Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 15

Short Story:

Something Cliff Wants

FIRST-RATE ADVENTURERS are able to instantly pick up on danger creeping up on them and evade it. I myself am a first-rate adventurer. While I’ve since retired, given that I was practically too successful as an A-rank adventurer, I’d say I qualify as first-rate.

Just then, my first-rate adventurer’s sixth sense was telling me someone was out to get me. Specifically, out to get my virtue.

“I’m not after anything,” Elinalise said from beside me, looking like a pantheress in heat. But she was lying.

“All right, why are you rubbing up against me, then? Hey, please don’t put your hand on my knee. Stop stroking!”

I sensed danger. She was after my body. Now, usually, I’m a hard-boiled sort of guy who has no trouble throwing himself into danger. But that was a little tricky right now.

“Hey, Rudeus, I actually want you to do something for me.”

“Absolutely not! Go ask Cliff! That’s what you mean, isn’t it? More to the point, you know I can’t do it right now!”

“No, today it’s not about that. I have a normal request!”

Really, though? Would a normal request lead to you putting your hand on a guy’s knee and stroking his leg? But then, this was Elinalise, so I couldn’t rule it out…

“All right, what’s this request, then?”

“Oh, well, actually—”

It was a simple story. Cliff’s birthday was coming up soon. He wasn’t actually turning fifteen this year, but apparently, he had spent his actual fifteenth birthday alone and lonely. Elinalise had found this out, and now she was hyped up to throw a proper celebration this year. The idea she had arrived at was to get him in a good mood by giving him a present, then carry that through to the bedroom.

“And so,” she said, “I was wondering if you could subtly find out what Cliff might like.”

“Couldn’t you do that yourself? You’re good at that sort of thing, aren’t you?”

“Oh, Rudeus. You don’t understand, do you? If I ask, Cliff will work out what’s going on. Besides, there are things guys will only talk about with other guys, right?”

I thought Elinalise probably gave him those sorts of presents every day…but oh, well. It wasn’t such a hassle to ask some subtle questions. I could help someone out for a change.

“All right,” I said. “But don’t expect much. It’s not as though Cliff and I are that close.”

“Okay. I’m expecting great things.”

What’d I just say?

After talking to Elinalise, I paid Cliff a visit. As usual, he had set himself up at the front of the classroom and was studying alone. Not everyone could do that—buckling down hard while the other students were having fun and lazing about. You had to admire it. But anyway: how to talk to him? I went over to stand opposite his desk, then laid a hand on its surface.

“Hmph… Oh, it’s you, Rudeus.” Cliff looked a little miffed to have his studies interrupted, but when he saw it was me, his expression softened. “This is unusual. What’s the matter?” 

I’d go as far as to say I respected Cliff where women were concerned, but we didn’t make a lot of small talk… 

I might as well get straight to the point.

“Actually, Cliff, I really wanted a Q and A with you…”

“Q and…?”

“I wanted to ask you something.” 

Cliff looked a little taken aback. “To ask me…Huh?! O-oh! Yes, of course. I suppose even you have things you don’t understand, eh? No, nothing to be ashamed of. What’s giving you trouble? I assume you’ve got your textbook.” He fidgeted as he spoke.

What I want to know isn’t from class… But it wasn’t a bad place to start. First, we’d study together, then I’d bring the conversation around to recent happenings. By happy coincidence, I was carrying my healing magic textbook and everything.

“Okay, well, it’s about incantations for advanced healing magic…” I began.

“Incantations? Why are you asking about that when you can do silent casting?”

“I just can’t get the hang of healing magic. I can’t cast it without incantations.”

“Huh! You don’t say? To think that’s your weak point…but I suppose it isn’t really a weak point. Anyway, which part in particular do you not understand?”

“Um…”

And so, I ended up having Cliff help me with my studies. He wasn’t a great teacher. He used a lot of jargon and kept talking about difficult concepts while assuming I knew what he meant. A beginner would have been totally lost. But then, other teachers couldn’t help it if they paled in comparison to the great god Roxy. Only…well, perhaps because I knew a thing or two about magic as well, what he said made sense. Maybe it was thanks to the depth of Cliff’s knowledge. 

“Wait, so the reason advanced healing spells have long incantations…”

“That’s right. The scope of what can be healed expanded, but with it, the scope of what must not be healed did the same.”

“It becomes possible to heal too much, and so to prevent that, the incantations get longer. At the same time, control becomes more difficult.”

“That’s right. Of course, above Saint-tier the discipline becomes still more sophisticated and subdivided. Thus, the incantations become absurdly long, too.”

“Huh… I get it now. Wow, thank you.” I was all set for my next test now. I mean, not that I cared that much about school test scores, but still, Cliff was really something. He probably knew more than our teachers. I’d really learned a lot. Next time I didn’t understand something to do with healing magic, it was Cliff I’d be calling on.

Several days passed. As it had totally slipped my mind to find out from Cliff what sort of thing he liked, Elinalise came after me, and I ended up paying him another visit…but that’s a story for another time.