Half a year passed. Eris, who I thought had finally cooled down,
began returning to her violent ways.
Why, how, who did this?! I panicked, until I realized something. She
had been given no breaks.
***
It was after dinner when I called Ghislaine and the etiquette teacher to
my room. The etiquette teacher didn't actually live with us; she lived in the
city, so I had a butler send a message to her.
"First, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Rudeus Greyrat," I said.
"Edna Leylune. I teach Lady Eris about proper etiquette."
I touched my hand to my chest and gave a light nod. She responded in
kind, her movements more polished. Unsurprising, coming from an etiquette
teacher.
Edna had the face of a middle-aged woman whose wrinkles were just
beginning to show. Her features were soft, and she had a kind smile that
emanated warmth.
"Please, have a seat," I said, motioning to nearby chairs. Once they
settled in, I offered them tea that I had the butler prepare. "The reason I called
you here today is to talk about Eris's lesson schedule."
"Lesson schedule?" Edna asked.
"That's right. I hear that she currently has sword practice in the
morning, free time in the afternoon, and etiquette in the evening. Is that
correct?"
"Indeed."
Eris was currently learning six subjects. Reading and writing,
arithmetic, magic, history, swordplay, and etiquette.
In modern terms that would be language, math, home economics,
social studies, physical education, and well, etiquette. There were no clocks,
so lessons stretched on, separated only by meals and snack time. The subjects
were split over three time periods, like this:
Breakfast → Studying → Lunch → Studying → Snack time →
Studying → Dinner → Free time
There was no history instructor, so Philip apparently taught her in his
free time.
"Since I came on, she began having evening lessons as well, so her
entire day has been filled up," I said.
That's right," Edna responded. "Her studies have been progressing
smoothly. The Master is quite impressed."
No doubt he was.
"It may look like it's going smoothly, but there's a problem here."
Edna looked confused. "A problem, you say?"
"Yes. Her stress has been building since she studies every day without
any breaks." Remarkably so during arithmetic lessons. She was irritable the
entire time. If she ran into difficult problems, she would take it out on me. It
was dangerous. There was no telling when she might come after me for real.
It was very dangerous.
"We manage to get through it for now, but she might eventually snap
and run from her lessons again."
"Oh dear…" Edna pressed her hand to her lips. Her expression said
that she acknowledged that possibility. I had never seen one of her etiquette
lessons before, but Eris seemed to take them seriously. It was a mystery to
me why Eris seemed to like her.
I continued. "So I would like to give her a day free of lessons every
seven days."
They had a calendar in this world, so they had a concept of what month
and what day it was. They did not, however, have the concept of a week.
There were rest days allotted throughout the year, but there was no such thing
as a Sunday.
Seven. I used the number because I could remember it easily. Plus, it
seemed that number was special in this world as well. It was said to be a good
omen, which was why there were also seven tiers in swordplay.
"In the remaining six days, we'll continue teaching her reading and
writing, arithmetic, magic, history, swordplay and etiquette."
Edna raised her voice. "May I ask one thing?"
"Please do."
"If things are divided that way, then my lessons would be reduced. So
then would my salary also…"
I cut her off before she could finish. "You don't have to worry about
that." I couldn't blame her for being concerned about money, and I hoped no
one else would either. After all, I was in this for the money as well. Anyway,
I had already spoken to Philip and it wasn't a problem. We had monthly
salaries, so we'd get paid regardless of whether we gave lessons or not.
Granted, we'd be fired if we didn't. That part should go without
saying. If you didn't understand something that simple, you deserved to be
fired.
"Of course, with that in mind we will divide things differently. There
should be no problem having just two lessons on reading, writing, and
arithmetic in a seven-day period. Sword practice will remain a daily affair, as
there is no point otherwise. Magic must be practiced daily as well, but there
is a limit to how much mana a person has, so each lesson won't take too long.
I intend to dedicate any extra time that leaves to reading, writing, and
arithmetic."
That last bit we had been doing from the beginning. Such as, "Today
you've used Water Bullet X amount of times and Water Splash Y amount. So
how many more times can you use Water Bullet today?" I changed the values
of X and Y in keeping with the number of times Eris and Ghislaine could
perform those spells respectively. Apparently, this was easier for Eris than
sitting in a room staring at the digits on paper.
It was difficult to find a precise answer because mana usage wasn't
something tangible, even to the practitioner. The important part was
performing mental arithmetic, because the more they did it, the better they
would get. The whole point was for them to use their heads.
I wanted to do lessons on voiceless casting and home economics
eventually, but that could wait until they had finished reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
"My apologies in advance, Miss Edna, but I would like to reduce your
lessons with Eris to three or four times a month."
"All right." She nodded quickly.
Six days, eighteen periods. I split them thus: etiquette – five periods;
swordplay – six periods; reading and writing – two periods; arithmetic – two
periods; and magic – three periods. Lesson periods were a bit short for my
taste, but most of it was repetition, so it should be fine.
"Also," I added, "at any point you can't teach a lesson, I would like
you to contact me."
"To what end?" Edna asked.
"I'm always here at the manor, so I can fit my lessons into your time
slot. If you need an extended period off, there'll be no problem."
"All right then." Edna smiled the entire time. Did she really
understand?
"Also, I would like to have these meetings every first of the month," I
said.
"And why is that?"
"If we work together, we can come up with a quick response to any
issues that may occur. It's not strictly necessary, but it will make our teaching
more effective and help us deal with emergencies. Do you have any issues
with it?"
"No." Edna smiled softly. "You are still so young, Lord Rudeus, yet
you are so considerate to Miss Eris." Her eyes shone as though she had seen
something particularly endearing.
Well, whatever. That was how I managed to get myself a day off.
***
Finally, my first day off arrived.
After greeting Philip briefly, I decided to head into the city. But I
found Ghislaine and Eris lying in wait for me at the exit.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Eris seemed restless, perhaps
because it was her first day off. Her first ever day with an empty schedule.
No wonder she was curious what my plans were for the day.
"I'm going sightseeing around Roa," I said, striking a pose.
"Sightseeing… So you're going to go see the city? By yourself?"
"Do I look like I have someone else with me?"
"That's not fair! I haven't ever been able to go out by myself, not even
once!" She stomped her feet in frustration.
"Isn't that because you'll get kidnapped if you go out on your own?"
"Well, you got kidnapped too," she snapped back.
Ah, she was right. I was kidnapped because I had been accompanying
Eris, but it was also true that I was seen as a part of the Greyrat family. It was
possible someone might try it again to demand a ransom for me.
"But if I get kidnapped, I can get back home on my own." I cackled in
triumph, only for her to raise her fist like she was going to hit me. I quickly
moved to protect myself, but the punch never came. That was unusual.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. "I'm going too!"
She would usually make such a declaration only after hitting me, but
apparently, she decided not to use violence this time. That meant she had
matured some. A small, almost insignificant amount, but at least there was
some progress.
"All right, then let's go!"
"Really?!"
Of course, I had no reason to refuse her. Plus, safety in numbers and all
that. "Ghislaine's coming too, right?" I asked.
"Yes. It's my duty to protect the Young Mistress."
Even during our meeting, Ghislaine didn't seem to understand the
concept of having a day off. I suggested she just stick to Eris like she always
did. She was originally hired to be a bodyguard, after all, so there should be
no problems with that.
"Wait! I'll be ready in just a sec! Alphonse! Alphonse!!!" I watched as
Eris ran off, dashing noisily through the manor. Her voice was just as loud as
ever.
"Rudeus," Ghislaine said.
I turned my head and she was right there beside me. I had to crane my
neck to look up at her. She was almost two meters tall, so even as a full-
grown adult I would probably still be looking up at her.
"Don't overestimate your abilities," she warned. This was probably
about me saying I could escape getting kidnapped on my own.
"I know. I was just trying to motivate her a little."
"All right, but if something happens, call me. I'll help you."
"Yeah. If I need something, I'll give you a big firework show again."
Talking about it stirred a memory. "Did you tell the Young Mistress to do the
same thing? Call for you?"
"Mm? I did, what of it?"
"Next time, you might want to clarify that she should only do it when
she's somewhere you can hear her," I said.
"Okay, but why?"
"Because when we got kidnapped, she almost got killed because she
kept screaming for you."
"If I had heard her, I would have rescued her."
Hmm. Well, she had been ridiculously fast when she came to save us.
She was there within a minute of me shooting off those fireworks. So long as we were in earshot, I was sure she would come, no matter
where that was. Her hearing seemed pretty good too. After all, it was
Ghislaine who Eris called out to, not Philip or Sauros. She was reliable.
"You need to teach her that there are times when you can't scream."
Eris returned and the conversation ended there. I wasn't sure if she was
dressing up to go out or not, but she was wearing an outfit I had never seen
before.
"You look lovely today."
"Hmph!" She punched me in the head when I complimented her. What
the hell was that about?
***
The Fittoa region's Citadel of Roa was one of the biggest cities in the
area, but "big" was a relative term. It was still smaller than the expanse of
countryside that made up Buena Village. If you walked the perimeter of the
outer wall, you could probably circle the entire thing in two hours. Still, it
was of considerable size for a city. The walls themselves were about seven to
eight meters tall and wrapped around the entirety of Roa.
That said, the city wasn't a perfect circle. It bent with the terrain, so I
wasn't sure of its exact dimensions, but it probably covered about thirty
square meters. Not that big from a Japanese person's perspective, yet I could
tell creating walls this size was no simple feat.
There had to be some sort of magic to build walls like this. Probably
King-tier or Imperial-tier. Or perhaps they made a broad outline with stone
and filled in the rest with manual labor?
I considered all this as we made our way through the upper-class
residential area and into the crowded plaza. From here, we were headed to the
mercantile district. All the shops near the noble district were posh, and even
the street stalls here and there were peddling expensive wares.
"Hey, Young Master and Miss, take your time and look around." An
old man running a shop selling second-hand wares called out to us, using a
line lifted straight out of an RPG. I peered at what he had on display, taking notes on the products and
their prices. Frankly, he was selling some rather questionable things. Who
would even buy this stuff? I thought. Wait, an aphrodisiac is ten gold coins.
Gotta write this down.
"What are these weird letters?! I can't read them!" My eardrums rang
as Eris's voice blasted them.
I turned and found her face awfully close to mine. She had been
reading over my shoulder. Up close, I realized how cute she was. Her
features were very evenly set.
My memo, by the way, was written in Japanese.
"Tell me what you're writing down!"
She was being overbearing, but I had no reason not to tell her. "I'm
writing down the product names and prices."
"And what are you going to do with that information?!"
"Comparing market prices is one of the fundamentals of online
games," I replied.
"Online… What the heck?"
She wouldn't be able to understand even if I explained, so I instead
pointed to one of the wares on display. It was a small accessory. "Okay, look
at that. The last stall was selling that piece for five gold coins. This place is
selling it for four gold coins and five silver ones."
The owner chimed in, "Oh, Young Master, you have a good eye! Our
stuff is cheap, yeah!"
I ignored the old man and turned back to Eris. "So, if you talked down
this shop into selling this to you for three coins and took it back to that other
shop and sold it for four, how much would you make?"
"Huh! Uh, five minus three plus four… Six gold coins!"
What the heck kind of math was that?
"Bzzt, incorrect. The correct answer is one gold coin."
"Y-yeah, I knew that!" She turned away with a pout on her lips.
"Really?"
"S-so if you had ten gold coins from the start, now you would have
eleven, right?"
Oh, hey! She actually did it for once! Wait…no, she just added more in
there. Oh well. It was better to just praise and encourage her, especially with
how much pride she had. "Oh, this time you're correct! Wow, very smart,
Eris."
"Hmph, as if there were ever any doubt."
The old man listened in our conversation with a bitter look on his face.
"Young Master, that's called reselling. Not somethin' people look too kindly
upon, so you'd better not try it."
"Of course. If I were looking to make money, I would go to that other
store and tell them you're selling for four gold pieces. That kind of
information should be enough to net me one large copper, right?"
His expression soured. He looked behind us to Ghislaine for help, but
she was listening in with interest. The old man slumped and sighed as if he
realized that anything he said would be pointless.
Sorry, I apologized, but only in my head. I hoped he wouldn't linger on
it too much. I was only teasing.
"Anyway," I said, "even if you don't plan to buy anything, it's still
important to know the prices of things."
"And what are you going to with that knowledge?!"
"For example, you can calculate how much you will spend without
even going to a shop."
"And how is that supposed to be useful!"
How is that supposed to be… Well, if you're going to resell it then you
can figure out about how much… Wait.
No, in times like this, it was best just to leave things to Ghislaine.
"Why do you think it would be useful, Ghislaine?"
"No idea."
Wait, seriously? She didn't know? I thought she would. Well,
whatever. It wasn't like this was a lesson anyways.
"All right then, maybe it's not useful after all." The information was for my own use anyway. It was fine if they didn't understand. Whenever I
was in a marketplace, the first thing I did was compare prices. That was how
I always did things in online games, and there was no reason to change that
now. This despite the fact that I'd never done it before in this life and didn't
know for sure if there were actually any value in it.
"If you don't know if it's useful or not, why do it!"
"Because I think it will be useful."
Her face made it clear that she didn't like my answer.
It's not like I can answer every single question you have. Try to think
for yourself a little bit.
"Give it some thought," I said. "If you think it's useful, then you
should do it too. If you think it's useless, then point and laugh."
"Then I pick laugh!"
"Ahahaha."
"And why the heck are you laughing!"
She punched me. Sadface…
***
We looped around the area and I finished taking inventory of all the
stalls. I skipped the posher shops since I knew everything would be too
expensive. Instead, we headed toward the outer part of the city. Just a short
walk away the shop wares changed completely. The prices were dramatically
lower too, down from five gold coins to one.
Still expensive. Not something I can afford, I thought.
There were more people here, ranging from nobles to adventurers
based on their appearances. Even the shop owners seemed livelier as they
hawked their wares. Perhaps because one gold coin was just on the high end
of affordability.
A store caught my eye as I was taking notes; a bookstore, to be exact. I decided to wander inside.
It was deserted, like the general section of an adult bookstore. There
were two bookcases, volumes of the same title lined up in twos and threes.
Each book cost around one gold coin.
In the remaining space was a locked case with rows of books inside.
These were about eight gold pieces a volume, the most expensive being ten
gold pieces. The store's featured products, I assumed.
"Hmpf." The store owner took one look at me and yawned as though
dismissing my potential as a customer. Their gaze turned suspicious as I
began noting down all the titles I saw on their shelves. They were probably
concerned I was trying to copy the contents of the books. I stepped away
from the bookshelves, hoping it would send a message: Don't worry! I'm not
touching your books! I'm not going to copy anything!
I glanced inside the locked case and noticed a book I had seen before.
"Plant Dictionary, ten gold coins," I read out loud.
It was the same book Zenith had given to me on my fifth birthday.
Expensive, I thought. If one gold coin was 10,000 yen, that meant this
book was 70,000 yen! My mom must have gone really overboard to buy that.
"Hm."
It seemed dictionaries really were expensive. I would have loved to
read Sig's Summoning Magic, but it was ten gold coins. On a salary of two
silver coins a month, there was no way I could afford that.
The most expensive book was Ceremonies of Asura's Royal Palace's
Imperial Court. Definitely didn't need that.
"What are you looking at so eagerly?" It was Eris's voice. She had
apparently followed me inside at some point. She must have noticed me
looking at the book titles without taking any notes.
"Oh, nothing, just thinking that there wasn't much here of interest."
"Oh, that's right, I heard you like books, don't you?" Eris asked.
"Who did you hear that from?"
"My father!"
Philip, huh? Well, I did ask him to show me his library after all.
"I-If you really want one that bad, I could buy it for you," she offered.
"You say that so easily, but you don't have any money, do you?"
"Grandfather will pay for it!"
That's what I figured. She was just going to let him spoil her again. I
needed to make her understand that money was a limited resource.
But I want that book… I really want that book, I thought.
"I don't need it."
"And why not!" She was pouting again. It was the expression she wore
whenever she was in a bad mood. If that mood got any worse, her face would
turn demonic and she would punch me. Right now, I was still safe, as she still
had some reason left.
"That's not money you can use for whatever you want."
"What are you saying?" Her brows knitted. She was growing
increasingly irritable because she didn't understand. I could almost see her
anger bar as it filled up.
How best to explain this? Was there even any point in teaching the
daughter of a noble family how to use money? Well, why not.
"Do you know how much I earn every month for teaching you?"
"About five gold pieces?"
"Two silver pieces," I said.
"That's too little!" she yelled.
The shop owner's face puckered in annoyance at the noise.
Sorry, I thought.
"No, that's fair pay considering I'm young and I don't have any
qualifications." Besides, they were also going to foot the tuition for me to
attend the University of Magic.
"B-but Ghislaine gets five gold coins! And you're teaching me a lot of
things too!"
"But Ghislaine has qualifications, and she has the title of Sword King.
She also doubles as your bodyguard. It makes sense that her pay would be higher." Plus, a part of her high pay was probably thanks to the Boreas
Greyrat family's unsavory traditions. They seemed like they'd give
preferential treatment to female beastfolk.
"Th-then what about me?"
"You can't do magic or swordplay, you have no qualifications, so no
matter how inflated your pay was, one gold coin would be the limit." More to
the point, she wasn't given any spending money in the first place.
"Grr…"
"If you want to buy something for someone, please do it once you have
earned the money to pay for it yourself."
"Okay, I understand." She wore a rare look of utter defeat on her face.
This sort of lecture usually meant nothing to her.
"Well, I'll see if I can talk Philip into at least giving you some money
to spend when we get back."
"Really?!" Her head jerked up. I could almost feel her affection meter
rising.
Well, buying her whatever she wanted without letting her handle the
money was just spoiling her. It was better for them to give her a little money
and let her learn how to use it.
I noted down the name of that book that caught my eye and we left the
store. After today, I had a good understanding of what I wanted to buy and
how much things cost.
***
The sky was a beautiful mix of red and orange as we headed back
home. It seemed the sunset didn't change, no matter what world I was in. Just
as I thought that, I looked up, only to see a floating castle. It hung among the
clouds, faint but present.
"Whoa!" Surprised, I pointed upward. Those around me briefly peered
up, only to immediately lose interest.
Huh? Couldn't they see it? Was it just me? Was I the only one who could see Laputa, the Castle in the Sky?
Was my dad a liar?
"Is it your first time seeing it? That's the Armored Dragon King
Perugius's floating fortress," Ghislaine explained.
Little late with the information but better late than never, Ryuk…I
mean, Ghislaine!
Anyway, a floating fortress, huh? That's pretty awesome.
"And Perugius is…?"
"You know that, don't you?"
I felt like I had heard the name before, but I couldn't remember. "Who
is he again?"
Ghislaine looked slightly surprised as she tried finding the words to
explain. But Eris didn't give her the opportunity. She darted in front of me
and crossed her arms over her chest, legs a hip's width apart. "Allow me to
teach you!"
"Please, do teach me."
"Very well!" She puffed up with pride. "Perugius is one of the three
legendary heroes who defeated the Demon God Laplace!"
The Demon God Laplace. Now where had I heard that name before…?
"He's incredibly strong. He took command of twelve men, and with his
floating fortress marched into Laplace's stronghold!"
"Oh yeah? That's amazing," I said.
"Isn't it?!"
"You're quite knowledgeable about this, Young Mistress. Thank you."
"Eheheh," she cackled. "You still have a long way to go, Rudeus!"
I knew better than to question her and get myself punched again.
Instead, I looked it up after we got back to the manor. When I asked
Philip about it, he said they had a book on the subject lying around
somewhere. Before I could ask him for it, he had already directed a butler to retrieve the volume for me.
I was sorry for making him go through all that trouble, because the
book was one I had seen at my house back in Buena Village: The Legend of
Perugius. I had passed it off as nothing more than a fairy tale, but it seemed it
was historical fact.
Its contents could be summarized as thus:
The Armored Dragon King Perugius. No one knew where he was born
or raised. The oldest record of him came from his younger days before he
was famous, when the Dragon God Urupen dragged him along to the
Adventurer's Guild.
He showed such strength that in no time, the Dragon God Urupen, the
North God Kalman, and the Twin Emperors Migus and Gumis formed a party
with him. They crushed every opponent they faced.
Thanks in part to his brotherly bond with Urupen, Perugius was written
into history as the Armored Dragon and as one of the five dragon
commanders of the Dragon God.
He displayed the magnificence of his powers in the battle against
Laplace. Perugius made use of his greatest strength, summoning magic, to
call forth twelve familiars: Void, Dark, Bright, Surge, Life, Violent
Earthquake, Time, Roaring Thunder, Destruction, Insight, Insanity, and
Atonement. These were the aliases of the strongest familiars, the ones he
manipulated. With them, Perugius restored the old floating fortress Chaos
Breaker and headed into the final battle against Laplace.
Yet all that power was not enough to completely destroy the Demon
God, forcing Perugius to settle for sealing him away instead.
Still, the strength and imposing appearance of Chaos Breaker in the sky
was enough for people to call him the Armored Dragon King.
The Kingdom of Asura praised him for his achievements, and with the
end of that war, proclaimed the start of a new era. This was the current era,
the Armored Dragon Era. (Right now it was year 414 of the Armored Dragon
Era.)
The Armored Dragon King Perugius did not rule or reign over
anything, he simply hovered over the world in his floating fortress Chaos Beaker. No one knew his true intentions.
More importantly, it had been 400 years. Was the guy even still alive?
Wasn't it just an empty castle floating around in the sky now? That said, if
the opportunity ever presented itself, I would be eager to check it out myself.
***
The next day found Eris in an absolutely horrendous mood. Perhaps it
was because she'd had her first taste of an entire day of freedom, or perhaps
because she had never been allowed outside the posh shops until now. Either
way, letting her have a rest day was definitely a good idea.
"I demand you take me again!" Her arms were folded, legs planted
firmly apart.
It was the same pose she always used, but this time her cheeks were
tinged red. What kind of blush was it this time? An angry one or an
embarrassed one…? Hm? Maybe she was feeling shy? No, there was no way
that was possible. This was Eris we were talking about.
"Um…" I hesitated to answer.
She gritted her teeth. Then she took fistfuls of hair in both hands and
thrust her hips back. "Please take me with you, meew…"
"Yes, I will! I will take you with me, so stop that!" I demanded in a
panic. It was certainly cute, I admit, but not good for my heart. It felt like bad
karma was building up every time she did that. Bad karma that would resolve
itself with a fist to my face.
"Hmph! As long as you understand!" Eris sent her hair fluttering and
plonked back into her seat before the hip-length locks had time to settle.
"Now! Continue your lesson!"
"Looks like you're feeling motivated today."
"Because I know you'll say you won't take me if I don't behave
myself!"
S-since when had she gotten this smart?!
"Th-that's right, I'll take you as long as you behave yourself!"
Impressed, I started on the last lesson for the day.
***
NAME: Eris B. Greyrat
OCCUPATION: Granddaughter of Fittoa's liege lord
PERSONALITY: A little violent
DOES: Listen to what people have to say
READING/WRITING: Quite adept at reading
ARITHMETIC: Can subtract higher numbers
MAGIC: Studying the basics
FENCING: Sword God Style - Beginner-tier
ETIQUETTE: Can do a normal greeting
PEOPLE SHE LIKES: Grandfather, Ghislaine