That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.52 School Children?

Rozemyne's pov: 

I did not have to make any more public appearances today, which was incredibly refreshing. I did want to watch the beginning of the tournament, though it was still hours away. So for now I was sitting in Rimuru's office with Ferdinand and Florencia, both of them wanted to know a ton of details on how being a demi-spirit worked and they had virtually dragged me in here when Rimuru said they could talk privately here. 

"First things first, how does one control their aura? You seem relatively adept at it now." Ferdinand posed this question first, and from what I had seen he did need it badly himself. I had seen his aura go out of control nearly immediately, so I assumed he'd also struggle with it the most. 

"It is not that complicated. You basically just need to prevent the magicules from leaving your body, don't try to pull the magicules around youself back in until you have stopped new ones from leaving. You just need to envision a sort of barrier inside your skin stopping the magicules from leaving." That is how I had come to do it most effectively after my first lesson with Rimuru, it was not even something I actively thought about anymore. Though it was definitely still more comfortable to release my aura, I could not imagine how bad it must be for someone like Veldora. 

Ferdinand closed his eyes for a moment and thought on what I had said seemingly, though his tense thinking face was more cute in his current form. After a small while he nodded a bit and then spoke, "I don't think I should be doing this, here. Though I do believe Florencia can." He was hesitant to take off his bracelet, we had all told him of how his aura went out of control. 

Florencia nodded, and waited a moment before turning to me. "Can you demonstrate one time before I try this?" She was hesitant to remove the bracelet herself. 

I nodded and removed my bracelet slowly, then I allowed my aura to slightly unfurl itself. It quickly encroached the room around us and lightly interacted with some of the magical items inside. It make a few of the pens on Rimuru's desk glow, even. "Alright, now. Watch around my skin closely." As I said this I used my normal technique, and envisioned the barrier keeping the salient magicules inside, and slowly they stopped flowing out of me all together. "Now I pull what is already outside back in." I said before envisioning pulled all the magicules back into myself like a vacuum. 

Florencia nodded while seeming to watch me closely, it was almost like her [Magic Sense] worked through her eyes instead of from any perspective like Tuuli's and my own. Slowly, Florencia took off the bracelet, and we watched as her aura quickly surrounded the room just as mine had, causing similar reactions with some of the magic items inside. The pens glowed a bit brighter now. Florencia seemed to tense her face for a moment while trying to imagine what I had described. I could see some of the magicules trying to escape her get pulled back in, but she was struggling somewhat. "I can't fully imagine a barrier that can contain mana, it feels too outlandish." She said after letting out a small sigh. 

I nodded a bit, and thought of something. I casted the tube barrier I normally did for nuclear canon, but had it a fully sealed cylinder instead of one with an opening. "Try something like this." I said while thinking about how more complex this way of doing it might get. 

Florencia followed suit and did this as well, it seemed she was surprised how effortless casting a barrier was once she held out her hand. She looked back to her own hand in surprise, as if something was wrong with it. "I really wasn't expecting it to be so easy as you made it look.." 

I giggled a bit under my breath, "You are over-estimating my skill I think. This stuff really is not very hard at all, it seems to be more of a problem of how many magicules you have available." After saying this I made a small cloud of magicules inside the barrier and made the magicules repel each-other, which was fairly easy to imagine. Like a bunch of balls bouncing off eachother, but with magnets in them with the same polarity. I let some of the magicules penetrate the barrier. "Imagine your body is the tube, and the the edges are your skin. The magicules can leave, but if you make the barrier prevent that." I made the barrier properly contain the magicules again, as they bounced around inside. "They can no longer escape." 

Florencia watched the process carefully, before nodding finally. She replicated this after some effort in the tube of her own, having come up with some way to do it. After both of us dispelled them, she tried once more, I saw as the magicules leaking out of her slowly got held inside. After that she was able to pull the remaining ones back in, seemingly she did it by clumping them together and having the clumps come back to her. 

"Hm, good." I nodded while watching her, and gave her a small smile. I also remembered something when she clumped up her magicules like she did, and thought of doing it now. Though before I could. 

"I see." It was Ferdinand who spoke over my thoughts, he then posed a question to me while holding out his hand and seemingly trying to do something with the magicules floating around the small table between us. "Rozemyne, how do you cast those gravity spells? I've been trying to figure out what you envision for them, however I have yet to come up with anything." 

"Oh, do you know how gravity works?" I posed while thinking on if he would, I did not suppose this world was a good one to learn the basic laws of physics in. 

Ferdinand closed his eyes and spoke, as if he was somehow offended he was smiling lightly. "Of course, the world causes things to fall toward it because they are heavy." He did not quite get it, I guessed. 

"Eh, not quite. It is more like, hm. So think of it like a feature of space itself. If space was a flat plane, the mass of an object would leave an indentation in the plane, which other objects naturally 'fall' into." I couldn't quite think of a way to visualize it for him, but while saying this I used the table as my example by levitating it into the air. I had never really explained how it was done to anyone, but I essentially just imagined it being in a flat part of space, then would bend the space around it in the direction I wanted it to 'fall.' 

"How exactly is mass different from weight?" Ferdinand responded while watching the table, it seemed he was looking at what the magicules themselves were doing, as opposed to focusing on my instructions directly. 

"Mass is absolute, it is the amount of stuff in an object. While weight is relatively to the objects around it causing the gravity to pull on them." I explained and demonstrated by allowing the table to fall, but made it fall very slowly. I then went toward it and easily picked it up with just a single hand. "It is very light now, but the amount of mass is the same. It is the same table." 

Ferdinand nodded slowly, then after a few moments of looking at the table he responded. "I suppose that makes sense, with it working how you described." After saying this, he attempted to make the table heavier again, and he did succeed. I could not hold it up as easily, but it was not as efficiently used of a spell as mine, as I could see from the strain on his face. 

I set the table down and then dispelled my own spell. "I think you are close, but you may want to try making things lighter before you make them heavier. It is easier that way." I commented while watching him, then smiled a bit. "Also, it is easier with your bracelet off, if you are ok with taking it off." 

"I will do so later, during the tournament. Though I will still use my Schtappe for the time being." He commented while turning away, then he seemingly came up with an idea quickly, as his head perked a small bit. Afterward however he went and sat down. 

It was shortly after this there was a knock on the door, before it creaked open and outside was Rimuru's face. "I am back from Engrassia. Rozemyne, would you like to meet my students? They were asking about you when they came. It seems they remembered you." That was mildly alarming for a moment, as it meant they may know I am really a commoner, though Rimuru himself did not know much about me before meeting me as a demi-spirit. 

"What do they know about me?" I posed the question while thinking on it for small while. 

"They don't know anything more than that you had too many magicules, and that you became a demi-spirit. Anything you want to tell them is up to you." Rimuru responded while seeming to get a little bit of a pain expression on his face before turning away quickly and closing the door. 

"I think it'd be best if you found a way to disguise yourself if you plan on leaving. I am not sure it is best for you to be seen around Tempest just yet, as well you still need an entourage." Florencia began to speak, as if she already knew exactly what to do. I wondered how often Sylvester and Wilfried snuck away back in Ehrenfest. 

"I suppose I could get one, should I use magic for the disguise or would something physical be better?" I questioned while thinking on it for a moment myself, I remembered often seeing adventurers disguise themselves in cloaks and wear masks when they were visiting to buy supplies. 

Florencia purses her lips for a moment and clasps her hand, finally she speaks again. "Something physical, keep your bracelet on. You only need to not look like yourself, drawing attention otherwise is fine." With that explained to me she seemed satisfied, though she had a small twitch in her back. I supposed she was not entirely comfortable explaining to me how to best avoid my role. 

"Alright, I got it then." I left the room to go to one of the changing rooms, and requested a white coat and a mask, along with a hood from one of the hobgoblin attendants. It did not take long for me to have everything I needed, which I quickly put on. Afterward I made my way toward Rimuru's aura, which was out in the plaza courtyard. I had already slipped on my anti-magic bracelet before even leaving the building. 

"I can't spend all my time with you all unfortunately, though I should be able to find someone who can." Rimuru was speaking to the group of children in front of him, it was a small group of five children, who were all around my age or older. 

It seemed his saying this was not what the children were after as two of them started protesting quickly, "Isn't the whole reason we came here to spend time with you? We should get to spend as much time with you as we need!" It was a  boy who looked slightly older than me with orange hair and black eyes. 

"Well, before I do need to leave you with anyone else, there is someone you've all been asking to meet." With saying that, as I approached I could see as the anti-perception barrier came up around us, and Rimuru turned to me. "You can take the mask off at least, I didn't expect her to have you dress up that much." Rimuru seemed sort of exasperated, but seemed to get over it quickly enough. 

"I can't exactly walk around as a noble child, even when I was a blue priestess I was not supposed to walk around outside in my priestess robes. I had to change into merchant outfits to do that." I explained while thinking about back then for a moment, it made me remember how often I'd get exhausted from simply walking around too much. It really seemed outlandish to me now, as I never really got tired unless something was horribly wrong. I took off my mask and put down the hood. 

Rimuru seemed a little bit more taken aback for a moment and asked me something, "Who would attack a priest? I was attacked back in Ehrenfest, but it was pretty strongly believed I was a demon lord. Which, granted, I am." He seemed to chuckle at the small joke he was able to make. 

"Sensei is a demon lord!?" It was all of them at the same time saying this, with shocked looks on their faces. They had not known this yet I guessed, though it was sort of funny to see. 

"Oh. I guess I forgot to say, yeah. I am." He smiled a bit while saying it, though it did not seem to disturb them. 

In fact they seemed to accept it easily, and I even saw a faint smile form on the face of the small girl with black hair and eyes. She seemed somewhat happy for a moment in her own little world, though soon enough her focus shifted to me. She seemed somewhat confused for a moment before giving me a cold stare and seeming to get a little angry. She quickly hid it when she realized I was watching though. 

I ignored it for now and introduced myself. "Hello, I am Rozemyne. As I just said, I am a noble from Ehrenfest. I'm the daughter of Sylvester Aub Ehrenfest." I was a bit too casual and I knew it, but I could not help myself with children like me. 

"You don't look very strong." It was the kid with orange hair again, seemingly trying to provoke me to do something. I however did not react, as I did not want to piss Rimuru off under any circumstances. 

RImuru however had a clutch for me. "She is actually very strong, you know?" Rimuru said while smiling a bit. 

Someone entered the anti-perception barrier, which left me a bit surprised for a moment before I saw who it was, it was Hinata. She was wearing a casual summer dress and seemed to simply be enjoying her day, she was holding a small pale of what looked like candies. "If you want I can watch them for the day, I thought that one might be in a disguise." She said while pointing over to me. 

Before I could really respond it seemed like the children got very excited and started asking Hinata questions, especially the one with orange hair and the girl with black hair. Though they were joined now by the girl with blonde hair while the other two just watched. 

"Thank you, and I wasn't really sure on letting her go out on the town, but if you and Tuuli-chan are with her it should be fine." Rimuru commented while seeming to do something for a moment, and then Tuuli appeared next to me and stood at attention immediately. "Oh, uh. Try to be more casual. She is trying to hide her identity right now." Rimuru commented seeing Tuuli had immediately went into what I think I should call guard mode. 

"Sorry, Rimuru-sama." She responded before almost melting into her normal self, and giving me a soft hug. It seems she had wanted to do it for some time but was unable to up until now, and she was quite pleased to finally be able. 

"Alright, well I'll make sure she keeps the mask on. Is there anything I should avoid with her?" Hinata asked before looking over to me and Tuuli and seemingly smiling softly. Did she really have such a soft spot for kids? 

"Try to avoid any anti-magic items, the bracelet is specially made to hide magicules. Any normal anti-magic items would probably hurt her though." Rimuru said before gesturing for me to put on my mask and hood, which I did. Afterwards he let down the anti-perception barrier and walked off back to the city hall. He had a busy step to the way he was walking. 

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--2794 words-- 

(AN: Keep waiting. Lul, sorry.)