Konrad was seconds away from fireballing the classroom. So many textbooks and wooden furniture—they would've turned into cinders in no time.
And it wasn't his sanity that stopped him.
The eloquent look and the subtle shake of Kaede's head did.
Right. Because—of course—she also attended the school with him. And so did thirty other students in this class, who would have all gone up in flames.
This whole situation was insane.
Surreal even.
Konrad, who felt pity for the nomads, was this close to a massacre.
But he could only think of the Demon Lord.
Or—Midori-kun, as the teacher had called him.
What was the plan here? Was he about to take over this world? Return to Kasserlane stronger, as the visions have shown? But why begin with a school?
Insanity. Konrad couldn't calm himself down.
Kaede told him not to do anything stupid, but if she gave him a proper explanation instead—
If she tracked him down months ago, she must have known at least something.
If she did, she kept it all for herself.
Now, he had to spend an entire lesson vibrating with nervous energy.
Not as a self-conscious transfer student, but as a spy, with his cover blown behind enemy lines.
Whatever they taught here, he couldn't pay attention to it.
And as a newcomer, he even got a front-row seat, dead center.
Kaede was lucky to sit in the back by the window. She buried her face in a textbook once it seemed like Konrad wouldn't blow up the school—anything to avoid his gaze.
Meanwhile, his fated enemy was only four desks behind him.
Konrad couldn't twist his back enough to steal glances at him before the teacher had enough.
"Halstadt-kun," he called out, knocking on his desk. "I'm sure you're excited about your classmates, but wait until recess. Read the next paragraph for us, onegaishimasu."
Fuck. He didn't even know what subject they had, or what page they were on.
His Japanese was shaky at best, too. But as luck would have it, the textbook was for English.
He shook those sentences out of his pinky, with eyes closed.
"One car turned right, the other was blue." No way this was in an actual high school curriculum.
"Kanpeki. Now the next one," the teacher pressed, noting, "Your pronunciation is excellent."
Hah. Given that it was his mother tongue for well over fifty years, it should have been, too.
He would have been in trouble if they asked about German, though.
According to his ID, he was a sixteen-year-old from central Europe. He could see how his name sounded German, especially the way the teacher pronounced it.
But Kasserlane's language was very different.
He kept worrying about slipping up—as if anyone in this class would notice. They were local kids, apart from the three of them. Dark-haired, with almond-shaped eyes.
Not the colorful nonsense he expected from anime. But, well, they weren't two-dimensional.
Most of them appeared younger, but he faked being two years less than his body actually was.
The Demon Lord had the exact opposite problem.
He seemed no more than twelve, being by far the shortest in class. That included the girls, too. And considering he was two hundred years old, and even looked the part a mere day ago—
Did he drain all that life away from the dragoness and Konrad?!
He didn't feel older, though. Not more than usual.
And why them, anyway?
Why wait until their battle, when he had a hundred thousand men to choose from?
Stella mentioned that Konrad's energies leaked, or something. Or that the Demon Lord could feed on his negative emotions? He was too busy focusing on not dying back then. And now—
The bell rang, and they wrapped up the lesson in a hurry.
"Read the pages from ten to fourteen. Practice the new words before our next class. And now, Halstadt-kun, now is your chance to make new friends. Bow. Arigato gosaimasu."
And with that, kids rushed his desk from every angle before the teacher even left the room.
Kaede slipped through the crowd with ease—but Konrad could no longer see the Demon Lord.
"Gomen, Gomen, I still have to steal Konrad-kun for a bit," she said to make him space. "This sleepyhead has to get a few more things signed before noon and grab his textbooks."
"Tsurui, Kaede-chan," someone protested. "You're always the one to hang out with newcomers."
"Always?" Konrad asked, raising an eyebrow, but she dragged him out before answering. "Don't tell me you brought Midori-san here, too," he grunted, almost spitting that name.
"Hmm, I do wonder," she said without looking back.
She was already in the corridor, pulling him against the flood of chattering students.
"Tracking down, my ass," Konrad groaned as he put the pieces together. "What is this place?"
"What do you mean?" Kaede asked, pausing only for a second to flutter her eyelashes. Yeah, she was killing that adorable Lily-like look, even with her darker hair. "A high school."
That couldn't be it.
"Is this a hidden portal that he wants to pry open? Or the key to world domination?"
The girl didn't even slow down now, only rolling her eyes.
"It's a high school."
"But you brought him here. And me, too," he refused to let the matter drop. "What is so special about this place? Is this where the otherworlders gather before they, they—"
"This is a high school, Konrad-kun," she repeated. "A facility for basic education."
Damn her persistence in playing dumb.
"I can see that," he snapped, drawing a bit more attention than he would have liked. And he wasn't speaking any local languages, either. Local, as in, known on Earth. "Gomennasai."
Where were they, anyway?
She said he had a few more things to sign, but he already done that in the morning. And the teacher's office wasn't this way anyway, nor was the storage room.
Plus, he had all the textbooks he would need for today.
They climbed a flight of stairs, stopping only in front of a narrow door.
"Stop yelling, Baka. We're not supposed to be here," Kaede scolded him, raising her index finger to her lips. "But that's the best part."
So there was a secret here after all?
She pushed the door open with a creak, and they found themselves on the building's flat roof.
Another Deja Vu hit Konrad as he took in the sights for the second time today. The gentle wind, the school yard below them with the blue sky above—
And the sprawling Tokyo in the distance.
They were all strange, almost alien to him, yet also familiar.
"Doesn't it make your heart beat faster?" the girl asked, her voice dropping to a dreamy whisper. If he were a foot away, he might've missed it. "Like, Doki-Doki, and stuff."
"Doki-Doki?" Konrad repeated, raising his eyebrow again.
"I saw that in an anime, haha," Kaede giggled, dragging him closer to the railings. "And I knew immediately that I'd want to experience this all for real."
His jaw dropped.
"Wait," he muttered. "So you only did all this to set us up for a high school rom-com?!"
"I do wonder," she said with a smirk, leaning back against the railing.
The word insanity couldn't begin to describe it. But this had to be the most Lily thing to do.