I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Max Level Witch - Volume 5 - Chapter 7

  THE GIRLS STARTED GOING TO SCHOOL  

It was a little complicated, since their ages didn’t match their looks, but the youngest one in the house, both physically and mentally, was Sandra.

She was younger than both Falfa and Shalsha, somewhere between kindergarten and first grade. In comparison, my daughters looked to be in fourth or fifth grade.

Those few years of (apparent) difference actually made for a huge gap. And by huge, I mean that Falfa and Shalsha started to genuinely act like big sisters.

It was another day of teaching Sandra how to write.

“I-is this okay…?”

“Oh, that’s backward. It’s clockwise, not counterclockwise.”

“Uhhh, like this?”

“Yeah, that’s it! Okay, try writing it ten times.”

“Why? Let’s go on to the next letter…”

“You have to write it a lot or you’ll forget!”

Incidentally, Shalsha sat there, nodding wordlessly as she watched them. She was like the old master who watched over everything. It was hard to tell if this constituted them teaching her… But she was participating in a class, so I would define it as teaching.

“Yes, very good! Okay, now try writing apple.”

“Don’t underestimate me. Even I can do that. Watch!”

Shalsha shook her head. “That says ‘apel.’”

“I—I—I know that… I was testing you…”

She certainly was not. Her reaction was too easy to read!

“I won’t get it wrong next time… Look, I got it right, right…? Right?”

As Sandra sat, worried, waiting for the answer, Shalsha nodded silently.

“Oh, good… I—I mean, I knew I had it the whole time!”

The two were acting as excellent educators. It was truly impressive.

Since Sandra had lived more than half her life in the earth, she never learned how to read. That would’ve caused difficulties in her life down the line, so she had to learn at some point. The ones who ended up taking charge in that were my daughters.

Sandra seemed to put up less of a resistance the closer someone was to her in apparent age, and she was obediently accepting their teachings.

“As the old saying goes, though the journey to Darc is fifty days, the first step is still the first step to see your neighbor. If you stack one stone at a time, you will one day create a tower to the heavens. That is what study is.”

Shalsha suddenly said something that sounded like a proverb, but Falfa and Sandra didn’t really seem to be listening as they continued studying their letters.

“It feels like I have more daughters now, except Sandra sleeps in the earth at night.”

I thought Sandra heard exactly what I said. Her ears twitched. “I’m not your kid, Azusa. I’m me. You’re not a plant. Stop being weird.”

I didn’t mind her rebellious streak, either.

I’d been raising Falfa and Shalsha so far, but they were too good. They were like kids who had been plucked straight out of an idyllic painting. Not only that, but they were smart. It almost felt like I was cheating with my children, too.

However, while I was grateful that they weren’t a huge handful, perhaps the real charm of motherhood was the little hardships of child-rearing.

The keyword being little.

I’d hate it if I couldn’t sleep because she was crying all night or if she was bouncing off the walls every day and damaging the house. In that respect, Sandra’s slight rashness was the perfect amount of rebelliousness.

After I watched the girls, I went to do the laundry.

By the way, I was using waterspout magic as a replacement for a washing machine. I used all the water I needed from the remaining bathwater.

I could create water with magic, but the warmer water probably made it easier to clean off the dirt. I made soap from plants. That was just part of being a witch.

Magic really was convenient at times like these. A big family meant lots of clothes to clean, so doing it all by hand would be grueling…

“Okay, laundry’s done for today!”

And then, once everything was washed, I went outside to dry it all.

“Hmm… Isn’t Halkara’s underwear a little too fancy…? But on the other hand, I don’t see Flatorte’s underwear anywhere. Don’t tell me she’s not wearing any because it’s too much trouble…? I’ll have to question her later…”

Though I had a few things on my mind, Shalsha came to me by herself as I was putting them up to dry.

“Mom, Shalsha has a proposal.”

“A proposal, hmm?”

As usual, her word choice was stiff.

“Both Shalsha and Big Sis could be called children based on our human appearances. The same goes without saying for Miss Sandra.”

Sandra was definitely a young child, but age-wise she was older than them, so they called her Miss.

“Up until now, Shalsha and Big Sis have been doing our own self-study. Now that Miss Sandra’s joined us, I feel like we’ll be broadening our horizons.”

“You’re right. That means you two are finally big sisters now.”

Falfa was older than Shalsha, but that was a technicality, since they were twins. But now that Sandra was here, both Falfa and Shalsha—who had never been anyone’s elder sister—had to act like real big sisters.

“And then a thought came to me. By being in an environment with more children, we could make even more discoveries. I believe it would benefit our lives.”

She didn’t speak like a child, so I needed to translate. In softer words, she meant—

“You want to go to school, don’t you?”

“Yes. I hear there are educational institutions for children in larger towns.”

Shalsha was nodding over and over. There was a faint smile on her face.

I see. So she wanted to go to someplace like an elementary school.

It wasn’t that there weren’t elementary school(–like places) in this world. However, just like Shalsha had said, they existed only in big towns. In our province, there was probably only one in the provincial capital of Vitamei.

The students there were the children of the commoners who lived in the town.

Children from nobility received specialized tutors, while children of poor farmers had to start helping out and working hard from a young age.

These places weren’t as specialized for studying as elementary schools were, nor was there a concept of compulsory education. But they weren’t just places for parents to leave their children while they were away; they apparently offered the minimum level of education. Literacy broadened your options for employment, so it was useful in many ways.

Bottom line, we had institutions that were similar to elementary schools.

“Could we have a trial visit?” Shalsha asked bluntly. She was being more insistent than usual.

“A trial visit… Hmm…” I wasn’t 100 percent on board.

Falfa and Shalsha might look like children, but they had still been alive for fifty years. Wouldn’t they stand out among real children?

I guess it wasn’t terrible if that was all, but I wouldn’t want to deal with people bullying them.

Bullying was inherently something that happened in groups of people. At least solitary hermits by definition were never bullied. It wasn’t just elementary school; joining any new kind of group came with that risk.

I didn’t think the girls would lose if they ended up in fights with other children, but they could still be left with bad memories.

“Hmm… I dunno…”

“I believe it would be a wonderful thing.” For some reason, Beelzebub was standing next to me.

“You’ve been showing up way too suddenly recently… Stop popping in like you’re my neighbor or something…”

“We have such an elementary education institution in the Vanzeld Castle town.”

And she was ignoring my comments.

But I got the image that the demon world was much more advanced than the human world, so it was entirely possible that it was functioning as a proper school. That was an option.

“Though since it is so far from the house here in the highlands, I believe it may be best if they stay at my manor and go from there—”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

She was just hoping for the chance to live together with Falfa and Shalsha.

“By the way, you use summoning magic, don’t you? We could go to the demon lands if you taught that to me.”

I’d occasionally used summoning magic to call her into my house.

“Erm… Summoning magic takes quite a toll on the one being summoned as well. It is not something to be used for commuting to work and school. High-ranking demons like me have no trouble, but you should not use it on Falfa and Shalsha.”

Convenience did have its limits, and rightfully so. So that option was off the table.

As I chatted with Beelzebub, Shalsha stared at me.

She was putting silent pressure on me to enroll her in elementary school!

“Sigh… Fine. Do you want to go to school for a short time for a trial run? I can use invisibility magic while you’re there to watch you. It’s really easy to use, so I can keep an eye on you from behind.”

That way, I could see if they would acclimate to school.

“Understood. There’s no problem with that. That’s how I’d like to proceed with this.”

And that’s how we decided to put them in school.

Afterward, I went to the provincial capital of Vitamei to hear about what the elementary school–esque institution had to offer.

The school was called Senale Elementary Academy. So it was a private academy. I guess Senale was the name of the founder.

According to the people inside, it was for children between six and twelve years old, which made it exactly like an elementary school.

“We raise the children here to be honest, proper, and healthy, so there’s no need for their mothers to worry! I am sure you will be satisfied with our care!” the principal explained to me.

Oh, right, the mom is me…

“Wait… You are way too young to be a mother, aren’t you…? You must be their elder sister…”

I now remembered that I appeared to be seventeen years old.

“Well, you see… I’d say we have a rather complicated household. But we are enjoying life together, so I suppose it’s all right.”

I wasn’t lying, so it wasn’t a problem.

“First, we here at Senale Academy allow the children a free trial week of classes. Afterward, if there are no problems, we will move forward with enrollment procedures.”

“Oh, so you have a trial enrollment. That’s perfect. I’d like to go ahead with that.”

The three girls would make the commute on Laika.

And so the first day of their trial arrived.

I snuck into the classroom using invisibility magic. Inside, it looked way more like a Japanese classroom than I thought it would. The only difference was that the students sat at long tables with a bit of room between them. There were just under forty children.

As the three stood at the front, the young female teacher introduced them to their classmates. “Okay, everyone! Today we have three new friends joining us! How about you introduce yourselves?”

“I’m Falfa! Nice to meet you!”

“Shalsha. She’s my twin.”

“…Sandra.”

Sandra was clearly embarrassed, but I was expecting that.

“All right, you three, go ahead and sit down.”

The three of them sat down side by side. Maybe they wouldn’t be bullied, since they came as a set.

“Now I’m going to hand out worksheets, so give those a try. I’ll start with the easier questions, so tell me when you’re finished.”

I see—so the system involved giving everyone their own problems and making them do it like that. But I guess if not for that, then Sandra and the twins couldn’t be in the same class.

I silently watched over them from behind and to the side. I was invisible, so the other students couldn’t see me. The children were saying things like, “It feels like someone’s here… Is it a ghost…?” but I paid them no mind.

Sandra practiced writing her letters with great difficulty.

On the other hand, a boy student was talking to Falfa. “If you don’t know anything, I’ll help you out. Ask me anything.”

Oooooh! I know my daughter’s cute, but you’re going straight for her, huh?! I won’t give you my girl, not even if you’re a kid!

“Thank you! You’re so kind!” Falfa gave her thanks, then flipped through the worksheet. “But I know the answers to all these questions, so I don’t need to. Let me know if there’s anything you need help with~”

“Wait… You know it all…?” The boy was in shock.

Sorry, but Falfa’s actual abilities could easily rival a university student’s…

“I’m no match for my big sister, but even I can do arithmetic of this level. Shalsha would like to request the next set of questions.”

Even Shalsha, who wasn’t as good at math as Falfa was, wasn’t tripped up by these.

The teacher looked at them in disbelief, but she seemed to tentatively accept it.

“Falfa, why don’t you come up and try solving the problems in front of the class?”

“Okay!” Falfa quickly wrote the answer to every question on the board. “And that’s all of them!”

“Yep… You can do it… I’ll give you the next few… How about this?”

She handed the next set to Falfa, who flipped through them to the end.

“Falfa can do all of these questions, so I don’t need it.”

“Erm… I don’t have any question sets more difficult than those, so I’ll have to get them from the office…”

The teacher left the room with a bit less color in her face.

Oh no. At this rate, they would wreck the class in the opposite sense of the term…

After a few minutes, the teacher brought back an arithmetic book that appeared to be the real deal. “W-will these be all right…? This was the textbook I used in university…”

It didn’t seem like Shalsha understood stuff at this level; she froze with the book in front of her. I mean, it was a university-level textbook.

The teacher looked like she could finally relax, too.

I’m sorry for bringing in such problem children…

But it wasn’t enough to stop Falfa. “Okay! I solved the proofs! Are these right?” She raised her hand and called the teacher over.

“U-uhhh… Yep, you’ve solved them, all right…”

“I understand most of these, so can I do the ones in the back?”

“I’m not that confident in those, but… Um, maybe you should go to university and learn them there…”

“Whoa!” yelled the boy. “She’s smarter than the teacher!” And the class went wild!

“She’s a genius!”

“Genius transfer students really do exist!”

“This is awesome!”

Oh dear… Everyone’s in an uproar…

But the teacher had no grounds to scold them, and she stood there limp and exhausted.

“I lost so quickly to a child… Maybe I have no talent… Maybe I don’t deserve to be a teacher…”

Oh no, what should I do? She’s losing confidence!

“Falfa!”

“Falfa’s a genius!”

“Falfa!”

“Falfa!”

The kids were starting to cheer for Falfa!

I guess someone who directly and fairly surpassed the teacher would be a hero among the children.

Now that the teacher had lost her authority, the kids started chatting about off-topic things… How dare they!

But the one who shut down the uproar was not the one you’d expect.

“Ohhh, sheesh! Shut up!” Sandra shouted. “We’re in class now! Be quiet! Falfa might be great, but aren’t we supposed to be doing our own individual work right now? You can compliment her during break time. You’re childish if you can’t wait until then.”

The whole classroom fell silent.

Incredible. By scolding everyone, Sandra had quieted the class down. Of course. She was the oldest kid in the class (probably by three hundred years).

And it sounded like calling them “childish” was more than effective. Children hated being called that. They wanted to be considered adults as soon as possible. So when Sandra called them out for being immature, the ruckus quickly transformed into serious study.

“She’s got a point…”

“Sandra, right? She’s powerful…even though she’s small.”

“I feel like a grown-up is mad at me…”

She was probably older than their parents.

“Phew, it’s finally calm. Now I can practice writing my letters.” What Sandra was learning was the most basic of basics.

Class returned to normal after that, but Falfa and Shalsha were too smart, so they were treated like special cases.

“Miss, what should Falfa do next?”

“Falfa… Teach Shalsha arithmetic, okay? …I don’t even know what level you should do… It seems like you understand everything we can teach you here, s-so you probably don’t have to come… Y-you graduate!”

She was graduating Falfa!

“And it seems like Shalsha can do everything that we would teach her, so…you graduate, too!”

And Shalsha!

I guess it’s hard for a teacher to do her job with students who are too smart. The relationship between teacher and student is established on the assumption that the teacher has the knowledge. There’s no point if the student has the knowledge.

“Aww, Falfa’s graduating?” Falfa looked disappointed. She had come all the way here to study; her success was a damper on that early enthusiasm.

“Maybe you should teach, Big Sis,” Shalsha offered.

She was missing the point.

While there were still a lot of problems to be solved, the first class period finished.

“All riiight, break time!”

“Let’s play dodgeball!”

The children went to the field outside. This stuff must be universal.

And dodgeball existed in this world, too, by the way. The rules were simple, so it wasn’t surprising that it had been discovered here.

The other children invited my girls out into the field. At the moment, it didn’t seem like they were going to be bullied, so that was a relief. Have fun playing with the other kids.

Wait a sec…

They weren’t as strong as Laika or me, but the two should be much more skilled and powerful than a regular child… Way stronger than a regular adventurer, even…

Falfa, Shalsha, and Sandra were all on the same team.

“All right, here we go, Shalsha!” The boy on the other team threw the ball at her.

Shalsha easily caught it. She’d been spacing out, but she was good at athletics.

“Now it’s my turn.” Shalsha ran forward and threw the ball.

Pyuuuuuuu!

The blazing fastball connected with the boy.

He’d tried to catch it, but he was no match for such a powerful throw, and he fell right on his rear. The ball rolled behind him.

“Th-that’s scary~! She’s crazy strong~!” The boy started crying!

“Wimp.”

“You’re crying because a girl hit you with a ball? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Yeah!”

His teammates were being pretty cold to him. I thought a boy that age tended to have a rough time if a girl made him cry.

But the meaner you are to that boy, guys, the more you’ll regret it when the same thing happens to you.

To be honest, the boy wasn’t crying because he was a coward. It really was because she was strong…

Falfa took the ball this time.

“Yaaah!”

Pyuuuuuuu!

The blazing fastball hit a nearby girl in the leg, bounced off her, and came right back to Falfa, where she snatched it up and threw it again.

This time it hit a boy in the back, apparently too fast for him to get out of the way.

“This is so scary!”

“It’s too fast!”

“Owww!”

She was making everyone on the other team cry!

Half the kids on their own team were saying, “This is amazing!” while the other half were terrified: “These sisters are crazy…”

Everyone clearly recognized the twins’ abnormal potential, and Shalsha seemed to pick up on it.

“Big Sis, everyone will be scared of us at this rate. We would be like idols… Maybe we should act in moderation here…”

“But it’s only fun if we give our all. It would be rude to them if we went easy!”

Falfa had the right idea, but she needed to go easy on them or else it wouldn’t be a game anymore…

“I think this might be the end of our trial week,” Sandra quietly said from behind them.

I thought the same. Sure, we could say it was fine because they were also ten years old, but it was like throwing a ten-year-old bear or tiger into the school.

In the end, Falfa’s and Shalsha’s unbeatable strength put a swift end to the dodgeball match, so they decided to go again.

The enemy team was consulting with one another on how to deal with the twins.

“It’s over if one of them gets the ball.”

“Let’s take care of the others first.”

“Break time will be over soon. When time’s up, we’ll have more people, and we’ll win.”

Their strategy was taking the time limit into account. They were crafty, but they had to be if they wanted to win.

At first, the team carried out their plan well and didn’t let the twins get their hands on the ball.

But then came time for them to go after little Sandra.

“Take that!”

One of the “out” players from the other team went to aim at Sandra with the ball. Oh no—she’s weak; please don’t dog-pile her!

But then the children got another surprise.

“Gah! Oh no!” Sandra avoided the ball by diving underground.

The dirt on the field looked hard, but she could burrow in anyway.

I’m glad she avoided the ball, but that’s gonna draw attention…

“She went underground!”

“How do you do that?!”

“Coooool! I wanna do that!”

They’re forgetting about the match!

“This is easy. There are always soft spots in the earth. That’s where I stick my roots. Once I do that, I can go right in,” Sandra explained. The leaves that made up her hair were the only things sticking out.

That’s not easy at all. You’re the only one who can tell where the soft spots in the earth are.

“You don’t think. You feel. Feel the earth. Once you’re used to it, anyone can do it.”

How does anyone get used to that? I’ve lived for three hundred years, and I’ve never seen anyone besides you pull it off.

And then, the bell signaling the end of break rang. It was time for class again, and the teacher was distressed in all the classes afterward.

“Shalsha wishes to object to the concept of a true essence that’s mentioned in this book. In the end, such an idea only exists on paper, and I believe that arguments in favor of it are mere fallacies.”

“Um… Shalsha, I don’t really know how to answer that…”

Shalsha, an elementary-level educator probably won’t be able to handle deep philosophical discussions…

After the countless problems caused by the girls, their first day of trial enrollment came to an end.

“So? How was it?”

“Falfa had a lot of fun!”

“Shalsha very occasionally felt estranged, as though I was a foreign entity. But it was during those times that I felt exactly what sort of existence I lead. I would say that it was, overall, a very interesting experience.”

I think that meant Shalsha noticed that they didn’t exactly fit in all the time.

“How about you, Sandra?”

“It wasn’t bad, but… We probably won’t be allowed to go to school.”

She had the best grasp of the situation…

Days later, I went to Senale Academy as a mother.

“Your children are incredibly intelligent, so…erm…they’ve already exceeded everything that we can teach them here… Perhaps they should learn in a more serious institute…,” the old principal told me sheepishly.

“I had a feeling…”

I caused a lot of trouble bringing in my overpowered children.

“We should be able to take care of Sandra, however—what would you like to do about her?”

I thought for about five seconds, but—

“…I think I’d rather have her learn from the twins at home.”

“If that’s all right with you…”

And so it became very evident that going to school simply wasn’t an option for my kids. That was fine. I’d make sure they got a proper education at home.

I expected they’d be disappointed but that they’d accept it without protest.

“I’m glad there were a lot of people,” said Falfa, “but studying wasn’t very interesting.”

“The level of the lessons was not very high. There is a limit to everything,” added Shalsha.

“From now on, you two will teach Sandra at home, okay? Teaching others is a valuable part of studying.”

“Okay!”

“Understood.”

“Oh boy,” Sandra said with a smile. “And now we’re right back where we started.”

“That’s right. We live in such a remote highland, there’s no real reason for you to go all the way to a school in town. You can stay and study here.”

“I know you’re acting important, Sandra, but some of your letters are still backward.”

“Wh-what can I do about that?! Plants never have to write!”

It seemed like Sandra was enthusiastic, and I was sure she’d gain some scholastic ability in the near future.

Honestly, I was relieved. If I put my kids in school, then I would be spending less time with them. I couldn’t see myself letting go of them, at least.

“By the way, Sandra?” There was something on my mind. “If I say ‘thank you’ to you every day and make you listen to music, will you grow better?”

Was it true that making vegetables listen to classical music made them tastier?

“How should I know…? If you tell me proverbs every day, I’d probably become more cultured, though…”

At least Sandra had a good memory…