Chapter 36 – A brief briefing

I’m going to spare you the boring details of our awkward breakfast in the courtyard.

After this declaration of war, it seemed that two camps had slowly begun forming around our two blonde beauties. In addition to the never-ending chatter about how this school year would turn out, considering the circumstances, some students dared approach Aurelia, to give her words of encouragement, as well as pledge their support in the upcoming election. All of which Aurelia answered with a polite smile I haven’t seen her use on me or Raynard.

As for me and him, we silently nibbled on our breakfast, as we failed to have a proper conversation with the princess, who has been the center of attention ever since. Not to mention, some things could not simply be discussed in public like that. (#Grimoire.)

I wonder how she’s been doing ... my love. To be saved from the shelves of an underground chamber, only to be confined to another shelf, once again ...

As for classes, the police’s presence was surprisingly ignorable most of the time. Guards were stationed at set points in the school. Obviously at the school gate, but also in front of the principal’s office, as well as the entrance to the dormitories. Classrooms were mostly unguarded, likely due to teachers being present, anyway. The atmosphere during class thus was much more relaxed than elsewhere.

But still I had the feeling of being watched by silent spies most of the time. Whether they were friend or foe, I didn’t know.

I was hoping for the day I could confidently say Aster’s name and having him appear, as if he had been always there, only for me to notice.

Since guards were seemingly absent from the classrooms, Raynard and I decided to fall behind during lunch break, to meet up with Aurelia, who attended a different class than us. We needed a quiet place to talk about ... whatever was going on really.

Raynard remained seated at his table, while I leaned against the window next to him, idly chatting about our first day of classes and the teachers, while I occasionally glanced outside hoping to see ... what, actually? The so-called real life? A murder? I really didn’t feel like staying holed up on school grounds this entire school year. I had a whole world to see!

Now that I thought of it, no Isekai protagonist ever had to go to school. Unless they conveniently had the memories of their previous life erased. Or their name was Rudeus Greyrat, in which case ... Did he actually get into the academy? I’ll never find out now ...

As I so got lost in my thoughts, the sliding door to the classroom opened, and Aurelia hurried inside, throwing a quick glance around the corner to check if anyone had spotted her.

“Hello future president,” I called out to her.

“If that’s going to be your future nickname for me, that would be much appreciated,” she replied dead-pan.

“How has your first day been?” I asked her.

“Isn’t that my line?” she retorted, crossing her arms in front of her.

“Fair, but also I think I’ll be biased considering the circumstances ...”

“I don’t think anyone was focused at all today,” Raynard added.

“Good point, I’ll need to mention that in my campaign,” Aurelia responded, and seemingly engraving a note in the metal plate on the back of her left mitt.

“Wow, that’s a handy cheat device,” I commented as I looked over her shoulder.

“Except I don’t use it for cheating.” She almost sounded a bit offended.

“Right, of course.”

“Guess you’ve been spending most of your classes planning out a campaign, huh?” Raynard asked.

“Naturally. Even though there’s no police in the classrooms, the atmosphere is downright oppressive. And for what? This reaction by the school and city is completely overblown. People die in the city all the time! This was but an unfortunate, isolated case.” Aurelia had crossed her arms in front of her again, pulling up her shoulders.

“Yes, but I’m not sure, how easy it’s going to be to have people believe that, considering the unusual circumstances of the death,” Raynard objected. “I’m sorry to be the one to say this, but the way that Nada died ... I wouldn’t know how to cause a death like that unless the culprit was a vampire or an incubus. And regardless of that, it is only a matter of this becoming public outside of school for people to incite a witch hunt. It’s worse enough, that Ebony, one of the most respected Succubi in the city, is behind bars. And now we might be facing the first vampire related death in a decade.”

I thought a lot of what Raynard said was true. That was the unfortunate reality of minorities: Behave well, you’re the exception. Behave poorly, everyone does. I was about to voice that realization, when suddenly our talk was interrupted.

“You’re right, but I don’t think, we can simply change the fact, that something like a murder will have people reflect negatively on an entire race.” Vladi Bladislava stood in the entrance to the room, and spoke with a timid voice, tinged in bitterness. “Unless you’re magi of course.”

“That’s why we need to overturn this surveillance non-sense,” Aurelia spoke to Vladi, not minding her entering into our conversation. “The police rarely prevents murders, and their presence only serves to intimidate us students, not to mention the few vampire people at our school.”

Vladi, who had now closed the door behind her, held up a denying finger. “Uh-uh. Don’t make this about us. We just talked about vampires being treated with ‚special care‘, but I think that goes both ways. No-one cares about the handful vampire students feeling unsafe. And I don’t want to become some poster-child.” She chuckled. “If you want to drive the police out of the school, you need to convince the majority of students, who are magi, that the police are an inconvenience to them.”

Aurelia looked at the vampire girl with a stern look. “I like how you think. Would you want to run for vice president with me?”

Vladi opened her eyes up wide in surprise. “Um, I don’t really ... like being in the spotlight. And not only because I’m a vampire, haha.” The laugh at her own joke was dry.

“You wouldn’t have to. I’ll be the face, you’ll be the brains. Of course, you’d need to help me acquire signatures and maybe hand out some pamphlets, but I’ll be the one to hold speeches and shout election slogans ...”

“You have it all pictured inside your head, don’t you?” I chuckled.

“Of course, I wouldn’t do something like that completely unprepared. So, what do you say?”

“I’d like to give a tentative yes,” Vladi replied firmly.

“That works just fine by me. You two will be helping out either way, won’t you?” Aurelia turned to us.

There we go.

“I thought, you’d never ask!” Raynard replied enthusiastically. He was like a puppy!

“Eh, we’ll see, how school goes,” I replied nonchalantly. “You have my vote however.”

“Great!” Aurelia turned back to Vladi. “Then let’s shake on it.”

Vladi seemed to suddenly tense up and anxiously glanced over to me. Indeed, she still was quite a distance away from us, at the door to the classroom.

“Yeah, why are you standing over there?” I asked her.

“Well ... it’s ... um.” When talking with Aurelia she may have sounded timid, but her resolve was firm. That scene at the party more than proves that she had guts. But for whatever reason, when she talked to me, she turned into whatever mess this was.

She fidgeted around awkwardly for a bit. Then, after letting out a small cuss, she reached into the pocket of her skirt (the true escapism fantasy) pulling out a nose clamp and attaching it to her nose.

“Do I smell?” I asked, turning to the others for assistance.

Despite her nose being clamped shut, Vladi let out a small sigh of relief and now joined our group.

“Yes, as expected, that seems to do the trick.” When she stood between me and Aurelia, I noticed her cheeks were flushed red.

“Okay, before we do that handshake, you really need to explain what that is about,” Aurelia demanded, pointing at the nose clamp.

“I am so sorry, Nathan was your name, right?”

How’d she know?

“It’s only a theory, but for some reason my body has a strong reaction to your blood. It just smells so delicious ...” I was hoping that was just my imagination, but her skin seemed to turn even redder, as she said that, a serene smile on her face. “I hope to get over it soon, capu-chuu~” And just like that she bit her lip.

Wh- what is this, some Jump manga about a human in a school for youkai?

A small trail of blood flowed down her chin, but she didn’t even seem to realize it!

Raynard let out a shudder of disgust, while Aurelia anxiously put her hands on Vladi’s shoulders. “Hey, Vladi, are you there!?” She shook her carefully, but no reply.

“Guess she’s gone.”

“How can you be so nonchalant about it! It’s your fault!” Aurelia now directed her ire at me.

“I didn’t do anything, besides existing!”

“Well, then your existence is the problem!”

“Hey, that’s not nice!”

In that moment Raynard had an epiphany. “Oh my. It’s your blood.”

“What about it?” I asked.

“You’re ... human,” Raynard said, whispering that last part. Not that I think Vladi would’ve overheard. “And as far as we’re concerned, you’re the only one alive. She must have an extreme reaction to your unique blood.”

“Huh,” I simply said. That seemed about right. Call me a racist, but if humans truly did inhabit this world some thousand years ago, then it’s no wonder vampires were discriminated against if that’s their reaction to our blood. Though that might become a problem sooner or later ...

“Hey, what are you three doing here!” A voice interrupted my train of thoughts. Some police guard was standing in the door. Evidently, they were patrolling the corridors.

“Um, we have a medical emergency?” Aurelia answered, spinning Vladi around like an inanimate object to show them the bloodied and unconscious vampire.

“There has been a fight!?” And the guard immediately jumped to conclusions. “I’ll have to call the boss.”

“No!” Aurelia hastily replied. “It’s nothing of sorts! It’s just ... she ... has her vampire period!”

At the mention of that word, the guard (and Raynard for some reason) turned bright red.

“A- I- under- stand,” the guard replied in a robotic fashion.

No, did they seriously believe that?

“Let me- bring you- to the- infirmary ...”

“Y- yes that would be appreciated, ahahha,” Aurelia replied, picking Vladi up by the hips. Without a doubt she didn’t think that would work out either.

But, if that interaction was anything to go by, this year might still become quite fun!