The school really went up in flames, huh? Luckily, it’s pretty isolated, and nothing else should catch on fire. Isn’t this mountain range awfully dangerous? Some trees are clustered very close together, and if any of those caught on fire, a whole lot of people would be screwed. Don’t squirrels have any water formations that can put flames out? I don’t do a lot of planning, but this seems like a huge oversight to me!

“What happened here? What’s going on?”

Ah? Who’s that? There’s a human in the sky! Wait, no, that’s just a transformed squirrel. I don’t think there are any humans on this mountain range. Unless there’s a squirrel that keeps one as a pet? Hmm. Do squirrels keep humans as pets? I think that’d be pretty strange. Huh? Durandal’s not a pet! In the first place, he’s not technically a human, so even if he were a pet, it wouldn’t be strange. Anyway, who’s that immortal squirrel up there? Just looking at the fierce expression on his face is making my tail a little stiff. He must be really strong.

“We’re not sure yet,” a squirrel said. Wasn’t she the principal of the school—the one who stole my food under the guise of protecting the students? I’m pretty sure she is. “What we can be sure of is these flames aren’t ordinary. They’re likely to be phoenix flames; they wouldn’t be so hard to put out otherwise.”

The immortal squirrel in the sky frowned and closed his eyes. Not long after, a creepy sensation washed over me; it felt like someone was peeping on me while I was taking a bath! Judging by the other squirrels’ reactions, they felt it too! Their tails were sticking straight up, and their snouts were wrinkled. Ah? The immortal in the sky disappeared! Where’d he go? He’s not in the crowd, and he’s not behind me. Hmm. I’ve never done something like this before; I’m not sure what to do. “Psst, One.” Uh…, a lot of squirrels turned their heads towards me. This is why I should call Slayer Junior Slayer Junior and not One! “What do we do?”

Slayer Junior blinked at me. “What do we do? Nothing. We wait until the supervisor lets us go.”

Supervisor? Is he extra good at blocking out sunlight? “Who’s that?”

“The supervisor was the one who scanned us just now,” Slayer Junior said and gestured towards the sky. “The ruler owns the seven mountain ranges, but there are people working under her to help maintain order. The seven supervisors are responsible for overseeing each mountain range’s activities. Some supervisors like to delegate their tasks to their underlings, and our supervisor is one of them, but a school burning down is enough for him to show his presence.” Slayer Junior stared at me as if I should’ve known this, but why would I know this? I’m new here, and I haven’t Soul Scoured anyone knowledgeable yet! Wait a second. Oh, I did know this. The supervisor’s the law enforcers’ boss’s boss.

Speaking of the law enforcers that I Soul Scoured, the supervisor’s back in the sky, and he’s holding the three pandas by their tails. Was the term panda, or was it raccoon? I think panda sounds way better. Mm, it doesn’t matter what I call them because I’ll never say that term to their faces! They’ll get offended, and they’re super petty. As Ilya once told me, never offend a super-petty person unless you’re willing to kill them and exterminate their whole family. …She better not be teaching Sophia any strange things. Anyway, what’s the supervisor going to do with those pandas? He’s raising his hand. I recognize that position! He’s going to—

Slap!

“Ah!?”

Slap!

“Huh!?”

Slap!

“Mm, that’s the spot. Huh? Where am I? Supervisor!?”

One of the law enforcers said something strange…. But that’s not important! Did Sir Pot’s plan work? The supervisor’s going to interrogate those squirrels now, right?

“What happened?” the supervisor asked. His hand was still raised, and it was clear that if the pandas in his hand were going to say something nonsensical, he was going to hit them. “The three of you were sleeping around a cooking pot where the fire started.”

“Fire?” one of the squirrels asked and turned his head. His eyes widened upon seeing the burning school. Luckily, my ears are really sharp. I can hear everything perfectly over the crackling of the flames. Speaking of which, it’s gotten really loud, and the flames have spread to the top. Shouldn’t we evacuate before someone gets hurt? “Woah! Who set the school on fire!? That’s crazy.”

The supervisor’s expression darkened, and his nose twitched. Then, it twitched again as he sniffed the air. He raised his arm, lifting the squirrels up a little higher. “Are the three of you drunk? Where’s your chief?”

“He’s at home,” one of the squirrels said. “He was poisoned and hasn’t quite recovered yet.” The squirrel looked around, and his gaze landed on me, his eyes lighting up. His claw pointed at me, and I got a bad feeling. “Her! She’s the one who poisoned the chief. We were investigating her for meat smuggling too, but….” The squirrel clutched his head. “I don’t remember what happened?”

Do I run? No, it’s too late to run. The supervisor is already in front of me! The last time I felt this scared just from a gaze was when I first met Durandal! “H-hi.”

The supervisor released the pandas, and they scrambled to stand behind him. He didn’t even look at them, keeping his gaze on me. “Did you burn down the school?”

“N-no?”

“I think you did,” the supervisor said, and before I knew it, his hand was wrapped around my neck! How is he moving so fast!?

“Wait!” someone said. Who was it? Slayer Junior? “Teacher Fluffytail was handing out papers to our class when the fire started. It can’t be her.”

“That’s right! It can’t be Teacher Fluffytail!”

“Yeah!”

“Let her go!”

More and more of my precious students are agreeing with Slayer Junior. They’re so righteous! …But I think they’re speaking up for me because I fed them meat for a few days.

“Silence!” the supervisor said, and everyone shut up at the same time. The especially noisy ones were pressed to the ground by an invisible pressure. “If I say it’s her, then it’s her, and that’s final!”

…Even if he’s right, isn’t that a bit too unreasonable?