Ch1 Pale Blue

**Rudeus**

Eris became better behaved after her tenth birthday. She took her lessons seriously and punched me less frequently than before. More relaxed after being released from the fear of domestic violence, I decided to focus more on my studies.

I started studying the world's history with a book I borrowed from the library. I was engrossed in reading about the fantastical history.

Ancient Age of the Gods, seven worlds, Dragon Emperor along with four Dragon Kings betraying and fighting an Evil Dragon God who destroyed worlds.

Wars over the only remaining world with every race from the now destroyed worlds trying to claim their place. Great Human-Demon War, Heroes, Emperors, and Immortals history was filled with ridiculous powers fighting battles of immense scales.

I've gotten a good overview of History in broad-strokes, I could study further in detail later on different events if I found a good book on it later. But I also learned more about the languages the world had, so I was more interested in studying a foreign language.

I currently only know Western dialect of the Human Tongue, better to learn other languages so I don't attract trouble if I ever travel to other countries. Apparently, men from the western region were seen as wealthy, and wealth tends to attract troublesome attention.

For my first foreign language, I decided the Beast God Language was a good place to start. The beast race was the most common non-human race to see in the central continent. In Millis, the continent next to the central continent and my mother's homeland the population was 50:50 between the human race and beast race. And luckily I could always ask for Ghislaine's help while learning it, or from the numerous beast race maids, so it seems practical to learn it.

According to Roxy the demon tongue would only be useful in the demon continent as demons didn't travel outside their continent that much, due to various reasons, mostly reasons that had to do with people not getting along. But it was of course important to learn it, so I will keep my eye out for an opportunity to learn it, maybe write a letter to Roxy asking for advice.

On top of my regular monthly income, I made and sold figures, assisted Philip in managing the daily hiring of part-time workers, and sometimes resold wares I had bought several months prior. With these little bits here and there, I managed to earn a small amount of coin.

With the money I had saved up, I found and bought a book on the Beast God language. I could start learning.

A week had passed since the birthday party.

I felt like something was off for a while, only after 4 days I realize what the source of this uneasiness was. It was Eris.

In the first three days after the birthday, Eris was strangely subdued. She didn't hit as hard during training, wasn't as loud during lessons, or punched me as frequent. At first, I thought she was just tired from the party, after all it was an exhausting social event with strangers gathering from all over the place for a pompous get-together. But that wasn't it.

She wasn't just tired or acting more subdued after reaching 10. It was made clear when she skipped a day of sword training with Ghislaine and spent the day in her room. This was far from normal.

Even when Eris was sick with a cold, she would only skip my lessons on arithmetic, even with a few she would attend the magic lesson while complaining more than usual. For that Eris, to skip Ghislaine's sword lesson to stay in her room felt deeply wrong.

Worried, I knocked on her door.

"Eris, I properly knocked on the door once, so I'm going in now, I accept no blame or punch even if you were changing right now."

With a pure-hearted concern for the well-being of the lady I was in charge of educating I entered her clothes changing and sleeping room.

...

Huh? Why, is there silence after this? Where's the scream and punch?

There was none, Eris was still in the room, but Eris being Eris wasn't present. She was in her bed, looking even redder with fever, sweating and breathing heavily.

Hey hey hey hey, this isn't good. Normally I would enjoy a sweating Eris but this isn't what I wanted to see. She was clearly suffering.

"Eris?"

I didn't want to wake up the sick girl so I carefully put my hand on her forehead to check her temperture, she had a bad fever.

*"Divine power is rich and nourishing. It expells sickness from those who lost their health to live with strength. Cure"*

I cast an elementary rank detoxification magic that can cure most common colds. Usually with this, Fevers go away, Eris always got better with this. I just had to watch over her and wait a little, then when she wakes up we can go get some food to recover.

...

I waited, but there was no effect, her breathing was just as ragged, there was no relief on her face. This was irregular, elementary not working, but I could still cast intermediate. This was usually unnecessary for daily life, as it was more for lesser poisons and for cleaning tainted wounds. But I will do what I can.

*"Oh merciful mother of gods, please cure this one of illness, let the body restore so it may worship the gods. X-Cure"*

...

I waited, and there was an effect. Eris's expression gained some relief, her breathing wasn't as ragged and it was now of a normal sleeping pace. But it seems like she wasn't cured, her temperature hadn't dropped noticably.

This is bad.

This means whatever she was suffering from, was worse than a lesser poison. Not being cured by an intermediate detoxification meant that she needs at least advanced rank, which is quite rare, Roa doesn't have anyone with the rank. Even the former Millishion noble Zenith didn't have advanced rank.

"...Rudeus?"

Eris woke up, hopefully it was because she was feeling better. I still interrupted her rest, so I felt bad.

"Eris, how are you feeling?"

What a stupid question, of course she's in pain.

"I... I feel numb, it doesn't feel good..."

Eris was so quiet she was barely audible, it sounded like she was dying. Seeing the usually strong and energetic in this state was heartbreaking.

"You'll be okay Eris. Just rest for now."

"Okay Rudeus. Good night"

Eris said with a smile and closed her eyes. I have to reassure her, I have to be reliable. I need to do better.

First, I need to tell Phillip.

For safety, I cast intermediate detoxification three more times on Eris, and it had seemed to bring slight relief. Then left for Phillip's office.

Two weeks passed.

After learning of Eris's illness and confirming my claim, Phillip immediately contacted people to call for an advanced rank healer. He had to call in some favors, and without caring he wrote to multiple people at once, even if it would end up costing him, he didn't call one by one, as the healer not showing up meant we had to keep calling and waiting until they showed up. For Eris's health, nothing was too expensive for Phillip and Sauros.

Immidiately after informing of Eris's illness to the residents of the Boreas manor, I advised everyone in the manor to be as sanitary as possible, especially when interacting with Eris.

"You won't be telling me how I treat my grand daughter boy!"

Sauros yelled at me, even louder than his usual explosive volume due to his worries.

"When dealing with an unknown illness, it's best for the patient's sake and those around them to be sanitary. This is for Eris's sake as well."

"Don't think you can order me around by just saying that it's for her sake boy! You won't be using her sickness as an excuse!"

"Please! If anyone else got sick, then Eris's condition can worsen. As well as risking death unnecessarily. Please, just be careful for everyone's sake."

I bowed as low as possible and pleaded Sauros.

"You little! Hng!"

Sauros took his anger out on me by punching me.

It's not like I couldn't understand him. I had the maids make and wear masks and gloves when entering Eris's room, then have them wash the masks and gloves while wearing ones. It was over the top for people for sure, Phillip was just as paranoid as me so he appreciated the precaution.

But Sauros didn't. What crossed the line was me asking him to wear mask and gloves when entering Eris's room, and advising that he shouldn't enter unnecessarily as he might risk getting sick.

"Father, please end it there. Rudeus doesn't mean any harm. He's been healing Eris all day, he's just tired and scared for her."

Phillip pulled back Sauros, and thankfully Sauros didn't go for a second punch and turned to leave the dining room.

"Hmph! I know that already. Just don't you dare tell me again not to see my granddaughter."

Sauros punched Phillip one more time before leaving

"And you! Prepare to hire the incoming healer full time. This should not repeat again."

"I've already prepared the arrangements father."

Sauros finally left, stomping out the room.

Since then, everyone except Sauros heeded to my advice. Phillip restrained himself from visiting Eris too much, and when he did he took the precautions. Hilda was almost constantly at Eris's side, she took precautions as well and demanded me to be by Eris's side applying detoxification magic as frequently as possible.

Ghislaine was constantly by Eris's side, at alert of potential assassins. I've never seen her look this concerned and on nerves. There was a suspicion that a poisoning took place in the birthday party, so it was right to be on guard.

Eris herself wasn't very talkative. At first she had some idle chatter while acting strong when she was awake. But later on she stopped talking as much and only held the hands of Hilda or mine. My magic felt worthless.

During the stressful week, there was more bad news. Phillip had gotten reports that similar illness was spreading through Roa. First in the noble and merchant district, then in shop workers, then the general population and slums. The clinics were packed.

I went to inspect the patients. And sure enough, it was the exact same symptoms as Eris. Headache, weakness, vomiting, then some worsened to coughing blood. And most worrying of all, what was unprecedented was that some parts of the patient's skin was turning pale blue.

Pale Blue, a patches of skin around the body would become pale blue. Like bruising, but it wasn't dark blue, it was pale blue, like some rock, or frozen water. It was an unnatural tone that gave a sense of weakness and fragility at a glance.

Those with Pale Blue patch of skin had the worst symptoms, most were passed out, too weak to stand up even when awake.

It was clear, I was sure at this point. This was a highly infectious disease, a plague.

Using the name of Roa's lord and bearing a letter written by Philliip that gave me his authority, I instructed the clinics to have stricter sanitary measures. I wasn't a doctor in my previous life, nor did I know much about sicknesses. But I did have the common sense and faint memories of how infectious diseases transmitted.

Masks for everyone, stricter requirements for washing hands and staying clean. Orders to not touch those infected without masks and gloves on. Everything I could think up of, I was starting to sound extremely paranoid but I was right. Germs transmitted diseases, and it was extremely easy for it to spread in this unsanitary world. Even if everyone tried their best in following what I instructed, it would hard to prevent more cases.

After seeing the Pale Blue skin symptom, I rushed to Eris to check if she had it too. And sure enough, her finger toes had started to get pale blue. It was terrifying to see. Sauros, Phillip, Hilda, Ghislaine, the maids and myself, all were sad and terrified.

The next day, a healer from Ars had come.

Phillip had called in a favor from a noble he had a lot of dirt on, and managed to bring the advanced rank healer that graduated from Millishion Noble school. The contract was 6 months of care at Roa, it was probably extremely expensive to hire them, especially due to how fast they had arrived.

The healer was a man in his late thirties, he was a healer with over 10 years of experience, and was highly accomplished. As a Millis church healer, he took on jobs the church had assigned to him, expensive healing and caretaking jobs for high society mostly. That's how advanced rank and up healers operated.

But, just as hopes were risen, worse news came.

His magic couldn't cure her. All of the advanced healing and detoxification spells, and ingestion of other herbs and potions he brough, nothing cured her. Thankfull her stamina recovered enough for her to walk for a while, and she could smile more and her appetite returned. But she wasn't cured, only her symptoms treated temporarily.

Phillip decided that Eris needs saint rank healing and caretaking. Philip, along with Eris and Hilda would travel to Ars, for Eris's treatment, and prevention of Hilda and himself catching the plague. In Ars, the capital of Asura Kingdom, as a noble you could get healing treatment second only to Millishion.

However, Sauros won't go, he was duty bound as the lord of Roa to stay with the people and handle the situation. Too much work was needed to be done. The healer that arrived would accompany Eris to Ars, and return to Roa to take care of Sauros for the next 6 months, potentially extended to years.

I would get my employment cancelled due to emergency. Phillip apologized, it couldn't be helped afterall, and he thanked me for my excellent services until now teaching Eris, and caretaking her after she got sick, along with helping around clinics and increasing the sanitization standards. I received 300 gold coins, it was an insane amount of money.

"This much is nothing. 200 is the promised Tuition for two to attend Ranoa Magic Academy. 100 is for apology and gratitude, as well as funds you will probably need from here on."

He further explained to me that Eris had been planning on giving me a crazy expensive magic staff on my 10th birthday, which would've been more than 200 coins on it's own, so he apologized that I wouldn't be receiving that staff anymore.

As an apology for the missing staff, Phillip wrote few letters for me. One explaining the situation here in Roa to Paul and others for specific situations. Such as arriving at countries or when crossing borders and such. He said most of these would just prove the identity of me and my family, along with proclaiming that the lord of Roa is backing the person holding this letter.

"You probably won't need most of this, but it's better to have it. I wrote it so you can't abuse it anyway, so it's not like I suffer any losses by handing you these."

Phillip was scary as always, but his smile seemed more genuine than his usual man-pulling-the-strings smile. I'm sure it was out of gratitude shown for someone who helped his daughter, that part of him was undoubtable.

The decision was made, and I was now unemployed again.

Didn't mean I was out of things to do, in fact, there was too much I should do that I had trouble on picking where to start.

Most importantly, I had to return to Buena village.

Back home.

To my Family.

**Zenith**

It has been a year since Rudy left for Roa.

Every day I miss my little Rudy.

The thought of missing out on his growing years pained my heart, thinking I would never see him at his cutest in these early years brought regret over letting him go so far away.

I wouldn't see my little Rudy being the amazing big brother he wanted to be to his little sisters. My adorable daughters wouldn't grow up playing with and looking up to their amazing big brother. It made me sad thinking about it.

But whenever I had these thoughts, another part of me would shut it down. I knew Rudy was an amazing boy. His talents were awe-inspiring and unbelievable for his age. But more than that he was dependable and caring.

He would always have the most serious expression on all the time. No matter how well he did with his sword or magic, he didn't look satisfied. Yet he would show the most adorable smile when caring for his little sisters, making silly faces to amuse them. He treasured his little sisters and even took care of me as well.

Watching his dependable self reminded me of my brother, who presumably still lived in the holy country. Like Rudy, he was serious, diligent, and talented. My father always told us to learn from his example. But he was also cold to his family and ignored his little sisters almost completely. As nobles went, he was a good and honest man, but I didn't think much of him as a brother. Rudy was obviously going to be different. He was going to be a good big brother. The kind who earned his sisters' admiration.

Feeling pride over my little rudy, I would start wanting to brag about him to people. Of course at the clinic I tried to restrain myself, and everyone in the village knows how brilliant he is at this point anyway. And bragging any more to little Sylphie would be a bad idea, as the girl already worshiped Rudy a bit too much.

If she is to become my daughter, then she should be able to say no to Rudeus as well. You can't just be his yes woman, otherwise, ortherwise you couldn't help him if he makes a mistake.

I wonder if this is how my mother felt as well.

Back in the Holy Country of Millis, a land noted for its long history, great beauty, and rigid moral code. By birth, I was a member of the nobility the second daughter of a count.

I was also a good child, if I do say so myself. I never disobeyed

my parents. My grades in school were excellent. I obeyed the tenets of the Millis Church, and I learned to play the role expected of me in society gatherings. Some people even called me the perfect picture of a Millis lady.

Millis was a country where Healing and Protection magic flourished, but it was still unusual to progress beyond the rank of Beginner in either. Reaching the Intermediate tier opened up the possibility of working in the Millis Church's hospitals; it was an achievement that earned me much admiration in our school.

I was no Rudy, but it was still an impressive achievement, and comparing magical achievements to Rudy made anyone look unimpressive anyways. I even thought I could make it anywhere in my youth, hopelessly naive at 15.

I wonder if my uptight strict mother was bragging about me to people behind closed doors in her own way? If she felt like how I feel about Rudy, then maybe she did and I just wasn't aware of it at the time.

Which makes me wonder what mother might say if she saw my little Rudy? I bet she would love him, who wouldn't if they got such an amazing grandson? Maybe once Rudeus graduates from Ranoa, we should visit them. It's been long enough, I'm sure she would welcome us, she would love to see her grand children I'm sure.

Thinking such thoughts, I had arrived at the clinic.

"Miss Zenith, good morning."

"Oh my Sylphie, you're quite early!"

Lately Sylphie have started helping out at the clinic. The little lady was a real genius as well, she could cast chantless healing magic of all things. I want to say Rudy is just a great teacher, and Sylphie says that too, but I know the girl has an amazing talent.

Almost amazing enough to hand him my son someday. Hmmm, bit too early to think of that for now.

"Now, patients probably won't come for a while, let's-"

As I was saying, I noticed another person was here and cut myself off. On one of the beds of the clinic, laid a man sleeping, his expression in pain. Sylphie was looking at him with worry on her face, when she greeted me she was relieved I had come it seems.

"Sylphie, what is his condition?"

"He has a fever, reported that he's been feeling weak for the past three days, and today he came here after coughing blood once."

Coughing blood was always bad, it could mean many things. Sickness in the lung, injury in the throat, or even the stomach. It meant that it could require intermediate rank spell, costly on mana and rarer than elementary which most mages have. Luckily both me and Sylphie could cast intermediate healing and detoxification spells.

"What have you tried so far?"

"I-I casted elementary healing and detoxification magic on the throat, chest, back and stomach. Since none showed any effect, I then cast Intermediate healing and detoxification on the same places as well. But it only relieved the symptoms and didn't do anything beyond that."

For a healer, mana was precious and good healers were those who could tell what the problem was and where it was in a timely manner to give efficient and sufficient care to the patient. Understanding of the healing process and good amount of mana enchanced the healing and detoxification spells. So for someone to heal the wrong place with a spell of unfitting rank, while not having the correct diagnosis in your head was a failure on the healer's part. This shows that Sylphie has a lot to learn.

But I wasn't dissapointed, far from it. Sylphie's talent was almost as awe inspiring as Rudy's. No healer could cast this much, at intermediate rank, at this age, and she did it chantlessly, and she can keep going on different patients today, *and* she can do it everyday.

From an intermediate rank Healer, one to three casting of intermediate healing spells were to be expected. For advanced rank healers, one advanced spell was the standard, talented ones could cast twice a day. Saint rank healers could cast saint rank healing or detoxification spells once or twice a week.

If Sylphie were born into Millis nobility, no then I'm sure she would have risen to high ranks at a stunning speed.

"Umm miss Zenith? Wh-What should I do?..."

Sylphie was timidly looking at me, unsure of what to do.

Oh my, I got lost in my thoughts at astonishment. This was the first time she cast this many for one patient afterall. Speaking of which.

"This is odd, if it's a simple headache and weakness, then Cure should've fixed it. If he was coughing blood then Cure or Healing cast at the chest area was correct. Not being cured at intermediate rank means poisoning or rare diseases..."

I prayed to Millis for his recovery. The treatment Sylphie gave was correct, reapplying it right now would waste my mana, especially if I cast intermediate.

"Is he going to be alright miss Zenith?"

Sylphie looked very worried for the man. He was a merchant who was always kind to everyone, he sold household items brought from Roa, and he often bought second-hand dolls while at Roa, cleaned them up, and sold them to parents for cheap. Honest man really, Paul liked drinking with him.

"I'm sure he will be fine, let's ask him about his condition after he wakes up okay?"

Sylphie nodded, looking more relieved. That also brought a smile to my face.

There was a part of me that wanted a daughter when I was pregnant with Rudy, it seems like Rudy made that wish come true.

Two weeks had passed.

It was bad. Things got much worse than I ever thought it would.

After that man woke up, I heard of his condition, and where he had been lately. Doing a full body inspection revealed patches of Pale Blue skin all over his body, on his back that he couldn't see, the pale blue skin had started to harden like a crystal, as if he was becoming a statue. He couldn't even feel it the irregular crystal on his back, and he told me that these pale blues weren't there a day ago.

Shortly after the conversation, he passed out again with a fever. Intermediate Detoxification spell X-Cure gave him relief, but nothing more.

Knowing that the man carried a disease that can't be cured by intermediate detoxification was scary enough. But after learning that he had been to Roa recently, and heard some people were sick, it terrified me.

"I wonder if Rudy is okay"

"I'm sure Rudy is safe, don't worry"

Both Sylphie and I got worried about Rudy hearing that. I thought to leave for Roa right away, but I couldn't make the decision right away as more patients with the same diseases kept coming to the clinic in the next few days. Within a week all the beds got occupied, more than 12 infected, that we know of.

For those with lesser symptoms, when they received detoxification spells, it seemed to slow down the progress of the disease. Fearing for the worst, I started casting X-Cure on my family once a day on everyone. That's where most of my mana went, and I couldn't help at the clinic anymore.

Then I noticed, that on Paul's left-hand ring finger, the skin started becoming Pale Blue. He caught it as well.

Paul hadn't shown symptoms yet, this was likely due to the daily cast of X-Cure. However, it meant that X-Cure only slowed down the infection even when applied in the early stages. Unless a cure was found we were on borrowed time.

This was a Plague.

The only destination the people in our village went to was Roa really, other towns and villages are far, people don't really travel here. Only traders used these roads really, and villagers went to town to buy and sell sometimes.

This meant Roa had the plague, and Rudeus was in danger.

Learning of this, our hearts sank.

"We need to go get Rudy! Dear, we need to set out tomorrow!"

I said to Paul, during our family dinner when we were discussing the situation. Paul was in deep thought, giving it a serious consideration. This was the expression he wore when we were deep in the Labyrinths, contemplating decisions that dealt with life and death.

"..."

Paul kept thinking, quietly. It forced me to slow down and recover my nerves as well.

"..."

Lilia was also deep in thought. She was hesitant on stating her opinions in general, keeping in mind her position as a maid. Even though I welcomed her opinions.

"No, we won't head out to Roa. We will wait here for news to come from Roa."

Paul spoke calmly, resolutely. It was a tone that made it hard to refuse, I schooled my face and tried to keep my voice in check.

"Dear, if the Plague came from Roa, and X-Cure wasn't enough to cure it then Rudeus's life is in danger. How can we stay here instead of going to Rudeus?!"

I said I ended up losing control at the end. The words came out much more forceful than I expected.

"First reason, I asked Phillip to send Rudeus back should emergencies occur. So he should be on his way, and we don't want to miss each other.

The second reason, as the village knight I can't abandon this village without anyone to protect it, especially as monster activity has risen recently.

The third reason, we don't have the means to travel with Norn and Aisha, we only have one horse. We need to at least get a wagon."

Paul reasoned. He had given it a good thought. All of these were sound reason-

"But still, I understand Rudeus is probably on his way back, and we can't travel as a family without a carriage or wagon yes. But dear, you're sick. How do you expect to keep fighting monsters?!"

I couldn't calm down. His face looked like he's accepted that he will die fighting.

"Master Paul, what do you mean by that?"

Lilia asked, also worried for Paul.

"I've made up my mind."

"You don't have to stay here to die you know-"

"Once Rudeus returns, we will set out to Ars, to look for an advanced rank or above healer. Before that, I will send a letter to Roa to bring help in the form of troops and adventurers, as well as extra healers."

Paul continued and explained himself. So he had planned to go to Ars, he wasn't going to stay here. That's good. But what was that expression?

"If need be, I will abandon my duties to this village. To take you all to safety, be it Ars or anywhere else. That's what I made up my mind about."

Paul looked like he was in pain, I'm sure he is under great pressure right now. We all were, and Paul must be taking all of the burden on himself as he does. But this reliable man is the one I fell in love with and married.

As the appointed knight of this village, he had the duty to protect the villagers. Monster activity had risen lately, and the village militia is having a hard time keeping up. Without Paul, especially with a Plague like this, it will surely become impossible to keep things at bay. Calling for help, won't guarantee that it will come. Afterall Roa must be in shambles right now, with that many people crammed in tight during a plague it must be chaos right now.

Hopefully Rudeus got out safely and is on his way now.

After the decision was made, things got busier.

Paul estimated that Rudeus would return within 2 weeks, most likely on a small carriage for 4. It wasn't enough for our family of course, we will need something bigger, a good sized trade wagon perhaps, for long journey. Once Rudeus returns, Paul will ride to Roa on horseback, and ask for assistance in the village, as well as buying a Wagon with supplies for travel to Ars.

Meanwhile, Lilia and I started preparing for a long travel. We had entrusted Norn and Aisha temporarily to Laws, or specifically to Sylphie as she can cast X-Cure repeatedly on the kids. Laws had decided that his family will stop interacting with the village, and only live off of hunting for some months. He bought the supplies to do so with the rest of his money and some from Paul.

But shortly after, things got worse.

People started falling to coma, those who started showing symptoms a month ago had their Pale Blue Crystlas progress to a point where arms and legs were fully Crystals had fell into coma. Some took longer, some took shorter. Those who fell into coma were the young and the old.

But what made it worse for us was that Lilia caught the plague as well. She started coughing and feeling weaker. Lilia was in close contact with Paul, as a maid she took it to herself to take care of him. With Sylphie looking after Norn and Aisha in her home, I couldn't constantly cast X-Cure as she did, and Lilia it seems caught it from Paul. Most likely I already caught it as well and just aren't showing symptoms yet.

Can we really make a trip to Ars in this state? Was Rudy okay? Was Norn and Aisha okay? How much longer will we hold out?

Everyday the village scenery gets gloomier, and there hasn't been much smiles in our family recently.

The idyllic days of watching Rudeus and Paul goof about while swinging swords at each other feels so long ago.

Without Rudeus making noise and having fun. Norn and Aisha's crying and laughing, the energetic Paul sick in bed, and Lilia quietly looking after Paul while also being sick, the house felt dead quiet. Like it had one foot in the grave.

And I was the only one who could heal them.

All I could do was pray to Millis everyday and everynight. For the safety of my family, for the lives of my children. For us to escape the pale blue clutches of this plague.

I feel so *helpless*.

Then all of a sudden, a large BANG sounded in the house.

"Mom! Dad! I'm back!"

The front gate swung open, and Rudy ran into the living room. Sunlight coming in from the open door behind him lighting him, with dusts flying around. Rudeus was standing there confidently.

Rudy had a gray robe on, a small wand with an amber magic stone in his hand, big rucksack on his back. He had grown up so much, in such a short amount of time he looks much bigger now. He had a dashing smile on his face, just like his father, he looked at me.

"I'm back mom! I missed you!"

He jumped at me and gave me a warm hug.

I couldn't hold back my tears as I cried in joy.

"Rudyy-! I was so, *so* scared!"

"There there, it's okay mom. Things will be okay."

Rudy rubbed my back as he hugged me, and reassured me. His voice was so soothing, he had grown up this much without me noticing.

"Mom get Dad, Lilia, Norn, Aisha, and Sylphie. We gotta pack up, I brought a wagon with two horses along with travel supplies. Let's head to Millishion."

Things felt like it was going to be fine.

Author note:

Hey, I had another one of these "Let's try developing this stupid idea" and kept going. I planned out the story, had fun coming up with ideas. Then started writing the first chapter, and now we're here. We got this weird Fic.

Hope you enjoyed this... bleak thing? I got the continuation planned, but not sure when I'll finish writing it and posting it.

I kinda rushed through events in this first chapter. But the characters were in a constant rush as well so maybe it was appropriate. Hope the reading experience was okay. Writing this I kept thinking of how actually hopeless this situation felt, and how crushing it must be to be in their shoes. Maybe I should've elaborated more on it, giving some more word count, or maybe make it less bleak? Not sure, I would ideally post Draft 6 or something, but this is Draft 1 and I think that's okay.

Let me know what you think, how you felt reading. If you're interested in reading more, and any predictions you have. It'll be funny if someone predicts something and it turns out better.

Oh and feel free to use this idea, if you want to write something like this for some reason. Or the idea of the other thing I wrote. No need to credit or anything. I just want to read more Mushoku Tensei fic written by people who write better than me. That is actually consistent unlike me lol.