"This is a complete drag…" Lina Inverse moaned.
Amelia glanced surprisedly at the red head buried into her arms at the next
desk. "But this is debate class!! Don't you enjoy this class? Today's topic
is Justice and Evil!!"
"Oh. Wow," Lina replied, shifting her head slightly to reveal her
bored eyes. "That ::really:: makes me want to stand up and sing."
"But don't you care about these things?" Amelia insisted.
"What things?"
"Justice!! How it will prevail and override evil!! Here Lina, look at
this!!" The short, yet buxom brunette shoved the fifty page outline she had
written in preparation the night before in front of her friend's nose.
"Oh god," Lina gasped sitting up suddenly.
"What? No wait, I know. You didn't do it. Again," Amelia sighed with
emphasis on the last word. "Of course, not that you really care, do
you?"
"Hmm? Oh yeah, this is Gourry's class!! Well!! No need to worry anymore
about that!!"
"Really Lina," a soft voice murmured from behind the redhead,
"you should address him as Mr. Gabriev!!"
Lina turned her head round to see a disapproving Sylphiel. "Address him as
::what::?"
"As Mr. Gabriev!! You know… his surname!"
Lina blinked twice, and a closed fist lightly slapped her other palm. "Oh
yeah… Yeah. That's right. Gourry Gabriev. But it's not like even ::he::
remembers his own surname. The last time you addressed him that way, he didn't
even know you were talking to him."
Amelia didn't want to agree with her, but it had definitely happened on more
than one occasion. So even she, well-mannered princess of the city would address
the teacher as Gourry; not Mr. Gabriev.
Sylphiel felt slightly unhappy with the negative comments being directed to her
object of desire, but decided to let the matter go. After all, once Lina had her
mind set on something, there was no changing her. "Anyway," the
priestess said, changing the subject, "it might not have been such a good
idea not to do your homework last night, Lina."
"What? Why…?"
"Oh… that's right," Amelia agreed, nodding.
"What?!" Lina demanded.
Sylphiel shook her head. "Don't you remember? We have a male student
teacher from the nearby university to substitute for the rest of the year."
"What? But it's not even past first quarter yet!"
"You really weren't listening yesterday, were you? Well, apparently the
school found Gou-… I mean Mr. Gabriev's teaching insufficient to what the
school requires, and decided to seek a little help."
"Oh, is that all?" Lina rolled her eyes, and slumped back down into
her seat. "Chances are, he'll be twice as dense as that silly blonde."
"But what if he's not?" Amelia returned after exchanging glances with
Sylphiel.
"Then~ I'll… fireball him like I do to Gourry, of course. Teachers
::must:: learn to respect their students, don't they?"
"Actually, I think that's 'students should respect their teachers',
Lina."
"Oh WELL… Say… speaking of these teachers, it's 11:45 already. They're
10 minutes late."
Just at that moment, the door slid open, and in walked Gourry Gabriev. He
apologized and smiled his happy go lucky smile, and Lina heard Sylphiel starting
to melt behind her. Behind the blonde, followed another figure. Amelia suddenly
gasped.
The redhead socceress looked up in curiosity, her chin still seated on the table
behind her arms. The man beside Gourry must be the new substitute, she thought
to herself. She glanced at Amelia, who seemed to be terrorized in shock.
"Hey Amelia," Lina whispered. "What's wrong with you?"
The princess of Sailune glared back, and managed to stutter in reply,
"D-don't you see? It's a chimera! A thing of evil!! J-just look at
him!!"
"Yeah yeah. Whatever."
They didn't know that the 'evil creature' had excessively good hearing.
"This is Zeldagiss Graywords," introduced Gourry to the classroom of
female students.
'Zeldagiss' sighed. "It's Zelgadiss," he contradicted annoyedly as if
he had gone over this a hundred times.
"He's nineteen years old," Gourry continued happily, "and
apparently excelled in his magic and debate classes in university.
Coincidentally, he has decided to take a year off. That's why the board has
selected him to be my assistant for the rest of the year."
Assistant…, Lina thought to herself. A bit hard to believe…
"Yes, Sylphiel?"
The timid and blushing girl lowered her head to face the desk. "Then… you
still will be teaching?"
"Oh no, I'll simply be watching Zeldigass and supervising. ^^. "
The chimera bowed in greeting to the class. "My name is Zelgadiss Graywords,
but you need only address me as Zelgadiss. After all, I'm not much older than
you all," he said.
Lina studied him a bit as he explained his background. He's… well, blue,
definitely golem, and perhaps… Mazoku as well? She pondered to herself. He
looks and sounds like he has more sense than that dumb blonde over there, and
besides, he knows magic. Excells, even. And since debate in year Kis did
involve magic… she might not even mind coming to this class. ^^ Maybe
this year would actually be okay.
"Her name is Lina," smirked Martina loudly from the back of the room.
The redhead snapped out of her thoughts.
"Lina?" the chimera repeated.
"Wha- I mean, yes?"
"He was asking you to start the debate," Amelia hissed.
"I said, you seemed quite interested in what I was saying just now, so I
thought you might like to start on the homework that Mr. Gabriev assigned
yesterday."
Okay, so maybe the start of the year wouldn't be so great.
"Who did you just say?" Gourry asked in question.
"……you," Sylphiel quietly supplied when no else replied.
"oh~…"
Lina very slowly stood up in attempt to buy time. Damn, she thought. I bet he
did this on purpose for me looking at his stupid, golem demeanor. "Well…
Justice is very important… because…" she stammered. "Because….
Justice is…" JUSTICE. She sounded like a pathetic version of Amelia.
Zelgadiss crossed his arms across his chest thoughtfully. "Do you want to
try supply an example instead, Lina? That often helps."
"Example?" He IS doing this on purpose to revenge for me looking at
him!! I didn't even mean to stare at him!! Is it my fault he's so
self-conscious?! What a moron… "Well…" she managed, "…Like
when … a bandit has stolen money from someone else, it is up to people like me
to retrieve it and… punish… them, I guess…"
"And what will you do with what you've retrieved?"
"…Keep it, of course…What?"
"N-nothing… Well. Very erm… good. You may sit down now. The girl next
to Lina… what's your name?"
"Amelia," she the princess replied tartly. The chimera probably
supported evil and not justice.
"Okay Amelia. Are you against or for?"
"FOR, of course!!" Unlike SOME others… She added silently.
"Would you like to add anything to Lina's statement then?"
Amelia haughtily flipped out her outline, and delved into her hour speech. When
she finally made it halfway through, Lina and about 10 other students were ready
to fireball her.
Zelgadiss stifled a yawn and glanced over at Gourry, who was already fast asleep
at his desk. 'Maybe I should stop this strange, obsessed girl…' he thought to
himself.
"And because of our acceptance to criminals' behaviour," continued
Amelia who was completely oblivious to the bored expressions surrounding her,
"they have unconsciously decided to-"
"Amelia?"
The princess looked up sharply at the interruption in her 'beautiful' speech.
"Yes, Mr. Graywords?" she asked acidly.
Zelgadiss shivered at the sound of her voice. "…you can call me Zelgadiss
if you like… Anyway… about your speech. It's definitely … good, very
wordy, and your points are," he groped for words of encouragement, "
… original and deep."
Amelia's eyes lit up in surprise. "Does that mean… you support what I'm
saying? It's good?!"
"A…bsolutely…" he said slowly with a strained smile. (which Amelia
took for one of pride.) "But you could definitely shorten it up a bit… in
some places you have been redundant."
The bell suddenly rung. Everyone threw their notebooks into their bags
immediately, and hitched up their textbooks to head for their next class.
"Alright girls," Zelgadiss said, "tomorrow we will continue. And
please. I want everyone to be prepared tomorrow. Like Amelia was."
Lina felt that he was looking straight at her as he said that. She groaned
inwardly, and followed Amelia out of class.