Swim Team

…

The next couple of days went by in a blur, surprising Juin who kept thinking that someone was about to jump him every time he was alone. He was so jumpy the whole time that he felt embarrassed by his own actions, and Lucifer had basically given up on him.

"Is this what they called 'the calm before the storm'?" Juin mumbled as he sat at the bleachers while watching the girls practicing their backstrokes. Max had joined the female swim team, and today was the audition for the first team. Since she had not been practicing for a while, she felt a little worried, so Juin decided to come and support.

"Damn, she looks good for a 16 years old…" Lucifer mumbled as he looked at Max, who was stretching out by the side of the pool. He was sitting next to Juin lazily as he openly looked at the girls in their skintight swimsuits. "Izzy would look good in it… But I prefer those… bikini thing that I saw on TV? I want to see her wear those… It would be fun."

Juin glanced at him and muttered under his breath. "Who is this Izzy? You always mentioned her."

Lucifer shrugged and answered, "My fiancee… Back in Alercane."

Juin nearly fell off his seat when he heard that. Sure, Lucifer might be the demon king, but he did not look old enough to have a fiancee! At most, he looked like he should be a college student! How the heck did the marriage system work in Alercane? Was it appropriate for this childish demon king to have a bride? This was a guy who liked to burn clothes off people! Off guys!

"F- Fiancee?"

Lucifer nodded. "Of course. We were engaged when I turned one."

"What?" Juin gasped loudly, causing a few people who were stretching by the pool to look over. He smiled sheepishly at them before looking away. "One?! What the heck?" Juin whispered as he looked over at the pool. When Max waved at him, he quickly waved back and did an air-pump with his left fist.

"It's normal at Alercane, especially for royals like me. Anyway, let's go elsewhere. Let's try out the talisman that you drew yesterday," Lucifer said as he floated up into midair.

The last couple of nights, Lucifer had taught Juin how to draw a simple spell diagram called "Silence" correctly. It took Juin a while to completely memorize the intricate diagrams, but when he did, he could practice drawing it in real life.

However, for some reason, when he tried drawing it on paper, the paper would burst into flames and disappeared. After a few try, Lucifer deduced that it was because Juin's power was slowly manifesting due to the merge between them and that he could not just draw on a normal paper as his power would leak out into the diagram, thus activating it prematurely.

Thus, they spent the last night looking for things to draw on, and Juin finally found a palm-sized piece of wood that he could draw on without burning it. So, today, they wanted to test it out… But who could they test it out on?

The question popped up in Juin's mind, and he asked Lucifer about it, "I mean, it's not like we can just go a supernatural being and ask them for help, right?"

Lucifer thought about it and agreed. "How about Warlock?"

"Would it work on him?" Juin asked curiously. "He seems rather powerful, given how he easily managed to lock you up. What if this doesn't work on him?"

The thought of him getting locked up by a human caused Lucifer's mood to turn sour. He then said gruffly, "Just try it on the wereidiots!"

Juin thought about it and nodded. Those two, even if their supernatural bloodlines were quite diluted, still possessed some supernatural abilities. He could try to test out their hearing abilities, as well as getting more information from them.

With that in mind, Juin continued to watch the tryout. "We'll go after this," he said when Lucifer signaled him to move. "I can't leave her alone."

When Max was swimming, he watched so intensely that he barely even blinked his eyes, and when she touched the end first, Juin jumped up and cheered loudly, "That's Max! Awesome!"

He then waved at Max, but when he saw the people staring at him, he started to feel embarrassed and pulled his arm down. Grabbing his bag, he then ran down from the bleachers to meet Max, who was now sitting at the waiting area with a towel over her shoulders.

"Max, you did great!" Juin said with a shy smile as he looked at her flushed face.

As she continued to dry her hair with the towel, Max grinned and teased, "How could you even doubt me?"

"What? I didn't! I just--" Juin stammered, wondering where did he go wrong. He was just trying to compliment her!

To his surprise, she merely chuckled and patted his head. "I'm joking. These girls are quite strong, to be honest. A lot stronger than the ones at St. Dexter anyway. I hope I make the first team."

"You would," Juin said with confidence, albeit he was secretly slightly annoyed at how she patted his head as if he were a younger brother or something.

"I'm glad that you're here. That stupid Thomas only knows how to play ball with his friends." Max sighed as she wrapped her towel around her waist, baring the top part of her breasts to Juin unintentionally.

Juin could not help but feel his mouth went dry for a second as he stared at the top of her breasts. He then quickly turned away and mumbled, "Erm… Max, I just recalled that I have something to do. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Max nodded. "Thanks for coming to support me."

"Always," Juin said with a smile before jogging backward while waving at her. When he was near the door, only then did he turn around with a wide smile.

"God, you're awkward to look at," Lucifer remarked with a sneer as he looked at Juin's happy face. "Just get with her already."

"She doesn't feel the same way about me," Juin mumbled as he opened the door and walked out. "And she has a boyfriend who's so much better…"

Before the door closed by itself, Lucifer saw that Max was looking over at where Juin was with a somewhat happy expression, and he mumbled, "I wonder if that's true…"

Shaking his head, he then floated toward Juin as they made their way to the center building. On the way, Juin texted his two "were-idiots" and told them to meet him at the roof of the building.

"Roof? That's a weird place to meet," Lucifer remarked as they walked up the red stairs.

Since they were now in a place with more people, and they had not tested out the talisman yet, Juin decided to communicate using his phone.

[ Well, in a lot of anime and manga, important things are always done on the school roof.]

"What's anime and manga?" Lucifer asked curiously.

[ The type of books that the alpha wolf always read in class is manga, and anime is basically the moving version of it. Like TV programs, but instead of humans, they drew the characters out. Sort of like the cartoons that Wesley watch.]

"Oh..." Lucifer nodded slowly as he slowly digested the information. Since he did not know how long would he be stuck here, he had been making it his mission to learn more about Earth.