Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Princess Rudeus Enters the Fray

MOORE TOOK ME to a high place with a good view of the arena. When we got there, the best bit of the fight was already underway.

“Eris! Don’t give up, Eris!”

“I-I can’t… Not this…They’re too…”

“Come on, I can’t—o-ow!”

Down in the arena, there were five animals with long fur, about the size of large dogs. They’d gathered around Eris, pinning her down.

Strike that. That’s not the right way to describe it.

Eris was petting the creatures as they crowded around her, looking over the moon with happiness. Roxy was trying to pull them off her, but they were too big for her. She bounced off them and couldn’t get close to Eris.

Um, I came to watch Eris being badass, I thought, not…whatever this is.

“Eh heh heh.” Beside me, Moore suddenly chuckled. “Your champion has been taken in by the familiars of Arcantos of Flame.”

“Familiars?”

“Yes, Arcantos of Flame sends his familiars out to take the measure of his opponents. They’re quite devious, actually. They sniff out strength, but if they smell weakness they attack and rip the opponent limb from limb.”

“Oh, no… But what about Eris?!”

“She, er… She must smell so strong to them that they’ve become entirely tame.”

Oh, no. They’re so big and so fluffy! If they’ve taken a liking to Eris, there’s no hope!

“Eh heh heh…heh.” Arcantos chuckled, a little uncertain. “Return to me, my familiars. She is beyond you, it seems… Heh heh. Now return to me. Return to me, I say. Come on, return to me already…” 

Apparently, the familiars really liked Eris. They didn’t react at all when Arcantos (I assumed that was the guy in black armor) called them.

Meanwhile, Eris looked like she’d died and gone to heaven. She was in a drooling state of bliss. Maybe it was only to be expected, but the familiars somehow also seemed delighted even though Eris was glomping them with all her might.

Huh, I wouldn’t mind having a familiar or two that could withstand Eris around the house. It’d be a load off for Leo and Linia and Pursena.

After being thrown onto her butt again, Roxy stood up and turned to face Arcantos.

“Ugh…how cowardly. So this is how followers of the rumored Eccentric School of the North God Style fight.”

“Who’re you calling eccentric?! Don’t lump me in with them! I wanted to see what kind of opponents you were, nothing more!”

“Yeah, right!”

Alcantos huffed. “As much as it irks me to be called an Eccentric…it matters not! Your champion is unable to defeat my familiars! You are weak!”

Are you just going to leave it there, Mr. Arcantos?

“Now it’s just you, Magician… Well? If you surrender, I’ll let you go. There’s an old saying in my family that we should be kind to the Migurd Clan.”

“If I…if I back down, who’ll save Rudeus?!”

“You are stout of heart!” Arcantos shouted, then put his sword in his mouth and got down on all fours, looking like a robot wolf. That was a North God Style four-legged stance. He dived at Roxy with terrifying speed.

Roxy reacted in an instant.

“Majestic blade of ice, I summon thee to strike my enemy down! Icicle Blade!” she cried, shortening the incantation. But she was up against Arcantos, one of Atofe’s Personal Guard. The black armor they wore was imbued with formidable magical resistance. Roxy’s Icicle Blade skidded off with a clang. 

“Die!” he shouted.

Aaagh, watch out!

“Uwagh!” Arcantos went spinning away as an incredible force crashed into his side. He flew right off the edge of the arena platform.

Roxy, the other guards, and the shaggy familiars all stared after him in confusion. Then, they turned to look at me in unison.

“Ah, sorry about that, it slipped out…” I mumbled. Seeing Roxy in danger, I’d reacted with a stone cannon before I could stop myself. Usually, I at least yelled “Stone Cannon!” to give my allies a heads up that I was about to attack, but this time I’d done it totally non-vocally.

“Master Rudeus,” Moore sighed.

“I mean, what was I supposed to do?”

Come on, Roxy was in danger! I know you said before that no one’s going to get killed, but you can’t expect me to sit here and watch while Roxy weeps and writhes in agony as she clutches the stump of her arm. Even if she was ready to make the sacrifice!

“Oh well, I’ll allow it. Saving the hero when all seems lost is part of the princess’s role, after all.”

Phew. For the time being at least, we hadn’t flunked our Ultimate Four sequential battle. We weren’t about to be packed off for home without fighting Atofe.

“Actually, can I go down there? Or is there a battle with the dragon that guards the tower where the princess is imprisoned still to come or something?”

“That’s a good idea, but we’d have a hard time capturing a dragon…” Moore said. “Well, the princess is already out here and taking part in the fight. The rules are a bit fuzzy on that point, so I don’t see why not.”

A fuzzy area, huh?

Well, I wasn’t exactly a proper princess, and there’d been a lot of fuzzy areas in this whole process. This fight, for example. Half of the reason it even started was because I misspoke and then Atofe’s caprice. No point getting hung up on details this late in the game when none of them were clear to start with.

“Guess this is where I say goodbye,” I said.

“May you have fortune in battle,” Moore replied. “I have a few things to get ready.”

Ah right, after this Atofe takes the stage, I thought. I leapt down into the arena, then ran over to Roxy.

“Oh, Rudy…! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just got roped into Atofe’s little comedy act. What about you?” I asked, looking her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt. There were scorch marks on her robes, a few damp patches here and there, as well as burns and grazes on her face. She hadn’t taken any major injuries. Either that, or she’d healed herself.

“It’s been tough. The third one was especially strong—a mage knight who wielded fire and wind magic and attacked both Eris and me at once…”

I wished I’d seen that. I bet it was an epic battle. Roxy switched to using gestures to demonstrate just how powerful Peridot of the Earth had been.

Peridot…of the Earth. That’s the Magician who wielded fire and wind magic… Where did “earth” come from, then? Did fire and wind get taken by the others first? No, never mind. Not important.

Roxy told me that he was the strongest magician and swordsman of the Ultimate Four, experienced in doing battle against multiple opponents. His strategy had been to attack Eris with magic while targeting Roxy with his sword. Roxy was forced to counter the magic he sent at Eris, who didn’t have any magical resistance, while Eris had to protect Roxy, whose physical defense was poor. But Eris fought Sword God Style; defense wasn’t her strong suit. Unable to do anything more than protect the other, they found themselves slowly losing ground. But then Roxy had a flash of brilliance.

In theory, a counterspell cancels out the opponent’s spell, and it’s commonly held that a good counterspell uses precisely the same amount of force as the spell it blocks.

Roxy threw that common wisdom out the window. As she called up water magic to counter fire magic and earth magic to counter wind magic, she put far more power into them than the attacker’s spell. All that remained when it was over was water and earth, creating a huge volume of mud on the ground.

Then, Roxy used the combined spell Quagmire. In an instant, the mud on the ground became a bog, forcing Peridot to a standstill. That was when Eris went in for the kill—bam!

Nothing less from Roxy the Wise, I suppose.

Quagmire was my signature move, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that if only I’d been there, I could’ve won without the need to be so clever. You’d be wrong. If I’d used Quagmire off the bat, the opponent would’ve found a way to get around it. Peridot wasn’t expecting Roxy to use the residue of her counterspells to attack, and that was how he ended up bogged down. There was no way I’d ever be that clever.

“But then when the next opponent came out, Eris…”

I looked over at Eris, and saw she was on the ground, twitching. Fearing that maybe the familiars had actually been poisonous, I rushed to her side.

“Aha…haha…” Eris stared into space, utterly blissed out. Her fingers were still making grabbing motions, still savoring the sensation of the familiars’ fluff.

Poison, just as I’d thought.

Animals like that had a healing effect on Eris. They were practically a kind of medicine. Medicine can turn toxic when you take too much, though.

“Let’s just get her thinking straight again,” Roxy said.

An antidote? Or would it be better to use healing magic?

“Rudy, you groping her chest always gets her on her feet, right?”

“Huh?! You don’t mind?”

“I do mind…” Roxy replied. “You should never touch a woman’s body without consent. But Demon King Atofe is going to be here soon.”

I followed Roxy’s gaze. Atofe’s personal guard had lined up, and Moore had a kind of brazier in his arms that he used to fill the area with smoke. The light from the bonfires illuminated the smoke. An ominous atmosphere filled the space.

They were getting the ambiance ready for the demon king’s entrance. Unless we did something, we were going to have to fight without Eris. But no, crap, I had made a vow of celibacy… I couldn’t yield!

“Come on, Rudy. When you’re done, I’ll let you touch mine too. As penance.”

No, damnit, no! I must not yield… Then a thought hit me. “That’s a tempting offer, but won’t that end with her punching me and knocking me out? It won’t help if we get Eris awake but I’m down for the count, right?”

“Oh… That’s a fair point,” Roxy admitted. Just then, Eris’s body spasmed. She looked around frantically, her eyes cartoonishly wide.

“Where’d he go?!” she demanded.

“He’s gone.”

“Oh…” She looked a bit disappointed, but then, with a start, her eyes found me. She stared.

“Rudeus! You’re okay!” She threw her arms around me. Her breasts pushed against my chest. They were so soft…

Heheheh, I didn’t even have to cop a feel while she was in that trance. The twin peaks of Eris have fallen into my hands! Okay, not in my hands. They’re too big.

“Atofe was just having a bit of fun. It was over quickly.”

“Well that’s good,” Eris said. “But Rudeus, this is all your fault! You had to joke about being a ‘princess!’”

“I sincerely regret it,” I said, though there was nothing to regret.

I mean, I didn’t know, did I? How was I supposed to guess that calling myself a princess would get me kidnapped? A normal demon king would kidnap a proper princess-y princess, not a random dude who just called himself one. Right?

Roxy tugged at the hem of my robe. “Um, Rudy? I was really worried too,” she said. It was so sweet, the way she said it. She’d even given me a proper “Are you okay?” earlier.

“I know, don’t worry,” I replied.

Right then, I felt really happy. I hadn’t been in any serious trouble, but Eris and Roxy were worried about me like I’d been fighting alongside them. They overcame those ordeals to save me… I guess this is what a princess feels like.

“Eheheh, hah, mwaaahaha, hah…”

A creepy laugh echoed behind us. It was deep and sounded far away, as though it were rising up from the pits of hell. 

Turning, I found that the arena was already obscured from view by smoke. The sun had set now, and the bonfires had been extinguished, shrouding the scene in gloom.

The darkness wasn’t absolute.

A magic circle was glowing. Usually, magic circles glowed pale blue, but this one glowed purple. Maybe they used special paint. Maybe the effect of this magic circle was to “glow with purple light”?

The billows of smoke were illuminated by the purple light. It felt like some mega-celebrity was about to mount the stage.

Without a word, Eris stood up, her sword at the ready. I only got a quick glimpse of her face, but she looked absolutely hyped to see what would come out. Her excitement was kind of infectious.

It’s not going to be anything special, though. Just the jerk from earlier. 

An echoing voice rang out across the arena. “Mwaaahahahahaha! You have broken through my most elite Ultimate Four, stationed throughout Fort Necross! You’ve done a great job to reach me on the other side!”

They weren’t stationed anywhere in particular, I pointed out silently. But okay, never mind. All part of the show.

“Traversing the Demon Continent and laying siege to Fort Necross… Truly you are mighty to have made it here!

“I commend you! All of you are truly worthy to be called champions!” 

Hey, you hear that, Eris? Now you’ve got an official certificate of champion-hood from the demon king. I think I also multiclassed into champion. Princess Champion Rudeus!

“You shall be rewarded!”

That was when I started taking things seriously. A wind picked up within the arena, blowing the smoke farther and farther away. At the same time, I felt a chill.

From the depths of where the smoke was being blown, I felt an all-encompassing, murderous aura. I gulped involuntarily. I even wondered what might emerge out of there. Even though there was only one candidate.

“Your reward…”

A sharp gust of wind blew, clearing the smoke away in seconds. With a whoosh all the bonfires burst back into flame, starkly illuminating the arena.

There in the center stood a woman. She had blue skin and white hair, and wings like a bat. A single thick horn protruded from her forehead. Though she was a little shorter than Eris, the battle-worn black armor she wore made her appear larger. She wielded a great sword that looked too heavy for her slender arms.

“The right to challenge me!”

There before us was Immortal Demon King Atoferatofe Rybak.