Early that morning, Rudeus heard from Lilia's conversation with his parents that they had hired a magic tutor.
Apparently, she was even a Water Saint, and it seemed she would arrive that afternoon.
That had to be Roxy.
Excited, Rudeus silently looked forward to the moment Roxy arrived...
The sun hung high on one side of the sky, slowly sinking toward the west. The shadows had grown longer; it was already afternoon.
A carriage came to a fork in the road and slowly rolled to a stop.
The door opened gently, and a young girl stepped down at an unhurried pace-
She had long, water-blue hair like fragments of jade from the deep sea, falling softly over her shoulders.
She held a staff with elegant patterns lightly in one hand. A roomy mage's robe hung loosely around her slender frame, its hem swaying gently as she walked.
The girl had a gentle, mild air, and her brows and eyes were relaxed.
Her clear, ice-blue eyes held a faint trace of languid weariness, as though she had only just recovered from the fatigue of her journey, yet a hint of aloofness lay hidden in their depths.
After stepping down, she raised her arms slightly to loosen her shoulders and back, giving a lazy stretch as her shoulders relaxed.
She glanced casually at her surroundings, taking in the wheat fields rippling in the wind like waves of gold as far as the eye could see.
She gathered the hem of her robe and headed straight down the winding path ahead.
Whenever she passed someone by the roadside, she gave a slight nod and a quiet, polite greeting, a gentle smile on her lips, with just the right amount of courtesy.
Before long, she reached the address on the commission. From a distance, she could see a family already waiting outside the door.
The girl walked up to them and introduced herself:
"Nice to meet you. My name is Roxy Migurdia. I look forward to working with you."
After introducing herself, she glanced at the three people's expressions and looked away, a little embarrassed.
"You're the... the tutor?"
Zenith asked in some surprise.
Rudeus hurriedly added:
"What a pretty big sister!"
Hehe~ My persona right now is an innocent little boy.
Hearing the compliment from the cute little boy in front of her, Roxy felt delighted and immediately replied:
"You're very cute too~"
Nice~ She complimented me back!
"So where is my student?"
Roxy asked, looking around.
"Right here~"
Zenith held Rudeus in her arms and smiled at Roxy.
"Ah~ Every now and then you get them~ Foolish parents who think their child is gifted just because he develops a little faster..."
Roxy muttered under her breath.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, no. I just don't think a child that young can understand magical theory..."
"Our little Rudeus is a genius!"
Zenith said with a beaming smile, holding Rudeus in her arms.
Roxy sighed.
"All right... I'll do my best..."
In the end, they settled on a schedule: lessons with Roxy in the mornings and sword training with Paul in the afternoons.
"Well then, let's first see how much magic you can use, Rudeus."
For their first lesson, Roxy took Rudeus into the yard.
Most of the magic lessons would take place outside.
She also understood what would happen if magic were used inside the house.
So there wouldn't be a repeat of what happened when he broke the wall, though he had done that on purpose.
"First, I'll demonstrate."
Roxy was just about to cast a spell...
Rudeus hurriedly interrupted her:
"Wait, teacher!"
"Is something wrong?"
"Please watch out for the flowers and plants in the yard~ They're all treasures my mother worked hard to grow!"
"Oh, thank you for reminding me."
Holding her staff in one hand, Roxy began to chant:
"Grant water's blessing to the place where it is sought, and let a cool stream appear here-Water Ball!"
A ball of water the size of a basketball quickly formed in front of her wand, then flew straight off into the distant sky.
"Well? What do you think~?"
Roxy turned around, put one hand on her hip, and struck a pose that said, "Hurry up and praise me."
"That was amazing, teacher! You're not only beautiful, but powerful too!"
Rudeus praised her with a hint of exaggeration.
But Roxy seemed to enjoy it, her little face turning red from the praise.
Maybe she hadn't been praised like that very often before~
Roxy forcibly suppressed the slight upward curve of her lips and said calmly:
"It's nothing special. If you practice hard, you can do it too."
"All right, now it's your turn to show me."
"Yes, teacher!"
Rudeus stretched out one arm and began to chant:
"Grant to the place where it is sought... uh... I forgot the rest-Water Ball."
A ball of water slightly smaller than a basketball appeared above his palm. Rudeus sent it flying into the sky, where it burst in midair and scattered into a spray.
He used the least amount of mana he could. If he showed her everything, what if he scared Roxy away?
Roxy looked at Rudeus in disbelief and asked:
"Did... did you just use an abbreviated chant?"
"Uh... yes. Although I usually don't chant at all."
"It looks like you have a lot of potential to develop~"
Roxy was extremely surprised at first, but then her expression relaxed as she said:
"Then let's move straight on to the next spell~"
And so, Rudeus and Roxy got along well on their first day.
By evening, his parents had prepared a lavish dinner to celebrate Roxy's arrival...
Roxy was a little reserved at first, but after some urging from Rudeus, she came to the dinner table...
Watching the warm scene of the family happily raising their glasses and drinking together at the table...
Rudeus couldn't help looking back on his short previous life...
There had been no great ups and downs, no unforgettable past.
Only an ordinary, mediocre life...
But perhaps a life like that was something some people suffering hardship could only dream of.
People were like that, always dissatisfied, always wanting more, always... failing to appreciate their blessings...
But the past was past... Now he was living a more wonderful life, and it had only just begun...
Half a month later...
For the past half month, he had generally presented himself as exceptionally gifted, yet still within reason.
That was indeed difficult to manage, because he was about to begin training in swordsmanship.
So he exchanged points in the System Shop for a potion that enhanced physical aptitude, raising its upper limit to Saint Rank.
It cost fifty thousand points. That seemed like little, but points weren't easy to earn. After all, he generally barely managed around a thousand Emotion Points a day now, sometimes even fewer.
Although he currently had little particular use for Emotion Points, the more of them he had, the better~
Through his observations over the years, Rudeus had also come to understand some of the ins and outs of Emotion Points. First:
Emotion Points could be obtained from anything with a spirit.
In other words, if he angered a cup that could think, the cup would also provide Emotion Points.
Second, the number of Emotion Points obtained depended on the other party's strength and the intensity of the various forms of sensory stimulation they experienced, though it mainly depended on the intensity of their emotions.
For example:
After bullying a gorgeous mature woman, he would gain +100 Emotion Points;
But if he bullied a little white-haired loli who could only whimper softly, the Emotion Points would show +1000.
Those who understood the mysteries behind that understood; those who didn't were advised not to try.
The notification sound for increases in Emotion Points could also be turned on or off, or set to sound upon reaching a certain amount.
So Rudeus usually set it to notify him at 100, so it wouldn't feel too noisy.
Although his physical training had only just begun to show results during this time, his achievements in magic were even more significant.
He had mastered every beginner spell in the wind, fire, water, earth, and healing branches that Roxy had taught him.
Although those were merely what he had mastered on the surface, he had actually also learned many support spells and some utility spells.
He had learned spells like invisibility... clones... transformation... and even magic to make certain parts of his body bigger or smaller.
He had simply learned them all in secret, behind everyone's backs. If they found out now, it would be hard to explain, wouldn't it?
So for now, he would carry on pretending to be a little magic genius in public while studying forbidden magic in secret...