Cliff Grimoire.
Grandson of the Milis Pontifex.
A prodigy who had mastered magic at a young age.
His personality had a somewhat belligerent streak, and he was prone to pride and a desire to make himself look important.
As such, he had no friends.
He was talented.
Yet he took a diligent approach, never resting on his laurels.
His words were insufferable, but his actions didn't back them up — not entirely, at least.
A small number of people found that appealing.
Cliff was currently sixteen years old.
He had come of age a year ago, but no one had celebrated.
His reason for attending the Magic University was simple.
In a word, it was about a power struggle.
The attempted assassination of a Demi-Human Saint that had occurred in Milis a few years prior.
The incident had been attributed to the Pontifex's faction, and the power struggle within the Milis Faith had intensified.
Amid the turmoil, the Pontifex had evacuated his own grandson, Cliff, to the Kingdom of Ranoa on the opposite side of the world.
"Cliff, you have the potential to become someone great. Do not become complacent — keep looking inward and improving yourself."
Those were the words with which the Pontifex had sent him off.
Cliff knew he was expected to amount to something.
Of course he did.
He might lose to Eris, but he was a genius.
That was what he believed.
The Kingdom of Ranoa, reached after a long journey, was a harsh land.
The food didn't suit him, the climate was unforgiving, and it was crawling with people whose way of thinking was radically different from his own.
But even so.
Even so, Cliff believed in his talent above all else.
He was a special student, the grandson of the Pontifex, and one day he would carry the weight of the entire Milis Faith on his shoulders. He was different from everyone else.
That was what he believed.
In his first year, he was knocked down twice.
The first time, it was at the hands of a person named Zanoba Shirole.
He was a Saint — a person blessed by the gods from birth.
His mind was a little… eccentric, but his ability was the real deal.
Cliff had once witnessed him grab someone who had to be three times his weight by the face, lift them up, and hurl them aside.
With that kind of power, Zanoba was here — at the Magic University.
Studying magic.
Focusing specifically on earth-attribute magic.
His growth rate, from Cliff's perspective, was painfully slow.
But then again, a Saint had no need to learn magic in the first place.
There was even a theory that magic had been created by powerless ancient humans who were trying to imitate the works of the gods.
A Saint was a human who possessed the power of the gods.
There was no need to learn magic.
Thinking this, Cliff asked him.
"Why are you learning magic?"
"I have something I want to do."
Saying that, Zanoba pulled a single doll from the box he always carried with him.
Then he launched into a lengthy monologue about it.
Cliff didn't understand even half of what he was saying.
But he could tell that the doll itself was a masterwork.
"I wish to apprentice myself with the one who created this doll, and together, we shall spread dolls across the world!
To that end, I must learn to create them myself!
If I cannot manage the basics by the time we meet again, I will have no face to show my master!
Of course, I also simply want to try making one with my own hands!"
That was a "dream."
Something Cliff didn't have.
No.
Something Cliff had given up on.
Zanoba was a Saint, bearing the expectations of his entire nation on his shoulders, and yet — if he returned home, he'd surely have no freedom at all.
And yet he hadn't abandoned that last sliver of hope.
That one day, he might suddenly become free.
And when that day came, he intended to pursue what he truly wanted.
Incidentally, Cliff knew nothing about the events in the Kingdom of Shirone or Zanoba's circumstances.
He had simply interpreted everything through his own common sense and reached his conclusion.
It was a misunderstanding.
But Cliff was deeply moved.
He thought Zanoba was incredible.
"What kind of person is this master of yours?"
"A man named Rudeus Greyrat."
Hearing the name, Cliff was blindsided.
Rudeus Greyrat.
That name had lingered in his heart ever since the day Eris had rejected him.
He never imagined he'd hear it again here.
And from the mouth of someone he had just been impressed by, no less.
The shock was enormous.
The second time he was knocked down, it was by his seniors.
It went without saying that Cliff had been convinced he was the strongest person at this school.
In a melee, Eris was obviously far beyond him.
But within the framework of a mage, there was no one who could beat him.
He was a genius, and the students here were, after all, just students.
Even among the instructors, plenty of them couldn't use magic as well as he could.
Therefore, he was the strongest in this school.
He learned that this was arrogance about two months after enrollment.
He lost to two beastfolk girls who were rumored to be top-tier among the students.
Linia and Pursena.
He couldn't remember which one started it.
Cliff had a foul mouth and said nothing but insufferable things.
Linia and Pursena had calmed down considerably by that point, but even so, having some arrogant younger kid run his mouth at them was irksome.
Cliff didn't even remember what he'd said to set them off.
But he remembered the fight itself.
As Cliff attempted to cast an advanced spell, Pursena used beginner magic to suppress him while interrupting his chanting and halting his footwork.
Then Linia closed in and beat Cliff to a pulp.
Beaten to a bloody mess in front of everyone, Cliff went home alone and cried.
It was two against one — it didn't count. He told himself over and over that he hadn't really lost.
Then, on a later date, he heard that a senior named Fitz — someone younger than him — had defeated those two alone, and he received his second shock.
There was always someone above you.
By coming to this school, Cliff had learned that basic truth.
And he had finally understood that even being able to use advanced magic didn't necessarily make you strong.
From that day forward, Cliff worked hard.
But his pride was high, and he refused to seek instruction from anyone.
He thought about how to make himself stronger on his own,
couldn't figure it out, and simply tried to patch up his weak points through sheer repetition.
Then, in his second year at the school, he received two more shocks.
The first shock was the enrollment of Rudeus Greyrat.
A face that radiated no confidence.
A shabby, mouse-colored robe.
A deferential manner of speaking to people he'd just met.
A servile attitude, a low posture.
A slimy, lingering gaze directed at women.
A standing posture that gave off not a single shred of masculine charm…
He was nothing like the person Cliff had imagined from Eris's and Zanoba's descriptions.
Who the hell is this guy? Cliff had wondered.
It must be a different person with the same name.
But Zanoba called him Master, and he knew about Eris too.
Then this guy must be a fraud, Cliff concluded.
He had built up a web of lies to deceive Eris and Zanoba.
As evidence, when provoked by Linia and Pursena, all he did was bow his head and grovel.
If he were truly strong, he should have been able to beat those two.
That was Cliff's judgment.
But he also expected that the mask would slip soon enough.
Zanoba was a genuine Saint and a diligent hard worker.
Linia and Pursena were top-notch in ability too.
This wasn't a place where lies and bluster could carry you.
He had heard the rumor that Fitz had been defeated by Rudeus as well, but it must have been some kind of mistake, or a lie Rudeus himself had spread, or he'd used some cowardly trick.
That was what Cliff believed.
But Rudeus proved his ability.
He was a chantless magic user.
First, he deepened Zanoba's already fervent devotion.
Linia and Pursena also fell in line.
Even Fitz acknowledged him, and they apparently studied together in the library several times a week.
Despite possessing that level of ability, Cliff had also seen him attending classes.
Lessons on the "beginner" courses for divine strikes and barrier magic.
Even though he clearly had no need for them anymore, he was greedily learning what he lacked.
Rudeus Greyrat had more talent than Cliff.
He was more diligent than Cliff.
And unlike Cliff, he delivered results.
That should have been a fact Cliff couldn't bring himself to accept.
But perhaps it was because of his encounter with Zanoba, and his defeat at the hands of Linia and Pursena — he took it in with surprising ease.
This boy was operating on a level far above his own.
That said, it didn't make him like Rudeus.
Accepting a fact and liking someone were two entirely different things.
And the final shock came one day.
It was evening.
He was walking down a path.
He happened to look up.
And there she was — a goddess.
She had gorgeous golden hair.
She was leaning against a window with a languid expression, gazing outside.
Her face, tinted red by the setting sun, was beautiful.
Cliff's heart was pierced clean through.
It was love at first sight.
Cliff had always been a sucker for beautiful faces.
Back when he was a child dreaming of becoming an adventurer, he used to say he wanted to marry a pretty woman when he grew up.
Because the healing priestess who was an alumna of the orphanage had been beautiful.
"…!"
At that moment, the woman by the window noticed Cliff.
She smiled softly and gave a little wave.
That gesture, that smile, that scenario — every single part of it was a perfect strike aimed right at Cliff's heart.
Cliff thought:
I was born to meet this woman.
She was born to meet me.
In that instant, Eris's position shifted from his first love to nothing more than admiration.
--- Rudeus's Perspective ---
Monthly homeroom.
Presently seated around me are Zanoba, Linia, and Pursena.
Having friends sitting at your desks with you really was something.
Incidentally, Julie was sitting on Zanoba's lap.
Linia, as always, had her legs up on the desk, casually baring her healthy thighs right in front of me.
Having this in my daily life at close range wasn't half bad.
"The Boss is always glued to my legs, nya! So the Boss is just a hungry man after all…"
"Hold them apart… gyaa, he's sticking his hand up my skirt, nya!"
Linia occasionally provoked me for no reason, so I took her up on it freely.
But no matter how much I touched, all I felt was emptiness.
My libido, with nowhere to go, amplified into sorrow.
"Nya!? What's with that look, nya!? You're the one who reached out and touched — why make that face, nya!?
What's wrong with me, nya!?"
Honestly, lately I'd prefer it if she just let me touch her ears and tail.
Cat ears and a cat tail were genuinely healing.
"Linia is stupid."
Pursena was eating meat just barely out of my reach.
Sometimes dried meat, sometimes grilled meat, sometimes raw meat.
The variety was wide, but she was essentially always eating meat.
Normally she played the cool type and mocked the careless Linia, but dangle some meat in front of her and she'd come trotting over wagging her tail like a fan.
Her fur was softer than Linia's and nicer to pet.
I'd been curious for a while, so I checked — beastfolk didn't have human-type ears. They had a hairline that cut diagonally across where human ears would be.
Of course, depending on the species, some had their ears set even further to the side.
Their skull shapes were different.
Presumably, their inner ear structure differed too.
If I were a biologist, I would have definitely wanted to dissect one to investigate.
But I wasn't a biologist.
The kind of dissection I wanted to do was a dissection of a different sort.
Well, all of that would have to wait until the illness was cured.
Unlike Linia, she wouldn't let me pet her unless I gave her meat.
In other words, as long as I gave her meat, she would let me pet her.
Her sense of propriety seemed reasonably high, though.
I was a little worried.
"Master, the angle of your ankle has worsened since before."
"I'll fix it for you, Master."
"Julie, call me Master. And address our teacher as Grand Master."
"Yes, mastah."
Zanoba was operating as usual.
However, in the hierarchy of this group, he sat at the very bottom.
It was I who had defeated Linia and Pursena in the recent duel.
Zanoba was nothing more than the goldfish turd that hitched a ride.
Borrowing the tiger's authority to scare others — that was a fox move, and Linia made that clear.
Zanoba, for his part, insisted that he was the Master's first disciple.
But I'd already taken on Sylphie, Eris, and Ghislaine before him.
Setting Ghislaine aside — since our relationship was more one of mutual benefit — he was still only third.
When I told him that, the pathetic look on Zanoba's face was so bad I almost felt like I'd done something wrong.
As consolation, I told him he was the first disciple in the field of doll-making.
Julie, the second disciple in doll-making, was listening attentively to Zanoba's lecture on the Roxy doll.
She too had been thoroughly
brainwashed
by now.
I could sense her eagerness to get involved in doll creation.
That said, it would be a while before she could discuss dolls on equal footing with Zanoba or me.
And despite being clumsy, she could already use chantless magic.
It seemed Fitz-senpai's theory was correct — young children had greater mana reserves and could use chantless magic.
"…………G-grand master. I couldn't do it."
"Here you go."
But being so young, she still failed a lot.
Right now, the leg of the Roxy doll had ballooned up to look like a blister again.
Creating small-scale earth magic was probably impossible for her.
Of course, I wasn't angry.
I taught her to try everything.
I taught her not to be discouraged by failure, to start over as many times as it took.
Failure was the mother of success, and if you quit after a single failure, you were well on your way to becoming a shut-in.
"It was still too early for you to fix the Roxy doll."
"I'm sorry."
Sometimes, when she looked at me, there was fear in her eyes.
Why was she so scared?
I saved you, didn't I?
When I asked her about it, she told me about the "Hole Monster" from the bedtime stories of the Coal-mining Tribe.
The monster lived deep in a hole and occasionally emerged to snatch naughty children.
Even if you tried to run, your feet would sink into a mud swamp before you knew it, making escape impossible. Then they'd put a bag over your head and drag you down to the bottom of the hole.
The naughty children who were taken to the bottom of the hole would eventually come back, but they'd become so well-behaved it was like they were different people.
Come to think of it, she had a point.
I had used a mud swamp to defeat Linia and Pursena, then used a bag to abduct and imprison them.
With Zanoba and Julie absent, I had Fitz-senpai's help to complete the punishment.
Linia and Pursena had stopped running their mouths at me.
From Julie's perspective, that probably looked exactly like the Hole Monster story.
"Faah, I'm sleepy, nya."
"It's gotten warmer recently."
"Boss, next time I'll show you my secret napping spot, nya."
"Eh? Can I go bother Linia-san while she's napping?"
"……Does the Boss only think about pervy stuff, nya?"
"The Master thinks of dolls above all else."
"You, be quiet — you only make things complicated when you open your mouth."
"But—"
"Just go buy some meat or something."
"The teacher'll be here soon, nya."
"Then dash it is."
"Master, let me go."
"Then I'll go."
"If the Boss is going, I'll go instead, nya."
"Be my guest."
"Nya!?"
Until the teacher arrived, we carried on like that with our idle chatter.
Well, we were probably loud.
Undoubtedly, we were loud.
Now, there was one other person in this room.
Near the front of the classroom.
A boy studying all by himself.
A boy studying earnestly.
Cliff.
He stood up, bristling at our chatter.
"Shut up! I can't concentrate!
If you're just here to play, go back to your homeland!"
I went quiet.
Zanoba also stopped his chat and returned to Julie's lesson.
But the two former delinquents took that as a challenge.
"Who do you think you're talking to, nya?"
"Everything in your wallet is going to become my meat starting today."
"!?" hung in the air.
Normally, the person who got beaten up last time would be the target of intimidation next time.
But these two had already fought Cliff before.
Cliff had been beaten by them shortly after enrollment, and since then, he'd been studying diligently.
Turning defeat into fuel for growth.
He was a diligent boy.
It wasn't right to disturb him.
"I'm terribly sorry. We'll be bothering the one who's studying. We'll keep it down. Come on, you two, sit down, sit down, sit — sit!"
"……If the Boss says so, I guess there's nothing to be done, nya."
"Fuck it…"
Linia and Pursena dropped into their seats with sulky expressions.
"Hmph, as long as you understand. Honestly, even Zanoba joining in — what are you all doing, honestly…!"
Cliff let out a sharp huff.
Linia and Pursena clicked their tongues.
There was no point in disturbing someone who was living earnestly.
I didn't consider myself to be living carelessly either, mind you.
Either way, our paths wouldn't cross with his.
At least, that was what I thought back then.
---
One week later.
I was researching teleportation with Fitz-senpai as usual.
Something I'd recently come to understand was that teleportation and summoning shared certain similarities.
The magic circle patterns were alike.
The color of the magical light emitted by the circles was similar too.
But there was one critical difference.
It was that "humans could not be summoned."
No summoning magic had ever succeeded in summoning a human.
Magical beasts, spirits, plants — those could be summoned, but humans could not.
Looking through historical documents, records, and stories, there was nothing about humans being summoned.
Humans, demons, beastfolk — this world had every kind of race, but the beings called "humans" could not be summoned.
Well, granted.
Neither Fitz-senpai nor I were specialists in summoning, so it all came down to "they're similar, so what?"
But there was a part that bothered me.
If a "living human" couldn't be summoned…
What about just a "soul"?
"……"
I didn't say that out loud.
But I did want to ask someone who would know.
The soul of a human wandering through other worlds.
Could that be summoned?
"Fitz-senpai, could you point me toward a teacher who knows a lot about summoning magic?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure. But this school only teaches summoning in the context of enchantment spells. Is there even a teacher who'd understand what we're researching…?"
So that was the case.
Come to think of it, when I'd looked at the course list, there hadn't been any summoning classes.
You notice what's there, but you don't notice what isn't.
But was enchantment even categorized as summoning? Was that in the magic textbooks?
"Well, for now, all we can do is search."
At that moment, a seed of unease took root in my mind.
I didn't let it show.
It was probably nothing.
It had nothing to do with me.
That disaster had happened when I was ten years old.
It had been ten years since I was reincarnated.
Ten whole years, and nothing had happened.
It couldn't possibly be connected.
---
On the way back to the dormitory.
Did this world also have sunrise and sunset times that changed with the seasons?
Even though it had been night when I first enrolled, now the same hour was still just twilight.
The snow had entirely melted from the surroundings, revealing the reddish-brown earth characteristic of the northern lands.
Walking along the stone-paved road laid across it, I heard a voice.
"Hey, stop right there!"
"Don't think you can get a chant off!"
A single boy tumbled out from behind the school building.
Six men came chasing after him.
The boy tried to create distance and began chanting a spell.
He started with a large-scale incantation, but the men interrupted him.
He switched to beginner magic as a deterrent, but with six of them, it was pointless.
The boy was cornered, punched, and knocked to the ground.
The six of them piled on the boy who was guarding himself like a turtle.
It was bullying.
An outright scene of bullying.
It was a sight that made my chest ache.
Before I knew it, I was calling out.
"Hey, hey, you can't go bullying a turtle."
I hurried over and said that, and all six of them turned to glare at me at once.
They were all a bit taller than me, and I felt genuinely intimidated.
"Who the hell are you!?"
But one of them noticed.
"Oy, this guy is the mud swamp…"
"Mud swamp…? R-Rudeus!?"
"The one who locked up Linia-san and the others in a room and brainwashed them!? That Rudeus!?"
I didn't brainwash anyone.
"No way, that's gotta be a rumor, right!?"
"Pursena-san calls him Boss and wags her tail, you know…!?"
"She wags her tail for anyone who gives her meat!"
"But still, those two really do follow him, don't they?"
"Yeah, I saw their faces during class — they'd been drawn on."
"Something like 'I am Rudeus-sama's sex slave,' wasn't it?"
"I don't really remember the exact wording…"
"He fought them, beat them, then kidnapped them and made them slaves…?"
"……And they're Doldia tribe, you know?"
"He really didn't think that through…"
The men, keeping their eyes on me, chattered about every wild rumor they'd heard.
In the end, they gulped and shot me looks of sheer terror.
They exchanged glances and nodded to each other.
Then their eyes fell on the boy lying on the ground.
"Oi, we'll let you off the hook today."
Today.
That phrase made my radar go off.
"'Let you off the hook today' — meaning you plan to do the same thing again later? Six of you ganging up on one person?"
I said in a sharp tone, and the six of them visibly looked annoyed.
"Tch…"
"Hey, Rudeus… -san, this has nothing to do with you…"
They were always like this.
It's none of your business. It's none of your business.
I knew full well it was none of my business, and I stuck my nose in anyway.
"I don't know the circumstances, but six against one is cowardly."
"…………"
The six exchanged glances, then shook their heads.
Don't have a conversation with your eyes.
"Fine. We won't do it. But that kid hasn't exactly done nothing either, y'know."
One of the men said that and turned on his heel.
The other five followed him back behind the school building.
Did they have a nest back there or something?
"Phew."
I let out a breath.
As expected, when there were a lot of opponents pressuring me like that, I got nervous.
Fighting multiple opponents was something I'd simulated to some degree, but that and the emotional toll were two different things.
One-on-one, I could handle it, though…
"Um, are you all right?"
I approached the boy who was getting to his feet.
He was brushing the dust off his clothes while quietly chanting a healing spell.
As expected of the Magic University — even a kid who got bullied regularly could use healing magic.
As I was thinking this, the boy turned around.
It was Cliff.
"…………"
Honestly, I had no fond memories of Cliff.
Every time I saw his face, he'd pick a fight.
This time, he'd probably say something like "I didn't need you to save me!"
That was what I thought.
"I didn't need you to save m—"
Cliff started to say, then clamped his mouth shut.
He made a troubled expression, as if thinking hard.
Then he sighed.
"……No. I was glad you helped. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Cliff gave a small bow and walked off briskly.
I stood there, stunned.
I had saved him, yes.
But having his attitude change so abruptly made me wonder.
Was he scheming something?
No — maybe I should just accept it at face value.
Up until now, Cliff had been constantly sniping at me, but I'd never snapped back.
Maybe Cliff had finally acknowledged that I wasn't his enemy.
Honestly, I still didn't understand why he'd hated me in the first place…
"Oh well."
I started walking toward the dormitory.
---
The next day.
I had just finished lunch when Cliff stopped me.
He told me to come behind the school building after class.
Cliff was angry.
I didn't know what he was angry about.
But he looked troubled.
Were we going to fight?
That was what I idly wondered.
I had already activated my foresight eye.
Keeping my senses alert to my surroundings, I charged mana into my right hand.
Repaying kindness with hostility — turtles these days, honestly.
That was what I was thinking.
"Alright, this should be good."
After confirming no one was around, Cliff turned to face me.
His face was bright red.
I understood immediately.
This wasn't a duel.
He hadn't called me out for that purpose.
Rather, this was a confession.
This scenario was that kind of scenario.
I was done for.
No matter how much it didn't help to be useful to girls,
I sure didn't remember signing up to become the Panty Liar.
Heh, being popular was tough, wasn't it.
Yeah, right.
"Th-the truth is…"
"Sure."
The answer was already decided.
I would respond with dignity.
First we'd become friends, and then that would be the end of it — that was the plan.
"There's a girl I like."
"O-oh yeah…"
He scratched his cheek shyly, blushing and looking down.
Was I going to turn this down?
My stomach hurt.
What if this were a girl instead?
My sword might be the Sword of Light, but I was no scabbard.
But Cliff looked up and pointed at a certain spot.
"It's her."
He was pointing at the school building.
At a distance, I could make out someone leaning out of a window.
Even from here, I could see long golden hair swaying in the wind.
She was gazing down at the school grounds bathed in the evening sun with a languid expression.
"I saw her during the day. She was talking with someone.
You know her, right?
Could you… introduce me?"
"……Sure."
The person leaning out of the school building window.
I knew that person very well.
The troublemaker I always heard about.
The bewitching woman who devoured her classmates like a succubus.
It was Elinalise Dragonroad.
I'd been thinking about making the subtitle:
"Cliff vs. Elinalise"
"The Deceived Virgin — The淫ous Desires That Crush an Innocent Heart"
"That Girl You've Got Your Eye On Is Taken?! The Spirited Crush of That Bratty Girl!"
but decided against it.