Outside, the wind and rain howled.
Cenia sat, worriedly watching the door. It had been some time since the two men had stepped out.
"…Do you think Allen will agree?"
Paul, who'd spent the entire afternoon with a dark face, now seemed to have thought things through. He lounged lazily in his chair, completely relaxed.
"Best if he doesn't agree."
He winked at his wife meaningfully and even held up two fingers with a cheeky grin.
"But if he does agree… isn't that still a good thing?"
Cenia's face stiffened when she saw those fingers, and she quickly darted a glance at the children across from them. Rudy, on the other hand, looked over with an expression of utter disbelief as Cenia stomped hard on Paul's foot.
"Ahh! What was that for?!"
Lilia quietly covered her face, sighing, while Cenia's cheeks flamed red.
"N-nothing, dear… y-you go on…"
Paul finally realized what Cenia thought he'd meant. His expression shifted as his mind wandered off-track—until he caught sight of Rudy's awkward, twitching lips. He hastily straightened his face.
Yeah… there are too many kids here to be joking like that. Better act serious.
He started counting on his fingers.
"First—Allen may act more mature than other kids his age, but I still think he's a boy who lacks love. Even though we've already accepted him as family, before last winter he was still cold and distant. Only after the Snow Valley incident did I feel like he truly opened up to us."
"I still believe keeping him around his real family—even just for a while—will help him grow."
"Second—we honestly can't afford his salary anymore… I've already had to fudge it more than once…"
Cenia and Lilia both nodded knowingly.
Raising kids took both effort and money.
Paul used to have a little extra from helping the villagers, and Cenia earned a bit from her clinic, but now with two more little gold-eaters in the family, neither of them had much time for outside work.
Their household income had dropped drastically.
"…So letting Rudy go out and earn some money isn't bad either."
Rudy, listening from the side, felt his expression freeze as if he'd just caught the family dog eating straight out of the toilet: ??? I don't lack love? Are you saying I was adopted or something, Paul-dono?!
While the adults discussed, across from them, Eris sat swinging her legs on her chair, stubbornly keeping her crimson eyes fixed on the air in front of her.
Her brows were furrowed but clearly in high spirits.
"Sylphy! Can you use magic?!"
A soft, gentle voice answered.
"…I can."
"Are you better than Rudyus?!"
"He's better."
"Haa?! That little shrimp's better than you?!"
Rudy: ??? Excuse me? Sylphy's even shorter than me, you know?!
Eris shot Rudy a furious glare, but he just awkwardly turned away and rejoined the adults' talk with impressive smoothness.
Eris huffed and turned back to Sylphy.
"What about that taller one, Allen? How's his swordsmanship? Before we came here, Ghislaine said he was really good—but he looked pretty ordinary to me! Hmph, and he didn't even dare come out when I called!"
In Eris's eyes, height was apparently the most important measure of strength.
Even in the original timeline, her dislike of Rudy at first was simply because her "teacher" was shorter than her.
At those words, Sylphy frowned slightly and looked up at Eris.
"Allen is the strongest."
It was a statement, not a debate—her soft tone unusually firm.
Eris almost burst out in anger, but seeing Sylphy's serious face, with no hint of provocation, she fumbled for words and finally just snorted.
"…Fine, I won't argue with you. Anyway, we'll see when Ghislaine spars with him! Then we'll know if he's really the strongest!"
Sylphy hesitated, as if she wanted to say something more, but in the end she just lowered her head, her fingers absently brushing at her dirty white dress.
Her eyes dimmed slightly.
Eris caught the look out of the corner of her eye. She quickly glanced at Sylphy, then blinked in surprise and even a bit of self-reproach before she whipped her head away and yelled at Rudy instead.
"You! You're so annoying!"
Rudy turned slowly, staring at her speechlessly.
"…What's it got to do with me? Are you just lashing out at random? Can't you reflect on yourself instead?"
"Who said I did anything wrong?! You're the one being smug!"
"…What, you gonna hit me again?"
"Haa?! You think I wouldn't?!"
Eris shot to her feet with a slam, her crimson brows rising as Rudy flinched back.
Just then—
The door opened.
Wind swept into the room, snuffing out the chaos before it could reignite.
At the threshold stood Allen, completely shrouded in a faint, misty barrier of water vapor.
And the moment he stepped through the door—
The barrier shattered.
Raindrops like crystal beads scattered across the floor as he casually brushed off invisible droplets and walked in.
In front of him, the system panel shimmered into view like drifting smoke.
[Hopes (2/2), responded ahead of time. Time spent: 4 hours 37 minutes 21 seconds.]
[Philip had originally planned to have this "hopes" conversation in his Roa study. He took it very seriously and never intended to have it on some backwoods village street.]
[But his emotional card play completely failed on you, and instead you directly exposed his intentions. He had no choice but to have this talk right there in Buena Village.]
[With your "response," you chose the path your tutoring period will take.]
[Hope 1: Philip's ambition—refused. The idea that "with power, strength follows" clearly ran counter to your beliefs. You don't intend to waste your time in a power struggle.]
[Hope 2: Philip's gift—accepted. As a transmigrator, you're not one to pass up free benefits… even from your own father.]
[Mission reward: Participation score: +10.]
[Current stage: Boyhood tutoring period. Total participation score: 17.]
[Evaluation: You already needed an excuse to enter the tutoring period—and you even got a free teacher out of it. This is a victory for freeloaders everywhere. You absolutely cleaned up.]
The smoke dissipated under Allen's gaze.
The last of Philip's tests is still uncompleted…
If I'm right, it'll be about strength.
And Ghislaine hasn't even shown up yet…
Allen glanced sideways.
Philip stepped in from the rain, his clothes soaked through but his expression full of energy, his aura oddly fired up.
"Allen and I have reached an agreement. He's coming with me back to Roa! Paul, you can't object this time, can you?"
(End of Chapter)
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