Ding-a-ling!
"Class dismissed. Next session, we'll cover the Demon King's influence on common demons. Review Chapter 5," the elven teacher droned as the bell rang, her monotone voice practically a lullaby.
Most students jolted awake only when their desks vibrated from her stiletto heels clacking out of the room.
Just in terms of figure and appearance, this female teacher born of the elf race is really quite beautiful. Or rather, there has never been an ordinary-looking one among the elf race!
At first glance, the teacher looked no older than twenty-eight—elf genetics were cheat codes. Born in the post-Demon King era, she was actually pushing 750, with a 200-year-old granddaughter.
——Once, she'd brought her daughter and grandkid to a school festival, and the trio could've passed as sisters.
Elven agelessness? Envy of every race.
The classroom buzzed with lunchtime energy. Luo Qi's public school didn't serve meals—too many species with incompatible diets. Only a snack shack and homemade bentos kept students fed.
At this time, the classroom is already very lively because it will be lunchtime soon.
Since Luo Qi is studying at an ordinary public school, lunch is not provided here.
Why? It's very simple. In ordinary public schools, students of all ethnic groups will be enrolled. However, due to the different eating habits of different ethnic groups, it is impossible to uniformly supply food. This is completely different from those high-end single-ethnic schools.
So this school only maintained a small commissary while most students relied on homemade lunches.
Sighing, Luo Qi pulled out his lunchbox.
As the Demon King, he could survive a month without food. But what use was that superpower in peacetime? Still, he cringed every time he opened his sister's special preparation: rice molded into a heart shape, garnished with a "cute" carrot flower.
Fortunately... it seems many mothers these days are into this style, so quite a few students in class bring similar lunch boxes. What's more, it's a perfect way to blend in as 'ordinary' - eating such meals simply makes you appear to come from a regular family.
Not to boast, but Luo Qi had done considerable research on how to pass as an ordinary person. Plus, with his favorite creamy mashed potatoes included every day, how could he possibly refuse?
Of course, although there are many mixed-blood students here - demons, humans, and other races - don't expect to find the kind of 'hell cuisine' you'd see in comics. No squirming tentacles, no deformed fish staring at you with bulging eyes, no chunks of meat that might suddenly bite you.
While such things did exist 700 years ago (likely a headache for interspecies families back then), after seven centuries of technological advancement, even the ugliest ingredients can now be sold in supermarkets in relatively normal-looking forms. Rumor has it they use transformation magic to alter appearances while preserving the original flavor, making them acceptable to ordinary consumers.
If supermarkets sold raw ingredients in their natural forms, their grotesque appearances would probably cause panic... even though many of the housewives shopping there consume that very same meat daily - just magically processed.
But all in all, technological progress is truly wonderful. What once required mages to cast spells can now be achieved through specialized magic arrays powered by universal magic stones storing magical energy. This allows even ordinary people with limited magical talent to perform various spells to facilitate their daily lives.
Of course, this doesn't mean magical aptitude has become obsolete. At this stage, these magical devices can only handle basic spells - many advanced magics still require proper mages to cast. Thus, magical talent remains this world's most crucial standard for identifying true talent - something rare and highly sought after.
So, the talent for magic is still the most important talent standard in this world, which can be encountered but not sought.
"Luo Qi, why'd you start eating alone without waiting for us? Got something special today?" The boy who'd been enthusiastically raising his hand earlier—Benjamin Basaro Pricilla, the class president with a relentlessly competitive streak—sidled up to Luo Qi with a grin.
"Let's go! We're eating on the roof today. I snagged the key—finally, we can dodge that person," Dylan, the earlier question-answerer, urged nervously while scanning the room.
But before Luo Qi could respond, a petite girl materialized behind Dylan. At just 150 cm tall, her cherubic face and saccharine smile belied her iron grip. "Where's my little puppy sneaking off to?" she cooed. "It's lunchtime~"
Dylan—a 180 cm mountain of muscle—twitched futilely in her grasp. The absurd sight of this "loli" dragging him across the floor like a ragdoll would've shocked anyone else. But Luo Qi and Benjamin barely blinked. After all, she had ogre blood. Even diluted through generations of human intermarriage, her kind's monstrous strength remained.
Luo Qi couldn't help wondering: What drove the first humans to marry ogres? Sure, early ogres were famously attractive—tall, sharp-toothed, with elegantly pointed ears—but their millennia-old cannibalistic traditions weren't exactly date material. Modern substitutes for human flesh and hybrid genetics had tamed the cravings, but back then? Ogres literally needed trace elements from human meat. Were those pioneers masochists? Willing livestock?
The class ignored the spectacle. When this happened daily, outrage became exhausting.
"H-Help! She'll force-feed me her weird experiments again!" Dylan wailed.
"Have fun. Don't stay out late," Luo Qi deadpanned, waving as Benjamin launched into a rant about last night's TV shows.
The girl's smile darkened. "Calling my carefully curated meals 'weird'? If you keep this up, next time I'll add real surprises." She dragged Dylan out, her cheerful hum echoing down the hall.
Rest assured, this was love—twisted but genuine. Childhood sweethearts, they embodied the ultimate odd couple: Dylan, heir to a bankrupt noble house drowning in debt; her, future CEO of a multinational food empire. Their antics could fill novels, but Luo Qi couldn't care less.
After certain… incidents with obsessive women, he'd developed a firm "no yanderes" policy. Yet as a staunchly heterosexual Demon King (eternal harem rumors be damned), he still dreamed of ordinary romance—love at first sight, sweet dates, marriage. No drama, no armies of concubines.
But reality mocked him. Not one woman had ever sparked his interest. For the world's most powerful being, this was his greatest crisis:
Even a Demon King wants normal love!