“Kyaa!
Rudy is so cute!”
Zenith let out a startled cry and excitedly pulled Rudy into her arms to cuddle him repeatedly.
“It would have been so wonderful if Mommy had given birth to you as a girl!”
Rudy had a look of utter despair as he let Zenith fuss over him.
“Hey, Luna, what’s going on with you two?”
Facing Paul’s questioning, I had long since prepared my explanation.
“In order to help Rudy and Sylphy make up faster, I had him change into girl’s clothes.”
“Just changing into girl’s clothes will work?”
“Of course not, but we can cheer Sylphie up first, and then Rudy can apologize to her later.”
Paul and Zenith looked at each other with wry smiles.
They probably thought such a naive method wouldn’t work very well.
Lilia, however, gave me an encouraging look.
Ever since what happened yesterday, the way Lilia looked at Rudy had become increasingly disdainful; she probably thought Rudy would grow up to be quite the lecher.
“Hello, is Sylphie home?”
With Rudy leading the way, he and I went to visit Sylphie’s house.
Although Rudy was looking around restlessly along the way, it was entirely because he was afraid of someone discovering him in girls’ clothes.
“Oh, are you friends of Sylphy?”
A young woman came out to greet us; she was likely Sylphie’s mother.
Sylphy?
Oh, it must be Sylphie’s nickname.
“Yes, we’re her friends.
We came to play with her today.”
“Oh, I see.
That child went to bring lunch to her father.
Why don’t you wait for a while?”
I looked at Rudy, letting him make the decision.
“Thank you, ma’am.
We’ll go find her over by Mr.
Rolz’s place.
Goodbye.”
After politely saying goodbye to the woman, Rudy and I headed toward the watchtower to look for Sylphie.
Since Buena Village is located on the border of the Asura Kingdom, it is surrounded by a vast, lush forest inhabited by all sorts of dangerous monsters.
Every year during certain seasons, monster outbreaks occur where they swarm out of the forest and attack the villagers.
So, the villagers spontaneously formed a militia.
The men take turns at the watchtower to monitor the movements of monsters in the forest.
Once a monster rushes out, the alarm is sounded, and Paul and the others immediately set out to deal with them.
Sometimes, Paul even organizes people to go directly into the forest to handle monsters, nipping the danger in the bud.
And it just so happened to be Sylphie’s father’s turn for duty these past few days.
Her father is the only hunter in the village, with excellent archery skills and eyesight, making him an outstanding scout.
“There she is!
It’s Sylphie, she’s over there!”
Standing on the watchtower was a handsome man of the Long-Ear Race with blonde hair, and a little girl with green hair who looked like a young boy.
At first, Sylphie didn’t recognize Rudy; after all, he was currently wearing girls’ clothes.
Once we got closer and she realized it was Rudy, she quickly ducked behind her father.
“What’s wrong, Sylphy?
And Rudy, aren’t you a boy?
Why are you wearing a dress?”
At this, Rudy looked incredibly embarrassed.
“Hello, Mr.
Rolz.”
“And you are?”
“I’m Paul’s daughter, Luna.”
“Oh, it’s Luna.
Paul has mentioned you to me—his daughter who makes him so proud and whom he loves dearly.”
It seems Paul thinks quite highly of me.
“Actually, it’s like this: Rudy is here to apologize.”
“Apologize?”
Well, given Sylphie’s timid personality, she definitely hadn’t gone home and told her parents about yesterday.
Instead, she had likely endured it in silence, just as she had when she was bullied in the past.
“Here’s what happened…” In front of Rudy, I frankly told Rolz about yesterday’s events.
It wasn’t a big deal, just a misunderstanding caused by mistaking her gender.
Besides, Rudy hadn’t actually done anything, and he had come today to apologize sincerely.
“Oh, I see.
You were indeed in the wrong, Rudy.
You let down Paul’s expectations of you.
Come now, apologize to our Sylphiette.”
Rolz wasn’t angry, but he kept a straight face and his attitude became very serious.
After all, his daughter had been bullied, and as a father, he had to take a stand.
Sylphiette?
Isn’t her name Sylphie?
Rudy knelt before Sylphiette in a dogeza posture.
“I’m sorry, Sylphie!
I was wrong yesterday.
Please forgive me!”
“I…
I’m not angry with Rudy.
I just…
I just didn’t know how to act around you.”
Sylphiette said timidly.
She surely understood that Rudy hadn’t done it on purpose yesterday.
How could someone who saved her from a group of bullies and was willing to play with her do something like that?
She must have eventually figured it out on her own.
“Oh, so you’ve made up?
That’s wonderful.
Rudy even said he’d be Sylphiette’s younger sister for the whole day today.”
“When did I ever say that?
And isn’t her name Sylphie?”
Sylphiette shook her head, correcting Rudy’s mistake.
“My name is Sylphie, Sylphiette.”
The green-haired little girl gave us a sweet smile, and the gender fiasco passed just like that.
Sylphiette and Rudy quickly made up, and she became good friends with me as well.
Whenever the three of us were free, we would play under the big tree on the hill.
It felt nice to return to childhood, especially with such cute children for company.
???
“Mash, Ortega, Jet Stream Attack!”
“Roger!”
“Eh?”
On the hill, the three children were actually role-playing, though Sylphiette obviously didn’t understand the memes from our world.
“Let’s use a different one next time, a meme that Sylphiette can understand.”
“True.
But since we’ve played enough, let’s get back to studying.”
Studying.
Rudy surprisingly had a talent for teaching.
A little girl like Sylphiette, who didn’t know a single word, learned how to write her name and simple skills like reading letters in just a few days.
Furthermore, she could use magic—and Chantless Magic at that.
It seemed Sylphiette learned it quite easily; if Roxy-sensei found out, she might cry herself unconscious.
After practicing for the whole morning, Sylphiette had to bring lunch to her father.
“We’ll go with you.
That area is close to the forest, so monsters might appear.”
“Thank you, Luna.”
This season had once again brought the time of monster outbreaks.
Although the Asura Kingdom, being a plain, didn’t have any world-destroying super-monsters, there were still monsters capable of wiping out a village under the lead of a single creature.
For example, a monster like a Termination Boar would gather dozens of creatures like Swift Hounds or Aggressive Hounds to attack a village.
If the territorial knight order didn’t deploy troops in time to exterminate them, a village targeted by a Termination Boar would soon perish.
“Woof!
Woof!
Woof!”
As we approached the watchtower, we actually encountered monsters emerging from the forest.
There were three canine monsters I didn’t recognize.
They barked fiercely at us, and Sylphiette collapsed to the ground in terror, shivering as she clutched her lunch box.
Rudy’s expression also turned very grim.
These three monsters looked to be about the size of an average large dog, resembling a mix between a Rottweiler and a Doberman.
They looked very fierce.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Rolz had clearly noticed the anomaly here and quickly rang the alarm bell, then jumped down from the watchtower with his bow and arrows, running toward us.
However, there might not be enough time to wait for him; the three canine monsters were closing in on us step by step.
“Rudy, you protect Sylphiette.
I’ll handle these three monsters.”
A biped, when unafraid of pain, is perfectly capable of defeating canines.
I didn’t have a dagger on me, but fortunately, I had magic as a means of attack.
Fireball, fireball, fireball.
First, a “Prince’s Tactic.” Although the barrage of fireballs only hit one monster, the effect was outstanding.
The one that was hit turned into a piece of roasted meat on the spot, lying silent on the ground.
The remaining two were clearly startled, their bodies freezing for a moment.
Then, with a thud!
The head of one of them was smashed by a stone.
Looking back, Rudy had joined the fight as well.
He had seized the opportunity just now and attacked using Earth Magic.
“Good, only one left.”
Just as we were about to finish off the last one, the canine monster fled toward the forest.
Naturally, we gave up on the pursuit.
Just when we thought it was over, a beautiful arc appeared in the sky, and an arrow struck the fleeing monster like a homing missile.
It was Sylphiette’s father, Rolz.
Are elves really all such excellent archers?
He could easily hit an enemy at such a distance, even a moving target.
“Are you all alright?”
Rolz stowed his bow and asked with concern.
“We’re fine, no one was hurt.
Thank you for your help.”
“Phew, that’s a relief.
Thanks to you two, Sylphy wasn’t hurt either.”
Rudy helped up the still-shaken Sylphiette; she had truly been terrified just now.
After handing Rolz his meal for the night watch, we escorted Sylphiette home like bodyguards.
“Rudy, Luna, you guys were so cool just now.”
She had repeated this sentence several times on the way back.
“Once Sylphiette can master magic well, you’ll be just as cool.”
“Yeah!”
Sylphiette’s ruby-like eyes were filled with anticipation for the future.
???
Not long after Rudy and I got home, Paul returned, looking travel-worn as he rode in on Calvajo.
“I heard from Rolz that you two killed three Aggressive Hounds today?”
“What’s an Aggressive Hound?”
“Oh right, you don’t recognize these monsters yet.
They’re…”
While Paul took off his gear with Lilia’s help, he looked at Rudy and me with pride and talked about what had just happened.
It turned out that after Rolz rang the alarm, Paul had rushed over on his horse.
He had been patrolling the area, and the spot he chose was carefully considered so he could reach any of the watchtowers in time.
By the time Paul arrived, everything was over.
There was nothing left except for Rolz, who was marveling to Paul about how exceptional Rudy and I were.
Rolz had collected the monster carcasses to dismantle for materials to sell.
“As expected of my offspring!
Not showing any fear in your first battle—you have a bright future ahead.”
Paul laughed heartily with relief, but Zenith interrupted him.
“Dear, Rudy and Luna aren’t even six yet.
Shouldn’t you be more concerned about their safety?”
“Oh, right.
Next time you encounter something like this, try to run toward an adult.
After all, you’re still too young; this victory might have just been a fluke.”
The carried-away Paul immediately switched to the lecturing tone of an experienced father, seemingly trying to leave an image of a great father in our minds.
However, this image would collapse in less than a few months.