Mushoku Tensei: Life and Strife.

After buddy-buddying each other, I sparred with Rudeus. I won. Obviously. I even sparred with Ghislaine to see how far I could go. I lost, of course, but Ghislaine’s expression was a little off.

I asked her, and she questioned whether I had held back or not, so I showed her thunderbolt. I didn’t use it on Paul or Ghislaine because it’s not something I could safely control, and I don’t want to try it on people, even if Ghislaine were strong.

After seeing the thunder, Ghislaine said that I could probably knock out an unsuspecting King-ranked swordsman with that thing if I’m lucky enough. Then again, Thunder was a King level Spell… Wait… Does that mean I’m officially a King ranked mage since I could cast a King ranked spell now?

Huh. How unexpected. Anyway~, now for the bad news. Eris hates me. I don’t exactly know when or why, but this sister-in-law of mine hates me. Well, after being ambushed by her a few times in the middle of sleep, I got annoyed and turned toxic… So maybe it started then.

I thought we were going to be close, but this tsundere talks with punches. I wake up, and she punches; I eat, walk, bathe, or sleep, and she punches. Not only that, she grows stronger after every defeat. Thanks to that, I notice a few things.

First, she fights dirty. She might throw a vase at me or come at me from the shadows with a wooden sword. She would do anything to make sure she returned the damage she received tenfold. If the opportunity came, she would hold nothing back.

Blocking a strike from her once was enough to break a bone. While I managed to keep up my front by covering my screams and enforcing telekinesis to defend myself, that fiend was rearing like a wild animal. Thanks to her shenanigans, I managed to barely, just barely, scratch an advance. I still can’t do aura, but it’ll get there eventually. Eventually.

Aside from that, however, was the improvement of my senses. Thanks to her constant untimely attacks that happen outside, during, and even after classes, I had no choice but to prepare for battle at every given opportunity. Bitch.

That said, it wasn’t all that bad, I guess, since thanks to constantly being battered by her, my barrier magic, which is the least powerful among my arsenals, shot up from beginner to half a step a way from advanced. With a little modifying, I managed to make the barrier smaller, covering my body like armor instead of being a wide circle.

So yeah, it was messed up, but eventually I got used to it, casually sleeping without worry as the crimson-haired demon rammed itself into the shields. To ensure my survival, I even went as far as stacking them over each other. Until she got better at it. She went snipping. Yeah. Snipping.

I’m not even joking at this point. She was on the top of the building on the opposite side and from there jumped through the hanging rope and went at full speed using a barrage of the Long Sword of Silence.

I didn’t die, of course, and even adapted to it. The days of regular ambushes had sharpened my sixth sense, allowing me to anticipate an attack. To be fair, it’s more like recognizing a sudden increase in mana within my vicinity. This is probably flow, isn’t it? Oh god, I swear if I weren't a mage—no, if I weren’t me, I’d be rolling in the dirt getting pummeled like a dog.

Hence, we ended up in this situation. Me being a toxic bitch and her being a brutish one. I kinda felt bad for Rudeus, who was standing on the side worrying about us. Though he could have been more lax. I could handle an escalation, you know.

“Urgh, damn it.”

“Ahahaha. My, Miss Eris~ Is that all your efforts amount to?”

“You… little.”

“Oh my~ For someone who’s so proud of her age, it doesn’t seem like she could do much, eh?”

“Laurel Greyrat! You’re dead!”

“Oh ho ho ho! Say that when you’re not on the ground. Well, can’t blame you for not knowing how to walk… After all, you can’t even read~ AHAHAHAHA!”

Yup, I have absolutely no idea as to how we ended up in this weird dynamic. One thing I learned is that killing an advanced swordsman is very easy for my current abilities. Yeah, thanks to surviving one. I swear that girl-like fiend is one of the most terrifying creatures I have ever seen.

…

Ghislaine’s perspective.

…

Paul, what the hell?

Ghislaine knew Rudeus was something special, but his other kid as well? In a real battle, the most reliable fighter wasn’t the advanced magician who took forever to cast a powerful spell. It was the magician who could adapt to the situation and had full mastery of basic and intermediate-level magic.

An opponent who moved swiftly while using offensive magic to restrict his opponent’s movements would be a formidable enemy for any swordfighter. Rudeus had changed her perspective, while Laurel… He simply broke it.

She realized something while fighting with Laurel. It was that common sense was her greatest enemy. Unpredictable, erratic, but highly calculated moves were made in her spar with Laurel. But if she had to categorize his moves, it would be disrupting her tempo with erratic moves, covering her sight, restricting her movements, and controlling his own movements with unknown methods.

She beat Laurel simply due to her own unique traits as a beastfolk. A good nose and sharp enough ears were all that was needed for her to sense his location. It was probably due to inexperience, but Laurel would have won against an unsuspecting King ranked opponent, albeit with difficulties.

Still, he looked quite satisfied for someone who was on the ground, so Ghislaine casually asked if he had held back.

“Well… A little, I guess?”

“Wait, are you for real?”

“It’s not exactly on purpose. Well… It's complicated. I’ll just show you.”

He pointed at a wooden dummy and shot out a yellow light, and the dummy turned into ashes.

“…”

… I take that back. If the odds were even slightly tilted to his favor, it was without question that Laurel would rip off a King ranked Swordsman’s head in seconds… Well, fights at that level could only last that long, so technically it wouldn’t be considered impressive. Still, at his age?

“Yeah, well, it looks kinda scary, so I don’t intend to use it on someone anytime soon, at least not until I can control it properly.”

“I could probably tank that.”

“… I guess you could. Still, I won’t take my chances. I don’t want anyone to get hurt by that. Not even you.”

… Should I have had a child with Paul when I had the chance? Why are his seeds so… extraordinary? Just thinking about it made her somehow feel like she was missing out. It made her feel envious of Zenith. But then again, maybe it was Zenith’s blood that was the dominant one.

After all, both are so talented yet so humble when it comes to learning. They are even nice kids as well, though one was a pervert while the other was a weirdo. Well… There was one thing in common, though.

“Now I can go to the large forest village whenever I want."

Rudeus said afterward, joy absent from his expression. Laurel, for once, agreed with the sentiment. And what did the twins plan to do in such an isolated place? Rudeus became flustered when Ghislaine asked, while Laurel answered with sweat dripping down his forehead like bullets.

“Huh? Nothing in particular… Oh, there might be some cute girls there though. With cat ears.”

“Oh… Uh. To travel. Yes! I intend to travel around the world, so it's not weird to study languages… Ahahaha…”

Definitely Paul’s kids had most certainly inherited the Greyrat blood.

Lately, a sparkle had started to form in Lady Eris’s eyes when she looked at Rudeus. Ghislaine may have been ignorant in the affairs of love, but even she could see it. Eris looked just like Zenith had when she began falling in love with Paul… Perhaps that’s why Eris kept pummeling Laurel.

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