*Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding*

An alarm-clock blared at an unpleasant volume.

Eyes still shut tight, Leonardo moaned. “I’m up!”

A hand smacked the clock off the nearby table, it fell to the floor with a resulting crash and shut itself off.

Leonardo sat upward and a pile of blankets dropped of the side of the bed.

Stumbling his way out of bed. Leonardo rubbed his eyes awake, before dressed himself and stuffed his phone into his pocket and completed his daily routine.

Then he began the daily journey to his school.

Once again, Leonardo arrived long before anybody else and unlocked the gate.

He was basically the designated person to unlock the gate at this point. Leonardo always arrived early and unlocked it in the same routine way since discovering the hidden key.

Although Leonardo wasn’t sure whether anyone knew he was the one responsible for unlocking the gate each morning. Most people probably took it for granted that the gate would be unlocked when they arrived in the morning.

In his old world, having a locked door randomly be unlocked everyday would’ve raised several flags causing an investigation, along with potentially changing the locks.

In this world, people likely only thought in passing that it was convenient that they didn’t have to unlock it.

People simply weren’t security conscious in this world. The school was strange for even having a lock on the gate. Most people didn’t even have locks on their homes, or any other securities measures.

Thefts, murders, and other crimes simply didn’t occur.

In fact, the only time Leonardo heard of murder happening the murderer confessed shortly afterward from guilt. Even then, the murder had actually been a complete accident (if the killer's testimony was to be believed).

If people were sent to his old world from this world, they would be in for a nasty cultural shock.

Leonardo began snickering to himself as he thought of their reaction to the hellscape that was his previous world.

While Leonardo had some fond memories of his old world, he certainly admitted that in terms of safety and low crime-rate it paled in comparison to this one. At least if the various news sources of this world were to be believed.

Although Leonardo initially had doubts about how such a peaceful world was possible, after various discussions with people, he’d basically confirmed that the news is accurate in most people’s eyes.

Whilst there were various conspiracy theories, almost nobody believed them. Leonardo would be more suspicious if there were no conspiracy theories. No conspiracy theories might’ve implied censorship of the topic.

Even with his extremely limited knowledge of criminal methods in his previous world, Leonardo was sure he could become a master criminal in this life. Basic lockpicking knowledge combined with a simple scam like the pyramid scheme could probably bring this world to its knees and cause crippling economic damage.

Not that he had any intention of becoming a criminal.

His parents were more than rich enough for him live comfortably for the rest of his life and he had no intention on destroying this paradise.

Despite being a demon lord, he knew the value of such a utopia. Although utopia and dystopia were mere differences of perspective, Leonardo thought it was an actual utopia based on the information he’d gathered.

It was disappointing to be honest. He’d slightly hoped to discover a massive conspiracy behind it all.

Regardless, the pure naïve innocence of the normal populous was inspiring in a way.

Not that Leonardo would personally be able to view the world in the same manner as them. He’d always be looking over his shoulder and instinctually take various security precautions.

His hut in the woods and locked locker was the perfect example. Leonardo was the only person in the entire school with an actual lock on his school locker.

No matter how perfect a utopia, there were always fishes that slipped through the net. It’s basic common sense to take precautions.

Naturally people in the school thought that having a personal lock was weird. Other students had questioned and teased him about it, but he’d always brushed them off with chunibyo nonsense.

Nobody can argue with demon lords, they’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Leonardo showered in the gym and changed clothes before heading to his classroom. Checking his phone, Leonardo discovered there was still thirty minutes before class time.

Staring at the empty classroom, Leonardo thought about the game from yesterday.

Tenth-Grade Mage.

Absentmindedly, Leonardo found himself walking toward the library. He wasn’t really sure what he was expecting, but he’d spent long enough searching for clues about anything supernatural that it was kinda instinctual at this point.

The secret room in the school library was something to checkout, even if it was discovered from a fictional game.

Leonardo hadn’t actually explored the library before. He’d only passed by it while walking around.

After all, he never really bothered to study or complete his homework. The library was naturally completely useless to him before. The books weren’t exactly required for his classes either. It was considerably faster to Internet search for any information he wanted.

The library looked identical to the way it did in-game… except the bookshelf that formed the secret passage from the game didn’t exist. In its place, an empty wall.

Leonardo sighed to himself. He had expected as much.

“You’re a demon lord, don’t confuse mere illusions with reality.” Leonardo quietly comforted himself.

Regardless of his words, like an OCD mental patient, Leonardo tapped every bookshelf as he walked by.

When Leonardo reached the empty spot that the bookshelf was in-game, he pressed against it and… nothing happened.

His hand simply touched a slightly cold wall.

There was obviously no secret room.

Smiling helplessly to himself, Leonardo shook his head and pulled back his hand. Turning around, he walked back toward the classroom 1-A.

The game had been slightly too realistic and the developers had actually known about the key inside the brick. Along with the game’s location being conveniently nearby... He couldn’t stop himself from building expectations of finally discovering magic in this world.

Several students were already inside the classroom at this point, including Rosaria. She tended to arrive early like himself.

Turning her head toward him, Rosaria greeted him, “Good morning, Leo.”

“Morning, Angel.” Leonardo greeted her whilst walking over to his seat.

Rosaria’s face flushed slightly red.

She was too easy to tease. Any passing demon lord could easily torture her mercilessly.

Leonardo snickered to himself and sat down, placing his feet atop the desk.

“I told you not to call me that.” Whispered Rosaria after scooting her desk closer to mine.

“Nonsense! There’s nothing wrong with calling you, An-”

Rosaria covered his mouth forcefully and growled angrily, “Don’t make me bite you.”

Bite me? Pfttt… Is she flirting? I… I’ve never heard a more pathetic threat. I kinda want to test it out.

Forcefully suppressing himself from giggling uncontrollably, Leonardo managed to get her to release her grip.

Immediately after being freed, Leonardo returned to teasing her. “Don’t get so worked up, Ange-.”

Rosaria interrupted him, forcefully grabbed his right hand and chomped it between her teeth.

“OW!” Leonardo screamed violently and forced his hand out of her mouth.

Son of-

Leonardo placed his right hand to his chest, whilst staring at her accusingly, “You actually bit me.”

“I warned you.”

“You bit me!”

Rosaria turned away, “I told you not to call me that.”

“It’s a bloody nickname.” Leonardo rubbed his injured hand, and felt the slight trail of her saliva on it. “I can’t believe you actually bit me.”

Looking down on his hand, Leonardo saw the outline of her teeth impressed down onto his hand and began wiping away her saliva. She had bitten down hard enough to leave distinct impressions on his skin.

Never before had he been bitten.

Leonardo mumbled, “-and here I thought angels were suppose to be majestic, above petty squabbles.”

“Angels live for petty squabbles. They make life interesting.” Rosaria replied turning back toward him with a massive smirk.

Beginning to rub his hand from the pain, Leonardo stated, “I’d rather have an unbitten hand than an interesting life.”

“You can bite me back if it’ll make you feel better.” Teased Rosaria, as she began unpacking books onto her desk.

“Think I wouldn’t?” Leonardo sneered at her mischievous flirting.

She underestimates his kindness. A demon lord like himself will definitely take petty revenge for this slight.

Rosaria extending her hand toward his mouth and lifted up an eyebrow.

Clearly she was daring him to do it.

Ignored the outstretched hand of Rosaria, Leonardo suddenly found the trees and grass outside the window extremely interesting.

Rosaria's fortunate that he needs hide his demonic presence. Otherwise she would be getting a massive chomp on the hand.

“Coward.” Laughed Rosaria, rolling her eyes as she watching him turn away. Rosaria pulled back her hand, presumably pleased with successfully calling his bluff.

Pulling out his phone, Leonardo glanced at the time.

Five minutes before class… more than enough to play a couple games.

Leonardo opening a gaming app and played around until the bell rang.

“Please hand in your homework…” The female teacher stood in front of the whiteboard and began class.

Tucking away his phone, as the student behind him handed their homework to him. Leonardo immediately passed it forward to the next student.

Yesterday’s homework was still in his bag, unfinished.

Rosaria noticed that Leonardo hadn’t added his homework to the pile and questioned him, “Leo, I thought you were turning over a new leaf?”

“Yes, well… I liked my old leaf better.” Leonardo casually stated.

A demon lord shouldn’t need to be tie down by a petty commoner’s work.

The amount of homework given was absurd and had nearly zero value on the final grade. If Leonardo actually chose to do it properly, he would have no time to play video games.

Actually instead of making a conscious decision, Leonardo had completely forgotten about his homework. He had fallen out of the habit of completing homework long ago when he realized its comparative weight on his GPA. The power of habit was always under-considered.

“You’re going to get in trouble.” Rosaria warned, handing her homework to the person in front of her.

Leonardo shrugged, “Before last year, nobody cared.”

Pinching her temples, Rosaria agreed with him plainly, “You do realize that you hadn’t been in a gifted class before last year.”

Leonardo blinked and looked around the classroom, “This is a gifted class?”

“Yes.” Rosaria nodded.

The previous year, Leonardo had only been told that he’d be changing teachers. His parents had never mentioned anything about it being a more advanced class.

“The content is the same as a normal class, though?”

“No, it’s not.” Rosaria sighed and a shook her head, “She covers nearly double the amount of content… have you never noticed?”

Leonardo gazed toward the whiteboard as the teacher slowly collected the homework, “Nobody mentioned it before.”

Class time went by the same as normal… extremely lengthily, and extremely boringly.

Not that Leonardo particularly cared, he paid the minimum amount of attention necessary to understand the material.

When the bell finally rang indicating the end of class, Rosaria grabbed his arm preventing him from leaving and said. “Let’s talk.”

“Of course, something the matter?” Leonardo rubbed at his arm and she released her death grip.

Glanced at the students around them, Rosaria replied, “Not here. My house.”

Chunibyo nonsense, then?

Frowning slightly, Leonardo thought of the time-limit on the game and asked, “Is it important? I sort of have plans…”

Rosaria glared at him.

Barely managing to stop himself from rolling his eyes, Leonardo nodded. “Your house, got it. Lead the way.”

Returning his belongings to his locker before following Rosaria back to her home. Today, she seemed more serious than usual. This was certainly an unusual circumstance, Rosaria has never explicitly demanded he come over.

Well… never is an exaggeration. Rosaria had done it a couple times before. It doesn’t happen often, though.

After entering Rosaria’s comfy home. Leonardo made himself comfortable, sitting down cross-legged at the Japanese styled table.

“Blessed water? Or tea?” Rosaria politely popped into the kitchen and called out.

“Normal tap water.” Leonardo called out in response.

Still attempting to poison me with blessed water? Hmph, I see through your petty schemes.

Momentarily afterward, Rosaria returned with two cup of regular water and placed them atop the table. “Here you go.”

“Thank you.” Leonardo replied without touching it.

Who knows if the crafty angel replaced it with actual blessed water? Even if she placed in front of him, did he dare to drink it? Wouldn’t that be taking his life as a joke?

At this point, keeping his chunibyo act had been engraved into his instincts. Consuming anything created by an angel was a dangerous proposition to a demon. (Translation: His paranoia knows no bounds).

“So… you mind explaining why I’m here?” Leonardo inquired, awaiting her explanation as to why he had to spend twenty minutes or so walking here with her.

“You’ll stay at my home for the next few weeks.” Rosaria stated as that though that answered the question. She sat down, cross-legged across from him at the table.

“I’m sorry?” Leonardo blinked, trying to confirm that the situation was real.

A girl, inviting him over to stay the night… no, several weeks? Did he accidentally fall asleep in class or something?

“It’s dangerous in the city at the moment, you'll stay here until everything calms down.” Rosaria explained.

Is this a not-so-subtle hint that she wants a relationship? Or is this just her usual chunibyo nonsense?

Leonardo cautiously asked, “What about everyone else? Like my family?”

“Only mages are going to be in serious danger.” Rosaria patiently explained, “As a wild mage, you in particular are in more danger than others.”

That’s… awfully convenient and fits into her worldview.

“What is this danger from?”

Rosaria’s face distorted in anger, “A demonic believer has moved into the city.”

“Demonic believer?”

“Traitors who’ve thrown aside the gods and turned to demons. They sacrifice others and themselves to demons for power, fame, glory, or whatever else they want.” She visibly displayed her disgust for them, tightening her hand and nearly slammed on the table.

Leonardo stared at her in surprise. She had never been this angry before in front of him.

“They target mages in particular?” Leonardo probed, wanted to know more information.

“Magic power makes them most efficient sacrifice and easiest prey to hunt.” Rosaria sighed.

Hmmm, she certainly thought this through before ambushing him with this. In the back of his mind, something pulled at his brain.

…Targeting mages? It shouldn’t be?

The black-robed man from ‘Tenth-Grade Mage’ came to mind.

“Have you heard of the red-fang?” Leonardo inquired out-of-the-blue.

“You already heard about them being killed?” Rosaria asked in surprise. “From who?”

“Killed?” Leonardo shook his head repeatedly. “No, I just heard their name. Who were they?”

“They were a mage guild in the west-district of the city.” Rosaria sighed and looked down, “The entire guild was killed and sacrificed to demons last night. I only received the news during class today.”

“How many people… were?” Leonardo cautiously asked.

Rosaria shook her head, clearly disliking the demonic believers actions. “They were a relatively large guild. All three of their mages were killed.”

“A large guild with only three mages?”

“Wild mages without a heritage like yourself might not understand the rarity of mages, but yes… with three powerful mages and a strong heritage, they were a relatively large guild.” Rosaria sighed at my ignorance.

“Okay…” Leonardo’s mind couldn’t help but wander about.

There were three possibilities for he words that Leonardo could imagine as an explanation.

One, Rosaria was extremely good at improvisation and immediately created a story with the guild-name ‘Red-Fang’. The developers of the game had nothing to do with her.

Two, she’d imagined the red-fang guild in the past and the developers of the game know about it, incorporated her worldview into a game.

Three, the final possibility... This information is common knowledge among supernatural elements and Rosaria has been telling the truth.

To be honest, Leonardo was inclined to believe the third one.

Rosaria barely tells anybody about her chunibyo worldview, eliminating the second option.

The first option is still possible, but…

Leonardo had been searching for supernatural elements his entire life and thought random improvisation was unlikely… although it might’ve been personal bias as he really wanted the third option to be true.

Under the combination of the Tenth-Grade Mage’s strangeness and Rosaria words. Leonardo finally accepted that Rosaria’s worldview could be accurate.

Which led to him staring at Rosaria for the first time in awhile.

Was she actually an angel?

He blinked several times, trying connecting her to the images of angels from his past life. They didn’t feel similar at all.

Then again, Rosaria is supposedly serving a penance on earth. It’s possible that her personality is not typical of angels.

Noticing his direct stare at her body, Rosaria’s face turned a bit red. “What?”

“Nothing… I’m just…” Leonardo was going to dismiss it before suddenly realizing something. “Don’t you only have one bedroom.”

Rosaria’s house wasn’t that big. Only a few rooms at most. She was an orphan after all… or had at least been pretending to be one.

“We can share the bed.” Rosaria stated waving her hand, still a bit red in the face.

Sleep on the same bed as a girl? And not just for one night, but for several weeks?

Leonardo didn’t have an in-depth understanding of the cultural norms of this world. Mainly because he thought a lot of their cultural norms were stupid, but… he was sure that wasn’t normal.

Leonardo must’ve spent the next thirty seconds, torn between accepting and refusing.

To be honest, he couldn’t tell whether that was a metaphor for sex or not. Regardless of the circumstances, Rosaria was an attractive girl. Spending the night with her wouldn’t be a loss but…

He had no idea how his parents would react if they found out…

“I’ll buy a futon.” Leonardo sighed finally making his decision.

While it was cowardly, the idea of sleeping with a girl for several weeks. Leonardo didn’t know if he could withstand it if she purely meant it platonically and no idea how to handle it if she meant it romantically.

“Absolutely not. There’s no reason to waste money.” Rosaria immediately refused in a tone demanding obedience.

Leonardo was left speechless.

The problem was he honestly couldn’t tell whether her refusal was because she wanted to cut of his escape route, or Rosaria simply being cheap.

He didn’t exactly go around advertising his wealth, thus Rosaria had no idea his parents were wealthy. The monetary cost a futon was literally nothing to him.

In fact, even purchasing the house next door would be nothing to him. Not that he would do that. Leonardo deeply understood that wasting money randomly was not acceptable behavior, at least that was his viewpoint formed by his previous life’s experiences.

He wanted to live a quiet easy life without working. Wasting money randomly would result in him have a personal obligation to earn that money at some point in his life.

“I suppose… if you insist.” Leonardo finally responded uncertain as to whether he was making the right decision. While thinking about how crazy the entire premise of him staying over here for any period of time was.

“Good.” Rosaria nodded.

“So… uh, I need to-” Leonardo started thinking back to his gaming consoles and etc. “I need to get my stuff.”

Standing up from the table, Rosaria placed her bag to the side. “I’ll go with you.”

“No, it’s fine.” Leonardo instinctively denied.

Hiding his hut’s location was instinctual at this point, Leonardo really didn’t like people knowing where he lived. Plus the location was really out of the way.

“I’m not letting you wander around the city on your own.” Immediately retorted Rosaria. “Besides, you’ll need help carrying back your stuff.”

Unsure how to refute someone so direct and determined, Leonardo finally sighed. “I really don’t, though.”

“I’m coming with you, and that’s final.”

Leonardo sighed and realized he wouldn’t win this argument. She seemed extremely insistent this time around.

Anyway, it was only Rosaria. She was trustworthy.

“Promise that you’ll keep my house’s location a secret then. A wild mage like myself cannot have many people knowing where they live.” Leonardo lied as naturally as breathing in a chunibyo fashion.

To be honest, if demons actually existed, Leonardo was unsure whether he should keep his chunibyo undercover demon act… That was a recipe for disaster.

Unlike other chunibyo, he knew and completely accepted that the entire persona was fake. Leonardo only kept at it because it was more entertaining than reality.

If demons, angels, and mages actually existed… well, he needed to consider changing his persona around to be more careful.

“Of course.” Rosaria easily agreed and setting out for the door, before stopping. “Give me a few minutes.”

Rosaria disappeared into her bedroom.

Sighing, Leonardo knew that his private hut would be a little less private after today. Fortunately it was still a decent distance from the city. Even with its location known, it was inconvenient to get to.

Of course, that made going to school and other common everyday tasks more difficult… but Leonardo felt it was worth it for the privacy.

When Rosaria emerged from the bedroom, her school uniform had been replaced with more casual clothing. Gone were the white and blue colors that made up the school uniform.

A red tank-top with frills lining the edges took the school uniform's place with a black skirt, an extremely short one at that.

Rosaria's natural beauty was exemplified by the clothing that showed off a decent portion of her skin.

Only after gawking at her clothing did Leonardo turn around awkwardly and gesture toward the door.

Beginning the trek out of the city and toward his hut in the forest with Rosaria. 

Once they left the city, Rosaria began questioning the situation, “Are we heading in the right direction?”

“I like my privacy.” Leonardo implicitly answered the question.

“You live in the forest?” Rosaria noted, glancing in my direction and the forest in the distance.

“Since last summer.”

“I thought the forest was private property?” Rosaria asked with what was effectively a statement.

“It is.” Leonardo nodded in confirmation.

He bought the entire forest to prevent others from discovering his hut or cutting down the trees.

Seemingly coming to a realization, Rosaria nodded. “I understand…”

Leonardo glanced in her direction, and frowned. “I don’t know what your thinking but it’s probably wrong.”

“It’s fine, I won’t tell anybody.” Rosaria swore solemnly.

Wait… what won’t you be telling anybody? Why do those words reek of a massive misunderstanding?

Thinking about the information Rosaria had at the moment, Leonardo quickly realized that she thought he was living in the forest illegally.

To be fair, it was a decent hypothesis… his reluctance to show her to his home and the request to keep his residence location a secret, it wasn’t an outlandish assumption.

In the end, Leonardo decided not to clarify the misunderstanding. Outright stating he owned the forest would lead to more questions that he didn’t want to answer.

Besides, it should cause Rosaria to be more careful in preventing the leakage of his hut’s location.

As the pair began walking into the forest, Leonardo realized that it would take them awhile at this pace. “Umn… It’ll be a fair distance if we’re walking.”

Normally he ran through the forest and it still took him thirty minutes to an hour.

“That’s fine.” Optimistically replied Rosaria.

Leonardo sighed and just continued leading the way. It took a decent period of time to reach his small hut as they simply walked through the forest.

When they finally reached his hut, Leonardo waved his hand in the hut’s direction and introduced it. “Here we are. My house. A boring old hut in the forest.”

“Huh, it's better than I thought it would be.” Rosaria complimented, touching the wood outside the hut.

“Yeah, except it’s not exactly… clean inside.” Leonardo thought about the empty food canisters lain about the room. Normally Leonardo ate in the city before returning and didn’t eat inside the hut, as he had to carry the trash to the city to dispose of it… but sometimes he couldn’t help himself. “Just wait outside for a minute- I’ll clean up real quick.”

“Okay.”

Letting her wait outside, Leonardo entered his hut and quickly grabbed a trash bag. Picking up all the nearby trash and stuffed it into the awaiting trash bag.

With the nearby trash cleaned up, Leonardo grabbed an empty backpack from underneath the bed and quickly stuffed inside underwear along with the ‘World of Joy’ console. The Tenth-Grade Mage game was very strange, and Leonardo planned to play it tonight to learn more about it.

Afterward Leonardo tossed the bag on the bed and looked around the room.

…it didn’t look much cleaner.

Sighing in defeat, Leonardo decided to just continue packing to leave. Letting Rosaria inside would just let her see this massive mess.

Stuffing the keyboard inside the backpack, he walked toward the cabinet for the mouse and more clothing.

*Crack*

The loud sound of glass cracking rang out from underneath his foot, shutting his eyes and wincing from the loud crack. Leonardo lifted up his shoe, looking down at his now broken alarm clock at his feet.

Damn. Must’ve knocked the alarm clock off the table earlier.

“You okay?” Rosaria opened the door, and leaned forward through the open door. Her eyes examined the room before landing on him and broken clock underneath his feet.

“Yeah, fine. Just broke my alarm clock.” Leonardo waved off her concerns, before brusquely dumping a pile of clothing into the backpack. He didn’t particularly care about the specific clothing.

Usually Leonardo kept extra clothing in his locker at school and washed them at the end of each week. Even without spare clothing, Leonardo would be fine as buying more was always an option.

The main reason he returned here was for the ‘World of Joy’ game console, it seemed to be an early-access or prototype device. When Leonardo looked up ‘World of Joy’ online earlier, he couldn’t find anything about it. That meant he couldn’t buy a new one while staying at Rosaria’s house.

Leonardo’s parents likely invested in a new gaming company and gave him the test device as a surprise. Wasn’t the first time it happened. There is probably a related non-disclosure agreement surrounding its existence explaining why he cannot find it online… which also explains why the game Tenth-Grade Mage had no information when he search for it.

He’ll play around with it, find all the bugs, and give host of complaints to the developers for them to fix.

Not exactly the first time it’s happened. The VR device in his room was acquired in a similar fashion. It far more advanced and high quality than the normal VR devices on the market. Not that the games were impressive on it… They weren’t.

For all that 'advanced technology', it fun for approximately 20 minutes.

As a test-device, no VR games on the market supported it as it was too different from existing consoles... After realizing that point and that there was literally nothing playable on the headset beside the demo-games with it, he quickly abandoned the device.

Live and learn.

Games mattered more than the technical concepts and specifications of the console.

The ‘World of Joy’ console seemed to have nailed that understanding, at least far as he could tell by playing Tenth-Grade Mage.

The only complaint he had with it… was there was no point in it existing.

It was just a solid console.

Nothing more and nothing less to say about it.

The console itself hadn’t exactly accomplished anything new and innovative outside of what a common PC could do. It would come off as a cash-grab to any intuitive-customers.

His parents didn’t really understand anything about gaming, and probably invested after hearing some random marketing pitch.

Now Leonardo might need to actually step in and argue with the console developers to force them to become more innovate, depending on how much his parents were scammed into invested. It was definitely a solid console for sure, but nobody is going to fork over the money to buy a new console without quality-exclusive games or significant improvements to the old formula… which didn’t seem to exist in this console.

“Is this what your free time is spent on?” Rosaria gestured to the various devices skewed about the room and the controlled in her hands.

"Hmm?" Leonardo dragged himself away from his internal thoughts on the console and looked back toward Rosaria.

She had entered into the forefront of the room and picked up a random game remote on the ground.

“What? Surprised that my mage hut isn’t particularly magical?” Responded Leonardo with smile.

“Just thought there would be more… books.” Rosaria quietly added, looked around the hut with the normal discomfort someone feels when entering into another person’s home for the first time.

“Sorry to disappoint.” Leonardo shrugged in a lighthearted fashion, before gesturing toward the broken alarm clock. “Careful of broken glass.”

Reaching down with a nearby bowl, Leonardo took the opportunity to clean up the broken glass and placed the broken alarm-clock beside the bed.

“Alright, do you have a TV at your place?” Inquired Leonardo.

“Television? No…” Rosaria looked away and fiddled her fingers together.

“I’m buying one then. Not going several weeks without a TV.”

Rosaria stepped forward and nearly grasped his sleeve, “No, there’s no need.”

“We’re buying one.” Leonardo backed away from her grip, staring at the flat-screen TV, “…Or we’re carrying this one to your house. I’m definitely not living without a TV.”

“I can carrying it.” Rosaria moved her hands in a cute pose that attempted to exemplify her muscles, but failed as she had none.

“Not happening. I’ll buy a portable gaming monitor, I was planning to get one anyway.” Leonardo dismissed her overly optimistic idea.

Taking a flat-screen TV through the forest and city? On foot? It was far easier to just buy a new TV. They’d be lucky not to break this one by the time they returned to the city.

Truthfully, Leonardo no prior plans on getting a smaller more portable TV. Never had a reason to get a portable television before. They weren’t that useful for his purposes.

“Come on. Let’s go.” Leonardo waved, encouraging her out of the hut.

Taking the backpack that he'd filled with clothing and the garbage bag outside, he threw the trash bag into a container.

Leaving the hut behind, the two of them returned to the city. Searching online, Leonardo guided the group to an electronics store near Rosaria’s home. Anything electronic, this type of store would have.

“Alright, Rosa. I won’t take long.” Leonardo pointed to the door, trying to imply she should stay outside. He had no idea how much it would cost, and didn’t want to hear her protests when he bought one.

“I’ll come in with you.” Rosaria shook her head, quietly reminding him. “Safety, remember?”

That demonic believer, huh?

Even if the demonic believer does exist, I doubt anything would happen as I’m only pretending to be a mage... I’m not an actual mage.

While Leonardo had tactfully and temporarily accepted Rosaria’s worldview, his past years of life made him slightly doubtful about any true danger. He didn’t voice his doubtful thoughts, merely nodding and accepted her decision.

Entering the store, Leonardo and Rosaria received directions toward the televisions from a staff member.

Looking through the portable television monitors, Leonardo searched for one with Bluetooth. The ‘World of Joy’ console didn’t have any cable, requiring him to ensure a connection could be established remotely.

Choosing a random portable television that met his requirements, Leonardo took the box off the shelf with both hands. “Alright, let’s go. This one’s good.”

“That one is almost two thousand dollars?” Rosaria pointed to the price tag, before leaning over and examining the other prices, “I should’ve just carried the television.”

“It’s fine, far cheaper than I expected. I still have savings left over if we want to buy that futon.” Leonardo shrugged, he hadn’t even looked at the price before she mentioned it.

“Don’t waste money.” Rosaria disputed and stared at the box in his hands.

Portable televisions worked on a special battery cell technology, allowing them to work without separate power source for an extremely long time. Some could even power other devices.

It was a relatively new technology in this world. As with any new technology, there were some glitches and flaws. One of the main flaws being they were far more expensive than other televisions and a larger, chunkier size.

As long as it worked, Leonardo didn’t particularly care about the details. Leonardo liked to keep up with the newest technology.

While a lot of the technology of this world was similar to his old one, they were different worlds with differences in the technology trees. Examining how those differences influenced consumer products was one of his few hobbies outside gaming.

People often underestimate the technology of their own world.

As an example, this world doesn’t have cameras. Even black and white photographs that develop in a dark-room haven’t been discovered in this world. While they have TVs and other display monitors, all the output has to be created digitally. The technology tree worked on creating special programs to mirror real life instead.

Leonardo thought that was actually relatively normal. Similar to how capturing and recreating the sense of smell was problematic for his old world, yet could be easily done here with technology.

Sometimes, the starting technology of a particularly tech-tree was the most important part. Without any idea where to start, any later developments were simply impossible.

Actually, it took him nearly fifteen years to even realize this world didn’t have cameras.

There were various complex programs that could create realistic digital people that act in extremely realistic ways. News programs and other TV shows aren’t too different from his previous world. The main difference is they aren’t recorded with cameras, but hyper-realistic digital programs and voice actors.

Paying the store for the item whilst ignoring Rosaria’s complaints, the two of them returned to her house.

Rosaria set about doing her homework, and Leonardo took it upon himself to set up the portable TV in the living room.

Unpacking the ‘World of Joy’ console, it was quickly connect to the TV. There were no connection problems, fortunately.

Taking the keyboard out of the bag, he looked for the mouse and… couldn’t find it.

“Ugh… moron.” Leonardo realized that he’d forgotten the mouse after putting away the keyboard. He had gotten side-tracked when the alarm clock broke.

“Angel, do you have a spare mouse?” Leonardo asked looked back in her direction.

Rosaria was writing atop the table. Textbooks and calculator to the side with her homework front and center.

Rosaria looked toward him with a slightly puzzled expression and raised a finger in thought. “Mouse?”

Getting up, Rosaria walked into her bedroom. The sound of a cabinet opening and closing could be heard from the living room.

“Why do you want a mouse?” Rosaria came out of the bedroom with a tilted head.

In her hands, a small cage containing a white mouse. Rosaria held it out with a cute manner.

The little white mouse cowered away upon Leonardo’s gaze. Glancing back and forth between Rosaria and the mouse, Leonardo wondered if she was playing a practical joke.

Clearly, Leonardo intended for her to retrieve a computer mouse.

“Ah… Right!” Leonardo nearly slapped himself in the forehead.

Leonardo had mistaken used the wrong word for mouse, saying ‘mouse’ as if it had been the animal in this world’s language. As he usually thinks in English, occasional translating to this world’s language gave him trouble.

“Sorry, I meant a computer mouse.” Leonardo corrected himself by requesting the computer-type of mouse. Before looking down at the caged critter with surprise, Leonardo paused. “Wait… you have a mouse? A living breathing mouse?”

Rosaria poked at the mouse in the cage. “His name’s Spot.”

“You were… just going to give me your pet?” Leonardo voiced his doubts, slightly overwhelmed at her reaction to his mistake.

He hadn’t even known she had a mouse, but shouldn’t people become emotionally attached to their pets? She had even named it, Spot.

“Mhm.” Nodding with a low hum, Rosaria placed the mouse’s cage on the table.

Is… is this a cultural difference? He asked for it so Rosaria planned on giving it to him?

Leonardo had never run into a similar situation in the course of this life. He didn’t know whether to be appalled or thankful at her attitude. Nor did he know if it was normal to randomly be willing to give people their pets.

It didn’t sound normal, but then again neither did many things in this world.

Running his fingers through his hair, Leonardo spent several seconds adapting to the strange circumstances. “Okay, well… I’m not going to take your pet. Umm… Do you have like a computer mouse?”

“Let me think?” Rosaria tilted her head slightly and closed her eyes in thought.

Several seconds later, Rosaria re-opened her eyes and strode over toward a small desk in the living room. She got on her hands and knees, crawling underneath the desk.

Except Rosaria clearly hadn’t thought through this action. She was wearing a short black skirt. Crawling underneath the desk in such a manner showcased white panties to the entire room.

Leonardo pinched his eyes closed to avoid the sight, and internally sighed. “Literally clueless.”

She’s completely unaware of her surroundings.

“Something the matter?” Rosaria asked, pulling out a wooden box from underneath the desk and stood up noticing Leonardo had pinched his eyes closed.

“No, it’s fine.” Leonardo lowered his hands, and smiled awkwardly turning his gaze back toward her. More specifically, the wooden box in her arms.

He purposefully neglected to mention the accidental exposure of her panties.

Unlike in anime and novels, people tend to just get embarrassed about such things. The correct response to such a matter is pretending you didn’t see anything.

If you don’t make a big deal of it, neither will other people.

Clueless about his internal thoughts, Rosaria opened up the wooden box. Inside there were various electronic wires and device, including extremely old gaming consoles and other type of electronics.

“It might be in here?” Rosaria perused through the box, removing the contents onto the table.

As she removed the various electronic objects, Leonardo spotted a computer mouse and reached into the box and pulled it out. “Found one! Thanks.”

“No problem.” Rosaria placed the wooden box on the table beside the mouse’s cage. Gazing toward her textbooks, Rosaria returned to sitting cross-legged and working on the homework.

Hooking everything up to the portable TV, Leonardo brought out the ‘World of Joy’ console and powered everything on.

The console’s booting sequence began. Entering the home screen after several seconds.