The Asphodel Meadows isn’t that far from the palace, so it didn’t take us very long to reach it. When we got there, we see a small cottage made from trees and vines right at the entrance. Our skeleton guide left once we reach our destination, leaving only Assaf and I.

   We go to the door made of tree bark, and I knock twice. After a while, Persephone opens up the door. She looks quite surprised to see us. It’s probably been a long while since she saw humans with skin and flesh.

   ‘Yes?’ she asks us.

   ‘Greetings, Persephone-sama. We were sent by your husban-’

   ‘Oh, did he now? What does that fool wants with me?’

   ‘Well, he was hoping that you would go back to the palace.’

   ‘Go back and tell him that that’s not going to happen!’ she says angrily.

   ‘Um, can we at least come in?’ I ask.

   She hesitates at first, but in the end she chose to let us in anyway.

   The interior of the cottage is quite simple. A wooden chair, a wooden table, a wooden shelf with some crockery made of clay, a bed made of straw, a wooden closet, and curtains made of banana leaves.

   ‘I’m sorry but there’s only one chair, since I wasn’t expecting any visitors.’ Persephone apologizes. ‘You can sit on the bed if you want.’

   ‘Thank you. It will do.’

   ‘I would offer you refreshments like a proper host, but you know the rules around here.’

   ‘Yes, we do.’

   According to the rules of the Underworld, if you eat or drink anything while you’re here, you will be stuck here for eternity. That was how Persephone got trapped here and could only go back to Olympus during springtime.

   ‘So, did he gave any excuses for acting like the way he did?’ Persephone asks.

   ‘Actually, he didn’t even tell us the reason the two of you had an argument.’

   ‘Hmph! How typical of him.’

   ‘So, what started it?’

   ‘He forgot my birthday! Can you believe it?’

   Yikes. That’s like the number one thing a non-single guy should never forget. Or number two, depends on your other half (right after an anniversary).

   ‘Please wait a moment. Isn’t your birthday the first day of spring?’

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘And it’s the day you go back to Olympus.’

   ‘Yes! That’s exactly my point! I would understand if it was another random day, but is mine difficult to remember? I think not!’

   ‘I know, right?’ Assaf suddenly joins in the conversation. ‘Men always forget important things like this. Seriously, would it kill them to pay attention?’

   ‘Exactly! You know, there’s one time where he…’

   And there they go. Gossiping about guys like two teenage girls in a slumber party. Meanwhile, my existence has been completely forgotten.

   ‘Excuse me.’ I interrupt them after a while. ‘Does this mean you’ve been here for at least 4 months?’

   Persephone thinks about it for a moment.

   ‘That sounds about right.’

   ‘And you’re still mad about it?’

   ‘Us Gods have a different concept of times compared to you mortals. We’re immortal, after all. 4 months of yours is like 4 minutes to us.’

   ‘Even if that’s true, shouldn’t you forgive him by now? Hades-sama was quite depressed that you’re not there with him.’

   ‘...Really?’

   ‘I’m not supposed to tell you this, but he was so used to have you by his side he spoke to your empty throne by accident.’

   She has a mix expression of satisfaction, amusement and guilt on her face.

   ‘Did he now?’ she smirks.

   ‘Yes. Maybe you should reconcile with him.’

   Her expression turns into a melancholy one.

   ‘Honestly, I’m not sure about that. After all these years, I start to wonder whether our relationship is worth all these dramas. Don’t get me wrong. I do love him. But, he did kidnap me when I was still a young god, and resort to trickery to make me stay here. Our relationship is a love-and-hate one, at least on my part.’

   ‘I might be wrong, but from what I see, you don’t hate him at all.’

   She furrows her eyebrows. ‘Look, I know what I’m talking about, okay?’

   ‘Do you? When he offered you that pomegranate, you ate the seeds even though you know the rules. If you really hate him, if you really wanted to get away from here, you would have smashed the fruit…and the bonds the two of you had.’

   She looks troubled after hearing what I said. Then she sighs.

   ‘I suppose you’re right. If I really hate him, I would have begged Father to let me come back to Olympus on a daily basis, consequences and ancient laws be damned. Thank you. I needed someone to tell me that.’

   I smile at her. ‘I’m glad to be of service.’

   ‘I have to say, you’re quite a smooth talker. You must be quite popular with the ladies.’

   ‘Well, I…’

   ‘He has at least 5 girls waiting for him back at the world of the living.’ Assaf blurts out all of a sudden.

   ‘Wha-? Assaf-san!’

   ‘Oh my, so you’re that popular? Lucky you!’ Persephone smiles.

   Her smiles then quickly fades.

   ‘Wait a minute? Back at the world of the living? Does that mean the two of you are…’

   ‘Yes, we’re not supposed to die yet.’

   ‘You must be anxious to go back to that world, and yet you came here to convince me to go back to my husband anyway?’

   ‘Oh, it’s no trouble. Really.’ I assure her. ‘I just helped out Hades-sama on a whim.’

   ‘Well, let’s not waste time any further. Let us go back.’

   Hades was beyond happy when his wife came back to him. Persephone is sulking, but I could tell that she was just putting on an act.

   ‘Thank you. I owe the both of you. Even you, Maria Assaf.’ Hades says the past part extremely grudgingly.

   Assaf shrugs. ‘Kagenashi Akira did most of the talking.’

   ‘Good. That way I could reward him and him only.’

   ‘Hades-sama, there’s no need for that.’ I quickly say.

   ‘Nonsense. You are a student of the Royal Blade Academy, yes? Since when do you people work for free? I insist that I give you a payment of some sort.’

   While he was making up his mind, his eyes land on the ring he took back from Assaf.

   ‘I guess this will do.’

   He takes out the ring from his finger and tosses it to me.

   ‘I believe you already know how does that ring works, so I won’t bother with the explanation. Mind, no doing evil deeds with it, or you will hear it from me. And whatever you do, do not let a certain thief lay her hands on it.’

   ‘Are you perhaps talking about me, Hades-sama?’ Assaf asks innocently.

   Hades ignores her.

   I put the ring inside my pants pocket. ‘Thank you, Hades-sama.’

   ‘No no. As I said, thank you. Well, the two of you have stayed here much longer than necessary. You should get going. Charon will send you back whence you came from. There, a portal is waiting for you. Just go through that, and your souls with return to your bodies.’

   ‘Goodbye, you two. Maria Assaf, I enjoyed the chat we had, even though it was very short. When you’re staying here for good, perhaps you could serve me as a maid or something.’

   Assaf smiles at that. ‘I would be honored.’

   ‘What are you saying, Persephone? That wench will be serving sentences for the rest of the eternity!’

   Persephone looks at him with a sweet smile and eyes that are not smiling.

   ‘...Then again, perhaps we could have it your way.’ he looks away and mumbles.

   ‘I knew you would understand.’

   We leave the palace and fetch a ride from Charon’s boat once again.

   A thought suddenly came to me. ‘I wonder how will the girls react when I tell them I literally went to Hell.’

   ‘Before that, don’t you have to worry about how to apologize to them? I bet they were freaked out.’

   ‘...Oh, right. That’s more important.’

   ‘Meanwhile, I’ll be stuck behind bars for the rest of my life. I suppose it’s a lenient punishment after all those things I did.’

   ‘That reminds me, you didn’t tell me the reason why you wanted to break the boundary between the two worlds.’

   ‘You’re interested in that? It might be a long story, you know?’

   ‘Doesn’t matter. Charon-san, could you row the boat a bit slower?’ I turn around to ask him.

   He shrugs. ‘If that’s what you want.’

   ‘Thank you. Now, you were saying?’

   ‘Well, it’s nothing grandeur. When I was young, the village I was living at got struck by a horrible plague. Almost everyone in the village died, including my parents. Those who survived got off with months of horrible fever, and received white hair as a parting gift from the plague.’ she strokes her silver hair.

   ‘Ever since then, I got scared of dying. Very scared. I start to study necromancy to find out methods to gain immorality. By a certain chance of luck, I manage to create a spell that allows me to transfer my soul to an empty shell.’

   ‘That’s kind of incredible.’

   She smiles at my compliment. ‘Why, thank you. However, I still think it’s not enough. One day, I might run out of empty shells to occupy, or the spell might fail. Therefore, I set a goal to destroy the boundary instead, and found like-minded individuals to reach for the goal. That way, it’s not just me, no one has to die. Isn’t that wonderful?’

   I give her an immediate reply. ‘Not at all.’

   She looks absolutely stunned at my answer.

   ‘W-Why not? Don’t you want to spend eternity with your girlfriends?’

   ‘Don’t get me wrong, I love them more than anything else in the world. Even so, I rather spend a limited amount of time with them than an eternity.’

   ‘For me, people are able to move forward and evolve because we have limited time on earth. We know we’ll die one day, that’s why most of us always spend our time like it’s our last day. If we got unlimited amount of time, we’ll no longer bother, and excuses like “I’ll just do it tomorrow.” will keep popping up and nothing will get done in the end.’

   ‘The same goes with relationships. Look how things were going on with Hades-sama and Persephone-sama. If we didn’t happen to stumble across them, they might have stayed that way for centuries. That’s what infinite amount of time does to you. You’ll lose heart over something minor, and won’t bother to patch things up right away since you have time. It might have worked for the two of them since they’re basically stuck to each other, but what about everyone else? They might break up and never speak to each other again.’

   Oh man, now I sound like some sort of preachy main character. I seriously got to stop doing this.

   However, my speech seems to has an effect on Assaf.

   ‘I was mistaken. I’ve always thought that living forever is an answer to everything. After hearing what you say, maybe it’s not a good idea after all.’

   I was about to bring up the problem of overpopulation next, but I’m glad that it’s not necessary.

   ‘Well, it’s a little too late for that, but I guess it’s a start. I just hope they’ll let you join in the cleanup operation before you’re thrown behind bars.’

   She raises her eyebrow. ‘You actually trust me? After all I’ve done?’

   I shrug. ‘You realized that you made a mistake, and you’re sorry for it. That’s good enough for me.’

   ‘...You know, I’ve figured out why the girls are in love with you.’ she says quietly.

   …Hmm?

   We soon reach the portal. We step out of the boat and walk towards it.

   ‘Thanks for the ride, Charon-san.’ I turn around and tell him.

   ‘No need for thanks. I was just doing my job.’

   Before we step into the portal, Assaf has something to say.

   ‘You’ve probably bound my body back there. When we return, I want you to untie me. Once that’s done, I will cancel the mass necromancy spell.’

   I look at her in astonishment.

   ‘You can do that?’

   ‘Hey now, don’t you dare underestimate me. I’m the world’s greatest necromancer, you know?’

   ‘All right, then.’

   After we go through the portal, I find myself staring at a ceiling of an unfamiliar building, instead of the ceiling of the ship I was in. I also find myself lying down on a bed and got connected to a life support machine. In other words, I’m in a hospital.

   Just as I was about to push the button to call a nurse here, the girls in my harem came into the room. When they saw that I’ve woken up, they immediately rush over and give me a group hug with tears in their eyes. They hug me so hard I could barely breath.

   ‘...I’m glad that you girls are okay too. Please, I’m suffocating…’ I wheeze.

   They let go of me reluctantly.

   ‘Akira, what happened back there?’ Ichika asks me.

   ‘Before that, where’s Assaf?’

   ‘Oh, her? She was admitted into a hospital room for prisoners. Naturally, she got put under the surveillance of the strictest kind.’

   ‘Can you bring me to her?’

   ‘But, your health-’

   ‘I’m fine. Please.’

   The girls wanted to argue more, but decided to do as I say in the end.

   And so, the girls guide me to the room where Assaf is. My body ache all over the place due to the injuries I got from fighting Assaf, but they’re nothing serious.

   On the way there, I suddenly remembered about the ring Hades gave me. I instinctively grope at the pockets of the hospital trousers, even though I was wearing my uniform when I was in Hades. Imagine my surprise when I found it to be inside one of the pockets.

   Madoka couldn’t hide her surprise either. ‘Akira, isn’t that the ring Assaf had on her finger? Why do you have it?’

   ‘It’s a long story. I’m sorry but it’ll have to wait.’

   The room Assaf is imprisoned in is at the other side of the room where I was admitted to, so the trip took some time. When we got there, the door to the room is guarded by two blonde guards. Wherever we are, we’re in a Western country.

   The guards took one look at the girls’ uniforms and let us in without asking a single question.

   Like me, Assaf got the whole room to herself, and her body is the same one she had when we were fighting her back at the island. She’s also connected to a life support machine, got her hands cuffed with a pair of silver handcuffs, and has her mouth gagged with a piece of cloth that’s being tied to the back of her neck. There are also lots of huge gun turrets pointed at her.

   ‘Sorry that I took so long. I got here as fast as I could.’ I apologize to Assaf.

   She simply shrugs.

   ‘So, you’re going to do something about the mass necromancy, right?’

   She nods in confirmation.

   Everyone else in the room look at us with visible confusion on their expressions.

   ‘Akira-kun, what are you talking about?’ Sakuya asks me.

   ‘Senpai, could you get the guards to open up her cuffs and ungag her?’ I ask her instead.

   ‘...I hope you know what you’re asking for, Akira-kun.’

   ‘Trust me. I do.’

   Sakuya goes out to tell the guards my request. There were some voices that suggest that an argument is occurring, but the guards eventually come in. One of them is holding a key.

   They look quite terrified when the one with the key is unlocking the handcuffs. After the cuffs are gone, Assaf removes the gag by her own.

   The entire room is immediately filled with a suffocating tension. Even I’m sweating profusely, since I’m also scared that she would go back on her words.

   Assaf opens her mouth slowly and mutters something for a while. She eventually stops muttering after a few minutes.

   ‘It’s done.’ she announces.

   ‘...Senpai, could you check on the situation around the world?’ I ask Sakuya.

   While she’s doing that, Assaf voluntarily cuffs her hands and gags her mouth. Seeing that, the guards got calmer and leave the room.

   ‘I received reports that the undead have vanished into thin air en masse.’ Sakuya reports.

   Hearing that, I let out a huge sigh of relief. I was so relieved that my knees almost gave out. As a result, I had to sit down on the floor. The girls follow suit.

   ‘Akira-kun, isn’t it about time you tell us what had happened?’ Sakuya asks me.

   ‘Oh. Right. Of course.’

   So I told them what happened back at the ship. How the magic circle appearing out of nowhere, how I got caught up in it, how the souls of Assaf and I got into Hades, blah, blah, blah.

   The girls listened to me with their utmost attention and didn’t interrupt at all, not even once.

   When I’m finally done, I was almost out of breath. The girls were silence for a while, since they’re busy digesting what I just told them.

   ‘...That was, quite an adventure you had, Akira.’ Ichika says.

   ‘Adventure? Is that what it sounded like? Anyway, what about your side of the story? How did we end up here?’

   It wasn’t a very long story. According to Yui, she went to the room a few minutes after I told them to leave to check up on us, only to find my body lying next to Assaf’s. She franticly our pulse, only to find none. She immediately went outside and told the others. Mashiro wasted no time in using Itachimaru’s power to got all of us here, a hospital in Los Angeles, USA.

   I bow my head as low as I could after hearing the story as an apology. ‘I’m sorry for worrying all of you. If I let you girls stayed at the room like all of you had insisted, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. Really, I’m sorry.’

   The usually cheerful and happy-go-lucky Sakuya looks angry for once. She looks at the other girls.

   ‘What do you say, girls? Should we forgive him?’

   Mashiro raises up her hand. ‘Mashiro says we should, if Akira agrees to take us all on a date.’

   They discuss it among themselves and reach a conclusion. All of them agree on Mashiro’s idea. I have no objection either. From what I see, my punishment is rather light.

   Sakuya then puts her hand on my cheek.

   ‘Seriously, Akira-kun. Don’t ever do that again. We were extremely scared, you know?’

   I nod. ‘Yeah. I’m sorry.’

   They give me another group hug, but not as tight. I hug them back as best as I could.

   ‘I love you all.’ I whisper to them.

   ‘We love you too.’ they whisper back at the same time.

   It was all we could do to hold ourselves back from crying out loud. There were a lot of sobbing though. Assaf looks on with an impassive expression.

   Both Assaf and I got discharged from the hospital after two days, since we didn’t suffer from serious injuries. The girls and I got home by riding a private jet, courtesy of the government of USA. As for Assaf, she was transported to a prison in Tokyo via a military chopper.

   Apparently, everyone was arguing fiercely on who will get the right on her custody, and Principal Morifuji won since the ones who defeated her were his students.

   As for my newly-acquired ring, which I named the Ring of Putrid Water for convenience’s sake, is kept at a special vault in the Academy, which is the same place they keep Excalibur, Ichika’s Masamune and Sakuya’s Morifuji Tessen and all the other S Rank Regalias, since it has been classified as S Rank as well. I could use it anytime I want, but it has to stay inside the vault when I’m not using it, since it would spell trouble if anyone else got their hands on it.

   And so, the first arc of Season 2 has come to an end. The mass necromancy was stopped before it could cause tons of damages and deaths, and the timeline was once again messed with, but overall most people are happy. Once again, peace and quiet has returned to our lives. Or so I thought.

   It was another normal morning. Yui and I are already inside our classroom, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Today’s first lecture is one on law. Yippee…

   Then, the door to the classroom opens. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the person who came in.

   She’s dressed up in white shirt, black jacket and black skirt, and wears black high heels. She’s also wearing a simple necklace on her neck and a pair of glasses. She goes to the table usually used by teachers and speaks.

   ‘Good morning class, my name is Maria Assaf. From today onwards, I will be your homeroom teacher.’

   All of us in Class 2 know who she is, and all of us are pretty stunned to see her here, of all places. I was one of the quicker ones to recover, so I asks her the question everyone is thinking about.

   I made sure to raise up my hand first. ‘Um, Assaf…sensei? What are you doing here?’

   ‘Weren’t you listening, Kagenashi-kun? I just said I’m your new homeroom teacher.’

   ‘Oh, right. Please allow me to rephrase my question. Why are you here, sensei?’

   ‘The reason? That’s simple.’ she pushes up her glasses with her finger. ‘I’ve become interested in a certain male student of this class, so I persuaded Principal Morifuji to let me work as his homeroom teacher.’

   While she’s talking, she’s looking at me passionately.

   Oh boy.