Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Volume 9, Chapter 6: The Two who Returned

A luxurious black limousine was stopped in front of Constant Magic Academy. The flying limousine was meant for an important person and it looked out of place at a school.

The limousine’s door opened and a chamberlain wearing black stepped out. He frantically ran over to the receptionist and asked a question that sounded silly at first.

“Is Her Majesty here? She stripped off her clothes and jumped out of the limousine!”

As if to lend credence to his story, the chamberlain held a dress.

The receptionist was used to this, so she checked the class attendance, tilted her head, and said she was not in class.

“Are you sure we cannot search inside?”

“That is the school policy.”

The chamberlain and receptionist had held this exact conversation a few times before.

“Has the observer L’Isle-Adam still not arrived?”

“I was told she should arrive soon. Then you will not need to worry.”

“I hope so… The new empress acts too freely. She can vanish…and while naked…”

The receptionist began to laugh.

“She really is our schools greatest problem student. …Oh, that may have been irreverent to Her Majesty. Plus, we have another problem student who may be even worse.”

That second-greatest problem student was on the rooftop.

“Thanks.”

After receiving a uniform and student handbook, she put the uniform on and made herself visible.

“Whew. I don’t even have a palace yet and they’re already making me live such a restricted life,” complained Keena.

“I think the one being called out of class to bring you a uniform is more restricted,” Junko complained back.

“Don’t worry. I’ll use my imperial authority to make sure you still get credit!”

Keena puffed her chest out proudly.

“That is not the issue!”

Junko waved her hands in denial.

Keena had lived as empress for a while now. Constant Magic Academy had been restored and a lot of other things had returned to normal as well. All the destroyed land was being rebuilt.

The media had initially been very curious about the life of the new empress, but they had been so shocked by Keena’s free lifestyle that they were purposefully avoiding talking about her recently.

“So why are you here today?” asked Junko with her hands on her hips.

Keena pouted her lips.

“Ehh? I’m still a student, you know?”

“Yes, but you have not been around lately.”

“Yeah. I was testing to see if I could use the Imperial Regalia.” She nodded and smiled at Junko. “Also…”

“Also what? And on a side note, I am pretty sure those tests would be classified information. You should not just…”

Despite Junko’s complaint, Keena would not stop grinning and she cut Junko off with a loud voice.

“I can suppress A-chan’s power!”

“What? What!?”

“I can keep him from being the demon king! I can make his powers go away!”

“Wait. Is that true?”

“Yeah! So he can come back to school!”

Keena raised her hands as if calling Akuto down.

“Way to go, Keena!”

Junko hugged her.

That night, everyone gathered on the roof of the girls’ dorm on Keena’s command.

“So where is Akuto-sama and what is he doing?” asked Fujiko curiously.

“He says he’s been in the forest reading books. He can peek at things all over the world, so I doubt he was bored,” said Keena.

“That sounds like him. By the way, where is the student council president?” asked Junko.

“She said she isn’t coming. She had wanted to defeat the previous empress herself, so she said she isn’t happy with A-chan.”

“But she tried and failed,” said Junko with a bitter smile.

“I’m not a student and even I’m here,” said Yoshie with a shrug.

Keena then pointed up into the sky.

“There he is!”

They all looked up into the sky and spread their arms.

Akuto was slowly descending.

Keena pulled out the coat he had given her, placed it over him, and then hugged him.

“Hey, he has not even greeted us yet!” complained Junko.

But Keena was not listening. She merely buried her face in Akuto’s chest.

“Ah! No fair! Me too!”

Fujiko leaped toward Akuto as well. He fell over and almost toppled off the roof.

“I-I’ll greet you, so how about you move away?” he said.

He tore the two girls from him, stood up, and scratched his head embarrassedly.

“Hi, everyone. I’m back.”

“Welcome back!” replied the others.

Keena and Fujiko leaped at him again, Yoshie grinned as she watched them and elbowed Junko in the side while the other girl glared at Keena and Fujiko.

“You want to join them, don’t you? How about you be honest with yourself?”

“Do not be silly. I do not want to do that!”

Junko blushed and looked away.

“Sure, sure.”

Yoshie laughed and rubbed Junko’s head.

“Hey, stop! Why are you acting like that!?”

Junko complained, but Yoshie ignored her.

“Oh, right,” said Yoshie suddenly. She clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention before continuing. “Okay, turn your focus over here. I have a present.”

Once everyone was watching her, Yoshie pulled out Korone’s bag.

A heavy atmosphere suddenly fell over the previously cheerful group.

“Ah…”

“Oh, right. Korone-chan…”

“Aren’t you being a bit insensitive?”

Fujiko walked over toward Yoshie.

“And why are you calling that a present? I think the term ‘memento’ would be more…”

She trailed off as a right hand stuck out of the bag. An entire body soon followed.

“Eh?”

Fujiko was dumbfounded.

“Korone!” cried Akuto.

“Korone-chan!” said Keena and Junko in unison.

Once the legs had left the bag, it was indeed Korone who stood before Akuto.

“Just before jumping into the transfer circle, I grabbed her head and stuck it in the bag. I knew I could repair her then,” said Yoshie. “I secretly made the repairs and switched her on, but I still don’t know if she has her memories or not. I didn’t know her very well, so I need to ask her. So do you have your memories?”

For some reason Yoshie’s question led Korone to blush and point toward Akuto.

“I have memories of a passionate night with him.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely Korone.”

Akuto gave an exasperated smile.

“Yes, I am back.”

Korone gave a rare smile and embraced Akuto.

“C’mon, enough with the bad jokes.”

“This is not a joke. You loved me even though I was a L’Isle-Adam. I must respond to those feelings,” said Korone in a perfectly serious voice.

“Wait… Love…?”

Akuto grew flustered.

Korone looked up at Akuto.

“When I say that, do I look like a pure girl? I have a new body which you could call a virgin body, so I thought I would act like a virgin.”

“Y’know…”

Akuto gave a sullen look, but Korone made no attempt to remove her arms from around his waist. He ultimately decided to place a hand on her head.

“Well, you did seem pure.”

“I see. Oh, I just remembered.” Korone turned toward Keena. “I have been made the empress’s observer, so you can expect to see a lot of me.”

“Really!?” asked Keena as her expression crumbled.

“Yes, really.”

“Yay! Welcome back…no, welcome to your new job, Korone-chan!”

With that exclamation, Keena hugged Korone.

The two of them then almost fell from the roof and Akuto saved them. All of them began laughing and those on the top floor of the girls’ dorm began banging on the ceiling to quiet them down.

“There was no need for the empress to switch out like that,” complained Kento.

He lay on a couch in his room while speaking with a man displayed on a mana screen.

“You think you are so smart. You make it sound like everything should always go exactly as you expect it to,” said the man in the screen.

He had a bald head and strangely black and rubber-like skin. His codename was Rubbers. He was a member of CIMO 8 and had once taken part in a battle at Constant Magic Academy.

“That’s right. Everything goes as I expect it to more often than not,” calmly stated Kento.

“Then did you know CIMO 8’s numbers were going to fall so far?” accused Rubbers.

“That is due to the mistakes of those individual members. However, it is hard even for me to predict what our next move should be.”

“Because of the new empress?”

“Yes. That has made it harder to see what is needed to clear the Final Judgment.”

“I see you intend to diligently carry out Bouichirou’s final request.”

“I will pull it off better than he could have hoped to himself. Unlike him, I have no personal feelings involved.”

“Then why are you finding it harder to see what to do? I thought you were going to do this perfectly?”

Rubbers’s provocation caused no change in Kento’s expression.

“The problem is this irregular situation. There must be a few other people with imperial blood. This will get troublesome if they show up wanting the throne.”

“I have no interest in being emperor.”

“Neither do I. We agree on that, if nothing else. But we must be allies of the emperor who wins in the end.”

With that comment, Kento ended the call.