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Two weeks passed after the defeat of the Corrupted Dragon Fafnir. The rainy season had ended early that year, and summer was already making its presence clear. Crim, Freya, Frey, and Kasumi, all students of Morinomiya High, were gathered in a small room in Castle Seyfert to study together.

There was a fact often overseen. Crim stood as one of the best players in the game, being one of the Demon Lords. Many of her guild members were also well known amongst players, but almost all of them were still students.

Their main duty was to be students, and at this time of the year they were in an especially precarious state, as they needed to be ready for their end of term exams before summer break, especially those in high school like Crim.

So the four of them had gathered in-game for a studying session.

“Urghhhh, why do we still need to take these antiquated exams when technology is so advanced nowadays?!” A girl with green hair cried as she threw herself onto the table. She was Kasumi, the class president.

“Hahah…this is a bit unexpected, I always thought you were really good at studying, prez.” Frey had already finished reviewing, so he was helping the rest, and Kasumi’s reaction slightly took him aback.

“I mean, I’m just an average girl who worked hard to get into an above-average school…”
“I don’t know if you can still call yourself average if you accomplished that though…”

Emotions were displayed in a more exaggerated way within Destiny Unchain Online, so there were tears streaming down Kasumi’s cheeks as she complained, and Freya tried to find an upside to it.

“But more importantly, I can’t stand that Crim is so relaxed about it even though she’s the one playing this game the most out of everyone of us…”
“I’m not sure what to tell you…”

Crim felt all of them stare daggers at her, so she tilted her head in confusion, looking up from the world history textbook she was trying to memorize.

“School exams merely test whether you remember topics mentioned in classes… As long as you go over everything you learned every day, it’s really nothing too hard, is it?”
“Only a handful of the best students can say that!!”

Crim spoke like it was not a big deal, and Kasumi objected angrily. But her riled emotions were quickly placated as she sat down and took a deep breath.

“And then you still get to do all the housework for your parents… I’m really nothing compared to you…” Kasumi knew how Crim was not just good at games and schoolwork, but that she was excellent at taking care of housework too, so she knew trying to argue with her was useless.

“Calm down, Crim lacks quite a bit of common sense…”
“She’s the type of girl who doesn’t understand the feelings of those without her talents, don’t bother comparing yourself to her.”
“All of you are heartless!!”

Crim stood up in protest, as everyone was insulting her without regard.

“Agh…”
“…Crim?”

Soon after standing up, Crim toppled forward, almost like she had gotten light headed from getting up too quickly, and Freya ran up to her worried.

“Sorry… I think I need some sleep. I feel really tired all of a sudden.”
“Hmm, are you sure? But if anything happens let me know, alright?”

Freya still looked worried as Crim took an early leave from the studying session and logged out.

◇◇◇

The next day…

Crim woke up at her usual time, still feeling tired even though she had gone to bed early the night before. After staring at her ceiling languidly for a while, she realized she needed to prepare the lunchboxes for her parents and herself, so she dragged herself out of bed.

Since it was so hot that summer, she had taken to wearing a very thin and almost transparent negligee to bed, unbothered by it as no one would ever see her in it. She threw it onto her bed.

Then she went to open the wardrobe in a corner of her room, which had been replaced by a larger one. There, she searched for a bra with a similar design to the panties she was currently wearing. She passed her arms through the delicate straps, then bent forward a bit to fasten the hooks behind her back. Her new body was really soft and flexible, so once she got the hang of it, she did not really struggle wearing it anymore.

She adjusted the position of the pads and her chest the way the lady at the underwear store had taught her and made sure the straps were properly fastened. Once she stood up straight and looked at the mirror, there was a faintly visible valley forming around her cleavage, so she nodded to herself with pride.

…And then something felt slightly off.

She could feel a bit of pain around her chest, almost like she was being constricted. But even after checking all the straps, she knew that everything was in order, so she remained puzzled by it.

Moving on, she put on a soft chemise, specially designed to not bruise her delicate skin and prevent the underwear from chafing. On top of that, she wore a blouse, and then put on her uniform’s skirt.

Once that was all done, she picked up the apron she left hanging on her doorknob and went down to the first floor while putting it on. As soon as she set foot in the living room, she was hit by the chilly air from an air conditioner left on all night.

There were dirty dishes left on the table, as well as a tablet that was still turned on.

“Sigh… Dad, again?”

Looking at the couch behind a corner, she found her father Sora, who had fallen asleep after coming back from work, covered only by a large towel.

“Dad… I’ve always told you. Getting home doesn’t mean you can start resting immediately.” While she grumbled, she carefully adjusted her father’s towel without waking him up, and then put the used dishes into the sink and poured water on them.

After that, she took out the chicken she had prepared the night before to fry, putting the pieces into the air fryer in a corner of the kitchen and turning it on.

After becoming a vampire, waking up in the mornings had become a struggle for Kou, so now she would only cook things that did not take too long or prepare as much as she could the night before.

While she waited for the chicken to finish cooking in the air fryer, she grabbed three empty lunch boxes, each of a different size, and filled them with rice, which she had left in the rice cooker last night, with a timer that would activate in the morning.

She then brought the side dishes she had prepared in advance and furnished the lunch boxes with the boiled broccoli she had left chilling in the fridge, and cherry tomatoes with the stems cleaned.

Kou did not eat meat, so instead of fried chicken she put omelets, which she had also made the night before, in her lunch box. Some of that was leftover, so she used it to fill the spaces left in her parents’ lunch boxes.

As she did that, the chicken finished cooking and the air fryer let out a chime, so she took it and put it in the lunch boxes for her parents. At the same time, her toasted bread was ready, so she took it and spread some butter and red bean jam on them, which she often bought from a cafe she liked. Then she took some of the leftover cherry tomatoes and had them with the toasts as a simple breakfast.

After six slices of bread, she was satisfied, even if not really full, and then nodded to herself with a bright smile, feeling ready.

That concluded all her morning duties, so she went to brush her teeth, and came back to the lunch boxes, with the freshly made rice steaming from them. She shut their lids, and then put them in special cooling bags together with some ice packs, as it was currently summer.

Then she wrote a small note saying “Your lunch box. Make sure to get enough rest,” and affixed it to her parents’ lunch boxes. Glancing at them one last time, she raised her hand into an OK sign for herself, happy with her work.

Now she only had her own small lunch box left, which she stuffed into her bag. She rubbed some of the anti-UV sunscreen made by her mother onto her skin, and put on the blazer of her uniform that was hanging in the living room near where her bag had been, and then headed to the front door.

Before getting there, she stopped by a large mirror, doing a quick turn to check how she looked. Her skirt spread out a bit and her long white hair fluttered behind her. Her skirt was perfect. There were no creases on her clothes. And she looked as cute as she should. Verifying all of that, she pumped her fist in celebration.

“…Wait, what the hell am I doing?!”

Kou struck her forehead against the wall, making a loud thunk, shocked by her own actions.

Her cheeks turned a bright red as she replayed all of her movements since she woke up, realizing how she would look if someone else saw her. “No, it has to be the influence of my surroundings. I’m acting way too much like a girl without realizing it…”

And it had been entirely subconscious. She was terrified to realize how much she had adapted to being a girl, not to mention she was behaving like a rather well-behaved lady. But she moved on, picking up her usual white parasol and left through the front door.

As soon as she stepped outside, she could feel the strong sunlight of summer, even through the parasol. “It’s so hot…”

It was already July, so she still had the latter half of summer left to endure. The rainy season had ended too, so the sunlight was even stronger, and it was hard to bear with all the sunlight radiating off the ground. On top of that, Kou was wearing long-sleeved clothes to protect her skin, but that only made her feel even hotter, so she decided to cheat a bit.

“Sath Varst Hurd. Klat Hitz Kross… Eunersta. Thermal Resist.”

After a simple chant, the heat around her body seemed to vanish in an instant, almost like the cool air from an air conditioner was washing over her, even inside her clothes. That was a magic spell her mother had taught her, which created a space of cool air around an area she pictured in her mind. By using it within her uniform, Kou’s whole body felt fresh, even if she was outside.

“…I can’t use it on other people though, so I’m the only one who can cheat like this.”

Kou muttered to herself as she walked to a nearby park, which was the meeting place where Hijiri and Subaru would wait for her before heading to school together.

It would not be wise for her to use magic on a whole classroom in modern times either, so she had to limit that benefit to only herself. According to her mother, the people who could use magic were also extremely limited, as she had explained…

“Only those with something akin to a special type of extremely small nanomachines within the microtubules of their brain cells can use it.”
“That sounds terrifying.”

That was what she said. The night Amari told her that, Kou was unable to fall asleep, wondering if those nanomachines were rewriting her brain while she slept.

But that was beside the point. At least now Kou had a way to fight against the excruciating heat of summer, so she made ample use of it.