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Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 3




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Chapter 3:

The Impervious Fiance

(Part 1) 

H ALF A YEAR had passed since I enrolled at the Ranoa University of Magic. It was autumn now—the harvest season. Fall never lasted for very long up in the Northern Territories, but it was a very important time of year, when food was prepared, harvested, and laid in storage for the painful winter ahead. There were even a few festivals held across the different towns and cities. 

For the beastfolk, it was also mating season… a lengthy cultural event that came with a complicated set of rules and rituals. All of them were noticeably restless as it approached, men and women alike. 

There weren’t that many of their kind enrolled in the University, relatively speaking. I’d guess they made up 5% of the student body, which numbered roughly 10,000 in total. That would put their numbers at 500 or so—a large group in a sense, but not that impressive given the size of our campus. Still, once autumn began, they seemed to be everywhere, fighting one-on-one duels that typically pitted a man against a woman. For several months after their duel, the couple would be glued to each other. Eventually, they’d get married. Whoever won the initial duel would take on the role of boss in the new “pack” they were forming. 

These rules weren’t set in stone, or anything. It was just an old tradition that some of them respected more than others. Still, some beastfolk actually travelled here from distant lands to challenge our students to one of these romantic duels. 

In other words, we had outsiders wandering onto our campus. This was something the administration would normally have tried to prevent, but the mating season was a very delicate subject because of its importance in beastfolk culture. Any attempt to ban their traditions would probably result in actual riots. As a compromise, the school allowed non-student beastfolk to enter its grounds under the pretense of “auditing classes,” as long as they applied for permission beforehand. 

Anyway… this brings us to Linia and Pursena. 

The two of them were basically unattainable to your average beastfolk guy. For one thing, they were probably the two strongest beastfolk fighters in the entire school. And just as importantly, they were Doldia princesses. If you proposed to one of them, fought her, and won, you’d become a candidate for leader of the entire tribe. You wouldn’t be handed power immediately, of course. But when the time came to choose the next leader, there was no doubt that you’d be seriously considered for the role. 

Of course, Linia and Pursena had come to this far-off land to study, not to find a husband. They couldn’t very well pick out a partner here without talking to their family first, and thus, they’d flatly rejected all of the proposals they were bombarded with after turning fifteen. 

Yet despite their very public disinterest in marriage, there had been even more suitors the following year. The two of them were very popular. Apparently, some beastman had even launched sneak attacks on them, trying to win their compliance by force. They’d beaten off these attackers easily enough…but when fall rolled around again this year, they decided to shut themselves in their dorm. It wasn’t like the girls’ dormitory was an impenetrable fortress, but any man who tried to sneak in would be piled on by all the residents. So Linia and Pursena stayed put in their rooms, even skipping homeroom. 

I guess it was medical leave, in a sense. They were presumably in heat themselves at the moment, after all. The thought of them writhing around in their rooms meowing and woofing passionately was kind of exciting. Not that it got me ready to mate or anything. 

The two of them had sent me a letter, the gist of which was “Sorry for the hassle, Boss, but we’ll leave things to you for now.” I wasn’t sure exactly how I was supposed to be helping out, though. Maybe they just wanted me to answer for them when the professor did roll call or something. 

In any case, it wasn’t just the beastfolk who were “in heat” around this time of year. Fall coincided with a rise in sexual assault cases around campus, as some people took advantage of all the chaos. Those strict rules about who could enter what dorm made a little more sense to me now. When it was two beastfolk in heat, you could sort of write off some aggression as a natural or cultural phenomenon… but apparently, some of the victims were human first-years who didn’t even know what the hell was going on. 

The school rules strictly forbid this sort of thing, of course. To keep things under control, the administration had security guards patrolling the campus. Consensual duels were permitted, but you couldn’t just attack someone who refused to fight you. That was the line they drew. Our homeroom professor even gave us an explicit warning about the situation, telling us not to casually accept any duels this time of year. He also encouraged those who weren’t confident in their self-defense skills to travel in groups at all times. 

Master Fitz also told me to be careful, actually. He seemed to think some girls might challenge me to a duel under false pretenses, claiming that they just wanted to practice against a powerful magician. His advice was to turn them down flatly, ignore their attempts to provoke me, and leave the area quickly without letting down my guard for a second. 

Girls in heat, huh…? 

Back in the old days, I might have been tempted to duel every single one of them and make myself a harem. But in my current condition, I’d basically just be rubbing salt in my own wounds. Mating season was one event I wouldn’t be participating in any time soon. 

I’ll leave it to those youngsters over there. See? The human boy and his elf girlfriend, who’s “studying” while sitting in his lap? That woman’s in heat all year long. 

Honestly, those two never gave it a rest. I could practically see the hearts floating over their heads. Still… Cliff was obviously a whole new man, but it seemed to me like Elinalise was treating him the same way she treated all her other lovers. I wasn’t going to say anything, of course, but this whole thing still kind of looked like a sham to me. Was this actually going to work out for them? 

At some point while I was watching Cliff and Elinalise enjoy themselves, Zanoba had walked up to my desk. “Master, don’t you think it’s about time to start in on a new creation?” 

“A new creation, huh…?” Up until a few days ago, I’d been working on a 1/8 scale figurine of Eris as sort of a therapy exercise, but I ended up blubbering so much that I had to quit halfway through. Since then, I hadn’t been able to motivate myself to make anything. I’d fallen into a bit of a slump without even noticing. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Any ideas?” 

“Perhaps making some sort of an animal or monster would be a nice change of pace.” 

“Hmm, sure. I think a Red Wyrm might be fun, then.” 

“Oh! Indeed! The very monster that you once slew single-handedly, yes?” 

“Yeah. That wasn’t easy, by the way. I thought I was dead for sure.” 

“Hahaha. You’re far too modest.” 

“Master Zanoba, what are you talking about?” 

Julie seemed to be a little curious, so I told her the story of my battle against a Red Wyrm straggler from back in my adventuring days. Before long, her eyes were sparkling, and her face flushed with excitement. Kids in this world seemed to love stories like these. It was easy to forget sometimes, but she was still only six. 

“Hm, okay then. Why don’t I make a Red Wyrm figurine for you, Julie?” 

“What…? M-Master, what about me? Won’t you make anything for me?!” 

“Zanoba, you’re supposed to be my student, right? How about you offer to help me make this?” 

“Oh! Of course, Master! I’ll assist you in any way that I can.” 

This life wasn’t so bad, really. I wasn’t in peak condition lately, but at least I’d settled into a decent routine here. My Beginner-level Divine and Barrier magic classes would be wrapping up soon, and I had to decide what to take next. Perhaps Intermediate Detoxification? I’d gotten by just fine with only the Beginner-level spells so far, though. It didn’t seem like there was a need to learn anything more advanced than that. 

I could always try Advanced Healing instead. But again, I felt relatively satisfied with my current level of expertise there. The Intermediate spells were enough to deal with most situations. 

There was always Enchantment, which I’d never dabbled in before. It was technically a form of Summoning magic, so maybe it would be more relevant to my research. From what I heard, though, it mainly involved learning how to create various magical implements. I still wasn’t sure what that had to with Summoning…but at least it would be something new. 

Of course, I was free to not take any new classes at all. I could just spend more time in the library instead. I started to feel like I’d hit a dead end researching the Displacement Incident, but it might be interesting to try and teach myself more languages. If I did go that route, I could try asking Cliff to tutor me in Divine magic on the side… He’d been spending all his time with Elinalise lately, though. It was probably smart to leave them alone for a while. Didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself. 

Maybe I could try going in a completely different direction and learning something unrelated to magic. It might be fun to learn how to ride a horse, for one thing… 

The days slipped by peacefully as I tried to make up my mind. 

*** 

And then, things suddenly weren’t so peaceful anymore. 

“I take you to be Q uagmire Rudeus, the A-ranked adventurer who cut down a stray Wyrm single-handedly! I challenge you to a matrimonial duel, sir!” 

On my way to the library, I found myself on the receiving end of a challenge. 

I turned around and found myself looking at a beautiful girl. Her skin was tanned, and her silky dark-blue hair was tied in a neat ponytail. She looked maybe 17 or 18. She had a strong, dignified face, and her lips were pursed tightly together; you could tell at a glance that she was the “lady warrior” type. Instead of a school uniform, she wore a light swordfighter’s outfit in a striking shade of deep blue. 

She had a modest bust, but her muscles were impressive. She didn’t look like a bodybuilder or anything, but she was clearly in very good shape. By her side was a long, curved sword—the kind commonly used by swordfighters of the Sword God Style. 

The girl was staring in my direction. 

To be more precise, she was staring in surprise at the person standing just in front of me—the big, hairy beastman who’d just loudly challenged me to a duel. 

Yeah. I neglected to mention the muscular, canine beastman, but that was him who’d shouted at me. He didn’t look the slightest bit like a magician, either. The girl with the sword had probably just been passing by. Given the time of year, she might have thought he was talking to her. 

“Uhm…” 

Well, anyway. Let’s forget the pretty girl for now. 

There was a pretty fundamental problem here. I was a guy, and this guy was also a guy, and he’d just challenged me to a duel. That was slightly awkward. “A matrimonial duel? Like… one of those things where you get married later?” 

“Indeed!” 

Gaah… “I’m sorry… I don’t know if there are rumors going around or something, but I’m actually straight. Not really interested in experimenting, either. I’m going to have to decline your offer.” 

The beastman’s ears twitched. “You seem to be misunderstanding the situation.” 

“Oh no, is it this late already? You know, I’ve actually got piano practice today. I’m going to have to leave now, sorry…” 

Now that I’d declined his offer, I turned around and started to walk away, totally ignoring his attempt to continue the conversation. Following Fitz’s advice to the letter, in other words. 

“Hold on there!” 

But to my surprise, my hairy new friend leapt up, soared several feet over my head, and landed with a loud thump right in front of me. The guy jumped like a Reverse-Joint mech. He would have made a solid Dragoon. 

“You have no right to refuse me. My name is Brook Adoldia! I’ve come to duel for Miss Pursena’s hand in marriage, so that I might one day become the leader of my tribe!” 

“Uh, Pursena’s resting up in her dorm room until this whole mating season thing blows over. Maybe you could head over there instead?” 

“I sent Miss Pursena a letter in advance, informing her of my intentions! She explained that you are now the boss of her pack. I learned of your prowess as a warrior from Sir Gyes, and I’ve heard that you cut down a stray dragon by yourself. Clearly, you are the strongest man in this University. You ought to make a worthy opponent for me!” 

Okay, I didn’t really cut down anything, though… I’m a magician, not a swordsman… “What happens if I refuse?” 

“As leader of the pack, you are obligated to fight me!” 

I took a moment to try and piece all of this together. 

After I managed to beat Linia and Pursena in a fight some time ago, they started calling me their boss. Apparently, you had to defeat the boss of a “pack” if you wanted to marry someone who belonged to it. So if this guy beat me in a fight… he’d be able to claim Pursena as a prize? 

I hadn’t intended to become the leader of any packs, but I felt like this guy wasn’t going to care about that. This was some primal, animal-kingdom stuff. If I threw this fight, I’d be removed from my position as the boss, and Pursena would get married off to this random hairy guy. 

“Now then… to battle!” 

Brook didn’t wait for me to say anything in response. Howling ferociously, he charged forward at me. 

“ Q uagmire.” 

Since he was coming at me in a straight line, he promptly ran right into my swamp… 

“Stone Cannon.” 

And one well-placed stone projectile knocked him out. 

Slightly anti-climactic. It seemed his bark was worse than his bite. I’d basically taken him out on reflex rather than thinking it through, but in retrospect, it wasn’t like I had much reason to let him win. Pursena didn’t seem interested in getting married to anyone at the moment, for one thing. 

This did explain that letter they’d sent me, at least. I wasn’t super happy about them dumping this whole thing on my shoulders, but I could deal with a few guys like this, no sweat. It probably wasn’t that big a deal. 

My feelings on the subject changed over the course of the next few minutes, as I came under attack five different times on my way over to the library. 

It felt like half of the Doldia tribe had been waiting eagerly for this day to come. Linia and Pursena were in seriously high demand. What was so appealing about those two, anyway? Their bodies, maybe? That didn’t make much sense, though. Lots of these men had probably never even seen them in person. It had to be the whole “princess” thing. That first guy had said something about becoming the leader of his tribe, after all. 

Was being number one really that important to them? What was this, a whole tribe of Starscreams? 

From the looks of things, they’d even worked out an order to challenge me in. One guy tried to barge in halfway through and got yelled at for “cutting in line.” Maybe it was another one of those beastfolk traditions or something. 

Fortunately, they didn’t go so far as to pursue me inside the library itself. I guess the administration had made it clear to them that they weren’t allowed to barge into any of the school’s facilities… or the beastfolk had some ancient rule about that, too. 

I didn’t care either way. At least I could take refuge here for a little while. 

*** 

A few hours later, in the early evening, Fitz showed up at the library as well. His gaze was a little bit reproachful. “It’s quite a scene out there, Rudeus. What did you do to upset all those people?” 

“Nothing. They just want to beat me in a fight so they can marry Linia or Pursena.” 

“Wait, what?” 

As Fitz blinked in confusion, I proceeded to explain all the ugly details about my status as the “boss” and the way the beastfolk traditions apparently worked. By the time I was done, Fitz was frowning sourly. “That makes no sense at all. You’re not the leader of the Doldia tribe or anything. Who cares if you beat them in a fight once? That doesn’t mean you have any right to hand them out as prizes to random strangers.” 

True enough. If I had that much power over them, they wouldn’t be scratching me in the face every time I touched their legs. “You’re right. But how do I convince the people out there?” 

Fitz put a hand to his chin, and nodded slowly. “You have every right to just ignore them, really… but it might be easier to just beat them in a fight. They’ll probably give up and go home.” 

“…so at the end of the day, I should duel them after all?” 

“That’s probably for the best.” 

Easy for him to say. I wasn’t sure how many people were waiting out there for me, but from the sound of things it was probably in the dozens. And of course, this was a crowd of big, smelly macho men who wanted to rule their tribe. I’d have to knock every one of them unconscious. “I’d really prefer not to make violence a part of my daily routine, you know.” 

“I know that, Rudeus. But unless you do something about them, you’ll be stuck in here forever. Oh, and they might just lose their patience and charge in here, too. We don’t want them making a mess of the library, do we?” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Ugh… just what I needed, a fighting tournament against a horde of sweaty, furry men…” I couldn’t find anything to look forward to there, no matter how hard I tried. It just sounded like a pain in the butt. 

“Uhm, it’s not just men, actually. I did see one girl out there too.” 

“Seriously? Was she cute?” 

“Rudeus… Please don’t tell me you’re going to accept that duel?” 

“No, no. Of course not. Uh…” 

I shook my head, mainly so that Fitz would stop glaring at me. Still, I was a little intrigued. I wanted to know what she looked like, at least. And where she’d even heard about me. “I’m just curious, that’s all.” 

When someone expresses interest in you, it’s perfectly natural to be a little intrigued in return. Not that things could move too far forward until my condition was cured, of course. 

“Oh? You’re curious , huh? Hmm.” For some reason, Fitz sounded displeased with me. He had warned me against dueling girls at great length just the other day, to be fair… 

Oh, maybe Luke had gotten himself into trouble that way at some point? Yeah, that made sense. Fitz had probably been forced to clean up the mess afterward, so he was irritated to see me treating the situation so casually. 

“Well, never mind that,” I said. “It sounds like this causes a lot of chaos every year, huh? Can’t the student council do anything?” 

“We don’t intervene in anything related to the mating season. If we tried to ban it, things would probably just get worse.” 

From what Fitz told me, the student council had their hands full this time of year as it was. They focused most of their energy on protecting less combat-proficient students during this chaotic season, doing things like patrolling the campus in small groups, stopping any misconduct they found before it got out of hand. Fitz was scheduled to participate in one of those patrols that very night, in fact. 

“So you’re trying to protect the peace, right? You could totally help me out, then!” 

“Oh, please. Why don’t you just take care of it yourself, Rudeus? I don’t think you need our help.” 

For some reason, Fitz’s voice wasn’t very friendly today. Had I said something to upset him? Wait…maybe he was thinking about what happened during my entrance exam. He claimed my victory didn’t bother him, but if I started running from fights like this, people might start to think that he’d lost to a coward. That wouldn’t be good for his reputation, either. 

Fitz had been helping me out a lot recently. I still wasn’t thrilled about any of this, but I owed it to him to make an effort. “All right then. For the sake of your good name, Master Fitz, I’ll go slaughter all of them.” 

“What?! Don’t kill them, Rudeus!” 

“It was just a joke. Sorry.” 

People did take these duels seriously, but there was an unwritten rule that nobody was supposed to die as a result. Still, there might be some powerful fighters waiting for me among that crowd. I couldn’t let myself get careless. 

Finally resigned to my fate, I stepped outside the library for the first time in hours. 

“…What the hell?” 

I was greeted by a mildly surprising scene. Dozens of bodies lay scattered across the ground, limp and motionless. It felt like I’d wandered onto a battlefield or something. 

All of them were male beastfolk of various races, shapes, and sizes. Some of them wore school uniforms, but many didn’t. 

Oh, wait. There’s one girl, too. 

It was the swordswoman I’d seen earlier. Had she gotten mixed up in his somehow? Or maaaaybe… she was in wuv with me all along? 

As I pondered this extremely important question, a burst of laughter boomed through the air. “Bwahahahaha!” 

One man stood tall amidst the fallen, holding the last of his foes up in one hand. 

“I give you credit for challenging me, my young friends! It was a truly bad decision on your part, yes, but a brave one! The students of this ‘University of Magic’ clearly have some guts!” 

Fitz and I stood frozen in place, gawking in astonishment. After a few seconds, I finally managed to offer a tentative “Uhm…” 

Tossing aside the last beastman warrior, the man turned to face us. “Ohoh! Those young men told me to beat them if I didn’t want to wait my turn, and so I did! And now you’ve come out to meet me, right on schedule! Excellent, excellent. I like a man who keeps his promises!” 

It was obvious at a glance that this man was a demon. His skin was as black as obsidian, and he had six arms. The top set was folded, the middle pair were pointing at us, and the bottom two were resting on his hips. His long hair, which reached all the way down to his waist, was an interesting shade of purple. 

“I am the immortal Demon King Badigadi!” 

Did he just call himself a Demon King? Were we talking about the same kind of Demon King here? Like, the guy who kidnaps young ladies from the nearest village to satisfy his wicked appetites? The guy who gets to do anything he wants, as long as he fights off the occasional “hero” who comes around to slay him? 

Yeah, probably not. 

The more important question right now was: what the hell was a Demon King doing here? 

“I see you have the Eye of Foresight, boy! You must be Rudeus Greyrat, then! I’ve heard tell of you from my fiancée, the Demon Empress Kishirika!” 

Well, at the moment he was stomping up to me… 

“I challenge you to a duel!” 

Okay. Well, he knew how to get to the point, at least. Unfortunately, I still had no idea what the hell was going on here. Maybe he’d let me off the hook if I offered him two slightly furry young maidens as a sacrifice…? 



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