Friends

"Father, may I go outside and play?"

"Ah... Oh, of course."

I hadn't expected him to answer so readily.

After all, a child this age could vanish the moment you took your eyes off them.

I didn't really have any desire to go out, but Zenith seemed to think it was strange for a child my age to spend every day holed up at home reading, and she was even worried about my mental health.

Oh well. Then I'd do something a child my age was supposed to do.

Go out and play.

"When I think about it, we've never really given you time you could use freely. As your parents, we insisted that you learn both magic and swordsmanship, but for a child, play really is necessary."

"I'm grateful that you allowed me to meet such a good teacher."

I'd thought Paul was going to say something else, but it turned out his way of thinking was fairly flexible.

"Go on, then. Make sure you come back with some friends."

"I'll do my best."

With that, I left the yard.

Come to think of it, I'd hardly ever gone outside the house.

Two years ago, I'd gone shopping in the village with Zenith, and after that, the only time I'd gone out was for Roxy's graduation exam.

After all, going out to play as a child was nowhere near as interesting as studying magic at home.

Recently, my magical research had made major progress: soundproofing.

Originally, what I had in mind was silent magic, making it so I couldn't hear sound.

But I couldn't do it. So instead, I used earth magic to cover the walls of my room, which achieved a soundproofing effect.

Since my control over magic was fairly decent, using that kind of magic didn't make a mess of the house either. At most, it left a little dust on the floor.

"Mm. Life from now on will be even better!"

Now that I couldn't hear Paul and Zenith making babies, the quality of my sleep had improved every day.

Enough thinking about all that nonsense. Since I'd gone outside, I might as well do something meaningful.

For example, the monsters Paul had been complaining to Zenith about recently.

There were more and more monsters deep in the forest. That was very interesting.

Because I'd never seen a monster before, I couldn't help feeling curious.

So I strolled over to the forest entrance and set up magic there.

It was a kind of magic circle. As long as a living creature passed through, I would be able to detect it. Of course, the circle itself had no offensive power.

I only wanted to see what monsters really looked like. I wasn't planning to hunt them. After all, I was only five.

I went a little deeper into the forest, set up magic circles in various places, then withdrew.

If any monsters appeared, I'd tell Paul. He was strong.

"That went pretty smoothly."

While thinking about what monsters might look like, I left the forest and headed toward a small hill.

There was a lone tree on the hill. It was probably the biggest tree in the area.

It would be just right for checking the terrain inside the village. Heading for higher ground was never a bad idea.

Just then—

"Don't stay in the village, demon!"

The wind carried a shout to me.

"Get lost!"

"Take this!"

"Nice, I hit him!"

Obviously, those were the voices of people relying on their numbers to bully someone weaker.

I turned to look. In the fields, three kids covered in mud were throwing mud at a boy walking along the road beside them.

"Ten points if you hit his head!"

"Got it!"

"I hit him! I hit him!"

I hated seeing scenes like this.

Bullying. I'd never experienced it when I was in school, but I had seen what the bullied looked like.

Victim-blaming was vile, but at that moment, I really was getting angry at the child being bullied.

I hated compromise. I hated people who didn't try to resist.

But when I thought about it carefully, he was only a child.

That was all...

"Hey! Ganging up on someone because you've got numbers doesn't make you much of a man."

As I said that, I walked over.

"Who are you? Are you taking the demon race's side?"

"Get out of here!" another boy said, hurling a stone at me.

A stone...

Could I take that as an attempt on my life?

After blocking it with wind magic, I walked toward them.

"When you bully the weak, are you prepared to be bullied by someone stronger than you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Trying to act cool?"

"You're that kid from the knight's house, aren't you? A little noble master here to play knight?"

My identity was exposed, but whatever.

"I'm gonna tell everyone the knights are in league with the demon race!"

"Go call our big brothers over!"

The children called for their companions, but no one showed up.

Well, beating up children wasn't my hobby.

"Are you still not leaving? The kid from the knight's house can fight way better than you," I shouted.

"Knights... Can a knight's kid do something like this?"

"Of course I can. I train every day, you know. If you want to fight, try me. I don't mind if all of you come at once."

"Tch, you're the demon... the demon race's friend!"

With nothing more than that bit of bluffing, those brats ran off.

In the end, they were just children. They were probably bullying others because their parents kept saying all sorts of nonsense.

I walked over to that child.

He still had his head lowered, as if he was crying.

"Are you okay?"

The child in front of me raised his head.

He had eyelashes that were long for a child, a straight nose, thin lips, and a beautiful jawline that made my heart skip.

His skin, comparable to white porcelain, combined with an expression like a startled rabbit's, created an indescribable beauty.

"Ah... Mm... I... I'm okay..."

How weak.

Even though he was a boy, he didn't have a shred of masculine spirit.

How had his parents raised him?

"Go crouch by the irrigation channel."

"Huh...? Eh...?"

The boy looked completely bewildered, but he still obediently did as he was told.

What an irritating personality. Did he have no will to resist at all?

"Close your eyes."

I used fire magic to adjust the water to a suitable temperature.

Then I poured the warm water over the boy's head.

"Wah!"

The boy seemed startled and tried to run, but I grabbed him by the back of his collar and washed the mud off.

Though he tried to run at first, once he got used to the water temperature, he settled down again.

"Okay, that's about enough."

Since the mud had been rinsed clean, long, elf-like ears appeared before my eyes, along with an extremely beautiful head of emerald-green hair.

Emerald-green hair and the long ears of the elf race... No wonder he had been mistaken for a demon race.

I lifted the hair at the front of his head and found no ruby-like object.

Looks like he wasn't of the Superd Race. My teacher had told me that race was dangerous.

"Th-thank you..."

His thanks snapped me back to myself.

"Learn to fight back. Next time, there might not be anyone there to save you."

"But... I can't win..."

"The point is having the will to resist. And don't let me see your tears again. Boys shouldn't cry so easily."

"Ugh..."

Still...

Thinking about it, had I been too harsh?

He was only a few years old too...

"Forget it. Pretend I didn't say any of that. You had it rough too, getting bullied just because of your hair color."

"You... you don't mind...?"

"My teacher is a demon race member too. I don't have any prejudice against you."

"Th-thank you... But... I'm not demon race..."

"I know. An elf?"

"I'm not sure either..."

He looked like he was about to cry again.

But then he seemed to remember what I'd said, and held it in.

"Shall we go?"

"Go... where?"

"Wherever you're going, I'll go too. You were delivering something, weren't you?"

"Mm... I have to... bring lunch to Dad..."

"Then let's head out."

I picked up his basket.

"Um... why... are you protecting me?"

The boy made a gesture that stirred up the urge to protect him and asked timidly.

"An ally of the weak... something like that. Would that answer satisfy you?"

"But... other people might hate you too..."

"You, listen carefully."

I tapped the boy on the forehead with my finger.

"If you go against your own heart just because you're afraid other people might hate you, then you don't deserve to be called a man."

"Ugh..."

"From today on, you're my friend."

"Huh!?"

"What, you don't want to be?"

"N-no... Um... thank you."

"Rudeus. That's my name. What about you?"

"Syl... phie."

His voice was very quiet, but I still just barely heard it.

"Sylphie? Mm... Nice name."

Though it did sound a lot like a girl's name.

"Mm!"

When I said that, Sylphie nodded with a flushed face.

When I got home, I found Paul standing at the front door, his expression rather complicated.

But when he saw me, he tried hard to make his face look stern.

"Father, I'm home."

"Rudy, what did you do today?"

I thought it over and over, but couldn't think of anything I had done.

"I made a friend."

"And?"

"That's it, I guess."

"Just now, Aite's wife came by. She said you used your status as a knight's son to threaten Somar from their family?"

Aite? Somar? Who were they?

But when he mentioned threats, I remembered something.

Those brats had probably exaggerated what happened and gone to complain... Next time I saw them, I'd definitely give them a beating.

"Father, I did not threaten them. I merely used my status to protect someone weak."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. At the time, their children were bullying a boy named Sylphie. They were throwing mud and stones at him. I couldn't stand by and watch, but I remembered your teachings and didn't use magic to attack them. So I told them I was the child of a knight, and said things like they could never beat someone like that to scare them off."

"Is... that so...?"

"Yes, Father. Do you think I did something wrong?"

"No..." Paul gave an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head.

"You did very well, Rudy."

"That is all thanks to your excellent teaching, Father."

My father was only in his twenties. Since I'd probably never made any mistakes, maybe he didn't really feel like a father yet?

That was understandable, but I didn't know how to be a good son to a father, either. In my previous life, I hadn't had one.

In my previous life, no matter what I did, my mother praised me. Even when I looked back and realized I'd been wrong, she had still encouraged me.

In any case, I'd let this misunderstanding pass.

"Father, aren't you coming in to eat?"

"Ah... Mm, right."