“That’s right,” the headmaster said and burped. “I’m going to kidnap you. Now, before you scream, hear me out—“

“Help! I’m—mmph!“

“Damnit, lizard,” the headmaster said as he tackled Cleo. “Hear me out first, okay?”

Cleo glared at him with her mouth covered. He chuckled and removed his hands. “Willing to listen now?” he asked. Without waiting for Cleo’s response, he nodded and said, “Good. Here’s the thing. Your owner’s a demon, right?”

Cleo’s eyes widened. “How’d you know?” she asked.

“The name,” the headmaster said. “Angels don’t name their children like that. Different roots and what not. Anyways, that probably means you aren’t in a good situation, especially since you came here looking for something. Either your owner ordered you to steal something, you became separated from him somehow, or you’re running away from him.”

Cleo’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t see how you came to either of those conclusions,” she said.

“That’s not important. It doesn’t matter if you don’t see it as long as I do,” the headmaster said and burped again. His face started to flush. “So. I don’t want to carry a suitcase around with me. That’ll make it much more difficult to escape from the first sector. They’re planning on locking me down here, you know? I’m avoiding a draft, and you seem extremely useful.”

“I don’t agree,” Cleo said and shook her head. “I don’t have to listen to anything you say. I’m a relatively free person.” She puffed her chest up and swished her tail.

“No,” the headmaster said and shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. You have to listen to everything I say because I’m an archangel of chastity. Do you know what chastity does? It gives me the powers of persuasion. Why do you think you fell asleep so easily when I asked you to?”

Cleo froze. She remembered what happened to Palan last time Colonel Uzziel used his powers of chastity on him. But she also remembered how Palan countered him. She covered her ears with her hands and sprinted away while shouting for help. A second later, her vision disappeared. She couldn’t hear anything, feel anything, or smell anything. She tried to move her hands, but she wasn’t sure if they were moving or not. There was no heat, no cold, only nothing. Despair filled Cleo’s thoughts. Was this what death felt like? Had she died? And just as quickly as the darkness descended, it disappeared.

The headmaster was sitting on Cleo’s back, pinning her hands to the floor. Pain engulfed her body as she thrashed against the ground, gasping for breath. “Was that too long?” the headmaster asked while panting. Sweat dropped from his head onto Cleo’s neck. “Be quiet and stop struggling.”

The angel’s face blanched as Cleo stopped squirming. The headmaster climbed off of her and lifted her up. He held out a hand. “Give me a drink,” he said. Cleo reached inside her space and pulled out a bottle, handing it over without a sound; however, her eyes glared daggers at him. The headmaster ignored her look and downed the bottle, the color returning to his face. He exhaled and sat down on top of his closed suitcase, patting the space next to him. “Sit.”

Cleo’s upper body flailed around in protest as her legs walked over to the angel’s side and sat next to him. “Alright,” the headmaster said. “I can’t keep using my powers against you for everything. I’ll run out of alcohol before the week is over at that rate. I’ll try a different approach. What do you want? As long as you help me, I can help you.”

The muscles around Cleo’s jaws slackened. She wiggled her mouth around and confirmed she could make sounds again. “I want to find my owner,” she said.

“Was your owner in my academy?”

“No.”

“Then why were you there? You couldn’t have just wanted to steal my alcohol, right? It’s good because I made it myself, but not that good.”

“I heard my friend was there, and Palan would definitely go there to save her,” Cleo said.

“Friend? We don’t allow angels to keep lizardmen slaves on campus.”

“Not a lizardman. She’s an angel.”

“A lizardman who’s friends with an angel,” the headmaster said and rubbed his chin. “I guess I really have seen everything this world has to offer now. What’s her name? If she’s still there, I could go back in and retrieve her.”

“She’s not there anymore,” Cleo said and sighed. “Her name’s Raea.”

The headmaster fell silent. He reached over and put his hand underneath Cleo’s belt, causing her to yelp. His hand vanished into her space, and he rummaged around before pulling out a bottle of alcohol. He opened it without even looking at it and brought it to his lips, taking a sip. “Oh dear,” he said, staring up at the sky, ignoring the flustered lizardman by his side. “Raea Caelum?”

“That’s her,” Cleo said and nodded.

“Ah,” the headmaster said and gulped his drink. “So the snake-tailed demon was your owner. I know exactly where he went.”

“Really?” Cleo asked, her eyes brightening. Maybe this crazy old man wasn’t such a bad person. “Where’d he go?”

“He happens to be going in the exact same direction I want to go,” the headmaster said and nodded.

“Really,” Cleo said again, her expression darkening. Never mind. The crazy old man was definitely up to no good. “What a coincidence.”

“You don’t believe me,” the headmaster said and scratched his head. “This is embarrassing. I’m a very trustworthy person if you can look past the … tiffs we had. Look. Raea wanted to go destroy the rebel army, so she flew west. And your demon owner came afterwards, and I told him where Raea was going. He had three tails, shark-like teeth, a second mouth on his torso.”

“Palan has one tail,” Cleo said and crossed her arms.

“Well, he has three now,” the headmaster said and rolled his eyes. “Maybe he evolved while you were separated, I don’t know. I do know he went west as well to find Raea.”

“So why do you want to go west?” Cleo asked and furrowed her brow. “Weren’t you evading the draft?”

“Of course!” the headmaster said. “Tell me. Where’s the first place you’d look for an archangel who doesn’t want to fight in a war? Would you look for him in the north where it’s definitely safe and totally makes sense to escape to, or would you look for him in the west, where the rebel army’s already conquered? There’s no way in hell I’m letting those braindead superiors catch me. It’s like working under children—do you know what I’m saying?”

“I still don’t trust you,” Cleo said while puffing her cheeks out.

“I’m not asking you to trust me,” the headmaster said. “I’m asking you to carry all my supplies in that space of yours. So what do you say? Say ‘Yes. Please take me with you, headmaster’.”

“Yes. Please take me with you, headmaster,” Cleo said.

“Since you asked so nicely, of course I will,” the headmaster said and clapped his hand on Cleo’s shoulder.

She frowned. “No. That’s not fair.”

“The world’s not fair. Get used to it. I give you my word as the head of Hailing Academy: Palan and Raea are definitely in the west and that’s the way I’m heading as well.”

“But you ran away from Hailing Academy.”

“Who says the headmaster can’t play hooky? I’m young too!”