Happy birthday, me! I'm seven years old now!
And so far, with the exception of some bumps here and there, my new life is going as smoothly as it could! I still remain true to my resolve seven years ago when I was born that I will live out my new life to the fullest without any regrets! I never slacked around and studied magic and swordfighting as much as I could! And I saved a girl from being treated horribly by her foster parent! And now, she's living with me and she has taken a liking on me!
Aah, I'm returning back to my prime again! My elementary school self! A top class student and popular with the girls!
Yes, I just need to keep this up until I become an adult again! Then my goal of becoming a person I won't be disgusted with will be achieved!
There's just one problem though. My swordsmanship skill is totally stagnating! Compared to Sherry, who's just climbing higher and higher, I'm just staying in one place, not getting any stronger. I have to do something!
Hmm? Isn't being a magician enough? Well, maybe. Marina certainly has given up on swordsmanship entirely, focusing her efforts entirely to become a pure mage. But if I follow her, I feel I won't be able to keep with her either. She's an absolute genius in the subject after all.
I just don't want to be left behind again by my siblings, just like in my old life…
Not to mention that if Sherry is really going to be my wife in the future, I wouldn't want to be a weak husband who has to rely on her for my protection and safety. I want it to be the other way around, with me being able to protect her like a cool husband would. Father and Mother are the perfect example. Mother is a cleric, so Father, as a swordsman, would have to protect her at all times like her knight in shining armor. But if I'm the mage and she the swordswoman, I will be the one that gets protected by her. I know it's selfish, but goddamnit I want to be cool in front of my (future) wife.
And so I decided. I had to develop my own style of fighting. Something that Father couldn't teach to me.
The idea started out simple. What if I combined my magic with my swordfighting? Could I enhance both, with one discipline covering for the weaknesses of the others?
First test. I would throw Beginner and Intermediate-level magic while I used my sword at the same time.
----
"Sparring?" Father raised her eyebrows. "You against Sherry?"
"Y-yeah, I think it can be good training. For both of us." I smiled back nervously.
We were having our usual sword training sessions. After we did our warming ups, I immediately suggested my idea to Father.
Yes, I was going to use Sherry as my guinea pig. If I won, then I would declare my idea to be a successful one.
"...No, you can't."
"H-huh, w-why?"
"She's too strong for you, son. None of you would gain anything by sparring against each other," he said to me with a sad look. Damn you, Dad! No need to pity me that much!
"B-but I won't just be using my sword! I would also use my magic!"
"Magic?" He raised his eyebrows again. "You mean, you would cast magic as you fight with your sword? That's… I never saw any mages doing that. They would use their staves, not swords. Myrilla would do that if an enemy ever gets too close, just to put a distance between them."
"Myrilla?" I asked with a curious look. I never heard of that name before.
"Oh, she's just a mage I used to party with."
Wait, what's with that look? He's avoiding my eyes as he said it. Don't tell me that she's her ex or something! Does Mother know?
"Hey, don't give me that look," he immediately protested. "I never cheated on your mother, you know. If I did, well, I'll be out of here for sure." He gave a grim smile.
...Yeah, I could imagine that. Whew, she's scary when she's mad.
Though realistically speaking, she would be the one to leave the house, as women didn't really have any right to own property back in the medieval era. I dunno whether this fantasy world really followed the same rule though. I imagined if it's a family of two adventurers, who got the house and children would just be decided in combat, most likely to the death. A fantasy world tends to be a world where strength matters the most after all.
I gulped. I really wouldn't want to see Father and Mother fighting like that. That would break my heart for sure. Father, please tell me that you really are not a cheater.
"Enough of that." He suddenly threw a wooden sword at me, which I caught promptly in mid-air. Hey, my reflex had gotten better after all from my training. "If you really want to fight, then fight. You bring your wand?" I nodded. "Good. Then Sherry, go easy on him."
I looked towards her. She was already nine years old longer than I had been seven, as her birthday was earlier than mine around a month or so. Thanks to Mother giving her lots of nutritious food, I could see her being taller and less thin than her old self. Well, her boobs were still nonexistent though, and I was still taller than her. I doubted that she would ever get taller than me, which I liked, as short girls looked cute to me. I loved how they had to stand on their toes to kiss their taller partner. Not that tall girls were bad, oh no. Tall girls on the other hand allowed the shorter men to just bury their face inside their large milk jugs that they usually had.
Well, enough about my preferences. I needed to get ready for the fight. I took out my wand and held it in my left hand. Thankfully, I was born ambidextrous, unlike my old right-hand-only self, so I could easily cast magic and wield a sword with both hands.
"Hey, are you sure about this?" Sherry suddenly spoke with a concerned look on her face. "When I fight, I still don't have good control of my strength, you know. I… don't want to hurt you…" She looked down. Oh, Goddamnit. With that that kind of melancholic expression, I just knew that she would definitely blame herself terribly if she hurt me in any way shape or form. And I certainly wouldn't want that!
Well, all the more reason to not lose to her, right?
I readied myself, going into an evasive stance right away. I knew that I would be the one taking the defensive role in this match-up. She would outclass me in both strength and speed. The only advantage I had was my longer range.
"Sherry, remember what I taught you before! About fighting a mage!" Father shouted.
W-wait, Father had taught her that. I-I wasn't informed of this!
"In three… two… one… begin!"
It was too late to protest. The match had begun.
And Sherry, well, she didn't hesitate. She launched herself right towards me with her wooden sword raised.
"F-Fireball!"
I immediately responded by blasting my basic fire spell right towards her. But to my surprise, instead of opting to dodge, she simply slashed my fireball, dispelling it like it was nothing.
H-hey, w-what the hell was that? That's a wooden sword! How could she do that and not burn it in the process?
Combined with my surprise and her speed, it was too late for me to devise my next move. Before I knew it, her sword was already on my neck.
I had lost. Didn't even take her 10 seconds to do so.
"Well done, Sherry, well done!" Father clapped. "That's how you deal with a mage! You close up on them and bash them straight up! Using your sword, you can just cut through any low-level spells they sent at you, as they would not have any time to chant the bigger ones."
She retreated her sword. Once again, she gave me that worried look of hers.
"And you, Hugo. You didn't expect her to just cut through your fireball like that, did you?" He grinned. Gah, now I'm starting to get angry. "In the hands of a strong swordsman, even a stick of wood could pierce steel."
I guess since this is a fantasy world, statements like that could actually make sense. But still, was she able to do that just because of her strength? Or was there something more about swordsmanship that Father wasn't telling?
Or maybe he just doesn't know. The way he teaches… it's really��� rudimentary and simple. Easy to understand, but there's nothing refined to it, you know. I know a little about kendo from my old life and it's far fancier than what he teaches to us.
...Hold on. Could it be that it's a form of magic as well? Even though it's done by swinging your sword around, who said that magic couldn't take that from? Is magic exclusive to magicians with their wands and staves?
...I think I should ask Mother about this. Maybe she'll know something Father doesn't. Wouldn't get my hopes up though. She's just a cleric after all.
And so ended my first spar with Sherry. It was a total and complete loss.
----
Ever since Mother was pregnant, Father insisted that she should stop working so hard and take more rest, even though she herself didn't want to. But she refused to make Sherry take most of her work. Like a good mother, she didn't want to make her feel like she was being used as a servant anymore. And so, as a compromise, Father decided to hire a girl from the nearby village to be a temporary live-in maid from the village to help with the chores. She was well-compensated, of course, with a salary that beat any work she could do in the village. Father also counted on her to help with delivering the child, once that day came.
Wow, she's cute!
Such was my first impression when I saw her arriving with Father. She was indeed young, perhaps around seventeen or eighteen of age. No more than twenty, certainly. She had long, brown hair that reached down to her waist, along with a pair of yellow-brown eyes. And she arrived already wearing a maid uniform too. Combined with her charming, bright smile, I could already tell that she would be a welcome addition to our family for sure.
Not to mention those big boobs as well!
"Hello! I'm Mary! I'll be working here from now on!" She bowed, making her breasts jiggle.
Uh oh, Mother's expression—her smile wasn't completely genuine, I could tell, and her eyes were drawn towards the maid girl's breasts. Could this be the beginning of a war of boobs? But Mother's breasts were clearly bigger though.
"Thank you, Mary. I'm glad that you're willing to work for our family." Mother bowed as well. And as expected, her boob jiggle easily overpowered the maid's.
"A-ah, please don't bow, Madame! The pleasure is all mine!" The girl bowed again, her breasts jiggling yet again.
I glanced towards Alan. As expected, he was paying full attention towards the "battle" that was going on. Hey, Father. Aren't you staring too much?
And so from that day on, we had another person living with our little family.
----
That night, I was just relaxing, resting myself in my room when Sherry entered, wielding a broom and wearing her maid uniform. As usual, she was going to clean my room. She usually did it once a week, and always while wearing said clothing. I couldn't help but think that me saying how cute she looked in it had a part on it.
No, that's definitely what happened. She would sulk if I didn't watch her as she did her work after all.
"I-I'm going to clean the room now, y-young Master." How cute! Even though she had been doing this for months, she still went all blushy everytime.
I couldn't help but be bothered by the Young Master part however.
"Hey, umm, don't you think that you can drop that Young Master stuff? Now that we actually have a proper maid here, it just feels… well, weird, especially since she too calls me by that." I scratched the back of my head, smiling nervously towards her.
And then her face quickly turned into shock, before turning into sadness, and then followed by anger.
"S-so, now that Mary is here, I-I'm not good enough, huh?!" She yelled. "You want your maids to be all pretty and big-chested like her, huh?!"
"W-wait, that's not what I mean!" I panicked, quickly correcting her. "I-it's just that… I-I don't want to see you as a servant as well. Mary is one, but you, Sherry—you are family. And every time you call me Young Master like that, I can't help but feel that you're lowering yourself to her level…" Sherry acting as my maid was certainly really adorable and cute. But my conscience always told me that it was wrong to make her do that. I might be a pervert, but I was still a pervert with some moral compass.
Her anger subsided, and she looked away from me. "Oh… Oh, Hugo, I-I'm so sorry… I-I shouldn't have yelled at you like that… M-my temper… I let it get the better of me yet again…" She bit her lip, looking back at me. Goddamnit, her eyes were tearing up. I had to comfort her right away!
"Hey, don't feel bad! I think… I think your temper is also part of your charm, you know." God, I could already tell that my face was reddening. "I… I always find that spirited girls are more interesting than timid ones." That's not entirely true though. I liked quiet, timid girls as well. In fact, I liked all sorts of girls, at least fictional ones. I was always intimidated by real 3D girls after all, as pathetic as that might sound. And if I was actually one of those harem protagonists, I would perfectly be willing to woo all sorts and types of girls to be my lovers. Well, if jealousy wasn't a thing in the real world, anyways. I wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of any girls that could love my pathetic self. I would always cherish them and be the best husband to them that I could be. I swore to that.
"R-really?" She responded to my compliment with the cutest shy blush I had ever seen.
"Yes, really!" I smiled back, putting my hands on her shoulders. "So don't be so hard on yourself, Sherry. You can get angry once in a while. Anyone does."
"Y-you never get angry though…"
"Well…" She's right. I did get annoyed multiple times, but I was never as angry as she was. "I get really angry whenever I see anyone tease and bully you, calling you a demon and all that. Though with you scaring them off, I guess I don't need to be worried, huh, hehe." I gave a little joke at the end, just so I wouldn't even be more embarrassed by my cliched and cheesy line. I wasn't really lying though. I did indeed get angry when those little brats came after her cruelly like that. It reminded me of my own dark past after all. So I thought it would be alright for me to give those words to her, even though it made me sound like those goody-goody harem protagonists that no one really liked.
She gave a little huff at my joke. But then, she looked away and mumbled, "T-thank you… You really are nice, Hugo…"
And then, she turned back and immediately gave me a kiss on the cheeks. "T-there… for always being there for me… A-and if you would, p-please protect me more in the future..."
She then ran away, leaving me as red as she was.
I touched the cheek she just kissed. I didn't wash my face for a while afterwards.
----
Thanks to Sherry's night visit, I was completely invigorated! Aah, I want to be stronger after all! Strong enough to protect her, just like she wants!
And so I racked my brain, trying to find a better way to use my magic in combat. I determined that I couldn't just use it in a straightforward manner. Even if I used my Advanced level magic, which I could use without chanting, I still needed to concentrate. And that would give an opening for her to close the gap between us. I would risk hitting myself as well, with how powerful those spells were. Intermediate? I had a feeling that they would just be dispelled by Sherry—the same way as she dispelled my Fireball.
Hmm, how about this? Maybe I should use my magic in a less straightforward manner. Not just to attack. Maybe there were some useful utilities I could gain from them, if I could use them in a more creative manner.
First idea. Wind Step. I would generate a burst of wind under my feet, pushing me to the direction I wanted to go.
I immediately tried it outside. Holding both my wand and my sword, simulating how I would be in combat, I took a deep breath. Naturally, I was nervous. What if I did it wrong and sprained my ankle?
Left. I sidestepped. And just as I did, I conjured a small burst of wind under the soles of my shoes.
"W-whoaaa!"
I was immediately sent flying ten meters away, landing roughly on my left shoulder. Urgh, that hurt! Thankfully, however, I didn't seem to break anything.
Too much power. I need to control it better.
And so began my training. I fell over and over again, making scratches and bruises all over my body. But I didn't care. I wanted to do this! And I wouldn't give up until I could! And besides, no matter how badly I got wounded, Mother would always be able to heal me afterwards! My only obstacle was myself—my laziness and my fear of pain. And I would overcome it! Not just for Sherry, but also for myself!
And so, for the first time in my life, I worked hard on something entirely by my own. This time, I didn't have Marina or Father to guide and encourage me.
My own will and spirit. That was all that I had.