Chapter 211 - Two Friends

One week after handling the incident in the King Dragon Kingdom, North God III came knocking.

He'd heard what I did over there, and he wasn't happy about it. He wanted to challenge me.

Not out of any sense of justice, of course. It was about the Seven Great Powers ranking.

He said he couldn't tolerate a magician ranking above him.

Personally, I couldn't care less about that title.

Originally, I hadn't planned to get involved in Kika Kingdom's affairs at all. That was a matter between nations.

But then their king went and announced to the world: "Rudeus Greyrat is nothing but a man with an empty reputation."

After that, I had to do something about it.

Even I'll admit it — reputation matters. A lot of things become much easier when you have it.

So I made my move.

My intention wasn't to destroy their country. Just rattle them a little. It worked well enough.

And as a side effect, I ended up with the title of one of the Seven Great Powers.

Which, naturally, brought its own problems.

"Rudeus, I challenge you!"

Aisha, standing beside me, furrowed her brow.

"You itching for a beating?"

"...I'm challenging your brother."

"Get past me first before you think about challenging my brother."

"Hah. There's no benefit in fighting you."

"Oh? Then how about this — I'll go get myself a Seven Great Powers title too, and push you right off the list. No title at all."

North God III went still.

Then he drew his sword and pointed it at me.

"...Rudeus Greyrat. You're not the kind of man who hides behind women, are you?!"

"Very well. I'll cut off your limbs and teach you a lesson."

Aisha said it flatly and moved to step forward. I stopped her.

Mm. Honestly, I did want to test where my Gravity Magic stood these days.

About half a year ago, it had broken through to something new. I could wrap gravity around my own body and push outward in all directions. Most attacks simply couldn't reach me anymore.

"Aisha. Let me handle this."

"Brother's going to fight?"

"Mm."

"Yes! Give him a good lesson, Brother!"

Aisha's trust in me is genuinely gratifying.

---

The fight with North God III lasted about an hour.

I won.

His strength wasn't enough to punch through my Gravity Magic. Under that sustained pressure, he lost focus for a moment and I shattered his sword.

I'd drilled this technique with Aisha before. The difference was that Aisha combined sword strikes with magic at the same time, so I never actually beat her in practice. Once, in an uninhabited forest, I lost badly enough to trigger a defeat scene. That is a shameful chapter of my past I'd rather not revisit.

Now, I released the Gravity Magic and let North God III stand.

"Rudeus... I acknowledge you."

"You're strong too. With a better sword, you might have won."

"...That wouldn't make me a true strong person."

Aisha nodded at that, a small, genuine nod.

Come to think of it, he'd been running himself ragged on Orsted's behalf for a long time now. I'm not Orsted's subordinate, but I help out often enough. North God III does the same, despite being of the demon race. Ogre tribe, actually? Whatever. Same difference.

I reached out and patted his shoulder.

"If you've got the time sometime, let's have a drink."

North God III nodded, then left.

---

3 days after the duel, Nanahoshi pulled me into the laboratory. Zanoba was already there when I arrived.

Why those three of us? Honestly, I'm not sure.

Aisha had apparently been terrified that I'd think she botched her mission and sparked a war between two nations, so she'd dragged Zanoba straight back to Ranoa Kingdom herself, just so I could confirm the mission was complete. She could've just told me. It's not like I wouldn't have believed her.

Anyway. The laboratory.

I was called by Nanahoshi. Zanoba was probably called by her as well.

When he saw me, he bent into a deep bow.

"Lord Rudeus! I am the Third Prince of Shirone Kingdom, Zanoba Shirone. Your reputation precedes you greatly!"

"Mm."

I nodded back, not sure what to say. I knew almost nothing about him, only that he was a Blessed Child.

The atmosphere went a little awkward. Then Nanahoshi smiled and cut in.

"Zanoba! Does what you said earlier still stand?"

"Of course!"

Nanahoshi nodded, satisfied, then turned that smile on me.

It was a strange smile.

What are you planning.

"Rudeus~"

"What do you want? Don't use that tone with me."

"Ahh~ This is for your benefit too."

"What do you mean?"

"I made a deal with Zanoba here."

"So? What does that have to do with me?"

"Teach him magic, Rudeus! He wants to learn how to make dolls."

"...Dolls? I don't know how to make dolls."

"You definitely can. Your magic is that powerful, just put in a little effort, won't you?"

"Before we get there, what exactly did you deal away?"

Nanahoshi got a smug look on her face. She raised one finger and wagged it at me.

"Hm hm~ He's a Blessed Child, you know? His physique is extraordinary, you know? Do you know what that means?"

"What does it mean?"

"Potions! I've been running potion experiments, he'll be the test subject!"

"Nanahoshi... he's a prince of an actual country. Setting aside how he even ended up in Ranoa in the first place, you're using him as a test subject for medicine..."

"He has no objections! Right, Zanoba?"

Nanahoshi turned to interrogate him.

Zanoba nodded, then answered something completely off-topic.

"So Lord Rudeus is like this in private..."

Nanahoshi's brow twitched. "I'm asking you a question, Zanoba."

"Yes! I have absolutely no objections!"

Nanahoshi nodded, satisfied, and turned back to me.

"See! And besides, I know a lot of detoxification magic now. If something really goes wrong, there's still Orsted's healing scrolls. Nothing will happen."

I couldn't argue with that. Neither of them had any objections.

And it was Nanahoshi asking.

I looked at Zanoba.

"When you say you want to learn doll-making, you want me to make one with magic and then teach you how?"

"Yes! Lord Rudeus!"

"...I'll give it a try."

Dolls, huh.

I'd start with one of Roxy, then.

I held her image in my mind and activated wood-element magic.

Hm. Harder to control than I expected. Calling it a doll was generous — it was more like a carving, really. A sculpture.

A few minutes later, a wooden figure of Roxy stood in my hands.

"OHHHH! A MIRACLE! Lord Rudeus, this is a MIRACLE!"

"Mm. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out."

"Could you make a few more?! Lord Rudeus!"

"Sure."

Honestly?

It was kind of fun.

Since I was already committed, I went through all of my wives. The first Roxy hadn't been quite right, so I made her again properly, more time, more detail.

After the wives, I moved on to my daughters. Then Norn, the mothers, the mothers-in-law, Paul, my father-in-law. Finally, one each for Nanahoshi, Cliff, and Orsted.

The entire afternoon disappeared into it.

"OHHHH! Lord Rudeus!"

"Well?"

"A MIRACLE! Could you give me one to keep? I will treasure it with my life!"

"No."

That wasn't happening. The ones of my wives had real detail put into them. And Zanoba didn't even know the others.

Mm.

I activated the magic again, looked at Zanoba, and shaped a sculpture of him. Light on detail, but unmistakably him.

"AHHH! Lord Rudeus! Is this — is this doll mine?!"

"Mm. Yours."

"Then, may I call you Master?! I will dedicate my entire life to you!"

"That's a bit much. And Master really isn't necessary..."

Mm.

Was he going to keep calling me Lord Rudeus forever?

Our interactions from here on would probably be frequent, given that Nanahoshi wanted to use him for experiments. I'd never loved being called Lord Rudeus. Aisha's version of it was hopeless to fix at this point, but.

"Just call me Master."

"Yes! Master!"

Zanoba received the doll and cradled it in both hands like it might shatter.

I handed Nanahoshi her sculpture.

She turned it over, inspecting it from every angle.

"Whoa. Am I actually this pretty?"

"In my eyes, yes."

"That's sexual harassment. I'm telling your wives."

"Heh."

"I'm joking. Thank you, Rudeus."

"Leave Cliff's and Orsted's here for now. If either of them stops by someday, pass them along."

"Got it."

---

I got home in the evening to Eris and Windsor waiting at the door.

Looked like the other wives were handling dinner.

"Rudeus! Welcome back!"

"Father, welcome back!"

"I'm home."

I pulled out the sculptures and handed them over on the spot.

Eris stared at hers, eyes going wide. Windsor did the same.

"Is this me, Rudeus?!"

"Is this me, Father?!"

Those two really are alike.

I nodded. Before I could even say a word, both of them threw their arms around me.

---

At dinner, I handed out the rest of the sculptures to my wives and daughters.

Everyone was delighted.

Aisha received hers, held it up, and tilted it to look at it from below.

"Brother~ This is the style from 2 days ago~"

"Uh..."

"Hmph hmph. Today's is completely different~ You'll find out tonight."

Roxy, Eris, and Sylphie glanced at each other, then did the same, tilting their sculptures up and looking from below.

All four of them lowered their figures with slightly pink cheeks.

To be clear, I only included that level of detail on the ones of my wives.

Roxy rested her chin on her hand, smiling.

"Rude~ Come to think of it, you still haven't submitted this month's [one time]."

Sylphie nodded along.

"Seems like today's the day, then. Going to all this effort with these gifts~ Rude even has our underwear styles memorized so precisely~ We'll have to start getting more creative."

Eris slammed her palms on the table and stood up.

"Windsor, take your sisters to Grandpa and Grandma's place. Have Ghislaine take you."

Windsor took another bite of food and nodded vaguely.

Lara's smile was something else. Not strange, exactly, more like the grin of a middle-aged man who knows exactly what's going on.

Does she actually understand this? She's only five. Well. Almost six.

Lucy obediently nodded along.

But I spoke up.

"Tina is still so young, Eris. She should be with her parents."

"Tina was already picked up by Mother Zenith today."

"..."

Aisha grinned.

"Scared, Brother?"

Roxy followed up, voice mild.

"Well~ After last time, Rude might genuinely have trouble keeping up..."

Sylphie added, laughing softly,

"Should we buy some medicine just in case~"

Only Eris looked at me with genuine concern.

"Rudeus, is something wrong with your body?!"

How could I let that stand.

Dinner had barely finished, but.

"Windsor. Take your sisters to Grandpa's."

"Oh."

---

After the girls left, my wives pushed back their chairs and walked out of the dining room hand in hand.

I sat in the living room for a little while, giving them time.

"Mm. I'll take a bath first."

But when I stepped into the bathroom,

all four of them were already inside.

They had been waiting.

In unison:

"Starting from now~"

➤ Next: Yet Another Disciple