Here We Go Again...

Another new day.

The sun was shining brightly, the sky was cloudless for miles, and it was a fine morning. It looked like today would be a pleasant day.

Of course, that was assuming I could ignore the Empire Commanders I kept running into by the roadside, selling pirated DVDs, telling fortunes, grilling lamb skewers, peddling Tibetan medicine, reselling plastic jade, and so on...

I really couldn't understand it. With their abilities, wouldn't finding any kind of job be effortless? Why did they have to come out and ruin the city's appearance?

"Because fighting the city inspectors is very fulfilling and lets everyone experience the joy of battle," Pandora said while tightly holding my hand and pretending to be a blind girl.

I suddenly understood. "Oh, so that's how it is... Wait, no. Lily—now that we're back on Earth, I should switch how I address you—how did you know what I was thinking?"

Pandora answered, "Brother said everything he was thinking out loud just now."

"Uh... did I?"

When I arrived at school, everything was normal. My classmates were still fooling around as usual, the fat Zhao Hang was still putting out GG as usual, and I was still sleeping on my desk as usual. What had happened over the past few days now felt so distant, as though it had never happened at all. Ah, what blissfully ordinary times!

"A—Jun!" A pleasant female voice suddenly rang out beside my ear. I knew it was Qian Qian without even looking up. Ever since I had returned from that other world a few days ago, this girl had been glued to my side. Basically, once we got to school, she never left my sight for more than ten seconds. My disappearance last time had clearly terrified her badly.

Without lifting my head, I reached out and accurately rubbed Qian Qian's head, then continued sleeping.

"Hey! Could you please stop treating me like Lily? And why do you go straight to sleep the moment you arrive? Can't you show a little energy?"

I replied dully, "I've had too much exercise at night these past few days. I urgently need rest."

"What?!" Qian Qian instantly caught fire.

"...Lily made me tell her stories..."

"Oh..." She cooled down.

Holding an adorable little loli and reading her stories from a book sounded like such a wonderful thing. But if the book in that little loli's hands was a copy of World War History, then the feeling became rather subtle.

Given Pandora's unusual hobbies, which went far beyond the realms an ordinary loli could reach, I decisively made up my mind after returning from the desert: I would launch the Docile Pandora Development Plan!

The first step of the plan was to use Earth's fairy tales—though someone seemed to have forgotten that middle school freshmen were already too old for fairy tales these days—to awaken Pandora's loli heart!

So I gave Pandora some money and told her to pick out a few books she liked from the bookstore as a gift from me.

The little one went happily, because it was the first time I had given her anything.

The little one returned even more happily, because she was carrying a full twelve brick-thick volumes of World War History...

My Docile Pandora Development Plan had encountered an unprecedented challenge at its very first step.

Just as Qian Qian and I were chatting and laughing, Sun Yang, who sat in front of me, suddenly spoke through gritted teeth. "Hey, you two, could you go somewhere else if you want to flirt? You're really breaking the heart of a single guy like me..."

I turned and said, "If you could lose weight, you would've escaped single life ages ago."

"...Stop joking around. This is our senior year of high school! I really don't know what you two are thinking. You still have time to fool around at a time like this, and even the teachers turn a blind eye to you..."

Naturally. Our homeroom teacher was Pandora's adjutant now, one of my trusted generals. Even if I held a bonfire party in the classroom, she probably wouldn't question it.

Just then, Zhao Hang, who was busy spreading rumors near the podium, suddenly smacked his forehead and let out a strange cry. "Hey! How did I forget about this—there's big news today!"

Everyone booed. "Give it a rest! When has any of your news not been big news?"

"This time, it really is big news." Zhao Hang wasn't annoyed by the booing at all. Instead, he folded his arms and said confidently, "It's definitely the biggest event in this school's history!"

Seeing Zhao Hang getting serious, everyone knew this was actually somewhat interesting. Usually, whenever that fat guy used this tone, it meant something genuinely interesting had happened.

Seeing everyone's expectant gazes, Zhao Hang smugly looked around the room...

Everyone who knew his habits immediately lowered their heads and grabbed their chairs.

Zhao Hang shrank his neck and hurriedly said, "Don't, don't! I'll tell you, I'll tell you! We have a new transfer student joining us today!"

"Aww—" Everyone sighed in unison. This news was truly uninteresting. Transfer students were quite common; even if it was a little strange for someone to transfer in during senior year, it still wasn't enough to interest this bunch of people bored enough to grow moss.

Zhao Hang had clearly expected their reaction. He calmly continued, "But she's a beautiful girl~~~"

A random bystander teased, "Can you at least confirm that she's a woman?"

"Not necessarily," another random bystander chimed in. "At least judging from how he talks about our beautiful teacher Pan Lingling, the fat guy's taste has improved somewhat."

"You two, get out of here!" Zhao Hang waved his round arm and shut down the two bystanders who were playing off each other. "I'm telling you, not only is the newcomer a gorgeous beauty, she's a blonde beauty!"

"A blonde beauty?!" the male animals cried out.

"A foreigner?!" the women cried out.

"Crash—" A certain emperor collapsed.

Zhao Hang was still introducing that newly transferred blonde foreign beauty from the podium, and everyone listened with great interest.

"Listen to me, she's absolutely a stunning beauty! She has magnificent golden hair, such noble bearing that she looks like a princess, and the instant I saw her, I fell completely in love. I've decided that I absolutely have to win her over before high school ends..."

A blonde beauty, noble bearing, like a princess... Heh, very good. Very powerful.

Sandora. Other than Sandora, I truly couldn't think of anyone else who could appear at a time like this while fitting all those descriptions.

"A Jun, why did you slide under the desk?" Seeing me suddenly slide off my chair, Qian Qian was startled. After hurriedly pulling me back up, she asked in concern.

I waved a hand. "It's nothing. The fat guy's news just gave me a scare."

Qian Qian immediately stared at me suspiciously. "Do you know that blonde beauty?"

I nodded. There was no point hiding it now. Otherwise, Sandora would definitely expose me when she arrived later. Rather than let Qian Qian overthink things even more then, I might as well admit it openly now.

"Strange. Why do I feel like there are suddenly so many unusual people around you? Lily being around is one thing, then there was Lin Xue, and now another one—right, what's her name?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Sandora came this time—right, she's my... companion!" I finally thought of a way to explain Sandora's identity, so I lowered my voice and told Qian Qian.

"Companion?" Qian Qian froze for a moment, then immediately thought of my identity as an Esper. She quickly lowered her voice as well. "Like you? She's also..."

I hurriedly nodded.

Qian Qian understood, then smiled sweetly. "A Jun, why are you so nervous?"

Nonsense. I was explaining to my girlfriend why I knew an unfamiliar beautiful woman. If I wasn't nervous, there would be something wrong with me.

"Relax! I'm not doubting you. Don't we have at least that much trust between us? It's just that there are suddenly so many people around you whose backgrounds I don't know, and it makes me nervous. It feels like you're trying to exclude me from something..."

Listening to Qian Qian's complaint, I felt a little guilty as well. No matter what, I really had hidden many things from her. It wasn't that I had never considered telling her everything, but I was truly worried about whether she could accept my identity. This wasn't the same as Lin Xue. Lin Xue was only an ordinary friend, so I had fewer concerns about letting her know certain things. But Qian Qian and I were closer, which gave me far more worries and made it impossible for me to be as frank with her as I was with Lin Xue.

Just then, the class bell rang, and the noisy classroom quickly fell silent.

.