I catch Kenya's sword with my bare hand and pull it away before giving it back to him. Noticing the room went a little quiet I look around. They are looking at me with a mildly shocked expression. I smile a little and shrug, "Don't get too surprised, physically I'm weaker than Rimuru."
I then turn to Rimuru, "Now, head teacher, what are you gonna do about this?" He looks at me for a bit for putting him on the spot but then he comes up with an idea.
I watch Rimuru summon Ranga and have him terrify Kenya to teach him a lesson. He looks over him like a paralysis demon growling at him. Kenya looks up at him looking like he's about to cry. I look at the other kids and they look just as scared with most of them shaking while looking at Ranga. Only one doing something different is Chloe who closed her eyes and hugged her book like you would expect a kid her age to hug a teddy bear. Rimuru sees this and tells Ranga to go back into his shadow, seeing this as enough.
After that Rimuru and I walk over to the front of the class to introduce ourselves. Rimuru declares, "Hello, we are your two new teachers, my name is Rimuru Tempest and this is Migeru Tempest. It's a pleasure to meet you all!" The kids look at us with unenthusiastic eyes. We then begin a roll call to which none of them respond. Rimuru immediately answers this by calling Ranga again which quickly changes their minds about the whole silence thing. They all fearfully respond as Rimuru calls all they're names. Gotta say, they're pretty brave. I know I would have cried in their situation.
After the end of their roll call Rimuru asks, "So, why did you attack us when we opened the door?"
Kenya responds with, "Uh, be-because I knew Ms. Shizu would have dodged!"
Rimuru thinks about that statement for a second before saying, "That may be correct but that doesn't justify surprise attacking us. How about this, since you all seem so full of energy, why don't we take a test?"
They all look at us with a mix of anger and annoyance. Seems about right.
We quickly explain that this isn't really much of a test as it is a mock battle that we are going to use to test their abilities. I am tasked with testing two while Rimuru tests 3. I am assigned to Kenya and Ryota.
So first up is Kenya.
Ever the energetic kid he is, he immediately yells out, "Now you'll get to see what I can really do, take this!"
He shoots a bunch of fire-balls at me which even if I didn't have a resistance too still wouldn't be much of a threat. They simply lack the power and speed to put up a real threatening presence. Quickly getting close I flick his forehead with my finger telling him he lost. Saying it was just a fluke he walks away annoyed.
Turning to Ryota, "Alright Ryota, you're up. Let's see what you can do."
When the fight starts he goes berserk and attacks me like a wild animal. Due to his uncoordinated attacks he doesn't even get close to hitting me before I flick his forehead, snapping him out of it. By the time I finish Rimuru is only halfway done. Guess I took them out a bit too fast. Seeing Rimuru take longer and refusing to say he is weaker than anyone Kenya deduces that I must be stronger than Rimuru because of this.
I laugh a little before saying, "Like I said, I'm physically weaker than Rimuru. I am far more skilled though." We watch the "fights" unfold and when they are completed we gather up the children to talk to them directly.
When they are gathered up Rimuru prepares to give them an important message. He says with the nicest voice he can, "Listen kids, you all have incredible potential and power but you need to stop looking down on Migeru and I."
As he says this Chloe notices the mask Rimuru has in his hand and asks, "Isn't that Ms. Shizu's mask?"
Rimuru looks down with a mild solemn gaze, "Yes, it is. She entrusted it to me along with you kids."
Gale notices my mask after that. They both have a very similar design so I guess he was just curious because he then asks, "What mask is that?"
"Oh, mine? It's nothing special. I made it using Shizu's as a blueprint. I could have made an exact copy but I didn't want to be disrespectful. It has the same effect her's has though."
After hearing this I see Chloe thinking about what we said. She turns to the rest of the kids and informs them that she thinks they can trust us. They have a small conversation discussing whether or not to actually trust us, mentioning the other bad teachers who didn't really seem to care about them. When I think about that it's actually kind of sad. To see adults look at them like they are a doomed lost cause for so long. Kenya confirms the effects this has when he asks, "But what if they abandon us like Ms. Shizu?"
Rimuru tries to calm them down before reassuring them that we won't leave them behind. He then defends Shizue declaring, "She by no means abandoned you. Her final journey was all for your sakes and I won't let it go to waste. None of you will be dying anytime soon. You can put your faith in us, we promise that we will save you all."
The genuine smile and care in his voice makes the kids start crying out of relief. After months with teachers that didn't really seem to care they finally saw their first ray of hope.
I walk over to them with a smile and say, "Rimuru tells the truth. Don't worry. We guarantee that we'll definitely save you. We even already have a lead as to how we can save you."
That last sentence immediately catches their attention. I explain that I am an expert on Magicules and using that knowledge I learned that we can save them if we can secure them some high spirits. Reassuring them we will do everything in our power to find them these spirits we walk away with the kids in high spirits, pun intended.
{Notice- Unique Skill [Sage's Link] has been activated.}
Rimuru, relieved, says, "I'm so glad they warmed up to us so quickly."
"Well, we're the first people to show them genuine care in months, it makes sense."
"I guess. I'm still happy about it."
{Notice- Unique Skill [Sage's Link] has been deactivated.}
That night I leave to go look for the Dwelling of the Spirits. If I remember correctly it should be in or near Ulgrasia. Using my Phoenix Wings I can fly at about mach 3 casually so by using [Genius] and [Great Sage] to narrow down it's location I should be able to find its location in at most a few hours.
Just like I predicted, I find it about an hour and a half later. When landing I accidentally brush the constantly smoldering feathers of my wings against a leaf and make it catch fire immediately.
Turning around I immediately yell, "Oh, shit!" Shooting water at it with [Water Manipulation] I put out the fire before anything crazy happens.
I look around the forest I've found myself in. "This place looks like Korok Forest. There's this mystifying feeling coming from it." The huge trees seemingly curl around the open area right outside the entrance to the Dwelling of the Spirits forming this almost natural dome around the door. Like a sort of natural protective dome.
I look up at the huge metal doors leading into the Dwelling of the Spirits itself. They look just like how they looked in the anime. They are quite a bit taller than me with fan-like designs going up. I look to the sides and see more mystical designs on the sides of the door with overgrown roots surrounding the door itself. Miss covers the entire area like an old ruin. It has a very Zelda-esque feel to it all.
I cross my arms and look at it, "So, this is it. Should I tell Rimuru now or wait for later?" I think about this question for a bit outside the door. If I tell Rimuru now that might change things even more than I already was existing. However, by being here, do I really need to wait for a while. Things are going to change either way so I might as well do it now. Coming to the conclusion that the better option is probably to tell Rimuru now I decide to make the trek here easier.
And by make it easier I mean get rid of it all together. I can use the teleportation magic circles that Vesta taught Rimuru and I to make this trip way easier for the kids. By using it to teleport them directly here the whole Dwelling of the Spirits event can be dealt with much faster. Placing one near the door I get up and fly away.
On the way back I think about the effects this might have. Well first of all the Myourmile encounter might not happen. If I remember correctly the whole Arch-Dragon "fight" might have all been part of Yuuki's plan in the original. A sort of way to truly measure Rimuru's strength better than when he clashed with Rimuru when he first met him. Due to that the little fight might still happen but there's no way to guarantee that Myourmile will be there like last time. Even bumping into someone could cause a chain reaction that over time could cause him to be located in an entirely different place during the dragon attack. I'll deal with that myself.
The other more pressing matter will be Chloe. She will start to remember her past loops assuming I didn't get placed in the first loop. If this is in fact another loop in time there are two possible things that could happen during Chloe's spirit summon that will lead to her summoning Manas: Chronoa.
One, the least likely option, I exist in the other time loops and still somehow failed in them. This is highly unlikely given the fact that if I somehow were to fail in getting Rimuru to become a Demon Lord I would just take matters into my own hands and become a Demon Lord by myself. But if I did somehow fail in a different timeline Chloe won't be too suspicious given she would have already met me.
Two, I am an anomaly unique to this timeline caused by the giant god I met a while ago.
A bright flash appears in my vision, this time even brighter and more painful.
"Augh!" Judging by that I'm onto something. If I am in fact unique to this timeline specifically then if Chloe begins to remember her previous loops she will notice that I am some sort of space-time continuum anomaly and ask me about it in a roundabout way to see if I know as well. That might be interesting to deal with because that might change the timeline a bit.
I think about this more as I get back into the room Rimuru and I are staying in. When I arrive I immediately ask him to sit down for a bit. He sits down a little intrigued with what I have to say. I begin to explain that I found the Dwelling of the Spirits and explain where in Ulgrasia it is located. When I'm finished Rimuru looks at me with a massive genuinely relieved smile.
"Already!?" He asks excited.
Overconfident I say, "Yup, you can always count on me. But, now we have to deal with getting permission to take them there. Taking them as soon as possible is of utmost priority right now."
Rimuru agrees and immediately prepares to ask the school about taking the kids on a small field trip to experiment with a new way we discovered to help them by writing a letter explaining this to them.
"Already writing it?"
"Yes."
"Okay, before you finish I have to say, make sure you keep the actual solution to save the kids as cryptic as possible."
Rimuru turns around a little confused. "Why?"
"If people find out you can use Greater Spirits to overcome the downside of summoning children, summoning kids from other worlds will skyrocket in popularity. You see the problem in that?"
Rimuru thinks about what I mean for a second before immediately realizing that by taking away the problem that occurs when kids are summoned, suddenly summoning children becomes a really good investment. Training them to be basically super soldiers by taking advantage of their natural power by nature of being otherworlders would be really tempting. That would be really bad. "I understand." He reassures me. Good.
Now to prepare for my first meeting with Ramiris and if things go as I expect, maybe Chronoa.