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Another six months passed.
Eris’s education was going smoothly, except for arithmetic.
In swordsmanship, she seemed to be a genuine prodigy.
She’d already reached the Intermediate level before turning ten.
Intermediate meant she could hold her own against an average knight.
According to Ghislaine, Eris would likely reach Advanced within the next few years.
And she’d only just turned ten.
When I asked, “What about me?”, Ghislaine’s tail stopped wagging.
Her gaze shifted away.
So my swordsmanship wasn’t as good as I thought.
Or rather, it was probably in the very poor category.
I’d once believed that if I put my mind to it, I could train swordsmanship to the same level as my magic.
But several years had passed, and my swordsmanship had truly stagnated.
No matter how hard I tried.
….
Eris’s tenth birthday was approaching.
Ten was a special birthday.
The nobility had a custom of holding grand banquets on the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth birthdays.
Lavish celebrations, without exception.
On the day itself, the mansion’s great hall and the courtyard leading to it would be opened up.
Gifts would arrive from across the territory, and nobles from the town would be invited.
Since Sauros was an unrefined military man, the original plan leaned toward a casual, buffet-style affair.
“Speaking of which — will there be cake at the birthday celebration here?”
There had been no cake in Buena Village.
Apparently it existed somewhere, but I’d never actually seen one.
Occasionally I wanted something sweet.
With that thought, I headed toward the kitchen.
I could’ve just asked a maid whether cake existed, but the whole point of taking a walk was to actually walk.
If I was lucky, I might even get to sample some test dishes prepared for the banquet.
Hmm.
Or rather, the truth was, I was hungry.
“That’s enough!”
The door in front of me flew open, and Eris burst out from inside.
She froze for a split second when she saw me.
Then she lowered her head and charged through the corridor at an astonishing speed, vanishing around a corner.
Someone came chasing after her out of the room.
It was Edna.
“Young lady…!”
She looked left and right down the corridor.
Finding no trace of Eris, she let out a heavy sigh.
Halfway through the sigh, she seemed to notice me.
She offered me a weary smile.
“Oh my, Rudeus-sensei…”
That smile said everything: please, let me pour out my troubles to you.
It was rare to see Edna wear an expression like that.
“You’ve been working hard, Lady Edna.”
“My apologies for letting you witness such an unsightly scene.”
I raised one hand and stepped closer.
Edna gave an elegant bow.
Her movements were genuinely practiced, the kind of polish that didn’t come from trying.
I brought my raised hand to my chest and returned a slow, formal bow.
“What happened?”
“Well…
it’s embarrassing to say, but the young lady has run away.”
Yes, I’d seen it clearly.
Eris’s escape maneuvers were truly something, she vanished in the blink of an eye.
Edna pressed a hand against her cheek, looking troubled.
“I’ve been teaching the young lady dancing recently, but nothing seems to go smoothly.
These past few days, the moment practice begins, she immediately runs off to hide somewhere.”
“Oh my.
That does sound difficult.
I can fully sympathize.”
She ran away during my lessons too, after all.
Eris’s guiding principle was simple: if you hate something, don’t do it.
Edna really did have it hard.
Catching a fleeing Eris was no easy task, and Edna was clearly not someone who could force her into submission through sheer physical strength.
“…There is less than a month left until the birthday.
If this continues, the young lady will make a complete fool of herself in front of all the guests.”
From her tone, Edna considered the situation serious.
My own thought was: it’s just a birthday.
If a child’s birthday makes the child miserable, then the birthday is meaningless.
Holding that somewhat indulgent thought, I smiled and nodded.
Though, to be honest, she had already made a fool of herself long ago, hadn’t she?
Eris was known throughout this region as a creature of the violent world.
Being unable to dance in front of a crowd barely registered on that scale.
“On such a rare tenth birthday, to become an object of ridicule…
no matter how you look at it, that’s too pitiful.
Don’t you think so, Rudeus-sensei?”
Edna glanced at me several times, very deliberately.
If she had something to say, I wished she’d just say it.
“In other words — what is it you’d like me to do?”
“…Well, could I ask Rudeus-sensei to help persuade Lady Eris?
To get her to come back and practice dancing.”
So that was what this was about.
…
And so, I went looking for Eris.
As the teacher who spent the most time with her, I naturally knew where she hid.
I found her quickly.
She was lying flat on her back atop a large pile of hay behind the stables.
“Hmph!”
The moment she saw me, Eris let out an unhappy snort.
I climbed up the haystack and sat down beside her.
“I heard you can’t dance properly?”
Eris suddenly swung a leg up to kick me.
I caught it and held it down.
Honestly, I’d grown somewhat used to this child lashing out whenever she was sulking.
Was this…
desensitization?
When I first arrived, her disrespect actually made me angry.
“Aren’t you going back to practice?”
“Dancing is completely unnecessary!”
I glanced at Eris.
She was staring up at the sky.
“I think so too.”
“On my birthday I also — huh?
Rudeus thinks so too?”
“Yeah.
Dancing is completely unnecessary.”
“Right?
But Father and Grandfather both said…”
“What do you think, Eris?
Do you truly not want to dance?”
“I can’t…”
“Is it that you don’t want to because you can’t, or that you can’t because you don’t want to?”
Eris seemed to be thinking about something.
Or maybe she hadn’t understood.
Either way, I didn’t press.
She was only ten years old.
I shifted closer and sat down beside her.
My gaze followed hers up toward the sky.
We lay there together, idly watching the sky, and after a while Eris spoke.
“I might…
actually want to dance.
I want to make Grandfather and Father happy…”
“I see.”
“Has Rudeus ever had that?
Wanting to do something and then finding out you’re not good at it…”
Wanting to do something and not being good at it?
Plenty of times.
In my previous life, there were so many things I wanted to do.
I completed almost none of them.
Whether I was actually good at them or not, I never really found out, I just gave up, for one reason or another.
“Rudeus definitely hasn’t, right?
You’re so amazing…”
Eris pouted, saying it with obvious unhappiness.
I could understand her feeling.
In this life, there were very few things I’d wanted to do and failed to achieve.
If I had to name one thing I still couldn’t manage in this world, it was swordsmanship.
But in my previous life?
The list was endless.
So I knew exactly what kind of effect it would have to say something like: if you don’t do it now, you’ll definitely regret it.
“That’s a very difficult question to answer.”
“Rudeus, you can do everything.
You definitely don’t understand how I feel.”
Can do everything…
From Eris’s perspective, maybe it really did look that way.
“Eris, there are many, many things I can’t do.
I’m not as amazing as you think.”
“Hmph…”
She didn’t look convinced.
But she didn’t push further, either.
“Even so, if you use your own hard work to desperately reach a goal, the sense of accomplishment when you get there is that much stronger.”
“Is…
that so?”
Eris stared at the sky, unconvinced.
“Let me give an example.
Say you pushed yourself until you surpassed Ghislaine in swordsmanship.
Or surpassed me in magic.
Wouldn’t that be something to feel genuinely proud of?”
“I don’t understand things I’ve never experienced!
And I don’t want to defeat Rudeus or Ghislaine!”
“I’m not saying defeat — I mean surpass…”
“Rudeus, you’re so annoying!”
Eris shouted, cutting me off, and jumped off the haystack.
And just like that, the conversation was over.
I’d honestly thought that I, as a master educator, could definitely make Eris understand.
I’ll have to think of something else…
“Rudeus!”
“What is it?”
“I’m going back to practice dancing.
You’re coming with me!”
So it wasn’t that my words had failed.
Her way of showing agreement was just different.
“Alright.”
I followed her back to the ballroom.
….
“My, my…
Rudeus-sensei is also…
not very good at dancing.”
Edna’s smile was a little strained.
Perfectly understandable.
Neither in my previous life nor in this one had I ever actually danced.
“Hahaha!”
Seeing that my dancing was just as terrible, Eris was delighted.
All told, we practiced for 2 hours with almost nothing to show for it.
There was nothing wrong with Edna’s instruction.
I simply had no talent for dancing whatsoever.
I was observing the whole time, though.
I couldn’t figure out why I was so terrible, but I could see clearly why Eris wasn’t getting it.
She was different from me.
She was obviously not someone who lacked dancing talent.
She seemed to react to each of Edna’s beats even before the sound fully landed.
Was this a swordsman’s instinct?
Like the way a fighter crosses the distance the moment an opponent’s hand moves toward their sword.
So,
“Eris, I think you should move only after you’ve completely heard the sound.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Your timing is always one beat too fast.
No, at the start it was only one beat, but by the end it was getting further and further ahead.”
“I don’t understand!”
“Then let’s try this.
Lady Edna, you don’t need to beat the time anymore.”
Edna looked at me with a questioning expression but didn’t say anything.
I cast a spell.
Tiny fragments of ice appeared, scattered through the air.
“Eris, these will make a sound when they shatter.
Wait until you hear it, then start moving through the steps.”
“Oh…”
The dance began.
Eris was, just as I expected, several beats ahead.
I thought it over, and found the root of the problem.
“Eris, dance just like before — but this time, close your eyes.”
Eris tilted her head, puzzled, but followed my instructions.
The ice fragments began to shatter.
Eris moved her body in time with each sound.
After a few repetitions, I shifted the timing, letting the ice shatter a beat later than expected.
BANG.
BANG.
Eris didn’t hesitate.
She heard the sound and moved.
“Th, this is…!”
Edna’s voice came out sharp with surprise.
Eris had executed the dance steps correctly.
Still slightly fast, but it should be considered on beat.
“You did it!
You succeeded, young lady!”
Eris opened her eyes and looked back with a bright smile.
“Really?”
I smiled and kept going.
“Good.
Keep practicing like this.
Remember that feeling.”
“Remember the feeling…
but I just moved after hearing the sound.
Same as before.”
That was exactly right.
Moving after hearing the sound.
But the old Eris had always been one beat ahead, because she was watching.
A swordsman’s instinct, carrying her forward before the moment arrived.
So all she needed to do was close her eyes.
Close her eyes.
Let the sound tell her when to move.
Then everything became simple.
“Eris, this shows your dance training up until now wasn’t the problem at all.
The method was just wrong.
You’ve been working very hard.”
“Ah…
mm…”
Very unusually, Eris opened her eyes and nodded without a word, again and again.
With this, the dancing should be fine.
“As expected of Rudeus-sensei, who managed to teach the young lady arithmetic for an entire year…”
Edna looked at me with genuine admiration in her eyes.
Though…
Eris had already forgotten most of the arithmetic she’d learned.
I kept that thought to myself.
“I just got lucky and observed carefully.
That’s all.”
“I see…
That kind of attentiveness is precisely why Rudeus-sensei is truly suited to be the young lady’s teacher.”
Edna’s smile came back, full and warm, as she praised me.
“That’s right!
Rudeus really is amazing!”
For some reason, it was Eris who answered, and she said it with her chest puffed out.
“Alright, alright.
Back to practicing.
Remember that feeling.”
“Mm!”
➤ Next: The Ball