The Man Called Demon Lord in Another World Has Returned! - chapter 20

Chapter 20: School Cafeteria

Monday after the weekend, today marks the official start of high school classes.

I’ve already skimmed through all the textbooks at home. Consequently, everything is memorized. I don’t really need to bring textbooks to school, but to avoid suspicion if I were to recite without them, I’ve brought all the textbooks in my item box today to store in my desk. I should be able to remember everything from the classes, including blackboard notes, even subconsciously, so I haven’t even bought notebooks. I’ve only brought the writing utensils I used in middle school along with the textbooks and stored them in my desk.

As expected, my main consciousness wanders outside the window during class, while a subconsciousness automatically listens to the teacher, reads the blackboard, and links it to the already memorized textbook content. When the teacher asked me a question during class, I could easily answer, of course.

With the morning classes ending uneventfully like this, I decide to check out the school cafeteria, which apparently reopened today. I’ve brought the lunch my mom made, so I’ll take that along and eat it with something from the cafeteria menu.

“Kiritani-kun, want to go to the cafeteria together?”

Murata conveniently invited me, so we’ll go together.

My neighbor, Nakagawa, seems to have brought a boxed lunch on this first day of school lunch. She’s taking out a small lunch box wrapped in a cute cloth and a water bottle from her bag. She also seems to be an outcast in the class so far, which is a bit sad, but it’s only the third day of school. She’ll probably make friends soon.

If she really can’t make friends, maybe I’ll do something about it, being her desk neighbor and all. No, I don’t have any ulterior motives.

The rest of the class is a mix of those going to the cafeteria, those opening their packed lunches, and those munching on convenience store bread.

Exiting the classroom and walking a bit down the hallway, there’s a connecting corridor leading to the cafeteria.

This school’s cafeteria is quite spacious. There are vending machines at the entrance where you insert money, choose your menu, and get a ticket. Apparently, you can use transit cards too. As expected of high school.

Since I brought a lunch box, I decide to order some soup and choose “pork miso soup.” Murata seems to have chosen the “inari sushi” and “kitsune udon set.” The kitsune udon set comes with inari sushi. Murata must really like deep-fried tofu. Though he gives off more of a tanuki vibe than a kitsune.

We take our tickets to the serving counter, where there’s a square box to the side. Watching the students in front, it seems we put our tickets in the box and receive our trays with food in return.

After putting in the ticket and waiting a bit, a plump lady skillfully carrying two trays comes out from the back, saying,

“Thank you for waiting! Here’s the ‘pork miso soup and inari’ and the ‘kitsune udon set’.”

She places the trays on the counter and quickly retreats to the back. I move the “inari” to Murata’s tray with the “kitsune udon set.”

About half the seats are still empty, so we fill our cups with water from the dispenser past the serving counter and sit down at an empty table to start eating.

“I heard the first period after lunch is PE, and it’s fitness testing. I’m dreading it,” Murata sighs while slurping his kitsune udon. For fitness testing, shouldn’t Murata eat less than his fill?

“Murata, why don’t you try eating a bit less and exercising more?”

“No way, no way. I’m still starving, and I’m not good at exercise. It quickly becomes painful, so I hate it.”

I could only give a wry smile hearing that.

He eats, maintaining his body shape, and because of that shape, exercise becomes painful. It’s probably bad that he gets hungry even without exercising, but that’s often how it is with overweight people. Murata will likely maintain this shape until graduation. No, maintaining would be good – he’s more likely to grow sideways.

Murata, if you keep living like this, you’ll die young.

Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it be interesting to cast “Haste” on Murata, who’s bad at and dislikes exercise?

“Murata. I just thought of something interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Actually, I can use various kinds of magic. You know about ‘Haste,’ right?”

“Of course I know that. It’s the speed-increasing magic that often appears in web novels and light novels, right? I’m a self-proclaimed otaku. Buffers are understated but cool, you know. Like how the quality of buffs can determine the outcome of battles. I like Log Hori…”

To prevent an otaku discussion from starting here, I interrupt Murata’s talk.

“Then, I’ll cast ‘Haste’ on you during the next fitness test. I won’t make it too strong or you might set an Olympic record, which would be trouble. Just lightly, okay?”

“If it makes exercise even a little easier, I’ll take anything. Hahaha.”

Normally, you’d think it’s a joke, right? It’ll be a sight to see Murata run 100 meters in the 10-second range. If he breaks 10 seconds, that would be problematic in its own way, so I’ll have to adjust it properly.

The surprised look on his face will probably be more interesting than the surprised looks of those around us.

“Leave it to me.”