Once homeroom was over, first period began and the math teacher, Asada-sensei, walked into the room. He had fox-like eyes and slicked-back hair. He was famous for lecturing students about anything and everything, and often called people into the counseling room. It was to the point where students made jokes about how the counseling room was just his private classroom.
He cast his gaze across the classroom, then narrowed his eyes at Hajime. It was a pretty common occurrence for him to pick on Hajime. It seemed he had it out for him.
“Nagumo, please answer this question.”
“Of course, Sensei.”
Hajime rose to his feet and started walking to the blackboard. Ryutarou and a few other students signed in relief.
“I believe this is the answer, Sensei.”
Shinji suddenly let out a laugh as Hajime finished writing down the answer. Yoshiki, too, started trembling with the effort of holding in his laughter.
“Not again! What’s wrong with all of you?!” Asada shouted in exasperation. This had happened every time he called on Hajime, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t help but think that everyone was laughing at him.
“I’m sorry, Sensei. I’ll quiet them down,” Hajime said apologetically. That caused Nana and Taeko to burst out laughing, and Yuka bit her hand hard enough to bring tears to her eyes to keep herself from following suit.
In a voice shaking with laughter, Atsushi explained, “I-It’s just so weird to hear Nagumo acting all formal and using honorifics...”
It was weird enough seeing him in a uniform, but this really was too much.
“You’re supposed to be respectful to your teachers, you know?!” Asada shouted.
“You’re absolutely right, Sensei. These guys are just idiots. I’m sorry.”
“Oh man, this is just too much!” one of the girls exclaimed, laughing so hard she fell off her chair and started rolling around.
Another girl sadly muttered, “I can’t believe my Demon Lord’s bowing his head to someone.”
Regardless of the reasoning, it seemed none of Hajime’s classmates could bear to see him talking respectfully to someone. The strange part was that they hadn’t seemed to mind when Hajime had acted respectful to the parents of other kids, or when he’d met Tio’s grandfather Adul.
Hopefully, they get used to it eventually...
“Nagumo, do you understand the position you’re in?” Asada asked.
“What do you mean, Sensei?”
“The fact that you and your classmates returned from a mysterious kidnapping incident whose details are still shrouded in mystery. It’s clear a lot happened while you were gone and that you’ve become a sort of leader to all the other students. Can’t you see that if you egg everyone on to make fun of your teachers, it’ll put you in a precarious position?”
Considering they’d already been shunted off to this isolated classroom, Asada was right in saying that things would get worse if they didn’t act like model students.
The students all straightened up and stopped laughing.
“You’re mistaken, Sensei. They’re laughing at me, not you. If I can be perfectly honest, I’m honestly quite grateful to you, Sensei! Please believe me!”
Everyone stared in shock as they witnessed this surreal scene. Of course, Hajime was being one hundred percent honest, but Asada-sensei took in his classmate’s reactions and muttered, “Nagumo, trust is something you have to build.”
“It’s as you say.”
“A person’s actions and the way they present themselves says a lot about how trustworthy they are. And from what I’ve heard, you’re in immoral relationships with multiple women at once.”
Asada stared at Yue, Shea, Kaori, and Shizuku in turn after saying that.
“I cannot bring myself to trust a frivolous person such as you. Not only that, but you’re a bad influence on the well-behaved students around you. Aren’t you ashamed of your actions?”
Come on, I’m trying to be a well-behaved student here too... Hajime thought, frowning.
“Hajime, should I mess him up for you?” Yue asked using telepathy. Hajime turned back and saw from the look in her eyes that she was being serious.
“Don’t do it. He’s one of the ones who’s stuck with the school despite everything,” he replied.
In truth, after the disappearance a year ago and the students’ sudden return a month ago, many teachers at the school had resigned. They’d grown sick of constantly being accosted by journalists, having to deal with angry parents, police interviews, and so on. Teachers weren’t saints, and they had their own lives as well. Quite a few had been unable to deal with the pressure and transferred to other schools. And while the head teacher had gone to great lengths to find replacements, neither the replacement teachers nor the few who’d stuck with the school had been willing to teach the special class of returning students. As a result, Hajime truly was grateful to Asada-sensei for willingly taking up the job of teaching math for their class, even if it did seem like he had it out for Hajime for whatever reason.
“Are you listening to me, Nagumo?”
“Yes, Sensei. You’re saying illicit sexual relationships are wrong. I agree.”
Asada’s eyebrows twitched. He then turned to Yue, Shea, Kaori, and Shizuku. It seemed he already knew who Hajime was dating within the school.
Hm? Is it just me or...
Hajime narrowed his eyes as he observed Asada’s expression.
Asada had always been a rather strict teacher, but for a second, it had seemed like the look he’d given Yue and the others was straight-up hateful. At any rate, it seemed he was in full lecture mode now and started going on about how Hajime needed to live a more upright life. His classmates realized this was their fault, but even so, they couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay for Asada to ignore the actual math lesson and just keep lecturing about morals. Hajime dutifully listened to Asada’s lecture, but halfway through, Shea contacted him through telepathy.
“Hajime-san, Hajime-san.”
“Hm? What is it, Shea?”
“The truth is, Asada-sensei’s come to talk to me a few times outside of class.”
“What for?”
“He kept asking about what you got up to while you were gone for a year, and he also told me a lot of stories about you...”
Initially, Hajime thought Asada-sensei was just worried about him because he’d changed so much after coming back. However, Shea had a much better eye for judging people, and her take was quite different.
“I get the feeling that he’s trying to give me a bad impression of you.”
There was a hint of confusion in Shea’s telepathic voice. She wasn’t sure about her hunch, and she didn’t want to bad-mouth this teacher too much if Hajime was grateful to him. Plus, she didn’t want to cause a scene at school and put another teacher in trouble.
“Also, I think he’s approached Kaori-san, Shizuku-san, and Yue-san too.”
Incidentally, Hajime had given all of his classmates Artifacts that let them use telepathy, and Shea was broadcasting this particular conversation to everyone. Hajime turned to Kaori and the others and they all nodded in agreement. It seemed they, too, felt something was off about Asada-sensei.
Of course, it was true their relationship wasn’t one that was socially accepted, so in that sense it was understandable that a teacher would want to lecture them about it. Hajime had figured that was the reason Asada-sensei always looked at him with such hostility too, but it seemed the real reason lay elsewhere.
“Wait, then how come he never calls me to the counseling room?” Hajime asked, confused.
“You’re telling me you wanna go there?!” Ryutarou exclaimed, but everyone ignored him.
Even before he’d been summoned to Tortus, Hajime had often slept in Asada-sensei’s class, so he doubted the teacher had a good impression of him.
But if he’s got a problem with me, shouldn’t he be calling me in for a private chat?
It was clear there was more to Asada-sensei’s hostile attitude toward him than a simple desire to correct Hajime’s moral mishaps. It was possible he was just frustrated he wasn’t getting anywhere by talking to Yue and the others.
“Either way, I should probably have a proper chat with him soon.”
His classmates stared at him in surprise, muttering things like “Wait, you’re not going to just torture him?” and “He’s become so docile...”
“Yue, mind coming with me to his office after school? It shouldn’t be a problem, but if it is, I might need your help...‘convincing’ him.”
“Mmm, leave it to me! I’ll fix everything with my Divine Edict!”
“Never mind; that’s even scarier than torture!”
“He hasn’t turned docile at all!” his classmates exclaimed via telepathy, their expressions looking oddly relieved.
Incidentally, Yue seemed quite ready to control this teacher with magic. The fact that she wasn’t interested in trying to talk things through first proved that she didn’t like him at all.
Naturally, Asada-sensei had no idea this telepathic conversation was going on, so he kept on lecturing.
“Besides, if you don’t show that—”
He droned on all the way until the bell rang.
Yue did, in fact, have to use her Divine Edict on him after school. Hajime wasn’t able to figure out what had happened in his past to make him have such a hardline stance, but it appeared he was staunchly against romance in school. His feelings were so strong that he actually derived pleasure from lecturing students who were dating. That, in and of itself, wasn’t particularly harmful, and since he was doing his job, Hajime didn’t need him to be a perfect role model on top of that.
Indeed, it seemed Asada-sensei had tried to keep that twisted side of his personality in check before, but seeing Hajime dating multiple students at once had finally caused him to snap. Seeing as telling the students themselves off had accomplished nothing, he’d even been thinking about leaking their immoral relationship to the press to get it to stop.
Hajime’s classmates didn’t know how exactly the confrontation had gone down, but it was clear it hadn’t gone well, since after that Asada-sensei had started teaching his classes normally without lecturing anyone. When students from other classes had asked what had prompted the sudden personality change, he’d just said that he was trying to become a new person. And honestly, that was enough for the students, since they preferred the new Asada-sensei.
At any rate, rewinding the clock back a bit to fourth period, as soon as the end of class bell rang, the English teacher, Sachiko Yanagi (age 45), ran out of the classroom at top speed. Not because Hajime had bullied her or anything, mind you. In fact, everyone had been quite obedient during her class. No one had even laughed at Hajime’s use of honorifics or respectful speech, probably because Hajime had threatened to fire a pile bunker up their asses if they laughed at him in the middle of class again. No, the reason Sachiko-sensei had been so distraught lay elsewhere.