Paul's Letter

Roa sneered. Did Paul have no idea how he treated him every day? How could he shamelessly say something like that?✩ 🎀  🎀 ✩

Roa drawled, "Don't look at me. I can't do anything about it either. Teaching kids is a real pain."

Rudeus let out a wail. He could already see his bleak future.

He didn't know if he'd be able to handle his tutoring duties, and there was no way he'd be seeing Zenith anytime soon. Now, he couldn't even write to her.

But once he calmed down and thought it over, Paul's argument did make sense.

If Zenith kept growing up the way she was now, she might turn into one of those childhood-friend characters from old-school, R-rated games. The kind who always followed the protagonist around, orbiting him as if he were the center of her world, with no personality of her own.

In the real world, that kind of excessive dependence would probably ease as she went to school, made friends, and learned new things. But because of her hair color, Zenith couldn't make any friends.

Even five years from now, she might still be glued to Rudeus.

Rudeus didn't mind that, but the adults around him seemed to feel differently.

After thinking it through, Rudeus couldn't help sighing. He understood the reasoning, but accepting it was another matter.

Ghislaine and Roa watched from the sidelines. Ghislaine suddenly asked, "What's wrong, Rudeus? Did you break up with your girlfriend?"

Rudeus sighed. "Paul kicked me out of the house."

Looking at the letter, Rudeus continued reading aloud. "As for your pay, you'll receive two Asura Silver Coins each month. It's below the going rate for a tutor, but it's still a lot of pocket money for a child. You'll need to find time to go into town and learn how to use money. If you don't practice spending it, you might not know how to manage it properly in an emergency. Still, I feel like my brilliant son would spend money just fine even without learning... Ah, whatever you do, don't spend it on women."

Roa narrowed his eyes slightly. He and Rudeus exchanged a glance, and both wore an odd smile.

"Tsk." Ghislaine looked at their expressions. She didn't need to ask to know what they were thinking.

So Roa was that kind of person, too.

His appearance had certainly fooled her.

Was it any wonder, with Paul for a father?

"If you stick it out for five years and successfully teach the young lady to read and write, do arithmetic, and use magic, then, as stated in the contract, the other party will pay you a special bonus equivalent to three people's tuition at the Magic University."

Rudeus kept reading. "However, five years from now, Zenith might not want to stay with you anymore. Your feelings might have cooled, too, and you might have changed your mind. So we'll make sure to talk things through with Zenith."

When he reached that part, Rudeus felt awful. What did Paul mean, they'd talk things through with her? But what was done was done. He lowered his eyes to the end of the letter, glanced at the final lines, and didn't read them aloud this time. They were just nonsense.

[Over these five years, I hope you'll learn all sorts of things in your new environment and make tremendous progress, reaching even greater heights. Written by your erudite and utterly magnificent father, Paul.]

Rudeus didn't want to say those boastful words out loud.

He put the letter away and handed it to Ghislaine. She waved a hand. "Reading it aloud was enough. Keep it."

Rudeus looked at Roa, his gaze seeming to ask whether the young man wanted the letter.

Roa curled his lip and waved him off. He didn't want a letter from that piece of trash, Paul.

Rudeus had no choice but to tuck it into his own pocket, though he didn't much want to keep it either.

The letter made it clear just how bad Paul's reputation was.

After a moment's thought, Rudeus looked at Roa. "Wait a second, big bro. You don't seem to have anything to do. You just practice swordsmanship with Ghislaine every day."

Roa drawled lazily, "You said it yourself. I have to practice swordsmanship with Ghislaine every day. How can you say I have nothing to do? Come on, I'm busy. I'm responsible for the family's fortunes. If anything happens to you all one day, I'll be strong enough to help."

Rudeus nodded. The reasoning was sound and convincing. Or not!

"Big bro, that's so unfair! You get all the benefits. No way—you have to do your share, too."

Roa fell into thought. Thinking about Eris's temperament, he couldn't help frowning.

She wasn't easy to deal with.

Still, just as Rudeus had said, he couldn't keep freeloading at their place without doing anything.

After a moment's thought, Roa said, "How about this? I'll teach for two years. For the first two years, while I'm there, I'll teach Eris magic, and you can teach her arithmetic and the rest. Sound good?"

Rudeus wanted to bargain, to say something like teaching magic alone wasn't enough. But one fierce glare from Roa snuffed out that idea.

Rudeus thought over the pros and cons. His arithmetic was definitely pretty good. After all, in his previous life he'd come from a small island country on Blue Star. In a world without even multiplication tables, he'd be considered a genius. So it probably wouldn't be a problem.

As for magic, he was quite good at it, but next to Roa he didn't seem to measure up. Roa would do a decent job teaching it, too.

What he might not know was that a nightmare awaited him. Knowledge was only useful if the other person was willing to learn it.

Roa didn't know whether Eris would learn magic, but she definitely wouldn't want to learn arithmetic.

At least, she wouldn't obediently sit down and study arithmetic or anything like that.

Magic could be presented as something new and exciting, so Eris might not make too much of a fuss. But arithmetic? Wasn't he making things difficult for the future Mad Dog?

That was exactly why Roa had pushed the most troublesome job onto Rudeus.

Watching Rudeus grin, Roa knew he thought he'd gotten the better end of the deal. In reality, he hadn't. If one person taught both magic and arithmetic, Eris might at least try to listen patiently. But if all Rudeus taught was arithmetic, well... he was in for a rough time.

The carriage rolled along at an easy pace. With nothing to do, Roa took a short nap.

By the time they arrived, it was dusk. Buena Village was a full day's carriage ride from the big city.

In actual travel time, that was about six or seven hours. It was a little far, but you could also say it wasn't that far.