The Reincarnated Demon King Can’t Escape~ When I Reincarnated 1000 Years Later, My Yandere Heroines Were Waiting for Me~ - Chapter 10

The Tsundere Hero’s Declaration of War (1)

The student council room door looked heavy and imposing.

It was made of solid iron. While every other door in the school was wooden, this one alone stood out, looking as intimidating as a castle gate. It reminded me of the throne room from a thousand years ago—well, maybe it was not quite that grand, but it was definitely overkill for a school.

Clara pushed the door open without even knocking.

She walked right in with all the confidence of a ruler returning home.

“Come in.”

She spoke like she was giving an order. I am the Demon King, you know.

Just when I thought I had finally escaped Asmeia’s makeup lessons, now I was getting hauled into the student council room.

I stepped inside.

Neat bookshelves lined the walls, and a polished, long conference table sat right in the center of the room. Documents were sorted perfectly, and every shelf had its own label. The entire space felt like Clara’s personality turned into a room.

But—nobody was here.

Even if it was after school, it felt strange for the student council room to be completely empty. This was usually the time when a couple of officers would be staying late to finish up paperwork.

“Is there nobody else in the student council room?”

“I cleared everyone out,” Clara answered flatly as she pulled out a chair at the conference table and signaled for me to sit down.

“I cast a cognitive disruption spell. Right now, everyone is fully convinced that they have absolutely no business in the student council room today.”

Cognitive disruption. It was a high-level spell that actually rewrote a target’s awareness. It did not work on people with strong magical power, but depending on how you used it, you could control the masses like this.

“…When did you learn a spell like that?”

“When you have five hundred years, you pick up a few tricks.”

That was way beyond picking up a few tricks, and it did not really seem like the kind of thing a former Hero should be doing, but calling her out on it would probably take forever, so I decided to save it for later.

Clara sat down in the opposite chair, crossed her legs, folded her arms, and tucked in her chin.

She looked incredibly high and mighty.

“Now then. There are some things I need to explain to you.”

She looked so proud of herself. Whenever she talked about the results of a plan she came up with, she always made this exact face.

She was the same way a thousand years ago. After a plan to outsmart the enemy worked perfectly, she would make this exact face in the middle of all the dust on the battlefield.

“I am the one who designed the infiltration operation for this school.”

She puffed out her chest. To put it nicely, she had a massive smug look on her face.

The story Clara started telling went like this.

The three of them had arrived in this era before me. While they were designing [Chrono Arcadias], they were apparently able to predict the rough time and place where my soul would arrive. They completed their reincarnations ahead of time and stayed on standby around the school.

From that point on, Clarissa handled all the actual infiltration work completely by herself.

“I got Asmeia her background as a teacher. I set up the enrollment records for Lyco. And for myself, I secured a position as a student council officer. I set up everything.”

In other words—from forging identities and faking backgrounds to infiltrating the school, it was all Clara’s doing. If you used cognitive disruption magic, you could easily breeze through document screenings and interviews. It was the exact same method she used a thousand years ago to send spies into enemy territory, just a much more polished version.

“Finding a vessel for your soul was the hardest part. We couldn’t predict which physical body your soul would land in. So I kept using the school as a base to look for clues—and I finally found a mixed-race boy who was in a coma after a suicide attempt.”

Eldi. The original owner of this body.

“To be honest, those three days he was in a coma really chilled me to the bone,” she said casually.

But behind those words, it was easy to imagine that she had spent three sleepless days.

“Anyway—the point is that the preparations were absolutely perfect.”

She had a proud, bragging face. But underneath that boastful look, I could feel the tremendous, heavy devotion of her message: “I made everything absolutely perfect just to welcome you back.”

I noticed it. I noticed it—and said nothing.

If I brought it up the wrong way here, Clara would definitely lose her mind. You should never bring a flame close to a tsundere’s fuse. There was no telling how big the explosion would be.

After finishing her explanation, her expression suddenly tightened.

“Also, I should just say this.”

The tone of her voice changed. She stood up from her chair and walked right over to stand in front of me while I stayed seated.

Since Eldi’s body was on the smaller side, the height difference made me look up at the standing Clara.

“Unlike those other two, I didn’t come all the way to this era for your sake. Make sure you don’t get the wrong idea.”

Was she reading straight out of a tsundere textbook?

She pointed her index finger and tapped me right on the chest.

“I followed you here to defeat you.”

She tapped me one more time.

“I won’t let you get away by dying, Demon King Erdrain.”

Her fingertip stayed pressed against my chest and did not move.

Plus, her face was really close. We were at a distance where the ends of her blonde hair brushed against my shoulder.

“Once you get completely used to that body and get your strength back—I won’t show any mercy.”

That was a line I had heard hundreds, even thousands of times since a thousand years ago.

Even with a massive amount of time passing, it was a declaration of war that had never been carried out even once.

A murderous intent made of only words. An hostility that only existed in speech.

That was why—for the first time in a while, I felt like teasing her a bit.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”

I said only that, then turned around to avoid Clara’s finger.

I turned on my heel and started walking toward the door.

The air behind me changed completely.

“Huh…”

She had just made a declaration of war for the first time in a thousand years, but the target was casually trying to leave.

“Ah… wait…”

This was probably completely unexpected for Clara. She had tried to look cool and talk tough, but my reaction was so cold it was as if she wanted to complain.

“Aren’t you going to… hug me to celebrate our reunion or something?”

She threw a total fastball.

Where did her Hero’s pride or her tsundere dignity go?

I stopped walking and turned around.

Clara was standing there, clenching both of her hands. Her face was bright red. Her eyes were darting all over the place.

“What, do you want one? Aren’t I the enemy you’re supposed to defeat?”

Clara’s face turned even redder. I am a self-proclaimed level-one expert on Clarissa, but even I could not tell if it was a blush from embarrassment or a flush from anger.

“I never said I wanted one!”

You basically did, though.

“But you hugged Lyco and Asmeia, didn’t you?”

Wow, she was totally watching.

“I absolutely do not want one myself! This is a matter of fairness! It’s the principle of equality! I’m just saying I can’t overlook unfairness!”

Her excuses came pouring out like an avalanche. The faster her mouth moved, the more her true feelings leaked out. As usual, she was an awful liar.

“I see.”

That was all I said. I started walking toward the door again.

Three seconds.

Behind me, the sharp sound of footsteps burst out.

She was closing in. Fast. It was a swordsman’s dash.

Two arms wrapped tightly around me. Her face pressed right into the back of my school uniform.

“Did you… come to hate me…?”

Ah—she had always been this way.

The only person she ever said she “hated” was me.

The only person she “didn’t want to be hated by” was also me.

It sounded contradictory, but it probably was not. Inside her mind, everything had been connected to the exact same place from the very beginning.

I turned around slowly.

I looked down at Clarissa, who was practically glued to my back.

Her eyes were watery. The tip of her nose was red. Her bluffing as a former Hero completely crumbled in an instant.

I reached out and touched Clara’s cheek.

Her surprised eyes looked up at me.

I guided her face upward—

And gave her a surprise kiss. Just a light, momentary touch.

Our lips parted.

“Sorry, I teased you a bit too much.”

“Fweh… wha… what did you just do!?”

Clara’s brain completely stopped working.

Her eyes went wide, her pupils dilated, and her face turned completely red all the way to the tips of her ears.

Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. She looked just like a goldfish. A goldfish that had landed on the shore, gasping for oxygen.

Three seconds, five seconds, seven seconds.

The reboot happened out of nowhere.

Still facing me, Clara lunged forward and hugged me.

The strength in her arms was on a completely different level than before. The sheer determination not to let me go vibrated right into my bones.

She buried her face into my chest, and her muffled voice came through as a physical vibration.

“I knew it… I really do… hate you.”

Even while saying she hated me, the grip of her arms tightened. She had absolutely no intention of letting go.

She really was not honest with herself.