Honestly,
the power of face was real.
"Hm?"
The reaper did not take the money, but she did not scold Ian either. She simply felt the pressure coming off him and stared at him uncertainly for a long moment.
"I'll leave this to you, then."
As if she had suddenly thought of something, the female reaper lowered her head with obvious unease, gave Ian a deep bow, and then vanished from the smoke-filled classroom.
"Handled."
Ian stuffed the remaining hundred into his own pocket too. He pocketed it right in front of everyone, openly and confidently. After all, using the power of face obviously came with brokerage fees.
"And you're still saying you're not a reaper?"
At that moment, the girl fully regained control of her body.
She watched Ian expressionlessly.
"No, today I'm Face Superman."
Ian felt that name was maybe a little weaker than Stocking Superman, but it was fine. There would be plenty of future versions of Superman for him to become.
"So should I say thank you?"
The girl flexed her wrist slightly. Her face was still blank, but there was finally a trace of emotion in her eyes.
"You actually know how to say thank you? You're officially the most polite person I've met all year!"
Ian praised her in surprise, then silently gave her three points of favorability in his heart.
"Rachel Roth."
The girl suddenly introduced herself.
"Oh, I met another Ross last night, but she seemed to be an AI person."
Ian still had not fully connected her to the right character, though he definitely recognized Trigon.
One of the most powerful demons in other dimensions, with the strength to conquer the multiverse. Though, for reasons that did not need explaining, he was currently sealed.
"An AI person?"
The blue-haired girl, Rachel, fell silent for a moment.
"Is it useful?"
Her sudden question left Ian completely speechless.
"Excellent question. I'll have to ask tonight to find out. Right now, though, let's talk about my chemistry teacher."
Even Ian had moments when he could not keep up. He turned toward Mr. White, who was still curled up in the corner, trembling.
"Ian, Ian, you remember how good I was to you, right? Last semester I even gave you five extra points on your lab grade."
Mr. White forced out a smile that looked worse than crying.
"I remember."
Ian nodded.
"I had my score control perfectly set up. Those extra five points made me finish first again, and I lost five hundred dollars on the betting pool because of it."
Of course Ian would not forget such a massive financial loss.
...
Hearing that, Mr. White went stiff all over. He had a very bad feeling.
At the same time, Rachel walked over to the miserable chemistry teacher and stood in front of him.
"How did you make contact with Trigon?"
Her voice sounded like ice sliding over metal.
At that,
Mr. White swallowed nervously.
"It... it was that demon who came to me first!"
He suddenly got emotional.
"I had cancer. I tried every treatment there was. In the end, I even went to a gypsy witch! That con artist took my money and ran!"
"And when I was at my most desperate, I started hearing whispers... saying I could have a new life... I had no idea it was a demon! If I had known, I never would've believed something that insane!"
"Despicable, shameless, hateful, evil... I was bewitched by a demon."
Mr. White gritted the words out as though he and that demon were mortal enemies.
Listening to him, even Ian felt like demons really were terrible.
"That was my father."
Rachel calmly cut off Mr. White's rant.
...
Mr. White's expression froze instantly, like someone had hit pause.
"But, I mean... when you think about it, demons aren't all bad, right? For example, your father. I think he genuinely wanted to help me."
"Even if he's a demon, he's a good demon."
To be fair, even without a brain, Mr. White's thinking was still quick. Now that he was reduced to a soul, he immediately adjusted his stance.
However,
"We have a blood feud."
Rachel continued with the same flat, concise tone.
Hearing that, even Ian felt bad for Mr. White.
And Mr. White himself clearly felt worse.
His face twitched twice before he gave up on all expression management.
"Just kill me!"
The chemistry teacher had even forgotten he was already dead.
Ian helpfully reminded him of that fact, and also added that he had personally counted how many pieces Mr. White had exploded into, so he could probably contribute useful information if anyone later wanted to reassemble something vaguely corpse-shaped.
...
Mr. White finally understood what people meant by worse than death.
"Forget it. I'll look for myself and see what makes you so special that my demonic father took an interest in you."
Rachel crouched down and reached out a hand.
The girl seemed to have some kind of mind-reading ability. At the same time, strange runes lit up on her forehead.
But just as her hand was about to touch Mr. White's soul,
"Hm?"
Rachel realized someone was tugging on her clothes.
And the pulling was getting stronger.
She did not turn around.
"Are your hormones making you lose control of yourself?"
The girl simply spoke in that flat tone to the boy behind her, who looked maybe two years younger than she was.
Pretty cold joke.
Ian was not impressed.
"Uh... Rachel, right? You don't need to wonder where your dad went anymore. It looks like your dad came looking for you himself."
Ian's uncertain voice came from behind her.
Rachel's pupils instantly shrank.
She spun around at once
and followed the direction Ian was pointing.
On the floor, Trigon's symbol was glowing with ominous red light, and some kind of creature was trying to break through the barrier between dimensions.
"Just one of his servants. He can't come out."
Rachel made the judgment and relaxed slightly, though she still stood up and watched the floor warily as it went through some kind of material exchange.
Her eyes shimmered.
The gem on her forehead grew brighter and brighter.
Ian had just come back around after failing to wipe away the pattern on the floor. Seeing that scene, he could not help feeling impressed. He had to admit she looked pretty cool with glowing eyes.
"No wonder so many people like the Sharingan."
Ian wanted his own red-eye condition too. Sadly, for now, the best he could do was make a clumsy imitation of all those red-eyed people he admired.
"I can do that too."
And just like that, his wish came true.
"Hm?"
Rachel looked toward Ian's face.
Her expression turned a little strange.
There was no helping it. Even the most deadpan girl in the world would break at that moment. Rachel could tell very clearly that Ian's red eyes were just the result of a bunch of burst capillaries.
Just then,
Rumble...
A violent sound erupted.
The floor shook.
A demon over six feet tall with curved bull-like horns slowly crawled up out of a pool of chemical solution, as if the liquid on the floor connected to some other world below.
"Raven."
The demon's deep voice was thick with malice. It rolled its neck with a series of cracking sounds that hurt to hear.
"Your great father asked me to pass along his—"
Some people
really do not get to finish their entrance speech.
After bursting in with all that menace, before the demon could even finish talking, it saw a human boy dash straight up to it and leap into an uppercut right under its jaw.
Bang!
The demon's head snapped back hard.
It froze for a second.
Then came boundless fury.
"You should fear me! Submit to me! Human, I am a demon! My life stands above yours!"
The horned demon had only just reset its twisted jaw and roared in rage when Ian slammed another punch into it.
"I'm a damn rapper too! Did I say it? Did I brag about it?"
Ian grabbed a half-melted fire extinguisher nearby and swung it full force into the demon's face.
Physical damage really did work.
The demon's face distorted, and it stumbled backward onto the ground.
Before it could recover, it felt someone jump on top of it and begin desperately trying to shove something into its mouth.
"This works too?"
Rachel, who had been tense for a moment, now felt her worldview starting to collapse. She could only stand there in silence and watch Ian pin the demon down and repeatedly try to jam a pendant into its mouth.
Neither she nor the demon could understand that behavior.
Only Ian knew exactly what he was doing.
"Godfather! Save me! Save me! I want to get stronger!"
Ian shouted for help at the top of his lungs while smashing the demon over and over in the temple. In order to eat this delicious demon that surely would melt in his mouth, he was practically breaking into a power-up state.
A family hero?
No.
A gourmet.
(End of Chapter)
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