Ever since her tenth birthday,
She actually listened in lessons now, and the times I got punched had decreased significantly.
I was freed from the terror of domestic violence and finally had some peace of mind.
So I decided to study on my own.
First, I'd look through the history books I'd found in the library and get a rough idea of this world's history.
According to those books, the world had existed for roughly a hundred thousand years.
Quite the fantastical history.
Broadly laid out on a timeline, it went something like this: —Over a hundred thousand years ago— The world was divided into seven realms, each ruled by a god.
This was apparently called the Age of Primordial Gods.
The seven realms and their gods were: The Realm of Humans — the Human God. The Realm of Demons — the Demon God. The Realm of Dragons — the Dragon God. The Realm of Beasts — the Beast God. The Realm of the Sea — the Sea God. The Realm of Heaven — the Heaven God. The Realm of the Void — the Void God.
Something like that.
At the time, the realms were separated by barriers, and travel between them was nearly impossible.
The inhabitants of one realm had no idea that other realms existed.
Only certain gods, and powerful individuals capable of penetrating the barriers, knew of the other worlds.
—Twenty thousand to ten thousand years ago— A wicked Dragon God was born in the Realm of Dragons.
This Dragon God, wielding tremendous power, shattered the barriers and annihilated the other realms, commanding subordinates known as the "Five Dragon Generals."
The survivors of the destroyed realms were driven from their homes and fled to the last remaining realm — the Realm of Humans.
When things had nearly reached the end, the Five Dragon Generals betrayed their Dragon God.
The Dragon Emperor, leader of the Five Dragon Generals, and the four Dragon Kings fought the overwhelmingly powerful Dragon God.
Five against one. A battle to the death.
The result was a draw.
The aftershock of that battle caused the Realm of Dragons to collapse.
Only the Realm of Humans survived.
That became the world as it is now.
—Ten thousand to eight thousand years ago— This period was known as the Age of Chaos.
An era of constant warfare between the ancestors of the native human race and the inhabitants of other realms who had flooded in.
Very few documents from this era survived.
However, according to scholars, over the long span of time, the various races eventually settled into their own territories.
The Beast Race took to the forests, the Sea Race dominated the oceans, and the Heaven Race secured the highlands.
The Dragon Race had mostly perished, but a few survivors kept to themselves in hiding.
The Void Race could live anywhere, so they were everywhere.
Only the Human Race and the Demon Race fought over the flatlands.
At the time, the Central Continent and the Demon Continent were connected by land, forming what was called the Supercontinent.
—Approximately seven thousand years ago— Martial arts and magic developed, and the human population grew.
This was when the First Great Human-Demon War erupted.
The First Great Human-Demon War was, quite literally, a large-scale direct confrontation between the Human Race and the Demon Race.
Think of it as a world war in our previous world.
It was a prolonged conflict that drew in not just humans and demons, but other races as well.
—Approximately six thousand years ago— The First Great Human-Demon War dragged on for a thousand years, alternating between fierce battles and lulls, until the Hero Arus led six companions to defeat the Five Great Demon Lords and Kishirika Kishirisu, the Great Emperor of the Demon World.
Judging by the name, the Great Emperor of the Demon World was probably female.
In my mind, I pictured Eris dressed in bondage fashion, cackling wildly.
Wait a minute — the Hero Arus? Isn't that straight out of Dragon Quest?
—Approximately fifty-five hundred years ago— Humans being the fools they are, after defeating the demon race, they got cocky and started wars with other races, as well as fighting among themselves.
Apparently, the demon race was enslaved during this period.
The warring states era lasted for nearly five hundred years.
—Five thousand years ago— The Second Great Human-Demon War broke out.
As if to vent a thousand years of frustration, the demon race rose up, led once again by Kishirika Kishirisu, the Great Emperor of the Demon World.
Kishirika again…? Is this some kind of hereditary title?
But apparently, she was an immortal Demon Emperor, so even after dying, she would revive in about a thousand years.
She was called the Great Emperor of the Demon World because she stood head and shoulders above all other Demon Emperors.
The demon race rallied the Beast Race and the Sea Race to their cause, overwhelming the humans.
They drove the humans to the brink.
—Forty-two hundred years ago— The Second Great Human-Demon War ended.
Humans, being the war-loving creatures they are, fought for eight hundred years without ever surrendering, and finally pushed back.
Apparently, a hero named Aldebaran the Golden Knight played a major role.
This guy was an absolute cheat — he single-handedly scattered an army of over ten thousand, defeated every powerful demon commander, and dueled the Great Emperor of the Demon World one-on-one.
His final attack blew a massive hole in the Supercontinent, splitting it into the Central Continent and the Demon Continent, creating the Ring Sea in between.
According to one theory, he was said to be the Human God himself.
The Aldebaran I know is the kind of guy who invariably dies when he uses his finishing move, but the Golden Saint of this world seems to be absurdly overpowered.
The part about splitting a continent sounds dubious, but it's apparently a fact that this war divided the continent in two with a new sea in the middle.
In any case, because the continent was split in two, a long-awaited peace finally arrived.
—Forty-two hundred to one thousand years ago— Here the timeline jumped ahead dramatically.
The world was peaceful, but the demon race was gradually driven off the Central Continent.
Humans, being cunning, used diplomatic means to confine the demon race to the Demon Continent.
The Central Continent was a land rich in nature and pleasant to live on.
The Demon Continent was a barren wasteland where magical energy tended to pool.
Over more than three thousand years, the humans slowly tightened the noose, sealing off the Demon Continent to keep the lowly demons contained.
They coordinated with the other races, hoping to ensure the Human-Demon War would never happen again.
The demons probably did resist.
But against an enemy that used diplomatic means and closed in gradually, they never escalated to outright war.
Before long, the demons stopped even questioning why they couldn't leave the Demon Continent.
And in the harsh environment, fighting over the meager resources available, they naturally descended into civil war.
The demons were tempered by adversity, but their numbers dwindled.
—One thousand years ago— The Demon God Laplace was born.
Throughout history, there had been countless Demon Lords and Demon Emperors, but the only individual ever called a Demon God was this Laplace.
Laplace unified the demon race in the blink of an eye and conquered the Demon Continent.
Records of those battles remained, and they were told and retold as war chronicles.
Even now, Laplace was still an idol on the Demon Continent.
Over many years, Laplace built the Unified Demon World Empire and forged the demon race into a tough, resilient people.
—Five hundred years ago— The Laplace War began.
After years spent persuading the Sea Race and Beast Race, Laplace invaded the Central Continent.
The humans were subjected to a war far more brutal than anything before.
First, Laplace invaded from the south, drawing the human forces southward.
Then he released Red Dragons onto the Central Continent, rendering the mountains impassable.
He invaded from the north, splitting the human forces, and swept through the south in one devastating push.
Before anyone knew it, he had seized both the north and south of the Central Continent, then pressed into the west from two directions.
—Four hundred years ago— Desperate, the humans made their last gamble.
Seven heroes persuaded the Sea Race to lift their blockade, and by sea, they headed for the Millis Continent.
The Millis Continent had been spared from the invasion.
There were many reasons.
The Barrier of Sacred Millis, the formidable Holy Knights, the terrain that made large-scale landings difficult, and more.
Another reason they had held out was the existence of the Great Forest to the north.
The Beast Race had formed an alliance with the demon race and was keeping the Holy Millis Empire in check.
So the seven heroes went to persuade the Beast Race.
"Persuade" was putting it mildly — the seven of them went around to each Beast Race clan chief, taking children hostage and using intimidation.
The accounts were heavily beautified, claiming the children willingly cooperated, but yeah right.
Like I'm falling for that.
The day of the decisive battle.
The
Shortly after, the seven heroes led the Millis Holy Knights and the Beast Race in a surprise attack on Laplace's main camp.
After a fierce battle, four of the seven heroes died, but they annihilated Laplace's inner circle and succeeded in sealing away the Demon God Laplace.
The three survivors: Dragon God Urupen, North God Kalman, and the Armored Dragon King Perugius.
They were called the "Three Heroes Who Slew the Demon God."
…They didn't actually kill him, though.
Though Laplace was defeated, the humans were severely depleted and couldn't continue fighting.
So they signed a treaty with the moderate Demon Lords who had remained on the Demon Continent rather than follow Laplace.
The blockade of the Demon Continent was lifted, and the demon race was free to walk openly on the other continents as well.
Additionally, the treaty prohibited various forms of discrimination that had been directed at the demon race simply for being demons.
In our previous world, you'd call it a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
—Up to the present— On the Central Continent, anti-demon prejudice still lingered stubbornly, but for the most part, things were peaceful.
I learned several things from this history: ·Why the number seven was considered auspicious It came from history.
Seven Heroes. Seven Realms.
Seven was the lucky number. Six was unlucky.
There were the Five Dragon Generals and the Five Great Demon Lords, but including the boss, that made six.
·The long-eared race, the coal-miner race, the small-folk race, and various other species— Taxonomically, they were all classified as demon race, apparently.
But there was also a theory that they were new species born during the Age of Chaos.
They might even be connected to the Void Race mentioned earlier.
Incidentally, the reason such extensive history survived was that some races had no lifespan.
Kishirika Kishirisu was one such example, and there were apparently many other Demon Lords known for their immortality.
Perhaps there existed a magic that made the body immortal.
--- By studying history, I also gained some knowledge about the languages used in this world.
The main languages were as follows: ·The Human Language, used on the Central Continent. ·The Beast God Language, used on the Millis Continent. ·The Fighting God Language, used on the Begaritt Continent. ·The Heaven God Language, used on the Heaven Continent. ·The Demon God Language, used on the Demon Continent. ·The Sea God Language, used across the seas.
In other words, each language was named after the god of the race that inhabited that region.
But humans were the exception — theirs wasn't called the Human God Language.
Blasphemers.
The Human Language used on the Central Continent was divided into three dialects, each slightly different.
But the differences were roughly on par with American English versus British English.
I spoke the Western Central Continent dialect.
Even if I used western words in the north, people would understand me.
But apparently, it wasn't wise to speak the western dialect in other regions.
People from the west were thought to be wealthy.
So the wrong sort would try to pick your pocket.
The Millis Continent also had a north-south language split.
The north used the Beast God Language, and the south used the Human Language.
Across all the seas lived the Seafolk.
I'd heard the term "Sea Fish Race" somewhere before, but I'd never actually seen one in town.
--- Anyway, on top of my monthly salary, I made and sold figures, took odd jobs on my holidays (helping out Philip), and flipped items I'd purchased months earlier for a profit.
I'd been saving up to buy "Sig's Summoning Arts."
But that book had sold before I even noticed.
Summoning arts.
I was interested, but oh well.
If it's gone, it's gone.
I decided to spend the money I had on something else.
Something I could buy with about five gold coins.
Well, I didn't have to blow it all at once.
What caught my eye was a book written in an unfamiliar language.
After hearing about history and languages, I was reminded how important it really was to learn new words.
So I decided to study a foreign language.
I'd start with the Beast God Language, which Ghislaine could handle.
I also wanted to learn the Demon God Language.
I'd write
--- I turned nine.
Two years had passed since I became Eris's tutor.
--- It took me one year to master the Beast God Language.
Ghislaine helped me quite a bit.
The actual acquisition didn't take that long.
There were relatively few characters to memorize, and once you knew the patterns, the spoken language was easy too.
In my previous life, foreign languages had been my worst subject…
This body really does have an incredible memory.
And now.
I was studying the Demon God Language.
Books written in the demon race's language were cheap.
The bookshop owner even warned me upfront: "No idea what's written in there, y'know?"
It was seven silver coins.
I got him down to six.
--- Three more months passed.
Translation was a surprisingly difficult task.
Actually, let me be blunt.
I had absolutely no idea what was written.
If I'd at least known the title, I could have guessed at the content and filled in the gaps.
But not knowing the content and not knowing the words — I was completely lost.
Part of why the Beast God Language had come so easily was that Ghislaine was there to help.
But that wasn't the only reason.
The textbook I'd used happened to contain a story about a beast race hero that appeared in "The Legend of Perugius."
It was technically a side story, but with "The Legend of Perugius" on hand, picking out words had been easy.
But the Demon God Language? Completely impenetrable.
How on earth did archaeologists decode ancient scripts?
I think the method was to identify individual words.
Find the same word repeated, write them down, and hypothesize each meaning.
Probably something like that.
Yeah, well, before any of that, I couldn't even tell which cluster of symbols was a single word.
Utterly hopeless.
--- Finally, a letter from Roxy arrived.
It had been over a year with no word, so I'd been worrying that something had happened to the letter, or maybe Roxy was no longer in the Shirone Kingdom's palace.
It was here at last.
Just knowing it was a letter from Roxy made me happy.
I hoped my master was doing well.
I suppressed my eagerness and accepted the letter from the maid.
A letter…
Actually, it was a package.
A heavy wooden box.
Not particularly large.
About the size of a phone book, give or take.
Inside the box were a letter and a thick book.
The book had no title, and its cover was made of animal hide.
It looked like someone had wrapped a phone book in leather.
I'd read the letter first.
Before opening it, I caught a whiff of what I thought was Roxy's scent.
*'To
In such a short time, you've grown tremendously, I imagine.
I never would have thought you'd end up as tutor to the lord's granddaughter in the Fittoa Region — my jaw hit the floor and I still haven't picked it up.
For the record, I was rejected for that same position in an interview.
I suppose this is what connections get you.
If I weren't currently serving as the prince's tutor, I might be jealous.
And not only that — you've even gotten to know Sword King Ghislaine, and on top of that, she's become your disciple?
Sword King Ghislaine is extremely famous, you know.
After all, she's the fourth strongest in the Sword God Style.
Sigh… whatever happened to the Rudeus who peeped on me bathing when he was five?
You've become so distant.
Now, to the main topic.
You mentioned wanting to learn the Demon God Language.
Each demon race tribe possesses original magic unknown to the human race.
Though records likely don't exist, if you could speak the Demon God Language, you might one day visit a tribal settlement and have them teach you directly. Assuming you've built a good relationship, of course.
An ordinary magician couldn't hope to learn it, but with your abilities, Rudeus, you might even master it.
With those hopes in mind, I wrote a textbook just for you.
It's entirely in my own handwriting.
It took quite a long time, so please treasure it and don't sell or throw it away.
If I saw it being sold in a bookshop, I might cry…
Speaking of shops, the other day, the prince snuck out of the castle and bought a statue that looked exactly like me.
The robe was removable, and everything from the body proportions to the mole placement was identical.
It was creepy.
I might be cursed to death soon.
I can't think of who would do such a thing, though…
If things seem safe, I'll write again.
—Roxy P.S. Among adventurers, there's a general understanding that if you carry a staff, you're a magician.'* I see.
The bathing thing was a misunderstanding. I didn't peep.
I just happened to see her by chance.
It was pure chance. Really.
I did know Roxy's bathing schedule, but seeing her was an accident.
I may have deliberately taken a walk through the house at a certain time, but it was an accident.
Still, Ghislaine was the fourth strongest in the Sword God Style?
Sword God, Sword Emperor, Sword King — so… wait?
Oh, there were two Sword Emperors.
Which meant there was only one Sword King?
I'd heard there were massive numbers of Sword God Style practitioners worldwide.
So I'd assumed there were about ten Sword Kings or so, but turns out the bar was surprisingly high.
Also, it seemed the Roxy statue had coincidentally ended up near the real Roxy herself.
The prince had good taste.
Oh, but never mind that.
The enclosed book was her handwritten manuscript.
I had no idea how long postal delivery took, but she couldn't have spent more than half a year writing it.
She'd worked hard on this for me.
It was sure to be invaluable for deciphering the Demon God Language.
I'd do my best to crack it.
With that resolve, I sat back down in my chair and opened the book.
NOW READING.
Rudeus reading, or whatever.
"This is incredible."
I looked inside and couldn't hide my astonishment.
It was a textbook and a dictionary.
Every word of the Demon God Language was translated into the Human Language.
She must have referenced a linguistic dictionary — or something similar — from the Shirone Kingdom's palace and copied it all out.
Everything from individual words to fine expressions and pronunciation was covered completely.
But the surprises didn't end there.
The second half contained information on every tribe Roxy knew of.
"This species can't handle that, that species is weak against this."
She'd even drawn crude illustrations, complete with annotations like "This is the distinctive feature!!" with arrows pointing to specific details.
It was heartwarming to think Roxy had put so much effort into this.
The Migurd tribe section was the most detailed, spanning five pages.
If she'd worked that hard because she wanted me to learn about her own race, it was incredibly endearing.
*'The Migurd tribe all basically love sweets.'* Seriously?
Still, considering she'd produced all this in less than a year, I was truly in Roxy's debt.
If I ever met her again, I'd have to let her lick my feet or something.
It would surely taste delicious.
Anyway.
Be that as it may, this was, without question, the ultimate textbook for me right now.
I hadn't been much of a studious person in my previous life, but this body had an uncanny memory.
Given another half year, I'd have this book completely mastered.
At the very least, I wanted to be able to handle simple expressions.
I'd give it my all.
--- —Ghislaine's Perspective— Rudeus had locked himself in his room again.
He was up to something, as usual.
That boy never failed to surprise me.
When I first met him, I'd thought he was a thoroughly unremarkable kid.
I'd figured that overconfident
I did owe Paul.
Not beyond a sense of obligation, but an obligation nonetheless.
So I'd been thinking I should put in a good word, just in case Eris's young ladyship didn't take to him as a tutor, so at least he could stay at the manor.
That's what I'd been thinking.
But in the blink of an eye, he'd won Eris's trust and secured the position of tutor.
The kidnapping incident had been Rudeus's idea.
I'd heard the butler exploited it for money, but when I arrived on the scene, Rudeus was holding his own equally against the two men the butler had hired.
One of them was a senior practitioner of the North God Style, and yet Rudeus overwhelmed him by switching between two types of magic, or combining them, in a truly unique fighting style.
He was still a kid, so his finishing was a bit rough, but for someone his age, that battle sense was pure talent.
Even I could lose if the fight started from over a hundred meters away.
It wasn't just his battle sense.
He'd structured lesson plans for Eris and begun conducting efficient, well-organized classes.
The lessons were easy to understand.
Who would have thought that even I would learn to read, write, and do arithmetic — and on top of that, receive a staff…
The same me who had been called the worst troublemaker in the village, handed off to a traveling swordsman before I turned ten, became a Sword Saint only to be shunned by every party, and finally settled into a party where a vapid, scatterbrained man kept telling me I was all muscle and shouldn't bother thinking.
If I went back now, what faces would the villagers make?
Just imagining it almost made me laugh.
I never thought there'd come a day when thinking of the villagers would make me feel this way.
No one my own age — someone like a son to me — had ever given me this much.
After my party disbanded, every day had been about having things taken from me.
Swindled out of every last coin, yet too strictly raised by my master to touch other people's belongings, so I couldn't even steal.
I was starving, barely able to work, on the verge of death from hunger — until Lord Sauros and Lady Eris picked me up.
I held the same respect for them as I did for these two.
Master… if I said that, the Sword God would probably get angry, saying "You're putting me on the same level as that brat?!" — so I should say "teacher" instead.
I showed Rudeus the respect due to a teacher.
He was truly patient, teaching me arithmetic and magic.
I tried hard, but I was no quick study, and I repeated the same mistakes over and over.
But Rudeus never made a face about it. He taught me patiently and thoroughly, changing his words each time to help me understand.
Thanks to him, I was able to master beginner-level fire and water magic in just two years.
This was apparently Rudeus's teaching philosophy — rather than moving quickly to intermediate spells, he trained me to use what I'd learned without incantation.
Being able to cast simple magic even when both hands were occupied was incredibly practical.
So it all made perfect sense. Once I understood, the practice went smoothly.
Of course, even with practice, I couldn't always pull it off.
My swordsmanship master, the Sword God, had hammered the concept of "efficiency" into my thick skull.
"Efficiency is, in other words, the fundamentals."
Those were the Sword God's words.
The foundations cultivated over long years were a distillation of pure efficiency.
When I was young and hated practicing boring basics, my master made me repeat them over and over and over, lecturing endlessly.
That was how I obtained power far beyond my station — the rank of Sword King.
Rudeus's teaching method was remarkably similar to the Sword God's.
Eris's young ladyship grumbled to me behind Rudeus's back: "I want to learn flashier magic."
But I thought the current approach was fine.
In real combat, the most reliable ally wasn't a high-level magician who took ages to chant and unleash devastating spells.
It was a magician who adapted to the situation, selecting and deploying beginner and intermediate magic as needed.
I used to think magicians were useless in fights between people.
But not anymore.
After seeing Rudeus, I could say that with certainty.
A foe who could move at high speed while simultaneously disabling and attacking with magic was an unmatched threat for any swordsman.
I'd heard that back in the village, Paul was his regular sparring partner.
Knowing childish Paul, he probably pummeled Rudeus with brute force.
If that was what produced Rudeus's near-perfect anti-swordsman combat technique…
A blessing in disguise.
Even Paul did something good once in a while.
Of course, if things had gone differently, Rudeus might have given up on fighting altogether and let his talent go to waste.
The fact that he hadn't given up was probably because he'd inherited Paul's stubborn refusal to lose.
Someday, I'd like to teach him a technique that could defeat Paul.
Of course, Rudeus's talents lay in combat sense alone.
He had no aptitude for the Sword God Style.
In his pursuit of efficiency, he overthought everything.
He'd take an already efficient fundamental movement and try to make it even more efficient, only to end up being inefficient in practice.
Given Rudeus's personality, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and he was probably factoring magic into his approach anyway.
But the Sword God Style, which judged everything in a single step and settled matters in one instant crossing of blades, wasn't suited to that.
Paul apparently hadn't taught him, but the North God Style would probably suit him best.
Unfortunately, I could only use the Sword God Style.
I couldn't teach him anything else.
But I did have connections.
Three years from now, if Rudeus still wanted to learn swordsmanship, I'd introduce him to someone from the North God Style.
All I could do was keep teaching him the Sword God Style fundamentals.
If he had a solid foundation, he'd pick up the North God Style quickly once he started.
Of course, that was only if he still wanted to learn.
For now, he seemed stuck without a proper teacher, but eventually, Rudeus would achieve great things as a magician.
Reaching the God Tier was beyond human comprehension, but who knew — perhaps Rudeus could even reach the Emperor Tier.
What should I recommend for his future?
Surely Roxy, his magic teacher, had wrestled with the same question.
In the end, she'd run away, which was rather pathetic, but I didn't blame her.
If anything, I should be grateful to her.
Thanks to her, I could use magic now.
Even a brilliant teacher couldn't help if the student's mind was dull.
…Someday, I might come to find the task of teaching swordsmanship painful too.
My thoughts had drifted off track. Right.
Rudeus was doing something.
Though unlike Eris, who was always idle on her holidays, Rudeus was constantly trying new things.
Just the other day, he'd come to my room after dinner with a book in hand, saying he wanted to learn the Beast God Language.
I'd thought, what's the point of learning a language only used in the Great Forest?
But Rudeus had mastered it in half a year.
The Beast God Language didn't have complicated expressions.
He could probably handle everyday conversation perfectly.
"Now I can go to the 'Great Forest' whenever I want," he'd said.
"What would you even do in such a secluded place?" I asked.
"Huh? Well, nothing in particular… oh, there might be some cute girls there. Cat-eared ones."
That was when I knew for certain.
This kid was Paul's son alright, carrying the
That's right.
For some reason, the Greyrat men always looked at me with strange expressions.
If they were looking at me as a woman, it wouldn't bother me. But that wasn't it.
It was something oddly peculiar.
Most males looked at my chest.
They'd glance at my face first, then pretend to look elsewhere while sneaking peeks at my chest.
Then their gaze would drop — stomach, crotch, thighs. From behind, they'd stare at my rear.
Well, it didn't bother me.
But the Greyrat men were different.
At first, I thought they were just looking at my face and rear like everyone else.
Look all you want, I figured. It wasn't like they expected anything beyond that.
Only a pervert like Paul would go that far.
Or so I thought, until I noticed the gaze was aimed somewhere off.
Looking at my face required a slightly upward angle, and for the rear, it was directed slightly outward rather than at it…
When I figured out what they were actually looking at, it was my ears and tail.
Eris's young ladyship, Lord Sauros, and Lord Philip were all the same.
Before I went to pick up Rudeus by carriage, I finally asked why they stared at my ears.
Without changing his expression, Lord Philip said: "The Boreas family likes beastfolk."
He said it while looking at my ears.
Then I was told that Rudeus, though he hadn't inherited the noble family name, was from the Notos branch, so it was different.
"Still, being Paul's son, he's undoubtedly a womanizer," I was told.
That figures, I thought at the time.
But upon meeting him, Rudeus turned out to be far more gentlemanly than any son of Paul's.
He was more hardworking than any son of Paul's.
More diligent than any son of Paul's.
More… chaste? — than any son of Paul's.
Though I'd briefly wondered if he really was Paul's son.
But I'd reconsidered.
No doubt about it.
Rudeus Greyrat was of Paul's blood.
"As I thought, you're Paul's son.
Can't be satisfied unless it's a member of the same species who can talk back, huh?"
"I'm joking. Please stop talking like that."
It wasn't entirely a joke, either.
This kid was going to be a lady-killer someday.
Recently, Eris's young ladyship had started looking at Rudeus with a certain gleam in her eyes.
I was no expert on matters of the heart, but even I could tell.
She looked just like
And now Rudeus was apparently learning the Demon God Language.
After the beast race, it was the demons next.
Was this boy planning to set off on a journey to find girls from every race in the world?
Paul used to say similar things.
Something about touring the Central Continent and building a harem.
He'd apparently given up when he got caught by Zenith on the Millis Continent, but was Rudeus inheriting that legacy?
What a worthless pair of father and son…
No — I held Rudeus in genuine respect.
That wasn't a lie.
The only one I despised was Paul.
Rudeus had merely shown a glimpse of potential. He hadn't done anything.
Yet. He hadn't done anything yet.
He was a respectable young man.
Mm.
"What's wrong, Ghislaine?"
Lost in thought, I hadn't noticed Eris's young ladyship standing in front of me.
She too had grown considerably over these two years.
I'd first met her about five years ago.
At the time, I'd thought she was an untamable little hellion.
On the first day, I'd "spoiled" her in sword practice until she couldn't stand, and that night she'd come at me with a wooden sword.
After I knocked her down, she behaved for a while, but for months afterward she'd kept her eyes blazing bright, looking for an opening.
I'd been quite the troublemaker myself, so her behavior gave me a sense of kinship.
I used to be just like this, I thought.
At first, during sword practice, she'd complain nonstop — this exercise was awful, that drill was awful.
But recently, she'd become much calmer.
She'd stopped screaming so much around her birthday last year, and she wasn't ruining her clothes anymore.
It wasn't so much thanks to the etiquette lessons — she just didn't want to be seen that way by Rudeus.
I bet on her tenth birthday, Rudeus had said something to her.
Some line straight from Paul's playbook, the kind that reaches deep into a woman's core.
Come to think of it, Eris had apparently stayed overnight in Rudeus's room on her tenth birthday.
Could it be…? No, surely not.
But if these two eventually became a pair, I wouldn't be surprised.
There couldn't be many men who could handle Eris's young ladyship.
"I was thinking about Rudeus."
"Oh? Why?"
Eris's young ladyship tilted her head.
There was a faint hint of jealousy in her eyes.
Don't worry, I'm not going to steal him.
"About why he's studying the language of the Demon Continent."
"He told you before, didn't he?"
Did he?
I remembered Rudeus's lessons well enough, but I couldn't recall why he'd suddenly taken up language study.
"What did he say?"
"That it might come in handy someday."
Come to think of it, when he'd first arrived, I remembered him writing prices and product names in a shop while saying something like that.
Had that actually come in handy in the end?
Come to think of it, the thief I used to travel with in my old party had been an expert on consumable market prices.
We'd stumbled into a shop where he claimed their healing potions were half the going rate and we should stock up, only to get sold shoddy goods — that was an unpleasant memory.
But thinking about it, if you didn't know the market price, you could be swindled into paying double or triple for garbage and never even realize it.
Back then I'd said I didn't care, but on reflection, knowing market prices was genuinely useful.
Thanks to learning arithmetic from Rudeus, I'd never get shortchanged on change again — but from the start, they might have been juking the prices themselves.
Learning arithmetic didn't make you a merchant, though.
"Never mind about Rudeus.
It's not like thinking about it will help me understand.
More importantly, Ghislaine — if you're free, drill me in sword practice."
Eris's young ladyship had become remarkably dedicated to her sword training lately.
I wasn't sure of the reason, but she might have been feeling a sense of urgency.
Rudeus was nine.
The young ladyship had been nine when she first met him.
It was plain as day that the current Rudeus was more composed than Eris had been at the same age.
Reading, writing, arithmetic, magic — that went without saying.
But even social awareness and conversational ability.
He had no formal etiquette training, but he had manners.
His demeanor was as polished as a merchant's.
He had a sense of humor, too.
Some of his risqué jokes were a bit much, but that was part of his charm.
You'd truly question whether he was really nine.
If you only exchanged letters, you might believe someone told you he was forty.
Come to think of it, in the Dragon Kingdom, apparently that kind of scam was trending.
Literate thieves would impersonate young nobles, write letters to noble daughters, spend a long time building trust, then one day lure them out, capture them, and sell them to slave traders.
Eris's young ladyship might have wanted to find at least one thing she could beat Rudeus at.
If that was swordsmanship, then as far as I was concerned, I was happy to help.
"All right, Eris. Let's head to the courtyard."
"Okay!"
Eris's young ladyship nodded energetically.
She had genuine talent for the Sword God Style.
If she kept training seriously, she might one day surpass even me.
She was still at the intermediate level, but three years of relentless fundamentals training were finally starting to show results.
Her footwork was sharp and swift.
She was beginning to develop battle aura.
Once she learned to consciously control her battle aura, she would officially become a senior practitioner of the Sword God Style.
If she gained full mastery, she'd be a Sword Saint.
That day might not be far off.
I didn't know how far Eris's young ladyship would go, but if she became a Sword Saint while I was teaching her, I'd introduce her to my master.
Preferably with Rudeus along.
What kind of face would my master make?
I couldn't wait.
:STATUS: Name: Eris B. Greyrat Occupation: Granddaughter of the Fittoa Domain Lord Personality: Somewhat violent Obedience: Listens obediently Reading & Writing: Writing has improved Arithmetic: Still struggles with division Magic: Completely unable to cast without incantation Swordsmanship: Sword God Style, Intermediate (soon Advanced) Etiquette: Plays at being a lady Favorites: Grandpa, Ghislaine, Rudeus