Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 4.2

Interlude:

Coming-of-Age Ceremony

LET US SPEAK of my younger sisters.

Norn was working hard as the student council president. For most students these days, she was the only person who came to mind when you mentioned the title. Then again, that might have been because most of the students around for Ariel’s era had graduated.

Norn was a popular president. A lot of the students would even call her “Nornie.” Norn didn’t seem to appreciate that, but hey, it was sweet. Ariel had the reputation of being a reliable president, but Norn had the reputation of being an approachable one. However, (and this might have been her fan club’s influence at work) she had zero romantic prospects. She was also treated as something of a mascot for the school—harmless, inoffensive. Sexless.

Of course, she worked hard at her studies as well. I heard that just the other day, she was recognized as Intermediate-tier in Sword God Style during her swordsmanship class. Her progress might have been a little slow compared to the people I knew, but I guess that was what normal people are like. She was also pretty studious about her magic, and she took plenty of other classes on top of it. I didn’t know her exact syllabus, but the last time I popped my head into school, I overheard someone say, “Man, I see President Norn everywhere.” She was never quite the best at anything, but she applied herself to a broad range of subjects to make up for it.

Aisha was getting pretty stuck on Arus lately. While it was true that Eris’s rough mothering skills had been showing up in Arus’ behavior, Aisha found baby boys adorable and so she doted on him. It looked like she had a favorite. She’d started a habit of saying, “Oh, Arus is so cute” lately, and I was not super sure what that meant, exactly.

Of course, pampering a baby is fine. There were some parts that worried me, that was all. Like, maybe she was into him a little too much… Just recently, when Arus started crying out of hunger, she exposed her own breasts to him and tried to get him to suck on them. Her defense was that she thought he’d stop crying if she gave him something to suck on, but I don’t know…Arus did cheer up and start laughing while sandwiched in her boobs, so I could sort of understand where Aisha was coming from. But I was pretty concerned even so. When I thought about how she had nobody to expose her breasts to besides a toddler, well, you know.

It was minor, in the grand scheme of things.

She was handling the mercenary band well. When I declared that the mercenary band would serve as Orsted Corporation’s intel network and that it would span the entire world, she didn’t even need to have it explained. She got to work gathering the necessary personnel, property, and negotiations to build branches in other nations. She was also good at keeping a leash on Linia and Pursena. Now, Aisha herself wasn’t particularly gifted as a manager. I heard that she tended to come down particularly hard on the sort of unskilled employees who repeated the same mistakes time and time again. It was Linia and Pursena who brought out the best in those employees, of course.

Hey, strengths and weaknesses. Aisha was the brains of the operation, and she was darn good at it.

Now! Both Norn and Aisha were approaching their fifteenth birthdays. I don’t mean to repeat myself, but this world treated every fifth birthday as a milestone that was met with great celebration. Especially at age fifteen, at which point one was considered an adult; nobles would frequently celebrate this with a massive party.

The Coming-of-Age ceremony. To humans of this world, it was perhaps the most important day of their lives. I’m sure this needs no explanation as well, but I planned to celebrate both of their birthdays. And big time: I’d get a fat wad of cash from Orsted, blow it all on the biggest building money could buy, hit up every friend and bigwig I knew, get them to plop down sweetest gifts they could, and give those girls the complete princess treatment.

And with that level of excitement, I brought it up to Roxy.

“I don’t know about Aisha, but I think Norn would be happier with something a bit more…practical. Maybe you should rethink it?”

Shot down.

Basically, they weren’t royalty, so a party at home would be plenty.

Afterward, Roxy patted my head and said, “You want to go all out with their birthdays because you never celebrated your own fifteenth birthday. Right?”

Nope, didn’t give a damn about my fifteenth birthday…but hey, Roxy was giving me head pats, so who was I to object? I’m a good widdle boy.

Moderation could be good in its way, though. Roxy opened my eyes to that.

“For now, we should talk to the rest of the family to come up with a way to celebrate.”

And so, we planned a secret family meeting with everyone but Norn and Aisha.

***

We held the conference in the basement under the veil of night. The entire family, excluding Aisha and Norn, gathered around the dim illumination of a lone candle.

“Welcome, my accomplices, to the Assembly of Dark—”

“Um, Rudy, could we get some more light? It’s hard to write like this.”

Our secretary, Roxy, interrupted my dramatic opener to complain. I wished she could have respected the mood.

“I mean, if there’s light leaking out the door, then Aisha might notice us.”

“Why do we need to hide it to begin with?”

“Um… I mean, what else would we do?”

Was this not something to hide? Like, a girl wouldn’t want a boy finding out about what she planned for Valentine’s Day, right?

“It’ll be much harder to prepare if we have to hide the fact that we’re doing it. Unless we have a good reason, I’d much prefer we tell them in advance,” said Lilia.

So, coming clean would make things easier on our end, too. Made sense. It was bound to be less stressful to prepare out in the open rather than do it in secret.

“Hmm…”

They had a point. We didn’t have to hide it. Now that I thought about it, my own fifth and tenth birthdays were surprise parties, so I had the preconceived notion that birthdays were meant to be planned in secret. Given what happened last time, Norn and Aisha had probably picked up by now that we were going to celebrate their birthdays. There wasn’t any reason not to tell them.

“All right, we’ll just tell them we’re planning something.”

We might as well go whole hog. That way, there was less to worry about when buying presents. Aisha was friends with everyone in the shopping district, so if they thought I was being suspicious, they could wind up telling her, “Hey, Aisha, dear, that brother of yours came by and bought some cute panties” and blow our cover.

Of course, I wasn’t going to buy them panties.

That was just an example.

I certainly wasn’t thinking about how I’d bought a pair of panties that I wanted to see on Sylphie only to have Aisha poke fun at me with a sly grin.

“But we should at least keep the presents secret,” said Eris, to which everyone nodded.

“I agree, but I also think we should decide on what we’re getting them so we don’t all get them the same thing,” added Sylphie.

That was an excellent point. Given how popular the two were, they were certain to receive plenty of presents from plenty of people come their birthdays. Norn had the student council and her fan club, while Aisha had the mercenary band and the people from the shopping district.

“So, let’s discuss what everyone plans to get them while we’re all here.”

With that, the meeting’s topic shifted to the contents of our presents. Everyone had already picked something out, for the most part.

Lilia would get a handkerchief for Norn and an apron for Aisha. Sylphie would get a book for Norn and a quill pen for Aisha. Roxy would get a custom-made set of armor for Norn and a (magical) gardening shovel for Aisha. Eris would get a baldric for Norn and a belt for Aisha.

It looked like everyone put a lot of thought into their gifts. I’d done some thinking of my own. My plan was to give her a figurine of Paul, which I’d begun making just a few days earlier. Norn loved Paul; if there was anyone she wished could have been there to see her grow up, it was Paul. I might get one hell of a strange look for this gift…but hey, we’d cross that bridge when we got to it.

But with Aisha, I was a bit lost. I didn’t know what she wanted. I did know that she liked cute things. It might have been hard to imagine based on her rough, competent exterior, but she was obsessed with all things girly; she loved frilly clothes, sparkly accessories, and everything in between. Something like that would work as a gift…but she’d been earning consulting fees from the mercenary band as of late, so she bought what she wanted, when she wanted it.

“Enlighten me, what gifts made you all happiest when you came of age?” I proposed to the women. Research was important.

“It was quite a long time ago, but I received a hair accessory from my parents. It was their way of telling me to at least attempt looking ladylike.”

That was Lilia. I didn’t know what kind of person she was at fifteen, but I’d heard that she wasn’t exactly the type for high fashion. She did grow up in a training hall. 

“I forgot what day I was born, so I have no…oh, right! Ariel’s group gave me plenty of stuff, like clothes, and shoes…”

So, Sylphie’s gifts were clothing-related. She typically dressed pretty plain and boyish, so they probably gave all that to her so she could at least dress up in private.

“I don’t have much. The Migurd Tribe never had that sort of custom.”

Fair enough, Roxy. For the record, I did give her a hat as a wedding gift, so she could have given that as an example…

“Let’s see, I had Ruijerd recognize me as a warrior… And Rudeus gave me, umm…the thing!”

Eris did indeed get The Thing. It was a bit too embarrassing to say out loud, but that was the first time Eris and I did The Thing. You know, swapping uniforms.

Speaking of which, Aisha did seem to be fond of me. Perhaps she’d be overjoyed to receive The Thing. No, on second thought, I could never do That Exact Thing to Aisha. But perhaps it could be a nice present as long as it didn’t go so far as to end in The Thing. We’d go to a seaside restaurant and have a toast to your beautiful eyes, delight our tongues with whatever whims the chef prepares, and give you a Cinderella night that comes only once in a lifetime…

Just that thought made me a bit embarrassed.

“Hmm, I can’t decide on what to give Aisha.”

“Aisha seems like she’d be happy with anything if it came from you,” Sylphie said with a chuckle.

That might be true, but that made the choice all the more important. That was why I wanted to give her something that’d make her super happy. Hmm… Maybe I should just shoot for a luxury gift? Like a 100K-carat diamond. Orsted would tell me where to go if I asked. You could’ve told me to grab it from the belly of a behemoth and I wouldn’t have hesitated.

“Why not give her whatever gift made you the happiest?”

Roxy’s suggestion made it all click for me. She was completely right!

“I see… Then that’s what I’ll do.”

I nodded deeply now that I’d found my answer.

I knew what my present would be.

***

After a few additional meetings, the preparations were underway. We told Norn and Aisha that we’d throw a birthday party for them and to keep their schedules open for that day.

The two were happy to hear it. I expected Norn to say, “I don’t need anything!” or something like that, but instead, she bowed her head and gave a sincere “Thank you very much.” It was rare to see Norn act so agreeable…but on second thought, she only ever snubbed me when we were at school. She had a reputation to uphold there, so maybe it was natural.

I expected Aisha to be more straightforward and start jumping over how excited she was. However, she didn’t; instead, her eyes widened in surprise as she murmured, “Oh, right, I’m an adult now.” A bit slow on the uptake.

Given how smart she was, maybe something was on her mind. Perhaps I could take her aside during the party to give her some special, adult lessons…Nah, let’s not. I wasn’t adult enough to call myself one with a straight face. If I started telling her what the world was like, anything I said would come back to bite me.

Anyway, we gave them the heads up so all that remained was to wait for the special day.

***

The big day had finally arrived. Norn went to school, as usual.

“I’ll try to be back as early as I can,” she said. Well, she must’ve been excited.

Aisha left early in the morning to head to the mercenary band’s office…but she was home by noon. It sounded like she finished her work early. I thought she would’ve come back carrying presents from the band members, but she came back empty-handed.

“You didn’t get anything?”

“Hmm, I did tell them it was my birthday. Maybe it’s cause they’re beastfolk and don’t really know that custom.”

That said, she did have plenty of people congratulating her, so she seemed in pretty high spirits. But did the shopping district people not give Aisha anything, either? Well, I guess being a customer didn’t make you family… But hey, not every present was something you could put a bow on. What matters is that you want to congratulate someone. It’s the thought that counts.

“Hey, Big Brother, can I watch you set up?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Aisha sat right down in the dining room and watched absentmindedly as we prepared the party. She watched Lilia and Sylphie go back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room. She watched Eris and Roxy return from their trip to the market carrying a mountain of groceries. She watched me pitch in with a little bit of everything in between setting up the decorations. She watched it all, without saying a word.

Being hovered over made it a bit harder to work, but she was the birthday girl, and I did tell her it was okay, so it was kind of hard to tell her to come back in the evening. That, and she really did just watch. Aisha didn’t really say anything to interject; she just spaced out while we worked.

Even when Zenith sat down next to her and started to pat her head, she said nothing and continued to watch.

Even when Leo rested his head on Aisha’s lap, she didn’t pay him much mind and continued to watch.

Even when Arus started crying, she only left her seat for a short while before she returned and continued to watch.

Even when Lucie came by and asked her Big Sister Aisha if they could play together, she just smiled, said that she was a bit busy at the moment, and continued to watch.

She watched, and that was it. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Maybe she was contemplating everything that came with coming of age. Or maybe she was chuckling at how clumsily we did our jobs. Either way, I couldn’t tell.

Eventually, dusk arrived. We completed all of our preparations under Aisha’s watchful eye. The dining room was fully decked out. In a corner of the room was a mountain of wrapped presents that we planned to give to the girls. Atop the table was an array of shelf-stable foods; we planned to start making the main dish once Norn returned.

All that was left was to wait for Norn. Was she running late? If she was going to be out for a while longer, it might have been best to pick her up. That’s what I was thinking as Norn got home early, just as she’d said she would.

“Hello, I’m home.”

Norn’s arms were wrapped around a huge, dangerously precarious bundle of presents. Her left hand carried a bouquet. Her right hand carried a wooden box stuffed with everything from patterned cloths to hair accessories, to mysteriously shaped artifacts whose utilities I couldn’t begin to surmise. 

“Sorry I’m late. People started giving me all this when I tried to leave… I planned to leave them in my dorm, but I couldn’t fit them all into the closet. I thought I’d take these ones back to leave at home, but my bag ripped open on the way here…”

It sounded like a diverse throng of people had burdened her with an equally diverse variety of presents; that was how many people at school wanted to wish Norn a happy birthday. Guess they didn’t call her the “approachable” student council president for nothing. I just hoped none of her admirers gave her something creepy, like a cookie with a strand of hair baked in… Let’s not think about that.

We welcomed Norn home and got the party started at last.

***

It was the same kind of birthday party I’d thrown for them a few years ago. I gave the opening speech. Being fifteen didn’t mean things would change overnight, but they were now adults in the eyes of society—or so my life advice went. It was the speech I felt unqualified to give but wound up giving anyway. Somehow, I’d gone into know-it-all-mode. My tongue slipped.

With that introduction out of the way, the other adults among us all talked about “conducting yourself like an adult.” Sylphie said that they wouldn’t need to ask the family for permission anymore, but they’d need to be responsible. Roxy advised them to never stop learning. Eris told them they should always have a goal. Lilia seemed more emotional than usual; she talked about Paul and Zenith’s younger years and the day the two girls were born while nearly sobbing. Zenith patted her head.

Norn’s face lit up into a smile when she saw the presents we gave her. She especially liked the armor that Roxy had asked a blacksmith acquaintance to make. Just for this day, Roxy custom-ordered a set of armor that looked just like Paul’s old set, which now hung in Zenith’s room. It was resized to fit Norn’s body and restyled to have a more feminine look. When she equipped Paul’s trusty sword to the baldric that Eris got her, she looked just like a full-fledged swordswoman. Those two might have remembered when Norn once said that she wanted to be an adventurer.

She reacted to the bust of Paul that I made with, at first, outright confusion. I was proud of my work, but it was a thirty-centimeter-tall statue made of stone, so I understood where she was coming from. I didn’t realize while I was making it, but it was what modern society would likely categorize as a dud gift. But, this world didn’t have photographs. 

After looking at the bust for a while, tears started welling in Norn’s eyes, perhaps from the memories of Paul it brought back. “I’ll treasure it,” she said as she finally accepted it.

When we all finished giving out our presents, Norn addressed us.

“Um, thank you very much. I’ll do my best to be an adult going forward. I hope you’ll all support me the way you always have. You’re the best.”

Her heart was bursting with emotion, but she put it beautifully. Her words made Lilia crumble in tears yet again. Norn, you’ve really grown up…

It was good to see Norn so happy, but what about Aisha? Aisha seemed happy too, but I felt something was wrong when I looked at her. She didn’t wince or show any obvious displeasure, of course. For every gift she got, she’d thank someone by saying, “Wow, amazing! It’s so cute! Thank you!” Or she’d express her delight by saying, “It’s just what I’ve always wanted!”

On the surface, Aisha seemed to be enjoying the party as her normal, cheerful self. So what was wrong? I suppose the best way to describe it really was that something felt off. To my eyes, Aisha looked a bit detached; as though her smile and laughs were forced, like it was all an act. Maybe it was how she’d acted that afternoon that made me feel that way.

With my suspicions still high, I gave her my present: a pendant. The Migurd pendant…was in Ruijerd’s possession, so this was a replica. It was handmade, too, making it neither expensive nor a genuine article.

“Aisha, this is something that was given to me to commemorate my own path to becoming an adult. It might not mean anything to you, but I wanted to give this to you as a symbol of your adulthood.”

I was aware that this gift meant more to me than it could to anyone who received it. But for some reason, I wanted to give this to Aisha instead of Norn. I didn’t know why. But when they asked me what gift made me the happiest, this was the first thing that came to mind.

“Oh… Thank you.”

There was no life behind her eyes.

Her expression was blank. Deep in thought, she turned the pendant over and over in her hands.

***

We enjoyed the rest of the party over servings of the main course and cake. There were still some surprises left. Once the sun had fully set, students started coming by and leaving presents for Norn. It seemed like they’d only found out about Norn’s birthday today and scrambled to buy something while they could.

There were a lot of students like that. And when they saw me answer the door, a lot of them went pale. But no worries! I met them all with a flash of the good ol’ Shining Rudeus Smile. Ah, the smile, truly humanity’s most universal greeting.

…It didn’t go well.

The sight of my smile made their pale faces freeze in even greater terror, with some attempting to run. Sylphie caught them and safely delivered their presents to Norn while smoothing over the scene we’d been making…but really, how rude!

So many of them came by that eventually, Norn’s presents stacked up like a mountain. Aisha, on the other hand, didn’t have any presents besides the ones we gave her. She was maintaining her facade, but it seemed a bit strained now, making her look deeply hurt to my eyes.

I doubted that anyone besides myself had noticed that Aisha’s smile was faked. I could have been overthinking it; Aisha might not have minded the presents one bit. But bringing it up with Sylphie felt like a good idea. While I was hemming and hawing over what to do about Aisha, I noticed the area beyond our front door had gotten rowdy, like a huge gathering of people. Their riotous chatter was broken up by Leo’s sudden barking.

“We’ve got company,” said Eris. Her expression turned to stone as she picked up the sword lying in the corner.

Was Orsted coming by? No, there were too many people out there. Orsted wasn’t the type to draw a crowd.

I headed to the front door to make sure. When I stepped outside, I saw a mob of miscreants closing in on my home. Their frames were bulky, their fur thick, and their fangs bared. Every one of them was draped in a plain black cloak. They were a fearsome bunch. That said, they looked pretty beaten up; some were injured, while some were wrapped in newly tattered cloaks.

Leading the pack was none other than the town’s most diabolical duo. The two shook out their frazzled hair as they argued with each other.

“It was your fault, Linia. Screwing up the end of that job yesterday made us start late.”

“M-mew?! But you’re the one who dumped that on me, Pursena!”

“There ya go again, blaming anyone but yourself. Trust me, Linia, it’s all your fault.”

“Coming from the one who was supposed to track our prey’s scent but dragged us to some random barbeque? That’s rich, mew! Your screwup was the reason it took so long to take down that hog, mew!”

“Geh! I-it’s their fault for camping out there!”

It was Linia and Pursena. As usual, they were at each other’s throats. But this time, they were just bantering. The people around them seemed used to it; they kept their hands behind their backs in a parade rest.

“Ah, Boss!”

“Murr? All hands, salute, mew!”

At Linia’s somewhat belated command, her followers all bowed their heads in unison. At that moment, I saw what was behind them. There was a gigantic mound atop a wooden board.

“Boss! We’re here to celebrate our advisor’s coming-of-age, mew!”

“We were out in the forest since yesterday bagging this!”

“This” referred to a gigantic monster. One that resembled a boar and lived in the forests around this area. And what did they mean since yesterday?

“Wait… Were none of you guys at the office today?”

“Don’t sweat it, mew. We left the minimum amount of people to keep the lights on, mew.”

“Yep. We scheduled it so that pretty much nobody had to work today.”

Which meant that Aisha must have come home early because the office was almost empty. She went with excitement to celebrate her birthday, but there was nobody to celebrate with. And no work, either. She thought that people would come if she waited, but even by noon, nobody had. Yeah, I couldn’t fault Aisha for getting existential over that.

“Mew! Hey, Advisor!”

“Guys, the advisor’s here!”

I turned around to see Aisha standing behind me. She looked absolutely stupefied by the huge boar the mercenaries thudded onto our doorstep.

“What…is this?”

“Advisor! Happy birthday!”

With Pursena’s words as the signal, the mercenary band all bowed their heads once again. Congratulations, congratulations, they bellowed, creating echoes loud enough to warrant a neighborhood noise complaint. It was like watching a yakuza ceremony, except the person everyone bowed to was a single little girl.

“Ah… Aha!”

Aisha laughed.

As though this sight had broken her grim mood, she laughed.

“You don’t expect me to eat all that! …Aha, ahahahaha!”

Saying it aloud made her crack up even harder. The mercenaries were being laughed at, but they took it well because of how happy Aisha was. Every one of them, Aisha included, looked relieved and full of joy. After spending all day having Norn’s popularity shoved in her face, Aisha realized that she was equally popular in her own corner of the world.

“Hey, Big Brother, since they’re here and all, is it all right if we all eat together on the lawn?”

I took a glance at the mercenaries and saw that some were wagging their tails at the suggestion. I wasn’t an expert on beastfolk etiquette, but when any species of hunter brought some quarry to your house, they didn’t just hand over their game and walk away. Everyone was supposed to join the party. This went double when those hunters’ stomachs growled and their jaws dripped with drool.

“Yeah, of course.”

Aisha’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

***

Everyone joined the cookout on the front lawn. Even some students who’d come for Norn found themselves roped in. The boar that the beastfolk brought was roasted whole, and the drinks—brought by an old man who Aisha helped back in the shopping district—flowed freely.

Norn sighed; this rowdy get-together was far removed from the quiet, introspective ceremony which started the night. Note that Norn carefully kept displeasure from showing on her face and refrained from saying anything that would rain on this parade. Probably out of consideration for Aisha, who was having the time of her life.

The cookout continued for a while, but once the mercenary band had gorged themselves, people decided to call it a night. As the crowd thinned out I heard Aisha mutter to herself:

“What even is an adult?”

In contrast to Norn’s contentious weighing of her own adulthood, Aisha’s small question sounded childish. But hey, that’s life. Adults come in different styles; Norn had her style, and Aisha had hers. There were as many ways to be an adult or a child as there were people. If you were who you were supposed to be and managed to stay true to yourself, then you were doing all right.

“Yeah, what even is an adult, huh?” I answered her. I didn’t feel like I needed to put up a front for Aisha.

And that was how Aisha and Norn turned fifteen years old.