Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Evil Pieces really are incredible, I thought as I came out of meditation. It was morning already. School soon, and after classes the student council was expecting me.

My homeroom teacher would be over the moon. At our academy, joining the student council was more prestigious than joining any club. “For educational purposes,” the administration had handed the council a hefty share of authority over the school and now merely signed off on its decisions. I suspected those signatures were just for show. Houses Sitri and Gremory held the real power at Kuoh, period. And if there was any adult supervision, the adults involved certainly weren’t human.

Unfortunately, Sitri-sama and I hadn’t had much time for a proper conversation. By the time I’d finished reincarnating as a demon, it was pretty late for a high school student to be out. The president had sent me home, warning me that I’d have to get my parents’ permission to stay out the following night.

“We’ll sort that out later. For now, you’ll have to manage on your own. I trust you’ll emerge victorious from your battle with parental supervision,” she said calmly, ending with a faintly mocking smile. She’d set aside the stack of papers she’d been working on while she and Shinra-san waited for me. “Demons are creatures of the night, so expect some discomfort in sunlight and greater strength from sunset to dawn. Your hearing will improve, and so will your eyesight. You’ll be able to see easily in the dark, too. From now on, a lack of light will work in your favor. And one more thing: stay away from temples. Any of them. They’re enemy territory. You could be attacked there, and whoever attacked you would be within their rights. That would cause problems for me, and they wouldn’t end with the loss of a new servant!”

In just a few sentences, she’d taken a gentle jab at my ego, shown she had a taste for subtle humor, and covered what I needed to know for the following day. She hadn’t buried me in details. She’d given me the essentials and pointed out the biggest danger.

Still… I really liked Sitri Sona. I’m not about to claim I’ve fallen madly in love at first sight. That’s bullshit. In my first few lives, sure, I had my moments. But these days I’m past that sort of nonsense.

The madly part, I mean.

To me, love is made up of several things: liking a woman, finding her attractive, having compatible personalities and shared values, and respecting the way she lives and the choices she makes. You can’t learn all that at “first sight.” One look can only tell you whether you want to sleep with her.

Yes, yes, I’m boring and coldhearted. I don’t give a damn. But of all the women I know, Sona comes closest to meeting my criteria for “serious consideration as a romantic prospect.”

I chuckled under my breath as I got dressed after a quick shower. I liked the intelligence in Sona’s violet eyes, her calm, pretty face, and its quiet, understated expressions. I liked what I’d seen of her character, too, and she had a good reputation.

It seemed I was slowly talking myself into pursuing Sitri Sona. I’d even started thinking about how useful a bride from a powerful family could be. All right. I’d see what she was like as I got to know her better.

“Mamoru!” I heard Mom shout. “Have you no shame, you rascal? That’s Taro’s bento! You know he makes his food to suit his diet, and you still keep stealing it!”

“But, Usagi, it’s so good!” Dad protested, and I snorted. Of course it was. I wasn’t going to eat “tasty, healthy meals made from stuff that isn’t even food.” After a shitload of reincarnations, I’d learned to make just about anything taste good enough to make you want to chew the chopsticks too.

“And how come our son cooks better than you do… and never makes enough?!”

You’ve got some fucking nerve, Dad, I thought as I headed downstairs. Every evening I make three bentos for the next day. Mom eats one, you devour the second, and then you start picking at the third to “just try this one little piece.”

“Chiba Mamoru…” Mom’s threatening voice didn’t bode well for the old man. “In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you! Stay right there and face your fate!”

“Good morning, honored Mother and Father,” I said, coming into the kitchen with a broad smile and saving Dad’s ass. “I’ll need to spend the night at school for student council business.”

“Good morning, worthy son,” Mom replied with exaggerated solemnity. She smiled at me and slipped a wooden spatula behind her back—the one she’d been about to use for an act of violence against the senior male of our household. Then my words sank in, and her eyebrows shot up.

“Student council?” Dad voiced her unasked question and waved hello. “Since when have you had anything to do with the student council?”

“I’ve joined. Well, I’ll officially join today.” I checked how hot the kettle was, nodded in satisfaction, and started brewing my special tea. “The president, Shitori-san, offered me a place, and I didn’t turn her down. They’ve got a mountain of paperwork, so they could use the help. It’ll be good experience for me, too.”

“Shitori-san?” Dad straightened up. “That delicate-looking girl with violet eyes?”

“That’s her.” I put on a dreamy smile and narrowed my eyes slightly as I poured boiling water into the teapot. “She’s beautiful. Smart, serious, responsible, too. She’s the best student council president this school has ever had!”

“You…” Mom’s jaw dropped, her eyes wide with genuine astonishment.

“Of course, son,” Dad said much too quickly and with far too much enthusiasm. “If you need to work hard for your future and learn from such a fine young lady…” He glanced at Mom, widening his eyes slightly to hint at something. “…a young lady with SO many fine qualities, then, as your father, I give you my blessing.”

“Oh, darling, you’re absolutely right!” Mom said in a rush, trying to look composed again. Her delighted eyes and the smile she couldn’t quite suppress gave her away. “Taro, if that’s what you need to do, your father and I are behind you all the way. Show them how hard Chiba Taro can work! You’ve got this!”

Her fist shot into the air, and she struck a pose straight out of an anime pep talk. I chuckled under my breath. I really had lucked into wonderful parents this time around, and I did my best not to let them down.

“Would you like some tea?” I asked, taking out three cups. Purely a formality. Everyone loved my special tea. Grandpa out in the village practically lived on the supply I sent him.

“Taro, dear, who else is on your student council?” Mom asked cautiously.

“Shinra Tsubaki, Yura Tsubasa, Meguri Tomoe, Hanakai Momo, Kusaka Rei… and one guy, but I’ve forgotten his name,” I lied. His name was Saji Genshiro. I poured the tea and slid the cups over to my parents.

The kitchen went quiet for about ten seconds, so I took a sip. Wonderful. An ordinary person would have a hard time believing what an experienced cultivator’s care could do for ordinary tea bushes like the ones I’d planted in the yard. Weekly infusions of qi and the right nutrients had made the plants incredibly healthy. The tea was fragrant and exceptionally good for you.

If I ever decided to just get rich, I could buy a tea plantation and sell the leaves to the world’s wealthiest connoisseurs for obscene amounts of money. I’d even sent a gift box of my tea to some sheikh in the UAE recently, as a joke. He’d mentioned on the TV news that the best tea in the world came from India. If the package never reached him, no big deal. If he tasted it, I doubted he’d stick to that opinion.

Come to think of it, I’d have to take some tea leaves with me. Let my new kin have a cup. Get them hooked on regular shipments, so to speak.

“I’ll be right back,” Dad said suddenly, rising from the table with a glazed look in his eyes. Mom and I watched him go, baffled. More puzzling still, once he left the kitchen, he practically sprinted toward their bedroom.

“So there are six girls on the student council and only two boys, including you?” Mom asked, turning a stunned gaze on me.

“Yeah, Mom. It’s Kuoh. There are way more girls than boys here. The numbers are slowly evening out, but the girls will still outnumber us by a wide margin for at least another two years.”

“And you’re all spending the night at school?”

“I’m not sure.” I rubbed my chin. “But I think so. They’re swamped with work, and Shitori-san wanted to introduce me to the rest of the council.”

Speaking of my chin, I really ought to decide on a look for after graduation. Grow a little beard and go for the “wise, kindly mentor” look? Go for the standard smooth-faced bishonen? Or maybe I was in the mood for something villainous this time. Bushy eyebrows, a menacing glare… Hmm.

Facial hair had started coming in, and I couldn’t be bothered to shave. Should I get rid of it for good—the easy option—or make it disappear only temporarily, which would take more work?

“Son,” Dad said, coming back into the kitchen. “Here, take this. Invite your new friends to a café or karaoke. Get to know them, make a good impression. It’ll help you get off on the right foot with the group.”

“Dad…” I stared at the thick stack of yen bills my old man had put on the table. That was enough to take the entire student council to a good restaurant with downright ugly prices. Twice. “Why? I have money.”

“Taro, please don’t argue.” Dad sat back down and took a sip of tea, closing his eyes in contentment. “Humor your old man and take some good advice. You’re the kind of son your mother and I could only have dreamed of. But you haven’t had much luck with gi— with friends. I know you don’t like wasting your time, but working on the student council will be excellent preparation for adult life.”

“Your father’s right,” Mom said, nodding. “You’ll finish school, then university, and after that you’ll get a job. You’ll have colleagues you’ll work with for years, so knowing how to get along with people is important.”

Husband and wife—two halves of the same devil. That was my parents, all right. Look at them, telling their son the hard truths about adult life with perfectly innocent faces. They’d worked training into the argument and thrown in a healthy dose of parental concern.

If the student council had been all boys, they wouldn’t have stopped me from “helping the team” overnight. But there wouldn’t have been all this song and dance, either. They’d waited so long for their clever plan with Kuoh Academy to pay off… I think Mom and Dad had even begun to suspect that trying to set me up, in any form, was a lost cause.

So my words about Shitori-san—all true, by the way; I really did think she was the most beautiful girl I knew, with a wonderful character to match—fell like blessed rain on the parched soil of my parents’ hopes. I could practically hear what was going through their heads:

Taro’s found a girl who’s just as nuts as he is, obsessed with responsibility and taking everything seriously, and he actually likes her. We need to visit every temple and pray to every god we can think of so things work out between them—and they give us lots of little serious, responsible rugrats.

“I’ll take this much,” I said, picking up about a quarter of the stack. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll try to invite them to a café, but not anytime soon. They’re swamped, like I said.”

“All right, all right.” Dad smiled in relief. “I’m not saying you should drag them all there by the scruff of their necks today. You’re a smart kid. You’ll figure it out. Just don’t forget.”

“Deal.” I nodded to my parents, finished my tea, and got up from the table. “I’d better get ready for school.”

“Go on, sweetheart.” Mom gave me a quick hug. “Have a good day.”

“And a good night,” Dad added, clapping me on the shoulder once she let go.

As I left the kitchen and headed upstairs to my room, my enhanced hearing caught Dad’s quiet whisper.

“Usagi, tonight after work, I’ll pick up some wine. You make a celebratory dinner… And you haven’t stashed that sailor fuku we bought for cosplay too far away, have you?”

“Ooh… Does my Tuxedo Mask want to relive the old days?” Mom giggled. “Don’t forget the rose…”

I stopped listening after that, chuckling to myself. Apparently my parents were in the mood to get up to a little mischief while their son worked surrounded by no fewer than six girls. I had a feeling there’d be more than one toast to future grandchildren in this house tonight.

Sunlight… yeah. The plan for the near future: once the storm of altered qi in my body settled and my dantian stopped pumping out energy at full throttle, I’d rebuild the Nine Eyes of the Sage with my new “native” qi. Then I could get back to leveling up and start attuning myself to the elements.

I knew a few weather techniques that I suspected would become favorites. That “gentle” sunshine felt bloody awful. Even after I formed the Mantle of Might, it was still unpleasant.

Being out in the light was miserable. The sun’s rays felt almost solid, like coarse sandpaper—hot, coarse sandpaper dragged across hypersensitive skin. And that lovely little sun was clearly weakening my newly altered body.

In a dark room, I felt much stronger than I had before. Out in sunlight, though, my “power level” was only a little higher than it had been before I accepted the Rook. The Mantle canceled out roughly forty percent of the effect, but I still felt like crap.

But at night… whew. The cultivation potential of this world’s demons was enormous. I hardly had words for it. If I’d accepted an Evil Piece as an ordinary mortal who’d never cultivated, I’d now be almost as strong as I’d been yesterday, before the Rook.

No wonder Kings sought out powerful beings for their Pieces, especially those with exceptional talents or unusual abilities. An Evil Piece didn’t just turn you into a demon, already stronger than a human by default. It gave you one hell of a boost on top of that. And for a cultivator, the possibilities were staggering.

Picture two buildings, each a hundred stories tall. One stands at sea level and is… let’s say three hundred meters high. The other is identical, but it stands on a hill five hundred meters high. Its roof ends up much higher above sea level. The same principle applies to cultivators.

I was much stronger than I’d been yesterday, and it hadn’t cost me a thing! Figuratively speaking, a tall hill had sprung up beneath the “building” of my cultivation progress. I now stood a good deal higher above “sea level.”

I think you can see where this is going. Once I regained my old level of strength—and it was considerable—I’d stand an entire hill’s height above my former self.

So I had another goal for this life: get my hands on the secret of how Evil Pieces were made. Figure out the principles behind them, try to create a version using qi—even a weaker one—and carry the recipe for another booster into my future lives. Preferably one without that little sunlight problem.

If I failed to break through here, if enlightenment never came, a qi version of an Evil Piece would be just what the doctor ordered. Besides, more raw power never hurt. Cultivators don’t turn down a boost. The greedy toad inside every one of us is far too eager to hoard every power-up it can get.

“Chiba-san!” I heard Issei call as I approached the academy. “Good morning!”

“Morning, Issei-kun.” I raised a hand in greeting.

“I wanted to thank you for yesterday!” He gave me a bright, grateful smile. Well, look at that. The guy wasn’t just funny and a pervert. He had some good qualities too.

“You’re welcome. Glad you’re okay.” I gave him a small smile, and I wasn’t even lying. Much.

Mostly, I didn’t give a damn about him. He got on my nerves sometimes, sure, but I didn’t want him dead. Well… most of the time, anyway. And without him and the other two morons, school would be a hell of a lot duller. They were always screwing up spectacularly or putting on a show, proudly broadcasting their perversions to everyone around them.

I even agreed with them to a point: sex was great, boobs were beautiful, and girls made the world a prettier place. But why take it so far? Sure, I had self-control and Issei and his friends didn’t, but they weren’t the only guys at school who wanted to date girls. Somehow, the others managed just fine.

My conclusion? The three of them were playing it up for shock value, acting out their own little pervert subculture. Goths wear black and go on about how life is all doom and gloom—or is that emos? Honestly, I can’t remember. The Perverted Trio did the same thing with porn, carrying it around and making damn sure everyone knew it.

“Yo, Ise! What’s the deal? You’re hanging out with gloomy Chiba now?” Motohama popped out from around the nearest corner like a jack-in-the-box, Matsuda right behind him. They were Hyoudou’s two buddies. I had no idea what House Gremory’s newest servant had been about to tell me, but the moment was shot to hell.

“Did you finally teach him to appreciate the finer things in life?” Matsuda chimed in.

“Don’t get your hopes up, guys.” My lips curled into a smirk as I clapped a hand onto each of their shoulders, hard enough to make both perverts wince. “Keep me out of your horny little club. Have a nice day.”

As I passed through the academy gates, I noticed a small group of girls standing near where we’d just talked. When they caught me looking, all four put on stern expressions of approval and gave me a thumbs-up. They did it in such perfect unison that they looked like soldiers saluting. The girls seemed surprised by their own timing and burst out laughing.

Well… the Perverted Trio didn’t exactly have the best reputation at the academy. I’d clearly just earned myself a few popularity points.