Just like her former teacher...
She shook her head, no longer dwelling on such trivial matters. Instead, she lowered her gaze to the two cans of alcohol in her arms.
What attracted her most about this Earth was, as expected, its alcohol.
Though R'lyeh had alcohol too, it was usually awful—fishy and harsh, completely undrinkable. Perhaps they lacked suitable ingredients for brewing.
For some reason, the alcohol Takanashi Shiori had offered her seemed particularly appealing.
She could almost smell a wonderful fragrance, something strangely familiar and nostalgic.
But it was probably just her imagination.
Roland followed the other three around this place called a school. Though it was neither as splendid nor as artistic as the academies of R'lyeh, the changes and progress it had made over the past few decades were truly astonishing.
As she strolled around at her leisure, she suddenly noticed a tall, slender woman walking along a path in the distance.
Roland glanced over casually.
Then she froze.
The woman had a gloomy, aloof air about her. Her face was pale, and her dark hair fell to her neck. She wore a pair of thick, round-framed glasses.
"Thump..."
At first glance, there was nothing particularly stunning about her, but Roland felt her long-dormant heart begin to pound...
Looking closer... What a noble, elegant bearing.
Her dignified air, her icy gaze, her skin like the finest jade—every part of her was so perfect and captivating.
Roland felt as though her heart had been pierced.
"What a dazzling and beautiful woman..."
She couldn't help exclaiming.
The three girls beside her all responded with a "?"
"Uh, Dean, do you mean Teacher Haihara?" Takanashi Shiori asked uncertainly.
"Teacher Haihara? Is that this lady's name?"
Roland's face flushed. Her mature, refined demeanor vanished, and she became like a girl in the throes of first love.
"Teacher..."
She repeated the title.
After a moment's thought, Roland turned to the three of them and asked with utmost seriousness:
"May I ask if this beautiful lady has a partner? If not, what type does she like? And how much money would I need to have to date her here on Earth...?"
Kirishima Ai and the other two fell silent.
They didn't understand, but they were deeply shaken.
Haihara wiped the sweat from her temple.
She wasn't someone who sweated easily, but it was still a little too hot for her, so she'd just gone out of school to buy an ice cream.
Strawberry-flavored.
Nothing unusual. Her taste in that regard was much like any other young girl's.
As she wondered how to spend the weekend, she suddenly noticed that a girl in a white formal dress had appeared beside her.
Hmm... She looked pretty young. A high school student?
But she wasn't wearing a uniform.
Was she a teacher? She seemed rather mature, and she was wearing what looked like expensive accessories.
"...Hello. Can I help you?"
Haihara realized the girl seemed to be looking for her.
Soon, she noticed that the girl was also holding two cans of alcohol.
...Huh?
Why did that alcohol look so familiar?
The silver-haired girl adjusted her monocle. A faint blush colored her fair cheeks.
"You're Teacher Haihara, aren't you? Hello, I'm Roland Eldritch. Please, just call me Roland. And if you don't mind, it would be even better if you called me little Roland."
The girl greeted her with startling warmth, almost fervor.
Roland? A foreign name?
Was she a foreigner?
That was obvious just by looking at her, but in a city full of magical girls, Haihara sometimes couldn't tell.
The name seemed familiar somehow, as if she'd heard it somewhere before.
A moment later, she spotted three familiar faces.
Kirishima Ai, Sakaki Chika, and Takanashi Shiori.
Why were those three together again?
They stared at Roland and Haihara in a panic, not knowing what to do.
"Um... So you're a student too?"
Haihara asked, puzzled by the student's outlandish outfit.
"Huh? No, no, Teacher Haihara, she's..." Takanashi Shiori tried to explain, but Roland beside her immediately cut in.
"—Yes, of course I'm your student! My dear teacher, please feel free to call me Roland. You can teach me however you like!"
Roland's lovely, mismatched eyes held nothing but Haihara's reflection. She practically had hearts in them.
Haihara gave her a look like the confused old man meme, then turned to Takanashi Shiori and the others.
"What's with this girl?"
"Uh, she's a foreign student..." Kirishima Ai explained awkwardly.
Haihara nodded, doing her best to accept the explanation.
Just then, Takanashi Shiori leaned close to Roland's ear and whispered:
"Dean Eldritch, you're getting a little too excited. Teacher Haihara won't get a good impression of you like this..."
At her words, Roland immediately composed herself, realizing how she'd just acted. She coughed twice.
A moment later, Dean Roland straightened her collar and bow tie, once again adopting her former elegant, dignified demeanor.
"I'm sorry, Teacher Haihara. I was out of line just now. As an apology, please let me choose a gift for you."
The silver-haired girl spoke with utmost sincerity.
Haihara looked utterly bewildered, but decided to see what the girl would do.
Then she witnessed a scene that left her speechless.
The girl kept pulling all kinds of gemstones from her clothes, looking flustered as she carefully considered each one.
"How about this one... No, no, how could this one be worthy of you, teacher? What about this one? That would be terribly rude..."
"Maybe I should sell all my possessions and have the most precious gem made from scratch..."
"No. If I want to show how I feel, only this one is suitable for you, teacher!"
Muttering to herself, she removed a violet crystal from the chain of her monocle.
It was a dazzling, magnificent gem, a crescent-shaped crystal that suited the silver-haired girl perfectly.
"Teacher Haihara, please accept this humble gift..."
She had just started to offer the crystal to Haihara when Takanashi Shiori stopped her—
"Dean, get a grip! That's your Transformation Magic Crystal!"
Watching the girls make a scene, Haihara merely pushed up her glasses coolly and sighed.
Where had this bunch of problem children come from? They spent every day acting crazy around here.
Chapter: A New Teacher
In the end, at Haihara's suggestion, Dean Roland's gift to her became the two cans of alcohol in her arms.
In a way, they'd returned to their rightful owner.
It seemed Dean Roland had gone to all that trouble for nothing.
But she didn't look disappointed or disheartened at all. Instead, she seemed like a lovestruck girl, lost in happy fantasies.
Meanwhile, watching the girls make a mess of things—and recalling that Takanashi Shiori had let slip the words "Transformation Magic Crystal"—Haihara realized the silver-haired girl in front of her was probably some kind of magical girl.
Hmm... A magical girl she'd never seen before, and not one from Maple Plain City.
And she didn't seem like an ordinary magical girl.
Had she come from R'lyeh?
In her ordinary state, Haihara wasn't very sensitive to magic, but she could still tell that the girl called Roland seemed to have a rather high status and was probably very powerful.
That was a bit of a problem.
After all, if these girls were too powerful, how was she supposed to get them to come back to class obediently?
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going. Lunch break is almost over, so remember to get back to class in a bit."
Haihara said it matter-of-factly, then picked up her alcohol and prepared to leave, without caring whether that might leave a good impression or not.
But she hadn't gone far before she noticed the silver-haired girl, Roland, following her.
Haihara ignored her and went all the way back to her office. Then she opened a cabinet, intending to put the two cans of alcohol inside.
However, when she opened the cabinet, she froze.
Why did it look like... two cans were missing?
She always drank a fixed amount, so she knew how many were in there.
Had she drunk more than usual the last time she got too drunk?
Haihara looked at the two cans in her arms again, lost in thought.
"I say, Roland, where did you buy these two cans of alcohol?"
She quietly put the cans back in the cabinet, then turned to Roland.
"You mean the alcohol? Takanashi and the others gave it to me. Would you like more? I can ask them to bring a few more cans..."
She spoke with great enthusiasm.
Haihara quickly understood what had happened, and her expression turned cool.
"...There's no need for that."
What was the point of taking the alcohol from her, then giving it back to her?
"So why are you following me?"
It wasn't as if she had anything particularly appealing about her.
And this was the first time she'd met this magical girl.
Still, the girl seemed a little too enthusiastic.
"Isn't it normal for a student to follow her teacher?" Roland asked, tilting her head in confusion.
It seemed she didn't know much about Earth, either.
Haihara propped her chin on one hand and watched her for a while. Then she crooked a finger with the other.
Roland immediately came over as obediently as a kitten.
Haihara casually gripped Roland's chin and studied her.
Before you continue