Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.5

Side Story:

The Aftermath and the Boreas

Greeting Style 

The one pulling the strings behind the kidnapping had been the butler, Thomas. He was the person with connections to a perverted noble that the hoodlums had referred to. The Young Mistress had apparently caught that noble’s eye a while ago, and he wanted to beat her fierce and unyielding spirit out of her. Thomas, seduced by the money, added the two men the perverted noble had selected into my plan. 

Jeez, there really were some shameless people out there in the world. If he was going to do that again, I wish he’d talk to me first. 

He completely miscalculated by not considering two things. Firstly, that I possessed enough magical prowess to escape the two bandits, and secondly, that those two had no loyalty to him whatsoever. 

As for the perverted noble, he played innocent and escaped punishment. Part of it was because Thomas’s testimony was inadequate, and part of it was because the two bandits were dead, so we could find no proof of the noble’s involvement. There were too many unknown variables. I suspected political machinations were involved. 

The incident was considered resolved entirely because of Ghislaine’s involvement. The Greyrat family could tout the fact that they had the Sword King Ghislaine staying with them, preventing possible future incidents while proclaiming the strength and wealth of their house. 

I was ordered to give all the credit to Ghislaine, even after I told them what transpired. It seemed they didn’t want others in the Greyrat family to know of my existence. Yet more political bargaining, I assumed. The bigger surprise to me was that there were even more Greyrats. 

“And that’s how it is. Understood?” 

“Yes…understood.” 

Philip explained all of this to me in the reception room. I thought he was just the son of the liege lord, but he was also the town’s mayor. I wondered if he was the one who had settled the whole matter. 

“You seem pretty relaxed for someone whose daughter was kidnapped.” 

“I am now. I would be panicking if she were still missing,” he said. 

“Certainly.” 

“Now, about you working as Eris’s tutor…” 

As we were about to begin discussing my future, the door flew open with a bang, and in waltzed Eris’s incredibly exuberant grandfather. 

“I heard it all,” Sauros said. He barreled into the reception room and tousled my hair with a firm hand. “I heard you saved Eris!” 

“Wh-wh-what are you talking about? Ghislaine is the one who did it. I didn’t do anything!” 

His eyes gleamed darkly, like a bird of prey. 

Th-that’s terrifying! 

“You! You think you can lie to me!” 

“N-no! But Lord Philip told me to say—” 

“Philip!” He rounded on his son and without a moment of hesitation, swung his fist. It landed with a vicious crack. 

“Ugh!” The young lord took the blow right to the face and tumbled over the back of the sofa. The liege lord’s fist had been so fast. Faster even than Eris, too quick for the eyes to follow. 

“Bastard! This to the boy who saved your daughter! How dare you not offer even a word of gratitude! Just so you can partake in your foolish theater between nobles?!” 

Philip, still splayed on the floor, responded without moving. “Father, Paul may have been disowned by our family, but he is still a Greyrat. That means his son Rudeus, who also carries our blood, is a part of our family as well. So rather than outwardly praise and reward him, I thought the best way to thank him was to treat him with kindness as a part of our family.” He spoke very matter-of-factly for someone laid out on the floor. Perhaps he was used to being punched by Sauros. 

“Very well! Then go ahead and keep up that farce with the nobles!” The older man plopped himself on the empty sofa. It seemed he wasn’t going to apologize for punching Philip. That was just the kind of person he was. Physical punishment was as natural as breathing here. 

Come to think of it, Eris never apologized to me either. She also never thanked me for saving her. 

Ah well, it’s fine. 

“Rudeus!” The liege lord folded his arms, lifted his chin, and glared at me. 

This seemed familiar. 

“I have a request!” 

Is that really the kind of attitude you should have when asking someone for something? He was just like Eris! No, that was backwards—she was the one imitating him after all. 

“I want you to teach Eris magic.” 

“Why, might I ask?” 

“She came to me to request it. She said your magic was so seared into her mind she couldn’t get it out of her head.” 

It certainly was magic that seared the eyes anyway. 

“Of cour…” I bit my tongue as I began to respond on instinct. The most likely reason for her horrible personality was Sauros always spoiling her like this. Maybe not the only reason, but she had certainly been influenced by him, based on how much of his personality she imitated. 

If she was going to grow at all as a person, I had to stop her from being spoiled. It might not be my responsibility to see that she grew up properly, but if things continued like this, it would affect my ability to teach her. 

It was best to deal with each problem as it appeared. 

“That isn’t something for you to ask of me, Lord Sauros. Eris should ask me herself.” 

“What did you say?!” Indignant, he raised his fist. 

I panicked and covered my face with my hands. What was he, some sort of nuclear bomb waiting to explode? “D-do you really mean to raise Eris into an adult that can’t lower her head to ask for something when she wants it?” 

“Oho! You make a fair point! You’re right!” He slammed his fist on his knee and nodded vigorously. In a great, loud voice he said, “Eriiiiis! Come to the reception room right now!” 

I thought my eardrums were going to burst. What kind of lung capacity did a person need to be able to yell that loud…? Eris was the exact same way. Did no one in this manor understand the concept of asking people to deliver messages? 

These savages, I thought. 

Philip returned to his seat on the sofa while a butler (a different guy, apparently named Alphonse) closed the door that had been left open. I later learned that, because Sauros was like a storm that raged out of rooms just as quickly as he came in, they would wait for a while before closing a door. He was a selfish old man that loved to throw doors open but was not as fond of shutting them. 

“Okaaaay!” A voice responded from somewhere else in the manor. After a while came the tapping of approaching footsteps. “Here I am, just as you asked!” She didn’t have quite the force of her grandfather, but Eris still energetically threw the doors open and burst inside. 

Every single action she took was made with her grandfather in mind. Children loved to mimic adults after all. If I hadn’t gotten punched my first day here, I might have smiled at the resemblance. Instead, I could firmly say that this, too, had to stop. 

“Oh…” As soon as she caught sight of me, she lifted her chin and glared. Was this intimidating pose passed down in the Boreas family? “Grandfather, did you tell him what we talked about?!” 

He stood suddenly and folded his arms, glaring at her. It was the exact same pose. “Eris! If you want to ask something of someone, you need to bow your own head and ask!” 

Her lips pushed out in a pout. “But you said you would ask him for me…” 

“Enough! If you won’t ask him yourself, then we won’t hire him!” 

Huh? Wh-what did he just say?! No no, wait, I mean, I guess that was right. That would be a bit problematic for me, but I guess this was what you’d call reaping what you sow?! 

“Grr…” Eris glared at me, her cheeks flushed red. It wasn’t a blush of embarrassment; she was pissed off and humiliated. Her face said that if her grandfather wasn’t there, she’d chase me all the way to the bowels of hell and turn me into minced meat. 

Scary… 

“P-please…” 

“Is that the kind of attitude to take when you’re asking someone for something?!” Sauros bellowed. 

Like you have any room to talk, I thought. 

“Grr…” Eris took a fistful of her long, red hair into each hand. She made a tail on either side of her temples; instant twin tails. Then, just like that, she winked at me. “Please teach me magic, mew ?” 

*** 

Wait. Was I dreaming? I blacked out for a minute there. It felt like I’d just had a really awful dream. 

“Don’t worry about teaching me reading or writing, mew ?” 

Well crap, it wasn’t a dream! Wh-what the heck? What the heck was going on? 

Did I just get transported to some weird alternate dimension? At least transport me to the two-dimensional world of anime, if you’re going to go that far! 

“I don’t need arithmetic either, mew ?” 

A-anyway, this was abnormal. Terrifying even! Eris’s pose should have been cute, but all it did was strike fear into me. Her lips were upturned, but her eyes weren’t smiling. They were the eyes of a predator. 

More importantly, was this really how you were supposed to act when you asked for a favor in this world?! You have got to be kidding me! 

“Magic is all I need, mew ?” 

Stop messing with me! This is honestly worse than how she was before. Come on, just look at her face. 

Her cheeks burned bright red, and her expression said, If the circumstances were any different, I’d punch you so hard you’d fly from the depths of hell all the way to heaven. She looked eight parts angry, two parts humiliated, and zero parts bashful. There was nothing cute about her, nothing at all. 

C-come on, Sauros, let her have it, I begged mentally. 

“O-ooh~ Our Eri is so cute. Rudeus, of course you’re going to teach her, right?” 

He’d suddenly turned into a fond old man. Who the hell are you?! I thought. Where did my strict and reliable great uncle go?! 

“The Master has a great fondness for beastfolk. He also had the final say when Lady Ghislaine was employed,” the butler explained politely. 

Ah, now I understood. So those twin tails were supposed to be animal ears. They did look like drooping ears. Come to think of it, most of the maids were beasts as well. 

Yeah, sure, now I get it. Yeah… My inner monologue trailed off. 

“Eris.” Her father stepped in. 

Oh yeah, I forgot he was here, I thought. Okay, Mister Philip, it’s your time to shine, tell her off! 

“Stick your hips out a bit more to look more appealing.” 

Great, this one is hopeless too. 

Okay then. Now I understood. Now I understood what type of people the Greyrats were, Paul included. In fact, Paul was maybe a bit more normal than this lot. 

“Um, Lord…Sauros. Could I ask you just one thing…?” 

“Speak!” 

“D-do men also ask for favors like that?” 

“Fool! A man should ask like a man!” 

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I did understand the reprimand. Well, I was right. Compared to this lot, Paul’s proclivities were almost normal. He just liked women with big breasts. 

Okay, calm down, I told myself. Let’s just think about this. Is this a pass or a fail? 

I was being stared at. I composed myself and looked at Eris. Angry and humiliated, she looked on the verge of losing control. Like a lion with its teeth clamped around one of the iron bars of its cage. 

Well, maybe I should just forget about what comes afterward and accept this. 

No, I needed to think about it. I needed to anticipate the possible consequences. 

That’s right, she doesn’t like this, I realized. She’s against this weird custom they have going on! If I ever requested she personally ask for a favor when it was just the two of us, she might rip me to shreds! 

Okay, I changed my mind. I need to stop this weird custom of theirs. 

“Is that the kind of attitude you have when asking someone for a favor?!” My voice was so loud it echoed throughout the manor. 

I spent hours after that giving her a great, long speech. My passion seemed to get through, because after this the Boreas style of asking for favors was abandoned. Ghislaine praised my efforts once it was over, but Eris just glared coldly at me.