Demon Lord's Reincarnation

"Hey, Erste it's time to wake up." The voice of a woman rang in Erste's ears. When he opened his eyes he saw the same familiar ceiling.

Erste got up from his bed and did some light stretching, once he was done he headed downstairs. Erste was what you would call a normal high school boy, the only thing different about him was that he was obsessed with both armed and unarmed combat. As of now, Erste was good at striking martial arts with some knowledge of grappling, and on the armed combat side, he knows how to use bows and swords.

Erste does not know why but he likes the feeling of fighting, but, of course, he would not hurt another person without reason.

Erste arrived at the dining table where his mother had made his usual breakfast of several eggs and some toast. Erste's father was also present and looked at his son.

"Are you going to the archery range after school today?" 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝑒𝘭．𝑛𝘦𝘵

"Nah, I'm going to the gym and then to my part-time job after school."

"You know son, it's alright to slow down a little." As Erste's father was about to say something more his mother slapped his father's head.

"What the heck are you telling our son?! Have you forgotten how you were when we were young? Tsk, don't listen to this lazy father of yours. Go on and live your youth."

Seeing his parents act this way made Erste smile, after he was done eating he left the house and jogged to school. As he was jogging Erste saw someone at the corner of the street. It was a girl wearing the same uniform as Erste. The girl in question was what one would call extremely cute, black-haired twintails, petite in stature with knee-high socks. This was Erste's childhood friend Elena. The two of them had known each other since they were five.

"I can never understand how you're always earlier than me. You do know that it's still an hour before class starts?" Erste started jogging in place as he spoke to Elena.

"Hmph, if I don't wake up earlier than you then you would leave me behind you big dufus," Elena murmured to herself.

"Huh, did you say something?" Erste asked while doing some burpees.

"I said that you need to stop doing that and let's head to school, I remember that you wanted to clean the archery range for the archery club as thanks for them letting you practice there every now and then." Elena took out a small notebook and read what was written in it.

"Huh, how did you know about that, I haven't told you?"

"Hmph, have you forgotten nothing in school happens that I don't know about..." 'Especially if it's about you.' The last sentence Elena could only say it in her mind.

"You really are a frightening woman." Erste who was jogging backward while talking to Elena had a smile on his face.

"So says the man who killed a grizzly with his bare hands." Elena shrugged her shoulders as she spoke about one of the legends regarding Erste.

"Oh come on, I was just lucky at that time all of you guys are just making a big deal about it. Especially knowing what I killed was just a young adult bear not even a fully grown one."

"Do you hear yourself talk? No one in their right mind would see a grizzly appear and think I can take that. Not only did you fight it bare-handed you even won. If it weren't for you trying to be low-key you wouldn't just be some rumored badass in town you would've already been famous in the nation. A high school student killing a grizzly bare-handed is not something normal!" Elena was panting as she spoke too fast.

"Calm down Elena, chill alright." When Elena heard what Erste said she was about to shout but then she stopped, then inhaled and exhaled, after repeating that a few more times she was able to calm down.

"Never mind about that, have you heard about the few missing students that came from our school?"

"Another case of missing people, it's like this every year, there's always a bunch of people missing. Haven't the police solved any of those cases yet?"

"Not really, it's just weird. Cases of missing people happen all the time, but among all the other cases this is the most frequent one. It's not a kidnapping since no one demanded for anything, and it's not some sort of mass killing since to this day not a single body has been found. It's just really weird. What do you think Erste?"

"True it is weird that there is always a group of people disappearing not just one by one but disappearing as a group... I can't really think about anything, maybe they were abducted by aliens or something."

"Come on, be serious."

"I am serious, I can't really think of any other reason."

"... Hey Erste, what will you do if I were to become one of those missing people?" Elena suddenly asked which made Erste look at her weirdly, but he did not hesitate as he answered.

"Of course, I will try to find you no matter what. Don't you remember when we were kids, I could always find you no matter where you hide." Erste smiled brightly which made Elena smile as well.

"Yeah, you're right, you'll always find me."

"So what about me, if I suddenly disappear and become one of those missing people what will you do?"

"Hmph, if that ever happened I will use all my means to find you, but of course, there will be no hurry since it's impossible for someone like you to be in any danger. Even if there really are aliens I'm sure you would beat them up."

"Damn, you're describing me like I'm some sort of monster."

"Aren't you?" Elena tilted her head cutely while speaking. The two looked at each other and laughed, they then started to talk about random things as they continued on their way to school.