Birthday

And so they wandered from morning until dusk. The setting sun was a beautiful sight.

As the four walked along the road, an enormous shadow suddenly appeared over it.

"What's going on? Did it get dark?"

Radeus looked up and saw something like a Sky Castle floating overhead.

"Holy shit!"

"Look, look!"

Radeus patted Rudeus beside him, his expression excited.

"What is it...?"

Seeing Radeus making such a fuss, Rudeus also looked up at the enormous object in the sky.

"Holy shit!"

"Is that some kind of Sky Castle?"

"Can we bring it down by shouting 'Balse'?"

They immediately put the idea into practice, striking poses and chanting:

"Balse!"

"Nothing happened?"

"Must be fake?"

Ghislaine shook her head at the pair clowning around and explained to them.

"That's the Floating Fortress of Perugius, the [Armored Dragon King], one of the Three Heroes!"

"Perugius?"

Neither could remember who that was-or rather, neither had any recollection of him at all.

Who's that? Never heard of him!

"Perugius was one of the Three Heroes who defeated the Demon God Laplace. And for your information, Laplace was a great villain who destroyed humanity!"

"Hey, Eris, I didn't expect you to know so much!"

Rudeus spoke in surprise, and Eris answered him with a merciless iron fist.

"You could've left out 'didn't expect'!"

"Then who were the other two?" Radeus asked Ghislaine.

"The other two were the Dragon God and the North God!" Ghislaine thought for a moment before answering Radeus.

"The Dragon God, the North God..."

Do gods exist in this world? Radeus wondered.

But even if there were gods, if they wanted to mess with him, they would have to get past his Mahoraga first.

He would open with Furube Yurayura-help me, Mr. Mahoraga-then release the Binding Vow, and Mahoraga would make his grand entrance, knock him flat with one slap, and leave the god to face Mahoraga alone.

Unless you could kill Mahoraga instantly, Uncle Mahoraga's Dharma Wheel would spin until you questioned your life!

Before the fight even started, it would turn once to adapt to the god's existence, then a second time to adapt into a god itself, and on the third turn, it would go straight to "Coming through!"

Then the god would become 2.5, leaving behind the words: "Sorry I couldn't give Lord Mahoraga a satisfying fight..."

That was the sense of security Mahoraga provided. No wonder Megumi Fushiguro never felt pressured; the slightest disagreement and he went straight to Furube Yurayura.

Gods were merely ordinary men born in an era without me!

Time flew, and a year had passed since the two had come to Eris's home to teach. They were both eight now.

In the courtyard, Ghislaine was practicing swordsmanship with Eris.

"Very good, Eris. Looks like you'll be an Advanced Swordsman soon!"

Ghislaine praised Eris for her hard work over the past year. Reaching the Advanced level of the Sword God Style at ten showed very impressive talent; she would at least become a Sword King in the future.

But after meeting Radeus, Ghislaine had realized that hard work was worthless in the face of talent!

Sword King level at eight, after just one year-who would believe it?

Radeus now had a thirty percent chance of winning against Ghislaine. And Ghislaine was no ordinary Sword King: she stood at the very pinnacle of Sword King combat strength, practically half a step into Emperor Rank.

Radeus having a thirty percent chance against Ghislaine was enough to prove that he had entered the realm of Sword Kings.

People said everyone at the Sword Sanctum was a swordsmanship genius, but being one of those geniuses was merely the threshold for meeting Radeus. Compared to him, those people were no different from trash.

"Yes!"

Eris was delighted by Ghislaine's praise, but one look at Radeus beside her wiped the smile off her face.

"What about me? What about me?"

Rudeus looked at Ghislaine expectantly, eager to know whether he, too, was nearing the Advanced level.

Though he had spent the past year studying magic, he had never neglected his swordsmanship. With all his tireless effort, surely he was at least Intermediate Rank?

Faced with Rudeus's expectant expression, both Ghislaine and Eris averted their eyes.

"What could you possibly have? You're pure trash, just an Advanced Swordsman. What the hell are you getting your hopes up for?"

"To put it bluntly, even a dog studying swordsmanship under Ghislaine would be Intermediate Rank by now, wouldn't it?"

"At your level, all you deserve is a 'Coming through!'"

Radeus's words pierced deep into Rudeus's fragile heart.

"You bastard, did you have to be so honest? Couldn't you spare a thought for my feelings?"

Just as Radeus and Rudeus were about to start arguing again, the butler approached and addressed them.

"Master Radeus, Master Rudeus, you have a letter. I've placed it in Master Radeus's room."

"A letter?"

It seemed Teacher Roxy's reply had arrived. With this, they could make great strides in their study of the Demon God Language.

The two hurried to the room, where they found a wooden box on the floor. They opened it to find a letter and a book inside.

The letter mainly asked how the two were doing and described Roxy's own circumstances, while the book beside it was a Demon God Language textbook Roxy had written for them.

"This is a huge help, Teacher Roxy!"

Radeus flipped through the textbook. It was extremely detailed and included some of Roxy's own insights.

As the two quietly engrossed themselves in the textbook, a knock came at Radeus's door.

"Go get the door!"

Radeus was enjoying the book too much to spare time to answer, so he could only send Rudeus, who was just as absorbed.

"Huh? Why me? Besides, you're closest to the door, aren't you?"

Rudeus objected. Why should he have to answer the door?

"In that case, let's play rock-paper-scissors. If you win even once out of three rounds, I'll get it!"

"Are you serious?"

Rudeus hadn't expected Radeus to dare make such an offer. The odds of winning three times in a row were ridiculously low!

I've got this in the bag!

Three seconds later...

Rudeus obediently went to answer the door. Fortunately, the visitor was still there. Honestly, they could have answered the door and come back in the time they had spent playing rock-paper-scissors.

Outside stood a female teacher from the household who taught Eris noble etiquette. Rudeus had met her once before in the mansion; he remembered her name being Edna Lelen.

"Master Rudeus? Where is Master Radeus?"

Edna looked at Rudeus in confusion. Wasn't this Radeus's room?

"Rad's busy right now. If you need anything, just tell me!"

Rudeus glanced at Radeus, who was engrossed in his book, and spoke helplessly.

Radeus had just told him over Party Chat that since he had answered the door, whatever came up was the responsibility of the person who had answered it.

That left Rudeus with no recourse. Accepting defeat after a wager was one of his few fine qualities.

Radeus paid no attention to what was happening at the door. He had already detected the visitor with his Six Eyes and knew that anyone coming to see him must need something, so he had deliberately sent Rudeus to handle it. No one could stand in the way of his desire to learn.

A while later, Rudeus sighed and sat back down beside Radeus.

"Eris's tenth birthday is in six months. Ms. Edna asked me to free up some lesson time for her and help Eris practice..."

"What a headache. I still have the Demon God Language to learn!"

"By the way, have you ever danced before?" Rudeus asked.

"Danced? Do Jini Tai Mei and the Hand Flower Dance count?" Radeus thought for a moment. Those seemed to be the only ones he had ever done.

Unfortunately, Radeus had chosen to attend school when he should have been doing the Hand Flower Dance. Otherwise, he would have collected all the Cullinan Fragments long ago. By the time he wanted to try the dance later on, it had already fallen out of the meta.

Mainly because his educational qualifications were too high-he couldn't even pass the interview...