Their skin melted, their eyes and teeth dislodged, and their bones crumbled apart. The smell of their hair burning was earthy yet sweet. When it was all over, they’d left behind nothing more than what looked like puddles of mud.
Every last teacher vanished, their lives on this earth meeting a terrible end. However, the root of the evil itself, Headmaster Caterpillar, remained unaffected by the light around him.
“Ahahaha! You can’t kill me so long as I have my contract with Gryphon!” The bands of light bounced away from him. He sneered down at us. “It’s deplorable that stigmata managed to sneak into Ark School. Bad students must be disciplined!”
He brought his whip down as hard as he could. It cut through the air toward me but was knocked away by a chain before the blow could land.
Leeds had come to my rescue.
“How dare you call my lady a bad student? Teachers these days can’t even see the good in their pupils.”
“He must be losing his sight.”
“He must be going senile.”
Dum and Dee had appeared behind the headmaster with harsh criticism. They each took a dagger and plunged them mercilessly into his feet. The sharp blades pierced his leather shoes and came out the other sides of his feet.
“Aaaaargh!”
The headmaster desperately tried to flee, but he’d been pinned to the ground by his feet.
“This’ll be good target practice. It’s our turn now, right, my lady?”
“Do as you please.”
A shadow fell over their faces when they received my permission. Dum and Dee stared down the headmaster like that—attacking him intensely enough that it was hard to watch.
“It hurts, doesn’t it, Headmaster?”
“But Charles was in a lot more pain.”
“P-Please forgive me. Eeeengh!” His screeches sounded like metal scraping against metal.
“Now, do you know how these boys felt when they couldn’t resist your beatings? Students need to be treated delicately, even when you’re an old man.”
“Y-You’re…too cocky…” Blood sprayed from his mouth. The panting man looked toward Robins. “Gryphon! Kill these—”
Before he could finish the order, the headmaster’s robes went up in flames. He spun around with a gasp and found Jack grabbing his clothes. But Jack held no flint or coals. His hands were the things doing the burning.
The rose stigma branded on the back of his hands shot out more and more flames until even I started to feel the heat on my cheeks from a distance.
“You’ve made Robins suffer…!” Jack roared.
Robins had looked after Jack in Unicorn Dorm, so his feelings for the man who hurt him were close to hatred.
The headmaster had been protecting his contract with the demon, but he couldn’t keep his clothes safe now.
Jack was unleashing all his emotions to turn the robe red with his burning flames. The fire intensified until it reached the paper sewn into the back of his robe.
“I’ll burn this thing to ash!”
The tower of flames roared and billowed until the contract and robe were no more. That was when the collar around Robins’ neck fell off.
He returned to his senses and called out gleefully as if his rage from a moment ago had merely been a dream.
“My contract is over. Thank you, everyone!”
“I guess you don’t need this anymore.” Dark unleashed him from the cage.
The headmaster spat out blood and trembled. “How could you do this?! You’re all expelled! You hear me? Expelled!”
“Very well. But before we leave, I’d like to give you something.” I smiled, reached into my heart-shaped pouch, and retrieved his black-framed obituary.
It was addressed “Dear Headmaster Caterpillar.” He ripped off the red sealing wax and found his name listed as the name of the dead.
“Why do you…have that…?”
“That’s a gift for you, for all you’ve done for us at school, Headmaster. …Now repent!”
I pressed the obituary into his hands. A new beam of light emerged from my chest. It coiled around the headmaster and glowed brightly.
“Let me go! I’m going to live forever and e— Gyah!”
A pair of wings flapped loudly. A lion’s foot stomped down on his head.
The headmaster toppled over to the ground. Robins, having regained his sanity, stood on top of him.
“It’s all over for you.”
“This can’t be happening…”
With those final, bitter words, the headmaster crumbled to pieces. Robins took his foot away, leaving a sticky, smoldering pile of remains on the ground.
I picked up the fallen obituary and placed it with them.
“May we meet again in the flames of Hell. Although, I don’t know if you’ll be welcomed there either.”
I’d finished his judgment. Jack, Leeds, Dum, Dee, and Dark gathered around me with relieved looks. None of them appeared injured.
Next to our calm reunion, Robins and Charles confirmed the other was unharmed.
“You’ve been through so much all these years, haven’t you, Robins? I’m sorry, I never even noticed it.” Charles reached out and touched his broken feathers. He stroked them affectionately. “You’re the guardian deity of the students at this school. You might be a demon, but you’re still my friend. I’m proud of you.”
“I’m glad I met you too, Charles…”
Despite their difference in species, not a single crack had formed in their friendship.
Demon studies classes only taught the frightening sides of demons. But just like humans, demons spend their lives in this world worrying, suffering, making friends, and even falling in love.
I wish Dark’s mother had known that, too.
Someone grabbed my hand. Dark was clutching his hat and looking at Robins with teary eyes. Maybe he’d been thinking the same thing I was.
The students who’d fled the plaza slowly gathered around us again.
“Prefect, what’s that creature…?”
Charles proudly introduced Robins to them. “This is the ‘monster’ who lives at Ark School. He’s a guardian who’s been rescuing students all this time. Come here if you’d like to thank him. Everyone else, join me in thinking about what we’re going to do with this school from here out.”
At his suggestion, the students Robins had saved started to thank him. The others stared at us from a distance, now that we’d finished our battle, while others pleaded with Charles that they would have nowhere to go without Ark School.
This place was like a second home to boys who didn’t belong in their own families. The survival of the school was in question now that the headmaster and teachers were all wiped out. The students might have to search for another place to live.
Charles addressed each concern earnestly and gave them constructive advice.
“The school caretakers are still alive, fortunately, and we have the money to get by. Let’s try to find a nobleman who will become the new owner. Once we do that, we can figure out what to do about teachers and credits.”
“I’d like to volunteer.” Dark raised his hand. But Charles scowled, unsure what he was talking about.
“Is your father someone important?” he asked.
“No, that would be me. Thank you for the enthusiastic letter, Charles. I am none other than Earl Knightley.”
Charles watched the underclassman reach his hand out to him. His mouth hung open wider than when he found out Robins was the demon known as Gryphon.
Dark looked up at him with a cheery smile. “But the students need a new headmaster who will work in earnest so that they can feel safe at school, not an executive. What do you think? Would you be up to the task?”
“Me…?” Charles looked toward Robins, who was nodding eagerly.
All the students around us were supporting him, too, telling him he was the only person they trusted with the title of headmaster.
Charles made up his mind. He reached out and took Dark’s hand. “Very well. I’ll spend my life getting this school back to its full strength. Will you join me, everyone?”
The students answered with cheers.
Their voices were full of vigor as if time had finally unfrozen for them.