“Father, may I go play outside?”
“Ah…
oh, of course.”
I hadn’t expected him to agree so readily.
A child this age could disappear in the blink of an eye if you weren’t careful.
I had no particular desire to go out, but Zenith seemed to think it was strange for a child my age to stay cooped up at home reading all day.
She was even starting to worry about my mental state.
Oh well.
I might as well do something befitting a child my age.
Go play outside.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t given you much free time to use as you please.
It’s our duty as parents to have you study both magic and swordsmanship — but play is necessary for a child too.”
“I’m grateful you allowed me to meet such a fine teacher.”
I’d thought Paul was about to say something else.
His thinking turned out to be more flexible than I expected.
“Go on.
And come back with some friends.”
“I’ll do my best.”
With that, I left the yard.
Come to think of it, I’d rarely ever stepped outside.
Two years ago I went to the village with Zenith to buy things, and after that the only time I’d gone out was for Roxy’s graduation exam.
Going out to play as a child was far less interesting than staying home to study magic.
Recently, though, my magic research had made a significant breakthrough.
Soundproofing.
My original plan was Silence Magic, something to block out sound entirely.
But I couldn’t pull it off.
So instead I used earth magic to coat the walls of my room, and that did the trick well enough.
My control over magic was decent enough that it never made a mess of the house.
At most, a little dust on the floor.
“Mm.
Life from here on is going to be much better.”
No longer hearing Paul and Zenith making babies at night, my sleep quality had been improving by the day.
Enough of these stray thoughts.
Since I was out, I should do something worthwhile.
Like the monsters Paul had recently been complaining to Zenith about.
The monsters deep in the forest were growing more numerous.
That was genuinely interesting.
I’d never seen a monster before, and I found I couldn’t help being curious.
So I walked slowly to the forest entrance and set up some magic there.
A formation, the kind that would alert me the moment any living creature passed through.
No offensive properties.
I just wanted to see what monsters actually looked like.
I had no intention of hunting them.
I was only five, after all.
I ventured a little deeper into the forest, set up formations in a few different spots, then withdrew.
If any monsters appeared, I’d tell Paul.
He was strong enough to handle it.
“That went pretty smoothly.”
Turning the image of some unknown monster over in my mind, I left the forest and headed toward a small hill.
A single, solitary tree stood at the top, probably the largest tree in the whole area.
A good vantage point to check the village’s terrain.
Heading to higher ground is never a bad idea.
Just then,
“Demon race, get out of the village!”
The wind carried the shout over.
“Get lost!”
“Take this!”
“Nice, hit him!”
That was the unmistakable sound of people using numbers to bully someone weaker.
I turned.
Out in the field, 3 mud-caked boys were hurling clumps of dirt at a boy walking along the road beside them.
“Ten points for hitting the head!”
“Yeah!”
“I hit him!
I hit him!”
I hate seeing scenes like this.
Bullying.
I never experienced it myself during my school years, but I’d seen what it did to the people on the receiving end.
Victim-blaming is despicable.
And yet, if I was being honest, the anger I felt right now was directed at the boy being bullied.
I hate people who don’t even try to resist.
But thinking it over, he was just a child.
Oh well.
“Hey.
Ganging up on someone isn’t very manly, you know.”
I walked toward them as I said it.
“Who are you?
You siding with the demon race?”
“You — get lost!” another boy shouted, and threw a rock at me.
A rock.
Could I take that as intent to kill?
I deflected it with wind magic and kept walking.
“When you bully someone weaker than you, have you prepared yourselves to be bullied by someone even stronger?”
“What are you even talking about?”
“Trying to act cool?”
“You’re that knight family’s kid, right?
The noble young master playing knight games?”
My identity was out.
It didn’t matter.
“I’m gonna tell everyone the knight’s kid is a demon race ally!”
“Go get big brother and the others!”
The children yelled for backup.
Nobody came.
Oh well.
Beating up kids isn’t my hobby.
“You still not leaving?
The knight family’s kid can fight way better than you lot,” I called out.
“A knight…
can a knight’s kid actually do that?”
“I train every day.
Come at me if you want — all of you at once, I don’t mind.”
“Tch…
demon…
demon race ally!”
That little bit of posturing was all it took.
The brats turned and ran.
They were just children, in the end.
The bullying was probably something their parents had been feeding them.
I walked over to the boy.
He still had his head down.
Crying, it seemed.
“Are you okay?”
He looked up.
He had eyelashes that were long for a child his age, a straight nose, thin lips, and a jawline so elegant it made your heart catch for a moment.
His skin was like white porcelain.
Paired with the expression of a startled rabbit, it produced a beauty that was difficult to put into words.
“Ah…
um…
I…
I’m fine…”
So weak.
A boy, and not a shred of fighting spirit in him.
How did his parents raise him?
“Go crouch down by the irrigation ditch.”
“Eh…?
Huh…?”
He was baffled, but he did as he was told.
What an irritating personality.
Not even a hint of defiance.
“Close your eyes.”
I used fire magic to warm the water to a comfortable temperature, then poured it over his head.
“Wah!”
He startled and tried to bolt.
I grabbed the back of his collar and held him in place, working the mud out with the running water.
He squirmed at first, but once he got used to the warmth, he settled down.
“Alright.
That should do it.”
With the mud gone, what emerged before me were long, elf-like ears and a head of extraordinarily beautiful emerald-green hair.
Emerald-green hair and the long ears of the elf race.
No wonder people mistook him for a demon race.
I pushed the hair back from his forehead and checked.
No ruby-like gem embedded there.
Not of the Superd race, then.
My teacher had warned me that race was dangerous.
“Th…
thank you…”
His voice pulled me back.
“Learn to fight back.
Next time, no one will come to save you.”
“But…
I can’t win…”
“The point is to have the will to resist.
And don’t let me see your tears again.
Boys shouldn’t cry so easily.”
“Uu…”
But…
Thinking it over, maybe I’d been too harsh.
He was only a few years old too.
“Forget it.
Pretend I didn’t say any of that.
You’ve had it rough, getting bullied just because of your hair color.”
“You…
you don’t mind…?”
“My teacher is from the demon race.
I won’t hold any prejudice against you.”
“Th…
thank you…
but…
I’m not demon race…”
“I know.
Elf?”
“I’m not sure either…”
He looked like he was about to cry again.
But as if remembering what I’d just said, he held it back.
“Shall we go?”
“Go…
go where?”
“Wherever you’re going, I’ll go.
You’re supposed to deliver something, aren’t you?”
“Mm…
I’m bringing…
lunch to my dad…”
“Then let’s head out.”
I picked up his basket.
“Um…
why…
did you protect me?”
He asked it hesitantly, his whole posture radiating a vulnerability that made you want to step in front of him.
“An ally of the weak.
Something like that.
Does that answer work for you?”
“But…
you might be hated by others too…”
“You.
Listen carefully.”
I pressed my finger to his forehead.
“If you go against your own heart just because you’re afraid of being hated, you don’t deserve to be called a man.”
“Uu…”
“From today on, you’re my friend.”
“Eh!?”
“What — you don’t want to?”
“N-no…
um…
thank you.”
“Rudeus.
That’s my name.
And you?”
“Sylphie…
ette.”
His voice was barely above a murmur, but I caught it.
“Sylphie?
Mm.
Not a bad name.”
Though it really did sound like a girl’s name.
“Mm!”
When I said that, Sylphie nodded with a reddened face.
…
When I got home, Paul was standing at the front door with a complicated look on his face.
When he saw me, he worked to make his expression stern.
“Father, I’m back.”
“Rudy, what did you do today?”
I thought it over.
I genuinely couldn’t think of anything worth reporting.
“Made a friend.”
“And what else?”
“Nothing else, I think.”
“Just now, Mrs.
Eit came by.
She says you used your status as a knight’s child to threaten their son, Somar?”
Eit?
Somar?
Who were they?
Then the word “threaten” jogged something loose.
Those brats went and exaggerated the whole thing.
Next time I saw them, I was going to make them regret it.
“Father, I did not threaten anyone.
I used my identity to protect someone weaker.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.
Their children were bullying a boy named Sylphie, throwing mud and rocks at him.
I couldn’t stand by.
But I remembered your teachings and didn’t use magic to attack them.
Instead I declared I was a knight’s child and told them they couldn’t beat me.
That was all I said to drive them off.”
“Is…
that so…?”
“Yes, Father.
Do you think what I did was wrong?”
“No…” Paul gave an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head.
“You did well, Rudy.”
“It’s all thanks to your teaching, Father.”
My father was only in his twenties.
I’d probably never given him a reason to feel like he was truly being a father, never made a mistake he had to correct, never caused him trouble he had to sort out.
That was understandable.
But I didn’t know how to be a proper son to a father.
In my previous life, I’d never had one.
In my previous life, no matter what I did, my mother praised me.
Even when I looked back later and knew I’d been wrong, she had encouraged me anyway.
Either way, the misunderstanding was settled.
Time to move on.
“Father, aren’t you coming in for dinner?”
“Ah…
mm, yes.”
➤ Next: Genius — Words Unspoken