The next morning, breakfast in the cafeteria was eerily normal. I sat between Yuria and two wide-eyed classmates, all of us sporting new bruises and triumphant grins. Someone muttered "plot twist" under the table earlier, and we all laughed.
Lilith swept in. Her eyes were bruised from last night, but her smile was fierce. "Good news," she announced. "I spoke to the Archdemon Council. We will form a joint defence task force. For now, classes will resume. Consider today a victory lap."
Cheers echoed through the room.
Yuria elbowed me. "We did good, huh?" she said quietly, a proud grin on her face.
I nodded, sipping a weirdly comforting demon brew. "We literally stopped a demon king. Lilith actually said victory lap."
She laughed. "Algebra can wait. I'm more worried about that hot soup in front of me." The school statue's missing horn in the corner seemed to give us a thumbs-up.
