So. Four months have passed.

Progress has been made, even if it wasn’t nearly as much as I wanted it to be. In those four months, Rudeus learned basically all the Intermediate magic for the four attack magics.

I, on the other hand, was still struggling with Fire and Earth intermediate magic. My reserves had increased by quite a bit, but they still couldn’t even come close to his. I assumed that was his Laplace Factor at work and decided not to worry about it too much. It doesn’t mean that I gave up on working on my mana capacity, but it wasn’t my primary focus anymore.

Turns out, surprise surprise, Roxy is an amazing teacher. She quickly realised the disparity between us, and instead of just telling me to do better for Rudeus’ sake, or dumbing things down for mine, she managed to reach a happy medium. I would get extra tutoring later in the evening, right after dinner, while still attending her night classes.

Her night classes didn’t always have to do with magic. When they said she was going to be our home tutor, they really did mean for everything. Geography, math, history, science (or what passed for it) further language education, and a bunch more.

I learned a crap ton about this world based on her education. Still, if I thought I was getting a bunch out of it, Rudeus was no comparison.

After I’d gone to sleep, Rudeus would still stay up, drilling her for every bit of information she could give him. Constantly, he would ask questions, and each time, Roxy would answer them.

They got along swimmingly. Sometimes, he would stay up without any questions, and they would just talk. They had an amazing chemistry together, despite the age difference. (Really they were the same age though.) It made me feel a bit like I was intruding sometimes, so I would go to bed earlier or go downstairs and see what everyone else was up to.

A little pathetic, yes, but considering what I knew of the future, it’s best they work hard on building that bond now.

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More time passed, and I finally learned how to do Intermediate Fire and Earth magic, while I was slowly building up my repertoire of Advanced Water and Wind spells. Of course, Rudeus had already mastered all four up to the Advanced level and was working on melded magic.

But there was one area I could still beat him in. It turns out I had a pretty good affinity for Healing magic, working up to Intermediate pretty quickly. I could do it voiceless too, which Rudeus couldn’t for some reason.

Since Roxy didn’t know anything beyond Intermediate, I asked Zenith if she would be willing to teach me more. She agreed and took me with her to the clinic, showing me around.

She introduced me to her coworkers (all female, except one male doctor) and showed me how they use their equipment. I thought it weird at first that though I asked for teaching in Advanced Healing magic she was instead showing me how to work at the clinic when patients would come through.

She would walk me through the process of taking care of them, having me heal their small injuries and work up some experience in doing so.

After a few days of doing this, someone came in with a nasty cut on his shoulder. It was still bleeding, even through the improvised covering they had wrapped around him.

We immediately got to work, removing the covering and sanitizing the affected area (thank God that’s a thing here) and Zenith started in on her work.

She chanted a chant i didn’t recognize, a show of light manifesting around her, and slowly but surely, the man’s cut was healing.

It took a while, and the process seemed far from painless, so we had to restrain him to keep him in place, lest Zenith’s concentration wavered. We did our best, but you could tell she was struggling.

Eventually, after two long minutes of work, the wound was closed and the doctor butted in to check for any other wounds or symptoms.

“Well, that’s the process, Alti. With this spell it’s not really about the magic work, but everything else that’s important. I don’t really recommend you use it without having someone’s help since it’s so slow.”

“Can you speed up the healing process? With practice and time?”

She considered. “Yes you could! Although you won’t get many chances to use Advanced healing to practice it, unless you have the money to buy animals to gut, I guess.” Mmm. “Which we don’t! Don’t get any ideas young lady!”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Wouldn’t dream of it!” Though, maybe I could try it on trees, but that wouldn’t help me with the human element of resistance… Mmm…

And so, I worked going into the clinic for an afternoon every so often into my schedule. There wasn’t really a specified time I would go. It was simply when I had the time, and when Zenith went too that I did.

The employees there didn’t care for me much at first, not used to having a four-year old aid them in sometimes very complicated operating procedures, but when they noticed my healing acumen and hardworking spirit, (what can I say, Rudeus rubbed off on me) they warmed up to me eventually. Nevermind that, through voiceless incantations, I was much faster at their job than they were.

Honestly, though, I didn’t really form any real relationships at that clinic. Everyone there was at least ten years older than me, and not all that willing to engage in meaningful conversation, so I left them be.

Time passed pretty peacefully, between magic training in the morning, body conditioning in the afternoon, clinic work in the evening, and general studies at night. I had a pretty jam packed schedule all things considered. Way more than your average four year old could keep up with.

Ah, but then. I turned five.

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The party was about what I remembered, if expanded a little for my sake.

I was gifted two swords by Paul. One actual short sword, made of steel, and another wooden practice one. Seems we were finally ready for the real deal. I thanked him with a hug. He patted me on the head, while giving us a long winded speech about responsibility and somesuch. Honestly I stopped paying attention after the second sentence.

I received a small practice lute from Zenith. “Since you like singing so much, I figured you wanted some accompaniment to go with it.”

Listen. The sword was nice, but this?

I tackle-hugged her, thanking her profusely. I had no expectation for it sounding or playing very well, but musical instruments are expensive, and hard to come by. Nevermind needing maintenance and new strings every so often, this was a huge investment, in a way a bigger deal than the swords.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou”

“I’m so glad you like it, Alti! Take good care of it, okay?”

“I will!!” I smiled a radiant smile. Best day ever so far.

I received a staff from Roxy. It was the basic little stick with a ball at the end I recognized, but the craftsmanship, upon a closer look, was pretty intricate. The golden-colored workings around the ruby stone had some engraving done with pretty patterns. I thought it was pretty cool.

I hugged her too, which she grudgingly accepted. Not to be left out of such an opportunity, Rudeus swooped in too and hugged her, hands inching towards the wrong places.

I bonked him on the head and harrumphed. He got the message and backed off.

“I created them a few days ago. I forgot about it because you two already knew how to use magic from the very beginning. Usually the teacher will make the staff personally to allow students to use elementary rank magic. I’m terribly sorry about this.”

“Yes, Shishou, I will take good care of it.” I nodded vigorously along with Rudeus’ statement, but only got a bitter expression back. Wasn’t there something about her not wanting to be called Shishou for whatever reason? I forgot. The details are fuzzy.

Of course, I remember the broad strokes of the plot in Mushoku Tensei, but honestly the tiny details, with time and inattention, get forgotten. I couldn’t remember some names anymore, some locations or side plots. It was hard to keep track of it all, even if I desperately needed said information. I couldn’t write it down either. We had few resources in terms of script and pens and such, usually only for Paul’s study or Roxy’s lessons.

But enough about that.

The day after our birthday party we finally got to sword training! I was positively vibrating with excitement, my wooden sword rattling in my dominant hand. I was so ready.

“You’re excited to start sword lessons Alti?” Rudeus asked, standing next to me. He was a lot more composed.

“Yes! A million times yes! Have you seen what tou-san can do with these swords?”

Rudeus nodded in the affirmative. He had seen it alright. Giant boulders just freaking split in half with one strike. Swordsmen here were insane, and had a serious edge over magic users, just with their speed and strength alone. Granted, hitting something with a sharp stick is a pretty simple attack strategy, (not much versatility there, compared to a mage) but you know the old adage. If it’s not broken? Don’t fix it!

“Are you two paying attention? I won’t be saying this again so you’d better listen!” Paul said, interrupting the long winded speech he started on yesterday, and was now trying to finish today.

“Honestly tou-san? No we’re not. Can we start learning to hit stuff already?” I asked.

“I think we understand the responsibility of using a sword now, tou-sama. You’ve been such a shining example to us for so long now.” Rudeus said with a smile. He was getting better at disarming people. It was kind of creepy in its own way.

Of course, Paul fell for it. “Haha naturally you would, now wouldn’t you.” He rubbed his chin like he isn’t the main reason for disaster around this house. Zenith’s tree still isn’t producing fruit because she has to heal it so often. We have a giant slash mark in the back of the house covered up with a plant because of his lack of spatial awareness.

“Yeah, What Rudi said.”

“Alright! Let’s get started then.”

And we did. Paul did his best to teach us what he knew, but it became clear, within the first ten minutes of the first day, that he had no idea how to teach.

“And then you schwam! And then kabam! Into their guard and then lift up your feet and then you shink! Got it?”

He showed us the motions as he did it, but it was still an utter mess. I looked at Rudeus, who had the same thought as me.

How are we supposed to learn from that?

A few days later and we hadn’t made much real progress. He would tell us with increasing frustration when we were doing something wrong, but the steps he would have us take to correct made absolutely zero sense.

Like Rudeus said, Paul is the instinctive type and with no idea how to teach, this is the result you get.

But over the next few weeks we managed. And I do mean managed to make something of ourselves.

Turns out, and this was a surprise to all of us, that I actually did better than Rudeus at it. I learned faster, and generally the motions came easier to me than it did to him. We thought at first that I would struggle a little more, considering my (slightly!) smaller stature compared to Rudeus, but the gap started getting wider, and more noticeable.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

When we got to the point where we could spar with one another, I’d beat him. Almost every single time. Rudeus was resourceful, so he managed to catch me off guard a few times, but no trick worked more than once, and he was running out of them without resorting to magic.

It felt weird, so clearly outperforming Rudeus. It felt like I should be holding back a little to accommodate him, but the moment he noticed I did so he rebuked me sharply.

“I never slow down in our magic lessons for you, do I?” His arms were folded together, expression stern.

“No.” I cast my eyes at the ground.

“So don’t bother for learning the sword either. I’m going to get to your level eventually, just give me time. In fact, I learn a lot when you beat me down too, you know.” I looked up at him. Well, that’s also a valid perspective I guess. Although, it still made me feel a little guilty since I knew he would never develop touki.

Then again, I didn’t even know if I would.

“Okay. I won’t hold back then!”

“That’s the spirit!” He pointed a thumbs up at me. Which is funny, because that doesn’t mean anything in this culture.

I pointed a thumbs up at him too. It seemed like the thing to do.

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Recently, I have hit a bit of a snag in my magic training. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get past the Intermediate level for Earth and Fire magic. I just can’t do it. Roxy ran out of ways to help me progress past this point, and even Rudeus ran out of ideas. Water and Wind came almost naturally, but Earth and Fire just don’t. Roxy tells me that’s normal, and that some people will have more of an affinity for some types of magic than others. I just don’t really understand why I can’t do those specific elements but the other ones come fine. See, that would be all nice and dandy normally, but now that we’re studying melded magic in earnest, it’s starting to become a bit of a challenge.

“So once you heat up the temperature of the water with Heat Island, you build up the consistency with Earth Quaker. Go ahead.”

I blinked at her. I know she was accommodating me, choosing only Intermediate magics for this, but that’s still freaking hard.

I tried to create a man-made hot spring using the magics she requested, but once I got to Heat Island, the technique just fell apart. All the water I had amassed went up in flames. Literally.

How you might ask? Well, just to remind you, controlling things like temperature and intensity to be lower actually costs more concentration and mana as opposed to less, which would be conventional thinking. But for fire, I had no control over any of that.

Roxy didn’t sigh. She just looked over the field and doused it with Icicle Spear, casting Heat Island again and clearing the field.

“One more time, from Waterfall onward.”

I did sigh, but got to work anyway. Rudeus was nearby, circling through three different melded magics and working out the kinks in his casting while concentrating on all three of them.

I wasn’t jealous. Okay? Seriously.

Not at all.

……

I wasn’t jealous!

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It was time. Roxy had officially run out of things to teach us, and we had been going through a lengthy review of what we knew in preparation.

The final test was upon us, and I felt ready. My water magic had reached the Advanced stage long ago, and I was comfortable with it, (thankfully) so she let me come along for the ride as well.

I jumped up onto Paul’s horse with excitement. Outside of going to the clinic, there weren’t many opportunities to take a stroll outside. I kept a busy schedule after all, so any change in routine was welcome. “Rudi! Let’s go! What are you waiting for?”

I urged him, but he still just stood there, frozen on the spot in front of the lawn’s little gate to the outside. I knew exactly what was keeping him, but I had places to be, and he had delayed this trip three times already.

“Are you afraid of it? The horse.” Roxy asked, perplexed as to why he didn’t want to leave the house.

“I’m not afraid of horses or anything.” He said, unconvincingly.

Roxy huffed, a small smile creeping onto her features. “Haha. I’m relieved. You still have areas that match your age.” She got the wrong idea, but a useful wrong idea, going by the new glint in her eye. “Oh well. It can’t be helped. Here.”

Roxy walked over to him, picked him up, and unceremoniously dropped him behind me on the horse. “Wha—”

She got on the horse behind us, took the rains and off we went.

Rudeus’ body was still like a statue. The only thing that would move as we paced our way through the village was his eyes, rounding upon anything that moved. I held his hand for support. He had it in a death grip. With my other hand I waved at the passerby people.

Some I recognized from the clinic, otherwise were entirely new to me. They greeted me back, a few even coming to greet me, but especially Roxy.

She was a popular figure in this town, helping out a lot with the famine a year back. She does odd jobs around the village for a little extra cash here and there, and everyone here is happy to receive her.

So popular~

Once Rudeus got it through his skull that no one was particularly paying attention to him, did he relax and lean against Roxy’s chest. The vice-grip on my hand lessened, and in time he let go altogether.

“Caravaggio is feeling good today. I think it’s happy that Rudi is riding it.”

“Is that so…” Rudeus said, languidly.

“Are you still scared?” Roxy asked, after a minute passed.

“No, I’m fine already.”

“See, just like I said.” I snorted, not able to keep the facade anymore.

Rudeus flicked the back of my neck. “Oi!”

“No getting rowdy kids. Caravaggio will get confused.” Or throw us off, but I bet she didn’t wanna tell Rudi that.

We passed the wheat fields, and like Rudeus always does, he asked Roxy questions about it. I listened absentmindedly, more worried about the upcoming test than anything else. To say I remembered how meteorology works in the slightest was a joke.

But we reached the end of our trip, farm fields making way for grassland and hills. I would have to be ready.

“This place should be fine.” Roxy murmured. She stopped the horse, climbing down and tying him to a tree. She carried us down from the horse gently. Once we were face-to-face, she started.

“I’m going to use the Saint ranked Water attack magic, Cumulonimbus. This technique is a magic that creates lightning strikes with violent rain.” Exciting. “Please copy what I do.”

I pulled out a notebook, knowing these people she was about to chant, and then expected me to memorise the whole thing. Yeah, no. I was ready. “Since I’m only demonstrating, I’ll just be maintaining the spell for a minute before dismissing it, then… you pass if you can make the rain last for an hour.” A whole hour!

“Rudi’s going first.” I wanted him to teach me the science hax first before I tried it.

“O—okay. Is it because it’s a secret technique that we’re doing it in a deserted location?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m worried that people will get hurt or the farmers’ crops get damaged.”

Rudeus marveled at her. “That’s quite amazing.”

“I’m starting!” She took a few steps away from us. Inhaled, exhaled.

Then, when she was ready, raised her staff to the heavens and started chanting. “Grand spirit of water and imperial prince of lightning who ascends the heavens, grant my wish and bring about a savage blessing!”

The winds started picking up, and the skies darkened. The picturesque scene was soon replaced by one of turmoil as the first drops fell from the sky.

“Strike awe with a blow of your divine hammer on the anvil, and cover the land in water! Oh rain! Come and wash everything away in your flood of destruction!”

The rain fell, and it fell hard. Vision started obscuring. I could barely make Rudeus out from Roxy, if not for the slight glow of her staff.

“Cumulonimbus!!”

As soon as she said the last word, the wind tripled in intensity, becoming strong enough to take us off of our feet and into the air. I held onto Rudi, who held onto Roxy’s legs before a lightning strike near us triggered an upsetting neigh from behind.

Roxy panicked and immediately cancelled the technique. “Caravaggio! Aaah! What should I do?!?”

“Sensei! Quickly! Cast Healing!!” Rudeus yelled.

She ran over and did exactly that. The horse would recover. Probably.

She looked back at us sheepishly. “Can you two… keep this a secret? Just between us?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t say a word.” Rudeus mimed a zipper going over his mouth. I mimicked him.

She slapped her face. “Now, you try it, Rudi. I’ll protect Caravaggio.” She starts chanting, and an Earth Fortress appears around us, protecting us from the dangers of the technique he’ll be using.

I recorded the gaps in between my notes of the chant into my notebook as Rudi started casting. Roxy, seeing me do so, smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry about that. I keep forgetting.” That I’m not as quick? Or smart? Is there a right response to that?

I waved her off in favor of watching Rudeus pull off the spell. The winds and rain came just the same as when Roxy did it, just a little slower. Still, to cast magic of this level pretty much perfectly on the first try…

“Wow..” Roxy muttered, looking outwards. Even she couldn’t keep up, as the clouds kept expanding and getting bigger, bigger than hers.

Once it settled into a legit storm is when Rudeus calmly walked back to us, completely soaked in rain water.

“The fortress will disappear after an hour, so you can stop the magic before then.” Roxy told him, guessing as to why he wasn’t actively maintaining the spell.

“Okay.”

“...Don’t worry. Caravaggio is completely fine.” Tell that to the horse. He was still giving Roxy shifty eyes.

“Okay.” He’s enjoying it at this point.

“Don’t keep saying okay.” She pouted. “You need to control the clouds outside for the full hour!”

His eyebrows knit together. “I need to control it?”

“Hm? Did I say something strange?” Roxy’s did the same. I wonder who picked it up from who.

“But do I need to control it?”

“Of course. Saint Ranked Water magic is also magic. If you don’t sustain it with mana, the wind will blow it away.”

“But I already made it so that it can’t be blown away?”

“Huh? You did what.”

She ran outside of the fortress, her previous guidance ringing true. The earthen structure collapsed around us, exposing the horse again. He neighed in Nam flashbacks.

“Ara ara.” …Do I wanna live in a world where people say that unironically? “The spiraling tornado will bring the clouds upwards..”

She turned back to Rudeus, a smile on her face. “Rudi, you pass.”

“Eh? But it hasn’t been an hour yet?”

“There’s no need to wait. You already did more than enough. Can you also make it disappear?”

“Ah yes. Although I need a bit of time.” He did some wizardry BS that I had a hard time keeping up with. Some kind of wind magic… a melded magic that included fire? Uuuuh.

“Alright, Alti. It’s your turn.” Uuuuuuuuuuuh.

“Rudi, can you teach me how you did that?” I asked.

“Sure!”

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He tried. He really did. And Roxy did too, once she fully understood the concept. I just couldn’t get it through my thick skull. I don’t know why, but in my past life as well, as soon as I’m told something about hot air rising and that having an effect on this, turning the rotation of this counterclockwise it just doesn’t— click.

So I had to do it the old-fashioned way. I’ll spare you the pathetic details, but after two tries I finally managed to get the spell off and proceeded to hold it for an hour with what I knew to do already.

The mood was decidedly weird when we all headed back on a suspiciously silent Caravaggio, all four of us dripping wet.

“I’m sorry about that.” I murmured once we were back in the garden, having dropped Caravaggio off at the stable.

“No need. It was a pleasure teaching both of you. In fact..” She took a few steps away from us and then turned. For gravitas I think? I don’t know. Roxy’s weird. “Congratulations. You both are now Saint-ranked Water Magicians.”

Rudeus gasped lightly, then smiled at her. I just bowed. “Thank you for taking care of us.”

“No, I learned a great many things from you two as well.”

“That's just Shishou being modest!” Rudeus added.

“Don’t call me Shishou!”

“Ah. Even now?”

“Especially now!” She was blushing, coming up to us to reprimand us.

“Shishou.” I bowed again.

“Seriously, stop. Both of you.” She was so adorable, burying her face under her cowl like that. I could see why Rudeus enjoyed this. I looked back at him, and he had the nastiest glare of jealousy on his face.

For good measure, I lunged forward and caught her in a hug.

“Hey! Alti!” “O—oh! What are you doing?”

I grinned. I was going to miss this one.

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The next morning, before the sun had even fully risen, we had a tearful goodbye, Roxy walking out into the upcoming light with nothing but her staff and her bag of luggage. She had left the Migurd protection amulet with Rudeus (thank goodness) but she had given me a gift as well.

It was a summoning circle, for a Magic Beast that would fight on my side if I ever needed it. “It was given to me by an adventurer long ago, but I never really got into learning how to use summoning magic, so I’m leaving it to you.”

I nodded vigorously at her. “Thank you, shish—sensei.” She grimaced at me.

And there she went. Gone just like that.