Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 24 - Chapter 7.1

Interlude:

Somebody to Someone

I HAD NOTHING TO DO in the days after I graduated from the University of Magic. Okay, Headmaster Janus invited me to come and work at the Magicians’ Guild, but I was putting off replying. It sounded nice, sure. I’d been student council president at the University of Magic, so they’d probably treat me well. More than that, though, I was pretty unused to having my work recognized and my talents in demand, so I was happy to be asked. The thing was, I’d need my big brother’s permission if I was going to join any organization. I knew he’d tell me to do as I liked…but he was a person of importance now. I didn’t know much about it, but I was fairly confident that rival factions were involved. If I entered the Magicians’ Guild without thinking it through, I might end up joining a faction hostile to him, and then I’d be a burden for sure. I wanted to avoid that for various reasons, so I put off the decision. I played with ever-winsome Lucie and helped out around the house. Living like this might have made me restless once. I’m useless compared to everyone else, I’d have thought. I need to do better.

I’d be lying if I said I never got restless through those days of doing nothing. Not nothing, not really. I kept busy. 

The house was empty now. Rudeus and his wives were away—even Aisha was gone. The children were there, though. The youngest was still a baby, and Lara had Leo looking after her—he never left her side. Lucie was a different story. She always seemed lonely. Elinalise occasionally came over with Clive, and then the two of them would play together, but when they went home she’d watch the front door from the second-floor window or sit in the closet hugging her knees to her chest and stifling tears. She was trying to be strong.

Is the job Rudeus is doing so difficult that this little girl has to be strong? I thought. Then again, when I was a baby, Dad had a difficult job too.

Some jobs were so urgent they had to be done right away, or things would just keep getting worse. Rudeus and the others must’ve been facing something very difficult. He cared about his family. There was no way he would want to make his daughter lonely. No one had told me the details, but I knew him.

All the same, I understood how Lucie felt. When my father didn’t come home, I was lonely, too.

So whenever she looked lonely, I made an effort to play with her. We didn’t do anything special, mind you. We went fishing, we went to look around the university, I read her books at the library, we went shopping in town, and we did the housework together. That was all. I myself didn’t have any hobbies, so that limited our options for play. Lucie enjoyed herself anyway, and lately she’d started calling me “Sister Norn.” She’d been especially happy when I made her a fishing rod of her very own and started pestering me every day to take her fishing. We went to the river outside the town because the fishing prospects were better there. I could in theory use a sword and magic, but I wasn’t sure I’d be enough to protect her in a worst-case scenario. I’d have asked some younger students from the university who were adventurers for protection, but…they had better things to do, surely. I knew they’d toss everything else aside and come to help if I asked, though. And I’d pay them a retainer if they did come help. I just didn’t want to be reliant on them. 

I promised Lucie that we could go fishing outside the town once every ten days. It was all right as long as we didn’t leave the town, so I got them to let us fish in the little pond within the University of Magic…but Lucie wasn’t impressed with our fishing spot. Maybe because there was no chance of angling for a whopper here.

Anyway, today was our once-every-ten-days fishing day. I took Lucie to the river to fish, and she caught her biggest one yet. She beamed as she showed it off to the younger students on guard duty, brightening everyone’s mood.

***

I got the message when we got home from fishing. I was just telling Lucie, “Next time, let’s go a little further upstream—” as I opened the door…and there was Cliff in our house. Cliff, who was supposed to be in Millis where he’d returned after graduation.

“What? Cliff?”

“Oh, Norn. You’re home too. It took me a little while to get here.”

“Huh? Um, yes…but…why are you…?”

“You haven’t heard?” Cliff said incredulously. “A plague is spreading through the Superd village. They say my assistance is required.” 

I couldn’t believe it. My heart pounded. The Superd were in trouble, and Rudeus was calling on all the different countries to send healing magicians and doctors to save them. Cliff had persuaded the Holy Country of Millis to let him answer Rudeus’s call and was now hastening to join him. Cliff explained it all for me, but I’d glazed over in shock. I’d bet I missed half of it.

“Rudeus says that even if the Superd die out, that doesn’t mean we’ve lost the battle…but a person he owes a lot to is in danger.”

A person Rudeus owed a lot to. The gears in my mind started turning again. 

“That person—what was their name?!”

“Hm? Oh, I think it was Ruijerd.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “In…in danger, you said? Ruijerd is in danger?”

“Wait, that’s right. I heard he helped you too, didn’t he?”

Ruijerd had the plague and was on the verge of death. My mind went totally blank. Memories of long ago flashed through the back of my mind: the time in Millis when Ruijerd gave me an apple, the time when he took me from Millis to Sharia, putting me on his knee and telling me all kinds of stories on the way… Ruijerd, who’d been kind to me while I’d cried and sniveled. Ruijerd, who never raised his voice, even when our journey was cut short…

“Do you want to come along? You might be able to help.”

“Yes! Of cou—” I was about to say Of course I will, but then I looked down and I saw another pair of eyes. They were anxious. Fearful.

Lucie looked away the second our eyes met, then ran from the room. I couldn’t chase after her. All I did was reach out, maybe in an unconscious effort to stop her. My hand only grasped at empty air, then fell to my side.

After a moment, I said, “No, I’ll stay here.”

“Oh. All right.” Cliff didn’t ask anything else. He didn’t tell me what I ought to do like he usually did. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. If you change your mind, come to Orsted’s office then.” 

He paid his regards to Lilia, then left the house. Apparently, he’d dropped by specially to say thank you for looking after Elinalise and Clive. I saw him off, then went to look for Lucie. I went up to the second floor and looked through each room in turn. Lucie turned up right away. I knew all too well the kinds of places children hid at times like this. She was in Sylphie’s room, curled up tight against the side of the bed and hugging her knees to her chest.

I sat down next to her without saying anything. I knew whatever I said, she wouldn’t want to hear it.

A few quiet minutes passed. Lilia came up just once to check on us, but when she saw us, she gave me an apologetic look and retreated. Lilia…didn’t really get children. She probably thought she wouldn’t be any help. Not that I’d say I understood much about other children besides myself…

I sat there, thinking this to myself, when Lucie mumbled, “Are you going away too, Sister Norn?” Her face was still buried in her knees. She sounded like she might cry.

“No, I’m staying here with you, Lucie,” I said. I meant it. Yes, after hearing Ruijerd was in danger, I’d wanted to rush to his side. I was furious at Rudeus. Why hadn’t he told me? At the same time, I was resigned; even if I went, there was nothing I could do. I accepted that had to be why Rudeus hadn’t told me. I ought to stay here and look after Lucie. 

After going to school, I’d gotten a little more capable—at least, I was no worse than average—but I couldn’t help with a problem that had even bamboozled my brother. What I could do was be here for Lucie.

“Who’s Ruijerd?” Lucie asked.

“He’s a person who helped your daddy a lot.”

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

“When the man said Ruijerd, you made the same face as Daddy.”

The same face as my older brother? What kind of face was that? Knowing Rudeus, it probably said I have to go help right now.

“That’s right. He helped your big sister Norn, too,” I told her. Lucie didn’t say anything.

“When I was about your age, Lucie, my dad—your grandad—he had to go away from your daddy.”

“From Daddy…?”

“Yes. And your big sister gets lonely easily, so she cried the whole time. But then Ruijerd came, and he was nice and he stroked her hair. He taught her games and told her old stories so that she wouldn’t be bored. He got her to stop crying.”

Lucie absorbed this in silence.

I went back through my old memories, telling her about the time I spent with Ruijerd. I told her how I met him in Millis, then our reunion, and the road from Millis to Sharia. Ruijerd was always kind to me. He was warm in a different way from my dad. The more I thought back, the more I wanted to go to him, but then I thought about how I’d go and find him suffering from the plague. There’d be nothing I could do. I wanted to cry.

“Ruijerd was, well…he was that sort of person,” I finished. I’d lost track of what I’d said about him as I spoke. I wasn’t sure if I’d managed to say it in a way that Lucie would understand. Maybe it hadn’t been a very interesting story. In the end, I’d just told it for my own sake. I looked at Lucie and she looked back at me. She’d stopped crying a while back, and her eyes were fierce.

“Lucie? What’s—”

“That’s like…” Lucie cut me off. “Like what Red Mama told me. She said protecting people is important. That’s why you’ve gotta be strong. So, Sister Norn, I thought…” Just like a child, she tripped over her words and her train of thought was all jumbled. She stood up. “Sister Norn, when you’re in trouble, I’ll come save you. For sure.”

“You will? Thank you,” I said, making myself smile even though I wasn’t sure how she’d gotten there after my story. “When you’re in trouble, I’ll come running too, Lucie.”

“No!” she shouted.

All right, not that, then. I realized I’d interpreted what she was trying to tell me wrong. Lucie didn’t want me to hold her hand. She was holding my hand. She was pulling on it to help me to stand up.

“Sister Norn, Ruijerd is yours,” she said. I looked at her blankly. “You have to go to Ruijerd, Sister Norn.”

At last, I realized what Lucie was trying to tell me. She was saying Get out of here! She was saying that if Ruijerd was in trouble, I had to go and help him—that if it were her, she’d go. She wouldn’t turn her back on the person who’d comforted her when she was lonely.

“But Lucie, what about you?” I asked her. “Won’t you be lonely?”

“I won’t be lonely. You taught me all kinds of things. I can fish, and I can read books by myself.”

She would be lonely, of course. I knew that. She was just saying she’d be strong. She was putting me first, repaying the debt she felt to me. This kid was still only little, but she’d been able to make that decision and tell me that.

“I’m gonna grow up like you, Sister Norn, so you’ve gotta go!” she insisted.

I didn’t think I should go. I should look after her. I shouldn’t make her be strong anymore. But…if I didn’t go after this, Lucie wouldn’t play with me anymore. She wouldn’t boast to me about the fish she’d caught with a big smile like the one she’d worn today. I just had that feeling.

I stood up. Lucie went around behind me and pushed my bottom like she was telling me to get out of the house already.

“I got it. I’m going,” I said.

“Okay!” Lucie didn’t look lonely anymore. She was inspired, and her face brimmed with pride.

***

That’s how I was driven out of the house. I was allowed to at least get ready, but I had next to nothing but the clothes on my back when I went to Cliff to ask him to take me with him. Cliff agreed without hesitation, and he helped me get my things together. We left Sharia with the morning sun, making for Orsted’s office. Cliff said that was where the teleportation circle was.

As I entered Orsted’s office, I turned to look back at the town. Morning was dawning on Sharia. It glowed in the sunlight. I’d seen a similar sight long ago when Ruijerd brought me there. Then I remembered what Lucie had said.

Sister Norn, Ruijerd is yours.

I’d managed to do for Lucie what Ruijerd had done for me back then, I realized. My eyes filled with tears. 

“Norn, what are you doing? Let’s go,” Cliff said, hurrying me along.

“O-okay!” I replied and went into the office. 

I promised myself I would go fishing with Lucie the moment I got home.