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The day of the ball.
After getting the lavishly dressed Eris seated like a proper princess, Sauros boomed out his declaration and the ball began.
I stood in a corner of the venue and listened.
From the moment it started, mid-rank and low-rank nobles swarmed in, all of them angling to get close to the Greyrat family.
Philip and his wife worked the room, handling them one by one with polished ease.
Time passed.
The two of them were, frankly, masterful, not a single person managed to find an opening.
Some tried going straight to Sauros.
That didn’t go well.
His voice alone was enough to send people retreating, and his responses were blunt, one-sided, and utterly unreasonable.
They fled.
After that, the only hope left to them was the guest of honor herself: Eris.
Eris had no authority and no grasp of political topics whatsoever.
So when the nobles hit her with “Please be sure to pass this along to your honored father,” she became nothing more than a message relay.
A very pretty, very bewildered one.
Per the original plan, I was her first dance partner.
The steps were simple, a piece meant for children.
I had no particular talent for dancing, but I could hit the right spots at the right moments.
Just like practice.
That would be enough.
“Wh— wh— wh— what is this…!”
Her voice was small, but I felt it.
Her entire body had gone rigid.
At this rate, the question wasn’t whether she’d dance well.
She was going to shout and bolt, same as before.
“Eris, relax.
My dancing is way worse than yours~”
I kept my voice light and easy.
Then I started casting, one of the spells from our training sessions, controlled small, barely a whisper of power.
The faint crackle of breaking sound reached only the two of us.
“What the…”
She muttered under her breath.
I felt the tension leave her.
We danced.
I stepped on her feet several times.
We didn’t fall.
That counted as a success.
“Good work, Teacher Rudeus.”
Edna came over afterward to speak to me.
Apparently, even from across the room, it had been obvious that Eris was no longer about to flee.
My job was done.
So I went looking for food.
For the past year, I’d eaten every meal with the servants.
Eris would sometimes bring over bento the staff had made and share it with me, which I appreciated, but I’d never once eaten more than my share.
The question of what nobles actually ate at events like this had been quietly sitting in the back of my mind.
“Oh.
Oh.”
Pies made from some kind of tart, sweet fruit I couldn’t identify.
Meat dishes prepared from what had apparently been an entire cow.
Beautifully decorated cakes.
I was working through them with great satisfaction when I looked up and caught Ghislaine’s eyes.
She was on security detail.
Her expression gave nothing away.
But there was a thin trail of drool at the corner of her mouth.
I didn’t need any particular social skill to read that.
My student, whose head contained approximately 100 percent muscle, wanted to eat.
I called a maid over and had her pack up several servings to send to my room.
With that handled, I turned around and found a girl standing in front of me.
Cute, maybe my age.
She introduced herself with a “Pleased to meet you” before giving her name, something long and mid-noble that I didn’t bother committing to memory.
She asked me to dance.
I thought about my position here and declined.
The moment she walked away, another girl appeared.
Also asking me to dance.
I was not going to flatter myself by believing this was about my looks.
After declining several in a row, Philip came over to explain.
The whole point of tonight had been to announce that a person named Rudeus had joined the Greyrat household.
My information had been made public.
That was why.
Fair enough.
No complaints.
…..
After the ball ended, I invited Ghislaine and Eris back to my room.
Truthfully, I’d only needed Ghislaine.
The food I’d packed up was meant for her.
But Eris had been right there, so I’d included her.
The moment Eris saw the table, her stomach growled.
Right.
The guest of honor apparently hadn’t had a chance to eat, either.
I smiled and pulled out a bottle of fine red wine from behind the cupboard, something I’d picked up in town a while back, originally intended as a bribe for some future occasion.
But tonight…
Ghislaine had clearly been enduring for hours.
And it had been a long time since I’d had a drink.
The legal drinking age in this country was fifteen.
Eris immediately demanded a glass.
I refused.
“No!
Eris is still a child!”
I announced it like a final ruling, completely ignoring the fact that I was also a child, and poured for Ghislaine.
Eris pouted but watched as Ghislaine drained the cup in one go.
“What does it taste like?” she asked.
“Hmm…
not as good as the fruit wine from my homeland.”
“Oh.”
Eris’s face fell.
Are you serious.
That bottle cost me 8 gold coins.
I poured a cup for myself and took a sip.
It tasted perfectly fine.
“Ah!
Rudeus, you’re drinking!
You’re younger than me!
That’s cheating!
I want some too!”
Eris shouted, yanked the cup out of my hand, and downed the rest in one go.
Fine.
It was her birthday.
A little mischief was allowed.
I set that aside.
“My master once told me that a magic teacher is supposed to prepare a staff for their student.
I didn’t know how to make one, and the materials were hard to source, so it kept getting pushed back.
But today happens to be Eris’s birthday, so, if you’re willing, please accept these.”
I took out the staffs and held them out.
Ghislaine went still the moment she heard the words.
Then she slowly rose, and with a composed, deliberate motion, lowered herself onto one knee.
What.
“Yes!
Master Rudeus!
I receive this with all due respect.”
“Mm.
No need for all that.”
But she looked so genuinely solemn that I found myself straightening up and handing it over with matching formality.
She took it and looked at it with quiet happiness, her tail swaying gently at her side.
“May I call myself a mage now?”
“You can.”
I learned something then.
Apparently a mage needs a master’s formal acknowledgment before they can carry the title.
No one had told me that.
Roxy hadn’t said a word about it.
My teacher had left out rather a lot, it seemed.
“Mm…
Eris.”
“Mm!”
The atmosphere had caught her.
She was looking at me with the same reverent expression as Ghislaine.
Please don’t.
I felt like a fraud.
I hadn’t known any of this was so serious.
I held out the staff.
Eris received it with both hands.
She wanted to say something as formal as what Ghislaine had said, I could see her searching her memory for the words, and coming up short.
“Th— thank you!
Master Rudeus!”
Huh.
Eris just called me Master for the first time.
This feeling…
how to describe it.
Somewhere in my past life, people used to lose hours to raising-sim games on their phones and I never understood why.
I think I’m starting to get it.
“Mm.
Take good care of it.”
And just like that, Eris’s tenth birthday passed without incident.
….
After our small private banquet wound down, Eris toppled sideways onto my bed, half-asleep before she landed.
Ghislaine took one look at her and announced she was leaving.
She walked out and left Eris behind.
“She’s still a kid.
Eat well, drink a little, and she’s out.”
Carefree.
No worries.
Nice.
Come to think of it, I probably didn’t have much to worry about either.
Two more years of teaching Eris and I could go home.
Senith…
Paul…
Lilia…
my sisters…
And.
“Sylphie…”
I missed them.
I missed the Sylphie from my memories, too.
The one who’d still looked like a boy.
“Huu…~ huu…~”
Eris slept on, oblivious.
I’d sleep on the floor.
It was fine.
I stepped out and asked a maid to bring bedding.
Laid it out myself, lay down, and was asleep not long after.
…
The next morning, I opened my eyes to find Eris staring at me from about a foot away.
I was still half-asleep, but I managed to speak.
“Sleep well?”
“Mm…
really well!”
“Good.”
Something about crossing into ten seemed to have shifted in her.
She hadn’t thrown a single tantrum yet today.
That thought had barely finished forming when Ghislaine walked in.
She looked at me.
Then at Eris.
Then back at me.
“Nothing happened?”
“What exactly were you expecting to happen?”
“You’re Paul’s son.
I was fairly certain something would.”
I’m 8 years old.
Fortunately, Eris hadn’t followed any of that.
She was already heading for the door, chattering at no one in particular.
No lessons today.
The three of us ended up wandering around outside.
“Ghislaine, what’s that tower?”
I pointed at one nearby.
“Hmm…
I’m not sure.
But we can go in.”
“Rudeus!
Why are you asking her?
Ask me!
I know!”
Eris planted her hands on her hips with great authority.
“All right.
What’s that tower for?”
“Grandfather uses it to dote on cute beastfolk!”
My brain stopped for a moment.
So.
Sauros uses it to…
vent?
An entire tower, just for that?
I held onto the hope that Eris was talking nonsense and went inside with her and Ghislaine.
The scene I’d half-imagined did not materialize.
The tower was empty.
Completely quiet.
At the top floor, I stopped.
Far off, hanging in the air above us, was a sphere.
Red.
Floating on its own.
The light caught it at an angle that made whatever was inside look like it was moving.
What is that.
“Ghislaine…
what is that?”
She looked.
Tilted her head.
Then she reached up and removed her eyepatch, studying it for a long moment.
“That’s…
a magic sphere?
Formed from mana?”
That much mana?
That size?
“It’s so close!
Way closer than the stars!”
Eris said it like she was pointing out a nice view.
Something about this felt wrong.
And, Ghislaine’s eye could actually see mana?
“Rudeus…
are you okay?”
My expression must have given me away.
Eris was watching me with a small, uncertain frown.
If that sphere was building toward some kind of explosion, or carrying some threat I couldn’t name, there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Nothing at all.
“It’s nothing.
I was just thinking.”
“Really?
You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.
Don’t worry.”
There was nothing to be done.
So I’d just have to hope it stayed harmless.
We headed back down the tower and set out toward town.
➤ Next: Ten Years Old