Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

All According to Plan? 

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a dingy storehouse. Sunlight filtered in through an iron-barred window. 

I was in pain, but as far as I could tell no bones were broken, so I muttered a healing spell to recover. 

“There we go.” 

I had fully recovered. My clothes weren’t even torn. This was going exactly as I had planned. 

My plan to ensnare the Young Mistress was exactly as follows: 

Go to a clothing store in the city with the Young Mistress. 

Let her ill-behaved nature do its work and have her want to go outside by herself. 

Have Ghislaine escort her as usual, then “accidentally” look away and let the Young Mistress give her the slip. 

I’d follow her, but since I was just the pipsqueak she beat the crap out of, she wouldn’t care about me. 

She’d treat me like a minion and drag me to the edge of the city (because apparently she has a deep interest in adventurers). 

Have someone from the Greyrat household appear. 

Have them knock us both unconscious, take us, and confine us somewhere in a neighboring town. 

Use magic to stage an escape. 

Once we were out, I’d tell her I thought we were in a neighboring town. 

I’d use the money I hid in my underwear to get us on a stagecoach. 

We’d arrive safely back home, and I’d get to hold my chin high as I lectured the Young Mistress. 

Right now, my plan had reached step seven smoothly. All that remained was for me to use my magic, knowledge, wisdom, and courage to make a magnificent escape. To make things more realistic, I would be improvising a little from here. I was a little nervous about how well that would go. 

“Hm…?” 

However, things were a bit different from what I’d planned. This storehouse was covered in dust, and in one corner was a broken chair and a discarded suit of armor with a hole in it. My plan was to be somewhere a bit cleaner than this. 

Then again, we did say we’d make this as believable as possible, so I guess this was the result. 

“Mm…uungh…?” 

The Young Mistress woke a few moments later. She opened her eyes, didn’t recognize her surroundings, and tried jumping to her feet. But since her hands were tied behind her back, she fell over and squirmed like a caterpillar instead. 

She lost her cool the moment she realized she couldn’t move. “What the hell is this?! Stop messing around! Who the hell do you think I am?! Untie me immediately!” 

Her voice was unbearably loud. I’d noted this back at the manor too. She really didn’t dial down her volume in this small space at all. I’d thought maybe she raised her voice because the manor was so huge and she wanted people to hear her in every corner of the complex when she spoke. 

But no, she was her grandfather’s granddaughter. Sauros was also the type to shout down his opponent, even if he doted on his granddaughter, and she must have seen how her grandfather intimidated the servants and Philip. Children loved to imitate what they saw, especially if it was something bad. 

“Shut up already, you damn brat!” The door banged open and in came a man, probably because of her screaming. 

His clothes were all ragged and a foul stench clung to him. He was bald and his face unshaven. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d pulled out a business card that said, “Hi, I’m a bandit!” 

Nice choice, I thought. Now she would never figure out that we staged everything. 

“Eww! You stink! Don’t you dare come close to me! You smell awful! Who the hell do you think I am?! Any minute now, Ghislaine is going to come in here and split you in two—gah!” 

Whack! She was sent flying with an audible whoosh. A loud cry left her mouth as she smacked into the wall. 

“Damn brat! Think you can mouth off to me, huh?! We already know you’re the liege lord’s grandchildren!” The man didn’t hold anything back as he began stomping on the Young Mistress, whose hands were still tied behind her back. 

Th-that’s going a little far, isn’t it? 

“Th-that hurts… Stop—guh! Stop, agh… Stop it…” 

“Puh!” He continued kicking her for a while. When he finished, he spat on her face and glared at me. I turned my head to avoid his gaze, and a kick came flying at my face. 

“…Argh!” 

That hurt! We were supposed to be putting on an act, but he could have showed a little restraint. I did tell them that I could use healing magic, but… 

“Tsk! That’s for looking so damn happy!” 

He exited the storehouse. I could hear voices beyond the door. 

“Did they shut up?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You didn’t kill ’em, did you? Bang up the merch too bad and it’ll lose its value.” 

There was something strange about the conversation. It was too realistic…which would have been fine if it were just an act. The problem was that it didn’t seem like one. Maybe, just maybe, this was the real deal. 

“Oh? Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. At the very least, we should be fine as long as we still have the boy.” 

Not good. 

“…” 

After the voices went away, I counted to 300 before I burned through the ropes tying my hands. I went over to where the Young Mistress was lying. Blood was pouring out of her nose. She stared blankly as she mumbled something to herself. 

I realized she was muttering, “You won’t get away with this,” and, “I’m going to tell my grandpa,” among other more dangerous utterances that I couldn’t bear to listen to. 

For now, I needed to assess her injuries. 

“Eek!” It must have hurt, because her head snapped up as she looked at me, fear in her eyes. 

I put a finger to my lips and monitored her reaction as I looked her over. She had two broken bones. 

“O goddess of motherly affection, close up this one’s wounds and restore the vigor to their body—X-Healing!” I chanted a mid-level healing spell in a low voice, restoring the Young Mistress’s body to health. Unfortunately, just putting in more magical energy wouldn’t make healing spells more effective. Hopefully what I did was enough to heal her wounds properly. She would be fine so long as her bones knitted back together the right way. 

“H-huh? The pain is…?” She looked down at her body, puzzled. 

I whispered in her ear, “Shh, be quiet. Your bones were broken so I used healing magic. Young Mistress, it appears we have been abducted by people that bear a grudge against the liege lord. Therefore…” 

She wasn’t listening. 

“Ghislaine! Ghislaine, help! They’re going to kill me! Save me, hurry!” Her bellowing voice echoed through the room. 

I immediately hid the rope that had bound my hands beneath my clothes, scurried to the corner of the room and hid my hands between my back and the wall, pretending I was still restrained. 

The power of the Young Mistress’s voice was enough to draw the man back, and the door banged open viciously. “Shut the hell up!” This time he kicked her even harder than before. 

She really doesn’t learn, I thought. 

“Little shit, next time you fuss, I’ll kill you!” 

And of course, I got kicked a second time too. 

I didn’t do anything, why did you have to kick me?! Now I feel like crying, I thought as I returned to the Young Mistress’s side. 

“Guhuh, guhuh…” 

It was bad. I wasn’t sure if it was a broken rib, but she was vomiting blood. One of her internal organs had probably ruptured. Her arms and legs were broken too. I didn’t know much about medical treatment, but these wounds looked serious enough that she might die if I just left her like this. 

“Let this divine power be as satisfying nourishment, giving one who has lost their strength the strength to rise again—Healing!” For now, I decided to use a basic healing spell for a slight recovery. 

The blood coming from her mouth stopped. At least now she wouldn’t die…probably. 

“Guhuh… I-It still hurts. H-heal…all of it.” 

“No. If I heal you, you’ll just get yourself kicked again, right? Use your own magic.” 

“I-I can’t…do that.” 

“You could if you learned how.” 

With that, I went to the storehouse entrance and pressed my ear to the door. I wanted to hear more of our captors’ conversation. This was completely different from my plan. No matter the reason, they had gone too far. 

“So, we gonna sell to that one guy?” 

“No, let’s use ’em for ransom.” 

“Won’t they hunt us down?” 

“I don’t care. If that happens, we’ll just go to a neighboring country.” 

So, they really did intend to sell us off. It seemed like we had entrusted the kidnapping scheme to someone close to the family but had instead gotten mixed up with real kidnappers. 

I wondered where the plan went wrong. Was it the moment we were kidnapped? Or was Philip really trying to sell his daughter? No, the latter was unlikely. Oh well. Either way, my job was still the same. This just meant we had no safety net. 

“We’d get more for ransoming ’em than we would for selling, right?” 

“Let’s decide by tonight.” 

“Yeah, sell or ransom.” 

They seemed to disagree whether they should sell us somewhere or demand ransom from the liege lord. Either way, they would be moving us out of here tonight. We had to get moving while there was still light. 

“All right.” What to do? 

I could smash the door and subdue our kidnappers with magic. Maybe if she saw me defeat the people who had beat her senseless, the Young Mistress would learn to respect… 

No, that was unlikely. She was the type to think she could have done the same if they hadn’t beat her up. Plus, that would just show her that violence brings results. I needed to teach her that violence earned you nothing, otherwise she would just keep punching me. I didn’t want her to feel like she had that power. 

There’s also no guarantee you’d be able to beat those kidnappers, I realized. If they were as strong as Paul or Ghislaine, I was positive I would lose. And if I lost, they would definitely kill me. 

All right, then let’s get out of here without messing with the kidnappers. 

I glanced back to check on the Young Mistress. Yikes. She was glaring at me, eyes full of anger. 

Hmmm. 

Let’s just get started with the plan. 

First, I used earth and fire magic to fill the cracks in the door. Then I melted the door knob so the handle couldn’t be turned. Now it was just a door that couldn’t be opened. Of course, that meant nothing if they smashed through it. Still, it would buy us some time. 

Next, the window. It was a small hole with metal bars set in it. I considered focusing my fire magic on one spot to burn through the iron, but that would need temperatures too high to be practical. In the end, I used water magic to loosen the bricks framing the iron bars. Once I successfully pried them out, what was left was a hole just large enough for a single child to fit through. 

Now we had an escape route. 

“Young Mistress. It seems the people who kidnapped us have a grudge against the liege lord. Their friends are going to be here tonight. They were just talking about how they’re going to beat us to death.” 

“Th-that has to be lie…right?” 

Of course it was. But the Young Mistress’s face had turned pale anyway. 

“I don’t want to die so…goodbye.” 

I grabbed the ledge of the empty window frame and hoisted myself up. At the same time, a voice came through the door. 

“Hey, this won’t open! What the hell is goin’ on!” 

Bang, bang! They pounded on the door. 

The Young Mistress eyed me and the door in despair. “D-don’t…leave me behind… Help.” 

Oh wow. She caved quicker than I thought. I guess this situation was terrifying even for her. 

I dropped to the floor, got close to her, and whispered, “Can you promise to listen to everything I say until we get back to the house?” 

“I-I’ll listen, sure.” 

“Can you also promise you won’t yell? Ghislaine isn’t here, okay?” 

She nodded vigorously. “I-I’ll promise. So just hurry up…or they’ll come… They’ll come!” 

Her demeanor had changed completely from when she punched me. She was filled with fear and unease. Good, now she understood. 

I tried to sound calm and cool. “If you break your promise, I will leave you behind.” 

I reinforced the door with earth magic. Then I used fire to remove her bindings and healing to restore her to full health. 

Finally, I slipped out the window and pulled the Young Mistress out with me. 

*** 

Once we escaped the storehouse, we were greeted by an unfamiliar town. There were no castle walls. This wasn’t Roa. It wasn’t small enough to be a village, but it was a very small town. I had to think fast, or they were going to find us. 

“Hmph, this is far enough!” The Young Mistress declared loudly. She seemed to think we had already outrun our enemy. 

“You promised you wouldn’t shout until we got home.” 

“Hmph! Why do I have to keep any promises to you?” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

This little brat! 

“Oh really? Then this is where we part. Goodbye.” 

“Hmph!” She flared her nostrils and began walking away, but then we heard distant, angry shouts. 

“Those damn brats! Where the hell did they go?!” 

They must have busted the door down or seen that the window bars were missing. Either way, they knew we had fled and were looking for us. 

“…Eek!” the Young Mistress yelped and scurried back to me. “Th-that was a lie a second ago. I won’t shout anymore. Now take me home!” 

“I’m not your servant, nor am I your slave.” It irritated me how she changed her mind so easily. 

“Wh-what are you saying? You’re my tutor, right?” 

“No, I’m not.” 

“Huh?” 

“You said you didn’t like me, so I wasn’t hired.” 

“W-well, I’ll hire you then,” she said reluctantly. 

I needed a real promise this time. “Again with the promises. Once we get back to the manor, you’ll just break it just like you did a second ago, right?” I said, hoping I sounded unaffected and distant, yet confident that she wouldn’t keep her word. 

“I-I won’t break my promise, so…I demand—no, I mean…help me.” 

“You can come with me, as long as you keep your promise not to shout and listen to what I say.” 

“G-got it.” She nodded meekly. 

Very good, I thought. Now let’s move on to the next step. 

First, I retrieved the five large copper coins I’d tucked into my underwear. This was all the money I owned. Ten large copper coins made up one silver coin, so this wasn’t much money, but it would be enough for our purposes. 

“Now come with me please.” 

We headed toward the town entrance, away from the distant sound of angry shouting. A sleepy guard stood on duty. I passed him one of my coins. “If anyone asks if you’ve seen us, please tell them that we left the city.” 

“Huh? What? Children? Okay, I guess. You guys playing hide and seek or something? This is a lot of money. Jeez, just what wealthy family are you two from…” 

“Please, just tell them what I said.” 

“Yeah, I got it.” It was a rude reply, but we couldn’t afford to linger. 

Next, I headed to the stagecoach’s waiting area. The fare and terms of use were written on the wall, but I had already read that information days ago. Instead, I was looking for the town’s location. 

“It looks like we’re two cities away from Roa, in a town called Wieden,” I whispered to the Young Mistress. 

Keeping to her promise, she replied in a hushed voice, “How can you tell?” 

“It’s written right there.” 

“I can’t read it.” 

Here we go, I thought. 

“Being able to read is really beneficial. The way the stagecoach works is also written here.” 

Still, it was amazing that they’d managed to bring us this far in just a day’s time. It made me nervous being in a city I didn’t know, almost like I was reliving a previous trauma. 

No, no, I thought. This is completely different from that time when I didn’t know how to find the location for Hello Work. 

As I was lost in thought, the sound of shouting drew close. “Shit! Where the hell are they hiding?! Get out here!” 

“Hide!” I grabbed the Young Mistress and ducked into the bathroom, locking the door behind us. Outside came the clamor of heavy footsteps. 

“Where the hell are they?!” 

“Don’t you dare think you got away from us!” 

Whoa, scary. 

Oh, just knock it off already. Acting all pissed off as you try to hunt us down… You could at least speak in a sweet voice like an owner trying to draw out their cat. Maybe you would have some chance of deceiving us into coming out. It wouldn’t work, of course, but at least you’d have a chance. 

“Dammit, they’re not here!” 

Before long, their voices grew distant. We had a moment to relax a bit, though it was too soon to let our guard down. After all, when people were in a panic, they tended to circle around and search the same area repeatedly. 

“A-are we okay?” She held a trembling hand over her mouth. 

“Well, if they find us, let’s put up a good fight.” 

“R-right… Okay!” 

“Though I doubt we can win.” 

“R-really…?” 

I said it because she looked like she was getting her fighting spirit back. I didn’t want to get pummeled by them another time. 

“I was looking at the fare for the stagecoach, and it looks like we’ll have to change coaches twice to get back.” 

“Change coaches?” She seemed confused as to why that mattered. 

“Only five stagecoaches leave here daily, one every two hours starting at eight in the morning. It’s the same for every city. And it takes three hours to get to the next city from here. If we leave right now, we’ll be on the fourth stagecoach for the day. In other words…” 

“In other words…?” 

“By the time we reach the neighboring city, the last stagecoach there will already have left for Roa. So we will have to spend one night in that town before we can leave.” 

“No wa… O-oh, I see. Hm.” She looked like she was about the shout there for a moment, but she held herself back. Yeah, please try to restrain that loud voice of yours. 

“I have four large copper coins left, but we have to go to the neighboring city, stay a night, then go to Roa. We’ll be cutting it close.” 

“Cutting it close… But it will be enough, right?” 

“It will.” 

She looked relieved, but it was too early for us to relax yet. 

“As long as no one tries to cheat us out of change, that is.” 

“Out of change…?” She made a face like she didn’t know what I was talking about. Maybe she had never used money for herself before. 

“When the people running the inn or stagecoaches see that we’re children, they’ll probably think we can’t calculate prices, right? That means they might try to cheat us by skimming off the top and only giving us a little change back. Now if you point out that it’s not the right amount of change, they’ll give the rest to you. But, if you don’t know how to calculate it, then…” 

“Then what?” 

“Then we won’t have enough for the last stagecoach. And those guys from before will catch up to us.” 

She began trembling, as if she would pee herself at any minute. 

“The bathroom is over there.” 

“I-I know that.” 

“All right, then I’ll go have a look outside.” 

When I tried leaving, she grabbed the hem of my shirt. 

“D-don’t go,” she said. 

So I let her take a pee before we went back outside. 

It seemed like our two pursuers had gone, but I wasn’t sure if they were still searching inside or outside the city. If we ran into them, I would have to overpower them with my magic. 

As we hid in a corner of the wait area, I prayed they were opponents I could defeat. When it was time to leave, I handed my money to the coachman and we boarded. 

*** 

We arrived in the neighboring city without any trouble. 

For the night’s stay, I chose a dilapidated-looking shack to teach the Young Mistress a lesson about how harsh the world could really be. Our beds were made of straw. 

The Young Mistress was so wired she couldn’t sleep. Every time she heard a sound, she would startle and glare, frightened, at the room’s entrance. When nothing seemed to be amiss, she would breathe a sigh of relief. She did this over and over. 

The next morning, we hopped on the first stagecoach to Roa. The Young Mistress must not have slept much at all, because her eyes were bloodshot. And yet, she didn’t seem the least bit tired. Instead, she kept glancing out the back of the stagecoach, checking for possible pursuers. Several times we had a single horseman pass us on his mount, but none of them were our kidnappers. 

We had covered quite a distance, so maybe they had given up. Or so I naively thought. 

Hours passed. We arrived in Roa without any problems. Once we passed through those sturdy walls and saw the liege lord’s manor in the distance, a sense of security settled in. Unconsciously, I let my guard down, thinking we were safe now that we had made it this far. 

We disembarked and headed toward the manor on foot. Our steps felt light. After riding in a stagecoach for hours, on top of sleeping on hay for the first time, I was exhausted. 

Then, as if they had been waiting for that exact moment, two men grabbed the Young Mistress and pulled her into a back alleyway. 

“What?!” I had let my guard down; it took me two seconds to notice. In those two seconds that I’d taken my eyes off her, she was gone. I thought maybe she really had disappeared. But out the corner of my eye, I glimpsed clothing that matched what the Young Mistress was wearing, just before she was dragged around the corner of a building. 

I pursued them immediately. When I darted into the alleyway, I caught sight of the two men, one of whom was carrying the Young Mistress in his arms, trying to make their escape. 

I quickly used an earth spell to create a wall. The magic leapt from my fingertips and a barrier sprang up in front of them. Their pathway was cut off so suddenly that the men couldn’t stop themselves in time. 

“What the?!” 

“Nggh!” The Young Mistress bit down on her gag, tears beading in her eyes. 

Amazing… They managed to gag her in just a few seconds? They must be well-practiced, I thought. It also looked like they had punched her, because her cheek was swollen and red. 

My opponents were the two who had kidnapped us. One of them was the violent one who kicked me, and the other was probably the man I heard talking outside the storehouse. They both looked like bandits, and each had a sword sheathed at their side. 

“Aha, so it’s that brat. You know you coulda gone back home safely if you woulda just kept your nose out of this.” Despite being caught off guard by the sudden appearance of my dirt wall, they grinned when they saw I was their opponent. 

The violent one came toward me, his guard down. The other was carrying the Young Mistress. I wondered if they had any other comrades around. Regardless, I conjured a small ball of fire at my fingertips to intimidate him. 

“Hngh! Bastard!” The moment he saw that, the violent man unsheathed his sword. 

The other man immediately put up his guard and leveled the tip of his sword against the Young Mistress’s neck while backing up. 

“You… You damn brat! I thought you seemed too calm! Looks like you’re a bodyguard, huh? No wonder you escaped so easily. Dammit, I was fooled by your appearance! You’re a demon!” 

“I’m not a bodyguard. I haven’t even been hired yet,” I said. I wasn’t a demon either, but there was no need to correct him about that. 

“What? Then why the hell are you getting in our way?!” 

“Well, they plan to hire me after this, so…” 

“Huh, so you’re after money? 

After money, huh? He wasn’t necessarily wrong. I was doing this to earn enough money so Sylphie and I could go to university together. “I won’t deny that.” 

As soon as I said that, the corners of his lips curved up. “Then you should join us. I have connections with a perverted noble that will pay a high price for a young girl from a noble family. I hear the liege lord dotes on his granddaughter, so we could also hold her to ransom. Either way we’d get a ton of money.” 

“Oho.” I made a sound like I was impressed by their proposition, and the Young Mistress turned to look at me, her face pale. Maybe she knew I was seeking employment from her family to earn money for tuition. “And exactly how much money would that be?” 

“This isn’t some piddling one-or-two-gold-coins-a-month job we’re talking about,” he said with a self-satisfied smirk. “It’s got to be a hundred gold coins, at least.” 

It was almost as if he had no real grasp on the economy here and was trying to brag like a grade school kid saying, “It’s like a million yen! Can you believe it?!” 

He asked, “What about you? You look like a kid, but I bet you’re much older than you look.” 

“Why do you think that?” 

“That magic you just used and how calm you’re acting? It’s obvious. I know there are demons out there like that. I bet you’ve been given a hard time because of your appearance, right? So you understand how important money is, don’t ya?” 

“I see.” 

So that was what I looked like from an outside perspective? Well, it was certainly true that I was over forty. 

Ta-da! Congratulations, you guessed correctly! Good job. 

“You’re right. After living as long as I have, you get a good sense of the importance of money. I know what it’s like to be thrown out into a world you don’t know much about with no money and only the clothes on your back.” 

“Heh, yeah, you get us, right?” 

Very much so, because until this point, I had never worried about money at all. Instead I’d spent almost twenty years as a shut-in. Half of my life had been spent on nothing but erotic sims and online games. I’d learned something thanks to all of that. I knew what it would mean if I betrayed her right here, as well as what would happen if I helped her. 

“It’s exactly why I know there are things more important than money.” 

“Don’t start spitting pretty words at us!” 

“They’re not pretty words. You can’t buy ‘dere’ with money.” Crap, my inner nerd had slipped out. It wasn’t like these men knew what tsundere meant. 

“Dere? What the heck is that?” The violent man looked dumbfounded, but at least he understood that our negotiation had broken down. His creepy smile was replaced by a grim look as he put his sword to the Young Mistress’s neck. 

“Then she’ll be our hostage! First, launch that fire ball into the air.” 

“You want me to fire it into the air?” 

“That’s right. You better not aim it at us, not even on accident. No matter how fast you are, we’ll slit this little brat’s throat and use her as a human shield faster than you can hit us.” 

Wouldn’t you ask someone to disperse their magic instead? Wait, maybe he doesn’t know. It did make sense: a chanted spell would keep going until it was released. If you didn’t learn magic properly, you probably wouldn’t understand the difference between using a chant and not using one. 

“Roger that.” Before I discharged the Fireball at my fingertip, I used magic to insert another special Fireball inside it. Then I launched it into the air. 

It made a ridiculous noise as it raced upward. A huge explosion flashed above us. 

“Huh! 

“Whoa?! 

“Ngh?!” 

The bang was thunderous enough to split eardrums. The light from it was blinding too. The heat it emitted was hot enough to burn you. 

As everyone looked to the sky, I raced forward. I conjured magic as I ran. Out of habit, I summoned two different spells. In my right hand I had Intermediate-tier wind magic, Sonic Boom. In my left hand I had Intermediate-tier earth magic, Stone Cannon. I fired one spell each at the men in front of me. 

“Gyaaaah!” 

Sonic Boom cut the arm off the violent man who was distracted by the explosion. I caught the Young Mistress snugly in my arms, princess-style, as she fell screaming from his grasp. 

“Tch! It’s not that easy!” 

I glanced at the other bandit and realized he’d cut my Stone Cannon in two with his blade. 

“Ugh…” This was bad. He actually managed to slice through it. I didn’t know what school of sword arts he was using, but this wasn’t good. If he were as strong as Paul, we were in trouble. This might not be someone I could beat. 

“Wah, wah, wah!” 

I used a mix of wind and fire magic to create an explosion that propelled me into the air. The force of it was so violent that I thought I broke something. 

The sword came down just a moment too late, narrowly missing me. It cut through the air right in front of my nose, the whistle of it lingering in my ears. 

That was close. 

But he wasn’t nearly as fast as Paul, which meant I didn’t have to panic. I had done numerous practice drills against opponents with a sword before. So long as I performed just as well, I could cut my way out of here. 

I prepared my next magical attack as I hovered mid-air. First, I sent a Fireball straight at his face. It shot slowly toward him. 

“Is that all you’ve got!” He studied its trajectory, then readied his sword to counter it. While he was waiting for the Fireball to reach him, I used water and earth magic to turn the ground beneath him into a swirling mass of mud. 

When he tried to cut through my Fireball, he sank up to his knees in thick, sticky mud. Now he couldn’t move. 

“What?!” 

Yes, I won! I had, I was sure of it. He couldn’t run now. He may have deflected my Fireball, but we were already beyond his attack range. With the Young Mistress in my arms, all I had to do was disappear into the confusion of the crowds and we would be safe. Or, if I needed to, I could yell for help. 

Just as I thought that… 

“You think I’m gonna let you get away!” He launched his sword at us. 

It was then that I remembered what Paul had taught me. In the North God Style of swordplay, even if you cut off the opponent’s leg, they still had a technique for throwing their sword at you. 

The blade flew toward me at a tremendous speed, but I watched it as if in slow motion. It was aimed right at my head. 

Death. 

Right as that word popped into my mind, there was a brown blur in front of me. I heard a sound like porcelain shattering, then the sword fell. 

“Huh?” 

Someone had come between me and the bandits. They stood with their broad, sturdy back to me. I recognized the ears on the back of their head. It was Ghislaine Dedoldia. She glanced back at me and nodded. 

“Leave the rest to me,” she said. 

The moment she put her hand to the sword at her waist, the tip of it cut through the air in a flash of red light. 

“Huh…?” 

The head of the man knee-deep in mud fell from his neck. This was despite the considerable distance between him and Ghislaine, too far for a sword’s reach. 

“Hey, where the hell did you—“ 

Her tail flicked and in the next moment, the other man’s head fell. I imagined I heard it thump as it hit the ground. 

My brain couldn’t catch up with what was happening. All I could do was watch, dumbfounded, as the two bodies crumbled to the ground meters away from where we were standing. It didn’t seem real. I had no idea what just happened. Huh? They’re dead? was all that came into my mind. 

“Hm. Rudeus, were those two our only enemies?” 

I snapped back to the moment. “Uh, yeah. Thank you. Miss…Ghislaine?” 

“Drop the miss, just call me Ghislaine.” She looked back and nodded. “I saw a sudden explosion in the sky, so I came to check things out. Looks like I made the right choice.” 

“Y-yeah, you were really fast. I mean, you defeated them in seconds.” Only a minute had passed since my first spell. She got here way too fast, no matter how you cut it. 

“I was close by. Plus, it wasn’t that fast. Any warrior from the Dedoldia family can kill a person in seconds. By the way, Rudeus, was that your first time fighting with someone using the North God Style?” 

“It was my first time being in a life-or-death battle,” I said. 

“Then let me tell you, those kinds of people don’t give up until one side is dead. Be careful.” 

Until one side is dead… 

That was right, I almost died. I trembled as I remembered how the bandit’s sword had come flying at me. It was a life-or-death battle. A real life-or-death battle. 

“L-Let’s go home.” 

If I had made even one mistake, I would have died. This really was a different world. A world with magic and swords. 

What would happen if I died this time? 

A chill of indescribable fear ran up my spine. 

*** 

“Phew…” 

When we finally reached the manor, the Young Mistress sank to the ground, completely exhausted. Her legs must have given out now that her nerves had settled. 

The maids anxiously swarmed around her. When they reached out to help her, she batted their hands away and stood up by herself. Her legs were trembling like those of a newborn deer. 

She stood imposingly, with her arms crossed over her chest. Maybe she had regained her spirits now that she was home. Seeing her this way, the maids seemed to realize something was odd, and stayed back. 

The Young Mistress thrust her finger at me and bellowed, “I kept my promise and now we’re back home! So I can talk now, right?!” 

“Oh, yeah. You can talk now.” Hearing how loud she was being again, I realized I had failed. What we had been through was obviously not enough to change this selfish and violent girl. In fact, she might have guessed that I’d been afraid during the battle. Maybe she would point out how high and mighty I’d acted despite being so weak. 

“I will grant you the special privilege of calling me by my name, Eris!” 

Her words took me by surprise. “Huh?” 

“Not just anybody gets to do that, okay?!” 

So, did that mean…I passed? That I could work here as her tutor? Oh, oh wow! Seriously? S-so, I succeeded?! Yes! 

“Thank you! Mistress Eris!” 

“Drop the Mistress! Just call me Eris!” She was imitating Ghislaine. As soon as she finished, she collapsed. 

That was how I became the tutor for Eris Boreas Greyrat. 

*** 

NAME: Eris B. Greyrat 

OCCUPATION: Granddaughter of Fittoa’s liege lord 

PERSONALITY: Fierce 

DOESN’T: Always listen to what people say 

READING/WRITING: She can write her own name 

ARITHMETIC: Can use addition 

MAGIC: Not interested 

FENCING: Sword God Style – Beginner-tier 

ETIQUETTE: Can do the Boreas-style greeting 

PEOPLE SHE LIKES: Grandfather, Ghislaine