The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel 37 Taka Nakamura

After school,

While packing up his bag, Juin suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around and saw Max with her backpack slung over her shoulder. She was holding two books in her arms, clutched tightly to her chest as if they were her life.

Then again, the reading assignments were given by Warlock, so no wonder she was so protective of it. After all, the Mad Dog warned everyone that if they failed to finish the reading assignment by the end of the week, he would fail them in all of his classes… which was like 50% of their classes.

"Yeah?" Juin asked with a smile.

"How are you going back home?"

Juin glanced at the door and saw Thomas with his backpack, waiting impatiently for Max, obviously. He then replied, "I have my ways. Don't worry about me, I know my way back."

He then added in a joke, "In spite of my size, I'm in fact 16 years old, just like you."

Max chuckled, but she soon looked slightly depressed. "I'm really sorry about my dad. He's usually less of a jerk," Max said with a sigh. "I'll talk to him tonight."

"Hey," Juin grinned as he reached out to pat her shoulder. "I'm serious. Don't worry about me. I can handle myself. And your dad is just worried about you. Go, I'm fine. Thomas is waiting for you. He's walking you to your aunt's place, right?"

Max glanced at Thomas before sighing. She then nodded and waved goodbye before walking to Thomas. Juin watched those two leave before finished packing his stuff.

"Are you going to see that Warlock guy?" Lucifer asked while floating beside Juin in his usual leg-crossed position.

Juin nodded before glancing at the alpha in the classroom, who was looking at his phone with his legs perched high up on the desk. After his talk with those two "were-idiots", he knew three things about the alpha. One, his name was Wolfe Sterling.

Two, he was the runt of the family and was considered the black sheep as well. There was a rumor that he could not transform into a werewolf, but no one had confirmed this yet. However, given that his older brother was still in the school, no one dared to try and confirm this piece of news.

Three, he did not care about anyone or anything.

"Four, he loves manga," Juin thought to himself. Every time he glanced over at Wolfe Sterling's table, the guy would either be sleeping on his desk or reading the manga that was under his desk. "I wonder what he's reading about?" Juin thought as he picked up his backpack and walked out of the room.

"Juin…"

Juin glanced at Lucifer, who was darting between the moving students as if he were playing a game of human dodgeball.

"Why did you ask about Warlock earlier? You seem to be unnaturally interested in him," Lucifer asked, feigning disinterest, as if he were asking out of boredom.

Juin thought about his question for a while before taking out his phone. He then quickly typed.

[ I thought I've met him before… and I think I did.]

"Why? When?"

[ A few years back… He was a priest then, and I think he helped me with something. He gave me a bead, if I'm not wrong.]

However, Juin could not remember why the man gave him a bead then.

Lucifer was about to say something else when he saw Juin walking straight into a tall well-built Asian boy.

"Hey there," the Asian boy said as he looked down at Juin, "watch where you're going."

Juin immediately looked up and saw the boy looking down at him with a smirk. He quickly apologized and stepped aside, but when he was about to walk away, the boy stepped in his way and stopped him. "Erm… Yes?"

"My name is Taka Nakamura. Nice to make your acquaintance… Juin," the boy said with a perfectly charming smile as he winked at a gorgeous girl who just walked past her. He then leaned down slightly and whispered softly into Juin's ear, "I've heard about what you did to Luca Rockefeller. Good job. His arrogance can be annoying, right? If it were me, I would have made sure to break both his legs."

"Taka… Nakamura?" Juin repeated his name as he looked at the praying beads on the boy's wrist. He then recalled the information that Mika was part of a triplet. So, he made the connection that this Taka Nakamura was part of the triple.

"Erm… W-What did I do?" Juin stuttered, hoping that this Taka Nakamura wasn't here to look for trouble with him. With so many people that wanted to hurt him, he would really hope to avoid merging with Lucifer until the last minute possible. After all, he could only merge with the guy for such a short period of time.

"Ah, this year would be fun." Taka Nakamura suddenly laughed softly and patted Juin's shoulder before walking away. Along the way, he placed an arm around two girls and walked off with them, chatting happily like a normal teenager.

"He's… weird," Juin muttered under his breath in confusion as he turned around, only to see Luca Rockefeller standing not far away from him. He watched as Luca limped over with his crutches, and when the guy was in front of him, Juin asked boldly, "What do you want? Another beating?"

Some students who walked past them glanced back at those two. A couple of them had heard what had happened, and a small group of students in the school knew that Juin was… special. And they also knew about Juin's past as well.

"I heard that the kid used to be the punching bag for everyone, and he never made a sound. But for some reason, Juin is being unnaturally brave in front of Luca," a girl murmured to her friend.

"Meh, looks like a lover's spat to me," her friend joked in a low voice, and the two of them giggled as they walked off.

Luca and Juin overheard them, but they never took their gaze off each other.

"That's just lucky of you," Luca snarled, completely ignoring the girls' comments earlier. He glanced at Taka Nakamura, who was a distance away, before saying to Juin, "What did that dirty human tell you?"

Juin was about to reply out of habit when he stopped himself. He then frowned at Luca and said smugly, "What is it to you what he told me?"

"I wouldn't be with those kinds if I were you. Disgusting humans."

"Aren't you a human?" Juin scoffed.

"I'm different!" Luca snapped. "If I were you, I would stick to your own kind. The Nakamuras aren't that kind to people who aren't… fully human."

"Why should I believe you? You aren't that kind to me either," Juin mocked as he folded his arms and raised his chin slightly, trying to emulate what Lucifer usually looked like when the guy was looking down at people… which was the whole time.

BAM!

WHOOSH!

BAM!

BAM!

A series of banging sound startled Juin, and he jumped up slightly, wondering if the attacks he was waiting for were finally here!

Thankfully, it was just a false alarm.

A gust of wind had burst the windows open earlier, sending stacks of papers scattering all over the classrooms on both sides of the corridor and toppling stacks of books off a student's arms, who was still in one of the classrooms.

While everyone's hair was messed up by the sudden burst of wind, Luca's coffee-colored hair merely waved slightly in the wind as he narrowed his eyes at Juin threateningly. "Because I want to be the one to kill you."

He then limped off, heading back in the direction that he came from while maintaining eye contact with Juin. Only when he reached the end of the hall did he break it and hobbled away, disappearing from view around the corner.

"That guy…" Juin frowned slightly as he mumbled, "is kind of an idiot…"

Lucifer nodded in agreement. "He's a strong idiot. When you reach his level, I'll add that adjective in front of your title. 'Strong idiot' Juin."

Juin scowled at him slightly, but he quickly shook his head and quickly made his way to Warlock's office, which was in the other building.

Chapter end