The next morning, in the hallway on the way to the classroom…

「So you didn't kill it?」

Damian asks Cycelia over his shoulder as she shambles behind him with half-open emerald eyes.

「Nooo… Heaaah-」

She shakes her chestnut head, and her reply abruptly turns into a yawn as she covers her mouth with her palm. In her other hand she holds onto the flashlight, and the tome for today's lectures is under her arm.

「…Headmaster Corvus said the vampire isn't dead. There was no ash…」

Cycelia repeats herself, speaking with no energy in her voice.

「Still… That flashlight… It sounds almost like a weak vampire lamp, doesn't it?」

Damian remarks, rubbing his chin with his brows furrowed.

「Lia, can Straf make more? If he gave some of the students a few of these, we could probably fight it ourselves.」

Tisha asks, tilting her golden head. Cycelia is staring blankly down at Damian's back, shambling next to her.

Snap-snap.

She snaps her fingers in front of Cycelia's face, causing her eyes to open wide.

「Huh?」

「Lia. Wake up. You didn't sleep well today, huh?」

Tisha asks with a light smirk, staring at her confused face as Cycelia blinks her emerald eyes at her.

「Huh?- Ah… No…」

She sighs out, lightly shaking her head again.

「Well, that's a given… Afraid the vampire will come back for his revenge?」

Tisha asks in a jesting tone, still smirking.

「No… Well… I was mostly worried about Straf.」

Cycelia shrugs, keeping her head lowered.

「Ahhh…」

Tisha grins as she lets out a sigh of fake understanding.

「…Look, Neela. A vampire almost ate her, and she was worried about Straf instead.」

She turns her grinning face to Neela, who lets out a little chuckle.

「Ah! That's not- No, you misunderstood! I was just-!」

Cycelia shakes her head, waving the flashlight left and right in denial as her gaze jumps between the two.

「So can he make more, or not?」

Damian cuts in, asking over his shoulder as they walk towards the classroom.

「I… I don't know. You'd have to ask. He didn't want to sell it to the headmaster, though.」

She replies with a shrug of her shoulders, looking at his handsome face. He lets out a disappointed sigh out of his nose, and turns his head forward without a word.

A few moments later, they reach the classroom, and take their seats…

…

A few hours later, in one of the hallways…

Damian and the girls are returning from the cafeteria after a short break between the lectures. At one of the junctions, they come across Corvus.

「Ah, Mr. Damian… Have you delivered that letter?」

He asks, appearing pleased to see them while he serenely approaches their group with his hands behind his back.

「Yes, headmaster.」

Damian nods as Corvus smiles gently at them, briefly glancing at all three girls behind him.

「My… Beautiful girls constantly trailing behind you… You are quite popular, aren't you Mr Damian? Ha ha ha…」

The headmaster jests, and lets out a slow quiet laugh.

「Headmaster…」

Neela utters out, visibly a little embarrassed by the oblique compliment.

「It's just a little joke, Ms. Neela… Everyone is on edge lately. I thought a little humor in difficult times may help.」

He apologetically raises his wrinkly hand to soothe any frustration his quip may have generated.

「Mr. Damian… May I ask you to check tomorrow if Professor Arkeis has a reply for me? During daylight hours, of course. Professor is very frustrated lately, and Straf is difficult to get a hold of…」

Corvus asks, though his eyes jump between all of them for a few moments at a time.

「…I will, headmaster.」

Damian hesitates, visibly unwilling to do the old man another favor, but he relents with a sigh.

「Thank you… I apologize. I understand you have better things to do, but I would not come to you with this if you weren't so earnest and reliable.」

The headmaster spreads his hands, explaining himself with a troubled tone and eyes.

「It's fine, headmaster… Professor Arkeis really hates people, doesn't he?」

Damian returns a resigned shrug, and asks with his mouth aslant.

「Hate? Nooo…」

The old mage's head jumps back, almost in shock as his brows furrow heavily. He looks aside, brushing through his beard deep in thought.

「…I would not say hate. He is not the type of person to hate anybody. He just really does not like interacting with people. He keeps to himself, you see… Demonologists are very often misunderstood.」

Corvus turns his bespectacled eyes back to Damian as he explains, defending the professor.

「…This goes a little beyond disliking interacting with people, headmaster. He's outright hostile. Makes me feel like wants to rip my head off.」

Damian replies, masking his genuine sensation as an offhand quip. With a lightly amused smirk, Corvus shakes his head in shock and disbelief.

「No, no… I assure you, Professor Arkeis is not hostile. He is a very kind professor who loves sharing his knowledge, it's just very few people understand who he really is. You may have gotten a wrong impression.」

The headmaster insists, smiling at Damian at the girls while they stare at him with confused faces, glancing at each other momentarily.

「That may be so, but that's one seriously wrong impression. We haven't even done anything wrong to him, but he seemed to loathe every single second of us being there.」

He replies, and the old mage helplessly spreads his wrinkled hands.

「Well, what can I say?… He is simply bad with people. I am certain you misunderstood him. People think everyone who deals with demonology is evil, hateful, or some nonsense as such…」

Corvus says with a light shrug, and adjusts his glasses.

「…It is precisely because of demonology that we know how to combat evil. Remember, young students… You cannot fight what you cannot understand… And sometimes people are just misunderstood.」

He adds, lifting his thin finger to impart a wisdom with a gentle smile.

「…It feels like we're talking about two different people, headmaster.」

Tisha chimes in, blinking at him with her brows furrowed. She glances at Neela and Cycelia, who shrug in reply.

「Well, Ms. Tisha… You simply do not know Professor Arkeis as long as I have. I hope this misunderstanding between you clears up soon enough.」

Gonnnngggggggg… Donnnnnnnnnggggggg… Gonnnnnnnnngggggg…

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

As if waiting for the headmaster to finish out of respect, the heavy bell tolls just after his last word. Corvus and the students briefly glance upward, nod politely at each other, and head their separate ways…

…

In the dimly-lit workshop, before the day's last bell…

Straf is peering into a small box of malleable metal. Inside there is a combination of dim, unlit runes and channels as well as complex mechanical machinery. He shuts the hinged hatch on its side, closing its complex interior. Straf then takes a single gem, places it into a sconce-like slot on the side of the box, and a dome-like display made of glass or crystal on top of the box lights up. It flashes descending tiny text and numbers rapidly as they fly down the display. After a few brief moments, a number appears on the top-right edge of the dome stating 10000, while the rest is filled with a bar chart of striking similarity to that of stock market.

The bar chart's candles turn red and green chaotically, seemingly at random. Straf gently places his palms on red and green buttons right on the display's periphery, and focuses on it. He presses the green button, and the number in the top-right decreases. Another number appears in the top-left edge stating 100. Straf waits just a few moments, watching the bar chart take an upward turn, and presses the red button. The 100 becomes 0, and the number in the top right now states 12985. Straf lets an amused huff out of his nose, and plays with the buttons for a few minutes.

While the top right number rapidly bloats into obscene amounts, the box makes a soft whirring sound, almost imperceptible over Straf's violent button-mashing like it's an arcade machine. A narrow strip of paper is gaining more and more length as the rear of the box continues spitting more of it with each button press. The paper itself is coated with tiny perforations, as if pierced with a needle, and the whole creates readable text. Buy 100@23, Sell 100@25, Buy 100@8, Buy 100@7, Buy 100@6, Sell, Sell, Sell… The paper continues its cryptic messaging, until Straf abruptly decides to stop.

「Well, that's enough of that… That was easy.」

Grinning, he remarks with his fists on his hips. The text in the top right is now a series of nines that cannot properly fit into the display.

「…Too bad it's not real. For now.」

Straf shrugs, and tears the paper from the back away, briefly reading through the strip.

「Well, the principle behind it works… Should be easy enough to implement-」

Gonnnnnnnnnngggggg… Donnnnnnnnnnggggggg… Gonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg…

The last bell of the day tolls. Straf shrugs again, satisfied with the contraption. He places everything of value back into [Portable Storage], and leaves the workshop with his hands in his pockets…

…

In an alchemy workshop, in the auxiliary building…

「Hey, shouldn't we head back already?…」

A tall skinny student asks a short, plump one as he's watching rainbow-colored liquid pass through a glass distillery.

「I'm not done yet… Why don't you just head back? I'm getting close to a breakthrough. I can tell.」

The fat student adjusts his glasses, glancing at his colleague.

「But there's a curfew…」

「Who cares about a curfew!? When I finally make the potion of intelligence, I'll become the headmaster the very next day!」

He shouts, spreading his arms. His facade of smugness very quickly fades when he accidentally knocks over an empty beaker with the tip of his finger, and a brief panic sets on his face before he sighs with relief.

「Listen… I've heard some rumors…」

The skinny student says, looking over his shoulder at the door with eyes full of concern.

「So? There's always rumors… My first edict will be skimpy leotards as a uniform…」

The young fat man dismissively asks, before mumbling something under his breath as he mixes a cyan-colored chemical into a beaker with the distilled rainbow one, stirring it with a glass rod.

「…But this rumor would be bad if it were true. Apparently a worker landed in the infirmary with a large wound to his neck.」

「So? That's what the infirmary is for.」

「No, you don't get it! It was a vampire bite!」

The skinny student grabs onto his colleague's plump shoulders, digging his fingers into the blobby mass beneath his blazer.

「…Seriously? Vampire rumors? How old are you?」

He turns his bloated face to the thin student, looking at him with a conceited expression mixed with some smug pity.

「I'm just saying it's not worth the risk!… What if we run into one right now!? The bell has been like two hours ago already! We should be in our rooms!」

The skinny man asks in a voice verging on panic as the potion in the beaker turns into a drab, sickly green color.

「Shit!… Wrong one again…」

Clankkk!…

The fat man curses out, slamming his fat hands on the workbench.

「Listen! After the potion of intelligence, we're doing the potion of luck! After that, the world is ours! Nobody can stop a super lucky genius! It absolutely is worth the non-existent risk!…」

He huffs out of his nose, pointing his sausage-like finger in the skinny man's face. He takes a step back, and places his fists on the rolls around his waist.

「…Someone super lucky and intelligent would just trip straight into a beautiful girl's massive boobs! And you'd be smart enough to say something cool in response!」

The fat man declares, standing two heads shorter and proud in front of his nervous colleague.

「It'd be something like,「Oh, my bad… It looks like my fate was connected to your bosom, my lady!…」and instead of getting angry, she'd squeeze you with them!」

Clinkclinkclink!

He knocks over more empty alchemical implements as he spreads his arms wide, grinning ear to ear with pure confidence.

「…I don't think that would work.」

The skinny man skeptically replies with his brows furrowed.

「That's because you need a potion of intelligence, dummy!」

The fat finger once again arrives in front of his gaunt face as the short man shouts.

「…Okay. But this was a failed attempt, and it took hours. Can we just go back? If it catches me alone, no one will ever hear from me ever again.」

「Tsk. You're right…」

The two look at the failed potion of luck, and the fat student agrees.

「Right, so in case that happens, let's split-」

「I don't feel like trying again today, so let's just head back.」

「Huh? What about the plan!?」

The gaunt student asks, spreading his hands as his colleague simply walks past him, ignoring what he has to say. They leave the workshop, and head towards the dormitories through the dim hallway. Just a few moments later, a great sense of unease fills them both. They exchange knowing glances, and pick up their pace, powerwalking to the main building and making a conscious effort to not outrun each other. They turn a corner towards the shortest path there, and the fat man clutches at the blubber on his chest when the two stand frozen still. A man in a cloak is standing at the far end, staring at them with distinctly red eyes.

「…There go my savings.」

Pop!

The fat student hastily utters out as he pulls out a long, narrow vial out of his pocket, and uncorks it. He splashes the entirety of its contents into his mouth, then discards it onto the floor.

The gaunt student only catches a glimpse of him throwing the glass container for the potion away, before he hears his fat colleague's velocity-shifted high-pitched scream echo through the hallway like a motorcycle speeding past, as the fat man turns into a green blur and runs down the alternate path. He turns his terrified eyes back to the man standing at the end of the corridor ominously, and the red-eyed man begins walking towards him.

「Wait! Wait for me! Don't leave me alone!」

The skinny student breaks into a mad sprint after his treacherous friend. The terrifying presence behind him does not abate, and in fact only grows stronger with each second.

「I knew it! I knew it!… Why is my indecisiveness going to be the thing that kills me!?」

He screams in anguish, and looks over his shoulder. In the distance, the man in the cloak casually emerges from beyond the corridor, and follows him at a leisurely pace.

「…He's doing this for fun!」

The gaunt student exclaims with his eyes wide open in panic as he slides beyond a corner, almost falling over. He runs as fast as possible, out of breath, but still running for his life.

Then, the cloaked man appears at the end of the hallway in front of him, past the T-junction. He slides to a stop, hesitating whether to turn back, or run ahead into the T-junction just ahead. He decides to take the chance, and runs into the junction. He notices a tall man approaching with his hands in his pockets.

「Help! Help! Helphelphelphelp!」

The student screams, flailing his arms around in panic to get the tall man's attention. He stops, looking at him with an expression confusion as the student runs up.

「Va-! V-! Va-!」

He stammers, pointing behind himself at the junction.

「…You are bullshitting me. I don't believe I would find and kick the vampire's ass because a random nerd thought he's above the rules.」

Straf says, looking at him with a tight-lipped grimace.

「Vampire!!」

The student screams in Straf's face at the top of his lungs, finally catching his breath.

「Okay, fine, I'll go look… But if you are bullshitting me, you're going to fucking earn it, got it?」

Straf points menacingly at the student's face. While he doesn't quite understand, he rapidly nods his head in reply.

「…Huh?」

He lets out a surprised utterance as Straf abruptly disappears from before him, as if he was never there. Confused, he looks around. He sees neither the tall man, nor the vampire following him.

With a nervous gulp, he glances at the junction behind him once again, then turns to return to the dormitories. His eyes open wide in panic at the sight in front of him.

「AAAAArrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!」

Rrrrrrip!

A pained scream and the noise of something being torn spreads through the dark, quiet halls.

After a few moments, the student emerges out of the corner of another junction, limping heavily past it with the back of his underwear stretched onto his head.

Pat pat pat!…

「Next time don't fuck with me! Vampire pranks aren't funny! What if it really was there, huh!?」

Straf dusts his hands off, also walking out from beyond the corner. He screams angrily from behind the pained student with a wedgie as he limps away…