Ryota’s POV
   It has been almost a week since Ryota has started going to UCI. The experience there so far has been surprisingly pleasant.

   He was told that he could come and leave anytime he wants, so he did just that. He went there everyday after school and stay there for two to three hours. He would love to stay longer, but his parents would be back around six to seven, so he has to be at home by then. They don’t really care about him, but they would at least make a fuss if he’s absent during dinner. At least he gets to go there longer when it was weekends.

   His tasks while he was there are simple. He would be fed some pills and told to walk around or conduct simple tests. Some of the tests including eye examinations, having his grip strength measured by using a dynamometer and counting a random stack of banknotes. Ryota has a hard time on doing some of the tests. One of them is swimming, since he doesn’t know how. He was never forced into participate in any of them, however.

   Overall, the tests Ryota does are boring, dull and repetitive. Even so, he enjoys being here a lot more than while he was at school. For one thing, the staffs here are very friendly. He had trouble opening up at first, but they’re so easy to approach he started to talk to them by his own accord. Sometimes, they even helped him on his homework. That’s not all. He’s even getting paid for being part of whatever experiment they’re running. As a result, he could pay Himura the hooligan and his gang again.

   Ryota took zero part for preparing in the upcoming Cultural Festival that his school is running. None of his classmates asked nor forced him to. Neither does he wants to be a part of it. Why should he? None of his classmates ever helped him while he was getting bullied and extorted by Himura and his goons. As such, he’s not going to help them either. They could fail for all he cares.

   “There you are, Monsieur Ryota!”

   The voice made Ryota snaps back to reality. He turns around and see Director Bouchard standing there.

   “Good evening, Director Bouchard.” he greets the middle-aged man politely.

   “Oh, didn’t I keep telling you to call me Jacques?”

   “I can’t do that. You’re older than me, after all.”

   “Ah, you Japanese and your manners. You should relax a bit more, oui?”

   Ryota had always find this researcher a bit unsettling. He’s at least 40 to 50 years-old, and yet his mental age is only around one-fifth of that. He would get excited at the smallest things, and has a hard time at settling down. And he has zero tact with personal space. For some reason, he’s very interested in Ryota’s life and often asks him questions about them. Worst of all, though-

   “In any case, I’m here to tell you that you have been showing remarkable results so far. Out of all the test subjects here, you are by far one of the most promising.” he continues while referring to a piece of paper that he’s holding.

   “I, I see.”

   As Director Bouchard said, there are others like Ryota inside this facility. They too are here to take part in simple tests and get paid once they are done. Ryota once estimated that there are at least 200 of them, perhaps even more. It doesn’t matter, though. He has never interacted in them, and he has no plans of doing so in the future.

   “With that said, I hope you can keep up the good work.” Director Bouchard encourages.

   He then shows Ryota a really twisted smile. Ryota could barely manage to stop himself from flinching. There it is. The smile that gave Ryota a nightmare the first time he saw it. It radiates so much insanity Ryota sometime wonder whether Director Bouchard escaped from a mental asylum.

   “Um, if I may, Director Bouchard?”

   “Oui?”

   “I was wondering what exactly are these experiments-”

   It was then when Ryota hears a soft thud coming from behind him. He turns around and sees a collapsed female test subject. Director Bouchard sees her too.

   “Oh, dear.” he mutters. “Pardon me, Monseiur Ryota. I have to take care of that.”

   “Of course.”

   Director Bouchard takes out a walkie-talkie and speaks into it. A few seconds later, two lab researchers appear with a stretcher and carry the woman off to somewhere. Now that she’s been taken care of, Director Bouchard turns his attention back to Ryota.

   “Now then, what was it that you were about to ask me?”

   “Well, I was wondering about this for a while. What exactly is this experiment for? For what purpose are we doing what we do?”

   “Ah, so you are curious! I do love an inquisitive individual. Well done. Well done Monsieur Ryota!”

   “Um, I don’t think I said something worthwhile.”

   “Nonsense! Curiosity is very important, monsieur. If humans were not curious, we wouldn’t be able to discover gravity and make tons and tons of inventions. Then again, curiosity alone won’t help much. Hence, I have started this Renaissance Project.”

   “...Renai what now?”

   “It’s French for rebirth. As you probably figured out from its name, the human race shall be reborn as superior beings once my project is completed!”

   Suddenly, Director Bouchard sounds a lot like a cult leader.

   “Ah, you are doubting me, oui?” he asks Ryota. “You probably think that I’m some kind of insane cult leader out to brainwash the masses.”

   This time, Ryota couldn’t stop himself from flinching.

   “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to think of you that way!” he quickly explains.

   Director Bouchard wasn’t bothered in the slightest.

   “I don’t mind. It does seem pretty impossible, but that makes it even more exciting, isn’t it? Besides, we’re indeed making progress. I mean, you’re the best example.”

   “Who, me?”

   “Of course it’s you! Ever since you joined us, the results of your tests have been improving, non?”

   Now that he mentions it, Ryota’s body has become somewhat stronger, and his eyesight has improved.

   “I guess the pills I had been taking are effective.” he admits.

   “Of course it is! You should have more faith in me.”

   “Please don’t misunderstand, sir. I definitely believe in you, or I wouldn’t have agreed to be one of your many test subjects.”

   Director Bouchard is close to tears all of a sudden.

   “Oh, I am so blessed! To think I’m so trusted by you, monsieur Ryota!” he cries.

   “Now you’re just overreacting.”

   The researcher recovers in an instant. He’s also having a somewhat serious look.

   “The thing is, my team has just developed a new type of pills. A Mark II, if you will. Do you have the courage to take them?” he asks Ryota.

   Ryota gulps audibly. A Mark II. That means he can even get stronger than how he is right now. That’s very tempting. He’ll admit that much. However, there’s probably a risk.

   He shakes his head. No. He’s tired of being a weakling. If he doesn’t grasp the chance, then it’ll just slip by.

   “I’ll take the pills.”

   The director beams.

   “Excellent! Come come, let’s get you some at once.”

   Director Bouchard said that Ryota is curious. Now that he think back about this part of his memories, his mistake was not being curious enough to ask about the ingredients of the pills he and the others had been taking.

Jin’s POV
   “Cat’s paw, Von Mantus, cat’s paw! Do you want to get cut by the knife?”

   “I don’t get you at all, Jin! What does the front limb of a cat has to do with cooking?”

   “Like I’ve said for the sixth time-”

   “Hey Chifuyu! This is fine, right?”

   “No no no! It’s not fine at all! If you put that much miso, the soup will taste really, really salty!”

   This is plain torture. Jin went inside the Home Economy Classroom while expecting a certain amount of technical difficulties. After all, two of his teammates have never cooked in their life before. But never in his wildest dreams did he expect this much difficulties. They’re not even halfway done, and yet both his and Wakaba’s mental health have already been severely drained. Watanabe and Estyshana are much more troublesome than Jin thought initially.

   After what felt like eternity, they’re finally done with the rice and miso soup. All that’s left is to cook the hamburgers.

   “I’ll be the one to cook them!” Estyshana volunteers.

   “Just don’t put too much oil, got it?” Jin warns her.

   She drops around 2 tablespoons of them straight from the bottle.

   “Like this?”

   “That’s too little. Think of the number of patties you’re cooking.”

   Sploosh!

   “...And now’s it’s too much.”

   “Whoops.”

   “Quick, get some out!” Wakaba tells her.

   “Spoons, spoons…”

   “Here you go, Esty-chan.”

   After both the pan and the oil are hot enough, Estyshana is instructed to add the patties in.

   “Put them down slowly, okay? Slowly. Slowly.” Jin tells her repeatedly.

   “Slowly. Slowly. Slowly.” she chants.

   All four patties managed to land on the pan without crumbling. Jin lets out a small sigh of relief. Then again, he can’t relax yet. The most difficult part is flipping them. Suddenly, Estyshana hands her spatula to him.

   “You do it, Jin.” she tells him.

   “Are you sure? Didn’t you say that you wanted to impress Wakaba’s older sister?”

   “It’s fine. I did do something, so that counts too.”

   “Um, it definitely doesn’t.”

   “Whatever. Just do it. I don’t want to mess it up after coming so far.”

   “I’ll do it if you don’t want to!” Watanabe volunteers.

   “...I’ll do it, then.”

   With that, the hamburger patties were cooked without any issue. As they’re plating, Jin looks around. Some of the groups are still at it with various degree of success and failure. So far, the classroom isn’t on fire, which is already an achievement.

   Before the usual itadakimasu, the three girls focus on taking pictures of their food. Jin couldn’t help but rolls his eyes. Girls. And once again, Estyshana is eating with fork and spoon. Jin tries not to get offended this time.

   “What? Chintasu actually thinks that I didn’t do a thing? Grr~!”

   Jin has to real careful so that none of them find out that he and Sergeant Wakaba actually know each other.

   “To be fair, all you did were cutting some onions and place the patties on the pan.” he points out.

   “Oh, shut it! Those are considered work too, you know?”

   “Now that you’ve taken your pictures, can we eat now?” he asks them.

   “Yeah, let’s do this!”

   “Itadakimasu~!” all of them chants.

   The first thing Jin eat is the hamburger. He cooked them all according to his preference. Even so, none of them are complaining, so they probably liked theirs too. Still, it ‘s a shame. Jin would love to add some cheese inside the patties, but he didn’t voice it out since they might not like cheese-

   “I wish we could have gotten cheese-filled hamburgers instead.” Esty sighs.

   “Don’t ask for the impossible when you can’t even form normal patties.” Wakaba chides.

   “I know! Mama Kana can definitely make them, right?”

   “She can, but please request it after this week has passed. I like hamburgers and all, but I want to wait a bit longer until I eat them again.”

   …To think that he had the same wavelength with her, of all people, er, demons. He’ll be taking this secret to his grave. Now then, where’s the-

   Estyshana passes him a bottle of ketchup.

   “Here.”

   “...How did you know that I was looking for this?”

   “Beats me. I just did.”

   “Well, thanks.”

   He takes the ketchup and puts some on his patty. As he was about to resume eating, he sees Estyshana looking around.

   “If you’re looking for a knife, there are some over there.” he tells her while pointing at a cupboard.

   She stares at him with wide eyes.

   “Um, thanks.”

   “Sure.”

   Heaven knows why she needs a knife to cut the patties when she could just use her spoon. It was then when Jin notices that both Wakaba and Watanabe are also staring at him a with surprised look on their face. He also notices that some of his classmates are also looking over here.

   “Is something wrong?” Jin asks the two girls.

   “Oh, it’s nothing.”

   “Yup. Nothing at all.”

   They’re being really weird, but Jin is too hungry to care. After Estyshana got her knife, they ate in silence for a while until Watanabe breaks it.

   “Did you guys know that the student council members of Kitajoshi Girls High is coming here today during lunch hour?” she asks them.

   “...Kitajoshi Girls High?” Esty asks.

   “It’s a school for girls from rich backgrounds. In other words, it’s an ojou-sama school.” Watanabe explains.

   “No no, I don’t care about that. Kitajoshi Girls (Joshi) High? What kind of name is that?”

   “Well, its ridiculous name aside, the school is pretty famous of producing students with really bright future, even though rich girls basically don’t have to work for the rest of their life.”

   “If I remember correctly, both the president and vice president are newly appointed, right?” Wakaba asks.

   “That’s right. They’re so popular when they first transferred they managed to replace their predecessors. And get this: the president has a pair of different-”

   “Please remember to clean up once you’re done eating. And remember, there’s only ten minutes left until class is over.” the teacher announces.

   “Well, we better eat faster then.” Jin says.

   “True.”

   They ate in silence once again, and did the clean up as quickly as possible before the bell rings.

   Jin is grateful for having the Home Economy class today since for once, he didn’t have to starve after eating his so-called lunch. Once done, he was about to lie down on his table and sleep when his phone vibrates. It’s a message from Sergeant Wakaba.

   “We have found out the whereabouts of your assailants. Please call me ASAP when you receive this message.” the message wrote.

   Jin figures that it’s important, so he goes to the roof before calling her. It only took around five seconds for her to answer the call.

   “Is the message true, Sergeant Wakaba?” he asks once the call connects.

   “That’s right. It took us quite a while, but we managed to do it.”

   It was then when Jin notices some movement over at the school gate. A long limousine parks itself horizontally across the gate. This is the first time Jin saw one of those in real life. As he watches, the door opens and out comes the passengers. There are six of them in total. Jin figured that they must be from Kitajoshi High. The two at the front especially caught Jin’s eyes.

   The first one has long, black silky hair. If Jin didn’t know better he would have mistaken her as a typical Japanese beauty. But what made him really mind-boggled is the person right behind her.

   Blonde. Short hair. Tanned. Wearing uniform. For girls.

   “Both of them are students at the Kitajoshi Girls High. The reason we took so long was because we had difficulty in finding the male you mentioned. We did find someone that fits your description perfectly, but it was a her instead of a he.” Sergeant Wakaba continues.

   “I really appreciate you and your colleague’s hard work, Sergeant Wakaba. However, the info isn’t really necessary anymore.” he tells her.

   “It’s not? Why is that?”

   “The two of them just appeared at my school.”

   “What? Are they there to attack you?”

   “I don’t think so. They’re here with other students from Kitajoshi, so it’s probably a coincidence.”

   “In any case, please keep an eye on them. We’ll be sending some of our own to help out with that right away.”

   “Got it.”

   Jin hangs up and gets back down to his classroom. Hmm, what to do? He could spy on them, but he’s worried about the one with the black hair. She might have cast a magic which prevents her from being spied on, or one that alerts her to eavesdroppers. And he can’t just barge in to the student council’s office unannounced. As he’s contemplating his options, his feet brought him back to his classroom. Oh well. He’ll just be patient and wait for a chance. Eventually, though, the chance came to him instead.

   “Is Minase Jin here?”

   Jin gets up from his sleeping position and looks towards the entrance. There’s a male student standing there. Based on his necktie, he’s a second year just like Jin. Jin slowly raises up his hand.

   “Both the student council president and vice president of Kitajoshi High would like to meet you. They’re waiting at the rooftop right now.” he requests Jin.

   “Sure, I’ll head there right now.”

   That caused a major ruckus among his classmates.

   “What the-? Why him?”

   “How is he keeps on getting all the luck with the ladies? It’s not fair!”

   “He already has Esty-san, and he’s seeing someone else?”

   “How unforgivable!”

   Jin ignores all the comments and heads outside the classroom. He then go straight to the rooftop as requested. As told, his two assailants from yesterday were already waiting for him. As seen from this rooftop just now, both of them are wearing the Kitajoshi high uniforms which consists of a golden yellow blazer, white shirt, black pleated skirt, a pair of black knee socks and a pair of black shoes. The one with the black hair is wearing a red bow tie, while the blonde is wearing a green one.

   “So you actually came here even though you might be walking into a trap.” the girl with the long black hair says to Jin.

   He shrugs. “I’m sort of confident that I could deal with whatever thing that you set up for me. So, what do you want with me?”

   “Allow us to introduce ourselves first. My name is Audrey Graylock. This is my younger sister Aldenia.”

   Jin sneaks a glance at the younger Graylock. He has so many questions about her, but realized that this is not a good time to be asking them.

   “And I’m Minase Jin, although you might already know that. I’ll ask again. What do you want?”

   “We attacked you yesterday in the hope of retrieving the ring you took from our father, Austin Graylock.”

   “A ring, you say?”

   “Yes, it’s an important family heirloom, and you stole it from us!”

   “Now now. Stole is such a strong word.”

   Jin accesses the Vault and gets the ring she’s talking about. He then tosses it to her. She catches it with both hands. Both sisters look absolutely dumbfounded.

   “You’re giving it back to us? Just like that?” the elder Graylock asks him.

   “Well, sure. I figured that it might be a dangerous Magic Item or something since your father wouldn’t stop gloating about it right before we fight, so I made sure to pry it off his finger once I was done with him.”

   “And you think we won’t be exploiting its power?”

   “Nope. It’s just that I had the folks from the Osier Castle analyze it thoroughly, and they told me that it’s harmless.”

   The elder Graylock furrows her eyebrows.

   “Did they really told you that?”

   “Definitely. In fact, the one who told me that was Alyshia Oatwood, the Grand Magus herself. Why? Is the ring actually dangerous?”

   “You see-”

   “Hold it, nee-san! Can I do what I wanted to do since last night first?”

   The elder Graylock sighs. “Can’t it wait, Al? I’m still talking here?”

   “It can’t, nee-san! It bothered me so much I had trouble sleeping! I need to do it as soon as possible!”

   “...Fine, just make it quick.”

   “Thank you, nee-san!”

   The younger Graylock looks at Jin and fidgets. Her. The same girl who acted like a total ruffian yesterday. Fidgeting.

   “Can you call the Demon Lord’s daughter for me? Please?” she requests timidly.

   “Um, sure.”

   She’s acting so meek Jin is just lost for words and reaches out to Estyshana via telepathy.

   “Get over to the rooftop right now, Von Mantus.” he tells her.

   “What’s this all of a sudden?” she asks.

   “Just come here and you’ll find out.”

   “...Got it. I’m coming over right now.”

   “It’s done. She’ll be here soon.” Jin reports to the younger Graylock.

   “Thank you.”

   “So, are you going to tell me what you’re going to do once she’s here?”

   “Um, I would like to wait until she’s here, if possible.”

   “Well, if you insist that much…”

   With that, Jin waits patiently and awkwardly until Estyshana arrives.