Klaus had indeed stopped. He slowly turned his chair around to face Kaizen.
He watched silently as Kaizen placed a toothbrush on his nightstand.
"You possess... many belongings," Klaus observed in that same flat tone.
Kaizen looked down at his three shirts and one pair of pants. "Uh... I guess?"
"Material attachments," Klaus scoffed softly. "How typical of your kind. Always clinging desperately to the transient."
'MY KIND?! Dude, seriously, stop blowing your cover! Just say "cool shirt" or something normal!'
Klaus reached for the wine glass sitting on his desk. The liquid inside was thick and dark and viscous.
He swirled it gently, watching it coat the inside of the glass.
He looked at Kaizen, then back at the glass. He felt a rare pang of... what was this strange feeling? Hospitality? The student guidebook had mentioned that roommates should share resources to build proper alliances.
Klaus extended the glass slightly toward Kaizen.
"Would you partake?" Klaus asked, his tone flat but somehow aristocratic. "This vintage is... quite rich with iron."
Kaizen's brain completely short-circuited.
'Iron? Red liquid? Demon offering me a drink?'
He didn't hear "Vintage." He heard "Vitality."
He didn't hear "Wine." He heard "Blood."
'He's drinking actual blood! He probably blended Student #5 into a smoothie and now he's casually offering me a sip! It's a test! If I drink it, I'll become his undead ghoul minion!'
Kaizen turned pale as a ghost. He waved his hands frantically, backing up until his legs hit the edge of his bed.
"N-no! No thank you! I... I really need my blood! I mean, I have plenty! I'm completely full! Not thirsty at all!"
Klaus tilted his head slightly to one side.
'Need his blood?'
Klaus thought with confusion.
'Why would he need to specifically clarify that? Does he perhaps suffer from anemia?'
'Is he implying that drinking this simple grape juice would somehow disrupt his fragile human circulatory system?'
Klaus looked at the pathetic "Human" with genuine pity.
'So incredibly frail. He genuinely fears that a simple beverage will destroy his weak body. Humans truly are the most pathetic creatures.'
'I should document this and send the data back to my kingdom.'
Klaus was assigned to observe humans and figure out what they really wanted. This was important work. Knowing what humans liked was useful, and knowing what could kill them was an even better opportunity.
This was clearly valuable information.
He carefully decided to write this down in his records.
Humans could not drink wine.
At least, that was the conclusion Klaus came to after observing his new human roommate. The human outright refused his polite offering of wine and instead started speaking complete gibberish about blood, having plenty of it, and something about not mixing things.
Normally, Klaus would not have paid much attention to such nonsense.
However, the human's heart rate visibly increased the moment Klaus offered the simple glass of wine.
That part could not be ignored.
Why did this human's heartbeat suddenly speed up?
There was nothing scary about wine. It was red, yes, but otherwise harmless.
Unless.
Unless the human was actually afraid of the wine.
Klaus slowly nodded.
That explained everything.
The human must have known that wine would disrupt their circulatory system. It was probably common knowledge among humans, passed down secretly.
Yes. Very dangerous.
He would make sure to include this in his official documentation so no one in his kingdom made the mistake of offering humans wine during negotiations.
That would be tragic.
Klaus felt a surge of pride.
He was making excellent progress already, and this was only day one.
Truly, he was brilliant.
"Suit yourself," Klaus murmured, bringing the glass to his lips. "More for me then."
He took a long, slow sip.
Kaizen watched in absolute horror as the Demon King candidate drank the "blood," licked his lips with a satisfied sigh, and calmly turned back to his dark rituals.
"Do not disturb my concentration. I am... calculating the precise trajectory of the stars for the coming event."
'He's planning the apocalypse,' Kaizen's brain translated. 'He's figuring out the exact optimal time to summon a meteor and destroy the academy.'
"Got it! I'll be quiet as a mouse. A dead mouse. A completely non-existent mouse."
The silence that followed was somehow worse than the terror.
Klaus turned back to his desk and calmly resumed his work, the quiet scratching of his quill echoing through the room as if nothing strange had happened at all.
Kaizen, on the other hand, stood frozen beside his bed, painfully aware of how loudly his heart was still beating.
'Okay. That was bad. That was really, really bad.'
Refusing a drink offered by a demon king candidate felt like the kind of mistake that got people cursed, or worse, quietly erased from existence during the night.
Kaizen desperately searched his brain for some way to smooth things over before Klaus decided he had been insulted beyond forgiveness.
That was when he remembered something very basic about human interaction.
Food.
Trying not to make it awkward, Kaizen quickly rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small pack of biscuits. They were cheap, slightly crushed, and very obviously not cursed, which felt important under the circumstances.
He hesitated for just a moment, then stepped forward and held them out, forcing his hands not to shake.
"Uh… do you want some?"
The scratching stopped.
Klaus slowly turned his head, his blood-red eyes settling on the small plastic packet resting in Kaizen's palms.
He did not speak right away, simply observing it with the same seriousness one might reserve for a suspicious magical artifact.
Kaizen's stomach dropped.
'Great. Biscuits are offensive. Of course they are.'
From Klaus's perspective, however, the scene was entirely different. The human stood slightly hunched, eyes lowered, arms extended, offering a sealed object as if presenting tribute. The conclusion was obvious.
'A tribute? For someone stronger?'
'So, the human understood hierarchy.'
Klaus's shoulders relaxed by a barely noticeable degree.
"I do not consume processed mortal rations."
"Oh. Right. Yeah. That makes sense," Kaizen replied immediately, nodding far too fast for someone who was totally not panicking.
Before Klaus could say anything else, Kaizen tore open the packet and began eating the biscuits himself, chewing with exaggerated enthusiasm as if his life depended on it.
Crunch. Crunch.
"See? Totally safe," he said through a mouthful of crumbs, forcing a thumbs-up.
Klaus watched the display in silence, eyes narrowing slightly.
The human was testing the offering personally to demonstrate that it was harmless. A cautious gesture. Sensible, given his species' fragility.
Klaus gave a small nod of approval.
'Acceptable.'
Relieved that he had not immediately died or triggered a ritual duel, Kaizen retreated to his bed and sat down carefully, pretending his hands were not trembling.
'Okay. Good. Crisis avoided. Nobody screamed. Nobody burst into flames. That's a win.'
Klaus, meanwhile, had already turned back to his desk.
'Note,' he thought as he picked up his quill once more.
'Humans use carbohydrate-based offerings to establish temporary non-hostile relations. Refusal appears to cause anxiety.'
Scritch. Scritch.
Kaizen stared at the back of Klaus's head, an uncomfortable feeling settling in his gut.
For some reason, it felt less like he had avoided a disaster and more like he had accidentally agreed to something he did not understand.
Kaizen sat rigidly on his bed, clutching his pillow like it was a shield that could somehow protect him.
He looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 2:00 PM.
'Two whole days until classes actually start. Two entire days locked in a room with a demon who is actively calculating how to bring the apocalypse down on this academy.'
Kaizen stared at the back of Klaus's head.
'If I somehow manage to survive this weekend, I'm changing my name and moving to a farm in the middle of nowhere.'