Raea scowled at the sixteen-by-sixteen kudosu puzzle in front of her. Only after being subjected to them for a week did she realize how terrible they really were. If she got the puzzle wrong, she’d have to use white ink to remove the errors and wait for it to dry. That only compounded with her hunger and thirst, causing her to nearly tear her puzzles apart. “Just wait until Palan comes to save me,” she muttered as she glowered at the headmaster who was drinking tea and eating a sandwich at his desk. She was still chained up in the corner of his office. The only times she ever felt the urge to kill someone was when they threatened Palan, but now…. A sigh escaped from her lips as she blew on the paper, hoping to dry the white ink faster.

When the ink finished drying, she dipped her quill into the black inkwell. Right when she was about to write a number, her body lurched forward and her face hit the desk. The headmaster raised his head. “Fainted already?” he asked. “Hey. You alright?”

There was no response, so the headmaster leaned forward and pressed on a bell. Moments later, an angel walked into the room. “Heal her,” the headmaster said and gestured towards the collapsed Raea.

The kindness angel grunted as he approached her. His eyes widened as he saw black strands crawling out of her shadow and spiraling up her legs. “H-headmaster,” the angel said as he took a step backwards and pointed at her feet. “L-look.”

“What?” the headmaster said as he chewed on his sandwich, unwilling to leave his seat. “Never seen a half-angel before? Or did she die?”

“No, that’s not it. She’s still alive,” the angel said as he continued to back away. He paused. “Maybe.”

The headmaster stood up. “What kind of healer can’t tell if their patient is still alive or not?” he asked as he walked around his desk. By now, the black strands had reached Raea’s waist and were speeding up. His eyes widened as he turned towards the kindness angel. “Leave. You didn’t see anything, understand? I don’t care if you can’t lie. If you tell anyone about this, you’re expelled.”

“U-understood,” the angel said as he fled the room without looking back. The headmaster shut the door and furrowed his brow at Raea. He had done some research on Raea—mostly by asking her parents about her—and received the letter Elrith had written so long ago. There was a description of a white cocoon, and the headmaster suspected this was similar. The only problem was the strands were black.

The darkness continued to spread until it completely enveloped Raea’s body before it began to crawl along the chains holding her in place. He tried to pull the chains away, but they didn’t budge at all. His face paled. Hopefully the chains would still be there to hold her in place when she hatched, if not, things might be a bit problematic. By now, there was a pitch-black cocoon on top of the couch and desk in the corner of his office. It was connected to the walls and vaguely reminded him of a spider egg.

The headmaster’s brow furrowed as he stared at the cocoon. Should he report this? But to who? He was the one in charge. His throat was parched, and he sat back down on his chair before sipping his tea. He’d have to take precautions for when Raea emerged. His eyes narrowed as he pressed a bell—a different one than before. His secretary walked into his room with a bitter expression on her face. She was about to greet Raea, but froze in place when she saw the writhing cocoon. She stared at the headmaster and asked, “This is?”

“It looks like a demon evolution, doesn’t it?” the headmaster asked. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have pointed that out. Through the years, they had conducted questionable experiments that involved evolving demons all in the name of science.

“Raea’s in there?” the secretary asked.

“Who else?” the headmaster asked back. “We’re going to need a lot more chains to bind the cocoon.”

“Her cocoon ate them?” the secretary asked and furrowed her brow. Usually, they trapped the demons in a solid room created from the strange, red metal instead of binding them with chains. “Would that pose a problem for her health? Wait, before that, how is she evolving? She’s already an archangel.”

“That’s the interesting part, isn’t it?” the headmaster asked. “You read the letter too. Apparently something similar happened to her and she became demonic. Then she turned into an archangel which shows that these types of transformations have no relation with our standards. I wonder how she triggered something like this. Her contract level with her demon must be really high.”

“You didn’t think to ask?”

“She probably lied to me,” the headmaster said and shrugged. “She said it was level one.”

His secretary nodded. “Judging by the size of the cocoon, it should take her about a week to hatch,” she said as she circled around the room. There was a trace of hesitation on her face. “Should we kill her?”

“No!” the headmaster said, practically shouting. “Don’t you want to see what’s going to come out? She’s like the archangel of legends. It would be blasphemous to cut her evolution short.”

“Somehow, letting her evolve like a demon seems more heretical to me,” the secretary said and frowned as she scratched her head. “You’re not afraid she’s going to kill us?”

“Why would she do that?”

The secretary stared at the corner of the kudosu puzzle that was sticking out from beneath the cocoon. “Because you subjected her through puzzle torture?” she asked. “And let her fall during the first trust fall?” She added under her breath. “You idiot.”

“She absolutely must not be harmed,” the headmaster said. “Disregarding her research potential, her family backing alone should turn your thoughts away from that evil route.”

The secretary grunted as she stared at the cocoon. It didn’t seem like she’d be able to transport it to dispose of it judging by the strands hanging from where the chains had been attached. Maybe she could burn it. The office would be destroyed though. The cocoons were surprisingly resilient, but certain actions could kill the being inside before they hatched.

“You’re thinking about it,” the headmaster said.

“About what?”

The headmaster sighed as he went to his cabinet and pulled out a bottle of brown liquid. “Come,” he said. “Drink with me.”

“It’s afternoon.”

“If we close the blinds, we can pretend it’s evening,” the headmaster said as he poured the liquid into two glasses.

The secretary sighed and narrowed her eyes at the cocoon one last time before walking to her boss’ desk. “Why is someone like you the headmaster?” she asked and shook her head. Despite her words, she still accepted the glass.

“Because I’m an archangel, and you’re not,” the headmaster said and smiled. “Cheers.”