"We don't know whether she'll be disappointed or not, but when we arrived, we ran into Principal Reivinia. She said she had something to discuss with you, so I suggest you hurry over there." Kuroko smiled helplessly behind her and raised a finger, promptly dousing the dream-filled girl's hopes with cold water.
"Eh?! What does she want with me..." Saten Ruiko frowned miserably, looking troubled.
Her relationship with Reivinia was not bad, but Reivinia had been especially strict with her in order to fulfill her promise to Rimuru.
It was not that such strictness was bad. Reivinia already had the air of a proud British Royal Family aristocrat, and after three years as principal, merely standing there was enough to put immense pressure on every student.
To put it bluntly, even knowing that they were actually equal friends in private, she could not help feeling intimidated by the fact that Reivinia was her homeroom teacher and principal.
"But... that's normal, isn't it?" Kazari Uiharu smiled and comforted her. "Everyone says you're Reivinia's only personal disciple. Of course she'd want to talk to you after graduation. Hey, maybe she even has a gift for you."
"A gift... It's mainly that there isn't really anything I want..."
"Come on, come on, we'll go with you!"
"Stop dawdling!"
Above the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows hung portraits of the founders. Reivinia looked at Rimuru's portrait at the very center beside her own for a long while before hearing a knock outside the principal's office door. She turned around.
"I heard that when you discussed your dreams after graduation with Leisha and the others, you wrote down that you wanted to seek out your teacher?"
"I'm guessing that teacher wasn't referring to me, right?"
The moment Saten Ruiko entered the principal's office, she saw Reivinia's