Same as always.
Anyone who has ever prepared for transmigrating into the DC Universe knows what the Lux in Los Angeles means.
"Lucifer..."
Ian swallowed and muttered under his breath.
"Huh?"
Madison apparently had sharp ears. "How do you know that guy's name... Yeah, it really is that cringey. Imagine giving yourself a name like Lucifer Morningstar."
"It's honestly hilarious. He sounds like some washed-up rock singer. Total waste of that face. In that regard, you're definitely way better than that damn bar owner."
Madison's sharp tongue was as stable as ever.
Ian turned and glanced at her. The blond girl was sitting there with a face full of disdain, criticizing the taste of the King of Hell without the slightest idea of who she was actually talking about.
"Little delinquent."
He suddenly spoke.
"Hm?"
Madison looked at her deskmate suspiciously.
"I hope you become a good person someday, so you can go to Heaven."
Ian offered his blessing with complete sincerity, but Madison only rolled her eyes and gave a snorting laugh.
"I don't believe in any of that Heaven or Hell stuff. And anyway, good people don't make it in Hollywood." Becoming a huge Hollywood star was Madison's dream.
Ian did not explain. He only let out a quiet sigh.
Just then, another wave of perfume drifted closer. It smelled cheap, nowhere near as good as Madison's taste.
A girl with wavy brown hair was walking toward Ian with a necklace in her hand, her eyes full of anticipation.
This was Emily.
A classmate who had fake-tripped in front of Ian more than ten times already.
"Ian, you didn't come to school yesterday. Were you sick?" Emily greeted him right away, her expression full of concern.
"Are you cursing me to get sick?"
Ian frowned slightly, his focus landing somewhere rather unusual.
"..."
Emily froze for a moment. Then, forcing a smile, she raised the necklace in her hand.
"Okay, maybe I said that wrong. Could you help me put this necklace on?"
"My mom gave it to me as a birthday present this morning." She dragged out her tone and deliberately emphasized the words birthday present.
"My mom gives me birthday presents on my birthday too."
Ian only gave Emily a clear-eyed look, then lowered his head and went back to organizing his textbooks.
The conversation died on the spot.
A trace of embarrassment flashed across Emily's face.
Seeing this, a boy nearby immediately stepped forward enthusiastically with a bright smile.
"I can help you."
He was a kind and helpful classmate.
Unfortunately, the freckles on his face had already passed well beyond the point of being charming. That was probably why Emily immediately pulled her hands back.
"No thanks."
She still sounded polite, but her refusal was firm.
The boy looked completely confused, standing there awkwardly. The young and helpful lad still did not understand why.
"I'm dying."
Madison burst into laughter the moment she saw the scene. She bent over the desk, shoulders shaking wildly.
"Hahahaha! Emily, your acting is seriously terrible!"
Even while laughing, she still found time to insult someone.
"Worry about yourself, Montgomery!" Emily snapped bitterly, her voice full of anger.
Madison, however, did not care in the slightest.
She even looked ready to make things worse.
"I'm in a good mood today, so I'll teach you for free what proper Ian usage looks like."
As she spoke, Madison unclasped the necklace around her own neck.
"Fasten this for me, study freak."
She turned her back to Ian, and as she spoke, she slapped a ten-dollar bill backward onto the book he was reading.
The next instant, Ian activated immediately.
He took the necklace with practiced ease, his fingers skillfully slipping past Madison's blond hair as he fastened the clasp in under three seconds flat.
Utterly professional.
Especially the speed with which he pocketed the ten dollars.
It had to be said.
Madison really did have money.
For a middle school student, that was absolutely not a small amount of spending cash. As a result, a large bill triumphed over Ian's laziness, and the knowledge inside his textbook failed to defeat Alexander Hamilton.
Its power was only one-tenth weaker than Franklin's.
Which was already very strong.
"See that? That's what professionalism looks like."
Madison looked at Emily with open provocation, then took back the five dollars in change Ian handed her. When it came to earning money through labor, Superman's son had principles of his own.
"Just you wait, bitch! Don't let me catch you after school!"
Emily's expression had already looked bad, but after seeing that scene, she immediately stomped her foot, gritted her teeth, and stormed away.
Madison remained completely unconcerned by the threat.
"Seriously, where did you go yesterday? Don't tell me it was a bookstore."
She continued chatting with Ian, even taking out nail polish and starting to paint her nails.
"I didn't skip school."
Ian corrected her wording.
"I was on medical leave."
He demonstrated his usual precision.
"Oh? Medical leave?"
Madison held her freshly painted nails up to the sunlight.
"Medical leave, obviously. My parents took me to see a psychiatrist."
Ian saw no reason to hide it. Seeing a psychiatrist was not considered strange in America.
After all,
Americans really did not have wills of steel, so seeing a psychiatrist in this country was basically normal. A lot of people did not understand why mental health services were such a booming business in America.
"Is this some kind of misery contest?"
Madison looked surprised when she heard that.
"Is there prize money for winning?"
Ian once again showed off his unique priorities.
Madison curled her lip and rolled her eyes with the kind of skill that would absolutely win a championship in competitive eye-rolling.
"I see a psychiatrist all the time too. And even if there were prize money, I'd be the one winning."
She kept turning her hand under the sunlight, trying to dry the freshly applied nail polish.
"What did your doctor say?"
The blond girl asked casually.
Ian thought about it.
"He said I have a bit of a mental issue."
He still chose not to hide it.
Madison immediately scoffed.
"Psychiatrists are all like that. They love scaring people, otherwise how would they make money? What matters is how you see yourself."
What she said actually had a strange philosophical flavor to it. It was hard to believe words like that were coming from a middle schooler whose grades were single digits in every subject.
Ian thought about it again after hearing that.
"I think my psychiatrist's diagnosis of me was still a little too conservative. Honestly, I think if mental problems were ranked by grade level, mine would probably be first place in the entire school."
His tone was serious.
"Huh?"
Madison was stunned.
"You're even trying to compete over that? Your desire to win is even stronger than mine?"
She sounded genuinely baffled, looking at Ian as if he were some completely incomprehensible new lifeform.
And right then,
the teacher for first period began class.
Just as the teacher was talking about the turning point of World War II, a deafening roar suddenly exploded outside the window.
Then the whole building shook.
Several students screamed and ducked under their desks.
The history teacher only glanced outside, then turned back to the podium and tapped the blackboard before calmly pushing up his glasses.
"There's no need to panic so much."
"It's just another plane falling out of the sky... It won't affect class. This is Metropolis. Superman has definitely already saved those unlucky passengers."
The history teacher spoke about an air disaster like he was chatting about ordinary daily life. His tone could not have been calmer.
All that could be said was that this really was Metropolis, right next to Gotham.
The city truly had a certain kind of urban character.
"Cool."
Madison even whistled from under her desk.
The other students all showed expressions of sudden understanding. Ah, I see. They quickly accepted the history teacher's reassurance, and harmony soon returned to the classroom.
"..."
Ian's expression turned complicated. He looked out the classroom window at the distant column of thick black smoke, wanting to say something, but in the end chose to merge into the group's harmonious atmosphere.
Just moments ago, he had been discussing his own mental state.
At this point, he only felt that he might actually be the only normal person in the room.
No one had even realized
that the plane that fell out of the sky had already exploded.
(End of Chapter)
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