Nuisances
Rimuru POV
Ameri sure put us all to work, but it seems like we've gotten through the most of it. I caught her petting Iruma like he's some kind of blue-haired puppy at one point earlier, but I stopped myself from making any snide comments. It was a cute and funny scene to watch, which made me not want to ruin it with my rude sense of humor.
Now, though, I'm stuck with Ronove again. I put him through the wringer earlier when we were doing exercises, but now I have him following me around on patrol. I didn't go that hard on him; at least compared to how Schnell was treated. I simply played drill sergeant and made sure he got some valuable physical activity in, that's all!
But, back to the patrol. Ronove is grabbing attention, as usual, and the fact it's just us two together isn't helping. I take a step to the side, putting more distance between us so that nobody gets the wrong idea.
Either way, all eyes are on us and it's starting to get on my nerves. I tend to grab a lot of attention myself without trying but Ronove intentionally trying to do the same is making the problem worse.
"Can't you just turn that off?" I groan, annoyed that everyone is staring at us constantly because of Ronove's magic.
"But I must show them all how ~fabulous~ I am!" Ronove retorts, still basking in the attention and giving off the golden aura of his 'Charisma' magic.
This stupid kid…
I understand that as Student Council members, we're supposed to strike a certain 'presence' to keep all the students in check, but distracting kids enough that they walk into walls or run into each other is just too much. Yes, that happened; multiple times! I mean, it was a little funny, to be honest, but still not something that should be happening.
Ronove's ego, much like a sponge soaking up water, grows more and more as he absorbs the attention he's getting as we patrol the hallway. He's treating it like a runway, strutting down the hall as if he's some sort of model instead of simply walking like a normal person.
I seriously don't understand how Ronove can enjoy this as much as he seems to, and this is coming from someone that's used to getting unimaginable amounts of attention back home.
But, before I can probe him about this, we come across something that grabs his attention instead of the other way around.
There's a group of boys staring through a window at a group of girls inside a classroom, them all whispering to each other, grins on their faces. They don't look like they're up to any good, at least at first glance.
Ronove's smile widens and he goes to approach them, not even bothering to say a thing to me first.
"Hey! What are you doing?" I quickly ask him, trying to stop Ronove from acting on his own. In a way, I'm responsible for him since Ameri paired him with me so I can't have him doing anything crazy.
"I, Ronove, am doing my job as a member of the Student Council!" he retorts arrogantly.
I give him a skeptical look, finding his enthusiasm about this a little out-of-character.
Since when was he so gung-ho about enforcing rules? I guess he's taking this Council business seriously after his defeat.
I'll admit that this scene looks suspicious, but as far as I can tell, those boys haven't done anything wrong yet. A quick question asking what they're up to would probably be enough of a deterrent, but I'm pretty damn sure Ronove isn't going to take that passive of an approach.
"They are plotting something nefarious, I am certain!" Ronove continues after seeing my less-than-convinced reaction. "Step aside and let me prove myself! Only then can I gain the reputation necessary to rightfully take over the Student Council!"
Wow, he outright admitted his motives like some kind of monologuing supervillain…
"Fine, whatever. Do what you want."
At this point, I'm a little curious how he's going to handle this, but based on his past behavior, I don't even need Ciel to predict what's about to happen.
As I said, these boys have done nothing wrong yet, but Ronove doesn't seem to see it that way, so I bet he's going to approach them in his usual irritating way and the situation will quickly escalate.
"I, the most majestic member of the Student Council will put a stop to your antics, peasants!" Ronove announces grandly to the group as he saunters up to them.
Of course, they start arguing back at him, trying to explain what they were doing, but Ronove was having none of it. Bantering and arguing back and forth while I watch on; this goes on for a few minutes, causing a crowd to gather. Then, Ronove does that thing where he invades your personal space, looming over one of those boys, which leads to him getting shoved away.
Immediately, Ronove cowers and backs off.
"A boy touched me!" he squeals overdramatically, looking disgusted and violated by the small amount of physical contact.
The group of boys freeze and look at him like he's crazy, falling silent and simply staring at Ronove, stunned by his reaction. At least this killed the commotion that was going on.
Realizing this is going nowhere and that Ronove has been 'defeated', I decided to step in and resolve the situation myself.
Sighing deeply, I approach them.
"Sorry about…that…" I apologize to the students, giving Ronove a tired glance. "Let's hear your side of the story."
They go on to explain that they weren't trying to be creepy by watching the girls through the window. One of them was working up the courage to ask one of the girls out and was hesitating, his friends coming with him to back him up. Ronove was convinced they were stalking the girls, possibly planning to do something bad to them, but that wasn't reality.
So, I pretty much tell them to change their approach for next time and send them on their way. There's no point in punishing them, especially after they went through that nonsense with Ronove. That's punishment enough.
Ronove, still shuddering from being touched by one of the boys, follows me back to the Student Council's room. I'm sure Ameri has other plans for us since she always seems to have work to take care of. It makes me sympathize with her somewhat, but in the end, she wastes her time reading manga too so she can't be that busy.
What? I'm not wasting my time by being in the Netherworld at all? Don't forget, I'm on vacation, and I'm still doing the bare minimum of my work despite that. Diablo takes trips back to Tempest fairly often to run paperwork and other things back and forth for me, but it's not the same volume I'd be doing if I wasn't taking a break from my responsibilities.
But back to the matter at hand; we both get back from patrol. Everyone is back from their tasks, minus Schnell who's probably still in the infirmary.
Ameri POV
In walks Rimuru and Ronove, arriving later than I expected, after everyone else returned. But, this doesn't last for more than a moment before we get a visitor. Stopping the closing door with his foot, in steps Professor Kalego, Iruma, and Rimuru's homeroom teacher.
He sweeps his gaze across the room before fixing his eyes on Rimuru, who's giving him a curious look.
"Ah, there you are; come with me." the professor says sternly to the girl.
Rimuru points at herself and Professor Kalego nods.
Ugh, for being the supposed protector of Babyls, that girl sure gets herself in trouble a lot of the time. I know Rimuru is very talented, but her attitude most of the time doesn't really match that role; constantly pranking and messing with people, getting on Professor Kalego's nerves, and even her nonchalant attitude about most issues. It's precisely this nonsense that makes me doubt her boisterous claims in the first place. While, much like Iruma, she probably isn't Sullivan's real granddaughter she sure shares much of his eccentricity.
I'm frustrated since I have other tasks I want Rimuru's help with before classes start, but now she's going to be taken away by Professor Kalego instead; and after I went through all the trouble of contacting her and having her come into school early!
I should say something…perhaps this isn't urgent.
I don't wish to defy a teacher, but if whatever he needs from Rimuru can be delayed until later, then that would be beneficial to me and the Student Council. I should inform him just to make sure he understands the situation.
"Professor, I hate to break it to you, but I am quite busy and require Rimuru's help toda-"
"This is important, Miss Azazel."
"Yes…of course, it is."
"Hey, wait for a second! I didn't do anything so why am I getting taken away?" Rimuru suddenly questions, appearing genuinely confused as to why this is happening.
"Yeah, P-professor! Why are you doing this?" Iruma asks hesitantly.
But Professor Kalego simply grabs Rimuru by the arm and attempts to pull her out of the room, but she doesn't budge.
Rimuru glares at him, but then Professor Kalego instead just picks Rimuru up by the collar of her shirt like it's nothing and carries her out of the room. She groaned in annoyance as he did this, but didn't seem to fight it after that.
"Getting picked up again? You've got to be kidding me…" Rimuru grumbled before the door shut, leaving the room shocked and silent.
Kalego POV
"You better have a good reason for this," Rimuru says while still being carried off.
"As I said, this is important," I repeat my point.
"Oh, and I can walk, just so you know," Rimuru says with a sigh, giving me an annoyed glare as I carry her off.
"I am not letting you get away!"
"I could get away from you right now if I wanted to…" Rimuru mumbles in a barely-audible whisper.
The entire time, Rimuru just hangs limply, complaining, pouting, and frowning at me, yet not fighting me at all. Thankfully, it doesn't take long before we reach our destination.
Inside the room is my fellow teacher Shichiro Balam; the only other rank 8 staff member at Babyls. We had discussed Rimuru before and came to a disturbing conclusion; it's possible that she is able to somehow resist Shichiro's 'Buzzer', the perfect detector of lies, cheating, and deception. This has some major implications for the upcoming exams since Babyls relies on him to ensure academic honesty.
If Rimuru is confirmed to be able to evade it, then we will need to take certain measures during exams outside of 'Buzzer'.
Though, Shichiro doesn't seem convinced Rimuru's able to resist his Buzzer. At the moment, he thinks she simply didn't lie to him and only mentioned the possibility on a whim to me. Honestly, that's probably more likely, but I still think we both need to confirm it.
There is a second reason for bringing Rimuru here too; the one we are going to use as the main one from Rimuru's perspective. There have been rumors about a supposed mother to her and her brother, but there is no mention of such a person in their files. It could be a simple oversight on the part of our asinine Chairdemon and his carelessness, but I still need to correct the record in either case.
Once in the room, I finally let Rimuru go and she seems to understand the situation enough to take a seat across from Shichiro.
"Oh, so you're here too, Professor Balam?"
He nods and smiles at her, looking like he's happy to see Rimuru again. She's sparked his intellectual curiosity so I'm sure the man is excited to meet with Rimuru. He's mainly an observer for this, but still.
I take my seat next to the other professor and prepare myself to ask the necessary questions. It's difficult dealing with Rimuru so I cannot take this lightly.
Rimuru stares at me as if to reiterate her earlier question about why I brought her here, so I finally decided to give her an explanation.
"I brought you here regarding your mother," I explain calmly.
Rimuru's mostly-neutral expression warps almost immediately to one of irritation as her brows furrow and mouth frowns.
"Oh come on…now you are talking about her too?!" Rimuru complains.
"What do you mean?" I ask, not expecting Rimuru to immediately get upset over this subject.
"Well, ever since Iruma spilled the beans to our classmates everyone keeps bringing her up! Trying to guess what she looks like and which of us she's more similar to in terms of personality; it's getting annoying at this point."
"The only reason I bring this up is that you and your brother's files do not reflect what I've heard. There is no mention of a mother in either of them."
Rimuru immediately seems to calm down a little after hearing this.
"So this is just about our records? Sheesh, and I thought you were gonna grill me about silly rumors and gossip for a moment there. But on the subject of our mother, she's a pretty private person. Keeps to herself and stays home most of the time, so I guess Grandpa decided not to include her in the record."
"That's…that actually sounds like the nonsense he likes to pull…" I admit, frustrated that that man is up to no good in ways I was unaware of.
"Calm down Kalego, I don't think it's that big of an issue." Shichiro comforts me.
"Oh, so you two are buddies then? I thought you just wanted another teacher around as backup, Professor. Maybe admit that you can't handle me alone?" Rimuru says in an almost-taunting voice.
My anger grows as I look at Rimuru's devious smile that looks uncannily like Sullivan's when he does things just to spite me.
"Why must you take pleasure in annoying me?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't think annoying you is fun," she says with a grin still plastered across her face.
"You most certainly do, you accursed child!"
"Okay fine, maybe a little," Rimuru admits with a light chuckle.
Shichiro also seems to be finding this amusing since he's joining Rimuru in her laughter, making me feel slightly betrayed. He always takes things like this so lightly. But then, without warning, my old classmate stops laughing. I look over at him, wanting to know what made him fall silent and see a shocked, almost-fearful expression on his face.
Then it dawns on me; Rimuru just blatantly lied. Even if it was jokingly, it was still a clear and obvious lie and I don't need words to be able to tell that Shichiro detected absolutely nothing.
We lock eyes for a moment and he gives me a small shake of his head, telling me that no, he didn't sense anything with his bloodline magic.
"Whoa, the vibe in here just changed…what's going on?" Rimuru questions, disturbed by the sudden solemnity coming from both me and my fellow teacher as we both stare at her, astonished.
I cannot let her know what I'm thinking…if Rimuru realizes that we know this, it will cause problems for me in the future for certain!
I clear my throat and reestablish my demeanor quickly.
"Nothing at all." I calmly reply.
Rimuru raises a skeptical eyebrow, probing our reactions with a sharp glare of gold before seeming to let it go.
"Back to the subject of your mother, we need a name to add to yours and Iruma's files," Shichiro adds, following my lead in changing the subject back. "We can't just not include such an important detail."
"Uh…yeah, that makes sense…it's…Amane? Amane Tempest. Yeah, that's her name!"
"Why do you sound so uncertain?!"
"Do you call your mother by her first name? Probably not; it just feels weird to call her that, okay?"
It's a shame that Buzzer doesn't work on this girl since that felt like a total lie, yet I have no way of knowing!
"I mean, Grandpa calls her by her first name sometimes, but it's not like I call her that myself, I use 'Mom' or 'Mother' not 'Amane'."
"So you share a last name with her but that's not the case for Iruma?"
"Oh…yeah, he has our dad's last name," Rimuru answers offhandedly.
"And what is the name of your dad?"
"I don't remember."
"You don't…remember?!" I ask exasperatedly.
What kind of demon doesn't remember their own father's name?!
"Oh, I know! It's Mr. Suzuki!" she exclaims with a snap of her fingers.
"Obviously! I'm asking what his first name is!" I shout.
"I've never heard it as far as I remember. It's been a long time since I've seen him; our parents split up a long time ago. Mom doesn't talk about him much either. Mom always refers to him with a nickname…oh yeah! She calls him 'abusive piece of shi-'"
Shichiro immediately lunges forward and covers Rimuru's mouth with his hand.
"There's no need to use words like that, young lady; we get the point," Balam says with a small, uncomfortable laugh.
I, on the other hand, am pinching my nose in annoyance that Rimuru would talk like that in front of two teachers. No regard or respect for her elders, as usual.
I'm glad my partner in this questioning interjected though since I don't get paid nearly enough to be bothered delving into the family drama of my students.
Rimuru pulls his hand away, mildly annoyed by getting silenced like that.
"I was just quoting someone, no need to get so bent out of shape over it."
There's an awkward silence before Rimuru speaks up again.
"But…uh, yeah…that's where Iruma got his last name."
"That is an odd custom, having twins that take different family names…especially one belonging to an uninvolved father…"
"Don't ask me; it's not like I had a say in it. Ask Mom, if and when you meet her, I guess."
"Wait, where does Lord Sullivan play into this? He doesn't match either of your names?"
"Adoption of our mother when Iruma and I were young. He adopted her as a daughter and us as grandchildren."
So much important information was left out! Damn that man…
"Why was none of this made clear in your file?!"
"Heck if I know…I had nothing to do with that…oh, look at the time! I have a class soon so I think I'll get going."
Rimuru is trying to escape again…
That was my first thought, but, looking at the clock, more time has passed than I thought, meaning that Rimuru is likely telling the truth about this. With a sigh, I let her go, leaving me alone with Shichiro.
"Truly remarkable…" he mutters after a moment of quiet spent in his thoughts.
"So it is true then? Rimuru cannot be parsed by Buzzer? I need to know for certain, Shichiro." I sternly ask, needing a definite answer to this question.
"It seems so…even with my focus trained on her and her alone, blocking out the rest of the school, I couldn't read a single hint of deception in Rimuru's words," he adds, his voice full of astonishment.
"I will have to take measures of my own to prevent cheating with her then…are you even listening, Shichiro?"
"If a first-year student is able to evade my Buzzer, how many others could have slipped under my radar?" he mutters, seemingly ignoring my concerns.
"Do you see now why that girl causes me so much trouble?" I question, irritated just thinking about all the trouble Rimuru has caused me.
"Mm." he lets out a small grunt of acknowledgment, barely listening at this point.
Shichiro gets like this often, lost in his own ideas and theories. I am certain that he is trying to concoct an explanation as to why Rimuru is able to slip under the radar of his Buzzer.
Knowing now that this conversation is over whether I want it to be or not, I leave my old schoolmate in the room alone. I will have to make plans for these upcoming exams, exercising extra caution when it comes to Rimuru's assessment.
What a headache…
Rimuru POV
That was kinda annoying…and why was Balam there anyway? At least he didn't grab me up this time…
Just as I expected, people are really starting to question this whole 'mother' subject that Iruma spat out while he was acting all high and mighty. I'll have to come up with a well-defined story to do with that soon and figure out who'll play the role when it comes time for that because there will surely be a time when a mom would need to show herself to others.
Also, both men seemed alarmed about something, but I'm not quite sure what.
Ciel, do you have any clue what that was about?
[[Are you sure you want spoilers, Master?]]
Spoilers? If it's something that interesting, then no, thank you. I assume it's nothing you believe to be a threat, right?
[[Certainly.]]
It's not long before I see Kalego's face again during homeroom and he looks particularly stern at the moment. He normally looks like this all of the time, but for some reason, it seems worse than usual. Could it be because of our little meeting earlier? I have no idea, but I don't think that's all there is to his sour mood and expression.
"Now then, we're approaching end-of-terminus, and as such there will be fewer classes starting from today."
The mention of "fewer classes" and "end-of-terminus" obviously gets the class excited; kids will be kids, so even if schooling is important there are fun things that they'd much rather be doing.
"Woo, vacation!"
"Playtime!"
Personally, I have all kinds of fun stuff in mind for when I get back to Tempest; so being told the end of term is coming soon is no surprise, as I've been eagerly counting down to the date.
[['Kids will be kids', huh?]]
Oi, are you calling me a kid?!
[[I am simply pointing out that you are excited too, Master.]]
Fair enough. But there is still one thing I'm not looking forward to…
"Exams," Kalego says with a smile, savoring how the single word turns the childish glee of the class into dread. "You will be examined on the material taught in your classroom lectures. Anyone who fails will have to take supplementary classes over the summer."
He says that in a way that makes me think he'd enjoy us all failing.
[[This poses no problem, I have memorized the entire curriculum and can easily get you a 100% score!]]
Thanks, but… I think I want to tackle this on my own.
[[Oh?]]
It's just that if I cheat on this, I'll feel bad for scoring far above people who actually make an effort, especially Iruma. Not to mention that getting the top score would just give me more problems to deal with.
[[Aw, I wanted to help…]]
I know, I know, I promise to give you some kind of starring role later! But I also want to prove to myself that I can still do things on my own.
[[Master, you did well with the investigation.]]
I guess, but doing that investigation on my own helped me understand this place and its people better, even if it was all stuff you already knew. Maybe studying stuff by myself will help me understand this world better.
[[Very well. So once you are taking the exam, no Thought Acceleration or other assistance?]]
Yeah, of course. Might as well have it not kick in while I'm studying either, so I can get used to not having it on, and I don't end up studying 25 hours a day or something.
[[*giggles*]]
Huh? What is it? That's a rare sound for you to make.
[[Oh, I am just remembering the days before you would use Thought Acceleration outside of combat.]]
Oh, dear…
Back when Ciel was just Great Sage, and I wasn't fully used to my new body or powers, I found that for some reason my slime body has a serious lack of awareness when I'm lost in thought. It led to a fair number of embarrassing moments where I was caught completely spaced out; worse still, Shuna and Shion were well aware of this tendency and realized they could even strip me and change my clothes before I noticed. Thankfully, when Raphael noticed the issue she would just give me time to finish my thoughts with Thought Acceleration, which she's continued to do since as Ciel.
Like right now, for example; I've been talking with Ciel for a while, and instead of this leading to Kalego yelling at me to get my attention, he's moving as slowly as I need him to.
Hey, wanna see something funny?
[[Oh?]]
A game I used to play with a Betamax player as a kid was to keep pausing at different moments until I caught a funny face; people make weird faces all the time when they're talking, but they're so brief that you'd never notice with a normal speed of perception.
I use Thought Acceleration to 'pause' Kalego at different moments, until I catch it: one eye half-closed, his mouth wide open, and his hands positioned awkwardly in no particular gesture.
[[*giggles*]]
This got Ciel to laugh again for the second time today; quite the achievement. Is it because of Kalego's face, or is she laughing at me? Either way, it's nice to 'hear'. Sensing my amusement at her reaction, though, Ciel stops.
You don't need to hide it, you know.
[[...]]
She's gone quiet…oh well.
Alright, enough messing around with Thought Acceleration, I did say I was gonna practice not using it while I'm studying.
"But that's insane! I'm not at all prepared for this!" a feathery idiot complains as time returns to normal.
"Then expect to take supplementary classes over the summer. This was all written on your syllabus, you should be prepared." Kalego points out without an ounce of sympathy in his tone.
"I can't take supplementary classes! Summer is for having fun!" Lead near-yells.
"Study hard, then. Make sure you get scores worthy of Royal One." Kalego replies with a smirk.
I'm not too concerned, although many of my classmates are. I haven't been fully relying on Ciel for my grades, but I am a bit worried about some of the more boring subjects. I've been letting her handle those while I get to do the fun stuff like practical magic, pharmacology, and even botany. Those are actually interesting, unlike the history courses that are a snore-fest in my opinion. Even though it'll be a drag, I'll have to pay extra attention to those while studying if I truly wanna do this without Ciel. After that flop of an investigation, I need to prove to myself that I don't need to rely on her constantly. I'm a smart man; I'm sure I can handle some high school exams.
"Hey, you ready to ace these things?" I check with Iruma, thinking that he might be a bit anxious about the tests but still generally positive about them; I was wrong.
He's gone white as a sheet.
"I'm…not good with exams…or studying…" Iruma admits in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
I'm left confused for a moment before remembering something about the boy's past. He barely got the opportunity to properly go to school when he was with his parents, so of course, he'd struggle with studying!
"Hehehe…" I let out a small chuckle.
"What's funny?" Iruma asks, sounding a little hurt.
"You've already forgotten, haven't you?" I ask while wearing an arrogant grin.
"I don't understand what you mean Rimuru…"
I lean closer to him so nobody else can hear.
"I used to be a teacher, so I can help ya!" I reassure him with a smile.
"Oh, yeah…but isn't this different? The subjects, I mean."
"That's true," I admit.
"And wasn't that only for one term or something?" Iruma questions doubtfully.
"Yes…"
"Also, you have your own exams to prepare for…you probably don't have enough time to help me anyway…"
"I do, but I can still help you! Besides, teaching is a great way of learning, explaining something helps you understand it yourself."
He doesn't seem fully convinced but still gives me a small smile in response.
"You truly struggle with studying, Master Iruma?" Azz suddenly butts in, having heard part of our conversation.
Iruma looks down at his feet and gives a defeated nod.
"Well, I am certain with both my help and Rimuru's, you will pass all of your exams with flying colors!" Azz cheers delightedly, the smile he's wearing completely devoid of any doubt in his own words.
"Yeah! Iruma-chi is the best!" Clara cheers, adding to Azz's point.
High expectations like that aren't helping him, guys…
I didn't think Iruma could look paler than he did a minute ago, but here he is, even worse after that comment from his friend. I get the feeling, I really do. People have some crazy expectations for me back in Tempest and it's a regular problem for me and I'll never get fully comfortable with them.
Azz does have excellent grades so I wouldn't be surprised if he's more help than I am since I'm not relying on Ciel's genius quantum supercomputer mind for this. We'll just have to wait and see how we all do on the practice tests.
