The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

e said.
You’re the magic classroom’s teacher, and there’s still the Kamiyama procedures to complete.”

 

Betty and Mana reminded me of my current tasks — and yes, they were right.

Then, I felt a sudden gust of wind blowing behind me, passing by my right side and stopping in front.

 

“I’ll go.”

“You will, Lylia?”

“What? I have taken some interest in this team of adventurers, that’s all.
And if I’m with you, you’ll be able to hunt stronger monsters while staying relatively safe, right?”

 

Lylia folded her arms and said to Blazer.

She was right — under Lylia’s supervision, even SS-ranked monsters wouldn’t be that scary.
And she must be good enough at teaching to give proper combat advice by now, too.

 

“What do you think, Leader? I think Miss Lylia’s suggestion is not a bad one at all.”

 

Ryan is totally in — man, he really knows how to handle the situation.
Normally, it’d be better to ask for the leader’s final decision, but he just non-subtly implied his approval as the team’s second-in-command.

Which means the others from Faltown are also going to…

 

“Leader, I want in on this as well.”

“Me too, me too! I’ll do my best!”

 

There we go.
Reyna and Adolf promptly placed their votes of agreement.

 

“I wanna go, too.”

“Same.”

 

And so did Reid and Mana.

Haruhana said nothing.

And Natsu was swaying around while sitting on her cushion.
Looks like she’s raring to go, too.

 

“…Right.
And we wouldn’t want to decline our first mission from this Nation, either.
Let’s have Miss Lylia… babysit us for this mission, then.”

 

This long process to reach a decision really goes to show how big the team has become.
The thing that enables them to get along this well is probably the mutual trust — Blazer trusting Ryan to make the right choices, and vice versa.

…Hmm? Wait a second…

 

“By the way, where are Idéa and Midors right now?”

 

They weren’t present during the party quest run, and they’re not here, either.
Wouldn’t the team have a hard time out there, what with Natsu being the only available mage right now?

 

“Sir Barun suggested that they went north with him for training, so they’re going there right now.”

“Sir Barun’s… training?”

“Actually, no.
There’s a skilled mage up there, apparently, who’s open to taking in a few students.
I gave them permission to go, of course.”

 

Barun has gotten much stronger, too, from what I’ve sensed during the brief time I met him.
But now he’s going to train under someone else — that someone must be quite powerful.

 

“They could’ve just waited to take lessons from the new classroom! Isn’t that right, Master?”

 

Hearing Pochi, Betty let out a dry chuckle.

And of course, I was of the same opinion as her.

 

“C’mon, Pochi… Sir Barun might count himself in, but there’s NO WAY the two others are going to let me teach them.”

“Ah! Yes, because they used to bully you back in school! I almost forgot!”

“What!? Don’t bring that up!”

 

I was too late to shut Pochi’s mouth.
Everyone heard it — that embarrassing, dark spot in the history of my life.

 

“You know, Asley, the thing you chose to do wasn’t exactly the easy way either.
Those two are probably sorry for what they did, and that’s why they wouldn’t feel right about doing things your way.”

 

Sounds like Bruce is trying to cover for them… but man, his reasoning feels as flimsy as it gets.

If I hadn’t helped Lina too much when we entered the Magic University, maybe I might’ve been able to get along with Hornel, Midors, and Idéa just fine.
Or maybe I could’ve better handled my interactions with them… But man, why does the maintaining of human relationships have to be so hard?

 

“Well, never mind them! I’m gonna take Asley’s classes!”

 

Natsu spoke up cheerfully, saying exactly what I wanted to hear right now.

 

“You can count on me, Natsu! If you get good enough, I’ll teach you a super awesome water spell!”

“Yeah! Ahahaha!”

 

After that, we moved on to discussing today’s monster hunts, offering whatever opinion, consideration, and advice we had come up with.
Lylia, Pochi, and I participated as well, of course, and we were able to exchange quite a lot of valuable information.

By the end of the meeting, Lylia was surprised, saying that she had never seen a team so thorough and careful when it comes to hunting monsters.

 

　◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

 

The following day, Lylia and the Silver headed to Hita’achi early in the morning, and I woke up in my room in this new house. 

The Pochi pillow is as good as it’s ever been, but it feels kind of strange, waking up in a big yet empty building like this.

I proceeded to drag Pochi along as I headed to the bathroom.

 

“Hmm, it should be this way, right?”

“Master… I’m still sleepy.”

 

Huh, strange.
I’m hearing some noises coming from the living room.

Did someone forget something, and came back to grab it?

I decided to head to the living room instead.
And once there, I saw someone I didn’t expect to be here now, cooking breakfast.

 

“Good morning, Sir Asley.”

 

Haruhana is standing there, cheerfully preparing three servings’ worth of food.

 

“…Huh?”