Rimuru and Iruma's Adventures in the Netherworld

Having a Nice Time

Punctuation Key:

"Spoken dialogue"

'Quoting'

*Action*

Emphasis

Internal thoughts/talking to Ciel

[[Ciel talking]]

{{Thought Communication}}

I also have a discord server for discussion, questions, suggestions, or whatever. https://discord.gg/SVkTU2CQ2s

Kalego POV

Right... Wrong... Completely wrong... Right...

I am currently grading the exams of my students, specifically focusing on Rimuru Tempest's at the moment. After scrutinizing her through the entire process, I found no evidence of cheating. Honestly, her test not being anywhere near a perfect score on multiple subjects lays credence to her not pulling any tricks despite seeing through my efforts to prevent academic dishonesty, so I have no reason to doubt her in this case.

"It seems that Rimuru either didn't attempt or didn't succeed in cheating, despite all the issues we had with her," I conclude out loud, mostly done with marking the exam answers given by my most troublesome student.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" Balam asks, perking his head up to look at me, seated nearby while doing much of the same as me. All of us professors are here, pouring through our respective students' exams, collected in the teachers' lounge.

"That girl's exam performance almost perfectly aligns with her classroom performance. Exemplary in magical theory, very good in the studies of flora and fauna, yet poor in history and culture studies. The only difference is somewhat better results in those last two, which indicates she focused on those weaker subjects while preparing for the exams," I share with Balam.

As opposed to my irritation, my fellow professor seems pleased with what I said.

"Sounds like we had nothing to worry about in the end, eh Kalego? Even if I can't read her with Buzzer, Rimuru clearly didn't cheat and worked hard to improve her academics," he responds with a shrug, not bothering to look up from his work.

"Yes...that seems so..." I mutter, frustrated.

"Why do you look so displeased then? Aren't you happy that one of your students did well after putting in the effort?" Shichiro asks, finally looking at my face and noticing my frown.

"I am not displeased...only frustrated that I went to all that trouble for nothing, isolating Rimuru and dedicating all that attention to preventing her from doing something sneaky."

"It sounds like you wanted to catch her cheating!" Robin annoyingly pipes up from across the room.

"Silence, you imbecile!" I shout back.

"Oh Kalego, go easier on the newbie!" Shichiro playfully scolds me.

"Tch."

"Anyway, I think I may know why her results are so lopsided, on both the exams as well as Rimuru's general performance throughout the year." he comments, immediately grabbing my interest.

"How so? Did that little fiend actually reveal something about herself to you?" I ask, surprised at my old friend.

"Yes, we had a talk and she revealed quite a lot of her life story, in fact. A very interesting story too, which makes her all the more intriguing to me." Shichiro replies with a smile.

"With her resistance to Buzzer, do you believe she was lying at all in what she told you about herself?"

"She could have, but I don't see any reason in her doing so. It felt a lot like she and Iruma just wanted someone to talk to about it since they've kept it a secret up until our talk, apparently."