Chapter 17 I walk a lonely road
Surprise chapter! So soon after the last update?! NANI! I know I'm trying to make up for lost time. Also I already got a new job after less than one week of being unemployed. So I'm happy to be back in the economy working 10 minutes away from home. In my previous Job I was dedicating 12 hours of my life a day to that job, nope, not in this case. I will be saving 3 hours which will leave me more time to dedicate to you guys. I'm so thrilled.
Anywho, time to read the messages.
To Rollingfire: I'm glad you liked my interactions between Ghislaine and Rudeus. There is another funny moment between the two in this chapter dedicated to you.
With that being said enjoy the chapter.
"I will reach you! No matter how many years it takes!" I shouted as Rudeus began to fade away from his dreams snapping back to reality. If only he knew that his was no dream.
I continued to walk, my feet brushed against the cosmic clouds as I felt myself pass from one universe to the next. This was the plains of eternity, the plains I had explored for a large portion of my never-ending life after I had left my previous world behind. If someone was able to expand beyond the universe and see their grain of sand and many others like them, they could see to their surprise a giant footprint, like a footprint that was composed of wet sand from a beach, my footprint. I had chosen the path of absolute freedom instead of absolute control, normally if a person with a huge amount of mana like Laplace reached absolute freedom then he would be able to travel from one world to the next at random, to him he would see something like an infinite corridor as one world passes while another appears, however the more mana a person had the more they were able to explore the plains at a greater level, in other words all I had to do was choose which grain of sand to visit.
Mana, the very word was a limitation on what the power actually was. The purest meaning wasn't mana but energy manipulation, the ability and capacity to form a direct connection with the potential energy of the universe and warp it to ones will. The more mana a person had the more energy they were able to pull from and change into their desires.
Now my desire focused on the point at which Rudeus disappeared. The world he went to didn't feel right, it was a timeline I had looked over several times but found no evidence of Rudeus or anyone of his mana capacity before to give me cause for hope and yet there he was. Still it would take me awhile before I could reach him but I had established an Ansible connection with his world and Rudeus himself, so no matter how many branches in that timeline formed I had a lock on him now. I chuckled, my capacity and signal was allot stronger than Hitogami's so his insight from his little void world would be fucked up for a while until I managed to plant my feet in the world. Now it was only a matter of time before I would reach Rudeus without that little man gods interference.
If I ran and Rudeus appeared again then I was worried that he would try to flee from me or worse fight me before I managed to reach him. What was more noticeable was that his mana capacity had multiplied excessively compared to the first time I saw him, within the next three years if he continued to multiply it he would probably reach the same mana capacity as me. I smiled at that moment, beforehand I was so desperate to find him I had almost given up all hope.
There was a sneaking suspicion that Infinity was involved in this Rudeus's sudden appearance. Infinity was composed of the unconscious desires and wills of infinite people which also included apart of myself, if this was Infinities doing then there was a reason for it. Still I was pissed off at that cosmic god for being so secretive about who I actually was, it called me a "Paradoxical being and that it was my purpose to find meaning." Annoying bastard. I spent a good part of the beginning of my life down in the sixth sided world and after hundreds of years of exploring the multiverse I was going back to that world which was a completely different timeline, one where Paul and Zenith fell in love and had Rudeus. I just prayed Rudeus didn't know who he was and was just like me.
Depending on which timezone and how much Rudeus had managed to change the world he occupied it would be nice to meet Orsted and apologize to him, or to meet Eris and try to give her some of the memories I have of her, maybe say hello to Roxy yeah that would be nice. But regardless it is still a different world, a different timeline, it's not the same Eris, not the same Roxy, and not the same Orsted, I shouldn't try to repent for the sins I committed by trying to redeem myself.
I sighed as I continued to walk thinking about redemption while I took one step after another to the focus point, my one true objective. Still it filled with me allot of hope and joy that all this bloodshed, pain, and searching I had gone through might be worth something even if it was for a completely selfish purpose to complete one part of myself, once I was done with Rudeus I would go back to this plain of existence and continue my search.
"Why are you still searching?" A female voice said right next to me.
I jumped a little bit at the sudden appearance of the young woman walking beside me. I knew who she was but I was more surprised at the fact that she had even bothered to find me. She had taken the appearance from when I first found her, if not a little more tidy and she didn't have a huge bleeding crater in her head so that was nice… well I saw to that and fixed her up, saving her from the point of death, hell she was two thirds into the light at the end of the tunnel until I managed to pull her back.
"Hello Anna how are you doing exploring the stars? Coming to pester me I assume?" I sighed.
"Anna was my birth name, my name is…" She began to state annoyed at me, her brow twitched even more when I interrupted her knowing what she was going to say.
"You like to go by Elizabeth yes yes I know but I find it odd that you would insist on going by that name since it's what your warden named you, that or he just called you the Lamb to his brainwashed followers." I didn't have time to talk to her much I was devoting my time to going to Rudeus.
"We will go in circles if we keep talking like this." Elizabeth said stopping herself from arguing with me. "I came to walk beside you a little bit because I was worried about you."
"No need to be worried about me." I retorted.
"You fucking idiot! How many more years will you spend on this! We are cosmological beings with access to every point in the multiverse and yet you choose to go back to where you started! Why!" She had a large intellect, it was one of the things I liked about her but other times in situations like this I didn't like her asking me the really important questions… maybe I was just stubborn.
"Because it will make everything I have gone through worth it!" I yelled back at her.
"You already tried that on me! And guess what? I wasn't a version of you! I was a dud! I'm sorry for wasting a few years of your immortal life."
"You gave me hope and you took it away from me, that's enough to make any man dangerous, god knows what that will do to a man like me. And we both know there is no such thing as immortals Elizabeth. Someday I will lay down in the dirt but only until my life is complete, only until I know who I am."
"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life." Elizabeth whispered holding my hand in a moment of desperation.
"If you want a simple life go to Paris! You've wanted to for so long." I snapped shaking her hand off mine.
"But if I do it alone then I will be living a fantasy." She cried out, she stood in front of me at those words grasping my shoulders and preventing me from taking another step forward until I addressed her, but I was too furious.
"Ignorance is bliss, I above all others should know what that means. So if you want to I can wipe your memories and turn that fantasy into a reality, I can wipe any memory of me from your soul and put you on a nice cotton bed in Paris, and then when you wake up I will only be a fading, long forgotten memory."
"That would be cruel. I won't forsake the memory of the second person in my life who saved me. Who actually gave a damn about me!" She punched my shoulder at my remark, it wasn't hard but it still hurt me, only a woman like her had that power. It was clear she was almost at the brink of tears. I stopped walking for a second and looked at her sadly.
"Elizabeth I have to do this, please respect that. But I will do you this one favor. If you don't want to forsake me you can continue to visit me, but please don't be clingy, enjoy going on your own adventures saving little girls from bad Irish accented men or something like that, hell give those men a trans orbital lobotomy for all I care…. I'm…. I'm sorry for yelling at you Elizabeth."
She sniffed a little and wiped the place she had hit me in an attempt to apologize for her previous punch. "I forgive you, but anytime you need me, you know I'm everywhere."
"Yes I know." I smiled back at her.
"With that being said mind if I have a hammer and a very large needle? I need to perform some minor brain surgery on a certain person's frontal lobe." She smiled sadistically.
I chuckled and formed a medical hammer and needle for her, handing them over. Without saying another word she outstretched her hand and a portal into another world formed where she leaped into it, hammer raised above her head.
She was broken just like me, more than broken she was shattered but yet her soul was filled with kindness. I was jealous of the strength she had. If Rudeus turned out to be a dud most likely she would interfere and try to prevent me from unleashing my rage on the world, that was who she was even though I was stronger than her. One could say she is true definition of bravery, to stand in the presence of a stronger opponent with a smile on their face. Shaking those thoughts aside I continued to press forward.
Looking at the destination I continued to walk through the plains of eternity, getting closer and closer to my goal.
"I will reach you Rudeus, no matter how many years it takes." I whispered.
A knock at the carriage door woke Rudeus up and Ghislaine peaked her head into the enclosed space.
"Good morning Rudeus, we are back."
Rudeus yawned outstretching both of his arms, after that good stretch he twisted his back to get off the annoying pain of a bumpy hard carriage ride. Once a few pops in the spine was heard he got up and stepped outside into the bright light.
They had parked the carriage ride outside of the city limits next to the cities barn where the horses would be taken care of and the carriages would be unloaded.
'I can't wait to see how much Eris has grown.' Rudeus smiled thinking happily to himself. With that in mind he grabbed his bag filled with clothes and various other pieces of camping gear and walked hurriedly to the main castle.
Before the cities gates even opened up a little bit a punch to his gut sent him flying. He barely had any time to catch the attack.
'Yep I know that punch anywhere.' Rudeus smiled as Eris exited out of the city gates, her arms folded but she was smirking at him while she stood above him.
"Hello Eris." Rudeus got up clutching his now sore stomach.
Eris continued to smirk up at him.
"What took you so long Rudeus haha."
'Oh she sure seems full of herself.' He thought. He got up patting the dirt off of his clothes.
"How was the capital?" Eris asked. Rudeus noted that she was being a bit respectful towards him where she would first show interest in another persons story, at least that was his case. He would have to give thanks to her teachers for managing to teach her that level of manners. But Rudeus knew Eris too well, once he was done with his side of the story she would jump into sharing her story.
"Busy, we had a few setbacks but Darius has lost allot of credibility and trust because of his actions. Not only that we have a plan for the next few years to take him down for good. More importantly Notos and the Boreas branch will now work with each other instead of being at odds."
Eris pouted at this. "I don't see why you couldn't have just killed Darius."
At that point Rudeus thanked the world itself that Eris was not queen. Still he agreed with her desire to see that pig obliterated off the face of the earth.
"So do you have something to show me Eris?" Rudeus asked getting to the point as to why she really wanted to talk to him.
"Oh? You seem to know me so well Rudeus haha yes I have something huge to show you." At those last words she outstretched her hands and two balls of fire formed in her palms.
"You… you can do silent spellcasting!" Rudeus jumped up and hugged the girl not minding that his clothes would soon catch fire if he kept holding her, instead of her returning the hug she instead chose to punch him as she dissipated the spell in her right hand and hit him in the ribs.
"I'm so proud of you Eris." Rudeus wheezed out clutching his sides, once again he laid on the ground cradling himself.
"Eris you shouldn't be so mean to Rudeus, he cares allot for your growth and in return you hit him." Ghislaine said standing up for the boy, she looked down at him and winked.
'Oh Ghislaine you are such an angel.' Rudeus softly smiled in a sigh of relief. He then looked over to Philip and he just grinned softly, eyes squinted. It would appear that he was enjoying the scene in front of him quite allot. 'Maybe I was too harsh on Philip, he might even view me with distain…. Hmm, how should I reward him for listening to me so far? Thought's for later.'
Eris pouted but she outstretched her hand to Rudeus which he humbly accepted, getting up off of the dirt. As they walked through the city they continued to talk about what they did and their time apart.
"No one seems to be able to teach as good as you Rudeus, I'm glad you are back. Oh yeah, while you were gone a box arrived from you." Eris said.
"Oh yeah?" Rudeus asked. He knew what it was, it was his treasured response from Roxy which contained her letter and box on her transcript, guide, and interpretation of the demon language. Rudeus was already fluent in it but he had committed to the same actions as he had in his first reincarnation under the assumption that Hitogami was watching him and the slightest hint that Rudeus gave about having knowledge that he didn't learn could tip the man god off that he was dealing with someone who had the ability of reincarnation instead of just someone that came from another world.
Now that Rudeus knew Hitogami's vision was being interfered with he could breath a little and not study the Demon Language, instead he would pretend learn the third language, the Beast Language under Ghislaine to not arouse suspicion from Philip or anyone else.
"Yeah the box is in your room when we get back but can we practice with our wooden swords? I feel I have gotten a bit rusty just sparring with the castle guards. You and Ghislaine are way stronger." Eris said swinging her arm around pretending to hold a sword with which she cut down multiple.
"Speaking of swords and Darius I never got to ask how you felt about taking your first life, you know, back when we were kidnapped, the bald thug that beat you." Rudeus said. He was worried about his inquisition into the question but it was something that needed to be addressed. Eris took her first kill back during Rudeus's first reincarnation around the age of 13 or 14 if he remembered correctly, she had saved the Memory Miko from an assassination attempt back when they were in Millis. Since she was younger in this time she was far more impressionable and could easily develop a lack of understanding for human life if things went too far.
At Rudeus's words she looked at her own hands contemplating her response for a second. "It felt, it felt like a pain came off of my chest when I killed him. I felt happy, not in the fact that I killed him but in the fact that he couldn't hurt me or anyone else anymore." Rudeus smiled at her, that was the response he was looking for in her. She was a good person, Ruijerd would be proud of her when they met.
Speaking of that kidnapping, now that the rumor was about to be spread that Hollow was in fact a Superd Rudeus could use his creation to remove allot of the fearful reputation that the Superds had along with reforming Dead End in this reality. This course of action would happen if the teleportation event occurred and Hollow saved children and villagers where he would claim to be a Superd helping out the people that were caught up in the event.
When Rudeus and Eris, along with Ghislaine and Philip reached their home at the center of the city Eris immediately ran to the shack and pulled out two wooden practice swords tossing one to Rudeus as her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
'Reminds me of whenever she had a moment to spare when we were done with putting Ariel on the throne. Anytime she and I had some breathing room during or after one of Orsteds missions she would use me for a workout… I was so drained through our sessions.' Rudeus smiled remembering the good times with her.
Eris snapped Rudeus out of his thoughts when she charged with a yell, Rudeus assumed the water god style stance as he deflected her blows. He knew her moves by heart even if she didn't know it and water god style was the best way to counteract her strikes. Parry and then attack was the meaning behind the style. More importantly he had read in his summoned books on the style the Samurai of ancient Japan used.
She raised her wooden sword above her head once again and Rudeus kept his sword loose in his grip as the wooden blade faced her. When the strike came he rose his sword up to meet hers but the moment the wood touched at the end he used his wrists to twist the blade to the point it was at a 45 degree angle with the hilt above his head. Like a child going down a steep slide her sword was carried down by the momentum she put behind it as Rudeus deflected the strike. The reason why this move was so effective was because Rudeus was now at an advantage to do a strike from above while Eris's sword was down near the ground from the recent deflection. He swung to tap the top of her head with his blade which would give him a victory, it being a fatal blow to the head if it was a real sword, but he wasn't fast enough as her instincts kicked in, she didn't have the option to take a step back because she would still be in the path of Rudeus's strike so instead she continued with the momentum from her strike.
She kicked the ground and went low while she twisted her torso swinging her sword to hit Rudeus's back. Rudy saw this attack and bent down, his right leg bent while his left remained straight, Eris's desperate strike completely missed him. At that moment Eris realized the mistake of her desperate attack.
Rudeus noticed it too and took a step back as he used his back to bump her. She wasn't properly planted into the ground yet and in an unstable stance, because of Rudeus's push she fell on her rear and she wasn't quick enough to get up as she saw Rudeus's sword pointed at her chin. He won the match.
Before she could get up or yield Rudeus outstretched his hand in an attempt to shake her hand as if to say "Good game."
She slapped it away trying to contain her tears at her loss. She always was a sore loser. As she got up she received a surprise hug from the young boy. Since it was a surprise she didn't know what to do, at first she thought she should hit him but it was nice being embraced by him, like he knew what she was feeling. Eris dropped her blade and just stood still for a moment. When Rudeus was done hugging her he released his embrace but still held onto her shoulders with his hands looking up at her.
"That was an amazing attack Eris, it was really fast I could barely keep up with it. I'm sure if you keep practicing and training with people like Ghislaine I won't be able to stand a chance."
She patted the dirt off herself similar to how Rudeus did a few minutes ago and then followed with a sucker punch to Rudeus's gut. Huffing she strode away with her arms folded.
'Since when did I grow to both expect and enjoy this kind of treatment?!' Rudeus thought while he crashed down onto the ground with Ghislaine walking over and softly patting his back in congratulations.
"That was a good fight." The beast woman said.
Almost a year had passed by since Rudeus had begun teaching Eris, granted a few months were dedicated to causing disruption in the Asuran capital with Philip and Philemon but other than that her education had progressed quite well. Her magic was nearing it's peak though in terms of her educational understanding, advanced was the most that Rudeus was able to get her to understand but she still hadn't mastered it yet only reaching intermediate level in terms of practice, still… it was allot better and stronger than in his first reincarnation.
She could combine spells like how she used earth magic and fire magic to create fireworks, even going to far as to use wind magic to fuel the flames, creating a bigger explosion as a result. She couldn't fly like Sylphy could but that was fine.
On other matters Rudeus had not had a dream of the mysterious stranger that was walking towards him on that cloudy plain. If he recalled that dream it looked to him like the clouds were composed of tiny stars that drifted away from the man or were compacted underneath his feet. It was a foreboding image and no matter how much Rudeus tried to shake it he felt like he was being watched.
Hitogami hadn't given any other commands either and it seemed like his vision was still constricted, Darius gave a huge indication to that because his course of actions didn't suddenly change, his objective was still the same by hiring mages along with scholars to seek out magical anomalies or for that matter delve into dungeons along with an adventuring party to clear it out and find magical items. So far nothing came up.
Ghislaine continued to help Rudeus with Eris's main weakness such as reading, writing, and math. Anytime Eris lost her vigor while studying Rudeus signaled to Ghislaine that she should start talking about her adventuring days and when she was in a pinch because she didn't have these skills that Rudeus was trying to teach the young lady.
Eris was like a small flame when it came to her drive for education, you had to constantly keep putting fuel on it otherwise the flame would go out and never be rekindled. Rudeus on the other hand was enjoying his time of freedom over the weekends in which he spent either on the big teleportation incident prevention which was due in almost two years, or working on electronics. Making things like Radios, Tesla coils, or large electronic magnets made him giggle with glee whenever something went successfully.
One time he accidently put too much juice into a tesla coil using his mana. A huge coil of plasma hit him which made it feel like his heart short circuited for a brief minute. Fortunately Rudeus had immediately cut off the supply of mana and the coil stopped working. That however didn't stop the concern of Ghislaine who heard a high pitched zap sound and barged into Rudeus's room to see if he was alright, only to find that Rudeus had his hair fizzling in a large circle as the remnants of static electricity remained, keeping the strands of his hair floating towards anything that was metal such as nails in the wall, the copper in the tesla coil, or Ghislaine's sword. She tried to contain herself but couldn't hold it in laughed at the ridiculous sight before her, seeing the boy with a huge afro and a burnt smell wafting throughout the room.
Rudeus got up from his seat not saying a word and walked over to her while she was still howling with laugher not understanding the danger that slowly approaching towards her. He reached up and poked her nose. The electricity transferred instantly as a tiny bolt went from his fingertip to her nose. She leapt back clutching her nose and now it was Rudeus's turn to laugh.
In other news the mansion will be open soon to guests from Ars and various other cities hosting nobles and their children to dance with Eris in an effort of courtship.
'No mistakes this time.' Rudeus said repeating his oath to himself that he took on when being reborn in his second reincarnation. He would faithfully teach Eris to dance, she would be like a professional ballerina so that no boy could touch her. She would seem like an unreachable mountainous goal for the rest of the boys.
Thusly the sword and magical schedules were put on hold by both Rudeus and Ghislaine so she can focus on her preparations for the dance. The only thing that wasn't put on hold were her morning sword routines, that she and Ghislaine insisted would remain so her skills would not wither.
After a few days Rudeus saw Eris looking irritable. 'The more I see her the more I want to tease her, knowing I will get punched, am I some sort of masochist?' Rudeus thought to himself.
Edona, the etiquette and dance teacher for Eris came into Rudeus's line of view when he was sneaking in a late night snack, nothing too big but it was a nice ham and cheese sandwich. He had gotten the freshly cut ham from the kitchen storeroom along with the cheese but the bread was something he had summoned. Perfectly made, soft, and fluffy French bread which was more than a footlong and would help satiate Rudeus's apatite. She stopped him in the hallway on Rudeus's way back to his room. He had the sandwich halfway into his mouth with the remaining part dangling from his mouth but despite the cringeworthy scene before the etiquette teacher which looked like a snake that had unhinged it's mouth to eat a huge morsel Rudeus still gave the nobleman's bow and she returned the gesture with a curtsy.
'I am a boy, I can act like a child now and again for crying out loud.' Rudeus chuckled within his inner thoughts.
"Pardon me for asking, do you know how to dance Lord Rudeus." Edona inquired.
Rudeus held up his finger asking her to wait while he sunk his teeth down which divided the sandwich like a sharp knife. After chewing for a few seconds he swallowed and responded to her question.
"I have researched the moves that most of Asuran nobles use but I haven't practiced so I feel I should learn that before I go making claims. And please madam Edona call me Rudeus, I am not a noble by any stretch of the imagination." The boy said beaming up at the older woman.
"I see. Then if you don't mind I would like you to help with Eris's dancing lessons, you can also learn a few things yourself along the way and I'm sure it would benefit you both. The reason why is because it seems difficult for Eris to master the steps I'm trying to teach her and you seem to be the only boy she respects enough for her to actually allow a chance with. Furthermore since you are also her teacher I'm sure you might have some insight to add to her lessons despite you being so young."
'Oh feeling a little bit jealous that one so young can have an easier time at taming the mad dog Eris hmmm?' Rudeus grinned coyly.
"Very well I shall be happy to be her dance partner." Rudeus outstretched his hand and vigorously shook the teacher happily. She smiled back down at him.
"Then it is official, tomorrow we shall begin the lessons with you and Eris. I hope you will be patient with me." The lady bowed again dismissing herself afterwards.
Before Rudeus could head back to his room he once again saw someone that was up late after hours. Rudeus's room was in the path of the library and he saw a flicking light that was overcast on the bookshelves. He peaked inside to see Lady Greyrat.
Rudeus reminisced about how bountiful and well-endowed Eris had been because of this woman's genetics. He silently thanked her but by no means would say something as perverted as "Thank you for giving your daughter a damn fine rack." Or something along those lines, that would surely be a death sentence from Eris if she ever caught wind that Rudeus said something like that to her mother.
The lady Hilda looked to be shuffling through some letters, looking down sadly at them. Rudeus would have to do some snooping later to see if he could earn favor with Eris's mother and see if he could ease whatever she was troubled over, for now though he didn't want to intrude on the woman's grieving. He could take a guess though that it was about her two sons that were banished by the Notos branch.
If that was the case Rudeus was sure he could strongarm Philemon into releasing her children and allow them to visit their mother if only cordially and not in a move to attain political power.
Rudeus got to his room, but before he collapsed he pulled out his large diary, at this point the pages were filled with logs of experiments for mana destabilization and absorption. Along the side were several binders full of incantation circles that were a god tier in complexity. To the average observer the pages looked black but if one looked closer then they would see millions of drawn magical circles over layers of paper so thin that a human hair would be considered slightly bigger.
All of these circles worked in conjunction with each other after hundreds of trials and errors to transfer all the energy Rudeus could muster into the bigger contraption that would be the key element in stopping the teleportation calamity. No matter how much mana was pored into the binders the circles would not break and neither would the grand project, because of this Rudeus no longer needed to gradually work his way up to forming larger and more complex things to use his mana on in order to deplete it and cause his mana to multiply the next day.
The batteries no longer needed to be in use either, to Rudeus it felt like he broke through some type of barrier or limiter when it came to containing his mana. He no longer contained it within his own body but outstretched it far beyond the world. Whenever Rudeus needed some mana it was there for him and him alone to access. At the very least he was happy he no longer needed to fear exploding from his mana capacity.
After Rudeus was done situating himself on the bed he pored all of his mana into the binder containing the hundreds of black pages wherein the magical circles were inscribed. Once the spell was finally used the binder would be destroyed, but that was fine. The project only needed to work once, and Rudeus would be ready. With that thought in mind he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Hope I didn't spoil too much as to who this new character is. And leave your thought into who and what you think this Elizabeth character is, I gave some pretty big hints. Until we meet again next week I wish you all the best. Leave comments and I promise to respond in the next chapter, or requests and I will be happy to see if I can fit it into the story.
I'm trying to catch up for the lost time as fast as I can while I still have some time off until I start my new job. So enjoy this slightly shorter chapter, typing 4k words every two days instead of a week can hurt my wrists hahaha.
To XaiGRS: I'm happy to confirm your request it's so great to be back. Because of your words there is a segment of Sylphy in this chapter. Hopefully I will pull a few more heartstrings.
To Uqihana: Glad to be back! Hopefully for many more chapters to come.
Edona's teaching methods were to the point but didn't delve beyond that. In other words she could only direct a person at a surface level, tell them what to do, and see them repeat the action. It was rather lousy because she didn't adapt to Eris's way of learning.
"You must do this." She would say to Eris while making an action only for Eris to trip over her feet, or widen her feet too much to be in a graceful looking stance.
"You must do that." Edona would point at Eris. What was more frustrating with the teacher in Rudeus's mind was that Edona continued down the same path of teaching even though she didn't see Eris improving, it was the very definition of insanity. If Rudeus had to make an analogy it would be Edona trying to hammer in a large wood screw into a piece of steel beams.
After the first day of watching Eris fail or having Rudeus thrown around the room Rudeus came to Edona.
"I might have a way to improve Eris when it comes to her balance. Some clans of the beast race used this technique to enhance their posture and form while going from tree branch to tree branch as they avoided the ground and the dangerous monsters below." Rudeus was of course making this statement up but it would allow Edona to agree with him instead of just rejecting the idea thinking it was coming from an cocky child.
"What method is that? It is true Eris's form is too broad and not graceful at all, she seems so solid going from one move to the next and not making it a fluid motion." Edona nodded, seemingly interested in what Rudeus had to propose.
"The method of teaching was called gymnastics, and the piece of equipment we will be using is called a balancing beam. Allow me to teach Eris one hour before your lessons begin and you shall see improvement, once her balance and form is engrained into her we will continue from there."
"Very well, I look forward to seeing if this works. Both our reputations as servants to the Boreas family depend on it." Edona dismissed herself with a bow in which Rudeus responded in kind.
The next morning Eris was called into the courtyard to find Rudeus standing next to a beam, a 2x4 with the short end facing up and the length was more than 10 feet long. It was also raised off of the ground by two support beams that were angled at a triangle to keep the beam level and maintain stability while a person tried to balance on the wooden surface.
"Good morning Eris." Rudeus said beaming at her.
"What is this Rudeus? Are you building something?" She asked with caution, she suspected Rudeus was going to assign her something to do.
"This is called a balancing beam, a clan of the beast race used this to get their children used to balance and posture in order to hop from tree to tree with ease. They were very deadly, I think that this exercise can help you with your dancing but more importantly with your sword fighting as well."
Her eyes gleamed with excitement at the prospect of improving her swordsmanship.
"Before we go on the beam we will practice balance."
"I thought this beam was supposed to help me with that."
"It is but these are warm ups first. I read allot on the forms that can we can perform to get you ready." Rudeus said smiling at her.
She looked at Rudeus and then back at the beam nodding hesitantly. Deep down Rudeus knew that Eris was worried about messing up in front of him but he patted her on the shoulder to reassure her that no matter what she did, he would be fine as long as he saw her try.
"Alright Rudeus, what's the first move."
Rudeus instead of saying anything he stood back and closed his eyes, he put both feet and hands together almost as if he was praying while standing up. Then he bent one leg at the knee lifting it off of the floor holding his leg upright in front of him with the right leg on the ground.
"Your eyes help you focus on your center of balance but when your eyes are closed your body has to compensate and pay attention to it's senses more." With that statement Rudeus tipped a little to his left but stretched out his arm on the opposing side to correct his center of gravity.
"This stance is called Heron, for beginners the duration should usually last between ten to twenty seconds. We will repeat this five times, after that we will move onto the other leg repeating the stance." Rudeus said, his eyes still closed.
Eris walked over to Rudeus, standing in front of him while she copied the stance. Closing her eyes she immediately noticed how unstable to world felt as she only stood on one foot. She only lasted five seconds the first time.
She tried to be as silent as possible on her fall so that way Rudeus wouldn't notice and he continued to keep his eyes shut. When she repeated the action she lasted six seconds this time. Once they were both done with the first set of the stance she averaged at about seven seconds.
"Now let's repeat the movement on the other side." Rudeus said taking in a deep breath and exhaling to relax himself. Eris repeated the action and then stance following the young boys lead.
Once they were both done they could do eleven seconds.
"Very good Eris! You have doubled your time!" Rudeus said clapping his hands together. She smirked up at him enjoying his praise.
"Now the next action will be on our tiptoes, both feet will be on the ground for this one while your hands are on your hips. The goal is twenty seconds." Rudeus said this while he showed her the movement.
When Eris repeated the action and closed her eyes she instantly fell forward. Since Rudeus also had his eyes closed he didn't notice the young girl falling towards him and he received a very harsh accidental headbutt to his nose causing blood to squirt everywhere. When he looked down he saw the young lady Eris had fallen into his arms as she laid above him while they were both on the ground.
'If this was a Love-Ru manga her panties would be in my face with her legs wrapped around my head.' Rudeus thought to himself, somehow that manga always defied physics while the main character in that manga cock blocked himself an infinite amount of times, Rito was a black belt in virginity.
Eris looked down at the boy while on top of Rudeus with blood pouring down his nose and he looked back up at her for a moment. In moments like this Rudeus was reminded about what made him fall in love with her in the first place, a real hard head with a soft side to her that would make any man faint. Before he could say anything to her she reached into a side pocket of her outfit and pulled out a small square towel that was used for wiping of sweat during their sword exercises.
"He…Here you go Rudeus, you're bleeding." She said while looking away from him embarrassed.
Rudeus felt his nose and noticed the blood at which he thanked her for the towel and wiped away the blood from his nose, healing the injury afterwards before any more blood came out. He was about to clean the towel with his magic to keep it from staining but Eris grabbed the towel and put the blood-soaked rag back into her pocket looking at him defiantly.
"Why does she want to keep a towel with my blood all over it?" Rudeus wondered. Shaking that thought from his mind they both got back up and continued to practice, Eris was extra careful not to fall on Rudeus this time, however it looked like she enjoyed the accident from before.
Once they were done standing on their tiptoes and working towards fifteen seconds they moved onto the third stance which Rudeus called Head Back. They would be on their toes in the same stance much like before but this time they would look up while arching their back. This one was one of the hardest moves to master and anytime they failed they had to put one of their feet back to stabilize, overtime Eris was able to get to ten seconds consistently.
"Alright and now the balancing beam."
"Finally." Eris sighed in relief, it would appear that the warm ups made her uncomfortable which made some sense considering that she was always cautious whenever her feet were not firmly planted into the ground. Ghislaine was to thank for engraining that into Eris.
Eris had the belief that as she put force against an object then that object would have a certain level of resistance that she would have to counter by pushing with her feet against the earth. Later on she would be able to change the resistance difficulty of an object using her touki but she didn't have the battle aura yet. For now if she didn't plant her feet then she could easily be tossed around if the enemy could keep up with her attacks. Now the circumstance was what to do when she couldn't firmly plant her feet on the ground but move with the flow like a leaf caught in a gentle breeze. Eventually her swordsmanship skills would be perfect both in balance and strength if she continued implementing the foundations of both talents into her craft. For her it would be a mix between sword and water god style. A truly terrifying opponent like a graceful lioness.
Eris got up on the beam and tried to walk forward but tilted to the side almost instantly, she corrected herself sticking out her hips, moving her legs, and stretching out the arms towards the other side of her body. It was a quick correction but she had to repeat the same correction on the other side. Ultimately after several clumsy mistakes she had to fall off, planting her feet on the ground. Without saying a word she got back on it.
Rudeus went on the other side of the beam and was allot better than Eris at his balance but he was having difficulty too after a while. Multiple trials and failures led way to improvement. If they continued this warm up and routine day after day Rudeus was positive that both of them could stay on the beam indefinitely. Once that point was reached they would move onto a steal circular rod instead of a wooden beam forcing them to develop a better balance but that would be in a few months at least well after the dance.
Once one hour was up they hopped off and got ready for dance lessons.
"Thank you Eris for letting me show this to you, I hope we can do this everyday and you have improved allot already." Rudeus said complimenting her. He wanted to pat her head so bad but that would only work on women like Sylphy or Roxy, if he tried that on Eris she would feel insecure, that she was somehow smaller compared to Rudeus which is why he didn't pat her head.
"You were better at balancing than me." Eris mumbled quietly, gripping her arm trying not to look directly at the boy.
She then felt something fall softly on the top of her head. Rudeus had given her a hand chop.
"Baka, you shouldn't compare yourself to me, the only person you should compete against is yourself and see if you've grown in the past year or not. Look at yourself! You are on your way to be an advanced swordswoman and you know silent spellcasting, it's a skill I only know only three other people have, one of them is a freaking world power! The Dragon God Orsted. The other two are me and my childhood friend. You are the fourth and you are amazing! Don't you ever think you are weak."
Eris looked at Rudeus stunned. It felt like she was being shunned for being strong and not realizing it. Rudeus removed his hand from the top of her head and walked forward towards the mansion where they would receive their dance instructions.
"Are you coming or not?" Rudeus said, this time it was his turn to fold his arms and smirk at the completely shocked Eris, he was copying her attitude. After a moment she composed herself.
"Yes!" She said excitedly as she walked alongside Rudeus.
The wind blew peacefully as Sylphy continued to look over her study notes. Rudeus was practically smuggling them to her where she would continue to read and practice. Every month she found a new book in the hiding spot that Hollow would deliver under Rudeus's and Sylphy's favorite tree which overlooked the countryside. They were research notes that both Paul and Zenith were completely unfamiliar with but they believed that it was from the Boreas family library or something like that.
"Let's see." Sylphy said going through the research notes. Rudeus had written in allot of his own input for Sylphy to look into and it made her blush that Rudeus was thinking so much about her and her education. Someday they would go to the university of magic together in the future, maybe even address their feelings towards each other there and spend the rest of their life together…
Sylphy shook her head as her fantasies went wild again so to remain focused she continued to read the book.
It was titled "Chemistry 101" A word that Sylphy was not familiar with but the book explained that chemistry was a branch of study that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed, matter being the building blocks that composed the world and the stars themselves. To Sylphy this seemed like a hard idea to grasp. But she would try her best to impress Rudeus.
She continued on to understand the fundamentals behind gas, liquid, and solids that they were states that the matter could form. From them they could form things like water or earth. She was more surprised to learn that fire and wind was not an element but a state of chemical reaction or temperature differences.
"This dramatically changes the way the world would perceive magic." She whispered. Then a letter fell out of the book from the binder.
She looked at the letter and found that it was addressed to her from Rudeus. Quickly opening it she examined the contents.
"To Sylphy. This book goes against the teachings of this world and how they view magic. I'm giving you this book to help you to grow but please do not share this knowledge with anyone outside of my family. This knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands and I am worried that dangerous people would seek to harm you if you challenged their way of life. I plan to introduce these lessons to the rest of the world in the future but that will be many years from now.
This gift is for you and you alone because I believe you have the strength and intelligence to use this book to your benefit. Use it to learn and grow, protecting those that can shape the world alongside you.
Until then, love Rudeus."
The note ended there and she looked back at the book. It was clear she could use this knowledge to protect people and at the same time use it to her benefit however what was more concerning was the danger she could be in. Namely the Millis Religion. If what this book said was true then it would heavily go against their religion and viewpoints about what magic actually was.
For now she would delve into the rabbit whole a little more, knowledge was power but power needed to be wielded by the strong and kind. Paul kept telling her that whenever they had sword practice together. After a few hours of studying she went to the Greyrat household, they had been kind enough to invite her for dinner.
When she entered the household she snuck upstairs into Rudeus's room and stuffed her face into his pillow, it still smelled like Rudeus even after years of being unslept on. When she was done she went back down to see Lilia cooking up beef stew while Aisha rested in her cradle.
"Good afternoon Sylphy, I have brought down several manuals as a maid on manners for Royalty should you every come across nobility, this information might come in handy so you don't offend them." Lilia said pointing to the table, a stack of papers lay in the nearest corner to the kitchen. Sylphy didn't really see herself dealing with nobles that much because of the condition of her hair however she didn't want to be rude to the maid for trying to educate her. So she skimmed through the notes.
Sylphy looked over to Aisha that was laying across the table from her while she still slept in the cradle, she liked the baby redhead the most so far in the family, Aisha was a very quick learner and was being treated equally in the family despite her holding the same family standing as a bastard son would. Sylphy read the notes about bastard sons when studying political standing and roles within nobility. She then asked a question she didn't mean to be sensitive to Lilia.
"What is a bastard son Lilia?" Sylphy looked at the maid innocently.
The maid stopped for a second, her eyes seemed to be completely frozen while her hands trembled. She then smiled, coming up with what she believed to be her best response.
"A bastard son, or bastard child, is a baby born out of wedlock between the lord of the house and another woman. Usually the bastard child can have no royal position or authority within the family, they are an outcast in their own home." Lilia looked over to her baby Aisha and picked her up, cradling the young babe in her arms.
"But Aisha isn't treated like that. Paul must be a very kind person to allow that." Sylphy said smiling down along with the maid at the baby, she reached forward and tickled the soft cheek of the child wrapped in fine linen, at the feeling the baby laughed from the sensation. Pure innocence radiated the atmosphere.
"No. It was Rudeus that made me promise to raise this child not as a maid or an outcast but as an equal in this family. I was initially planning on serving the Greyrat household for the rest of my life as payment for Zenith allowing me to stay, and Rudeus convincing her that that was the best option. After my life ended I wanted to transfer the debt onto this child. I thought of all this when the meeting was excused but Rudeus stayed by me until I ceased crying when I learned I could stay. He made me promise to not transfer the debt onto Aisha but to allow her a normal life, and he's right, the sins and punishments of a traitor should not be given to their children." Lilia whispered those last notes from her tender lips as rain started to trickle down… no… not rain, tears from a sorrowful mother onto her child.
Sylphy was going to comfort Lilia or at the very least try to stop her from crying, but Aisha seemed to sense her mothers pain and tightly grasped Lilia's thumb using her little hand. It was a sweet moment.
After Lilia was done crying she departed back to the kitchen, there was still allot of work in preparation for dinner. Zenith and Paul came in at that moment, turns out it really was raining outside and they had made it back just in time, evading the downpour.
"Paul sir, what do you think about your son?" Sylphy asked. She wanted to know more about who Rudeus was when it wasn't just the two of them. Rudeus was always kind to Sylphy but she wanted to know if he was good with family as well.
"Well…." Paul said scratching the back of his head. "He is very smart and understanding. I think he get's that from his mother." The compliment was clearly an attempt to earn him brownie points and get Zenith to open her legs tonight but Paul didn't even need to earn that, the married pair was horny on a nightly basis.
"But more than that, if I'm being honest, I always feel small around him. I hate to admit it but I wanted to take this feeling off of my chest for a while now. Rudy has bested me in knowledge, swordsmanship, hell even morals as far as I can tell."
"Don't you think you should focus less on comparing yourself to him and more on supporting him?" Sylphy asked.
"Why do you say that Sylphy?" Zenith interjected while hugging her husbands arm.
"Rudi once told me the most powerful people in the world can be the loneliest. I don't want to claim Rudeus is the most powerful person in the world but he is strong. I think even he might be lonely sometimes and it is our job to support him, its your job as a father, and it's my job as his friend." Sylphy said beaming. Little did she know Rudeus was referring to a certain Dragon God, but this case also applied to the young mage as well.
"Promise me you will come to Rudeus's 10th birthday." Sylphy said pointing directly at Paul.
'How many children in my life are going to talk down to me!?' Paul thought to himself chuckling, shaking his head. Still she was right. No matter how outstanding Rudeus was he still had needs and wants like the rest of them and it was his duty as a father to address them.
"I will need to talk to your father to see if he can manage hunting monsters without me while we go to Roa. And Sylphy….." Paul began.
"Yes sir?" She asked.
"You do know that this family has no problem with your hair color being green, you are not a Superd, but the people in the city might be worried or scared of you." Paul then began to propose that they somehow paint or dye Sylphy's hair but the young girl rejected the idea.
"The only opinion I care about is Rudeus's. As long as he is fine with my hair color, I am fine." Sylphy said bravely, it would seem she had truly accepted who she was.
Paul leaned back in his chair looking up at the ceiling. 'Kids these days.'
Instantly after that there was a knock at the door. Zenith opened it to see the tall figure of Hollow as he stood outside.
"Good afternoon everyone." Hollow said smiling. It was a creepy smile no matter how nice he tried to look.
"Hello Hollow." Zenith said trying to put on a friendly smile. The creature was protective of them and it continued to do work that aided the family in remaining safe from outside forces so the least the family could do was try to be nice to the monster.
"I have an update from Rudeus and Philip. They took Philips butler Narum to trial in the capital of Ars for kidnapping Eris and Rudeus, using this trial to their advantage they exposed Darius for his crimes, he is not in jail but his movements will be severely constricted from now on, your family is safe. Right now no one in politics trusts him after he blackmailed everyone to let him go free, but more so in the fact of his sexual preferences.
Not only that Rudeus was able to talk to your brother." Hollow said looking at Paul. "Philemon is willing to catch up with you and amend brotherly relations, at the pressure from Rudeus. More than that there are no more hostilities between the Notos and the Boreas branches."
And once again Paul felt baffled by his sons actions, he had no idea his son had a knack for politics, Paul stayed the hell away from the subject as much as possible only wanting a simple life of adventuring. Yet Rudeus had accomplished what most in the political career would take years to accomplish.
"Thank you Hollow for the news, is there anything else you needed to mention?" Paul said, the information was allot to process, ultimately his son was the one doing the protecting for this family, he felt like a failure as a father.
"Yes there is one more thing." Hollow said.
"And that would be?"
Hollow then walked over to Paul towering over the man, the creature grabbed both of the mans shoulders lifting him off of the chair completely. Zenith was about to interject in an effort to protect her husband but Hollow hugged the swordsman tightly.
"Rudeus said he can't wait to see you at his birthday party two years from now. He loves you and Zenith very much, along with Lilia and the rest of the children, he is really looking forward to seeing how his sisters have grown up so much. Rudeus told me to do this in his absence." Hollow patted the mans back and then put the man down, once that was done he went over to Sylphy.
Unlike the rest of them she showed no hostility or concern towards the creature. She knew what it was like to be judged just because of how someone looked. Hollow outstretched his boney hand and patted the young girl on the head.
"Rudeus told me to do that too." The creature chuckled, then he stood up and departed from the household. Before he left the monster said one last thing. "I will be taking care of the local monsters for the month of Rudeus's 10th birthday so don't worry about the village, it will be under my protection. All you need to worry about is making it to Roa safely." And with that the creature flew off into the night.
The family didn't know it but up in the sky was Rudeus sitting on a cloud of condensed air and water. Slurping some noodles he began to sing along with the song that was playing on his dvd player he summoned.
"And the cat's in the cradle and silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon, when you coming home dad? I don't know when. But we'll get together then, you know we will have a good time then." The song faded, dying down but Rudeus repeated the last line, whispering it trying to hold back tears. "You know we will have a good time then."
Putting away the ramen and dvd player he flew off back to Roa.
In his first reincarnation when Paul died he had felt so empty, it was Rudeus's fault that Paul died to that Labyrinth boss, the Hydra. For days Rudeus didn't eat much at all, he just woke up depressed and went back to sleep depressed, in the end he was weak, not strong enough to move on. And then Roxy saved him a second time in his life, he would have to thank her.
He wanted to visit her so much, hell he even set up a underground base outside of the city she was occupying with a teleportation circle and everything. But at the end of the day he was too shy to see her until the timing was right. For now he didn't have a good excuse to suddenly pop up and say hello out of nowhere to her, he needed a good reason to visit the blue haired beauty. Once the teleportation incident was taken care of Rudeus would go on vacation to visit her, yeah, that would be nice to catch up with her.
In the mean time there was still allot of work to do, but tomorrow was an exception.
Today was the weekend and a day of rest for Eris. Rudeus decided to go into the city to have a nice pleasant walk, but what he didn't expect to see was Eris and Ghislaine at the door.
"Where do you think you are going?" Eris asked like a lioness that just caught her cub trying to sneak away from her
Then Rudeus remembered during his first reincarnation that this exact thing happened before when Eris wanted to visit the city. She simply used the boy as an excuse to spend time with him.
"Roa marketplace, I would like to sightsee a little bit."
"You are going to sightsee? So you planned on going alone hmmm!?" She gave him an interrogating eye like he had done something bad.
'I want my lawyer officer Eris, Sheriff Ghislaine please get this bad cop off of my back. I didn't do anything unlawful honest.' Rudeus pleaded within his own inner thoughts.
"Do you see anyone else?" Rudeus chose to talk back to the young lady a little bit.
"You're too mean, I have never gone out alone before, why should you get the luxury to go alone?"
"You are someone far more precious than myself. If I am on the streets I am like a piece of garbage, if you are on the streets you are like a shining Ruby, people from every corner would want to snatch you up and keep you to themselves." What Rudeus said was the truth if not a little flattering, in terms of political standing Eris was far more valuable and anyone that had the balls to go against the Boreas family could easily snatch the young lady if she was alone so long as they had a few experienced warriors, keeping her contained was a much harder thing though.
Once she became a sword king she could go wherever she wanted to with only a handful of people in the world being a challenge for her. But for now, she still had allot of experience and strength to obtain.
Rudeus quickly earned himself a hand chop to the head which was no-where near as soft as the one he had given her the day before. He was surprised his head didn't split in two.
"You are far more valuable that you believe yourself to be Rudeus. Take me too!" She said folding her arms in her traditional stance.
"Then, let's move out. I take it you will be accompanying us too Ghislaine?" Rudeus said rubbing the top of his now incredibly swore forehead looking at the sword king.
"Yes, my duty is to protect Eris."
Rudeus sighed, it would seem Ghislaine still doesn't understand the concept of relaxing for a day or two, such a shame. People really needed to take it easy now and again in this world.
"Wait a minute for me to get ready." Eris said running off screaming for the head butler Alphonse.
While Rudeus and Ghislaine were alone for the moment the two of them looked at each other. To Rudeus she was still a towering giant of a woman, almost two meters tall and full of muscle. He remembered that even when he was a fully fledged adult she still stood taller than him. Maybe he could change his height with alteration magic to match hers. Rudeus could get carried away with that level of change though, like those horrific plastic surgery cases in Hollywood where women take things too far in the image as to what they perceive as beautiful. If Eris became an adult and was taller than Rudeus he probably would have wanted to change his height a little bit but they were both equal when it came to height. Men were insecure about height back on earth after all viewing one point nine meters as the perfect medium between tall and too tall, a perfect model height.
Here in this world height wasn't viewed as critically as it was on earth. Since there were so many intelligent species it made a comparison of height equivalent to discrimination or racism like calling a short human a dwarf or a small elf an imp.
Rudeus looked back up at Ghislaine, the beast woman didn't seem to have anything to talk about right now and he didn't mind that. Sometimes it was nice having a little peace and quiet between friends. He also had no doubt that if Ghislaine inquired into Rudeus's research projects Rudeus would go over nerdy level 9000 and just confuse the beast woman, he wouldn't be able to help himself when it came to his passions. Speaking of passions he did have one thing to talk about with the beast woman.
"Your statues are selling very well, thank you for being such an incredible model." It was an awkward attempt to start conversation but the silence was getting to Rudeus.
"Yes I saw your work it was quite incredible, you got the proportions right and everything. I wanted to ask you something though. You are making more money with the statue's compared to teaching Eris right?" Ghislaine asked. It seemed she was trying to get to the root of why Rudeus was teaching the young lady, he had the option to leave if he wanted to.
"Yes, you are right, I do make allot more. I'm almost at four gold coins a month now." Rudeus said looking down.
"Then why do you continue?" Ghislaine was really pressing the point and Rudeus had to come up with a good reason otherwise she would see right through a lie using her sense of smell.
"Because…. Because I like Eris okay." Rudeus said confessing to the woman.
"Oooh?" All of a sudden the beast woman turned into someone like a older teasing sister because her brother had a crush on the top high school cheerleader.
'Oni-chan? Don't tell me you are in love with cheerleader Eris? She is the alpha of the females in the school! You don't possibly stand a chance against her bwahahaha baka.' The imaginary sister Ghislaine said slapping her younger brother Rudeus across the back several times while laughing.
Outside of Rudeus weird imagination all he felt was utter embarrassment. He more than liked Eris, he loved her and he was falling for her all over again just like he did with Roxy and Sylphy in this timeline. Still he had to keep that to himself for now.
Just before Ghislaine can say another word Eris comes into view from around a corner. She was dressed relatively fancy, with a nicely trimmed Victorian style bonnet of black and white with draped edges to give the indication that it was expensive, it framed her cute face well and kept the sun out of her eyes.
She wore a coat that went down halfway, with a fur lining around the neck along with gold lines in an otherwise dark red color that complimented her hair and eyes. Other than that it was her usual attire underneath but with a slightly longer skirt. Since it was the fall the temperature was gradually dropping which allowed for more options of attire.
The final piece was a red rose that hooked the coat together at the neck. It was very evident that she had taken a bit of time to go through judging the look and appeal of the dress, Alphonse probably had a headache to put all the clothes she tore through in order to match her requests. That being said Eris wasn't really known to have much of a fashion sense to begin with, but at least in this case it was clear she wanted to feel special.
"There is a saying that fine feather make a fine bird." Rudeus said outload. Any attempt at poetry or even a compliment that wasn't direct flew right over both Eris's and Ghislaine's heads. When both of them cocked their heads to the side in confusion Rudeus was forced to give detail to his compliment.
"You are wearing very fine clothes which makes you look pretty Eris." Rudeus explained.
She blushed for a second and turned around swiftly to avoid looking at the boy.
"….Let's get going." She mumbled, still in a state of embarrassment at the boys compliments.
The marketplace was particularly bustling this time of year as it was the last opportunity for people to stock up on food before the winter time. The rice that Rudeus had helped grow along with Philips aid was added into the market place and was selling abundantly well. It was marketed to the people that it had a long shelf life and was a very filling meal so naturally the people in the city alongside many villages in the surrounding countryside bought the rice, the average was one bag per household.
As Rudeus explored he said hello to the trader he had regularly given his sculptures to for distribution and income. After handing the trader the next batch of dolls he had created he continued to explore.
In particular he was eying the aphrodisiac that was worth ten gold pieces, which was two and a half months of doll selling that Rudeus had saved up for. This aphrodisiac was an incredible rarity after the teleportation incident. The recipe for making the pink liquid was destroyed and the people who new how to make it were apart of the casualties from the catastrophe. Rudeus handed ten gold coins to the seller and he seemed surprised when a small child handed the man the equivalent of ten thousand U.S dollars but he wasn't complaining as he could now feed his family with the money. Rudeus quickly stored the wooden case containing his bottle into the messenger bag he carried with him. He didn't want Eris to enquire about what an aphrodisiac was and he certainly didn't want to accidentally brake it like last time. He would store it for safe keeping at his Ars base for the time being.
All of a sudden, a bright flash whirled around him, the sound it made was like a loud static as the world became blurry only to reform like nothing was untouched in the first place. There was a difference though. All of the noise from the marketplace was gone, there wasn't even the chirping of birds, just a dead silence.
"Hmmm, so you are Rudeus huh, the one he is so interested in?" A female voice said behind him.
Rudeus jumped and the bottle flew out of the bag, falling harshly against the cobblestone.
"NOOO my aphrodisiac!" Rudeus cried out opening up the case to find the bottle was poring out its contents
He then looked around to find the streets were completely empty, there was no one around at all. The only person that stood in front of him was a woman with black hair cut to shoulder length, red scarlet lips with azure blue eyes. She had a white button up shirt with black collar and cuffs. She had a pendant around her neck, it was a bird pointed down. Other than that she just had a long black skirt on and black high heels.
One thing was clear to Rudeus, she didn't belong to this world, the language she spoke was English.
What do you guys think? Review and comment and I will see you all soon.