The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Five Minutes Before Complete Chaos (2)

Things beyond imagination appeared right before her eyes.

The moment she truly saw it, she simply couldn't look away from the shock.

Liquor bottles rolling on the floor.

People sprawled out, drunk out of their minds.

Underwear scattered across the ground.

And, to top it off, a middle school boy dancing naked.

If there had been any police nearby, they would have sprinted in like Usain Bolt to slap handcuffs on everyone present.

Even the boy's upper body looked far too well-built for a middle schooler.

It was a scene far too obscene for the eyes of young girls.

"...."

"...."

"...."

The sudden appearance of two female students caused a hush to fall over the entire room—a silence as if humanity on Earth had gone extinct.

No one dared speak, but Eunseol slowly started to move her lips.

"P-per..."

The look of anticipation on her face changed in an instant to pure terror, as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Perve...rt..."

She was the only one to speak amid the stunned silence, but she couldn't withstand the shock and collapsed.

Like that, Eunseol lost consciousness for a moment.

A trickle of blood started to flow from Eunseol's nose as she lay sleeping on the floor.

.

.

It had been a while since we'd had a drinking party, and now two female students had walked in and witnessed it.

Having my first drink in fifteen years, I got so carried away that I totally lost control.

In the end, I lost my mind and ended up stripping off all my clothes in disgrace.

But did it really matter?

It's not like anyone was supposed to see.

Yes, no one was ever supposed to see this.

Who would have expected anyone to find this secret room, with its perfect soundproofing and hidden entrance?

"Um... so, uh... here's what's going on."

"...."

And so now, here we were, putting our heads together in a crisis meeting.

How could we come up with an explanation convincing enough for the witnesses?

- A middle school boy suddenly came to the chairman's office and begged to drink.

- The chairman gladly agreed and invited him to a secret room for a drinking party.

- There, the boy started drinking wildly and showing off his body...

—No, damn it, how do you explain this?!

No matter how you tried to put a positive spin on it, it just sounded completely idiotic.

At this rate, unless we erase the witnesses' memories, Vern and I are both going to be paraded straight into the police station.

But perhaps luck was on our side.

Thankfully, one of the witnesses was someone I knew.

"So... you're saying Seongjin started drinking just because there was no one to stop him?"

"Yeah."

Aside from the witness, there was no one left who could scold me for drinking.

Everyone here knew I had spent fifty years living in Mewzealand.

Who among them would even consider treating me as a minor?

At that, Ah-rin turned to Vern and asked,

"Chairman, aren't you going to point out that a student's drinking?"

"...."

Vern, along with his vassals, just fell silent, their faces frozen.

Who would ever imagine the Hand's chairman was just a subordinate of a middle schooler?

No matter how we tried to wiggle out, there was no escape.

At this rate, I'd be expelled and Vern would be disgraced in academic circles if this got out.

Of course, that's only if we got caught.

"Is she... acquainted with the Demon King?"

"Yeah."

When Vern whispered the question, I explained my relationship with Ah-rin.

She was a childhood friend I'd met during elementary school.

That much was believable.

"And this is Sura."

"Ah, childhood friend, and Sura... Wait, what?"

Sura, the idol of China's Sura guild, was standing right in front of him as a young girl—Vern's eyes widened in disbelief.

"T-this girl is... the one the Sura guild worships...!"

At that, Vern's vassals bared their fangs at Ah-rin—soaked in murderous intent, ready to pounce and feed.

But when I slightly raised my hand, they all froze.

"Calm down. She's not an enemy."

"But Sura is—"

"Vern."

"...."

She's not an enemy; in fact, she's an ally.

It was hard to drill that into Vern's head.

A childhood friend from 1st grade suddenly showing up as Sura?

'What is this, some kind of light novel title?'

Frankly, even I found it ridiculous, and if a third party heard it, they'd probably beat me over the head for talking nonsense.

Still, fortunately, Vern is my loyal subordinate.

Anything I say, he follows without question.

"I still don't quite get it, but... I will trust the Demon King's judgment."

Trying to swallow it somehow, Vern bowed politely to me.

His loyalty never changed, now or ever.

But from Ah-rin's perspective, watching our exchange looked frankly bizarre.

"Hey, Seongjin. Why is the chairman treating you so politely?"

Not understanding, Ah-rin asked the obvious.

And why wouldn't she? Could the Hand's chairman really be bowing his head to a student?

I had mountains of explanation ahead for Ah-rin as well.

'This really is five minutes before everything explodes.'

On top of that, I had plenty of questions of my own.

Why was Ah-rin here, of all places, when she should have been in China?

And why was she wearing the Hand school uniform?

This truly was a mental overload.

.

.

"So... you're telling me the chairman used to be your comrade back in Mewzealand?"

"Yeah."

I even prepared the blackboard as I finished explaining everything to Ah-rin.

Thankfully, I'd already told Ah-rin my true identity.

Since she already knew I was the Demon King, she seemed to process it quickly.

"Does it make sense now?"

"Hmm... a little bit?"

Of course, it was far from total understanding.

No matter how well you feed someone info, too much at once makes your head spin.

It's like trying to fit 300GB of data into a 200GB hard drive.

I couldn't expect a middle schooler like Ah-rin to have sage-like comprehension.

"As long as you get the gist, that's enough. But Ah-rin, why are you wearing the Hand school uniform?"

"This? Don't you think you already know—?"

"Wait, don't tell me..."

"That's right! I'm going to school with you now, Seongjin!"

Vern had mentioned earlier that he'd be meeting with a new transfer student who passed the entrance exam.

Judging by Ah-rin's appearance in the chairman's office, it must have been confirmed.

"Did the Sura guild give permission?"

"Yep! When I explained it as infiltrating Hand, they approved right away."

She must've had some pretty serious discussions with the guildmaster and high-ranking officials just to get permission to go to school with me.

Sending the precious Sura to Hand must have been quite a dilemma for the guild.

"And you know what's even better? I'm in the same school, the same class as you, Seongjin! We can even walk to school together!"

Overcome with joy, Ah-rin hugged me tightly, and then started to rub her face against mine to boot.

Watching this, Vern muttered quietly.

"Sura really has become one of us."

"And so, let's get along, chairman!"

"Ah... right! The pleasure's mine."

Now that she was confirmed as an ally, they shook hands warmly.

Vern looked at Ah-rin's beaming face and marveled internally.

No doubt, this girl is in love with the Demon King.

And the fact that she's Sura as well... it's hard not to be stunned.

'Demon king, just... what are you?'

At last, Vern understood.

Now he saw why the Demon King had ordered the plan to assassinate Sura to be scrapped.

He must have foreseen this future, reasoning with her back in 1st grade.

Otherwise, how could Sura have ever fallen into their hands willingly?

The Demon King was always extraordinary.

"Wait a second—how did you find this room? I disguised it perfectly as a bookshelf."

"It was nothing. I could smell Seongjin's scent strongly from inside."

Ah-rin was telling the truth.

She didn't do anything—just followed the scent.

Given that Mutamit had fox ears, no one could blame her for having a keen sense of smell.

Still, Vern had his doubts.

"That's odd. I even put up barriers so no one would notice."

For her to see through it just by smell was no small thing.

That she'd found it by tracking only the Demon King's scent was astonishing.

Her feelings for the Demon King aside, even Vern—once lord of all vampires—found it unsettling the more he saw.

"Hold on! You said you transferred here under the guise of infiltrating Hand, right?"

"Yes."

"And you came for an interview with me, as you passed the entrance exam?"

"Yes."

At that moment, Vern frowned and asked,

"I'm sure I canceled that interview. Why did you insist on coming to the chairman's office?"

"Oh, that?"

Ah-rin grinned brightly and answered,

"It was to deliver a gift! The guild insisted I give it to you, no matter what."

Vern, who had become Hand's chairman, instantly understood the meaning of the gift.

It was basically a bribe: "Please take care of our precious transfer student."

However, there's no way someone from the Sura guild would try to bribe the enemy chairman.

"But there was... a bugging device inside."

"I knew it."

"No one told me, but when I smelled the gift, I noticed right away."

If it hadn't been for Ah-rin's unique sense of smell, they never would have known that the present contained a wiretap.

Whether a bug would work on Hand's own chairman was doubtful, but the guild clearly had high hopes for their plan.

As long as they managed to get it into the chairman's office, it was worth a shot.

"That one?"

Vern looked out toward the gift envelope on the chairman's desk, just outside the secret room.

Inside, one of the items was an ornament inscribed with a spy spell.

It was a small frame with a pretty painting.

"You're sure it's not still live?"

"Don't worry! I already disabled it, just in case."

"At first, I thought you were an enemy, but you've turned out to be a really reliable friend!"

"Oh, please. I don't care what happens to the Sura guild, as long as it's for Seongjin's sake."

"For the Demon King, you'd do anything..."

Vern was deeply moved to have found a comrade at last.

Seizing hands, they spoke again.

"I really like you! If there's anything you want, just say the word. Even if your grades are low, I'll give you a free pass to the high school section—!"

"Vern, shut up."

"Yes, sir...."

At my icy interjection, Vern immediately closed his mouth.

Admission to the high school is restricted by grades, so entry is strictly by academic rank.

Everyone's striving hard to qualify; there's no way I'd trample on that.

But it seemed Ah-rin had passed the transfer student exam on her own, without anyone's help.

So, she probably wouldn't need any favors from Vern to get in.

"By the way, whose are the other envelopes?"

"Oh, right!"

I'd completely forgotten while explaining everything in excruciating detail to Ah-rin.

The person who'd witnessed that chaotic scene moments ago wasn't just Ah-rin.

"Ugh..."

A girl moaned, still asleep on the floor of the secret room.

"This isn't real... it can't be..."

Judging from her muttering in her sleep, the shock of earlier must have been enormous.

Naturally.

How would it look to a kid, seeing a boy her age drunk and naked at a party?

She'd basically glimpsed cosmic horror, the abyss of the soul.

And I couldn't take my eyes off this girl.

"Is she also a transfer student who passed the exam?"

"Yes, and she's none other than the granddaughter of the Angel guildmaster."

The granddaughter of Angel guildmaster Baek Suhyuk.

And the name tag on her school uniform read "Baek Eunseol".

With that, I instantly understood everything and let out a big, hearty laugh.

"Haha... she's really grown up."

"Demon king, do you know this student as well?"

"It's a long story."

But who would have expected to reunite under such embarrassing circumstances?

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

It seems Eunsol will be the only one kept in the dark...

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】