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Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 1




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Chapter 1: 

The Brokenhearted Magician 

The city of Rosenburg, located a two months’ journey north of the Asuran border, was sometimes called the “Gateway to the Northern Territories.” If it wasn’t the single largest city in the Duchy of Basherant, it was a close second. The export of magical implements from there to Asura provided more than half of the entire country’s revenue. 

“So this is the place…” 

I stepped out of the carriage and paused to take a look around. The sky above me was completely covered in white clouds; the streets were bustling with adventurers and merchants, all of whom seemed to be very busy. That probably had something to do with the two carriages full of goods we’d come into town with. Merchandise that made it all the way here from the Kingdom of Asura commanded high prices. 

“…It’s cold.” 

Many of the people coming and going wore decidedly thick clothing. It was understandable, given the chill in the air. The winters in this region were apparently very snowy. I’d have to pick up some appropriate cold-weather gear sooner rather than later. 

Maybe I ought to take care of that right now, in fact… 

No, finding an inn came first. I didn’t have much luggage, but any experienced adventurer knew that securing a base of operations always had to be your top priority. With that decision made, I set off down the streets of Rosenburg. 

There weren’t many outdoor stalls in our immediate vicinity. That was definitely unusual. Maybe the carriages had come in through a different entrance than whichever one the local adventurers used? On second thought, it would be evening soon. In a place this cold, it wouldn’t be surprising if the outdoor merchants closed up shop before the sun began to set. 

Before too long, I found a street lined with inns. I wandered around for a while looking at the rates posted out front, but eventually picked one more or less at random. The place was called “The Round-Shield Inn,” and it was aimed at B-ranked adventurers. Kind of a strange name. I’d nearly mistaken it for an armor shop at first, since the sign out front was shaped like a buckler. 

Normally, I would have been content with a cheaper place aimed at C- or D-ranked folk, but according to Suzanne, the cheap inns around here didn’t come with heating. You could literally freeze to death in the winter, so it was smarter to find a B-ranked place, at the very least. I’d only half-listened to that woman’s lectures, but she’d definitely given me a few valuable nuggets of knowledge. I needed to take the whole “information gathering” thing a bit more seriously. 

“Hm?” 

When I stepped inside, I found a man in the midst of cleaning up—presumably the owner. The guy took one look at me and grimaced like he’d just seen a cockroach scuttle across the floor. Real friendly. 

“I’d like a room for, uh…a month, please.” 

“…Sure thing. I’ll need a signature and a thumbprint here. Once you’ve paid up, you can have the last room on the third floor.” 

The innkeeper’s face was less than welcoming, but he didn’t hesitate in handing me a key and the check-in sheet. I filled it out as requested, then paid upfront for my entire stay. Fortunately, Asuran currency was still good in this area. I might need to exchange it for the local coin at some point, but that could wait. From what Suzanne told me, Asuran coins were better-trusted and more valuable anyway. 

The innkeeper’s eyes went wide when I counted out my Asuran silver coins on the front desk for him. I got the impression he didn’t like the looks of me, but at least he was happy with my money. 

I was still holding virtually all the cash my party had earned on our journey from the Demon Continent to Asura. We should have split those funds equally between us three, but it hadn’t worked out that way in the end. On top of that, I’d also saved up a little of the money Alphonse gave me for helping out back at the refugee camp in Fittoa. A month’s stay at an inn like this wasn’t exactly cheap, but at this point I still had a decent financial cushion left. Of course, I’d still have to start earning cash again eventually. 

I climbed to the third floor, found my room, and stepped inside to have a look. It had a bed, a closet, a table, and a chair. Typical enough. The only things about the room that stood out at first glance were the bare brick walls, which you didn’t see too often in other countries, and the bulky stove that was built into one of them. Next to the stove was a small pile of wood and a few flints. You were presumably supposed to get it started yourself whenever you got cold. I had no idea how to work the thing, but I could always ask the innkeeper later. 

“Hah…” 

I tossed my luggage onto the floor and flopped down on my bed with a sigh. The sky outside my window was still pure white. Maybe overcast skies were just the norm in snowy countries like this. 

Back in Asura, the sky was blue. Sometimes you could scan from one horizon to the other without seeing a single speck of cloud. I’d been staring up at that great blue expanse for most of my journey here; it really was a beautiful color. But the only color I could think about was its opposite—red—and what it symbolized. 

“…!” 

Okay, no. Let’s not go down that road again. Let’s not think about colors right now. 

I decided to get a better look at the streets outside instead. I got out of bed, walked to the window, and looked out at Rosenburg. From the third floor of this inn, you could see almost the entire city. There was a surprising amount of green out there. The Duchy of Basherant tended to line its streets with trees planted at regular intervals. I’d heard it was to ensure everyone had an emergency supply of firewood when necessary, but the aesthetic results weren’t half bad, either. It reminded me of the forest we’d passed through right after leaving Asura behind. That was a nice place. All those massive trees everywhere…the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind… 

Yeah. Trees are good. Nature is good. 

There’s nothing like the great outdoors to help you forget all about the ugly, awful parts of the world. Soak in enough green, and you’ll rinse all the sludge right out of your heart. 

“Eris…” 

The word slipped out of my mouth all on its own, and my mood took another brutal nosedive. You can rinse out your heart all you want, but it doesn’t really help when it’s been broken into roughly fifty thousand pieces. 

To be honest, the way it ended had been a real shock. I was so convinced that Eris and I were a couple. I was so convinced we loved each other. I assumed we’d live together in Asura; I assumed she’d need my support now that she’d lost her parents. I was ready and willing to commit to her. Maybe it shouldn’t really matter, but…she was my first, and I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to stay with her. The Greyrat family was still nobility, so there might have been a few obstacles to overcome down the line. But I was determined to protect her, whether that meant standing against our enemies or running away from them together. 

It wasn’t meant to be, though. Eris didn’t feel the same way at all. At the end of the day, I didn’t mean anything to her. 

I found myself sniffling a little. A hot, prickly sensation built in my nose. 

I should just stop thinking about this. 

It had been months since Eris walked out on me. How many times was I going to let the same thoughts echo in my head? The girl had disappeared. She was done with me. And I had my own problems to deal with. The two of us had parted ways, simple as that. We had different goals, so we were following different roads now. Was that so awful, really? 

It wasn’t like I was anything special. No one was ever going to fall head over heels in love with me. I ought to be grateful for any moments of happiness that came my way…no matter how brief. 

Yeah, okay. That’s enough of that. Let’s focus on what we came here to do. You do remember why you’re here, right? 

I’d come to look for my mother, Zenith Greyrat. I certainly hadn’t set off on this journey to distract myself from a painful breakup or anything. No, really. My decision to leave Asura behind had nothing to do with the fact that every day I spent there brought back memories of the girl who’d dumped me! I was here to search for the one member of my family who was still unaccounted for. She’d been missing for years, and I’d promised my father, Paul, that I’d do my best to track her down. 

That said, I didn’t really have a plan at the moment. What would it take to find her? What would even qualify as “searching” for her? 

“Hahaa…” 

Lately I could only seem to sigh. And all I could seem to think about were those final moments Eris and I had spent together. I’d been so happy for that one night, but then… 

“Okay, no. Stop it.” I pushed those thoughts into the dark corners of my mind and tried to focus on the task at hand. My brain wasn’t in the mood to cooperate, but I wasn’t letting it off the hook this time. Okay. First of all, let’s try making some educated guesses. 

Years had passed since the Displacement Incident. It seemed unlikely that Zenith was anywhere someone could easily find her. This city was large enough that it was tempting to believe she might be in it, but if it were that easy, someone would have found her years ago. 

Still, it made sense to focus my efforts in heavily populated areas. It was hard to imagine Zenith camping out in the woods or anything. There was a chance she was trapped in some place the Search and Rescue Squad hadn’t been able to investigate. If I wanted to find any likely candidates, I’d need to nose around in cities like this one. 

Still, I was on my own. No matter how hard I tried, I probably wouldn’t be able to search the city as thoroughly as I needed to. Where did that leave me, then? 

“Okay…I guess my best shot is to have her find me instead, right?” 

I dropped back upon my bed and gave the idea some careful thought. Now that I’d actually spoken it out loud, it sounded like a pretty decent plan. The world was a big place; it was always going to be hard to track down a single person who could be literally anywhere. Looking for Zenith was something like…trying to find a single left-handed person in a crowd of ten thousand people. It would take a ridiculous amount of time and effort. 

But what if you told that crowd of people what was going on, instead of going through them one by one? If you shouted “Is anyone here left-handed?” at the crowd, maybe the guy you were looking for would just raise his hand and step forward. 

Basically, if I got famous enough, there was a good chance Zenith might come find me . 

Given how long she’d been missing, it was possible she was trapped somewhere, just as Lilia and Aisha had been. But if she heard that I was somewhere close nearby, she’d at least try to get a message to me, right? Yeah. That could definitely work, right? I’ll get famous somehow, and then Zenith can reach out to me. Let’s go with that. 

“How do I make myself a celebrity, though…?” At the very least, I needed to have many people learn my name. But that was easier said than done, right? 

Hmm…let’s see. In the last couple years, I’d done a lot of PR work for Ruijerd—mainly doing good deeds in his name. I was trying to build a positive brand for the guy, basically. It was hard to say how effective it had really been, but I felt like we made a bit of an impact on the Demon Continent, at least. 

If I took the same general approach here and made a name for myself as an adventurer, I could probably become well-known before too long. Unlike Ruijerd, I didn’t have some weird curse to contend with. All I had to do was pull off a few impressive feats, and people would learn who I was. I shouldn’t even have to bend the truth too much this time. The goal was for word to spread throughout the region about “a boy magician named Rudeus, looking for his mother Zenith, who disappeared after the Displacement Incident.” At that point, either Zenith or somebody who knew about her might come to find me. 

I’d probably have to deal with some false leads, which might get aggravating. But I wouldn’t mind paying for genuine information if I had to. 

“Man…I don’t really want to do this…” 

It wasn’t going to be fun making a name for myself all alone in this miserably cold, snow-covered city. And even if I did manage to become a local celebrity, there was no guarantee I’d actually find Zenith. In fact, the odds were dismal. The Fittoa Search and Rescue Squad was a relatively large organization, and they’d looked all over for her with no success. I’d have to be incredibly lucky to do any better. 

In a group the size of the Search and Rescue Squad, there had to be people cleverer and more thorough than me…and others more skilled at gathering information, or disseminating it. Those people had put all kinds of plans into motion, and tried their very hardest, and still never found Zenith. Was there even any point in my trying? 

Was this just a pointless waste of time? 

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to sigh. But it wasn’t like any alternatives were presenting themselves, and I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing. If I tried everything that occurred to me , there was a chance I’d hit on some better ideas or stumble across a lead. 

“I guess I should get some sleep…” 

Deciding that I’d done enough thinking for one day, I let my eyes close. I thought I was used to traveling by now, but apparently that long, jolting carriage ride had been more exhausting than I realized. I was asleep in what felt like seconds. 

*** 

The next day, I headed over to the Rosenburg Adventurers’ Guild. Unlike most, it was located a good distance away from both the entrance to the city and the local inns. Maybe there was some logical reason for that… Not that I particularly cared. 

“Guh…” When I stepped through the double doors, a lot of heads turned my way. I thought I’d gotten used to people staring at me during our journey to the Central Continent, but apparently, it was a different story when I was by myself. Until now, I always had Ruijerd and Er— 

Yeah, let’s not continue that line of thought. 

“Hey, look. Some kid just came in.” 

“What? He a newbie or something…?” 

“Heh. Probably wants to play make-believe.” 

Even at a distance, I could hear a few people having fun at my expense. They weren’t actually jeering at me or anything, but it still felt bad. Back in the day, this sort of thing didn’t really bother me, but today, I felt little stabs of pain at every unkind word. 

Still…anyone who looked as young as I did was going to stick out if he walked into a guild all by himself. I had to learn to deal with it. If I actually achieved my goal here, I’d be attracting attention whether I wanted it or not. 

Right, then. There was something I needed to take care of before I took on any jobs. 

Slowly and reluctantly, I trudged my way over to the reception area. The lady behind the counter wasn’t especially pretty, but she was wearing an outfit that revealed a lot of cleavage. It really did feel like they only hired women of a certain cup size for this job. I pushed my Adventurer Card across the counter. “Um…could you please…disband my party for me?” 

The words “Dead End” still glowed faintly near the very bottom of my card. It was the name of my old party…the one I’d formed with Ruijerd and Eris. Both of them were gone now, so for all intents and purposes, Dead End no longer existed. I needed to disband the party. It was a thing of the past… 

All of a sudden I was sniffling loudly. A moment later, I realized that tears were running down my face. I hadn’t meant to cry, but I couldn’t help myself. 

Ruijerd and Eris weren’t at my side anymore. I really was all alone. And it was really painful to be confronted with that fact. 

“Of course. I’ll take care of that right away.” The clerk took my card and got to work with a somewhat sympathetic expression on her face. I’m sure it must have been kind of creepy to have some guy start blubbering in front of her like that, but she stayed professional. “Here you are.” 

“…Thanks.” I wiped my tears with the sleeve of my robe and I took my card back. The words “Dead End” had vanished, leaving a blank space behind. 

The next time they brought their cards to a guild branch, Eris and Ruijerd would learn that I’d disbanded the party. How will they react when they see those words disappear? Maybe Ruijerd will feel a little sad. But Eris… 

Stop it. Stop. It doesn’t matter. It’s all over now. 

“…” 

When I turned away from the counter, I found that half of the people in the guild were looking my way. What was so interesting about me, anyway? Hadn’t any of these people seen a blubbering kid before? 

“Uh, why’s he crying?” 

“…Bet his party got wiped out.” 

“Poor kid. Guess he was the sole survivor…” 

Apparently, I’d misunderstood. These were gazes of sympathy. Everyone seemed to assume the other members of my party were killed in battle or something. I’m sure none of them even suspected I might be crying because a girl had dumped me. 

…I really was pathetic. If my party had died, at least I’d have some reason to be acting like such a baby. Not that I wanted anything to happen to Ruijerd or Eris, of course… 

Without a word, I turned and headed for the central bulletin board. 

It was almost completely covered in sheets of paper. There weren’t quite as many jobs as you’d find in the Demon Continent guilds, but it was a massive difference from what I’d seen in the Kingdom of Asura. Adventurers were clearly in high demand around here, and jobs ranked B and C seemed to be the most common. 

In Asura, most of the available jobs were of fairly low difficulty, and you’d find less and less work at the higher ranks. As a result, adventurers who’d climbed a little way up the rank ladder tended to leave that country behind, heading south to the King Dragon Realm or north to the nations of the Magic Alliance. 

“Okay, let’s see…” I was currently an A-ranked adventurer, and Guild rules also allowed me to take jobs one tier lower or higher than that. There weren’t any S-ranked jobs posted at the moment, so I’d have to pick something from ranks A or B. Fortunately, there was a good amount of work available at those tiers. That was definitely rare on the Central Continent. It just went to show how tough life was here. 

*** 

A: Slay the Luster Grizzly pack by Lake Cucuru 

B: Guard a major logging operation in the Hadra Forest 

B: Escort a caravan transporting goods to the Duchy of Neris 

*** 

Hmm… Well, whatever. Any of them should be fine. 

Without giving the matter too much thought, I pulled down the A-ranked job I’d spotted first. These “Luster Grizzlies” were presumably some sort of bear, but the details were kind of fuzzy. I didn’t really care, and I didn’t want to deal with asking around about the local monsters. 

I headed back over to the reception area with the paper in my hand. “Excuse me. Can I take this one, please?” 

The clerk took the paper along with my card, glanced down at it, and then blinked in surprise. “Huh? Um…where’s your party?” 

“Oh. Well, uh…I was hoping to handle this one solo, actually.” 

“What?” The woman seemed seriously bewildered for some reason. I’d just disbanded my party right at this counter, so I didn’t get why she would assume that I had one. “Er, I think this might be a bit much for a single magician… A-ranked jobs are really meant to be tackled by a party, you see…” 

“Uh, okay…” 

“I’m sorry, but I just don’t think we can give you this one.” 

The clerk had a point. You wouldn’t normally try to take out a whole pack of monsters all by yourself. Still, it felt like an acceptable risk to me. I wasn’t going to become famous unless I pushed myself a little. It was hard to say just how dangerous this specific job might turn out to be…but I didn’t really care. It wasn’t like I was enjoying my life, anyway. No matter how hard I tried, everything I cared about slipped away from me sooner or later. I’d always be miserable in the end. That wasn’t ever going to change. 

I didn’t have anything to look forward to. What did it even matter if I lived or died, then? 

As that thought ran through my mind, pain stabbed me somewhere deep in my chest. I reached reflexively into my pocket, grabbed hold of what I’d stashed inside it, and gritted my teeth. The pain in my chest didn’t go away, but when I squeezed that object tightly, it made me feel at least a little better. 

“Hey there. We having ourselves an argument?” 

Someone had spoken to me from behind. It was enough to snap me back to reality. Mumbling “No, it’s nothing like that,” I turned around…and found a familiar face. It was that same dark-skinned warrior with the dreadlocks who kept talking to me on the trip up here. The girl who’d snapped at me was standing at her side, too. As I recalled, the woman warrior was Suzanne, and the girl was Sara. 

There were a couple of men standing a little way behind them whom I recognized as well. They were probably the other members of the party, but I didn’t remember any of their names. 

I’d bumped into the B-ranked party “Counter Arrow.” 

“Well, I couldn’t help overhearing. Your old party was wiped out, but you need money to look for your mother, right? Is that why you’re trying to take on a job like that all by yourself? Very touching.” 

I hadn’t said anything like that, just for the record. My party hadn’t been “wiped out,” and I wasn’t exactly broke. I had enough cash to last me for a while at least. 

“But here’s the thing, kid…that look on your face is kind of a problem. You don’t look like someone who’s ready to take on the world alone. You look like a guy who doesn’t even care if he lives or dies.” 

“…” I reached up and touched my face experimentally. My expression right now probably indicated that she’d seen right through me. 

“On that note, I’ve got a proposal to make. How about we do that job together?” 

“Together?” 

“Yup. We just got here too, you know? Normally we’d try to tackle something like this by ourselves, but we’re on unfamiliar turf. Couldn’t hurt to cooperate while we all get a feel for things, don’tcha think?” 

“Uh, I wanted to make a name for myself as a solo adventurer…it’s part of my plan to find my mother…” 

“C’mon. No one ever got famous working solo, kid. If you want to build a reputation, you need to meet lots of people so they’ll spread the word about you. That means joining parties and doing your best to stay alive. Am I right, guys?” 

The men of the party nodded in unison. Sara, on the other hand, just pouted. I got the feeling she wasn’t too thrilled about this whole idea, and I didn’t blame her. If you wanted to get a feel for an area, you’d team up with a veteran familiar with the local terrain and monsters, not some depressed kid who was as clueless as you were. It wasn’t like I’d helped them out with their guard duties on the trip up here, either. I’m sure they knew I was a magician from my outfit, but they had no way of knowing my skills, what kinds of spells I specialized in, or how powerful I was. 

Basically, Suzanne was taking pity on me. She was inviting me to join them out of sympathy. That was all. 

Still, she’d made a few good points. No matter how much I accomplished all by myself, it was hard to imagine anything but the vaguest of rumors circulating about me. Adventurers typically weren’t that interested in other adventurers; they weren’t going to go out of their way to learn about some kid they didn’t care about. At best, word might get around that a young magician was pulling off some impressive things by himself. But I needed them to include the details: the fact that I was from Fittoa, was capable of silent casting, and was looking for my mother who’d gone missing in the Displacement Incident. 

If I wanted people to spread my story around, I had to let them get to know me. And the easiest way to do that was to join a party. 

Not just one party, in fact. It would be best if I worked with as many as I could. 

Although many adventurers preferred to stay put in a single city, sometimes you’d meet groups earning money on their way to somewhere else, the way we did in the Demon Continent. Maybe if I focused on getting to know those people… 

“You look pretty young, but if you’re A-rank, I’m guessing you can hold your own in a fight. What’s your specialty?” 

“Well…in my old party, I stuck to the rear of our formation. I’m good at supporting frontline fighters with my magic.” 

“Sounds perfect, then. We were just thinking our party could use someone else in the backline.” 

All in all, taking this Suzanne woman up on her offer did feel like the smarter move. “Okay then… I’ll come along, if you’ll have me.” 

“Fantastic. Let’s take the rest of today to get ourselves prepared, then. How about we meet up at the north gate tomorrow morning? We’ll fill you in on our formation while we travel.” 

“Sure.” The whole thing felt a little slapdash, but I didn’t mind. 

That Sara girl never got any less scowly, though. 



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