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THE old castle sat in the darkness of a moonless night. From the highest floor, a demon peered down at the world outside.
It was the only place he could exist in his true form.
The demon was careful not to let his disguise slip anywhere near the crowded classrooms and dorms.
Boarding school life consisted of nothing but repetition. Boys graduated only for replacements to enroll soon after. They wore the same uniforms, spent a few years sticking to the same schedule, matured a bit, and then they graduated.
Since they would never return to the school after that, the demon only had to deceive them for a few years to get by.
However, there were a number of problem students that year.
Alice Liddell, the only female student in Ark School’s history, stood out to him in particular. She emerged from the brush like a snake and caught the eyes of the boys, which led to an act of violence against her.
Girls were so much like snakes. They ate lots of eggs and instilled a fear in how unreadable their true intentions were.
Alice’s followers were strange, too.
Dum and Dee, the twin transfer students, were openly hostile to everyone other than Alice. Dark and Jack, new first years who came here on the same boat as her, never let go of their top hat and beret.
Then, there was Leeds, the mysterious man who became the school nurse. He gave the demon the creeps.
“Which of the four caught in my trap is the real Earl Knightley…?”
There were three wrong answers and one correct.
That was what the demon thought at first, but a new idea formed after he watched how boldly Alice conducted herself.
“Could it be the girl herself?”
He needed to find out for sure—before it was too late.
The demon spread his large wings and took off through the window, flying into the night.