Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Cliff and the Institute of Magic Student Council

THAT DAY, Cliff visited the teachers’ office. Graduation loomed on the horizon, so it was time for the special students to submit their research reports. The subject of Cliff’s report was “Research into the Suppression of Curses via Magical Implements.” The teachers immediately started poring over the report and passing copies around, all while giving Cliff glowing praise. The submission soon sparked an impromptu Q&A session and debate, whipping the staff room into a fervor. Cliff even heard one teacher say that the results of his research would make history. But the head teacher, Jenius, had something else to say.

“I apologize that I cannot do more in light of such groundbreaking research…but the valedictorian has already been selected.”

This year’s valedictorian would be someone named Brooklyn von Elzas from the Duchy of Neris. Cliff knew that name; it was someone he’d spent the past few years competing with over test scores. Cliff recalled that he’d never once lost to Brooklyn.

“I’m sorry. Perhaps this might not be the place to speak of it, but you held the most outstanding grades out of the entire graduating class. You should be proud.”

Cliff’s only response to this news was an “all right, I see,” before leaving the staff room. The old Cliff might have thrown an almighty fit at the teachers, but the past seven years had changed him. Furthering his studies, making new friends, and working as a priest had given him many new experiences. From those experiences came maturity. The school had their position to consider. Running a university wasn’t cheap. Countries were powerful. People were not equal. You had to accept your lot in life and press on.

Besides, Cliff didn’t see much value in the “University of Magic Valedictorian” title. Cliff had friends who lacked titles but were no less amazing. One in particular currently had the title of “Right Hand of the Dragon God,” but that wasn’t a job he’d applied for. It was simply the outcome of his actions.

Absolutely. The fruit of experience. Thinking about it, Cliff couldn’t help but laugh at how foolish chasing mere titles was.

He sighed aloud.

If he had one misgiving, it was that his research wasn’t finished. His thesis was called “Research into the Suppression of Curses via Magical Implements.” If he could have tweaked it just a bit, if he could have replaced “Suppression” with “Removal,” then Cliff would have had no regrets. But sadly, his incomplete research meant he couldn’t speak in absolutes. Still, he’d accomplished something. Both Elinalise and Orsted had thanked him for easing their curses. But the end goal still eluded his grasp.

“…”

Cliff sidled up to the windowsill and stared outside. The grounds of the University of Magic had hardly changed in the past seven years.

You know, he thought, I was a lot cockier when I first came here.

Back then, Cliff knew absolutely he was a genius. But the years had beaten him down, making him painfully aware that he was nothing special. Sure, compared to other students, his grades were exceptional. The old Cliff might have lorded it over others with a smirk. But the current Cliff didn’t feel like boasting or demeaning himself. The past seven years had been so rich for him, filled with so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences. His marriage with Elinalise, his research on curses, the bizarre doll in Rudeus’s manor, the battle on the Demon Continent, the Demon Eye he was given, the birth of Clive… There was just so much that had happened, so many things that he had to face with his whole heart to overcome. It was those challenges that made him the man he was today, not any inborn talent. Remembering that kept him grounded.

His experience might have been why Cliff was so well-regarded by his congregation when he worked as an apprentice Millis priest. They said that despite his youth, he had extraordinary empathy. Sometimes they even told him he’d grow up to be a fine priest. When the priest in charge of the Sharia church gave Cliff his priest certificate, he also gave him his blessing by saying, “You’ll do fine anywhere you go.” The priest would never have said that if Cliff were still the same boy he was seven years ago.

“Phew…”

A smile bubbled up from within Cliff. He still hadn’t become the man he once dreamed of being—he was better than that man. He preferred this version of himself.

“Now, where to go from here…”

His research report was submitted, and there was now little time left until the graduation ceremony. Cliff had told Rudeus that he’d give an answer by graduation, but he had yet to settle on one. He wanted to return to Millishion. But he had a wife and child now. Cliff’s parents had died in a power struggle within the Millis Church. Specifically, his grandfather’s power struggle as the Millis pope. Returning to Millishion would absolutely put Elinalise and Clive in danger. And then Rudeus dropped a solution into Cliff’s lap. He wanted Cliff to assist Orsted as a member of the Millis Church. To forge an alliance. If he could do that, then Rudeus would offer all the help needed for Cliff to rise through the ranks. He’d see to it that Elinalise and Clive were protected.

It was everything Cliff could ask for and more. But past arrogance aside, Cliff didn’t see himself being worth that kind of support now. Certainly not from someone as amazing as Rudeus—Cliff may have had his doubts about Rudeus when they first met, but he was sincere and a hard worker. And it was no exaggeration to say that most of Cliff’s “once-in-a-lifetime experiences” only happened because of Rudeus. Someone that extraordinary asking Cliff for help was probably a show of friendship more than anything else.

Still, this was everything he could have wanted. Elinalise and Clive would be safe, he’d have Orsted’s formidable backing, and the road to the top of the Millis Church hierarchy would be wide open. It was everything Cliff wanted. And yet, something about it felt subtly off. Cliff didn’t yet understand why that was.

What should he do? What did he want? Every day he agonized over it until it was time to go home to Elinalise and stop thinking.

“I guess I’ll hang around for a bit longer.”

Cliff had planned to go straight home after submitting the report, but he turned sharply on his heel. If he went home now, then the day would end like all the others did. That wouldn’t be good.

Saint Millis once said, “If childbirth be the duty of people, then shun it not, but indulge in it not.” Saint Millis also once said, “Let thyself anguish, and do not flee from thy anguish.” That meant that it wasn’t right to flee from his anguish and indulge in Elinalise. The phrase “Always let thy heart be at ease” was also in the teachings of Millis, so fraying his own nerves over this was no good either.

But he had to make a decision soon. A decision on how he would answer Rudeus’s request.

“What do I do…”

Cliff had said that he’d decide after discussing it with Elinalise, but Elinalise had no comment either way. All she said was to think for himself. She said it not to abandon Cliff, but to give him a gentle push. If that was Elinalise’s stance, then Cliff felt obligated to work this out on his own. Elinalise would live a very long time—many times longer than Cliff would. In fact, their child likely would as well. Compared to her experience, Cliff was a baby. Yet Elinalise never treated him like a child; she saw him as her beloved husband. Elinalise respected him, so Cliff wanted to return the favor.

“I can do this. I am a genius.”

That phrase slipped out like a habit. It was once something he believed without question; now, it was a mantra to motivate him to action. He knew full well by now that he was no genius, but it cheered him up to repeat those old words and remember believing that they were true.

“I’m…we…should…!”

“Hm?”

Cliff faintly heard the echo of arguing voices from down the hall. Fights weren’t particularly rare at the University of Magic. At any other time, Cliff would have ignored it. But in this moment, Cliff found himself drawn to it and descended the stairs. Among those voices was one Cliff recognized.

“That’s what I said! We’re the ones who should be doing this!”

“Exactly! We can’t expect other people to wipe our ass! We’ve gotta protect this school ourselves!”

A number of students were shouting while gathered around a petite girl. They weren’t threatening her, though; it seemed she was some kind of leader, so the others were pleading with her to make a call. And that girl was someone Cliff knew well.

“Please, President!”

“You have to let us go, President Norn!”

It was Norn Greyrat. She stood scowling, surrounded by the other students.

“Norn, what’s wrong?” Cliff called out. “Is there some sort of problem?”

All of the students, Norn included, turned to face Cliff. Her expression relaxed a bit, but other students stepped forward before she could respond.

“Who d’ya think you are?!”

“This is student council business!”

Standing in Cliff’s way was a girl about as tall as him and a beastman who might have been twice his height. Cliff recognized the two of them as well; they were current members of the student council.

“Hey, guys! Could you move, please?”

Norn wedged herself between the two and pried them apart so she could wriggle through. It was the kind of motion that Rudeus, if he were here, would have said a dumb pun to himself for, like “Wow, Norn’s really come between you!”

“I’m sorry, Cliff,” Norn said. “Everyone here’s just a bit worked up.”

“Cliff Grimor… This kid? The one from the Demonic Circle of Six?”

“He’s not just a ‘kid.’ He’s someone I owe a great deal to!”

“Oh… Sorry.”

The beastman muttered an apology, but kept his glare. The old Cliff might have responded to that look with hostility or fear. The current Cliff had seen worse. Things that would strike fear into any reasonable heart merely by existing. Compared to Orsted or Atofe, this beastman was a puppy.

“So, what happened?” Cliff asked. “Could you tell me, if it isn’t too much trouble?”

“Well…” Norn began. “The truth is, there are rumors that a ghost is haunting the school.”

“Hmm.”

Cliff had heard those rumors as well. Every night, people would hear moaning voices or rattling noises, or they’d see a translucent figure in the hall… so the stories went. In fact, there were even students who’d collapsed, sapped of all their mana. But it was far from uncommon at the University of Magic to see students passed out from excessive practice, and ghosts were a common rumor. Or so Cliff thought…

“So, next, well… When we went to investigate, we found a door deep within an unused underground storehouse that had a strong seal placed on it. When we opened it, Skeletons came out.”

Norn fumbled over her words as she explained to Cliff. It was like she was hiding something. Cliff was sure she was, but he chose to let it go.

“Yeah, it sounds like you messed up. If something’s heavily sealed, then whoever sealed it probably had a good reason for doing so.”

A loud “Guh!” was heard from among the student council. It came from a feisty-looking girl with pigtails; she was probably the culprit who lifted the seal.

“For now, we got a teacher’s help to reapply the seal,” Norn continued, with a tone suggesting that this was where everything went wrong.

The door was sealed with Saint-tier barrier magic. A Wraith had slipped through that Saint-tier barrier and appeared outside. That meant it was probably a high-level Wraith lurking in that underground storehouse.

The university contacted the Magicians’ Guild and requested professionals who could exterminate it. Or, that was the plan, but it’d hit a snag. Beginner-tier divine magic was more than enough to take down a typical Wraith, but high-level Wraiths were different beasts. If it was an A-rank Deadly Wraith inside that storehouse, they’d at least need Advanced-tier divine magic. Unfortunately, there weren’t any Advanced-tier divine magicians in the Magicians’ Guild.

The university gave up and contacted the Adventurers’ Guild in the hopes of obtaining an Advanced-tier divine magician, but alas, this wasn’t Millis; Advanced-tier divine magicians weren’t exactly on every street corner here in the Northern Territories. To make it even worse, the Magicians’ Guild complained about the idea. They’d have to call in a divine magician from a different town’s branch. Borrowing a magician from the Adventurers’ Guild would hurt their reputation, they said. But even if the school could get the divine magician from another town to come, they wouldn’t show up right away.

And so, the days passed…until the first victim appeared.

The cause was uncertain; maybe the seal hadn’t been reapplied correctly, or maybe it’d been faulty since its first application. The victim was an unnamed female student who fell into a coma after the Wraith attacked her and drained her of her mana. Her only symptom was simple mana exhaustion, not anything life-threatening. She was back in class the next day.

But ever since, the victim count steadily climbed.

For the moment, it appeared that the Wraith was still warded within the seal and could only escape outside to attack students at a particular time of day. But Wraiths would steadily power up with each feast of human mana they consumed. If it continued to attack students, it would soon grow strong enough to break through and bring an army of Skeletons with it. The potential fallout could be catastrophic.

“That’s why some among the student council have suggested that we should go down there and defeat the Wraith before that happens…” Norn concluded.

“I can at least use Beginner-tier divine magic!” chimed in one student.

“I bought some weapons from the workshop district that are strong against Wraiths!” chimed in another.

“This is what we’ve been studying magic for!” added one more.

“President, please, give us the word!”

Wraiths were by no means impossible to fell by methods besides divine magic. Normal attacks had some small effect, and magical items or implements would inflict damage. In that sense, a divine magician was not strictly necessary to exterminate a Wraith.

“Hmm, I see,” said Cliff. “Well, what do you think?”

“I’m against it,” stated Norn. “If this monster were something we could handle on our own, then the Magicians’ Guild and the teachers surely wouldn’t be waiting on some divine magician.”

“You’ve got that right,” agreed Cliff. Divine magic might not have been the only method, but it was far and away the most effective. A seasoned adventurer wouldn’t even try to fight a Wraith without a divine magician or a lot of preparation. They were that dangerous. And this was a high-level Wraith, to boot; underestimating it could easily get them all wiped out.

It was there that Norn deflated.

“But I can’t just stand by and watch more students be harmed…”

Norn couldn’t totally oppose taking action while students were getting hurt. And caution aside, many of the students making up the student council were the cream of the crop. They were proficient enough to make even Norn consider that they might have a shot. At the same time, she couldn’t deny that she had a long way to go compared to people like her brother, which made her waffle on making a decision.

“What should we do?” wondered Norn as she furrowed her brow.

“Come now, you could just… No, wait, you have a point.”

Cliff almost asked why she didn’t just consult Rudeus, but he stopped himself. He started to realize what Norn was feeling.

Absolutely, Rudeus could solve this problem in a snap if Norn told him about it. He was no master of divine magic, but his skills at offensive magic were Imperial-tier. If anything, Cliff speculated he was on the cusp of Divine-tier. Taking out a Wraith or two would’ve been nothing for him. But it just wouldn’t have been right. To Norn, it was out of the question. She couldn’t explain in words why that was, but given Cliff’s own dilemma—which he needed to solve himself—he understood.

“All right, let’s try this,” said Cliff. “If you’re all right with it…”

“…?”

“I’ll give you my help.”

“Huh?” Norn said in surprise. At Cliff’s suggestion, she went from inattentive trance to suddenly present. “That’s right, you can use Advanced-tier divine magic…”

Cliff had reached Advanced-tier divine magic. Divine magic at Intermediate-tier or above couldn’t be taught without permission from the Millis Church, so it wasn’t taught at the University of Magic. They didn’t even have staff who could teach it.

But Cliff was the pope’s grandson. Millis made an exception for him and gave permission for him to learn divine magic. As such, the University of Magic invited a special instructor to give him Advanced-tier lessons. Cliff was just about to graduate, so that instructor had departed. It was on him.

“President, this is a job for the student council! Sir Cliff might be a part of the Circle of Six, but we still shouldn’t involve regular students!”

“That’s right! We’re the ones who should do this! If not, people are gonna say the student council is too incompetent to do anything themselves! They’ll say that our president is powerless!”

The two students who had stood in Cliff’s way earlier objected loudly to the idea. But Norn’s spine straightened. She glared them down. 

“Stopping the attacks matters more than our pride!” Norn sternly rebuked. The two students shrunk back. “And besides, what if something happened to you guys? Any of you could be next.”

“President…”

“President Norn…”

Norn turned back to Cliff and looked him in the eyes. Her eyes were steely—nothing like the eyes she had when she first visited Cliff or when Rudeus left for the Begaritt Continent. Those had been the eyes of a lost lamb, eyes that trembled in fear and uncertainty. Looking at Cliff now were eyes that had gained determination with each passing year.

She’d visited the church where Cliff worked whenever she needed to talk; all those confessions and complaints must have made a difference.

“Cliff, are you up for this?”

“Yeah.”

Cliff had heard Rudeus say with glee that “Norn had really grown up” every now and then, but Cliff hadn’t seen it given that he’d only ever heard her complain and do confessions. But now, he felt like he was seeing a glimpse of that girl Rudeus was talking about. It also delighted Cliff to hear Norn ask him for help instead of her brother.

“All right, council,” she said, “we’ll be infiltrating the underground storehouse! But if it ever turns into more you can handle, retreat immediately! Are we clear?”

“Y-yes!”

And so, Cliff and the student council ventured down into the underground storehouse.

***

The underground storehouse lay before them.

The University of Magic was a distinguished institution with over two centuries of history since its founding. I couldn’t put number on its age, but I’m certain that Cliff or anyone in the student council could produce it if you asked them. Anyway, the University of Magic’s building had gone through plenty of extensions and reconstructions since its founding, building it into the mammoth of a school we now knew. The elegance of the building’s layout speaks to the characters of the capable administrators and architects who first laid these buildings’ foundations. But no matter how much effort first went into the tidy facades of the buildings, waves of repeated renovations combined with the battering of time left some buildings that a generous eye might glide over while admiring the campus’s beauty. One of the buildings was this very storehouse.

There were a number of these storehouses arranged on the periphery of the building, and they were all stuffed with the University of Magic’s history. Magic wands from two hundred years ago, scrolls from one hundred and fifty years ago, a principal’s century-old family toupée—anything that might have any use at all was tossed in here when no immediate use was obvious.

In short, it was a dump.

Once Norn took office as student council president, she decided that it was time to take out the trash. If the junk were cleaned out from the storehouses, the school would have more space. So, she suggested a plan to renovate them into student locker rooms. Garbage cleanup in an unused room; it was the kind of practical albeit inessential little project that suited Norn.

But recently, the student population had grown too large. It became a pressing reality that the school was running out of personal lockers to offer students.

There were teachers who weren’t on board. They said that everything in those storehouses was an artifact of history, some of them valuable. You couldn’t toss everything indiscriminately. But Norn shut those complaints down by saying, “If they really are valuable, then that’s all the more reason why they shouldn’t be abandoned in the corner of a storehouse.”

In the end, the student council appropriated the necessary funds, hired assistants within the school, and began work on clearing out the storehouse. This project was received relatively positively, and many students eagerly joined so they could earn a little cash.

But as the work continued, a few of those student workers met the Wraith.

“That was how this all began, so we feel some responsibility as the student council,” Norn explained to Cliff as she held a lamp in one hand.

“Well, as far as I’ve heard, the student council shouldn’t have any need to feel like they’re at fault.”

In retrospect, victims popped up once in a while before cleaning had ever started. Even with the barrier reapplied, the attacks kept increasing in frequency. This was proof that the Wraith in the storehouse was growing more powerful. Even if the student council hadn’t taken on this project, the Wraith would have broken free from that barrier sooner or later. If anything, the student council helped everyone discover the Wraith even quicker, so there was a silver lining here.

“Ooooh…”

Groaning at Cliff’s words was a girl, the same pigtailed one who’d clung to Norn earlier. Both her fists gripped her fifty-centimeter wand as she glared at the pitch-black stairwell leading to the underground storehouse. Her teeth were clenched and her body shook. She was the one who’d found the sealed door in the dark. The one to peel away the seal was, also, her.

The first time she opened that door, a Skeleton had leapt out. Its surprise attack caught and injured one of the other students who’d followed her down. The cleanup job turned into a clash. They barely managed to destroy the first Skeleton, but immediately it resurrected. The rest of the student council rushed to the sound of the commotion. They’d managed to hold the door back with Beginner-tier barrier magic long enough for a teacher with Saint-tier barrier magic skills to arrive, but that friend of the girl who’d broken the seal was still badly hurt. If they had been a little less lucky, the collateral damage could have been far worse.

She might not have known that a Wraith was behind that seal, but she couldn’t deny that she removed it partly on a whim. That would typically be grounds for expulsion. However, Norn had covered for her. She tied the incident to the recent ghost stories and told the lie that they had bumped into the storehouse’s door and accidentally disturbed the seal while searching for ghosts.

The fact that the Skeleton continued to resurrect and attack until divine magic pulverized it to dust proved that there was a Wraith controlling it. There really was a Wraith there, and it really was attacking students, so Norn hadn’t fabricated everything. The girl who’d opened the door must have been sick with guilt regardless.

“It sure is creepy,” said Cliff as he followed her lead and peered into the darkness. The sealed door was somewhere in there. The Skeleton scare had put a halt to the storehouse cleaning project; the area was declared off-limits by the student council’s authority.

Cliff recalled the last time he’d been in this position. It was when he joined Rudeus to search the building that would eventually become his manor. Back then, Cliff was shivering just like the girl who stood beside him now.

“Hey, what was your name, again?” asked Cliff.

“Huh?! M-me?!”

“Yes.”

“It’s Sheila, okay?”

Sheila glared at Cliff as though to say, So? What about it? It reminded Cliff so much of his old self that he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sheila, have you ever done things like… That is, have you ever adventured into a forest or a dungeon before?”

“Uh, no, I haven’t! But I’m sure a Demonic Circle of Six member like you has soooo much experience! So? Who cares?!”

“Oh no, I have almost none,” Cliff said. Sheila eyed him with suspicion. He continued, “It’s just that there’s something I once heard from someone who did have that experience. He said that when beginners try to take on too much, they end up unable to handle any of it. Focus on doing one thing, and doing it right.”

Was that from the time when he tagged along with Stepped Leader on an adventure? No, it had to be from when he searched that manor with Rudeus a few days later. Cliff recalled that Rudeus gave him a single order: “If we run into an enemy, use basic-level divine magic to attack them.” Cliff kept that order in his head, and when the doll did attack, he was able to fend it off with divine magic. Right. Beginners can’t handle too much.

“Is there anyone in here who’s used to fighting monsters or has worked as an adventurer?” Cliff asked the group.

Of the seven student council members, two hands went up in response. One belonged to the beastman, and the other belonged to a human. Many beastfolk grew up in forests, where they’d fight their share of monsters. The human probably had a history as an adventurer.

“All right, I’ll have you two give the orders. For everyone else, let’s decide on your roles beforehand.”

“Hey, Cliff,” came a gruff voice.

“What is it?”

“I wasn’t gonna push you too hard on it since the President said she owed you a lot, but you ain’t our boss,” the beastman from before said. 

Cliff stopped for a few seconds, but he soon realized that anything he said wasn’t going to get through to this guy.

“Fair enough. Then Norn, please take the lead.”

“Huhhh? It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, does it? It’s not like I know much about fighting monsters, anyway…”

“But you’re the president!”

“Well, that’s true. Okay, I’ll talk with Neadle to assign roles.”

Following Cliff’s suggestion, Norn walked over to the student with the raised hand and discussed everything in detail.

“Neadle, you used to be an adventurer, right? I’ll tell you everyone’s strengths, so I hope you can give me advice on who’d be a good fit for what job—”

Cliff looked back at the beastman who’d raised his voice. Of course. This was why he’d follow Norn and not Cliff. Norn was in her element assigning the party’s roles. She recalled every detail of who was good at what magic and who had useful non-magic skills as she efficiently assigned the roles. If the old Norn were handed a leadership role, she might have panicked and worried about what to do before hanging her head in resignation. But this time was different. She wasn’t exactly perfect, and she still seemed plenty panicky, but she was able to work together with those around her to take care of a responsibility, even one thrust on her as suddenly as this one. She didn’t naturally know her ass from her ankle, but she was getting it done.

“All right, that should settle it,” Norn said. “Are you ready, everyone?”

“Yes!”

With the roles decided, Cliff and the student council members walked deeper into the darkness of the underground storehouse.

***

The door was stone. The magic circle carved into its surface emanated a pale blue glow—a Saint-tier barrier spell. The University of Magic only had one teacher on staff that could use Saint-tier barrier magic. When any of the barrier spells set throughout the school needed adjustments or maintenance, he was the one who did it.

“The magic circle doesn’t look like it’s worn off,” Cliff said while investigating it. His barrier magic expertise only went up to Intermediate-tier, but studying curses, developing the Zaliff Prosthesis, and manufacturing the Magic Armor had made him quite knowledgeable on magic circles. If nothing else, he could tell at a glance that the magic circle was working properly, and it didn’t take much longer to figure out how to temporarily turn it off. If he spent a little more time decoding it, he could probably learn how to use this Saint-tier barrier spell himself.

But of course, Cliff was a man of order. He always followed the rules, even if he was capable of breaking them. If Cliff learned this Saint-tier barrier magic, it could land the teacher who maintained this seal in hot water. He had no intentions of doing so.

After all, he realized, he could study anything he wanted once he returned home to the Holy Country of Millis.

“I can switch it off. We can get in.”

“Understood,” said Norn. “Everyone, are you ready?”

The student council members readied their weapons in response. Some took a deep breath, some had a glimmer in their eyes. There were humans, beastfolk, halflings, and demons. Norn’s student council certainly had a lot more personality to it than the all-human staff that Ariel had during her tenure. It was probably the first time in the school’s history that so many non-humans had been gathered onto a single student council.

“All right. Open it, please.”

At Norn’s request, Cliff made a single incision into the magic circle. And suddenly, the magic circle’s light faded into nothing. The lanterns held by the student council members were now the only lights left illuminating that stone door.

The beastman came up to the door and gripped its handle.

“Ngh… Graaaaagh!”

With a roar from the beastman, the stone door slowly scraped open, screeching every inch of the way.

The doorway only opened wide enough for one or two people to squeeze through at a time. First was Neadle, the former adventurer, who craned and held his lantern in on front of him before sliding a foot inside. The other students followed after. Once they were all inside, the beastman gripped the door once again, and with that same terrible scraping noise, pulled the door partially shut. Not all the way. If the door were fully shut, the student council risked having their exit resealed by a teacher who came to check up on them. As a precaution, they left it left ajar just wide enough for a single person to slip through. The off-limits sign just outside the underground storehouse’s entrance was still up, and they plastered a notice that said “Under student council investigation! Please refrain from reapplying any seals for the time being” on the stone door as well. 

If Rudeus were in this situation, he’d just wing it and manage to get himself sealed in. But many of the student council members were the kind of nerds who got locked inside places by pranksters or bullies, so they’d learned to take precautions.

“…”

The underground storehouse fell silent. They strained to listen, and in the dark, the students heard the faint sound of rattling from closer than they’d like.

There were Skeletons in here with them.

“All right, let’s stick to the plan,” said Norn. At her command, the beastman and a halfling boy took their places at the front. Both of them held a steel mace in their hands. Skeletons were all bone, so blunt weapons were more effective than edged ones. All of the student council members were equipped with either magic wands, staves, or maces. The plan was to fend off the Skeletons with strikes and spells while the ranged attackers in the rear aimed for the Wraith that controlled the Skeletons.

“Grr! President, stand back!” shouted the beastman sharply.

The rattling grew louder as the lantern cast its light onto white shapes. A figure made of bones—only bones, no sinew or muscle to hold them together—nevertheless stood upright. 

A Skeleton.

It shuffled towards them. This clean-picked corpse caught a look at the student council members, then lifted the stick it held high over its skull. As it did, the rattling grew into a chorus as numerous others like it shuffled into the light.

“No retreat,” Norn declared. “Everyone, prepare to counterattack!”

At Norn’s order, the beastman and the halfling swung their maces hard. The Skeleton swung its stick, but its movement was sluggish. A Skeleton’s abilities in death are proportional to what they were in life; this skeleton didn’t belong to a warrior.

“Hmph!”

The beastman shattered the Skeleton across the ground with a single strike from his mace. However, the bones on the ground rattled as they began to reassemble. The Skeletons would continually resurrect until the student council defeated the Wraith that controlled them.

“Forward!” Norn commanded. Following her orders, the student council members beat aside the Skeletons as they advanced inwards. Fortunately, none of the Skeletons were particularly dexterous, so they couldn’t resist the council’s charge.

Onward they moved to the deepest room. There, they found a single altar. Of all the things that could atop an altar, this one had absolutely nothing.

Nothing, that is, except the translucent figure above it.

A figure without any legs.

“WHY… WHY… WHY…” it whispered.

It was the Wraith.

“WHY… WHY… WHY…”

The Wraith’s tattered robe fluttered as it slowly turned to face the students. What remained of its gaunt, half-rotted face still showed some signs of youth. Surprise flitted across its face for just a moment, but once it comprehended the shapes of Norn and the other students, it unleashed a hair-raising shriek.

“Kyyyiiiaaaaaaaaargh!”

“Wh-whoooa!”

“I-it’s the Wraith!”

The Wraith’s shriek was enough to make a few of the students shrink back, and as they did, the numerous bones strewn around the altar floated up and assembled into more Skeletons. Worse: the Skeletons destroyed earlier, behind them, resurrected into a fresh attack wave. The student council members were flanked between armies of Skeletons in the front and the rear.

All according to plan.

But.

“Ouch!”

One of the students suddenly felt a pain in her ankle. When she looked down, she saw a tiny bone, maybe twenty centimeters long.

It was a rat.

It was a rat’s bones.

It was a rat’s pearly white bones, and it was scurrying around and biting the students in their ankles.

“Whuh, rah, ah, aaaaaghh!”

In her desperation to get the skeletal rat off of her, the girl screamed and shook her leg, swinging her wand arm as she did. And it wasn’t the only Skeleton Rat—dozens more scuttered across the student councils’ feet and writhed about their ankles.

“Huh?! Whoa!”

“Eeek!”

Their formation fell apart.

“C-calm down, please!” shouted Norn. “First we’ll focus on the…human Skeletons? No, er, maybe we should retreat?”

Norn attempted quell the wave of panic, but with no clear idea of what to prioritize, she found herself overwhelmed. She could only swing her mace at the monsters leaping at her feet. While she struggled, the human Skeletons closed in on the students.

“…”

The rest of the party might have been panicking, but Cliff held it together.

The rats are a problem, Cliff thought, but the Skeletons are slow, and it doesn’t look like this Wraith is all that tough…

If this were an A-rank Deadly Wraith, it would have buried the party under a hail of magic as soon as it finished summoning the Skeleton Rats. Or maybe it would have closed in on them to suck out their mana. And yet, it did neither; it just floated above the altar and continued to shriek. Its voice wasn’t even that scary. Compared to that boneheaded demon king he’d met on the Demon Continent, this Wraith sounded like a schoolgirl.

Wait. What if this Wraith is actually weak?

That thought hit him like a bolt. If this were the old Cliff, he might break formation, disobey, and put everyone else in danger. This one wouldn’t do that on a hunch. Of course, that only applied when it was a hunch alone. Cliff realized there was something he could do to turn that hunch into a certainty.

“Eye of Identification!” Cliff shouted as he pulled up his eyepatch. In an instant, his field of vision was filled with words, words, and yet more words. He waded through the headache-inducing wave of information until finally, he arrived at the information he needed.

He saw it. He saw the line of text displayed upon the Wraith. 

“Hm… Ah!”

This was power of the Demon Eye. He’d been granted it from the Great Emperor of the Demon World, Kishirika Kishirisu. Cliff hadn’t slacked on his training, but he was still nowhere near as adept as Rudeus was when Rudeus used his. He’d need many more years of practice to reach that level. But if nothing else, he’d practiced enough to use it in a crisis.

“I’m going in! Someone cover me!” Cliff shouted as he leapt out of the crumbling formation. His target was the Wraith. Standing in his way were two Skeletons.

Cliff made a wide swing with his mace toward the Skeleton on his right, slamming it right into its hips. The Skeleton’s pelvis shattered before it crumpled to the ground.

“—Exorcise!”

From the back, someone finished their incantation, and a white light blew past Cliff and crashed into the Skeleton to his left. The single strike of divine magic turned it into dust on contact. He didn’t need to turn around to check. That voice had been Norn’s.

Cliff ran a few more steps, planted his feet, and began his own incantation.

“I call upon thee, God who blesses the land which nurtures us! Deliver divine punishment to those foolish enough—”

Suddenly, a Skeleton jumped out from Cliff’s blind spot into the light. It thrust the sharpened edge of its stick straight toward Cliff. He jerked his body in an attempt to dodge it, but it all happened too quickly, and it struck him in the ribs. The searing pain shot up his spine. Cliff gritted his teeth, pulled himself together, and focused on his enemy.

The Wraith was right there.

“—to defy the natural ways! Exorcise!”

A mass of white light shot forth from Cliff’s wand. It flew toward the Wraith with more than enough speed…

Direct hit.

“Gyeeaaagggh!”

The Wraith’s death throes rang out as it disintegrated. Its translucent body tore to pieces, each shred burning like a cinder before snuffing out. A half second’s delay and the Skeletons crumpled to the ground—puppets with their strings cut.

“Huh?”

“Did we…do it?”

Unsure of what had happened, the student council members peered around at the scattered bones. Cliff examined his surroundings for more vengeful spirits before grasping his ribs and collapsing to a knee.

“Guh…”

“Cliff! Are you all right?!”

Norn rushed to him and began the incantation for a healing spell. A faint light washed over Cliff’s wound, and suddenly, it closed.

“Phew,” sighed Cliff in relief as he wiped off the sweat that drenched his hairline.

“Thank you so much,” said Norn. “Honestly, I don’t even know what…”

“No, it’s not your fault. Nobody expected those Skeleton Rats. The Wraith being low-rank was what saved us.”

“How could you tell that the Wraith was low-rank?”

“Because I’ve got this,” Cliff said as he tapped the surface of his eyepatch. The one line in the sea of text that he found when he used the Eye of Identification was simple and sweet: Yep, thassa Wraith. Ain’t too tough neither.

Still, Cliff made a gamble when he stepped out of formation. The eye might have said the Wraith wasn’t too tough, but a Beginner-tier divine spell could have failed to kill it. If Cliff’s strength hadn’t been enough, or if the eye’s idea of “not too tough” was measured by the standards of the Great Emperor of the Demon World, Cliff could have been killed by the counterattack. Cliff could guess from other cues that it was a low-rank Wraith, but there were no guarantees. A gamble.

“Well, it worked out. We managed to exterminate it,” said Cliff.

“That we did. Thank you very much. Still, it’s strange. From what we discussed, there should have been a high-rank Wraith here that was strong enough to break through a Saint-tier barrier.”

“Thank goodness there wasn’t. If this was what a typical Wraith put us through, we might not have made it out alive against a high-rank one.”

The student council, previously stunned as they processed the encounter, were rattled sharply awake by those words. But the truth was the truth, so they couldn’t deny it. A swarm of Skeleton Rats was enough to make them fall apart. If the Skeletons had been controlled by a high-rank Wraith, then they would have moved more swiftly, to say nothing of the barrage the Wraith itself would have unleashed. If the situation had been different, the student council could have easily ended up as the newest Skeletons down here.

“But it really is strange. Maybe we should investigate a bit?” said Cliff.

“Good idea… All right, everyone, please look through this area. Keep an eye out for other Skeletons or Wraiths.”

With the Wraith gone, it was time for the investigation to begin.

***

It turned out the Wraith had been escaping with the help of mice. The students found a wide-open mousehole in the corner that, upon further investigation, led right to the surface. The Wraith must have leaked through it to attack those students.

As to why there was a Wraith here to begin with, a tattered journal found lying in another corner of the room shed some light there. It wasn’t a pretty story. This room was apparently used to store one of the University of Magic’s most prized magic items. But at some point, they moved it somewhere else. With the room now empty, a teacher ordered a few students to clean it. But shortly after they got started, they found themselves locked inside.

From the students’ perspective, it seemed like a malevolent plan by the teacher to lock them away. But maybe the teacher forgot about the cleaning, locked the door, and just…left. The truth of what happened here was lost to time.

The students did try to escape. But these were just first years who’d barely gotten their bearings, or perhaps this grunt work fell to students who’d been held back a year. None of their attempts to escape proved successful. And so, time passed…and so did they.

The weapons the Skeletons held all appeared to be the remains of cleaning utensils, and the number of skulls they found perfectly matched the number of students locked in. That settled it—they were as close to knowing what’d happened as they were ever going to get. But the student council felt like speculating, and this is what they came up with: perhaps the teacher returned days after the students had died. This teacher fearfully opened the door and discovered the bodies of those dead students. Fearing responsibility for such a tragedy, they made up some reason to justify sealing it (or at least, get someone else to do it).

The incident was buried, and at some point, the students became undead. Centuries later, mice burrowed deep enough to reach the underground storehouse, which is when the attacks began…

That was what student council guessed, at least.

So many years had passed since this storehouse was last used that it was likely that the teacher responsible for this and relatives of the students involved were long gone. Cliff gave the students’ bones a funeral and proper burial. He figured it was the one thing he could do as a Millis priest. The student council members all attended; they at least wanted to offer a prayer. They dug graves for each student and recited scripture for them. They did all of this in pensive silence.

“How will the school handle this incident?” Norn wondered.

“It sounds like they’ll go public with it,” said Cliff. “It happened centuries ago, and they can’t find their relatives anyway, so they figure it won’t hurt their reputation much.”

“I see… I thought they’d cover it up.”

“Head Teacher Jenius really pushed for announcing it.”

“Ah, yeah. Mr. Jenius is an honest guy.”

Cliff knew Jenius himself. He considered him a decent, understanding man. In fact, ever since Jenius became head teacher, there’d been a huge reduction in racial discrimination against the staff. The fact that he had a strong sense of justice and treated people equally probably played a part.

“Ah, right. By the way, Norn, may I ask a question?”

“What is it?”

“You may find what I want to ask you rather upsetting…”

“Wow, if you’re saying that, it’s gotta be pretty bad… Can you give me a few seconds? I need some mental preparation.”

Norn took a deep breath, lightly smacked her cheeks, and said “all right” to pep herself up. Then, she turned to face Cliff.

“Hit me.”

“Why didn’t you consult Rudeus about this?”

“Huh?” For a moment, Norn looked dumbfounded.

“Well, if you’d asked Rudeus instead of me, I think you could have solved this whole problem without this kind of risk…”

“Oh… Ah, right, that.”

“I take it you did have your reasons, then?”

“I mean, yes, I’m trying to avoid relying on my brother for every little thing. When it comes down to it, I figure if there’s something I can do myself, I should do it.” Norn chuckled at herself over that one. “But you’re right, I should have just asked my brother for this one. I made the wrong call.”

Norn said she’d made the wrong call, but Cliff remembered it differently; Norn was opposed to doing this at all. She knew that they couldn’t handle it on their own, so she tried to stop the students from rushing in. If anything, it was Cliff’s sudden intrusion into their business that caused her to make the wrong call.

If I hadn’t shown up, Cliff thought, then there’s a good chance that she would have asked Rudeus for help…

“I apologize for the weird question.”

“Oh, no worries…”

Before the two had realized it, the rest of the student council members had gathered around them.

“Cliff!” called a thick voice. It belonged to that beastman who’d had a problem with Cliff before. The pigtailed girl was next to him, too. The beastman, his intimidating face contorted with emotion, suddenly and sharply bowed.

“We would have been in serious danger were it not for your assistance! I ask you to please forgive my rudeness from earlier that day!”

“I’m sorry too!” said the pigtailed girl as she bowed her head in turn.

“Oh, it’s no trouble. You weren’t that rude, after all.”

“No, I was rude! I judged you because you were a part of the Demonic Circle of Six! I can’t apologize enough!”

“Me too, I kinda figured you were gonna be like Linia or Pursena…”

“That…is pretty unfair, yeah,” said Cliff, pinching his temples at the thought of that sneering cat and dog. If that was what he was being compared to, then their caution was warranted.

“Still, I’m glad we solved that problem,” Norn said with a small nod of her head. “Thank you, really.”

“Now nobody’ll have to call the president incompetent!” joked the pigtailed girl.

“I swear, you’re always going on about that!”

“Am I, now? But it’s the truth that her grades aren’t that great, isn’t it?”

“Grades have nothing to do with one’s performance on the job. And our president is excellent at hers!”

“Ugh, of course, you beastfolk always get like this! Always waggin’ your tail for your dear widdle pwesident like you’re her pet.”

“Pet?! Where the hell do you get off—”

As the two started to fight, the rest of the student council members came over to get a piece of the drama. Each of them inserted themselves into it in their own ways—some egged them on, others played peacemaker.

Norn watched over them with a smile. They were just playing around; they were all friends here. No need to step in. Cliff, suddenly, felt curious about where life would take them. The beastman and the human girl, what would they do after they’d finished school?

“Apologies out of the way: I have something I’d like to ask you two. May I?”

“Huh?”

“What do you plan to do after graduation?” Cliff asked. In response…

“I wanna head back home and work in my village. They’re short on mages!” said the once-antagonistic beastman. Not all beastfolk grew up in the Great Forest; this one hailed from a small farming village in the Northern Territories. He and his family were the only beastfolk in the village, which…to be blunt, meant that they’d faced a lot of prejudice. One of his goals was to prove that prejudice was wrong, and he decided the best way to do it was with his own hard work.

“My family’s actually nobility, but I was thinkin’ of maybe becoming a knight,” said the human girl who’d been butting heads with the beastman just a moment ago. Graduation was a long way in the distance for her, so she hadn’t given much thought to where she’d go afterward. But even if her goals were a little unfocused, she was trying find a profession that would make use of her education from the University of Magic. She didn’t want to live the soft life of a lady and get married off to some other noble; she wanted to be a knight, where she’d have plenty of chances to use her magic.

“I think I’ll go into business. A classmate of mine who graduated last year asked me to join his,” said a demon boy. He’d be graduating next year, so he was working at a trading company in between his studies to learn the ins and outs. Knowledge of magic proved to be surprisingly handy in that line of work, so there were quite a few graduates aiming to become merchants.

“I don’t have a single clue myself. I guess I’ll just go adventuring.”

Of course, there were some students who were far from graduation and thought that way. Many of the older students were groping around for some direction in life—but they were looking. But for the most part, the closer that graduation came to each student, the more focused and serious their plans were for life after school.

Hearing about all of their plans gave Cliff a thought.

They’re all different, huh?

“But you all have a lot of respect for Norn, right? Have you considered working for her after graduation?”

“Well… If President Norn said she wanted me to, then I’d think about it, of course, but she hasn’t told us what she wants…”

All eyes turned toward Norn.

“Huh? You mean me?”

“That’s right, I’d like to hear your future plans as well.”

Norn rested her chin in her hand and took a moment to think.

“It’s still far off, so it’s not like I’ve given it a lot of thought…”

“Just whatever comes to mind.”

“Right. Well, I want to find a job that I’ll be able to handle around the time I graduate. One that suits me.”

“Oh, you’ve got this all figured out, then.” Her plan was honest, practical, and above all, a little…simple. Just like Norn. “Don’t you have something you want to do?”

“Want to do?”

“Well, in your case, you could ask Rudeus and get whatever job you wanted.”

Norn pouted for just a moment, as if Rudeus’s shadow was passing over her and she didn’t like it. Cliff realized his mistake, but before he could apologize, Norn gave her response.

“I’ve learned so much at this school. And I want to learn what coming here has made me capable of. That’s why whatever decision I make, I’ll probably make it just before I graduate. For myself, by myself.”

Those words pierced right into Cliff’s brain. It all came to him. What he was really worried about, what he really wanted to do.

She was right. If he let Rudeus do as he promised, then Cliff would indeed rise through the ranks of the Millis Church. Given that he was also the pope’s grandson, he’d surely be able to reach a fairly high position without breaking a sweat, if not without lifting a finger. And when that time came, Cliff would think to himself:

What was the point of those seven years?

What did I study during those seven years for? What did I work for? What did I have those once-in-a-lifetime experiences for?

Did any of those once-in-a-life-time experiences in those seven years have any meaning?

Yes, I gained a once-in-a-lifetime friend in Rudeus. Wouldn’t that mean that not a single thing about me changed during that time?

That was it.

He wanted to know.

He wanted to be sure.

He needed to know what he learned and what he gained were worth those seven years.

“Norn.”

“Huh? Oh, what is it?”

“Thank you. You’ve taught me a valuable lesson here.”

Norn seemed a bit confused by Cliff’s sudden gentle laugh, but she soon responded with laughter of her own. She crossed her hands in front of her, straightened her posture, raised her chin, and said, “No, I have you to thank for teaching me so much over the years.”

And with that, she gave her a small bow of her head.

Norn had relied on Cliff for help many times when Rudeus wasn’t around. It might have seemed like she sat idly by listening to Cliff’s words, but Norn was grateful for it.

As her senior and a follower of Millis, Cliff had listened to her grumble, taught her how to be strong, guided her in her studies… Cliff wasn’t the only person Norn relied on then, but she still considered him a great influence.

“It’s a bit early, but congratulations on your graduation. Thank you for everything. I mean it.”

In response to Norn, the student council members bowed their heads and said “Congratulations” together. They might have thought of it as following Norn’s lead, but true, clear respect rang through their voices.

“Well, um…”

Cliff was a bit flustered, but he wouldn’t shrug it off. Instead, he broke out into a smile.

“Thank you.”

***

That evening, Cliff thought over the afternoon’s events while he was in bed. Next to him lay Elinalise, and next to her snoozed Clive. Elinalise’s eyes were closed, but she was awake. Cliff could tell because she was continuing to lovingly caress his body.

“Lise,” Cliff whispered so as to avoid waking Clive up. Elinalise didn’t answer, but she stopped her hand and pressed her forehead against his shoulder. Cliff understood without her needing to say a word.

Cliff turned his head to see her beautiful face right before his eyes. Cliff believed picking a partner based on looks didn’t work. But even so, he thought she was beautiful the moment he laid eyes on her. Despite his ideas about what made a good partner, he’d still wanted her. She wasn’t the woman he imagined for himself. No—she was more far beautiful, body and soul and attitude alike.

“I decided on the answer I’ll give Rudeus,” said Cliff. Elinalise wrapped her fingers around Cliff’s hand in response, gently.

“You see, I’m grateful to Rudeus. Thanks to him, I think I’ve really grown up. Not enough to feel like I can call myself a man, though.”

Elinalise said nothing. When Cliff spoke, especially about serious matters like this, she always stayed silent to lend him an ear, just like this.

“I think it’s half thanks to him that we’ve been able to have a child and live this blessed life together. I’m sure he’d say otherwise, of course. He thinks too much of me for some reason. He’d say it was just the result of my hard work.”

“That’s been the thing, Lise. If Rudeus is ever in trouble, I want to help him. Whenever, however many times I can. My strength might not match what Rudeus has in his pinkie, but I figure there might be something I can do. There must be things he can’t do that I can.

“But if I simply do the same things as him, if I put myself under his protection, then I don’t think I’ll ever develop another skill that he can’t already do. If I want to be there for him as his friend, then I think I need to walk on my own two feet, to reach out for what I want with my own two hands, to protect what’s mine with the strength in my own arms.”

The words tumbling out of Cliff’s mouth weren’t some grand, well-formed philosophy. They were simply what he felt to be true.

“I want to feel something real.”

Something real. Yes, Cliff wanted to feel something for himself.

To feel that he could do it. To feel that he was a real man. To feel how much he’d grown in these seven years. To feel that he could protect Elinalise and Clive on his own. He wanted to test himself in the daunting hierarchy of the Millis Church.

Of course, this was pure vanity. If he put Elinalise and Clive’s safety first, then accepting Rudeus’s help from the start and gaining Orsted’s backing would have guaranteed that. But that wouldn’t be the end of the story. If Cliff made that choice, he’d surely lose his confidence somewhere down the line. When the time came to face a true crisis, he’d freeze up without Rudeus’s help. He’d await the direction of an authority who should instead be his friend and peer, and he’d let some crucial moment slip away.

Cliff couldn’t put into succinct words why he thought this would happen. All he had was the vague prediction that he’d turn out that way, and he hated the idea of meeting that fate.

“So that’s what you think, Cliff?” said Elinalise. She understood.

“Am I wrong?”

“No. But one thing: you already have me within arm’s reach. I can be a sword to strike down your foes or a shield to protect you from harm. No point in not using the weapons you have.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

They say that weapons and armor are extensions of your body. Elinalise took that to heart; she wanted Cliff to treat her as though she were a part of his own body. Not in the sense of using her like a tool, but to consider her presence to be as natural as his own arms and legs. This was Elinalise’s way of being there for her husband.

“Still, you spent so long thinking about it. What made you decide all of a sudden?”

“Oh, well, there was this thing that happened with the student council members today…”

Cliff talked about the day’s events. He explained about Norn’s concern, how they exterminated the Wraith under the school, how he asked the student council members about their futures…and last, about how Norn thanked him and curtsied with a smile.

“Hey, sounds like you had a good day.”

“Yeah… But there’s one thing that’s nagging me.”

“Oh?.”

“Yeah. It’s just a thought that I had today…”

“Could I ask you to share it with me?”

“I mean… Okay.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t laugh.”

Elinalise’s voice was gentle as Cliff fumbled over his words. However, the ends of her mouth were curled in a slight smirk. When Cliff started fumbling over words like this, it was usually because he wanted to say something nice about a woman. He didn’t want to sound like he was cheating. Elinalise adored that part of Cliff. He stumbled because he couldn’t bear the idea of her ever hating him.

“Well, uh, I’m not sure it’s something I’m supposed to say to you, but…I think, maybe, potentially, Norn might like me.”

“Oh, heavens! Cliff, you aren’t cheating on me, are you? You dog! You cad!”

“N-no, I’m no—”

“Shh. Cliff.”

Up to now, this was how it usually went. Cliff would be in a panic to deny it, and then Elinalise would tease him some more, and in the end, she’d say she was just kidding as they hugged and made up. But tonight, Elinalise decided to be a bit more serious.

“There are a lot of men who would hit on me, but there aren’t many who’d even think of starting a family with me after learning what kind of woman I am. Frankly, I wouldn’t either.

“But you looked through that. You saw this woman you didn’t know the first thing about and took her at her word. You tackled the challenge of lifting my curse head-on. Those aren’t things that just anyone would do. That’s why I fell for you. My heart is yours, Cliff. If I had to step outside of our marriage and sleep with someone else to stay alive, then I’d gladly accept death at the hands of my curse. That’s how good of a catch you are. There’s nobody I’d rather be with.”

“Oh, er…I mean, I don’t think I’m that great…”

Unsure of how to take such a heavy compliment, Cliff turned beet-red as his eyes swirled in their sockets.

“Now that I’ve made myself clear, you’re free to believe or not believe the words I’m about to tell you.”

“S-sure.”

Cliff loudly gulped down his own saliva, but Elinalise cut in without giving him a moment’s pause, “She’s not into you.”

“…”

“My curse has made me quite perceptive to every subtle coil of a woman’s heart. So, I’m quite certain.”

These ruthless words left Cliff speechless. But Elinalise soon snickered at her husband and continued in a teasing tone.

“But maybe, and I do mean maybe, I’m speaking out of jealousy… Maybe I’m lying to tear you two apart because I don’t want Norn carrying you away…”

“No…I know that’s not true. Right. I-I knew that. That’s why I prefaced my thought with a ‘maybe.’ It’s just that, if she really does harbor some feelings for me, then that’d be, you know, a problem…”

“Sure, dear.” 

Cliff scrambled for excuses despite his beet-red face. Elinalise looked on with affection. She didn’t quite mean to test his loyalty, but the fact that Cliff would get this flustered proved his loyalty. He was so sweet.

“Wuh… Waaaaagh… Aaaaaawgh…”

And just then, Clive started crying. Maybe Cliff was being too loud, or maybe Clive was sick of his parents flirting, but he was grumpy.

“Oh dear, seems we got a bit loud.”

“Guh, sorry…”

Elinalise sat up, leaned over the baby bed beside her, and took care of settling Clive. Cliff sat up as well, his hands uselessly pawing the air in the hopes that he could do something to help, but Elinalise had quieted Clive before he found a way to be useful.

“There, there,” said Elinalise as she gently rocked her body to calm the baby down. Cliff watched as an indescribable joy welled up inside him…and an even greater sense of commitment to the path he’d chosen.