Birthday

Another half a year passed.

Eris's education was going smoothly, except for arithmetic...

When it came to swordsmanship, she really did seem to be a genius. She had already reached the intermediate level before turning ten.

Intermediate meant a level of ability that could hold its own against an average knight.

According to Ghislaine, Eris would probably advance to the advanced level within the next few years, even though she had only just turned ten...

When I asked, "What about me?" Ghislaine's tail stopped swaying, and she looked away.

It seemed my swordsmanship wasn't as good as I thought. Or rather, it was probably on the very bad end of the scale.

I had once thought that if I set my mind to it, I could train my swordsmanship up to the same level as my magic, but after all these years, my swordsmanship had truly and completely stalled, no matter how hard I tried...

Eris's tenth birthday was almost here.

Ten was a special birthday.

Among nobles, there was a custom of holding large banquets and celebrating lavishly on a child's fifth, tenth, and fifteenth birthdays.

On the day of Eris's birthday, the mansion's hall and the courtyard leading to it would be opened up.

Gifts would also arrive from all over the domain, and the nobles in town would be invited.

Since Saul was an unpretentious military man, the original plan had been to hold an informal, self-serve eating and drinking affair with no fussy rules.

"Come to think of it, do birthdays here have cake?"

There hadn't been cake in Buena Village.

I had heard it apparently existed, but I had never actually seen any.

Every now and then, I wanted something sweet.

With that thought in mind, I headed toward the kitchen.

I could find out whether they had cake just by asking a maid, but a stroll only counted as a stroll if you actually walked.

If I was lucky, I might even get to sample some trial dishes for the birthday banquet.

Yes. Or rather, I should say I was actually hungry.

"I've had enough!"

The door in front of me was suddenly flung open, and Eris rushed out from inside.

When she saw me, she froze for just an instant, then lowered her head and charged down the hallway at an astonishing speed, vanishing around the corner.

Someone chased after her out of the room. It was Edna.

"Miss...!"

She looked left and right down the hall, and when she realized she couldn't find Eris, she heaved a heavy sigh.

Halfway through that sigh, she seemed to notice that I was there as well.

Then she gave me a weak smile.

"Oh, Teacher Rudeus..."

That smile seemed to say, Please, let me complain to you.

It was rare to see Edna with that kind of expression.

"You've had a hard time, Madam Edna."

"My apologies for letting you see such an unsightly scene."

I raised one hand and approached, while Edna gave an elegant bow.

Her movements really were extremely practiced.

I also placed my raised hand against my chest and slowly returned a proper bow.

"What happened?"

"Well... It is embarrassing to say, but the young lady ran away."

Yes, I had seen that, so I understood perfectly.

Eris's escape maneuvers really were astonishing. She could vanish without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Edna placed a hand against her cheek, looking troubled.

"I have recently been teaching the young lady to dance. But no matter what we do, it does not seem to go well, so these past few days, the moment dance practice begins, the young lady immediately runs off somewhere to hide."

"Oh my, that really must be difficult. I can understand exactly how you feel."

Because she often ran away during my lessons too.

Eris's guiding principle was: "If I hate it, I won't do it."

Edna really did have it rough. After all, catching a fleeing Eris wasn't easy, and she looked like someone who couldn't force Eris to submit through violence.

"...There is less than a month left until her birthday. If this continues, the young lady will embarrass herself terribly in front of all the guests."

From Edna's tone, she seemed to think the situation was serious.

But my thought was, It's only a birthday. If a child's birthday was going to make the child suffer, then that birthday was essentially meaningless.

With that somewhat spoiling-a-child mindset, I smiled and nodded.

Though, honestly, hadn't she already made a fool of herself long ago? Around here, Eris had always been regarded as some creature from a violent world.

Simply being unable to dance in front of everyone really wasn't that big a deal.

"On her rare tenth birthday, she's going to become an object of ridicule... No matter how you look at it, that's far too pitiful. Don't you think so, Master Rudeus?"

Edna very deliberately glanced at me several times.

If she had something to say, I really wished she would just say it outright.

"In other words, what would you like me to do?"

"...Well, could I ask Master Rudeus to help persuade Lady Eris as well? To make her willing to come back and practice dancing."

So that was what this was about.

And so, I began searching for Eris.

As the teacher who taught her most often, of course I knew where Eris would hide.

I soon found her.

She was lying on her back atop a huge pile of fallen hay behind the stables.

"Hmph!"

The moment she saw me, Eris snorted unhappily.

I climbed up the haystack and sat down beside her.

"I heard you haven't been able to dance very well?"

Eris suddenly lifted her leg and kicked at me. I caught it and pinned her leg down.

Honestly, I had already grown a little used to the fact that this child would suddenly lash out whenever she was sulking.

Was this... desensitization?

When I'd first arrived, I would get angry at her disrespect.

"Aren't you going back to train?"

"There's no need for dancing or anything!"

I glanced at Eris. She was staring at the sky.

"I think so too."

"On my birthday, I'll also... Huh? Rudeus, you think so too?"

"Yeah. There's no need for dancing at all."

"Right? But Father and Grandfather both said..."

"What do you think, Eris? Do you really not want to dance?"

"I can't..."

"Is it that you can't because you don't want to, or that you don't want to because you can't?"

Eris seemed to be thinking about something, or maybe she hadn't understood.

In any case, I didn't continue. After all, she was only ten.

I moved closer to Eris and sat beside her.

My gaze followed Eris's toward the sky as well.

After we leisurely watched the sky together like that for a while, Eris spoke.

"I might... kind of want to dance. I want to make Grandfather and Father happy..."

"I see."

"Have you ever had that, Rudeus? Something you wanted to do, only to find out you weren't good at it..."

Something I wanted to do but wasn't good at?

Plenty... In my previous life, there were many things I wanted to do, but I barely finished any of them.

I didn't know whether I was good at them or not. I'd simply given up for all kinds of reasons.

"You definitely haven't, right, Rudeus? You're so amazing..."

Eris puffed out her cheeks and said that in great displeasure.

I could actually understand how she felt. Though in this world, up to now, there had been very few "things I wanted to do but couldn't." If I had to name something I couldn't do in this world right now, it would be swordsmanship.

But if it was my previous life... there were far too many things I couldn't do.

So I knew very well what effect words like "If you don't do it now, you'll definitely regret it" would have.

"That was a hard question to answer."

"Rudeus, you can do everything, so you definitely don't understand how I feel."

Everything, huh... From Eris's point of view, maybe it really did look that way.

"Eris, there are plenty of things I can't do. I'm not nearly as amazing as you think."

"Hmph..."

Eris seemed utterly unconvinced by what I said.

But she didn't press me on it either.

"But you know, if you work desperately hard to reach a goal, the sense of accomplishment you feel when you achieve it is much stronger."

"Is... that how it works?"

Eris looked up at the sky, seeming unable to understand.

"Let me give you an example. Say you worked hard and surpassed Ghislaine in swordsmanship, or surpassed me in magic. Wouldn't that be something you could be proud of in a very straightforward way?"

"I don't understand things I've never experienced! And I don't want to beat you or Ghislaine!"

"I don't mean beating us. I mean surpassing—"

"You're so annoying, Rudeus!"

Eris shouted, cutting me off, then jumped down from the haystack.

And just like that, the conversation ended...

I'd thought that, as a master of pedagogy, I'd definitely be able to make Eris understand.

I'd have to think of another way...

"Rudeus!"

"What is it?"

"I'm going back to practice dancing. Come with me!"

Apparently, the problem wasn't what I'd said. She just had a different way of showing that she accepted it.

"All right."

I followed her back to the dance hall.

"Goodness... Teacher Rudeus is also... not very good at dancing, are you?"

Edna laughed a little awkwardly.

That was perfectly normal. Whether in my previous life or this one, I had never danced before.

"Hahaha!"

Seeing that my dancing was just as terrible, Eris seemed quite happy.

In any case, we practiced for two hours and barely made any progress.

There was nothing wrong with Edna's teaching. It was simply that I had no talent for dancing.

However, I had been observing. While I couldn't see why my own dancing was so bad, I could see why Eris couldn't dance well.

She was different from me. She clearly wasn't the type with no talent for dancing.

Before each of Edna's beats even sounded, she seemed to have already reacted... Was this a swordsman's instinct?

It was as if the moment her opponent was about to draw their sword, she had already charged right up in front of them.

And so—

"Eris, I think you should move only after you've fully heard the sound."

"What do you mean...?"

"Your timing is always one beat too fast. No... at first it was only one beat, but later on, who knows how many beats ahead you were."

"I don't get it!"

"In that case, let's do this. Teacher Edna, please stop keeping time."

Edna looked at me in puzzlement, but didn't ask any questions.

I cast a spell, making tiny blocks of ice appear in the air.

"Eris, this spell will make a sound after it breaks. Start moving according to the dance steps only after you hear it."

"Oh..."

When the dance began, Eris, just as I expected... was several beats too fast.

After thinking for a while, I found the root of the problem.

"Eris, dance the same way as just now, but this time, you have to close your eyes."

Though Eris tilted her head in confusion, she still followed my instructions.

As she said that, the ice magic began to crack apart, and Eris turned her body in time with the sound.

After repeating that movement for a while, I adjusted the timing so the ice broke a little later.

Bang! Bang!

Eris didn't hesitate at all. The moment she heard the sound, she reacted.

"This... this is!"

Edna cried out in surprise.

Eris had successfully taken the dance step.

She was still a little fast, but it should count as being in rhythm.

"You did it! You did it, my lady!"

Eris opened her eyes and asked back with a bright smile.

"Really?"

I smiled and continued instructing her.

"All right, let's keep practicing like this. Remember how that just felt."

"Remember it...? But I'm just moving after I hear the sound. It's the same as before."

Exactly. She was simply moving after she heard the sound.

But before, Eris had always been one beat too fast, because she could see.

Her swordsman's instincts made her move ahead of time, so all we had to do was have her close her eyes.

If she closed her eyes and I told her at the right moment when to move, then everything became simple.

"Eris, this means there wasn't anything wrong with your dance training before. The method was just wrong. Mm! You worked really hard!"

"Ah... mm..."

In a rare display, Eris opened her eyes and, without saying anything, obediently nodded again and again.

With this, dancing should be fine now.

"As expected of Teacher Rudeus, who was able to teach my lady arithmetic for an entire year..."

Edna seemed deeply impressed and looked at me with eyes full of emotion.

But actually... Eris had already forgotten most of the arithmetic she had learned...

I didn't say that out loud.

"It was just luck. I only figured it out by observing carefully."

"I see... It is precisely that attentiveness that makes Teacher Rudeus truly worthy of being my lady's teacher."

Edna regained her smile and praised me.

"That's right! Rudeus really is amazing!"

For some reason, Eris answered with her head held high and her chest puffed out instead.

"All right, all right. Let's continue training. Remember how that just felt."

"Mm!"