Rudeus considered himself quite good at reading the room.
So, he tried his best to skip over the topic:
“I’ll pass.
Teacher Roxy and I were just surprised by your attentiveness, Big Brother Gawain.
You always protect Sylphiette so well—even paying attention to the edges of the table and chairs.”
Sylphiette happily leaned sideways, looking up at her older brother, and for once felt that Rudeus wasn’t entirely without merit.
Gawain pulled over a bamboo basket and said matter-of-factly:
“Your bodies are too fragile.
It’s easy for you to get hurt.”
Everyone interpreted this as Gawain having Touki protection, while the others were pure spellcasters.
Roxy was a bit surprised:
“Gawain, is your swordsmanship also very strong?
And just now—that was chantless magic, right?
Even at Ranoa Magic Academy, only one instructor can do that!”
The number one Gawain fan, Rudeus, immediately jumped in.
With one foot on the stool, he spoke in a fervent, evangelizing tone:
“Of course!
Big Brother Gawain could already wrap Touki at age four!
That’s a requirement to become an advanced swordsman!
Even Paul—who calls himself a swordsmanship genius—could only do that at eleven or twelve!”
Not being a swordsman, Roxy didn’t fully grasp the significance of wrapping Touki at age four, but chantless magic was different.
She emphasized again:
“But that just now was chantless!”
Rudeus sat back down, crossed his arms, and spoke with little enthusiasm:
“Something like that—anyone can do it.
It’s nothing special.”
Last year, he had even imagined that chantless casting might be some kind of cheat unique to reincarnators.
In the end, it turned out to be just a skill that anyone with a bit of talent and early intelligence could learn.
Rudeus gradually lost interest in so-called chantless casting.
He felt that he had only stumbled upon its secret thanks to memories from his previous life and a bit of luck—like a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse.
Although Big Brother Gawain praised his discovery highly, Rudeus found it hard to treat luck as an achievement.
However, the research on chantless casting that he worked on together with Gawain—that he was proud of.
Even if, at most, forty percent… no, thirty percent of it came from him, it was still something he had truly created through his own thinking and effort, not something he was born with or happened to obtain by chance.
That, to him, was something important—a rare treasure.
Roxy naturally understood what Rudeus meant by “everyone.”
She leaned back instinctively, wanting to retreat, but the stool beneath her caught her and she nearly fell over.
Crack—crack—
Something was completely shattering.
(T/N: I’m sorry Roxy I couldn’t help but laugh)
Roxy knew very well what it was.
Her pride, her self-satisfaction, her arrogance—things that had been hanging by a thread since yesterday’s first meeting with Gawain, things she had desperately tried to maintain, things she considered more important than anything else.
These things, built over more than twenty years of leaving home, wandering, adventuring, studying—struggling, striving.
If she lost them…
Without them to arm and protect herself, what would she have left?
What would everything she had pursued even amount to?
Even against the backdrop of Roxy’s pale, crystalline skin, Rudeus and Sylphiette could clearly see her face turn deathly white, her entire being seeming to wilt as if drained of vitality.
Then, Roxy let out a bleak smile:
“Gawain… did you hire me just to humiliate me like this?”
“Then congratulations.
You win.”
With her head lowered, Roxy shakily stood up, picked up her bag and staff, and turned to leave.
Gawain ordered:
“Sit.”
Roxy sat back down.
Gawain used magic to fill the four cups in front of him with hot water, then pushed three of them toward the others according to the markings.
Yes, he had been figuring out how to use the tea bags just now.
Completely unconcerned with Roxy’s one-woman drama, he instead asked Rudeus with a serious expression:
“Rudeus, is this how you brew it?”
Rudeus picked up his cup, which had a simple drawing of a sword on it.
Damn it—did Aunt Debbie only think of him as the son of a knight?!
He then looked into the steaming cup.
Inside the hand-sealed gauze bag were dried herbs, all of which he recognized.
The method used was the “drying technique” he had shared with Aunt Debbie at the end of last year.
Though it had only just been steeped, it already smelled fragrant, somewhat like rose tea from his previous life.
He looked up and smiled:
“Perfect, Big Brother Gawain.
This time it’s a success.”
Rudeus hadn’t expected that between the two mothers, it would be Mother Debbie, working alone, who would produce results first.
After thinking for a moment, and seeing that the atmosphere wasn’t too bad, Rudeus continued the topic.
He stretched out his hand and began forming stone teaspoons directly on the table, using magic to “print” them with sufficient sturdiness.
Though he had never been to a high-end café in his previous life, he had seen them often enough in anime, and replicating them wasn’t difficult.
Incidentally, this “3D-printing-style” casting method was his idea, while Gawain had reorganized the sequence logic, making it more efficient—seriously, like an AI… well, a boy.
After making the slender teaspoons, Rudeus handed them out and explained:
“The flavor of the tea bag tends to settle at the bottom, right?
Using a spoon helps mix it evenly.
It’s also useful if you want to add sugar.”
Inspired, Sylphiette immediately pulled over their bamboo basket, lifted the cloth cover, and took out a small cloth pouch, saying happily:
“I asked Mom to prepare sugar cubes!”
Though originally, she had intended them as snacks.
Rudeus clasped his hands together:
“That helps a lot!”
Since someone had the most mana, general chores were usually left to him.
Rudeus diligently created a plate with magic, while Sylphiette poured the slightly yellow sugar cubes onto it.
“And tongs, and a kettle.”
Rudeus continued, producing sugar tongs and a kettle, and even filling the kettle with boiling water.
Sylphiette also began taking items out of the two baskets one by one.
Since both mothers knew their children’s abilities, they hadn’t prepared enough containers, so Sylphiette had to help make plates as well—though she was slightly slower than Rudeus.
As for the teacher—Roxy, who had just been talking about quitting—she now sat there timidly.
Absentmindedly stirring her cup with a teaspoon.
On the cup, a little doodle of a braided-hair, pointy-hat girl seemed to grin at her.
The sugar cube she had secretly added was slowly dissolving, the pale purple tint from the dried flowers spreading beautifully, looking refined, while the fragrance wafted upward.
“What even…”
Roxy muttered softly.
This didn’t feel like an atmosphere where she could just grab her bag and run away.
Run… away…?
No way.
I won’t run.
I’ll be the one to teach these children!