Chapter 13:
Farewells and Changes
ON THE DAY we planned to depart, a visitor came to our
mansion first thing in the morning.
It was Ghislaine. And she'd brought three wooden swords with
her. She didn't explain the purpose of her visit, but she didn't really
need to, either. Eris and I both took a wooden sword, got dressed,
and headed out back.
The mansion's backyard was relatively large, but it was also full
of flowerbeds, which made it feel a bit cramped. Still, we had enough
space for our purposes.
Eris and I faced Ghislaine with our swords in our hands. A blearyeyed Sylphie looked on from a chair a short distance away. The
maids, who were already hard at work, were shooting puzzled
glances our way as well.
"Let's begin the training session."
At these words from Ghislaine, Eris and I brought our swords to
our waist and bowed.
"We're ready."
Ghislaine nodded briefly and raised her sword. We followed suit.
"All right. Practice swings first! One! Two!"
Eris and I swung our swords in time with Ghislaine's shouts and
movements. In the early-morning silence, our wooden blades sliced
audibly through the air.
My swings were slower and less clean than those of Eris or
Ghislaine. But Ghislaine wasn't yelling criticism at me. Back in the
day, she used to shout things like "Keep your arms in tight!" or
"Watch the tip of your sword!" every time I practiced with her.
Maybe she wasn't going to bother today.
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"Rudeus! Stay focused!"
"Right!"
Apparently, I'd jumped to conclusions.
Still, she wasn't saying anything about my stance. I guess I had
that part down solid, at least. I had been practicing my swing and the
basic forms on a regular basis for many years now, so I suppose I'd
improved significantly.
"198! 199! 200! Stop!"
After we'd been going for a while, Ghislaine abruptly cut us off.
There was sweat glistening on her forehead, and the same was true
of Eris.
Two hundred wasn't that many swings. But they'd used all their
strength for every single one of them. It wasn't about the numbers.
Still, they weren't breathing hard or anything. Neither was I, for that
matter. The practice swings were just our warm-up exercise.
"Forms next! We'll begin with Swift Wind!"
"Yes!"
Eris and I lifted our swords again and began to practice set
motions of the Sword God forms. I didn't hesitate; these were the
fundamental movements of this style, and I knew them by heart. I'd
even taught them to Norn back in Ranoa. Since my marriage to Eris,
I'd also practiced with her almost every day.
"All right! Stop!"
Once we'd worked our way through all the basic forms used in
training, Ghislaine called out to us again.
"Pair off!"
At these words, Eris and I turned to face each other. This was a
command to begin practicing with one of your fellow students. In
most cases, this involved one student repetitively attacking the other
in a specific manner.
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In kendo, at least, you were supposed to have the less skilled
partner take the role of attacker; but we always had Eris swing at me
instead. That was how we'd done it back when we were kids, and we
stuck with it after our marriage. It just felt more natural that way.
"Begin!"
"Raaaah!"
As soon as Ghislaine gave the signal, Eris went on the offensive.
She was sticking to the standard practice forms, so her movements
weren't impossibly fast. Her sword moved just slow enough to allow
me to respond. And she stopped her swings at the last moment
when they would have struck me.
Of course, the Sword God Style didn't teach you how to do that.
When we were kids, she was constantly smacking me when we
practiced. But things were different now. She'd learned a lot since
then.
"Alternate!"
When we switched roles, my attacks were totally ineffective. I
didn't have to worry about stopping my sword; Eris took care of that
for me just fine. The difference in our skill level was obvious. I could
have put up a slightly better fight by relying on my Eye of Foresight,
but I didn't activate it. I hadn't gained this power back when we were
in Fittoa, so I wasn't going to use it. Not this time.
"All right! Stop!"
At Ghislaine's command, Eris and I lowered our swords.
Normally, the next stage would be a freeform sparring session.
Putting me up against Eris without my magic or Demon Eye wouldn't
make for much of a contest, of course…
To my surprise, Ghislaine turned to me and jerked her head.
"Rudeus, step aside and observe!"
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As I moved out of the way, Ghislaine stepped forward into my
place. I backed away another five paces and kneeled on the grass.
Facing off against her student, Ghislaine brought her sword
behind her waist. "This will be the last time, Eris."
"…Right."
Nodding, Eris lifted her own sword high above her head. It was a
stance she never used when practicing with me. Ghislaine would be
"drawing" and attacking in a single motion, and Eris would be
swinging downward with all her might. It made for quite a contrast.
The world seemed to stop moving entirely, and time itself
slowed to a crawl. Cold sweat trickled down my back. I couldn't
shake the feeling they were holding real swords in their hands.
That moment seemed to last an eternity. But then there was a
small gust of wind.
This time, there was no formal signal.
A loud smack reverberated through the air.
They'd moved too quickly for my eyes to follow. All I got to see
was the end result.
Eris and Ghislaine were standing with their swords outstretched
at each other. The only real difference was that Ghislaine's blade had
been broken at the base.
Eris' sword was slightly bent, but it was pressed to her master's
neck.
"…"
"…"
The two of them stayed in that position for a moment, then
slowly pulled their weapons back. For some reason, Eris had a little
scowl on her face.
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Her expression solemn, Ghislaine nodded to her student. "That
concludes our training session."
"Thank you very much!" I shouted, bowing from my seated
position.
When I looked up again, Eris still had her head lowered. She was
biting her lip, her forehead was all crinkled up…and her cheeks were
trembling.
"Well then, Lady Eris… farewell."
"Pl-Please take c-care of yourself, Master!" Eris looked up with
tears swimming in her eyes, then bowed her head a second time.
Ghislaine didn't say anything else. She gave me one last
meaningful look, then walked off without another word.
With that glance, she'd asked me to look after Eris for her. I felt
very confident of that.
Rising to my feet, I bowed to Ghislaine one last time, bending
deeply at the waist. She was the woman who had taught me the
ways of the sword, and the woman who kept Eris safe for many
years. I couldn't thank her enough for that. I really couldn't.
The instant Ghislaine passed out of view, Eris broke down in
tears. She cried so loudly I think everyone on the block could hear
her.
***
Later that morning, when it was time for us to leave, a large
number of visitors stopped by to say their farewells to Sylphie.
Many of them were nobles from Ariel's faction who knew
Sylphie as Silent Fitz. They hadn't even known she was a woman, and
seemed quite surprised to learn she was married to me. That didn't
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change their respectful attitude, however. One by one, they briefly
expressed their gratitude and then bid her farewell. Sylphie kept a
smile on her face the entire time, but I could tell she was mostly just
being polite. When it was finally over, she let out a long-suffering
sigh and muttered, "This sort of thing really wears me out."
When Ariel's two attendants showed up, though, her face lit up
with genuine happiness. I didn't know Ellemoi Bluewolf and Cleane
Elrond very well myself, but they were close friends of Sylphie's.
Their goodbyes were long and tearful, and involved a lot of
promising to meet again someday.
Our last visitor was Luke.
He only stopped by for fifteen minutes or so. Now that he was
both Ariel's right-hand man and the liege lord of an entire region, the
man's schedule was getting busier by the day. But he'd found the
time to slip away and say goodbye.
"Sylphie…take care of yourself, all right?"
"Yeah. I will."
He had a hard time looking Sylphie in the eye at first, however. I
guess he was still feeling a little guilty. "I'm sorry about… the way I
tested you like that, at the very end. After all these years."
"It's okay, Luke. I know how anxious you were. I'm still not sure
what I would have done if you'd really tried to hurt Princess Ariel,
either."
"Right… well, thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm not sure what for, though!"
"Hmm. You have a point."
They both cracked up at that.
After the laughter passed, Luke's smile turned slightly awkward,
and he took a moment to consider his next words. They turned out
to be a bombshell.
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"Uhhh… Look, Sylphie. If you ever decide you can't stay with
Rudeus anymore, come find me."
I stiffened up like a board. Had he just proposed marriage? To
my wife? While I was standing right next to her?
"What are you talking about?" said Sylphie. "I'm never going to
leave Rudy, and it's not like I'd go marry you even if I did."
"I'm not talking about getting married. All I'm saying is…if you
ever find yourself with no place to go, Elle and Clea and I will always
be here for you."
Luke's voice sounded firm and sincere. That first line sure
sounded like a romantic proposal, but maybe he really had meant it
in a platonic way. Still, a few suspicious beads of sweat formed on his
forehead. Had Luke been carrying a flame for Sylphie all this time?
What happened to only liking busty women?
Well… maybe this was his way of warning me to treat her right,
too. I did need to work on that.
"I don't think that's going to happen," said Sylphie. "But I'll
definitely come visit you guys, at least."
"Of course. You're always welcome here."
"Thanks, Luke. You take care of yourself, too."
Compared to Eris and Ghislaine's farewell, this felt pretty lowkey. But it wasn't like they'd never see each other again, right? I had
to imagine they were going to stay in touch, at least.
"Rudeus."
For some reason, Luke now turned his attention my way. What
was this about? Did he want another duel or something?
"I'm sorry I was so suspicious of you on our journey here."
Oh. Well, I wasn't expecting that. "That's all right, Luke. I know
my behavior was a little shady sometimes."
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It was true that Luke had been misled by the Man-God. But I'd
also acted in some genuinely suspicious ways—even though I knew
there was a good chance Luke might be a disciple. I had to share
some of the blame for the way things played out. "Anyway, it's your
job to be a little paranoid, right?"
"I'm glad you see it that way." Scratching at his cheek, Luke
offered me an embarrassed smile. "My offer stands for you as well,
Rudeus. If that stick of a girl ever loses her appeal for you, come pay
me a visit. We've got plenty of maids with curves in the right places."
"Luke!"
Flinching at the anger in Sylphie's voice, Luke chuckled softly.
"Only joking…"
And with that, he headed back to the horse he'd rode in on. The
man really knew how to hop onto a pure-white steed, you had to
give him that. He was born to play Prince Charming.
"Rudeus, look after Sylphie for us. Sylphie, take care."
With those final words, Luke rode away like there were damsels
to be rescued.
The first time we'd met, I thought the guy was a total jerk. But if
Paul had behaved himself, and we'd grown up together in the Notos
family… maybe Luke and I actually could have been friends.
Sylphie and I watched him until he vanished around a corner.
We'd said all our farewells. Now it was finally time to head back
home.
It had taken us a good month to get here…but fortunately,
Perugius would be making our return journey a good deal briefer. At
some point in the last ten days, he'd created a new teleportation
circle in the royal palace. That would take us to his floating fortress,
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where we could teleport to the ruins just outside Sharia. From there,
it would be a half-day's journey back to our front door.
Compared to our long, eventful trip out, this was going to be a
total breeze. From now on, we could use the same route to reach
Asura in a single day if we wanted to.
When I explained this to Eris, I discovered that she'd expected
our journey back to take over a month as well.
"What the heck?!" was her reply. "I cried like an idiot over
nothing!" Then she punched me.
Personally, I felt like it was a good thing that she'd done her big
goodbye with Ghislaine. Geographically, they might be a mere day's
travel away from one another, but they'd still gone their separate
ways. I guess that beautiful memory had been spoiled slightly,
though. Eris didn't cry too often, so it was a shame to think her tears
had gone to waste.
At this point, it occurred to me that Ghislaine had probably
jumped to the same conclusion as her student. Those two were
pretty similar in a lot of respects, weren't they? One of these days,
we'd have to pop up out of nowhere and surprise her.
Of course, Perugius would probably get irritated if we started
breezing through his castle for no real reason, so it was probably best
if we only used that route when we had some actual business to
attend to.
…Come to think of it, though, it might be useful to have some
emergency travel options of our own. Orsted probably knew how to
draw teleportation circles, right? Maybe we could create more direct
routes to Asura and the other major countries. Apart from the
convenience factor, the Man-God wouldn't be able to destroy the
circles if nobody even knew they existed. I made a mental note to
pitch that project to the boss.
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Since the use of teleportation magic was officially forbidden, we
made a show of exiting the city before sneaking back in and heading
to the palace. By the time we made it there, the sun was already
setting; we decided to spend the night in the floating fortress.
Eris, Sylphie, and I shared a single room in Perugius' castle. We'd
been a party of eight on our way to Asura, but only three of us were
returning. That did put me in a slightly melancholy mood. I found
myself gazing into the fireplace with Eris and Sylphie lying in the bed
behind me.
Ordinarily we all took separate rooms, but for some reason
they'd both wanted to sleep with me tonight. Maybe they'd been in
the mood for some physical affection? Things hadn't worked out that
way, though… Eris tended to get awkward and hesitant when it
wasn't just the two of us. In any case, we'd taken one of the larger
guest rooms and cuddled, but I had a tough time falling asleep and
ended up slipping out of bed. With nothing to do in particular, I
decided to just sit down and let my thoughts wander for a while.
It was a very quiet night. The crackling of the flames was the
only sound I could hear.
As I watched the fire flicker, I found myself reflecting on the
events of the last few weeks.
I'd won this battle. I'd beaten the Man-God. It felt fair to call this
a complete victory, in fact—no one in our party had died, we'd dealt
with all of the disciples, and Ariel had secured the throne of Asura.
Yet somehow, I didn't feel especially happy or reassured. All I'd really
done was follow a path Orsted had laid out for me. And as crucial as
this battle was, it was only the first round in a long war. I was going
to keep fighting battles like this from now on—stressful, murky
battles where victory brought no real relief.
What had I even accomplished this time, really? Ariel had solved
half my problems for me. I'd nearly gotten Eris killed. And I needed
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Orsted's help to deal with Reida. I wasn't seeing much ground for
optimism there…
"…Rudy?"
As I was turning all this over in my mind, Sylphie stirred and sat
up in bed.
"You're still up?"
"Yeah."
"It's the middle of the night, you know."
Her gaze had turned to the window; it was pitch-black out there.
A few hours must have passed since she and Eris fell asleep.
"Phew…"
But instead of going back to sleep, she slipped out of bed and
took a seat beside me—cuddling closely and leaning her head on my
shoulder. I put my arm around her in return.
Neither of us said anything for a while. Sylphie's body was nice
and warm. Hot, even. It almost made me think she might be running
a fever or something.
As I studied the nape of her neck, she lifted her head slightly to
meet my gaze. Her eyes were shining slightly in the firelight.
This felt like the part where I should kiss her, so I squeezed her
shoulder a little tighter—
"You know…"
And then she started to speak.
"When I quit my job as Ariel's bodyguard, it was like all the air
went out of me."
Drawing back from my kiss, I nodded and waited for Sylphie to
continue.
"All I could do was sit around and think: Wow. It's really over,
huh?"
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Something like relief showed on her face as she got those words
out. Sylphie had been Princess Ariel's guardian for eight years—from
the age of ten to eighteen. She'd spent her entire adolescence with
Luke and Ariel. I had to imagine she was feeling a sense of loss right
now.
I wasn't sure if I could fill this void for her. But maybe that
wasn't my role to play in the first place. I was Sylphie's husband now.
I wasn't her friend, and I couldn't replace her friends.
"But you know, Rudy, I did think this through beforehand,"
Sylphie said after a moment. "Up till now, I was so busy with Princess
Ariel that I barely spent any time looking after Lucie. So I'd like to
stay at home with her from now on."
I looked over. Her expression was more confident than I'd
expected.
"Our baby's getting bigger by the day, you know? I'm sure she's
going to need a lot more attention soon."
Sylphie paused for a moment to nuzzle her head against my
shoulder. I reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately. Her head
seemed a little hotter than usual, although I might have been
imagining it.
"So I think I'll focus on taking care of her," Sylphie continued. "I
want to be a good mother for a change, I guess."
I'd never thought of Sylphie as a bad mother. But by the
standards of this world, I guess you could have called her neglectful.
The only people who let maids raise their kids for them were nobles,
and we were just an ordinary family.
Still, I wasn't from this world originally. Back in the place I came
from, two-income marriages weren't unusual in the slightest.
"You know…if there's anything else you want to do, I'm fine with
that too."
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Sylphie was only eighteen. She was considered a full-fledged
grownup in this world, but she was still very young. There was plenty
of time for her to find new goals or chase her dreams. It's not like I
wanted her to ignore our kid or spend all her time partying, but I felt
like she could juggle taking care of Lucie and pursuing something
else.
Then again, maybe I wasn't taking our responsibilities to our kid
seriously enough. I wasn't exactly the world's best dad myself.
"Hmm… I'm not sure what that would be, though." Sylphie
cocked her head to the side and looked up at me thoughtfully. "I did
want to be more like Eris for a while, I guess."
"Really?"
What did Eris have that Sylphie wanted? The first words that
popped into my mind were big breasts. I liked Sylphie's just the way
they were, honestly. But if she really wanted to work on this, I could
always give her a daily massage to stimulate—
Come on, Rudeus. Let's try to take this seriously.
"Yeah. I mean, she's basically your equal, right?" said Sylphie.
"You fight together. She watches your back, and you watch hers.
That always made me kind of envious." She paused. "But after that
battle with Orsted… and how things went this time… I think I finally
put that behind me. I'm never going to be a match for Eris. Or for
you."
I couldn't agree with that. Sylphie was a very talented mage in
her own right. She wasn't on Eris' level in combat, to be sure. But
what could you expect? Eris had devoted her entire life to mastering
swordplay. And Sylphie had plenty of skills that Eris didn't.
"So I decided to give up on getting stronger, and find a different
way to support you."
Oh. Now I was starting to understand. Sylphie wanted to watch
my back in a way that Eris couldn't.
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"And that led you to this stay-at-home idea?"
"Yep. It sounds Roxy wants to keep teaching at the University,
so I'll look after all the kids for our family. I'll make sure they learn
their manners, teach them what I know, and help them grow up safe
and strong."
My feelings about her proposal were a mixture of gratitude and
guilt. In all likelihood, I wouldn't be able to spend much time taking
care of the kids myself. Our battle against the Man-God wasn't over
yet. That meant Orsted was going to keep sending me on these
missions, dispatching me to far-off places to fight his enemies.
"You okay with leaving that to me, Rudy?"
On the other hand…Sylphie had settled on this as her new goal.
She'd found a role to play, and she was ready to move from one
stage of her life into the next.
"Of course. I know you'll do a great job."
I felt overwhelmed with sudden affection for my wife. Sylphie
was always cute, but right now she looked even more adorable than
usual. Unable to control myself any longer, I leaned in and kissed her
on the lips. She didn't try to pull away, so I let my hand slide down
from her shoulder to her butt.
Sylphie's eyes opened wide with surprise, and she looked a little
uncertain for a moment. But then she lifted her waist a little…
…and I froze like a warrior who'd met Medusa's gaze. I could
feel someone watching me, but from where?
Oh. The bed.
Eris was awake, and she was looking our way with glittering
eyes. I'm not talking about sparkly, happy glittering, either. This was
more of an angry tiger scenario.
Why did she always just watch silently when she caught me with
the other girls? It was mildly terrifying.
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"Sorry. I guess we should just go to bed for tonight."
"Huh? Oh… Yeah, I guess you're right."
Sylphie and I headed back over to the bed and got in next to
Eris. There was time enough for the romance once we got back
home. Perugius might be spying on us, anyway.
"Come on, Eris. Don't ruin the mood like that."
"S-Sorry… But you were being all sneaky…"
"No I wasn't. You're always welcome to join in, you know? Want
to give it a try?"
"You can't b-be serious. That sounds so embarrassing…"
Hmm. I felt like it would be more embarrassing for me than
anybody else. Eris tended to put me in some borderline humiliating
positions…
As I closed my eyes and listened to my wives whisper to each
other, I felt a sense of satisfaction wash over me.
Sylphie had taken a big step forward in these last few days.
She'd closed out one chapter of her life, and found a way to change
herself. I needed to learn from her example. With her watching my
back, maybe I could find a way to be less fearful of the future.
That was the last thought in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.