Chapter 1 - I am a professor. Not a war hero.
Chapter 1 - I am a professor. Not a war hero.
Saegeun-saegeun (soft breathing).
"...."
It was only just sunset, with plenty of time left before darkness would settle in.
Klaus had been teaching Natasha for over an hour—or more accurately, playing with her—and only when the woman was completely exhausted and fell asleep on the bed did he finally stand up.
'Anyway, she's still as full of openings as she is pretentious.'
To fall asleep right in front of a human man; if other elves saw this, they would have screamed at her to wake up, saying it was no different from begging a beast to eat her.
But Natasha seemed to have let her guard down, judging that she belonged to him and he belonged to her, so there was no problem.
'Should I just eat her right here?'
There was no reason he couldn't; the Fever Skill was still in effect, and he had intended to take Natasha from the start.
The urge to tear off the clothes of the woman sleeping soundly and explore her beautiful, ripe body crawled up his spine.
Klaus looked at Natasha for a moment, then shook his head.
He didn't intend to treat her as a lover, but that didn't mean he wanted to make her an enemy or force her to follow him through hatred and hostility.
He would conquer Natasha first with pride, then with the pull of lust.
By approaching her that way, he would secure a solid connection with the Belarus family and borrow Natasha and her family's power whenever needed.
That was how Klaus planned to use Natasha and how he intended to treat her.
If he had thought of a rape-like method from the start, he wouldn't have bothered using a skill, nor would he have come here to talk about lectures and seduction, only to leave her all worked up without even taking off a single piece of clothing.
'Of all things, she's a woman who gets so wet, it was quite a struggle.'
Yulia, Cecily, and other women also produced plenty of vaginal fluid.
But among them, the one with the most sensitive body, the one who soaked through with just a little stimulation, was undoubtedly Natasha.
Even now, her panties were completely soaked, their color changed.
All he had done for an hour was chat while touching the labia and the area around the vaginal opening beneath her panties, yet her reaction was as if he had roughly poked into her crack with his fingers.
"Uung...."
The elf woman, who had experienced her first climax at the hands of a man, had fallen asleep while whimpering like that.
She demanded he teach her, only to fall asleep from exhaustion without lasting long—Natasha really made one wonder if she had any intention of winning or not.
'Well, to be honest, there isn't much for me to teach, either.'
After checking all the presence and magic power in the vicinity, he quietly left Natasha's room.
For a while, he had to live as a professor at this Academy and spend his time here.
It would be quite tiresome if he were labeled a professor who fooled around with students.
Above all, the hardest part was the noble students who ignored and looked down on him as if they had expected as much.
If it were during the war, these brats wouldn't have dared to even meet his eyes, but now that they were living comfortably after the war, they were acting out, trying to restore the fallen authority of the nobles and suppress the momentum of the commoners by any means necessary.
There were many others besides himself who had achieved great merit in the war as commoners, but even in the Empire, which could be seen as the only hope, let alone the kingdom he belonged to, they had put all their energy into using the nobles to crush the power of those commoners.
If it weren't for Yulia, he would have quit this fucking commoner act already.
Klaus was someone who could choose to regress as a noble, a royal, or even an imperial family member.
Yet, the only reason he regressed as a commoner, whom they all literally treated like dogs and pigs, was one single reason.
It was because if he stood before her as a noble, Yulia would instinctively be on guard.
'Plus, it was perfect for playing the role of a war hero abandoned because of being a commoner. Yulia fell for that, and even though I was human, she allowed me to enter the Demon King's household.'
If he hadn't been a commoner, would the kingdom have let him go?
It was obvious they would have tried to use him until his bones rotted away.
"...."
Klaus had just entered the hallway where the professor's office was.
Then, he stopped walking and opened his mouth.
"I clearly warned you back then. If you act rudely as a student, I won't care if you're the Demon King or whatever."
"...."
"Come out. I'm not interested in playing tag, Student Yulia."
Saying that, Klaus looked at a spot in the empty hallway.
Just as he was wondering what she was doing, a woman appeared from the corner that led to another hallway.
"Since when did you know?"
"From the moment you started secretly following me."
"...That means you knew from the start, so why now?"
"I left it alone thinking maybe our paths were the same, but you followed me all the way to the vicinity of the professor's office."
At those words, Yulia took a cautious step forward.
Her hair was a deep navy-purple mixed with black, reminiscent of the night sky.
Her eyes sparkled like flowing red wine, or blood, or rubies.
Even her appearance was dazzling, fitting for one of the greatest beauties in the world, as acknowledged by the author or creator.
She was so perfect that there were times he felt relieved that the beauty of the woman named Yulia was portrayed even better than the lines he had imagined and described.
"Now, last time you came to me by committing the rudeness of sneaking into the professor's office because you wanted to hear my lecture. What is it this time? I'm truly curious as to why our Demon King keeps secretly following a human around."
"...."
The clear enemies of the Western Alliance, the foes who had killed him dozens of times—that was the Demon Race.
However, excluding that, from Klaus's perspective, they were also the ones he liked the most.
They were rational, not overly authoritarian, valued ability over status, origin, or race, and above all, they had a strong desire to learn from the past, and thus a strong desire to become stronger.
It hadn't been long since the war ended, yet they were ostracizing war heroes and driving out veterans.
The humans, elves, and beastkin who had fought together in the alliance were only preparing to stab each other in the back.
It was an ironic situation where they were doing all the things they disparaged the Demon Race for—calling them barbaric, cruel, irrational, and so on.
When he realized in his repeated regressions that no matter what bullshit he pulled, the Western Alliance couldn't win, Klaus, already sick and tired of the idiocy of those moronic races, decided to abandon them without hesitation.
Rather than suffering until his bones literally rotted away while dealing with those idiots, he decided to hide in the shadow of the Demon King, the promised victor.
"Don't even think about getting away with silence, Student Yulia."
"...Originally, I intended to ask about the scene from today. It wasn't just a matter of blocking Student Cecily's combat magic, but how you were able to dismantle it accurately without a single inch of error."
"You're impatient. I said I would teach that part during the first lecture coming up soon."
"Because the Demon Race is a species that cannot stand it when they have a question. Please understand."
"Of course I understand. It's to the point where, in the middle of that fierce war, one of your commanders had a private meeting with me, only to ask whether I preferred tea or coffee."
Sounds like a joke? But what's funnier is that it wasn't a joke.
Honestly, how absurd it was when, in the middle of that fierce battle, they suddenly showed up with a few subordinates and asked if I preferred tea or coffee.
I was so dumbfounded that I reflexively said, "Coffee," and that Demon commander clenched their fist and cheered, saying, "I knew it! I knew it! See, I told you I was right!"
'I thought about cutting their throat right then, but they were so happy like a child that I let them go.'
But that Demon commander later entered the Demon King's household and helped me knowingly or unknowingly when they were slowly, little by little, eating away at Yulia and seizing the Demon King's household.
Who knew that just letting them go because I was so dumbfounded would turn into such a snowball effect.
Naturally, in this regression as well, I gave the answer to the Demon who came to find me and let them live.
"But Professor Klaus. It might be a slightly rude question, but may I ask it?"
"If you think it's rude, it seems obvious that you shouldn't ask."
"...."
"Well, since you're a Demon, I suppose that's unavoidable. What is it? That question that might be rude."
At Klaus's question, Yulia glanced back at the path he had come from for a moment.
Then, as if organizing what to say, she parted her lips slightly and spoke slowly.
"I can't know for sure, but judging by the path you walked, I'd guess you came from the student dorms. Why on earth did the professor suddenly come here from the building where the students' rooms are?"
"Hmm. You speak as if you saw it yourself."
"It's just a prediction."
"The tone you use while saying it's a prediction, as if you're certain, and the expression you're making. It all feels like you're saying, 'I am certain,' Student Yulia."
"...."
"Do you know why I let that Demon commander live even though they stuck their head into the tiger's mouth? It was because they were polite. Even though they were a Demon, even though they were an enemy, they kept their manners, so I treated them accordingly. In that sense, Student Yulia, you are quite impolite. Not only did you secretly follow me, but you're also suspicious, making assumptions, and cornering a professor."
At Klaus's sharp remark, Yulia reflexively tried to say, "That's not it!"
But she bit her lip, then immediately closed her mouth and lowered her head.
Just as he said, she hadn't even seen if Klaus had actually come out of the student dorms.
Yet, she had thought of it as if it were true and felt annoyed about it.
Why was she annoyed? Because the place Professor Klaus came out of was where the 'elf' students stayed.
The Academy was a place for peace on the continent, but she thought the elves were plotting crazy things to drag the war hero to their side before it had even properly begun!
'I was rash.'
She was a Demon King, but she was so pathetic she couldn't even be called a king.
And her uncle, who tried to play king behind her back in her stead.
The miserable reality of the Demon King's household, which she couldn't tell anyone, made her feel constrained and anxious.
According to news from the few people in the Demon King's household, it seemed her uncle was trying to do something secretly with the elves, and at that timing, the war hero Klaus was making contact with the elves?
It was enough for all sorts of ominous pictures to be drawn, tailing one after another.
Even without anything certain, because of that tension, she had crossed a line she shouldn't have.
The man in front of her, Klaus, was someone all the Demons in the East shuddered at just hearing the name of.
A man whom no race dared to ignore, even though he was human.
If there was something truly funny, it was that the only ones who ignored him were the humans who had survived thanks to him, and among them, those empty-headed things called nobles.
'I have so much to ask of the war hero of the past, yet I'm sharpening my blade like this. I'm still lacking in so many ways. I'm still a long way off, Yulia.'
Biting her lip, Yulia muttered that to herself.
She threw away the Demon King's face and pride and slowly lowered her head.
"...I apologize. If I have offended you...."
"No. There's no need to say that."
"Yes?"
"Because Student Yulia's prediction is all true."
What did I just hear?
Yulia reflexively lifted her head and stared blankly at Klaus in front of her.
"The place I just walked from is indeed the direction of the student dorms. And it's where the elf students stay, too. Excellent. You didn't tail me from the start, but you attached yourself midway and still managed to get close to the answer."
The man with the same calm appearance she had seen yesterday, and just a while ago.
But for some reason, Yulia felt that the human smiling at her was more dangerous and greater than any other existence in the world.
She didn't know if she should call it a king's instinct or a woman's intuition.
One thing was certain: he wasn't saying this for the purpose of teasing her.
Professor Klaus was telling the truth right now.
"All of it, all of it is true."
"Yes. It is true. The elf side tried to make secret contact with me."
"...If a professor personally visited a student's room, there must have been some secret meeting."
"Shall we say that?"
"Did the elves make a proposal to you, Professor, to the Commander? To enter that world of pointy-ears?"
"Watch your language. 'Pointy-ears,' you say. If the elf students heard that, they would take it as a great insult and it wouldn't be enough even if they challenged you to a duel."
The words, 'That's not what's important right now!' surged up to her throat.
Who is Klaus? He is a man who witnessed the horrors of the Continental War more than anyone else.
Therefore, he must also know well that this is the moment when peace is needed most.
That was why Yulia thought Klaus had entered this Academy.
To stop the conflict between the East and West, the Alliance and the Demon Race, to think and worry together about a way for everyone to live, to see that, and to pressure those who would hinder it.
She had hoped he came with such reasons.
But there was no way you would fall for the tricks of those who deny it head-on.
You are a noble human, a great man. You would have rejected such temptation. Right? Isn't that so?
"Come to the elf world—what do you think I answered to that question?"
However, when those words came out of Klaus's mouth, Yulia's anxiety soared.