My relationship with Roxy changed little after that night, but it did change.
The very next day, while we were practicing trying to teach Roxy silent spell casting and Sylphie read quietly from the text on magic, the little mage spaced out when I held her hands over the bucket as usual. A ball of water formed between her hands and plopped down into the bucket. The sound seemed to snap her out of it and her eyes refocused on mine as she blushed. Looking between the bucket and the girl, I sent her a grin.
"Congratulations, Roxy! You got it!"
Sylphie looked up from her reading, hopping up from where she lay on the grass and moved in to squeeze Roxy around the ribs. "Good job!"
"Huh?" The small mage looked confused, before her eyes found the bucket. "I cast?"
"Yup. Now, whatever you just did, do it again," I instructed, and Sylphie backed away to watch.
It took a few more tries, but eventually she figured it out and after that, she began casting silently consistently. Thatearned me a hug and a full on kiss on the mouth. Sylphie covered her mouth with both hands as she blushed. "Eep!"
Looking over at the blushing part-elf, I sent Roxy a grin. "She really is adorable. Can we keep her?"
"Rudeus," Roxy sighed, reaching up and bopping me on the top of the head with a fist. I noticed she didn't outright say no, however.
I was pleased to see Roxy had finally seemed to break through whatever wall she had been smashing her head against this whole time, but Roxy was over the moon, and it showed. She found any excuse to touch me—brushing her fingers through my hair, laying her hand on my back or arms as we worked on spells, scooting her chair just a little closer and resting her thigh against my leg at meal times. Zenith and Lilia may have missed it, but Paul—womanizer that he was—didn't, and shot me a covert grin and a nod when no one was looking, a proud look on his face that pretty much screamed, 'That's my boy!'
Of course, womanizer that he was, Paul was the second… third to pick up on Sylphie's crush, behind Roxy and myself.
"Two at the same time? You're walking a dangerous path, my son. I wish you luck," he told me quietly one evening, as Roxy walked Sylphie home.
Our schedule changed a bit, shifting around to accommodate our new nightly… student/teacher bonding sessions and work around the addition of Sylphie.
Not to the nightly sessions, get your mind out of the gutter. Sylphie was nowhere near ripe yet.
We finished our lessons early, got Sylphie home at a reasonable hour with thanks from her parents, and climbed into bed together soon after our nightly baths. When Paul and Zenith started up their usual shenanigans, Roxy and I would make our own fun.
She almost always managed to keep herself quiet, but the one time she didn't was the one time we got caught. Thankfully, it was just Lilia. She had most likely been taking a bath (and entertaining herself to the sound of my parents going at it), when Roxy didn't quite manage to cover one of her moans. My partner didn't stop playing with herself, but I kept an ear and an eye out just in case. I caught the door opening a crack and Lilia spying on us. As Roxy clung to me as she came again with my fingers helping to work her over, I used my free hand to bring a finger up to my lips and urge Lilia to keep quiet.
For whatever reason, the maid did. We never heard a word out of her about the incident and my parents never said anything.
When Roxy rode out to take on jobs for the villagers, I went with her and we brought Sylphie along for the ride. We learned the general prices for and methods of solving different problems with magic, along with getting to know the villagers—especially the ones who would be needing repeat business later on down the line. We both knew she would eventually leave, so Roxy made it as easy as possible for me to step in and fill her shoes when she was gone and make some money on the side.
Roxy's lessons also changed as winter came to an end and it grew closer to my birthday. Where before her magic lessons had been direct and to the point, with clear subjects and goals in mind, it became clear as we progressed that she was struggling to find new things to teach me. We were reaching the ends of her practical knowledge and entering the realm of the theoretical. If those lessons grew a little shorter, I didn't say anything about it and instead took the opportunity to extend my own lessons on science to her, or give her more time with Sylphie, who could use the time to catch up. We wanted her up to at least Elementary-level proficiency before Roxy left and I took over her studies, so we were cramming in as much magical study for her as we could and it was agreed that I would pick up everything else when Roxy left.
My fifth birthday came—a year and a half since Roxy got here. Apparently, this world has a custom of only celebrating every fifth birthday up until the fifteenth, when someone officially reaches adulthood. Probably, if I'm being morbid about it, due to infant/child mortality rates, either because of complications due to being in a low-tech world and not having cheap or easy access to a mage with healing and detoxification magic or what medicine they had, or due to monster attacks.
Zenith, Lilia, and Roxy spent the day preparing a feast while Sylphie watched and took pointers on cooking. I offered to help, but was quickly shooed out of the kitchen. Paul and I hung back and talked quietly while the ladies worked. "Best not to step in, Rudy. The kitchen is a woman's domain and they don't like men intruding."
I shot the man who was a decade my junior mentally speaking an amused look. "But father, a man who can't even provide a meal for his wife when she's with child because he doesn't know how to cook doesn't seem like much of a man to me."
"Urk," Paul croaked as he flinched back, and I chuckled as I realized I'd scored a critical hit.
That night, festivities were had. Drinks were passed around and, despite her reluctance, even Roxy accepted a glass of ale. If the little mage got a little more handsy than usual, no one said anything. Considering Sylphie had clung onto my side like a limpet the entire time, I don't think anyone really noticed the extra attention from Roxy.
Paul got drunk and demonstrated his sword swallowing technique while the ladies looked on and clapped. No, that isn't a euphemism for sucking cocks. I mean he literally took out his sword and shoved a couple of feet of steel down his throat. It was probably one of the stupidest but most impressive things I'd seen him do to date.
When he was finished, Paul hurried off to one of the other rooms and came back with a sheathed sword, which he presented to me. "Happy birthday. This is for you," he said, taking a knee and holding the sword out.
I took the weapon with all the proper gravitas and excitement it warranted—after all, it was a sword and while I preferred guns, this was a swords and sorcery world so it was still pretty high on my list of cool things. Well below magic of course, but still cool. The weight was unfamiliar and heavy in my hands as he let it go and I nearly dropped it. Pulling the first few inches from the sheath, I found the blade was about the width of my hand. With the sheath's tip on the floor, the end of the pommel came up to my nose, putting it at over three feet in length.
Yeah, I wouldn't be using this bad boy any time soon.
"Thank you very much, father," I grinned, examining the blade. "I'll use it well."
Paul took the opportunity to stand and go into a spiel about protecting one's wife, how I couldn't get over confident even if I knew a little magic, and how I should keep a sword in my heart… Zenith chopped the back of his head and glared at him as he dragged on. "That's enough!"
The ladies laughed as Paul sheepishly moved to stand in front of the hearth. Zenith took the opportunity to take out the book she had been hiding. It was a thick, leather bound tome with clasps and some artwork on the front. "Happy birthday! I know you like books, Rudy, so I hope you'll enjoy it."
Judging by the title, it was a book for identifying various plants—a botanical encyclopedia. I cracked it open and found it filled with lifelike drawings of various plants, roots, and so forth along with very neat text detailing how to identify them, their properties, and uses. Yeah, I could immediately see how this would come in handy. Now, if only I could find some kind of a local guide to actually using those plants in recipes, either for food or medicine. At least, judging by the entries, it had suggested or common uses for them, even if it didn't go into details on how to use or prepare them. "I love it. Thank you, mother!"
"Ah, what a good boy you are!" Zenith cheered, pulling me into a hug and burying my face in her breasts. I didn't miss the smug look she sent Paul as she laughed—it seems they had decided to have a bit of a competition to see whose gift I liked better. I wasn't too surprised, they did things like this from time to time. Since they knew I could use magic, actually. Apparently, there was some sort of running bet on whether I'd turn out to be a caster, a swordsman, or something somewhere in the middle and had been ever since Zenith got pregnant. Considering that they used to be adventurers, I supposed it made sense.
When Zenith joined Paul at the hearth, Roxy stood and made her way over before crouching down to my height. Reaching into one of the pockets of her robe, she withdrew a length of wood with a gem at the end of it. "Here, Rudy."
I took up the length of wood and found that the end with the jewel was capped with metal to hold it in place. The jewel itself was shaped like an elongated egg and a bright red, approximately the size of a chicken's egg. The whole thing was a little over a foot long.
"That's a magic stone. It acts to amplify magic power, so it should be useful," Roxy explained.
Looking up from the stone, I found her eyes and sent her a smile. "It's beautiful."
The little mage smiled back. "Students who master elementary magic are customarily given wands by their masters, but you could already use it so it slipped my mind. My apologies."
I slipped the end of the wand into my pocket and pulled the girl into a tight hug, earning a quiet squeak before she returned it. "No need to apologize, Roxy. Thank you, it's wonderful. I'll take good care of it."
She gave a quiet little chuckle and pulled back. The smile on her face turned a bit bittersweet. "There's very little left that I can teach you, Rudy."
My gaze shifted over to where Paul and Zenith stood. They had pulled each other close and both looked sad. Even Lilia sitting quietly at the table had turned away, focusing on her mug. Sylphie, on the other hand, looked confused. I could read the mood and guess where she was going. "Ah, so it's about that time?"
"Mm," Roxy nodded. "I'll hold your graduation exam tomorrow. After that…"
"You'll be moving on."
Another nod and the sound of a chair scraping, then falling to the floor met our ears along with a wail from Sylphie as the girl slammed into us from the side and clung on. "No! You can't go! Please!"
Roxy sighed, a sad smile pulling at her lips as she shifted one arm over to embrace Sylphie. "Shh, shh. It's okay. You won't be alone when I leave," she whispered, just loud enough for the three of us. "You have to be strong, or you'll never leave the nest."
"It's scary."
"I know," Roxy ran her fingers through the part-elf's hair. "But I know you can."
Zenith made an attempt at convincing her to stay. "Roxy, you don't have to leave. The village loves you—I'm sure there's a place for you here. You can stay in our home—"
"No, mother," I cut her off, even as I saw Roxy looked both gratified at the offer and resolved that she wouldn't take it. Sylphie looked a little betrayed, but I kept going. "It's fine. She wants to do a little more study herself, right? About seven years?"
Roxy's lips twitched up into a smile even as she blushed and looked away. Zenith and Lilia both gasped quietly while Paul laughed. "About that," Roxy agreed quietly.
"Well, I think it's about time for Sylphiette to go home and the rest of us to go to bed, then," Paul announced. "You want to be well rested for her final test tomorrow, after all."
With that, we quickly cleared off the table while Lilia took Sylphie home. Paul and Zenith opted to skip the bath, and with Lilia out for the moment that meant one of us could take Lilia's turn. As usual, I opted to let Roxy go first. Instead, the mage took me by the hand and dragged me into the bathroom. I said nothing as she lit the candles and began running water. She turned and met my gaze for a moment before looking away, but as she did she began to undress.
I wouldn't call it a strip tease by any stretch of the term. She was completely inexperienced and did nothing aside from pulling her clothes off piece by piece, but it was enticing all the same and the fact that her blush went all the way down was adorable. "Join me?" she asked, after a moment of standing there nude as we waited for the tub to fill.
Shaking my head and pulling myself from my stupor, I quickly shucked my own clothes as she climbed into the partially filled tub. She hissed a little at the temperature as she dipped a toe in, the water apparently having cooled over the day, but a quick fire spell warmed it to a temperature she was comfortable with and she sat down. I kicked off the last of my clothes and eyed the stone tub full of cute girl. Roxy smiled and patted the water in front of her. Needing no further prompting, I climbed over the tall lip and settled down in her lap, between her spread legs. Two pale, delicate looking arms draped over my shoulders and pulled me back to rest against her chest.
"You know, I just realize I never asked. When's your birthday? I'll get you something great when you turn fifteen."
One toned leg slipped up out of the water and turned the handle to shut off the water. "It's in the summer." She gave the the month and date, before adding, "You're a little late for that birthday."
"Oh?" I hummed, shifting slightly against her before bringing my hands down and resting them on her smooth, silky, muscular thighs. Roxy's quiet intake of breath and warming against my back told me all I needed to know about how even the smallest touches still got her motor running. "Let's see if I can guess how far off. I had you figured for fourteen or so when you first arrived." A small hand pinched my side and I winced as the little mage made her displeasure known. "So, the Migurd. How long do they tend to live?"
"Two hundred is the highest recorded age," Roxy answered quietly.
I blinked, squeezing Roxy's thighs as I reevaluated what I'd thought of her. After a few minutes, I started laughing but managed to keep it quiet. "Oh, that is good. It makes much more sense now. Why you're as good as you are. Why you know as much as you know. Why you're so well-traveled. I thought you were some sort of child prodigy—turns out, I was only half right. Prodigy, yes. Child, no. I'm going to guess you're probably about thirty, maybe mid-thirties. Twice the lifespan, so I'll double my estimate."
"Not far off. Thirty-nine this year." I felt Roxy's breath on my ear before her lips brushed against it. "You're still older. Did you think you were taking advantage of a young woman?"
"Kind of, yeah. I felt a bit guilty about it, if I'm being honest. I figured we were kind of close to even, since I'm physically way younger." I shrugged. "Doesn't matter now, does it?" I felt Roxy shake her head before pressing her cheek against mine. "So, what were you looking for all that time?"
The tiny woman holding me hummed quietly, falling silent while she considered her answer. The water began to cool, but before I could do anything about it Roxy used a silent fire spell to heat it back up. "You just love showing that off now, don't you?"
"Yes," she agreed immediately. "As the master teaches, so too does she learn. Thank you for teaching me, Rudy."
"Of course," I gave her a small squeeze. "And thank you, Roxy."
She fell silent again for a bit before finally answering the question I'd asked. "Migurd are born with the ability to communicate with other Migurd directly, without speaking. With our minds."
"Telepathy? Very cool. I'm guessing something happened?"
"Mm. I was born without the ability. All I can hear is a buzz. I got into a fight with my father and left the village. I couldn't make it as an adventurer, so I took up being a live-in instructor. All this time, I've been seeking somewhere to belong. More recently, I started wondering what it would be like to have someone special in my life."
"My parents got to you, didn't they?"
I felt Roxy's quiet laugh through my body where she pressed against my back. "Yes, I suppose so. I had never had an interest in sex before then. I feared I would never find my match. Either I would miss it, realize it too late, or they would fail to see past this," she pulled a strand of her blue hair, almost black in the water and candle light, forward for me to see. I lifted one hand out of the tub and gently stroked it—as always, her hair was as soft and smooth as the rest of her.
"I still say it's a wonderful shade of blue. The color of water. Like your eyes."
It was minute, but I felt the woman's larger body tremble against my back. Her arms around me squeezed a little tighter. "I think I've found it and if you don't stop that I'm afraid I won't leave, or worse, I'll take you with me. I've always lived my life by being decisive when the time came, and if you keep saying things like that I'll take you now. Snap you up and spend the next decade diving into labyrinths and adventuring across the continents. A former student and a new apprentice to teach. I'll train you to be the perfect lover, just for me."
"It sounds like fun," I admitted. "Can't say I'd be against that plan. We could leave tomorrow."
Roxy shook her head. "I want some time on my own to grow further as a mage and you need your own time apart, or I'll corrupt you further. Sylphie won't grow if I stay, either."
I snorted at that. "I'm a dirty old man in a child's body, Roxy. I thought I was the one corrupting you. Trust me, I'm stubborn enough that it'd work out even if you did kidnap me. At worst, we'd just rub off on each other. As for Sylphie, well, maybe. Or maybe she'd turn out fine." Letting go of her hair, I found her hand and squeezed it. "It's fine, as long as you come back. Just…"
I wasn't quite sure how to ask what I wanted. The idea of her sleeping around with other people while she was gallivanting around turned my stomach and made my blood boil, but it wouldn't exactly be fair of me to ask her to remain faithful when we weren't actually in some sort of defined relationship. I wasn't quite sure what we were to each other, but I knew it went beyond master and student, fellow students, or even friends. Not quite lovers, but close enough.
Roxy seemed to sense what I was trying to get across even if I left it unsaid. Her free hand came out of the water and a small fist bopped the top of my head. "I am not a loose woman, Rudeus. No one has caught my interest before you. I've never lain with a man before. I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer."
"Jail bait wait," I laughed, earning a sigh and what was likely an eye roll from the girl. Yeah, she was used to my bullshit by now.
We sat, quietly soaking and talking about the future, until long after we had pruned up before we even began washing each other. It was decided that when Roxy got to where she was going, she would send me a letter so I knew where to reach her and we would trade correspondence back and forth when we could.
Once we finished our bath, we went to bed. That night, Roxy had to stifle herself with a pillow to keep from waking the house as I demonstrated oral sex for her.
"N-no, don't—don't lick it! Not there!"
"Oh, but I'm going to." Roxy's embarrassed face any time I played with the little mole under her arm was just too good to pass up.
When the door slit open, Roxy's body went stiff and she slowly turned her head to regard our voyeur. A glance from the corner of my eye revealed it was too dark to see exactly who it was, but it was probably Lilia again. I sent her a cheeky wave before diving into Roxy's muff. The young woman was too turned on at that point to protest. Lilia, strangely enough, didn't leave until we finished and I had to shuffle Roxy around to get her into bed properly, seeing as she had lost all her strength.
The next morning, we rode out early on Caravaggio, well away from the town.
"I will cast the Saint-level spell Cumulonimbus. I can only cast it twice, so please memorize it the first time. Your test will be to cast the spell and sustain it for an hour."
Given the general progression in mana cost between spell tiers, I winced. Even I would be hard pressed to do that with mana alone, and my reserves dwarfed Roxy's, which had come a long way since we had started training her in mana capacity every night. "Which means the test is less about being able to cast it and more about being able to use combined spell effects to sustain it cheaply."
A grin pulled at the small mage's lips. "This is why you are an amazing student, Rudy. Now, watch."
Roxy lifted her staff above her head and began chanting. As she did, clouds gathered directly above her and quickly spread. My ears popped at the pressure change. Spontaneous creation of an area of low pressure. Gathering, cooling, and condensation of existing water vapor at upper levels, heating at lower levels. Lightning danced across the sky and thunder rumbled. Excitement of charged particles creating partially directed lightning. No, not directed, just way more than there would be in a normal thunderstorm and centered over…
It was at this point, I realized where we were. Outside of town. Well away from any homes and farms. On a vast, rolling plain. Standing right next to the only tree within probably a square mile. "Oh, shit. Roxy!"
My warning came a little too late as lightning struck the tree and Caravaggio screamed, barely audible over the blast of thunder, howling wind, and driving rain. Roxy immediately dispersed her spell, flying into a panic as she rushed over to the tree and tended to the horse. A healing spell had him back on his feet a few moments later and the woman breathed a sigh of relief.
"So clumsy," I accused, sending her an amused smile.
Roxy huffed, turning away with a blush. "I forgot."
"Right. So, move out from under the tree, would you? Don't want lightning to strike twice," I suggested.
The bluenette sighed, sending me a mildly annoyed look. "I'll create a dome of earth around us. Please cast."
I waited until she got her protection up before taking out my wand. Muttering the words to myself, I felt the pull at my magic and memorized how it felt. Cutting off the mana supply before the spell could finish, I held up the wand and cast the spell silently. Clouds began to gather and thunder rumbled as the rain began to come down. "Okay, phase two."
Luckily, I actually knew how storms worked. Applying magic to duplicate that and feed the one growing above us was fairly simple. Cast a spell to gather mist at ground level. A second spell to heat the mist and cause the water vapor to rise. A third spell above to cool the air and cause morewater to condense and fall, and a pair of large scale wind spells to force circulation.
Now, let's see what I can do about that lightning, I mused, focusing on the spell still growing above me. There was an element to the spell for causing more lightning—specifically, the wording called for it—so I set my attention to that. Taking just that part of the spell, I manipulated my mana and tried to cast it. Lightning happens when a positive charge at ground level meets a negative charge at sky level and the resulting flash of electricity is the charge reaching balance…
"Rudy, what are you doing?!" Roxy yelled over the roar of the storm, her mouth nearly pressed to my ear to be heard, as I felt something click and the spell I was trying to create flared to life. A mile or more out, lightning danced between the sky and the ground—one, five, ten, twenty, thirty strikes. I lost count. Roxy's eyes went wide and I laughed before reaching into the mana of all of my spells and dissipating them.
"Do I pass?"
Roxy stood silent beside me, her whole body quivering as her hands squeezed my shoulders. "What was that?"
I turned my head and shot her a grin. "I think I just figured out a lightning spell."
The teacher in her had Roxy responding on auto-pilot. "Lightning isn't an element unto itself. Directed lightning is a King-level water spell."
Chuckling, I pointed into the distance, where we could even now see smoke rising. "It is now. I mean, it's just a potential difference in electrical charge. Not like it's hard to do. I could generate artificial lightning with a spool of copper wire and a waterwheel, Roxy." Well, not quite. Close enough though.
Shaking her head, Roxy sighed. "You are impossible. Truly impossible." Pulling me tight against her, she squeezed. "Now there really is nothing more I can teach you at the moment. Congratulations, Rudy. You are now a Saint-level Water Mage."
We stayed like that for a while, before Roxy climbed onto Caravaggio and helped me up in front of her. We rode out and checked the damage caused by my lightning spell. The ground was burned and glassed in a hundred yard circle and I could make out individual marks where each bolt had struck. The little mage was left in silent awe as we turned back for home.
I convinced Roxy to swing through the village on the way back. While we were there, I had her pick up a few things, knowing Paul and Zenith would pay her back when we returned. Fresh cream, fresh milk, sugar, salt, and a seasoning plant that smelled like vanilla. We stopped by Sylphie's home, but the girl refused to leave. She gave Roxy a teary goodbye before running off to her room.
When we got home, I took the ingredients and made my way into the kitchen, where Zenith and Lilia were working. Roxy followed, curious since she knew from our conversations that I could cook. Magic created all the tools I needed as I eyeballed my measurements, heated part of the cream, along with the salt, sugar, and vanilla in a sauce pan using magic. Creating a stone cylinder, I poured everything into it in the proper proportions and set the cylinder in the sink. Then, I conjured water around the cylinder and froze it. Finally, I made a lid with a long paddle and fitted it inside the bucket. Putting my hand on top, I used more magic to make the paddle turn slowly inside the cylinder.
"Rudy, what are you making?" Zenith finally asked, when asking Roxy turned up a shrug.
"I figured I should make our last meal with Roxy one to remember," I answered vaguely, concentrating on maintaining something like two and a half spells—water for the cooling, earth for the cylinder and its moving parts. It wasn't draining, it just required focus.
Roxy planted herself at my side and watched, studying the entire process silently. Eventually, she made a guess. "A cold dessert?"
"Yep." I turned and shot a grin up at her. "I know you have a sweet tooth."
Roxy's face that night, upon first tasting ice cream, was positively orgasmic. No, really, that's not an exaggeration. I'd seen her o-face so I knew exactly what I was seeing.
Paul wasn't all that impressed, but the man preferred meat—umami was his flavor of choice. Zenith and Lilia, on the other hand, were begging for the recipe by the time they finished their first bowl. Roxy's silent, longing gaze convinced me to give it to her as well before she left.
We spent the night after our nightly routine with me as the little spoon to her big spoon—or maybe, it'd be more accurate to say Roxy used me as a human dakimakura. The next morning, before anyone was up, I woke her up with kisses, followed by petting, followed by one last time getting her off—this time, without her helping in any way. I had picked up most of her erogenous zones and tells, her likes and dislikes, so I knew exactly how to get her going hard and fast. We quickly cleaned up after and headed downstairs, just as light was beginning to brighten the eastern sky.
Paul and Zenith joined us shortly and, after a quick breakfast and a trip upstairs to gather her luggage, we all went outside. Kneeling down to my level, Roxy reached around her neck and took off the green, crystal pendant I knew she wore there. I'd enjoyed the sight of it hanging between her breasts as she panted in ecstasy many times now and I knew it on sight.
"I didn't have time to prepare a graduation party or gift, so this will have to do. It's a charm from my home town. If you ever find yourself on the demon continent, if they see you wearing it you should be treated more favorably," she explained, slipping the pendant around my neck.
"Thank you, Roxy. I'll look after it for you until you come back."
The woman smiled faintly. "I'm glad." Standing, she sighed and picked up her staff and luggage. "It's time I leave."
Turning to my parents, she bowed slightly at the waist. "Thank you for having me." Her blue eyed gaze fell and lingered on me. "Goodbye."
Watching her turn away, I felt a bitter smile pull at my lips. "Safe travels. And Roxy?" Her head turned slightly, enough to catch my eyes. "If you aren't back in seven years, I'll come looking."
Her smile this time was beautiful. "See you then, Rudy."
"You too, Roxy."
I watched her until she faded into the distance before turning and heading back into the house. Walking up to our room—my room now, I suppose—I went to put away my wand and now the necklace so I could start my training. I didn't want to get them dirty, or accidentally break one.
There, laying folded neatly on my pillow, I found a small bundle of what looked like white silk. Raising an eyebrow, I unfolded it. Laughter spilled out before I could stop it. There in my hands, I held Roxy's favorite set of panties—the ones with the cute little black bow on top, that I'd remarked upon more than once since she started sharing the bed with me. They even smelled of her. In fact, opening them up, I saw that the inside was still damp—in other words, these were the panties she wore to bed last night. "Left me something to remember you by, huh?"
I carefully folded them and put them on the book shelf, under her necklace and my wand.
Seigyou Tensei - Legitimately Employed Reincarnation
05
"Ugh, this sucks."
My first week without Roxy around was miserable. The nights were even worse. I'd grown used to her constant presence and occasionally found myself turning, her name on my lips to ask her something or just speak with her, only to remember that she was gone. The bed felt cold without her there and it took forever to get to sleep. When I woke up alone in the morning, without her quietly snoring, drooling face across from mine I felt lost.
It wasn't that I'd become dependent on her. It's just that, for the first time since being reborn in this world, I'd found someone I could really talk to. A confidante. A friend. Almost a lover.
My future wife.
And now, I had to go back to hiding everything. No more talking about Earth, no more English (until I got Sylphie up to speed), no more lessons and sharing knowledge this world simply doesn't have (again, until I could bring Sylphie up to speed).
Yeah, I was a little morose, even if I knew it was dumb.
Amusingly, it rained for that first week, reflecting my mood. A lot. Probably because of Roxy and I casting two Cumulonimbus spells, honestly—even if the magic had been dispelled, the moisture was still physically in the air, so of course there would be repercussions. Lesson learned: magic can have consequences that aren't immediate or obvious until they happen and I should put some forethought into casting large scale spells. Well, she always did warn me that weather manipulation spells could screw with things on a large scale. Now I had seen it for myself.
After the first day of being listless, I forced myself to get my shit together during the day. I could mope at bed time—the daylight hours were for getting shit done. I adjusted my schedule to add new practice exercises to cover all the time I would have spent with Roxy and threw myself into it.
I started by going to Sylphie's house and dragging her out of bed, where she had been moping since she heard the news of Roxy's departure. I brought her back home and set her to reading inside while I worked on practice.
I prepared an area away from the house by burning a large stretch of grass, then using earth magic to pull the remains down below the soil and leave only dirt so that none of my spells would catch anything on fire. Then, I spent my mornings working through my spell repertoire, casting every spell I knew (that wouldn't destroy miles of farmland) one after another, drilling on speed and trying to cut my already short casting time down.
Then, I worked on multi-casting. First, doubles of each spell, followed by different spells from the same school. Then spells from like schools—fire and wind, earth and water, water and wind, fire and earth. There, I tried to work out the best combinations for maximum effect over short time—preferably immediately. Finally, spells of opposite schools—fire and water, earth and wind. For those, I tried to work on lowering my mana consumption.
In the evenings, during sword practice, I discarded my wooden practice sword and instead used earth magic to create a stone sword of the same dimensions, weighing many times what the wooden sword did—more even than my actual sword. After a thousand repetitions through each of the basic swings of the Sword God and Water God styles that left my arms feeling like lead, I healed myself. The pain vanished, but that didn't mean my stamina had been replenished or I was any less exhausted, so I took a short break. Then, I repeated the exercise, using magic to fill and cover my body.
After a second healing and rest, I started in on practicing using magic while swinging my sword. I set up a rotation to launch attacks on each swing.
Swing, wave of fire. Swing, wave of wind. Swing, wave of water. Swing, expanding wave of dirt arching up in front of me tall enough to block an attacker's view and eat a spell or two—a moving shield. Swing, expanding line of ice spikes growing up from the ground, meant to restrict movement.
Thrust, fireball. Thrust, gale of wind. Thrust, water ball. Thrust, earth spikes. Thrust, ice spikes.
And so on. I made it my goal to be able to cast any Elementary-level spell with every swing of my sword and no real thought on my part. I went on like that until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, my back, chest, and core burned, and my mana felt like it was nearly depleted.
Finally, I worked on experimenting with developing working lightning spells. I had the big one, but I wanted something smaller, faster, and less likely to accidentally destroy small towns. So, I reverse engineered an Elementary-level lightning spell that just generated arcs of electricity on my hands—little more than a taser with just a little magic, but enough to qualify as an arc welder when I pumped enough juice into it. Then, I worked on trying to make it ranged. I already had the ultra-long range version, but that generated vertical lightning and I wanted horizontal lightning. Less 'finger of God,' more 'Sith lord.' Well, I'd settle for a single lightning bolt at the moment, but eventually I wanted a chain lightning spell.
And yes, every last moment of that was spent in the rain. I was a Saint-level water mage now. Keeping dry while training was just one more way of training, forcing myself to hold up a third spell continuously while I worked on the others.
After my first week spent moping training, I decided I was spending too much time cooped up in the house and the yard. The rain had cleared and it wasn't good for either me or Sylphie to just… languish.
That, and I was getting bored. I needed a project. It was just a coincidence that throwing myself into my work was how I dealt with things I didn't want to deal with in the old world, by providing myself a distraction to occupy my mind.
Well, I said I'd teach Roxy English, advanced math, and science. Even if she's gone now, doesn't mean she can't be learning while she's out doing whatever. I'll look around the village and pick up some paper. General store should have some, or be able to order it if need be. When I finish, I'll have it bound and mail it off to her once I get her address. A little late for any birthday present, but I'm sure she'll appreciate the gesture. While I'm working on it, I can start teaching Sylphie the basics.
Actually, maybe more than just one book. May as well make Sylphie one too. And I doubt I'll be able to fit everything into just one book… Well, better not get ahead of myself. I'll start writing out what I know first, then go from there.
Going into town early one morning, I spoke with a few of Roxy's old clients in the small square that passed for a market. They offered their condolences at her leaving and, as she'd guessed, asked after whether I would be filling her shoes. I agreed that I'd do the work she had at the same rates, and that was how I found myself being shuffled off on a cart to a field covered in wilting vegetables.
Sighing, I looked towards the owner, an old man I couldn't remember the name of and whom everyone—Roxy included—just called Uncle, at his insistence. "Uncle, did Roxy tell you what was wrong with it when she was here?"
"Ah, well," he hemmed, scratching at his beard sheepishly. "That she did, lad. Also said there was no point to fixing it, because it was just putting off the problem for tomorrow and she didn't feel right charging for something that wouldn't last."
I grumbled and started walking off the borders of the field, pointing my wand beside me. As I did, earth rose in my wake, forming a berm roughly six inches high. It had rained recently, so I wouldn't have to water the crops—but that was part of the problem, really. The biggest part.
I made sure it would have adequate drainage at one end so it wouldn't turn into a swamp and that the upper berms would prevent water from running down the hill as it had been, washing away topsoil and leaving roots exposed. Then, I walked the rows, tilling the earth under the plants while carefully leaving the roots intact and covering what was exposed.
Returning to Uncle, I accepted my payment. "It's a temporary fix. Might last a season or two and I don't want to have to charge you to do the same thing over and over because you're being stubborn about it. You know you're going to have to either move the field or pay to have it leveled. When do you want to do it?"
Uncle sighed, looking over the field as he considered it. "Next spring, before it's time to plant, I think. It'll give me time to save up some money."
"I'll give you a discount, if only because I hate leaving a problem only half fixed. Or fixing symptoms instead of the actual problem. Next time you have a problem like this, don't put it off so long, please? It just makes everything worse."
"Deal," Uncle nodded, holding out his hand. We shook on it and he gestured towards the cart. "Come on. If you want, I'll give you a ride back into town. Need to go see a man about buying some seed anyway."
We made it back into town, pulling over in front of the general store. Before I made it inside, I was accosted by an older woman, bent over and gray of hair. "Young Rudy, would you be a dear and help an old woman out?"
"What do you need, auntie?" I asked, sending her a smile.
"Miss Roxy or your mother always takes care of the aches in these old bones…"
I nodded, pulling out my wand. "Sure, sure."
And that was how I spent the next hour, as word got around quickly that I was doing a healing and people with various aches and pains or cuts and bruises they didn't want to wait on came by with a small silver or so each. Eventually, I managed to get into the general store. "Do you have some paper I could buy?" I asked as I walked up to the counter.
"How much do you need, young man?"
I hummed in thought before holding my fingers about an inch apart. "About this much for now. I'll come back by when I need more."
The store owner nodded, heading into the back room. Paper was pretty expensive here and reacted poorly to moisture and sunlight, so it was typically stored in secure, cool, dry, and dark areas. It was closer to parchment, really. Since it lacked the chemicals modern paper as I knew it was made with, it was delicate and easily stained, wrinkled, or otherwise ruined. He returned a moment later with a stack about an inch thick. He quoted me a price and I dickered with him a bit before we agreed on a total, after I asked after a bag to carry it in since I didn't have one. I left with a new leather satchel and enough paper to start writing a book.
I skipped out on ink, if only because I had a plan. The region was known for growing the Bardius plant—a purple-ish plant that resembled lavender and was used in perfume in the city. In my previous life, I'd dated a particularly artsy (read: hippie) woman who liked making her own inks and I'd picked up a thing or two.
Look, don't judge me. She was hot and she put out. I was in college at the time. I could put up with a few eccentricities. So she liked to do her own tie dye and refused to use or eat anything that wasn't all natural. At least she wasn't one of those kooks who refused to shave themselves because they felt it was demeaning or some other idiocy. I could deal with it. I couldn't deal with the rest of her crazy cat lady baggage, so I ghosted her.
There's only so many times a man can hear about how many ways society could end (the Rapture, asteroids, solar minimum/maximum, pollution, climate change, nuclear winter, EMP) before it gets tiresome. I was all for being prepared in case of natural disaster because we frequently saw hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, the occasional (once ever ten years or so) icy winter that shut everything down, and any time the wind blew the power went out… but there was preparedness and then there was paranoia.
Live and learn.
Anyway!
Most simple ink was made of four ingredients: the (usually dried) plant you wanted the ink to come from, gum Arabic (plant gum/sap, doesn't actually have to be that specific type of gum), a mordant (i.e., a dye fixative, the easiest to find in this place being rusty iron, as I knew for a fact we had a few rusty horse shoes in Caravaggio's stable), and thyme oil to prevent the dye from rotting. I was pretty sure I had seen thyme, if not by that name, in my plant encyclopedia and that it grew in the area—thanks, mom! I was a water mage, stripping water out of plants was child's play for me. After that, all you really have to do is boil your flowers in water with your rusty iron, strain it, add gum, let it dissolve and cool, put it in a bottle, then add a few drops of oil and shake well.
Voila, homemade ink. And in this case, if I was right, homemade ink that smelled like high-dollar perfume. If I was wrong, I could probably play with it until I got it right.
As an aside, pens use a mixture of 25% to 40% dye, suspended in a solvent of 'oil,' usually something like benzyl alcohol—which could be found in some fruits, teas, and common plants like jasmine and hyacinth. That particular fact I discovered on my own, when doing research on the ink the hippie ex-girlfriend made.
In case you're wondering, yes, I picked up making my own soap too. From hard wood ash and with fat, because she was that kind of hippie (at least she wasn't a vegetarian. No, she was the 'I'll kill it myself and use every part of it' brand of hippie, when it was convenient, which clicked with me at the time because I enjoyed hunting). I saw no need for it though, since the soap they had here was perfectly serviceable for my needs.
On the other hand… I'm a man. Simple and easy to please. Women like that good-smelling stuff and that shit's expensive. But since I'm here at the source, I could make my own while making the ink and send some off to Roxy. Zenith and Lilia would probably appreciate it too. And might as well make some for Sylphie too. In fact, if I get her involved, I can have myself a helper and sell some cheaply in the village for more pocket change. Hooray for undercutting the market. Capitalism, baby! I added making soap to my list for later.
Instead of heading straight home, my feet had lead me towards Sylphie's house. I found her just as she was leaving with a wicker basket in hand. "Lunch for your dad?"
"Mm!" she confirmed happily and I walked with her as she made her way out of town.
As we went, I sighed quietly as I noticed we had picked up a tail. A very obvious tail, in the form of six boys following after us. I let them get close before casting a Waterfall spell over the whole group, turned down to freezing temperatures by manipulating the 'temperature' variable. Sylphie looked back at them at the sound of water and shrieks of outrage, just in time to see the boys turning and running away. "Told you I could handle them," I reminded.
We passed a lonely little hill with the biggest tree in the area atop it. I hadn't been out this way before during my traveling around with Roxy for her jobs and I had never accompanied Sylphie to meet her dad at work, but I'd seen it in passing a few times from a distance. I figured that the shade would make it a nice place to sit in the coming summer months and the elevated position would give me a good view of the surroundings. Essentially, the perfect place to sit down and write a book.
We chatted as we walked towards the forest where Sylphie's dad was stationed as a lookout on a watch tower overlooking the woods and I brought up the soap making project to Sylphie, who happily agreed to help. We made it to the watch tower and met up with Sylphie's dad, Laws.
Laws was a man with shorter ears than his daughter, golden hair, a lithe but muscular build, and the sort of good looks one saw on bishonen characters—your quintessential half-elf. I wasn't jealous, not really. Paul was a decent looking guy, if more rugged than Laws, and Zenith was an absolute hottie—and so far, it seemed I had inherited the best of both of their facial features. Even the little 'beauty mark' (read as: mole, since I'm a guy) under my left eye from Paul. It seemed Sylphie might have won the genetic lottery. I'd have to wait a few years for her to sprout up and confirm that, though. With her partially-elven heritage, she may turn out closer to Roxy's build than that of Zenith or Lilia.
"Papa, your lunch," Sylphie called up to the tower.
"Ah, I'm always troubling you Luffie. How are you today?" he asked, a hopeful tone to his voice, his eyes cutting over to me inquisitively as he did.
"We're fine," the girl smiled up at her father as he invited us up.
Laws focused his attention on me and I waved before starting the climb up after Sylphie. "Good afternoon, Laws."
"Thank you for looking after her, Rudy."
We spoke for a while, mostly about what Laws did here and about my father. Eventually, Sylphie tugged at my sleeve and I looked over to find her looking down and a bit bored. "Sorry, guess we're boring you. Laws, do you mind if I take Sylphie to play a bit?"
"Go ahead. Just don't approach the forest," he nodded, a small smile crossing his face.
"There was a big tree on the hill we passed to get here. We'll be there. I'll try to bring her back by sundown, so if you don't see us by then that's where I'd start looking first. Of course, if we actually run into the kind of trouble that makes us that late, it might be faster to follow the explosions," I chuckled.
I had absolutely no compunctions against going straight to lethal spells if shit truly hit the fan, and I wouldn't be holding back. I'd make sure everyone heard any dustup for miles. I was just five, so if I actually got into a real fight, I didn't like my chances against other people. No, the best option in that case would be sudden, overwhelming, lethal force applied repeatedly over a wide area until the problem went away.
We said our goodbyes to Sylphie's dad and started heading back towards the tree. "So, what do you want to do today?" I asked as we walked.
"Can you teach me a new spell?" Sylphie asked, turning up the cute knob seemingly to eleven. I winced as the moe scored a critical hit. Reaching out, I pulled her into a side-long hug, earning a squeak as she tensed up for a moment before eventually relaxing. She still wasn't used to touches that were friendly and didn't involve pain and it occasionally made me want to go find all the brats in the village that had bullied her and pick on them a little. Being with me (and Roxy, when she was here) was helping though, so I felt like she would get over it eventually. Kids were pretty resilient.
"Sure, that sounds great. How about an Intermediate-level water spell?"
Sylphie considered it as we walked. I had to let go eventually so we wouldn't stumble, but when I did, she quickly put her arm around me and returned the squeeze before letting go. She didn't exactly move away after she did though, so our shoulders occasionally brushed while we moved. After a while, she asked, "Could you show me how to make that lightning spell?"
I hummed quietly, regarding her from the corner of my eye. Sylphie looked nervous, afraid I would deny her out of hand I suppose. "Sure, we can try. Can't guarantee anything there though. It doesn't actually have an incantation. It's all feel."
The way Sylphie's ears wagged and perked up from their droopy state was absolutely adorable. I had long since marked it as a tell for an emotional barometer, in the same way dogs wag their tails or hold their ears. Kind of cool thatshe has muscular control of those when her dad doesn't.
We made it to the hill and spent the rest of the afternoon 'playing.'
In that time, I explained and demonstrated the Arc spell several times, but Sylphie had yet to produce results. After seeing her get frustrated, I forced her to try something different instead of banging her head against a brick wall. Unsurprisingly, she cast the spell I'd originally had in mind on the first try, and not long thereafter had it down to silently casting.
When the sky started changing colors and the sun slipped halfway below the horizon, I helped Sylphie to her feet and took her home. Laws had already returned home by the time we got there and we met with Sylphie's mother. The woman pulled me into a hug and thanked me for taking over Roxy's self-appointed role as Sylphie's instructor. We sat around their table and talked for a while, going over Sylphie's lessons and the girl giving a few demonstrations of things safe enough to use indoors. Eventually though, I had to go home.
Turning to Sylphie, I sent her a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow. I'll be by in the morning."
"Y-yes!" the girl agreed readily, earning a giggle from her mother and a laugh from her father.
I left Sylphie's house and headed for my own home. By now, it was full on dark, so I pulled out my wand and cast a fireball a foot from the tip of it. Then, I wrapped it in a wind spell that would feed it and tethered the wind spell to myself so it would follow. Finally, I moved the light around until I settled on putting it over my right shoulder. Satisfied with my handiwork, I took off down the road.
It was a good twenty minutes or more before I managed to make it back home—mostly because I wasn't really in a hurry and was taking my time to eyeball the Bardius fields and remember who owned which so I could ask for permission to harvest some later. As I made my way through the front gate, I saw Lilia sitting out on the veranda. Faintly, I heard the thumping of a bed against a wall and the sound of Zenith's cries from inside. Cutting off my fireball, I dropped down to sit beside the maid. "Sorry for making you wait up. Or were they keeping you up again?"
Lilia gave a quiet little sigh. "A bit of both."
"Well, why don't you go in and get a bath? I can wait."
The maid shook her head. "They ran out all the hot water again and I would have to clean the tub."
I palmed my face. "Again? Really?" Grumbling quietly, I stood up and offered Lilia a hand. "Come on, let's go fill the tanks and get inside."
The maid accepted the hand up and we walked around the side of the house. I tied another fireball to myself and climbed up the ladder to the upper platform. Popping the cap on both tanks, I filled them up and heated the one for hot water up to a boil. Making sure everything was closed tight, I climbed back down and walked with Lilia towards the front door. "I'll clean the tub up for you. Sorry about them."
Lilia shook her head. "Thank you. You don't have to apologize though." She hesitated before asking, "Are you sleeping any better?"
Blinking, I looked up at her. "You knew about that?"
The redhead smiled. "I know almost everything that goes on in this home. Your room is nearly directly above mine. I've heard you tossing and turning recently."
She didn't need to say it for me to hear the implied, 'since Roxy left.' I wondered where this was coming from as we entered the house and made our way up to the bathroom. Lilia was nice enough with my parents, but we had never exactly been close. I wouldn't say she avoided me, but I always had the feeling she had something against me. I probably just creeped her out, so I gave her a pass on that since her instincts telling her something was wrong with me were right. "Lilia?"
"You really are Paul's son," she sighed, running her hand through my hair as I set about cleaning the tub with fire. "Try not to pick up your father's bad habits. You already have his stubbornness and his way with women. Don't add running away from your problems or resorting to violence first."
"Ah ha ha," I chuckled weakly. "Yeah… I was wondering when you'd bring that up."
Lilia shook her head. "I wouldn't have. I thought Miss Roxy may be taking advantage, but decided to hold my tongue because you didn't seem bothered by it. Later on, I assumed it was the Greyrat in you and you were simply a very early bloomer."
I shrugged a bit. "If there was any taking advantage, it was mutual. We had fun, but it didn't get to the point where you'd have to worry about her getting pregnant."
"And you've also been consorting with Laws' girl."
Blinking, I considered the woman's absolutely dry delivery. "Lilia," I asked, unsure, "are you… teasing me?"
"Perhaps."
Sighing, I poked the woman in the stomach, drawing a ticklish flinch from her. "I didn't think you were capable. Actually, no, I thought you just didn't like me."
She took her time answering, and when she did it wasn't exactly a denial. "I see much of your father in you, from when he was younger and we shared the same sword school. It was… a relief when I found you with Ms. Roxy."
And just like that, my good cheer died. I turned on the water and stood. "I'm going to go to bed now. Good night, Lilia."
Lilia watched silently as I left, closing the door behind me.
How am I supposed to fix a problem when I don't even know what the problem is? Putting aside whether it's mine to fix or not, since if I want any sort of treatment from her beyond 'polite but cautious,' it kind of is.
Damnit, Paul. What did you do to piss her off?