Magical Lessons
(On Top of the Royal One)
The King's Classroom, a single building stocked with all of the most luxurious amenities both needed and unnecessary for a student. A single building dedicated for the academic life of lord Delkira during his time as a student that was sealed up after his graduation, kept locked up and forbidding entry as the pride of the school. No one was meant to enter, no one was really expected to be on the roof, it was the perfect place to be alone and enjoy one's privacy to indulge in pleasures they'd rather keep secret. That was the idea for one student, to lounge about on the roof of this prestigious classroom and play out his pent up feelings by indulging in what his family would consider a 'forbidden' hobby. However, on the day the ranks of the first years was made public, that alone time was interrupted by a certain pair of siblings.
"Whew. That was a day, wouldn't you say Umi?" Iruma said as he and his sister landed on the roof with the prince stretching his tired body. "Should've known that getting He(5) right off the bat would only give us unwanted attention."
"Ameri looked ready to lash out and crush a few skulls with all those girls flirting with you." Irumi said as she also stretched her wings out and then fell onto her back with a contented hum. "Just as always, seeing you with other girls is the only thing that actually tests her patience."
"And Asmodeus was practically welded to your side with that constant barrier of fire." The prince reminded his sister, who was covered in a small layer of soot from her beloved and devoted overzealous fiance being overprotective. "Anyway Umi, let's focus on our classmates."
"Indeed. There's you, me, Alice, Sabro, and now Clara in our personal close circle. Five out of the total fourteen, shall we do alphabetical or by rank for the other nine?"
"Why not both? Andro M. Jazz."
"Member of the 'Serpent Thieves' Andro family, bloodline ability is Pit which let's them see their prize and the best route to steal them. Next, Kerori Crocell."
"Of the Crocell family, masters of ice magic, and she seems to be annoyed at how we've taken the front page of the school newspaper twice." Iruma said, remembering her expression when they saw the school paper.
"I'm more surprised that she's the Demdol Kuromu. I thought her family's ice constitution made it hard for them to be so energetic. Should we congratulate her?" Irumi said, thinking it over.
"She'd probably react to that poorly, and do you think she'd believe we recognize her from the sounds of her voice?"
"She also has that habit of tucking her thumb into her fist and someone as 'shy and passive' as her is in the Misfit Class. That doesn't make any sense if you think about it." The twins thought it over for a few more seconds.
"Keep her secret." They said at the same time. "Next, Picero Agares."
"The Agares family are often very sleepy due to the their link to the ground that 'My Area' is capable of manipulating." Irumi started.
"If he was more active, I'm sure Agares would've also gotten Gimmel(3)." Iruma added. "Next, Allocer Schneider... it seems like he prefers to use his knowledge over magic."
"Top in academics but not so much physical and magical. Still, knowledge is by far the most useful resource Uma."
"Agreed, but we should still find a way to help him strengthen his abilities. Next, Caim Kamui." Irumi shuddered a little at the mention of the perverted owl.
"Bloodline ability allows him to understand and control animals. His biggest obstacle is his obsession with girls."
"Seems like he's trying to be a gentleman about it but he's a bit too thirsty to be more than a pervert, something we'll need to work on. Gaap Goemon."
"Wind magic users... and for some reason they seem really into the Human World's culture of Feudal Japan. Was there any record of them going there at the time?" Irumi asked, remembering one of many trips their family took to the Human World when they were younger.
"Possibly. Questions for later though. Ix Elizabetta."
"Her unique magic is 'Full Love Gauge' where anyone of the opposite sex that catches the pheromones will try to win the user's favor. She seems like the perfect successor for mama Amaryllis as the next 'Head of Lust'."
"Though I doubt she's going to give up on you becoming the ultimate succubus despite papa's protests." Iruma warned, causing his sister to sigh. She loves her future mother in law, but she's only really interested in Alice's romantic love despite her sexiness level being nearly a hundred in her true form. Plus... Alice had passed out every time Irumi tried being more erotic toward her betrothed. "Which brings us to Lied Shax."
"Controller, which lets him take the sense of a target and make it his own. Which would be very useful for a spy." Irumi commented before adopting a teasing smile while looking at a particular spot. "Speaking of spies, I can't help but feel like someone feels forgotten."
"Umi, it's rude to talk about someone like they aren't there." Iruma lightly scolded before looking at the same spot. "And are you really still so nervous around us Soi Purson?" Knowing he was revealed, appearing as a cloud of mist forming into a solid being, the silent and unknown student of the Misfit Class, Soi of the Purson clan.
"My lords." He greeted as he bowed before the royal pair. The Purson family's day job is to help supply 'detection warding' gear to the populace, often low level gear meant to keep people from noticing you when you'd rather not deal with crowds. The Purson family are masters of that craft and can disappear from notice even after being seen, their most valuable ability and tool for their roles as spies and assassins. Normally they'd have nothing to do with the many demon clans as their assistance could alter the course of the Netherworld, but lord Delkira's word was law and even they were subject to their king's command. "What do you need of me?"
"Alice, Sabro, and Amy refer to us by name and yet you still refuse to do so." Irumi pouted, rather annoyed that another friend of theirs was still sticking with formalities despite their history. Sadly the majority of that history was trying to find him and coax him out of his shell, the Purson clan was very adamant about their rules of not sticking out. It was one of the reasons why they were so effective in their roles. Alice Asmodeus was the spear, Sabro Sabnock was the shield, Amy Kirio desired to be the inventor, and Soi Purson was to be their unseen dagger, hidden and waiting until it could be pulled out and quickly end any threat before it could endanger them.
"It would improper for me to do that my masters." He said, repeating the same excuse his father ingrained in him once he was assigned to the twins. 'I want to throw up. This was too sudden, I just wanted to vent my frustration but you just had to take my-'
"Is that a trumpet?" Iruma suddenly said, causing Soi's eyes to bulge out of his head and quickly look to find the prince pulling his trumpet case out of the air. "Soi. Have you been keeping this a secret from us?" Iruma asked, turning a disappointed look to their spy.
"How could you Purson?" Irumi accused while on the verge of tears. "You've kept this hidden from us, all this time." The twins then clapped as a set of floating piano keys appeared in front of Iruma while a violin manifested in Irumi's hands. "We could've been playing together!"
"There's only one way to make up for this transgression." The prince said before handing Soi back his trumpet. "Play with us!" He ordered just before his fingers started dancing across the keys while Irumi made her violin sing, enveloping all three of them in a vision of a peaceful nature of the Netherworld. Flowers blooming in a magma river in the sky, demonic beasts and birds frolicking about, the gentle shift between the seasons, what they want it to be sometimes. Soi was so caught up in the music that he didn't even notice he was playing with them.
"Ha~." Irumi sighed in contentment as they finished. "That was nice."
"Indeed. Same time tomorrow?" Iruma asked Purson as he processed what just happened.
"Yeah... wait." He said, just now noticing what he said.
"Great, see you tomorrow!" The two said before flying away, leaving Purson alone with his thoughts and how much he found himself looking forward to tomorrow.
(First day of official classes)
It was the first day of classes with the other teachers, going over the many other subjects that was relevant in the Netherworld such as demon history, astrology, torture, and magical application. Most of these classes went by without much incident, until the diabotany class in the Botany Tower, which was a greenhouse classroom filled with various Netherworld plants. The teacher was Suzy Stolas, a short woman with a laid back cat like expression and her flower petal eyes either half lidded or closed like she's at peace with everything. She wore pale green variant of the teachers uniform and had her hair in a spiky bun while letting the rest fall down her back in spiky layers with her actual tail looking like a long flower sapling. Her lesson was making magic saplings grow in an exercise in control and visualization of the user's magic. The biggest thing out of the ordinary was the presence of the student council, with Ameri watching the twins.
Most of them were unsurprising; Alice's flower had a blossom made of fire, Sabro's was a bloom surrounded by leaves in the shape of shields, Jazz's was a bunch of hands holding onto gold or gems, Lied's was a roulette wheel, Schneider made a vine holding a roll of paper, Goemon's was a blossom made of a ball of wind, Elizabetta's was a relatively normal flower but the scent was highly intoxicating, Kerori's was an icy blossom that looked like the stem was a dress, Picero's was a giant ball of fluff he was sleeping on, Soi's was invisible to direct focus, Kamui's was confiscated due to indecency, and the less said about Clara's floral abomination the better. The only ones that remained were Iruma and Irumi, both trapped in thought over what flower to make.
As He(5) ranked, they were expected to be excellent and to go beyond those expectations. They had to consider that while trying to decide between flowers native to the Netherworld or to go the unexpected with flowers from the Human World that very few demons would know about. Taking that into consideration there was only really one option, to go beyond.
"Professor Stolas?" Iruma said, getting the teacher's attention. "Umi and I have an idea for our flower, but is it okay for us to do it together?"
"Hmm, normally I would say no, but I am curious as to what flower you have in mind. Yis." She admitted, making the twins smile excitedly. "But do know that if you do this you'll have to split your grade. Yis." That was alright for them as Irumi looked over to Asmodeus and Sabnock, giving them a nod to silently tell them to evacuate the premises while Iruma did the same for Ameri as the two made their way to the center of the room.
"Ready Uma?" The princess asked as the two visualized their flower. Her brother nodded as they held their hand over the sapling.
"Quan Quan." They said, casting the spell that was used for this lesson and causing the sapling to grow as they fed it mana. Professor Stolas was at first disappointed since the others had a very quick and immediate effect with their plants but these two He(5) ranked first years were rather slow by comparison, especially with the two working together... then she realized that the plant just kept getting bigger.
'They're controlling the rate of growth and making alterations as necessary to avoid damaging the tower.' The professor thought as the sapling turned into a tree, growing ever higher and fuller. 'Magnificent control of your magic, but what flower will bloom?' She continued to wonder as Iruma told Agares to alter the top of the tower before it could be smashed apart, telling him to visualize the stone of the tower as 'ground'. That was barely enough as the tree nearly shattered the roof of the tower before Picero managed to open it up, replacing it with a veritable cloud of shifting rainbow blossoms. The twins wanted to envision the sakura trees of Japan their father took them to see one day many years ago but decided to add a twist only magic could permit. "Well, I guess now the Botany Tower truly lives up to the name~. Yis. A+ for both of you. Yis." She purred happily while everyone at the school that saw the new addition became enamored with the tree.
(Hours later, on the tower closest to the tree)
The new tree's beauty quickly made it a hot spot for students to lounge around and enjoy themselves, eating meals and snacks, some artists trying to immortalize the image, some just having fun nearby. Iruma and Irumi were later found by the janitors, cleaning up the messes that resulted from having such activities brought. They also helped with repair work since Agares managed to avoid the absolute worst, there was still some ugly cracks and shattered glass that needed fixing. The staff would've complained, but they didn't mind the end result being such a beautiful sight and the twins were their own rays of sunshine they just enjoyed working with. Now it was the end of the day and Soi was getting ready to play atop Royal One, before Irumi literally dragged him back to the tree and started climbing among the canopy.
"Princess Irumi, what-" Purson started before Irumi covered his mouth and made a shushing gesture. "What are we doing?" He whispered this time.
"Setting ambiance!" She whispered back excitedly. They kept climbing as quietly as possible until they got to what seemed to be a particularly dense patch of blooms and branches that seemed to form a room inside the tree canopy. "There we go." She said, taking a peek inside before nodding and summoning her violin, gesturing Soi to do the same. The sounds they played were slow, peaceful, and felt like someone was embracing the listener. Purson took a chance to look inside and found why the princess wanted to play something like this.
Inside that small room of color shifting blossoms was Iruma in his full stature, tall and grand, lounging on a thick branch and surrounded by floating lights with his fiancee, Amerie Azazel, snuggled against his chest as they read manga.
'Man. I really want a girlfriend.' Soi thought before putting a bit more effort into his sound. As he did, the two lovers looked over to where the music was coming from to see Irumi giving them a wink before disappearing while still playing. They silently thanked her, gave each other a simple chaste kiss, and went back to snuggling while reading.
A/N: Support me by buying my book Commencement.