I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I jerked away for a moment before realizing it was Skylar. She was looking at me with worry in her eyes. It wasn’t a look I was used to getting from anyone, so it naturally made me a bit uncomfortable.

“Are you okay?” She asked, her hand still held out for a moment.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, slightly confused.

I wasn’t trying to be thick, but I didn’t understand her sympathy. He hadn’t even managed to land a single hit on me, so I wasn’t hurt. I had been brutalized far more in my life and received no sympathy, so why would some person concern themselves to me when nothing of importance happened?

“Is Aiko dating her?”

“A lover’s spat?”

“He’s a geek though.”

“Since he’s come back, hasn’t he been, I don’t know… a little cooler?”

“I heard he got kicked out of several of his classes…”

There was whispering going on all around us, and some of it even involved rumors around Skylar. Her hand snapped back to her side, and her face started to turn red. Well, I had never asked her to start talking to me in public. If it led to some misunderstandings, I hoped she wouldn’t hold me accountable.

“Can we… go someplace private?” She leaned toward me and whispered.

Whether anyone heard her or not, this only led to an increase in the whispering.

“There is something between them.”

“She’s one of the top five cutest girls in school! How could she go out with him?”

“Didn’t Daryl call her his girlfriend?”

“I heard he has a girlfriend though?”

“He has two girlfriends?”

“A two-timer!”

The words were all meaningless and rolled off me, but Skylar’s face seemed to be increasingly red the longer they spoke. I realized that this could be troublesome in the future. After all, I had already decided that Ivy would be my fake girlfriend. If this misunderstanding was allowed to continue, it would only create more problems for me.

“Very well, let’s go.” I reached out and grabbed Skylar’s hand, and then turned to walk away.

For some reason, the whispering increased again. They sounded like insects. It was irritating. I quickly pulled Skylar away from the crowds, and we walked hand in hand a few turns. She was staying behind me, and when I glanced back, she had her head completely down so that I couldn’t see her face. Whoever we passed seemed to glance at her, then out hands, and then also started whispering. As a result, we seemed to be followed by whispers. I quickly found a room, which was an audio-visual storage room, and pulled her inside. I closed the door and then locked it.

When she heard the click of the door, her eyes darted to my hand. “Wh-why did you bring me in here?”

“So that we could have privacy,” I responded.

Her face flushed red once again and she bit her lip, but she responded with a single word. “Oh.”

When she didn’t say anything more, I cleared my throat, causing her to jump a bit. “You said you wanted to go someplace private. What did you want to say?”

That seemed to snap her out of whatever daze she was in. She hugged herself tightly, her eyes not quite looking at mine as she spoke.

“I-I just… I wanted to… I mean, thank you for what you did.”

“What did I do?”

“I know that… I mean, when you swapped out…” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “I didn’t want to be on a date with him. He was using the fact that I worked at the shop to try to force me to go out with him. If he had his way, we might have… I might have… you gave me a way out. I just wanted to thank you for giving me a way out.”

“You don’t owe me anything. I only did what I did for personal reasons.” I responded. “It was because of your ingenuity and intelligence that you were able to take the opportunity and make something out of it.”

“R-really?” She asked me, sounding somewhat uncertain.

“Really.” I raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t want something from me?” She asked, her eyes avoiding me so much that she was nearly looking at the wall.

I frowned. “What would I want from you?”

At that moment, there was a click, and the door opened. “Hey, I was wondering- Aiko!”

The person who had opened the door was none other than Ivy.

“Hmm? I think I know you. Are you in some of my classes?”

“Ivy, were you looking for me?” I asked calmly, causing Skylar to look at me sharply.

“Why would I-“ Ivy started angrily but then noticing Skylar next to me, her tone shifted and she looked down almost poutily. “Y-yes.”

“Why would she be looking for you?” Skylar asked, her eyes finally focused back on me, a small frown on her lips.

“She’s my girlfriend,” I responded.

“Ah!” Ivy glanced up in protest, but a second later she dropped her head with a defeated look. “R-right…”

“You… have a girlfriend?” Skylar asked, her expression suddenly turning odd.

“Yes.” I nodded. “We even have a daughter.”

“Whose daughter?” Ivy cried out.

I blinked. “Have you already forgotten about Maya?”

“She’s not yours!”

“I didn’t say she was.”

“You…” Ivy looked like she wanted to grab my neck for some reason.

“I see… I made a mistake.” While I was speaking with Ivy, Skylar suddenly pushed past us, fleeing the room quickly.

I heard her sniff as she left, but I didn’t get a look at her face. What was her rush to leave? Ivy glanced between the fleeing girl, and then me.

“Is she the reason you needed me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”

“What if it was?” I asked.

Ivy made a face, nodding her head. “You know, you can be a real asshole sometimes.”

She spun around, slamming the door in my face. I blinked, not quite sure what had happened. Women were more difficult to deal with. I didn’t understand why she was angry. Spanking had worked on my sister, maybe I should try it on her?

“Whoo… hoo… aren’t you a heartbreaker? Going after two of the top hotties of school. Ambitious.” A voice sounded from deeper in the closet.

I frowned, walking down the corridor of electronics until I hit the end. There was a small turn, and there was a desk hidden in the back. There was a computer, a chair, and scrawny looking girl in glasses sitting at the chair. She had deep bags under her eyes, a thick sweater that obscured most of her body. Her greasy black hair was combed over so that it covered her face. She sat snuggled up in the chair so her feet didn’t even touch the ground.

“There was someone in here?” I asked.

“Welcome to the audio-visual department!” She gestured her hands out, one hitting the wall, and the other hiding one of the racks of audio equipment.

“I thought this was a closet.”

“It is a closet.” She shrugged. “It’s also the only audio-visual department a school with our budget gets. I’m the club president… and also the only member.”

Looking over her shoulder, I noticed she had a setup with four monitors, and three of the monitors had various video feeds on them. I quickly realized those video feeds were of the school. She had the entire school being recorded. I was familiar with such a system from the one at my job.

I pointed at one of the video feeds. “Is that the girl’s locker room?”

“Hehe… you want a copy of the recording?” She asked. “It’s $5 a minute, and you have to give me the time and the date. If there are no girls in their changing at that time, or they aren’t in the frame like you want… no refunds!”

“Why would I have an interest in such a thing?” I scoffed.

“Well, aren’t you trying to chase after the school beauties?”

“What school beauties?” I asked.

She leaned forward and clicked the screen, and a moment later one of the feeds was replaced with a picture of a somewhat cute girl. This school isn’t known for much. We certainly have our problems, like someone taking revealing peep-show videos of students in compromising situations!”

“That’s you, isn’t that you?”

“Ahem… anyway, one of the things our school is known for is having five top beauties. Top-notch single girls that form the envy of every woman and the desires of every man. If you’d like to see the list, I can provide it for only $5.”

“I’ll be leaving now.” I turned around.

“W-wait!” She grabbed my arm. “I’ll show you for free! I will! How can you claim them all without information?”

“Who said I wanted any information?”

Although I was acting unconcerned, information could be life or death. I had no interest in these girls, but understanding the societal structure of this school could help me navigate it. Naturally, I didn’t care about appearance much, so I had no clue who would be considered a beauty and who wasn’t.

“Who are the beauties then?” I asked.

“Of course, number five is Rosita. She is a fiery redhead with a temper. If you get too close to her, you might be burned.” A girl with curly red hair appeared on the screen.

“If I see red, run the other way. I got it.”

“Geh… well, the fourth is low on the list because of her unattainability. That would be Ms. Alma, the vice principal. Her legs are the fantasy of every budding guy.” She flicked up an image of a familiar teacher whose office I kept being sent to.

“It’s a principal?”

“Who says a teacher can’t be hot?” She shrugged and brought up the next image. “Alright, so, number three is Jaeda. She’s a foreign girl from the middle-east, but her beauty is elusive and her behavior has great waifu potential.”

“Why is this list feeling like a manga?”

“The second most beautiful, you’re already quite familiar with, that would be Skylar, who already seems interested in you.”

“Hmmm…” I responded not committally.

I didn’t agree with her assessment. We were merely coworkers and she wanted to thank me. As for why she stormed out, it was anyone’s guess.

“And the number one beauty is Alana. She is elegant, kind, and practically an angel. Women want to be her, and men want to be with her.” She put her hands under her chin and sighed as she looked up at a blonde woman’s image with desire in her eyes.

“Which do you want?” I asked.

“No comment!”

“I may be acquainted with some of these girls, but what gives you the impression I have any interest in any of them?”

“Isn’t that because you’re also dating the former number four, Ivy?”

“Former?”

“Well, she’s in a relationship, so that immediately puts her off the list. Plus, I recently learned she was pregnant.”

“She was pregnant a long time ago. What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with a lot!” She declared. “Look, this is a list of available beauties! If she had done that, then her intrinsic value as a woman would decline. I’m just factoring such data in.”

“Aren’t you a woman too?”

“That’s why I know the truth of those words!” She gave a thumbs-up as she continued to use her computer.

“And when did find out she had gotten pregnant?”

“Five minutes ago, when you said she had a child.”

“…”

“To keep my information accurate, I must always keep my ears open and remain flexible.”

It sounded like Ivy had been a top beauty until I had exposed her secret. I understood now why she was angry at me. I had promised to keep her secret, but in my haste to sell my relationship with her to Skylar, I had betrayed that trust. It looked like I’d have to make amends.

“Will you tell anyone she had a baby?” I asked.

The girl responding by holding her hand toward me, even though she was still looking at her screen.

“That’ll be $5.” She said, causing me to shake my head and sigh, pulling out a $5 bill and handing it to her. “Her secret is safe with me!”

I had initially thought this girl was irritating, but her information collection was valuable. As this school’s information broker, it wasn’t a bad thing to keep a professional relationship with her. I might find a use for her services later.

I looked at her for another moment, and then shrugged. “Well, it’s been an interesting conversation, but the school has ended and I have places to be.”

I still had my job after school, not to mention any homework that had accumulated in my absence, so I wasn’t making an excuse. I had found her information quite interesting and it left me deep in thought. If these five women held so much power in the school, then weren’t they like the school’s generals? In that case, if I could conquer them, wouldn’t I have complete power over the school?

I wasn’t naïve or foolish. I had promised myself that in my new life, I would live comfortably and freely with this new family of mine. From my old world, I had come to understand that live and let live was an idle fantasy that would just set someone up for failure. The only way someone could live freely was to conquer all opposition. I may have been at the whims of humans and demons in my past life, but there wouldn’t be a repeat of that. Daryl had reminded me of this fact.

“If you need to find me, you know where to check. The name is Naomi, by the way.”

“Alright, Naomi, if I need more strategic information, I’ll know who to come to.”

“And I’ll get you information, for $5! Or some snacks…” She mumbled, turning back to her computer.

The conversation seemed to be done, so I left the closet, I mean the audio-visual department. That had ended up being a profitable encounter. A key to success was having good intelligence, and this odd girl seemed to have her eye on the entire high school. With such information, I could take over the school in no time!

“Very well, I will conquer the school!”