Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 15 - Chapter 3.2

Rudeus

AFTER OUR CONVERSATION, the three of us slept side by side in my bed.

I wasn’t quite callous enough to try and start a threesome after a discussion that heavy. Also, Eris’ face kept popping into my thoughts, which wasn’t great for my emotional state. I’d thought I was over all that, but the more I thought about her, the more I could feel that old anxiety and self-doubt bubbling up from deep inside my gut.

Just as Roxy had pointed out, I wasn’t too sure how I felt about Eris at this point. And everything I knew about her feelings had come secondhand.

One way or the other, I had to settle things between us.

To be honest, though, the idea of seeing her again was scary. There was definitely going to be some punching involved. From the sound of things, Eris had gotten unbelievably strong in the last few years. There was no telling how she might react if I walked up to her with Sylphie and Roxy at my side. The diary hadn’t mentioned her attacking Sylphie or anything, but… There was no guarantee those entries were totally accurate, and I’d obviously left a lot of details out. Also, a few poorly chosen words could easily take things in a dangerous direction.

I had good reason to be worried. It was hard to guess how things would turn out when I saw Eris again.

With everything on my mind, it took a while before I managed to get to sleep.

That night, the Man-God paid me a visit.

***

I found myself in a familiar pure-white space. As always, I’d reverted to the man I was in my previous life.

According to my future self, this was the barren world—a sort of four-dimensional space, sitting at the center of a cube composed of six other worlds. When you used Teleportation magic, you travelled through this plane of reality. But based on the old man’s research, there was no easy way to travel into it.

Here I was, though, standing at its center. What did that mean, exactly? Given the change in my appearance… maybe this was a kind of summoning that only affected your mind, or your soul?

“…”

The Man-God was here, as always, with his usual…

Wait, no. He’s not smirking for once.

In fact, his body language suggested he was in a distinctly bad mood. Although it was hard to tell for sure, what with all the blurriness.

“Well, this is no fun at all.” 

Yeah, okay. That sounded like irritation.

“Had to go and ruin everything…”

The tone of his voice was low and hostile. His usual carefree attitude had disappeared completely.

“Jumping back in time to warn yourself? Come on, that’s just not fair. And everything was going so well, too.”

Okay, I get it. You’re not happy. Does that mean the old man was telling me the truth? Have you been playing me for a fool all this time? Did you kill Roxy and Sylphie? I guess this means his plan worked. Did he just give you a taste of your own medicine?

“Questions, questions, questions. Always with the questions. Who knows? Who cares? It does seem like your future self was laboring under quite a few misconceptions, just so you know.”

Well, he’s messing with me again, but it doesn’t sound like his heart’s really in it. I need to try and stay calm. I need to keep this conversation going.

“Ooh, he needs to keep the conversation going! Will you stop pretending to be some kind of tactician? Haven’t you realized you’re a moron yet?”

Oh, shut up. I might be a moron, but I’m still going to try my best. On that note, mind telling me something? Why would you do this to me? Why would you try to harm my family?

“Hmm, why would I do that? Maybe I just wanted to kill them so I could watch you freak out about it? Whatever.”

Wow. He’s really half-assing it today. It’s almost like he’s sulking—like he set up some big elaborate trap in a video game, but then somebody messed it all up by wandering off in the wrong direction, and now he doesn’t even want to play anymore…

“Yeah, more or less. You messed it all up, you stupid, thoughtless jerk.”

…Can you just tell me what’s going on here? I don’t care what your ultimate goal is. I’m really not interested in getting in your way. My future self told me I can’t kill you, anyway. He told me to suck up to you, not to defy you, and I’m fine with that, personally. I mean, things were fine between us up until now… even if you were just setting me up to betray me, you still helped me out plenty of times. You can use me if you want to. It’s not like I have any reason to disobey you. All I’m asking is that you don’t go after my family.

“Well, aren’t you accommodating.”

I mean, whatever you did to that old man, you haven’t managed to harm me yet. As far as I know, at least. You did try to kill Roxy and her baby, but she came out of it unscathed. Since she’s okay, I think I can pretend that never happened. I can still control my emotions. I want to find some way to coexist with you before things cross the point of no return.

“Hmmm…”

The Man-God paused for a moment, apparently considering something that had just occurred to him.

“What if I told you that my goal is world peace? Would you believe that?”

World peace, huh? Sounds great. I’m on board. Love and peace is my personal motto. Nothing better than a tranquil day spent rolling around in bed, am I right?

“Let’s put the sex thing aside for now.”

Sure thing.

 “You remember that Dragon God guy? Your old buddy Orsted? Well, his ultimate goal is to destroy the world.”

Wait, really? I wasn’t getting that vibe from him, honestly.

“He’s been skulking around in the shadows for a long time, making all sorts of evil plans. Here’s the thing: if I die, this world will break apart into a million pieces and fade away completely. So Orsted’s looking for a way to murder me.”

You sure you didn’t do something horrible and piss him off? I don’t know, maybe get his family killed for no apparent reason?

“Don’t you remember what I told you earlier? I can’t do anything to Orsted. As far as I know, he has no reason to hate me.”

Well, okay then. Go on.

“Orsted is very powerful, but he’s also alone. His curse keeps it that way. And as long as he’s isolated, he’ll never be able to harm me.”

Why don’t you just ignore him, then?

“That was the plan… until you appeared.”

What do I have to do with anything?

“Well, you’re not the problem, exactly. But it seems like you and your descendants are immune to the effects of Orsted’s curse. At some point in the future, those descendants are going to join forces with him, and together they’re going to kill me.”

Oh, I get it… so that’s why you went after Roxy when she got pregnant? The old man thought you manipulated Luke into dragging Sylphie off to die, too… But he didn’t say anything about you targeting Lucie. I guess it’s my second or third kid who’s going to be the problem, huh?

Wait. Couldn’t you have just killed me years ago or something? Why would you let things come this far?

“Well, when I first noticed you during the Displacement Incident, I did try a few things just to see what would happen. I’m afraid you’ve got a very strong destiny, though. It never worked out the way I wanted it to.”

A strong destiny? What does that even mean?

“Hmm, how can I explain? I can see a number of broad routes the future might follow branching out ahead of me, and I can tamper with the course of events to some degree. But when I try to manipulate events involving people with strong destinies, it rarely works out in the end. You survived that fight with Orsted, for example. And even though I tried to keep you far away from Roxy, you ended up finding her, marrying her, and having a kid.”

Oh, is this that ‘principle of causality’ thing? Like when you travel to the past to rewrite history, but things end up working out the exact same way somehow?

“Something like that, I guess.”

…Huh. Okay. So Roxy and I were destined to get married, then? That makes me kind of happy.

“Can’t say I feel the same.”

Sure, right. Sorry. But anyway, why did you decide to go after my kids in particular? I mean, these descendants we’re talking about are a few generations later, I’m assuming. Couldn’t you just deal with them before they join forces with Orsted?

“The ones directly responsible for my death will also be born with extremely strong destinies. It’s not just you, by the way—Sylphie, Eris, and Roxy’s are strong as well, and your kids’ will also be on the stronger side. That said, women have times in their life where their destiny gets a little… vague.”

Huh? Wait, do you mean—

“That’s right. It’s when they have a child inside them.”

I had to fight down a sudden, intense urge to punch the fuzzy figure in front of me in the face. The only thing that stopped me was a gut feeling that I couldn’t possibly beat him in a fight—not here, not in this form.

“Of course, I still managed to fail somehow.”

…Why’d you bother murdering Sylphie, then? She wasn’t pregnant at the time, and she’d already given me a daughter.

“What, are we talking about that diary now? Hard for me to comment, but I suppose I was trying to play it safe. On the other hand, maybe it was just Sylphie’s destiny to die if she left you at that point.”

I guess it’s possible… God, that’s depressing.

“You know, I really did think my plan was perfect. Once I realized your destiny was strong, I took things nice and slow. I guided you along, step by step…all so I could strike in the most efficient way, at your most vulnerable moment.”

Is he trying to piss me off now? Ugh. Calm down. Don’t let him get to you… Roxy and Sylphie are both fine. It’s all good…

“I’m not sure why you’re trying so hard to convince yourself of that. You don’t think you’ve won, do you? Just so you know, your children’s destinies won’t be as strong as yours, your wives’, or your descendants’. I’m not planning to give up, either. I really would prefer not to die.”

Well, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t. Isn’t there some other way we could approach this, though? I’m willing to do anything to save my family. Maybe I could start a family tradition of teaching each new generation not to trust Orsted. We can tell our kids all about how wonderful the Man-God is, and how evil that nasty Dragon God is.

“Sorry, won’t work. Destiny isn’t that easy to derail.”

Can you think a little harder, please? I have a pretty strong destiny myself, right? There has to be something I can do.

“…Oh.”

What? Did you think of something?

“Well, I’m not sure if it’s even possible… but there’s certainly a chance it could work… Hmm. You did say you’d do anything at all, right?”

…Uh, yeah.

“Okay then…”

Pausing for just a moment, the Man-God grinned at me like a mischievous child.

“Go kill Orsted for me.”

***

“Rudy! That hurts… Rudy!”

When I awoke, I was squeezing Sylphie tightly in my arms. My throat was dry, and my entire body felt strangely cold. 

“Oh… Sorry, Sylphie.”

I released my iron grip, leaving my poor wife coughing for air. I touched my face and found my forehead covered in sweat.

“Are you all right, Rudy?” came a quiet voice from behind me. I turned and found that Roxy had wrapped her arms around me.

“I’m sorry…”

I sat up in bed. It was still the middle of the night, from the looks of things. Had that just been a dream? No. Not just a dream, anyway. It was the Man-God, no doubt about it.

“Cough… What’s the matter, Rudy? Are you okay?”

Sylphie also sat up and started to wipe my sweat with her sleeve. Roxy was still holding me from behind, rubbing my back gently with one hand.

“I’m all right. I just had, uh… a weird dream, that’s all.”

Go kill Orsted for me.

 There was no doubt about it—that was what he’d said. Was he serious? What was he playing at here? 

Calm down. Calm down, damn it. Let’s think this through.

Orsted was an open enemy of the Man-God. There was no question about that. However, Orsted was isolated. He couldn’t beat the Man-God on his own. That seemed to be an absolute certainty as well. 

It was hard for me to understand why someone that powerful needed help, but that was just the way things were. At some point in the future, my descendants would end up becoming his allies. Together, they’d make their way to the Man-God and defeat him.

For that reason, the Man-God had tried to prevent them from coming into existence. That was why he killed Roxy and Sylphie. He didn’t want them having children. Without my family in the picture, Orsted would never make it to the barren world, and the Man-God would be victorious by default.

But today, the Man-God realized that he couldn’t eliminate my family. That had to be why he’d ordered me to kill Orsted. Both Orsted and my descendants had to be alive in order to defeat him. As long as one or the other was out of the picture, the Man-God would be safe.

The question was whether I could possibly defeat Orsted. From the sound of things, my destiny was very strong. But surely that applied to Orsted, too. After all, he was still alive despite waging war against the Man-God for many years.

How the hell was I supposed to kill him, anyway? He was unbelievably powerful. I didn’t have any means to hurt him…

Or did I?

That diary contained a fairly detailed description of something my future self had used in battle—something that had amplified his power significantly. 

Maybe I could make my own version of the Magic Armor.

It didn’t seem impossible. And I had a feeling it would be extremely effective in combat.

My future self had also used a wide range of magic, including Gravity Manipulation, Teleportation, and Electrical attacks. He hadn’t bothered to tell me how he mastered those spells, though… It was hard to imagine I could figure out the weirder ones any time soon.

That said… in my first fight with Orsted, I’d managed to deal a small amount of damage to him with a Stone Cannon. And my Electric spell had done a number on Atofe. In other words, I had ways of hurting him. As long as I could stay alive long enough to use them, I might have some chance of winning.

…Damn it. This is Orsted we’re talking about! Why am I even taking this seriously?!

“Rudy, please… tell me if there’s something wrong. Don’t keep it bottled up inside…”

Sylphie looked like she was about to cry. I pulled her head against my chest with my right hand. I reached back to grab Roxy’s hand with my left.

I have to keep them safe, that’s why. Stupid question, really.

“It looks like I’m going to have to kill someone.”

“…What?!”

“Rudy… what are you talking about?”

Without responding to Roxy’s question, I pulled away and got out of bed. Warmth gave way to the chill of the night air.

“Sorry.”

With that, I walked out of the room.

My steps were unsteady. My head was swimming. 

I was headed for my study. I wanted to look back through that diary right away—to get some sense, however vague, of the way that old man had fought his battles.

I was going to kill Orsted. It was the only way to protect my family. I’d do it, one way or another. Even if it cost me my own life.

“…Oh.”

As I entered the study, my eyes found the letter I’d been planning to mail out tomorrow, if all went well.

“…”

I scratched out a few new lines at the very bottom of it.

…Maybe I wouldn’t get to see Eris again after all.