Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 67 - Early Morning, the School

Early morning. No work today, but I got up at the usual time anyway.

Walking out of my room, the maids had already started on breakfast.

"Good morning, Master."

"Good morning. Is breakfast ready yet?"

"We were waiting for you to wake up. What would you like to eat?"

"Hmm... keep it simple. Milk, bread, and a fried egg."

"Understood."

Without really noticing when it happened, I'd built up a pretty good relationship with the maids.

Probably because I treat them decently. They always take care to prep ingredients based on our habits, and they can make just about anything we'd think to ask for.

I sat down at the dining table and pulled out the teleportation magic research data Nanahoshi had been clutching in her hand all yesterday.

Dense, cryptic, hard to wrap my head around, and for some reason, the diagrams made my eyes go blurry just looking at them.

I knew why it felt so difficult, though. I had never once thought seriously about studying Magic Circles...

Breakfast arrived while I was still staring at the diagrams.

The food variety in this world isn't exactly impressive, but I've never been a picky eater.

Hot milk on a cold winter morning is honestly all I need to be satisfied.

"Oh, right, next time you head to the market, pick up some books on Magic Circles for me."

"Understood."

"Is the living allowance I gave you still enough? Books can be pretty expensive."

"More than enough, Master. If anything, you gave us far too much to begin with."

"Good to hear. And one more thing, could you get me a pair of glasses? I've heard that glasses in this world can have magic attached to them. Nothing fancy, just something that sharpens my vision a little."

"Understood, though a magic tool like that would require quite a few gold coins."

"About how much?"

"Around twenty gold coins, perhaps."

"Fine. Go find Aisha later and get it from her. She's the one managing the household money now."

The maid nodded and went off to her other work.

While she was gone, I drank hot milk and stared at the diagrams.

Nanahoshi had already been in this world for so many years. These diagrams were the product of all that time...

"Brother, good morning."

"Brother... good morning."

Aisha and Norn shuffled in half-asleep at almost the exact same moment and dropped into their chairs. Lilia followed quietly behind them.

They had classes today.

"Morning. Did you two tell Fili and Milia what you want to eat?"

"I did~ Norn-nee was too scared to say anything~"

"Th-that's not — I just didn't know what I wanted..."

Watching the two of them bicker like this was just another morning at this point. I smiled to myself and went back to Nanahoshi's research diagrams.

"Young Master Rudeus, what are you looking at?"

"Mother Lilia, Rudeus is fine."

"I'm not used to it. Humor me."

"Fair enough. I'm looking at... a friend's magic research. Actually, why are you up this early too? You could sleep in, noon, even the afternoon, I wouldn't mind."

"Being lazy doesn't suit me. Besides, Dom still needs his breakfast."

"Are you the one feeding Dom now? I thought that was the maids' job."

I glanced toward the maids. They shook their heads with a helpless look. I was about to ask more, but Lilia spoke first.

"It's something I wanted to do myself. Call it an old woman looking for something to keep her busy."

"Mother Lilia is still young. If you walked down the street, no one would think you were my mother, they'd think you were my older sister."

Lilia smiled softly, picked up a basket, and headed out toward the courtyard.

"Brother is really up early."

"Is Brother teaching today?"

Aisha and Norn had finished bickering and, somehow, spoke at almost the exact same moment again.

I genuinely didn't know whether to call it coincidence or just the fact that they were sisters.

"No teaching today. I just woke up on my own."

"Sylphie-nee must have figured you'd sleep in, that's why she didn't get up early to make you breakfast~"

"Right... Sylphie... if Sylphie-nee knew Brother was up this early... she'd definitely have made breakfast for him..."

I wasn't sure what was going on with those two, but they both clearly adored Sylphiette.

Actually, wait. Was it possible their fondness for Sylphiette had somehow outpaced their fondness for me?

Breakfast arrived for them shortly after.

Both of them had solid table manners. Eleven-year-old little sisters, huh...

Right, Norn seemed to have some romantic trouble on her mind. That little brat of a classmate. If Norn really did like him, I'd do some digging on him next time.

"Brother~ does a teacher have the power to change school rules?"

Aisha tossed out that question out of nowhere. I answered with a wry smile.

"I don't think a teacher usually has that kind of authority."

"Come on, Brother, try a little harder! Get the school to build a stable so I can ride Dom to school every day."

"Aisha... the school is right nearby. Why would you need to ride a horse? That's a bit too lazy."

That came from Norn, who hadn't stopped eating.

"Norn-nee, I'm not being lazy. I just think Dom hasn't been needed by anyone in so long, he must be lonely!"

"That's a stretch..."

Even though Aisha had asked me, it somehow turned into the two of them going at each other again.

Dom, lonely?

From where I sat, he seemed perfectly happy. He'd finish his grass and carrots in the stable, then spend the rest of the day tearing around the backyard and letting out strange noises at random.

After breakfast, my sisters left for school.

The maids cleared the table while I stayed in my seat, still working through the diagrams.

It was hard to imagine how Nanahoshi had gotten this far. She couldn't even use magic, and yet she'd pushed her Magic Circle experiments to this level?

Time slipped by. I'd only managed to understand a small portion.

The sound of a door opening. Sylphiette's room.

Sylphiette walked out into the living room, though she didn't seem to notice me right away.

She had on a white one-piece nightgown. Her green hair was loose and a little messy. She was rubbing her eyes and yawning, clearly on her way to the bathroom to wash up.

A side of Sylphiette I didn't usually get to see. I smiled.

"Morning, Sylphiette."

She turned toward me like she'd heard something she shouldn't have.

She froze for a few seconds. Then her face went red, visibly, completely, all the way to her ears.

"M-Morning..."

She turned and made straight for the bathroom.

Ten minutes later she came back out and walked over to me.

Fully put-together now, hair no longer messy.

"Rudeus... so you didn't have teaching today?"

"Right. What do you want to eat? I'll make it."

"Hmm... I'd like anything Rudeus makes..."

"I've never actually cooked for you before. How are you already sure you'll like it?"

"Because... because Rudeus is amazing."

She smiled as she said it, then pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, waiting patiently.

"Alright. I'll do my very best to live up to that."

What I actually made was bacon, a fried egg, and a heated cup of milk.

Roughly the same as my own breakfast.

When I brought it to the table, I noticed Nanahoshi had gotten up at some point and was standing in the living room, watching me.

Her eyes had a certain aggrieved quality to them. I'd seen that look before, I was sure of it.

The hungover office workers from my previous life. That was it. That exact face the morning after.

"Good morning, Nanahoshi."

"Good morning, Rudeus... is this kind of hangover something healing magic can fix?"

"Never tried it, but it works for seasickness, so probably."

"Then help me out."

"Sure."

My healing magic wasn't the strongest, so I needed to get fairly close. I pushed back from the table and stood up.

Just as I was about to walk over, Sylphiette stood up too.

"Rudeus, let me."

"Hm? Oh — sure, go ahead."

Her tone was gentle, but there was something distinctly firm underneath it.

She walked over to Nanahoshi, placed her hand on Nanahoshi's abdomen, and used voiceless healing magic without a word.

"Oh! Much better! Thank you. My name is Nanahoshi Shizuka. Yours?"

"Don't mention it. I'm Sylphiette. Rudeus's childhood friend."

"Sylphiette? That's a lovely name."

After the introductions, a brief quiet settled over the room.

My cue.

"Nanahoshi, what do you want for breakfast? Bacon and fried egg?"

"That works. Thank you."

The two of them ended up sitting together at the dining table.

Sylphiette and Nanahoshi chatted well enough, from what I could tell. Mostly about the Magic University, by the sound of it.

After a bit, I brought Nanahoshi's breakfast over.

"Oh, smells good."

"Of course. No class for you today?"

"Hm? Ah... I am technically a student, but think of it as something like a graduate student from our previous life? Though honestly, my education level back then wasn't quite that high."

"Hey—"

"Ah—"

Nanahoshi was more careless than I expected. Or maybe she just trusted me too much.

"Graduate student...? What's that?"

Sylphiette tilted her head.

Nanahoshi nudged me with her elbow.

Well. Sylphiette had never attended school and didn't know much about the Magic University. Saying something casual should be fine.

"Basically, someone at the academy who's very smart and very capable, but doesn't have anything in particular to do."

"I see. Nanahoshi is quite impressive, then."

Fortunately, Sylphiette left it there. If she'd pressed further and asked about "previous life," I'd have had no idea how to explain it.

Once that topic was safely set aside, the conversation drifted into ordinary things, people at the Magic University, what was being taught there, some of Sylphiette's adventures.

After breakfast, Nanahoshi mentioned she needed to head back to the Magic University for a bit. Sylphiette immediately and firmly insisted I escort her.

Stepping outside, even bundled up with a scarf, the cold still found its way in.

On the walk over, I handed Nanahoshi's research diagrams back to her and asked her a lot of questions about teleportation magic. She answered most of them, though there were quite a few she didn't have answers to either.

"Still... I didn't expect you to have gotten married so quickly, Rudeus."

"What? I'm not married."

"Isn't Sylphiette your wife?"

"Not yet. For now."

"I see. But it should be soon, right? She likes you that much."

"You talked with her for what, an hour? And you're already sure she likes me?"

"Women's intuition."

"That's not an answer."

After dropping Nanahoshi off at the Magic University, I went with her to her research lab.

The original plan was to start helping her the day after tomorrow, but since I was already there, we went ahead and started the magic experiments.

They ran all the way through the afternoon. When we finished, I said goodbye to Nanahoshi.

I made my way toward Aisha's classroom and peered through the door. Perfect timing, class was just wrapping up.

Aisha spotted me before I even had to do anything. She swept her things into her desk and came running over.

"Brother~ let's go home together!"

"Sure. Let's swing by Norn's classroom first."

I ruffled her hair as she reached me.

That was when I noticed the two beastfolk women, the ones Aisha had bossed around last time, staring at me from across the room.

I really, genuinely wished I hadn't seen what I'd seen that day.

At Norn's classroom door, Norn was in the middle of saying something to the boy sitting next to her. Mid-conversation, he just turned and walked off on his own.

Hey. Rude little brat.

The irritation flared fast and I almost grabbed his collar, then Norn's voice cut through it.

"Brother?"

I pulled my hand back and waved at her instead.

"Norn-nee, come on out~"

"Oh — right."

I noticed a lot of the students in Norn's class were looking my way.

Strange, but not worth worrying about.

We left the campus. For some reason, Aisha grabbed my hand and steered us straight toward the market.

We ended up buying a lot.

Norn gravitates toward books and small decorative things that have a girlish charm to them. Aisha likes anything that's new or unusual, if it's novel, she wants it.

By the end, our arms were pretty full.

"Brother~ whenever you don't have work, come pick us up, okay~"

Aisha hugged my arm, going full cute-appeal.

"I... I like it too... when Brother comes to pick us up..."

Maybe it was watching Aisha that did it, but Norn, who almost never acts like that, said her piece and quietly took my hand.

If I've got no work, go pick up my little sisters.

Not exactly a hard decision.

"Obviously. If you want me to, I'll come whenever I'm free."

"Yay! I love Brother the most!"

"I... I do too."

Something warm settled in my chest. Maybe if I'd had little sisters in my previous life, I would have felt exactly this.

"Brother? What are you thinking about?"

"Who's cooking tonight."

"Probably Mother and Sylphie-nee. I acted spoiled with them yesterday and told them I wanted their cooking."

Norn answered before I could.

"Aisha is too willful..."

"But Norn-nee also really wants to act spoiled with Brother and Sylphie-nee, doesn't she~"

"Don't make things up!"

"If Norn-nee won't admit it, that's fine."

"I'm not refusing to admit anything. I just simply, "

Listening to them bicker like this had become the most normal thing in the world.

➤ Next: The Other Side