That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.64 Long Day

Rozemyne's pov: 

It wasn't long after the tournament concluded that Masayuki had ran off, but now he was in Rimuru's office with him. I was as well. Rimuru would be fighting Hinata tomorrow, and Masayuki had the opportunity to fight him as well. He was virtually shivering, while Rimuru appeared to be looking upon him a little mercifully. I simply waited my turn with Tuuli next to me, as I was going to discuss allowing multiple attendants to accompany me and the other nobles from Ehrenfest. It had been an annoyance to only have one in public, and Ferdinand had even pulled me aside to tell me to convince Rimuru of this before his match earlier. Though it almost seemed as if he had ulterior motives in the decision, along with this the point that we felt safe had already gone across. 

Masayuki sipped a tea handed out to him by Shuna, while shaking profusely. 

Rimuru cut off his drinking, "I am going to guess you really do not want to fight?" 

Masayuki looked amazed for a moment while reaching for Rimuru in an almost blissful plea, "NO! I DON'T! I just keep ending up in these situations with all these powerful people in these situations, and I don't know how to say no! My friends keep hyping me up and everyone believes it! They take anything I say to mean something I did not intend!" He was almost falling over himself explaining it to Rimuru and was shouting loudly while tearing up a little, it really was disgraceful. 

Rimuru nodded a bit, and them looked Masayuki in the eye. "I believe that is an effect of a skill you have, did you get any when you got pulled into this world?" Rimuru seemed calm, and I had a feeling he was parroting Raphael's words while he made a sip of his own tea. He also scarfed down a cookie quite easily, the slime always seemed to eat too much like that. 

Masayuki stumbled at his words for a bit before spitting it out, "Y-yes.. I got some skill called [Chosen One] when I got pulled into this world.. Is that really what is causing it?" I supposed that explained a decent amount, though honestly I still didn't even understand my own skills. I just stared at the boy while thinking about the situation he went through for a few minutes, it did seem really bad when I thought about it. 

Rimuru nodded and looked a bit relieved, "Oh good, I did not want to fight you myself. Now that that is settled, how about I make a proposal for you? Your skill seems useful for pulling in crowds, may you like to support my Labyrinth?" While explaining this he seemed pretty enthused by the idea while explaining it. 

Masayuki seemed conflicted for a moment, "The food here is really good, and I like being here.. but would I really get payed for that? What even is this Labyrinth?" He seemed confused about it, and admittedly I'd never had it explained to me. All I really knew was Ramiris and Veldora were working on the thing. 

Tuuli raised her hand, and waited patiently. I, wondered where she had learned to do this. 

Rimuru looked to Tuuli a bit surprised and said, "Go ahead." He seemed to be interested in whatever she had to say as well, which made me very satisfied inside. Too much time around those nobles. 

"Rimuru-sama, may I participate in the opening of the Labyrinth?" Tuuli questioned directly while seeming fairly determined, I wondered what she was doing. Maybe she just wanted to prove herself in front of all those snotty nobles, but I had another idea of what she was doing brewing in the back of my mind. 

Rimuru seemed very surprised, and nodded a bit. "You should be fine, dying inside the Dungeon is safe, and you'll just come back. Any injuries incurred inside will also heal when you leave." A dungeon? Like some fantasy game? I felt Rimuru had taken too many liberties with the world's magic, and may be taking this too far. I didn't say anything though. 

Masayuki seemed surprised for a minute, "A dungeon? Like with floors and levels? And challenges? You even made it so we don't die like a video game? SURE! I'd love to hype  up something like that!" He seemed excited now despite his previous feeling, while jumping up in his seat a bit. "Is she strong?" He glanced over to Tuuli, he seemed sort of worried for a moment for her safety. 

I heard a small chuckle come from Rimuru deep inside his stomach, "Oh, by human standards she is strong, yeah. You'd probably do best to stay near her, I'd think." I did not know if I felt well with this suggestion, I wouldn't want my sister getting used as a meatshield, or whatever people who play games say. 

"Rimuru-san.. before that conversation goes any further, can you answer my question?" I posed while sitting up a bit and thinking about how to word it. 

"Sure, go ahead and ask anything." Rimuru was sort of let down by my distraction  from what he'd been talking about with Masayuki, he seemed excited to talk more about the Labyrinth. 

"Ferdinand-sensei and I have been meaning to ask if we could have more attendants around us while in public, only one has gotten.. Troublesome-" Before I could even say anything further Rimuru cut me off. 

"Yes, you can. It was just supposed to be for the first few days, go ahead an have as many as you like now. King Gazel said most of the guest have gotten the point now." He then immediately turned back to Masayuki while getting ready to start talking excitedly again. 

I huffed a bit from how quickly he brushed me off, but was relieved he said yes. I turned to Tuuli and nodded, we'd be able to leave now. It would be no trouble for us to walk the city together, now. Even if I needed another attendant with me for whatever reason. We quickly got up and left for what I expected to be a terrible day for Damuel. 

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Tuuli's pov: 

Stepping onto the training grounds again felt refreshing, I felt  excited to test plenty of new techniques I had learned over the past several days. Though most of all I had someone I'd need to get up to speed, he really lacked magicules. I believe his name was Damuel, and he was supposed to protect Rozemyne with me. If he was to do that, he'd need to get stronger. He currently was far from good enough. 

Rozemyne was watching me, so I could not be as strict as Hakurou, but what I could do for the time being was spar him to see where he was. While magicules seemed to be good for estimating someone's ability to fight, I had learned from Masayuki that it was not a perfect indicator. There were other things that could get involved to make magicules themselves irrelevant, or at least not as important. 

I was getting stares again, so I released my aura by placing my hand on Nahenlicht. It seemed to get people's attention to stop staring at me. The knights from Ehrenfest seemed to be able to keep up just fine with Tempest's security force, so this was for their own good. Losing focus could mean losing to people they would not otherwise. 

I watched and waited until a saw a particular face, making his way toward Rozemyne seeing her here, he seemed somewhat surprised seeing her. Though I had told him the day before, that we'd be here. I stepped in front of him before he could get off of the training grounds into the area Rozemyne was sitting, it seemed one of her other attendants was already with her. It was the tall man from the temple. 

The knight stared at me for a moment, shocked to see me right in front of him so suddenly. "Ah.. I see you are here, what should I refer to you as?" He seemed to not precisely know what to call me, but that was acceptable. I would not mind being called simple Tuuli, though it seemed someone else had something else in mind. 

"Tuuli-chan, I see you already found this one. He has been waiting here for some time, ohoho."  I heard Hakurou's voice behind me and almost jumped a bit. Hakurou then addressed the knight, "Damuel-san, was it? I believe you should refer to her as sensei, I cannot train you myself. So I will leave this to her." I got a small pit of excitement forming in my gut as my aura fired up a little bit from the sudden outburst. Hakurou had already walked off. 

"I.." I thought of what to say for a moment long, and I believe I came to something. "I do not mind being called, That."  I thought about what to say to that. 

Some of the knights noticed this exchange and were now looking at the two of us closely. 

"I.." Damuel seemed to be at a loss for a moment, but while staring at me he seemed to get a bit frightened. I realized I may be going a bit overboard with my aura, and toned it back. "I would like to see your skill first.." Damuel I assumed remembered seeing me in passing, but the me now was quite different. 

"I was waiting for that, follow me." I smiled lightly while tilting my head a bit, I hoped to see Lamprecht today. I expected him to at least be a little proud, I had finally gotten someone of my own to teach, even if I was still so young. Where I lead Damuel was to the training weapon rack, there I grabbed a simply bokken and waited for him to choose one of his own. 

"You wish to spar?" He seemed to tense up a small bit, while his eyes said he was reluctant. Though there was no getting out of this for him, he already wished to see my skill. A live demonstration would be best. 

"Yes, I can't let you off for questioning my skill." I smiled a bit more, trying to replicate what Hakurou would always do with the goblins, and even me to a certain degree. Though my good behavior made him more lenient, which was something I was proud of. He never let up in spars though, so I would not either. 

The recent expansion of the training grounds had meant I could find a small secluded opening where just me and him could focus on eachother, while Rozemyne could still see us. 

Damuel stared at me for a small while seeming concerned, but he had seen nothing yet. "When do we begin?" His armor was basic steel, and I took note of it to be careful, I did not want to hurt him. 

"Come at me whenever you like." I held my bokken in one hand, while placing a palm on the hilt of nahenlicht, I spread out my aura very wide, then focused some magicules into the bokken. I watched as the wood began to glow a bit with my magicules, and smiled satisfied with the experiment working. 

Damuel tilt  his head a bit, and unsheathed his sword. He held it high, and approached cautiously. While doing so, he seemed to watch me closely for the small changes of my aura's magicules. I already like his approach, and assumed it came from how few he had himself. 

I tried to do something I had not done before, instead of using light, I tried to focus on chilling my blade. The reason I did this was to harden the wood further, and to make it painful when I chilled his armor. Though I did not want to leave any bruises, so this would be much better. I also focused some of my aura, mostly the magicules from nahenlicht, into my own legs. I had noticed my speed and strength improved as my magicule count did, and wondered if I could simulate that. 

Damuel suddenly came forward while staring at my legs, he seemed to be trying to faint me, as he was not committing to the strike he was sending to my chest with the wooden long sword. I decided to play along with his plan for now. 

I jumped back, full force from the strike, and landed many meters away while feeling my legs get sore, I pulled some of the magicules back out and into my aura as a result. I could feel a bit of blood pooling in my nose already, so I may have gone overboard. 

Damuel seemed surprised by the distance I went, and stayed back further, while inspecting me again. He had seemed to notice again me changing the magicules in my legs, as his focus was centered there. I could almost see him cursing lightly from his expression, while he focused on his own blade for a moment in his vision and seemed to start thinking about something. 

I wanted to end this quickly now that I was feeling sore, and decided to charge him directly. closing the distance in moments, I went for a feint against his chest, which he managed to deflect while seemed to strain to not get flung back. I then immediately swung back down and slammed my bokken into his upper leg, flipping him off balance, and onto the ground. Laying him out on his back. 

I could see the pain building in his expression as his teeth gritted and eyes closed tightly, "How is it you got so much mana so quickly?" Though he seemed to be struggling, he was able to ask me this. I did not mind answering. 

"I spent time with Lady Rozemyne." I gave a short and simple answer, while sticking a hand out to lift him up. Though he refused this, but not out of disrespect. It seemed to be something about nobles, as to why he did not accept the gesture. 

Damuel seemed to stare at me for a moment, before looking to the bokken that had ice formed on it's surface while feeling his leg. "I, believe that is good enough. I'll call you sensei, just, not around other nobles." I would accept it, though it still vexed me a bit that I had so many issues around them. 

"That's fine, but I'll need to go spend time with Hakurou, please spend the rest of the day with Rozemyne for me." I explained while lifting the bokken on my shoulder and pulled back in my aura before releasing Nahenlicht. 

Damuel nodded, and walked away quickly. 

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--2468 words--

(AN: Heyo.)