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I walked into the room they’d assigned me.
Every piece of furniture looked expensive.
There was a large bed, a bookshelf still smelling faintly of fresh lacquer, decorative curtains framing the window.
Nice room.
Probably because I counted as a Greyrat, so they put me in a guest room instead of the staff quarters.
Speaking of staff, for some reason, most of the maids here were Beastmen.
I’d heard this country had a particular hostility toward the Demon Race, but apparently Beastmen were a different story.
I dropped onto the bed face-first and felt the softness swallow me.
“Ugh…”
I rolled over.
The bruises made themselves known immediately.
Damn.
Hard to believe she’s nine years old.
Maybe she got it from her grandfather.
Her father didn’t strike me as the type with a short fuse.
But teaching her…
no matter how I tried to approach it mentally, I could already see her flying off the handle.
“…No wonder they kicked her out of school.”
Those fighting movements weren’t childish flailing.
They were practiced.
Accustomed.
The kind you develop when you hit people often enough that it doesn’t matter whether they hit back, you just keep going until they stop moving.
Can I actually teach someone like that?
Teaching Sylphiette magic had gone so smoothly it gave me a false sense of confidence.
Maybe teaching isn’t that hard, I’d thought.
“Anyway…
sleep first.”
…
The next morning, I woke up, washed up, and opened the door to find a Beastman maid standing directly outside it.
“Young Master Rudeus.
Please follow me.”
She led me to where the staff ate their meals.
So the accommodations were guest-room level, but meals were with the hired staff.
Alright.
No real objection there.
After eating, the same maid walked me to the courtyard, stepped aside the moment I crossed the threshold, and left without another word.
That was the only sentence she’d spoken the entire morning.
Efficient.
I headed deeper into the courtyard.
BANG.
BANG.
Familiar sound.
Wooden swords.
I followed it.
Ghislaine.
And Eris.
They were sparring.
No wonder the girl was violent.
Her teacher opened negotiations with a sword swing too.
Ghislaine stopped when she saw me coming.
She tossed her wooden sword in my direction.
“Rudeus.
Spar with Eris.”
“Good!” Eris planted her feet and pointed at me.
“If Rudeus loses, he’s not qualified to be my teacher!”
So yesterday’s beating was just a warm-up tax.
“Fine,” I said.
“If I win, you listen to what I say.”
“Ah — no magic!”
“Got it.”
I smiled.
Nine years old.
I’d been drilling sword forms for years.
However you looked at it, this shouldn’t be,
“Begin!”
Ghislaine’s voice hadn’t fully left her mouth before I understood exactly how wrong I was.
Red hair.
Coming at me fast.
Faster than I’d predicted.
I swung a horizontal cut.
She wasn’t there anymore, she’d dropped her center of gravity in the instant before contact, ducked under my blade, and drove the tip of her wooden sword into my stomach.
This kid…
why is it always the stomach…
“I surrender.”
I went down on one knee, both hands pressed over my midsection.
“O sacred power, fragrant grain that sustains, grant strength to rise again to those who have lost it.
[Healing].”
The ache faded.
I stood up.
Eris had her arms crossed, looking down at me with the full satisfaction of someone who had never doubted the outcome.
“I won!”
“Yeah.
You won.”
Lost to a nine-year-old.
No excuses.
A loss is a loss.
This girl might actually be a prodigy.
Paul had told me my swordsmanship was well ahead of others my age.
So why did this just happen?
Could it really be that the small, fire-haired child in front of me was genuinely gifted with a sword?
I was still chewing on that when Ghislaine spoke.
“Rudeus.”
“Hm?”
“You focus too much on your forms.
Without speed and strength backing them, forms alone are worthless.”
I focused too much on my forms.
I picked up the sword, started settling into a ready stance, and got floored before I could finish.
And Ghislaine’s read on that was: too much focus on forms.
Well.
She’s the expert.
I’ll take it.
“…Fair enough.”
“And why is your reaction speed so much slower than before?
The first time we fought, you were noticeably sharper.”
“That’s because, ”
Eris cut in before I could finish, practically vibrating.
“Wait, you fought Ghislaine?!”
“Yes.”
“Who won?!
Who won?!”
She had the energy of a kid who already knew the ending of the show but needed to hear it said out loud anyway.
“I lost, obviously.”
“I knew it!”
She got her answer and beamed.
Then she grabbed my arm, clearly ready to drag me into another round.
Ghislaine’s voice stopped her.
“Rudeus.
You still haven’t answered my question.”
I scratched the back of my head.
“I cast a wide-area persistent spell first, then used mana to read your movements through it, and fought based on prediction.
What I did wasn’t reaction.
It was anticipation through the magic field.”
Ghislaine went still.
For a beat, her eyes went wide, like she’d just been told something that didn’t fit her existing framework.
“That’s the most sophisticated fighting style I’ve ever seen from a mage.
And I’ve never heard of anyone reading an opponent’s movements through mana before.”
“It only works through magic I’ve already released,” I said.
“Without that wide field established first, there’s nothing to sense through.
If I hadn’t opened with area coverage, I wouldn’t have been able to track you at all.”
“I see.” She was quiet for a moment.
“So when facing a mage who does that, watch what they do after they cast something wide.
I’ve never heard of mana-sensing before, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
“If you ever have questions about magic, feel free to ask.”
As I said that, I caught movement behind Ghislaine.
Her tail was swaying.
Was that…
happiness?
Like a dog?
Ghislaine turned to Eris.
“In that fight, Eris, I nearly lost.”
“…Eh?!”
“Rudeus’s command of magic exceeds most people alive in this world.
If he genuinely commits to teaching you, he could make you an advanced-rank mage.”
Eris stared at her.
Then she froze for a few seconds, processing.
Then she walked straight up to me.
“Rudeus!
Show me your strongest magic.
Right now!”
So that was Ghislaine’s angle.
Get Eris to accept me on her own terms.
I didn’t know whether Eris had any real aptitude for magic.
But right now, if I showed her something that floored her, she’d fall in line.
And then I could do my three years and go home.
After that, whatever happened would be on her.
I nodded.
“Alright.
I’ll show you my ultimate technique.”
I took out the staff Roxy had given me.
Absolute power, though, that wasn’t actually what I needed here.
What a child wanted wasn’t the strongest magic.
It was the most spectacular magic.
The kind that makes your jaw drop.
For me, that was easy.
I let her curiosity build for a second, then opened my mouth.
“Demonic flames that burn without end in the depths of hell — by my name, I call you forth!
Become my blade and reduce to ash all who stand against me — Fire Ball!”
Dramatic incantation.
Completely made up on the spot.
The spell itself was just a large-scale Fireball.
Fire magic wasn’t my area of focus, but it was the most responsive element to shape and control.
Simple to make look impressive.
In the sky above the courtyard, a dragon formed from flame unfolded its wings.
It stretched wider and wider until its silhouette swallowed nearly the entire yard in flickering orange light.
After 2 minutes, I dismissed it.
Mostly because I’d scaled it too large and had no interest in explaining a fire incident to the household.
“That…
that was incredible!”
Eris’s eyes were wide and bright, the earlier stubbornness completely gone.
I glanced at Ghislaine.
No reaction.
She’d felt exactly what it was, a Fireball.
A big one, but still.
“Rudeus!
Teach me that magic!”
“Hmm, let me think about it…”
“Fine!
I accept you as my teacher!
Just teach me already!”
All that resistance, abandoned in about forty seconds.
“Well, I suppose I can’t refuse~ Teaching is what a teacher does, after all.”
So I started planning how to introduce Eris to the fundamentals of low-tier fire magic.
I moved beside Ghislaine and kept my voice low.
“Thank you.
For earlier.”
Ghislaine tilted her head slightly.
“What are you talking about?”
Right.
I was reading into things.
➤ Next: The Teacher