Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 11.1

Side Story:

Sylphiette

(Part 0) 

THAT NIGHT, I dreamed about the past—about Rudy’s arrival at the University. 

It was my third year at the Ranoa University of Magic. Linia and Pursena had settled down after their defeat, and Princess Ariel had secured the position of student council president. Those successes had attracted many new supporters to our camp; everything was going relatively smoothly. By this point, we’d recruited as many of the school’s influential students and faculty as we could. We decided to start luring powerful potential allies to the University of Magic, where we could then attempt to secure their cooperation. And as we worked on this, we stumbled across something totally unexpected. 

Specifically, our research led us to a person known as “ Q uagmire Rudeus.” I knew immediately that it had to be Rudy. Q uagmire was described as a young magician who’d quickly worked his way up to the A rank in the Adventurers’ Guild. He’d only been in this region for a few years, but word of his exploits had already spread throughout the Magic Nations. His specialty was Earth magic. It was hard to judge how powerful he truly was from the rumors, but most said he could summon a bog without speaking a word. 

The silent spellcasting was the detail that convinced me it had to be him. And in hindsight, he’d used mud-based magic the very first time we met, too. Rudy could use Saint-tier Water magic, so people tended to expect him to rely on that. But he’d favored using clever tricks like blasting himself around with shockwaves, or summoning bogs to slow down his opponents. 

I explained to Princess Ariel that Q uagmire Rudeus was almost certainly the boy who’d taught me magic—my old friend who’d been missing for many years. 

“Well, if he’s the genuine article, it would certainly be nice to have him on our side…” 

At the time, Princess Ariel was obviously skeptical about Rudy. That was understandable. The rumors going around about him sounded really fishy. They went something like this: 

Rudeus Greyrat was born in Buena Village, located in the Fittoa Region of the Kingdom of Asura. While only three years old, he began studying under the King-tier Water mage Roxy Migurdia (although she was only Saint-tier at the time). At the age of five, he became a Saint-tier Water magician in his own right. At seven, he took a position as the tutor of Eris Boreas Greyrat, the daughter of the mayor of the Citadel of Roa; over the next few years, he transformed this wild, uncontrollable child into a respectable young lady. After this, he went missing in the Displacement Incident. 

Back in the day, I probably wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow at any of this. But now, after the time I’d spent living in the Silver Palace and studying at the University of Magic… I had to admit, it sounded bizarre. Even fictional. 

Of course, I knew that Rudy really had studied under Roxy, and that he respected her deeply. I’d never met Roxy myself, but I knew she’d spent some time in Buena Village. In fact, the wand I carried was something she’d given to Rudy. The part about him becoming a tutor at the age of seven made sense, too; that would’ve been right when he was shipped out of the village by his parents. 

“Trust me, Princess Ariel, this information is accurate. It’s definitely him.” 

“Perhaps so. But I must say, in all honesty, that these rumors are rather difficult to believe.” 

Princess Ariel and Luke hadn’t been convinced by my claims. They trusted that I wasn’t deliberately lying to them, but they didn’t fully buy the story either. I couldn’t blame them. I knew Rudy personally, and it sounded crazy even to me. 

“In any case, would such a remarkable magician really lend us his aid? Let alone one with ties to the Boreas Greyrats?” 

I still wasn’t that familiar with the tangled web of alliances and rivalries that defined the noble families of Asura. I’d only spent a year at court, and there was just too much to learn. But I did know a good deal about the various Greyrat branches. The Boreas family was loyal to the first prince. That made them our enemies. And if Rudy was working for them, there was a good chance he was our enemy too. 

That said, it seemed fairly obvious that he’d cut ties with them some time ago. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make much sense for him to be wandering around the Northern Territories as an adventurer. “I-I’m sure he’ll help us out if I ask him…” 

My voice wasn’t particularly confident. I couldn’t even convince myself that it was true. 

Luke snorted in amusement. “With a chest that flat, you’re not going to win over any Notos man.” 

I covered my chest with my arm and shot Luke an angry look. He was always like this. He never missed a chance to mock me about the flatness of my chest. According to him, women without “proper breasts” weren’t even women, which meant I was the definition of unattractive. I’m not sure what he wanted me to do about that. I had elf blood in my veins, and elves just aren’t voluptuous. 

To be fair, Luke usually softened the blow in the end: “I suppose that’s the reason that we’re friends, though.” 

It was nice to know that he thought of me as a friend. Still, the constant insults about my appearance weren’t exactly doing wonders for my self-esteem. I knew my looks were unremarkable compared to Princess Ariel’s , but that was a really high bar to clear. 

“That’s not even what I meant, Luke!” 

“Well, what did you mean, then? Surely you don’t intend to reveal your true identity to him.” 

“Huh? Oh… you’re right.” I was supposed to be Silent Fitz now. I couldn’t go around blowing my cover… what now? 

“Still, I’m very happy for you, Sylphie,” said Princess Ariel with a smile. “It must be wonderful to find someone you’ve been looking for all this time.” 

Really, the princess was a kind person. Sometimes she could be very stern, and she did spend a lot of time cooking up all sorts of sneaky plots, but deep down she had a good heart. I knew that by now. But even so, I wasn’t expecting what came next. 

“I’ll make a special exception. You can reveal your identity to this Rudeus.” 

“Huh?” What? She’s willing to unmask Silent Fitz? “But Princess Ariel, our whole plan might fall apart…” 

I was conscious of the importance of the role I played in our overall strategy. Fitz was the living embodiment of Princess Ariel’s power. He was a man of mysterious origins and remarkable magical skills who stayed silently by her side, obeying her every order. It added greatly to her mystique, and made her seem much more intimidating. 

Over the last few years, I’d come to realize that I was powerful enough to beat an average magician or swordsman handily. I suppose Rudy had trained me well. I wasn’t yet at the King- or Imperial-tier, let alone that of the Seven Great Powers, but I could probably hold my own against a Sword Saint. I was no match for the King-tier warriors some of the other contenders for the throne could call on, but right now I was the strongest weapon in the arsenal of Princess Ariel’s faction. There were a good number of people at the University who’d decided to support her because she’d won the loyalty of someone as strong as “Fitz.” If word got out that I was actually just a common girl from a backwoods village, those people might very well break away from our camp. 

My abilities were still real either way, of course…but people don’t always think about these things too logically. 

“You’ve done a great deal for me already, Sylphie. Surely I owe you an emotional reunion with your friend, at the very least.” 

“But—” 

“Should that somehow result in all our plans falling to pieces, I’m willing to accept that outcome,” Ariel interrupted, her voice firm and decisive. “And in any case, if we’re going to cajole this young man to our side, who better to recruit him than his childhood friend?” 

“…Thank you, Princess Ariel.” I hesitated for a moment, but ended up simply expressing my gratitude. The princess was obviously angling for some personal profit here as well, but that didn’t bother me at this point. 

What was Rudy going to think when he saw me now, all grown up? I was already looking forward to it. 

Our plan to lure Rudy to the University went very smoothly. We passed our information on him to the administration, lightly hinting that it might be a good idea to recruit him. Vice-Principal Jenius took care of the rest without any further nudging. 

A few months later, the day I’d been waiting for finally arrived. I was in a practical skills class in the training hall when the vice-principal walked in with someone right behind him. When I saw who it was, I very nearly shouted out in joy. 

It’s Rudy! It’s really Rudy! 

There was no doubt about it. His face looked a little gloomier than before, but it was definitely Rudy. There was no mistaking him. 

Oh wow! He’s so handsome! 

You could still see traces of the boy I’d known back home, but he’d done a lot of growing up. His movements were smooth and steady, too—it was obvious he’d done a lot of training. The robe he wore was slightly tattered, but that just added a nice hint of danger. You could tell he’d been through many battles in that thing. He carried his staff with practiced ease. 

As he walked into the training hall, Rudy looked all around him, studying his surroundings carefully. It was something he’d been doing ever since we were kids. I thought I was going to marry him back then, but maybe he’s out of my league… The longer I stared at him, the hotter my body grew. 

Seized by a sudden impulse, I took a sharp step forward, ready to run over calling out his name. “Ru—” 

But just as I started to speak, I froze on the spot. A very beautiful woman had just stepped into the hall behind Rudy. 

Wait… is that Rudy’s wife? 

She was an elf, from the looks of things. Something about her kind of reminded me of my dad. Her face was elegant and dignified; she looked a bit like a queen, or maybe a wealthy noblewoman. And she was hanging all over Rudy. He seemed a little exasperated by her behavior, but he didn’t complain or push her away. 

…Huh? Huh? 

As I stood there watching, stunned and bewildered, I lost my chance to run over and greet him. 

A few minutes later, I was called over to help administer Rudy’s “entrance exam.” I guess they wanted to verify that he really could cast spells silently. 

By this point, I’d managed to calm down somewhat. It wasn’t strange that Rudy had a gorgeous woman in his life, given how handsome he’d become. That was what I kept telling myself. It didn’t matter if he was married now. It really didn’t. The two of us were just friends, after all. Why would it be a problem? 

I’d have to congratulate him. Well, not right away, of course. First we could take some time to celebrate that we were both alive. Holding these thoughts firmly in my mind, I braced myself for my first conversation with Rudy in many years. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rudeus Greyrat.” 

I froze in place. 

A pleasure… to meet me? 

Huh? Uh… what? No way. Hold on. Did he… forget about me? 

“Provided everything goes smoothly, I’ll be a first-year starting next semester. If you find me lacking in any way, I hope you’ll help guide and encourage me along.” 

“Ah… huh?” 

After a few totally bewildered moments, I finally remembered I was wearing a large pair of sunglasses, had white hair now, and was dressed up like a boy. On top of all that, eight years had passed since the two of us were parted. I’d grown much taller over that time. It would be silly to expect him to recognize me immediately. 

I’d gotten too far inside my own head. I’d recognized him, so I just assumed he’d recognize me. I hadn’t been thinking straight, plain and simple. All I had to do was take off my sunglasses and tell him who I really was. Princess Ariel had already given me permission. I couldn’t do it in public, but I could always call him somewhere private later. 

But even as I was thinking this, another thought flashed through my mind. A very ugly one. 

Rudy doesn’t remember me anymore, does he…? 

Once I allowed myself to think this, my fate was sealed. My sunglasses weren’t going anywhere. What if I showed him my face, told him my name, and he still said “Sorry, who are you again?” 

The thought of that was too painful to bear. 

“Oh, y-yes!” I stuttered awkwardly. All the things I’d planned to tell Rudy were gone, scattered to the wind. I didn’t even know what I should say to him anymore. And before I had the chance to gather my thoughts, the exam got underway. 

I lost our duel. Rudy totally crushed me. 

He started by binding my magic with some spell I’d never seen before. As I stood there helpless, he fired off an unbelievably powerful Stone Cannon spell that grazed my cheek. He could have hit me if he wanted to, of course. He took it easy on me. 

All the progress I’d made as a magician felt completely irrelevant. Rudy had moved far, far ahead of me. 

“H-how did you do that just now?” It was the only thing I could even manage to ask him. 

“It’s called Disturb Magic. You don’t know of it?” 

I’d never even heard of it. It was probably some obscure secret spell passed down among the members of a specific tribe or something. I doubted else anyone in the University would recognize the name. 

Rudy’s amazing… 

I’d known that from the start, of course. But he’d really driven it home. I couldn’t help feeling a little awed by him. I’d worked my butt off for years to get where I was, but he’d somehow grown far more than I had. 

As I stared at Rudy, he slowly bowed to me. “Thank you, sir! For purposefully losing so I could look good in front of everyone else!” 

“Huh?” 

Now I was even more confused than before. Rudy wasn’t making any sense at all. I hadn’t stood a chance against him, and he had to know that. What was he talking about? Totally nonplussed, I shook Rudy’s hand when he offered it to me. It didn’t feel like a magician’s hand—more like that of a swordsman. There were callouses on it where blisters had formed and broken. Rudy had probably spent more time with a sword in his hand than Luke, even. And he wasn’t even a swordsman. 

Even in my state of confusion, I felt my heart beating harder than before. Rudy’s warmth was spreading through my hand, and it made me irrationally happy. 

He kept right on saying things that made no sense, though. “I’ll be sure to thank you properly later.” What was he talking about? I really didn’t understand. Feeling myself begin to blush, I just nodded. 

Once he left, I remembered that he hadn’t recognized me all over again. I had to take some time to cry. 

A month later, I saw Rudy at the entrance ceremony. He looked even sharper than before, now that he was wearing our school uniform. When our eyes met, my heart skipped a beat. 

Still, he’d enrolled here as a special student. There probably wasn’t much left for him to learn here, so I figured we wouldn’t run into each other very often. After the entrance exam, I’d discussed the matter with the others, and we’d decided that I shouldn’t approach Rudy too aggressively if he didn’t remember me. Princess Ariel and Luke said all sorts of things to justify their opinion on this, but they mostly just seemed upset that Rudy had forgotten me. That cheered me a little. I could tell they cared about me as a friend. 

Ultimately, the princess said she’d leave the matter up to me. It seemed we wouldn’t be recruiting him to our cause immediately, but we could always wage a slower campaign to win him over, as we had with many others. She added that “Fitz,” as a fellow silent spellcaster, was best suited to the job of recruiting him. In hindsight, I think she was well aware that I had feelings for Rudy. 

How should I even start talking to him, though…? 

For the rest of the day following the ceremony, I thought it over while sitting through classes with Princess Ariel . The princess was expected to be an exemplar for the other students, so she had to maintain superb grades. Sometimes it’s tough being on top. 

They taught combined magic very differently here, for some reason. Rudy had supposedly learned it from his master Roxy, who’d studied at this school, so I’d expected the methods of instruction to be familiar. I felt like they made it really complicated. Still, I had Rudy’s teachings to fall back on, so I usually figured things out sooner or later. Princess Ariel and Luke, on the other hand, were struggling. I did my best to help, but when I tried to explain things the way Rudy had, it often just confused them more. 

“Fitz, could you go bring me anything that might help with the next class?” 

When my explanations weren’t enough, Princess Ariel often asked me to stop by the library to look for helpful reference material. The library here was its own building, and there wasn’t that much time before our next class. Still, I’d been visiting it for three years now, so I had a good idea where to find books on any particular subject. It only took me a moment to picture where I’d find the material she needed. 

Once I made it over there, I moved quickly through the aisles, grabbing one book after another. At this rate, I’d be back in no time. 

But then I saw a certain someone standing in front of a nearby bookshelf and let out a small gasp of surprise. “Oh!” 

Rudy was in the library too. I’d been thinking about finding an excuse to go see him in the next few days, but now I’d bumped into him by sheer coincidence. Wh-What do I say?! 

Just as I was starting to panic, Rudy glanced over and noticed me. And a moment later, he bowed his head deeply. 

“I apologize for the other day. It was my shallow actions that caused you to lose face. I planned to bring you a box of sweets, but unfortunately, as a new student, I’ve been busy with so many things…” 

“Guh?! N-no, it’s fine, please don’t bow.” 

Apparently, Rudy was under the impression that I was upset with him. That was a surprise…but it did explain why he’d made up that nonsense after the exam. Come to think of it, he had kind of embarrassed me in public, hadn’t he? Yeah. 

…Maybe that had something to do with why Princess Ariel had seemed so upset earlier, too. I’d gone in assuming that I didn’t stand a chance against Rudy, although I hadn’t expected him to beat me that soundly. But Princess Ariel and Luke were probably a bit unhappy that I’d lost at all. 

That wasn’t important right now, though. I’d have to think about it later. 

“Rudy—um, I mean, Rudeus, was it? What are you doing here?” 

“Just a bit of research.” 

“Into what?” 

“The Displacement Incident.” 

Those words brought me up short for a moment. Was there any chance he’d been thinking something along the same lines as me? 

“The Displacement Incident? Why?” 

“I lived in Asura Kingdom’s Fittoa Region, and I was teleported to the Demon Continent after the incident.” 

“The Demon Continent?!” 

Once again, I found myself too startled for words. I’d heard about the Demon Continent, of course. It was supposedly a terribly harsh place where every single monster was D-ranked or tougher. Some devoted swordsmen sometimes travelled there to train themselves, but most never returned. The people who landed there during the Displacement Incident were said to have no chance of survival. But Rudy had made his way back in one piece. 

“Yes. It took three years for me to return home. My family has all been found since, but there’s still one acquaintance of mine that’s missing. This seemed like a good opportunity to do a little research.” 

“Is that why you came to this school?” 

“That’s right.” 

That was incredible. Honestly incredible. 

“I see. You really are amazing, after all.” 

He’d spent three long years making it back from the Demon Continent. And then, instead of breathing a big sigh of relief, he went searching for other people, which was impressive in itself. But when the University reached out to him, he jumped at the invitation as a chance to learn more about the Incident. Talk about determination. If I’d been in his shoes, I would have collapsed in exhaustion the moment I made it back home and spent the next couple years hanging around a refugee camp. 

“And what, might I ask, are you doing here?” 

The question snapped me out of my reverie. I’d forgotten all about the reference books I was supposed to be bringing back to Princess Ariel . I wanted to keep talking to Rudy, honestly, but I couldn’t just leave her hanging. Class was going to start soon. 

“Oh yeah. I’m carrying some documents with me. I have to go now. I’ll see you again, Rudeus.” 

“Yeah, sure, see you.” 

As I turned away to check out the material I’d gathered, something suddenly occurred to me. This library was really big and had tons of books in it, but there were relatively few that had information relevant to the Teleportation Incident. Rudy might be brilliant, but tracking down the stuff he was looking for would probably take him a while. 

“Oh, right. You should read a book by Animus that’s about teleportation, called An Exploratory Account of the Teleportation Labyrinth . It’s creative nonfiction, but easy to read.” 

Just for starters, I recommended him a book that had helped me understand teleportation. It was simple enough that even a child could learn the basics from it. And it also mentioned some specific details that were often torn out of the more advanced books on the subject. 

Feeling slightly pleased with myself, I left the library behind. 

That evening, I was washing a load of underwear. Princess Ariel’s underwear, specifically. 

There was a reason that this job had fallen to me. First of all, the princess’ underwear was made of extremely expensive fabric. And the fact that they had been worn by an Asuran princess added considerably to their value. In other words, you could sell them for quite a lot of money on the black market. There’d been an incident not long after we enrolled here, actually. Some of her panties had been stolen after we sent them off to be washed. Of the five that were washed, four disappeared; three of these were subsequently sold, and the male student responsible kept one for his own private purposes. Some of the more innocent girls in our dormitory had shrieked in disgust when this incident came to light. But for Princess Ariel —who’d grown up in the royal court of Asura—and myself, who’d served as her attendant for a brief time, it wasn’t really shocking. There had been many people in that place who did far more depraved things on a regular basis. 

That didn’t mean the situation wasn’t unpleasant, though. Since then, doing the princess’ laundry had become one of my official duties. She’d hesitated slightly to push the job on me, but I could wash my own clothes at the same time, so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. 

Incidentally, in order to disguise my gender, I now wore the exact same panties as the princess—only in a different color. 

I finished up the day’s washing and headed to the balcony to put out the underwear to dry. The rest could wait, but we wanted these ready for tomorrow. But just as I was starting to hang them on the clothesline… 

“Huh?” 

I happened to glance down at the road below, and saw something that made me blink in surprise. There was a male student walking along the path, even though the sun had set. 

The dormitory rules were very strict on this: men weren’t allowed to walk this way after dark. Nobody wanted their panties stolen, and although it wasn’t that time of year yet, there was also the mating season to consider. What was this boy thinking, coming here at this hour? Maybe he was just taking a shortcut back to his own dorm. But even if that was the case, he’d probably be surrounded by the “self-defense committee” from the first floor soon enough. 

Should I tip them off right now, actually? The first person who spotted a boy at this hour was supposed to let everyone else know. I wasn’t supposed to talk out loud if I could help it, though… 

W-Wait a second, am I seeing things? 

As the boy drew closer, I realized it was Rudy. What’s he doing here?! 

In my surprise, my hands slipped. The pair of panties I was holding fluttered downward through the air… right toward Rudy. The instant they flitted by his face, he caught them with a quick snap of his hand. 

He’s so fast…! 

He never let down his guard, did he? The sheer speed of that reaction told me something about what it took to make it across the Demon Continent alive. 

After a few seconds, Rudy seemed to realize that what he was holding was a pair of underwear. He looked upward, spotted me, and lifted the panties as if to say “you dropped this.” It was a slow, casual gesture, very different from his reflexive movement earlier. 

Oh, of course! He just enrolled today! He doesn’t know! 

Rudy was a special student, and they all got a room to themselves. I’d heard they were also exempted from all sorts of typical dorm duties… including attendance at the meetings where we explained the local rules. 

I needed to warn him right now. If he stood outside our dorm holding a pair of panties, somebody was definitely going to get the wrong idea. 

“Gyaaaah! Panty thief!” 

My fears became reality almost instantly. A girl screamed from below, the self-defense committee that lived on the first floor came running out, and Rudy was quickly surrounded. …Well, it’s Rudy, though. Maybe he’ll be able to wriggle out of this. 

Rather than intervening immediately, I succumbed to some optimistic thinking. 

I was somewhat interested in seeing how Rudy would handle this situation. Would he just take them all down, like he beat those bullies back in Buena Village? Or maybe he’d come up with some clever excuse and talk his way out of it? There was also the “scare them off with some magic” approach. And the classic “make a run for it.” 

I watched and waited in anticipation… but Rudy didn’t do much. A girl named Goliade had seized him by the arm, and he just looked at her unhappily. Seeing him like that reminded me of the way I’d been bullied back in Buena Village. All of a sudden, there was a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

What the hell am I doing?! 

Silently cursing myself, I leapt from the balcony, landed on the ground, and ran over to the group. 

“Oh, what’s this? You plan on resisting? How gutsy for a panty thief ! You really think you can fight this many people?” 

It was dark, so the others didn’t seem to realize, but Rudy had fixed his legs to the ground with Earth magic. I didn’t understand the reason why, though. Maybe there wasn’t one? I mean, this was Rudy . It was hard to imagine his legs were shaking or anything… 

But even as that thought crossed my mind, I remembered something from my childhood. When Rudy chased off Somal and those other bullies, his legs had been shaking. And then, a little later…after he found out I was a girl, and things got kind of awkward for a while… he’d trembled slightly as he said, “I feel like you don’t like me anymore, Sylphie.” 

Yeah. He was scared because he thought I hated him. Just like a normal boy. 

Oh… 

I realized something in that moment. Something I should have noticed before. I’d been acting like Rudy was special just because he was talented. I’d always felt like he was years and years older than me. But we were actually the same age, weren’t we? I found myself recalling a question my dad had asked me once, and the promise I’d made in response. 

“Sylphie, are you just going to sit around letting him protect you forever?” 

No. I was going to help Rudy. I was going to be strong enough to stand at his side. I was going to support him, no matter what. I’d promised that to myself. That was the whole reason I’d worked so hard all this time, right? But he was in trouble right now, and I hadn’t done a thing. Worse, the whole mess was my fault! 

“Wait! Don’t do anything to him!” 

I pushed my way into the middle of the group, and then mounted a forceful defense of Rudy. It might have been the first real conversation I had in this school, except for my talks with Ariel and Luke. That was how consistently I’d stuck to the Silent Fitz act. 

However, the girl holding Rudy’s arm—Goliade—proved to be very stubborn. She kept insisting he was a criminal, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong “Hm, it’s surprising that you’d go this far to defend someone. What you say must be true. Still, the fact remains that this boy violated the dorm rules. We’ll make an example out of him by punishing—what?!” 

The instant I heard the word punishing, something snapped inside me. I wasn’t about to let them make an example of someone I cared about just because he’d been unlucky. I pulled out my rod, pointed it at Goliade, and channeled mana into it. “Didn’t I just say he did nothing wrong? Enough. Now let go of his hand.” 

“F-Fitz… sir?” 

“Or would you all like to be sent to the medical office?” 

I’d learned how to make threats like this from Luke, back in the Kingdom of Asura. He always said that bluffing was an important skill, so I’d worked hard at it. During our journey from Asura to Ranoa, I’d given it a try a few times when we ran into groups of bandits. Luke always teased me that my voice was too childish for it to accomplish much of anything. 

This time, though, it seemed to have the intended effect. 

“Tch… fine, I understand.” Goliade finally let go of Rudy’s arm and left, grumbling loudly. With their effective leader gone, the other girls disappeared as well. 

“Phew… that girl. If only she’d listen.” 

I’d seen what Goliade was like by now, and she wasn’t a bad person or anything. But beastfolk like her tended to be really serious about following the rules, and enforcing them strictly. They weren’t at all flexible about stuff like this. 

None of that mattered right now, though. I had to apologize to Rudy. This was basically my fault, after all. “Sorry. If I hadn’t dropped that underwear, this would never have happened.” 

“You haven’t done anything wrong. You helped me.” Rudy’s voice sounded a little odd somehow. The usual stiffness in his voice had disappeared. I looked at his face and realized he was looking at me a little differently. And then all the pieces came together. 

…Rudy was wary of me until now, wasn’t he? 

His attitude had seemed a bit strange from the start, now that I thought about it. He was always bowing to me, for one thing. But now I understood why. It made sense, of course. I was Silent Fitz now, not his old friend. Why wouldn’t he be wary of me? 

It seemed like I’d earned a little trust now, though. That makes me kind of happy. 

None of this would have happened if I hadn’t screwed up, but it felt like the two of us were a little closer now. 

I took the opportunity to explain the dorm rules to Rudy, warning him about this road being off-limits after sunset. Just as I’d suspected, it seemed like nobody else had told him any of this. He nodded deeply as I spoke. 

“I’m truly grateful to you, Master Fitz.” And with those words, he bowed his head again. 

It felt a little weird seeing him acting all grateful to me. Back when I was being bullied, our positions had been totally reversed. Had I ever thanked him so politely? Something about this struck me as weirdly funny. “Ahaha, it feels kind of weird to hear you thank me.” 

“Oh? Why is that?” 

I very nearly said Well, because the first time we met… At the last moment, though, I hesitated. Did I really want to reveal my identity? Anxiety swelled inside me at the thought. If he said “Sorry, I don’t remember you” right now, that would really hurt. 

I convinced myself that it didn’t matter anyway. So what if he didn’t remember me? We could start over fresh, with a blank slate. I could leave the past aside and get to know the person he was now. That sounded good enough to me. 

And so, all I said was “That’s a secret.” 

Rudy just blinked in confusion. 

I returned to the dorm after that. Naturally, I had Rudy return the panties first. Since he’d caught them in mid-air, they weren’t dirty or anything, but Rudy was a man. I was a little uncomfortable with making Princess Ariel wear underwear that he’d held in his hands. “I guess I should wash them again, huh…?” 

Holding up the panties under a hallway light, I froze in place. They weren’t Princess Ariel’s after all. They were mine. Rudy had been holding these for…quite a while, hadn’t he? 

It took some time before I managed to stop writhing in embarrassment. 

It would be another month or so before the two of us started researching the Teleportation Incident together. 

*** 

When I awoke from my dream, I found Rudy by my side. “Wargh…” 

I couldn’t help giving a little yelp. Fortunately, it didn’t wake him. He was sleeping soundly with a peaceful expression on his face. I’d seen him like this a few times back in Buena Village… but this was the first time I’d gotten a chance to watch him sleeping as an adult. 

…An adult, huh? 

The word called to mind what we’d done last night. When I looked under the blanket, I found that both of us were completely naked. The pleasant fog of drowsiness gave way to embarrassment, and I was suddenly conscious of a lingering soreness between my legs. 

We actually did it… 

It was something I’d dreamed of for years, if not in graphic detail. But now it was reality. The more I remembered from last night, the more I wanted to squeeze a pillow to my chest and roll around kicking my legs in mingled embarrassment and ecstasy. 

Gah… 

In the course of covering my face with both hands, I accidentally bumped an elbow against Rudy’s shoulder. For no particular reason, I gently pressed my cheek against that shoulder. Rudy looked slender at a distance, but he actually had a surprisingly muscular body. He was big enough to swallow me up completely in his arms. 

Agh! Stop it! 

I really needed to get these stray thoughts under control. My face was going to set something on fire. 

I pulled away from Rudy. But as I moved, he furrowed his brow. 

“Mm…” He was grimacing in his sleep, almost like he was in pain. When I took his hand in mine, though, his expression softened. At this point, he finally opened his eyes. And after staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, he slowly turned over toward me. 

“Good morning, Rudy.” When I spoke to him, a clear look of relief spread across his face. Roughly two seconds later, he reached out to me and grabbed my breasts. 

“Hyaah! Wha… Rudy!” 

I didn’t punch him or anything. Mainly because I kind of liked the way it felt. 

After groping me for a little while, Rudy hugged me tight and murmured “I’m cured” in a voice full of feeling. I didn’t understand what he meant immediately. But there was something else on my mind, too. 

“Uhm, Rudy…? What do you think? My body’s… okay, right?” I asked my question tentatively, my heart racing with anxiety. I felt like everything was probably fine now. But I still wanted to hear the answer. 

“Thank you.” That was all Rudy said. 

I didn’t understand why he’d thanked me in the cave, but now I did. This time, I’d been able to help him out. Maybe I wasn’t his equal, in some respects. But I’d still managed to support him. 

You’re welcome. 

The dream I’d been chasing all these years had finally come true. From now on, Rudy and I were a team.