Chapter 33: Lava Trouble

“You idiot, what did you just say in front of the Archbishop…?”

Joey, being dragged away by Chiyang, asked helplessly.

“Ah?”

Chiyang didn’t look back at Joey. Instead, she kept pulling the Protagonist forward as she spoke.

“That Zilan person looked at you with the same eyes as me…”

“Or maybe dozens of times stronger.”

“I hate her gaze. I also hate how she just emphasized your friendship with me in front of you.”

“Ha? Impossible… She’s not like you, always thinking about that kind of thing.”

Joey frowned.

Hearing this, Chiyang suddenly stopped walking.

Then, the hand that was around Joey’s shoulder tightened even more.

“Joey…”

Chiyang turned her head. Her eyes, complex, looked at the Protagonist.

“Joey…”

“I’m not an idiot. I’m just straightforward…”

“I can see it—eyes of all creatures don’t lie.”

“Like how other little demon beasts look at me with fear; other Demon Race look at me with disgust and loathing.”

“But when you look at me, it’s a kind of gaze I’ve never seen before.”

“Ha? Probably just playful or teasing…”

The Protagonist added.

“No! It’s… It’s an indescribable gaze!”

Chiyang grabbed Joey’s shoulders.

“It’s exactly because of that gaze that I get so frustrated. When someone looks at you like prey…”

“I just want to tell her!”

Hey, hey…

Why is this person suddenly being so intense…

The Protagonist’s face turned slightly red, feeling the girl’s closeness making his body temperature rise.

Joey’s gaze drifted away.

“I get it… So can you not get so close…”

But Chiyang hadn’t finished yet.

She placed her hand on the wall beside Joey, looking down at the Protagonist with those bright red eyes.

“I just wanted to tell her, you’re mine…”

“And I won’t let you have have sex⭕ with anyone else, either.”

“…”

When Joey heard this, the redness on his face faded instantly, turning cold.

“Will you die if you don’t say have sex⭕?”

“What are you two doing?”

At the same time, a cold voice came from beside Joey.

Through the gap between Chiyang and Joey, Aiki could be seen with a cold face, holding an umbrella and watching Chiyang pin Joey to the wall.

***

Three minutes later, Academy Dining Hall…

In the Dining Hall, Joey and Chiyang each ordered a Lava Tomato Egg.

Aiki sat opposite, watching the two.

The outside of the Lava Tomato Egg looked no different from an ordinary omelet rice, still an oval egg wrapping the filling.

“Hey… Isn’t this just regular omelet rice? But why is it moving…”

Joey looked at the Lava Tomato Egg in front of him, the egg skin shaking as if something alive was inside.

“Poke it open and you’ll see…”

Chiyang shrugged with a mischievous expression.

However, Joey, curious about the inside, didn’t see Chiyang’s expression. He lifted his spoon…

And stabbed it fiercely into the egg skin.

“Pffft!!!!!!”

In an instant, the red filling inside the egg skin erupted like a volcano.

And it sprayed all over Joey’s face.

“Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!”

Chiyang, seeing Joey fall for it, burst into laughter.

“Now you know why it’s called Lava Tomato Egg!”

Chiyang looked at Joey’s face covered in red sauce.

“That’s exactly how I looked the first time I ate it!!!”

“…”

Joey’s expression darkened as he was laughed at.

But he couldn’t see his own face now, since it was completely covered in sauce.

“…”

Seeing Chiyang still laughing, he grabbed Chiyang’s collar and yanked her toward him.

“Uwah! What are you doing!!!”

Chiyang was startled by Joey’s action.

But Joey said nothing. He just buried his sauce-covered face into Chiyang’s ample chest and started wiping.

“Uwaaahhh! It’s hot! The sauce is super hot! Don’t wipe it on me!!!”

“Please don’t be so noisy…”

Aiki, sitting beside them, muttered.

***

One minute later…

“Whew, finally cleaned up.”

Joey nodded with satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Chiyang clutched her chest, looking as if she’d lost the will to live.

“Why… does it feel like I’ve been violated by a boy, and hot liquid rubbed all over me…”

“Please don’t say things that cause misunderstandings.”

Joey rolled his eyes at Chiyang.

“I just borrowed you to wipe my face…”

“You damn brat, just wait, one day I’ll pin you to the ground and have my way with you!”

Chiyang shot back.

“Ha? You even have that kind of ability?”

Joey gave a mocking smile, resting his head on his hand and tapping his leg arrogantly.

“Say that again after you beat me…”

“You’re all talk—this ‘I’ll have my way with you to have sex⭕’… In the end, you’re just a little Chef Girl…”

“Still a weakling Chef Girl…”

Chiyang puffed her cheeks, her pretty face flushing bright red.

So…

“Smack!”

Chiyang grabbed her Lava Tomato Egg and slapped it onto Joey’s face.

“…”

Omelet rice hung from Joey’s face, and the next moment—

“Pffft!!!!”

The sauce inside the Lava Tomato Egg erupted again.

Aiki, who was prepared, opened her umbrella to block the sauce blast.

“You damn Dragon!!!”

Joey started wrestling with Chiyang.

“Here we go again…”

Aiki watched the two fighting, pressing her hands to her head in frustration.

***

No one knew how long the scuffle lasted before Joey and Chiyang stopped.

To keep the two from fighting, Aiki bought two more Lava Tomato Eggs and separated Joey and Chiyang at the table.

“So that’s how it is…”

The Protagonist picked up his spoon and carefully poked a hole in the middle of the Lava Tomato Egg.

The egg skin slowly transformed into a trapezoid, and sauce flowed out from the hole.

A substance the color of lava coated every grain of rice and the egg skin.

Joey scooped up some sauce with his spoon to examine it.

“So the inside is actually a rich sauce made of tomato, onion, and Volcano Demon Bull meat…”

Volcano Demon Bull, a type of demon bull, only grows inside volcanoes, enduring lava temperatures and living soaked in magma.

The meat of the Volcano Demon Bull is also absurdly hot, too high-temperature to cook directly.

Instead, it’s soaked in cold water or cooled with ice-element Magic before being used.

Even after cooling, the beef is still scalding, so the Chef Girl who created the Lava Tomato Egg was quite clever.

She turned the beef into minced meat and threw it into a soup of tomato and onion, where the hot beef could cook the soup instantly.

So, when you poke open the omelet, it erupts like a volcano.

“It’s actually pretty delicious.”

Joey took a blissful bite and nodded.

The Protagonist suddenly remembered this omelet rice was bought by Aiki, so he awkwardly turned his face away, pushed the food toward Aiki, and asked.

“Hey! Little Servant! Do you want to try it?”

“Eh?”

Aiki looked at Joey, a little embarrassed, in surprise.

Young Master…

He never shared food with me before…

She thought back to how Joey, used to being a Demon King, never had peers to play with…

Aiki turned to look at Chiyang, who was eating her omelet rice alone.

This Demon Dragon… seems to have influenced the Young Master a bit…

For the first time, Aiki felt a bit of goodwill toward Chiyang.

She then turned back, looking at the shy Joey, and spoke coldly.

“Fine, then…”

“But I want Young Master to feed me…”