"... Now that the verdict has been confirmed as guilty, I will inform you of your punishment. Ren from class 1-B, you have violated Clause 1 of the handbook: No magic or violence will be used outside their designated areas."
The woman's clear and strict voice echoed throughout the air. Tilting my head upwards, I saw a room resembling a courtroom with countless chairs and desks spread around it.
In front of me, the woman speaking had a placard on her desk.
[Student Council President]
"The Celestial Institute for Heroes finds you guilty of violating rule 1, and you, Ren Montclair, will be."
What was I sentenced to what? What the hell did I do? The last thing I remembered was the sight of a truck nearing me until my vision blanked out.
Did I die? If so, is this heaven?
I looked around, momentarily confused, before I spotted a familiar face. It wasn't a face I had ever seen, yet I knew exactly who its owner was. How could I not?
The facial structure, hair color, eye color, and everything had been described to me countless times. It had been explained to me in a book...
Liam, the protagonist of the book How to Survive at the Hero's Academy, was sitting only a few feet away from me.
Having read the book countless times, I immediately started racking my memories to see if there was ever a situation like this, and after a moment, I realized.
The academy accepts both nobles and commoners and says that your social status doesn't matter within the academy; however, most nobles refuse to accept this, leading to countless disputes with the commoners.
During the first ten chapters of the book, the protagonist, Liam, gets involved in one of these class disputes as a Noble attacks him in public for no reason, and then he goes to trial as a victim.
I glanced at Liam, who was glaring at me.
Wait, if he's glaring at me... does that mean? As more knowledge of the book came rushing through my head, I realized my situation.
Ren, a noble who attacks Liam for no reason besides jealousy, will get expelled by the school, and it is later mentioned that his father disowned him. Besides this, Ren is never mentioned throughout the other 1,500 chapters of the book.
The typical cocky noble who attempts to hurt the protagonist but instead gets punished. A character solely used to develop the protagonist's personality and display his kindness to the book's readers.
This was the character I was currently possessing. I looked down at the polished desk before me, and through my reflection, I noticed that my face was completely different from my past life.
Surprisingly, I wasn't at all bad-looking. However, my face was a bit overweight. I could tell that I was one of those spoiled noble characters.
The student council president, whom I had previously ignored, directly addressed me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Ren, do you understand? As punishment, you will be immediately demoted to Class 1-D and have a week's suspension to consider your actions. To return to school, you must write a ten thousand-word essay on why what you did was wrong."
In a low, timid voice, I responded.
"Yes"
My response shocked the teachers present, who were on guard. They seemed to think I would attack the president or something to overturn my punishment.
To be fair, the character I was possessing did that. After receiving word of his punishment, Ren would immediately start blasting spells and causing chaos, leading to his immediate expulsion from the school.
The idiot thought attacking everyone would help his situation; I pity him.
However, this time, I was in control, not Ren, so I decided to accept the week of suspension gracefully; after all, why would I give up the opportunity to attend the most prestigious academy in the world?
Surprised by my sudden change in attitude, the student council president stammered.
"Your suspension starts now; please pack up from the dormitory and leave within the hour."
After that, she seemed to address the two students sitting on my right and left. Jin and Han. These two were so insignificant that their names weren't mentioned once in the novel; they were referred to as "Ren's sidekicks."
I scoffed. My situation was terrible as I reincarnated as a stupid antagonist instead of a primary cast member, but at least my noble status gave me money. Those two had nothing, and like the cliche, their only goal in life was to leach off me.
"Jin and Han, you two will be suspended for three days for collaborating with Ren on this act."
After the student council president stopped speaking, I could hear spectators voice their complaints about how they could dare take a commoner's side.
I mean, Ren did randomly attack him with no warning in the middle of the school, but I wasn't going to complain that people were supporting my actions.
Hearing all the commotion, beside the student council president, another prominent figure from the story emerged: the school's principal. Her firm, strict voice reverberated throughout the room, immediately shutting all whispers.
"Upon entering this academy, all students are treated equally regardless of their family or social status. Noble or commoner, there is no difference."
What a damn lie.
Seeing that the trial was over, I left the courtroom and headed toward the dorm building. Interacting with people more than necessary could cause them to realize something was up with me, so I had to limit my interactions.
Surprisingly, I had some memories of Ren as I knew exactly where my room, bag, and other items were. Entering my dorm room, I surprisingly saw a maid packing my items.
Even if I was a third-rate villain, I was at least a noble, so money wouldn't be a problem.
Besides changing my fate of expulsion into a simple suspension, I decided that there was no need for me to change the story. After all, even without me, this story had a cliche happy ending in which the protagonist defeated the demon king with his heroines.
Living in obscurity with the money from my father wouldn't be bad after all. However, that didn't mean I was going to slack off; even if there was a happy ending for the main cast, that didn't mean that it was 100% that nothing terrible would happen to me.
I needed some protection.
Looking at my overweight body in the dorm's mirror, I realized that some severe training would be necessary. By training, I meant using the knowledge I had gained from my book to gather overpowered items!
And when else to do it? The school suspended me, so this would be the perfect time to get some fantastic items. While thinking over some items the protagonist never used, one item immediately came to mind.
This item was obtained by some villain that was defeated within a chapter, so it wouldn't matter if I took it; however, this item was never terrible; the villain didn't know how to use it correctly.
The protagonist also discarded the item, thinking it was trash because the villain owned it; however, later in the story, it was revealed that the item was overpowered. There was a whole arc where the main character tried to search for it, but ultimately, he didn't find it. However, the book mentioned where the item was originally before the original villain got it.
After awkwardly waiting for the maid to finish packing my items, I grabbed my trunk and headed to the school gates.
On the way to the school gates, I saw some teachers closely monitoring me with dark expressions.
I guess they still thought I was going to cause trouble or something. It was probably suspicious to them that an arrogant student like me just accepted a punishment instead of trying to dispute it with a fight or something.
Once again, the stupidity of third-rate villain characters dawned on me. If you don't like the punishment, then break more rules; surely that will make them lower your punishment!
Using Ren's memories, I immediately recalled the name of the person standing in front of me before I had been with my family, even before my birth, and he was assigned to be my butler.
His name was Janda.
Since he had raised me from birth, it was very likely that he would notice that I wasn't Ren, so I decided to put on my arrogant noble act. Maybe reading countless stories about nobles and commoners was useful!
Instead of greeting Janda, patiently waiting outside the horse carriage, I arrogantly nodded and went inside.
Thankfully, Janda didn't notice anything as he entered the carriage moments after me.
Looking at him sitting across from me, Janda's expression was grim and sad. Was he disappointed in me or what?
After a few moments of silence, the horse carriage began moving, and Janda spoke.
"Master, your father has asked that I deliver this letter to you."