(✔︎) ❝𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐑❞

15 | Rude

*Next thing I know you're simping on the MC

*Yes, double update, too

     (Name) chuckled at their reaction, "I believe this isn't our first meeting," she told them. "Aren't you the guy earlier, too?! How did you turn into a girl all of the sudden, huh?!" Deuce hid behind Yuu, nervously pointing at her.

     "Diasomnia students are scary..." Ace whispered, looking at the demoness, who is still smiling at them. "Don't fret, I don't bite. I can assure you that and I should be asking why I'm here since I thought you youngsters should do the job," (Name) told them, checking if Yuu has injuries.

     "Why did you bring her here?!" Grim yelled, hiding under Yuu's coat. Yuu ignored Grim and looked at Barbatos, "(Name)-san, we need your help here. There's a monster in the cave and we need you to defeat it, please!" He told the demoness.

     The demoness merely gave a shaking head, "I'm afraid I can only lend you a plan. I wasn't to be one to be blamed because of the chandelier, it's you four. The punishment and requirements to avoid getting expelled are for you guys, not me," she said to them. "I have learned that you bickered about not defeating the monster in the cave since one of you is being a coward and the other is willing to enter, yet still wants to fight the coward one."

     "Then what is the plan, (Name)-san?" Yuu asked. "You can defeat if you cooperate and work as a team, including you Grim. Better listen closely because I won't repeat this," the demoness told them firmly.

As she finished telling them about the plan, (Name) watched from afar as Grim and Yuu were baits for the monster to come out of the mine for Deuce to enter the cave. Successfully, Grim and Yuu managed to make the monster come out of its hiding place, in the process of punching Yuu, who dodged the hand...

Ace came out of his hiding place, hitting the monster with a wind tornado, which collab with Grim's fire, causing a fire tornado. That's when Deuce enters the fight, summoning a large cauldron to trap the monster. (Name) flicked her hand on the cauldron and made the monster struggle inside, buying them time to take the magical crystal from inside...

Not until the monster managed to get out free of the cauldron, following the boys inside the cave. She could hear Deuce's casts of the cauldron, which seems to be not working anymore for the monster. She can sense the anger of the monster becoming more than it is earlier, causing her to be worried...

     "This guy is persistent!" Ace panted, casting more spells on the monster. "We already threw a lot of things at this guy and he's still alive!"

     "Let's go, let's go!" Yuu yelled at them, he was holding Grim. (Name) sighed at them as they ran behind her, "(Name)-san, we're already exhausted..." He whispered to the demoness.

     "I understand, I'll handle things here," she said and blocked the monster from getting her juniors. "I'll give you one chance to give up. If you admit defeat, then I shall let you free," she bargained to the monster. The monster growled at her and stabbed (Name)'s stomach with its weapon.

    "(Name)-senpai!" Deuce yelled. He was gonna help her but was stopped when (Name)'s hand flicked him back to where he was earlier, "As I said, I'll be taking everything from here. And you, how rude of you to destroy my clothes," she said to the monster.

The monster backed away, while (Name)'s stabbed wound regenerated along with her clothes. They were bewildered, to say the least, but before the monster could react, (Name) summoned two black circles, above and below the monster, trapping him in place. In the blink of an eye, spikes came from the circles, killing the monster with its black ink spilling around. Barbatos then snapped her finger and at the same time, the jar on its head was removed from the body...

The jar rolled towards her, exploding with the black ink inside it. Thankfully, it started to disappear, including the monster's body. The forest turned into its cricket sounds and soft crunches of leaves...

     "How unhygienic," (Name) wiped her clothes. She patted Ace and Deuce's heads and smiled at them, "You two did great. I'm glad you delivered my plan well," she praised them.

     "I did great too, yanno!" Grim yelled at her. She picked up the cat, rubbing its fur as a reward, "Good job as well, Yuu-san. I truly am proud of your abilities," she congratulated them. Grim was purring to his reward, probably enjoying it too much.

     "We won!" All of them gave a high-five. (Name) clapped her hand, "I see you two are getting along well. It makes me delighted," she said to them.

     "No way! This is nothing close to that!" Deuce denied, crossing his arms and averting his eye contact with the demoness. "Yeah, I agree! Could you stop telling us weird things?" Ace stuttered, but (Name) did notice the improvement between Ace and Deuce.

     "We won because of how smart I am! Not because we used our magic!" Grim exclaimed. "Don't take credits that aren't yours, Grim. You should be thanking (Name)-san! Why aren't you saying anything to him?" Yuu clung to the demoness's arms.

     "I hate to admit it, but we won because of you, (Name)-senpai and Yuu!" Ace exclaimed, acting like a kid who won't admit his wrongdoings. "That's true. We got the magical crystal because of (Name)-senpai's plan and we won't have a plan if Yuu didn't summon them. At least we avoid getting expelled, I'm very relieved now," Deuce said, resting on a nearby tree.

     (Name) smiled at them, "My plan is for you four to have faith in your abilities and teamwork between you," she told them. Ace gave a huff of pride since he was praised, "Yeah, yeah. We're all glad, (Name)-senpai. I'm already used enough because of that monster, all I want is to sleep," he stated.

     "I'm starving from using too much magic," Grim complained.

(Name) didn't mind bothering them as she looked at the remaining pieces from the monster. She has a sample of the ink from the ground, inspects it closely, and used a little spell to open a simple mystery of it. She seems to enter someone's memory, but all of it is blurry, she could only hear angry voices within it and ink dropping. She knows the monster's dead, as well the spirit within it. It's only the manifestation of the anger of the soul before it passed away long ago...

     "Ew...  Monsters' taste buds sure are something," she heard Ace cringing. Ah, yes, Grim ate one of the pieces left by the monster, a black stone that's darker than black itself. "It seems like that's the case. A sane person wouldn't eat a random object they picked from the ground," Deuce nodded.

    "Are you sure you're alright, Grim?" Yuu asked, kneeling to his height. "It's very tasty, Yuu. My stomach is alright since I'm not as weak as you," the cat assured.

     "Don't come crawling to me if you get sick..." Ace flinched from Grim's doings. "Let's rest a bit and go back to school, so we can give the magical crystal to the Headmaster," Deuce announced.

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(バルバトス)