Mushoku Tensei – JOBLESS REINCARNATION. Volume. 17.
Adulthood – Asura kingdom arc (Part 2).
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‘Chapter 13: Farewells and Changes.’
ON THE DAY we planned to depart, a visitor came to our mansion first thing in the morning.
It was Ghislaine. And she’d brought three wooden swords with her. She didn’t explain the purpose of her visit, but she didn’t really need to, either. Eris and I both took a wooden sword, got dressed, and headed out back.
The mansion’s backyard was relatively large, but it was also full of flowerbeds, which made it feel a bit cramped. Still, we had enough space for our purposes.
Eris and I faced Ghislaine with our swords in our hands. A bleary-eyed Sylphie looked on from a chair a short distance away. The maids, who were already hard at work, were shooting puzzled glances our way as well.
“Let’s begin the training session.”
At these words from Ghislaine, Eris and I brought our swords to our waist and bowed.
“We’re ready.”
Ghislaine nodded briefly and raised her sword. We followed suit.
“All right. Practice swings first! One! Two!”
Eris and I swung our swords in time with Ghislaine’s shouts and movements. In the early-morning silence, our wooden blades sliced audibly through the air.
My swings were slower and less clean than those of Eris or Ghislaine. But Ghislaine wasn’t yelling criticism at me. Back in the day, she used to shout things like “Keep your arms in tight!” or “Watch the tip of your sword!” every time I practiced with her. Maybe she wasn’t going to bother today.
“Rudeus! Stay focused!”
“Right!”
Apparently, I’d jumped to conclusions.
Still, she wasn’t saying anything about my stance. I guess I had that part down solid, at least. I had been practicing my swing and the basic forms on a regular basis for many years now, so I suppose I’d improved significantly.
“198! 199! 200! Stop!”
After we’d been going for a while, Ghislaine abruptly cut us off. There was sweat glistening on her forehead, and the same was true of Eris.
Two hundred wasn’t that many swings. But they’d used all their strength for every single one of them. It wasn’t about the numbers. Still, they weren’t breathing hard or anything. Neither was I, for that matter. The practice swings were just our warm-up exercise.
“Forms next! We’ll begin with Swift Wind!”
“Yes!”
Eris and I lifted our swords again and began to practice set motions of the Sword God forms. I didn’t hesitate; these were the fundamental movements of this style, and I knew them by heart. I’d even taught them to Norn back in Ranoa. Since my marriage to Eris, I’d also practiced with her almost every day.
“All right! Stop!”
Once we’d worked our way through all the basic forms used in training, Ghislaine called out to us again.
“Pair off!”
At these words, Eris and I turned to face each other. This was a command to begin practicing with one of your fellow students. In most cases, this involved one student repetitively attacking the other in a specific manner.
In kendo, at least, you were supposed to have the less skilled partner take the role of attacker; but we always had Eris swing at me instead. That was how we’d done it back when we were kids, and we stuck with it after our marriage. It just felt more natural that way.
“Begin!”
“Raaaah!”
As soon as Ghislaine gave the signal, Eris went on the offensive. She was sticking to the standard practice forms, so her movements weren’t impossibly fast. Her sword moved just slow enough to allow me to respond. And she stopped her swings at the last moment when they would have struck me.
Of course, the Sword God Style didn’t teach you how to do that. When we were kids, she was constantly smacking me when we practiced. But things were different now. She’d learned a lot since then.
“Alternate!”
When we switched roles, my attacks were totally ineffective. I didn’t have to worry about stopping my sword; Eris took care of that for me just fine. The difference in our skill level was obvious. I could have put up a slightly better fight by relying on my Eye of Foresight, but I didn’t activate it. I hadn’t gained this power back when we were in Fittoa, so I wasn’t going to use it. Not this time.
“All right! Stop!”
At Ghislaine’s command, Eris and I lowered our swords.
Normally, the next stage would be a freeform sparring session. Putting me up against Eris without my magic or Demon Eye wouldn’t make for much of a contest, of course…
To my surprise, Ghislaine turned to me and jerked her head. “Rudeus, step aside and observe!”
As I moved out of the way, Ghislaine stepped forward into my place. I backed away another five paces and kneeled on the grass.
Facing off against her student, Ghislaine brought her sword behind her waist. “This will be the last time, Eris.”
“…Right.”
Nodding, Eris lifted her own sword high above her head. It was a stance she never used when practicing with me. Ghislaine would be “drawing” and attacking in a single motion, and Eris would be swinging downward with all her might. It made for quite a contrast.
The world seemed to stop moving entirely, and time itself slowed to a crawl. Cold sweat trickled down my back. I couldn’t shake the feeling they were holding real swords in their hands.
That moment seemed to last an eternity. But then there was a small gust of wind.
This time, there was no formal signal.
A loud smack reverberated through the air.
They’d moved too quickly for my eyes to follow. All I got to see was the end result.
Eris and Ghislaine were standing with their swords outstretched at each other. The only real difference was that Ghislaine’s blade had been broken at the base.
Eris’ sword was slightly bent, but it was pressed to her master’s neck.
“…”
“…”
The two of them stayed in that position for a moment, then slowly pulled their weapons back. For some reason, Eris had a little scowl on her face.
Her expression solemn, Ghislaine nodded to her student. “That concludes our training session.”
“Thank you very much!” I shouted, bowing from my seated position.
When I looked up again, Eris still had her head lowered. She was biting her lip, her forehead was all crinkled up…and her cheeks were trembling.
“Well then, Lady Eris… farewell.”
“Pl-Please take c-care of yourself, Master!” Eris looked up with tears swimming in her eyes, then bowed her head a second time.
Ghislaine didn’t say anything else. She gave me one last meaningful look, then walked off without another word.
With that glance, she’d asked me to look after Eris for her. I felt very confident of that.
Rising to my feet, I bowed to Ghislaine one last time, bending deeply at the waist. She was the woman who had taught me the ways of the sword, and the woman who kept Eris safe for many years. I couldn’t thank her enough for that. I really couldn’t.
The instant Ghislaine passed out of view, Eris broke down in tears. She cried so loudly I think everyone on the block could hear her.
***
Later that morning, when it was time for us to leave, a large number of visitors stopped by to say their farewells to Sylphie.
Many of them were nobles from Ariel’s faction who knew Sylphie as Silent Fitz. They hadn’t even known she was a woman, and seemed quite surprised to learn she was married to me. That didn’t change their respectful attitude, however. One by one, they briefly expressed their gratitude and then bid her farewell. Sylphie kept a smile on her face the entire time, but I could tell she was mostly just being polite. When it was finally over, she let out a long-suffering sigh and muttered, “This sort of thing really wears me out.”
When Ariel’s two attendants showed up, though, her face lit up with genuine happiness. I didn’t know Ellemoi Bluewolf and Cleane Elrond very well myself, but they were close friends of Sylphie’s. Their goodbyes were long and tearful, and involved a lot of promising to meet again someday.
Our last visitor was Luke.
He only stopped by for fifteen minutes or so. Now that he was both Ariel’s right-hand man and the liege lord of an entire region, the man’s schedule was getting busier by the day. But he’d found the time to slip away and say goodbye.
“Sylphie…take care of yourself, all right?”
“Yeah. I will.”
He had a hard time looking Sylphie in the eye at first, however. I guess he was still feeling a little guilty. “I’m sorry about… the way I tested you like that, at the very end. After all these years.”
“It’s okay, Luke. I know how anxious you were. I’m still not sure what I would have done if you’d really tried to hurt Princess Ariel, either.”
“Right… well, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m not sure what for, though!”
“Hmm. You have a point.”
They both cracked up at that.
After the laughter passed, Luke’s smile turned slightly awkward, and he took a moment to consider his next words. They turned out to be a bombshell.
“Uhhh… Look, Sylphie. If you ever decide you can’t stay with Rudeus anymore, come find me.”
I stiffened up like a board. Had he just proposed marriage? To my wife? While I was standing right next to her?
“What are you talking about?” said Sylphie. “I’m never going to leave Rudy, and it’s not like I’d go marry you even if I did.”
“I’m not talking about getting married. All I’m saying is…if you ever find yourself with no place to go, Elle and Clea and I will always be here for you.”
Luke’s voice sounded firm and sincere. That first line sure sounded like a romantic proposal, but maybe he really had meant it in a platonic way. Still, a few suspicious beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Had Luke been carrying a flame for Sylphie all this time? What happened to only liking busty women?
Well… maybe this was his way of warning me to treat her right, too. I did need to work on that.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Sylphie. “But I’ll definitely come visit you guys, at least.”
“Of course. You’re always welcome here.”
“Thanks, Luke. You take care of yourself, too.”
Compared to Eris and Ghislaine’s farewell, this felt pretty low-key. But it wasn’t like they’d never see each other again, right? I had to imagine they were going to stay in touch, at least.
“Rudeus.”
For some reason, Luke now turned his attention my way. What was this about? Did he want another duel or something?
“I’m sorry I was so suspicious of you on our journey here.”
Oh. Well, I wasn’t expecting that. “That’s all right, Luke. I know my behavior was a little shady sometimes.”
It was true that Luke had been misled by the Man-God. But I’d also acted in some genuinely suspicious ways—even though I knew there was a good chance Luke might be a disciple. I had to share some of the blame for the way things played out. “Anyway, it’s your job to be a little paranoid, right?”
“I’m glad you see it that way.” Scratching at his cheek, Luke offered me an embarrassed smile. “My offer stands for you as well, Rudeus. If that stick of a girl ever loses her appeal for you, come pay me a visit. We’ve got plenty of maids with curves in the right places.”
“Luke!”
Flinching at the anger in Sylphie’s voice, Luke chuckled softly. “Only joking…”
And with that, he headed back to the horse he’d rode in on. The man really knew how to hop onto a pure-white steed, you had to give him that. He was born to play Prince Charming.
“Rudeus, look after Sylphie for us. Sylphie, take care.”
With those final words, Luke rode away like there were damsels to be rescued.
The first time we’d met, I thought the guy was a total jerk. But if Paul had behaved himself, and we’d grown up together in the Notos family… maybe Luke and I actually could have been friends.
Sylphie and I watched him until he vanished around a corner.
We’d said all our farewells. Now it was finally time to head back home.
It had taken us a good month to get here…but fortunately, Perugius would be making our return journey a good deal briefer. At some point in the last ten days, he’d created a new teleportation circle in the royal palace. That would take us to his floating fortress, where we could teleport to the ruins just outside Sharia. From there, it would be a half-day’s journey back to our front door.
Compared to our long, eventful trip out, this was going to be a total breeze. From now on, we could use the same route to reach Asura in a single day if we wanted to.
When I explained this to Eris, I discovered that she’d expected our journey back to take over a month as well.
“What the heck?!” was her reply. “I cried like an idiot over nothing!” Then she punched me.
Personally, I felt like it was a good thing that she’d done her big goodbye with Ghislaine. Geographically, they might be a mere day’s travel away from one another, but they’d still gone their separate ways. I guess that beautiful memory had been spoiled slightly, though. Eris didn’t cry too often, so it was a shame to think her tears had gone to waste.
At this point, it occurred to me that Ghislaine had probably jumped to the same conclusion as her student. Those two were pretty similar in a lot of respects, weren’t they? One of these days, we’d have to pop up out of nowhere and surprise her.
Of course, Perugius would probably get irritated if we started breezing through his castle for no real reason, so it was probably best if we only used that route when we had some actual business to attend to.
…Come to think of it, though, it might be useful to have some emergency travel options of our own. Orsted probably knew how to draw teleportation circles, right? Maybe we could create more direct routes to Asura and the other major countries. Apart from the convenience factor, the Man-God wouldn’t be able to destroy the circles if nobody even knew they existed. I made a mental note to pitch that project to the boss.
Since the use of teleportation magic was officially forbidden, we made a show of exiting the city before sneaking back in and heading to the palace. By the time we made it there, the sun was already setting; we decided to spend the night in the floating fortress.
Eris, Sylphie, and I shared a single room in Perugius’ castle. We’d been a party of eight on our way to Asura, but only three of us were returning. That did put me in a slightly melancholy mood. I found myself gazing into the fireplace with Eris and Sylphie lying in the bed behind me.
Ordinarily we all took separate rooms, but for some reason they’d both wanted to sleep with me tonight. Maybe they’d been in the mood for some physical affection? Things hadn’t worked out that way, though… Eris tended to get awkward and hesitant when it wasn’t just the two of us. In any case, we’d taken one of the larger guest rooms and cuddled, but I had a tough time falling asleep and ended up slipping out of bed. With nothing to do in particular, I decided to just sit down and let my thoughts wander for a while.
It was a very quiet night. The crackling of the flames was the only sound I could hear.
As I watched the fire flicker, I found myself reflecting on the events of the last few weeks.
I’d won this battle. I’d beaten the Man-God. It felt fair to call this a complete victory, in fact—no one in our party had died, we’d dealt with all of the disciples, and Ariel had secured the throne of Asura. Yet somehow, I didn’t feel especially happy or reassured. All I’d really done was follow a path Orsted had laid out for me. And as crucial as this battle was, it was only the first round in a long war. I was going to keep fighting battles like this from now on—stressful, murky battles where victory brought no real relief.
What had I even accomplished this time, really? Ariel had solved half my problems for me. I’d nearly gotten Eris killed. And I needed Orsted’s help to deal with Reida. I wasn’t seeing much ground for optimism there…
“…Rudy?”
As I was turning all this over in my mind, Sylphie stirred and sat up in bed.
“You’re still up?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s the middle of the night, you know.”
Her gaze had turned to the window; it was pitch-black out there. A few hours must have passed since she and Eris fell asleep.
“Phew…”
But instead of going back to sleep, she slipped out of bed and took a seat beside me—cuddling closely and leaning her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her in return.
Neither of us said anything for a while. Sylphie’s body was nice and warm. Hot, even. It almost made me think she might be running a fever or something.
As I studied the nape of her neck, she lifted her head slightly to meet my gaze. Her eyes were shining slightly in the firelight.
This felt like the part where I should kiss her, so I squeezed her shoulder a little tighter—
“You know…”
And then she started to speak.
“When I quit my job as Ariel’s bodyguard, it was like all the air went out of me.”
Drawing back from my kiss, I nodded and waited for Sylphie to continue.
“All I could do was sit around and think: Wow. It’s really over, huh?”
Something like relief showed on her face as she got those words out. Sylphie had been Princess Ariel’s guardian for eight years—from the age of ten to eighteen. She’d spent her entire adolescence with Luke and Ariel. I had to imagine she was feeling a sense of loss right now.
I wasn’t sure if I could fill this void for her. But maybe that wasn’t my role to play in the first place. I was Sylphie’s husband now. I wasn’t her friend, and I couldn’t replace her friends.
“But you know, Rudy, I did think this through beforehand,” Sylphie said after a moment. “Up till now, I was so busy with Princess Ariel that I barely spent any time looking after Lucie. So I’d like to stay at home with her from now on.”
I looked over. Her expression was more confident than I’d expected.
“Our baby’s getting bigger by the day, you know? I’m sure she’s going to need a lot more attention soon.”
Sylphie paused for a moment to nuzzle her head against my shoulder. I reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately. Her head seemed a little hotter than usual, although I might have been imagining it.
“So I think I’ll focus on taking care of her,” Sylphie continued. “I want to be a good mother for a change, I guess.”
I’d never thought of Sylphie as a bad mother. But by the standards of this world, I guess you could have called her neglectful. The only people who let maids raise their kids for them were nobles, and we were just an ordinary family.
Still, I wasn’t from this world originally. Back in the place I came from, two-income marriages weren’t unusual in the slightest.
“You know…if there’s anything else you want to do, I’m fine with that too.”
Sylphie was only eighteen. She was considered a full-fledged grownup in this world, but she was still very young. There was plenty of time for her to find new goals or chase her dreams. It’s not like I wanted her to ignore our kid or spend all her time partying, but I felt like she could juggle taking care of Lucie and pursuing something else.
Then again, maybe I wasn’t taking our responsibilities to our kid seriously enough. I wasn’t exactly the world’s best dad myself.
“Hmm… I’m not sure what that would be, though.” Sylphie cocked her head to the side and looked up at me thoughtfully. “I did want to be more like Eris for a while, I guess.”
“Really?”
What did Eris have that Sylphie wanted? The first words that popped into my mind were big breasts. I liked Sylphie’s just the way they were, honestly. But if she really wanted to work on this, I could always give her a daily massage to stimulate—
Come on, Rudeus. Let’s try to take this seriously.
“Yeah. I mean, she’s basically your equal, right?” said Sylphie. “You fight together. She watches your back, and you watch hers. That always made me kind of envious.” She paused. “But after that battle with Orsted… and how things went this time… I think I finally put that behind me. I’m never going to be a match for Eris. Or for you.”
I couldn’t agree with that. Sylphie was a very talented mage in her own right. She wasn’t on Eris’ level in combat, to be sure. But what could you expect? Eris had devoted her entire life to mastering swordplay. And Sylphie had plenty of skills that Eris didn’t.
“So I decided to give up on getting stronger, and find a different way to support you.”
Oh. Now I was starting to understand. Sylphie wanted to watch my back in a way that Eris couldn’t.
“And that led you to this stay-at-home idea?”
“Yep. It sounds Roxy wants to keep teaching at the University, so I’ll look after all the kids for our family. I’ll make sure they learn their manners, teach them what I know, and help them grow up safe and strong.”
My feelings about her proposal were a mixture of gratitude and guilt. In all likelihood, I wouldn’t be able to spend much time taking care of the kids myself. Our battle against the Man-God wasn’t over yet. That meant Orsted was going to keep sending me on these missions, dispatching me to far-off places to fight his enemies.
“You okay with leaving that to me, Rudy?”
On the other hand…Sylphie had settled on this as her new goal. She’d found a role to play, and she was ready to move from one stage of her life into the next.
“Of course. I know you’ll do a great job.”
I felt overwhelmed with sudden affection for my wife. Sylphie was always cute, but right now she looked even more adorable than usual. Unable to control myself any longer, I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She didn’t try to pull away, so I let my hand slide down from her shoulder to her butt.
Sylphie’s eyes opened wide with surprise, and she looked a little uncertain for a moment. But then she lifted her waist a little…
…and I froze like a warrior who’d met Medusa’s gaze. I could feel someone watching me, but from where?
Oh. The bed.
Eris was awake, and she was looking our way with glittering eyes. I’m not talking about sparkly, happy glittering, either. This was more of an angry tiger scenario.
Why did she always just watch silently when she caught me with the other girls? It was mildly terrifying.
“Sorry. I guess we should just go to bed for tonight.”
“Huh? Oh… Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Sylphie and I headed back over to the bed and got in next to Eris. There was time enough for the romance once we got back home. Perugius might be spying on us, anyway.
“Come on, Eris. Don’t ruin the mood like that.”
“S-Sorry… But you were being all sneaky…”
“No I wasn’t. You’re always welcome to join in, you know? Want to give it a try?”
“You can’t b-be serious. That sounds so embarrassing…”
Hmm. I felt like it would be more embarrassing for me than anybody else. Eris tended to put me in some borderline humiliating positions…
As I closed my eyes and listened to my wives whisper to each other, I felt a sense of satisfaction wash over me.
Sylphie had taken a big step forward in these last few days. She’d closed out one chapter of her life, and found a way to change herself. I needed to learn from her example. With her watching my back, maybe I could find a way to be less fearful of the future.
That was the last thought in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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