Going To School With My Real Face

—Loner.

In modern society, where people were forced into communal life, it referred to someone who, despite being present in a group setting, barely spoke to any particular person—or anyone at all—and erased their presence so completely and harmlessly that they might as well have been air.

Up until now, I had worn a black wig and black colored contacts, doing everything I could to disguise myself as someone who looked as Japanese as possible while keeping my head lowered so no one would get a good look at my facial features.

I had even worn the school-designated uniform perfectly and properly, all so I could blend into the background as much as possible.

Apparently, I’d never even had enough presence of mind to realize that, realistically speaking, dressing that rigidly as a high-school student only made me stand out more.

And so, Monday arrived after my debut stream on Saturday.

I had loosened up my uniform to a fairly ordinary degree, taken off my blazer, put on a brown cardigan, loosened the ribbon at my collar, and was now standing in front of the full-length mirror.

“…Yeah, not bad. I guess I could pass for a gyaru making her high-school debut… though this face isn’t exactly Japanese, so rather than a newly minted gyaru, I probably look more like an exchange student or something. Yeah, let’s go with that.”

My silver hair, which reached down to around my shoulder blades, shone freely, glittering beneath the sunlight streaming into my room.

I was naturally this pretty, with the kind of well-proportioned mixed-race features people would call beautiful, and yet I’d hidden them instead of using them to my advantage. Thinking about it now, perhaps the part of my soul shaped entirely by life in Japan had grown far too self-effacing.

All it took was a little lipstick and some grooming of my eyebrows, and I instantly looked like a stylish foreign girl.

Mm. An unmistakable beauty.

I was definitely going to be popular.

Not that I wanted to be loved by men.

I’d spent more than a thousand years single in my previous life.

That went far beyond anything as trivial as being what this world called a hopelessly unpopular woman.

At this point, and especially with boys my own age still in their teens, it was probably impossible for me to view them as romantic prospects.

It would be like being told to fall in love with a baby—or, at best, a reasonably intelligent monkey. Impossible.

That did not mean I had abandoned femininity, however.

The feeling that I ought to remain beautiful so as not to disgrace myself as a Demon Lord had returned along with my memories.

Not to attract men, but for my own sake, I had to be beautiful.

Fortunately, Mom had already bought plenty of skincare products that we shared, so I managed well enough.

And my skin was still young, after all.

“Mom, I’m heading out.”

“Okay, have a good day.”

I called out to Mom, who saw me off with a delighted expression as though looking at something dazzling, and left the house.

The high school I attended was a private school within walking distance of home.

I could have commuted by bicycle, but because of the wig I’d always tried to walk whenever possible, so I decided to continue doing the same.

Perhaps it was because I’d regained my memories of my previous life, or perhaps simply because I had started looking straight ahead again, but even the route I’d been taking to school for nearly a year somehow seemed different, leaving me with a strangely fresh feeling.

And as I walked, good grief, there were an awful lot of people looking at me.

Those gazes were precisely why I’d gone to such lengths to hide myself before, but now they felt no more significant than a passing breeze.

I could stride around openly with the confidence of something beyond a Demon Lord—more like a supreme ruler.

Apparently noticing from my uniform that we attended the same school, a male student rode past me on his bicycle, then turned to look at me and froze.

That was fine and all, but he was going to hit that utility pole if he didn’t look ahead… Mm, too late.

That was quite the spectacular crash.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t going to walk over and ask, “Are you okay?” just to trigger some kind of romantic flag.

I simply walked away without paying him any mind.

I didn’t even know whether he was in my class or not. I’d never really looked at other people’s faces before.

Once I arrived at school, the staring became far more obvious than it had been while walking through town.

People openly looked my way and whispered among themselves. They probably thought they were being considerate by speaking quietly enough that I wouldn’t hear and get offended, but they should really learn that it had the opposite effect.

At any rate, I reached the shoe lockers, took out my indoor shoes, and changed into them when one of the girls from my class spotted me and widened her eyes.

“…Um, Taki-san?”

“? Good morning.”

“W-Wait, Taki-san!? G-Good morning!?”

Calm down.

Why had even her greeting turned into a question?

“W-Wait, did you completely change your look!?”

“Rather than changing my look, I just took off the wig and colored contacts. I’m mixed, so this is my natural hair, and my eyes are this color too. I’ve gotten used to school now, so I figured I didn’t need to hide it anymore.”

Heh. This was my “It’s not a big deal, why?” strategy.

Even if I had regained the memories of my former life as a Demon Lord, I wasn’t naive enough to think people wouldn’t react when my appearance changed this dramatically.

I’d expected a big reaction and understood there would probably be a fuss. The only difference was that I personally had no intention of making a big deal out of it.

Still, having to explain myself every single time someone came over because I’d changed was annoying.

So I came up with a plan: keep acting as though nothing special had happened, creating enough of a temperature gap that everyone else would find it difficult to keep making a fuss.

Which meant I definitely wanted the first person I told to serve as my loudspeaker.

It would be very helpful if this girl spread the explanation for me.

“Ohhh, so that’s how it was…!”

“Yeah. They’re important traits I inherited from my parents, so continuing to hide them just felt… wrong. Or do they not suit me?”

“N-N-No, not at all! I mean, they totally suit you! You’re, like, really, really beautiful!”

“Hehe, thanks.”

When I gave her a small smile, the girl’s face turned bright red in an almost comical fashion, and she let out a tiny “Hieh!”

Fuhahahaha! Ensnared by my charms, were you? Entirely understandable—wait, no, no. My previous-life instincts were still too strong.

“I always thought your face looked kind of mixed. But you always kept your head down like you were trying to hide it, so I figured maybe it was something I shouldn’t bring up…”

“When I was little, people used to make a big deal about me being foreign-looking and stuff. So I just started hiding it.”

“Ahhh, one of those things where people can’t help staring because it’s unusual?”

“Yeah, probably. And this past Saturday, I found out Mom had always blamed herself for me feeling like I had to hide how I looked. So I decided I was done hiding.”

“…I see… But seriously, hiding it was such a waste! You’re so pretty I can’t help staring!”

I appreciated how passionately she said it, practically snorting with enthusiasm, but her face was awfully close.

This girl… I didn’t know her name.

Because I’d avoided looking at faces in order to remain unnoticed, I hadn’t properly matched people’s names to their faces.

“Mornin’, Yuika. Whoa, who’s this super-hot girl? Transfer student?”

“Morning, Tomo. That’s Taki-san.”

“Taki-san? …Wait, Taki-san? Like, that Taki-san? For real?”

“For real. Apparently she was hiding it because she stood out too much.”

“Daaamn, seriously!? That’s insane. You’re like an angel!”

Former Demon Lord, actually.

Calling me an angel, lumping me together with those emotionless doll-like creatures, would have been an insult severe enough to get someone ostracized in the Demon Realm of my previous life. Sacrilege. Absolute sacrilege.

“So? So? Little Miss I-Love-Cute-Girls Yuika already trying to stake her claim?”

“Whaaat!? N-No! Taki-san, it’s not like that, okay!?”

“Ahaha… Oh, can I call you Yuika and Tomo too? My first name’s Rinne, so I’d kind of like it if you called me Rinne.”

“Sure, sure. Sounds good, Rinrin.”

“That makes me sound like a panda, so don’t.”

“Hah, you’re right. Rinne, then. Nice to meet you properly, Rinne.”

“C-Can I call you Rinne-chan too? I can, right!? Nice to meet you!”

Phew, good.

It was already almost February, well after winter break in my first year of high school. I absolutely could not let them find out I still didn’t know their names.

Yuika gave off a soft, easygoing vibe and seemed surprisingly airheaded. Tomo, by contrast, was a little taller and had a brisk, straightforward air about her—the sort of girl who would probably be popular with other girls.

For the record, I wanted to avoid letting too much of my previous-life personality show, so my plan was to act approachable enough while keeping people at a distance so things never became too deep.

As part of my camouflage, I intended to settle comfortably into the role of “a girl in class who’s reasonably easy to talk to.”

And so I headed toward the classroom together with Yuika and Tomo, but apparently my appearance really was exceptionally conspicuous.

Students passing us had been stopping in their tracks to stare or even parting to make way for us, so I wasn’t exactly succeeding at blending in.

“Whoa, what’s that thing called again? The sea splitting apart? Lassen?”

“That’s the painter famous for dolphin pictures. You mean Moses, Tomo.”

“Oh, right. Moses. Pretty close, though, wasn’t I?”

“If you’re trying to say it was close because they both involve the ocean, then no, it wasn’t close at all!?”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Not even remotely close.”

“Then why did you say it was close!?”

I really wished Tomo and Yuika would stop because their exchange was quietly getting funnier and funnier.

They should spare a thought for me, who was maintaining a faint smile and deliberately projecting an unapproachable aura for the benefit of complete strangers.

I was seriously about to laugh, so please, stop.

And so, somehow finding myself in a situation where I alone had to survive the walk to class without laughing, I finally reached my classroom.