DxD: The Truth of the World

CHAPTER 4

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Time flew by quickly after the trip to India, mostly packed with the copious amount of work that usually starts to trickle in with the end of the school year.

Faculty meetings for the upcoming school festival. Vetoing wild class event proposals for that very same festival. More faculty meetings to discuss the structure of midterm exams. Quality assurance revisions. Scrambling to finish class plans and lectures before midterms rolled around. Then came the mountain of grading.

A brief period of calmness for a month.

Career counseling sessions with anxious third-years and their parents. Coordinating the student council debate to elect next year’s president. More faculty meetings, this time for the final exams. Mock exams for the final year, with the third-years having mock Center Test papers instead. More grading. Another round of quality checks to ensure the finals covered everything in the syllabus. A frantic full syllabus review to double-check all goals had been met.

A quick break while the students were on the examination week.

Then grading. So much grading. Ren shed a tear as rows of final examination papers landed on his desk. By the time he cleared one-fourth of his work, a single tear slid down his cheek as he made a mental note to have a serious conversation with administration about the sheer number of classes he was responsible for.

And so, after all that, his second year as a teacher finally came to a close... For exactly two weeks.

Then it was back to school for the new year’s preparation.

Most people would’ve cracked under the pressure. But not him. He was a certified workaholic, after all, so he actually enjoyed the intense schedule.

In his first year working at Kuoh Academy, during what the veteran teachers grimly referred to as the "heavy season," Ren logged an average of 84 hours a week.

Eighty-four.

He practically lived in the faculty room, operating on caffeine, convenience store rice balls, and pure willpower... And doped on batches of Concentrates and Sukukajas to manage his time, so much so that his brain practically fried itself a dozen times if not for healing skills being used once in a while during breaks that were forced onto him with a Lullaby.

Ah, good times.

And hey, he only used the Concentrate (for a clear and focused mind) and Sukukaja (to increase his writing/typing speed) combo twice during the whole season this time, so he called that an improvement.

Before long, the third year as a teacher started, with the familiar rush of work at the beginning of the school year feeling a bit smoother now that he was more seasoned. Work was done quicker, meetings were more efficient, and the task of lesson planning started to become much easier.

In fact, he had made way for so much more time that he could finally restart his hobby of exercising.

To be honest, he was expecting another hectic yet peaceful year to pass by, with the hopes that nothing could mess with the rhythm that he had already gotten used to.

Until Issei came home a week into the school year bragging about getting a girlfriend.

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Ironically, his parents had the same reaction as him when he first found out.

"PFFFT!"

Green tea splattered all over the place as both his father and mother spat their drinks out the moment Issei really convinced them that he was telling the truth.

"What?"

His father spluttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he blinked at Issei.

"Ise, w-what do you mean, 'a girlfriend'?"

Issei flashed an almost smug grin as he brought out his flip phone, swiping to show the new contact that he had added.

"It's true! A girlfriend! You know, someone I’m seeing romantically! Here, I got her number and address as well!"

His mother outright grabbed the phone out of his hands before he could even finish his sentence, inspecting it with a quick glance.

Her face paled.

"O-Otou-san, Ise—Ise did it!"

Hyodo Miki, usually a calm and collected woman, was caught so off guard that she let out a scream. It was rare, but it happened when she was either shocked or dangerously mad. Today, it was the former.

"I-I don’t believe it either, Okaa-san! I honestly thought, out of the two of them, Ren would get one first! But this…!"

Hyodo Goro, however, was always the one who yelled when shocked.

By this time, usually Ren would be the one to calm them both down whenever Issei did something stupid to warrant both of his parents screaming, but he was caught between trying to process what was happening and suppressing the small, uncomfortable feeling creeping up on him the moment he sensed something was up.

"... A Fallen?"

He muttered, drowned out by the rising noise in the room as Issei started explaining proudly the details that led to this situation. His expression hardened, lips drawn into a thin line, and the persona of the easygoing older brother dropped for a brief instant.

He caught himself just as his hands twitched, his elder sibling instincts roaring to grab Issei by the shoulders so that he could fish out information about the Fallen Angel that came close to his little brother.

… Breathing deeply, he looked over at Issei’s lecherous yet joyful face as he animatedly described this "Amano Yuuma" with his hands.

Long black hair, an impressively emphasized curvy figure, and violet eyes that apparently sparkled as she confessed her feelings to him on the bridge over the river that connected the nearby district to Kuoh Academy’s back entrance.

It sounded like something ripped out of a shoujo manga.

Don’t get him wrong; he was all for Issei’s happiness. In fact, he genuinely hoped someone would eventually take a chance on his idiot brother, maybe even help him mellow out, or at least redirect that hormonal chaos into something a little more productive.

"Shit, how did they find out about..."

His words trailed off as Ren's eyes flicked to Issei's left arm with a grim expression before he stood up abruptly, causing all three pairs of eyes to linger on him in confusion.

With a grim smile, he roughly ruffled his brother's hair, causing a yelp to escape from Issei.

"Looks like there's hope for you after all, huh?"

"Naturally, this is my first step to becoming a Harem King!"

Issei proudly exclaimed, causing his parents to sigh in disappointment at his proclamation.

With a swift goodbye, Ren made his exit, giving an excuse to his family by telling them that he had something urgent to handle. His feet carried him quickly out of the house and toward the shed in the backyard for a breather.

He was seriously happy that Issei was happy. What kind of sibling would not be joyful at the great news? But as for Amano Yuuma... His head twitched slightly, staring at the door with a blank expression before a bitter look appeared on his face.

"... Is that really the best course of action? Can he really—?"

He paused, as if listening to a voice that wasn’t there, before a moment later, a sigh exited his mouth. He rubbed his face in frustration before leaning back against the shed's door, eyes closed for a moment to collect himself.

"You say that, and I understand what you mean. But—Shit, as a brother, even if he's the damn Sekiryuutei of this generation, this is just... damn it."

Taking a few deep breaths to calm his emotions down, he looked to the sky and couldn't help but ask.

Why, God?

Why did you give Issei, out of all people, a damn Longinus-Grade Sacred Gear...?