The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 7 - Chapter SS2

Second Period

“What’ve we got second period again?” Gile asked, fanning his face with his pencil board. Ashton finished changing into his uniform, then replied, “Next, it’s...math with Ms. Lassara, yeah.”

“Blegh!”

“My, my. From the enthusiasm in your voice, I gather you’re excited for class, Gile.”

Gile froze in the midst of fanning himself. His eyes, full of dread, swiveled to the classroom door where Lassara stood, lips curling in the shape of a crescent moon.

“Oy! Why didn’t you tell me sooner Lassy was—gah!” The chalk hit Gile square in the face, and he doubled over in agony. Lassara mounted the special stool student representative Claudia had arranged for to accommodate her childlike stature, then dropped a stack of papers on the teacher’s lectern with a thud. In the same moment, the bell rang to announce the start of second period. Claudia rose from her chair.

“All rise!” she shouted, then added, “Gile!”

“Understood, ma’am!”

There was a pause. “You know I haven’t told you off yet?”

“Crap. Sorry, conditioned response.” Rubbing his cheek, Gile poked his tongue out.

“Your tie is crooked.”

“Understood, ma’am!”

Claudia went on. “Bow! Be seated!”

Lassara looked around the class, then nodded with satisfaction. “This class has more than its fair share of troublemakers, but thanks to your excellent student representative, order is maintained. I’m much obliged to her.”

While Claudia looked smug, the troublemakers in question—Gile, Gauss, and the like—gritted their teeth resentfully. Alas, it escaped their notice that, without prompting, they had taken Lassara’s words as true.

“Now, I know you’ve been eagerly anticipating it, so today, we have a quiz.”

“We have not. We didn’t even hear about any quiz!” Almost precisely as Gile called out in protest, Lassara took another piece of chalk from the case on the lectern and threw it.

“No chance, not when I know it’s coming!” Gile called, cleanly dodging the incoming chalk. “Gile’s the king of motion perception, and don’t forget it!” He crowed with laughter. “That shut you up, huh, Lass—guh!” The next piece of chalk hit him square in the face again, and again, he doubled over in agony, covering his face with his hands.

Regarding him, Lassara snorted. “Morons are so predictable.”

“Screw you! I’ll dodge ’em all next time, you see if I don’t!”

Ms. Lassara started to hand out quiz papers to the front row, observing to herself that there was no cure for stupidity. When she had seen to it that every student had a paper, she looked down at her watch.

“You have twenty minutes. I’ll be grading and announcing the results as soon as you’re done.”

“Come on, Lassy!” Gauss chimed in. “No one’s into that humiliation stuff—ow!”

“Stop standing up. And that’s ‘Ms. Lassara, ma’am’ to you,” Lassara snapped. “Not only are you big as an ox, but you’re loud as one too, you great pest.”

“You’re small—”

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.” Cringing, Gauss sat back down.

“Oh, and anyone who gets less than thirty is taking a remedial class, no negotiations,” Lassara said. “Now begin!”

With that, the classroom filled with the sound of scratching pens.

Ashton was making good progress on the test questions when he happened to look up to his left. Olivia was face down on her desk, sound asleep.

What? Is she done already? Even I’m still only halfway through.

He set down his pen with five minutes remaining.

“—pens down,” Lassara announced. “Turn your papers face down and pass them forward.” Lassara had the papers collected in no time, then, true to her word, she set about marking them.

“All right, your marks. First, Gile. Ten.”

“She actually said it?!”

“What’d you expect? Next, Gauss. Fifteen.”

Gauss chuckled smugly. “Well, well, Gile. Seems I win this time.”

“Aw, man!”

“Moron One and Moron Two! That’s enough squabbling over last place.”

Lassara’s announcement of their marks went on, punctuated by whoops and groans.

“Ashton, ninety. Lots of careless mistakes, as usual. Pay better attention.”

“Yes, Ms. Lassara.”

“Next, Olivia. One hundred.” A murmur rippled through the room. Olivia had continued her streak of getting perfect marks in every class. She took back her paper, her eyelids drooping.

Lassara gave a small shake of her head. “And here I’ve never even seen you study. You’re the only one I can’t work out.”

Ashton glanced over and saw Claudia glowering at Olivia, who drifted unsteadily back to her seat, then quietly started to snore again.