In the thick forest, Ririi, the captain of the slime search squadron, looked around while she walked. The blue slime she found ended up running deeper into the forest.
“Come out bouncy~…”
She tried calling out to it, but it was to no avail. It made sense, since slime were not normally friendly monsters. Sure, Ririi felt no enmity towards them, but that did not change the fact that slime stood at the bottom of the food chain, and saw Ririi as a threat.
As for Ririi herself, she was actually trying to take one home with her.
“Come out… Ah!”
Ririi sat on a tree stump, started searching around in her pocket, and brought out a sweet with a colorful wrapper. She took it to school to have as a snack (which was against the rules), but she just had a great idea.
“Hum, let’s do this…”
She gathered a few fallen leaves, and placed the sweet on top of them before hiding behind a tree. She named this the ‘sweet lure strategy’.
(Do bouncies eat sweets? Beary does, but…)
Ririi watched the sweet with excitement. She both wanted a bouncy to come out, and hoped it didn’t. If it didn’t, she got to eat the sweet. Her intention was to wait for a bit, and if no bouncies appeared, she would go eat it.
If Weiss saw this he would rush to stop her, but even he was not overprotective to the point of watching her here.
“…Ah.”
Ririi quickly stopped herself from making noise, as she saw a blue slime draw near. It seemed to have noticed the sweet.
(Ba-dump ba-dump.)
Ririi peeked out from behind the tree, and readied her arms and legs to jump out as soon as the slime started eating the sweet.
She figured it would be able to catch it if it was focused on the sweet.
(…?)
It seemed the slime was curious about the first sweet it ever saw, as it jumped around it. It really should be more cautious, but sadly for them, slime were unfortunate beings that were too dumb to even be pets.
It was drawn by the rich smell, characteristic of baked sweets, and dived on top of it.
And then…
“Toh!!!”
“!?”
Blue lightning attacked, or rather, the captain of the slime search squadron, Ririi Frenberg. She fell on the slime, and her body hopped and rolled on the grass along with the slime.
“Got you!”
She held the slime tightly with both hands, as it looked as though it had no idea what happened.
“Ah!”
Ririi looked at the ground, and quickly stretched her arm. She picked up what was left of the sweet, and put it in her mouth without the least bit of hesitation.
“Munch munch…”
She ate it with a big smile on her face. She caught the slime and ate the sweet. She felt triumphant about having her cake and eating it too, as she rushed back to Esmeralda.
◆
“Miss Esmeralda! Ririh caught a bouncy!”
Ririi ran back to Esmeralda while holding out the blue slime to show it to her. She was feeling great, after her plan worked perfectly.
“Ooh, that’s great.”
Esmeralda said, despite being more concerned about Ririi’s robe, which was covered in grass for some reason. She figured it was probably because Ririi rolled around on the grass.
She knew it would not rip so easily, but she still wondered about the robe she herself made.
(…It looks fine as far as I can see. It is made from crystal dragon materials, after all.)
After a sigh of relief, she saw other students gathering around her. They were scared to go deeper into the forest, so they were playing nearby, but they were drawn by the slime, since they had never seen one before.
“What’s that, Ririi?”
“A bouncy!”
“Bouncy?”
“It’s a blue slime. A fine monster.”
“Monster!?”
The children all backed away, leaving Ririi to tilt her head and wonder why.
“It’s fine, they’re way weaker than humans. You can even touch it. Ririi, give me that for just a bit.”
Esmeralda took the slime from Ririi, and pet it gently on her lap. And so, the slime that was scared because it was surrounded by much larger beings, relaxed and closed its eyes.
Slime had short memories, and this one forgot that terror that quickly.
“Let Ririh pet it too!”
And so she did. She was good at petting things gently, since she was used to playing with Beary.
It seemed good for the slime too, as it completely loosened its body.
“C-can I do it too…”
“I wanna touch it too!”
The other children fearfully approached the slime, now that they saw it looked harmless. They stretched their small arms, and their hands sunk in a little when they touched the blue body.
“It’s chilly.”
“It feels nice.”
“It looks kinda cute.”
The children all gave their opinions, as they touched a monster for the first time, and Esmeralda squinted, feeling satisfied with this outcome.
Being in charge of an underclassmen class meant not only teaching magic, but letting the students experience things like this.
“Thanks Ririi.”
“…?”
Ririi tilted her head, not knowing why she was being thanked.
And so, the group that stayed close to their teacher, and Ririi, got to spend a nice relaxing time.
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