Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 15 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

The Summons

“DEAR RUDEUS GREYRAT,

I hope this letter finds you recuperated, and your mana regenerated.

I want to discuss our next steps. I will be waiting for you in your cabin on the outskirts of Sharia.

Due to certain circumstances, it would be preferable for you to come alone.

—Orsted”

After reading this brief letter, I asked Aisha to make me breakfast right away.

I ate a good, solid meal, then returned to my room to get dressed. I tried to pick my very nicest clothes, double-checking with Aisha several times to make sure I looked okay.

And then, with Aqua Heartia in one hand and my diary from the future in the other, I walked out of the house.

Zenith happened to be out in the yard playing with our pet Treant Byt, so I called out, “I’ll be back soon, Mother,” as I left. She vaguely waved her hand at me in response; it almost looked like a see you later gesture. At her side, Byt wiggled his branches as well.

I hadn’t said a word to Sylphie or the others. I knew they’d want to come along. But the letter told me to come alone, so that was exactly what I was going to do. It’s not like I was going off to battle this time, anyway.

I couldn’t say that I completely trusted Orsted. Not yet, anyway. But his letter had showed some concern for my well-being, and its tone wasn’t unfriendly. Also, Nanahoshi seemed to think he was a decent guy, since she’d opposed my plan to fight him on an emotional level. At the very least, he seemed more trustworthy than the Man-God. That was definitely what I wanted to believe.

“I’m still kind of nervous, though,” I murmured to myself as I made my way down a quiet street in Sharia. Every time I passed a puddle of water in the road, I couldn’t help but stop to examine my reflection and make sure I looked all right. I’d decided to work for Orsted—in other words, he was my new boss. And when the boss called you in for a meeting, you wanted to look your best.

“Wonder if I should have put on some cologne or something…”

I had taken a bath this morning, but after the night I’d spent with Eris, it was very possible there were some unfortunate smells lingering on my body. What exactly was the boss going to think if I came into his office stinking of sex? I couldn’t imagine he would fire me on the spot, but it might leave a bad impression. That was the last thing I wanted right now.

Orsted… was the only person who stood a chance to find and defeat the Man-God. And supposedly, he was going to make it happen someday, with the help of my descendants. Sucks to be the Man-God. But he was the one who’d betrayed my confidence first, so whatever. I wasn’t about to sympathize with a guy who’d kill Roxy and Sylphie to protect himself.

I was Orsted’s pet dog now. I’d wag my tail for him and bare my fangs at his enemies. That was the only way I could protect my family.

“All right…”

Having reconfirmed my resolve, I headed for the outskirts of the city with quicker, more confident steps—while carefully avoiding the muddy water splashed by passing carriages.

I arrived at my cabin outside the city walls to find it different somehow. It’s hard to explain in words, but there was… something strange about the air around it. If this were a manga, the cabin would definitely have a menacing aura scribbled around it. It was obvious from a glance that Orsted was already waiting for me inside.

I took a few deep breaths, then knocked sharply at the door.

“It’s Rudeus Greyrat, sir! I’m here as requested!”

“Ah. That didn’t take long.”

Even though I’d known he was in there, I trembled a little at the sound of his voice. There was definitely a part of me that was still terrified of him. “Do I have your leave to enter?”

“Why are you asking me for permission? Aren’t you the owner of this cabin?”

“Yes, sir! Coming in, sir!”

When I opened the door and stepped into the cabin, I found Orsted seated in one of the chairs within, glaring sharply at me. 

Well… maybe he wasn’t glaring. His face was just scary-looking by default.

I pulled the door shut behind me and walked over as crisply as I could. I stopped directly beside the chair across from Orsted, and stood at attention. He glared up at me with a slightly suspicious expression on his face. 

“Hmm. I half expected you to come here with all your friends in tow… but I see there’s only two of you.”

“Yes, sir! I came alo— Wait, two of us?”

I was a little thrown off by that one. Unless Orsted’s eyes were getting so bad that he was seeing double, the comment didn’t seem to make much sense.

“Eris Greyrat!” Orsted shouted. “You may enter as well!”

An instant later, the door to the cabin swung loudly open. Eris was standing just outside. Her sword was already dangling from her hand, and there was murder in her eyes. 

“Orsted!” she cried, swinging her blade up to point at him. “If you lay a finger on Rudeus, I’ll cut you down on the spot!”

The force and fury of her voice would have made a lesser man pee his pants, but Orsted was totally unfazed. “I have no intention of harming him.”

“Well, I don’t trust you!”

“I suppose you wouldn’t.”

Without another word, Eris stalked over to a corner of the cabin and folded her arms menacingly.

Still a little stunned by this dramatic entrance, I looked from Orsted to Eris and back again. Should I be making my excuses right now? Explaining that I hadn’t brought her with me? Insisting that I didn’t view him as an enemy? The problem was, I couldn’t make excuses for the sword she was holding. What was I supposed to do here?

As I hesitated, Orsted spoke up. “What’s the matter, Rudeus Greyrat? Have a seat. We need to talk.”

“Er, right. Pardon me.” I sat down, of course. But my mind was still on Eris and her unsheathed weapon. “Uhm, about Eris…”

“Your reaction made it clear enough. She followed you here without your knowledge, I imagine.”

“Well, yeah. I guess she did… Would you, uh, mind if I had a word with her before we got started?”

“Feel free.”

At least it seemed like he wasn’t too upset. Turning around in my chair, I quickly beckoned Eris over with my hand.

“What is it, Rudeus?”

“Eris…why did you follow me?”

“I saw you all dressed up. I just wanted to know where you were going.”

All dressed up? Well, hmm. I had picked out my best clothes and fidgeted with my hair for a while. Maybe she’d thought I was going out on a secret date or something…

“You understand that I’m working for Orsted now, right?”

“…Yeah. But it’s Orsted, Rudeus. He’s obviously planning something, right? I’m worried he might be tricking you somehow.”

“That’s possible, but it’s too early to say for sure. For now, do you think you can keep calm and just let us talk?”

“…”

“We can fight him together if I figure out he’s tricking me. I’m counting on you, Eris.”

“Oh. Yeah! Got it!”

Apparently satisfied by this, Eris sheathed her sword and took a seat next to me. It was a good thing her mind worked in such simple ways.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s all right.”

“It seems that Eris has a very hard time trusting you, Sir Orsted… But I suppose that’s just the curse at work.”

Orsted’s eyes seemed to flash at that. “Who told you about my curse in the first place?”

“The Man-God. He claimed you suffer from a number of them, actually.”

I answered honestly and without hesitation. I’d prepared myself to tell Orsted everything about my conversations with his enemy.

“I see…”

Orsted raised a hand to his chin and turned his gaze upward for a moment. The ceiling of my cabin wasn’t much to look at, so it seemed like he was just thinking things over.

“First things first. Allow me to fulfill my promise to you.”

“Huh?”

“Why do you look so surprised? I’m not like your former master. I keep my word.”

That’s nice to hear, but I’m just wondering what he’s talking about… did he promise me something at some point?

“I’m speaking of my method to protect your family from the Man-God.”

Oh. Ohhh! Of course. How did I forget about that?

I guess I hadn’t thought of that whole agreement as a promise, exactly. It felt more like a contract. You know, the kind you use to sell your soul to the devil. But then again, the provisions of a contract are basically just a bunch of promises, right? Sure.

“Are you sure? I haven’t actually done anything on your behalf yet.”

“Yes, but I imagine you wouldn’t be able to focus on any task if you’re constantly worrying about your family’s safety.”

“Well, yes. That’s true enough.”

Huh. He was actually being kind of considerate here, wasn’t he? I hadn’t expected such friendly treatment right off the bat, to be honest. I was expecting him to order me around sternly. The man had a scary face, but he seemed like a surprisingly good boss. I couldn’t understand why Eris was still glaring at him so fiercely.

“In any case, what specific method did you have in mind to protect them?”

“It’s nothing too complex. You need only summon a guardian beast with a strong destiny and order to it to keep them safe.”

“I see. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to use Summoning magic yet.”

“Very well. I’ll draw the magic circle. You can just channel the mana through it.”

“Oh. That works, then. Sorry for the bother.”

Hmm. A guardian beast with a strong destiny, huh? In other words, we’d have a guard dog protected by the laws of causality…

“Will that really be enough to keep them safe, though?”

“The Man-God has no influence over anything but humans. In addition, he can’t manipulate many individuals at any given time; as long as we are taking action, he should have his hands full trying to stop us. Given his personality, this should be more than enough to protect your loved ones.”

Oh good, now we were psychoanalyzing the guy.

That bit about him not being able to influence many people at the same time was interesting, though. It implied he could control at least a few simultaneously. Had he been meddling in other people’s lives while he was messing with me?

“However, you mustn’t let down your guard. The Man-God is devious and unpredictable. Don’t leave everything to the guardian beast—make sure you’re there for them as well.”

To be honest, those words sounded kind of wrong coming out of Orsted’s mouth. He just didn’t look like the kind of guy who’d remind you to spend time with your family. Can’t judge a book by its cover and all, but seriously…

Anyway, since he was willing to prepare this summoning for me, I’d gladly take him up on it.

Now it was time to get down to business. There were all sorts of things I wanted to ask Orsted, of course, but I needed to keep up my end of this bargain as well. It couldn’t hurt to proactively ask what my orders were.

“All right then. What is it you’d like me to do for you from now on?”

“…Don’t you have any other questions for me?”

Hm. Hadn’t expected him to push back like that… “Sure I do. Lots of them.”

“Why aren’t you asking them, in that case?”

“Well, I didn’t want to pester you too much, I guess.”

Orsted let out a sigh and shook his head. “You are my ally now. In other words—”

“I’m your subordinate, Sir Orsted. I think we should keep the chain of command nice and clear.”

The man had beaten the living crap out of me. And now he’d thought up ways to protect my family. Even I wasn’t shameless enough to pretend that we were equals in this relationship.

“Very well, if that’s what you prefer… But regardless, the two of us will be working together to defeat the Man-God. It’s important that you learn everything you need to know.”

“Okay, but what if I turned out to be the Man-God’s spy or something? For all you know, I could start feeding him information every night.”

“I trust you, Rudeus Greyrat,” Orsted said, staring me firmly in the eyes. “You risked your life for the sake of your family, and that has earned you my respect.”

Wow, you’re gonna make me blush!

I mean… I guess I had been pretty desperate back then, sure. And if that was good enough to make him trust me, I certainly wasn’t complaining. Might as well take him up on his offer.

What did I want to ask him? 

A few things came to mind immediately. Why was he so obsessed with the Man-God? What was that Laplace Aspect thing he’d mentioned? Did he know anything about the Displacement Incident? And could he explain that whole “destiny” deal a bit more clearly?

 Those were the big questions for the moment.

“All right then. I’ll just go down the list one by one, I guess.”

It seemed best to start off with his feud against the Man-God… or the nature of their relationship, really. Hmm. Then again, I probably needed to hear more about Orsted himself before I could get to that.

“Could you tell me more about yourself, Sir Orsted?”

“You want to hear my story?”

“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

“What has the Man-God told you about me? It seems he mentioned my curses, at least.”

“Uhhhm…”

It had been five years since that particular encounter, so it was a challenge to recall exactly what he’d said. I concentrated intently, trying to pull the words out of my memory.

“He said you have four different curses, specifically.”

“…Go on.”

“The first curse makes everything living in this world hate or fear you. The second keeps the Man-God from seeing you. The third prevents you from going all-out. And he didn’t know what the fourth one is.”

“I see,” Orsted said with a small nod. “Let us begin with the first curse, then. From the day I was born, I have indeed been loathed by everything living in this world.”

“…I don’t particularly hate you, though.”

“Some such cases do exist. Such as yourself and Nanahoshi.”

“Okay then.”

So there were exceptions. The fact that Nanahoshi and I had come here from a different world was probably relevant here. Should I take this opportunity to reveal the truth about myself? With Eris next to me, I was a little reluctant to do so. But keeping secrets from Orsted didn’t strike me as a wise idea at this point.

“I wasn’t trying to hide this from you or anything, but… I was originally from the same world Nanahoshi came from. Maybe that has something to do with it?”

“…Is Rudeus Greyrat not your true name, then?”

“It’s a very long story, but I’m not exactly like Nanahoshi. I just sort of, uhm… woke up here in the body of a baby named Rudeus Greyrat, I guess… I’m not sure how to explain it, actually.”

“Ah. So you were reincarnated.”

I blinked in surprise. I hadn’t expected that word to come out of Orsted’s mouth so smoothly. Now that I thought about it, though… I felt like I’d seen a few notes in the diary about the Dragonfolk possessing some means of reincarnation. Something about how they could come back in a new body a couple decades after they died. Maybe it was an ordinary enough concept for them.

“Most likely, the reason you do not fear me is connected to your status as one reborn.”

“Are there others who don’t fear you?”

“Apart from a handful of exceptions, only those descended from the ancient Dragonfolk.”

So Perugius, for one… although he seemed terrified of Orsted, actually. Maybe that didn’t have anything to do with the curse. Sometimes you have perfectly good reasons to be scared of someone.

“As for the second curse, which keeps me from the Man-God’s sight… this is no curse at all, in truth.”

“What is it, then?”

Orsted paused for a moment to think, then looked me in the eyes once again. “A secret art of sorts, created by the first Dragon God as a tool to use against the Man-God. It enables me to see the flow of destiny, and ensures that certain… laws of this world do not apply to me.”

“Hmm…”

“The Man-God possesses great knowledge of the future, and his eyes see far. But they are blind to those outside the world’s jurisdiction.”

Interesting. I had no idea what it meant to be “outside the world’s jurisdiction,” but being totally invisible to the Man-God sounded very enticing indeed.

“Could you explain that part about seeing the flow of destiny?”

“Hm. Let’s see…” 

Falling silent, Orsted assumed his contemplative pose again. I had to hope that didn’t mean he was thinking up a lie on the spot.

“When I look at someone, I can see the broad outlines of their life’s story.”

Well, that’s kind of vague… “Does that mean you have the power of foresight as well?”

“No… I don’t see the future. I see history as it is ordained by fate.”

Hmm? Now he sounded like a philosopher or something. I didn’t quite get the difference between this power and actual foresight. For the moment, it seemed easiest to think of it as lower-tier version of the Man-God’s ability.

“Could you use this secret art on me as well?”

“That would be unwise.”

“…Why do you say that?”

I wasn’t sure about seeing people’s destinies, but it would be very nice to hide myself from the Man-God. I wanted to know the actual reason behind his refusal.

“The art has the side effect of dramatically slowing your mana regeneration rate.”

“How dramatically?”

“You regenerated your supply of mana completely in ten days, yes? Under the influence of the art, that would take roughly a thousand times longer.”

A thousand times longer? That would be, what… thirty years or so?

“As a result of this, I cannot wield magic freely. And that is the reason I so rarely fight with all my strength.”

Aha. Basically, his mana regenerated so slowly that he couldn’t use it very often. I didn’t know how large his mana supply was, but assuming it took years for it to refill, he’d have to be very careful about conserving power.

“While I cannot use the secret art itself on you, the bracelet I gave you provides a similar effect.”

I glanced down at the bracelet on my left wrist. Apparently it was a Man-God jamming device of sorts. “So this doesn’t have any side effects? Maybe if we mass-produced it…”

“I would have done so already, if it were possible. And removed my curse as well.”

Right. Kind of a dumb question.

“I used a considerable amount of mana in my battle against you,” Orsted continued. “I will be unable to fight with all my strength for a while.”

“Huh? Wait, really? But you took me out instantly.”

“I was forced to resist direct hits from your magic many times, and ultimately to draw the Godblade,” said Orsted, his tone of voice distinctly bitter. “It cost me a great deal.”

Hm. From my perspective, he’d beat me into the dirt without breaking a sweat… but apparently I’d put up a better fight than I realized. A solid effort, if I do say so myself. Hoh hoh hoh.

“In any case, my supply of mana is quite low at the moment. Accordingly, I will need you to take action in my stead.”

“…Right. I’ll do what I can.” 

So I was working off the cost of the damage I’d done, basically. That seemed fair enough. 

“On another note, Sir Orsted… can I ask why you’re fighting against the Man-God?”

“Ah… yes, there is that…”

Orsted glanced sideways, gazing at nothing, his tone somewhat reluctant. I had noticed a lot of these thoughtful pauses in this conversation. Was the man lying to me after all? I didn’t want to think so, especially after hearing that he trusted me… but then again, it would be odd if he trusted me completely at this point. There was a good chance he was feeding me some simple falsehoods for now, and reserving his final judgment until I’d proven myself reliable.

“The Man-God… caused my father’s death.”

“Oh?”

Revenge, huh? Definitely a classic motive. It was the same thing that had motivated my future self to try and kill the Man-God. It would be easy for me to scoff at such desires at the moment, since no one I loved had actually been taken from me yet. But that diary made it very clear that I had wound up living for vengeance in that timeline.

“In addition, his destruction was the dearest wish of the ancient Dragonfolk. All of the Dragon Gods have existed solely to pursue that goal.”

Okay, so there was some cultural sense of duty involved as well… Wait, all of the Dragon Gods? 

“Uhm, how many Dragon Gods have there been?”

“I am the hundredth, it seems. And the ninety-nine who came before me all devoted their lives to bringing down the Man-God.”

“Wow. Okay.”

“However, only a Dragon God of great strength and pure blood truly stands a chance to succeed in this task.” Orsted’s sharp, shining eyes fixed themselves on mine; after a moment, he continued in a calm and steady voice. “It was for that reason that my father, first of all the Dragon Gods, reincarnated me in the future.”