Chapter 2: Meeting

Three years had passed since I first explained the situation to my servants and started my real training. Erina continued to watch over me as usual, Noel and I studied magic together, and Dii taught me the ins and outs of being an adventurer. Before I knew it, I had turned seven. Between my tough training routine and busy days developing new spells, I grew at an incredible rate. I felt like it was time to start practicing real combat, so Dii and I had started sparring together.

Dii had clearly learned a lot from being an adventurer, so he was a worthy opponent. Still, he was self-taught, and I had a lot more experience. I ended up teaching him more than the other way around. He had an excellent sense for combat, so I had considered making him my first student. Unfortunately, he had declined, saying he wanted to be a chef; so I gave up on that. I loved to see people chase after their dreams, and I’d never want to get in the way of Dii’s. He was like family, after all. I did teach him some recipes from my old world, though, which made him really happy. I had never seen him smile that much before—it was quite the sight.

My preparation for school was going well. We were able to save up for the entrance fee by collecting rare herbs and crafting medicine out of them. Dii would take these to the town to sell. The three years I had left should prove to be plenty. After some training with Dii, he determined I was ready to be a full-fledged adventurer. That was his way of saying I could go out on my own without him worrying now.

That meant I could start using nature to my advantage when training, and I had begun to climb hills and such. I set my sights for the sky itself. During this time, I’d learned two new spells. The first one was “Boost.” It was possible to enhance your physical abilities by spreading mana through your body, and this was a spell specifically for that. Although it wouldn’t give you superhuman strength, it would allow you to crush a boulder with your bare hands—and that was just one example. The spell would also reinforce your body, as if equipped by an invisible shield. As long as you concentrated and did it right, you wouldn’t get hurt from such feats.

It was a very difficult spell to use, however, since it caused mana exhaustion very quickly. It was a colorless spell, which was one of the reasons it spent so much mana. After analyzing the spell for a while, I found that all it did was spread your mana through your body. Thanks to my knowledge of the human body and nervous system, I knew just how and where to send the mana, which allowed me to make the spell a lot more powerful.

The result was that I could boost my physical abilities for several hours at a time to superhuman levels. I could run to the lake in the nearby forest in just a few minutes, and make a goblin practically explode with a single punch. I felt like I was no longer human.

The next spell was my own creation: “Air Step.” By concentrating on my mana, I was able to give it mass. I could then transfer the dense mana to my feet and create invisible platforms in the air for me to step on. In theory, this was already enough to let me run through the air by myself, but even a single use drained me too much to make it actually useful. In addition, the platforms would vanish after just a few seconds, so I couldn’t just stand in the air forever. But, because of my ability to regenerate mana at will, and the way I could use “Boost” to power myself up, a second or two was all I needed. I had thought about using “Impact” to literally send myself flying, but it was very hard to control. Plus, the explosion would hurt a lot, so I gave up on that.

At any rate—thanks to those two spells, I was able to “fly” for as long as my mana lasted. I spent my days practicing my “air running” by going up the mountain. I would gaze out over the ocean at the landmass in the distance, which sparked my interest. According to my servants, it was a continent called Adload. We actually lived at the very edge of our continent, Merifest, which meant a quick trek up the mountains was enough to reach the ocean and see Adload.

While there were some differences, the two continents were pretty similar overall. Apparently, it took about a day to sail from the nearby port over to Adload. I thought it looked close enough to reach within a few hours, though. I was told that it took longer because the sea close to Adload was riddled with dark magic, which frequently sank ships that tried to cross it. Even if a ship were to get through the harsh waters, the area was surrounded by cliffs, which would make docking the ship outside designated ports nearly impossible.

And so, I was told that the specific trade routes would be my only options. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about sailing at all, but flying. That’s why I leapt through the air and headed toward the distant land mass. I had prepared myself to be attacked by potential monsters or something on the way, but found myself reaching the shore safely. I was first greeted by large forests, which seemed completely devoid of human life. In fact, even after I’d traveled through the air for quite some time, I found no signs of human life anywhere. It was most likely uninhabited.

After traveling through the air for a bit longer, I noticed a strange presence nearby. It was hard to describe, but I felt a strange tingling beckoning me. I turned toward it and used the “Search” spell in that direction. The spell was basically just like a sonar. It fired off mana much like sonars fired off sound, then waited for the mana to be reflected. It would then map out the area, showing the magic readings of anyone that happened to be around. An interesting feature of my affinity was that it made me hard to notice, since it had the same quality as the general mana in the air. Noel would have to concentrate really hard to notice me, even when she was up close.

Anyway, I wound up with a whole bunch of readings from animals and monsters nearby. But I also noticed one small, human-like reading. I didn’t know what it was, but I decided to head toward it. I was about to meet someone other than my servants for the first time. Just in case, I figured I should stay hidden for a while first to see who I was dealing with.

I was still in the body of a seven-year-old boy, so things could get tricky if I ran into the wrong type of people. Staying hidden was key to make sure I didn’t get in any trouble. I followed the “Search” spell, hiding in an area close to the source of the readings. Even if it did end up in a fight, if I only had one or two opponents I could quickly escape into the air again. I made sure to not make a sound as I slowly started sneaking toward the target. It reminded me of the many times I had snuck into enemy bases in the past. I had always been able to sneak past the guards, taking them out unnoticed. Instincts kicked in; and before I knew it, I had snuck all the way to them without alerting anyone.

I looked up and spotted what had to be an elf. While they looked mostly human, elves had much longer lifespans than us, and were easily recognizable by their distinct pointed ears. They were said to be a proud race, and were known among humans to be absolutely breathtaking. This elf was a woman with green hair reaching down to her waist, and equally beautiful verdant eyes. She had the body of a model, and was truly a beauty any guy would be drawn to like a moth to a flame. But what really caught my eyes was her condition—she was breathing heavily, sweating, and leaning up against a tree. Her clothes were torn in several places, revealing her skin. She wore a simple leather top which exposed her belly, and a green skirt which also looked easy to move in. The outfit seemed too light to me, but I couldn’t deny that she looked great in it. I continued to watch her, and she eventually started moving forward while pulling off her torn-up mantle. When she did, she exposed a deep cut along her right arm.

She was bleeding heavily, but made no attempts at stopping the bleeding. Instead, she looked forward and shouted.

“I know you’re over there! Come out!”

She wasn’t looking at me, but toward five different mana reactions approaching us. As soon as I noticed them, something shiny flew toward her at great speed. It took me a second to realize that it was a knife. I was about to jump out, but the elf swiftly drew her own blade and knocked it out of the air. She looked rather capable herself. When the knife she had deflected landed next to me, I finally realized what was up—the blade was coated in some kind of substance, probably poison.

Seeing the gash in her arm and the way she was sweating, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Soon, five humans wielding poisoned daggers walked out of the thicket. Their arms were covered in cloth to ensure they didn’t cut themselves with the poisoned blades. Based on their equipment, they looked like adventurers. They all smiled at the woman with the eyes of predators having cornered their prey. One among them stepped forward, eyeing the woman from top to bottom.

“You’re still able to knock a knife out of the air after being poisoned? You’re one tough elf!”

“Haah, haah... that was nothing. I barely had to lift a finger.”

“Hah, you sure talk big. You’re clearly seconds away from collapsing, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, we can see you trembling! If you’re cold, you should come over here; we’ll warm you up! Hahaha!”

“Looks to me like she wants it! You’ve clearly been waiting for us over here, honey!”

They were a bunch of mindless thugs. The woman took one more look at the men to make sure they were all there.

“Say what you’d like. It’s true, I have been waiting for you. But you’ve got the reason all wrong...”

She closed her eyes, as if preparing to cast a spell. No, it looked different—she didn’t chant, and I didn’t feel her mana flow change like usual. Something felt off. Was she the source of the strange tingling I felt earlier?

“I gathered you up here so I could blow you all away at once! Oh great tempest, banish my foes to the sky!”

In the next moment, a small tornado appeared out of thin air next to the men. The tornado started spinning, but quickly died down and vanished before it could do anything. The woman tried to cast it again, though nothing happened.

“Kuh... my mana...”

“Sh-Sheesh... that scared the shit out of me. I’m amazed you managed to use any magic at all after being hit by that poison. It’s really nasty stuff. You’re one amazing chick!”

“Yeah, yeah, enough flirting! Let’s go get a taste of her, shall we?”

“Damn right! I’ll start.”

The men started walking toward her with vulgar smiles. As they drew closer, the woman grabbed her knife and brought it to her own throat.

“I’d rather end my own life than be defiled by filth like you. Don’t get any closer, or I’ll kill myself.”

“Fine by me. But weren’t you blabbing about your family earlier? You sure you want to do that?”

“I...”

The woman hesitated for a second, which gave the man enough time to draw six knives and hurl them at her. Although he was undoubtedly a pile of human garbage, he did seem to be fairly skilled. I could tell as much by the speed that he drew the knives and the way he threw them.

The woman still managed to knock two of them out of the air and avoided most of them with incredible speed. Sadly, one did scrape her skin, leaving a gash in her stomach. She was probably moving on pure adrenaline at that point; and, as it ran out, she collapsed on the ground. The faster her heart beat, the faster the poison was being pumped through her body. She looked to be at her limit. The men simply watched their prey with revolting smiles.

“The effects had been slowed down before, but you’re really feeling it now, huh? That last one in the stomach really stung, I bet.”

“You... filthy cowards...”

“Boss! You’re going to kill her.”

“She’s a tough one. She won’t die from this. That’s why these chicks are so expensive!”

“Well, in that case, we’ll have to take our time and enjoy her!”

“There you go! Hey, elf—stay still, y’hear? I’ll make you feel real good in no time!”

“You might feel so good you go straight to heaven, hahaha!”

“Sorry to disappoint, guys. There’s no heaven, I’ve checked.”

“Huh?! Arrgh?!”

I called out to the thugs, then chucked a dagger dead centre in the leader’s arm. Before they could react, I jumped out between them and the woman.

“Boss?! Hey, how dare you... huh?!”

“What the hell? It’s a freaking kid. Where’d you come from, brat?”

They all looked at me like I was crazy. These men clearly underestimated me—which wasn’t surprising, considering I was in a child’s body. That was a great advantage to have at the start of a fight. I didn’t want them to aim at her instead of me, so I started taunting them.

“What do you mean? I came from over there. Are you dumb? Oh, I was the one who threw that knife, by the way. You dropped it, so I wanted to give it back. Aren’t I nice?”

“Tch, what an annoying brat. Guys, fuck him up!”

“No! Run away, child! Hurry!”

They were way too easy to manipulate. A few simple words and they charged toward me like feral pitbulls. The woman cried out in desperation, gazing at me with genuine worry. She definitely didn’t seem like a bad person at all. It was pretty clear from the start who the bad guys were, but now I was even more motivated.

“Dad, over here!”

I started with mental warfare. I looked past them, waved my arm, and called out to my “dad.” Normally, a child like me would never be walking around in the woods alone. I’d have a parent or guardian with me for sure. So when I called out to the imaginary guardian behind them, they all naturally turned around. This left them completely exposed from the front.

I cast “Boost” while they were distracted, and, before they could even react, they all had a knife stuck in their foot. These were all the knives the leader had thrown earlier, which I had picked up after him.

“Morons. What are you doing turning your backs on your enemy?”

“Y-You fucking shithead!”

“That’s all you got? You think that will scare me? Oh, by the way—these are all your knives.”

“Huh?! B-Boss! D-Did you bring the antidote?!”

“Shut up. Of course I did. I’ll have some, then you can... huh?!”

The leader reached out for a pouch, only to find it missing. By using “String,” I had easily pulled it from his grip without him even noticing. I had long since made a modified version of “String,” too. I would imagine a powerful wire instead of the thin string the spell would originally create. While the men tried to make sense of the situation, I checked the pouch. There were two small flasks inside: one was clearly filled with poison, which meant the other was probably the antidote. What’s more, the flask was so small that it obviously wouldn’t have been enough for more than one person.

“Is this the antidote?”

“Listen up, you little shit! If you give me that right now, I’ll let you live, okay?! Hand it over!”

“I see. You only have one then. Quite the leader, am I right guys?”

“Huh?! B-Boss, is he serious?!”

“Of course not! Don’t listen to him!”

“As long as you have this, you could just pour some poison in your drinking supply, get rid of everyone else, and take the spoils of war for yourself. That would be my guess at your plan, anyways.”

“Boss, you didn’t plan that, did you?!”

“I told you to shut up and listen! That little shit is just playing with you!”

“Well, take out the other vials of antidote then! Why wait for him to hand that one over?!”

I had just asked him if that was the antidote, nothing more. He basically did my job for me with his reply. It was a great way to get the pent up frustration out of my system. I left the poisoned and panicked men by themselves and turned to the woman.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine. But how did you...?”

“We can talk about that later. Can I see your wounds?”

The woman looked confused about what just happened. She already seemed to be paralyzed by the poison, so I had to hurry. The cut on her stomach was shallow, so it didn’t need any immediate care. The one on her arm was much deeper and definitely needed to be handled quickly.

“Guys, just shut up! Look at what the kid’s doing!”

“Shit! Just... let’s kill him first, then handle this, okay?!”

“You guys sure are slow.”

I put the stolen pouch in my backpack. The wounded elf reached out for me and placed a trembling hand on my cheek.

“I’m fine, thank you. It’s too dangerous for you out here. Please run away quickly.”

“Got it. I’ll run real soon.”

“Good boy.”

Her gentle smile was so beautiful that it would surely make any guy’s heart skip a beat. Since I was still in a child’s body, though, it didn’t affect me much. I intended to keep my promise, of course; I gently wrapped my arms around her and lifted her up.

“Well then, let’s go!”

“Huh?! What?!”

Obviously, a normal child my age wouldn’t have been able to carry a grown-up like that. But with the power “Boost” had provided me, it was a whole different story. I held her tightly and started to run.

“Wait! Stop! You’re going to get caught if you’re carrying me! Let me go and run!”

“It’s fine. You’re so light, this is no problem!”

I had been training since I was a baby, quite literally, so even carrying her normally wouldn’t have been that difficult. “Boost” only made the process easier—it made her feel as light as a feather. I had to admit that I enjoyed the soft touch of her body against mine as I ran. As you’d expect, the men started to chase after us.

“Wait up, stupid kid!”

“It’s just a damn punk! Get him before the poison really kicks in and finish him off!”

I was powered up by “Boost,” but the guys were also incredibly slow. If I just pushed myself a little, I’d be able to lose them in no time. I purposely stayed close enough to them that they could still see me. The reason was simple: I wanted to finish them off for good. The world didn’t need horrible trash like them. I could shoot them all with “Magnum” easily enough, but I didn’t want to show that to the woman. It would be hard to explain my skill to her, so I decided not to finish them off myself. After they chased me for a while, the men started to grow wobbly from the poison. I stopped and used “Search” to map out the area, letting them catch up.

“Haah, haah... We finally tired him out...”

“Haah... W-We won’t last much longer, either, so let’s just get this over with.”

“What do you mean, ‘tired me out?’ You guys are clearly the ones who’re tired.”

What a hopeless bunch. They were clearly desperate—most likely because of the poison—but they still managed to keep an eye out on their surroundings. I wanted to comment on how easy it had been to trick them, but there wasn’t much point in telling the enemy they had been beaten.

“You were running around and waiting for the poison to spread through our bodies, right kid?”

“You’re not totally wrong, but that’s not the only reason. Anyways, I’ll be leaving now. Bye.”

“Leaving?”

“Here they come.”

I used “Air Step” and jumped into the air just as a group of monsters jumped out from the depths of the forest. Creatures similar to bears came storming out from the cover of the trees. They were twice my height, with sizable snouts. In addition, they had an extra pair of arms compared to regular bears. I had noticed them nearby by using “Search,” and purposely led the men over to them.

“Fuck! It’s a gigu bear!”

“There’s one here too!”

“Shit, I can’t move...”

The bear-like monsters seemed to hunt in packs, and the poisoned men were surrounded in no time. I could hear their screams from below, but I ignored them as I jumped through the sky. I didn’t feel sorry for them at all. Any scum who’d try to poison and assault a defenseless and innocent woman like that deserved nothing less. I started searching for a lake or another body of water as I held the woman tight. For some reason, I felt like cleaning the blood and dirt off her. I wanted her to look pretty and neat again. Her wounds needed to be treated right away, and it just felt like a shame to leave even a scratch on such a beautiful body. Surprisingly, she stayed completely still in my arms the whole time. Wouldn’t it have been normal to ask questions if you were saved by a child who randomly started flying?

“Hey... we’re flying, right?”

“That’s right. If you’re scared, I can go back to the ground.”

“No, not at all! I love it! I had no idea flying would feel this good!”

She seemed like quite the fighter. Despite what she had been through, she looked like she was genuinely enjoying the feeling of flying, not giving the incident any thought at all.

“Hehe, it’s okay. This child isn’t an enemy, I can tell.”

She suddenly turned to face the air beside us and started to talk. It was as if there was something invisible right there beside her. But almost instantly, she seemed to snap out of it and blushed in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry, I got a little carried away. So, where are we going?”

“I’m looking for a river or something to clean up.”

“A river? In that case, there’s one over there.”

Sure enough, by following her directions I soon spotted a river running through the dense forest. I used “Search” to make sure there weren’t any threats nearby, then landed and sat the woman down on a nearby boulder. It was a very open area, but that only made it easier to spot any potential enemies on the off chance something showed up. I started by taking out the antidote.

“Here, can you drink this?”

“It’s a little embarrassing, but... I don’t think so. Could you help me?”

The woman opened her mouth, waiting for me to feed it to her. I had helped Erina drink her medicine in the past, but this felt different for some reason. She looked so beautiful that it felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t. Because of my age, I didn’t feel aroused, but had it not been for that I absolutely would have.

“Hnng... my body is warming up.”

“That’s good. It means your senses are going back to normal. I’ll finish treating you before the paralysis wears off.”

I checked her wounds. The bleeding had stopped, but they were still open. I took a clean rag, dipped it in the river, and cleaned the dried blood around the wound. Normally, that would have hurt, but the poison was probably numbing the pain.

“Phew. It’s so deep that it’ll leave a scar, won’t it?”

“It’s okay. I have to put my hand on it for a little while, so it could hurt. Try to endure it.”

“Oh my, you can use healing magic at your age?”

“Umm, not quite. But it will heal the wound, in a way.”

Healing spells were primarily in the water affinity. Most of them would create water rich with mana that would be capable of closing wounds and healing various illnesses. Since I was colorless, I was barely able to heal even a tiny scratch with water magic, so I had just given up on that. Instead, I had come up with a different way of healing. It was simple, actually—I’d place my hand on the wound, funnel my mana into it, and spread it through her body. While I treated her wounds, she awkwardly looked down at me.

“Umm... I was about to ask your name, but I just realized I haven’t even said thank you yet.”

“That’s true. Don’t worry about it. I just did what I felt was right, that’s all.”

“Of course I have to thank you! You saved my life! But, before that, what is your name?”

“Sirius. But isn’t it normal to say your own name before asking someone for theirs?”

“I’m sorry, this is an old elf custom. My name is Shemifia Alamis. Thank you so much. You saved my life, Sirius.”

Shemifia flashed a radiant smile. I didn’t save her to get anything back, of course, but being thanked by such a beautiful woman sure did feel good.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I was able to get you out of there safely, Shemifia.”

"Oh, you can call me Fia. So, Sirius... just who are you?”

What a curious little elf. She didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, at least, so I didn’t mind.

“What do you mean? Can’t you tell by looking?”

“You look like a human child, but... you defeated a group of adults like it was nothing, and you use these strange spells I’ve never seen before. I traveled a lot in my day, but I’ve never met anyone like you.”

She talked as if I was a different race from humans entirely. While I did have some strange circumstances going on, I was technically still just a human child. I had simply trained a lot and developed the magic on my own. Other than what the knowledge from my previous life allowed me to do, I was just like any other child.

“I’m just a normal human. A seven-year-old human child.”

“I don’t know about that. You look like one, but I feel like I’m talking to an adult.”

“I like reading. I suppose I’ve learned a lot from the books.”

“I feel like that definitely doesn’t explain all of this, but... very well. Let’s leave it at that. Now, why did you save me, Sirius?”

Fia looked at me with a serious expression.

“You didn’t seem fazed at all when those men died. I’m not saying I have a problem with that, of course. But you’re clearly a very smart boy. Why did you save me?”

“Do I need a reason to save someone in trouble?”

“I mean, a smart boy like you surely knows just how much an elf like me is worth... you could still tie me up and sell me if you wanted to, so... why did you go to such lengths just to save my life?”

True. Elves very rarely came out of their forests. Considering how beautiful they were, it was no surprise that slave traders were desperate to get their hands on elf women—that was definitely what those horrible men had planned. It also explained Fia’s confusion, since she probably expected me to kidnap and sell her instead. I had a few reasons: the first one was quite shallow—I didn’t want such a beautiful woman to be defiled by those gross men. The second one...

“Well, I thought it would be an honor to befriend such a pretty and nice elf.”

The only friends I’d made so far were Erina and the other servants, so I desperately wanted to get to know some more people—especially an elf. Fia stared at me for a second, then burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! That’s all? Wait, so if I wasn’t pretty, you wouldn’t have saved me, hmm?”

“Of course I would have, but I’m still a man! Well, a boy. Obviously saving such a beautiful woman would make any man proud.”

“Hehe. You’re a very blunt person, huh? Well, it feels strange saying so myself, but I’m glad I’m pretty. It helped me meet you, after all.”

“Does that mean...?”

“Yes. Let’s be friends, Sirius. No, rather, please be my friend.”

Because of the lingering paralysis, it took her a while, but Fia forced herself up and reached out for a handshake. And so, for the first time since I had been reborn, I made a friend other than my servants.

“The numbness is finally starting to go away. Hey, you said you were healing my wounds, right? I haven’t seen you do anything but place your hands on them.”

“Oh, right. It should be done now.”

I removed my hand from the wound; sure enough, the cut had completely healed up. Fia looked at her arm in awe and ran her fingers across where the wound had been.

“Amazing. There’s no sign it was even there in the first place! I’ve never seen such a powerful healing spell before!”

“Actually, it wasn’t a spell. I just boosted your body’s recovery process with my mana.”

All I did was transfer my mana into her body, driving the cells around the wound crazy, which caused the normal healing process in her body to be sped up by an incredible amount. I came up with it to heal my own wounds, but it works for other people too. I called it “Rapid Regeneration.”

“It’s not a spell? But it’s so amazing. Does that mean I can use it too?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think anyone but me can use it.”

It took an incredible amount of mana control to do it, and one wrong turn would destroy the cells, rather than powering them up. It wasn’t as simple as just pouring mana into someone and hoping for the best. It was a very delicate process that, without a proper understanding of human anatomy, did more harm than good.

“Then the flying one. Can you teach me that? That was wind magic, right?”

Fia’s eyes sparkled with excitement. That was definitely more interesting to her than the healing. I didn’t mind teaching her the spell, but she had clearly misunderstood.

“You’re talking about ‘Air Step,’ I’m sure. Well, for starters, that isn’t wind magic.”

“What? But you were literally flying in the air. That has to use the wind, doesn’t it?”

“No. What I did was create physical blocks of mana that I stood on. My affinity is colorless, so I can’t really use wind magic.”

“What...? You’re colorless? You’re kidding, right?”

It seemed like the colorless affinity carried a stigma regardless of race. I wasn’t carrying a mana tool that could prove it, sadly.

“Is it really that surprising?”

“Well, I just can’t fathom someone who can do all this amazing stuff being colorless... but now that you mention it, I didn’t feel changes in the wind when you used that spell.”

“You can feel the wind that clearly? Is that because you’re talking with spirits?”

“How did you know?”

She had been honest with me so far, so I saw no reason to not be honest with her.

“When you fired that spell off at the men earlier, I could tell that it was way too powerful compared to the mana you were using. And when you cast it, I felt this strange presence around us.”

I was using “Search” to sense all the mana usage around me at the time, so I could tell how little she was using. Regardless, the spell was clearly incredibly powerful—had it not been for the poison stopping her, it would have torn the men apart for sure. Also, after touching her directly and feeling her mana, I was able to confirm that the strange sensation I felt before didn’t come directly from her. So logically, I concluded that she had gotten help from a spirit to cast such a powerful spell. Fia stared at me for a second, like she was deciding whether or not to tell the truth, then let out a sigh.

“Phew... can you see spirits too, Sirius?”

“No, I can’t. I think I can sense them, though. But this is the first time it’s ever happened, so I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or not.”

“Is this your first time seeing spirit magic?”

“Yeah. It wound up misfiring, but that was really amazing. I could tell how powerful it was.”

Had she finished the spell, I’m sure it would have turned into a genuine tornado.

“I know, right! That’s why there are some people out there trying to hunt down and force spirits to help them. That’s why I’ve been trying to hide the fact that I see them.”

It definitely seemed like a mighty powerful weapon, so it made sense that people wanted it. Fia was already an expensive target as an elf, but one who could use spirit magic? That would surely bring a pretty penny.

“Spirit magic works by simply handing a small amount of mana over to the spirit, which they use to cast the spell. But you need to be careful, as the spirits will go haywire and make the spells too powerful if you don’t control your emotions. It’s rather difficult to use.”

Having such a delicate yet monstrous power must have been difficult for her. Fia was smiling, though I could tell that there was genuine worry behind that smile. All people who knew they had the power to destroy had smiles like that.

“Well, this is my problem. Nothing you have to worry about, Sirius.”

“I don’t know much about spirits, but I know how difficult it is to hide your powers.”

It was definitely similar to my struggles. Since I was in a similar position to her, I knew how good it felt to not carry the burden alone, and I believed she deserved the same. Fia tilted her head in confusion. As I was about to show off a spell to her, I sensed something big quickly approaching.

“Something’s coming!”

“Huh? Ah, you’re right! The spirits are going crazy! What is that?!”

Fia pointed toward the sky, where something huge was moving this way. It looked like a gigantic lizard with wings—probably some kind of relative to dragons.

“Looks like a wyvern. I just see one, though. Maybe it got separated from its pack.”

“Stop analyzing and start running! That thing is dangerous! Let’s hide!”

“It’s too late for that. It’s coming toward us.”

The wyvern let out a high-pitched shriek, then started diving directly at us. It was three times my size, which was considered small by wyvern standards.

“Looks like a youngling. Still, it’s pretty darn big, isn’t it?!”

“Come on, let’s hide! Ahh, we don’t have time... okay, stay back, I’ll—”

Fia tried to calm down and use a spell, but the lingering effects of the poison were clearly making it difficult. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and took a step forward.

“Sirius, get down! You can’t fight that thing! Leave this to me, I’ll at least stall it!”

“It’s okay, I got this.”

The wyvern had gotten extremely close already. It was nose diving straight toward us.

“Look closely, Fia. Spirit magic isn’t the only type of magic that’s dangerously powerful.”

“Huh? What are you—”

“Magnum!’”

I fired the invisible gunshot with incredible precision, since I’d trained the spell for years already. I combined the spell with “Impact,” which made the bullet explode on impact. As the “Magnum” bullet hit the wyvern’s eye, the entire head was blown to bits. Its lifeless body crashed into the ground before us, leaving Fia staring at the spectacle in awe.

“What... what just happened?”

“It’s one of my original spells. As you can see, it’s pretty powerful.”

“Yeah, I don’t even know what to say... you didn’t even chant, yet you cast something so powerful on your own...”

“See? So I’d prefer if you didn’t tell anyone about what you just saw.”

“I-I wasn’t planning on it! B-But why, if I may ask? With powers like yours, you’d probably get all sorts of jobs from the nobles. Heck, you’d probably get them from the royal family. Oh...”

“See? There’s lots of people out there who’d want to use a power like that for their own gain, just like yours.”

Fia wasn’t the only one who was trying to hide her powers from the greedy masses.

“I see. So we’re the same.”

Yes, we had very similar problems. Fia smiled faintly but sincerely. I left her to relax and recover, while I went over to the dead wyvern to inspect it. The head had been blown clean off, so other monsters would likely come over to eat the bloody remains if left like that. I started to quickly gather the parts of the wyvern that would be valuable. As I worked, Fia came over and took another look at the dead beast.

“I still can’t believe it. You defeated a wyvern with nothing but your finger...”

“It wouldn’t have blown up like that if I’d hit the wrong spot. I aimed for the soft eyes specifically because of its hard scales.”

“Being able to aim so accurately with any spell is impressive in its own right. So, what are you doing?”

The wyvern might have been small for its species, but it was still a cousin of the mighty dragons. The scales were too hard for a mere knife to pierce, which made the resource gathering very hard.

“I want the wing membrane to sell later, but my knife can’t cut it. These scales sure are tough.”

“Yeah, that knife won’t be enough. Here, try this.”

Fia handed me a green knife that glittered mysteriously. I had seen a lot of knives with custom designs in my day, but this was the most beautiful blade I’d ever seen—it was like a work of art. I almost felt bad using it, but she clearly wanted me to. Plus, I couldn’t say no to that smile.

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“It’s made out of mithril. It’s light, sharp, and conducts mana easily.”

The scaly wings of the wyvern, which had been too hard to cut through just a moment ago, felt like butter with this knife. I easily cut out the membrane I wanted.

“Thanks. That made things a lot easier.”

“No problem. Are you sure that’s all you want, though? The scales themselves would sell for quite a lot, I think.”

“I can barely fit these in my bag, so I’ll settle for that. If I carry too much weight, it’ll be hard to fly later.”

These parts seemed to be the most useful, so I was happy that I had taken them. Fia stared at me like I was crazy for leaving the expensive wyvern scales behind.

“You’re an interesting one. A typical adventurer would be picking that thing clean to the bone for any part they could sell. Wyvern and dragon scales are incredibly valuable.”

I’m sure the scales would’ve indeed been profitable, but I wanted to avoid any suspicions being placed on Dii. He was the one who’d be selling them, after all, and our family had enough problems as it was. I decided to grab just a handful of scales so I’d have enough for some spare cash, but not enough that it could be deemed suspicious.

“I don’t have many places to sell this stuff, and don’t want to get in trouble. What about you? You don’t want any?”

“I was on my way home. There isn’t a place I can sell this stuff at, so I have no real use for them.”

“All right. Let’s leave the rest, then. How are you feeling?”

Fia started to move her arm around. She smiled and ruffled my hair with her hand. Having such a beauty pat my head felt pretty great.

“I still feel a little numb, but I can move just fine. Thank you so much.”

“Great. We should get moving soon. The wyvern corpse might start attracting other monsters. I’ll walk you home, Fia.”

“Are you sure? All right, thank you.”

Fia smiled gently, then turned toward me and held out her arms. It was obvious what she wanted. I had already planned on picking her up and flying her home, but her request made me smile.

“Oh, okay, fine. Come here, then.”

“Hehe, thank you! Oh, but don’t think I’d be willing to do this with any man, okay? I’m just doing this because I trust you.”

“I’m honored. All right princess, let’s go.”

“Go, go, go!”

I held Fia firmly in my arms and jumped up into the sky.

“Our village has a custom where, when you reach a certain age, you go out on a journey by yourself outside the safety of the forest. I’ve been out traveling for a few years now.”

“Really? Actually, I’ve been planning on traveling the world when I grow up, too.”

“Is that so? I’d be lying if I said it’s easy, but it sure is fun.”

I’d heard elves almost never leave their forests, but Fia gave off a completely different impression.

“I hope I don’t offend you by saying this, but you’re pretty different than the image I had in my head of elves.”

“It’s okay, I agree. I’m different for sure. Normally, elves never leave the forest and stubbornly insist that mixing with other cultures is a waste and all that. I love traveling, personally. I wanted to see the world, so I headed out as soon as I was allowed to.”

“Haha, I see. I like that.”

“Hehe, I’m glad. Well, after traveling for about 10 years, my elder told me I had to come back. I was getting close when those brutes assaulted me.”

“Wouldn’t it be pretty easy for you to deal with those morons?”

“Yeah. If I’d used the spirits, I could’ve dealt with them without even blinking. I guess I got careless.”

Apparently, she had decided to do some work on her way back to the forest and got attacked during one of those jobs. She’d grouped up with other adventurers she’d ran into on the road. It turns out they’d been after her from the start, and poisoned her after gaining her trust.

“They really took their time, too. After we’d finished one job together, a child came over to thank me by giving me a drink. I had no idea the guys had paid him to give me the poisoned drink. By the time I’d noticed and started running, well...”

“They chased you, and that’s when I found you. Something like that?”

“Pretty much. Those pigs got what they deserved. Though, in a weird way, I’m kind of thankful to them—I mean, I wouldn’t have met you otherwise.”

“That’s... one way of looking at it. I suppose I am too, then. I’m also glad I met you, after all.”

“I’m an honest person. I like showing my gratitude where it’s due.”

I did save her life, but I wasn’t expecting her to open up this much. We continued to float through the sky in good spirits. Soon enough, we arrived at an open field. It wasn’t very large by any means, but its placement and its complete lack of monsters stood out to me.

“Our forest is beyond this clearing. There’s a barrier set up to stop monsters and outsiders from entering.”

In other words, if I kept flying like this, I might have been treated like an “outsider” too, so I decided to land in the clearing. I didn’t want to cause any problems.

“This is enough. I can get home from here—this place is like our backyard.”

“I see. So, what happens if I try to follow you in there?”

“The barrier wouldn’t physically block you from entering, but you would be identified as an enemy and showered in arrows. Even if you were to avoid the rain of arrows, they would play with your sense of direction to make sure you never reached the village.”

“I see. So they’re pretty strict on outsiders, huh? At least that should make your forests pretty safe, then.”

“True, it’s safe in there. But that’s also one of the reasons why most elves are so proud and closed off. They never want to come out, and that’s something I don’t like.”

Fia sat down on a nearby boulder and tapped the space next to her with a bitter smile. It was still only early afternoon, so I decided to sit next to her.

“I really loved the feeling of flying. And it was so fast, too—we got here in no time. Normally, this journey would take at least two full days.”

“If I go too fast, the wind becomes a problem and it’s hard to maneuver. But yeah, it feels good.”

“Hey, Sirius. You got cut off earlier, but can you teach me how to do that?”

“I don’t mind, but I doubt you’ll be able to get further than a few meters. It really eats up mana.”

“I don’t mind. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to fly with my magic, but I keep falling.”

Apparently, she had tried using the spirits’ wind magic to hurl herself into the sky. That went just as well as one would imagine—it was more like being thrown, and the wind wasn’t able to keep her floating, either.

“At least I was able to use the wind to slow my fall so I didn’t hurt myself, but yeah. I quickly found out that flying that way doesn’t work. I thought I’d never be able to, so please teach me!”

She really seemed desperate to learn.

“I’ll do anything in return! I’ll even be your girlfriend when you grow up!”

“Well, that’s an interesting offer. Anyway, Fia, you really should give up on trying to learn my way of flying.”

“I see. I guess I’ll just give up, then.”

“No, don’t get me wrong. What I mean is, you have powerful wind spirits by your side. All you need is practice and you’ll be flying in no time.”

“Practice? But I just told you, it was more like being thrown. I didn’t really fly.”

“Based on what I heard, it shouldn’t be that hard at all. It’s all about how you use the wind. You see, there’s something called dynamic lift, which...”

Dynamic lift was how airplanes in my old world managed to fly. Fia looked lost, so I cut out an airplane model from wood and threw it to show her how it flew.

“See how when the wind hits the wings, it soars through the air? It’s all about wind direction and flow.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. Okay, now I feel like I can do it. But controlling it seems hard, and practicing would be dangerous. A fall could end up killing me.”

“I’m here to help. If you’re about to fall, I’ll swoop in and save you. That way you don’t need to be afraid of failing at all.”

“That would make things easier!”

Fia lit up with excitement and got ready to start right away. For starters, it was hard to get the wind to lift her up while she was standing, so she lay down on the ground.

“This looks pretty silly... but if I can fly, that doesn’t matter. Hey, why are you walking over there?”

I had been standing right beside her, but decided to move in front of her instead.

“I was trying to be subtle, but I could see up your skirt like that.”

“I don’t mind. You can look all you want.”

“Just start already.”

“I’m serious. Well, whatever. Oh, great tempest, make me fly!”

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew up from under Fia. The winds were quite fierce. Initially, I was afraid it would hurt her, but she was clearly in control and made sure the wind didn’t hit her face. I was impressed at how well she was controlling the spell, and watched as her body slowly started to float.

“I-I did it! I’ll be able to fly in no ti—eek!”

She got really excited and lost control. The wind grew even stronger and tossed her straight into the air.

“I should go get her.”

I watched for a second, then swooped in and grabbed her before she hit the ground. As I caught her in the air, Fia wrapped her arms around me in excitement.

“I did it, Sirus! I did it!”

“You did. I’m happy for you.”

“Hurry, hurry! Get me down so I can fly again!”

I landed, and Fia instantly got down to start practicing again. Each attempt made her fly a little bit higher, though she did fail often. Of course, I would jump in and save her every time she did. I thought the amount of times she fell would have made her reluctant to continue, but...

“Whoopsie! Thanks for saving me, Sirius. My beloved prince!”

“You’re a tenacious one, aren’t you?”

I guess the way I carried her made her feel like a princess, which she seemed to enjoy. She got better after each failed attempt, and it didn’t take more than a few hours before she was able to keep herself floating without problems. Eventually, we decided to have a short lunch break. Since she had lost all her food while running away from the men, I shared some of the food Dii had packed for me with her. She got really excited when she tasted the mayonnaise that I had taught Dii to make.

We continued to practice after lunch. At that point, she had gotten the basics down, and was able to fly without falling that often. She even started to do loops in the air, which made me see straight up her skirt. I decided to keep that to myself. As the evening set in, she had finally gotten to a point where I felt safe to leave her flying by herself.

“Okay, that’ll do it. You pass.”

“Yay! Thank you so much, Sirius!”

After exchanging a high-five with Fia, I looked up at the setting sun. She noticed this and suddenly looked a bit sad.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yeah, I think I have to. But I remember this place, so I’ll come visit again.”

“I’d love that, but... once I go back to the village, I won’t be let out again for another 10 years. I’m sorry.”

“What? That’s dumb. And I guess I can’t enter the forest either, huh?”

“It would be difficult, yes. Elves never let outsiders in. Even if I were to vouch for you, I doubt you’d get far.”

“Sadly, discrimination—as dumb as it is—is found everywhere.”

“Yeah, I know. We get along well, so why should our races matter?! They blab about needing 10 years to be purified of the outside’s influence, or whatever, but that’s just stupid.”

Fia angrily kicked a rock. She looked upset for a second, but soon faced me with a smile again.

“I’ve said it several times already, but thank you so much, Sirius. I want to give you something in return. Is there anything I can do?”

“It’s okay, having gotten to know you is plenty.”

“That’s not enough! I want to give you something, I... Oh! Here, have this!”

She held out the mithril knife I had borrowed to cut the wyvern. I did want that, but it seemed far too expensive to be a “thank you” gift. It even had carvings on it, which looked personal to her. I felt bad accepting it.

“This isn’t like a family heirloom or something, right? I wouldn’t want it if that were the case.”

“It’s fine! They said I should take care of it when they gave it to me. I know you’ll do that for me, Sirius. Besides, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be here.”

“Well, all right. I’ll take it then, thank you.”

“I have one more thing for you. Will you accept that, too?”

“I feel like this knife is plenty. Really, you don’t have to give me anything else.”

“Well, just close your eyes for a second.”

I wasn’t sure why she had asked me that, but I trusted her. I did what she asked, and, a few seconds later, I felt something soft against my lips. I opened my eyes and saw Fia’s beautiful face right in front of mine. Stunned, I took a second to admire her beauty. She opened her eyes and blushed.

“I told you to keep them closed.”

“Aren’t you supposed to kiss my cheek, or my forehead, or something?”

“You seem way too cool about this... that was my first, you know?”

“I’m surprised, trust me. Is that like another one of those elf customs, or...?”

We’d just met that day. Sure, we had been through a lot together, but I didn’t think it possible for her to have fallen for me already. I was a child, to boot. Different races had different customs, so maybe it was a proof of friendship or something.

“No, not at all. It surprised me too, but, Sirius, I’m in love with you. I’m so certain that I’ve already made a reservation! I told you earlier, right? I’d do anything for you. I meant it.”

“I thought you were joking... Wait, ‘reservation?’ What are you reserving?”

“You. I’ll be able to leave the forest again in 10 years. At that point, you’ll be an adult. I guess you’ll have a girlfriend or two by then, or you might even be engaged. In that case, I’ll be fine with being your mistress.”

“Seriously?”

---

---

“Yes. It might come as a surprise to you, but I’m 252 years old. I’ll look like this even when you get older, you know? Of course, I’ll give up if you don’t want me, but...”

She looked genuinely sad about the thought. I’d feel terrible shutting her down, so I agreed.

“Okay, got it. I’ll come back in 10 years and, if your feelings haven’t changed, I’ll happily accept.”

“Really?!”

She was a fun girl, and a real beauty too. I had a wonderful time with her, so even I had started to feel a little affection for her. Fia lit up with joy, then wrapped her arms around me and kissed me again.

“Okay! I’ll wait for you here in 10 years, Sirius. I can’t wait to meet you again.”

“You got it. I’ll be here.”

“I’ll be waiting!”

We shook hands, and Fia started to head toward the dense forest. She waved until I lost sight of her. I checked just to make sure she was gone, then smiled and jumped back into the air.

And that was how I met and befriended an elf. I wasn’t sure what would happen down the line, but I was already excited to see her again.

※※※

A few days later, I decided to take another trip to Adload. I went in the opposite direction this time, but I was still greeted with immense forests. After I had traveled for quite some time, I considered heading back until a strange sound caught my attention. It rang through the mountains. When I followed it, it led me to a single house in the midst of the forest. I could see smoke rising from the chimney, so it was obvious someone lived there. It made me wonder who’d set up a house in a monster-infested forest.

I landed some ways away, just to make sure I didn’t scare the people living there, then walked up toward the house. I kept myself hidden as I snuck up to the house. There, I spotted an old man. He was tall and muscular, and was in the process of chopping wood with an axe—the source of the loud sound. Something seemed off about him, though. He was no ordinary old man, that much was clear. He wore simple commoner’s clothes, with a white shirt and black trousers, but his well-defined muscles and a long scar running across his left eye stood out. He looked old, but I could practically feel his killer instinct by the look in his eye and the way he moved. He looked like an ex-soldier or some kind of fighter.

“What? Stop hiding and come out.”

He noticed me?! I hadn’t been going all out, but I was still making an effort to stay hidden. Who was this guy? He took me by surprise, but I had no reason to stay hidden. I stepped out.

“A child? Where did you come from, brat?”

“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Sirius. I was out for a walk in the area and spotted your house, so I came to visit.”

“Hmph, you’re a weird one. I’ll say it now—if you do anything fishy, I won’t hesitate to beat you.”

The man glared at me with bloodlust in his eyes. Sure, I might have looked “fishy,” but he was being too paranoid, in my opinion. I had barely even said a word!

“I’m just a normal human. I have no intention of hurting you, sir.”

I held my arms up in the air. In response, the man just turned back and continued to chop wood. He was completely ignoring me now. If he kept doing that, it would feel like coming here was a waste.

“Excuse me—I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why are you living all the way out here?”

“I don’t know how you found me, scamp, but I won’t tell you anything!”

He literally spat at me as he shut me down. It sounded to me like he had the wrong idea. I figured I should start by explaining.

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea, sir. I came here completely by chance.”

“How'd you get here then, huh? How did a ‘normal child’ like you come all the way out here alone?”

“I’ve developed my own type of magic, which lets me travel fast. I happened to spot your house while I was traveling.”

“You really don’t know who I am, then?”

“Not at all. I can tell that you’re very skilled just from looking, though.”

A mere glance was enough to show that this guy meant business. He made the punks from the other day look like absolute trash in comparison. It looked like being honest was the right choice; the man looked over at me, intrigued.

“Hmph. You don’t seem half bad yourself, kid.”

“I’m nowhere near your level, that’s for sure.”

“Hahaha! Well said! I don’t really get why you’re out here, but still! A visitor is a visitor! Come, I’ll make some tea.”

His attitude completely changed in a second, and he headed into the house. The interior was much like you’d expect, completely made of wood. There was only one room, but the furniture was beautifully crafted. He had a nice set of chairs, a table, and covers made from some kind of monster or animal skin. It was clear that he lived completely off of nature in a place even more remote than my house. Just who was he?

I sat down and he soon joined me with some tea. He continued to surprise me when he took his cup of steaming hot tea and downed it in one go. How had that not burned him?!

“Phew, that hit the spot! Now, brat, what do you want?”

“Like I said earlier, I came here by chance. Could I ask your name, sir?”

He could have been a criminal on the run, but I had a feeling that that wasn’t the case. The man looked to be lost in thought for a second before he scratched his chin and nodded.

“I’m Liole. I bet you’ve heard of me?”

“Liole? Hmm, it does sound familiar... wait.”

I did come across that name in Albert’s Journey. He was said to be the strongest human swordsman. It was said that he could cleave a boulder in two with a simple swing of his sword, and that he could even cut a dragon down by himself. Because of that, people had started calling him...

“Are you Liole, The Great Swordsman?”

“I was a long time ago. Now I’m just a retired old man.”

I thought he looked strong, but I didn’t expect him to be among the best of the best. He didn’t act the part at all. He had seemed ready to fight when I first showed up, but the moment he learned I wasn’t a threat, he went right back to being a simple old man.

“You don’t look like someone who retired by their own will. Could I ask the reason you’re out here, sir?”

“Hmph, what a nosy brat. Well, why not? I’m bored.”

He started to pour more tea into his empty cup and began to talk.

“I loved training. I spent my days training and challenging the most renowned fighters I could find. Before I knew it, I was being called ‘The Great Swordsman’ or whatever. At that point, no one wanted to fight me anymore, and I grew bored.”

He didn’t take any pride in the name. Clearly, he found joy in actual battle instead. Yet here he was, hiding all by himself.

“One day, I thought of something—instead of waiting for an opponent to magically appear, I could train them myself. I announced that I’d take students from around the kingdom, and a bunch came.”

That wasn’t surprising. If the strongest swordsman ever started to accept students, a lot of people would have obviously been interested.

“But the ones who actually showed up were just nobles after the fame. I still figured I’d try training them. If they truly wanted to get stronger, it would show soon enough. But no—they were all a bunch of weaklings. If I went too hard on them, they’d run; and when I held back, they showed no improvement whatsoever. I tried to tell the king several times, but I was ignored. Eventually, I gave up on them and decided to go search for students myself.”

The world “noble” made me think of my own rotten “dad,” and I could see why he had hated training people like that. Commoners with real drive and skill had probably tried to attend, but I’m sure that the nobles had just used their power to get ahead of them. I could see why he had chosen to go out and find students himself.

“I found a few promising ones, but that made those stuck-up nobles mad. They told my students to learn their place. While I was away, they gathered them up and killed them all. That pissed me off, so I gathered those morons up, took them to the king, and cut their leader’s arm off. That made things a bit tricky, as you can imagine, so I decided to hide out here. That’s how I ‘retired.’”

He finished his story and took another sip of his tea. I finally understood why he was out here. I would have done the same in those circumstances—he wasn’t to blame at all. It was all the fault of those foolish nobles and the king who had refused to listen.

“You were too soft.”

“What?”

“You were too soft on those stupid nobles! You should’ve stripped those bastards of their precious titles. Now that would’ve shown them!”

“True.”

“You tried to talk to the king but were ignored, right? Well, in that case, you should have made it clear that the situation was worth noting. They won’t stop acting like assholes unless they’re taught a lesson. You should’ve smacked them around a bit; made the king notice.”

“I had been told that I went too far several times, but never that I had been too soft. Hah.”

“You should’ve been more careful, too! A teacher doesn’t just teach—they create a safe environment for their students!”

I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if my students died before me. As their teacher, I saw it as my duty to protect them. It was clear that the nobles were the bad guys in his story, but I also felt like he was at fault for not protecting his students. He should have been there for them.

“You’re one precocious scamp. What do you know?!”

“You should admit when you’ve made a mistake, no matter what your position is. I might still be a child, but I’m trying to become a teacher.”

“You want to be a teacher? You’ve got some resolve, kid, I’ll give you that. But that’s far from enough—you need the skill to back it up.”

“Well, how about we put my skills to the test, then?”

I had tried to sound as intimidating as I could, but his burst of laughter told me I hadn’t succeeded.

“Haha! Very well! I’ll teach you a lesson, brat.”

His eyes shifted again—he was no longer the retired old man, but the skilled swordsman. I would see how strong he really was. We went outside and stood in a large clearing by his house with wooden swords.

The sword I was holding was made for kids. He told me it was left over from his dead students. While it had clearly seen use in the past, it was still well-maintained. They clearly meant a lot to him. I felt like a mere wooden sword would break after a few blows, but he assured me it was sturdy enough as long as he didn’t spar with someone of his own caliber. I felt really excited—I hadn’t fought anything but monsters in a long time, so being able to fight a strong human made me happy. He seemed to be thinking the same thing, and clearly missed the thrill of the fight.

“If you hit me even once, you win. Don’t worry, I won’t go too hard on you.”

“Thank you. You’ll end up regretting holding back, though.”

“Hmph. Stop bragging and show me what you’ve got, brat.”

It was time to teach him a lesson. He was clearly underestimating me, since he hadn’t even bothered to get into a combat stance. I would start by making sure he took our fight seriously.

I slowly walked forward and tensed up before jumping toward him. He looked surprised at my sudden burst of speed, but still swung his sword in reaction. He was clearly skilled, since he was able to react so quickly. His strike was half-assed, though, and I dodged it with ease. I jumped out of the way of his sword, struck him gently in his side, and placed my free hand on his abdomen. After I gained some distance from him, I shook the hand that had touched his stomach.

“If I’d had a knife in this hand, you know what would’ve happened, right?”

“It would have been fatal for sure. I knew I’d gotten rusty, but I didn’t know it had gotten this bad...”

He shook his head and smiled bitterly. He turned to face me again, but his smile was totally different. He was clearly about to go all out.

“I’m sorry, and thank you! I hadn’t even noticed how much of the old me had rotted away!”

He roared like a wild beast, and it echoed through the forest. I could actually sense the nearby monsters flee from the area. Okay, this was too much! If he was this scary now, just how strong was he back in his prime?! Standing face to face with someone like him made me recall the days where I trained with my master. I felt like crying whenever I thought about the hell he put me through, but I was over that already.

The man was clearly serious now. It was time for round two. He lifted his sword, stood still, and waited. It was a stance focused on ending combat in one blow—it suited him.

“I’ve never seen that stance before, kid. What style is it?”

“I’m self taught, so it’s my own style.”

My stance was a unique one for sure. I held my sword in my dominant hand and leaned forward. I put my other hand behind my back to hide it. I had learned this from my teacher, but he had been self taught too; as such it didn’t really have a name. He had simply taught me to fight based on his own long experience in battle. It was a fighting style made to adapt, and I was the one to settle on this particular stance.

“I see. Okay, here I come!”

The moment he took a step forward, I activated “Boost.” Then, my mind entered combat mode.

| Liole |

How careless of me. My life had been about fighting, about training. I had always been the strongest. How did I let myself get this rusty? How many contenders after my title did I strike down with a single blow? They were all too weak. The thrill of battle faded quickly after that.

I was bored, so I decided to make the perfect opponent. Training students myself and fighting them was a great plan, or so I’d thought. In the end, all I’d gotten was a bunch of greedy nobles with sticks up their asses. Any students with actual promise were quickly suppressed by the nobles. Some shitheads that wanted to buy their way to the top had also showed up, but I taught those morons a lesson.

I decided to start looking for my own students. Those who wanted to get stronger so badly, they swung their swords with purpose and resolve. Those who genuinely wanted to defeat me. I finally found some promising ones, and started to train them. Those days had been great. Seeing them grow stronger by the day really brought back my old joy for fighting. Then those damn nobles ruined it all.

I did cut their leader’s arm off, but that wasn’t enough. Just being around them made my skin crawl. I left the kingdom and hid out here by myself. Building a house and living off of nature became my life, but the hole left in my heart was never healed. My body started to rot away along with my thrill for battle. My sword started to feel heavier by the day, and I no longer felt the need to fight.

That’s when I met that brat. He was a strange one. Even skilled adventurers rarely showed up in the middle of nowhere where I lived, yet he casually strolled in like he was out doing some shopping. I thought he was out here scouting for those darn nobles, but he was alone.

This strange kid had heard about me, but didn’t seem to care much. He really got my interest. He was nothing more than a child, but he acted really cocky. I wanted to teach him a lesson, but he ended up teaching me one. He teased me and I took the bait; I ended up walking right into his trap.

I took him to the backyard for a sparring session, thinking I’d be able to smack him around with ease.

One or two light jabs would surely put him in his place, I thought, but the kid seemed oddly confident. I had never seen someone move the way he did on the battlefield. He leaned forward, practically crawling, and was suddenly on top of me. While he was fast and did take me by surprise, I’m sure I wouldn’t have let him get that close in my prime. He easily dodged my desperate attempt at deflecting him and touched my stomach.

“If I’d had a knife in this hand, you know what would’ve happened, right?”

That made me furious—not at him, but at myself. What was I doing? I wasn’t actually hurt, but that move woke me up. He wasn’t a mere child, he was a worthy opponent.

The embers left from my burning passion for combat were rekindled. I hadn’t felt like that in so long. I apologized, then thanked him. We both prepared to spar again. The kid... no, my opponent, got into a strange stance that I had never seen before, but that didn’t matter. No opponent had ever stood a chance against my “single strike” style. His stance would not matter.

Single strike style, “Heaven’s Might.” It was a stance that had you lift your sword above your head, so that you could end everything in one single, powerful strike from above. A single, mighty strike that could easily slice through steel. The technique was rather simple, but, in the hands of the right user, it was nearly undodgeable.

I lunged forward, swinging down with “Heaven’s Might,” but... he avoided it. Not only that, but he had just barely twisted his body sideways to completely avoid the strike, clearly having seen through my technique from the start. His amazing reflexes and combat sense made me smile. I quickly followed up with “Rising Wings” from below, but he easily dodged that as well. He swung back a strike of his own, but I managed to block it in time.

Not only did he evade my strikes, but he had time to counterattack too. I felt the adrenaline quickly filling my body.

Based on his mana flow, I’d say he had used “Boost” to strengthen himself, but I had never seen someone use the spell so brilliantly before. I followed up with “Crushing Barrage,” a string of eight powerful strikes, but he managed to block half and dodge the rest. I then tried “Crushing Blow,” which was a strike that filled my blade with mana before creating a shockwave from the tip of the blade. However, he swiftly leaped out of the way as soon as I moved. He ended up behind me with a counterattack. I was able to rush forward to avoid his attack. I can’t hit him at all! This is incredible!

I could feel my strength slowly returning to my rusty body from the harsh battle, and it filled me with euphoria. Finally... finally, a worthy opponent. The Great Swordsman? The strongest? Hah! Don’t make me laugh. There was someone stronger right here in front of me! If only I had my trusted partner—my old greatsword—by my side, and not this piece of wood. I wanted to change the rules of our combat: no points, but a duel where only one remained standing. I wanted nothing more than to change into my combat gear and fight him to the death. I wanted this to go on forever.

Filled with adrenaline and excitement, I moved forward. Unfortunately, my old body soon reached its limit. My breathing was getting heavy. I was out of my prime, that much was certain, but I was still strong. Had I only met him earlier... But it was too late to mull over that. I deflected a blow aimed at my neck, and he jumped back to gain some distance. It was strange—why didn’t he follow up with another strike? I tried to calm my breathing. That was when I noticed that he was breathing pretty heavily too.

“Looks like we’re both at our limits. Let’s end this.”

“Yeah.”

---

---

He was at his limit as well, huh? It was hard to tell, but if I looked closely, I could see his arm trembling faintly. He was truly skilled at hiding his own exhaustion. Had we continued a little longer, I would have surely collapsed before him. But he declared his intention to end the fight, so I had to go along with that. I calmed my ragged breathing and firmly gripped my sword.

Now, come! I’d put everything I had left in one strike! He was fast, rushing straight towards me. I’d win in terms of pure strength, but I just couldn’t read his swift movements well. He swung his blade quickly and carefully, while I, the brute that I was, just swung straight down with all my might. Our blades met with a crash that was so loud, it was hard to believe it came from wood. It reverberated through the forest as our sword splintered in half. Thinking the incredible fight had come to end, I let out a sigh.

But I was a fool—I didn’t realize the fight was still going until his knee had hit me straight in the jaw. Haha! That’s it! The fight doesn’t end just because your weapon breaks. You keep fighting! As his knee hit my jaw, I passed out.

| Sirius |

“Phew... what a reckless old man.”

He was much stronger than I expected. Seriously, what was that insane barrage of blows? Eight in a row?! He’d moved like some character straight out of a manga! Had I not been using “Boost,” the fight would have ended right then and there. Not only that, but he was clearly past his prime. Just how terrifying had he been at his strongest? The only reason I had been able to win was because he let his guard down after our weapons broke. No wooden sword, no matter how sturdy, could take being hit with such force over and over.

To be honest, without my new skills—such as “Boost”—my only tactic against someone like him would have been to run as fast as I could. He was laughing and smiling the whole time we fought. He clearly loved the thrill of the battle more than anything. That was the only reason I had been able to connect with such an obvious kick. Had he not been so overcome with emotion, he would have easily avoided it. It definitely did a number on his head, so he had passed out. But now I knew exactly why they called him the strongest swordsman. It was no mere title, it was the truth. Neither of us were in our prime, but still. I hadn’t fought anyone so seriously since my old teacher all those years ago. I wasn’t as excited about the fight as the old man, but I still found myself pretty satisfied for the first time in a while. I’d love to spar with him again sometime.

“Ugh... hah... haha!”

He suddenly burst out laughing.

“That was fun! I haven’t fought like that in years! I feel like I’ve come back to life!”

He got back up like it was nothing with a huge smile on his face. I thought he might have a concussion from that blow, but he seemed completely fine.

“You win! I’m sorry, but could you tell me your name again?”

“You forgot, huh? I’m Sirius, sir.”

“Drop the formality! You just beat me, after all!”

He put his hands on his hips and laughed so loud it echoed through the forest. He had suddenly stopped calling me “kid” and “brat,” clearly treating me like his equal.

“But I feel bad—that was such a cheap shot. Had I not gotten that chance, I would’ve lost for sure.”

“Oh, please! That was my fault for letting my guard down. Don’t mention it again. You’ll make me die of embarrassment!”

“Got it. I won, then. Let’s leave it at that.”

“That’s right, you won. Haha, that was fun. I couldn’t hit you with any of my techniques!”

“I know you’re excited, but we should probably rest a bit. We’re both pretty beat up, after all.”

I hadn’t been hit directly, but I was still covered in sweat. As for him, his clothes were torn from various close calls from my sword.

“All right, let’s head inside and rest. Urgh?!”

It seemed like damage from my kick had finally set in, as he fell straight through the front door on his way inside. I thought he was a monster for getting up from that, but I guess he was human after all. We both cleaned ourselves up, then sat down to have some tea.

“Phew! That hit the spot.”

We both said the same thing in unison. Well, I was about his age in my previous life, after all. I was nothing more than another old man enjoying his tea.

“Phew, nothing like a cup of tea after battle. Well then, Sirius. Let me start by thanking you.”

He suddenly bowed his head. I didn’t want to offend him, so I decided to accept his thanks.

“That’s fine, but raise your head, old man. I really enjoyed that fight too.”

“Even so! I’ve been waiting for someone like you for so long! Had you not showed up here, I would have just rotted into dust! So thank you!”

He honestly looked like he’d been brought back from the dead. In fact, he looked 10 years younger. I had a lot of fun fighting him too. We both needed it. The old man poured me another cup of tea, then got serious.

“I have something to ask you—would you fight me again?”

“You mean another day and not right now, right?”

“Of course. With this old body, I couldn’t even if I wanted to right now. I want to fight you at my best, of course.”

“You mean you’re going to train? At your age?”

“Hmph! I’ll be fine. I need to get some of this rust off. Besides, don’t you want to fight me when I’m serious?”

“It’s that obvious?”

“It is. I could tell by the way you fought. Your style is all about sneaking around and getting in cheap shots, yet you continued attacking me from the front. It’s like you wanted to train yourself by fighting me where I’m strongest.”

While he seemed to fight purely on instinct, he did keep an eye out for the small details after all. He was right—my fighting style had always been about surprise attacks and getting under people’s defenses. My old job had been all about assassinations and sneaking into places to cause chaos, after all. Had I really fought seriously, I would have used “Magnum” at close range and thrown “String” around to trip him up. But I knew that someday, I might be in a situation where I’d be unable to use magic, so this had been a perfect opportunity to train my abilities in hand-to-hand combat. I loved the feeling of training just as much as he did.

“So you’ll be fighting to train, and I’ll be fighting for the thrill of it. Win-win, don’t you think?”

“Of course. If anything, thank you. That’s perfect.”

“Good!”

We exchanged a firm handshake. Although I would be getting stronger, his body would be getting weaker with age. Training himself back to his prime at that age would surely be difficult.

“Hahaha! I never thought I’d be meeting my match at this age! I love it!”

At the very least, he seemed excited at the idea of pushing himself, since fighting was his life. I was the one who had to watch out. I knew he’d be incredibly powerful as soon as he got serious.

And that’s how, shortly after I met my first friend, I also met a perfect rival. We continued to chat while we rested and waited for our strength to return. We both had lots of stories to tell, and time just flew by. I showed him my spells, which surprised even someone like him—a battle-hardened veteran.

“Those are some fun spells. I’d love to fight while you use those one day. I’m having a hard time thinking about a way to get around those!”

“You’re a crazy old man, you know that?”

“Damn right! Hahaha!”

After we finally got our strength back, I prepared to leave.

“All right, old man—I’ll be back within 10 days.”

“Good. I’ll make sure I’m strong enough to use my old pal here by then.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Hmph! Don’t treat me like an old weakling!”

He showed me his “old pal”—a monstrous-looking greatsword. It had to weigh at least a few hundred kilograms by itself, yet he seemed serious about being able to wield it like a regular sword by the time I got back.

Excited about our next meeting, I headed back home. When I returned and walked through the door, Erina was already there to greet me.

“I’m home, Erina.”

“Welcome home, Sirius.”

I had already headed out for several days at a time at this point, but Erina would always be there waiting for me when I got back. It felt like she was watching me, somehow. She always knew exactly when to be behind the door as I got home.

Although she greeted me calmly, her eyes went wide in shock when she saw my clothes.

“What... What happened?! I’ll treat you at once!”

I forgot that my clothes were a complete mess from the fight.

“I-It’s okay, Erina! It’s just my clothes. I’m not hurt at all.”

“Strip, now! I have to check.”

“Huh?! Here?!”

She was about to tear my clothes off to make sure I was fine, but I managed to convince her to let me go to my room first, at least. As we walked through the house, we ran into Noel, who was carrying a dust pan around.

“Hey, Sirius, welcome home! I thought I heard Erina getting all worked up over something. What happ—Why are your clothes all ripped up?!”

“I’m hooome! Well, it’s a long story. But I’m not hurt, I promise.”

“All right, if you say so. Anyways, Dii said he had something to tell you.”

“Got it. I’ll go change, then head to the living room. Tell him to meet me there, please.”

Erina refused to leave my side until she had personally checked me for injuries. The reason Noel had been so chill about the whole thing was that she was, quite frankly, used to this. It did feel a bit weird to change in front of Erina. She was like a mother to me, but still. She limited herself to nodding happily while she watched, seeing that I wasn’t injured.

“You sure have grown up fast, Sirius.”

“You mean my muscles?”

We headed toward the living room, where Noel and Dii were waiting next to some kind of container.

“Welcome home, Sirius.”

“I’m home, Dii. Noel said you wanted to talk?”

“Yes. Look at this.”

“Oh, is it done?”

I looked over at the container next to Dii, which was filed with small white cubes submerged in a liquid.

“What do you think?”

“It looks perfect. You really outdid yourself.”

I had told him how to make tofu. They had some beans here very similar to soybeans and, after checking the taste and such myself, I’d deemed it pretty much exactly the same. They had some weird name, but I just called them soybeans, and the servants started to copy me. So they were soybeans now.

Anyway, there were lots of things that could be made that I wanted to eat again, so I had started teaching Dii how to use them. One of those things was tofu, and he had finally finished. I’d taught him how, but he was the one who actually made it. I felt bad leaving all the work to him, as it was a lengthy and hard process.

“I’m sorry for always leaving the dirty work to you, Dii.”

“Don’t be. It’s good practice. I enjoy it.”

“His cooking is the best! Hey, so is this the tofu stuff? It looks weird!”

I guess they didn’t have anything like it here. The reason I knew how to make all this stuff in the first place was because cooking was a bit of a hobby of mine in my old life. At first, I’d loved traveling, just to taste the various dishes the world had to offer. I’d eventually grown bored of that and wanted to make them myself. That’s when I started to learn and I felt pretty confident about my cooking.

“Have you tasted it yet, Dii? What did you think?”

“It’s okay, but I feel like something’s missing.”

“It can be eaten by itself, but it’s usually a side dish.”

Noel must have thought the consistency was fun, because she kept poking the tofu. At any rate, this was great timing—tofu would be perfect with dinner.

“Oh! Since you’ve gathered us all here, I guess that means...”

“You’ll be teaching us a new dish?”

“That’s right! I found this in the sea earlier.”

They always loved it when I taught them new recipes. I had been using my servants to taste all the dishes I made here from my old world, and that gave me a general idea of what they liked. Noel loved mayonnaise and pudding, while Dii loved fried chicken. Erina took a liking to French toast, since it was the food I’d cooked for her when I’d saved her. It seemed like that had really stuck with her. This time, their excitement died down as soon as I showed them what I had brought. They clearly didn’t look at seaweed as food.

“What is that? It’s all slimy and gross.”

“It’s seaweed. It lives in the sea. We call it ‘kombu’ where I come from.”

I spotted it on my way back home. The trip had taken about half a day, which was perfect—the seaweed had dried up plenty on the way.

“Is this really edible?”

“You don’t really eat it by itself. You squeeze out the juice from inside.”

“Sirius, should you not relax a bit before making food?”

Erina walked over, looking concerned. I had just gotten home. Maybe I should rest a little.

“You’re right, I’ll do that. Thank you, Erina.”

“You two rest as well. And Sirius, you are going to tell me what happened and why your clothes were so torn up, do you understand?”

She looked terrifying. I definitely had to tell her the truth. So, when we all sat down for some tea, I told them about how I met Liole. The three of them were at a loss for words.

“What’s wrong, guys? Is it really that weird?”

“Of course it is! I’ve never met him personally, but I’ve heard stories of The Great Swordsman, Liole! They’ve written books about him!”

“He’s truly a legend.”

“I don’t know much about fighting, but even I’ve heard about him. They said he took on a thousand men on his own once.”

He just looked like an old geezer when I first met him. He seriously fought a thousand men alone? Talk about a crazy old man.

“And then what? Did you fight him? Haha., Even you’re not that dumb, I guess.”

“No, I did. He was really strong! I won this time, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to next time.”

“You did?! And won?! Y-You must be kidding, but you seem so serious...”

Noel looked completely shocked, but I was telling the truth. I told them that I would go fight him again, but Erina cut in with a nod.

“I see, so that’s why your clothes were all torn up. Sirius, just promise me you won’t push yourself too hard.”

“Well, I have to push myself to get stronger.”

“Even so, I’ll reiterate—please... don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Got it.”

I knew Erina was just worried about me. It would do me no good trying to argue, so I just nodded along. I’d hate to make her worry every time I left, so it would be nice if I had some way of talking to her while I was out.

“You sure are incredible, though, Sirius. First, you meet and befriend an elf, then you spar with a legendary swordsman?”

“I just ran into them by pure chance.”

“You’re so lucky! I want to meet them too! Hey, Sirius, tell me—you said that elf was a real looker, right? Did you fall in love with her, by any chance? Hmm?”

“Sirius? Please, introduce me to this elf. I’d... very much like to meet her.”

Erina suddenly turned very serious, looking like a concerned mother. I didn’t want Erina to get mad at Fia, so I decided not to tell her about the kissing and what not.

“So anyways, I’m going back to fight Liole again. Next time I’ll just wear whatever, since it’ll surely get ruined.”

“Very well. Please be careful, Sirius.”

“Of course. I will. Now then, Dii, how about we get started? Can you bring over the tofu?”

“Right away.”

We headed to the kitchen and started to cook. I wanted to make a seafood stew. There weren’t a lot of spices in this world, so there weren’t many things to make a good base with. At least I’d found the seaweed, which was perfect for this dish. It was possible the taste was different from what I was used to, though, so I tested it before doing anything else.

First, I cleaned the dirt off the seaweed with a cloth, then I put it in the pot and heated it up. After I let it simmer for a bit, the base was ready. Thankfully, the taste was just like back home. I cut up some meat and vegetables that Dii had prepared and put them into the stew. Seasoning was scarce, so I used some salt and left it at that. The taste was pretty good.

“It’s simple, but it looks good. Won’t it be hard splitting a dish like this, though?”

“You don’t split it before serving. Everyone eats it together, taking little by little from the pot.”

Dii finished taking notes as he watched me, then had everyone come over to help carry the pot to the table. We didn’t have a gas cooker to keep the pot warm, though a mana oven left on the low setting did the trick. Erina and Noel peeked into the pot curiously.

“So this is the stew? I don’t see the gross stuff from earlier in there.”

“Is there any specific way to eat this dish?”

“It’s all on the bottom now, so avoid that part. You can eat it however you want. Some people like taking small amounts and eating them from their own plates, while others like sharing straight from the pot.”

“Straight from the pot? I could never...”

Erina looked conflicted. The thought of eating from the same pot as her master probably seemed rude to her.

“Stew like this is meant to be eaten together in a group—usually by families. It’s perfect for us, don’t you think?”

I smiled, then started eating. The taste wasn’t bad, though it was a little too bland. It definitely lacked seasoning, but the blandness had a certain charm to it.

“It’s for families...? Well, we are a family, so I guess we’ll have to, in that case.”

“Exactly! It’s for all of us, so let’s dig i—So hooot!”

I had created chopsticks for everyone to use. Dii and Erina had gotten pretty used to them already, but Noel was still pretty terrible. She instantly messed up and the splashback from the pot burned her hand.

“Are you okay, Noel?! Did you get burned?!”

“Tehe, I’m good. I got it this time!”

“Stop pushing yourself. Give me your plate.”

“Dii...”

Noel gazed happily at Dii, who had started to help her with her food. They looked so cute together. They weren’t dating or anything, but I’d been rooting for them for years. Neither of them had made a move yet, so it would still probably take a while. While they were off in their own little world, Erina tried a piece of tofu and smiled.

“You were right, the tofu tastes even better like this.”

“It’s very healthy, too. You can eat lots of it, even if you’re on a diet.”

“Really?! Dii! Make lots of that stuff for me, got it?!”

“Relax, Noel, don’t eat so fast. You’ll burn your tongue.”

“Oh, don’t worry! It’s cooled down a lot by no—So hooot!”

Noel really didn’t deal well with heat. Maybe that was one of the cat traits she had as a demi-human? I tried to explain that, even if the outside of the tofu had cooled down, the inside was still hot; but she had ignored me and taken a giant bite. That girl was the same as always. After a pleasant dinner, I went to help Dii and Noel with their respective training. In Dii’s case, that meant teaching him new cooking recipes. In Noel’s, I just showed her some new concepts for spells I’d been thinking of.

I didn’t have much to do, to be honest—just a few small comments here and there. You could say it was nice to have pupils who could handle themselves for the most part, but, as a teacher, it made me feel a little lonely. After hearing Liole’s story, I started to miss training students of my own. These two weren’t even really my students. I wanted my own. Fighting the old man must have rekindled an old flame in me, too. It made me think back to the time I’d decided to retire from fieldwork to become a mentor.

It all started when I’d met a certain girl. I had been sent out to take down an organization conducting illegal human experiments. I had infiltrated them easily enough, and did my job. While I was there, I had discovered a group of confused children who’d been kept captive.

I had my company step in to help them. They returned the ones they could back home to their parents, and sent the rest to the foster system; but there had been one girl who’d refused to leave my side. Since I’d rescued her, she looked at me as some kind of hero, and grew very attached to me. Her parents had passed away, and she’d refused to leave my side, so I’d decided to take her in. I couldn’t bring her with me on dangerous missions around the world, so I’d leave her with a female friend of mine whenever I had to work. Still, every time I’d return home, the girl would light up and cling to me.

After a while, the girl had gotten a little older, and said she wanted to learn my job. She wanted to help me do my work, so she could save people like I had saved her. I had to tell her the truth: my job wasn’t like that, and I did bad things, too. I thought that would scare her off, but it didn’t. She still wanted to learn.

There was something about her determination to do good that broke me. She felt like a daughter to me, and the feeling was mutual—she had started to call me “dad.” I wanted to make sure she would be safe when I wasn’t around anymore, so I decided to start teaching her. That was how my career as a teacher began. I had started somewhat reluctantly, but once I finally got going, I absolutely loved it. Seeing my students grow was an incredible feeling.

But then, after I’d trained a group of students for quite some time... I’d died. What hadn’t died, however, was my love for teaching. I wanted to continue.

※※※

A year had passed since then, and I was now eight. I would train with Liole every now and then, which had definitely helped me grow stronger. Recently, I had started going for walks through the dense forests instead of flying. Fighting off monsters and trekking through the tough terrain made for great training, after all. I was on my way back from a training session with Liole and was scouting Adload’s forests.

“I should eat soon.”

After gathering up some interesting looking mushrooms, I glanced up at the sun and realized it was time for lunch. My servants usually took turns making my lunch. I could tell from a single glance that today’s meal had been prepared by Erina. I sat down on a nearby rock and started to eat. The lunch box was filled with my favorite: meat and vegetable sandwiches. There were also various sides. It was a ton of food, but I was growing rapidly and needed a lot of protein.

“This is great. Oh, I should let her know where I am.”

I pictured Erina in my head and sent a message.

“Um, this is Polaris. I’m eating lunch. No irregularities. Oh, and the food is delicious. Over.”

I hadn’t gone crazy—I was using “Call,” a new spell I had created. It let me send a message through mana waves in the sky—much like radio waves—to whoever I imagined in my head. Apparently, it felt very strange to have a message suddenly play out in the receiver’s head. It was a very handy spell, though I was the only one able to use it. It was a one-way form of communication.

It took a lot of mana to use, and, since the message traveled through the mana in the air, it could easily leak into other people’s minds on the way. That was why I always used a code name when I sent them. I was still experimenting with its usage; but for now, I was just glad I could ease Erina’s worries when I was out traveling. At some point, I wanted to see if it could be used to deliver messages through crowded areas, as well as incredibly long distances.

Apparently, there was a wind affinity spell that let you send messages across the sky. Unfortunately, it was possible to intercept them and listen in, so it had some flaws. “Call” definitely had a lot of potential, so I was careful when I used it. I needed to keep it as much of a secret as possible.

I finished my report and went back to eating. Erina’s sandwiches were as delicious as always. I never got tired of them. I started to feel a presence nearby, so I used “Search” to see what it was. With my radar up, I casually continued my lunch while the presence moved in closer. It was a giant boar-like monster with two large tusks—I think it was called a “beonifang.” It was after me, of course, and started rushing in my direction with its tusks aimed forward. It was fast, but an obvious frontal attack like that was super easy to dodge.

“You make this too easy.”

I hopped onto the beast’s back and jammed my mithril knife into its skull before it could react. I’d heard their hide was incredibly tough, but the mithril knife cut through it with ease. After trembling for a second, the monster fell, lifeless, to the ground.

“And there’s dinner! I hear this part is really delicious.”

These things had a tough hide and incredible strength, so they were pretty dangerous. Normally, it took a group of decently skilled adventurers to defeat them, but a simple jab with a sharp blade in the right spot was all I’d needed. The old man would surely be able to cleave something like this in half with ease.

As I started to skin the beast, I felt another presence from within the forest. I expanded the area of “Search,” and noticed other monsters running in the opposite direction. I spread it even further and started to pick up human readings. There were two, and they seemed to be running from the monsters. I guess that’s why they were running in that direction.

It was close enough that I didn’t need to fly there, so I started to rush through the forest by using “Boost” instead. After running for a bit, I spotted two children cowering on the ground. There was a monster charging straight toward them.

“Oh no you don’t!”

I jumped between them and kicked the beast right across the face. Thanks to “Boost,” the kick was powerful enough to send the monster flying through several trees before it crashed into the ground. Just to be sure, I fired off a “Magnum” shot and finished it off. It might have looked like my kick literally caused an explosion.

My “Magnum” had really gotten stronger over the years—even more than an actual gun. The smell of blood would definitely attract more monsters, so I quickly helped the two children up. They were both demi-humans, one girl and one boy, and looked to be about my age—though the girl looked a bit older. They had silver, wolf-like ears and fluffy tails Based on how similar their features were, I guessed that they were siblings. But they were truly in terrible shape.

They wore torn up rags and were sickly thin. In addition, they had bruises and cuts all over their bodies. The things that stood out the most, though, were the metal collars around their necks—those weren’t an accessory. The boy was unconscious, but the girl gazed up at me in confusion and terror. She was only able to stare at me in fear, but she hugged the boy tightly to protect him.

“Ah... uh... ah...!”

She couldn’t speak well, probably from thirst and exhaustion, but it was clear that she was doing everything she could to protect the boy. Sadly, I had seen lots of cases like this in my old life. Children abandoned by their countries, left to die by themselves, where horrible people would use them like slaves. Kids like them would be used like tools—when one broke, you’d just get a new one. Those kids had a certain look, as if devoid of light and life; but not this girl. She had clearly gone through the same, but her eyes were different. She was determined to fight to the bitter end.

Those eyes made me think of my students.

---

---

She was clearly terrified of me based on how much she was trembling, but she still got in front of the boy to protect him at all costs. Trying not to spook her, I very gently reached out and placed my hand on her head with a smile.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I used the same tone I had used with my students when I found them. It definitely helped a little bit. At the very least, she didn’t see me as an enemy.

“You did good protecting your brother. Don’t worry, you’re safe now. Leave the rest to me.”

I gently patted her head the same way Erina would pat mine. A single tear ran down her cheek, and the girl collapsed.

Children like them weren’t a rare sight, sadly. No one would blame you if you just looked the other way in a situation like that. Heck, most people probably would have ignored it. I was still just a young boy myself, and my servants and I were struggling already. Taking these two in would definitely make things more difficult. But I’d just promised the girl I’d take care of them. I had already made up my mind. The only thing left was to figure out a way to explain the situation to the servants.

“Let’s get you out of here first.”

Monsters had already started to approach us from the scent of the blood. I couldn’t stand around there much longer, so I tied the kids up with “String” and flew us out of there.

“... And that’s why I’m here. I’d love some advice on what to do, old man.”

My first instinct was to bring them over to Liole’s house. He looked confused when I showed up carrying them, but he didn’t ask any questions. He quickly prepared beds for them, and didn’t open his mouth until after the kids were resting inside the house.

“Hmm... advice, you say? Before that, tell me—what do you intend to do with them?”

“I want to bring them home with me, but I’m scared of how Erina is going to respond...”

“Hahaha! You’re fine with fighting a mad old man like me, but you’re scared of a mere maid?!”

“Shut up, old man. I’m not scared, I just feel bad.”

I already knew the servants would happily accept the kids if I brought them home. It just meant that we would all struggle harder than we already had been. They were all working really hard to take care of me, so I didn’t want to put any extra strain on them.

“Well, let’s leave it at that, then. But uh, you asked for advice? I’m sorry, but I’m not really good with anything but swords.”

“I know. All I want to know is if these two are slaves.”

It was rather obvious from their condition and the collars around their necks, but I still wanted to check with Liole. He was more familiar with this world than me, after all.

“They are definitely slaves. You can tell by the collar.”

“What are these, anyways? I sense magic from them. Are they some kind of twisted mana tool?”

“Those are ‘Collars of Binding.’ They’re used by slave traders to keep their slaves in check. When they place one on their slaves, they can punish them at will by simply sending some mana into the collar. It causes intense pain for the poor things. It also sucks the mana out of the victim; so if your mana regenerates slowly, you’ll surely die from mana exhaustion.”

“Then we have to get them off, quick. I saw a keyhole on them, but I don’t have the key. Is it safe to pick the locks, or force them open?”

“I don’t know what ‘picking a lock’ means, but I wouldn’t try to force it open. If you break it or pull it off by force, the collar will kill whoever it’s attached to in the process.”

What a horrible creation. Such a well-made mana tool would surely sell for a lot, but I didn’t want to risk hurting them just to keep the collars instact. Trying to break them open by hand was out, but... maybe using mana to crack them open would be fine?

“Want me to cut them with my sword? Mana tools stop working if you cut right through the core of it.”

“I definitely trust your skills, but I’d like to leave that as a last resort. I want to try something first.”

“Oh? What fun new thing will you show me this time?”

The old man folded his arms and watched me intently as I reached out for the collar around the boy’s neck. As I touched the metal, I used one of my new spells— “Scan.” It spread my mana through an object and allowed me to analyze it in my head. It was similar to an x-ray. “Search” was great for mapping large areas, while “Scan” was good for smaller objects and such.

I had to be touching the target directly to use it. But I had tested it with both objects and monsters, and even got Dii’s permission to try it on him. All the tests went smoothly, and were completely safe. After scanning the collar, I found a magic circle inside. I zoomed in on that with “Scan,” and analyzed its mana flow. By doing so, I soon found the centre of the magic circle.

“There we go. Now...”

I inserted a thin “String” into the keyhole, and used it to block off the centre of the magic circle. That cut off the mana flow, which would stop the spell from functioning. After I made sure the spell had been interrupted, I used “String” to destroy the centre of the magic circle completely.

“Hm? Something’s happening.”

“I should be able to force it off now.”

I took out my mithril knife and destroyed the keyhole completely. The collar came off, and the boy was still breathing.

“All right! Next is the girl!”

“Hahaha! You keep surprising me each time I see you! Normally, people who have their collars torn off start choking on their own blood before dying.”

“Yet you wanted to try cutting them off...?”

“I thought maybe I’d be able to cut through the core before that happened, hahaha!”

It could have worked in theory, but his casual attitude towards their lives irked me. I also wanted him to keep it down a little next to the kids so they could rest. I ignored him while I undid the girl’s collar too.

They were still in terrible condition, but at least the horrible devices were off. After their magic circles were crushed, the collars were just pieces of scrap metal. I figured they could still prove to be useful with some analysis, so I decided to keep them.

“What happens when a slave with one of these horrible things has them removed?”

“That’s proof they’re a slave. They’re never removed unless their owner wants them freed, so now they’re as free as you and me.”

“Good. Honestly, what monster made these young kids slaves...?”

Slaves were usually taken forcefully by criminals. Which meant...

“Those two were most likely abducted and forced into slavery. They look like silver wolves, after all. Those are rare around these parts.”

I had read about the Silver Wolf Clan in Albert’s Journey—they were a clan of silver wolf demi-humans who lived deep in the forest. Apparently, they were known to be very strong. While they had a tendency to be quite feral and hostile, they would defend their own kin at all costs.

“I see, so that’s why. Well, I don’t care what race they are. I would have saved them no matter what.”

“That’s very like you. So, what will you do next?”

They looked incredibly weak, so getting them something to eat once they woke up would definitely be a priority. The old man didn’t have much of a kitchen, so it would be best to take them back home first.

“I’ll take them home before they wake up. Sorry for showing up out of the blue, old man. Later!”

“I wanted to spar a bit since you’re here, but considering the circumstances, I’ll wait until next time.”

“Sorry. Here—it’s not much, but take this.”

I threw the rest of my lunch over to him, then carried the kids outside. I made sure to fasten them to my body by using “String” so they wouldn’t fall when I flew.

“That maid of yours sure is one hell of a cook.”

“She is indeed. All right. Later, old man.”

I waved to the old man before I jumped up into the sky with the kids in hand. As I started the journey home, I used “Call” to reach out to Erina.

| Noel |

My name is Noel. I’m one of Sirius’s servants.

Because he was just a child, me and the other servants were taking care of him. Well... honestly, he was such an amazing guy that he didn't need us at all. He was able to use magic by the time he was three, and he started to create his own spells shortly after. He could even beat Dii—a retired adventurer—with ease. He was smarter than any of us, and he made every day here wonderful for all of us. He was an amazing person.

He was great at cooking, too—his dishes were both delicious and unique. Mayonnaise and pudding were my favorites. The first time I’d tasted both, I’d almost cried. I had no idea something could taste so good. Just thinking about it made me want to cry again. Er, anyway, I got sidetracked.

Sirius’s mana affinity was colorless. People seemed to think that being colorless meant that you were totally useless, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. He was such a wonderful and amazing person, yet he was standing with a look on his face I’d never seen before. It was clouded with worry. We were in the guest room, where two demi-human children were sleeping next to us.

The strange situation had started earlier that afternoon...

After I’d finished lunch, I had been asked to clean the guest room by Erina. I thought we’d be getting a visitor. She didn’t look angry, so I knew it wouldn’t be him. I’d hurried over to the guest room and started to clean it when Sirius came home with our guests. I ran over to the hallway to greet him and spotted him holding two unconscious children.

“Welcome home, Siri—huh? What’s going on?”

“Let’s get the children to the guest room first. We’ll talk then.”

I’d followed Erina to the guest room and helped her tuck the kids in. Dii had showed up shortly after with medicine and wet towels, but he hadn’t heard about what was going on, either. And so, after we’d treated the kids as best we could, there we were.

Sirius gathered us up and explained what had happened. He had found these two wandering around the forest by themselves, and ended up being chased by monsters. Not only had he saved them from the monster, but he had even taken them in. He was truly an incredible person, just like his mother. What these kids had been through...

“They were slaves, right?”

I could tell right away—after all, I had been a slave myself. I had been saved by the mistress before things got out of hand, but these two hadn’t been that lucky. There was something strange about them, though. Dii seemed to notice it too, because he pointed to the kids’ necks.

“Sirius, if they’re slaves, where are their collars?”

“I broke them. I wanted to get those horrible things off them as quick as I could.”

“You broke them?!”

He’d broken the collars?! I’d seen many foolish kids try that and they all died. Sirius quickly explained how he’d done it to try to calm us down. He was as amazing as ever.

“I see. Well, let’s leave them here to rest and wait for them to wake up.”

“Thank you. I’ll go make some food for them. Noel, could you please watch the kids? They might feel safer seeing another demi-human when they wake up.”

“Of course! Leave it to me!”

I would’ve asked to watch them even if Sirius hadn't told me to do so. I wanted to protect those kids!

“Sirius, I’ll help you cook.”

“No, Dii, you stay here with Noel. Let me know if something happens.”

“Okay.”

Sirius and Erina left the room, which meant it was completely silent. Dii rarely spoke, and I didn’t feel like talking either. I sat down in the chair next to the bed and watched over the kids.

Dii sat down a little further away and kept an eye on me. We both sat like that in silence for a while. The children were truly in terrible condition. They had whip marks, bruises from punches, and various injuries. Seeing it made me tremble as I recalled painful memories from my past. I had been lucky that my chastity hadn’t been taken during my time in slavery, but there had still been plenty of violence. Who knows what could have happened to me if the mistress hadn’t saved me... But this wasn’t the time to think about the past. I was the only one who could relate to these kids. I had to stay sharp and be there for them!

“Noel.”

Dii put a hand on my shoulder as he noticed that I was struggling a bit. He looked as emotionless as ever, but I could tell that he was very worried. I understood immediately—he was telling me not to overthink it and to relax.

“You will be fine. I’m... no, Sirius is here, after all.”

“Yeah.”

He was right. My wounds had long since healed, and I was surrounded by family. What mattered now was to care for these two; they were the ones in need. They must have had a horrible time, but they had been saved by Sirius. He would surely be able to make them smile again, like he had done with me. It made me think he really was just like his mother. He had saved these kids, just like the mistress had saved me.

Dii made us some tea, and we sat there together in silence while we watched over the two of them.

Before long, it was dinner time, but the kids were still asleep. They were breathing, so I knew they were still alive, but they showed no signs of waking up. It worried me. I was about to tell Dii to get Sirius when there was a knock on the door.

“Hey, it’s me. I’m coming in.”

Sirius walked in, as if my thoughts had summoned him. A delicious smell filled the room as he entered with a pot. I was getting hungry, so the smell got my attention right away.

“Want some?”

“Huh? But isn’t this for them?”

“I made a little extra. There’s enough for you, too, but it probably won’t taste like much. I made it easy to eat for them.”

“Well, thank you. I’ll have a little, then.”

He saw right through me. He poured some soup into a cup and handed it over to me. The taste was faint, but it was still delicious. It had this gentle, soothing feel to it.

“Sirius, I’d love to learn the recipe one day.”

Dii looked over at the dish, excitement hiding behind his emotionless expression. This did seem perfect for someone in their condition. I’d love to learn the recipe myself.

“Ahh... uh...?”

The smell of the food seemed to wake the girl up. She faintly opened her eyes in confusion. She must have been scared, seeing so many strange faces.

“Hi, uh... are you okay?”

| Sirius |

“Hi, uh... are you okay?”

Noel leaned forward and talked nervously to the girl. She was going to be scared no matter what, but having another demi-human there to talk to would hopefully make her feel a little more at ease. The girl froze in shock for a second, then started to frantically look around. The moment she spotted her brother, she sighed in relief and patted his head.

“Yeah, he’s fine. How about you? Are you okay? Is there anything you need?”

“Ah...”

Noel talked slowly, and the girl was visibly calming down. That’s it, Noel. There you go.

“Sirius, is she mute?”

“Her throat is a little damaged right now, it seems. She’ll be fine once she’s healed.”

I had checked both of them by using “Scan” at Liole’s place. They were both dehydrated, and had various injuries that were infected. For the girl, that included her throat. Thankfully, neither of them had any life threatening injuries. I would be able to heal her throat myself just fine. It was too early for that, though. She needed to start trusting us first.

“Look, no collars. Everyone here is your friend. We’re not going to hurt you. We want to help you both.”

“Ah...?!”

The girl started to frantically touch her neck, then looked at her brother’s neck in confusion. It took her several seconds to process that the collar was gone, but once she did, tears streamed down her face as she touched her neck over and over.

“Uh... ah...?”

“We’ve taken your collars off, so you’re both free now. Oh, are you hungry? Here’s some warm soup if you want. It’s really good!”

“Uh...”

Her ears twitched at the sight of food, but then she glanced over at her sleeping brother and shook her head.

“I see. You won’t eat until he’s awake? Okay. How about we talk while we wait, then?”

Noel gently wiped the girl’s tears with a handkerchief, and she nodded timidly. Thankfully, she had started to trust Noel already.

“I’m Noel. Could you tell me your name?”

“... I...”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t push yourself. Can you write?”

Noel started to search in a panic for something to write on; she turned to me for help.

“Phew... Dii, go get Erina. Noel, introduce me to her first.”

“Okay.”

“Umm, this boy is our master, Sirius. He was the one who saved you.”

“Ye...”

She looked a little guarded when she spotted me, but she still nodded in my direction. She must have remembered me. I tried to walk a little closer, and stood next to Noel.

“I’ll introduce myself, too. My name is Sirius. Like Noel said, I’m her master. I saved you two in the forest.”

“Ah...”

“I want to learn more about you guys, but you can’t talk much like this. I’d like to heal your throat. Is it okay if I touch your neck a little bit?”

“Sirius is a really nice person. Look, he doesn’t even get mad if I do this!”

Noel ran up behind me and started to pull on my cheeks. I knew she did it to help the girl feel safe, but she was seriously going to get it later. The girl watched us for a second, then nodded slowly.

“Thank you. I’ll touch your throat a little. It might feel a little hot, but it won’t hurt. I promise.”

“Ah... kay...”

The girl nodded again and let me touch her neck. But the moment I touched her and started to focus my mana...

“Don’t touch my sister!”

The boy suddenly jumped out of bed and sank his teeth into my arm.

“Sirius?!”

“Don’t move!”

Noel jumped in surprise, but I held my other hand up to her to stop her from moving. I tried to maintain the focus of my mana with the other. The boy was clearly malnourished, so he could barely close his mouth, but his razor sharp fangs still hurt quite a lot.

“Eh... ahh...!”

“Don’t talk! You’ll slow down the healing.”

The girl tried to calm her brother down, but I shook my head to keep her quiet. The boy was confused, and just did his best to protect his sister from danger. I didn’t want to make the situation any worse, so I let him stay like that while I continued to heal the girl.

“Grrr! Let my sister go!”

“Now you’re a feisty one! I’m glad you’re awake, though.”

“S-Sirius?! You’re bleeding!”

His sharp fangs had long since broken through my skin. It really hurt, but I ignored the pain and focused on healing. I didn’t want to create a ruckus that would worry Erina, either.

“You can move your hands just fine. Could you try to calm your brother down?”

The girl nodded and started to gently pat her brother’s back.

“Sis, why aren’t you stopping him?!”

“Hng...”

“No! I don’t believe you! Let my sister go!”

He put whatever strength he had into his jaw and bit down even harder. It wasn’t surprising that he’d reacted that way, though. The rotten people who had enslaved them had surely tried tricking them in similar ways before. Luckily, I was able to finish healing the girl’s throat fairly quickly.

“There we go. Try talking now.”

“Stop making my sister push herself!”

“I’ve healed your throat. You should have no issues talking now.”

I just ignored the boy and focused on the girl, as she’d be able to calm her brother for me.

“L-Leus...”

“Sis?!”

“Leus... Leus, can you hear me?”

“Of course I can!”

“Hehe, I’m glad.”

Noel watched the two with a smile, as if forgetting about what she was supposed to be doing.

“Soup.”

“Oh! Right! I’ll get them bowls right away!”

We could just reheat it if it got cold, but I wanted them to eat it as soon as possible.

Noel poured some soup into two bowls, then held them out in front of the kids.

“Your brother is awake now, so you can eat, right? Here you go!”

“Hmph! Don’t think we’ll fall for that! You’ll feed us something gross and laugh at us after, I know!”

“Of course not. Look! Mmm, it’s yummy!”

Leus was still wary of us, but Noel replied in a calm tone and tested the soup in front of him. She handed over the bowl.

“I know you must have been through a lot of pain, but you’re safe now. Please eat up. Our master here worked hard to make it for you.”

“Why would you save us?”

“Don’t worry about that now. Just eat. It’s really good, I promise!”

Noel kept trying to get them to eat. Luckily, the girl listened by bringing the spoon to her mouth.

“It’s delicious.”

“R-Really?! But what if it’s poisoned?!”

“It’s okay. It’s... really delicious. It’s so warm and nice... I’ve never had something this good before...”

Leus finally tried some, too, and his tough attitude was gone in an instant. Tears began to run down his cheeks.

“What? It’s so good... What is this? Damnit! Sob!”

“It’s... super delicious... Sob.”

All kinds of emotions welled up to the surface as they both started to weep. Hopefully they would calm down a little after they got it out of their systems.

“I’ll leave this to you.”

“No problem! I got this!”

I quietly left the room and left them with Noel. Dii and Erina were both waiting right outside the room. Erina instantly started to treat the bite on my arm.

“Good work, Sirius, but you shouldn’t be so reckless. If that boy had more strength in him, you could have gotten seriously hurt.”

“Sorry for worrying you.”

“Good, because you did. Now, I’ve prepared some tea. Let’s relax for a bit.”

Erina and I headed to the living room, while Dii walked over to the kitchen. We sat down and started drinking our tea, but Erina didn’t say anything. She was clearly waiting for me to start talking. I knew there was no point in stalling, so I started right away.

“Erina, I’m sorry. I brought those two home without even asking first.”

“You do not need to apologize. You’re just like your mother. If anything, it made me happy.”

“Really? I’m like Mom?”

“Yes. Remember, the mistress saved Noel from slavery.”

Erina smiled gently. I didn’t know I had acted just like my mother. I felt something strange deep down—joy, perhaps? Erina quickly resumed her serious expression, though, so I did the same.

“Sirius, what do you intend to do with them?”

“Well... I don’t know if we’ll be able to take care of them here. We’re already tight on funds, and—”

“Sirius.”

Erina cut me off and placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t think about those things. Tell me exactly what you want to do, regardless of whether you think we can do it or not. We’re your servants, so we will do our utmost best to fulfill your wishes, regardless of what it takes.”

“Even if you know it will be really tough?”

“Of course. I would tell you if I felt like you were being unfair, but I would never go against your wishes—no matter what.”

Drat. She really knew me all too well. Because of her pep talk, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

“I want to take care of them and give them a place to stay here. I want to train them and let them choose for themselves what they want to do from there.”

“They have no money, and they’re very weak. Taking care of them will surely be tough for us. But you still want to take them in?”

“Yes. I’m not just doing it to save them, but to reach my own goals, too.”

I’d wanted students to teach for a while already. In other words, I was using them to satisfy my own urge to be a teacher. I was interested in how fast I could train someone in this world with magic and all the resources I didn’t have in my old world.

“Was there a reason you picked these two? Was it just random?”

“I don’t pick just anyone as my students. I wasn’t planning on it when I’d saved them. I’d even considered leaving them there at first.”

It was when I looked into the girl’s eyes that I knew. Those eyes were filled with determination. She would protect her brother, no matter what happened to her. That was the determination I wanted to see in my students. I knew it would be tough, but that was fine. I was a child, after all. It wasn’t strange that I’d let my feelings get ahead of me. I’d felt like taking them in, so I did.

“But those two were so desperate to protect each other and live on. I took a liking to them right away when I saw that.”

“I see. I have a suggestion, then. How about we train them to be servants here with us?”

“Servants? That wasn’t what I saved them for...”

“But we can’t just house them here for free. They should do some work and earn their place, don’t you think?”

“That’s true. I’m sorry, I just started thinking about training them and nothing else.”

She was right, it wouldn’t be enough just to train them physically. Teaching them how to work would be just as valuable and important.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m glad I could help. And I’m actually being selfish, too—I have been wanting a few new promising servants to teach what I know myself.”

“I see. But why? It’s not like I need more servants.”

“I... won’t be here forever, after all.”

“Erina...”

Erina had been growing weaker lately. Any physical labor was getting hard for her to do, so she was probably looking for a successor. It hurt me to think about that, but Erina smiled gently and shook her head.

“Don’t worry, that’s still a long ways away. I just want to prepare to make sure you’re taken care of, Sirius.”

I wasn’t sure if she was just trying to make me feel better with that, or if she meant it, but I didn’t want to say anything against her. I just nodded instead.

“Got it. You can train them... as long as they’re okay with it, of course.”

“You did save their lives, so I doubt they’ll mind.”

“That might be so, but I want them to choose for themselves, not because they feel indebted to me.”

“You really are just like your mother.”

Erina smiled again as she mentioned my mom. I felt a little embarrassed, so I looked away.

“Oh, I should go make supper. I’m sure those two will have calmed down by the time we’re done eating. I got some fresh meat today, so I’ll make some cutlets.”

“Yet another new dish? Dii will be happy to hear that.”

“I bet. I’ll have to bring some for Noel too.”

I wanted to thank her for helping out with the kids, so I decided to prepare it with her favorite ingredients. After we’d finished eating, everyone gathered together. The kids had finally calmed down enough to talk.

“What is this?! There’s mayonnaise in it! Oh my gosh, it’s sooo goood!”

“Shut up.”

I should have given Noel her food before we talked. I’d made fresh cutlets filled with mayonnaise, since I knew that Noel would love them. I definitely shouldn’t have given it to her in front of the kids, though—they were staring at her enviously. Leus was literally drooling.

“You guys shouldn’t have any of that.”

“Why?! She’s eating, why can’t we?!”

“L-Leus! I-I’m sorry for my brother!”

“Don’t worry about it. Can you guys tell me what you’ve eaten recently?”

“Well... that soup was the first thing we’ve eaten in a long time. Before that, we found some edible plants in the woods...”

“That’s why you can’t eat that right now, sorry. Your stomachs are weak and need time to adjust. If you ate too much now, you would just throw up.”

“No I wouldn’t!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Leus really didn’t like being told what to do. It was normal for someone his age, of course, but I was surprised he’d gotten by as a slave with an attitude like that.

“I’ll make it for you guys again when you’re feeling better. I promise.”

“Thank you! Ah... um, I-I’m sorry.”

The girl really wanted to eat it too, it seemed. She blushed beet red and looked down in embarrassment.

“I introduced myself earlier, but let’s do another round of introductions. We have some new faces here too, after all.”

“Yeah, who are you guys?”

“Heh. I’ll start then. My name is Sirius, and I’m the master of this house.”

Noel, Dii, and Erina all introduced themselves after me. Noel’s introduction was mainly just muffled noises, as her mouth was stuffed with food. Classic Noel.

“Um... Lord Sirius? Are you a noble?”

“I don’t know. Am I? I might be, but don’t worry about it. No need for formalities.”

“I’d feel bad! I-I’m Emilia, and this is Leus. I’m sorry for not thanking you earlier! Thank you so much for saving us! Leus, introduce yourself.”

“I’m Leus...”

Hearing that I was a noble quickly made them act very timid. Noel leaned over and whispered in my ear that slaves were trained to never go against nobles, which was probably the reason.

“I can barely hear you. What happened to your energy from earlier, Leus?”

“Shut up! Fine! I’m Leus! My dad is super strong and stuff, so I am too!”

“Don’t you think your strong father would thank me for saving his son’s life?”

“Ugh...?!”

I wasn’t trying to tease him, of course. I was starting to teach him, beginning with manners. No matter what he had been through, it was important to have basic manners. My servants clearly got what I was getting at, and didn’t interject at all.

“Th-Thank... you.”

“Good. Well, everyone has introduced themselves. Do you guys have any questions?”

“What... are you going to do with us?”

That question right away, huh? Well, I was planning on giving them two choices, but Emilia looked up at me with a sad expression before I could answer.

“Leus is all I have left... I lost everything else—our home, our parents, our money. We have nothing of value left. I wouldn’t even know what to do to pay you back...”

“If you don’t have anything, then start working and earn something. You guys can stay here while you’re healing, of course.”

“But we’re slaves, we don’t have anything...”

“No, you’re not. You don’t have collars anymore, remember? And once your wounds are fully healed, you have two options. The first one is to go to town and try to get by on your own. The second is to stay here and learn under my wing.”

“Learn...?”

“Yes. I’ll teach you everything you need to know on how to survive by yourselves later. You’ll get food and whatever else you need during that time too, of course.”

“He’s lying, Sis! All the grown-ups who say stuff like that just do mean things instead!”

It seemed like it was still hard to trust me. I might have saved their lives, but I was still a stranger. While Leus remained suspicious, I could see excitement in Emilia’s eyes.

“Aren’t you frustrated, though?”

“Wh-What...?”

“You want to protect each other, yet you were powerless against the people who wronged you, and the monsters that attacked you.”

They both frowned in anger.

“You said you have no one but your brother, right? In that case, you have nothing to lose as long as you two stay here together, right?”

“But... why would you do that for us?”

“I have no grand reason for it. I just happened to save you. Consider yourselves lucky, I guess.”

“Okay. We will follow you.”

“Sis?!”

I thought it would take them some time to decide, but the girl had already agreed.

“We have no other place to go, and he’s saying he can train us and make us stronger. I want to protect you, Leus, so I want to get stronger.”

“I-I want to protect you too! F-Fine, let’s stay here with this guy, then!”

“Don’t be so rude. He’s our master now, so be polite. He’s Lord Sirius from now on.”

“F-Fine... L-Lord Sirius...”

“I’m sorry my brother is so rude. Please let us stay here, Lord Sirius!”

Emilia grabbed her brother’s head and forced him to bow with her. I guess I didn’t really give them much of a choice, but I had finally gotten my first two students. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

“All right. I look forward to working with you two.”

“I’ll do my best!”

“Hmph, I... ugh. I-I’ll do my best.”

They had finally seemed to let their guards down. They hadn’t smiled at all yet, but hopefully I would be able to make them smile soon enough. Children should be happy, after all.

“With that out of the way... let us take it from here, Sirius.”

“Right. I’ll leave it to you guys.”

Erina would definitely be better at explaining everything about the house and such, so I left that to her. Noel was there, too, so they were in good hands.

“Before we do anything else, you two need to get cleaned up. Drink your medicine, then go make yourselves presentable.”

“Here’s the medicine.”

“And here’s some hot water and towels.”

“Huh?!”

“I’ll get you clothes next. Take their measurements, then give them some spare clothing until theirs are done.”

“Got it! Okay, done measuring!”

“Here are some clothes.”

“Huuuh?!”

Thanks to the servants’ swift work, the two of them were nice and tidy in no time. By using my healing abilities, I’d be able to have them back to perfect condition in five days. The girl, Emilia, was nine years old. Her younger brother, Leus, was seven. I looked forward to seeing how fast they’d grow; that was the greatest joy for a teacher.

I started to think of a training schedule for them while I watched my servants clean them up.