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Meanwhile, Bokue had already reached outside Natsuki Minamiya's office.
He didn't particularly care about what had happened earlier in the infirmary.
More accurately, very few things could make him care anymore these days.
School Nurse Hasegawa's behavior in the infirmary had indeed exceeded the young man's expectations, but fortunately Bokue hadn't sensed any hostility from her. So what passed, passed.
Rather than dwelling on those matters, Bokue was more inclined to visit a certain gothic girl.
Though he'd known long ago that Natsuki Minamiya had always juggled two jobs between school and the island's Special Police Force—naturally drawing two salaries—this still seemed his first time seeing her work at Saikai Academy.
Wondering if she'd also wear that gothic outfit she usually wore at the Special Police Force?
Worth mentioning: though both school workers, and Natsuki's office was indeed inside the school's academic building, it wasn't located on normal classroom floors.
Instead, it was directly set up in an unused office at the end of the top floor's empty level.
Probably because she disliked overly noisy or crowded environments, wanting a secluded place for quiet work.
In other words, if Bokue weren't coming over right now, theoretically the only person who'd regularly appear here daily would be Natsuki herself.
Thinking this, Bokue pressed his hand on the office doorknob.
Creeeak—
As the handle pressed down, the office door—with excellent sealing and soundproofing—slowly opened.
The moment the door opened, cool air rushed out from inside, mixed with faint coffee fragrance.
That was normal enough. Though this was an empty floor, since Saikai Academy had central air conditioning installed, whether unused classrooms or occupied ones—as long as central AC ran, it maintained constant temperature twenty-four hours.
"Knock before entering. Don't you understand such basic courtesy?"
The second Bokue pushed open the office door, a certain gothic girl's voice—majestic yet carrying a slight nasal tone that made it especially cute—came from inside the office.
Behind a wide wooden desk, documents piled high on the desk completely blocked Natsuki from view. Couldn't see the person, only hearing the tap tap of ballpoint pen strokes from behind the document mountain.
"Next time. I'm already inside."
Bokue raised an eyebrow, stepping into the office and closing the door behind him.
Hmm?
The gothic girl originally writing behind the desk like rapid rainfall froze slightly hearing this voice, her hand movements suddenly stopping.
Then she set down her ballpoint pen. Both hands pressed on the desk surface as she sat straight, stretching her neck upward to raise her face—barely revealing a pair of eyes from behind the document mountain. Seeing the young man who'd entered, her mouth twitched.
"You actually dare come here..."
"Why wouldn't I?"
Bokue strode across the office to stand beside the desk, looking down. What met his eyes was the gothic girl surrounded by various documents.
Looking closer revealed all these documents bore "Special Police Force" stamps.
Natsuki narrowed her eyes with slightly dissatisfied expression.
"Still asking why? It's the first day of school, yet you weren't at morning roll call. If I hadn't checked off for you... hmm?"
"Can't really expect me to obediently show up in the classroom bright and early, right?"
Bokue scratched his face.
If nothing went wrong, he was now indisputably the world's number one. Making the world's number one sit properly in class? That just sounded awkward.
Natsuki: "..."
Actually seemed about right.
"Plus, why would morning roll call include me?"
Bokue felt somewhat curious.
"Are you teaching my original class now, Natsuki?"
"No."
The gothic girl said flatly.
"Because of the school merger, classes merged too. But I'm no longer homeroom teacher—not even a teacher really. I'm just a counselor now."
"Got demoted?"
Bokue guessed casually.
"As if. I voluntarily switched positions."
Natsuki rolled her eyes slightly.
"After all, being homeroom teacher involves way too much. Just teaching students daily already takes up a huge chunk of time, plus grading homework and such... The old me could naturally handle it, but circumstances are different now. If I'm juggling work with the force simultaneously, I really can't manage."
"Though fortunately the school merged this time, so I conveniently dumped homeroom teacher work on your Kuoh Academy's original homeroom teacher. As for me, I just need to do daily roll call..."
"Then spend free time in the office working your side gig?"
Bokue glanced down at the numerous documents on the gothic girl's desk.
At school but writing Special Police Force documents—doing one job while collecting two salaries, huh?
"That's all your fault anyway."
When Natsuki said this, her tone carried threads of dissatisfaction.
"I'm no longer the 'Void Witch' of old. If I don't sleep enough while alive, eternal sleep really will come early. I don't want to die from overwork at twenty-six."
"Then quit."
"Are you stupid? As if I could."
Natsuki rolled her eyes again.
"Ultimately, teaching here at school is also part of my Special Police Force job. That should be easy enough to understand, right?"
Alright, so read as homeroom teacher, written as security guard.
Really became learning English from the security guard.
Oh wait, now she'd switched to counselor—didn't even need to teach classes anymore.
"Though this works out better. At least I don't have to keep running back and forth to classrooms daily."
Natsuki propped up her cheek with one hand while skillfully spinning her ballpoint pen with the other, sighing lightly.
"Originally had to run to classrooms at least six or seven times daily—but that was built on the premise of directly teleporting to classroom doors. Now I can't use spatial control magic. Going up and down stairs so many times daily if I had to rely on legs... just thinking about it makes my feet ache."
"You mean the smell?"
"Muscle aches... wait, what are you doing?!"
Before finishing, Natsuki suddenly felt herself being lifted from the office chair, her entire waist down floating up.
Simultaneously, Bokue had already come behind the gothic girl, holding her waist while pushing the chair aside.
"Naturally helping your spatial control magic recover sooner. What else?"
"Wha...!"
Realizing this guy's next plan, Natsuki's face instantly flushed.
"This is an office, don't you dare... ngh!"
First strike backstab interrupted the gothic girl's remaining words. From behind came only Bokue's casual statement.
"Don't worry. I've already set soundproofing and people-repelling barriers. No one will come until I leave."
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