*
Once after-school hours began, Gru ran off to practice for the play, and Uju set out to find his teacher in order to switch roles.
From a tree branch in front of the classroom, Mephisto watched the two of them and let out a sigh.
Was this how he would fail?
It was then that the depressed baby bird let out a sigh.
Lukesifer poked his face out of Gru’s bag and tilted his head in confusion.
This was the first time he had seen Mephisto looking so dejected.
“Qyu?”
Lukesifer looked up at Gru.
“We gotta stick togever. Got it?”
Recalling Gru’s words, Lukesifer nodded his head vigorously.
Big bros with big bros. Us with us.
Just then, Mephisto hung his head with a pitiful chirp.
“Pit….”
A single tear fell to the ground with a soft plop.
“Qyuut!”
He’s crying?!
Surprised, Lukesifer hopped out of Gru’s bag in secret.
Toward Mephisto.
*
“Teacher Gwak Nabi, I’m Seo Uju from the kindergarten Chick Class. I have something to tell you.”
Gwak Nabi, who had been picking up the script in the teachers’ office to head out, stopped.
“Uju? To me?”
“Yes.”
Hmm? Gwak Nabi blinked in puzzlement.
She was an elementary school teacher.
Uju was such a famous child that she knew of him, but there was no reason for their paths to cross since she wasn’t in charge of the kindergarten department.
“It’s about this kindergarten joint play. I want to do it too.”
So that’s what this was about.
It seemed he had come to her because she had been assigned as the directing teacher for the kindergarten joint play.
“You have quite the passion for acting, Uju. All right, shall I make a minor role for you? Let me see….”
“No. The prince role.”
“Huh? The prince role is Geonu’s….”
“I’ve already talked to Bak Geonu. He said he’d switch with me if you give permission, Teacher.”
Looking at Uju speaking with such determination, Gwak Nabi let out a troubled groan.
“Hmm….”
It was then.
“Please give me a chance too.”
White feathers fluttered in the air.
Before anyone knew it, a child was standing beside Uju, wearing a hoodie and pants with a hat pulled down low.
When the child lifted his head toward Gwak Nabi, sunset-like irises sparkled beneath white bangs.
Gwak Nabi’s eyes went wide.
It was practically an international school, so a foreign child wouldn’t be unusual, but his face was so beautifully sculpted, doll-like, that admiration slipped out unconsciously.
‘A child who works with Uju?’
While Gwak Nabi was surprised, the white-haired child grabbed his baggy sleeves that hung down past the backs of his hands and clenched his fists.
“I want to be the prince too.”
“What?”
Uju frowned and turned to look at the child.
…Mephi?
In response to Uju’s soundless question, the white-haired child tilted his head slightly and formed an arrogant smirk.
As if to say Uju’s thoughts were correct.
Gwak Nabi alternated her gaze between the two children, then let out an “Oh my” with an intrigued, amused expression.
“So you both want to be the prince? Then….”
At this, Uju shouted hurriedly.
“H-he’s not from our kindergarten!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“No wonder. I thought a child this pretty would have been the talk of the town, but I’ve never heard of him.”
“…?”
But Mephisto blinked as if he had no idea what she meant.
Gwak Nabi smiled wryly and, with quite an affectionate tone, bent down on her knees in front of Mephisto and said,
“Friends who don’t attend our kindergarten can’t participate in the play, so whatever shall we do….”
“I can’t… be the prince?!”
“Yes. That’s how it is.”
Mephisto stiffened with the expression of someone who had just taken a heavy blow.
Who knew you had to attend kindergarten to become a prince!
‘I only just became a human…!’
The reason Mephisto was able to assume human form was thanks to the filial piety snacks that Lukesifer had given him.
Those snacks gave him the power necessary to take on a human form.
Though they were somewhat… akin to poison as well.
Mephisto was currently doing his best to suppress the abnormal status called “Outcast’s Wrath” that was trying to gnaw away at him like erosion.
‘To think there exists an abnormal status with such a high rate of erosion….’
Whose wrath it was, it was fearsome enough to inspire terror at a glance.
In any case, using his powers was difficult because of this, but—
Mephisto glared at Uju.
Uju had his hands behind his back, shrugging his shoulders in satisfaction that Mephisto had been disqualified.
‘Hmph!’
It didn’t matter.
He had another way.
Lowering his eyes, Mephisto opened his system window.
[The system verifies “Mephisto.”]
[The skill “Recognition Modification (SSS)” is activated via the System Administrator’s authority.]
Snap!
Mephisto snapped his fingers in front of Gwak Nabi.
“…Ah.”
Then, as if time had rewound and her memories had been erased, Gwak Nabi repeated what she had just said.
“So you both want to be the prince, right? That is the age for it.”
“Huh? But he’s not from our kindergarten?”
“What are you talking about, Uju? He’s your classmate.”
“What?”
Uju made a dumbfounded expression before spotting Mephisto smirking and clenching his fists tightly.
It was clear Mephisto had pulled some trick on Teacher Gwak Nabi.
Not like an Awakener or anything.
‘It’s because he’s a monster….’
His shoulders shrank involuntarily, but Uju shook his head left and right to shake off the fear.
“Then shall we distribute the roles fairly?”
Uju’s eyes sparkled.
If the roles were distributed fairly, it was obvious the prince role would be assigned to him, who had been acting all along!
*
“This isn’t fair!”
Uju shouted, holding tongs in his gloved hands.
But Gwak Nabi paid him no heed and said,
“Those who live upon the Earth, labor for the Earth! Plogging is the very fairness to the Earth!”
Plogging was an activity where you jogged while picking up roadside trash, a program often done in the kindergarten department.
Huff! Mephisto snorted and clicked his tongs as if he were already ready.
“Since it’s a play, shouldn’t we compete fairly in acting skills or something….”
“Come on, an acting competition against Uju? That can’t be called fair.”
“But still, it’s a play….”
Uju protested as if he couldn’t accept it, but—
Regardless, Mephisto fluttered his white feathers gently, picked up trash at an incredible speed, and dashed off with a whoosh.
“Looks like your friend will pick up more?”
“Ugh!”
Unable to protest any further at Gwak Nabi’s words, Uju chased after Mephisto.
Gwak Nabi smiled warmly.
“It’s the age where they’d stake their lives on the prince role.”
Watching the children begin to pick up trash with passion, she recalled something and soon tilted her head.
“Then… should I revise the prince role a bit this time?”
Meanwhile, Uju grabbed the trash Mephisto had picked up with his tongs as if snatching it away and growled lowly,
“What did you do to the teacher?”
Mephisto, who had been glaring at Uju with a displeased face, let out a snort.
“Hmph.”
“I know even if you don’t tell me.”
Mephisto shot back with a sharply edged tone.
“So what?”
“You… don’t tell me you like Gru?”
“Yeah.”
He admits it that easily? Uju’s face flushed bright red.
“Y-you can’t do that.”
Mephisto tilted his face sideways, squinted his eyes, and crossed his arms.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not even human….”
Mephisto scratched his ear as if to say ‘Is that all?’ It was an attitude that showed he didn’t care about such trivial matters.
Uju trembled, his fists shaking.
“I won’t tell anyone what you did to the teacher. So you stop using weird skills too and compete fair and square.”
“Maybe. I’ll do as I please.”
Bleh— Mephisto stuck out his tongue.
Though he said that, he didn’t seem to have any intention of using more power and was diligently moving his own legs to pick up trash.
“Teacher will be right here, so don’t go too far!”
Gwak Nabi’s voice reached them, but neither of the two listened.
They were simply putting all their energy into using their tongs to pick up more trash than the other.
*
Peek.
Lukesifer placed his front paws on top of a wall in a quiet corner of the kindergarten grounds and poked his face out.
The baby rabbit sniffled back snot that had jutted out.
‘Big bro is fighting well.’
It can’t be easy moving like that while blocking the erosion of such a terrifying status effect.
It was just as Lukesifer felt proud and his eyes welled up with tears.
A chilling voice came from behind.
“Found you….”
“Kkyiiik!”
The baby rabbit trembled as if shocked by electricity.
Gru picked up the trembling Lukesifer and was about to scold him when—
“What were you doing all alone… huh?”
Spotting who Lukesifer had been looking at, her eyes went wide.
It’s Uju?
Uju was picking up trash while bickering with a child in a hood.
‘Who is that kid?’