"What do you think I can do about it?" Konrad asked in a snarky tone, but the question was genuine. "Kasserlane's biggest threat is right here, and you suggest we take him back?"
"Well, there's that nomadic horde, too," Kaede noted. "And I know of no other way home."
Yes. Hundreds of thousands of invaders.
If it all came down to military strength, a small group in the Halaima Pass could have held them until they all grew old. In the right hands, that is. But with the king's indecisiveness?
And that latter half also stuck with him.
"You sure there's no other way? Lily kept traveling between worlds, and you are her. What if I fed my mana to you instead, and skipped the Demon Lord altogether?"
The girl rolled her eyes, fanning herself with the laminated menus she carried.
"I'd love to have your mana, but your lover is thousands of years older. Flattering that you think I'm already that capable, but I have to disappoint. Besides, leaving Maou here? Unsupervised?!"
"W-we can kill him, I guess," Konrad suggested.
But his words lacked any conviction.
"I mean, that's an option," Kaede said with a smirk as if she already knew. "But can you actually?"
Sure, Konrad had killed before—monsters and humans, too—but he wasn't a murderer.
It was different on a battlefield or when fighting for his life, especially in another world.
A world without police or detectives, and where might makes right. But here?
As if she were still reading his mind, the girl counted on her fingers.
"You'd have to beat him first. Easy, he's out of mana, but to murder him in cold blood? And then get rid of his body and all evidence. If you mess it up, you'd spend your only life in jail—"
"Come on, I have deadly spells this world has never seen," Konrad scoffed, but she was right.
"Would you waste our ticket back home on killing your enemies?"
"What makes you think I even want to go back there?" he retorted, his voice rising.
That's when the booth's door swung open, and one of his new classmates walked through.
"Oh, you're with Ryu-chan?!" he asked with a smirk, though even if it killed him, Konrad wouldn't have remembered his name. "Let her work, man, you are missing out here."
Right. He almost forgot where he was.
Deep down in karaoke hell.
"Gomen, gomen," Konrad switched modes, turning to face him with a fake smile. "I was asking Ryu-san about how to get a job with my visa and stuff. Right, Ryu-san?"
When he faced Kaede again, her expression surprised him.
Eyes wide in utter shock, her lips trembling as she stared straight into his soul.
Before he could figure out what that was about, she'd blink and be back to normal.
In case faking being a cheerful high school student counted as such.
"Yeah, Halstadt-kun. We'll talk about this in school tomorrow. I'm on the clock here, but you go enjoy your afternoon," Kaede suggested. No, it was closer to an angry demand.
Her hazel eyes could have killed him if he hadn't averted his gaze fast enough.
And she said she was out of mana?!
"Y-you're right, sorry for bothering you," Konrad muttered, inching towards the door. But then he had an idea. "What time do you finish here? I could walk you home."
It was a terrible, terrible idea.
"Sorry, Halstadt-kun, I know you don't mean anything by that, but we're not that close."
Not that close?! Even if she was acting—
"It must be a work policy, Halstadt-kun. Don't worry about it," the classmate tried to comfort him with that random nonsense. But more than anything, he was dragging him away.
All Konrad could do was blink in surprise and wave goodbye before he was back in the booth.
With that hasty offer—in front of a witness—he opened Pandora's box.
"He confessed to Ryu-chan?! No way. Poor soul," the pretty girl who invited him yelled.
"What? I did not—"
"As you'd expect, she shot him down in cold blood," the boy told them the story as if he weren't even there. "It's a good thing I stopped him before he'd done something even crazier."
"I only said I'd walk her home," Konrad tried to set the record straight, but no dice.
From that moment onwards, the afternoon was all about his perceived love life.
A gossip material he supplied to these kids without realising.
It was embarrassing, but still better than listening to their singing. No less loud, though.
When Kaede entered with some drinks the others had ordered, they all fell silent.
As if there was a way to make it any more obvious that they talked about her until then.
And sure, the doors were soundproof, but not enough to block their cheerful yelling.
"Man, that's rough," one of the boys noted when Kaede left. "You can't imagine how many boys confessed last year, too. And she turned them all down."
That shouldn't have come as a surprise.
"Yeah, you're kinda handsome, and a foreigner, which is cool," another boy added. "But sorry, Halstadt-kun, you wouldn't have a shot with her. Not in a thousand years."
Not that he was trying to confess to her anyway, but they were pissing him off.
"I can bet you that in a few thousand years, I could make her my wife," he claimed out of spite.
The others laughed and cheered, though they must have thought it was a joke.
The funny part was that it already happened. Kinda.
"How do you plan on living that long?" the pretty girl who invited him asked.
If he actually wanted to stay in this world, he should have memorised their names by now. They even made it easy by calling each other often, but his brain refused to register anything.
"I doubt it's possible," Konrad admitted. "But one can always hope."
Besides, time travel was weird like that. He could only wonder what kind of life Kaede would live? They have already met, and thousands of years would still pass before she'd become Lily.
The Lily, he married. How did all that time even add up?
It felt like he missed something big, but he didn't expect he'd figure it out in a karaoke booth.
"So you're actually in love with her so bad?" the girl asked, sounding a little jealous.
"What? I didn't say that," Konrad protested, but he didn't say no, either.
"Foreigners, am I right?" the boy who interrupted them noted. "And I heard the French were the romantic ones. Germans must be right up there with them."
"If you're so desperate for love, I don't have a boyfriend, either," one of the girls said. "Kidding."
She couldn't add that fast enough without drawing the pretty one's ire.
"Hey, I invited him, you know," she said with a pout, and that raised some eyebrows.
Including Konrad's.
So he was actually popular with girls now?!
That was new. But, well, this vessel, called Konrad Halstadt, wasn't exactly ugly. He couldn't judge if he was handsome or not, but as a powerful mage and a duke—
Nope. He was neither of that in this world.
He was an exchange student, teased about his nonexistent love life.
And what if it also only existed in the other world?