From Beyond the World Tree Chapter 9 Sneak Peek

Throughout the class, from morning to afternoon, ‘Issei’ laid his face down on the desk, his eyes so drained of life that he almost looked dead. He had remained in this stare during the lecture, which concerned the students around Issei and soon the math teacher as well. 

“Oi. Issei.” Matsuda called out as he poked Momonga’s shoulder.

The depressed corpse did not respond. 

“H-Hey, you alright?” Motoyama waved his hands up and down before Momonga’s amber eyes. 

“Ugggh…” They only elicited a groan.

At least they got something out of him. 

“Yo, dude. What happened?” 

The Perverted Duo was now curious about what rendered Issei into this state. 

“Mr. Hyōdō, are you unwell?” The math teacher asked. 

“Ugggh…” 

“Wow.” Kiryu whistled at the sight as she hunched forward to get a better look at the amnesiac. “You look like a zombie. Were you up all night this morning?” 

“Uuuugh-huh.” Momonga lied in grunts. 

The source of Momonga’s exhaustion derived not from surviving his studies for an entire night, but from yesterday once the mental fatigue of dealing with a Surprise Dragon God at his doorstep caught up with him - and the two happy parents that found Ophis precious enough to hug. He still couldn't believe that they bought his lie about her being a girl lost and abandoned in the streets.

Said girl was slithering under his clothes in her small snake form. There were many words that came to Momonga’s mind but he couldn't voice them out to Ophis vocally or mentally. 

“Dude, get some sleep. You're gonna become one of the living dead at this rate.”

‘You are part-right,’ Momonga quipped.

The rest of the class started giggling at ‘Issei’s’ poor lifestyle.

“Coffee… can fix it,” Momonga rebuked. 

“There's a limit to how much fatigue caffeine can stave off, Mr. Hyōdō. However, since you're finally awake, would you care to tell us the solution to the formul...”

“Six.” 

“That is correc… Excuse me, could you repeat that again?” The teacher asked, adjusting his glasses as he blinked his assumed drowsiness away.

“Six. The answer is six.” The answer was correct, but the teacher just introduced a new lesson in mathematics, yet Issei of all people managed to solve it while rotting on his desk in what he assumed was either insomnia or depression.

Maybe both.

However, the truth was something else. It was a special Devil Skill he obtained called [Numbercraft], something he got from Diodora. This Skill simply aids the calculation of arithmetics, which was helping him a lot in his math studies. It even helped him organize his thoughts better to a significant degree, something he hoped to improve.

“Would you kindly take over and explain to the class how you managed to find the solution?”

“No.” Momonga did not feel like grabbing attention, nor did he want any. 

“Would you rather have detention?” The teacher threatened.

“Ugh…” Momonga, now forced to take action, slid off his desk and fell to the floor as he slowly rose to his feet in shambles.

His actions stunned the teacher. The former member of the Perverted Trio was even walking like one of the living dead.

“Actually, never mind. Return to your seat. We can find someone else. Motoyama, would you take over?” 

“Wait, what?” 

“Splendid. Please come up to the board.” With cold, calculated brutality, the math teacher cut off his victim’s escape route.

The comedy made Momonga chuckle as he shambled back to his seat, slithering onto the desk like a lazy slug. Upon slamming his head face down, burying it in his arms, Momonga smiled in secret as he struggled to contain his laughter from sacrificing Motoyama in his stead.

After class finished, Momonga left the room and got ready to head home. Murayama and Katase still haven't finished with the design for their swords yet, though they promised to start sword lessons in the evening.

Frankly, Momonga was slightly excited. He was finally going to learn some swordsmanship from a senior practitioner. It was quite tiring mimicking the practice swings of others while worrying if he did something wrong. His Death Knights… He refused to deal with them until eventually.

As Momonga left the room and entered the hallway, he saw a certain girl walking towards him. No, she looked more like a young woman judging from her regal gait. She was bespectacled, her glasses semi-rimmed with square lenses, had long straight black hair extending to her knees, her bangs split around her forehead above her heterochromic eyes, her left violet and right brown.

The way she looked reminded Momonga of the way Yuri Alpha looked back in Nazarick, now that he thought about it, a cool glasses beauty.

“Mr. Hyoudou?” She asked.

Momonga blinked for a moment as he looked left and right, seeing the students in the hallway whispering amongst themselves.

“Hey, that's vice president Tsubaki.” 

“He's talking to that guy of the Perverted Trio.”

“Is she calling him about the Kendo Club incident?”

Momonga thanked them for the exposition, but that did not explain why she was asking for him out of all people.

“Y-Yes?” Momonga asked, pointing at himself.  

While he donned a clueless facade, actually he was clueless, he silently cast [Mana Essence] to check his suspicions. He nearly grimaced when he saw the girl’s high MP bar hovering overhead. 

She was a Devil for sure, and her presence did not inspire confidence. Did the Devils see through his true nature? Did Momonga slip up? Either way, Momonga had gathered the Devils’ attention, so he must confirm their motives.

“President Sona would like to see you in her office. Please follow me as I bring you to her.”

Momonga smiled awkwardly, trying his best to quell his growing anxiety.

“A-Alright…”

‘Calm down, calm down. You have Ophis hiding under your shirt, damn it. Don't be a coward and show some backbone!’ Momonga shouted at himself in his head. In the worst case scenario, Momonga could simply cast [Time Stop], kill them within stopped time, and flee the scene while leaving no evidence. If they were somehow resistant to Time Magic, then Momonga could simply cast [Silent Magic: Death] at them. After that, Momonga could bring the bodies back to base, revive them, then rewrite their memories before throwing them back to their offices safe and sound stave off the attention.

He was sure that they had no resistance to Instant Death from his conversation with the Three Idiots.

As he followed her, he attracted some eyes from the other students, both his juniors and seniors. They were mostly commenting on Tsubaki’s beauty and how graceful she looked, which Momonga did not deny that she had a unique charm even though it was from her devil side. As for him, mostly negative comments from the girls while some remarks of envy from the boys.

Momonga sighed defeatedly as they went upstairs, already resigned to their treatment.

When they arrived at an ornate door of mahogany, Tsubaki lightly knocked on the door three times.

“President Sona, I have brought the person you've asked for.” 

Momonga paused as he took a deep breath. This was his first time interacting with a Devil up close, and he did not want to leave a poor impression… actually, almost every female’s impression of him was poor. He heard that the Student Council President was female, so her general view of him was probably the same. 

“Come on in, Tsubaki.” 

The door opened inwards, revealing a sole girl behind a mahogany desk. It was the first time Momonga saw the Student Council President like this face to face, and the rumors did not exaggerate on her being a cool beauty. The rumors didn't mention, however, that the girl across him held considerably higher MP and HP bars than some of the hidden Devils he caught by chance.