(Is Bouncy here…)
The next day, Ririi went to school and rushed to check her desk, where she left the slime the previous day. She worried that it might have ran away.
“Ah!”
Bouncy was sleeping in a square shape inside the desk. It was also too tightly packed to move on its own.
It was flustered at first, but its innate lack of intelligence led it to relax completely. It seemed the expression ‘home is where you make it’ also applied to desks.
“Here we go…”
Ririi took Bouncy out of the desk, and after popping out, it opened its eyes, hopped from Ririi’s hands, and landed on the floor.
“Here’s food, Bouncy.”
“…?”
Ririi took a bag out of her backpack, and showed one of the berries inside to the slime. After noticing the berry, it quickly jumped onto Ririi’s hand. It was normal for slime to jump in face first like that, since they did not have hands.
“Hahaha, that tickles!”
Ririi laughed as the slime enveloped both the berry and her hand, and she pet the slime with her other hand. And as she felt that chilly feeling in her hand, the other classmates gathered around her without her realizing it.
“What are you doing, Ririi?”
“Hum, Ririi brought food for Bouncy!”
“Food?”
“Daddy said bouncies eat berries.”
Ririi said while showing the bag to her classmates. They all checked what was inside, and spoke at the same time.
“Can I feed it one too?”
“I wanna try too!”
“M-me too.”
“Sure!”
Ririi gave everyone a berry, and the classmates took turns presenting them to Bouncy, who kept jumping on their hands and enjoying this sudden feast.
One berry should be enough for a blue slime’s breakfast, but slime were beings that would eat as much as they were given.
(That’s right…!)
Ririi ripped one page out of her notebook, and started writing something. Then she took the piece of paper and the bag to a shelf on the back of the room.
【Bouncy’s food. If you pick up berries, put them here】
Was what she wrote.
Her idea was to share the berries with everyone. Everyone else accepted this idea, and the first class of the first year started looking for berries on their way home from school and vice versa.
◆
High elves were a very intelligent race. Ririi mastered words quickly, and could make a magic circle appear in one try.
However, interest in studying and intelligence were two completely different things. And it seemed Ririi was not a big fan of studying.
(Studying isn’t fun… Ririh wants to play outside…)
Five minutes had passed since the first proper lesson from Miss Esmeralda, ‘beginner level fire magic’, had begun.
The students around Ririi were fascinated by their first step towards learning magic, but Ririi’s eyes were not on the textbook, but on Bouncy running around the room for no particular reason.
She could not help but think about how much more fun it would be to play with it outside.
“Ririi, what color are magic circles of fire magic?”
“!?”
Ririi jumped when she suddenly heard her name. She quickly leafed through the textbook, but she did not even hear the question itself.
“Awawawa… Hum, uh…”
No matter how much she searched, she could not find the answer. It made sense, considering she did not hear the question.
(What now.. Ririh didn’t hear…)
Ririi turned her eyes to her side, asking for Lain’s help. But despite noticing that, Lain’s eyes did not move from her own textbook.
Lain thought Ririi deserved what was happening, because she should have been listening to the lesson, and had no intention to help.
(Serves you right. I hope she gets mad.)
Esmeralda looked at the panicking Ririi with a nasty smile on her face. She really had no mercy for students who did not listen to her lessons.
“Do you not understand, Ririi?”
H-hum… Ririh… Wasn’t listening…”
“Oh dear, that’s not good.”
Esmeralda still did not feel like telling her, despite Ririi confessing on her own. She heard from Weiss that Ririi was not used to group activities, so she intended to educate her about that as well. She was convinced that area had not been touched at all, considering how much Weiss pampered his daughter.
(…Oh…)
Esmeralda was going to tell her, considering she did at least reflect on it a little, but then there was a quiet voice from somewhere else in the classroom.
“Ririi, the question is what’s the color of the magic circle…!”
“…!”
Ririi looked around to see where that voice came from. She noticed a girl looking at her while making a small peace sign with her hand, and lowered her head to her with tears in her eyes. Had this gone on for a little longer, Ririi would have started to cry.
(Hum, the color of the magic circle…)
Ririi leafed through the textbook, but still did not have the answer. She was very much troubled again, and tears started to well up in her eyes for the second time.
(Ah…!?)
But just as the tears were about to start falling, she remembered. She used fire magic once before. That magic she used during her picnic with her father was definitely fire magic.
And the color she saw then was…
“Red!”
“Correct. You can sit down.”
Ririi sat down while sighing deeply, and although she did not show it, Esmeralda felt relieved.
(It looks like she’s getting along with the other students.)
It seemed fair to say Esmeralda’s plan worked perfectly, as Ririi spent the rest of the lesson with her eyes glued to the textbook.
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