[Grey POV]
[Grey]: Rimuru, draw the card already. It's been an hour.
[Rimuru]: You of all people should not talk, Grey. You spent more time monologuing during your turn than actually playing.
We were supposed to be teaching—emphasis on supposed.
In front of us, two dozen wide-eyed, barely-teen students stared at us from behind their desks. Half were taking notes. The other half looked like they were mentally debating whether this was a lecture or live theater.
[Student 1]: Teacher Grey and Miss Rimuru are fighting again...
I rubbed my temples and looked at the stack of UNO cards like they owed me rent. Then I looked at Rimuru. He was smirking. Always smirking.
[Rimuru]: And... done. I win.
He didn't even play the last card.
He just pulled out a gun and shot me in the head.
I went flying through the classroom wall, out the hallway, and into what I think was the janitor's closet. My body was a mess of twitching limbs and snapped joints.
From the hole in the wall, I could still hear the commentary:
[Student 3 ]: Miss Rimuru won again. I don't think Mr. Grey can take another headshot...
[Student 2]: Adam's right... Look at that neck. It's like a pretzel. Should we call 911?
[Student 1]: Jack, shut up! I want to pass this exam! Miss Rimuru is talking!
Rimuru was back at the board, cheerfully ignoring my possible death
[Rimuru]: Now, to calculate the speed of the rocket, we need to isolate the gravitational pull force, F equals ma...
I dragged myself up with one arm. My head popped back into place with a loud crack.
[Grey]: ...This is fine. I'm fine.
I staggered back into the classroom, smoke still wafting from my hair, and glared at Rimuru.
He smiled like the angel of passive-aggressive violence.
[Rimuru]: Oh? You're back already. Good. Can you be a model for a human projectile demonstration next?
[Grey]: Rimuru, I think we've had enough fun for now.
[Rimuru]: Come on, Grey. We've barely done anything yet!
I stared at him. He was still holding the chalk like a dagger, diagrams of orbital velocity and demon anatomy sketched on the board behind him in what I hoped was red ink and not blood.
I waved my hand lazily at the classroom.
[Grey]: We built this academy in a dead world, Rimuru. A dead world. And we're teaching zombies how to count.
The entire class—floating, translucent, glowing teens—tilted their heads in unison.
[Student Ghost #14]: Um, Miss Grey? I got stuck on question four. My spectral hand keeps phasing through the abacus.
I sighed deeply.
[Grey]: See? This one doesn't even have a spine, and we're supposed to teach them rocket science?
One of them tried to high-five another, missed entirely, and floated through the chalkboard.
[Rimuru]: Okay, okay. Maybe this wasn't the most practical location... but they're eager to learn!
A ghost popped, then reformed upside down.
[Ghost #7]: What's gravity again?
I pointed directly at the entire class, face blank, tone dry:
[Grey]: I'm leaving. Tell the others I got bored with teaching ghosts.
I snapped my fingers, opened a swirling black portal filled with glowing jellyfish and hollow song, and stepped halfway in—
[Rimuru]: Wait! Grey, you can't leave me alone with a bunch of emotionally unstable teens from beyond the grave!
[Grey]: Watch me.
[Rimuru]: ...At least assign homework before you go?
[Grey]: Fine.
I turned back, locked eyes with the confused class of ghostly teens, and smiled a little too widely.
[Grey]: Homework: return to the world of the living. Bonus points if you don't curse anything on the way out.
And with that, I stepped through the portal.
The void welcomed me like it always did—cold, infinite, and quiet. A silence so perfect it felt sacred. I drifted, weightless and wild, my cloak of regrets fluttering like torn wings behind me.
[Grey]: Gods, I love this feeling. No papers, no crying midges, no undead algebra. Just me… and—
Why do I hear someone praying?
I turned toward the sound. Far off in the emptiness, there was a flicker of white.
Not a star.
A soul.
A man.
He was kneeling on nothing, floating in the void. His uniform, once pristine white, was now soaked in blood and torn at the seams. A naval officer's coat hung limp from his shoulders, the epaulets barely clinging on. One arm was missing, just a cauterized stump now. Heavy chains wrapped around his neck, wrist, and ankle—some linked to anchors, others to nothing at all.
He didn't even look up.
[Man]: Whoever hears me… tell me… why? Why must I suffer? Why am I made to endure pain when I chose mercy? Why does kindness reap hate?
His voice cracked, not from weakness, but from something far deeper. Like a hymn shattered at the altar.
I hovered there.
Watching.
Listening.
Then I descended slowly, my boots touching nothing, cloak billowing around me like a storm given shape.
He still didn't look at me.
[Grey]: You prayed to the void.
His head twitched slightly, but he didn't speak.
[Grey]: You didn't pray for salvation. You didn't ask for forgiveness. You asked why.
The chains rattled softly.
[Man]: I stopped believing in gods. But I thought… maybe something would hear me.
[Grey]: And what if that something… was me?
He raised his head finally.
Our eyes met—his hollowed and haunted. Mine, twin crimson stars that could burn or bless.
He flinched.
But then he whispered:
[Man]: Then… do I get an answer?
I stepped closer, crouched in front of him. My voice dropped to a whisper carried by starlight.
[Grey]: You don't suffer because you were kind. You suffer because the world hates those it cannot control.
The void pulsed behind me.
[Grey]: And kindness? Kindness without power is seen as weakness.
[Man]: So… I should've been cruel?
[Grey]: No.
I reached forward and touched the rusted chain on his throat. It snapped with a thought.
[Grey]: You should have been kind… and unstoppable.
The chains shattered like brittle bone.
His body slumped forward, but I caught him gently.
A quiet wind stirred in the void. His eyes began to glow—dimly, uncertain, but no longer dead.
[Grey]: I don't save people. Not often. Not well. But I can offer you one thing.
He blinked.
[Man]: What?
[Grey]: A chance.
I opened a portal behind me, not of light or flame, but of deep sapphire void stitched with stars.
[Grey]: Come with me. Be reborn. Not as a hero. Not as a slave. But as something new.
His eyes lingered on the portal—wide, trembling with exhaustion and disbelief—then slowly rose to meet mine.
And he nodded.
I drew a single claw across my palm, letting a drop of my ichor fall—thick, glowing, laced with stardust and ancient memory. I pressed the drop to his lips.
He drank without hesitation.
Then he screamed.
The void itself flinched.
His body convulsed, lifted off the invisible floor by invisible winds. Glowing runes burned across his chest and down his arm, searing symbols no mortal tongue could name. His missing arm regenerated in a spiral of black light, reborn with armor-like veins and celestial etchings.
One of his eyes darkened—its sclera black as the abyss, but the pupil glowed a fierce, divine blue like a storm trapped in crystal.
Wings burst from his back—two of midnight feathers, vast and regal. Two more, of exposed bone and hollowed marrow, extended beside them like the arms of a forgotten god.
Then came the horn—long, ridged, and pale as a blade of bleached coral—rising from his forehead like a crown forged in sorrow.
When the transformation ended, he landed softly on his feet, breathing heavily, eyes shimmering with stunned awe.
Tears welled in his reborn gaze, rolling down his face as he dropped to one knee.
[Levi]: I… Rear Admiral—no... Ex–Rear Admiral of Azur Lane…
He raised his head slowly, reverently.
[Levi]: I offer my everything. My oath, my soul, my body—to you, my Lady Grey.
His voice did not shake.
It rang like a vow etched into the bones of the cosmos.
I looked down at him—this man torn by betrayal, now standing on the edge of godhood—and I did not smile.
But I placed my hand on his shoulder.
[Grey]: Then rise, Levi. You are no longer chained by empire or name.
The void pulsed.
[Grey]: You are Hollowborne now. My first knight. My Will incarnate.
I said it with all the gravity of a queen on a throne carved from forgotten stars.
Internally, I was screaming.
What the hell was that?! It was just a drop of blood! One drop! Since when does one drop of me turn someone into a four-winged bone-angel with galaxy eyes?! It was only supposed to heal him, not rewrite his existence!
[Levi]: I await your orders, Lady Grey.
He said it with complete sincerity. Hands folded, gaze full of purpose.
Great. Now he thinks I have a plan.
I blinked, froze for a moment, then fell back on the one strategy that had never failed me:
[Grey]: You don't need orders. You're free.
His expression cracked.
Not in pain, but in something far more dangerous: hope.
A soft, stunned smile spread across his face, like someone just told him gravity was optional now.
[Levi]: To think that such kindness exists… Then this one will be selfish and ask, Lady—how does one control such... power?
He said it with a blush. A literal blush. His cheeks pinked as if I'd just gifted him a confession under moonlight, not corrupted his DNA into cosmic weaponry.
Like hell I know how to control that, I thought.
But I am nothing if not a master of the grand bluff.
So I took a dramatic pose, put on my most mystical voice, and summoned wisdom pulled straight from the pits of improvisational nonsense:
[Grey]: This is easy. Use your heart… and imagination.
Silence.
Then… he gasped.
A look of pure, divine enlightenment dawned across his face as if I had whispered the secret name of the universe.
He held out a hand.
The void shuddered.
And then… reality folded.
From nothing, a colossal battleship rose behind him—its hull forged of interlocking dark bones, cannons crafted from dragon ribs and void-glass, sails like flayed wings strung with starlight. It creaked as it floated through the void, humming with hunger and loyalty.
I stared. Mouth slightly open.
*Did he just dream up a capital ship? With his imagination?!
I nodded slowly to myself.
[Grey]: …I really need to believe in my own nonsense more often.
Levi turned to me, radiant and beaming like a kid who just showed their mom a macaroni sculpture.
[Levi]: What shall I name it, Lady?
[Grey]: Name it whatever you want, Captain Hollowborne. It's yours.
He stood tall, pride burning in his strange, mismatched eyes.
[Levi]: Then I name her the Ebon Mercy. May she bring peace to those who suffer... and ruin to those who cause it.
The Ebon Mercy rumbled in approval behind him.
And for a fleeting moment, I felt something strange in my chest.
And for a fleeting moment, I felt something strange in my chest.
Not dread. Not hunger.
Pride.
I had accidentally created a knight.
And it might have been the best accident I'd ever made.
But before he could ask for anything else—a crest, a holy sword, a divine cookbook—I knew I had to vanish. Fast.
I stepped back, letting the void shimmer behind me.
[Grey]: You were born free. You lived in chains. But I won't be the one to bind you again, Levi. Live free. That's an order you give yourself.
His eyes widened, that noble glow shimmering in them again—grateful, devoted.
Too devoted.
And that's when I booked it.
[Grey]: Anyway, BYE.
And I vanished at maximum speed, tearing a streak through the void like a comet running from emotional responsibility.
I stepped through the portal and into my palace.
Silence greeted me. No explosions. No screaming. No one trying to eat the walls.
Peace.
Real, actual peace.
I took a breath.
[Grey]: …Finally.
[Ammar] Lady Grey! One of the midgets is missing!
…
[Grey]: Of course.
So much for peace.
The Void rippled behind me—already sharpening itself like a blade.
[Grey]: Which one?
[Ammar]: The one with the glowing eyes. The one who keeps trying to open portals with a spoon.
[Grey]: X-Eyes. Of course, it's X-Eyes.
I turned, summoning my senses and a thousand potential disasters he could've caused.
A planet on fire?
A library eaten by mistake?
A god woken from its nap?
Please, not another war.
[Grey]: I leave for ten minutes, and one of my semi-stable semi-clone children tries to speedrun universal destruction with a kitchen utensil.
I cracked my knuckles.
[Grey]: Ammar, keep the other two from summoning anything weird.
[Ammar]: What's considered weird?
[Grey]: If it talks backwards or bleeds honey, kill it.
And with that, I launched myself back into the sky, scanning for that familiar flicker in the threads of reality—X-Eyes had opened something.
Now the only question was:
Could I close it before it started singing?
[Next Chapter includes]
Popcorn crunched softly in the gallery.
Furina sat beside Klee, both nibbling snacks as chaos brewed below like a courtroom opera gone feral.
[Furina]: Oh, this is so much better than the theater.
[Klee]: Can I blow something up if someone yells too loud?
[Furina]: Only if it's dramatic.
Down below—
[Arlecchino]: I objected!
[Grey]: You can't just say—
CRASH.
The sound of furniture flying. Grey's entourage—the jellyfish-born knights, a half-metal dragon in a suit, and two toddlers disguised as royal disasters—had absolutely lost it.
Weapons drawn. Armor glowing. Tentacles flexing.
Meanwhile, the Fatui Harbingers flared their coats and arrogance, half of them smirking, the other half already mid-attack.
Neuvillette slammed his gavel.
[Neuvillette]: Order! ORDER in the court!
An axe flew at him.
[Furina]: Otter in the court~!
Silence fell.
Everyone turned to stare.
Yes. Lady Furina was holding an actual otter in her lap, dressed in tiny judge robes, complete with a powdered wig and monocle.
It held a tiny gavel and waved it solemnly.
[Jellyfish Knight #1]: Kayyy… so cute.
[Grey]: I will end the multiverse, I swear.
The courtroom exploded into three simultaneous duels, two arguments over fashion, one enchanted conga line, and a diplomatic dispute about underwater property rights.
Grey cracked her neck.
[Chapter end]
[Yes I still have exams but a holiday came so I decided to make a chapter]