Lesson 02 — Selena! Believe in yourself!
～ Part 2 ～
Read at translatedino.blogspot.com
“Really…”
It was after everything had finished that I heard the story.
Utsurogi received a fatal injury, and Kogane was kidnapped. It’s a bolt out of the blue. Thinking about the disaster that befell my students, I also am feeling quite impatient.
“I’m sorry Sugiura, if I had been more solid…!”
“And, I think that even if sensei gets anymore solid than you already are it won’t make any different in this case…”
The unidentified red winged devil. It was in the middle of a class meeting being held in the dining room that we received his attack. Ryuzaki and everyone also, once again realized the necessity to exchange information with Selena in earnest. Speaking from me, I feel that it was a little too late, well, I suppose that’s what you call the nearsightedness of humans in high-pressured circumstances. Perhaps it’s because I was left out of the loop like this that I managed to realize such things.
In any case, the breakdown of the class with Selena at its center has been avoided. Both I and Honno-san were honestly pleased when we heard this story. It will be good if Selena can fit into the class better with this as a trigger.
And as I thought so, the red winged devil attacked.
Apparently, that red winged devil was the perpetrator who annihilated Selena’s colleagues. Although it’s unknown what kind of use he has for my cute students and this class, from his manner of speaking, it seems that he is clearly involved in our trip to this different world.
When I heard this story, my guts seethed in anger. Not only did he involve my students, he captured one of them, and inflicted a serious injury to another. I will beat him to a pulp if I have any limbs.
“I’m sorry Sugiura, If I was stronger…!”
“Because sensei is a dried bonito, it is natural that you are weaker than everyone.”
“I am disqualified as a teacher! I could not prevent Utsurogi and Kogane from meeting such cruel fates…!”
“It cannot be helped. The matter this time…”
Even though Sugiura says so, this sense of helplessness dominating my entire being cannot be easily dispelled.
“Ah—, geez. Sensei, don’t become so gloomy. You’re damp.”
Sugiura grabs me with one of her octopus legs and starts to dry me over a fire.
“Ahh, roast me more…. It’s a fitting end if someone like me is burned to death…”
“Dried bonito-sensei’s mental strength is as tough as …”
“That’s right. My body is a rotten fish and my mind is a rotten bean…”
“Sugiura-san, sensei is seriously ill…”
Honno-san gives a little worried voice. However, I am not a man worthy of such concern.
What kind of teacher cannot save his students when they are in a crisis. No matter how much self-important things I says, in the end I am nothing but an all talk good-for-nothing. Moreover, I have now become this form which doesn’t even have a mouth. I have nothing. Nothing. I am empty.
A useless teacher who cannot do anything that he should do as an adult. That is me.
“I guess I have no choice, sensei…”
Sugiura says so and puts my body on a shelf with a thump.
“Sensei, there’s this student, I want you to give her some consultations.”
“What kind of advice I can give? I cannot even fulfill my minimum duty as a teacher.”
“But that’s only your own worry, if sensei turns away a student’s SOS at your own convenience like that, can sensei calls yourself a teacher?”
“Muu…”
Receiving those words, I cannot even say anything.
This worry is my own circumstance. No matter how pathetic I am, I cannot display this shameful appearance, if there is a student who wants me to teach them, then as a teacher I should accompany them even if it’s only by bluffing.
Certainly, I am a useless dried bonito who couldn’t even do his minimum duty as an adult, but even so, that’s no reason to stop fulfilling my duty as an adult.
It’s difficult to be adults.
“All right. Let’s get on with the consultation. In these circumstances, people who are having a tough time should be together…”
Sugiura goes through the noren into the dining room, and then immediately brings back a girl.
“Gu…”
I involuntarily swallow my breath.
Hanging her head down, with a face as if she could cry at any moment, Selena, the rumored transfer student comes in.
“Sensei…. Please scold thoughtless and incompetent Selena…”
Selena says so in a seriously depressed state.
“Wh–what’s wrong? Selena, it’s not good to depreciate yourself.”
Saying so, the thrown words boomerang on me and pierce me deeply.
“Sensei, I am a useless person. No matter what I do I will just drag everyone down, even the matter this time, I couldn’t help Utsurogi-san and Kogane-san. If I were more solid…!”
“N–no, in this case, I think that it won’t make a different even if Selena was more solid…?”
“But! If I was stronger…!”
“Se–Selena is a human after all, so I think it’s natural that you’re weaker than a monster?”
“But! I! What kind of knight apprentice am I if I cannot help when my comrades are in a crisis! No matter how much self-important things I says, it only feels like showing off, I am just an all talk good-for-nothing in the end! A hopeless human who couldn’t even do their minimum as a comrade, that’s me!”
This girl, honestly, did she heard our conversation from just now?
When I glance at Sugiura, she is boiling water in a pot while singing and humming.
I guess so.
If that’s the case, then she knew it would turn out like this and brought Selena. Since she has the exact same trouble as me, it will be very hard to deal with. What kind of comforting words I can even say, won’t it be heard as merely self-justifying words?
If you don’t put your heart in it, your words won’t reach the other party. That is my belief as a teacher. That’s why, when returning sincere words to the students’ troubles, I must firmly believe in those words from the bottom of my heart. This is quite a difficult problem.
But that’s my circumstances after all. I should not rely on such circumstances in the case of Selena.
“Is that right? Selena, what is the minimum actions that you do as a comrade?”
“Eh? Umm, that, umm…. That is to say, helping your comrades when they’re in trouble…”
“From what sensei sees. That is, I don’t think there is anything such as «minimum actions».”
“Eh…”
Receiving my words, Selena is confused. It’s quite difficult to lie to my heart, but even so, I have to cough up some words that are pleasing to the ears.
“After all, such a thing is no more than a framework that is applied from outside. Each person has different things they are good at. There is no way that kind of framework is completely applicable. Sensei knows well that Selena has been doing your best.”
“But…. I’m no good, I’m useless! I, am thoughtless, and incompetent!”
“I think it’s only because you think inside the box. Selena, be more flexible. And believe in yourself.”
“Believe in myself, what part of me do you say I can believe in…!”
Mu, formidable. Of course. Selena right now is the same as myself. With words that I myself am not convinced of, I cannot convince Selena.
But still, I am a teacher. I have an obligation to resolve Selena’s trouble.
If I cannot even save a single student, then I’m beyond help.
There’s no other choices, time for the last resort.
“Sugiura, Shave me~e!!”
“Yes ye~s.”
As if she has been waiting for it, Sugiura immediately puts her knife on my body. With practiced hand, she produces one piece, two piece of thin bonito flakes. I raise a scream.
“GUWAAAAAAA!!”
“Se–sensei!?”
“Do not look away, Selena! It’s fine! When Utsurogi and Kogane were in a dilemma, I couldn’t do anything! What I could do was absolutely nothing! If you are powerless, than so am I! I am the same good-for-nothing! But … argh! It … hurts! Somehow it really hurts!”
An intense pain like my own nerves are being shaved off struck, and I feel like writhing my body. However, I don’t have a flexible enough body to writhe.
“Bu–but! But Selena! Even someone such as I have something that I can do! I can do nothing but one! Even though it’s very small, surely it has some meaning!”
“Do you mean to say it’s this!?”
“That’s right!”
Sugiura throws my shavings in a pot. A fragrant aroma of soup stock gradually fills the entire kitchen.
Sugiura scoops out the soup stock into a bowl with a ladle and presents it to Selena.
“Drink, Selena-san. It’s the soup stock from sensei.”
“Y–yes…”
Selena receives the bowl and gently puts it to her mouth. The bonito soup stock made from myself slowly enters her mouth, passing her throat and ends up in her stomach.
“Delicious…”
Selene murmurs a few words of praise.
“It’s delicious…”
“It would be so.”
I nod along with a soft voice.
“This is the limit of what I can do. But you drink it and says that it’s delicious. Surely, that alone has some meaning. I cannot save my precious friends, I maybe just a powerless good-for-nothing, but as long as I am doing my best, then that alone has some meaning.”
“Sensei…”
“Selena, you surely has it. First of all, try to understand all and everything that you’re capable of. You will surely discover your very own soup stock.”
“Yes…. Thank you very much … ~tsu.”
Selena lowers her head with a slightly tearful voice. Drops of tear flow down her cheeks into the bowl, adding more salt to my bonito soup stock. That is also good. The soup’s flavor will change simply with a few drops of tear. And like that, she will eventually discover her very own flavor that only she can deliver.
“You are crying, Selena. Come now, face off against that setting sun…”
“Sensei~i!!”
“Uo~o~!?”
Finally overcome with emotion, Selena tightly hugs my body. Looking at it from outside, it would appear as a spectacle of a girl hugging a wooden sword.
“Sensei! Thank you very much. I will do my best…!”
“Ah, yea. Ou…. But no, this is, yeah…”
No, substantial…. It’s substantial. It seems that Selena is the type to look slender in clothing. I don’t know how much the average of this world is, but if she’s like this at the age of 16, then I feel like I can have much expectation in her future.
I want to stroke her head like this, but of course I don’t have any hands. Well, it feels like I would receive some extra long sermons from the vice-principal if I was to do this when I was still a human.
It seems a little wasteful. But I guess it’s fine like this.
After that, Selena seemed to have told everything to Ryuzaki and the others. And I also heard that Ryuzaki and the others told Selena everything.
And then after a few more days, I and Honno-san are moved to the heavy cruiser which is under renovation. With the installation of the engine and caterpillars. And then finish the repair of the ship’s bottom and it seems to be enough for the ship to move for the time being. That seems to be the case, but even if you says so, when I heard the story of the renovation of the land-warship for the first time, I was quite astonished. This is already at the level of Over-Technology. Apparently, this is the result of Kuremori fully utilizing his racial abilities.
So, we will be arriving at Selena’s hometown. As a matter of fact, I have already known that Selena is a princess, I also want to have a with her mother, but well, let’s save that talk for next time when they have some free time.
Next episode is the start of a new arc.
Chapter Three: Heart of Nihility
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