Blaze was happy to be off house arrest. The whole house came together in a 3 to 1 vote that rest meant in bed and not moving about. Still she fought with the two demons that she could rest perfectly fine out of her room thank you very much. It was in fact Iruma who struck the final blow with his large eyes and soft words.
It had been a total defeat and she spent the next three days in bed with books to learn the coming classes. She felt like she was cheating a tad when Ethereon piped up in her mind to expand on a subject she found difficult. She was still unsure what he was but Opera didn't too much care for the creature.
She didn't bring the creature from her shadow and it was on the second day that the cat demon had found she had never unsummoned him.
Opera moved around the room setting new clothes in the wardrobe. She herself was reading An Introduction to Magic. One of the first year textbooks and she was very near the end. What else was she supposed to do, cooped up in bed all day?
The security demon turned their eyes to her and hummed happily. She was taking her new life here very seriously. Most demons did not have the patience to wade through a textbook for the sake of merely learning it. "My lady, if you have any questions, I would be pleased to explain." The first year lessons were easy enough to explain despite having been out of school for a while.
"That's okay Opera. Ethereon's been explaining the stuff I get stuck on." She spoke in such a candid voice that it almost slipped past them. Almost.
They blinked once and then again before scratching their eyebrow. "Who is Ethereon?" The cat asked, concerned. There should have been no one in the house but the two currently in the room.
"My familiar." She flipped the page.
"You still have your familiar summoned?" The sharp question had Blaze looking at them startled. "My lady, you are recovering and keeping a familiar will hinder that recovery." They put aside the fact that apparently the creature spoke to her and had enough intelligence to tutor. These were things that could be addressed later.
The pink haired woman tilted her head. "I can unsummon him?" She seemed shocked by the revelation and she was. The beast had not once told her that she could do that.
"I prefer to be here." The deep voice hung in the air clearly audible for the cat to hear. "I cannot protect or guide my master if I am not present."
"Why would she need your protection if I am here?" The red headed cat recoiled at the voice but they took their job seriously. She was their mistress and they would not let harm fall to her. The creature did not respond to them and they turned red eyes to Blaze.
"Don't look at me. I barely feel him so I don't think he's hindering me." She shrugged off the worry. She felt a little weird at the thought that the creature would just simply be gone from her. She had summoned neither demon nor a manifestation. It was an entity that had waited for her for a long time. She felt wrong about sending it back to where ever it was from. Besides, he was incredibly useful when learning about the netherworld.
The cat demon had been a bit miffed at her rejection of his advice but accepted that, so long as it wasn't making the situation worse, it did have its uses.
She had gotten through the first textbook and after Opera quizzed her on it found that the combination of reading and lectures from the suspicious creature had in fact worked in her favor. Not that they were happy about it. They refused to trust something that would not give its species name.
But Blaze was happy enough to learn from it. If she kept up this pace she would make an excellent addition to the staff…A slight smile slipped upon the mouth of the security demon. Well wouldn't that be a fun situation? They would have to speak to Lord Sullivan about her job, after all she would need a guard dog until she could balance out her powers.
Sullivan, as it turned out, loved Opera's idea and after she was released from the room the head of house called her to his office to propose the position.
"Pops?" She popped her head into the room Opera led her to directly after they put Iruma to bed. "You wanted to see me?"
"Oh, Blaze~" The older demon sang her name as he got up to stride across the room and envelope her in a hug. The gesture made her uncomfortable. Iruma's hugs were different from this large demon's. Still she saw no real harm in allowing him to treat her this way so she made no move to rid herself of him. "I'm so happy you are up and around now."
"Well, I would have been up faster if you had not metaphorically tied me to the bed." She sighed. "Opera said you wanted to talk to me about something?"
"Yes, I wanted to talk with you about a job." Sullivan sat on the edge of his desk and though it did make him shorter, he still towered over the woman. "I think it will do you some good in learning to live here in the netherworld."
"I see. Well, I've done a lot in my lifetime so what's my options?" Blaze had been in the workforce for a long time and changed careers often as she moved from place to place.
"I want you to take the position of assistant teacher for the misfit class. They are a little much for one teacher and it will help you learn the material to be with them."
The woman looked at her newly dubbed father a little impressed. "That's actually a pretty good idea."
"Most importantly, you'll be teaching Iruma's class so you can spend more time with him." The demon smiled down at her. It seemed that he was letting her have a front row seat to all of Iruma's achievements. It was something she appreciated much. The gesture was enough to weasel his way into a tiny corner of her heavily defended heart.
That has been happening a lot recently. First the boy with his endless generosity and big eyes. Then the red demon who was playful and concerned for her in a way she was not accustomed to. And now was this oddly cheerful but scary demon. She wasn't sure if she had much more room for more people. She wasn't comfortable with having a lot of people close to her. More people meant that she had more to lose.
"Well when do I start?"
"Tomorrow morning. I have all the paperwork filled out. I'll take you to school in the morning to finish the final one authorization and then introduce you to your co-teacher."
"Is this the teacher that hates you and Iruma turned into a bird?" Iruma had taken the liberty of filling her in on every single thing that had happened to him that she was not there for. She was not particularly fond of the teacher. Especially after today when he kicked her son off a cliff. Granted he didn't know that he couldn't fly but the resentment was still there.
"Why yes it is." He chuckled to himself. "But don't fear your personality and his will probably not clash much." It was true. Blaze did not seem an over the top person and generally seemed to try not to put people out if she could help it from the short time he had spent with her. So the demon did not see a large problem coming from that.
No, the only problem would be her personal connection to him.
"Isn't tomorrow a little sudden?" She had no problem starting. The pink haired woman was beyond ready to leave the house. Anything to get out of the same four walls she had stared at for the last three days.
"No time like the present. Oh, before I forget. I will have a rank owl following you around and you should receive your rank in a week or so. Your familiar is rather high level, so expect something high." He commented. "I have also given it the size of your mana core. That will factor in too."
The man held his arm out only for a large white owl to land on it. It had a little tie on and three eyes. It was kinda cute in the way that something fluffy would be. She wasn't overly fond of animals though. Not that she hated them, but she found that she had no interest in owning one any longer.
"What's it do?" She asked as the thing flew up and perched itself on a bookshelf not too far away. It's three eyes never leaving her. It was kinda unnerving to say the least.
"It will watch and assess you for your rank. A rank is everything in demon society. You will be respected for a high rank and ridiculed for a low one. It is based on power, intelligence and victory."
Blaze could understand that demons viewed life this way as many humans did too. They may not put a 'rank' on it but they did put a number value on it. Grades, money, and popularity. It wasn't so different from a human's true nature. "Alright." She hummed.
"Just don't let anyone know you are unranked." Pops nodded his head. "And don't worry about anything. Opera and I have already got you an outfit that we think you will love." The demon clapped happily and that worried her. Hopefully, Opera knew what he was doing and she wasn't going to be a dress up doll for the overly fond demon.
However, only tomorrow would tell. Tomorrow, it was such a short time away, yet she felt like the day would change much for her. Her first outing with demons who did not know who or what she was.