The person from the Rock Tribe, getting down on their knees, caused an uproar in the area.
Above all, the confusion of his followers was terribly fierce. They kept shouting at Magus, who was like a small mountain, kneeling on his knees.
“Hey! What's wrong, Boss?!”
“Such a weak-looking guy, if it were the boss, all he would need is just take a shot at him!”
“Shut the fuck up! Don’t provoke him any further!”
“Aaaaahhh!?”
Magus grabbed his cronies and forced them to get down on their knees...or rather, push them to the ground. In no time at all, the group fell silent.
“Wait, what…?”
The whole scenario caused Charlotte to freeze with her eyes wide open in shock.
“What's going on…?”
“Didn't you hear about my brother?”
“Erika!”
Before Allen knew it, Erika had returned. It seemed that she had finally left the young man in the wheelchair alone. Now, she was carrying a thick stack of notes. She must have taken notes about his wheelchair - the material it was made of and the magic that he used.
Erika began to speak in a nonchalant tone.
“Our dad is the board chairman of the biggest magic school in the country… Athena Academy of Magic.”
The Athena Academy of Magic was a prestigious school with hundreds of years of tradition. It was said that a future was promised just by leaving this school, and students from all over the world flock here to hone their skills in magic and combat, transcending the boundaries between races.
“Ah… No wonder you both are good at magic.”
“And then, there's my brother, who is…”
Erika stopped her words there and glanced meaningfully at Allen, and grinned.
“He was a boy genius who graduated from that magic academy at the age of twelve, the youngest in history, and went on to become a teacher there.”
“... Whaaaaaaaat!?”
“Oh? Did I not tell you?”
Allen cocked his head at Charlotte's sharp voice. He hadn’t meant to hide it.
“You, you, you said you were enrolled in school when you were about my age…”
“Yeah, as a practical magic instructor.”
“You never mentioned that!”
Charlotte exclaimed vigorously.
When Allen thought about it, he did mention being a member of a school, but he did not mention anything about being a teacher.
However, that was all in the past now. Allen gave a thin wry smile.
“I quit teaching three years ago when I was eighteen,” Allen said. “It was a job that I liked, but couldn't keep up.”
“It must have been difficult…”
“Yeah. When I beat up the impertinent students and tried to correct their nature, I was denounced by the faculty who hated me from the beginning.”
“And then you beat up the professors there, too. Even dad couldn’t cover for you.”
“... There were a lot of things going on.”
“Why did you change your words and rephrase them?”
Allen averted Charlotte’s eyes for a moment.
“You seem to be the same as ever, Magus.”
“Ha, ha…”
Allen smiled cheerfully and patted Magus on the head while he remained on his knees.
Naturally, the faces of the people from the Rock Tribe were made of rock, hence, it was difficult to read the change in their facial expressions.
Magus was presently shivering, clearly frightened. He was shaking so violently that his body grinded against the ground until there were residues of sand on the ground.
Allen pretended not to notice this and continued to smile.
“I recalled the first time I disciplined you and you mentioned something like, 'This brat is going to the other side with one blow from me.' ”
At the time, Allen was only a child of fourteen or so. As such, it was understandable that Magus would look down on him.
He had become a very mellowed student since then, once he and the other rebellious students had been given disciplinary action.
Perhaps remembering those days, Magus's trembling became even worse. With his knees on the ground and his forehead in the dirt, he shouted, “Please forgive me, Demon Lord! I didn't mean to cause you any trouble! I didn't even know you were in town!”
“... Who’s the ‘Demon Lord’?”
“Oh? That is my brother's nickname when he was an instructor.”
When Charlotte asked surreptitiously, Erika did not hold anything back and replied to her in a brisk manner.
No wonder Allen did not like the nickname Miaha called him.
She had been teasing him when she called him the “Demon Lord”.
It had been a long time since Allen had been called the “Demon Lord”. He chuckled, intoxicated by the pleasant sound of it.
“Lift your head, Magus,” Allen said, “You did not cause me any trouble.”
“That’s right, I am–”
The moment Magus lifted his hopeful face, a large crack ran across his forehead.
The temperature around him suddenly dropped drastically. Allen slowly lifted the corners of his mouth as the tension in the air grew thick.
“The girl your minions tried to harm, is my…”
Allen hesitated, not sure how he should address her.
(Charlotte is my…?)
Now, Allen wondered.
Was she just a freeloader? A second younger sister? Perhaps…
Allen blurted out the words in his head, “She's my precious girl.”
That was the best title Allen could come up with at the moment.
Just then, the last rays of the setting sun illuminated Allen's face. The dazzling crimson light coloured his smile in a spectacular sight, truly worthy of being called the Great Demon Lord.