Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 101 - Preparing for Action

Two months after the wedding, inside the laboratory, I went over the plan's feasibility with Orsted and Aisha.

I didn't know how my past-timeline self had helped Ariel take the throne. Orsted didn't know either, because right up until I came to him for revenge, he'd never paid much attention to my existence.

That said, Water God Reida hadn't openly backed Darius in the previous timeline, so the plan we put together this time accounted for her.

"Brother, if that's the case, won't you have to go somewhere really far away?"

Aisha sat at the table, chin resting in her hand, looking distinctly unhappy.

"Yeah."

"It's barely been any time since the wedding. If brother goes that far, Sylphie-nee and the others will be sad."

"I know..."

I understood that Sylphiette and the others were gentle enough to support whatever I did. But leaving home just one month into the marriage, for who knew how long, that was harder to swallow.

I was still turning it over in my head when Orsted pulled out a bundle of scrolls and set them on the table.

"You can use Teleportation Magic circles. Once you've settled in, use this scroll to draw one out. I'll link it to your home courtyard."

I took the scrolls and dipped my head in a bow.

"Thank you."

Orsted smiled.

"No need. You're working for me. Besides, this Teleportation Magic Circle is something you and Nanahoshi improved together in the previous timeline."

"I see."

I turned toward Nanahoshi. She smiled back at me.

"Let me have a look at those scrolls later, okay~?"

"Sure."

Orsted nodded.

"If there are no further issues, the plan is settled."

"No problems on my end."

Just then, Aisha raised her hand.

"I want to go too! I'll be brother's bodyguard!"

"No need. I'm not so weak that I need you protecting me." I reached out and poked her on the forehead.

Aisha, to my surprise, didn't launch into her usual relentless campaign. Instead, she turned and looked at Orsted.

Orsted caught her gaze. He looked faintly resigned, and smiled.

"Rudeus, your sister is far stronger than you think. If she's your bodyguard, most opponents won't pose any real threat to you."

"Well, as long as no one's ambushing me, most opponents can't pose much of a threat anyway."

"But you're short on manpower, aren't you?"

"Hmm..."

That was fair. I was a bit short on help. But that didn't mean I had to bring my own sister.

There was real danger involved. If something went sideways and we ran into the Water God outside the plan...

"Brother~ take me along. I'm really strong, you know."

"Within the plan, it's almost impossible for me to run into Water God Reida. Everyone else won't be a problem, so..."

"What if it happens! Right now there's a very good chance I'm stronger than brother. Is there any downside to bringing me? And I know the Water God Style inside and out!"

"I just don't want to bring my own sister into something dangerous."

"Brother himself just said it's almost impossible to run into Water God Reida. That's a contradiction, you know."

Tsk. This little sister of mine was getting harder and harder to handle.

And if I brought Aisha along, Eris would definitely demand to come too.

Not that I couldn't bring them...

"Brother! How about this — let's duel! If I win, you take me!"

"Aisha... honestly, I think you're challenging your brother's authority."

"Hmph? So does that mean brother agrees?"

"Fine. If you lose, you stay home and behave. With the teleportation circle set up, it's not like I can't come back. I'll be home every night."

"Okay~"

We stepped through the teleportation circle and arrived at an open plain.

Neither of us said much. We both walked back until 50 paces separated us.

Aisha... if I recalled right, she'd reached Advanced rank in nearly every sword style. I'd put her swordsmanship on par with Paul for now.

Hmm...? No, wait. These past few months she'd been training under Orsted...

I glanced over at Orsted. The corner of his mouth carried a smile I couldn't quite read.

"Brother, here I come!"

"Come on then."

The Arrogant Water Dragon King wasn't on me, but that was fine.

Most of Aisha's combat experience was hunting monsters. For actual sparring, her partners had been Eris, Ghislaine, Paul... and Orsted.

So would she rush straight at me like Eris and Ghislaine? Or would she read me for a while before moving, like Paul? As for Orsted, I didn't think anyone could replicate him.

Drawing on my memories of fighting Ghislaine, I activated a wide-area ice spell.

It spread from beneath my feet outward, blanketing the full 50-meter radius.

The moment I felt Aisha start moving, I laid down Magic Circles around my own position.

Aisha was sharp. She wouldn't fall for anything as obvious as a trap. My actual goal was simpler, restrict her options a little if she got close.

Tracking her position, I fired ice lances toward her.

Her approach didn't resemble Eris, Ghislaine, or Paul. I couldn't figure out why Aisha was just... running.

Well. That was fine too.

I layered trap magic onto my own body as well. This one I'd refined from Orsted's research notes, a spell that could briefly knock a person unconscious.

Then I felt the earth shake.

Aisha had activated magic. A pillar of earth shot up beneath her feet, and she rode it straight at me.

Why hadn't she done that from the start...

A moment of thought, then I raised my hand and pushed up an ice pillar, which Aisha sliced clean through mid-air with a single stroke.

The magic didn't stop just because it was cut. Ice pillars kept launching toward her one after another. She cut through every one of them and closed the distance.

When she landed and swung at me, she stepped directly on the trap I'd set earlier.

An Advanced-level spell, the kind that sprouts vines instantly to bind whoever trips it.

"Fire Sever."

But exactly as I'd expected, the moment she hit it, she'd already chanted the spell, wrapped her blade in flame, and split the vines apart.

Aisha's chant reduction is already at this level, huh...

Through the smoke and haze from the burst, I kept tracking her.

When she cut in from my left, I turned the ground under her feet to bog and fired ice lances.

But that, too, seemed like she'd seen it coming. The bog hadn't even finished forming before she'd chanted again, kicked off a new earth pillar, and launched herself back into the sky.

Good. Now we were talking.

I turned my magic upward and unleashed a lightning strike.

Not a lethal one, of course. A decent jolt and she'd know she'd lost.

The bolt dropped toward Aisha, and just before it hit, it vanished.

Vanished.

I blinked. No time to think about it. I immediately encased myself in an earthen dome.

Aisha came down from the sky and cleaved it open. The instant her feet touched the ground, she hit another Magic Circle I'd laid.

A brief freeze, I launched the bog again.

At the same time, I activated something I'd only recently developed.

Pure mana, shaped into gravitational force, pressed down on Aisha.

I hadn't wanted to use it. It wasn't fully refined yet, and hurting Aisha would be a problem.

But looking at how completely serious she was, I had the distinct feeling that if I held back, I was going to lose.

Gravity bore down on her. Her feet sank into the bog.

She opened her mouth and chanted rapidly.

Earthen walls erupted around me from all sides, sealing me in completely.

Magic at least Saint-tier... and that swordsmanship...

What a pain.

The most troublesome opponent I'd ever faced, and it turned out to be my own little sister.

The wall to my left was cleaved open. Aisha came through.

I raised my hand to reapply the bog, aiming to pin her between that and the gravity.

"Brother! The same trick twice won't work!"

Like it was some kind of birthright unique to swordsmen, Aisha erupted, her entire body detonating into a single explosive burst.

But honestly... I think no one in this world understands just how terrifying swordsmen are better than I do.

The moment she reached me, the trap I'd layered onto my own body triggered.

A violet light shot toward Aisha. This was a spirit magic I'd developed over the past half year. Land it, and she'd know she'd lost, I'd chosen it specifically because it dealt no damage.

Then I saw it. Just for an instant, Aisha's eyes changed color.

Only an instant.

Something's wrong.

Why hadn't I thought of it sooner? Aisha knew my habits better than anyone.

She had to have known I'd set a trap on myself.

She knew, and she charged in anyway. Which meant she had a way to beat it.

The thought had barely finished forming when I activated magic, launching the ground under my feet skyward to put distance between us.

"Brother, you're about to lose, you know."

Aisha smiled, and came running up the vertical earth pillar toward me.

Swordsmen. They're such a pain.

The ice lance I fired was cut straight down. I clenched my right hand, bending the shattered fragments into a spray aimed at Aisha's feet.

And just like before, her eyes shifted color.

My magic died.

What kind of nullification is this?

From what I'd just seen, there had to be some kind of cooldown, or a cap on uses.

Fine. In that case.

I raised my right hand.

Not one spell. Not two. Multi-layered freezing, stacked on top of each other.

Partly because I was worried about hurting her if I used lightning or anything harder.

"Brother!? You're being way too serious!"

As predicted, Aisha nullified three layers in an instant. The other four landed, and she froze.

But she was a swordswoman. This level of magic wouldn't actually hurt her.

"Alright. Aisha loses."

I released the spells and brought the earth pillar back down.

Aisha dissolved the ice 2 seconds later and set her jaw.

"I didn't lose! If we'd kept going..."

"What if it hadn't been ice magic?"

"Brother is so unfair... I didn't know brother could stack spells like that... and what even was that thing pressing down on me!"

"I didn't know Aisha had magic that could nullify magic. What was that?"

"It's not magic~ It's a Magic Eye. A Magic Absorption Eye, actually. I got it a long time ago and never told brother about it. Any spell brother casts without the Arrogant Water Dragon King, I can nullify without much trouble."

A Magic Absorption Eye...?

The name was self-explanatory. An eye that absorbed magic.

That counters me almost completely.

I looked over at Orsted. Was that what the smile had been about?

"But brother is really sneaky... hiding your actual strength! You said you taught me everything you knew about magic!"

"Well... since Aisha can't do voiceless casting, you can't really activate multiple spells at the same time no matter what, right? And the chant for gravity magic, I haven't figured that out myself..."

"One more round! One more round and I'll definitely win!"

"Accept the loss."

That was my final word on it, but the response that came wasn't Aisha's inevitable counter-offensive.

It was Orsted.

"Rudeus. Trust your sister. You'll need her."

"But..."

"Lord Orsted himself said so! And if we go again, I will definitely win!"

My head hurt.

Even Orsted was taking her side.

Honestly, I really didn't want to bring my own sister into something dangerous. If something went wrong and we ended up facing Reida, I had no confidence I could protect her...

"Rudeus. Your sister is capable of protecting herself. What she said wasn't false. If you fought again, the more likely loser would be you."

"Exactly!"

A bit helpless.

I still didn't understand why Orsted trusted Aisha this much.

"Let me ask, just to be thorough — is there anything else Aisha is keeping from me? For example, this thing you mentioned about knowing the Water God Style. And if we actually do run into Reida — then what?"

"Hmph? Just be faster than her."

"Huh... huh?"

"I've trained with Lord Orsted for half a year. My Water God Style is probably at quasi-Sword Saint level by now, right?"

She turned and glanced at Orsted as she said it.

He nodded.

Aisha put her hands on her hips.

Half a year?!

"Brother didn't notice? I was cutting through your spells without any effort."

"Didn't really feel it... honestly, all swordsmen feel about the same when I'm fighting them. The moment anyone gets close, it's basically my loss."

Hmm...?

"So how would you deal with her? Quasi-Sword Saint can't be faster than Reida."

Aisha snapped her fingers.

"Watch."

She laid her hand on her sword. And a sensation I knew very well rose in the air around her.

This...

"Aisha... you..."

"How is it? Getting the idea? It's a simplified version of the Water God's domain — but at the end of the day, there's no way Reida knows I've learned it. The range isn't as wide as hers. But if she underestimates me, I have a real shot."

"You learned this in half a year...?"

"Yeah — though Lord Orsted was helping me, of course."

A secret art that took someone decades to develop. And she'd picked up a working version of it in 6 months.

Geniuses are something else.

I let out a long breath.

"...Fine."

And with that, bringing Aisha and Eris along was practically set in stone.

➤ Next: Operation 1 — The Conversation