They Say to Enjoy It If You Can’t Avoid It, But You Need Something to Enjoy First(2)

“…Is there a reason for me to be here?”

While I was watching the students earnestly blocking the water with gravity manipulation, I turned my body that had been lying down at the voice coming from behind me.

What I saw was Isolde, sitting on her staff and having risen to the same height as me.

She seemed to have finished all the tasks I had assigned her earlier, as she asked with a slightly tired-looking face while looking at the scene of the shield I had created.

“What do you mean by reason to be here…?”

“Well, if you do everything by yourself, there’s no need for me to do anything. And in the first place, wouldn’t you be expelled from your professor position if you do such things?”

Following Isolde’s pointing hand, I turned my head and saw students screaming and somehow barely lifting the falling water.

But perhaps because time had passed and I had added more water, it seemed their limit was to keep it about 5 meters off the ground. Even that looked quite precarious as they were barely holding on while trembling.

But… is there a problem?

Even though they look like they’re struggling, isn’t it fine since they’re definitely growing?

As this was a scene I could always see during my class times, I scratched my head and answered Isolde.

“Not particularly…? And I always spread a visual distortion barrier during class time, so no one will see… and it seems like everyone doesn’t have any complaints…?”

“Why don’t you just say you’re committing a perfect crime?”

“Crime… It’s not like anyone died or will die, so what’s the problem…”

“Haah…”

Isolde sighed deeply at my words.

Although I felt somewhat unpleasant at that gaze that looked like she was seeing a foolish younger sibling, I barely calmed myself and asked Isolde.

“So… was that noble dealt with well…?”

“Yes, no problem. That noble was trembling terribly when he woke up, so he won’t come again. And it seems he’ll keep his mouth shut on his own.”

Moreover, other noble family students who saw that will spread rumors on their own, so other nobles probably won’t approach carelessly tomorrow either.

Isolde closed her mouth after saying that much.

In other words, summarizing Isolde’s words, it meant she had perfectly carried out my order to help Mira deal with matters related to the noble.

It’s truly fortunate that the noble, who was quite unpleasant to look at, was dealt with at Mira’s level.

Although the fact that the noble was close to a fallen noble was a big reason, I didn’t intend to belittle Isolde’s hard work, so I reached out my hand towards her head.

It was a hand stretched out with the intention of praising her by patting her head like I do for Mu and the other children, but.

Tap──

It seems this method doesn’t apply to Isolde as well.

“Ah…?”

“Don’t treat me like a child. I’m over 700 years old, you know.”

Isolde, who spoke while gently deflecting my hand that looked rough but was soft.

Isolde’s eyes were filled with a visible rejection reaction that sincerely said not to pat her, so I awkwardly withdrew my hand.

Everyone else liked it, how strange. Ah, certainly, since it’s a master-slave relationship formed after forced kidnapping, maybe she could dislike it.

I was withdrawing my hand that had been pushed away by Isolde for a reason that was sufficiently understandable, when suddenly, I recalled what Isolde had just said and stiffened.

Wait a minute. What did Isolde just say?

“…700 years old?”

“W-What? Is there a problem?”

When I suddenly stiffened and muttered like that, Isolde flinched her shoulders and asked back.

With a face that seemed to wonder if she had said something wrong, Isolde seemed to be retracing her words, but before she could find the answer, I blurted out words that came out naturally.

“You’re a complete old hag…”

No, I knew from the setting that she was hundreds of years old, but considering her appearance and actions so far, I had thought we were of similar age, so the age of 700 years suddenly struck me greatly.

“……”

Shocked by my words calling her an old hag, Isolde blankly opened her mouth and chewed over my words, muttering them.

Seeing her like that with an expression that said she had heard something she shouldn’t have, it seemed the shock was quite severe.

Has she become more out of character after coming under me? This might be the only chance to see Isolde showing such a stupid appearance, but I had no particular intention of observing it.

It would be a lie to say I didn’t want to observe, but more importantly, I hadn’t answered her first question yet.

Therefore, I shook Isolde, who had fallen into a half-groggy state, to wake her up, and said to her who had barely regained her senses.

“There’s something you need to do, so pull yourself together…”

“What could there be for an old hag like me to do…”

This seems to be extremely sulky.

She probably thought she was grumbling inaudibly, but Meiyel’s body had better senses than expected, so even her quiet grumbling was all heard, making it impossible to think of it as anything but sulking.

But do I need to care? After all, I brought Isolde to use as a slave, so there’s no need for me to care about each and every one of her emotions.

Thinking this way, along with the faintly felt pangs of conscience, I cut off my attention to Isolde and pointed with my chin at the shield trapping the students.

“It seems they’re probably about at their limit now… I’m going to break the shield now, so help with the cleanup…”

They’ve held up well so far, but they’ve probably reached their limit now.

Magic depletion would be one reason, but more than that, gravity manipulation was a task that required tremendous concentration.

Therefore, I was thinking of breaking the shield that had been blocked until now to drain the water, and I wanted to entrust the handling of those waters to Isolde.

If that much water bursts out, it would probably turn the area from this large playground to the main building into a swimming pool with a depth of 10cm.

Although Isolde was weaker than Meiyel, she was still a strong person that even the main characters couldn’t compare to until now, so Isolde should be able to handle this easily.

“I just need to handle that water, right?”

“Yes… that’s all.”

And at this request of mine, Isolde finally relaxed the expression she had been making until just now, immediately realizing what she had to do, and asked me.

I affirmed to Isolde, who had immediately grasped her task without needing to explain in detail, and slowly descended towards the ground of the large playground.

Isolde following behind me, coming down to the ground together.

We both landed on the ground simultaneously without anyone going first, and simultaneously raised our staffs.

“Alright, I’ll start…”

“I’m ready.”

I’ll break the shield, and Isolde will handle the water coming out of the broken shield.

After checking the pre-arranged plan one last time, I nodded once after making eye contact with Isolde.

And at the same time, as I made the jewel of my staff glow to activate magic, enormous magic power and demonic energy began to gather.

No, wait a minute. Demonic energy?

“Wait, stop! Demonic energy is gathering!!!”

“Huh?! Ah!”

When I shouted urgently without my usual languid tone at the demonic energy gathering that made my skin crawl, Isolde realized what she had done and hurriedly dispersed the demonic energy she had been gathering in her staff.

I quickly covered the demonic energy she had gathered with magic power and completely erased it, and when all the demonic energy was erased from the air without leaving a single bit, I let out a sigh of relief and glared at her.

“Uh, um… sorry.”

“It’s fine for now since there wasn’t a problem…”

Isolde sincerely apologizing, knowing she had done wrong.

It was truly a startling moment, but considering it, I had my faults too, so I accepted her apology and regulated my rough breathing.

Five days ago, I had taken away the demonic energy-infused weapons that Morgan and Isolde had originally been using, on the grounds that using demonic energy after making the contract would reveal that they were demons.

Instead, I had given them high-quality swords and staffs made using ordinary materials and told them not to use demonic energy, but I had completely forgotten about it as we had been so busy over the past five days.

To begin with, neither of them had swung a sword or used magic even once during that time, so I couldn’t help but let my guard down.

Isolde probably forgot too, so she naturally tried to use magic by gathering demonic energy along with magic power as she had always done.

Although Isolde’s mistake was big, it wasn’t like I had no fault either, so I looked around while putting my startled heart back in its place.

“Fortunately… it seems the demonic energy didn’t leak out…”

Perhaps thanks to reacting immediately as soon as she gathered demonic energy, or because it was all consumed by my magic power, it seemed there was no demonic energy that had escaped.

A perceptive magician might have noticed it for a moment, but there was no one in this academy who could notice that comma-unit moment except for me, Isolde, and Mu.

Only after thinking that far and judging it was safe did I raise my staff that I had lowered for a moment and this time firmly engraved a warning message in Isolde’s mind.

“We both forgot just now… but from now on, make sure to use only magic power… Understood…?”

“Yes, I’m sorry… I forgot too. I probably won’t make such a stupid mistake like just now again from now on.”

Isolde blaming herself and affirming at my words.

Isolde finished her apology and raised her staff to match me, and this time, only pure magic power without any demonic energy mixed in gathered in my and Isolde’s staffs.

With a small resonating sound of ‘woong’, clean magic power without a single impurity condensed in the staffs.

“I’ll break it…”

And when Isolde signaled with her eyes that she was ready, I swung my staff filled with magic power to break the shield trapping the students and the large amount of water.

Crash───!!!

The shield breaking cleanly along the trajectory of my swung staff. Following that, Isolde’s magic engulfed the water bursting out through the gaps of the collapsing shield.

“『Evaporate』.”

Chiii───

At Isolde’s magic that changed the magic power between the falling water into fire elements, the water disappeared while evaporating in midair as it fell.

The water bubbling and boiling at the sudden appearance of fire elements between them before disappearing.

And when all the falling water had disappeared, all that remained were students flopping on the ground of the playground, exhausted from magic depletion.

“I, I feel like I’m going to die…”

“Magic… no magic is coming out…”

“Can’t take any more…”

They all collapse to the ground, struggling with magic depletion. Although the ground wasn’t perfectly dry and was damp, the students all entrusted their bodies to the ground as if they didn’t care about that.

The students who were still holding up were those who had ample magic power from the start, those who were good at controlling magic, and the main characters like Shati, Pina, and Fran.

At that sight which could be called nothing short of total annihilation, Isolde clicked her tongue and said to me.

“This class is no different from torture.”

“That’s rude…!”

Of course, I immediately denied those words.

The more bitter the class, the greater the growth achieved!

Although there seem to be some students who look like corpses because it was too bitter…?

---

I feel my magic power has hit bottom.

More precisely, it’s just before hitting bottom, but Shati barely propped up her knees that were about to collapse due to the exhaustion no different from hitting bottom.

“Haa, ugh… I thought it would be easy…”

Gravity manipulation magic.

Shati thought it would be simple because she was confident in elemental magic, but that thought was broken once when Meiyel created that much water, and broken twice when the water actually collided with the gravity manipulation.

If it weren’t for Pina and Fran, who were half collapsed next to Shati, she probably would have crumbled without even lasting 10 minutes.

After all, the three of them, including Shati, were the main pillars of the column that had been pushing up the water until just now.

Of course, the other children helped too, but it was an undeniable fact that the magic of the three was the main pillar.

“We barely held on…”

If even one of them had crumbled, they probably would have all collapsed like dominoes, but thankfully, thanks to the two holding up well like herself, they were able to hold on until now.

Shati inwardly sent small thanks to the two for that, and felt her legs that had been barely holding up completely give way.

Feeling that it would be impossible to get up again if she collapsed here, Shati painfully pushed her body that was about to fall forward backwards and plopped down on the damp ground.

“Ugh… it’s sticky.”

The wet playground ground stuck uncomfortably, but what could she do when she didn’t even have the strength to move.

Shati just raised her head and blankly looked at the sky.

Bubble bubble──

When she sat back and looked up at the sky, what came into view was water evaporating while boiling like water in a kettle.

Although she didn’t know the exact principles, it was clearly high-level magic that she couldn’t imitate just by looking.

Naturally, as it was such high-level magic, Shati thought Meiyel had used it, but she could realize that wasn’t the case from the voice she heard next.

“Is this okay?”

“Yes… Now let’s set up a magic field…”

“I guess. They’re all groaning.”

“It can’t be helped since their magic is depleted…”

The voice of a woman, probably the owner of this magic, conversing with Meiyel.

At that voice that sounded familiar from somewhere, Shati tried to lower her head that had been looking at the sky, but before that, an enormous amount of magic power enveloped the ground of the large playground.

A magic floor spreading on the ground, displaying geometric patterns. As the magic field that Meiyel had just mentioned spread out, Shati could feel vitality returning to her body.

No, it wasn’t just Shati alone. The children who had been collapsed also seemed to realize that magic was starting to seep into their bodies that had been depleted of magic, as they opened their eyes wide and started to get up from their places.

“Oh, this is a magic field!”

“Magic is seeping back into my body…!”

“Haa, now I feel like I can live…”

The children getting up from their places, each uttering a word. Shati also followed them and raised her body that had started moving properly again.

And only after raising her body could Shati clearly see the identity of the owner of the magic and voice she had just heard.

“…It’s hard to share magic with kids of this level.”

The purple-haired woman casually rotating her arm holding the staff to loosen up her body.

Of course, since she was the one Aria-professor had explained was the vice homeroom teacher during the morning assembly today, there was no way Shati couldn’t remember now that she saw her face, even if she might not have recognized her just from the voice earlier.

‘Certainly, I heard she would also serve as an assistant for the magic class.’

And once she realized her identity, a memory belatedly came to mind.

She had heard that along with being the vice homeroom teacher of Class A, she would also serve as an assistant for the magic class, but who would have thought it would be as an assistant for the magic class led by Meiyel.

Since Shati already knew Isolde’s identity, she could finish her impression of her with just a light surprise, but it seemed that wasn’t the case for the other children.

“Professor. Who is that person?”

Fran raising her hand and asking from a place not far from Shati. The other children also seemed curious, looking at Meiyel and Isolde with question marks on their faces.

But for some reason, Pina wasn’t doing so, and as Shati was about to question Pina’s reaction, Meiyel’s gentle voice rang out among the students.

“Ah… Come to think of it, I didn’t explain. This is the assistant who will help me conduct the magic class from today… Her name is…”

“It’s Isolde. Just Isolde without a surname. Call me as you like. I’ll be guiding you along with Meiyel from today.”

Meiyel’s words introducing Isolde and Isolde’s self-introduction, which for some reason was much softer than the morning introduction.

And Shati briefly turned her head and inwardly wiped away tears at the children who had already loaded questions on their lips and the clock hands showing that there was still an hour left in the class time.

It seemed it would take a long time before the class ended, after all.

---

“Ouch…!”

While tidying up Aria’s professor’s office, Mu hurriedly withdrew her hand from the sharp blade that had grazed it.

But blood was already flowing from the cut hand, and Mu frowned at her finger that was starting to sting and glared at it.

There were always knives stuck between the bookshelves in Aria-mother’s room, so she should have been careful, but she had been careless.

If someone else had heard this, they might have thought it strange that there were knives between bookshelves in the first place, but from Mu’s perspective, where even mother’s faults were her own faults, it was just a wound caused by her own carelessness and lack of caution.

“It hurts…”

“What? Even a homunculus bleeds? And you even feel pain?”

As Mu muttered softly while holding her stinging hand, Morgan, who had been reading a book behind her, tilted her head and asked curiously.

“Aren’t homunculi dolls without blood or pain? I know they might have emotions, but even that is implemented?”

“The blood is a copy of what Mother shared when she created me. As for pain…”

Mu answered Morgan’s question smoothly but closed her mouth, stumped at the question about pain.

Certainly, it was as she said. Why does she, a homunculus, feel pain?

As her contemplation on this deepened, Morgan carefully got up from her seat where she had been reading and approached Mu’s side.

A single drop of blood flowing from her hand.

“So this is that person’s blood, you say.”

Interested by the words about blood she had never seen even when fighting her, Morgan lightly brushed the wound on Mu’s hand with her finger and.

Sizzle───

“Kyah?! What is this?! It’s blood mixed with divine power!”

As the finger that had touched Mu’s blood started to crumble as if burning, Morgan screamed and shook off the blood on her finger.

It was Morgan’s flesh crumbling from blood mixed with divine power, which was the exact opposite of and incompatible with demons, not just holy power.

What on earth is this, blood mixed with divine power? Morgan truly wanted to shout this, but she couldn’t dare to ask, feeling that an answer she couldn’t handle would come back if she did.

Therefore, Morgan looked at Mu with a slightly fearful face, but Mu, who had been deeply focused on her contemplation, didn’t seem to have heard Morgan’s scream and was still quietly closing her mouth and continuing her contemplation.

However, that was only for a moment.

Mu soon ended her contemplation with a bright expression and shouted.

“It’s because Mother is amazing. She must have implemented pain too!”

“Geez… You’re severely addicted to your mother.”

Mu, who still held an omnipotent view of her mother, ended her contemplation with a conclusion befitting her.

A peaceful time of rest.