As I kept practicing my magic on the way, after several hours of travel the carriage eventually reached the peripheries of Buena village.
The sky was murky since morning, and as we began approaching our destination, the originally soft rain that started at one point intensified.
The ground soon turned muddy and the surroundings gloom.
The carriage wheels threw the mud around, our carriage stopped.
As I looked out of the window, it was a mildly familiar scenery. It was still before the stone gate of our house.
A small wooden window opened, and Gilbert's face became visible from the driver's seat, wearing a raincoat.
"Young master, I will have trouble turning around if we enter, so that's where we'll have to disembark."
"Okay."
The same thing happened when Ghislaine arrived, so I wasn't surprised. Horse drawn carriages are not quite as maneuverable as modern cars, it seems.
As I looked outside at the rain, I then realized that I didn't have a good way to avoid with it even with all of my magic arsenal. I could dispel all of the rain clouds, but to avoid it...
No, if it's something as light as rain, then I can still use Gravity Magic. In particular, the defensive application of Telekinesis that I still cannot make the best use of in combat.
"I'll carry the baggage for you," Gilberd said as he opened the door from the outside.
"Thank you."
Seeing Gilbert already come over in a raincoat and wait outside, I only pulled Lia closer and prepared to exit the carriage with her.
Using Telekinesis, I formed a spherical shield around us and directed all of the water droplets away.
"~Hoooo!"
Lia hooted and began to wave her wings in the rain seemingly in anxiety, but she soon turned to cocking her head around as if surprised that no rain hit us.
'Indeed, training in the rain might be the best method to train my Gravity Magic defenses…'
I cannot yet bend the trajectory of a blade or deflect an arrow for sure, but resisting the rain seems like good beginner practice.
As I stood there thinking of this, I noticed Gilbert silently watching the scene in front of him from inside the carriage.
For Gilbert, he already knew too much about me including who my parents are, so I didn't care about showing off a small trick like deflecting some rain droplets. Given that Philip trusted him, I could only do the same, since he seems to be my assigned bodyguard going forward.
Realizing that Gilbert was waiting for me to lead the way, I began to walk closer toward the house and soon passed through the familiar stone gate.
Seeing the familiar medieval building and our garden with the small roofless stone gym, a feeling of nostalgia hit me. This is where I reincarnated and where my journey in another world had started.
'I'm home…'
As I approached, the doors opened as if the people inside were already waiting.
Zenith, Paul, and also Lilia in the back, they were all there, looking at me with careworn expressions.
"My son, you're back!" Zenith did not care about the rain and ran out with what seemed to be tears in her eyes to greet me.
As she came closer, she briefly sent me a strange look, whether because of the owl or the rain shield, but then ignored it and pulled me into a strong hug, together with Lia.
"~Hooo."
My mouth slightly opened and closed as I searched for the right words, and I eventually voiced out through the rain, "Mother, I'm home…"
"Welcome home."
…
Because it was raining so heavily, Zenith invited Gilbert to take shelter in the house. If it kept raining, he might even spend the night here.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Madam, but Lord Philip should expect my return. I'll have to return immediately."
Gilbert then passed Paul a letter from Philip, bid farewell and swiftly left.
As Paul began to read the letter, Zenith tended to me instead.
"What's that?" She asked, pointing at the white owl I held in my arms.
"It's my familiar. Her name is Lia."
"Okay, but what are we going to do with it?"
"I'll just put her in my room for now. Later I'll make a place for her to live in."
"As expected of my son! So reliable! You already thought of everything!"
"Haha."
After leaving Lia in my room, I came down to the kitchen where everyone was still waiting for me and for Zenith to recite her grace.
Afterwards, Zenith immediately began to question me about my stay.
"How was it, Seraph? How was that Young Miss? I heard that she's a violent brat and she's older than you. She didn't bully you, did she?"
"Bully him? Zenith, I would pity any kid that would try bullying our Seraph. I'm sure he quickly tamed her and pushed her down, hehe." Paul laughed.
"I hope not. I hope he's not like you in that department."
Although Zenith somewhat bickered with Paul, it didn't seem like it was out of ill will. It seemed more as if she was trying to put reins on him. I found it a little funny.
It soon turned out that Zenith did not even know about the kidnapping incident, let alone the fact that I originally staged it myself.
As Paul later told me, he read the letters from Philip, but he kept them a secret from Zenith and didn't inform her about the kidnapping to not worry her.
Before the day passed, I went out and did my strength training for the day, in the rain.
I feel that in this world there might be no point of things like 'rest days' or 'deloads'.
That's because instead of exercising the body what real swordsmen do is growing their Battle Aura. And for this, just like with training mana capacity, it should probably happen every single day.
Perhaps that's how the saying of 'if you train with the sword, you should train every day, otherwise it's pointless' came to be.
That's the training ideology that Ghislaine also drilled into us as well, to train every day without any rest days.
Even if misconceptions are common in this world, I felt that there was logic in this, so I also began to follow this principle.
Rain or not, I had to do my daily training!
Seeing what I planned to do, Zenith tried to keep me in the house, but Paul defended me and allowed me to go outside.
After going out, I pointed my hand toward the sky and then cast reversed 'Squall' spell.
As I poured my mana into the clouds, the rainy clouds gradually dispersed and the rain suddenly stopped falling.
Since I used to always train in the mornings, it wasn't my first time that I canceled a naturally formed rain.
After that I used Fire and Wind magic to dry off the floor and the equipment, then finally created a roof over the gym's building, ignoring Zenith's previous worries. I guess all this could count as magic training.
Following that, I completed my daily training volume.
Afterwards, I cast Squall again to make it rain in the evening. It's to avoid the crops nearby from drying out after I canceled the natural drain earlier, balancing things out.
…
Next day I got up to do some sword training with Paul in the morning.
"Father wants to test you!" He told me yesterday.
It seemed to me that he was itching to do some bonding with his son after the month's separation.
Being the perfect son I was, I couldn't decline.
Either way, I also wanted to see how I improved when fighting Paul.
Paul threw me a wooden longsword and our sparring began.
During that fight I used Space Bending, all of the sword techniques I had practiced countless times, utilizing the experience I had gained while fighting Eris and Gihslaine. I didn't hold back.
Still, the difference in our size, strength, speed and skill level was too much to overcome with sheer will.
Using ordinary methods I couldn't touch Paul at all. His perception, reaction speed and skill were too good. It was literally like a child fighting an adult.
"You improved! You were still clumsy with the sword before, but you're much better now! I guess it's good to practice with someone closer to your level," Paul said, nodding.
I faintly nodded back. "Yes. Ghislaine was also a good teacher."
"Well, that woman has muscle for brains, but I guess she isn't bad when it comes to teaching others the sword."
"..." I said nothing. Although they were companions in the past, the disrespectful tone that Paul often used to talk about Ghislaine still irked me.
Paul stabbed his wooden sword into the ground and continued in a solemn tome, "You probably aren't as strong as a trained adult, but just based on your speed and technique I think it's right to call you a legitimate Elementary rank Sword God Style swordsman!"
"Hm..."
My reaction to that information was reserved.
Previously Paul already called me 'Elementary ranked' in Sword God Style and Water God Style, but he admitted that it was stretching it. I was fairly skilled, but my real strength was not quite there yet.
In truth, having reached an Elementary rank in a swordsmanship style did not mean being a beginner. On the contrary, it signified a certain level of mastery of the sword and strength that allowed you to reliably beat your average thug.
And I guess, if I now had to fight with a typical bandit lacking Battle Aura, then just by using a sword and Space Bending I could win thanks to my speed advantage.
Although Space Bending is technically magic, I personally count it more as a swordsmanship magic technique, since it can combine it with swordsmanship perfectly. I don't view it as cheating, but just a part of my strength as a swordsman.
There was also the High Gravity Field that I could combine with Water God Style and use against Paul.
However, this move is so strong and inflexible, that it's more along the line of a pure magical technique. I still struggle with adjusting the range and affected area of this move during combat.
Paul crossed his arms and said, "Seraph, we'll talk about the other stuff later. I first have to do my patrol in the village."
"Okay."
"By the way, there's someone who wants to see you." Paul motioned with his chin to the side.
I looked over and saw Sylphy being there, peeping from behind the stone gate with a timid look.
As Paul began grinning, I walked over to Sylphiette and greeted her with a small smile. "Hi, Sylphy."
"Seraph! You're finally back!" Sylphy ran up to me a bit with tears forming in her eyes as if to hug me, but then suddenly stopped, and only started sniffing while standing in place.
I faintly smiled. "Yep, I'm back. How was your magic training?"
Sylphie's embarrassed expression rapidly changed and she started reporting: "I did like you told me to! I practiced magic every day! I also practiced with Miss Zenith and Miss Lilia. I think I managed to send 'mana' out of my heart too, like you asked me to!"
"You did? Then let's see it."
I brought Sylphiette to the side of the garden to sit down together.
The method of 'drawing mana from the heart to send out without a magic spell' is basically my method of pure mana expulsion. That's as far as I could explain it to her. For the rest she had to rely on her talent and practice.
At that time, as Sylphy described to me the feeling of what she was doing, it seems she managed it! She managed to consciously expel raw mana into the atmosphere.
With this, I could probably slowly teach her Disrupt Magic. Then I can begin practicing my skill to resist magical interrupts of other powerful magicians myself.
"Were you bullied when I was gone?" I asked her at one point.
Sylphy smiled a little and shook her head. "No. No one would dare. They came to me, but I told them that you'll be back in a month."
"I see, that's good. Then what about your sword training? Did you practice with my dad?"
"...Yes, Mister Paul taught me every day… But I'm not very good at it."
"Well, it's good that you're training."
"Mmm…"
"By the way, I have something special for you."
Sylphy looked at me in anticipation with large eyes.
I added, "Before leaving I promised you a gift, right?"
I could see her eyes begin to shine at my words.
Actually, for the 'gift' I originally planned to summon her a pet, so she could have 'a friend' while I'm gone. For example, a juvenile dog or a wolf Magic Beast familiar.
But in the end I decided to bring her to Roa already instead, so I'll skip it, otherwise Eris will also want one and it will only distract the two from other more important things, like training.
I kind of feel responsible for holding back from meeting Sylphy earlier and beginning to teach her magic at least 1 year earlier, which I did purely out of my own selfishness, so I wanted to compensate her like this.
Of course, I did not owe her anything in the first place, but if she came to Roa now, she would still have a chance to grow stronger than in canon.
And so, I told her what my special gift for her was. "I convinced the lord of the manor in Roa to allow you to come with me and live in the manor."
"...Huh?"
"I made it so that you'll receive a tutor and will be able to learn all kinds of things," I explained, nodding.
But when I told her this, Sylphy looked distressed and instead shook her head. "...N-no! I don't want to go! Why can't we just stay here? It's fine like this…"
"You'll be able to learn so much more in the city," I replied patiently.
"I don't care!"
So it turned out like this. Sylphy did not like my 'gift' at all. Instead, she wanted to stay with me in the village.
Fortunately I had enough time to think about it yesterday, so I was already prepared.
I said, "...Then when I go to Roa again, would you prefer to stay alone in the village?"
"W-what? You'll leave again? N-no! You said it will only be one time! Wahaa…" Tears formed in her eyes and she began crying.
"I didn't say that," I muttered.
I never made this kind of promise. It seems it was something she made up herself to convince herself it's fine that I'm leaving.
Looking at me teary-eyed, Sylphy grasped my hand and begged, "I don't want to go. Let's just stay in the village. Please."
I let out a sigh. "I can't. If I stay in the village, I won't be able to improve."
"Seraph is already amazing, you don't need to improve…"
"Yes, I'm amazing for my age, but I don't want to waste my talent. I have to give it my all while I'm still young. I want to become the strongest magician, stronger than the heroes in the legends," I said the last line in a manner that even a child could understand.
"..."
"Anyway, I was hired as a magic tutor of a young lady in Roa. I'm going to live there most of the time from now on."
"N-no!…"
Sylphy was strongly opposed to me going to Roa, and she also did not want to go herself.
She continued crying her eyes out and trying to keep me in the village.
In an attempt to convince her I began to describe to her the opportunities she would have in the City, told her about Ghislaine and also talked about the manor itself.
Even so, she still preferred to stay with me in the village.
I knew at that time it would be tiring to convince her, but she probably will still eventually come with me rather than stay by herself, so I didn't worry.
One of those days I visited Sylphiette's parents as well.
Apparently Paul had already told them about Sylphy's invitation to Roa. When I met the two of them, they were very grateful and they thanked me with tears in their eyes for giving their daughter this opportunity. They said they'll convince her.
One day, Sylphy suddenly changed her attitude and happily told me with determination, "Then I'll go with Seraph! I'll come to the castle!"
I'm not sure what caused this change, but I guess it's good.
Eris is like a school bully, while Sylphiette is the bullied kid type instead. The two of them meeting seems like a recipe for disaster.
However, I personally think that the two will ironically get along and become good friends.
***
[Sylphiette's POV.]
Before I went to sleep, my parents often told me stories.
"A long long time ago, there was a princess who was bullied by a bad bad witch."
"One day, a gallant prince riding a white horse came and saved her."
"The princess and the prince then got married and lived happily ever after."
This was my favorite fairy tale.
When I first met him, I knew for sure that Seraph was that prince. He was my prince.
That's why he'll marry me and will always protect me.
Then why? Why did he want to leave me?
When he said that he will be living in the city from now on, I cried.
He was supposed to marry me and always protect me. So why?
I didn't know, I didn't know what to do.
But I can't let him leave alone. He's supposed to protect me.
That's why I decided to come with him to the castle.
He probably doesn't like that Young Miss at all. I heard from Miss Zenith that she's a violent brat.
He's bringing me away from the bad people who bullied me and we're going to happily live in the castle! It should be like this!
Because we're meant to be together.
***
***
***
(AN: I'll skip a chapter on Wednesday. Next chapter on Friday.)