The way Rudeus was acting really confused Shirou.
He totally didn't expect that after recognizing him, Rudeus wouldn't be happy to see him again. Instead, he looked terrified.
What's going on?
While Shirou was confused, Rudeus was like he'd lost his soul. He knelt on the ground, looking miserable, and fearfully avoided Shirou's eyes.
Even when Shirou tried to call out to him, Rudeus didn't react at all.
Helpless, Shirou could only look at Cliff, hoping to figure out what had happened from Rudeus's classmate.
Cliff's expression was complicated as he started to speak: "I don't really know the details. I usually don't want to get involved in other people's stuff. But I've paid some attention to Rudeus, because I've always seen him as my rival."
"Rival?"
"Yeah, even though Rudeus never really cared about me, I've always seen him as my rival. After all, he's way better than me at magic. He reached the Saint rank at the same age as me, or even younger, and he also knows that cheater-level chantless magic..."
When Cliff said this, his face showed a strong desire to compete. It seemed like he really did see Rudeus as his rival.
But Rudeus didn't react at all. He was like he was offline, totally frozen.
Cliff was even more annoyed by this, but he didn't let his emotions out. Instead, he quietly said, "Anyway, even though this guy is really good at magic, he's not good at much else."
"What do you mean?"
Shirou had some ideas in his head, but he still didn't know the specific situation. He could only wait for Cliff to explain it to him.
Cliff didn't keep him waiting. He quickly told him everything he'd noticed from his point of view.
According to Cliff, he basically entered the magic university around the same time as Rudeus. He was only a few months later than Rudeus.
When Cliff entered the university, Rudeus had already shown his unique talent.
Even though Rudeus tried to control and hide his power, so he wouldn't cause a big stir at the school, the students in the special class and in his year all knew how strong he was.
Being so young and already having Saint-level power, Rudeus was definitely treated like a genius at the magic university.
Other students his age admired him, or at least respected him a lot.
The only person who didn't think too highly of Rudeus was Cliff, another talented person who was also proud of himself.
He wasn't as crazy as Rudeus, becoming a Saint-level magician at ten years old, but he was still a top-level magic user in all elements. In his home country, the Millis Kingdom, he was seen as a rare talent.
Anyway, Cliff cared a lot about Rudeus and saw him as his rival.
But Rudeus's attitude, as Cliff said, was that he didn't care about him.
Of course, Rudeus didn't look down on him either. He wasn't the kind of person who was too arrogant and self-satisfied. He just didn't care that much.
Yes, in Cliff's opinion, after coming to the magic university, Rudeus never seemed to care about magic.
He cared more about the environment of the magic university than about learning magic.
More specifically, he cared about the women at the magic university.
Because he was talented and good-looking, Rudeus had a lot of luck with women after entering the university. He often received secret admiration from various girls.
At first, Rudeus would try to control himself and keep a distance from women.
But over time, he gradually stopped controlling himself and started to go in and out of the "flower garden" (a metaphor for being around many women).
Luckily, he wasn't old enough yet, or he might have already been fooling around with female students his age and even gotten someone pregnant.
Cliff, without a doubt, looked down on his rival for being so obsessed with women. He couldn't accept it.
He tried several times to persuade Rudeus not to be so involved with other women and to focus more seriously on magic, but Rudeus ignored him every time.
It wasn't that Rudeus didn't care about magic; it was more like he never thought about the purpose of becoming stronger. He didn't understand what the point of becoming stronger was.
Even if he became a Saint, he used Saint-level magic more to attract women's attention and create an image for himself as a genius magician, rather than to improve his power.
Someone who didn't care about magic was still able to reach the Saint level faster than him.
Cliff, as a genius, couldn't accept this. He decided to put in all his effort and try to become stronger, so Rudeus wouldn't look down on him anymore.
But the Saint level wasn't so easy to reach.
Even now, after entering the university, Cliff still hadn't mastered any Saint-level magic.
Cliff thought that if things continued like this, Rudeus would easily leave him behind. But he didn't expect that one day, Rudeus would suddenly disappear from people's sight.
Because Rudeus was a bit introverted, most of the students at the magic university didn't pay much attention to him.
As time went on, Rudeus completely disappeared from the students' sight.
Cliff was one of the few people who still cared about Rudeus. He tried everything he could to find out what was happening with Rudeus. He eventually learned that Rudeus had completely withdrawn into himself and hadn't left his house for the next two years. He hadn't even stepped out of his room, let alone gone to class.
"What happened in between?"
After listening to Cliff's story, Shirou was very surprised. He didn't understand what had happened to Rudeus that had suddenly caused such a big change.
Cliff quietly shook his head. "I don't know the details, because I was busy learning magic at the time... But I later heard a rumor from other people that Rudeus seemed to have made a girlfriend sometime before he had his breakdown."
"Girlfriend?"
Hearing Cliff's words, Shirou was a bit surprised. He didn't expect to hear that word.
He didn't understand what the connection was between having a girlfriend and suddenly becoming withdrawn.
Helpless, he knew that he had to find the reason for everything from Rudeus himself.
He then went up to Rudeus and looked down into his eyes.
Rudeus's eyes seemed to have lost their light, as if he had no soul. But if you looked closely, you could still see the emotional waves inside them. It was just that the shock had been too much for him, and he didn't know how to respond.
Shirou then said with a serious expression: "Rudy, I don't know what happened to you, but if you think you're the unluckiest person in the world right now, you're wrong! I don't know if you've heard any news about the Asura Kingdom, because this place seems to be closed off. But compared to the little things that happened to you, there's been a real disaster at home!"
"..."
Hearing Shirou's words, Rudeus's expression finally showed a slight ripple.
But that ripple was more like anger at Shirou's words about "little things" than a reaction to what Shirou was saying.
He suddenly looked up and saw Shirou's eyes, which were calm and firm like a sword.
He knew those eyes too well.
From the time he was reborn in this world as a baby, he had grown up and developed to this point while being watched by those eyes.
More than Paul, Rudeus actually saw Shirou as a father figure.
Because of this, he didn't dare to get angry at Shirou. He just said in a cold tone:
"Something happened at home? What could have happened? It must be that Father is messing around again, getting new illegitimate children..."
Shirou shook his head at Rudeus's words and sighed. "It seems like you really don't know about what happened in the Fittoa Territory. Have you never heard the word 'teleportation incident'?"
"Teleportation incident?"
Hearing Shirou's words, Rudeus's expression finally changed slightly.
He had been at the magic university for so long, so it was impossible for him not to have heard any news from the outside world.
He had naturally heard about the teleportation disaster in the Asura Kingdom.
However, at the time of the teleportation incident, Rudeus was at the lowest point in his life. As a result, he wasn't in the mood to find out the details of the disaster.
Or rather, his desire to escape made him deliberately ignore these things that might be related to his family.
It wasn't until Shirou brought it up that Rudeus suddenly remembered the Asura Kingdom teleportation incident and that it might be related to his family.
"..."
While Rudeus's face was blank and he didn't know what to do, Shirou didn't waste any time. He told him everything about the teleportation incident without holding back, and also explained that Zenith was still missing.
After listening, Rudeus's face became even paler than before.
His legs went weak, and he fell helplessly to the ground.
Various images flashed through his mind, and he could only show a powerless expression.
"So, Mother is still missing?"
"That's right. Many people in Buena Village are also missing, such as Laws and Sylphy. No one has found any news about them yet. The rescue team led by Paul is still searching for the missing people all over the world. The damage caused by that disaster hasn't left that land yet."
"How could this happen..."
A look of regret finally appeared on Rudeus's face. He couldn't imagine that while he was feeling down and depressed, such a disaster would happen to his family.
Compared to the teleportation disaster, the problems he was facing seemed really insignificant...
However, the more people need to understand themselves and face reality, the easier it is to become rebellious and take rebellious actions.
Rudeus was the same way.
In his previous life, he didn't feel any emotion when his parents died. In this life, his nature hadn't changed much.
His family's situation only gave him a big shock for a short time. Gradually, he went back to his previous listless appearance, not showing any concern for the safety of his family.
Cliff, who was standing next to him, couldn't stand it anymore. He angrily said, "What's with that attitude? After hearing about your family's situation, haven't you thought about going to find your mother?"
"How could I possibly do that? Even Shirou hasn't found her. Someone like me..."
Rudeus was in an extremely insecure state. He seemed more like a useless person who had trouble taking care of himself than a Saint-level magician.
The more Cliff criticized and denied him, the more he would deepen his self-awareness and believe that he couldn't do anything.
Looking at Rudeus, Shirou didn't say much. He just found a stool to sit on and quietly said, "Don't think too much, Rudy. I'll take care of Zenith's situation later. And right now, we really haven't found her. Instead of that, let's talk about your problem first, okay?"
"Me... me?"
Rudeus was surprised that Shirou would show concern for him first.
Shirou nodded honestly. "Of course. I'm sorry for saying that your worries were insignificant just now to try and motivate you. That was wrong. For everyone, worries are worries. No one can easily deny other people's pain. Your pain is the same. I may not understand it, but I'm willing to listen and help you."
Shirou said this because he remembered his meeting with Paul.
At that time, Paul and he had a conflict because they couldn't understand each other's pain and worries, and they unreasonably believed that what the other person was doing was meaningless.
After that lesson, Shirou naturally couldn't be the same as before. He wouldn't reject or even blame Rudeus for being so listless and even ignoring the safety of his family. On the contrary, he felt that Rudeus must have experienced pain on a similar level to the teleportation incident to be in his current situation.
Shirou wouldn't ignore the tragedy Rudeus was experiencing because of the pain the teleportation had brought to the Greyrat family. Instead, he would try to resolve all the conflicts as much as possible.
That's what he should do.
And what Shirou didn't expect was that after he finished speaking, Rudeus suddenly couldn't help but shed tears. The tears kept falling.
Rudeus was a little embarrassed to show such a weak attitude in front of Shirou and Cliff, but he couldn't control his tears at all. They kept flowing.
"I... I'm not..."
Rudeus tried his best to hide his emotions, but he couldn't control them.
"Don't be sad, Rudy, because I'm here."
Shirou patted Rudeus's head silently, like he used to do.
At that moment, Rudeus couldn't control his emotions anymore, and his tears completely burst out.
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