TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 32

We were on a hill outside the city, the sun just starting to set in the west.

I was out there with my students for a little stargazing activity disguised as an astronomy class. But, it wasn't dark enough yet so I was just setting up the telescope.

"Hey! You're gonna break it!" I scolded the dark-haired boy who nearly barreled into me just a second ago. "And what did I tell you about losing control like that, Ryota?"

The boy came to a skidding halt and stood up straight, "Sorry, Professor Rimuru. I was just sparring with Ken."

The kids made their own fun while I was busy, and that involved fighting, of course. Friendly fighting, but still combat. But, near a delicate instrument I went to a lot of effort to make, it wasn't okay.

At least the girls are sitting quietly.

Chloe was playing with Alice's hair while they sat in the grass together off to the side. And Gale, well, he was keeping watch while also staring at me while I set up the telescope. He was juggling his self-imposed protector role with his own interest in the device and what I was doing with it.

"You don't need to stand guard, Gale, if you want to just watch me put this thing together, that's fine. You can even help if you wanna."

"Are you sure!?" Gale asked in an uncharacteristically loud voice.

"Yeah," I replied with a smile.

Gale immediately bounded over to me, clearly excited. I hadn't seen him this pumped before. It was a good thing to see, considering his problem with being much too serious for a kid his age most of the time.

As he started helping, Gale said, "I did this with my dad once... a few years ago. We built a telescope together then used it almost every night during summer break. It was so much fun..."

His voice was both happy and sad at the same time as he reflected on the past, and I gave the boy a supportive pat on the back. There wasn't much I could do or say to make him feel any better about his situation, but I could at least offer him a little bit of simple comfort.

It didn't take much longer for the telescope to be up and ready to go, and Gale seemed pleased he was able to help since he was notably more cheerful again as he looked at the finished device.

"So you just look in this thingy?" Kenya asked, staring through the wrong end of the telescope.

"No, Kenya, you look in the smaller end."

"Ohhhhhh..." he ran around to the other side, "And it makes things look bigger, right?"

"Yup, you're right about that. It uses lenses and mirrors to magnify what you see when you look through it. Isn't that cool?"

"I guess so."

"I think Mister Yuuki has a telescope too."

"Oh, really? I guess I could've borrowed it if I knew that."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah. I saw him use it during lunch. Not sure what he was looking at."

"Uh..."

No comment.

"Honestly, I don't see the point in this." Alice crossed her arms and stared at the sky, "I can see the stars just fine with my eyes."

"But it's hard to see the details," Gale argued. "With just your eyes, they all look the same, but stars are a bunch of different colors and sizes. You can see planets too, sometimes, but they look just like stars if you just look at them like normal."