I got up early the next morning. I hadn't had much sleep so I didn't feel at one hundred percent, but I'd gone to school and work on less in my previous life, so I pushed through and forced myself to get dressed. I collected my bag and stowed my plant encyclopedia and the leftover bronze. Anything else I needed for this project, I could make with magic as needed. I stopped in the kitchen long enough to grab a piece of bread and some cheese, before I left the house.
My feet carried me towards the village and I used fire magic to warm up the bread and cheese before eating what would have to pass for breakfast. Water magic supplied something to wash it down—I trusted drinking it more than most of the water around here save for what was drawn from the wells but I knew, thanks to knowledge from Earth, that it was best not to drink for prolonged periods unless you had a way of replacing the minerals, salt, and so on lost through sweat; in other words, it wasn't really an issue.
I found a place to settle down in the square and wait and, when daylight broke, I went to Sylphie's house and camped on their front porch until Laws left for the morning. Then, I collected Sylphie and we headed out to the hill with the tree for the day with a basket from Sylphie's mother containing our lunches in addition to Laws'. I spent the morning working with Sylphie on magic, teaching her the intermediate level material as I'd learned it from Roxy and the two of us had corrected or clarified over time, after comparing what we knew of magic to what I knew of natural science.
After instruction came time for practice. I had Sylphie go through every spell she knew, silently casting as I called them out. As we had learned when Roxy first started teaching her, Sylphie was great with water magic, decent with wind and earth, and terrible with fire. The reason for that was pretty simple—she was afraid of fire, or rather afraid of being burned. She had a scar on her palm from where she picked up a hot fire poker when she was three. While she didn't shy away from fire spells when I cast them, she probably had some kind of lasting psychological trauma from that event causing her to have issues casting fire magic. In other words, it was all in her head. I encouraged her to keep working on it, but left it up to her to do so. Roxy had insisted it was a 'systems' thing, but we both decided that one person wasn't proof.
Around noon, we walked together to where Laws was posted for the day and had lunch together.
Pulling out my encyclopedia as I ate, I flipped to the section on various trees and their properties. It didn't take long to find what I was looking for—a tree that produced thick sap, which was native to the region. Holding that place bookmarked with a finger, I flipped through the book again and found the other plants I was looking for. Things for making ink and soap. "Hey Laws, do we have any of these around here?" I pointed out the plants in question in the book.
Humming, he looked up from his lunch and eyed the drawings in the book along with the names. "Yes, those are all found in the forest. Why do you ask, Rudy?"
"I'm working on a project. A gift for my former master. I need to collect some of the sap from one of those trees to make it, along with several samples of each of the other plants."
Laws raised an eyebrow at that. "Must be some gift. It is your master though, so I understand," he murmured. "Alright! I'll escort you into the forest to collect what you need. It shouldn't take long and we won't be going in far. Sylphie, Rudeus, don't wander off on your own. Stay within sight of each other at all times. It should be safe enough, but stay on your guard just in case."
With that, we went into the forest and spent some time gathering plants. As we worked, Laws taught what he knew about the forest, the creatures in it, and how to spot signs of their passage. I had learned woodcraft in my previous life, so I knew how to spot tracks, bent and broken grass and branches, and so on, but learning what track shapes went with what monster helped. Thankfully, we didn't spot any monster tracks in the hundred or so yards we went in to find one of the trees I needed.
I used earth magic to make a knife to cut the tree and a small jar to hold the sap, then used water magic to pull enough sap out to fill the jar. Closing it off, I stuck it in my bag and we moved on. We gathered the local equivalent to thyme, hyacinth, and several other plants and I stowed each in their own small stone jars, before we left the forest. As we left, I found some dead hardwood branches, knocked the dirt off of those, and stowed them as well. Laws retook his post and we said our goodbyes before heading for what was quickly becoming our spot.
When we got back, I put away my bag and turned to Sylphie. "I've found that the key to a healthy mind is a healthy body. Being physically fit means you can run from the problems magic can't solve, or deal with the problems you shouldn't use magic to solve. So, want to join me Sylphie?"
The little girl agreed, of course. That was how I gained an exercise partner. Of course, being just five herself and not having had years of running around 'playing' (read: training) as exercise, she had no real stamina to speak of. I walked her through stretches and a short jog around the tree, then a few sets of physical exercises. After that, she was spent and collapsed into a sweaty, panting mess on the grass in the shade of the tree. I made a stone cup and filled it with water, which she eagerly gulped down, before working through the rest of my exercises.
"Okay," I opened up the bag I had leaned against the tree and pulled out the branches. "Part of what's needed to make soap is hard wood ash. So for today, we're going to burn these down and collect the ash when it's done. I can buy some lard in the village tomorrow and we'll start that part then."
"'kay," Sylphie called tiredly.
"Come clear off a spot of ground to get the grass away from it, make a stone depression to burn them in, and set them on fire for me," I instructed. "Then once you've got it going, you can start on your spell practice."
I oversaw Sylphie following my instructions and patted her head in praise when she finished before moving away to do my own work. Instead of moving straight to sword practice, I sat down and took a short break, watching as Sylphie began practicing her spells. I had some thinking to do.
Paul's an asshole, but he's a talented asshole. He's a natural swordsman. He's got years on me in terms of training. He can also use magic or something in a way I can't, giving him speed and strength I just don't have. I'm never going to beat him in a straight up sword fight as it stands, and since he's not exactly the best in the world when it comes to swords, I'm looking at not being able to deal with a fairly large group of people if I run across any of them and they decide to shit in my Cheerios. So, what do I have going for me?
The obvious answers were: magic, silent casting, and an overabundance of mana with which to silently cast magic. The less obvious answers were creativity and a whole lot of Earth media to draw inspiration from.
Well, there's always the age old issue of mobility and reach I could exploit. If all you have is a sword and you can't reach your target, you can't hit them unless you throw your sword like a fucking idiot—in which case, you're unarmed. If you have the high ground, you have a tactical advantage over your enemy.
So, mobility and a way to get to or make high ground, or otherwise manipulate the terrain to my advantage.
The second would be easy enough. I already knew terrain manipulation spells for making pitfalls, swamps, spike fields, and other traps to inconvenience an enemy trying to get to me. I could always create a bog around myself, use an earth spell to make sure I had solid footing, and proceed to bombard my target in safety. The problem was getting distance in the first place if I didn't already have it. I'd seen the way Paul moved. It wouldn't take him more than a second or two to clear a good twenty yards, if not more, when he decided to push himself.
Which brought me back to the first problem. Mobility. I didn't know any spells to directly make a mage move master. Neither had Roxy for that matter, otherwise I'm sure she would have taught me. Using wind magic to give myself a tailwind or my sword swings some extra oomph was about the extent of what I had available there. My self-made reinforcement magic was great at filling that gap, but it just didn't compare to whatever the hell Paul was doing.
I didn't know of any flight spells and if teleportation was even a thing—which I assumed it must be, given that summoning magic existed—then I didn't know any magic in that field so there was no point dwelling on that particular avenue until I could learn it. The best place for that would be the Ranoa College of Magic, but I was sure that would be expensive.
I've been modifying spells since I was three. I've already created three lighting spells. I can make a movement spell.
That decided, I pondered where to start from. Thrust. Like my old dad always used to say, if you put enough thrust behind a brick, it may not be pretty, but it'll fly.
Applying what I knew of physics and magic already, I decided the best place to start would be with trying to modify a wind spell. Earth wouldn't work because I needed dirt to work with for that element. Water might work, but would be more mana intensive, not to mention leave streamers of water behind. Fire was a definite maybe, but only if used in specific ways—jet engines worked based on turbines, but true ramjets worked by using fuel to burn a compressed fuel/air mixture. A combination wind/fire spell might work wonders, but I was leery of trying something that volatile right off the bat. Wind seemed the safest and most likely to work, without blasting me to the moon.
Making sure I was facing away from Sylphie, I began playing with one of the elementary wind spells, Wind Gust, trying to modify it for my needs. Wind Gust was like Water Ball or Fireball, in that it was one of those 'shoot a ball from the hand' spells—at least for me. I started by modifying it to cast continuously, instead of as a single burst. The effect was a fairly strong gust of wind blowing from my hand, leaving the grass ahead of me disturbed in a visible cone.
"Rudy, what are you doing?" Sylphie called, looking up from her practice.
"Working on a new spell. It may get a bit loud, but just keep working please," I sent her a smile as I shut off the spell and considered what I had felt as I'd used it.
Definitely felt the force behind that. It nearly shoved me off my feet. Which means this might actually be viable. It wasn't too costly, either, so I would probably be able to keep it up for a while. Not all day, but an hour or two minimum.
Taking the potential for recoil or being blown off my feet into account, I reinforced my body with mana and set my feet into a wide stance. "Okay, let's try this again," I murmured. Holding out both hands, I cast the spell from both and poured in about double the mana—to each. The results were immediate as I was blown off my feet and sent flipping ass over teakettle onto my back in the grass.
"Rudy! Are you okay?!" Sylphie yelped, running over and leaning over my prone form.
I laughed quietly, accepting her hand and sitting up. "I'm fine, Sylphie. Don't worry, I'm kind of expecting things like that to happen. I'm using mana to make my body stronger so I won't get hurt, but if I do I'll cast healing magic."
The greenette shook her head, sending short locks flying about her face. "What if you get hurt so bad you can't use magic? I'll keep watch and use healing magic, so please don't try whatever it is you're doing when I'm not there!"
Seeing she had a point, I nodded. "Sure. I promise," I agreed easily. Seeing she was satisfied, I went back to my experimentation. This time, Sylphie kept an eye on me as I worked.
Test three. Vertical thrust. Let's see if I can get off the ground without breaking my fool neck.
Spreading my hands out to my sides and aiming at the ground, I reinforced my body and cast the spell again—at a much reduced output this time. I immediately felt the strain in my arms as it felt like I was supporting my entire body weight on them—not that there was much of it to support. Slowly, oh so slowly, I lifted off the ground by a few inches. I immediately began to wobble. Attempting to correct my little flight with hand movements only made it worse and sent me stumbling back to the ground, but at least I was able to keep my footing.
Okay! Minor success, minor failure. Lack of control is an issue. I seem to recall that in VTOL planes like the Harrier, pilots described it as feeling like riding a razor, and that's pretty much what I'm getting.
Sitting down cross legged, I thought it over. Sylphie, seeing I wasn't working with the spell at the moment, seemed to content herself with going back to her own work—occasionally looking up to make sure I hadn't started working again. Thinking over the issue of balance, I hummed quietly. I could use thrust vectoring? That's how they made the Harrier work, along with the F-35. It's not like I can't control how the wind moves as I'm casting the spell, either. But with just two points acting as both thrust and control surfaces, it won't be particularly stable. I could hold three if needed… so a third from my feet?
It wasn't like I hadn't been casting from my feet for a while now. Mostly for earth spells, or spells like Ice Wall or Ice Pillar. Still, using my feet to cast a wind spell should be doable. Just to test the theory, I stuck my feet out and tried to cast. It was a bit awkward, just as it had been the first few times I'd tried that with earth spells, but I knew from experience that it would become second nature with practice. Okay, that works.
It occurred to me that there was one glaring problem with all of this. Flight would be good for getting away, or gaining a lot of height very quickly, but not so good at clearing the space of a room, maneuvering quickly, or hovering in place without serious concentration.
Maybe I'm thinking too big? Instead of flight, maybe for dealing with people like Paul I need something closer to the old standby of a fast running or short range teleport technique. Something along the lines of Naruto's shunshin or Bleach's shunpo. What about… using a wind gust on every step to propel myself, so it's more like skipping than flight? Could theoretically pinball myself that way if I could get casting it from anywhere on my body down. A sustained effect for hovering? Or using ice or earth pillars to launch myself or land on? Launching maybe, especially if it makes obstacles for enemies, but landings could be accomplished with an air thrust, couldn't they?
I glanced over at the big tree. Let's test that theory.
I pushed myself to my feet, causing Sylphie to look up and follow my movements. She watched as I climbed into the tree. I noticed her hands clenching into fists about the time I jumped off the lowest limb. Reinforcing myself and holding my hands aimed at the ground, I cast Wind Gust again. This time, I flipped over in midair twice and landed face down. However, I noticed the landing was a lot lighter than it would have otherwise been.
"Are you okay, Rudy?" Sylphie called worriedly from nearby.
I sent her a thumbs up and rolled over onto my back. "That mostly worked," I mused. "Let's try it again. Without the oops."
The day wore on and eventually, I got the hang of catching myself on a cushion of air. It wasn't the greatest of breakthroughs, but it would be useful in the event I ever fell from a great height—about as useful as a parachute. Not something you'd normally carry, but when the plane starts going down it's something you suddenly really want, then start praying on when you're forced into open air.
With my landing strategy taken care of, I decided to focus on something more fun—a launch strategy. That was how I spent the rest of the evening, running around and using earth pillars to launch myself into the air and air cushions to break my fall, under the watchful eyes of Sylphie. And when I finally felt like I had it down, I called her over and explained what I was doing and how to do it, then set her to trying it herself.
By the time the sun started going down, I had perfected the launch and landing to the point where I could launch myself mid-run at a moment's notice, at any angle, and then either make a quick landing or fall in a controlled glide that I could steer with little difficulty—similarly to the way I remembered Cole MacGrath, the protagonist of InFamous, had used his powers across two games. It wasn't quite flash step or air walking, but it was fun, fast, and could be useful later. Sylphie was still working on her landings, trying to figure out the air cushion. I collected the ashes into a jar and we called it a day.
When I dropped Sylphie off at home, Laws sent me on my way after I promised to pick Sylphie up again tomorrow. I thanked him for helping me gather what I needed today and took my leave. On the way back home, I waved to one of the villagers I knew grew Bardius, since he was one of the regulars on Roxy's route for tending the fields with magic. "Excuse me, sir," I called to him as I approached.
"How can I help you, son?"
"Do you mind if I take a few Bardius plants from your field on my way home? I'll water the field for free next time if you'd let me," I asked, sending the mid-thirties man a smile.
Laughing he waved me off. "Sure, go ahead Rudeus. I'll let you know when it looks like they need a good watering again."
"Thank you!" I called, before hurrying off.
Along the way home, I stepped off the road and collected several Bardius plants, putting them in their own jar separate from everything else—enough to experiment with to try to find the right method and mixture, and then more to actually make ink. Being able to create pottery and containers on the spot was pretty damn convenient, if I do say so myself.
Crossing through the gates, I stopped by Caravaggio's stable and collected the rustiest looking horse shoes, slipping those into my pack well away from the paper. Never did get a chance to try making a pen today. Oh well, it was fun anyway and I only just got the materials I need to even begin making ink anyway, so no big loss.
Actually, there was one more thing I needed, now that I thought about it. Glass would do better to hold the ink than stone. I could even work some into the pens I'd be making—maybe as easily replaceable ink cartridges instead of using the whole pen to house the ink. Yeah, I like that design better than just filling the pen with ink. Messy if it breaks and I think it was harder to get that type to work, especially upside down, whereas the ones using plastic inserts work by capillary action and work at any orientation.
Putting out the fire spell I'd been using as a light source, I stepped into the home. "I'm home," I called reflexively, before I spotted Paul sitting at the dinner table while Zenith and Lilia cooked. The scent of food filled the house, making my mouth water.
"Dinner is almost done," Lilia called when I hit the stairs.
"I'll be down in a few," I agreed.
Entering my room, I dropped the bag on my bed and collapsed face first onto Roxy's old bed. "Ugh. The things I do for magic."
Even after healing magic, my everything felt like one big bruise. That'll teach me to jump out of trees all day. Yeah right, and pigs will fly. …Without magic.
The next morning, I got up and did it all again. This time, when we finished late in the afternoon, I suggested a new project to Sylphie, after we finished today's stage of soap making and I'd done most of the prep work for making ink—we could move on to the next phases of those tomorrow. She was reaching the point where she needed to cast many Intermediate-level spells to blow her mana for the day, so I got an idea for making use of it.
Starting from the tree, we cut and raised a paved stone path into town. It wasn't something we would do overnight, but as a long term project I felt paving the streets and road through town would be something nice—useful to everyone in the village and people who pass through.
Even if her parents apparently loved me like a son and encouraged their daughter to spend time with me, especially since I was tutoring her in more than just magic and for free no less just as Roxy had, Sylphie couldn't come out to 'play' every day. She still had chores to do around the house. If I came and got her in the mornings, she would be gone all day. So, Laws and her mother asked me not to make the morning visits because they didn't want to see her upset at being told she couldn't come out when she had things to do. I understood, so I let them know that as long as it wasn't raining, I'd probably be at our tree practicing if she finished her chores early and could join me.
Months passed and the seasons changed.
Somer and his little gang tried attacking us a few more times, even going so far as to bring in some of the older kids. All attempts were repelled with extreme prejudice. I sent them home soaked and shivering the first few times, before Sylphie worked her way up to learning combination magic well enough to be able to douse them in a deluge of freezing water herself. I let her handle the last two attempts. They stopped bothering when they realized that all they were going to get for their troubles was cold and wet.
Although… that may have had something to do with the fact that I memorized their faces and started asking around the village, with the people I was friendly with. I put names to faces, then tracked down their parents. As it turns out, some of the parents were clients of mine. Word quickly got around that anyone whose kid caused trouble for me or Sylphie had their prices triple overnight, and in every instance the reason was calmly explained with the simple request, "Ask your son why Rudeus Greyrat might be upset with him."
Those parents that apologized found their prices returning to normal. The only one that did not was Mrs. Ada. The woman was particularly livid with me. That might be because surprisingly, Paul had taken what Roxy told him that night she intervened on my behalf to heart and told the woman to fuck off. Or maybe because Zenith came out and tore strips out of her hide. Both of those had happened, according to Lilia. Roxy had never had much in the way of dealings with her so she wasn't a regular of mine, but I banned her anyway—I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire in the future, since for a while she kept coming around with her brat and making up stories about how I hurt her precious baby.
When I couldn't teach Sylphie, I spent my time practicing new things. Trying to develop new spells. Working more magic into my fighting style. I had figured out 3D maneuvering after only a month or so of practice. After that, it became second nature. I didn't need to use earth magic to launch myself, but it was fun to do so and useful for making obstacles. Either way, the technique involved casting my modified Wind Gust spell, Air Running, with every step I took and adjusting the force of each casting appropriately for the distance I wanted to clear or the speed I wanted to move. I learned how to change directions on a dime, either on the ground or in the air and move at speeds near, if not exceeding, what I had seen from Paul as needed. Standing in one place was still difficult and wobbly, but it could be managed with a single casting from a foot as long as I concentrated on it.
Sylphie was right behind me with Air Running. She absolutely loved it and we sometimes spent evenings just playing magical tag, throwing low powered Water Ball spells at each other as we danced around the sky. It was fun and a nice break from constantly focusing on work.
What's that you say? It's still training? Well, yeah. No shit. Just because it's practice doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.
With Air Running well on the way to mastery, I worked on a new way of using earth and ice pillars and combining that with creating either a swamp or quicksand using earth magic. The basic idea was, at the beginning of an encounter, to cast a wide area mire around myself and my enemy, hopefully trapping them in it. Then, I'd launch myself backwards with an Earth Wall/Pillar combo, creating a barrier between me and whatever wanted to introduce me to the pointy end of the sword that expanded into a field of spikes and slick patches of ice on top of a shallow crust that would collapse with just a few pounds of force on top of it. After hitting the apex of my launch, I used Air Running to glide while bombarding the area with spells.
I also began mastering my lightning spells and Sylphie finally managed to learn Arc.
Arc and Flash Bang were both Elementary-level spells. The first was an amped up taser but could be used with varying voltage to different effects, from shocking to welding. Flash Bang was exactly what it said on the tin, a ball lightning blast of electricity that created a blinding flash and an explosive sound near the target. Bolt was an Intermediate-level spell that created a lightning bolt between myself and my target. I could either use it for one zap, or hold it for prolonged zapping. I hadn't tested it on anyone, but it caught trees on fire well enough and caused the occasional bark explosion, so I was pretty sure it was either lethal or close enough.
Cue Palpatine 'Unlimited power!' meme. I may have yelled exactly that while casting the spell and cackling like an evil sorcerer at the time, too.
Sylphie took that as a sign that I needed a break from magical R&D (read by Sylphie as: playing) and dragged me off to have a picnic, then forced me to spend the next day just spending time with her instead of working on anything. It was nice. I should probably take more time for relaxing.
Chain Lightning was an Advanced-level version of Bolt that caused lightning to arc between targets. Definitely lethal, given how much juice I pumped into that one. Thunder was Chain Lightning's bigger, nastier, Saint-level brother—essentially, the first spell in the lightning school I'd made, modified for guaranteed target chaining, just refined to be capable of targeting a smaller area.
Going up the scale, I had taken Caravaggio hours out of town one day and secured him inside a dome of earth. I cast my first King-level lightning spell on the plains south of the village, well away from people. It didn't matter. The village knew about it by the time I got back. They saw and heard the noise. Mjolnir was what I called the wide-scale lightning spell I honestly hoped I would never have to use again. It left more than a square mile of plains devastated—a blasted, burning mess of ash and slagged glass.
Poor Caravaggio was traumatized. I was pretty sure he flashed back to that time Roxy accidentally zapped him.
Well, good news! I had another source of glass now. I dragged home a huge chunk using Caravaggio and some rope. That got me started on another project. With some more bronze and a lot of patience and earth magic, I set about creating tools. I made a small, collapsing, adjustable focus spotting scope and a bookmark style rectangular magnifying glass each for myself, Roxy, and Sylphie.
As far as projects went, I had made entirely too much ink, once I'd separated it out into individual pen refills and bottles. I spoke with the man who owned the general store and he agreed to sell my ink and a few pens for me—the agreed upon terms were that he would sell them at whatever cost he felt they would sell for and I would get half. It was extra pocket change and I could make it by the pot full. So as long as I got back material costs on the brass used for the pens plus a little on the top I was happy.
The road raising project went smoothly. Between Sylphie and myself, we had the town itself done in the course of a week—and most of that time was because I was going slow so that Sylphie would have something to spend her mana on at the end of the day. There was no point to it if I did it all for her, when I could easily blow my own mana on other tasks. She was the one who needed the control exercises more anyway. And once we finished the town, we took Caravaggio out and started raising the path leading out of town into a road in both directions—until it got to the point that we were spending more than two hours on horseback just to go out and back, at which point I called it good enough.
As a consequence of that, however, I noticed that Buena Village started to see more people coming and going. Traders, mostly. My ink and pens sold for a small fortune, so I reinvested most of the money in making more and selling it. After the second batch of sales, the owner of the general store asked for the recipe and I agreed to give it to him and let him produce and sell it from now on, in exchange for a quarter of whatever profit he made off of it. Then I washed my hands of it. I was a mage and I enjoyed making things, that didn't mean I was a human factory to crank out the same crap day, after day, after day. No matter how good the money was. I'd had enough of that sort of tedium in my old life.
Nope. I decided then and there that unless it was of direct benefit to me, that I wouldn't be doing any of that shit. If someone wanted something mass produced, they could do it themselves.
The book project was coming along well enough. My biggest issue was a lack of vocabulary on my part. For the science, I simply lacked certain key terms. I would need more books, preferably a thesaurus or a dictionary, in order to properly translate what I knew into this world's human tongue. That also meant that my guide to English was on hold indefinitely, until then. Sylphie could now speak English functionally at a conversational level, but we were simply missing too many words for some of the more complex terms. Teaching her to write it was easy enough, using earth manipulation to create letters on the ground and walk her through it. Math, I had already completed up to what I remembered.
Sylphie's normal magic training, when she was available, was coming along swimmingly. She was already up to Advanced-level spells in everything but fire and water. Fire lagged behind a level.
Roxy had mentioned that natural strengths and weaknesses were a thing—specialized systems and weak systems. It was one of the areas where we couldn't really come to any kind of agreement. I argued that any such weakness or specialization lie in the wielder's own mentality—their liking or disdain for a particular branch of magic, their understanding of the subject, and their willingness to put in the effort. Roxy had argued that while that may be possible, the rule also apparently applied to forms of magic other than elemental magic, including healing magic, thus the systems themselves existed and someone like me, who appeared to be good with every spell I tried, was an exception. Sylphie was just one case, so until Roxy and I took on more students, that debate was on hold.
As far as water went, Sylphie graduated to Saint-level. She still had a lot of catching up to do though, so she was surprisingly humble about it. Well, I shouldn't really say 'surprisingly' given her character.
Beyond her normal studies, I was branching out with Sylphie. That girl needed all the love, to be honest. Not the 'with my dick' kind of love. Just some good, honest, wholesome affection from someone who cared for her and wasn't her parents. But more than she needed affection and positive reinforcement, she needed… firing. She needed a spine, and for that spine to be forged from steel—because as it was she couldn't stand up for herself at all. The slightest force of pressure or expectation on her and she folded like a cheap suit.
If I had bad intentions, or were interested in children, I could have turned this to my advantage. She trusted me and looked up to me, so I had a feeling that with time and convincing, she would do almost anything I asked of her if it would make me happy. And she'd do it with a smile.
Almost every man likes the idea of a compliant, willing woman to mold how he sees fit. I'd be lying if I said that the idea wasn't appealing. If we were a little older and she was into that sort of thing, I would absolutely do exactly that. But we weren't and she was entirely too vulnerable and trusting for me to abuse that trust.
So, I went about trying to teach her how to be strong. How to stand up for herself.
It was slow going.
Sylphie was naturally a very accepting, tolerant, and forgiving person. Being bullied had pretty much destroyed any ego she had. And she was so eager to please that the idea of refusing or denying me something was almost alien to her. I'm sure there were limits, at least at the moment, but I wasn't going to cross those boundaries.
No, instead I started testing her. After I'd taught her something, I'd wait a few days then ask her questions about it. Next, I asked for more. Instead of just basic facts, I tested her understanding, asking why something was. Then, I began making her defend her position. I started gently at first, but gradually began increasing the pressure. Sometimes, it was just being particularly persistent or contrary. Other times, I got downright nasty, even mean. My reasoning being that if I was the biggest asshole she knew and she could stand up to me, then dealing with anyone else would be a cake walk.
It was hard. On both of us. Sometimes she cried and it hurt to see, hurt to know that I had hurt her, but I pushed on and I always made sure to try to make her feel better after and explain what she needed to do next time to avoid the verbal traps I was laying out. How to shut down such a line of argument in the future. And if that wasn't possible, how to walk away from it and put it out of her mind—disregard it entirely. That last one was particularly hard.
Slowly but surely though, I began to see progress over the course of months as the scared, hurt little girl I had first met started to grow into something more.
Winter came, and with it a blizzard. Training outside for Sylphie was put off indefinitely until it cleared up. I went out from time to time to try my hand at using magic to survive in an extreme environment, but the best I could come up with was a combination of three spells—a dome of water repelling magic that I'd perfected during the artificial rainy season after Roxy left, a dome of wind, and a sustained fire spell to heat the wind up to acceptable levels. It helped for trips to town, and Zenith refused to leave the house now without me accompanying her because otherwise her toes would freeze, but it wasn't perfect.
And in the middle of that blizzard, Zenith announced she was pregnant. I was going to be an older brother again.
Congratulations, Zenith.
I knew they had been trying hard for a second child for years and having problems, so I imagine this came as a relief to both of them that nothing was really wrong.
Names were discussed, plans were made, my old clothes were gathered up for hand-me-downs, the crib was dragged out of storage and cleaned up. Then there was the issue of room to consider.
With my old bedroom converted into a bathroom, Lilia using the downstairs bedroom, and Paul and Zenith not wanting to have the new baby in their own bedroom for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who'd ever raised a child, there weren't many choices. Either I was going to be sharing space with a screaming newborn, or someone would be bunking downstairs in the main room that served as kitchen, dining room, and living room in one. Zenith was heavily against the idea of putting a newborn downstairs, so they all leaned on me to allow the new kid to bunk in my room.
Haa, yeah. No. Nope. They can hang that shit up. I valued my sleep and my private space too much to give either up. That, and the fact that delicate things like books (or silk panties) and babies don't mix. Never put a baby near anything you mind being pissed, shit, and puked on or just outright destroyed.
Just to clarify, I didn't have a pantie fetish or anything. Panties were only sexy for what they hid while being worn. I just thought it was cute and sweet that Roxy had gone that far. That, and I could probably use them to tease her later. I had this mental image of pushing her down, shoving them into her mouth, and fucking her into the ground until she went cross-eyed when we finally saw each other again…
The very next morning after learning of Zenith's pregnancy, I went outside and set about fixing the problem before the deadline. I had taken a few drafting courses in my previous life, not to mention I came from a family of carpenters and had spent many a summer growing up helping my uncles put up houses, or my dad or grandfather with various projects around the house building and installing cabinets, drawers, furniture, floors, and more. Sure, that was with fairly modern tools (well outdated by Earth standards, because you don't throw away a tool that works), but spells could make up a lot for those with enough creativity—in other words, it would be an excuse to practice spellwork.
It cut into my magical fun (read: training) time, but if the alternative was a baby screaming in my ears at all hours of the day and night, then it was a sacrifice I would just have to make.
With an idea of what I wanted, I went out and made an addition to the house. Unfortunately, I couldn't really match the style of the exterior with the materials on hand. We could always reface it later with the proper materials to match the style, though. For now, as long as it had four walls, a roof, and didn't leak I was fine with it. I leveled off a spot of ground adjacent to the house on the back side. Next I set about using magic to make brick (actually stones shaped into nice, even little bricks made from earth magic), cement (baked limestone, which I could create with earth magic and heat with fire magic), and concrete (cement plus sand and/or gravel, again created with earth magic).
With Paul's help, we took Caravaggio, hitched him to a wagon, and headed to the forest where we cut down trees and I dried, cut, straightened, cured, and shaped them into proper lumber using water, wind, earth, and fire magic for various aspects of the process. It was great and fun. And one day, I would use those skills to build something even better. Maybe when Roxy came back.
We were a month or so into our expansion to the house and it was shaping up nicely. Unfortunately, Paul just had to go and fuck it up.
Turns out, he can't keep his dick in his pants. Zenith was worried about complications, so she cut him off. Well, instead of going celibate or taking the issue in hand himself for a few months, he decided to play hide the sausage with the maid.
On the one hand, I didn't blame him. Lilia was a beauty. Big tits, glasses, the stern look, and the maid outfit really did it for me.
On the other hand, I totally blamed him. The man completely lacked impulse control. A man wasn't supposed to let himself be lead around by his dick.
Yeah, I was pretty sure they did this last time too, and off and on occasionally since I was born, but this was the first and only time Lilia had gotten pregnant and they couldn't really hide it any longer. Or rather, Lilia wouldn't hide it and confessed one night at dinner that she was pregnant.
Paul actually manned up and admitted that it was his. Once more, he managed to surprise me.
Zenith called an emergency meeting, after slapping the shit out of Paul. That she restrained herself to a single slap, with no screaming, yelling, accusations, or otherwise was kind of impressive. The fact that he let it happen, and let it hurt him, actually went a ways towards showing he genuinely felt shitty about it—or at least about getting caught. I highly doubt he felt guilty about the act itself.
I watched and listened as they talked. Zenith asked what Lilia would do. Lilia said she intended to help Zenith with her own birth, then find a midwife for herself, have her child, and go home. Paul tried to butt in, but Zenith told him that if he didn't shut his mouth, she was done—and no one there took that as anything but completely serious on her part.
Paul shut his mouth.
Lilia's home was several months' journey on foot to the south and if she was leaving after just giving birth, there was a good chance she and the child would just die on the road. And that was in normal conditions. In the middle of one of the roughest winters I could remember? They wouldn't make it far at all.
Considering that I owed Lilia, since she'd actually been trying to get closer to me since that night she all but outright admitted she had been seeing a younger Paul every time she looked at me, I decided to try to help her out. "Mother, I know you're angry and you have every right to be. Father broke your vows. But you shouldn't punish Lilia for his weakness. She's been nothing but good to our family, and a good friend to you, right?" I asked, earning a shaky nod from Zenith. "She's practically family at this point anyway, and you'd just be sending her and my half-sibling to die if you made her leave any time soon. Wouldn't it be better in the long run if she stayed, and your children grew up together as siblings—having someone their own age to play with and talk to?"
"Well, yes," Zenith hemmed. "I suppose so."
"It's not like she had much of a choice about who she was interested in, either, right? I mean, she spends most of her time working here in the house," I pointed out.
Zenith closed her eyes, frowning. "We weren't trying to keep her isolated—"
"No, of course not," I agreed. "But the fact is, we're the only people she really interacts with on any sort of permanent basis."
"I guess," Zenith pouted.
"Also, you know it'll be easier to raise them with Lilia's help."
Zenith looked like it hurt to admit. "Yeah."
"And this way I get two cute siblings. I'll be honest, I'm hoping for sisters," I admitted with a laugh. "Then I can spoil them." At least this way, if I framed it as a selfish request on my part, she could shift some of the blame for the situation away from Lilia and onto me. Not much admittedly, but maybe enough to help.
With a final sigh, Zenith nodded. "Okay, you win Rudy. Lilia, don't leave. Stay with us." She didn't exactly seem enthusiastic about it, but I could hardly blame her considering what I was asking of her.
Paul and Lilia stared at Zenith in shock. Lilia broke down crying and Paul looked like he didn't know what to do. The issue decided in her mind, Zenith made the choice for him and headed off to their room alone, so he turned his attention to comforting Lilia. Wow, good job Paul! Comfort the mistress, ignore the wife. Moron.
Standing up, I followed after Zenith, heading up to their bedroom on the second floor. I knocked softly at the door and she cracked it open a moment later. There was a hint of disappointment in her eyes when she found me instead of Paul, but she quickly smothered it and put on a watery smile. "Yes, Rudy?"
"Can I come in?" She nodded, opening the door a bit and I slipped inside. Zenith moved over to sit on the bed, then patted the space beside her. I obligingly obeyed, hopping up onto the down mattress beside the woman and leaning into her side as she wrapped an arm around my back.
I didn't really know what to say here. 'Sorry your husband cheated on you with your best friend and I talked you into keeping the backstabber around and helping to raise her kid,' wouldn't really cut the mustard, or so I suspected. There is a reason NTR is a shit fetish. Those kinds of hurts are deep and long lasting, and being forced to keep enduring it would only make it worse. But in the end, it was the most pragmatic choice—sacrificing one person's happiness for the lives of two others. Realistically, she may even get over it eventually.
You couldn't fix dead, however. At least, not to my knowledge. Not yet. I reincarnated here, so obviously there is some kind of method.
It turns out that I didn't really need to say anything. Zenith opened the floodgates herself. "I thought I had prepared myself. I knew what kind of man your father was when I married him, Rudy. He was always the lustful sort when he was younger, chasing after any woman that caught his fancy. He's not a bad guy, he's just… stupid."
"He thinks with his dick," I supplied, earning a somewhat shocked, wide-eyed look from Zenith before she giggled.
"Oh, I should scold you for saying that, shouldn't I? It's true, though," she admitted. "It just happened so suddenly and I was shocked."
I shot her a knowing look. "You really think this is the first time?"
Zenith sighed and slowly shook her head. "Paul only married me because I got pregnant and I demanded he take responsibility. I'm sure you have some older brothers and sisters out there somewhere. No, it's surely not the first time with Lilia. Just the first time he couldn't hide it. I want to think the best of your father and believe that Lilia is his only indiscretion since our marriage, and only because they have some history together and Lilia is very lonely. It's exactly as you said. She doesn't have many friends in the village and spends most of her time here, so what choices did she have, really?"
I decided to allow her that lie to herself, even if we both suspected that that's all it was. Instead, I asked, "Can you explain it to me? I understand that you took a vow to be faithful to each other and that's why you're angry, but is that normal? How are marriages and relationships usually done?" If it were Roxy I was talking to, I'd specify 'in this world,' but I couldn't with Zenith. It wasn't really something that ever came up with Roxy either. I'd just kind of thought we'd figure it out as we went, but with this whole situation, I felt it best that I go ahead and educate myself on the matter.
If only to avoid falling into some kind of blunder like the idiot who called himself my father. Not that I would voluntarily fall dick first into something like this.
Humming, the woman squeezed me a bit tighter. "That depends on where you come from and your faith. In the religion I practice, the Milis faith, and the place I came from monogamy is the rule of the land. That is, one man marries one woman and they stay with each other for the rest of their lives, allowing for remarriage should one partner die or divorce and remarriage should one be unfaithful. I'm not so naive as to think that inappropriate activities didn't happen behind closed doors, but that was the law of the land at least. Officially, the Asura kingdom allows and recognizes both monogamy and polygamy. Unofficially, we lean heavily towards monogamy because the Milis faith is popular… but there are different rules for nobles and everyone else. The common folk are expected to be fruitful and multiply, to ensure more workers and soldiers. The nobles, on the other hand, are mostly corrupt hedonists. Other lands and religions of the central continent practice either monogamy or polygamy, or both. That's the practice of multiple partners marrying. Generally, that's one man and two or three wives. There aren't many places where that's reversed."
Pausing, she added quickly, "But Rudy, everyone has to agree to something like that! You can't just decide it for yourself or you'll hurt their feelings!"
"Huh. Good to know."
Her hand came out from behind my back and ran through my hair, before her fingers clenched my skull. "Please don't turn into a man like your father."
I winced. "Wasn't planning on it."
Zenith squeezed a little harder, her nails digging in. "Rudy… I know about Roxy."
I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry, or deny it. Instead, I asked, "What do you know?"
"I know the two of you were getting up to adult things together at night. I peeped. I didn't realize you were so… mature for your age. Must be the Greyrat blood. I also know that, because she's a Migurd, Roxy is older than she looks. Did she coerce you, or…?"
Reaching up, I gently brushed her hand off of my head before turning around and sitting cross-legged on the bed so I could look her in the eye properly. "I caught her masturbating in the hall one night while you and father were trying for another child."
Zenith blushed, covering her mouth and looking away. "Yes, she did like to watch," she admitted quietly. "I saw her one night… She didn't do or say anything else, so I thought it was a little harmless fun to blow off some frustration. It was kind of exciting, actually."
"Not in my need-to-know category," I deadpanned.
So at least Zenith was aware of Roxy's voyeurism. Not entirely surprising. I rolled my eyes, suddenly glad I caught her when I did. If it were Paul, Roxy might just have wound up like Lilia. Nope, mine damnit.
"We talked. You know I'm… not exactly normal," I admitted with a shrug. I was unprepared for the woman's strength when she grabbed me, turned me around and pulled me into her lap. I settled in and enjoyed the breasts resting against the back of my head and neck. "Definitely see why dad has a type."
Zenith's chin dug into the top of my head painfully and I winced. "I've always known you were special, Rudy. I'm the one that first found you, sitting in the study unconscious with a bucket of water and an open spell book."
I blinked. "Oh. That… makes a surprising amount of sense. I'd kind of assumed it was Lilia."
"She discovered it later and kept it secret from us, until I confronted her and confirmed it," Zenith admitted. "I think only Paul didn't know until you blew out part of the house."
"Right." Shaking my head, I continued my previous line of thought. "Anyway, Roxy. We talked. I offered a way for her to experiment with that side of herself safely, because I didn't want her getting kicked out. This was when I thought she was only a teenager. Took a while to figure out the Migurd thing."
Chuckling, Zenith kissed the top of my head. "We wouldn't have thrown her out. Of course, your father might have made a pass, but I doubt it. As you said, he has a type." Humming, Zenith's voice was teasing as she asked, "Roxy, and now Sylphie? Do you have a type, Rudy?"
"My type is 'cute female.' That Roxy is a Migurd and she's going to be stuck like that for the next hundred years and Sylphie has elf in her, so she's probably going to be of a similar build is coincidental. I'd be perfectly happy with a woman who looks like you."
That begs the question though, what am I going to do as a human with one, maybe two potential wives who both have maybe double my own lifespan? That's always the worst, any time one of the immortal or long-lived races mates with a human or one of the other ephemeral races. Offspring doomed to live a half life. Maybe I could dig into medical knowledge? I know up to Intermediate-level right now and I have a whole lot of medical knowledge this world didn't. The problem is, I don't trust trying to hack my own DNA using magic. Something to try later, after much experimentation and animal tests—
With a triumphant sound, Zenith said, "But you admit it's Roxy and Sylphie!"
I opened my mouth to deny it, before slowly closing it. I considered what she'd said for a moment before admitting, "Probably. Roxy, yes. Sylphie, well I'd have to be oblivious to not see that she has a crush. And since I'm the only guy she knows and I'm kind of a huge influence on her life, odds are good she's going to grow up with one person in mind when she starts thinking about romance and marriage. Getting off track again though. After we added the bathroom, your nightly performance broke her and Roxy crawled into my bed one night and didn't leave. There was some kissing, a bit of touching, and a lot of lewd hand holding involved. It was nice."
Giggling, and fully committed to teasing apparently, Zenith asked, "Do you know what's involved in making a baby, Rudy?"
I sighed. So, it was going to be one of those days. Well, if it took her mind off of Paul's betrayal and gave me some genuine bonding time with Zenith—of which I hadn't actually had much lately—I wouldn't begrudge her. I didn't spend nearly enough time with her as it was. Paul and I at least talked while we were training, but I didn't even have that with Zenith and I'd been spending a lot of time out of the house lately.
Have I been neglecting her? She's given me nothing but unconditional love and support, and I've been… way too independent, so she might be feeling like I don't need her or want her around.
It was still hard to see this young woman as my mother, just as it was hard to see Paul as my father—especially when he fucked up as bad as he did. The problem is, I was a grown man. I didn't need new parents, on an emotional level. I didn't want them, either. But that didn't mean I had to reject them entirely. Maybe I should just stop trying. They can be family without being replacement parents. And even if I were just treating her as a… I don't know, sibling? Cousin? I've still been neglecting her. I'll have to do better.
If that meant enduring a little teasing for Zenith, then so be it. Especially when I bore some blame for her taking this burden on her shoulders.
That didn't mean I wouldn't give as good I got, though. So, I put on my best 'innocent' voice and turned up the 'cute but oblivious shota' act to eleven. "No mother, I don't. Why don't you tell me? Please, spare no details. I want to be a good and dutiful husband for both Roxy and Sylphie when I grow up!"
"Well, you see, when a man and a woman… and sometimes another woman love each other very much," I heard the hitch in her voice, but ignored it as Zenith and I played our little game.
Months passed.
I spent more time with Zenith as she ballooned up, heavy with her second child. It was nice. Turns out, yeah, I had been neglecting her. I didn't realize just how touchy-feely and physically needy she was until I started spending more time with her. I didn't mind, but it was a reminder of my own failure that the moment I started actually spending time with her she latched on like she was afraid I'd run away the moment she turned her back. Thankfully, she never got tooclingy and always encouraged me to go out and spend time with Sylphie or keep up my practice.
Lilia actually started being nice to me. Like, going out of her way to do things and occasionally getting physically affectionate—even if she was still pretty stoic. We wound up spending some time talking. Most of that was about her past, and how she met Paul. Got to say, knowing my dad in this world is a rapist by the standards of my old world is kind of a low blow. Even by the standards of this world, what he did was… morally ambiguous? No, it was still pretty fucked up.
You can't just go slipping into a lady's room at night and dick her down without asking first, even if she doesn't kick you out of bed.
The way I understood it was: Lilia was born to a certain Water God sword school's master as his only child. Lilia herself was never really that great a student, but she was beloved by all the other students and that changed a bit as she matured from a girl into a young woman. Paul showed up, already skilled in Sword God school, and picked up their techniques faster than pretty much anyone else—he was a natural prodigy. Lilia's father, who had been holding off on deciding who to offer her hand to, was leaning towards Paul—according to Lilia, she wouldn't have been against the idea.
The other students resented the young master coming along, showing them up, and then having no real interest in the beauty of their school. The other students treated Paul like shit and made his time there hell. Paul got tired of it and one night, he snuck into Lilia's room and stole her innocence as one last 'fuck you' to the school, before lighting out the next morning before they figured out what he'd done. Lilia was less upset about the… aggressive encounter than she was about him pulling the 'love her and leave her' routine.
It's why Lilia sought him out for a job in the first place, after her injury while working as a bodyguard—she had intended to blackmail him into letting her work for him in exchange for her silence.
And yet, she chose to seduce him this time and was having his child. Yeah, the entire situation was all kinds of fucked up here. Paul was a piece of shit for what he had done—even if she wanted to be pushed down and taken by force (which she did), the intent behind the act was what mattered, and what I gathered was that it was to tarnish the school through Lilia. Lilia was… damaged goods, I'll say. Probably always had been, even before what Paul did. I knew the type. The kind that always made excuses for the horrible things people in their lives did to them—who tended to become the sort who couldn't see why anyone would treat them decently, because they held no value in themselves.
Well, I thought that, then she told me about all the otherpeople who had raped her and how, by comparison, what Paul did wasn't so bad. So it was entirely possible that she was just that pragmatic of a person. Nope, still broken.
It also explained a lot about why Lilia didn't really trust me. And that's what it was.
I was an adult and I looked at her with an adult's eyes. I saw her as a man sees a woman, and she knew it. Had a finely honed sense for it, in fact. I could pretend, but I couldn't pull off the 'innocent young boy' act for long and to be honest, I never really bothered unless it was to my benefit. There was probably some subconscious worry there that I'd turn out like my dad, or those men. Which explained why she left me and Roxy to our own devices—if I was 'playing' with Roxy, I wasn't sneaking into her room at night or something stupid. Why she openly admitted she was relieved when she found me and Roxy fooling around.
Was it a dumb fear? Yes. Especially of a child, from her perspective. Most especially from one who had not only done her no harm, but gone out of his way to be kind to her until her own lack of effort finally convinced him to just stop trying most of the time.
But it was understandable, so I cut her all the slack. I didn't exactly enjoy being shunned for something I didn't do and couldn't control, but at least now she was working on fixing it.
Not my problem to fix after all, it turns out. Thanks, Paul. You dick.
Sylphie came by when she could, just to fawn over both Zenith and Lilia, wonder in her eyes as she did the usual "Can I feel it?!" thing most women and girls do. Lilia wasn't too sure about it, but eventually surrendered to the moe—Sylphie was learning how to actually push for what she wanted, and it was hard to say no to that face anyway. Zenith, on the other hand, absolutely loved the attention and encouraged it. I began to suspect she had a pregnancy fetish when I explained to her that 'Roxy' had told me that it was safe to have sex while pregnant, up until the last weeks of term, so long as she avoided missionary after the fourth month. Sorry Roxy, I guess I'm raising your estimation in their eyes again for something you didn't do.
Apparently, Paul was either forgiven or Zenith just decided she had a use for him and an itch to scratch, because the nightly sessions resumed. More amusingly, Lilia joined those nightly sessions shortly thereafter. Probably because Zenith bullied her into it.
Actually, no. I'm certain that was it, because I heard part of that particular conversation.
It was after I went to bed one night, I heard Zenith get particularly loud from downstairs. "You had a hand in breaking my vows, so take responsibility! Besides, there's no point to sleeping downstairs and making my husband go back and forth every night, when it would be easier to just push the beds together. I, I don't like seeing it but what's done is done."
Like any man with two dick cells to rub together—notice I didn't say brain cells—I'm pretty sure Paul just nodded his head and went along with whatever was said at that point. I couldn't blame him for that, given that the idea of getting both Zenith and Lilia into bed was a pretty damn appealing one.
Luckily for me, around that time, we finished up the addition to the house and I was able to move my things out of the study and into my new, much expanded room. The book shelf, work desk, chair, and Roxy's bed came with me while the crib and my old bed stayed behind. Roxy's bed for practical reasons, not sentimental. She hadn't slept on the mattress as long as I had mine, so it wasn't as compressed and was softer.
The new expansion had a mostly wood interior over the bricks and wood paneling that made up the walls. I had made a fireplace since it only connected to the main house by one door and the heat from the hearth didn't exactly keep it warm. Since I was concerned about potentially burning the place down even with a screen over the fireplace, I made sure the floor for a good yard around it was brick. I separated off a third of the space into a semi-private bathroom so I wouldn't have to compete with everyone else for the upstairs bathroom. However, since there were already four people in the house with two more on the way, I planned in some future proofing and separated my actual living space from the bathroom, so someone could enter the expansion into a hall and either go left for the restroom, right for my room, or straight to go outside.
We put in glass windows like the rest of the house, made from glass I'd pulled from the lightning craters that had been cleaned up and fitted in place with earth magic. Those had wooden shutters over them that closed from the outside, in case of storms. The roof was tarred wood with adobe shingles over the top of it, and after we finished covering the outside to make it match the rest of the house, it was the only thing that didn't match as the rest of the roofing was thatch. Adobe shingles didn't have to be replaced as often as thatch and, when I explained that, Paul decided it might be best to do the whole roof over in the same style later on.
For all that I enjoyed the new room, I didn't actually spend much time there. No, most of that time was spent either training by myself, with Paul, or with Sylphie when I wasn't with Zenith or Lilia.
Then there were the pregnancy cravings. I'd taken some of the money I made in the village and bought some ingredients and spices to try a few different things. And that was how we got things like,
"Ruuuudyyyy~" Zenith whined, sending me a pitiful look. "I want iiiice creeeeeaaaam~"
"And pickles," Lilia added.
I made the mistake of asking, "Together?"
And thus, bore witness to the ungodly abomination that was pickles dipped in ice cream.
Swear to God, Roxy had better not ask for shit like that after I knock her up.
Despite having several breakthroughs in my own spellwork and in developing an anti-Paul fighting style, I had hit a wall where pure Sword God and Water God sword styles were concerned. I couldn't touch him even while boosting myself with mana reinforcement. The occasional dirty trick, such as summoning up an ice or earth sword and using that in an off hand for a strike he might not expect were always parried, blocked, or countered, even when I resorted to testing out experimental created swords—like the one earth/ice combination that was as thin and strong an edge as I could manage and which cut through trees and rocks like butter.
Yeah, no, he just shrugged it off with his wooden practice sword like it was just more wood then demanded I go back to using either Sword God or Water God style. I was left to conclude that whatever he was doing, it was very similar to my own mana reinforcement, but much stronger or more concentrated—essentially creating a shield around his weapon and body. And for all the practice we had, he remained a shitty teacher, whose best advice to date was, "You have to put more 'oomph' into it, Rudy! More like 'rrrgh!' Really lean into it!"
He tried hard, though. Even if he had the patience of a four year old. …A four year old who wasn't me or Sylphie.
Zenith's delivery was rough. Lilia couldn't help, so they had to bring in the midwife from the village. On top of that, it was a breech birth. No amount of turning on Zenith's part or trying to turn the baby by hand managed to flip it head side down, so the hard way it was.
I got to participate in my first delivery. I had kind of hoped it would be for my own eventual kids, but nope. I stayed on hand to cast healing on Zenith and the child to make sure things didn't go sideways. It took nearly a full day of labor and a whole lot of healing spells, but eventually we were treated to the cries of a newborn baby girl.
Just as everyone was relaxing and the midwife was getting ready to leave, Lilia's kid decided it was time to join in on the fun and the maid went into labor. She was rushed into the study and I went out and refilled and heated the hot water tank while Paul gathered supplies. Lilia's delivery was fast, uncomplicated, and relatively painless by comparison. A quick healing spell from me after it was all said and done and she and her daughter were sleeping peacefully.
Paul was now the proud father of two baby girls: Zenith's daughter, Norn, and Lilia's daughter, Aisha.
I turned seven.
Remember when I said I wanted siblings? Yeah, so do I. And I have to resist the urge to bash my head against the nearest flat surface every time I do. Apparently, I forgot what that was like the first time around, in my original life.
Norn and Aisha were typical babies. In other words: loud, smelly, and obnoxious. They cried constantly, over every little thing.
Time to wake up? Time for crying.
Wet or dirty diaper? Crying.
Hungry? Crying.
Bath time? More crying.
Bed time? Screaming bloody murder.
Middle of the night, they wake up and they're bored? I'll let you guess.
I had never before been so glad for my forethought and the ability to use magic. Even as relatively isolated as I was from the madness at nights, as opposed to at ground zero, I still occasionally got woken up to the sounds of crying. It got so bad that Zenith occasionally fled the main house and joined me in bed when she wanted a night of uninterrupted sleep. Zenith is a very grabby sleeper, but very comfortable, so I didn't really mind sharing. Seriously, those titties were amazing. There was just one—no, two little problems…
Namely, the occasional incident of waking up with a wet spot on my back, neck, or face depending on how we were laying.
Know what sucks? Not being able to take advantage of fetish material on moral grounds. This made for the second time this woman had tormented me with those titties and I couldn't properly appreciate it.
Where Paul and Zenith were ready to break, and my own patience was severely strained, Lilia was downright energetic. Apparently, this is what she was actually expecting when I was born and now it was her time to shine. I had been easy mode and pretty much raised myself by comparison to the girls.
While I hated hearing them scream and sometimes seriously contemplated making a wind spell specifically to shut them up by cutting off sounds from their room (and then went and did it, even if I didn't use it for its original purpose, because creating an area of vacuum was easy and having a zone of silence spell would be handy) unlike Paul I had experience with dealing with this stage of child-rearing. No, I'd never had kids of my own in that previous life. Instead, I made the mistake of dating a single mother with a newborn—and she took complete advantage and used me to raise her kid, since the daddy was a worthless sack of shit who ran off.
Lesson learned.
So I helped change diapers, wipe asses (with magic), wash clothes (more magic), settle them down when they wanted to be held, and so on. I left the actual feeding to Lilia and Zenith though, since this world still lacked rubber nipples for bottles, they were too young to spoon feed, and I wasn't going to use the French method. My helping out didn't stop there, however. Tasks that Lilia had taken care of previously, I handled with magic in a fraction of the time.
Dishes? Conjure water, heat it, throw in some soap, use it to scrub everything spotless, then use hot wind to dry them. Took maybe five minutes to clean up after a meal.
Laundry? Pretty much the same process as dishes—I just made sure to be gentle with my scrubbing and air drying, since I didn't want to ruin our clothes. Half an hour, tops. I'd let Lilia handle folding and putting them away though, since that was time consuming and couldn't be cut down with magic (yet. I would find a way eventually, because no way was I being stuck with that chore and having it eat up time later on in life). Also, because she complained that I didn't fold the laundry right. Roll your clothes, woman! They take up less space that way.
Sweeping, mopping, dusting, and otherwise keeping the house clean? More exercise in fine magical control.
And to me, that's all those things were. An excuse to get in more magical control exercises and find new and useful ways of using my magic. I hadn't minded doing housework in my previous life—I'd lived as a bachelor for most of it and I hated living in a mess, so it was just one of those things I did on a daily basis. With magic though, simple chores actually became fun. Because magic.
We lost a maid, but we gained two members of the family. And I gained a… friend? Supporter? I wasn't quite sure what to call Lilia's relationship with me now.
Paul, by comparison, was utterly useless. Sure, he could swing a sword and he was apparently pretty good at making them, but when it came time to actually deal with those babies, he was clueless. Housework? No, he'd find an excuse to leave as soon as the topic came up.
But with a sword… The man was amazing. Advanced-level in Sword God, Water God, and North God styles. Unfortunately, I had yet to rise above Elementary in Sword or Water God, and he still wouldn't teach me North God style for whatever reason (and if he caught me watching him practice it, then trying it out myself, he'd get pissy). Our continued sparring only served to highlight the gap in our respective strengths.
Ah well, I'd just have to content myself with advancements in magic instead. I had moved up to Saint-level magic in every combat magic field, even if that was unofficial and unrecognized. I had taken what I knew of the jump to Saint-level water magic and applied it to my other spells, so I had a variety of spells at that level, and had even theoretically reached King-level in that field in water magic, but as with lightning it was simply too destructive to use anywhere but well away from people so I didn't get to practice it.
I had started practicing with combination spells for a bit more versatility. Fire and wind produced some nasty Saint-level fire tornadoes—about what I'd classify as an F1. Wind and Water got me a typhoon that made my first Saint-level water spell Cumulonimbus look tame by comparison and flooded the fields for a week. Wind and Earth didn't actually do great at Saint-level, but at Advanced-level produced a very nice sandblaster—I felt the Saint-level version might do better situationally, such as in an arid area or somewhere with more debris to pick up. I had an even better, more precise cutting/penetrating combination spell in water and fire that shot a pencil thin lance of boiling water at a target. That one, I bumped up to three variations at Saint-level: either a single huge stream, a multitude of medium sized lances, or a rain of lances of various size over an area.
Earth and fire though… I modified the Earth Cannon spell and made something absolutely nasty, and that wasn't even Advanced-level. For a single target spell, it was absolutely devastating. The original Earth Cannon, I had already modified using my knowledge of Earth projectiles—giving it rifling and adjusting its shape and composition to emulate full metal jacket and hollow point rounds. The combination spell took that modified Earth Cannon spell and filled the inside with molten stone under high pressure, making it explosive. Then, I scaled it back in terms of power and size to Elementary-level and created Stone Bullet—an actual, bullet-sized projectile with the same options and modifications, for dealing with weaker targets that I didn't want to completely annihilate and for which good, old fashioned physical force would work best over other spells.
Lightning remained my strongest, or perhaps most dangerous single magic combat field, but I was hesitant to even use anything but Elementary-level spells on humans unless I fully intended to kill them. Forget pulling out anything above Intermediate inside a town or village. Still, it was my trump card for dealing with Paul if it ever came to a serious throwdown. Lightning spells were simply too fast to dodge, and in a fight he who strikes first usually wins. My biggest worry was the obvious need to use healing on him after, if I did.
Sylphie was progressing along nicely in her studies. I didn't have the resources to make her a wand, so I reluctantly gifted her the wand Roxy had given me when I felt she was ready. It helped, sure, but I didn't need it at the moment. The benefit it granted Sylphie was greater than its benefit to me, and I was sure Roxy would forgive me and see the practicality in my actions. At least, I hoped.
On the Sylphie front, related to the magic front, I had a problem.
One day, I wanted to go Ranoa University and study there to learn the things Roxy hadn't known. Things like summoning, higher level spells, and how to write out spell formula circles. Unfortunately, I couldn't really leave Sylphie behind when I went. That wouldn't be fair to her and she was wasted here in this little village, with just what I'd taught her. She had real talent and power, she just needed to hone it. Magical college was expensive however, and I was pretty sure that while my parents would be willing to pay for my tuition, they wouldn't be able to pay for Sylphie as well. Laws and his wife certainly couldn't afford it.
Okay, so in truth, I brought up the subject of going to Ranoa University to her after Roxy sent me a letter letting me know she had settled down for now in the Shirone kingdom, taking on a job as magical instructor to their seventh prince Pax Shirone and a temporary position as a court mage. I hated the brat immediately when she described him as a peeping, panty thieving little shit who kept trying to cop a feel of my future wife and she'd had to set him on fire no less than twice to dissuade unwanted touching. At least there was good news—she had advanced to King-level water magic. She gave me some words of encouragement but suggested that if I hit a bottleneck, I should try knocking on Ranoa University's doors.
I didn't feel like I was nearing any kind of bottleneck, but I really, really wanted to get my hands on more magic. The things I could do with permanent spell formations and mana storage alone… I already had half a dozen different designs tumbling around in my head. The first of which, I could theoretically prototype soon, even without those prerequisites. All it really needed was aluminum, copper, and either rubber or leather. And that wasn't even counting my chemical knowledge and combining that with magic.
Magical gunpowder, mmm… My raifu is my laifu.
I sent Roxy a care package in response.
Dear Roxie,
Things have been a bit exciting since you left. Hectic, really.
I've missed you these past years.
It'll probably be closer to three by the time you get this, given the distance involved.
On the bright side, that means we're down to just five or so.
I'm happy to hear you're doing well.
Congratulations on making King-level! Now, hurry on to the next breakthrough.
Also, I'm glad you managed to find a new tutoring job.
The prince sounds like a real… charmer.
I can't fault him for his good taste, but he needs to keep his hands to himself.
The Roxy I remember is neither weak nor frail.
She's a beautiful young lady with a slim, womanly figure, a kind disposition, and a brilliant mind.
Don't talk bad about her or I'll get angry.
Hearing you think fondly of me makes me happy.
I hope those memories are especially fond at night?
I bet you just blushed. Ah, I wish I could see it.
On to local happenings…
I've been keeping up with my studies.
I've reached Saint-level in every combat magic.
I reached your level with water magic and that field we discovered during my exam. (I was intentionally vague here, but left enough that I knew she'd figure it out. If someone other than Roxy read our letters, I didn't want to let the lightning genie out of the bottle.)
Sword training is not progressing at the same pace. Not even remotely. I seem to be stuck at Elementary-level, there.
I just can't figure out what it is Paul is doing and he's not you, so getting an explanation that makes sense is impossible.
You know how he is.
On the other hand, I've had what I feel is some success combining magic and swordsmanship in new and interesting ways. I'll show you, next time we see each other.
Sylphie is doing well.
She's advanced to Advanced-level on everything but fire magic and has taken well to some of the new spells I've been using. She recently graduated to Saint-level Water Mage.
Beyond that, you know how she is. She's just happy to have someone to talk to, let alone a teacher.
Thanks for the advice on Ranoa University. I'm going to see what I can do about getting there. Unfortunately, when I mentioned it to Sylphie, she kind of cried. A lot.
I'm going to have to take her with me.
Do they have any sort of scholarship program? Grants to gifted children? Patronage from wealthy backers? Some way to get someone in on a discounted tuition?
She's too gifted to just let languish here. I think I see what you saw in me, now—when I first showed you what I could do.
Please advise. If I come up with something myself, I'll let you know.
Zenith got pregnant. The birth was complicated—breech birth—but she and the child made it. I have a little sister now. Norn. She looks like a miniature version of mom, so far. Very cranky, though.
Coincidentally, around the same time, Lilia mysteriously got pregnant as well.
Yeah, I'm sure you can guess that there's no mystery involved. It was Paul.
I've got two little sisters, actually. Lilia's girl is named Aisha. She has her mother's red hair, but she's very playful.
I'm working on a little project for you. I think you'll appreciate it. When I finish it, you can consider it a belated birthday present, for every one of yours I missed.
I've enclosed some things in this care package for you. I hope you enjoy them.
Thinking of you fondly.
-Rudeus Greyrat
P.S. Thank you for the gift you left on my pillow.
The other things included in the parcel were: a fancy brass ball point pen in the shape of her staff with several refillable glass inserts, a bottle of the perfumed ink I'd be using for her book, and the scope since I figured she might appreciate them.
As for Sylphie… In my mind, it was implied that she would be coming with me and that's how I meant it when I mentioned going to Ranoa University. Sylphie didn't see it like that at all. She begged and pleaded for me not to abandon her and even days after she still occasionally teared up. I had thought she was doing good with standing up for herself, but apparently that and me potentially leaving were two entirely different things for her.
So, I came to the obvious conclusion. If I went, it wouldn't be alone and that meant I needed to raise money for it myself. I had no idea how much tuition would cost, but I had a feeling the occasional gold coin off my pens and silver from doing work around the village weren't going to cut it. No, in all likelihood, it was going to take hundreds of gold. Enough that I'd spend years working to cover it when I could instead be developing magic. I wasn't against hard work, but I'd rather work smarter, not harder. While there was a chance I could make something using Earth knowledge that would be worth more than that, I'd first need startup capital, even if I could make most of the parts myself—a classic example of the old saw that you had to have money to make money. Instead of that, I decided on something that could see me making money and having enough free time to do what I loved.
One night at dinner, I brought it up to the family. The familynow included Lilia sitting at the table instead of serving from the side and taking her meals partway into ours, when she was sure we didn't need anything, or Zenith forced her to sit and eat with us. Even now, Zenith occasionally sent a pained look at Paul and Lilia, but I knew she was trying hard. Do your best, Zenith.
"So, I'd like to make a request."
"No."
And so proceeded the usual slapstick as Zenith, followed by Lilia, whacked Paul for his immediate denial. I waited for the inevitable and they didn't disappoint. Paul made the mistake of further inserting his foot in his mouth and got smacked a second time.
"I want to study at Ranoa University. I'm doing well enough on my own, but we don't really have the sort of materials I need to advance further in new ways. Namely, books and resources on summoning and magic circles, and whatever else I can get my hands on. But when I told Sylphie she got… really upset. So I can't go without her. Her family can't afford the tuition and I can't ask you to foot the bill. So instead, I'm asking if you can help me find a job, maybe as a home tutor like Roxy. It'd give me time to work on my own skills while making money and it's a better option than just making a bunch of stuff and trying to sell it in the village. We don't get enough traders coming through to make much off of that and I'm losing a lot of money that way because they aren't really paying what they should for things since we're so far out."
Paul sighed, his serious mien dissolving as he relaxed in his chair and leaned forward onto his hands. "If you had asked straight out for the money, I would have said no. As it stands, I'm still going to say no to the college. For one: as your teacher, I can't let you give up on your sword techniques now. If you do, you'll never advance."
I resisted the urge to comment that it was a poor teacher that blamed his student for his own inability to impart his lessons. At this point, I was bashing my head against the brick wall that was Paul's shitty teaching method and him not wanting me to go to Ranoa so he could keep me here and keep bashing my head against that wall sounded a whole lot like him being unable to admit that he had failed as a teacher.
"I just said I wasn't planning to drop training my sword skills," I pointed out. "Any of my skills. Whatever I do has to give me enough time in the day that I can still improve myself. If I go to Ranoa, I'm not going to just stop practicing the sword."
"You did, so at least you're thinking ahead," Paul nodded. "The world's too dangerous to go out into it without knowing how to handle yourself, Rudy. And that brings me to number two: you're only seven. You're a smart kid, but you don't have the kind of experience you need to go out into the world yet. We'd be throwing away our responsibilities as parents if we did. The earliest I'd even consider letting you out on your own is fifteen. …No, twelve. As for the job," he hummed thoughtfully.
I was shocked. Paul? Thoughtful? He was in rare form today.
"I'll ask around. I may have an idea. Stick to your sword practice for now. I don't think paying Sylphie's fees is good for her, but I can already tell you're not going to budge on it and you'll just try to find a way to do it anyway if I say no."
"You're right, I would. I already have some ideas for that, but they're dependent on a bigger market than the village. This was why I suggested a teaching job somewhere. In a city, I could earn the money myself by making curios and one-offs and selling them at a huge profit," I explained. Curious as to his stipulation on age, I asked, "Why twelve?"
Paul grinned. "Because it's when I left home."
"I see," I murmured. "Thank you. Let me know when you have something, please."