Rye opened the door, "Enough. What do you think you are doing to my student?"

"T-Teacher Rye! U-Uwaa…!" Elliot cried half-scared, half-relieved, "Help me! They're trying to kill me!"

"Don't listen to him, Teacher Rye. This student here is possessed by a demon. He's trying to trick you." Rose hurriedly spoke.

"Even if he is, you could not just drag him away in front of his friends. Did you know how much you made them panic?"

"But if we don't do that, this demon will run away!" Dean yelled impatiently, "You're distracting us, so leave!"

"They're lying, Teacher Rye! I'm not a demon!" Elliot denied it desperately, "Please, make them stop!"

Lily grabbed a handful of powder from her pouch and blew it to Elliot, "Shut your trap, demon!"

"Arrgghh!! Uaaghhh!!" Elliot squirmed violently when the powder touched him.

Soon after, his skin turned grey and his eyes turned red. A pair of horns grew from his head while a black whip-like tail sprouted out from his back.

"Damn it! F*cking sulfur!" The demon coughed resentfully.

Riche raised his sword and unhesitantly aimed for the demon's head. But before he could swing down, his arm was held back.

"Are you trying to kill him?" Rye looked at Riche coldly.

"He's a demon, not your student anymore," Rose formed an ice guillotine above the demon, "Your student is already dead."

She directly dropped it down.

Clang!

Rye blocked it with the tip of his metal pointer right above the demon's neck, "So you're going to show his parents his decapitated body?"

The 4 people were stunned.

Because Rose lose her focus, the chain restraining the demon loosened. The demon immediately took the chance to break free.

"Naive little teacher! I'll eat you first as my gratitude!" The demon lunged at Rye with his claws brandished.

Rye fixed his glasses and disappeared from where he was standing. Riche swiftly swung his sword to kill the demon, but before his sword could touch the demon's neck, it was parried by the metal pointer.

Rye flicked the sword away and kicked the demon straight down with his heel, rendering him unconscious.

"Hands off. He is my student. Demon or not, I will not let you do whatever you want with him," Rye glared at the 4 people inside, "If you kill him as it is, his corpse will remain a demon. Do you know what will happen afterward? He will be treated as a demon even though he is not the demon himself. Not to mention, everyone saw you guys dragging him out of nowhere. Can you think more about the consequences of your actions?"

"You think that's more important than exterminating the demon itself? Are you an idiot?" Dean looked at Rye incredulously.

"Call me an idiot all you want, but we can all agree who are the idiots in this room," Rye covered the demon with his robe and carried him up, "If you want to play heroes, please use your head more to cover your shallow empathy."

"Where are you taking it!?" Lily quickly moved to stop Rye.

Rye dodged her and appeared at the door in a flash. He walked out, not intending to give the 4 people any more attention. He couldn't help but feel glad that they weren't the heroes of the world. With that lack of empathy, he couldn't imagine how many people would suffer from the aftermath of their thoughtless actions.

Heroes were called heroes because they save people, not kill demons. The latter was because it just happens that the thing troubling people the most were the demons. If they prioritized the latter, then they wouldn't care what happened to the people as long as they exterminated the demons.

Rye went to the chapel. He pushed open the door with his body and walked to the altar. He put the demon onto it.

He took off his teacher pin from his robe and pricked his finger. He drew a magic circle on the demon's forehead and clasped his hands together.

Not long after, the blood on the demon's forehead emitted smoke and burst into flames. The demon instantly woke up and screamed in pain. But however he tried to move, his body was stuck to the altar.

The fire spread to his whole body. His body burned completely, but strangely, Rye's robe wasn't affected at all.

After 2 minutes, Rye opened his eyes. Lying on the altar was Elliot with his real body. No ashes were left of the demon.

Rye didn't need to check Elliot's heart or pulse. He was also aware that once someone got possessed by a demon, it means that the host's soul has completely been eaten away.

He carried Elliot in his arms again and silently headed to the principal's office.

The next day, the school conducted a mourning prayer for Elliot in the first period. The school didn't go into details about what happened, only saying that it was an unfortunate accident.

Elliot's classmates of course denied that. Once the prayer ended, they went to the principal to tell him about the 4 guests that took Elliot away the day before. In the end, the principal told them to gather in class, including Rye.

When Rose and the others entered, the students immediately became restless.

"Everyone, please be quiet," Rye knocked the board with his pointer, "Let the principal talk."

The students gradually quieted down.

"Before we begin, everything you know here must be sealed here. You cannot spread this information to anyone else outside this classroom and you are not allowed to talk about it. Once you leave this classroom later, you will pretend as if you heard nothing. Understood?"

The students gulped and nodded nervously.

Rose raised her staff. The 4 of them glowed for a few seconds and once the lights dimmed, the students gasped in shock. Not only them, Rye was also stunned.

That was why he felt the sword was familiar.

Standing in front of them were Ludric, the hero, and his hero party members.

"Sir Ludric and his party received a report of a potential demon possession involving Elliot Dallross. Your dear friend Elliot had, very unfortunately, been preyed upon by a vicious demon. Yesterday, in concern for your safety, they did not have any choice but to use force to separate you from the demon-possessed Elliot."

"It's the heroes!!"

"The heroes are standing right in front of my eyes!!"

"They're so cool!"

"They saved us!"

The classroom was immediately filled with cheers and fervent admiration. It didn't take long for them to get out of their seats and crowded the heroes. The gloom from losing their classmates was overwhelmed by their excitement.

Knowing that would happen, Rye has gotten away from the podium long before that.

He sighed and left the classroom.

The second period would also be skipped today. He should inform the teacher.

"Rye? You don't have any class?" Godford saw Rye coming in.

"There was something earlier, but it's done. I'm going now," Rye picked up his books, "Can you tell Owen that his second period for my class is canceled today?"

"Sure," Godford sighed, "As expected, did the death of their classmate hit them hard?"

"No, they're having a handshake session with the heroes."

"Heroes…? You mean those heroes?" Godford was shocked.

"Yes."

Godford looked at Rye worriedly, "You okay?"

Rye patted Godford, "Don't worry. He doesn't recognize me."

"But your students…"

"…" Rye remembered that Godford slipped out about him being Ludric's younger brother, "…He'll definitely deny it, but I should go to class soon."

"Yeah, you definitely should."

Rye left the office in a rush. To be honest, he didn't think he would still be scared of his brother after 6 years not seeing him. But once he saw his face, the fear came back again.

He focused on teaching the class to forget the fact that his brother was in the same building as him. After the class finished, he went to the chapel.

"Haa…" Rye slumped down to the seat, "Why is he here? Shouldn't he still be in the west?"

He looked up at the god's statue and closed his eyes.

The chapel is as quiet as always.

He felt a breeze blew by. He was sure he closed the door earlier. Did someone came in? But he didn't hear any sound of the door opening.

He opened his eyes and looked back, the door was still closed. When he turned back to the front, he halted.

On his lap, was a sunflower. A bright yellow sunflower at the peak of its bloom.

He hesitantly took it into his hands and studied it.

When did…

He stood up and looked around.

Was there someone else inside?

But after checking around twice, including underneath the seats, there was nobody there. Rye picked up the sunflower he left on the seat in confusion. Smelling it, it was indeed a real flower.

A ghost?