Today was an exciting day. A very exciting day in fact. Do you know why? Huh? Do you know why?

Because I have a day off today! Roxy’s gone, so there are no more tutoring sessions or magic lessons anymore.

Mom’s at home, not at the clinic. So I’m not there, and Paul’s decided (read: forgotten) that children need days to play as well. They can’t just hyperfixate on learning as much as possible at this age.

And so, you know what I did with the new time I was given? Absolutely nothing!!

While Rudeus went out with his beloved plant encyclopedia, I lay on the ground. While he was to go and.. fulfill destiny or something? I had my back to the floor and my eyes to the ceiling, and then proceeded to take a nap right then and there.

It was a glorious nap, only interrupted by Lilia’s broom striking me in the face. “Pu—plughh!” She was still cleaning the house, on a hot summer day like today. “Say, Lilia-chan, have you ever thought about taking a few vacation days? I’m sure kaa-san wouldn’t mind.”

“I did.” She said, mildly surprised I had started a conversation, still continuing to sweep around me as if I was a piece of furniture. “I took a few days to go out into the city and relax. It was nice. Until I came back and found the house on fire.”

Like. Literal fire? “Not the expression?”

She shook her head. “They still hadn’t had you or Rudeus-sama yet, but they still had no idea what they were doing. A newlywed couple living on their own.” She tutted. “Since then I’ve taken breaks, yes, but never for more than an afternoon here and there.”

Oh dear. That’s not good. “I’m so sorry, Lilia-chan.”

“It is okay. Truthfully, the work to be done in the house isn’t all that much. You children pick up after yourselves quite well.” Well, that’s cause we’re both adults, although for Rudeus I assumed it was a learned behavior. I knew for a fact his previous room wasn’t well taken care of at all. I noticed she didn’t say the same for Zenith or Paul. Oof.

“Why thank you, Lilia-chan.”

“Yes. Now I only have to find a way to clean up the disasters left by your magic training in the garden.” She said, calm as you like. Tackling another part of the house with her trusty broom.

“Ehehehe. Sorry, Lilia-chan.”

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“My son is terribly upset, and I believe—” I woke up to such a noise over by the main entrance door. It wasn’t a voice I recognized.

Paul was unanimously agreeing with her, a serious expression on his face. “Yes. This will be dealt with immediately. No son of mine will be going around like this, praying on the weak.” The boy next to the woman flinched, his ego clearly hurt. “I can assure you of that, ma’am.”

And so that went on for another five minutes. Paul giving her reassurances and the woman offering mock-indignation in return. I knew the real reason why she was here, so it just struck me as funny.

Though not nearly as funny as what would happen later. I did my best to sneak around the house so I was in earshot of the side entrance I knew Rudy would enter from and waited.

“I heard you punched little Somal.” Oh here we go.

Paul would just keep on talking over Rudeus while he tried to explain and Rudeus got fed up and started talking back. He was promptly slapped. I kept myself from snorting as soon as it happened, and then silently cackled as Paul received the dressing down of his life. By his five year old son.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore when he was still bowing and Rudeus had already walked back inside. Naturally, Paul noticed me.

“You’ve been listening that entire time, Alti?” Oh my God his face! It looked so pathetic it sent me into another round of cackles, audible this time. “Well, I’m glad you find it funny at least.” Paul gritted his teeth.

I did my best to calm down. “Well, I’m glad you listened to him in the end at least. I hope you’ll extend the same courtesy to me in the future, tou-san.”

He stared at me for a bit. “You’re starting to become more and more talkative lately, Alti.”

I scratched near my ear. “Maybe Rudi’s rubbing off on me. We spend too much time together now.” Although that was about to change, with his new quarter-elf friend.

“Oh? Is that jealousy I see on your face? Don’t worry, Sylphiette-chan won’t come between you and your favorite brother.”

“Quiet!” Your face disgusts me!

“Ehehehehehe! Don’t worry, if Rudi won’t make time for you, I certainly cannn!” His arms came up to hug me and I dodged him with a blow of wind.

“Get awayyyy!”

“Come and get this love, oh daughter of mine!” He ran after me as I tried my best to escape.

“Paul-sama! Altea-sama! The food’s been ready for a while now!” I heard Lilia say from inside the house.

“Yeah! Come back inside! The food’s going to get cold!” Zenith exclaimed.

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Rudeus and Sylphy became fast friends in no time flat. Even through the minor hiccup that was the gender confusion (which was hilarious by the way) they pretty much spent all their available free time together.

Which left me with no one. Well, there was always Lilia, but even she could only handle so much of my presence. There wasn’t much distracting me from my abhorrent social life either, now that I was basically only doing sword training. And considering this young body’s limitations, I couldn’t spend all day doing that.

But that all changed one afternoon, as the whole family was gathered together for a late lunch.

“Congratulations, kaa-sama!”

“Thank you, Rudi!” Zenith replied. “You’ll be getting a new younger brother or sister soon!”

“Way to go Zenith!” Paul said, moving from his seat to hug her.

We kept talking about potential baby names, who’s room they would take, whose hand-me-downs they would wear and so on for the rest of the day.

Then, a few weeks later, we were seated around the table again. Lilia had thrown up on the ground.

“I’m sorry. It seems I’m pregnant as well.” She bowed to us. Deep and low.

We all, sort of, just, sat there. For a good minute no one said anything. Lilia’s head was still bowed.

Paul finally spoke. “S-Sorry. It’s probably mine..” He rubbed the back of his head.

We were all still there in the evening. After Paul got his physical beating he was banished from the room, but he still listened in through the walls.

Not much to listen to, though. No one was speaking.

The candles in the middle of the table flickered, as the wind from a half-open window came through the house, making it decidedly chilly. Though it couldn’t hold a candle (lol) to the frigid atmosphere inside.

Sorry. Sometimes I use humor to cope with tense situations. Bad humor specifically.

Zenith spoke, taking her hands from her head, but still not looking at the other woman. “So. What will you do now?”

Lilia’s head was still bowed. “After assisting you with childbirth, Oku-sama, I plan to take my leave.” Oku-sama huh. And Zenith just got Lilia to drop the formal names around her too.

“And the child?”

“I hope to raise it in my hometown.”

“..That’s a month’s ride south, isn’t it?”

“....Yes.”

“You’ll be worn out from childbirth. The long journey will be too much for you.”

“That may be true, but I have nowhere else to go.”

Paul piped up from the other room. “But honey, that’s really—”

“You need to shut up!” Her volume level rose drastically. Her voice was shrill and Paul backed off.

The resulting silence was deafening.

I locked eyes with Rudeus. We had both reached the same conclusion. The child wouldn’t survive if Lilia went down. Nevermind it being mid-winter currently, the road in a medieval society was never safe. It had all sorts of hazards, despite her not having to deal with too many Monsters. Even if Lilia managed to pull through, a newborn baby certainly wouldn’t.

The snow was already piling up outside.

Rudeus got a hard look in his eye. Ready to fight for his new family. It was the look I had been waiting for. “Kaa-sama, I can now get two siblings at the same time, so why is the atmosphere so heavy?”

“Because your father and Lilia did something bad.” She uttered, barely above a stage whisper.

“I see. But can Lilia really say no to tou-sama?”

Zenith turned to Rudeus, the question in her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Father was threatening Lilia with something.”

Both Paul and Zenith let out a ““Huh?”” in surprise.

He pointed at the door where Paul was hiding behind. “The other night, when I passed Lilia’s room on the way to the bathroom, tou-sama was saying, ‘Spread your legs if you don’t want it to get out.’”

“Rudi!” Paul burst through the door in protest. “What the he—”

“You keep your mouth shut!!” Zenith’s outburst was different this time, with a different sort of anger behind it.

“But—But..”

“Lilia, is this true?” Zenith finally met her eyes, and Lilia finally rose from her bow. Man her neck must be killing itself right now.

I tried catching her eyes and nodded vigorously, hopefully not seen by Zenith. “Um—That is—”

“Of course you can’t come right out and say it.”

Paul started inching his way back towards the door. Good instinct there.

“Mother. I don't think Lilia-san did anything wrong. It’s all tou-sama’s fault.” Rudeus continued. “Tou-sama’s in the wrong, but Lilia-san is getting punished, this is too strange.”

“You’re right..” Zenith relented.

But Rudeus wasn’t done. “I have fun playing with Sylphy every day. Wouldn’t it be nice for the new baby to have a friend, too?”

“..I suppose….” She was shaking now. I got out of my seat to hug her tightly.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Also, kaa-sama! To me, both of them are my siblings.” He said, really turning up the cuteness factor.

“Kaa-sama! I don’t want to say goodbye to Lilia-chan yet!” I slowly let go of her and moved over to hug Lilia instead.

She jolted at the contact, but I made sure she knew the intent behind it. I squeezed. “All right! All right, fine!” Zenith stood up, caressing Rudeus’ cheeks. “Clearly I can’t beat you guys.”

Her voice dropped half an octave as she addressed the pregnant maid directly. “Lilia. Stay here with us. You’re family now! I won’t let you go off on your own!”

Lilia’s eyes widened to saucers, and she started shaking. Zenith walked off to Paul’s direction to go upstairs, giving him a positively glacial look in the process. “You and I are going to have a nice, long talk about this later.”

I flicked my jaw over to them, notifying Rudeus to run damage control. He saluted and went upstairs after Zenith, leaving Paul to wallow.

Lilia started crying silently before they both even left. I didn’t remove myself from her side, just let her get it all out.

“I couldn’t bring myself to lie.” She started eventually. “I did it. I seduced him into my bed.”

I know. I saw Paul sneaking off into her room after Zenith got pregnant. For some reason people here still think that pregnant woman can’t have sex, so the horndog that Paul is, he would have found an outlet eventually.

Then again, Lilia really set herself up to fail. I mean, Paul was basically the only regular adult male presence in her life for six years straight. Couple that with the noises of him and Zenith’s love making every night, and then having to clean the sheets the next morning… (not to mention Paul’s far from bad looking) I’m surprised she didn’t pounce sooner.

“You two really shouldn’t have stood up for me. I was the one who leveraged—”

“It doesn’t matter. Like kaa-san said. You’re a member of this family now, Lilia-chan. Or is it Lilia-kaa-chan now?”

At that, the dam burst loose, and she was openly ugly crying now. Welp, guess I’m keeping that title.

I stayed with her until she ran out of tears and retired for the night, then met up with Rudeus and made plans for how we should be stewarding our evolving family from now on.

And to think, this was technically just the beginning.

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From the outside, aside from both Zenith’s and Lilia’s growing bellies, there really wasn’t a noticeable difference in the Greyrat household. Inside it, however…

Paul was essentially demoted from Head of the family to errand boy. Zenith still couldn’t get through a full conversation with him without a disparaging remark or an upwards turn of her nose.

Likewise, Lilia’s status got upgraded, now getting along with Zenith more like friends, almost sisters and often joining up together to gang up on Paul.

Then, there were some of the smaller, but still pleasant changes. Lilia started warming up to Rudeus bit by bit. They would talk a little, and she wouldn’t get disgusted by being in the same room with him anymore. Even if he pulled faces or said the wrong thing at times.

Lilia’s conduct to me, however… You’d think I was the one in charge of her payroll. She would dote on me constantly, and in her newfound role as mother, reprimand me constantly as well. It got a little tiring at times, to be honest, and I would long to go back to the blessed silence from before. Still, I had grown closer to her now than ever beforehand, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

In a similar vein, Zenith got a lot more sociable in return. Whether that had to do with me getting older and her perceiving I could relate to her a bit more, or her just needing more allies inside the house with the weird positioning now, I didn’t know. But, I wasn’t complaining. I liked her company too.

Rudeus seemed to have taken the opposite approach and instead got closer to Paul. Well, their personalities and outlook on life were very similar, even if you would never catch Rudeus admitting it, so they were a good match.

Right now, they were practicing some extra remedial swordsmanship lessons out in the yard. Rudeus still had trouble getting farther than Elementary in both Sword-God Style and Water-God Style.

In contrast, I had already started moving onto Intermediate level in Water-God Style, and working on Intermediate in Sword-God. I was making serious progress, and I could feel myself getting stronger. Able to lift things above my own weight, and run faster than I thought possible, I had attained a touki of my own, and it was showing in my progress.

Rudeus would never get to that point, sadly, so he wouldn’t be able to get past Intermediate level in any sword style, no matter how hard he tried.

But, back to the point, even if the family dynamics were weird now, nothing blew up, and we were all still together. I had to count that as a win.

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Norn’s birthing process did not go smoothly. Not at all. She came relatively late, a few days after her 9 months counter, as a breech birth.

Lilia, who would usually take up the role of midwife, was heavily pregnant at the time, so we had a woman come in from the village. She didn’t have any experience dealing with a breech delivery, frustratingly, so the whole process was a bit touch and go.

I was really thankful Zenith had taught me Advanced-healing magic, and both Rudeus and I used the arcane liberally to assuage the worst the procedure had to offer.

Through our efforts, the delivery was successful, and there were no further complications once she finally got out of the womb.

Then, Lilia started going into labor right afterwards. Aisha was born early, and it showed. She came out tiny, but thankfully her process went much more fluidly than Norn’s. The midwife put on her big girl pants for this one, much more experienced in premature delivery than a breech one.

Paul, naturally useless in this situation, laughs quietly at the realization that they’re both girls. Rudeus was making avid declarations that he would be a respectable older brother. I gave him a flat look, and said that he had never been respectable in my eyes. He deflated pretty quickly after that.

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The early few months or so were rough for Paul and Zenith. The new babies cried, and cried constantly. The mornings, the evenings, at night. There was no reprieve. For me, it started becoming background noise. For them, it was a never-ending siren. Lilia was about as pumped up as you could get though.

“This is it! This is how parenting is supposed to be!” She would exclaim, often at the randomest of times. Unprompted. “You had it way too easy with the twins!!”

While the two new additions, cute as they were, were slowly chipping at my patience, Rudeus seemed to love every second of it, treating and taking care of them with an experienced hand.

Outside of our new siblings, however, he started to become a bit of a downer. I could guess as to why. He was starting to run out of things to teach Sylphy, hadn’t learned any new magics, and hadn’t really progressed his swordsmanship in the last year at all.

For an achievement junkie like him, he was basically going through withdrawals. He would sigh at the dinner table, during sword practice, with Sylphy and with Lilia at tea time. It was getting annoying.

“If you wanna go to that dang school, just go.” I told him, during tea time one day. I was wondering why he hadn’t brought it up to Paul yet. But then, it was obvious wasn’t it?

I was in a similar position. My magic hadn’t really developed past finally getting the Cumulonimbus trick down. If both Sylphy and Rudeus were to go to Ranoa to study magic, common logic would dictate that I would be following as well. But, if we could barely pay for Rudeus…

“What will we do for you?”

I shrugged. Maybe I was getting complacent, but to be honest, I was more interested in learning the sword at the moment than learning how to get better at magic. That was and always had been more of his thing. “I’m busy with the sword. I’d just get bored over there, anyways. Live your dreams, Rudi.” I smiled.

He stared at me for a while, lost in thought. He does that annoyingly often. I know he has this internal monologue going on, but in real life it’s just awkward. Like, say something! Please! Don’t just look at me!

“Earth to Rudi! Were you listening?”

“Ah! Yeah. If you were to give your approval… You wouldn’t mind if I took Sylphy with me?”

Unbidden to me, my cheek puffed out in annoyance. I pushed it back in. “Do what you want.” You were both going to end up at that school eventually, no matter what I said or did.

According to the script at least.

And, for now, I had to keep to the script. Everyone he would meet during these early years were all important, so if he wasn’t with Eris and the gang over there this time next year, there would be problems. A lot of them.

I had agonized over what to do about the future, and what direction to take regarding them, but the biggest obstacle to overcome there would be the main antagonist.

Hitogami.

For now, I was safe. He didn’t start noticing Rudeus until after the Metastasis Event. The problem is, Hitogami could read minds, and he could see people’s futures. If he finds me by the same process he did Rudeus, and he sees my future…

I would be in trouble. In MAJOR trouble.

Granted. I could just not take any action against him, ever. He was undoubtedly evil, but the opposition isn’t necessarily ubiquitously good either. Orsted himself didn’t even know if the world would end if he killed him, and he’s gone through his fair share of bodies and wars to set up for that one opportunity anyway.

The issue there is that I’d be essentially dooming Roxy to her death. I wasn’t as close to her as Rudeus was, is, and will be, but she’s still an important mentor figure in my life. I didn’t want to see her die.

But what if Hitogami decided to go after any other member of my family to try and shake me off his path? That could end disastrously, as it did for Future-Rudeus. Saying it’s a trainwreck would be sugarcoating that particular story.

“Alti-nee, are you okay?”

I shook myself. “Sorry. Got lost in thoughts.”

He smirked. “Mm. Now you can’t get mad at me for doing the same anymore, nee-chan.”

“Sure, whatever.” I wasn’t really in the mood to be going over this with him right now.

For now, he would have to go through canon like normal, and that meant asking Paul for tuition money. “Back on topic, just ask tou-san for the money. Even if he says no, you’re good at persuading people aren’t you?”

He looked at me weirdly. “Ehe. Where did my precious little sister learn to talk like that, I wonder.”

“I’m older than you!” I stayed silent for a bit, assessing. “Hey. If you do go, don’t lose your way, okay?”

His mouth opened, then closed it in a smile. “Of course, Alti. I’ll take care of myself.”

Not good, I was starting to tear up. Maybe this would be one of the last times I’d get to talk to him like this… “You do that.”

And I fled.

“Ah Alti wait! Where are you going?!

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Our letters from Roxy had come in, and that, irregardless of my words, seemed to do the trick for him. There was something to be said about the heart of a man there, but I kept my peace.

My letter from her said much of the same things Rudeus’ did, but asked about my progress in healing magic instead.

…I chose to ignore the call-to-action there.

“Oh? You want to go to Ranoa together? And what about Alti?” Paul asked, actually serious for once. Zenith and Lilia, despite kicking him under the table several times not even a minute ago, kept to themselves this time. In this matter at least, they knew to defer to Paul for judgement.

“I don’t need to go. I want to focus on building up my swordsmanship skills with you, tou-san.”

“I see.” He thought about his answer. For a good two seconds. “No.” As expected. With just one word, he had ramped up the tension at the table by quite a bit. “There are several reasons.”

“First, you’re learning the sword. As your teacher, I can’t let you go now. Also, you’re smart but still young. I can’t neglect my parental responsibilities. Then, there’s the money.” The real clincher. “Just you would be one thing, but we can’t pay for Sylphy too. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

“I understand.” Rudeus said unwaveringly. “May I ask for one thing, then? Please let me get a job.”

This surprised Paul. “A job? Why?”

“By the time you decide I’m ready to leave home, I’ll earn Sylphy’s tuition myself.” He argued.

“That wouldn’t be the best thing for Sylphy.”

“Yes, but I think it will be for me.”

Selfish. Everyone around the table thought the same thing. Rudeus too (he had said it would be after all), but it was the first time in a long time he had asked for something for himself. We couldn’t just brush it off like you would for anyone else.

Paul closed his eyes, and then smirked. “Alright. If that’s how it is, I’ll see what I can do.”

Rudeus bowed in thanks. “Thank you very much!”

Oh he had no idea what was coming for him. The other members of the family, including me, all shared nervous eye contact.

I knew he was ready. At least, I hoped so. It would have to be enough.

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About a month after that dinner conversation, I heard a scuffle in the yard, followed by a blast and a yell and rushed out of the house.

I came face to face with the craziest body I had ever seen. Hoooly mooly did Ghyslaine have a body.

“That’s your other child, Paul? The one that’s good with swords?” She asked. Huh. Her voice wasn’t as low as I imagined. She still had this dangerous warrior atmosphere around her, fairly opposite to her casual personality.

“That’s right. She’s coming along very nicely.” Paul said, sword in one hand, unconscious Rudeus in the other.

“Hey! What happened?”

Paul looked shocked, as if he somehow didn’t expect the question when he hadn’t updated me on what was going down here.

“Well. I’m sending Rudi off to that job he wanted. I knew he wouldn’t separate from Sylphy that easily, so this was really the only way.” He laughed boisterously, like a man with no cares.

“Are you sure you don’t want to send this one along too? She has a good stance. She looks ready to take a go at me.” My eyes widened and I backed away from the danger kitten immediately.

Did not want to know what happens when I try to fight a Sword-King at this stage, thanks.

“Ah no. She’s more interested in developing her Water-God Style. You wouldn’t be a good match.” Yeah that, and North-God, if Paul ever lets me freaking learn it.

“I see.” Was all she said, before turning back into the carriage, having already loaded Rudeus and his things in.

“Alti! Say goodbye to Rudeus!” Zenith waved her only son goodbye.

“Wait. She’s taking him just like that? When am I gonna see him again?!”

Zenith didn’t answer my question. “Hey! The carriage is leaving!”

“Say byeee.”

“Rudi!!” Oh look, Sylphy was here too, launching a bunch of magic spells at Paul, who dodges around them easily. But still, what a killer instinct on this girl, to instantly move into attacking with a barrage like that.

Scary…

We watched the carriage go as Rawls-san, Sylphy’s father, catches up to her and comforts her.

Her crying filled the requiem slot for the goodbye ceremony. “When the other children grow up, Rudi won’t be here..” Zenith all of a sudden said.

I clutched the skirts of both of my mothers, holding onto their respective children. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

I went back inside, and grabbed my wooden sword. “Tou-san! It’s back to training for us!!”

“Ou!”