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One year after my sisters were born.
Magic research went on hold.
I put it aside and spent my days playing with them instead.
Sylphiette came by the house often to visit, and today was no different.
“Sy…
lphie…
onee…
chan.”
Aisha sounded out each syllable carefully, crawling toward Sylphiette with total focus.
Sylphiette crouched down and scooped her up.
“It’s not onee-chan.
It’s onii-chan.”
I corrected her.
Aisha glanced over at me.
Just once.
The look she gave me was the kind you’d aim at someone too dense to bother with, and then she turned back to Sylphiette without changing a thing.
Hm?
What’s going on?
Why is my well-behaved, clever, adorable little sister suddenly ignoring me?
Aisha really was sharp.
She picked things up faster than any child her age had any right to.
But she was still only one year old, and I wasn’t expecting miracles.
As long as she grew up safe and unharmed, that was more than enough.
“Rudeus.”
Paul’s voice cut through the room.
“Father.
Is something the matter?”
I looked up.
He was holding Norn, who looked perfectly content nestled in the crook of his arm.
She was always like that with me too, quiet and easy, never any trouble.
“Sylphiette, could you watch the girls for a bit?
Rudeus, come with me.”
Sylphiette nodded.
Paul set Norn down.
“Oh…”
I gently set Aisha down and followed Paul out into the yard.
He was glancing left and right when we got there, like he was waiting for something.
“So.
Any interest in becoming a private tutor?”
Arms crossed, eyes closed, he wore the expression of a man making a very serious decision.
“A private tutor?”
“That’s right.
Teaching a lovely young lady.
There’d be a salary, of course.”
Paul.
You’re trying to put your seven-year-old son to work.
Honestly, I didn’t hate the idea.
If anything, I was a little curious.
I’d always wondered what Roxy was thinking when she was teaching me.
But that wasn’t the point.
What Paul was doing was not what a father was supposed to do.
“Father, I don’t object to earning money as a tutor.
But why me?
Are the family finances in trouble?”
“Maybe…
there are some issues there…?
But that’s not the whole reason.
It’s more of a…
this is something between me and…
uh.
A promise I made to a friend.”
“Why do I have to keep a promise you made to your friend?”
“Please!
Rudeus~ just help your old man out this once…”
Paul pressed his palms together and beamed at me with the most shameless smile I’d ever seen on an adult.
Unbelievable.
He wanted his own son to carry out something he’d left unfinished himself.
Paul, I literally just praised you for growing up.
A person can never run from their own responsibilities.
I was going to make him understand that.
“Father…”
He cut me off before I could get another word out.
“Rudeus.
If a swordsman attacked you right now, do you think you could win?”
“What kind of swordsman?”
“Uh…
maybe a little stronger than me?”
“Then I’d probably…”
I never finished the sentence.
Rapid footsteps, close and closing fast.
In an instant, I cast across the entire yard.
Ice.
Everything, right down to the ground.
Then I swept my eyes left and right and caught the silhouette.
“Father, there’s an ene…”
I looked toward Paul.
He was gone.
The footsteps kept coming.
Not good.
I stomped the ground, collapsing the ice beneath the sound’s source into a bog.
Then I sent lightning crashing straight into it.
The smoke cleared.
A beastman.
Silver-white fur.
Warm brown skin.
The whole sequence hadn’t done much to her, but that was fine.
Wide-area magic wasn’t meant to finish the fight.
It was meant to find her.
I crouched and watched.
The moment she pushed herself upright, she disappeared.
My eyes lost her completely.
But my eyes weren’t the only thing I had.
I pressed my hand to the frozen ground and let my magic flow into it, feeling for anything alive moving across the ice.
As long as she was stepping on this surface, I would know exactly where she was.
No matter how fast.
The instant she closed within reach, I fired.
Ice magic, straight at her feet.
Both ankles locked.
“Who are you?!”
She didn’t answer.
“Then…”
I cast Saint-level wind magic without hesitation.
Wind Winding Dance, aimed right at her throat.
I meant to kill her.
Her sword came up and blocked it.
The blade spun out of her grip and launched into the air.
I held the spell together and came at her neck again.
Her feet shattered free from the ice and she launched herself upward.
I was already moving.
Ice locked both her hands.
Her sword came loose.
A swordsman with empty hands is no different from a person standing bare before a predator.
Checkmate.
I’ve already won.
You have nothing left.
I declared it to myself and prepared to end it.
Then she caught the sword in her mouth.
“Her mouth?!”
She came at me with the blade clenched between her teeth, moving in a way that had no business working, in a way that violated everything I understood about how a body was supposed to move.
I had never imagined this.
Not once.
Not even Paul had ever fought with a sword in his mouth.
Think.
Think now.
In that single second, I ran through everything.
Spell after spell after spell.
None of them were fast enough.
I’m not going to make it.
I’m going to die.
Something hit the back of my neck.
The world went black.
➤ Next: Paul — What Was Lost