Pets Have to Do Housework, Don't They?

"Ah... another busy day." Rhode returned home and took a quick cold shower.

Luckily, it was summer now, and ever since gaining magic power, he felt like his body had become stronger too. Otherwise, he might not have adjusted so quickly.

He did not take hot showers because there was no solar water heater, and heating water with firewood was too much trouble.

Rhode had considered buying a set of equipment that used magic power to heat water, but after asking about the price, he decided to endure it for now and wait until winter, when he really could not stand it anymore.

After giving Worm a bath as well, Rhode began to miss the washing machines at school that only cost two coins per use.

Washing clothes by hand was slow and troublesome, and he did not even have a phone to watch videos on while doing it.

At most, he could play some music on an old-fashioned hand-cranked gramophone.

At first, he was not used to it, but as he listened, Rhode suddenly felt rather refined, like those upper-class figures in Republican-era films.

It was just that the songs recorded on these records were a little eclectic—pop, rock, classical, everything.

Swish, swish, swish...

The washboard leaned against the basin as Rhode rubbed wet clothes against it, leaving behind white foam.

He was still not very skilled at using the thing, but as he scrubbed to the rhythm of the music, he found the sound strangely stress-relieving.

Worm stared curiously at the bag of laundry powder, then finally could not resist licking it with his large tongue.

His features immediately twisted up, and he spat white powder out with repeated blehs.

"Are you stupid?" Rhode knocked Worm on the head and tossed him toward the sink. "Rinse your mouth out yourself."

After hanging the washed clothes out on the balcony, Rhode noticed several potted green plants there.

One looked like a succulent, while two others resembled orchids. Since no one had watered them these past few days, the soil on top was dry and hard.

"Looks like there are a few more lives I need to take responsibility for... probably."

Rhode picked up the spray bottle beside him, filled it with some water, and gave the pitiful plants a little sweet rain.

Streams of water droplets sprayed from the nozzle, wetting the leaves and soaking into the soil.

Rhode seemed to feel them coming back to life, and said to amuse himself:

"From now on, you'll be called Tatsuya, you'll be Ren Ming, and you'll be... sigh, even in another world, Dad still has to look after you three."

Worm looked at his master's expression and somehow felt that he was not smiling happily.

"Why are you making that face?" Rhode put down the spray bottle and picked Worm up. "Go on, wipe clean the floor you just dirtied!"

Worm looked at him in shock. Didn't you say I was your pet? You're actually making me wipe the floor?

"Don't look at me like that. What kind of pet doesn't know how to do housework?" Rhode tossed Worm into the laundry room. "You dirtied it, so you're responsible for cleaning it up."

Worm sat on the floor and looked at his little paws. How was he supposed to wipe the floor with these?

How Worm was supposed to wipe the floor was not Rhode's concern. The little guy could understand human speech and was not lacking in intelligence, so he would surely figure something out.

Thinking of that made Rhode angry. Why could Worm, a creature from the Howling Abyss, understand the language here as soon as he arrived, while Rhode had to learn it from scratch?

Could the language pack Mr. Hibiki gave him be shared or something?

Rhode sat indignantly at the desk in his bedroom and opened the book he had brought back from the guild.

It was a history book. Though he was not interested in history, he felt it was necessary to learn about it.

And so that he could read properly, Levy had lent him a pair of glasses.

A Magic Item—Wind Chant Glasses—which could let someone read at up to thirty-two times their normal speed.

In other words, as long as he concentrated for one minute, it was equivalent to reading for half an hour!

Rhode felt that his good fortune had arrived. No matter how much he disliked history books, he could surely manage reading for a few minutes, right?

However, one minute later...

Smack!

The sound of the book's spine hitting the desktop startled Rhode awake from his drowsiness.

He had miscalculated one thing: although the time spent reading had shortened, the amount he had to read was still the same.

If he was not interested, he was not interested. Even with a Magic Item's assistance, someone who got sleepy the moment he read a history book could not become a top student.

Someone like Rhode was better suited to having Hibiki directly instill knowledge into him with magic.

Or listening to a cute girl like Levy tell history stories.

The stories she had told today—about Belbaraso's legendary hunter and Rubenkardo's hero—had left a deep impression on him.

"Let's do fifty push-ups first to wake up."

Rhode dropped to the floor and grunted his way through thirty push-ups in one go before his arms began to tremble.

"If you want to increase your magic power quickly, meditate, but train your body a little too. Otherwise... you'll suffer for it."

That was what the Master had told Rhode.

But Rhode always felt that when the old Master said he would suffer for it, he did not mean in battle outside, but rather that Rhode would suffer for it in guild brawls.

Though Rhode himself did not like fighting, judging from the past few days, there was no guarantee that he would not get caught up in something one day.

Thinking of how the girls in the guild all seemed strong enough to lift mountains, he did not dare imagine how heavy Natsu and Gray's punches were.

Rhode gritted his teeth. "For greater magic power!"

One.

"For not getting beaten up!"

Another.

"So that if I get beaten up, I can hit back!"

Another.

Rhode's reasons for working hard were becoming increasingly strange.

Training strengthened his physique, meditation increased his magic power, and reading expanded his knowledge. Those were Rhode's three most important tasks at this stage.

The biggest difficulty was reading. Books related to magic were fine, but history and geography books were truly troublesome.

Rhode decided that tomorrow, he would ask whether there were any newspapers or magazines around. It would be good to learn at least a little news.

The next day was somewhat overcast, but it was merely that the sun could not be seen. It did not look like it was going to rain.

Rhode chose a flashy way to get to work: riding the Rift Scuttler.

The moment the massive dark-green crab appeared, it drew the attention of the neighbors. Quite a few people were startled by its strange appearance.

But after it carried Rhode away with a clatter and even took the initiative to avoid pedestrians, the small amount of panic gradually disappeared.

"So it's a mount. It looks strange, but it's pretty impressive."

"Hey, that's a crab, right? Why isn't it walking sideways?"

"The one on the crab's back looks like a Fairy Tail mage."

"A newcomer, maybe? Looks like another restless one."

Someone with sharp eyes spotted the blue emblem on Rhode's arm when the wind blew his short sleeves aside.

Someone was racing through the streets on a monster. How novel.

It was Fairy Tail, so it was not surprising.

The emblem on Rhode's arm was providing him with "convenience" in a strange way, though he himself was unaware of it.

Rhode held one of the Swift Crab's antennae in each hand, feeling as though he were driving a heavy motorcycle.

All he heard was a rush of wind before he had already stopped at the guild entrance—the distance of less than a kilometer was still too short.

Rhode smoothed down his windblown hair, secretly glad it was on autopilot. Otherwise, he might have sent a few people flying.

This "River Crab" motorcycle did not feel very safe at full speed.