Chapter 83

“Shinichi, promise me with Geas. If you don’t… I don’t know what I might do.” “Eeep! So maybe blood is thicker than water!” Shinichi had full-body chills when her angelic smile turned demonic. “…Rino is the Demon King’s daughter.” All the students—human and demon—huddled together in the corner of the room while their head teacher screamed in terror. They shuddered at the horrifying scene unfolding in front of them. Thus, school was canceled that day. Later that night, Shinichi sat at the desk in his room, having somehow recovered from Rino’s punishment. He was in the middle of writing something when he heard someone knock hesitantly at his door. “Shinichi, can I come in?” “Uh-huh.” Shinichi set his pencil down and opened the door to see Rino looking dejected. She bowed so low, she could almost touch her head to her knees. “I’m really sorry about today! When I saw you petting Tama, my heart started to hurt, and I couldn’t control myself…” “It was partially my fault, too. I’m not angry at you.” Rino apologized again. Shinichi stroked her hair and calmed her down, then invited her inside for a bit. At least we succeeded in making her some friends. By accidentally revealing her darker side, the other children could see she wasn’t some “goddess of eternal love.” She was yet another child who got impulsive and jealous, just like them. It was starting to tear down their walls and prejudices. Well, it might have made them afraid of her at the same time… Shinichi smiled wryly, and Rino, who had finally calmed down, turned her eyes to the writing utensils laid out on his desk. “Are you making a test?” “No. This isn’t related to teaching.” He had no reason to hide what he was doing, so he showed the documents to Rino. On them were some words that she felt she’d heard somewhere before and a picture of a long vehicle that stood upright like a tower. “A spaceship?” “Bingo. A vehicle that can be used to go on the offensive if another calamity ever comes from the sky again.” “Oh, I remember!” Rino clapped her hands. The Red Dragon had shown them how the meteor had decimated the ancient civilization. The head of the Magicology Department had wished for an evacuation plan to go into space. This was the rocket. “Just because the impossible happened once, doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. I thought I’d leave behind my knowledge about rockets for you in case.” That said, Shinichi had never properly studied aerospace engineering. He was a high school student who just really liked science. He was using Search to pull up any information from special TV programs on space travel or school trips to museums with rockets. There’s no way he could actually draw a design for a spaceship, but he still thought it might be useful to scientists in a couple hundred years as they geared up for space travel. “I’ve just been thinking I should write down everything I know,” explained Shinichi as he pointed to stacks of paper in the corner of the room. Even if he had all the knowledge in the world, their technological advancements would never match twenty-first-century Earth, because it would take a long time for society to catch up. He was hoping these would be signposts for future people to reach their goals faster. “I haven’t been making much progress, though. Preparing for class doesn’t leave me much free time.” Shinichi smiled sadly. “……” Rino passed the documents back to him, then looked down in silence. “What’s wrong?” She slowly raised her head. Her expression was uneasy. Tears were starting to gather in the corners of her eyes. “Shinichi, you’re not going away, are you?” “……” Shinichi couldn’t answer immediately. He knew he would die before Rino, though that wasn’t exactly what Rino was concerned about. He decided to answer truthfully, without making light of it. “I’ll be with you until the day I die.” Rino must have sensed the true meaning behind those words. “…Okay.” It almost sounded like wedding vows. Instead of making her happy, she looked down again. Tears spilled from her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away and smiled. “Shinichi, I want to sleep with you!” “What?!” Shinichi cried. The conversation was going offtrack like a runaway train. While Shinichi gaped at her, Rino was already quickly crawling into his bed. “Wait. Hold up. Are you serious?!” “Yep!” Rino smiled innocently, finding his flustered manner amusing. She suddenly looked at him with a more mature expression. “I understand we won’t be together forever, even though it’ll be a long time before we part ways.” “…Ah.” “I won’t have to be so lonely if we have a baby together!” “How’d you think of that?!” Her logic wasn’t exactly wrong, but there was a huge ethical problem. Oblivious to Shinichi’s shock, Rino patted the bed, inviting him to come over. “Come on, Shinichi. I want you to make babies with me right now.” “…Do you even know how babies are made?” “If a boy and a girl sleep together, a stork will bless them with a baby.” “You got that right,” lied Shinichi with a perfectly straight face. This Dirty Advisor wasn’t about to dig his own grave by bringing up the birds and the bees. “Shinichi, you’re not going to sleep with me…?” He looked at Rino, who was begging him with wide puppy-dog eyes, let out a heavy sigh, then reluctantly lay down on the bed next to her. “Seriously, the Demon King would cry if he saw you growing up to become a naughty kid who whines for everything.” “Hee-hee, I’m a bad girl.” Rino smiled as she snuggled next to him. She really was as sweet as an angel. Arian and Celes are going to kill me tomorrow morning… Even though he understood that, he couldn’t bring himself to push away the sweet, young girl. Shinichi put aside his dread and chatted with Rino about nothing in particular until they drifted off to sleep.