Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Jin’s POV
   Naturally, Estyshana was shocked to see the Graylocks here. She was even more shocked to see Aldenia the younger Graylock wearing a skirt.

   “Is he what people call a trap?” she asks Jin.

   “Actually, that’s a girl you’re looking at.”

   Estyshana looks at Jin, then Aldenia, then back at him again.

   “You can’t be serious.”

   “Um, I really am a girl.” Aldenia tells the demon.

   “Proof it!” Estyshana demands.

   “Sure, but how do I do that?”

   “Well, um, ah, I know! Show me your private parts! I remember that male and female humans have different private parts than each other!”

   “But, there’s a boy here-”

   “Make it snappy! Do you want me to strip you?”

   “Wait! Don’t pull my skirt! Okay, I get it, I’ll show you. Just, please stop trying to pull down my skirt~!”

   Jin politely covers his eyes with his left hand. Seriously, how tactless can that demon be? He then hears Estyshana lets out a surprised gasp.

   “Jin, this one really is a female!” she tells him while sounding really surprised.

   “Yes, that’s what she told us, remember? Is it safe for me to open my eyes yet?”

   “It’s safe.” Audrey, the Graylock who’s older, informs Jin.

   Jin takes his hand away from his eyes. He then sees Estyshana still trying to process what she just saw, while Aldenia is looking a bit embarrassed.

   “Are you satisfied now?” he asks Estyshana.

   “No. Not in the slightest. What are they doing here in the first place?”

   “Well…”

   He explained the whole situation to her.

   “...So, what happened yesterday happened over one ring.” she summarizes once he was done.

   “Yup. Pretty much.”

   “Humans and their obsession over jewelries.” she grumbles.

   Audrey has the look of someone who has a lot to say, but she bit her tongue and kept quiet.

   “Even so, that has nothing to do with me! She mocked me, and I won’t rest until I beat her to a pulp!” Estyshana says angrily while pointing at Aldenia.

   “I have something to tell you regarding that.” the younger Graylock tells the Demon Lord’s daughter.

   “Are you going to challenge me? You’re on!”

   “No, I want to apologize.”

   “Huh?”

   “What?”

   That was so sudden even Jin was surprised.

   Aldenia bows at Estyshana and Jin multiple times. When she raises up her head, her expression is very apologetic.

   “The thing is, I tend to be rude whenever I’m nervous.” she explains. “I didn’t mean any of those means things I said to you.”

   “So the reason your elder sister kept trying to interrupt you yesterday-” Jin begins.

   “Is because she could tell that I was nervous and about to run my mouth off. Please believe in me!”

   “...Well, you’re not lying, so I guess you’re telling the truth.” Estyshana says.

   “How can you tell?” Jin asks.

   “My Bloodline Magic not only allows me to hypnotize anyone and anything with my words, but it also allows me to detect lies.”

   Jin stares at her.

   “You can do that?”

   “Hey, don’t give me the ‘why didn’t you tell me look?’, okay? I don’t have any obligation to tell you about my abilities.”

   “No no, I don’t care if you hide a thing or two from me. What I want to know is why did you demand to look at Aldenia’s skirt when she was already telling you the truth.”

   “Well, I guess I could forgive you just this once.” Estyshana tells Aldenia reluctantly while ignoring Jin.

   “Hey-”

   Aldenia lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

   “But just this once, got it?”

   “Listen to me-”

   “Anyway, now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, may I continue with what I was saying just now?” Audrey interrupts.

   “...Sure, go ahead.” Jin tells her.

   “Thank you. Now, as I was about to say, this ring is actually the source of power for us Graylocks.” the elder Graylock explains about the ring while showing it to them.

   Jin quickly banishes the thought of the comic about a group of space knights who use rings to do battle.

   “Is it the reason why your low level spells could handle my high level ones easily?” Jin asks.

   “Yes, that’s exactly it. However, I have yet to decipher the ancient language that were carved on this ring. As such, I cannot give a better explanation than this.”

   “It’s fine. I won’t be able to understand it anyway. Stuffs like ancient languages and magic formulas always gave me headaches.” Jin tells her.

   Both Estyshana and Aldenia nod their head in agreement.

   “The Hero and the Daughter of the Demon Lord aside, you should at least be well versed in magic formulas, Al. After all, you’re a Graylock.”

   “I’m trying, nee-san! But a lot of them are too complicated for me!” Aldenia whines.

   Jin couldn’t agree more. Part of the reason that he could never master teleportation and space magic is because of the complexity of their magic formulas. They’re simply too much for his simple brain.

   “Perhaps I should start coaching you on them. I guess six hours would do for a start.” her elder sister muses.

   Aldenia flinches at that.

   “You mentioned that you haven’t decipher the words carved on that ring. If so, how did you managed to obtain the ability to strengthen your spell?” Jin asks Audrey.

   “First of all, the name of the ability is known as Spell Enhance. As for your question, my father was the one who bestowed the ability to me. Unlike me, he managed to translate the ancient language on the ring.”

   “Can anyone who managed to translate the language gives out Spell Enhance to anyone they want?” Jin asks in alarm.

   She shakes her head.

   “No. Only a Graylock could uses Spell Enhance. An outsider could try all they want, but they can never use it. It’s sort of like Bloodline Magic that demons possess.”

   “And that theory has been proven?”

   “Yes.”

   Audrey had a dark look when she answered. But Jin chose not to ask her about it.

   “If all Graylocks can use it, does that mean you can as well?” Estyshana asks Aldenia curiously.

   “Oh, no. Not me. Father didn’t bless me with it.”

   “Why not? Is he playing favourite?”

   Aldenia laughs awkwardly at the question.

   “You can say that. After all, I was born from one of his mistresses whom he had forgotten about. Nee-san, on the other hand, was born from his first wife.”

   “Ah, so that’s why the two of you look so different.”

   “Yup. And to top it all off, my mana pool isn’t anything special. I can’t use a lot of spells because of that. For the Graylock family, I’m considered a failure. Let’s face it. Those who said that are right.”

   “Didn’t I tell you to stop thinking like that, Al? You’re not a failure!” Audrey tells her sternly.

   “Exactly! You’re strong at your own way! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!” Estyshana agrees.

   Aldenia got all teary eyed. She sniffles and wipes away the tears on her eyes.

   “Thanks. Father disagreed on that, but thanks anyway.”

   “Well now that he’s dead, you can just forget about-”

   Estyshana manages to stop herself from continuing.

   “Sorry.” she mumbles to them.

   Looks like the demon can be considerate every once in a while. It’s either that or she could feel their pain. Jin, on the other hand, could feel that things are getting more and more awkward. After all, he was the one who killed their fathers.

   “It’s fine. Truth be told, he wasn’t the best father. Nor was he a decent human being.” Audrey tells Estyshana.

   “Seriously? What exactly did he do?”

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   “He-”

   It was then when the bell that signifies the end of lunch break rings.

   “Oh, dear. I was so engrossed in talking I’ve forgotten to look at the time. We were supposed to be done with the discussion before lunch break was over.” Audrey mumbles.

   “Is there any point for that now, nee-san? We infiltrated that school just to challenge the Hero and get back the ring, right?” Aldenia reminds her.

   “Don’t say that, Al. We may have a motive for enrolling ourselves in that school, but now that we have responsibilities we should see it through until the end.”

   “Hold on. What kind of challenge are you talking about?” Jin asks.

   “I proposed to your student council members to have a match between our schools.”

   “A match, as in comparing our sales during the Cultural Festivals?”

   “Indeed.”

   “You’re actually trying to get both our schools involved? You could have just head to my class instead.”

   Audrey shrugs. “I figured that only getting a single class involved would be too half-hearted. Besides, it would be more fun, no?”

   “Well I gave you back the ring without putting up a fight. Now what?”

   “Now, um, I guess we’ll be continuing the competition regardless. To, you know, heat things up as they say.”

   Easy for her to say. It wouldn’t affect the rich ladies of Kitajoshi whether they win or lose considering their backgrounds. The earnings they might receive are probably akin to small changes when compared to all the money their family make. Compared to them, the students of Yokosuka High are mostly from middle-class families. To them, every single yen counts. Jin wonders whether they’re fine with this competition.

   “In any case, we’ll be heading back.”

   “Yeah, us too. For all we know, class has already started.”

   “Well, see you for now. Maybe we could hang out with each other soon.” Aldenia tells them.

   “Yeah, that sounds nice.” Estyshana promises.

   “Hey, let’s exchange phone numbers.”

   “Sounds good.”

   “I swear, the humans here are so innovative with their creation.”

   “I know, right? This place is totally different from Ifezan. If I were a human, I would definitely be proud.”

   Even though they were trying to kill each other yesterday, they’re laughing and talking with each other today. Friendship between girls can be so random.

   “Hey, Minase. Let’s exchange numbers too!” Aldenia suddenly tells Jin.

   “What?”

   “Oh, me too me too! I’ve always wanted to exchange phone numbers with you too, Jin!”

   “I would like to do the same as well, if it’s not too much trouble that is.” even Audrey wants to join in.

   “Um, you girls do realize that we can just use telepathy to communicate with each other, right?”

   “Where’s the fun in that?”

   “Exactly! We can use emojis and stuff when we message each other. It’s more fun that way, right?”

   “I don’t use those things.”

   “Ah, you’re no fun.”

   “Whatever, just hand over your phone!”

   Jin doesn’t even have the number of his own mother and younger sister, and now he has the phone numbers that belong to three girls. He doesn’t really know how he should feel about this, considering that all of them have more than enough reason to go after his head.

   “Please wait, Minase-san. I have one last thing to tell you.” Audrey tells Jin right before he leaves.

   “What is it?”

   “You’d best be careful of that Grand Magus of yours. There’s probably a reason why she lied to you about our ring.”

   “Sure, I’ll definitely keep my guard up if she ever shows up.” he promises her.

   With a simple farewell, the two groups split up. Jin and Estyshana head back to their classroom, while Audrey and Aldenia go to the student council’s office again. The former duo arrive right on time to their classroom, as the teacher went inside three seconds after they did. Jin could tell that the whole class has tons of questions for him, but they had to hold them in since class is in session. Once the class has ended for a short break, they immediately surround him and start bombarding him with questions. To distract them, Jin wastes no time in telling them about the competition. As he had hoped, their priorities switch in an instant.

   “Wait, did the student council really agreed on that without asking for our permission? Our money’s at stake, for crying out loud!”

   “Hey Watanabe, is it true?”

   “I have no idea. Wait here, I’ll go investigate at once.”

   “If it turned out to be true, those scoundrels from the student council are going to get it!”

   “Yeah, yeah! How dare they make this kind of pointless bet!”

   Of course, the folks of the student council might have declined the challenge, or the two Graylock ladies might propose something else now that they don’t have a reason to challenge Jin through his school. However, Jin still wants those stuck up student council members to be troubled no matter how short the duration is.

   There was a time when Jin had to stay back after school and pick up rubbish around the school ground. The reason for the punishment? His tie was tied, and he quote, “in such an undisciplined manner it’s going against everything that Yokosuka High stands for.” Supposedly, he was to be given a warning first before a punishment was administered, as per the student guidebook. The same student guidebook that the student council will not shut up about in every single general meeting at the assembly hall. He still remembered the dark expression of the secretary who gave him the punishment. She’s most likely having a bad day, and Jin was randomly chosen to be punished just so that she could vent out her anger.

   As he’s thinking about the past, the discussion about the competition is still ongoing.

   “What are we going to do? Now, not only we have to compete with other classes, we also have to compete with another school. And an ojou-sama one at that!”

   “We’re so screwed!”

   “Hey, kitchen crews! You guys better come up with something brilliant to attract lots of customers!”

   “Speak for yourself! Why don’t you start thinking of a plan to attract more customers!”

   With all the confusion, they’ve totally forgotten to question Jin.

   At the next break time, the rumor has spread to the entire school. Everywhere Jin goes, students are outraged. Some of them are even thinking of storming the student council’s office. Maybe some of them did that for real, since the student council members asked the students to gather at the assembly hall after school has ended.

   The usual crew is standing behind the podium. Minus the female secretary and the male student who told Jin to head to the rooftop, he doesn’t know any of them. Nor does he have any intention of knowing any of them, for that matter. He notices that all of them have an exhausted look on their face. They were probably busy trying to calm down the outraged students. Jin couldn’t help but smirk at their misery.

   And then, a male student who’s wearing a black tie like Jin is, which indicates that he too is a second year, comes up to the podium.

   “Good evening, dear students. I am Morikawa Kengo, your student council president.” he begins to address the crowd. “As all of you may have already heard, the student council members of the Kitajoshi Girls High has just visited us. They proposed that we have a contest in which the loser must donate half of their profits earned to charities-”

   It was then when the rest of the students finally couldn’t take it anymore.

   “Don’t screw with us! What if we lose?”

   “Yeah, we were planning to do all kinds of things with the money we got!”

   “You guys better take back the bet!”

   “Take it back! Take it back! Take it back!”

   “Please, there’s no need to worry! We’ve already talked it through with them, and we agreed to get rid of the bet and focus on a collaboration instead.” Morikawa assures them.

   “Can we really trust you on that?”

   “Of course. You have my word.”

   The students are finally willing to calm down.

   “Now that this has been dealt with, please return to your respective classroom and continue with your preparations for the Cultural Festival. Dismissed.” Morikawa ends his speech by saying.

   “Looks like your information was only half correct, Minase-kun.” Watanabe says to Jin while they’re on the way back.

   Jin just shrugs at that.

   “From the way the student council members were acting, they were probably going to go through with it until someone or something made them change their mind.”

   Indeed, Morikawa looked kind of reluctant when he was saying that the bet was off. The Graylocks probably offered them something that they could not resist in exchange for taking on the bet. And once Yokosuka High was defeated, the Graylocks would get the ring. Not only that, they would probably announce to the students here that it was Jin who proposed this bet to them, thereby making the entire school hate him. Again. Jin isn’t that sure about the last part, but why else would the Graylocks propose this kind of high-risked bet? In any case, Jin couldn’t help but shudder. Women, no matter their race, are scary in general.

   “Let’s brainstorm for ideas once we’re back at our classroom, Minase-kun.” Wakaba says to him.

   Jin rolls his eyes at that.

   “Yay, I can’t wait~.” he cheers unenthusiastically.

   “Count yourself lucky, Minase-kun. I can’t even join the kitchen crew even if I wanted to.” Watanabe grumbles.

   “Yeah, I can pretty much guess the reason.”

   “Just work hard, okay? I’m sure that you have lots of good ideas!”

   As Watanabe has said, Jin indeed has some idea regarding the menu. Even so, he’s going to be a jerk and keeps the idea to himself. After all, he was always taught by the school to be a sheep except when it comes to academic. Besides, he very much doubts the class who hate him will even consider his idea.

   Before Jin heads back to his classroom, he heads to a quiet corner. After making sure that no one would be coming here, he takes out his phone and calls Sergeant Wakaba.

   “...And that’s it. In conclusion, they’re harmless.” he reports.

   “I hate to be blunt, but what makes you so sure of that?”

   An image of Estyshana comes into Jin’s mind.

   “All I could say is please believe in me.” he tells the detective ambiguously.

   “...Well, I’m going to ask my colleagues to keep an eye on them, just in case.”

   “Yes. Please do that.”

   After Jin hangs up, he wonders for the umpteenth time why he didn’t just tell Sergeant Wakaba about Estyshana’s true identity. He owes the demon zero obligation to keep her secret for her, and usually he would be a tell-tale just to spite her. And yet, he always hesitates whenever he was about to. It’s definitely something more than the guilt of killing her father. However, he could never comprehend it.

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