Rimuru's POV

Out of pure curiosity, I looked inside and spotted one of Hogwarts' many ghosts. I saw some of them fly around during the first dinner I had here but didn't really pay them any mind at the time. I don't think this one, a ghost that looks like she could be a student here if it wasn't for her ethereal-looking qualities, was present that night, though.

I was curious about them, of course; it's strange that souls can linger like this in such a weak world, but I didn't give it much thought.

I hope she wasn't watching what I just did a minute ago.

"Hey!"

The ghostly girl stopped her flying around and weeping and stared at me.

"What do you want?"

Her voice was nasally and annoying, her whiny tone not helping with that at all.

"I was just wondering why you were crying so loudly."

"Loudly? So I'm the most annoying, ugly, pathetic girl in Hogwarts, alive or dead? Is that what you're saying?! Why can't I express my feelings without being judged!? (insert screeching Myrtle noises here)"

"I don't see where I was judging, I'm just curious why."

"So… you're not making fun of me?"

"No…?"

"You're different from the others…"

Just because I'm not bullying her? That's pretty sad. I mean, who bullies the dead? Especially targeting someone who died as a child, like this girl.

I just shrugged in response, "What's your name, anyway? Do you have one?"

"Of course I have one! It's Myrtle!"

"Nice to meet you, Myrtle. I'm Rimuru."

"Rimuru? What a strange name for a witch."

"And Myrtle is a strange name for a ghost."

"I am not a ghost, I am a student! A girl!"

Isn't she both? I guess she's still sore about dying.

"Well… alright then. I guess dying can be kinda traumatic for some."

"How would you know anything about that!?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

"I suppose. Nobody talks to me anyway, so I would have no one to tell even if I wanted to." Myrtle folded her arms and pouted.

"I died once. So yeah, I know how it feels."

"How could someone like you die? You are clearly still alive since I can't see through you and you aren't floating!"

"I got reborn. Started a new life as a new person in a new, completely different body."

I left out the part about being in a new world too, and the fact that I was a slime. Those details weren't necessary.

Is knowing about that not the norm around here? I guess someone stuck in this world as a ghost might not know that.

Myrtle seemed to stew on my words for a long moment before speaking up again.

"Do you remember your death?" she asked quietly, her voice a lot less shrill than before.

"Vividly. I was stabbed and bled out. It wasn't exactly a fun experience. How 'bout you?"

"I don't remember… all I can recall are a pair of slitted yellow eyes, and then the next thing I knew, I was dead! It happened right here in this bathroom."

I pursed my lips. "That sounds worse than dying out on the street, to be honest. At least I had other people there to know what happened."

It made me a little sad, knowing that this girl was here all alone, both before dying, and after, not even aware of the reason she died. Myrtle was clearly unhappy here and it made me wonder what was keeping her around.

"Why don't you move on? You're clearly suffering."

"Move… on?" she asked, tilting her head curiously.

"Y'know, from this plane of existence or whatever."

"Rimuru, I don't understand."

"Hm?... So you haven't felt a magical pull? Like… Something pulling you to another world… Or talking to you? The first thing that happened while I was dying was hearing a strange voice."

"No, nothing like that happened. I was just dead in an instant. I've always wondered how it happened, but no matter how many times I think about it, I can't remember!"

That might be what's keeping her here… unfinished business from when she was still alive. Perhaps I could help.

I know it wasn't exactly my business, but at the same time, I felt bad for this kid. Living in a bathroom for who knows how long, getting bullied by students, and being stuck with incomplete knowledge of her death; who wouldn't feel at least a little pity for her.

Yeah, she seemed annoying and grating, kinda, but given her circumstances, I can easily look past all that.

"I'll try to figure it out for you. From one person who's died before to another." I told her, flashing the ghost a smile.

"You will? For me?!" she asked, her voice turning shrill again, but this time with excitement.

"Of course. I'm curious about it myself. I mean, something that can kill someone with just a look? That sounds interesting."

Myrtle flew up and did a joyful midair backflip.

"I'll come later to see you and investigate. Starting here makes sense since it's where you died, right?"

"Thank you Rimuru! You're the first person to be nice to me in such a long time!"

"Don't sweat it. Seeya later Myrtle!"

I found myself going back to class and didn't sweat too much about being late. I did know that I'd be particularly late, but that was fine…

Snape was definitely pretty mad when I actually showed up, but it was fine…

Apparently, answering the question "Where were you?" with "Hanging out with a ghost." wasn't enough of an excuse for him. So, he ended up mad, and I had to stay after class, but that was fine too… Why would I care about a crusty old man being angry with me?

It didn't remind me of my memories from middle school. At all. Anyone who says that is a heretic to Rimuruism, and Adalman would probably burn them at the stake, smite them, or a mixture of both.

"They tell me you disabled a third-year. While I do not fault you for defending your classmates, that boy will likely spend several days in the infirmary. He has a crippling magical sickness, or more accurately… sickness due to a lack of magic."

"All I did was arm wrestle him. That whole flopping over on the table thing was all him, not me. I dunno what happened. Maybe he didn't want to admit he lost to me fair and square."

"I interrogated your friend earlier and he admitted that you cast a curse on the boy so do not attempt to pull the wool over my eyes young lady!"

Thanks for that, Sebastian. Couldn't you just keep your mouth shut?

"It was probably just his imagination. He's kinda an idiot like that." I paused for a moment. "Plus we said there were no rules."

"That does not justify-... just avoid using something that dangerous again on other students."

"Sure."

It was too much trouble to use anyway. I have other ways of showing assholes their place without having to humiliate myself to do it.

"Fine… Now, I would like to instruct you on several of the potions for next semester."

"Mmm. Sounds troublesome. Are you gonna have me do this every break after class?"

"You likely won't be able to learn these things with the others bothering you, after all. Most of these require overnight attention, unlike the first semester's potions."

"A whole night, just for a potion? How can that be?"

"That is just the basics of long-brewing. Many potions take weeks, and some months. Several? Years."

"That's just silly. If you have years to brew something, you have years to figure out a better way to get the same results. Why take the time to do something so monotonous and pointless?"

"The only way to contain the vast amounts of magic imbued into such a high-tier potion is with a lengthy, arduous process. There is no other way to find it."

"Well, if you don't bother looking, then you'll never find one."

If you're gonna go through the trouble of shoving all that magical energy into a potion, why not just store that up inside yourself? I'm sure there's some way to do that here. Even if it requires you to bolster your body permanently… Beings evolving isn't unique to the Cardinal World.

[[It would be difficult to increase the robustness of a physical body in this world, due to the difficulty of containing large amounts of magicules for a long period of time. At least large amounts by the standards of this world. However, this could be assisted with the proper magic circuits.]]

Hmmm… well, I still think they could do better than taking up years of your life to make magical soup. Even with how things are right now around here.

"You obviously don't understand the trials and tribulations in the art of potion-brewing. There are limitations to all forms of magic and that is something you must learn."

You know nothing about overcoming limitations! If you don't like how something is, you work to change it yourself instead of moping about it or giving up. I grumbled to myself while we went over these overnight potions, but at least gave him the courtesy of listening and following his instructions.

…

I found myself in that class for defending against… Uh, dark stuff? Kinda sounded prejudiced against demon lords, to be honest. Not that they have those around here, but my point still stands.

"Please listen closely class, I have a very useful charm to show you today, normally it would be cast on yourself to hide your movements. However, it can also be cast on others to disable verbal magic." The annoying blonde was going on and on about something I personally considered pretty ineffective. "You will practice it all this week, I personally once used it as a student to defeat one of the teachers in this very academy in a duel."

Now that sounded like a lie.

"Observe now." The blondie placed a loud frog on his desk next to the mirror he'd been using half of class. I think it was in his pocket for some reason. "Silencio!" The spell burst out of his wand, flew toward the desk, and hit the mirror.

It then went right back to and hit the blonde in the throat.

He started gasping and choking, attempting to talk, but nothing came out.

At least we won't have to deal with listening to any more of his fake personal anecdotes.

Seriously, half the time he's been supposed to be teaching had been nothing but clearly fake tall tales about this and that thing he supposedly did in his past, and another half of what's left was taken up by him preening in that mirror. I was glad to have a little bit of silence from him after enduring that.

The students in the room seemed to be in agreement, most of them laughing at this fool's folly. He was still trying and failing to get a single sound out, silently screaming his head off.

After about 10 minutes of this, the joke grew stale and the professor had been reduced to tears.

"Maybe if we slap him the spell will wear off?" One student proposed.

"Rimuru, you do it," Sebastian, who was seated to my side, elbowed me.

The fun was over so I decided I might as well fix him. Watching him gasp like a fish out fo water had long grown unfunny.

So, I walked my way up to the pathetic mess that was supposed to be my teacher, reeled back, and gave him a good slap.

His head snapped to the side, but I didn't do it hard enough to knock him to the floor. I have some self-restraint, remember?

Nothing happened to the charm, of course, since I didn't do anything else outside of giving him a hit.

Hm. Nope. Guess that wasn't enough to do it.

It would've been funny if it was, but oh well.

Lockheart looked stunned, but I didn't care.

"Lemme try again. Maybe I didn't do it hard enough."

He waved his hands to stop me, but I ignored him.

So, with my other hand, I slapped the other side of his face and at the same time disrupted the charm with a few magicules.

"Better?" I asked while already knowing the answer.

His face was all red from crying and getting hit, "Please just stop hitting me, I'll give you the keys to my car if you do!" He covered his mouth immediately after the words actually came out of his mouth.

"I don't want your stupid car. I don't think it'd even be very fast." I could probably run faster than a plane if I really tried. Though it might hurt this body a bit.

"My car is fast… It's the fastest…"

I felt the sudden urge to slap him again. Just this time, I didn't wanna hold back.

I think he felt the bloodlust, because he suddenly fell over on the ground, sobbing.

"Rimuru, stop using your scary eyes on him. He's gone through enough today already," Sebastian interjected from his seat.

"I wasn't trying to." I may have tried a little.

I went back and sat in my seat.

Lockheart spent the next half hour trying to save face, explaining that having a charm cast on you can be a very traumatizing experience and that as a result, you should always be careful of who you choose to use them on.

He was clearly insinuating that he wasn't scared of me, but I clearly felt it. That was real fear.

I decided to talk to him after class, so even as everyone else filtered out of the room, I stayed behind. I wanted to have a chat about his behavior, and maybe get some useful information out of him about ghosts.

"You aren't leaving, Rimuru?" Lockheart seemed a little bit unsettled by me still sitting at one of the tables near the middle of the room, it was quite amusing.

I decided to mess with him a little bit. "Nah, I thought I'd stay here to see if I can get anything else to embarrass you with."

"If th-that's the case, then you should j-just leave. I am a very busy man and I don't have time for you!"

"Damn. You're no fun. Fine… I have a more serious question for you then. Since you say you're so versed in the dark arts, or whatever, what do you know about ghosts?"

"Why are you asking me of all people? There are plenty of ghosts floating around Hogwarts that can answer your questions better than a living wizard like myself."

"So the great Gilderoy Lockheart, vaunted hero and defense against the dark arts professor at the esteemed Hogwarts doesn't know enough about ghosts to answer a few simple questions about them? I guess I should've expected that after what happened earlier."

His face turned red again, this time out of pure anger. He just couldn't handle being talked down to, could he?

"If you want to know so much about ghosts, you can read my book about them." He held up a leather-bound novel. "It is called, That Time I Woke Up in a Crypt Full of Ghosts!"

I felt personally offended by that title.

"Yeah… no, thanks. Just quote the book if you need to since you were the one that wrote it." There was no way I was gonna read that entire thing and reading it in an instant like I'd normally do was off the table at the moment, considering my circumstances.

"Why would I spoil my writings for you? They are too good for that!"

Uh-huh… sure.

"Fine. Just answer my questions then. What are the requirements for becoming a ghost?"

"Unfinished business, I suppose. They all have their reasons for lingering and chose to do so. Is that all?"

"And is it strictly people that can become ghosts? Like, can a magical creature become one?"

"Only those with intelligence. And, of course, muggles cannot become ghosts, but that is an obvious fact. Are we done here now?"

"I guess."

"If you think of more questions, go bother that nearly-headless fellow. I'm sure he knows more than I do about ghosts."

Nearly headless? What does that even mean!?

I assumed he was talking about one of the many ghosts around here since I doubt any students or teachers could survive near-decapitation. Even the body I was currently in couldn't handle that. Unless there was a zombie teacher I hadn't heard about yet, Lockheart was talking about a ghost.

It made me wonder for a moment why there were so many ghosts, in the Cardinal World, ghosts were more or less impossible. Only beings that existed as spirits inhabiting objects really happened, and were often accused of being ghosts by those out of the know.

Reason being, a free-roaming soul would be slowly destroyed by torrents of magicules, so it would either get pulled into the reincarnation cycle, or be destroyed.

Assuming these ghosts weren't reincarnated…

It wasn't best to assume. It was a preposterous idea, and I would need to find out from that ghost himself.

"Fine. I'll leave." I could tell the man was getting more unsettled with each word, so I decided to try and find the ghost instead. So I walked through the halls silently, just barely broadcasting that desire in my faint aura. I knew that an entity with a pseudo-spirit should at least be able to sense that much.

"Well… Isn't that curious?"

I stopped broadcasting any thoughts at all in my aura. "Heyo. Are you the nearly headless one? I'm not sure." The visible cut in his ghostly neck made me think I was correct.

"I guess that is why we all got so unsettled." The ghost looked sort of uneasy for a moment. "So what exactly are you then? You shine too bright to be a witch."

"Darn… Don't worry about that. I'm not too dangerous." I whistled a bit. Then checked around with magic sense to make sure no one else was around, and after that walked into an alcove. "Alrighty, let's have a conversation… uh…" I couldn't use Dragon Eye to just know his name like I was so used to these days.

"Nick is fine." The ghost's head emerged from the wall in front of me. "You were talking to little Myrtle, right?"

I hid my presence, at least magically. I tried to tune it to be more similar to the wizards I'd seen. That might have been suspicious, so knowing it was a problem. No reason not to fix it. "Alright then Nick, I have a few questions about ghosts, if that is alright? And yes, yes I was."

"Don't try to walk past my question so nonchalantly, a certain darker student from the past did the same thing. It is one of my biggest mistakes." The ghost looked a little frustrated.

I pursed my lips for a moment, then opened my eyes wide. Even in this form, I knew just a bit of my true nature would shine through. "Do I have your word that you won't tell a single soul if I tell you?"

"I am not sure I can promise that." He was a little too tough for a little glimpse of the void, which was in turn frustrating to me.

I felt like I was playing chess with Luminous for a moment.

"Tch. Annoying, you are a bit hardheaded, huh? Well… I guess I could tell you, but if I'm not a threat to the other students, can you promise not to reveal me?"

"Students? What about the faculty?"

"Fine, fine, the teachers as well." I made sure to open my eyes wide, it'd certainly be a binding agreement if I could actually use true dragon magic at the moment, though I wasn't sure I could. I could feel a bit of a restriction on my powers from time to time, and this body was probably the reason.

"Alright." He stared back, almost unphased. Staring down something like me, even in a weakened form, was pretty impressive. He must've been through a lot.

"Alright then, I'll phrase it as a question. What if a dragon were to take human form?"

"Hm? Like some kind of... Animagi? If a magical creature of that caliber could, they'd certainly be one of the greatest wizards in the world." He seemed unsure of why I'd even ask that. "Perhaps you possess the blood of such a creature?"

[[Notice: Optional quest lines available: Path of the Dragon, or Path of the Dragon-kin.]]

Hm… I guess the second would seem a bit less threatening… Plus wizards with magical creature blood can't be that uncommon, right?

"We can say that. Not sure how recently myself, but there is a reason for the family name 'Tempest.'" This was a perfect way to weave a little thread into the backstory.

The ghost closed his eyes for a moment, in deep contemplation. "Rimuru, is it? I read through the list of the new first-years just a few days ago."

I nodded.

"I'll be informing the headmaster of you being related to a magical beast, but I won't reveal a word more. Is that acceptable?"

"No." I stared him down and put on a soft glare.

The ghost frowned lightly. "You can't threaten me, I'd gladly accept oblivion if it meant saving a single student here."

"Just a magical beast, in my bloodline then, hm?"

"Just that, and not a word more. The headmaster won't pry, I even heard he may be hiring a wizard with a similar circumstance in a year or two."

I guess it might explain some of the weird things I've done… Alright then, I'll bite. This ghost stuff seems important. I sighed loudly to put up a front of being beaten. "Fine fine, go tell the headmaster… After you answer my questions."

"State them."

"Alright then, I tried to ask that bumbling defense against the dark arts 'teacher,' but he was annoying about it. I just want to know why, and how someone becomes a ghost."

"Is that all? Well… When an intelligent magical being faces death, they may choose to stay. To choose not to move onto the next dimension."

"The next dimension? So souls here do go to another world? Does that mean that there have been souls that came from another world as well?"

"Hm? I'm... Not too sure about that. It was just a turn of phrase, but in my years I've never heard of one coming from another world."

"Oh…" That was a little frustrating to hear, and while I knew the souls here were weak, was the world also that weak?

[[You are on the right track.]]

Oh? You haven't talked to me much about this Ciel, thanks.

"Are you perhaps saying that you are from another world?"

"No." I was a bit too serious to give a long response, starting to get deep into my thoughts. I'm not sure if it was true dragon instincts or what, but something about this world was starting to feel… wrong.

"Ah, my mistake. You must have heard about it in a story. I can assure you though, no wizard has ever proven to be from another world." That pulled me out of my thoughts.

I chuckled a little bit, although in this body it sounded more like a giggle.

"Is something about that funny?"

"No no, it's nothing. I apologize. Can you tell me one more thing about ghosts?"

"I think your first question was common enough knowledge, so I have a few more minutes of time for you."

"If ghosts don't get an offer to go to another world, or hear a voice when they die... What does happen?"

"That question is harder to answer. It depends on the ghost. Some of us see a land of significant meaning to us, while some simply come back as a ghost right away. Considering the place I saw when I died, even if only for a moment…" He paused for a moment. "It had great meaning but was better than I remembered it, so it must have been a fabrication of my own mind. I found it hard to resist."

That sounded eerie to me, creepy even. Like the souls in this world did actually just… repeat the same spell until oblivion. For lack of a better phrase. It is a term for a spell I was familiar with from the Cardinal World.

Something Diablo told me about, as a punishment for misbehaving subordinates. To forcefully inscribe a magic circuit onto their soul, and let their soul run it over and over and over until eventually they cease to exist.

I banned any demon from ever doing it, but that didn't really sound all that different.

Diablo described it as a mental trap of a world that they'd never willingly leave, as to not let them realize what was happening.

Meanwhile, for ghosts in this world, it sounded like some of them had enough mental force to resist such a fate, however, that didn't mean they were in the clear either.

I couldn't see it without my Universal Perception, but if my gut instinct was right, they would still eventually find themselves fading away, as their soul slowly runs itself out of energy.

If in lack of another life, souls in this world simply did that to themselves… It sounded dreadful. I greatly value reincarnation, and the system my oldest brother set up for it, after all.

It is also just personal to me.

"I don't like the sound of that, but I don't really like the sound of being a ghost either." I shivered a bit, legitimately, but then decided I'd asked enough. "I'm sorry to bother you."

"Not a problem, I'll take my leave then. And, as you said. Our agreement is intact. So long as you bring no catastrophic harm to Hogwarts or her inhabitants, I will reveal no more than I said I would." The ghost receded into the wall.

I stood there for a moment, just shivering, but also feeling a little angry. This world really was a terrible place. "I guess I should go talk to Myrtle…" I found myself speaking aloud because I knew no one else was around.