While our club members were hard at work in their respective classes, I was busy holding a Breast Dragon Q&A session with my manager Ravel.
The idea was to give the children an opportunity to ask me questions—and they were eagerly raising their hands with all sorts of queries.
Questions poured down on me like a heavy rain. “How do you get stronger?” “What kind of breasts do you like?”
For that last one, I cheerfully answered, “Big or small, a breast is a breast!” I hoped the boys in particular got the message!
Having answered the children’s questions, I decided to flip the script and ask a few of my own.
“Does anyone here have something they want to be?” I asked.
After a moment, one boy’s hand shot up into the air. “I want to be a Breast Dragon!”
“He’s right there!” came another voice, followed by, “Me too!” The children were all laughing in excitement.
It wasn’t long before other kids started sharing their dreams.
“I wanna be the champion of the Rating Game!”
“I want to work at the Demon King’s research lab!”
“I wanna be a Demon King’s personal bodyguard!”
…It seemed like they all had something they wanted to do. But that made sense—whether human or demon, it was perfectly normal for children to have dreams.
“I want to be a student here,” said another, followed by rounds of, “Me too!” “Me too!”
Yes, that was what they wanted most right now. Without somewhere to study and turn their dreams into reality, they would never be able to realize their full potential.
They were just beginning to tap into a world of possibility and still had lots of lessons to learn and challenges to overcome.
Seeing just how earnest and dedicated they were, I hoped they would all be able to attend the school. God was dead—I knew that—but I still wanted to pray for their success.
What could I do for them…? I could motivate them to reach for their goals, to encourage them to attend the school when it opened.
“All right. Let me tell you about demon work in the human world. Believe it or not, I meet all sorts of customers every single day,” I said, puffing my chest out with pride.
The children were all ears. “Tell us about your demon work!” “Do people really offer their souls to trade?” They were incredibly receptive. For these children, information about how demons made a living in the human world would be vital. I knew there were classes for teaching this properly, but I was just happy to have them listening to me. Besides, if any of them decided to join another Familia, they would be all the more likely to find themselves conducting business in the human world.
Some demons, like old Tannin, had unique circumstances that kept them tied up in the underworld, but most belonging to a Familia would head over to the human world from time to time.
Next it was time to dive into contracts and pacts, and of course, a few fun stories. I was mulling over whether to begin with Mil or Morisawa when—
My sixth sense suddenly activated, an ominous chill running down my spine…
A second later, the sky, in the underworld, usually a deep purple, started turning white… Wh-what the heck?!
Everyone on campus looked up at this strange phenomenon.
Slowly, the sky’s purple hue faded away, leaving the firmament a stark white.
…What on earth? Was this some sort of event…? No one had mentioned anything ahead of time. Was it meant to coincide with the mages’ conference? No, if that was the case, they would have told us… The film shoot in Agreas, then? But this was far too big in scale for that, and again, we would have had advance notice…
It wasn’t long before the children and parents were buzzing with confusion.
…I could think of only one explanation.
…This town was serving as host to the mages’ conference, and the odds of them getting abducted were already high.
At that moment, an announcement sounded over the school’s PA system, “All students, parents, teachers, and staff, please enter the school building immediately. I repeat, all students, parents, teachers, and staff…”
That was an emergency broadcast all right. Ravel and I exchanged uneasy looks.