Roxy happened to glance out the window and furrowed her brow.
The colors were wrong.
Brown, black, purple, yellow.
Colors you'd never normally see in the sky.
Yet somehow familiar colors, as though she'd seen them somewhere before.
"What on earth is that…?"
The colors jogged her memory.
She was certain she'd seen them before, but never in the sky like this.
This was no natural phenomenon.
Anyone could see that at a glance.
Mana was running wild, for some reason.
That scale.
Even from this distance, she could see it swirling.
Thinking about it, Roxy suddenly remembered.
That glow.
She'd felt like she'd seen it somewhere before — and then it clicked. The Magic University.
It looked like the light of summoning magic.
"That direction is Asura… Could it be, Rudeus?"
Roxy thought of one of her former pupils — a boy.
That boy had calmly caused a storm at the age of five.
Even back then, he'd had unfathomable mana and kept it entirely under control.
Now he was ten.
Maybe he was capable of something like this.
He'd written in a recent letter that he hadn't been able to study summoning magic.
But perhaps he'd gotten his hands on a textbook for some reason.
"Aaand, openings left and wide!"
Lost in thought, she was suddenly grabbed from behind.
Her chest was groped. At the same time, something hard pressed against her thigh.
"Ugh…"
Roxy was exasperated.
Even if he was groping and pressing through a thick robe, what kind of sensation could he possibly be getting…
Then again, whatever the perpetrator felt, it was unpleasant for the victim regardless.
"Explosive flames, engulf my body — Burning Place!"
"Gyaaah!"
She cloaked herself in a barrier of fire and blasted the figure behind her away.
She still couldn't cast without incantations the way Rudeus could, but over the past five years she'd gotten much better at shortening her chants.
Apparently Rudeus made his own students practice silent casting too.
She'd tried incantation omission herself after hearing that, but it wasn't so easy to do.
How much did that prodigy boy expect of his students?
Not everyone had talent like his.
Roxy turned around and looked down at the boy sprawled on the ground.
"Your Highness. You must not grope a woman's chest from behind."
"Roxy! Are you trying to kill me?! I'll throw you in a dungeon!"
Pax Shieldongue, the seventh prince of the Shirone Kingdom, had turned fifteen this year and was a brat through and through.
At first he'd been endearing, but lately he'd hit puberty and had taken to flaunting his libido in broad daylight.
"My sincerest apologies. If a little squeeze like that could kill you, Your Highness, then I suppose you possess the vitality of nothing more than a gnat."
"Grrr…! That's lese-majesté! I won't forgive this! If you want my forgiveness, lift that robe right now and show me your panties!"
"I decline."
He'd acquired several maids already, and even the king was at his wits' end.
And lately he'd taken it into his head to claim his surly tutor as his own.
Roxy couldn't understand what he saw in such a dowdy woman.
In any case, while he made all manner of sexual demands, she had no obligation to obey his commands.
The royal contract stipulated that when the prince threw a tantrum, the tutor was to use her own judgment.
In this castle, very few people reported directly to the prince's whims.
After all, he was only the seventh prince.
His succession standing was low, and he wielded virtually no authority.
If anything, by rights alone, Roxy — as the court's contracted magician — outranked him.
"Roxy! I know about you. I know you have a lover!"
So the prince resorted to other tactics.
"Oh? When did such a lofty thing come into my humble existence?"
At the prince's sudden change of topic, Roxy tilted her head.
A lover.
She'd wanted one before, but she'd never met her ideal man — and even if she did, with this Migurd body, no one would spare her a second glance.
The prince, being the deviant he was, apparently wanted to taste her body too, but she had no intention of selling herself cheaply to someone like him.
"Hehehe… I snuck into your room and found the stack of letters hidden behind your shelf! I don't know who the hell that guy is, but with my power I could crush him! If you don't want to watch your beloved man be brutally executed, then become mine!"
That was the prince's other modus operandi.
He'd take the target's lover hostage and demand their body in exchange for the lover's safety.
He couldn't get enough of violating someone in front of their beloved, savoring the thrill of conquest.
Of course, the prince had no such authority.
He was still, technically, a prince of the kingdom.
He had people he could order around, and there were even rumors that he'd actually taken some maids hostage.
(Disgusting. I feel nothing but revulsion.)
Roxy thought to herself how glad she was that she didn't have a lover.
Every letter was from Rudeus.
Rudeus was a student worthy of respect.
Not a lover.
"Help yourself."
"W-What!? I'm serious! If you're going to apologize, do it now! Right now, only your body is at stake!"
The prince hadn't thought this through at all.
He probably didn't even know where Rudeus was.
At this rate, he probably hadn't even read the letters.
"If you can do something to Rudeus, you can do whatever you like with my body."
"W-What's with that confidence… You know what power I wield, don't you!?"
Roxy knew, all right.
She knew that his power, for a member of the royal family, was laughable.
"Rudeus is under the protection of Boreas, a high-ranking noble of the Asura Kingdom."
"Boreas…? A high-ranking noble can't possibly defy me, a member of the royal family!"
He didn't even know the name of a high-ranking noble of the Asura Kingdom.
Roxy sighed.
What on earth were the other tutors teaching?
The four great regional lords of Asura — Notos, Boreas, Eurous, and Zepiros — were famous throughout the land.
When Asura went to war, they were the first to stand at the vanguard, a role filled generation after generation by warriors of those houses.
If there were ceremonies in Shirone, or if nobles bearing those names came to visit, it would be entirely expected.
They were names any well-informed person should know.
"Asura is ten times the size of Shirone. Imposing baseless suspicion on a high-ranking noble's son and sending him to the execution block would require tremendous political power and scheming.
With your authority, it's simply impossible."
"I'll… I'll have him assassinated! I'll send my personal guard—"
At the mention of the personal guard, Roxy sighed inwardly once more.
This prince truly thought about nothing.
"Your personal guard can't cross a national border. And even if they somehow did, Boreas currently has the Sword King Ghislaine as an honored guest. You want to sneak into a fortress city in the Fittoa Region, slip past the Sword King Ghislaine's eyes, and assassinate a magic master? Do you seriously think that's possible?"
"Grrr… grrr…!"
The prince ground his teeth and stamped his feet.
Watching him, Roxy let out yet another sigh.
(He's fifteen now. You'd think he'd have learned some sense.)
Rudeus was teaching a girl named Eris who, three years ago, had been like a wild beast impossible to control, but who Roxy had heard was recently quite refined.
Meanwhile, their prince looked like this.
There'd been a time when he'd had some charm and even magical talent.
But once he'd realized the extent of his own power, his will to improve had evaporated. Now he slept through more than half of every lesson.
She felt the inadequacy of her own talent as a tutor.
"Well, I'll be resigning as your tutor shortly, so even if you were to send assassins now, it would be too late."
At that declaration, the prince let out a cry of shock.
"Wh—What!? No one told me about this!"
"You must have forgotten. It was agreed from the start that I would teach you until you came of age."
Initially, Roxy had considered staying on even after the contract expired if she was still wanted.
But within the palace, there were many who were not pleased by her presence.
Withdrawing now was the wisely played move.
"It's a good opportunity, after all."
"What opportunity?"
"There's been an anomaly in the western sky. I'm going to investigate."
"What are you…?"
She didn't say she wanted to see Rudeus's face for the first time in a long while.
He would obviously fly into a rage if she did.
"I— I still need you, Roxy! The lessons aren't over yet!"
"They're not even close to over. You're always asleep and not listening."
"That's your fault for not waking me up!"
"Is that so. Then I suppose a bad teacher will be disappearing very soon.
Next time, hire someone who will wake you. I'm out."
Roxy thought to herself:
This prince is beyond me.
When she taught Rudeus something, he would go and study on his own and learn ten or twenty things from it.
After encountering a student like that, she could never be a teacher again.
And so, Roxy departed from the kingdom of Shirone.
On her way out, she was ambushed by the seventh prince and some of his cronies among the knights, but she fought them off.
The seventh prince insisted that Roxy attacking him was an unforgivable outrage and that she should be declared a wanted criminal and dragged before him.
But the King of Shirone did not entertain the notion.
In fact, he scolded the seventh prince for failing to retain a Water King-class magician in the kingdom's service, and punished him severely.
---
The anomaly in the sky was noticed not only by Roxy.
All across the world, all manner of people took note.
Its abnormality. Its suddenness.
Those whose names echoed across the world were aware.
---
At the Dragon God Range
The hundredth Dragon God, Orsted, looked up at the western sky.
"Mana is gathering…?
What's this. Who went mad somewhere?"
He frowned in puzzlement.
"Oh well. I'll find out once I see it."
He walked straight west.
Stepping over the corpse of a Red Dragon he had just slain with a single blow.
Above it, a swarm of Red Dragons — numerous as insects — circled warily, but none made a move.
They knew what creature now walked the earth.
They knew that even if they attacked in a group, they would only be slaughtered.
And they knew that as long as they didn't provoke it, they wouldn't be killed.
That was the Dragon God.
A being who existed outside the laws of the world.
One who must never be provoked.
A young dragon, proud and reckless, lunged at Orsted — not knowing its own place.
It was reduced to a lump of flesh in an instant.
The Red Dragons knew.
As long that creature didn't change its whim, simply staying airborne meant safety.
Red Dragons were the supreme beings of the Central Continent.
But not because of combat alone.
Red Dragons were powerful because they were wise.
They knew.
That this was the man rumored to be the strongest in the world.
That no number of them could ever defeat him.
He slowly descended the mountain.
Watching him from the sky, the Red Dragons kept their distance…
His purpose was known to none.
---
At the Sky Fortress
One of the Three Great Heroes, the Dragon Emperor Peregius, looked down from the northern sky.
"What's that? It resembles the light of the Demon Empress's resurrection."
Beside him stood a woman of the heavenly race — black wings, white crow mask.
She spoke in a whisper.
"The quality of the mana is different."
"You're right. That's closer to a summoning light."
"Yes. But still… that size of summoning light… I've seen it before."
"It resembles the time I created my Sky Fortress."
Peregius departed.
As always, he would sit upon his Sky Fortress's throne, attended by his twelve servants.
And simply continue his surveillance at his leisure.
His purpose was singular.
To destroy the Demon God Laplace the moment he was resurrected.
He was simply waiting in the sky for the seal to break.
"Could the Demon Empress be attempting to unseal the Demon God?"
"That seems possible. It's been three hundred years since her resurrection. The Demon Empress has been eerily quiet."
"Very well. Almanfi!"
"Present."
A man in white robes and a yellow mask knelt before Peregius without a sound.
"Go at once and investigate… No, they're certainly up to no good. Find anyone suspicious and kill them."
"Understood."
The Dragon Emperor Peregius mobilized.
Attended by his twelve servants.
To avenge his four beloved friends.
This time, to be certain — to deliver the final blow to Laplace.
---
At the Sword Sanctum
The Sword God Gal Farion looked up at the southern sky.
"What the hell is that sky… Hey!"
The instant his attention wavered, both of his beloved disciples struck at once.
"Don't look away when I'm teaching you."
His expression was composed.
His two disciples, meanwhile, were completely winded.
As clueless as ever, the Sword God thought.
These two were called Sword Emperors or whatever, but at the end of the day, this was their limit.
Boring. So boring.
You don't need fame in swordsmanship.
Just get stronger. That's all that matters.
Fame buys you, at best, power and money.
None of that has any real value.
Things anyone can get — I'll cut them all down with my sword.
If you're strong, you can have your way.
Having your way — that's what it means to live.
Ghislaine understood that better than anyone, but she'd gone soft.
That was why she'd hit her ceiling at Sword King.
The truly hungry for life are strong even when they lack power and can barely swing a sword.
But once they gain power, they lose that hunger.
Ghislaine was no good now.
She didn't have enough selfishness.
These two didn't have that much talent either, but it was their filthy desires that had carried them this far.
The key to surviving on a desperate battlefield is insatiable desire.
"Come on, come on! Get over here already!
Beat me and you two can fight each other to the death for the title of Sword God!
Money? You'll have so much you could live a hundred lifetimes of leisure,
Women? Line 'em up from slaves to princesses, lined up butt to butt, all yours to enjoy,
And your name? Everyone'll shake in their boots at the mere mention — take one step and the crowd parts like the sea!"
"I didn't learn the sword for those reasons!"
"Master! Please don't look down on us!"
That's it.
Why not be a little more honest with yourselves?
Do that, and you could easily crush someone like me and claim the title of Sword God.
The Sword God had already forgotten all about the southern sky.
---
Somewhere in the Demon Continent
The Demon Empress Kirishika Kiriris looked up at the eastern sky.
"Hmph! A being of my stature can see things even when looking the other way! Impressed, aren't you?"
But no one answered.
There was no one around.
"Silence, is it? Fahahahaha!
Fine, fine — I forgive you, humans!
Truth be told, there's no one hanging around me in these peaceful times, so I have no choice but to forgive you! Fahahahaha! Fahahahahaha! Faha— *cough cough*…"
Kirishika was lonely.
No one paid her any attention.
The moment she'd been reborn, she'd shouted, "The Demon Empress Kirishika is back! Sorry to keep you all waiting! Fahahahaha!" — but no one was there.
So she'd gone to town and shouted again, only to be met with the pitying looks one gives a pitiful creature.
Ever since, no one paid her any mind.
She'd visited old friends, but they told her to behave quietly because times were peaceful now.
"What are those human fortune tellers even doing?
Back in the day, when word of my resurrection got out, they'd start trembling, let out shrieks, and perform their dramatic window-diving routine for me. Without that warm-up act, my resurrection doesn't get the fanfare it deserves…
Honestly. Young people these days have no class."
Kirishika kicked a stone on the ground and looked up at the western sky where the mana swirled.
The Demon Empress was also known as the Demon Empress of the Mystic Eye.
She possessed over a dozen mystical eyes, and with a single glance, she could identify anything.
No matter how distant, everything was clear in an instant.
Immense mana. A familiar summoning light. And the one controlling it.
"Oh? I can't quite see. Must be a barrier or something.
Making all that commotion and not even showing your face — what a shy one…"
Kirishika's eyes were not omnipotent. That was why she remained merely a Demon Empress.
She would never be called a Demon God.
Not that she particularly minded.
"I wish a hero or someone would get summoned. But these days, everything and everyone is about Laplace, Laplace… Kirishika? Who's that? …Yeah, that's the problem.
The heroes always gravitate toward that young heartthrob Laplace…
I want to be in the spotlight. I want to march in a parade again…"
Sighing, Kirishika set off.
In no particular direction.
---
At that same moment — Rudeus's perspective
I'd come to a hill on the outskirts of the fortress city of Roa.
I was keeping the promise I'd made on my birthday — to show Ghislaine Saint-tier Water Magic.
Naturally, Eris had tagged along.
I brought out the [Aroganat].
For now, I'd wrapped both the magic stone portion and the handle in blue cloth.
It looked ugly, but it was better than having the enormous magic stone exposed — people might think the cloth was some kind of mana-enhanced wrapping.
If I flashed something that expensive around, bandits would come swarming.
Before attempting Saint-tier, I did a test shot with the [Aroganat].
Just as always, I channeled mana into it to form a water projectile — but this time it was far larger than usual.
"Whoa, that's huge."
When I tried to compress it smaller, it shrank too much to even see.
I adjusted it bit by bit.
After about thirty minutes of testing, I found that roughly five times the effect was achievable with Water Magic.
Boosting offensive magic,
or reducing mana consumption to a fraction while maintaining the same power,
To put it in numbers:
Without staff: Mana cost 10, Power 5
With staff: Mana cost 10, Power 25
With staff: Mana cost 2, Power 5
Something like that.
Essentially a magnifying glass or microscope.
Fine adjustments were tricky, but with practice, it might become manageable.
"How… how is it?"
"It's hard to control, but this is incredible!"
Eris looked at me with an anxious expression.
Relax. I'm busy playing with my new toy.
After testing a bit more, I discovered that Fire Magic was doubled, and Earth and Wind Magic each tripled.
Mixing magic with this staff seemed difficult.
Or maybe it just took practice?
"All right then, ladies and gentlemen — the moment you've all been waiting for!
Behold Rudeus Greyrat's ultimate and greatest secret technique!"
"Wooo!"
Eris clapped her hands in excitement.
Ghislaine looked intrigued.
I was getting pumped too.
All right, time to look cool.
"Muahahaha! Gather, mana!
O great water spirit, ascend to the heavens and— Wait, what?"
"Hm?"
"What the hell is that!?"
I was attempting to invoke Cumulonimbus with an incantation for the first time in ages,
Holding the staff aloft with both hands toward the sky.
The instant everyone's gaze shifted upward, we saw it.
"The sky is changing color… What is that!?"
The sky was discoloring. A nauseating shade.
Something between purple and brown…
Ghislaine removed her eyepatch.
Beneath it, a deep-green eye was revealed.
What was that?
Also, she'd had two eyes this whole time?
"What is that?"
"I don't know… but there's incredible mana in it!"
Could that eye see mana?
The true ability of Ghislaine, revealed after three years…
Ghislaine quickly replaced her eyepatch.
"Should we head back to the manor?"
I didn't know what this abnormal sky was a harbinger of, but if the sky was going haywire, I wanted to be indoors.
"No — the closer we get to town, the denser the mana becomes. We may be better off moving away from here."
"Then at the very least, we should go back and warn the others!"
We should tell Philip and the others to evacuate the townspeople.
"Then I'll head back — Rudeus! Get down!"
I ducked instinctively.
Something screamed past overhead, leaving a whistling wind in its wake — barely missing the top of my head.
My spine went cold.
What.
What just happened?
What was that?
In my field of vision, Ghislaine's hand went to the sword at her hip — a blur of motion.
The next instant, Ghislaine was frozen in the posture of a completed sword stroke.
Sword God Style — Sword Saint Technique: [Light of the Sword], also known as [Light Blade].
She'd shown me a few times before.
A technique said to reach the speed of light at the tip of the blade when perfected — the ultimate art of the Sword God Style.
Ghislaine had told me that this technique was precisely what made the Sword God Style the strongest of all sword schools.
Ghislaine's brow furrowed.
Only then did I finally turn around.
"Huh… when did he—"
A man stood there.
Blond hair, a crisp white outfit reminiscent of a school uniform, and slacks.
His face — which was almost certainly handsome — was hidden behind a yellow mask.
Was it designed after some kind of fox-like animal?
In his right hand, a large dagger.
That was it — that was what had grazed my head.
The next instant, the man's face lit up.
An overwhelming amount of light — in an instant, my vision went completely white.
"Gaaah!"
Ghislaine's roar.
A sharp metallic clash.
Someone running.
A second and third ring of metal.
By the time my vision returned, Ghislaine had placed herself between me and the man.
Her eyepatch was off.
Of course — the instant she'd been blinded by that light, she'd removed the patch and watched through her remaining eye.
"You. Who are you? Are you an enemy of the Greyrat family?"
"I am Almanfi the Luminous. That is my name."
"Almanfi?"
"I have come to stop this anomaly. By order of Lord Peregius…"
The name Peregius rang a bell.
One of the Three Heroes who had fought the Demon God — who hadn't actually killed him.
A summoner who commanded twelve familiars.
And the name Almanfi clicked into place as well.
One of Peregius's twelve familiars — Almanfi the Luminous.
"Be careful, Ghislaine. According to the literature, he moves at the speed of light."
"Rudeus, you take the girl and fall back."
Doing as I was told, I shielded Eris with my back and moved to a position where we wouldn't be in the way.
But not too far.
Close enough that I could support Ghislaine if it came to that.
If that was truly Almanfi the Luminous, a sword shouldn't be able to hurt him.
But where had this guy been hiding?
…No.
Almanfi the Luminous was a spirit that ruled light.
Within his visible range, he could travel any distance in an instant.
When I'd read about it in books, I'd thought "that's impossible" — and yet he'd appeared behind me in the blink of an eye.
Ghislaine wouldn't have let her guard down, and there was no reason for him to have been lurking there beforehand.
He had flown.
Literally — at the speed of light.
"Woman. Stand aside. Killing that boy may end the anomaly."
Also, what even was going on.
What anomaly?
What had he misunderstood?
"I am Ghislaine Dedoldia, Sword King. That and us have nothing to do with each other. Stand down!"
"Can I believe that? Show me proof."
"Look! Of the Seven Swords of the Sword God, this is one — [Heizou]!
By the name of the Sword King and this blade — is that still not enough!?"
Ghislaine thrust her fist, still gripping the sword, toward Almanfi for him to see.
That sword had a name like that?
Hirazura.
A weapon with a name like that didn't suit Ghislaine at all.
"Swear upon your master and your clan."
"I swear upon my master, Sword God Gal Farion, and the honor of the Dedoldia clan!"
"Very well. If you are found to be guilty, Lord Peregius will pass judgment at a later date."
"I have no objection."
Almanfi sheathed his dagger.
I didn't entirely understand what had just happened, but it seemed to have been resolved.
By my standards, a verbal oath would be nothing but lip service,
But perhaps in this world, things were different.
Or rather — it spoke to the weight that Ghislaine's word carried.
Like the Pope swearing an oath to God. That level of trust.
"If it's not you, then it's fine."
"…You attacked us without warning and won't even apologize?"
"You were the ones doing suspicious things in a place like this."
Almanfi the Luminous said that and turned on his heel.
And in that instant—
"Ah."
My eyes caught it.
From the white-dyed sky, a single beam of light reaching toward the ground.
And the moment it touched the earth—
A torrent of white light, sweeping everything away like a tsunami—
Erasing the manor,
Erasing the town,
Erasing the city walls,
Swallowing every flower and tree as it surged forward.
Almanfi turned, saw it, and vanished in a flash of golden light.
Ghislaine saw it, tried to run toward me, and was swallowed by the light.
Eris saw it and simply stood frozen, unable to comprehend what was happening.
I tried at least to protect Eris, throwing myself over her.
That day, the Fittoa Region was annihilated.
End of Part 2 — Boyhood Arc, Tutor Chapter
Next Chapter
Part 3 — Boyhood Arc, Adventurer Beginner Chapter