Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Growth and New Horizons

IT WAS LIKE I’d blinked and a year had passed. Today was the graduation ceremony. The Ranoa University of Magic’s graduation ceremony.

My graduation ceremony.

Today, I dressed myself up in my rarely worn old uniform and joined the procession that I’d always watched from the student council’s sidelines. This time, I was one of the graduates. The ceremony for Zanoba and Cliff felt like it was just yesterday. 

I listened to the principal’s speech while surrounded by classmates I didn’t recognize. The speech hadn’t changed, though. I’d heard this one a few times. He probably read off the same script every year. Having nobody but graduating students here meant he could cut corners, but I wasn’t exactly swept away by it.

The fact that I hadn’t been coming to school at all probably made me feel even less connected to the ceremony. I’d barely taken any classes, and by the end of it all, I wasn’t even showing up to homeroom. Just a name on the attendance sheet. True, my research into the theory of silent casting and the report I submitted on the methods to train for it had earned me a C-rank membership in the Magicians’ Guild, but, well…

Research papers and ranks and stuff are a little dry, yeah? I wasn’t gonna get misty-eyed over them.

Ah, well. These times are for nostalgia anyway, and I had plenty of that. My reunion with Sylphie, my friendships with Zanoba and Cliff, the sexual harassment Linia and Pursena heaped on me at every turn, my talks with Nanahoshi about our memories of Japan, time spent sharing drinks and laughs with Badigadi…

Here I was, about to say goodbye to the place where it all happened. That was when the tears started.

Oh. These are those “emotions” I’ve heard so much about, right? Yeah. Those touching memories are what counts.

***

Let’s take stock.

Over the last year, I finished spreading roots into the Asura area. I stayed in the Asura Kingdom for a few months and set up the Mercenary Band branch, the Zanoba Store branch, and the workshop that would manufacture the store’s products.

This was Ariel’s influence. She wasn’t hard to win over; when I asked her if she would cooperate with Orsted, she gave me the reassuring response of “I was planning to from the start.” She even gathered the people of her faction and held a party for my cause. It was presented as an opportunity for them to network with me—or rather, with the member of the Seven Powers, the “Dragon God” whose interests I represented. They were all part of Ariel’s faction, so they listened to her. But faction ties only go so far. If you wanna know what got them out of bed in the mornings, they backed Ariel and hoped she’d remember them when it was time to hand out positions. To put it bluntly, most of them were Ariel’s yes-men.

However, there were a few people among them who weren’t total wastes of skin. One of them was the Water Emperor Isolde. Another was the Sword King Nina, although I still didn’t know what twist of fate brought her to that ballroom… At any rate, it was delightful to see the current faces of the Water God Style and the Sword God Style be so receptive to cooperating with Orsted.

When I mentioned this to Eris, she declared that she would handle winning Nina over and dashed off. How that went was a mystery. It looked like the three of them hung out all over town like school pals, but I didn’t ask Eris for the results. I didn’t have my hopes up, but if this Nina person could gain trust in me by trusting Eris, that’d help quite a bit.

I’d gotten a lot of people to sign up, but I’d been less successful at getting them to understand what they were agreeing to. The stuff about Laplace resurrecting in eighty years zipped through one ear and out the other. But Ariel was an instinctive leader, and they all bounded after her like a pack of leashed dogs. Nothing to worry about there. My work in Asura was now delegated, and I could put it out of mind.

When I informed Ariel that Eris had given birth to a boy, making him my third child, she was quite pleased. And then, she gave me a devilish look, and said:

“That gives me an idea. Why not have one of your children marry a child from the Asura nobility? I believe that would give our partnership a much stronger foundation…”

I got the feeling that she was serious. You’re joking, was my oppositional, knee-jerk response. But perhaps popping out a few kids and marrying them to cement alliances with the necessary authorities wasn’t the worst idea? For people a little less fearless than Ariel, familial ties might soften the intimidation of shadowy Orsted and me, his fishy little evangelist. 

If one of my kids married a relative of Ariel’s, I’d be relieved to know they’d be well taken care of. I love my children dearly, after all. Not that I was seriously considering an arranged marriage for any of them. I mean, unless one of my daughters were absolutely set on wanting to be a princess or marry a prince. Then sure, we’d talk about it.

Anyway. Marriages and all that aside, no jokes, I held the entire Asura region in the palm of my hand. I had the nobles led by Ariel. I had the school of the Water God Style. With luck, I’d have the residents of the Sword Sanctum soon. Progress on the factory and store for the Ruijerd figurine and picture book bundles was chugging along. By looping in the Mercenary Band (for distribution), I’d be able to spread the Ruijerd figurines throughout the majority of the Central Continent.

It was perfect. If I could make it happen, we’d hear from Ruijerd as soon as possible.

Right now, I was preparing to move on to the King Dragon Realm and use my connections with Death God Randolph to network over there. I wouldn’t have any big players like Ariel on my side, so it was sure to be a challenge. I was looking at a two-to-three-year effort, minimum, though it could very well take more.

The Asura Kingdom was like a tutorial. This was where the real work began.

Let’s go over our research, while we’re at it.

First, Zanoba. Directing the store’s opening and its sales operations kept him busy over the past year, so he’d let his research fall to the wayside. Perfectly understandable. The last year saw a simultaneous opening of stores in Sharia and Asura. Something had to give with how busy he was. But thanks to the excellent support of Ginger, the manager hired from the Mercenary Band, and the financial brains that Ariel contributed, the shops themselves were running smoothly.

The figurine and picture book bundles weren’t exactly flying off the shelves, but they did a reasonable trade. The real hit of the bundle was the reading-and-writing practice worksheet at the end of the book. I was a little irked that something I slipped in as an afterthought was the star product, but I should swallow my pride and accept the victory. Well, whatever—with Ariel as a sponsor, the store was in no danger of closing any time soon. All they had to do was take things slow and steady.

Next up: Cliff. He spent the past year fully dedicating himself to family and his research—the research into lifting the curses on Elinalise and Orsted. No revolutionary breakthroughs there, sadly. It was hitting some major roadblocks.

He succeeded in strengthening the effects of the magical implements, but a complete cure was always just out of reach. Still, thanks to this work, Elinalise would be able to survive over a year without any maintenance. Whether her self-control would be able to do the same was another story.

So, how about we check in on my progress? Fortunately, I get things done.

As I went back and forth between the Asura Kingdom and the Magic City of Sharia, I thought about how to summon the Magic Armor. I even asked Perugius if he knew any methods, and sought advice from Nanahoshi.

In my search, I noticed a law that the magic operated underneath—the bidirectional teleportation circles, I mean. See, the moment that a teleportation occurs, whatever’s on top of the circles is swapped. An object on teleportation circle A will be sent to circle B, and at the same time, any object on circle B is sent to circle A. The fact that the activation timing occurs when something is placed on top of the circle made this law a bit hard to notice, but after I thought about it, this “equivalent exchange” kinda stuff is standard for the genre.

Anyway, that was a eureka moment, and it sparked the birth of my new, revolutionary technique: I would take the Magic Armor and place it on a bidirectional teleportation circle in advance. Then I’d carry a scroll containing an unused teleportation circle with me. When the crisis moment arrived, I could unfurl the scroll and activate the teleportation circle. Bam! There you go, would ya look at that, ladies and gents! The Magic Armor I’d prepared in advance would hop from its preprepared location and teleport to me right when I needed it.

I hurried to the basement of the office to set up the Magic Armor and test this idea, and it worked beautifully. This made it possible to summon the Magic Armor Version One from anywhere in the world. You know, like the whole “Rise, Gu*dam!” thing.

Couple snags: I would have to carry this huge scroll with me, and the weight of the Magic Armor shredded the scroll to bits after summoning. You’d get one summon per scroll, that was it. No wishing for more wishes.

But, if I had two scrolls that were linked to each other, they could function as emergency escape teleports. This research had a lot of practical applications.

And then there was Orsted. He really came through for me here. He made…not exactly a phone, but a stone tablet for communication. Apparently, it was built with the exact same mechanism as the Technique God’s monuments to the Seven Great Powers. The way it worked was that anything written on the main contact tablet would be reflected on the sub tablets. If we both had a main and a sub tablet each, then we could contact each other through text whenever we wanted. But given how heavy they were on top of their massive size, walking around with them was going to be a challenge. They consumed a large amount of mana to boot, so this was more of a fixture at a home base than a portable device.

Basically, a phone booth, not a cellphone.

For now, we set up the first pair in both Orsted’s office and Ariel’s chambers. I could imagine Ariel kneeling before the shining tablets every night and saying something like, “Rest assured, my liege, I will defeat those blasted Rangers.”

Anyway, that’s pretty much how research has been going. Might as well give an update on the kids while I’m at it.

First, Lucie. My oldest daughter turned five years old. Her birthday party was held last month, where she got presents from everyone in the family and was very pleased with herself. She was growing up to be a healthy young girl. I could have sworn it was yesterday that she stumbled through her first steps and stuttered through her first words, but now, her feet were firmly on the ground. And while she still stuttered, she’d learned to form words clearly. Her favorite words were “Nuh-uh!” and “Buhhht!”

In addition, she learned how to cast Beginner-tier magic from Sylphie and Roxy’s extracurricular lessons. Her days were spent practicing magic in the morning and swinging a stick with Eris in the afternoon. It was like watching my own childhood. The schedule might have seemed natural to Lucie herself, but to an outside observer it looked as vicious as a Spartan military drill. That was why I couldn’t help but pamper her when I got the chance, which might explain why she’d started shouting “Papa!” and jumping in excitement at the sight of me.

Super cute.

Her special fifth birthday party seemed to have kindled a new awareness in her about the responsibilities of an older sister. She started looking out for Lara and Arus. She also got it into her head that Lara’s faithful companion, Leo, was also a sort of little brother, so she and Lara give him lots of pets. Just the other day, she was brushing his coat of white fur.

It was truly a heartwarming sight…until we later found out that she was using Sylphie’s brush to do it. Swiping her mother’s brush and coating it in dog hair made Sylphie furious.

“Buhhht, Mama and Leo have white hair!” was Lucie’s excuse. I cracked a smile. Kids said the darndest things! But that made Sylphie so mad at me that she froze me out for a whole day. She only forgave me because Lucie found a way to get me good.

“I’ll use Papa’s brush next time, so don’t get mad at him, okay?”

That was her version of sticking up for me. It cost me a brush in the end, but it was a price I was glad to pay. The only brush a real man needs is his fingers.

On to Lara. Our two-year-old future savior was as stone-faced and unshakable as ever. But that certainly didn’t mean she was sluggish; now that she was able to trot on her own two feet, she was all over the place and into everything. She clung to nobody and followed only the whims of her curiosity. She got that from her mom. I didn’t do that.

I was anxious to ever take my eyes off of her, but I was probably worrying too much—her guard dog Leo was always there to protect her from getting hurt. If she was on some adventure and needed to plop down asleep right in the middle of it, then Leo would wrap himself around her to keep her safe.

Lara, however, seemed to see Leo as more of a butler. Her preferred form of travel these days was to climb up on Leo’s back, grab on, and ride her steed to far off lands. There was even a time when Eris took Leo out for a walk, noticed he had some kind of backpack on, and found Lara had packed herself inside. Leo was supposed to ease our worries, but kids have ways of inventing new ones.

I wasn’t sure why, exactly, but Lara had taken a liking to Zenith. She would often sit on Zenith’s lap and look up at her face. If you ignored the silence, you might mistake it for a touching scene of a grandchild bonding with her grandmother.

Last was Arus. My eldest son, now one year old, inherited my love of boobs. He loved them big or small. He loved his mother Eris’s, of course. But he also loved the board-flat chests on Sylphie and Roxy all the way up to the absolute melons on Linia and Pursena. He had a smile of pure, satisfied bliss on his face whenever he was cradled against a pair of breasts. A connoisseur after my own heart—a lover of breasts of every kind. That said, he had that same blissful smile on his face whenever he peed himself. So hopefully I’m just reading a lot into this. I’m a little worried for your future, buddy.

Incidentally, whenever I tried to hold him, he would burst into tears. Even when he was sound asleep, he’d toss and turn once my arms got around him, and when he opened his eyes, he’d cry as though I was his nightmare come to life. He had a strong aversion to men’s chests. It made me feel like crying myself… Well, I couldn’t hold it against him when I wasn’t there for his birth, but it still made me feel rejected.

Between his love for breasts and his aversion to anyone who didn’t have them, I worried he might start getting handsy with women soon. Just grab them without restraint. When he was a little older, I’d need to sit him down and teach him to do better. Totally.

Anyway, that’s the kiddo report. If I had to write a headline above this year’s summary report, I’d call it a fruitful one. At the bottom of the report card, I’d end my notes with something like, “Keep up the good work next year.”

***

By the time I’d finished reflecting on my past year, the graduation ceremony was over. I wasn’t the valedictorian—no surprises there. They weren’t going to hand that title to someone who blew off class and the graduation exam. Even if they offered it, I would have refused.

We can skip the post-ceremony duel exhibition. Don’t think I need to go into the romantic confession I got from an obvious gold digger, either. I should be able to omit the part where the head teacher, Jenius, told me that he was glad that he recommended me as he went in for a handshake, because we were going to have variations on that conversation for years to come. Norn was still enrolled, and I’d also want Lucie to attend this school in a few years’ time. I’d be indebted to him again soon.

Hearing Lucie would be attending before long made Jenius so emotional that he burst into tears.

Night fell. We all gathered at our regular pub. The occasion? Cliff’s sendoff party. My graduation party was part of it, but considering I graduated without taking a test or anything, it hardly felt like there was anything to celebrate. I appreciated the sentiment even so.

Cliff would set off for the Holy Country of Millis in one month’s time. There, the battle would begin. It would be a personal one, and as such I wasn’t quite sure what he was fighting. Half of it was likely himself, but the other half was a mystery. Cliff had been spending the last year preparing to take on… something. He might’ve faced a setback along the way when he’d been ensnared in Elinalise’s booby trap, but with a bit of TLC, those bruises healed into experience and love. Now, he looked like he was heading off to war.

“I promise I’ll make it into the upper echelons of the Millis Church. And when I do, I’ll proudly return to bring Lise and Clive home!”

Elinalise listened in wonder to this declaration. She was strong. I knew that in my case, if Roxy were to tell me that she was off to travel to the Demon Continent and become the Demon Lord, I’d be pretty broken up. I’d worry myself sick that my bright Roxy would somehow turn into the infamously idiotic demon lord they already had.

Believing in someone enough to wait for them is easy to say and hard to do; you could send someone off with every hope and good intention in the world and none of it would truly protect them. And it looked like Elinalise knew that as she gazed at Cliff. Her belief wasn’t blind; it was brave. If she had misgivings, she wouldn’t let them show enough for Cliff to notice.

Times like these reminded me her long years had taught her a few things. It was only when the party started to wind down that she corrected a few of my assumptions. 

“Rudeus, could I have a moment?” Elinalise asked me to see her outside.

She was interrupting Harem Heaven. Sylphie was using my right thigh as a pillow to sleep on, Roxy was riding my left thigh while chugging drinks, and Eris was resting her head on my right shoulder. Both my left and my right hands had some something soft to explore, and with the alcohol flowing through me, I had a really devilish idea. I’d started to calculate how I might be able to get all three of them in bed at the same time.

But.

“Oh… Sure.”

Seeing Elinalise’s face sobered me up a bit. Her expression was solemn. Out of place for a party.

I knew why. I also knew I wasn’t going to be of any use to her while drunk. I instantly detoxed myself of my alcohol.

“Whatcha doin’, Rudy… You cheatin’? Cheating’s bad… Keep the cheating to me… Mmrgh…”

I quieted Roxy’s drunken rambling with my lips and set her down, and then…

“Mmph, Rudy, your thighs are so soooft…”

I set Sylphie’s head upon Roxy’s lap, and finally…

“Rudeus… I want my second one to be a boy…”

I set Eris on Roxy’s shoulder… There. Three wives successfully peeled off of me, and me standing up.

“All right, let’s go.”

I left the pub with Elinalise.

Winter was over, but the snow in Sharia tended to linger for a long time. The cold outside the pub was no different. This chill would stay a while.

“So, Rudeus, it’s about Cliff. I have a favor to ask.”

Elinalise didn’t waste words. I had a feeling it was going to be about Cliff. Elinalise spent the past year worrying, too; how could she not?

“I hate to ask this sort of thing behind Cliff’s back…but I must say that I’m a bit worried.”

Elinalise’s breath fogged from more than just the cold. From her perspective, Cliff was still a child. She loved him as her husband, of course, but some of that love surely bled into a motherly concern, like she might feel for a son or a little brother. If that was how she saw him, of course letting him go on his own would be hard.

“So, can I ask you to go with him?”

“Are you sure?” I asked, surprised. I thought Elinalise respected Cliff’s decision.

“You only have to watch over him at the beginning… It’s important for him to hit his stride, right? I know Cliff can do it, but joining in, especially when everyone already has their little friends, isn’t Cliff’s strongest skill…”

She didn’t have to treat him like a shy toddler. But wait, then again, she wasn’t pulling this out of nowhere—Cliff could be like that. Considering that he never made a single friend besides us during his entire time at the University, yeah, fair point. I could see Cliff making it to the Holy Country of Millis and being all alone in a big country, shunned by his peers, small and still determined to do his very best…

Shoot, I felt tears coming on.

“But remember, I promised I wouldn’t help him.”

I wanted Cliff to succeed. I wanted him to rise through the ranks of the Millis Church as high as he could. That didn’t mean he needed to stand at the very top. I just wanted him to get as far as he wanted. This was unrelated to gathering allies for Orsted; this was my friend’s dream, and I shared it with him.

But the dream was to do it himself, so I couldn’t help him. Maybe he didn’t say it in so many words, but that was the unspoken meaning when I agreed with him one year ago.

“Isn’t there anything you could do?”

“…”

“Just the very beginning would be fine, really. You wouldn’t have to step in, just giving him advice if he gets stuck would be plenty…”

“Hmm.”

I wasn’t about to give her that “promise between men” stuff. I was worried about Cliff too. He had the ability, but he had his weaknesses, and one of them was bad enough it could set him back immediately. I didn’t want to see Cliff fail without ever getting to use his strengths.

In that sense, maybe a little push here or there wouldn’t hurt. Cliff wouldn’t love it, but hey, you could say that your friends’ resources are like an extension of your own. You could also say that a friend who’d help him in his time of need was just another thing Cliff gained from his life at school; in that case, it’d show just how strong he’d become if I were to help him. I wouldn’t do to help him too much, of course. The key to this endeavor was a light touch.

“…”

All right, she convinced me.

Okay so, what about ally recruitment? I’d been planning to work in the King Dragon Realm while Cliff was in Millis. I had already informed Aisha. Those preparations were already underway. Would changing course for Millis cause any problems…?

It’d probably be difficult to set up the Zanoba Store and sell figurines of a Demon race inside the Holy Country of Millis, where we’d be right at the Millis Church’s doorstep. But I could set up a Mercenary Band branch while I was there. We could found that local Mercenary Band to gather personnel and intel, then wait for Cliff’s success and circle back to get the store off the ground.

“All right, I’ll go to Millis too.”

“Oh! Thank you so much, Rudeus!”

Elinalise surely wanted to go herself. She wanted to leave Clive in my family’s care and help Cliff with his trials in the Holy Country of Millis. But she must have made a promise to raise Clive at home while waiting for Cliff’s return.

“Allow me to say one thing, though: whether I help him or not will be my decision to make.”

“Of course, that’s all I ask.”

Elinalise placed a hand on her chest and sighed in relief. She’d really do anything for her husband, huh? I wasn’t dissatisfied with my current wives…but damn. Cliff was a lucky man.

Soon enough, the sendoff party drew to a close. It was time to drag my three drunken wives home and tuck them each into their beds.

The children were already fast asleep; it was all thanks to Lilia and Aisha that I could go out and get wasted without worrying about the toddlers back home. Feeling that I owed her a word of appreciation, I returned to the living room to see Aisha. While I was at it, we needed to discuss Elinalise’s request. It was a good time to go over the (revised) Mercenary Band expansion plans with Aisha.

With that, I entered the living room to find it blanketed in a tense atmosphere. There was Norn, who had left the sendoff party midway through. Lilia and Aisha, who were watching the house, were also there. All three were standing around, grave looks overshadowing their faces.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“Oh, Big Bro…” said Aisha. “Here, look at this.”

Before the three of them was a single letter. I picked it up. The sender was marked as “The House of Latria.”

I remembered that name. It was my family on Zenith’s side. It looked like my own letter finally got a response from all the way in the Holy Country of Millis. I noticed that the envelope had already been opened despite the envelope being addressed to me, but that was fine. I looked inside to find a single-page letter.

“Regarding your correspondence on my daughter, Zenith’s, minimally conscious state: I order you to bring Zenith home to the House of Latria at once. If Norn Greyrat and Aisha Greyrat are present, they are to come as well.

—Countess of Latria, Claire Latria”

It was a pretty short message. I mean, sure, it didn’t beat around the bush…but it seemed a little too pointed count as a letter.

This was a decree.

“After all this time, you—”

I stopped myself before finishing that sentence. On second thought, it’d been around five years since I first sent that letter. The Holy Country of Millis was far away from here, with a one-way journey taking well over a year on horseback. The postal service here didn’t exactly work around the clock. Letters could end up sidetracked in who knows what corner of the world before making it to their destination. Messengers could always get attacked by monsters too, so there was always the possibility that letters didn’t make it at all. With that in mind, perhaps five years was a reasonably prompt response.

“Hm? Wait, is this the entire letter?” I asked.

“Yes, just that,” Lilia answered. It didn’t seem like there was some second package they were hiding from me.

“I see…”

Pretty brusque short for a letter that was going to take years to reach its recipient. Wait, was that why it was short? The House of Latria surely knew the long journey this slip of paper would take. Of course! They wrote multiple letters to make sure one reached us. And if the short, commanding text was to ensure all that effort didn’t end in miscommunication, then it all added up. The forceful tone was just communicating her eagerness for us to come.

Pleased with my deductions, I turned to my sisters who were…not coming to the same conclusions.

“Hahhh…”

“Grandma… She never changes, huh?”

Norn huffed in naked exasperation, while Aisha looked at the letter with hollow, vacant eyes. They looked as though they never wanted to see that name again.

So. Claire was just the type to write like this.

“…”

I glanced over to find that even Lilia looked concerned. Could Claire really be that bad? I’d never met her, so I didn’t know.

“Master, what do you intend to do?” Lilia looked up to ask me.

I was determined. I’d been looking for a good excuse to go to Millis, and then this dropped into my lap. Stroke of fortune.

“I guess we should do what the letter says and take Mom to Millis.”

“…”

“…”

My sisters and my stepmom gave each other a look. I guess I picked the wrong answer. Who even was this Claire person? Like yeah, the letter was pretty blunt, but she’d that her daughter lost her memories and was in a semi-conscious state. What parent wouldn’t demand to see her daughter knowing she’d gone through that?

I was sure the Latrias had been looking for her, too. Zenith might been a little bit of a prodigal daughter to them, but according to Paul, they invested a lot of money in the Fittoa Search and Rescue Squad, so I owed them for that. And given that they seemed to have some power within the nation of Millis, it was well worth it for me to meet them.

“Well, I figure that we’re going to Millis at some point, so we may as well knock out two birds with one stone. Sounds like a perfect stop while we’re there for work.”

“Huh? Wait, Big Brother, hold on,” Aisha hastily interjected. “Weren’t we going to the King Dragon Realm next month?”

Of course, that had been the plan. I wanted to build up the Mercenary Band in the King Dragon Realm, make connections with Death God Randolph and Queen Benedikte, and obtain the sponsors necessary to maintain the Zanoba Store. And I wanted Aisha to help me do that.

Just like our experience in the Asura Kingdom, I’d need Aisha to come with me to set up the Mercenary Band branch. Aisha and her deft hand with recruitment would be key to getting everything in order. The first month would be to put all the little clockwork parts in place, and the second month would be for Aisha to slowly let it go until it chugged along independently. She had the magic touch for this.

“Given the contents of the letter, I think we should go sooner rather than later. Think of it as prioritizing Millis…and saying hi to Grandma while we’re in the neighborhood.”

“Aww…”

Aisha pouted in deep displeasure. She might have become an adult a few months ago, but she wasn’t done with this yet.

Suddenly, Norn stood up.

“Brother…I do not want to go,” Norn said.

She said it loud and clear. Not “I won’t go,” not “I can’t go,” but “I do not want to go.” And she didn’t pout like Aisha; her expression was stern.

“This is an important time for both my studies and the student council. I can’t afford to empty my schedule for several months.”

“Well… Yeah, that’s fair,” I admitted. I might have graduated, but Norn was still in her final year. For one more crucial year, she had to attend her classes, take her tests, and have a real graduation. Unlike me, Norn spent her first six years of school actually going to it. Leaving that now would undo everything she’d worked for.

“Uhh, Big Brother. Um… Oh yeah, the rice. We’ve got a big harvest coming in of that rice you love, so I can’t go!”

Aisha sounded like she came up with that on the spot. This was a truly lame excuse—Aisha had already hired people from the Mercenary Band to build those rice paddies on the outskirts and then plant them. I also knew that she’d hired a manager to handle everything and that Aisha herself wasn’t going there herself anymore. I knew it all.

I could have pointed this out to her and forced her to come along, but Aisha was a fickle worker. Dragging her along would sour her mood, and then she’d be a lump I had to drag around instead of an asset. But I also couldn’t do much to set up the Mercenary Band if she didn’t come along. I couldn’t do what she did…

Oh, wait. Just because she’s in Millis doesn’t mean she has to visit Claire, huh?

“All right, Aisha. If you want to avoid her that badly, I won’t force you to see her. But at least come to Millis with me. We’ll visit the Latria family just me, Lilia, and my mom, so you can focus on the Mercenary Band.”

“Hooray. Thanks, Bro!”

Aisha smiled from ear to ear. Wow. What a reaction. She hated Claire that much?

On second thought, Lilia of all people was letting Aisha get away with that. Normally, she’d scold that kind of cattiness with a whack to the head.

“Understood, Master. I shall attend with you.”

Lilia bowed her head as dispassionately as usual, but I got the feeling that she didn’t want to see Claire any more than Aisha did. Considering her position, I couldn’t blame her: Zenith was a follower of Millis, meaning that her mother almost certainly was too. I didn’t know what the Millis thought of bigamy, but given that its teachings explicitly forbade the practice, I didn’t think they were gonna give any wife after number one a warm welcome.

“Thank you in advance, Lilia.”

“Oh no, I’m simply doing my job.”

Zenith’s care was a full-time job. Lilia and Aisha could help; if I didn’t have at least one of them come with me, then we’d be in trouble.

“All right, Aisha. With that out of the way, can you get started on switching our destination to the Holy Country of Millis?”

“Okie doke. When’re we heading out?”

“Hmm, let’s see…”

Why not match Cliff’s departure? We didn’t have to, but there was a bit of distance to cover between the teleportation circle and Millis itself. It wouldn’t qualify as “helping” him, so we might as well go together.

“How about a month from now?”

“Gotcha.”

Still, my grandmother, huh? I wondered what kind of person she was. I had to admit that Norn’s and Aisha’s reactions had me a bit scared to find out.

***

So, change of plans: no going to the King Dragon Realm just yet. We would now build our next Mercenary Band branch in the Holy Country of Millis.

Aisha grumbled the whole time, but she still made the preparations. She got to work on drawing up and re-filing the paperwork that previously mentioned the King Dragon Realm so that they’d now apply to Millis. From what I could tell, it detailed what sorts of personnel she’d need in each country.

We didn’t have a foothold in the nation’s government this time, so anything we wanted to do—such as recruiting—was going to be a long process. For now, I set a goalpost for about half a year. Once we’d been there that long, we could assess whether we really had something here, or if it was a lost cause.

I decided to mention it to Cliff, too. By sheer coincidence, I was being called out to Zenith’s family home, so how about going together?—Something like that. Cliff smirked, but he didn’t seem bothered.

“I had a feeling you’d find a reason to tag along.”

And that was that. It was a really comforting reaction, strangely. I wondered if Cliff had actually been concerned, as though he felt left out by the fact that I demanded to go with Zanoba last time but said nothing when it was Cliff’s turn. Like he feared that I considered him to be less of a friend.

C’mon, Cliff, ol’ buddy, you know it ain’t like that.

All together, we were four people headed to Millis with Cliff: Aisha, Zenith, Lilia, and me. Lilia and Aisha’s absence would leave the house extremely shorthanded for skilled caretakers, so Sylphie was staying home. And Roxy said she had some bad memories with the Holy Country of Millis on account of being a demon, so she was staying back as well.

Eris wanted to go, but Lilia was categorically opposed. Madam Eris would be best kept away from the Latria household as it’d surely erupt into conflict, she said. I was skeptical. But from the way Lilia described her, I could tell that this Claire lady of the House of Latria sounded like a pretty difficult person. I could definitely understand why Eris might be the wrong fit for that situation. Getting on the bad side of Zenith’s family wasn’t my idea of fun, and plus we’d have to take her new infant on the dangerous journey. And so, Eris gave in.

This was the rare journey in which not a single one of my wives would be joining me… But hey, that’s life. And so, our preparations continued, until one day, just before we were ready to depart, a startling realization forced a change of plan.

Sylphie was pregnant.