Rimuru's POV

A few days had passed at Hogwarts, meanwhile, I was trying to keep my head down not to draw attention. I did make sure to have conversations with Sebastian though, since he didn't seem to be able to talk to anyone else. He'd always just show up at lunch, and ask me about whatever he could figure out from me about our classes.

He didn't seem to have enough general wizarding knowledge to get by without help.

While walking through the halls, I heard a yelp that seemed to come from the nearby courtyard and turned my senses toward it.

It seemed like some kids were getting into it, however, what was odd about it compared to the last time I'd seen it was that this time it was kids of the same house. I wondered who in Slytherin would actually hate another person in this house other than me.

Then I slowly realized I did know at least one other person who was hated within Slytherin.

I sighed softly, realizing this would quickly turn into my problem.

I suppose I should do something…

Begrudgingly, I turned on my heels and walked out into the courtyard from the open halls, before picking out the group and stepping in front of the boy to take a punch. I had to pretend to fall over from it, even if I didn't consider it all that much force.

"You got in the way, foreigner! That was for the mudblood!" It was a brown-haired boy with a few lanky-looking cronies around him. While they weren't particularly muscular, they did look like the deceptive type. A few of 'em even had their wands out.

"What are you doing, Rimuru? I'm trying to have a talk with these fine gentlemen."

He was certainly making it difficult for me to stick up for him, I still needed to do it though. Because the other houses seemed to have something against anyone in Slytherin, and at this point, no one else in Slytherin would help him.

All that culminated in it falling to me, whether or not I particularly wanted to deal with it.

I made a small show of wheezing as I got back up to my feet, facing him.

"Talking with fists? I didn't know that's how you spoke sign language around here..."

"Can you just wait in line, clown? I don't wanna spend forever on this. I gotta get lunch."

"I'd like to get to lunch too, so how 'bout we call it good and you leave Sebastian here alone from now on?"

"What makes you think you have room to negotiate?"

"Well, wouldn't it be more annoying to pick him out if I always got in the way like this and made noise? I could even tell the professor about it." I looked down at myself. "Hitting a 'little girl' certainly wouldn't be something he'd overlook?"

The boy grumbled. "You really are annoying, clown-eyes."

"Well then, I guess we can negotiate. How about this? I'll let you bully him as much as you want, and won't intervene-"

"Rimuru! You can't throw me under the bus like that-"

"I thought you were just talking?" I looked back at him with a smirk before turning back to the bully. "Anyway, I won't intervene… So long as you can beat me in an arm wrestle. Or at least, if any of you can. If I win, you can't touch a hair on his head for the rest of the year."

The probable third-year rolled his eyes. "Not much in it that way, it'd be a pretty easy win. But if you offered up your wand, maybe I'd take it seriously?"

I pursed my lips in annoyance for a moment. Ciel, what could happen if someone tried to use my wand?

[[It would either do nothing, or they would cease to exist. Especially the unsavory type like this.]]

Wait… I let Snape try my wand recently… I could've deleted the guy back there, huh?

[[He possessed no compatibility with null energy, as a result, there was no risk of his death.]]

So, if someone was compatible, even a little bit… They'd just, kill themselves?

[[Yes. Channeling Null Energy without a spatial isolation skill would erase that being from existence.]]

But, this wasn't a terrible problem in this case, since there was zero chance he was gonna win if I used the strategy I just had come up with.

Yup. Don't really want any child blood on my hands today.

[[You could allow me to put the blood on my hands?]]

No, plus that'd still be mine. We share hands.

"Alright, I'll take that. On the condition that the same happens the other way around. Wouldn't mind having a second wand." I smiled cutely intentionally, even if it pained me.

"Rimuru... I am not sure about this."

"Shut up." Both me and the bully spoke at the same time.

Sebastian's POV

Rimuru is trying to do something really stupid right now, and it is getting on my nerves. Normally this girl is annoying, even if talking to her is always more interesting than being alone. Today though, she was taking it too far.

I was going to peacefully take the beating, and then sit outside the Ravenclaw dorms to wait for one of the seniors to take pity on me, but no. I couldn't have that easy resolution.

Instead, Rimuru put me in a situation where I'd get beat up twice as often because now we had their attention.

Rimuru walked right up to the stone table in the courtyard and put her hand out on it. She was actually taking this arm wrestle idea seriously and I knew it would go badly.

However, it may be my fault. I'm not very good at lying, even though I practice every day.

Rimuru seemed to just stare forward blankly for a few moments, waiting for the third years to get on the other side of the table, almost seeming to draw in the attention of the other people in the courtyard with her stillness.

I saw the older kid sneer a bit, in annoyance, before sitting opposing her. Though he did whisper something to his lanky friends prior to sitting across from the girl.

She really was right for Slytherin though, because she simply gave a very creepy smile back. I felt sort of bad for the bullies for a moment, but I wasn't quite sure why. Some kind of instinctual fear.

"So then… How about we get this started, hm? Just so we don't have to say either of us cheated, there are no rules against magic use. That fine with you?" That sounded like a terrible idea on Rimuru's part, these were third-years. So the spells they knew would not only be more powerful, but they'd also be much more skilled in using them well.

"Don't get too sure of yourself, girlie." The brown-haired boy lifted his hand out and flexed his palm a few times before glaring back at his backup crew again.

They started muttering and using their wands, I was able to see the faint streaks of light being shot at the bully's back.

I wondered what kind of spells they'd cast for this kind of 'duel,' since it wasn't exactly obvious to me what would be the most useful here, beyond some kind of strength enhancement. I hadn't heard about anything like that yet, though.

The boy flexed his hand one more time, and the veins on it became visible underneath the skin, and while they didn't have any obvious sign of magic, it was clear his grip had increased substantially.

I sighed, knowing I might have to deal with that spell in the future because Rimuru would definitely lose.

Something weird did happen though, I saw Rimuru put her other arm under the table, and spotted a faint white spell cast, before turning an odd golden color. Her mouth was completely still, and I didn't hear her muttering. However, she did frown deeply when the spell turned gold.

"Alright then. I'm ready, kid." It didn't sound quite right for Rimuru to say that to someone older than herself, but she didn't seem like she was goading him on purpose.

"You really are annoying. Alright then, I'm gonna enjoy throwing him into the lake later." The brown-haired kid grabbed Rimuru's hand tightly before a look of complete and absolute pain overtook his expression.

Rimuru slammed his hand down onto the table without any mercy or resistance.

However, the boy himself simply went limp with his face falling flat onto the table. It was very quiet in the courtyard, and I think I could've heard a pin drop. However, I didn't hear the boy breathing.

At least, not until Rimuru released his hand, after which he loudly groaned and started gasping for air.

"What did you do!?" One of the other bullies was very alarmed, understandably, and grabbed the brown-haired boy, before dragging him to the other side of the courtyard.

"I won." She started chuckling menacingly. "Are you gonna accept that, or do you two wanna have a go too?"

The other two boys glared at Rimuru, before carrying off their… 'boss?' I wasn't exactly sure what the relationship was, but they carried him off toward the potions classroom, so I assumed they were taking him to Professor Snape.

After that, Rimuru sighed and slumped down on the table herself. "Maybe I shouldn't have used that one."

"What was that, anyway?"

"Just something my mother used to punish me and my siblings."

"You didn't even use words to cast it…"

"Yeah, so? I don't need to." Rimuru shrugged and stood up, "Damn, I feel all itchy now…" she grumbled under her breath.

"Was that truly used as a punishment on you? I swear that bloke stopped breathing after you used it."

"Oh, did he? Well, he seemed to start breathing perfectly fine after I let him go, so I don't see the problem." Rimuru gave that creepy smile again, before seeming to realize it, and she replaced it with a brighter one.

"R-Rimuru…" I heard another girl speak and turned to see a redhead from Gryffindor, who had walked up to Rimuru directly.

Rimuru's POV

"Hi, Ginny. I didn't realize you saw all that." It felt a little awkward to know she'd seen me using my 'demon lord' personality. It was a very embarrassing thing to use around normal people, after all.

"Come sit with me, during lunch..." She was being surprisingly forceful with the way she worded that. However, she did have more to add. "You probably won't be safe at the other table."

I wasn't sure she'd understood what I did to that kid a little while ago, but I assumed she must have thought it was a one-time trick. "Hm…" I thought it over, and it probably would be for the best. "Sure. I guess that'd be better than letting him run out and get himself ambushed in the hallway."

"What about you, Rimuru? You didn't need to do any of that. Now they'll target you too!" Sebastian didn't really get it either, I guessed.

"I'll be fine. You are my only concern at the moment. Well, maybe not only. In regard to the bullies though, yeah." I remembered that I had a reason for being here, that Ciel had yet to explain to me.

That was fine though, I was enjoying the break so far, even if the people in this world were morons.

"Rimuru, isn't that a little stupid?" Sebastian sounded more like he was getting used to me, but he still didn't really understand the demon lord thing. Though, I guess that is fair. I never told him I was one.

"Ignore it, do you two wanna go get lunch, then? We should probably stay together. Come with us, Sebastian."

"Just because you helped me this one time doesn't mean I'm your lackey now."

"And just because I invited you to lunch doesn't mean I want you to be my lackey. Sheesh, just come along with us. It's for your own good."

"Fine. I'm hungry anyway."

This kid will never not be sorta annoying, huh?

Ginny nodded and led us to the dining hall. She seemed to keep an eye out before turning each corner, and by the time we were there, it seemed like most of the students had already cleared out. So we were able to find a place to ourselves relatively quickly.

Immediately upon sitting down, Ginny looked back at me and gazed into my eyes for a moment. "I guess… You are the same person. I'm sorry for assuming..."

"Cause I got sorted into Slytherin, right? Don't sweat it, plenty of the kids in this house are assholes." I had no qualms saying so, and if I was the headmaster, I'd have certainly done away with the house system altogether.

It makes very little sense to group up all the bullies and all the other stereotypes into their own little dorms and separate parts of the school, just leads to exactly this. Who even came up with the idea for this system?! Not someone who thought things through, that's for sure.

"Not me, though," Sebastian pointed out.

That's debatable.

"Sure. You're at least better than those ones from earlier."

"That isn't exactly a high bar, Rimuru…"

"It must be hard being in the same house as that lot, especially as a non-pureblood. My family doesn't get treated the best by people like that either."

"Hm? Why not? Are you a half-blood too?"

"No, my family is just magically weak… I suppose that's their reason. The Weasleys are pureblooded, not that that matters much to me, but we're looked down on by other wizarding families."

So now they're discriminating based on bloodline and not just blood purity!? Next you're gonna tell me they put Goblins in prison camps!

"Well… I guess that wouldn't be too different from me. My mom might be a witch, but my dad is a normal person. I was also raised away from magic."

"So you grew up like a muggleborn would?" asked Ginny.

"Similar. My mother showed me magic for the first time last year to help me ease into things, I guess. She left it up to me whether I wanted to learn it myself or not."

"Isn't that against the law? I thought that all witches and wizards needed to learn some form of magic. It's too dangerous not to!"

"I dunno." Sebastian shrugged, unbothered.

"Without learning, you can cause accidents. My brother Ron once lit a convenience store on fire by accident when he was younger. It ended up fine in the end, but it was because he hadn't learned to control his magic."

"Well, I'm sure Mom would've shown me the basics so I wouldn't do that… and I bet I'm smarter than your brother too. I never lit anything on fire as a kid!"

"I dunno, pretty sure I'm smarter than you, and I definitely lit some stuff on fire as a kid," I interjected.

It's not my fault my parents forgot to put the lock back on the case where they were keeping the kerosene, I just wanted to make more s'mores while everyone was asleep…

Huh… That must've been seventy years ago now. I wonder how I am doing?

"What makes you think you're smarter than me?!"

"I know how to use magic that you can't even understand."

"If you showed me how, I'm sure I could learn it. Just tell me how it works."

"No. You'd hurt yourself."

"How do you know that?"

"Cause it hurts me, and if it hurts me, it'd hurt you more."

I thought back on casting the holy magic, Purity Seal, for a moment and shivered. I had almost prayed to myself, using the keyphrase that DIABLO and ADALMAN came up with… That would've been embarrassing, especially because Adalman would've heard me. He filters all my prayers.

Ciel refused my attempt to ask for the authority to make a direct line with myself too, saying that if I kept using my Ultimate skills, I'd ruin the game she set up. Faith and Favor is unfortunately integrated into Harvest God, so I can't access it because of that.

Meaning I had to do the worst option, as it was the only one I had. I had to pray to Luminous, and I did. I came face-to-face with HINATA, at least in my mind. She almost accused me of having a fetish, since this is the second time I have attended a school as a little girl.

After that, I was berated by Luminous herself when Hinata finally let me pass to her. She really raked me over the coals to be able to use her power, even if it was such a weak spell. I had to promise her the rest of the souls she needed to evolve Louis into a Demon Lord, and an hour of 'Private Time' whatever the hell she meant by that.

All just for a basic holy magic spell, the precursor of Holy Barrier, that every Holy Knight is trained to use as a squire. Just a simple touch-based spell that naturalizes all the magicules from the body of a majin, or magic item.

Then it made me feel like shit after I used it, since this body has no resistance to Holy Magic, meaning it affected me as well. Despite this body being closer to human, that doesn't mean it's not still using monster magicules.

All this took place over only a moment, but I thought the spell still took long enough that Sebastian saw it, and he did.

I didn't mind that much though, because I did want to teach him some magic. Although I was insistent that I wouldn't let Ciel teach him anything.

Without warning, a strange aura of magic surrounds Ginny's head and she stands up.

"I-I need to g-go…" she stuttered out and rushed away from the table without finishing her food.

Well, ain't that curious… That must've been some spirit… Didn't think this world was strong enough to harbor proper spirits though…?

I turned to Sebastian, "I'm gonna go make sure she's alright. Try to stay safe, 'kay?"

I got up from the table too, grabbed my stuff, and went to follow the girl.

"... must be a girl thing…" Sebastian grumbled, clearly annoyed, before gruffly stuffing a bite of food into his mouth. I ignored this, though, since Ginny's situation was more important to me.

She got out of my sight surprisingly easily, but I was able to track her down with the limited magic sense that I allowed this weak body to have. Ginny had made her way down near the girls' bathroom that I'd noticed people usually avoided, and sat down next to the entrance to it.

Ginny was intensely reading a leather-bound book, staring at it as if it were the most important thing in the world to her. That magic aura that had surrounded just her head before was now enveloping her entire body.

I stared at the little leather-bound diary and wondered for a moment why the aura was coming from it. It didn't have a spell cast on it, I couldn't see a spirit in it, and it wasn't casting a spell itself.

Hey, Ciel… Can I use my skills for this? At least… Universal Perception… That should be good enough.

[[You may.]]

I felt my vision suddenly become near perfect, each particle around me was seen clear as day, and was perfectly understood, it did make me feel unwell... I still decided to focus on the book though, and what I saw inside it was downright sickening.

Fragments of souls; souls from this world. While I let my demons use soul magic, I had specific rules about not allowing the souls to be sentient, and not putting them into magic items. One reason being that these souls were clearly suffering and partially fused together.

I decided this kind of 'artifact' or whatever it was, was too dangerous for her to have.

[[I will take it from her.]]

After a few moments, the aura around Ginny disappeared and the book appeared into a black void that disappeared so fast I was sure she couldn't perceive it.

Ciel even seemed to dispel whatever mental influence the book had built up.

However, immediately once that was done, I was reduced back to having normal magic sense. It was fine though, cause I'd be able to make sure she was okay either way.

Ginny looked stunned and scared, just sitting on the floor and looking around, confused. Maybe she wasn't aware of what was happening while under the influence of that book.

"There you are, Ginny," I said as I walked up to her. "Why're you sitting on the floor?"

"I don't know… where am I? I was eating lunch, and…"

"You left out of nowhere so I followed you. You don't remember that?"

"No… I…"

I reached out a hand to help her onto her feet and hoisted her up after she took it.

"Well, you're down here for some reason, but If you go that way, you'll end up in a hallway you should recognize. I think the next class is about to start so you should get going." I pointed down the hallway at a particular staircase.

"Yeah… class…"

Poor girl. She seems so disoriented. That book really did a number on her.

Ginny stumbled off, leaving me alone again, standing outside the girls' bathroom.

Ciel, I want a full analysis on that book. There's something fishy going on here.

[[I already have, but I don't want to spoil things for you, so I am keeping the results a secret.]]

So this has something to do with the main plotline? Good to know. In that case…

A noise started echoing through the halls, it kinda sounded like a person, but it was hard to tell because it was muffled.

[[Notice: Investigate strange noise?]]

I sighed, realizing Ciel was leading me toward it overtly with one of her 'quests', meaning it was either related to the book, or the main reason I was here.

Keeping an ear out, I went along the hall and turned, realizing it was actually coming from the bathroom we were only a few feet away from originally.

On the other side, I heard loud, dramatic sobbing.

Someone's having a bad day…