Fanfic / Isekaid to a JRPG as a Harem Member

Isekaid to a JRPG as a Harem Member is a Trails of Cold Steel fanfic written by Randomguy and posted on the Space Battles forums.

A doctor from our world dies in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and is reborn as Jessica Schleiden, the heiress of a martial noble family. With memories of her previous life, it doesn’t take long for Jessica to recognize that her new life is essentially a JRPG (actually, the God responsible for dumping her in Trails of Cold Steel series outright tells her that he was dumping her in a JRPG for shits and giggles) along with all the tropes that came with it.

With no knowledge of the Trails Series, the only thing that Jessica is told is that she’ll be part of a JRPG with harem elements in it, much to her exasperation. Even worse, she’s not the harem protagonist! And Jessica has absolutely no intention of being a part of any harem.

Unfortunately, despite her efforts of trying to avoid the protagonist (aka Rean Schwarzer) to avoid becoming a harem member and all other protagonist shenanigans that he would likely find himself involved in, she ends up applying for the Thors Military Branch… the same year that Rean happens to become one of the teachers at the new school.

And to make matters even worse? He happens to be her new homeroom teacher.

The fanfic can be found here. The main story and various sidestories/spin-offs can now also be read on Archive of Our Own.

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Isekaid To A Jrpg As A Harem Member contains examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Musse is not subtle about her interest in Rean. Jessica along with Juna try their hardest to keep her in check.
• Adaptation Relationship Over Haul: Jessica in canon never met any of the cast members (with the exception of Angelica) prior to Cold Steel III. In this fic, she was Childhood Friends with Kurt, Alfin and Cedric and also knew Elise and Musse thanks to attending St. Astraia with them prior to enrolling at the Branch Campus. Her being made Alfin's closest friend resulted in her becoming acquainted with Rean and the original Class VII when she was abducted along with Elise and Alfin during the Civil War.
• Adaptational Deviation: Emperor Eugent getting shot goes much different here. Rather than being confronted and shot by Ash and then surviving, he is shot in the head right in front of his daughter, which is confirmed to be fatal.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Jessica doesn't show up in the actual series until Cold Steel III. In this story, positioning herself as Princess Alfin's bodyguard meant that she ends up helping out Original Class VII when they liberated the Karel Imperial Villa during the climax of II.
  • Swin and Nadia didn't appear until Reverie here they appear in Valdrand during the Garden's assault to force Jessica to become their True Divine Child.
• Arranged Marriage: In a desperate bid to hold on to their diminishing power, the nobles at the meeting being held in the former Duke Cayenne’s territory try to suggest that Jessica should marry Prince Cedric. Jessica is not amused.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Cedric, while still holding his cockiness and idolization of Osborne as in canon, shows somewhat more restraint and manners in his interactions with Jessica and the other members of New Class VII. His witnessing of Juna's breakdown over Crossbell and the SSS' fate and seeing more of people who had been negatively impacted by Osborne's policies such as the people of Valdrad, also help him gain valuable insight to shake him out of being Osborne's Psycho Supporter.
• Ascended Extra: Jessica in the original series was a very minor character who was only notable for being playable in a few sidequests. Here, she's the main character who ends up joining the New Class VII.
• Audience Surrogate: Juna acts like this when it comes to Erebonian culture and politics due to the fact that she is from Crossbell and therefore needs to have the rest of the cast explain things to her. Subverted when they travel to Crossbell and it’s Juna showing her classmates around.
• Big Brother Instinct: Rean is not happy when a reporter remarks on how beautiful Princess Alfin’s attendant (aka his younger sister) is and though Jessica tries to calm him down, her efforts prove futile.
• Blackmail: When Musse, after being appointed the new Duchess Cayenne, originally brings up her plans for Mille Mirage, a few noblemen argue against the plan or offering any support. They change their tune when Musse brings up plenty of dirty secrets of theirs they'd rather keep under wraps and then agree to give their support.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • Juna is understandably upset that Jessica did not tell her about her suspicions about what happened to SSS and that she was once again the only one left out of the loop regarding personal secrets and the implications of Erebonia’s actions in Crossbell. However, everyone could tell that Juna was really upset about what was happening in her hometown and was afraid that revealing their suspicions at that point would break her already fragile state—considering that Juna refuses to get out of bed the next day, their fears are justified.
  • Another student, Valerie, agrees with the sentiment that Juna has a history of reacting badly to anything relating to Erebonia’s Imperial Occupation of Crossbell and that they were in the right to keep it secret from her for the time being considering just how personal the topic of Crossbell was for their peer.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Principal Le Guin is upfront with the attending staff and students of the Thors Branch School that everyone currently attending the school is either an outcast of sorts or seen as an inconvenience. Jessica and Kurt in particular were meant to be Alfin and Cedric’s bodyguards respectively until they were dismissed.
  • When the noblemen express doubts about lending their aid to the Weissland army, Aurelia states that she will be in charge of the army to convince them. Count Florald bluntly reminds her that her being in charge of the Noble Alliance did not prevent them from losing the Civil War. He then outright tells Musse to her face that he does not trust her due to her manipulations, finds her claims of Osborne's plans (and her ability to counter them) to be tall tales, and is only willing to give her the time of day because of his trust in her grandfather.
• Childhood Friends: Jessica is childhood friends with Kurt as well as the imperial twins, Alfin and Cedric in this story.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Juna takes on this role, especially when it comes to her younger classmate Altina. She is literally this to her younger twin siblings.
  • Angelica is this to Jessica. She initially tried to flirt with her, but the former talked to her father about it and she soon left her alone while becoming a student under the former philandering noble.
  • Jessica had acted as one to Kurt and the Imperial twins in their youth thanks to having the maturity of an adult thanks to her reincarnator status, to the point Alfin outright refers to her as big sister despite the two of them being around the same age.
• Daddy's Girl: Jessica is rather close to her father Johann, stating 'Father deserves to be happy' as a motivation. When he's killed during Garden's assault on Valdrand, she crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
• Darker and Edgier: Several scenes are a bit darker than canon:
  • During the Sutherland mission, Rean and the others at the Branch Campus capture Shirley. In response, the Red Constellation launched an assault on Saint Arkh with the Beowulf, resulting in hundreds of deaths, including Count Altheim, the father of Main Campus instructor Mary.
  • In contrast to canon, where the only onscreen casualty was Otto, the market manager, in this story, it was confirmed that hundreds of people had been killed when Duke Albarea ordered the Provincial Army and Northern Jaegers to raze Celdic during the Civil War.
  • Likewise, the Northern Jaegers' commandeering the Railway Guns and firing them on Ordis is confirmed later on to have left thousands of casualties, whereas canon showed very few casualties or collateral damage aside from a single lighthouse being destroyed.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • In canon, Mary Altheim's father is still alive as of Reverie. In this story, he dies offscreen during the Red Constellation's attack on Saint Arkh.
  • Unlike in canon, Emperor Eugent is ends up dead during the end of the Summer Festival in this story due to being shot in the head by Robert, who is a more competent marksman then the emotionally compromised Ash.
  • Kurt gets stabbed through the heart by Rufus while Rean is fighting the Corrupted Holy Beast.
• Despair Event Horizon: Jessica undergoes one of these when she ascends to the top of the demonic Sacrificial-Ascension Tower. She'd realized that it might have been in the tropes, and most likely causality would ensure that it would happen no matter what she did as with the other tropes she'd seen, but she'd been so desperate to believe that she could change causality and save him. Unfortunately, Jessica was unable to save her father from dying as the tropes predicted, and her will was defeated by fate. This sends her right over the edge of sanity and leads to her betraying her friends and agreeing to the cult's plan to ascend her into a Goddess who will bring true knowledge if it means she gets the power to resurrect him, no matter what it costs her.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Kurt struggles in the aftermath of being dismissed as Cedric’s bodyguard, which was essentially something he had been training most of his life for. It doesn’t help that out of his group of childhood friends, Kurt was the only one who hadn’t been involved in the Civil War, which had the effect of motivating his friends. Jessica trained harder to be Alfin’s bodyguard, Alfin became more active in politics like her older brother Olivert, and Cedric started training under Osborne and becoming more confident and charismatic in his demeanor- a far cry to his shyer, pre-Civil War self.
• Dope Slap: Musse is often on the receiving end of these by either Jessica or Juna or both at the same time due to her bad habit of flirting with Rean. Or if one is unable to give her one because her desk is too far away, she’ll ask the other girl to do it for her.
• The Dreaded: Jessica sees Principal Aurelia Le Guin as this. Though she isn't the only person who fears the Golden Raksha and wants to avoid getting on the woman's bad side.
• Drives Like Crazy: During the Sutherland Field Study, New Class VII gets their hands on a car from the 4th Armored Division to quickly reconvene with Rean and the rest of the Branch Campus during an attack on Saint Arkh by the Red Constellation. They elect to have Juna drive but quickly come to regret it as she proceeds to drive at an extremely fast and reckless speed, ramming directly through any obstacles in their way (from roadblocks to the members and military monsters of the Red Constellation) that have them fearing for their lives even worse than any of their run-ins with Ouroboros' members did.
• Enemy Mine: On several occasions:
  • When the Red Constellation launch an attack on Saint Arkh, Duvalie assists Class VII in fending them off at first in disgust at the carnage. She ends up canceling the truce and walks out upon learning from Ines that her lord, Arianrhod was aware of the plan and voiced no objections to it.
  • Rutger and the members of Zephyr end up accompanying Rean and his students to confront the Red Constellation in Hamel.
  • Azure Siegfried ends up assisting Class VII twice; first when helping Kurt conquer the trials to become El Prado's Awakener, and again during the Garden's attack on Valdrand.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Jessica using her knowledge of JRPG plots from her Past-Life Memories to make accurate guesses of possible plot developments and character motivations makes it appear as though she has a supernatural ability to predict future events from learning past information to the other characters in-universe.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Upon seeing the Red Constellation slaughter the people of Sutherland, Duvalie calls a temporary truce with Class VII to stop the attack and try to get answers from Shirley. Unfortunately, upon learning her master Arianrhod was aware of the plan and voiced no objections, she ends up leaving.
• Feuding Families: The Arseid and Schleidens are stated to have had some bad blood between them, to the point that the monuments made in respect for Lianne Sandlot and the Eisenritter (which both families are connected to) in their respective towns completely exclude the other's ancestor amongst the figures presented. It's become less vitriolic in the present day, however, with Johan Schleiden and Victor Arseid and their respective daughters being on rather friendly terms.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Jessica and Kurt towards Juna at first when the latter makes her dislike of Erebonia very clear and neither of them refuse to take her remarks lying down, especially when she considers their weapons very old fashioned.
• Genre Savvy: Zigzagged when it comes to Jessica. A lot of Jessica being able to predict what’s going to happen comes from tropes that she recognizes from her previous life. Especially ones that pertain to JRPGs such as harems, tsunderes, the boy who is likely the protagonist of the series. On the other hand, Jessica isn’t always right when making her assumptions. While she’s right that Rean is the protagonist during the events of I & II, during the events of the third game she thinks that Kurt is the new protagonist and Rean’s successor while the latter is taking a back seat in the events, not realizing that Rean is still the protagonist. It doesn’t hurt that Kurt becomes the Awakener of El Prado instead of Rufus Albarea. She also initially assumed that Jessica in the original timeline a core member of the cast when in actuality she was a minor character who barely interacts with Rean outside of sidequests.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Jessica role's in Cold Steel II. She only fight alongside Class VII once, and that's only because Princess Alfin ordered her to.
• Irony: In attempting to avoid being a member of his harem, Jessica ends up accidentally positioning herself far closer to Rean than she ever was in canon to the point that she ends up in the story before she canonically shows up (helping out Original Class VII during the events of II).
• Help Mistaken for Attack: The cause of Rean's Ogre power being Jessica's Trauma Button. In this story, Jessica was at Ymir during the Northern Jaeger's attack. When Rean snapped and triggered his Spirit Unification upon seeing his adopted parents seemingly dead, Jessica grabbed Elise to prevent her from performing her canon Cooldown Hug on him out of worry for her safety. Unfortunately, as he was still Blinded by Rage and still in the throes of his Superpowered Evil Side at the time, Rean misinterpreted Jessica's holding her back as an attack and nearly killed her.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite warning everyone of George's attempted sabotage in advance, the Courageous is still shot down while attempting to assist the heroes. In this case, it was due to the Red Constellation's Beowulf shooting down the more lightly armed warship.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Cedric automatically tries to have NC 7 arrest Lavi Winslet when they learn that she is in Valdrand, most of NC 7 refuses and draws parallels to the situation of many from Crossbell that are wanted, like her being simply politically undesirable rather than evil. Cedric eventually agrees to meet with her first before deciding her fate, but gives a justified criticism of the rest of NC 7 for being all too willing to forgive someone who was part of the Northern Jaegers, who had bombed and killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Ordis recently in acts of terrorism.
  • His critic is further strengthened as NC 7’s is further weakened when they finally meet Lavi Winslet and learn that while she had not committed any truly horrific crimes during the Northern War, one of the men under her command was part of the group that burned down Celdic, once again an act that killed hundreds of innocent civilians in an unjustified war crime.
• Just Friends: Despite many misunderstandings and teasing, Jessica is not romantically attracted to anybody she knows, considering them all her friends. It’s implied that for Rean, though, he thinks of her as more than a friend. She does not reciprocate.
• Kidnapped by the Call: After Jessica recognized that Rean is the main protagonist, she tried to stay away from him as to not get herself involved with plot. But that plan goes right out the window and she and Princess Alfin got kidnapped by the Black Rabbit/Altina and subsequently got rescued by Rean.
• Loss of Identity: After so much time spent in the world of Trails in her new form of Jessica, many of her original self’s beneficial and harmful personality traits have been overwritten and replaced with new ones as her old memories are gradually erased over time by the process of her reincarnation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that eventually, Jessica and her original self, if not already, will be completely different people because of the memory overwriting. Her original identity is dying, and it wasn’t her choice to be reincarnated and lose it in the first place.
• Morality Pet: Jessica is the one character Cedric usually doesn't extend his newfound Royal Brat status towards and takes her counsel and opinion to heart. Jessica tries to take advantage of this by dispensing advice to him to get him to think for himself rather than blindly trying to follow along with Osborne's plans such as convincing him to try and hear Lavian Winslet out first instead of just arresting her on the spot.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Rean's greatest fear from canon was actualized when he accidentally almost killed Jessica during the Northern Jaeger's attack on Ymir. He's clearly still guilty over it years later, nearly being driven to tears when Campanella taunts him over the incident in Crossbell.
• Not So Similar: Juna attempts to find common ground with Valerie and later Lavian Winslett on account of their respective home countries having been annexed by Erebonia. The latter, however, rebuffs her, pointing out that unlike Crossbell, which was a prosperous Merchant City with clear-cut heroes like the SSS to give them hope to regain independence, North Ambria was a salted and desolate wasteland where the people struggled to get their basic necessities and the only people they had to rely on, the Northern Jaegers, ended up breaking their trust during the Northern War, resulting in many deciding staying part of Ereonia is the better option.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Kurt becomes more brusque and agitated during the first school trip in Parm. He becomes impatient and rude with another childhood friend of his and it takes Juna calling him out on his behaviour and calling him spoiled before anyone can finally get through to him and get to the root of the issue.
  • Everyone notices that Juna seems to be forcing herself to be more cheerful than normal once it’s revealed that their second class trip is going to take place in Crossbell. Her classmates are all extremely concerned about this and try to talk to Juna about it, but she just brushes their concern off.
  • Jessica having a panic attack after Campanella trapped her inside a barrier with Rean's ogre form shows just how much Rean’s more berserk side affects her even years after the fact.
• Pet the Dog: During their trip in Crossbell when things finally come to a head, Prince Cedric asks his fellow Ironblood, Rufus Albarea, whether what the Ironbloods were doing was truly for the best after witnessing Juna breakdown when she finally learns about what’s happening in Crossbell. Especially notable considering that he just witnessed Juna slapping his childhood friend, Jessica, across the face when Cedric had dismissed an earlier pair of guards he had perceived as mistreating Kurt and Jessica.
• Pretext for War: Along with the canon infiltration by 100 soldiers of the Hercules squad, Robert's assisting the Garden in opening a Hell Gate in Valdrand is also pinned on Calvard. The latter going on to launch a successful assassination of Emperor Eugent (with Osborne and Rufus' assistance) results in war against Calvard being declared.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Principle Aurelia claims that this is essentially what the Thors Academy Leeves Branch is.
• Red Baron:
  • It would not be The Legend of Heroes series without this. Jessica even notes how it seems to be a cultural custom to address people by their moniker whenever possible, which she thinks is cringy.
  • Due to the fact that she is Alfin’s Bodyguard and was a participant in the civil war, Jessica earns the title of Snow Princess much to her displeasure. Later in the story, it's revealed that she's picked up another title from the D.G Cult and The Garden: the True Divine Child.
  • Rean is the Ashen Chevalier.
  • Aurelia Le Guin, the Principal of the Thors Branch military school in Leeves, is probably the strongest swordsman in all of Erebonia known as the Golden Raksha. It was under her command that the Noble Faction was able to hold out against the Reformist faction in Ordis.
• Reformed Rake: Jessica's father, Johann Schleiden, was known for being an incorrigible womanizer in his youth, though by the time he had married Jessica's mother, he had gotten over the worst of his habits and was a faithful and loving husband until his wife's Death by Childbirth.
• Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: Jessica was male in their previous life.
• Reincarnate in Another World: Jessica, our protagonist.
• Secret Test of Character: When assigned to to Class VII, Jessica attempts to protest said assessment by stating that she lacks the reactivity in high-risk situations and ability to make snap judgments required for the class. When Aurelia reveals that she was the assessor and actively threatens her at sword-point, Jessica is able to collect herself and calmly stand her ground. Unfortunately for her, this means that she managed to demonstrate said traits to Aurelia and prove her right.
• Student Council President:
  • Jessica is the Student Council President for the Thors Branch School in Leeves.
  • Elise is the Student Council President for the St. Astraia school for girls.
• Shout-Out: In the Valdrand Arc, the band of Thors’ NC 7 students, along with the entirety of the Viscounty, are transported into an impenetrable pocket dimension. In said pocket dimension hundreds of demons are being summoned and gathered to wander around and feast and kill all within. The entire point of the pocket dimension, though, is to act as a ceremony of sorts for the leader of the band of friends, Jessica, someone with the ability to see the patterns of causality, having a stronger connection to the concept than most, is going to undergo apotheosis as a so-called True Divine Child to become a god-like divine entity related to demonkind, most likely with the sacrifice of her friends and comrades. Sound familiar?
• Teacher/Student Romance: Musse is very much interested in Rean. Jessica, Juna, and Rean himself would very much like it if she dropped her interest in him.
• The Chosen One: There's some confusion over whether or not Jessica's exemption from Aidios' laws makes her this or the other trope. Especially with the D.G Cult and the Garden referring to her as the True Divine Child and actively seeking to trigger her 'apothesis.'
• This Is Gonna Suck: Jessica and Kurt are not looking forward to showing Prince Cedric around the cultural festival, especially since a lot of the cultural stands are from surrounding nations and cities that Erebonia annexed- especially after Cedric talks to Juna in regards to the Crossbell situation.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Prince Cedric. Though Alfin warned Jessica that Cedric had changed since the last time they met, Jessica is still taken aback by his more confident demeanor.
• Trauma Button:
  • Jessica’s is Rean’s Ogre form after he nearly killed Jessica during the Civil War due to a misunderstanding where he thought Jessica was hurting his sister Elise.
  • Rean’s original fear of losing complete and utter control of his Ogre Form has become a reality, even if it happened several years ago. On top of having beginning to lose control of his berserk form like in canon, he also deals with the guilt of having attacked and nearly killed Jessica.
• Trauma Conga Line: So much of Johann Schleiden's life was one of these.
  • First when he was younger, he used to be more arrogant and less empathetic towards others, becoming a womanizing layabout. He had so much natural talent at fighting that he was said to be a prodigy much like Victor Arseid, but he squandered so much time on his bad habits while growing up that when he finally faced Victor (who had spent nearly all his free time training) he was defeated in one blow, being humiliated in front of thousands of nobles. This sent him into a depressive spiral once he realized that he no longer could reach for the highest levels of martial competence since he'd already wasted so much of the prime time of his life.
  • Later when he matured as a person and grew up, becoming the great person that showed up in the fic as Jessica's father, he got into an arranged marriage, but genuinely fell in love with the woman he was arranged to be married to. Sadly, she died right in front of him as she gave birth to Jessica.
  • Even further on, his maid, a woman he also was in love with since he was younger after she knocked some sense into him to be a better person and raised him up from his despair, later died in a far away country in her later career as a bracer that she'd gotten into after she left the Schleiden household. She had hinted that she might marry him herself before she'd left on her final mission, as well.
  • Finally, he was betrayed by his close friend Robert who sold him, his daughter, and his ENTIRE VISCOUNTY's populace out to a cult so that Robert could have his own dead wife and daughter resurrected, leading many of the innocent civilians under his protection to be sacrificed to and eaten alive by demons. To hit even worse onto Johann, he'd trusted Robert years earlier and allowed him to stay as a gardener in his household even when confronted with evidence of Robert's former criminal past, believing that he'd changed for the better. Robert didn't, he just got better at hiding it.
• True Companions:
  • The original members of the second Class VII become this after the events of Crossbell. And though the two of them transferred into their class later on, both Ash and Musse are slowly becoming this as well.
  • When Juna refuses to get out of bed, Jessica, Kurt and Altina decide that they are not going to go on their mission without her and decide to try and convince her to come along on their class assignment, assuring her that her feelings about what is happening in her hometown are valid while coming to disagree with their nation’s own expansion policies.
  • When Ash is confronted after being caught talking with Major Lector, his classmates reassure him that he’s still their classmate and that they don’t hold his spying on them against him as they already know deep down that he is a good person despite his sugar and ice personality- Jessica also goes the extra mile by adding that Major Lector already knew of her ability to defy the Divergent Laws and therefore Ash wasn’t telling him anything new.
  • When Jessica tells her comrades about her status as the True Divine Child that the cult came to Valdrand for, and asks them about if they want to still continue forward with her, they immediately give a mix of chiding and reprimanding remarks to her about her hiding the facts from them, and for her ever thinking they would leave her to go it alone.
• Wham Shot: Just like canon, Emperor Eugent gets shot at the end of the party at the end of the Summer Festival. Unlike canon, he actually dies here, which will make trying to end the war much harder than it was in canon.

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