Beyond his unrelated anxiety and the initial culture shock, school was mundane.
Two days of it felt more than enough. How did he survive a decade of his old life between these walls? Okay, not these exact ones, but similar—Konrad found it unthinkable now.
Kasserlane was different. It didn't have mandatory education or schools for the young.
Not for the poor at the very least. Lone mentors taught whatever they wanted for a hefty price. But there was no generally accepted curriculum or fact-checking at all.
He was lucky to have Father Alastair educate him with the other orphans.
Glad he didn't try to fill his head with nothing but religious dogmas, either.
But other than the local culture and the basics of the language? Everything important he knew was self-taught or stuff from his past life. He applied old knowledge to the new environment.
Like learning to read those foreign characters at the age of three.
No wonder the merchants thought he was a prodigy.
Here? He felt nothing like that. If he didn't pay attention, these kids would leave him in the dust. Mainstream knowledge must have changed a lot in fifty years.
Except—they were things he'd never use in either of his lives.
Konrad thought about what Kaede said, how amazing the internet was. But when he had the chance to look up something during recess, he'd never spend his time on school stuff.
There were so many things he wished he knew in the other world.
Medieval weaponry, armour, defensive tactics, or advancements in his own field, logistics.
He kept searching at random until his battery died.
Stuff that actually mattered—to him, rather than his teachers.
He soon realised: all that was to prepare his return to Kasserlane.
As if his subconscious had already decided his path.
Whether it was right or not, he didn't want to think about it anymore. That was the main source of his anxiety after all—and the fact that Midori-kun never showed up.
"Is this the first time he did that?" he asked Kaede once their final class ended.
"Nah, he's not exactly an exemplary school boy," she said, packing up her textbooks. Only to leave them all inside her desk. "He skips a day now and then, and his grades are terrible, too."
That wasn't a surprise. The science of this world couldn't compare to Kasserlane. Besides—
"Grades must be low priority next to world domination," Konrad guessed, trying to play it off.
But his smirk was a mere facade for the classmates who passed by.
"Karaoke, Halstadt-kun?" the same girl from yesterday asked.
His smile froze as he shook his head, the question triggering PTSD from the last session.
Was there a polite way of turning her down without sounding lame?!
"Sorry, Chii-chan, this dum-dum volunteered to bring Midori-kun his notes," Kaede claimed.
Konrad wasn't good enough of an actor to hide his shock.
"I did what?!" His voice pitched up.
That damned dragoness must have enjoyed this, pranking him every chance she got.
"You kept asking 'bout him," she said. "It's like a BL romance. Here we have all these pretty girls asking you to hang out, and nope. Only Midori-kun has a place in your heart."
What kind of manga was she reading?!
"I only said he was missing today," he protested, adding. "I don't even know where he lives."
"Oh, want me to tell?" Kaede teased. Of course, she'd know his address.
She wasn't paying his rent, too, right?!
No, wait, where did Kaede live in the first place?
"You sure seem close," the girl she'd call Chii-chan noted with—jealousy? "Fine then, next time."
"Hold on, I'm serious, I didn't—"
But her group already left.
"So, want his address or nah?" Kaede was still at it. Was she serious? "Your GPS will take you there, and you'll see how his world domination's going."
"My phone died, but—" It hit Konrad like a slap in the face. "You want me to go alone?!"
She sighed, nudging him out of the classroom.
"I'm working every afternoon, remember?" she said, eyes rolling. "Two hours of the leaflet-thingy, then in a convenience store until seven. You scared of him or what?"
Was that even a question? Even if Konrad was the only one here who still had mana—
"I'd get lost," he blurted out the first thing that didn't feel lame to admit. "And it would be weird."
"Weirder than going to school?" she kept teasing him. "Who even leaves the house without a charger these days? Fine, let's switch. I'll lend you my phone, but don't dare read my messages."
"Wh—wait," he ran out of excuses, but was still defensive. "We had no phones back then."
"Well, you do now. And a pretty girl's as well," she chirped. "Exciting, huh?"
It was. But for all the wrong reasons.
"You serious?" he asked, watching her unlock the screen and enter the address. "Why'd you want me to check on him so much?"
Kaede paused to give him a look.
"Check on him? No, you'll bring him today's notes, because you're a nice guy," she said, blinking. "That's socialising, too. And it's about time you two had a little chat, you know?"
Sometimes, with that dark hair, he forgot he dealt with an early version of Lily.
"Or would you rather go with karaoke again?" she asked with a smirk, and Konrad shuddered.
Yep. She was the chaos incarnate he fell in love with.
Was it because she was different from everyone?
To the level where it was both exciting and annoying at the same time. She operated by her own weird logic, which to him only made sense in hindsight. But it always did, somehow.
Too bad, many of those memories were still locked away in his mind.
Whether by the angels, spirits, or Lily herself, he never figured out.
But he felt incomplete, not knowing how they met or forgetting his previous name.
"So, have a chat with my mortal enemy," he summarized as they left the school's perimeter.
"Have you never considered it?" she asked, finally handing him the phone. "Only to follow the angel's orders without ever doubting them? Or see what the other side has to say about it?"
She had a point.
One of those angels ruined his soul for a promise he never realised.
Only to support the Demon Lord for whatever reason now.
There had to be one. Why did he never question it?
"We had a chat before enrolling, too," Kaede claimed. "Now that you're here, it's your turn."
"What should I expect?" he asked, curiosity piqued as he examined the route on the phone.
"It wouldn't be authentic from my mouth. You'll see in due time."
Typical. He let out a long, annoyed sigh, trying to prepare himself mentally.
"This better be worth the anxiety I'm having right now," Konrad couldn't help but grunt.
The GPS told him they were about to part ways.
"This is your opportunity to have a non-lethal confrontation with him," she chirped. Then, she threw him a kiss and a wink, switching modes again. "I'm off to work, go have fun, Konrad-kun."
"Yeah, fun," he grumbled, watching her back as she left him to his own devices in this huge city.
Konrad, alone with his doubts and a weird destination.