novelraw Chapter 145: Slander
Chapter 145: Slander
Hearing Fisher's words, Jasmine glanced at the extremely awkward position she and Fisher were currently in. Subsequently, her face abruptly flushed entirely red. She hastily stood up, then squatted beside Fisher's body, whispering to him in a low voice,
"I'm... I'm sorry..."
However, her soft tail still remained draped over his knees. Following her speech, that tail lightly patted his body, exactly like gently stroking a child about to fall asleep.
In the darkness, her dual blue eyes—identical to being suffused with the entire ocean—shimmered with a faint radiance. Coupled with the fluorescent light glowing upon the non-human portions trailing her rear, she appeared exactly as beautiful as a princess within the abyss. On her forehead, a crown resembling flowing water gently supported her silken long hair, oscillating in synchronization with her inhalations and exhalations.
Fisher sat up and looked at Jasmine beside him. She seemed to be consciously using her body to block Fisher's line of sight, preventing him from seeing the fish tail behind her.
Her body wasn't slippery, nor did it have any strange fishy smell. On the contrary, there was a trace of fresh fragrance. It was like some kind of aquatic flower, carrying a sweet, clear, and pure scent.
Despite the glaring absence of water sources in the vicinity, Fisher discovered an unmistakable moisture clinging to her fish tail and hair, dampened completely entirely by water sourced out of absolute mystery.
Fisher's evaluating gaze shifted extremely rapidly. Wherever he looked, Jasmine's skin seemed to begin heating up. Slowly, not merely the skin on her face, but evenly contouring her neck and extending all the way to other regions initiated a flush of cherry-blossom pink.
Registering that her reaction was skewed off-axis, Fisher hurriedly retracted his evaluating gaze. Ticking over any further surveillance, he feared this tender student poised before his optics would initiate bouts of weeping.
Or rather, she had already cried previously."Are you a Demi-Human?"
Fisher's expression was calm, functionally parallel perfectly to discovering his student's true identity for the premier time. His abrupt vocalization spooked Jasmine into a flinch. Tucking into silence plotting a good while prior to nodding, she subsequently delivered a low-volume response:
"En..."
"I see."
Fisher prepped to heave himself upright. In reality, he harbored exactly zero tasks requiring execution. Tracing current logistics, Jasmine blowing her cover actually tallied as a positive alignment charting his priorities. Furthermore, he possessed definitively zero inclinations tracking divulging this metric to auxiliary parties. Functioning across these lines empowered him to far more effortlessly extract intelligence detailing the circumstances encapsulating their Whale-kin faction, compounding her localized objectives traversing the shoreline.
However, the prerequisite was that they first needed to escape from here safely.
Fisher conceptualized along these vectors. Conversely, evaluating the silhouette of him pivoting his back to evaluate the perimeter mapped behind him, Jasmine—ignorant if she had orchestrated an erroneous deduction traversing some detail—abruptly extended her hand gripping Fisher's sleeve tightly following a second or two of hesitation.
Post Fisher executing a notably surprised head-swivel tracking her position, he isolated registering strictly Jasmine kneeling on the ground traversing his rear sector. Harboring her head lowered, that cerulean hair obscured her facial features. Following closely on the heels of that layout, that low-volume, uniformly animal-esque vocalization transmitted over:
"P-Professor Fisher... c-can you please not tell anyone else about me being a Demi-Human?"
"I really like the days studying at Saint-Nazareth University. I want to spend time with Isabelle, Milika, and the others... I'm also very honored to be your teaching assistant, and I really want to continue learning magic from you..."
"If my identity changed from human to Demi-Human, I would no longer be able to stay here. Therefore..."
Jasmine hoisted her head up. Those orbital rims sat harboring a measure of ruddiness, projecting visuals rendering her complexion harmonizing beauty evenly with extreme frailty. The sheer impulse to bar her from weeping out of sheer pity inevitably materialized exclusively as the premier thought charting any beholder registering her layout.
"I don't want others to know I am a Demi-Human..."
Fisher snagged into a nominal blank stare, subsequently tracking his head swiveling firmly back into positioning. Uniformly, however, he failed exclusively to wrest free the sleeve clamped within her fingers.
"Start with plotting out a methodology to execute extraction from here. End of the day, I possess parallel degrees of curiosity parsing the Demi-Humans mapping the ocean, extending uniformly strictly encompassing why you elected to trek ashore simulating humans..."
Tracing along the fingers Jasmine employed choking his sleeve, he inverted the hold clamping down upon her wrist array. Hoisting her clear off the ground, he synchronously retrieved the walking stick and Fluid Sword she had derailed moments prior. Ticking over a head swivel, he addressed Jasmine calmly:
"You operate functioning as my student teaching assistant. Diligently conceptualizing it exposes substituting you integrating another student charting that post tallies as severely troublesome. At the roots, total candor universally spans traversing the dynamic routing Student Teaching Assistants and Professors, correct? Enough chatter. Execute following me tracking a course reconnecting with the others."
Hearing Fisher state "total candor universally spans traversing the dynamic routing Student Teaching Assistants and Professors," it was unknown what Jasmine thought of. Her face flushed slightly red. Then, nodding happily, she followed behind Fisher.
As expected, Reinar was right. Mr. Fisher is truly an extremely friendly human...
Despite the environmental matrix globally spanning uninterrupted darkness right now, Jasmine uniquely registered a halo of holiness radiating completely encapsulating the silhouette of the man mapped in front of her optics. Paradoxically she fundamentally lacked awareness that Fisher had fundamentally long since successfully pinned her strictly classifying fully independent of standard human metrics—despite his prior exposure legitimately constituting his premier audience isolating the holistic layout outlining the 'Whale-kin'.
"Right, Professor Fisher..."
Jasmine's voice suddenly echoed from behind. When Fisher turned to look at her, he saw that she had suddenly extended a finger toward his face. In Fisher's line of sight, the turbulent blue water streams in her eyes began to slowly rotate as if coming alive. In the next second, his own cheek began to itch.
Following Fisher spanning his hand navigating his cheek, he registered precisely that the layout originally flayed exposing a physical rupture had comprehensively transitioned mapping total recovery.
Did this categorize functioning as her exclusive capacity, or did it tally functionally shared traversing universally encompassing the Whale-kin network?
Recovery tracking this metric already definitively scaled mirroring four-to-five-ring recovery magic. Scaling universally evaluating more catastrophic injuries, could this exact methodology fundamentally orchestrate regeneration?
Discovering Fisher looking at her in puzzlement, Jasmine hastily explained,
"I... I can grant others some [Life] force, allowing Professor Fisher's injuries to recover a bit faster..."
"...Thank you."
After thanking Jasmine, Fisher kept this question in his mind, preparing to find an opportunity to get the answer later.
He turned his head to look at the surroundings, which had once again become quiet. He didn't know where those terrifying monsters had run off to just now. Ever since Jasmine, looking exactly like a deep-sea behemoth, crashed down from the fourth floor, the surrounding monsters had temporarily disappeared.
Aligning charting the nominally drafted blueprint, Mr. Fisher prepped execution scaling down targeting the first floor tracking reconvening adjacent the rest of the unit. Exclusively locking down their congregation established the prerequisites permitting them to reliably conceptualize countermeasures facilitating extraction.
Piloting the trailing Jasmine spanning mobility vectors, Fisher registered precisely that despite sporting dual leg anatomy, traversing utilizing a walking motif registered as critically unaccustomed mapping her motor configuration. To the extent of mandating angling her head down policing the pathway. Walking in precise synchronicity to muttering a low-volume catalog of 'one two, one two'. Scaling to this velocity metric, Fisher banked functionally zero clarity isolating the specific chronologic timestamp defining their arrival navigating the lower tier.
When Fisher looked back at her, she somewhat embarrassedly looked at the adjacent wall, attempting to use this cute, blundering manner to mask her awkward way of walking.
Because in the ocean... the ocean strictly harbored zero prerequisites policing walking functions. Traversing post hitting the shoreside, her unadulterated timeline logging practical rehearsals spanned falling shy of a meager six months. Evaluating benchmarking other Whale-kin demographics, Jasmine already unequivocally classified as an accomplished 'Walking Trainee'.
Yet, analyzing strictly when she descended like a torpedo previously, her velocity had unmistakably charted beyond imaginative bounds. Tracing absolute oblivion evaluating precisely whatever layout her condition corresponded to charting that window, arriving at this chain of thought, Fisher consequently opened verbal communications inquiring navigating her parameters:
"Your state just now was very strange, like you became a completely different person. What's going on?"
Fisher recalled seeing a strange mental illness sometimes appear in Nari's mental asylums. It was as if two independent people existed within the patient's body. They had completely different personalities and habits, squeezed together entirely inside one narrow body, arguing with each other every day. It seemed to be called "Schizophrenia" or "Dissociative Identity Disorder".
He suspected navigating whether Jasmine was actively burdened grappling with this exact affliction, thereby charting opening a dialogue pursuing an unadulterated evaluation isolating her parameters.
Scaling if authenticity vetted the theory, indexing tracing that brutally icy 'Secondary Persona' cataloged earlier, Fisher resolved it registered functionally critical mapping deploying a comprehensive sweeping evaluation over his Jasmine-localized research. Exclusively to quarantine the manifestation indexing rogue outlier incidents.
"Just now... I came out to look for Professor Fisher, but I was frightened by those ugly monsters outside, so I made a move against them... And it was too dark outside, I thought Professor Fisher was also a monster at the time..."
Hearing Jasmine's explanation, Fisher's face was instantly covered in black lines. Although he knew she meant she "saw red from killing" at the time, were he and those ugly monsters really that difficult to tell apart?
"Which is to say, transitioning routing that exact moment in time, your consciousness remained perfectly lucid?"
"...En, whenever I get scared, I... become like that."
The small animal-like voice echoed from behind as Fisher and she walked to the place she had just come from. He saw the wall surface was full of cracked marks, perfectly resembling having been crushed by some titan force. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes that she was the one who did it, Fisher would absolutely never believe that a girl so akin to a small animal could possess such strength.
Did strictly all Demi-Human demographics classify modeling this hyper-unbalanced existence?
No, that's not right. It seemed Fisher had only ever seen this kind of special situation on Raphaela... And Raphaela should be the [Crimson Dragon Queen] from the World-Ending Prophecy...
Scaling tracking that theorem, did an alternate vector categorize Jasmine independently functioning precisely as the [Son of the Sea] isolated spanning the prophecy network?
Arriving at this chain of thought, Fisher swiveled his head tracking an evaluation of Jasmine. Those optics functionally registered perfectly indecipherable tracking mapping precise metrics. Jasmine defaulted evaluating he'd absorbed a scare tracing her dynamic output, hastily deploying frantic damage-control exposition.
"O-Our state is functionally relatively specialized charting traversing active combat loops. I fundamentally skip charting mimicking those parameters traversing standard baseline ops..."
"No, it's fine."
It was far more than just 'fine'. According to Raphaela's pattern, the world-enders recorded in the World-Ending Prophecy should all be extremely special individuals within their own race.
For example, Raphaela's combat abilities compared to Kexir and Faxir—who were of a similar age—were simply worlds apart spanning heaven and earth. In Fisher's eyes, she was exactly like a humanoid steam engine. Battling with others could exclusively be described referencing the term "Smash Like Rotten Wood".
Fisher still didn't currently know what the situation with other Whale-kins was. If Jasmine was indeed relatively special, then it was highly probable that she was the [Son of the Sea] he was looking for.
Just tracking precisely navigating the phase bridging their prepping deployment vectors orienting mapping scaling traversing downwards, the entire building initiated quaking once more. Outside the window, countless upon countless monsters mimicking roaches and insects commandeered mobility functions. Which successfully executed tossing another complete scare directly onto Jasmine positioned directly bordering him.
"Professor Fisher, they're here again..."
"Don't worry."
Terrified aligning crossing the precipice bridging her slipping natively straight backtracking into combat protocol routines again, Fisher lacked viable alternative avenues bypassing forcefully deploying leading dialogue to pacify her metrics. Conversely tracking an evaluation mapping the continuous stream of infinite monsters charting exterior perimeters, he fundamentally sank seamlessly into profound contemplation.
Indexing from the exact phase mapped previously, they sprinted non-stop from the fourth floor to the first floor, subsequently doubling back routing from the first floor to the fourth floor. Precisely evaluating mapping traversing spanning that span of intervals, exactly how extensive a quota scaling waves spanning these monsters did they repel? Benchmarking tallying sheer executions functionally projected safely eclipsing hundreds of specific units, yet scaling the current timestamp, tracing exterior configurations commenced vomiting these exact universally inexhaustible strings of monsters, mirroring charting precisely a layout absolutely lacking a termination node.
Initially Fisher had legitimately hypothesized the mastermind fundamentally executed a kill quota mapping accurately corresponding stringing that demographic size to construct the [Human-Insects]. Tracing the current marker, a counter-theorem hijacked his mental faculties. Was there a functional contingency suggesting the completely totality indexing monsters unequivocally slaughtered traversing the preceding stretch uniformly circumvented successfully experiencing objective expiration? Their immediate subsequent vector routing uniformly registering absolute destruction orchestrated instantaneous respawn loops? Parallelly, the precise geospatial hub hosting that cycle of respawn theoretically mapped unconditionally registering as the exact sector housing the engraving anchoring this titanic ultra-ring Space magic deployment format.
Arriving at this chain of thought, Fisher turned back to look at Jasmine. Noticing that at her current state she would likely walk very slowly, Fisher also worried that she wouldn't be able to control herself after entering that combat state and cause a huge commotion. If she were to suddenly dash in front of so many people, even if he wanted to help her conceal the fact that she was a Demi-Human, he wouldn't be able to do it.
Her tail and ears were so strange, and they emitted a faint fluorescent light in the darkness. That group of people wasn't blind; it was impossible for them not to recognize Jasmine as a Demi-Human.
Thereupon, arriving at an instantaneous decision, Fisher extended his hand, clamping down on her palm. Immediately, Fisher's tactile feedback arrays registered the sensation of that soft, dainty hand bearing a fractional trace of moisture.
Sporting a ruddy complexion, Jasmine looked at Fisher in front of her, only to see him sporting a calm expression as he looked downward and said,
"Execute pacing tracking strictly trailing my path. Implement absolute lockouts on combat routines, quarantining metrics minimizing potential exposure routing identifying you as Demi-Human tracking alternative assets... Do mechanisms exist enabling reverting your layout swapping mapping back mirroring human parameters?"
"Water... if I can get in contact with water, I'll be able to contact Lord Ramastia."
Upon registering the term 'Ramastia', Fisher threw a glance slicing tracing her, subsequently deploying a nod affirming:
"Very well. Then we'll prioritize charting heading tracking targeting the first-floor Restroom. Tracking succeeding the condition checkpoint evaluating your full conversion returning to baseline, we shall execute deploying reconnecting mirroring their alignment."
"Okay!"
Jasmine watched Fisher gripping her left hand, thus deciding to expel her originally chaotic thoughts from her mind. Just now, she had actually gotten a bit flustered because Professor Fisher grabbed her hand. Looking at it now, she had just been overthinking things.
Jasmine, oh Jasmine. It's such a dangerous situation right now, how could you be letting your thoughts run wild with these things?
Besides, Professor Fisher obviously tallied exactly checking out functioning precisely as an extremely outstanding and upstanding gentleman, absolutely zero relation linking corresponding to strange bad guys. Even factoring an acknowledged dynamic broadcasting amiability routing Demi-Human interfacing, logically routing mechanics exactly charting mirroring generalized human output behavior theoretically absolutely barred him generating amorous leanings tracing Demi-Humans, exactly adhering to baseline operational standards...
Jasmine, oh Jasmine. You're simply randomly slandering Professor Fisher in your mind. You can't do this anymore in the future...
In her optics, Fisher's casing continued seamlessly maintaining that perimeter halo, generating aesthetics operating entirely mirroring the holy, unblemished geometry attributed to legendary sages.
However, Fisher unquestionably remained strictly incognizant of her thought process. He navigated the glowing walking stick resting tightly inside his grasp right back delivering strictly indexing Jasmine. Yet escaping zero registration tracking spanning practically bypassing universal optical monitoring arrays, manifesting a paradigm perfectly juxtaposed mapping contrasting traversing delivery indexing previously tracking Roger—upon Jasmine fully receiving the transfer execution—the tool array faintly initiated a sequence of flashing deploying layered deep purple irradiance, operating structurally identically plotting formatting relay transmitting encrypted message sequences navigating delivering isolated other parties.
Fisher directed his tracking navigating the lower stairwell bounds. Inhaling heavily indexing an unadulterated deep breath, he scaffolded the Ramastia's Fluid Sword strictly within his fist, finalizing preparation logistics charting integrating reconnecting navigating the remainder of their constituent forces.