At that moment, the Demon King's Bestowed Theater, having been shrouded beneath the shrieks of demons, concluded its very first class. The lights on the stage gradually dimmed, leaving only the trembling black melodies of hell draped over the auditorium like a heavy mantle of darkness.
In the corridor outside the theater.
The lingering, deep chime of the ancient bell still pierced through the darkness in the depths of the hallway, announcing the arrival of break time.
The sound seemed possessed of a mysterious magic, able to ignore solid stone walls, slip through pitch-black corridors, graze past the doors and windows of every classroom, and ultimately reverberate throughout this seemingly boundless edifice.
Over the next thirty minutes, all demon students across the academy would welcome their first break.
They could use this time to seek out a classroom more to their liking.
Or, during this half hour when the classroom corridors connected to the functional area corridors, head to the functional area to spend their surplus credit coins and skip the upcoming two-hour class.
After dragging Bachel out of the classroom, Hyperion dumped him onto the carpet in the hallway.
Meanwhile, Lanqi felt as if he had just strolled out of an opera house. He stretched lazily, looking as though he had not quite had his fill.
"Where are we heading next?" Hyperion asked.
"Are you hungry?" Lanqi hesitated a moment, looking at Hyperion to ask.
"A little," Hyperion replied.
For some reason, she felt like the two of them had just finished watching a concert together and were now discussing their next stop.
"Then let's grab some dinner first before returning to continue our studies," Lanqi said with a grin.
In stark contrast to his miserable, death-warmed-over state at Ikerite Academy during the day, he was currently happy from the bottom of his heart.
"All right."
Looking at Lanqi's rejuvenated, vigorous appearance, Hyperion could only feel that if the leadership of Ikerite Academy saw him now, they would fall into deep reflection.
Although accompanying Lanqi on his antics in this Demon Academy was somewhat exhausting, being his teammate was always exceptionally reassuring.
"How is he supposed to guide us now?" Hyperion soon turned her gaze aside, looking down at the Bachel-shaped lump on the floor.
After being dragged out of the Demon King's Bestowed Theater, Bachel was no longer tormented awake by the hellish sounds.
It was as if he had powered down.
Hyperion knew little about healing or awakening magic, so she looked at Lanqi, who was probably more adept at it than her.
"Hyperion, do you know? There is a wonderful medicine that can both anesthetize a patient and wake them up."
Lanqi sighed with a smile, exuding the weathered benevolence of a compassionate physician as he looked at Hyperion to test her.
Hyperion thought for a moment, having no idea what medicine Lanqi meant.
And could they really find such medicine quickly in the Demon Academy right now?
However, tracing Lanqi's gaze downward, she realized.
Lanqi was staring right at her fist.
Hyperion: "..."
Hyperion felt that if she kept humoring Lanqi, all her accumulated good karma would be completely wiped out.
"Come on, Hyperion, hurry and wake him up with your magic," Lanqi urged.
Hyperion dared only nod without uttering a word, terrified that the Goddess might overhear.
Next, like an attending physician and a nurse, the two of them set to work treating Bachel.
Finally, amidst Bachel's bloodcurdling screams, he regained consciousness once more.
...
"I must say, your vitality truly is remarkable," Lanqi said delightfully, gazing at the revived Bachel like the Holy Mother celebrating life itself.
"H-How did you two wake me up?"
Bachel's head throbbed with excruciating pain, as though a chunk of his memory had gone missing.
Even now, though awake, his body and spirit still felt bogged down in an abyssal quagmire.
"I'm a healing-type demon, so naturally I have my ways."
Lanqi's sacred yet eerie Radiant Demon form seemed bathed in heavenly light, bestowing salvation upon Bachel.
"I-I feel like something isn't right... What on earth happened in the classroom just now...?" Bachel was dubious.
He felt as if he had suffered an exceptionally long nightmare, dreaming that a gray-haired demon, using demonic melodies curling like black mist, had plunged him into an inescapable hell of agony!
"Don't dwell on such ethereal illusions; those were all your hallucinations. Reality and fantasy—surely you can tell the difference now. Check your pockets."
At Lanqi's prompt, Bachel reached into his pocket and found two extra credit coins.
These were the reward granted to Bachel by the director after clearing the course.
Since Bachel had been unconscious at the time, the director had slipped them directly into his pocket.
Staring in disbelief at the three black-gold coins gleaming with a red sheen, Bachel felt as if he had transitioned from a nightmare back into a sweet dream.
The very first class had only just ended, and he had already obtained three credit coins!
In the past, Bachel wouldn't have dared even dream of this!
"Well? Do you believe it was a sweet dream now?" Lanqi asked with a beaming smile.
Seeing Bachel happy brought joy to him as well.
"Where... where are we going next?"
The aches across Bachel's body seemed dispelled in an instant. He hastily scrambled to his feet, brushed the dust off his clothes, and asked Lanqi.
"Classmate Bachel, take us to that campus branch of the Demon King's Bestowed Restaurant you mentioned."
Earlier, Lanqi had heard Bachel mention that the academy had an extremely expensive restaurant capable of serving the highest quality delicacies in the Demon Realm.
There were even a few limited-quantity dishes capable of boosting one's attributes for a day.
Lanqi felt he ought to savor the very finest Demon Realm cuisine of this era. Once back in the mortal realm, he could thoroughly share his dining impressions with his old Talia, and perhaps even edit clips from the Shadow World Recording Program into a special column for her to view.
This was the only thing Lanqi could do for homesick Talia.
"The Demon King's Bestowed Restaurant..."
Yet upon hearing Lanqi's destination, Bachel seemed to shrink back.
"What is it? Didn't you say the functional area is quite safe?"
"That area is where only students with the most surplus credit coins go, and every regular there is among the most dangerous students in the academy... If you aren't an illustrious student and you go there, taking up their leisure resources, you could easily earn their grudge..." Bachel said with worry.
Although the functional area was relatively safe, Bachel was terrified of crossing paths with the academy's highest-tier demon students.
"Is that so?"
Lanqi took out the faculty nameplate given to him by the Music Department Director from his pocket and pinned it to the breast of his coat.
"Well, I am a teacher of this academy now."
"??"
Bachel stared dumbfounded at the exquisite nameplate on Lanqi's chest.
So this Radiant Demon who had spent all this time with him was actually a teacher all along? Taking part-time continuing education while pranking students and blowing up classrooms just for kicks?!
Chapter 61