your education here. Also, I would like you to pay back the enrollment fee at the end of the first year as well. Rather than charity, just think of it as a student loan. I would ask for some interest as well, but I’ll be content with your school results alone, so don’t slack off. If your school results fail to meet my demands and expectations, you’ll be expelled.”

I took back what I just said earlier. This woman was by no mean kind, she was a witch not in just appearance but also in heart and mind!

“Are there any other options left?”

“The only one left is to have you publicly executed.”

Wait, what? Executed? That escalated quickly.

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Well, you don’t want to go home. And you don’t want to study here. What other choices do we have? By refusing the other two options, we will treat you as an enemy from the Heaven Realm since you have similar appearance with them. Mr.Akuma, do you know why we put you into a guest room? Because we have no prison here. We don’t take prisoners and we have no intention to keep and feed any. Every enemy we captured? We publicly executed them all to save the trouble. And we will make no exception.”

“What if I escape?”

That was pretty unlikely, but it was an option for me. Just run, run and run, toward the uncertainty ahead. Though on paper, it was still a pretty stupid choice.

“I assure you, you’ll find that being executed here is a blessing should you venture to the world outside alone. Demons roam everywhere in this continent. The lands are dead, the air are ominous, monster lairs are numerous. Even if some miracles happened and you get to be free, you’ll certainly regret your choice of running away.”

She’s right. I’m still blind to this unknown world. With how I am right now, going out there is no different than signing a suicide pact.

“So…what is your choice, Mr.Akuma?”

I fell silent when I knew I could't get any more conversation options from her. This concluded the intel gathering part. I closed my eyes off for a moment, and began to dive deep in thought.

To go home, back to my family, back to my school, back to my friends, back to my life.

Or to stay here in an unknown world, live in an unknown school, befriend unknown people, and spend a portion of my life for an unknown future ahead.

What other choices did I have?

“I’ll stay.”

Right, I chose to stay. That world has nothing left waiting for me there. This choice was my salvation, my saving rope. Right, who doesn't want a fun adventure? I bet there were idiots back in my world who would happily throw themselves in front of some trucks to have the choice I just made here.

Yeah, why not? An adventure in a strange world. What did I have to lose? Nothing!

“I expected you would say that.”

The woman in grey happily smirked. She put her hand to a drawer behind her desk, and took out a brown sheet of paper full with writtings. After a quick glance, I noticed that this is an enrollment form for students, with my name and some information written on it. Aside from the name, most information on this paper were rather boring, the typical stuff about terms and conditions, likely just put there for the sake of filling out the form. At the end of the paper, there was a blank space, reserved for my signature.

“Let us seal the deal.”

She pointed her finger toward a quill pen and a bottle of black ink on the desk. To think that there was a day I have to use such antiqued pen.

I grabbed the quill pen with my left hand, lightly dipped it in ink and signed the paper with my signature and name at the bottom. Suprisingly, when I wrote my name, rather than in Japanese, my instinct automatically directed my hand and turned it into a strange written language, without any resemblance to my mother language.

The headmaster took back the paper after I’m done. She threw a quick glance at it then made a remark.

“So you already know our language. That confirms the pact is working, alright.”

The headmaster took back the quill pen and signed her name on the other part of the paper to seal the deal.

“With this, you have finally become a cadet of Melas Military Academy. As Headmaster, I congratulate you, young man. I’m looking forward to your time in our school.”

“Thank you, Headmaster.”

I nodded, while I refrained myself from making any notable reaction. Strangely…rather than excited, I felt rather light, like I just dropped a huge bag of worry off my back. Right, maybe because with my enrollment, I have officially ran away from my house (and by extension, my world), with no intention of going back.

And with such thought in my head, I smiled. The missing emotions have finally arrived and began to fill me up. Joy, excitement, expectations, wishful thinkings…it may be just a figure of speaking, but right at that moment, I was overflowed with emotions to the point that I thought I was drowned from my emotions themselves.

An adventure in a fantasy world. It was unbelievable as it sounds, and yet I was here, waiting to experience it for the following years. How could I not get excited!?

“Since you have become one of my student, it’s time for me to return your confiscated belongings. Here, all of them, tell me if you see something missing.”

From her drawer, Headmaster Nilrem began to take and drop my stuff on her desk. After she was done, in front of me were my personal belongings, which were taken by the soldiers here after I got knocked unconscious. There were some (now useless) money, an (equally useless) phone, and more important: Mr.Cat! To think that witch kept you hidden in a filthy drawer…

And the only thing left, was that thing. The black metal L-shaped weapon, it looked as imposing as ever. I remembered its name. 「Beretta 92FS」. Came with an unnecessary metal compensator and a fifteen rounds magazine. A weapon widely used around the world. I knew Japan was not exactly a haven for guns, this type of weapon however could be found if you look hard enough and have enough power to acquire it. The very sight of it on a wooden desk, inside a room full of ancient tomes and in front of a witch in flesh was a rather…interesting sight to behold.

I took back Mr.Cat from the evil witch first. After that, I put the money and the phone to my trouser’s pockets, with the intention of hiding them later. Finally, I took the gun with my left hand and gave it a check. It seemed like the safety lock hasn’t got tampered by anyone yet. You could say the people here were too afraid of the unknown to give it some tinkering.

“What exactly is that thing, by the way?”

I could see the headmaster firmly held her staff while asking that question. Nilrem looked like she was on her guard from the very sight of me taking back my gun.

“A magic wand, of sort.”

“You’re a mage as well? You can also perform magic?”

“My own type of magic, yes. It’s a unique magic from my world. Rather than a mage, I guess you could call me…a magician.”

Magician, of the pulling rabbits from a top hat variety that is.

“A magician? Is that another type of mage?”

I nodded and smiled. In a sense, the power of this gun could be a type of magic in their eyes. That made me a practitioner of Clarke’s Third Law, I guess. Usually, this was the start for the part where I have to enlight the savages around me using the power of science and gunpowder, right? With making guns and stuff and conquer the world with stuff blowing up, Michael Bay-style. Add in some hot chicks and we’ll have a good movie to pass for a Saturday night.

But no, I have no intention of running around screaming “This is my boomstick and I bought it from S-Mart!”. The ambiguousness was my friend, my ally and my weapon. I was nothing but a weak, puny human being. Holding a gun in my hand didn’t make me invincible. Fifteen limited round didn't make it any better. The moment I’m out of bullet is also the moment I’m done of fighting.

My true test began here, if I seek to venture myself into this strange world.

“If so, then I’m looking forward to what you could do in this world.”

I didn’t answer back. When I was done looking, I put the gun back to an empty pocket of my trouser. With such weapon, I felt relieved already.

“I also got something I’ve prepared for you.”

The woman stood up. She walked to a nearby coat hanger and took out a black cloak, likely the one the students here wear.

“This is the uniform of this school. Take pride on wearing it as a cadet of Melas yourself. The symbol of death, of sacrifice, but also of the beginning. I grant you your cloak, cadet Akuma. Take it.”

From her hands, I took the cloak and wear it. It was a mix of a buttonless longcoat and a hooded cloak. A pretty comfy cloak. The very moment I wore it, it seemed like all the coldness around me instantly dissappeared. This thing acted very well against the cold weather.

“Congratulation, cadet Akuma. May Dargoth himself blesses you with successes.”

I briefly bowed as a sign of gratitude.

After the short ceremony, I got sent back to the room I previously stayed. When I arrived, the fatigue took over, rendered me with no strength left to think about my new life. I jumped on the bed, slowly closed my eyes and let the god of sleep do his job.

And thus, from that day, I…became 「Akuma」.