Kaizen froze.
"Peculiar boy?" he repeated slowly, his brain lagging for half a second.
'Who in the world would come looking for me?'
Then it hit him like a brick.
'Oh. Uh oh.'
A very specific face popped into his mind. Spiky red hair. Way too much confidence. A complete inability to read the room or understand social cues.
'No. No way.'
Before Kaizen could finish panicking, Klaus continued, completely confirming his worst fears.
"That boy who calls himself Leo Crimson," Klaus said flatly while turning another page. "He arrived at this dwelling seeking his most treasured best friendo. I informed him with great clarity that you were absent and would not grace us with your return until the present day."
Kaizen's soul left his body for a brief moment.
"The boy was most vexing," Klaus went on, his tone carrying the faintest hint of aristocratic irritation. "He insisted with alarming stubbornness that he would establish residence within this very chamber until such time as you manifested. It required significant effort and creative verbal maneuvering on my part to make him comprehend that you had truly departed to realms unknown."
Klaus paused for a second, then added thoughtfully, "I have come to believe that boy possesses a mind of inferior processing capability. He failed to grasp the meaning of my exceptionally clear explanations."
Kaizen listened in silence, the stupid aristocratic wording was making his mind shake with confusion, then very quietly gave Leo a mental thumbs-up in his heart.
'Well done, hero.' He thought with genuine respect and a bit of awe. 'If anyone in this entire academy can annoy a Demon King Candidate without dying immediately, it's definitely you.'
If there was someone capable of standing against Klaus in terms of sheer mental damage and refusing to take a hint, it was Leo Crimson himself.
As for the other Heavenly Kings, they would need to be tested later for comparison.
'Also,' Kaizen thought while rubbing his forehead internally, 'I really don't think Leo is smooth in the brain or has inferior processing capability.'
'It's just that when you said I was "not here," I am ninety percent sure you said it in the most demonic, ominous way possible that would make anyone think I was dead.'
His imagination immediately reconstructed the conversation with perfect clarity.
"The human currently does not reside within this dwelling."
"Huh? Where did my best friendo go without telling me? That's totally not cool!"
"He has journeyed to a realm where neither you nor I may follow, for it lies beyond the veil of mortal comprehension."
"Wait, what? What does that even mean? Is he okay? Did something happen?"
"His fate remains uncertain. Perhaps he shall return. Perhaps he shall not. Such is the nature of existence."
"Dude, that sounds really bad! I'm waiting here until he comes back!"
"Your vigil shall prove fruitless, young warrior of insufficient intellect."
Kaizen felt a genuine chill run down his spine.
Yeah. He concluded grimly. That's definitely how it went.
No wonder Leo had refused to leave and insisted on camping in the room.
If Kaizen were in his place and heard Klaus describe his whereabouts like he was reading a funeral eulogy, he would have assumed he had been eaten and his bones were being used as demonic furniture too.
He tightly clutched the Sun Spirit Stone in his hand, fingers closing around it like it might suddenly develop legs and try to escape.
Injecting mana into it would immediately activate its light magic properties, and while that was normally a good thing for survival purposes, doing it right now in front of an actual Demon King Candidate felt like a fantastic way to die instantly and violently.
Sure, the stone was C-rank.
But it was still a stone.
A light-aspected stone that radiated holy energy.
In the hands of a demon's roommate.
No. Absolutely not happening.
He carefully loosened his grip and slipped it away into his pocket, already mentally labeling it as an emergency-only item that required very specific circumstances.
This thing needed careful timing, careful positioning, and preferably a location very far away from Klaus where the demon couldn't sense it being activated and decide to investigate why his roommate suddenly smelled like purification magic.
"Phew."
Kaizen exhaled heavily and shook his head, trying to calm his racing heart down. Tomorrow was Monday, which meant classes were officially starting. More importantly, it was his very first day at the academy as an actual enrolled student.
That realization alone made his spine shiver with anticipation mixed with dread.
All the main characters. In one place. At the same time.
'It's going to be a complete shit show.'
He thought miserably while imagining the chaos.
He pulled out his smartphone, half-expecting bad news because that's just how his life worked now, and sure enough, the screen lit up with exactly 69 missed calls from an unknown number.
Kaizen stared at it for a long moment.
"Yeah," he sighed deeply. "I don't need to be a genius to know who that is."
Leo Crimson, without a single doubt.
At the exact same time, Klaus spoke again from across the room, his tone casual as if he were asking about the weather or inquiring about dinner plans.
"What branch of the mystical arts are you intending to pursue, human?"
"Eh?" Kaizen blinked in confusion. "What?"
"Your magic branch," Klaus repeated patiently, like he was explaining something obvious to a child. "Tomorrow marks the day we select our paths. Have you not given it considerable thought yet?"
Kaizen froze.
'Tomorrow?'
His brain screamed.
'IT'S TOMORROW?!'
Kaizen had completely forgotten about it.
Tomorrow was the ceremony. The moment every single first-year student chose the magic branch they would dedicate their entire life to mastering.
One could not learn everything no matter how talented they were. Magic was too vast, too complex, too demanding.
You chose one path, trained it relentlessly for years, advanced it through the Three Phases of mastery, and hoped that one day you would reach the level of an ultimate mage who could shake the world.
It was a lifelong decision that would define his entire future.
And he had not thought about it at all.
'Think, Kaizen. Think.'
He told himself desperately while his mind raced.
'What do you actually want? What can you actually use?'
His mind raced through the different branches like he was flipping through a catalog, imagining futures branching off in every direction.
Pyromancy for offensive power. Cryomancy for control and battlefield manipulation. Hydromancy for versatility. Electromancy for speed and precision. Rune magic for preparation and traps. Artificer for crafting weapons and tools.
He had decided to take Axiomancy when fighting Cassiel, but that was because of the heat of battle and desperation.
At that time, what he wanted desperately was the power to control vectors and momentum. But at the same time, he also needed to consider the other branches too and what they offered long-term.
Each had incredible strengths. Each had horrifying weaknesses that could get you killed.
And each choice would lock him into a path he could never fully escape from.
Kaizen swallowed hard.
This time, the panic swelling in his chest had nothing to do with demons or death flags or main characters.
It was worse than that.
It was his future staring him in the face and demanding an answer he wasn't ready to give.
Meanwhile, Klaus casually said,
"If you haven't thought about it, I suggest, based on your intelligence, to chose..."