5 - The Cheerful Conspirator

“I really don’t know about this...” Akuto mumbled to himself.

Peterhausen had insisted that his master should live down here, and so he’d been given a room in this underground palace. It looked like a king’s throne room from a picture book, with red carpets and a tall chair. Akuto was sitting down in the chair, but it made his butt itch.

“And you know, if someone saw this...”

“If someone saw this, what?” Peterhausen asked.

“I definitely look like a villain, don’t I?” Akuto replied.

The tall throne was decorated with skull emblems. Akuto was sitting in it with his legs crossed. Fujiko was sitting on one of the armrests, draping herself off of Akuto’s shoulder. She had now awoken to her true destiny as a black mage, and sworn eternal loyalty to him. Keena was sitting on his lap, too, though more because it was funny than any deeper reason of loyalty. To top it off, Junko was standing beside them looking surly, with her hand on her sword.

Finishing off the scene was Peterhausen, the fifteen meter-long dragon, curled up behind the throne. Korone and Hiroshi were standing at the bottom of the steps.

“It totally looks like he’s trying to take over the world. Maybe I should take a photo for the school paper,” Lily said, only half joking as she watched from a distance. The trio nodded.

“Please don’t! I’m going back to the dorm, okay? I’m leading a normal life!” Akuto sobbed.

“You don’t know when to give up, do you? But...” Lily shrugged.

○

Somewhere in the Imperial Capital.

He was sitting in the director’s office in a certain building. The man was astonishingly beautiful, but strangely, he inspired no resentment. He had a gentle aura that made you feel he could talk to just about anyone.

The man — Boichiro Yamato — was staring at a Japanese garden outside the window. He looked like he was thinking about something, but he also looked like he had a deep enough understanding of the garden that he could stare at it for hours.

And then, someone rudely stepped into the garden. Boichiro’s expression clouded. But the girl in the garden didn’t seem to notice the change, and when she opened the window and came in, she told him exactly how she was feeling.

“Hey! I want you to make Akuto Sai and Junko Hattori suffer! Please?” Eiko yelled as she leaned herself against the chair where Boichiro was sitting.

“Make them suffer? Now that’s not very nice.”

“They’re crazy, though! They should just die!”

“That’s right. But in the end, Akuto Sai didn’t die,” Boichiro said, as if he only just now remembered.

“That’s right! And that’s weird! Why?”

“Hm. Well, predictions about the future are just predictions. When the situation is complex, they can be wrong. But this time, something was definitely strange. Akuto Sai was supposed to open the seal, and he was supposed to die. That was a certainty.”

Boichiro put his hand on his jaw in thought. Eiko furiously agreed.

“That’s right! That’s what you said!”

“But it wasn’t him who opened the seal, it was another, and Akuto Sai saved her. Perhaps the secret to why the plan failed is hidden there.”

“What do you mean?”

Eiko moved up to his lap, and wrapped her arm around his neck. Boichiro patted her on the head as he answered.

“He grew up in a very short period of time. And mana control is highly dependent on mental state, too. Something happened that caused him to become serious.”

“Wow! You really do know everything!”

Eiko was excited like a little child.

Boichiro laughed bashfully.

“I’ve been alive a long time, you know. Now, don’t you need to go give your family your work report?”

Boichiro gave her a tiny slap on her behind. Eiko squirmed gleefully and ran out of the room.

Once she was gone, Boichiro let out a long sigh. He took out the pendant on his chest and began to play with it. The pendant was a locket, and when he opened it, a 3D holographic photo appeared. It was an image of a beautiful blonde woman.

He brushed off his knees, as if wiping away some stain that Eiko had made, and then sat back in his chair as he stared at the picture.

“Time lasts so very, very long, doesn’t it? And I’m getting very tired. I think it’s about time I really, truly settle things with that Demon King,” he said to no one in particular.