Void Domain, Book 08 полностью

Clement had been hoping to hear anything. After the girl and the demon who had injured Gertrude teleported in, he had tried for a while. Too long, if he was being honest with himself. Unfortunately, the enchantments just weren’t up to the task of filtering out things he didn’t need to hear.

“As we expected. I may be able to adjust the enchantment. It wouldn’t be ready soon, however.”

“Shouldn’t you at least be working on your own project. Doing something for yourself and getting mobile again?”

“No time. If these demons are planning on something, we need your armor ready to handle whatever that may be.”

“But–”

“Don’t argue. I’m not able to fight at the moment. It is going to be all up to you. Other hunters are unreliable. They can’t even kill a single demon despite sacrificing their lives trying. Pathetic.”

Clement stood still in their home—one of the many abandoned buildings around Brakket City—and watched Gertrude for a moment.

With his sword still intact, he held no doubts about his ability to handle most of the demons out there. There were a few that might give him pause, but quelling a number of them might be enough to disrupt their plans. Finishing his armor would only increase his chances of success. Especially his chances of success while still living through it in the end.

If he died, was captured, or otherwise became unavailable while Gertrude was bedridden… she might be able to teleport someplace where she could get help, but he doubted that she would trust anyone to do anything. It was a very real possibility that she might choose to starve in this bed.

He didn’t argue against her words, but he didn’t have to like them either.

“Bring me your new boots,” she said after a moment. “I’ll get to working on reweaving the enchantments.”

Clement stood still for just a moment before moving to comply. She was right in the end. He needed to be ready for whatever may happen. To protect her, if nothing else.

— — —

The week couldn’t end soon enough for Eva.

Going to regular school with nothing exciting on the side to distract her was something of a nightmare. She had thought that it would be nice. A vacation from demon hunters, necromancers, nuns, and whatever else had plagued her school career. Unfortunately, that lack of excitement just revealed the true monotony of Brakket Academy—the dull feeling that most normal students experienced over the course of their school years.

Even a dozen demons running around the school and posing as students didn’t create quite the drama that Eva might have expected.

Professor Chelsea Lepus spent a moment loudly clearing her throat. “Now class, I know you’re still excited about our new friends,” she said with only a hint of distaste leaking through in her tone, “but we do have material that needs to be covered in a timely manner.”

One of the demons had been assigned to Eva’s class. The demon called Srey. One of the few who didn’t actually seem to want to be on Earth. He kept to himself in the back of the classroom, shooting glares at… well, mostly everyone, but especially those who approached him.

Not that his glares actually stopped anyone.

Glancing over her shoulder, Eva found a number of people all seated at his table. Mostly girls, but he had a few guys seated nearby as well.

And they were continuously giggling about something or other.

Apparently his appearance was cute. Eva just didn’t see it. As a human, he didn’t look much different from most other teens around the school. He had moderately long hair draped over one eye—though he wasn’t hiding anything behind the hair—and was lean almost to the point of being too skinny.

Of course, nobody knew what he really looked like. Not even Eva. She hadn’t asked and he hadn’t appeared anywhere outside his human form to the best of her knowledge. To her sense of demons, he was somewhat wispy and insubstantial. Not in the same vacuous manner of Vektul, but just lacking a firm presence.

But knowing that he was disguising himself didn’t stop half of Eva’s warding class from gathering around him.

There were two types of human students around the school. Some were fearful. It was easy to tell who fit into that category as they often ran around with their heads down, trying to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Why they still attended Brakket was anyone’s guess. Maybe they had no other choices either because of family and monetary issues or perhaps their family just didn’t see demons as a big deal.

Or they were first generation mages and had nowhere else to go.

The second category were the ones who were desperately overeager to interact with the demons. People who tried to crowd around the demons during meals, classes, or even between classes in the hallways. They would badger the demons with questions and comments in a manner that Eva would have expressly discouraged in the diablery class.