"Then that's enough." Kuonji Alice nodded faintly and said softly, "Being able to help you is reason enough."
After their serious discussion was over and she had confirmed that Rimuru was in good health, Kuonji Alice seemed to truly loathe London—and even the entire Clock Tower. Aside from visiting Liddell's school building, she was perfunctory even in observing the tradition she valued most as a mage: paying a visit to the administrators of the region. She barely bothered with London's great magecraft families, visiting them directly as a robin and familiar before planning to return to Japan.
However, when she visited the Director, she was asked to stay. He hoped that, while preserving the Witch lineage, she could do what she could to help humanity survive.
The relationship between Witches and humans had never been good; in fact, it could be called downright hostile. Kuonji Alice had inherited that attitude well. She hated humans, but even so, she held a measure of respect for the Clock Tower's mysterious Director, who had guarded it for a thousand years. She calmly agreed. "I can do that."
"I won't help Rimuru for humanity's sake, but I don't mind helping humanity a little... for Rimuru."
Chapter 20: The Complicated World of High Society, According to Aoko
Kuonji Alice's arrival had done little to disturb Rimuru's life. Their world was as still and placid as an autumn pond.
It was only after she left that she had saddled him with an idiot who got along rather well with Liddell—and gave Rimuru a serious headache.
The next day.
"Hey, hey, I'm so bored, Rimuru. Let's go out and look around! We came all this way to London, after all." Aozaki Aoko lay sprawled across a library table like a puddle of mud, chewing on a blade of foxtail grass and complaining loudly enough to attract quite a few students' attention.
"Keep your voice down, idiot."
Rimuru sighed. He closed the book that Great Sage had just finished scanning at lightning speed, then waved a hand. Wuyin turned into a light cushion, and a huge pile of books floated after him.
"Could you stop bouncing around like a husky all day?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aozaki Aoko rested her chin in her hand, watching Rimuru pick up a book, inspect its cover, and put it back on the shelf, only to grab another and place it on Wuyin. She rolled her eyes. "You're not even reading! Who flips through a dozen pages in a second...?"
"It's called quantum reading." Rimuru grinned. "Never heard of it?"
"...Tch." He's just using Magecraft to enhance his memory and cram as much as possible... Aozaki Aoko sighed, thinking sourly. Even memory enhancement has its limits. He's reading that much at once? Let's see how much he remembers when he gets back. Serves him right if he works himself to death!
At that moment, a straight-backed figure entered the Grand Library. After quickly scanning the catalog, he stated his requirements in a rapid-fire manner. The library's staircases began shifting between floors, and just then, he happened to notice Rimuru returning books nearby. Rimuru noticed him at the same time.
"Good day, Professor Kayneth."
"Good day... Professor Rimuru—oh, I suppose I should call you Professor now." Kayneth paused, then glanced at the books behind Rimuru and smiled. "There's no need to be so meticulous, Professor Rimuru. The theories in books are certainly important, but when it comes to teaching, your own insights and experience are what matter most. I'm sure you have no shortage of either."
"You're too kind." Rimuru blinked his golden eyes and nodded in greeting. Kayneth then turned his gaze to the girl behind Rimuru and narrowed his eyes slightly.
That girl was Aozaki Aoko, the Magician known as one of the Blue Twins alongside Rimuru, later nicknamed the "Twin Stars of the Royal Flush" after the great explosion... Kayneth watched her for a moment. When she showed no intention of acknowledging him, he didn't greet her either. After nodding to Rimuru once more, he turned to leave.
To be honest, although the two maintained a cordial relationship on the surface, unless they happened to run into each other, they would probably never cross paths because of their factions—
Especially given that their personalities were as different as night and day. Even if they belonged to the same faction... Rimuru figured they still wouldn't have much to talk about.
So Rimuru assumed that, aside from academics, they had little to discuss, and that their encounter was over. Then Kayneth's voice suddenly rang out again.
"By the way, Professor Rimuru."
"Hmm?"
Rimuru looked up and saw Kayneth turn around with a smile. "A girl was recently born into the Archizorte family, a distant branch of my own El-Melloi family."
He looked Rimuru in the eye, then turned his head away again as he continued. "So, as head of the family, I suggested they name her..."
"Reines."
"..."
Well, damn.
Rimuru watched Kayneth's back, suddenly at a loss for words. Was this Reines... the same Lemon Girl he remembered?
"Tsk."
He shook his head helplessly. It seemed his earlier refusal had stuck with the proud Kayneth—or at the very least, made him remember the name...
Indeed, Kayneth, who succeeded at everything he did, probably saw being rejected as a failure.
"What was that about?" Aozaki Aoko had finally found her opening. As soon as the other man left, she leaned over, curious.
"Nothing much. I used the excuse that I'd already set my sights on a student named Reines to turn down his offer to introduce me to a student. Now he's given a relative's child the name Reines..."
Rimuru smiled and continued searching for useful books, not giving the matter much thought. Thinking about it, Kayneth's move was almost like a sulking, tsundere elementary schooler's. It was kind of cute, too.
"...What kind of move is that?" Aozaki Aoko stared at him, stunned, then looked disdainful. "That's so stupid..."
"Don't be so quick to say that."
Rimuru raised an eyebrow and returned a book to its shelf. "He's actually expressing his intentions to me for the second time, hoping to ease tensions between our factions through this connection."
"The first time, it was a child from his own Archibald family. After I turned him down, he switched to a child from the Archizorte family."
"What difference does that make?" Aozaki Aoko asked, puzzled.
"Archizorte is also a branch of El-Melloi. Even if it's the most distant branch, its members are still part of the El-Melloi family."
"If he were only doing this out of spite, he could've just renamed a child in his own family."
Rimuru smiled at Aozaki Aoko, who was still struggling to work it out, and tapped her on the head. "Come on, this is obviously a second hint that he wants to send me a student—and that it's not just his own idea. It's the wish of the entire El-Melloi Faction, of every family in it."
"So it's not really an offer I can refuse. After all, I have to show some consideration to one of the Twelve Lords who wants to be on good terms with me."
"Th-this is so complicated."
Aozaki Aoko's head was spinning... So what she'd thought was a stupidly simple gesture actually carried so many layers of meaning and communication?!
Good grief, you London high-society types are so complicated. Japan really is better...
"Actually, it's not that complicated." Rimuru tilted his head, then looked at Aoko with an amused smile. "Even if we ignore all the hidden meanings, you still shouldn't call what he did stupid, Aoko."
"If all it takes is a name change to get on my good side and turn a previous failure into a success, then it doesn't matter if the method looks stupid to other people."
"Kayneth is known as someone who always succeeds for a reason. It's not a coincidence. His way of thinking is naturally geared toward success, and he's willing to give up most other options to achieve it. I have to admit..."
"If we count my refusal last time as a failure, then in the end, he still succeeded, didn't he?"
With that, Rimuru sighed, sounding a little wistful.
After getting to know them for a while, Rimuru had come to realize that none of the Clock Tower's professors were simple people. Take Kayneth alone: if not for the limitations of his era and the traditional magecraft ideals instilled in him from childhood, he wouldn't have been someone whose life could be ended by a mere Holy Grail War.
His grasp of how to succeed and his instinct for opportunities were both exceptional. If Rimuru hadn't used Great Sage to raise his logical thinking to an extremely high level, he would have admitted that he was no match for Kayneth.
But, unfortunately...
He'd lost because of the traditional mage's way of thinking, and because of Emiya Kiritsugu's ruthlessly modern approach that stopped at nothing.
"Come to think of it... Kayneth's Origin might just be the word 'success.'" Rimuru took one last look at Aozaki Aoko. Her head was clearly spinning even more after his explanation, so he sighed in exasperation—
What was the point of telling all this to someone who couldn't think straight, and whose Magecraft consisted of pure, explosive firepower? Maybe I'm the idiot here.
Chapter 21: Erol, Setting the Mountain Ablaze!
Rimuru didn't keep Aozaki Aoko occupied for long. He always felt that spending too much time with her would make him stupid, too, so he soon sent her packing and returned to immersing himself in the sea of knowledge. He found the study of Magecraft pretty interesting...
There was less than a week until the students began their term. At that point, as a lecturer in the Department of General Fundamentals, he would have to teach a large group of new students who needed five years of basic education. As a professor, he would also have to lecture in various departments and at Academic City. He might even be chosen by students to lead his own classroom.
Frankly, Rimuru had been excited at first. But then he remembered that there weren't many familiar characters from the story around at this point, and his enthusiasm cooled. He'd become rather indifferent about which students he ended up with—
And then there were the three disciples he'd already picked out: Erol, the five-year-old silver-haired little Witch; baby Reines; and... Tohsaka Sakura, who hadn't even been born yet.
Tsk.
Each one was more troublesome than the last.
But then again, having no disciples at all would be strange!
For a typical direct disciple who would inherit their teacher's Magic Crest, Rimuru already had as many students as he could reasonably manage: three. That meant unless he wanted his disciples to create their own factions and prevent them from fighting and killing one another, he'd better give up on taking in more.
Of course, there was no problem with raising direct disciples from a young age, but...
Forget it. He could still hope for some good students...
Rimuru sighed. Since he was a professor, surely he needed a couple of pretty girls as student assistants!
Liddell might be upset about that... But! True warriors never feared or backed down from the powerful!
"Slimes don't actually have a gender. If you really want to—"
"Shut up!"
Slimes really didn't have a gender, but Rimuru believed that a person's nature should be judged by their soul, not their body.
"And the essence of my soul is absolutely that of a steel-hearted straight man!"
"But without hormones... even if you shapeshift, you still wouldn't be able to get it up... right?"
"..."
Rimuru fell silent and quietly picked up a book to read.
He suddenly felt like crying...
That evening, just as Rimuru finished recording the knowledge and was preparing to leave, a waft of fragrance reached him. Liddell came rushing in, her pink twin tails swinging, and hurried over to him in a panic. "This is bad, Rimuru! Aoko's blown something up again!"
"Blown something up?" Rimuru was taken aback, then sighed. "She's a human-shaped walking launcher. Isn't it normal for her to blow things up? Just have the Director give her a Sealing Designation—"
Even if she blew up all of London, there was nothing the world could do about it. She was a Magician, after all...
"That's not it." Liddell grabbed Rimuru's hand and pulled him along. "The problem is that Erol was with her when she blew up the hunting grounds!!"
"Erol?" Huh, wasn't that the precious disciple I was just thinking about?
Rimuru froze, then shot to his feet. "Holy shit!!"
"You couldn't have picked anyone else to look after her? You let Aozaki Aoko babysit?! She can barely take care of herself!"
"I only saw that she was bored, and Erol was clamoring to go out and play..." Liddell turned her head away, looking aggrieved. "Who knew Aoko would be so terrifying!"
They got into a car and hurried to the scene—
"The one that was blown up is the Phantom Hunting Ground in the Gaiusling Academic City—"
"The Chimera hunting grounds?" Rimuru's mouth twitched. He suddenly said, "I remember that's a Reality Marble covering several mountains, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Maybe we shouldn't go?" Rimuru suddenly developed a headache and slapped his forehead. "Setting the mountain ablaze means you'll be locked up for life. I'm afraid I'll get a Sealing Designation if I go there, too..."
Clock Tower, Department of Zoology—Department of Chimera.
Academic City was an academic center on the outskirts of London. Its Reality Marble covered the entire Reverse Side of the World, and it had a natural, pastoral atmosphere.
It was controlled by the Gaiusling family.
Unlike the Department of Botany, the Department of Chimera was responsible for researching all kinds of strange animals and Phantasmal Species, as well as the Magecraft related to them. It also supplied the Clock Tower with materials and provided support for hunting and tracking.
It was one of the wealthiest Academic Cities, second only to the Department of Mineralogy.
And now, this fertile field had been blown up!
By the disciple of the very person he'd supported at the meeting—Rimuru, the one he'd backed!
"..." When Rimuru arrived at the scene, the Lord of the Gaiusling family, his face dark, nodded to them. The resentful look in his eyes made Rimuru shiver.
The Director's familiar had already arrived. Its body was cloaked in shadows, making it impossible to see its expression, but Rimuru guessed it wasn't a pleasant one.
Aoko and the little silver-haired girl stood there, one big and one small, obediently bowing their heads as the Director scolded them. Aoko was doing all right: she'd lowered her head and admitted her mistake, and even promised to find a way to compensate the Department of Zoology for its losses.
As for Eler, the little one had her hands behind her back and her head lowered, shifting from side to side as her eyes darted around. The moment she spotted Rimuru, she raised her head excitedly and called out, "Teacher!"
Then she dashed over on her little legs and buried herself in Rimuru's arms, nuzzling into him.
She was clearly trying to get away with it by being cute!!
Rimuru looked at Liddell. She immediately turned her head with a guilty expression. Clearly, she'd spoiled the little one enough to let her run wild—
"The losses suffered by Gaiusling will be covered jointly by Tempest and Achelotte. As for Aoko..." Rimuru sighed and spoke up. "You'd better stop costing Alice money."
"Ugh..." Aozaki Aoko's eyes widened, but when she saw the Director turn around, she quickly ducked her head and kept quiet.
"Even if you compensate for the losses, you can't act recklessly. Someone still has to be held responsible."
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