*-Rudeus-*

*A few weeks before Roxy's arrival*

I was sitting in my room with Aurora. It had been about two days since mom and dad got back from Roa. I had yet to introduce Aurora to Edmund, since Phoebe wanted to keep to her birthday promise. I was still trying to figure out all the things Yoko could do now. They could split into a physical and spiritual form, but could also split their physical form into other smaller forms. They could split into a small boy and girl. When they did this they resembled human children wearing fox masks and kimonos. What's more is that the boy's kimono was blue, and the girl's kimono was gold. Both kimonos had purple trimmings and patterns.

Yoko could also summon smaller versions of himself that resembled his old Kumu form. These were used to make my leg, scarf, and new sunglasses. Sunglasses I needed because my eyes had become a literal screen to my emotions. They looked like hearts when I was around Phoebe, and looked like tears when she left. The irises got all blue and droopy according to Yoko.

Something interesting about these glasses was that they acted like augmented reality screens. Yoko could split himself and I could see through his eyes through tiny tv screens. By focusing on a screen I could make it larger. I could also make screens to jot down notes, or fly around the new bird things I made. I call them "bird things," because I don't really know what they are. They were bird shaped, but they were in grey scale, and seemed to be swarmed with static. I accidentally made one when practicing space magic with Yoko. I could make 2 at a time. They often looked like crows, but I was able to change their form if I wanted. They seemed to lag behind. Like if reality was running at 60 frames a second, but the birds flew at 20 frames a second. Their movements were choppy, literally. They moved more like images than birds. A jump for them consisted of them bending down, being midway through the jump, and then them having already landed. With nothing in between.

I used them to survey around the village, and realized that these farmlands were huge.

Anyways I'm getting a bit off topic. I focused back on Aurora.

'Hey Aurora. How do you feel about learning magic?'

Aurora turned in her crib and looked at me.

'Magic? I mean if I'm stuck here then I guess I might as well for survival's sake.'

'You don't have to sound all gloomy about it.'

'I miss my family, Big Brother. It sucks living here. There's a woman constantly doting on me like I'm her daughter, a man whose constantly flexing around the house acting like a dad who peaked in high school, and a "twin" who seems to have to much of a liking in breasts for a baby. You're the only one who actually feels like family here, and I'm so happy to have you here. I don't know what I'd do if I were alone here, but I miss my family back on earth too.'

'I'm sorry. I spoke without thinking through my words.'

'It's fine. But to answer your question... sure. I guess I'd be interested. I'd be lying if I said it didn't interest me.'

'Is that enthusiasm I hear?'

'Ok look I watched a bunch of anime ok! Of course I'm excited to actually use magic!'

'Hahaha. Alright then. Let's get started.'

'Aren't I a little young though?'

'You are. You can't speak so you can't use incantations, and your mana pool is to small to reliably cast multiple spells. For now we'll start with increasing your mana pool. Try to remember this feeling.'

I touched the Minikyu she was wearing and unlocked mana sight for her. Phoebe and I found out what it was that let me share attributes from my mana eyes with Kumu so I could do it pretty easily.

I took Aurora's hand and just as with Cyrus I took a quarter of her mana. This time however, I made the ball slightly larger. This way she could see what it looked like, as opposed to when I made Cyrus's mana ball microscopic.

'That was tingly.'

'Good. Now hold onto that feeling, and try to recreate it.'

Similar to Cyrus, Aurora's face scrunched up as she held out her hand. She pushed and pushed, and eventually squeezed out some mana. It was barely any. The ball she realeased was about the size of a ping pong ball, and if used in a water spell it wouldn't even be enough to form a tiny droplet.

'Why is this so hard?!'

'Hey look on the bright side. We just saw that you could do it. Now you just have to get better at it.'

'Yeah I guess you're right. You'll help right?'

'I mean I'll help yeah. You'll have to try your best, but if you can't expel all your mana at night, then I could take out the rest. You still need to learn how to do it yourself though.'

'Okay. Thank you, Big Brother.'

*A few weeks later*

I finally found a day where I could practice with the magic textbook from upstairs. Cyrus was asleep, and I was using the mini Yoko that acted as my scarf to hold Aurora. The clinic was open yesterday so there was no clinic duty today.

'So what spells are in the book?'

'It seems to only contain attack spells, so water, wind, earth, and fire. I'm gonna try out the water spells today.'

'Mkay! Give it your all big bro!'

I chose to practice in the backyard, since that would garner less attention. I held out my hand and prepared to cast the beginner level water spell, Water Ball.

"Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball."

I saw red veins spread through my arm and across my hand. It felt like my blood was heating up, and my mana spread outwards and became a ball of water. It sat there in the air for a bit before falling to the ground.

'Well that can't be right. The book says that the ball should go flying.'

'Maybe you did something wrong?'

'Yeah. Gimme a sec.'

I skimmed through the book and realized that I had gotten the steps of size and projection swapped around.

'Round Two!'

'Go!'

"Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball!"

Just as before I could see my veins start glowing, and a ball of water appeared at my palm. It shot forward and splattered on the wall.

'You did it!'

'Yep. Now to do it incantationless.'

It wasn't like healing spells where only the veins in my palms lit up. When I cast water ball all the veins in my arm would glow. Was that necessary for the spell to happen or could I skip that step and just control the mana in my palms? When mom casts healing magic only the veins in her palm and forearm glow, so I already know that that's different. Guess I can try.

First I needed to cast it without the incantation. Then I can try to skip steps.

I held my hand out and drew forth the feeling of my blood heating up. I could see that my veins were starting to glow, and small drops of water started growing on my hand. I pushed more mana into it, and a ball formed over my palm. It shot towards the wall and left a small crack on impact. I tried again and got a similar result, but this time I only put mana into my hand. That ended up compacting the ball, and when it hit the fence it blew a small section to pieces.

'Oh no! Hurry you gotta fix it!'

'On it!'

I rushed over and started fixing the wall with space magic. Once that was done I walked back over to my previous spot and picked up the book. Aiming a little over this wall this time I shot multiple compact water balls at the same time. As they went over the wall I pulled the mana back out of the balls, and they all popped like watery fire works.

'Wow! So cool!'

'Let's see. That was easy enough. How about intermediate level? Splash Flow. Seems simple.'

I once again aimed over the fence and started a chant.

"Supple spirit of water and princess of streams that flow through the earth, sweep away all things with your hidden inner might. Splash Flow!"

Just like with water ball my veins heated up and shined throughout my arm, but once the ball started forming it suddenly started sucking away huge amounts of my mana. It was to late to stop the spell, so all I could do was pull as much mana as I could back and aim into the sky.

Despite having pulled back over half the mana the spell shot into the sky at alarming speeds. It flew into a cloud, and with a loud pop the cloud dispersed, and water started falling from the sky.

I rushed over to Aurora and had gravity distort above us.

"I heard a loud sound! Are you two alri-"

Dad came around the corner and a bunch of water fell and splattered on him. Any water that would've fallen on us hit an invisible wall and slid off around us.

Aurora started giggling like crazy and I myself couldn't help but giggle a little.

"Really? What was that?"

Dad came over and looked in the book. Mom then came rushing around the corner.

"What's going on? There was a loud popping noise and then it sounded like something hit the roof."

"Well." Paul held the book out for mom to see. "Seems Rudy was a little to impatient to wait on a tutor and started practicing magic himself."

"Aw! Look at Rudy casting attack magic! I'm so proud!"

Mom pulled me into a tight hug.

"Mom. Please. Breathe."

"Ah sorry. I'm just so happy."

"But that's an intermediate level spell. Sure he's strong, but... still."

I was gonna say something, but I felt a chill run down my spine. An extremely powerful magic aura was walking towards our house. I sent out a static crow, and saw a girl about 10 or 11 years old. She had blue hair tied into two braids, and was carrying a magic staff and a suit case.

"It's them! My tutor is here!"

"Wah Rudy. It's only been a couple of weeks. You're gonna have to wait a little longer. Just cause you say someone's here doesn't mean they are gonna magically appear."

Dad tried talking me out of it, but I was positive.

'Aurora? Would you be okay if I left for about five minutes?'

'Go ahead. I was getting kinda tired anyway.'

'Okay!'

I got a running start and jumped up into the air by making myself lighter.

"Rudy wait!"

Mom tried calling out but I was already to high to turn back. Looking down I could see the figure of the girl looking up at me shocked. I slammed into the ground in front of her.

"Howdy! Are you my new tutor?"

The girl, wait no. The women. Her soul was older than she looked. I'd say late in her thirties. The woman stared at me surprised.

"I take it your the son of Zenith Greyrat?"

"I am!"

"Rudy you can't just go jumping- Who might this be? Another friend of yours?"

Dad came running down the road and stopped as he caught up to me.

"Well I'm actually here for the job of being his tutor, sir." The women looked back down at me. "Say. Were you the one responsible for that splash flow earlier?"

"You saw?"

She giggled as she gave her answer.

"It was quite hard not to. It was pretty impressive."

"Thank you teacher!"

"So uh. What's your name Miss?"

"I am the Saint class water mage, Roxy Migurdia. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

We led Roxy to our house and introduced her to mom and Lilia. Currently we were sitting in the front yard, as she was starting an introductory lesson. I was sitting on a chair with Aurora by my side in her Kumu cradle. Miss Roxy was pacing back and forth in front of me.

"So you say that today was your first attempt at casting attack magic. Correct?"

"That's right. Before this I had only been using the magic granted to me by my eyes, and the healing magic that mom taught me."

"Your eyes?"

I removed my sunglasses and pinned them to my shirt. She seemed shocked as she looked at my magic eyes.

"You're a miko?!"

"I'm pretty sure Phoebe said that's what they're called. So yes. I'm a miko."

"Phoebe... as in the princess?"

"Yep. Do you know her?"

"Yeah you could say that. She helped me out a bit back at the capitol."

"Really? That's pretty cool. Small world."

"More like small region, but we can get to geography lessons later. For now let's start with the basics shall we."

She's gonna teach me more than magic?! I didn't realize I'd get to learn other things from my tutor!

"Yes please."

I slid my shades back on and opened a screen to start taking notes.

"Alright. So since you've read that magic textbook I'm assuming you're aware of how everything contains mana."

"Right."

"So whenever a magician speaks an incantation we gather something called ambient mana. That's mana floating around in the air. It's not bound to any one thing. That ambient mana pulls out a magician's mana and uses it to cast a spell. That's when we use incantations. If a magic circle is used then only a magician's mana is used. Watch closely."

Roxy held out her staff and pointed at one of mom's trees.

"Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball."

The stones at the end of Roxy's staff started glowing and shot a water ball towards mom's tree. With the flick of my eye I intercepted the ball with a opposing gravity strike.

"Huh?"

Roxy looked confused as she looked at where the water ball exploded.

"That was me. Those are mom's favorite trees, so she would be really sad if something happened to them."

"Oh I see. Th-thank you. Come on Roxy. It's your first day and you almost messed up that bad?"

"It's okay miss Roxy. No one told you about it, and nothing bad happened so there's no reason to be upset."

Roxy looked at me and patted me on my head.

"Thanks. You're a pretty good kid, huh? Now. Go ahead and cast water ball for me. I want to see how well you can control your mana. See if you can make it as close to mine as you can. Don't be upset if it's not as powerful, since you don't have a magic staff to boost your mana output."

"Yes ma'am."

I held my hand out, and saw Yoko's hand appear slightly behind mine. Another skill of Yoko's. A spiritual apparition that grew out of my back, and could boost the strength of my spells. I didn't know whether or not it was as strong as Roxy's magic staff, but the main thing I'd be using it for would be mana control. It's other hand was placed on my shoulder and was holding it steady as I cast the spell.

The water ball formed and I aimed over the fence away from the trees. An exact replica of Roxy's water ball shot over the fence.

"Um. Did you just cast the spell without saying the incantation?"

Roxy looked at me dumbfounded as I lowered my hand.

"Yes ma'am. It took me a while to figure it out, but I got it eventually."

"Talk about a prodigy geez. What else can you do?"

"Let's see. I can cast water ball without the incantation, but splash flow I'll need more practice for. My eyes let me use Space magic, Life magic, and give me the ability to see souls. Space magic allows me to change gravity and create matter out of ambient mana. Life magic allows me to boost the power of healing spells, and grow plants. Soul seeing is pretty self explanatory. I can see souls through walls, and by focusing hard enough I can see a person's age and health condition."

Roxy looked at me with a blank stare.

"Well... that's. Impressive."

"Is it? Everything I can do is thanks to Yoko or my eyes. The only things that I don't need my eyes for is water ball, splash flow, and healing spells."

"Sure, but to cast a spell without an incantation is unheard of. I mean there's rumors that the current dean of Roa's magic university can cast silent wind spells, but that's all they are. Rumors. But here you are acting like it's no big deal."

"Huh. I didn't know it was. I'll have to keep that in mind."

It seems that on day one I was already shocking my teacher.

I started practicing swordsmanship with Dad. Well I say I practiced, but it was more like I just sat and watched him do sword techniques and then describe them back to them to make sure I understood how they worked. Luckily we both seemed to describe movements in whooshes and wheeshes.

I started falling into the routine of: wake up, use space magic to keep my body and teeth clean, eat breakfast, learn magic with Roxy, eat lunch, learn sword skills, spend time with siblings, eat dinner, spend a little more time with siblings or talk with Phoebe if it's one of our chat days, then sleep.

Or if I was helping mom with clinic duty: wake up, use space magic to keep my body and teeth clean, eat breakfast, go and help at the clinic, eat lunch at the clinic, eat dinner at home, spend time with siblings or chat with Phoebe, and then sleep.

Roxy had also started taking odd jobs from the villagers on my clinic days, and my time studying sword styles from Paul. She'd do things like adjust fields with earth magic and water fields with water magic.

My mana reserves were getting so large I was rivaling my old mana reserves from my previous life. I wasn't aware of the reason, but my mana reserves were growing at a much faster rate compared to my friends and siblings. I tried asking Roxy about it, but she said that my mana reserves shouldn't be growing at all. I might need to think things through when I ask magic questions to Roxy. I don't know if she can take another magic fact being proven incorrect.

I've been trying to find new ways to increase my mana pool since the spells and techniques I've been using are starting to not cut it. I've started to do 2 things. Whenever you adjust the size of spells it takes more mana to cast a spell. That includes making it larger or smaller, so I've been casting water balls constantly at a microscopic level. Due to my mana pool's size this often doesn't get in my way, even when I'm helping mom at the clinic.

The second method I've been using is actually something I use to bond with Aurora. At night after Cyrus exhausts himself with mana training, and mom and dad start their nightly activities I'll bring Aurora up to the rooftop. I'll create a barrier of silence around us, so that they won't hear us and we won't hear them. I'll sing any song she asks for, and once I'm done I'll use space magic to shift the stars. It takes about 1 and a half rotations for my mana pool to run out, so I've actually just been moving them side to side so that I don't mess up any star patterns that may exist. I'll do this slower and slower until I'm on the brink of running out of mana, and then I'll bring us back inside.

I had just laid Aurora down after coming back in one night to find that unusually, mom and dad were still hard at work. You'd think after having a son and twins that they would wait a little before trying to make another. I was really thirsty and didn't have enough mana to conjure a water ball, or else I'd pass out. I decided to head downstairs to get some. I opted to leave my sunglasses in the room since I'd just be going downstairs and then coming back up.

I cast a silencing spell on my feet and crept through the hallway. I came to a stop and felt my hand heat up. It felt as though my head was forcefully pulled, and I found myself looking towards my parents' room. The door was slightly cracked open, and in the small amounts of candle light leaking through the door way I could see Roxy sitting on the floor looking into the room. She had her hands in her robes.

It felt like when I was watching Lilia all over again. I couldn't move and my hand was burning up. I couldn't pry my eyes away from Roxy as she silently played with herself, as she watched my parents through the crack in the door. I heard my breath hitch and she suddenly turned her face to look at me.

*-Roxy-*

I don't know what came over me. I had never particularly been interested in stuff like this before, but hearing Paul and Zenith moan to each other woke something inside of me.

I found myself silently creeping to the hallway, and slowly opening their door to make sure it didn't creak.

_@-@_

I jerked my head towards the sound and saw 2 glowing circles staring back at me. The circles seemed to glow and barely illuminated the small area that my student was standing. His odd right arm slowly rose and put a finger to his lips, almost as if he was telling me to be quiet. I could faintly see that the back of the hand was glowing, but I couldn't make out what it was.

I quickly covered myself up, and got into my room. I sat on my bed and sighed into my hands.

"Come on Roxy. Really? It's your first time doing this, and you not only got caught, but you were caught by your student. While you were peeping on his parents for crying out loud."

I silently berated myself and ruffled my hair as I thought back on what just happened.

"Well I won't tell anybody if you don't."

"A-"

I barely covered my mouth before I yelped out of reflex. Looking beside me Rudeus was sitting dangling his legs over the edge of my bed.

"R-Rudy. About what you just saw... Please don't tell anyone."

I clasped my hands together and lowered my head towards my student.

"I already told you I wouldn't ya know. Besides you might be able to help me with something."

"H-help?"

'In what way could I help him in this context? Why is he taking off his shirt?!'

"I need help with this."

Rudeus held out his right arm. The arm was pitch black and seemed to be spreading across his shoulder like vines.

"So you may have seen it in the hallway, but I'll give you a bit of a rundown. A while back me and my friends were all put in a really bad situation where- Ah but you're gonna need to know how that happened. Oh but for that... screw it I'll start from the beginning."

"So you're telling me. That you and your friends were children who were trained to become gods, but were killed by those Gods, and then Millis himself reincarnated you into this world. Where you immediately got into conflict with Perugius Dola. Made a pact with Death itself-"

"Herself."

"Right. With Death herself to save your friends lives, but used to much of her mana, and so she took your leg and did something to your arm, and that symbol on your arm is from someone called Asmodius who is a sin of lust. And so whenever you are put into a lustful position like... the hallway incident. Your arm heats up, and you lose the ability to move. Did I get that right?"

Rudy nodded as he looked at me.

"Yep that's the gist of it."

"And you hope that I can help you with your arm, which is likely contaminated with magics from another world."

"Mhmm."

"Rudy... I don't think I could be considered qualified for that."

"Sure you can. Since I don't know anything about this arm either we'd be starting on the same level of understanding. I need help coming up with experiments and I need help performing them. I don't want to do something that might hurt someone else. You know?"

"I guess. So what do we do?"

"No idea. I mean there's only one way it's ever reacted before, but..."

Rudy looked at the floor and his face grew red. The circles in his eyes rippled, and the shape changed to hearts for barely half a second. I mean it was for science right? Besides he made it sound like it wasn't his first time seeing something like that, so at least I wasn't the one to scar him. I suddenly felt this itch. An itch deep in me that needed to be scratched. An itch that grew more and more irritated with every passing second I left it alone. I had planned to scratch that itch in the hallway, however I was cut short by the intervention of a certain pupil of mine.

I could feel my face start heating up as I slowly moved my hand to the him of my skirt.

_@-@_

I fell back panting. My entire body was still spasming and Rudy slowly rose from under the sheets. His arm seemed to be glowing and the vines on his shoulder slowly retracted until it got to the point where his arm attached to his shoulder.

He crawled forward and plopped down beside me. He slowly rose into the air and looked me with heart shaped eyes.

"I'd love to stay, but if we want to avoid an Aurora melt down I need to get back to my room. I also have a... call to make."

I heaved as I moved my head to get a better look at Rudeus. Something was off. It was hard to tell what it was exactly, but he looked older. Like he was taller or something.

"H... Hey Rudy?"

"Hm?"

"Are we... gonna do this again?"

Rudeus looked towards the ceiling quizzically.

"Honestly? It all depends on how this call goes, so I'll have the answer later."

"Okay. Good night, Rudy."

"Nighty night, Roxy."

As Rudeus floated through my door I could barely see him start licking his fingers.

*-Rudeus-*

Shit shit shit SHIT!

What did I just do?! I just...

I couldn't even blame it on my arm. I was in full control that whole time, and only at the end did it show any form of reaction. It had started spreading across my shoulder after my encounter with Lilia. But after what I just did with Roxy it had returned to just my arm. Gods. I needed to tell Phoebe about this, but I can't figure out how.

If I tell her about it it could break her heart, but if I don't she will find out and that's only gonna hurt her more. I sat on my bed and looked out the window. The sun was starting to rise over the horizon. Thankfully I wasn't helping at the clinic today, and since Roxy seems to be just as tired as I am I can assume that we'll both be sleeping in today. I could sense through Yoko that Phoebe's line was open, so I knew she was awake. Well I knew how stupid it was to push off talking about stuff. Had I told her about my feelings sooner it might not have taken us literally dying for us to start going out. I threw out a connection towards her line, and she picked up after a few seconds.

'Hey Thorn. Odd for you to be up this early. Something wrong?'

'Yeah... about that.'

'So you went to get water, found your teacher masturbating in the hallway, your arm reacted with what seems to be lust magic from Asmodius, and then you went into her room and helped her masturbate?'

'Y-yes. That's what happened.'

'Sigh. I thought you might follow in Millis's footsteps, but I assumed it might take you a little longer.'

Huh?

'Pardon?'

'I figured that if you could open your heart to me then it could be possible for you to open it to others. I just didn't expect it to happen this early though. I truly appreciate you for telling me this, and not trying to hide it. Just don't go pulling every girl in your village okay?'

'Um yeah. Love you Phoebe.'

I heard what sounded like a squeal on the other side of the line.

'I love you too! Talk to you later! Oh and give Roxy a spare Kumu for me please. I'll have Yuki send one over for you. You can operate on it if you want, but it would probably be best to let her figure it out before you do that.'

'Okay. Talk to you later.'

I felt a slight snap as the line between Phoebe and I was severed. That certainly was different from how I expected it to go. A mirror of ice suddenly appeared over my bed, and Yuki came through holding onto a blue dormant Kumu.

'The creator has adjusted the creation formula so you may touch this without bonding to it.'

"Thank you Yuki."

I took the Kumu from Yuki and laid it on my nightstand.

'I have one more gift from the creator.'

"Oh-"

I turned back towards Yuki to see her behind her mirror, and Phoebe poking out of the mirror. Phoebe reached forward and kissed me on my lips.

"There. First k-kiss?"

Phoebe backed away extremely red faced. I barely saw her tongue slip out as she licked her lips.

"Y-yeah."

"Haha. You know. You really should keep those glasses off more. I love the way they look at me."

"Well their yours to stare into whenever you like."

Phoebe slowly retreated back into the mirror with Yuki following behind her. The mirror disappeared in a puff of cold mist.

I slowly laid down and fell asleep. This is certainly not how I expected today to go.

*-Roxy-*

AAAAAAAH!

What is wrong with me?! I've barely been here for 4 months and I just... God why did I ask if we would do that again? I honestly don't know what's worse. The fact that I did it, the fact I liked it, or the fact that I really hope that we do it again.

Good grief what kind of teacher hopes to have their students masturbate them? He seemed happy, so maybe nothing bad could happen.

He said he needed to "call" someone. I had never heard of "call" being used like how he used it. You usually call someone over by yelling to them over a crowd or across a room, but according to Rudy when he calls someone he uses a "Kumu." He described it as sending messages across large distances in real time. Who could he be calling? The only person I could think of... Please for the love of the Gods tell me I didn't just masturbate with a princess's boyfriend and or fiancé.

As I thought that it felt as though a chill spread to my room. I bundled up in my blanket and fell asleep as the sun started peaking through my window.

*-Paul-*

"Huh. That's odd. Rudy's usually awake by now."

I sat down and drank some water in the kitchen. Lilia placed plates down for me and Zenith as we took our seats.

"The Young Master pushes himself to learn quite a lot for someone his age. Even with experience from a previous life it must be taxing on his small body."

"I guess you're right. I'm gonna go check on him though. He's usually the first one awake out of all of us."

"Dear. Could you check on the babies as well? If he is exhausted like Lilia believes then I wouldn't want Aurora to cry and wake him prematurely."

"Sure. Be back in a sec."

I finished my water and headed upstairs. I caught a whiff of something I had smelled earlier when I walked past here. I had assumed that it was from Zenith and I's activities from the night before, since the door had been cracked open. Something was off though. It didn't smell like Zenith.

I slowly opened Rudy's door and found that the smell was slightly more potent in here. Cyrus was awake with his arms held out in front of him. He started doing that after Zenith and I got back from Roa. Sometimes we could even catch Aurora doing it too. It was a little odd, but Zenith and I didn't pay it any mind. It was pretty cute.

Aurora seemed to still be sleeping. Rudy was too. I walked over to get a better look and saw that he had small bags under his eyes. I couldn't help but notice the fact that the smell grew stronger the closer I got to him. What could that be? It was definitely the smell of a woman, and it wasn't Lilia. I had just seen her downstairs and the smell only showed up in the hallway, so... I let curiosity get the better of me and took Cyrus downstairs to Zenith.

"Aurora and Rudy are still sleeping. I'm gonna go make sure Aurora didn't have any accidents. Thought I might bring him down first though."

Zenith smiled as she took Cyrus in her arms.

"Thank you dear."

"No problem."

I went back upstairs and stood in front of Roxy's door. Like before the smell had gotten more potent the closer I got. I slightly cracked the door open and saw that Roxy was still sleeping. As the door opened the smell slammed into me like a heavy wave. I definitely found the source.

"Hm. Interesting."

Now to be worried or proud. I gotta figure out this parenting stuff. Now how to bring it up to him?

*-Rudeus-*

I slowly rose and let out a big yawn. I checked my window and saw that the sun was high on the sky. I'd say a little after noon. I cleansed myself with space magic, and with Aurora in my arms made my way downstairs.

'Why'd you stay asleep for so long? I thought you usually go to bed after you lay me down.'

Aurora spoke through our Kumu connection. I tried to keep it connected when were both awake, but I also gave her Minikyu special permission to open a new connection if we can't reach each other.

'Sorry. Something came up.'

'It was the middle of the night. How could something come up? You know a lack of sleep can be bad for you right?'

'Yeah yeah I know. You aren't the first person to tell me that. I doubt you'll be the last.'

I made sure to use space magic to get rid of the smell in the hallway as we passed through.

"Well well well. Look who finally decided to wake up."

I looked around and saw dad at the table eating some lunch. I could see mom's soul outside. She was probably tending to the garden. Lilia was also outside. I think that's where the laundry wire is.

"Sorry. I got pretty distracted last night, and ended up sleeping in late. That's my bad."

"True. Here I made you a plate."

I could smell that Lilia had made bacon and eggs from upstairs. I sat Aurora in her floating crib, and sat at the table. Dad gave me a cup of water and placed my plate in front of me. I immediately spit out the water that was in my mouth as I looked down at my plate and saw that the bacon and eggs were positioned to look like a women's legs had been spread.

"Oh come on I know I'm no artist, but I think it's pretty accurate. Maybe?"

"Cough cough. What... what the heck Dad?!"

"Come on Rudy you think I wouldn't notice the smell of intercourse sitting in my hallway. Or the way that the exact smell seemed to be coming from both you and Roxy's rooms? Not to brag or anything, but that's a smell I'm quite familiar with."

"I don't believe that this is the right time or place for this conversation."

"Oh come on whose even listening? Your mom and Lilia didn't even notice, and their outside, Roxy is still asleep, and since Cyrus is outside with your mom the only other person here is Aurora, and she's a baby. So I'm pretty sure that now is the best time... for this conversation... Have you grown?"

"That's an odd way to finish you sentence."

"Wait no I'm serious. Stand up."

I stood up and he got up and walked to me.

"Holy crap! You grew like a whole foot! I've seen growth spurts, but those aren't supposed to happen until you hit puberty. Magic is crazy."

I don't know how we got to this topic, but I would love to stay on it. I didn't want to have this conversation right now, and I especially didn't want to have it in front of Aurora.

"Yep. Pretty crazy, huh?"

"Yeah. Almost as crazy as my son banging his teacher."

"Now hold on a minute!"

I waved my hand and cast a silencing around us. If he was gonna be this blunt then I really didn't need him talking in front of Aurora. I'm not sure how much of this world's language she understood, but I wasn't going to risk her hearing about this.

"Okay first off. We didn't go that far."

"So you admit that you did something?"

"You're already aware we did. I'm giving you specifics so that you don't assume something false, and make this out to be bigger than it actually is."

Paul shrugged his shoulders.

"Seems pretty big to me, but alright. Lay it on me."

"I just helped her... masturbate. A little. Until sunrise."

"Sunrise? Good lord Rudy. That's a lots more than a little."

"I'm well aware."

"What about Phoebe? Weren't you to a couple?"

"I... got her permission. She said to not go crazy with it."

"Really? Well alright then. Finish your lunch, and I'll show you some more sword techniques."

I dismissed the spell and sat back at the table and starting eating my lunch.

"Oh! And Rudy?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't go crazy with it. Ha!"

Dad laughed to himself as he left the house.

'Big brother? I couldn't understand some of the words he was saying. Is everything okay? You have a weird look on your face.'

'Sorry. It's fine. It's just Paul being Paul.'

'If you say so.'

I started taking videos of Paul doing different sword techniques using my glasses and space magic. I could use these recordings to get a better understanding of these techniques, and how the mana flowed through dad's body when he used them. From what I could understand the mana wasn't manipulated through a spell.

He said it was Touki, or battle aura. Essentially you subconsciously shifted the mana inside of you to reinforce your body, and increase your physical offense and defense. I tried manually using Touki, but I couldn't even cover my hand with it.

As we started to wrap up our lesson Roxy groggily came outside.

"Yawn. Good morning. Or well afternoon I suppose."

"Good morning Ms.Roxy."

"Mornin Roxy. Stay up late?"

Roxy glanced over at me and slightly blushed.

"Yes well. I was quite busy writing out Rudeus's lesson plans for this week."

"Right. Well I'm gonna go take a bath before dinner. You two do whatever till then."

Paul waved his hand and went back inside.

"Um. Does he seem more laid back than normal?"

"He's not laid back. He's smug. He knows."

"Knows? Knows wha- oh. Oh no."

Roxy started bringing her hands up to her head, but I grabbed them before she could reach it.

"It's fine. Calm down. He doesn't plan on telling anyone. We're fine."

"We're fine." Roxy sighed in relief and let her hands fall down. "Good. We're fine. So um. How'd that "c-call" go last night? Or I guess this morning, huh?"

"It actually went quite well. I actually have something to give to you. Gimme a sec."

I floated up to my window and used space magic to unhook the lock on the inside. I went over to my nightstand and grabbed the Kumu Phoebe gave me. I went back outside and handed it to Roxy.

"Here. From Phoebe. You just hold it and pour some mana into it."

Roxy slowly looked the Kumu over as she held it in her hands. She used one arm to hold it against her chest, and placed her other hand on top of it. The crystalline layer flaked off and revealed the silky slime-like texture of the Kumu.

"This is Kumu. You can use them to send messages, make calls, or even turn it into a weapon."

Roxy stared in amazement as the Kumu started flying around her. I reached out and made a connection between her Kumu and Yoko.

'So? What do you think? We got the green light from Phoebe, so we can... continue... Roxy? Are you alright?'

Roxy stared at me bewildered as tears filled her eyes. She got on her knees and pulled me into a hug.

'Um... is everything okay?'

"Just... just give me a second."

I stood there and hugged Roxy as she silently wept into my shoulder. After what I think was 10 minutes she stood back up, and she wiped her eyes.

"I probably owe you an explanation huh? Come here. Let's sit."

Roxy walked over and sat under one of mom's trees. I took a seat beside her, and as I touched the ground I let my life magic leak a little and flowers started growing.

"So I've been here for a little over 4 months now, and I've gotta say Rudy. It's been the craziest 4 months of my life. In my first week of being here you disproved 2 of the major facts of magic, just yesterday you made me feel something that I never thought I could feel, and today... you helped me do something I've never been able to do."

I looked over at Roxy and felt my hands subconsciously start picking some of the flowers that were growing around me.

"And what might that be."

"So I'm sure you've noticed my smaller stature. It may surprise you to find out I'm actually 37 years old."

"Not really. Because of my soul sight I already kind of knew your age."

"Ah. Right. Well the reason for my stature and my age being vastly different is because of my race. I'm actually a demon from the demon continent. I come from the Migurdian tribe. All Migurdians are born with the ability to speak telepathically with each other. Except when I was born... I couldn't. Anytime someone would try I would here this weird popping sound, and when you have so many people trying to speak well... it can get pretty overwhelming. So one day whenever a wandering mage passed through our village I ran away. I couldn't stand another day of the pitiful stares from the adults, or the scowls and ostracizing from the kids my age. She's actually the one who gave me this hat."

Roxy paused for a second and gentle rubbed the brim of her hat.

"She brought me to places all over the world. I was able to see so many things thanks to her. Eventually when we got back to the demon continent I used the knowledge of magic she thought me to join a small party, but after one of our members died we disbanded. After that Kant, the woman I traveled with, recommended me to the Ranoa University of Magic. After I graduated from there one thing led to another and I got a job here. Teaching you."

That was... a lot. I wasn't expecting to learn this much about Roxy today, but I guess I was getting surprised a lot today.

'So how does this work? Do I just think of what I want it to say?'

'Yep. You've actually seemed to have gotten quite a good hold of it. The message was nice and clear.'

'Okay. You uh... you said we got a green light? What is that?'

'Sorry. It's a saying from the other world. Phoebe said that if you wish, that I could take you on as my second girlfriend. If you wanted?'

'O-oh. I'm. That's. Good. That is good. But uh... isn't your age in this world a bit of a problem?'

'I mean yeah, but once I figure out how to do it I plan on making a new body for myself anyways. Once I'm in it I should have full control over its looks and should be able to change it at anytime.'

'Riiiight. Just go ahead and make a whole new body. You seem to love making the impossible possible don't you.'

'It's what I was known for. All I need to do is be able to make the body and remove the risk of being overtaken by a secondary intelligence.'

'And intelligence is stored where?'

'In the brain.'

'If you're going to be making a body that can possibly shift wouldn't it be dangerous to keep your consciousness in a brain! What happens if you shift, and something goes wrong with the brain?'

'I mean you've got a point. I could theoretically tie my conscience purely to my soul. That would eliminate the risk of conscience takeover and brain injury, but that would mean having to make a body whose organs could function without the brain's signals.'

'Well what would this body be made of?'

'Magic mostly. Why?'

'If it's to be made of magic couldn't you just make it run on magic? That would get rid of a need for organs or blood flow, wouldn't it?'

'It would. And since it would be made purely of magic shifting would be easier done than said! My gods Roxy I could kiss you!'

'Save that for night! Save it for nighttime. If people saw you kiss me like that it could raise a bunch of questions.'

'Alright. I'll just have to think of a real~ good way to reward you then, but in the mean time.'

Roxy's face grew dark red and I placed a flower crown made of small blue roses on her head.

'Oh gods. What will he do to me? What can he do? He knows so much about magic... what could he make? Wait. Am I...'

'No no don't stop now~. Give me some ideas~.'

Mom came out and waved to us.

"Seems that dinner is ready. I suppose we should go?"

"I suppose we shall."

I got up, and helped Roxy get up as well with a bit of space magic. Roxy's face was bright red as we went back inside. Throughout all of dinner I could hear all of her naughty thoughts, and could only smile as I hand picked which ones would best suit our current relationship.

*-Phoebe-*

Well that didn't take very long. I figured once Thorn started being more open about himself he'd eventually pull another girl. Honestly I may not be his first experience, but I was still able to steal his first kiss. When it comes to relationships like these it was always important to communicate and be truthful. Luckily Thorn seemed ready to do both.

Quite frankly as long as he didn't have a full blown harem of woman I'd be happy to stay by his side. I'd say that 4 others would be my limit. Anything more than that and I'd start getting uncomfortable. Even then I may just ignore the discomfort. So long as I could see that smile it would all be worth it.

The only thing I regretted though, was that while Thorn and Roxy were doing who knows what I was stuck here in the capitol doing paperwork, and spying on rotten nobles. I swear by the time I'm old enough to do something about them I'll have gathered enough evidence to reshape the entire Asuran Aristocracy. All with the help of my big sister of course. Ariel says she doesn't want the thrown, but that she'll give me her complete support if I want it. To be queen... Would that make it harder or easier to go see Thorn?

I even tossed around the idea of faking my death, but a blessed child dying would put those I care about in danger. Mars would likely be executed and I wouldn't be shocked if James didn't lash out at the Boreas family in Fittoa for giving him an incompetent boy, which could put Raion at risk as well. Then my father knows that I've been going to the Fittoa region for something that I kept insisting was important, so he'd likely hire men to go investigate which could also put Thorn at risk. I thought about it one day, but gave up the idea by lunch time.

"Yuki? What's Thorn doing right now?"

A chill spread through the room and Yuki appeared beside my desk.

'The life giver is singing to his baby sister on the roof of his home. This has been a nightly occurrence, and due to the stars' alignment shifting it is likely that he is using it as a form of training as well.'

"Moving the stars for training. Sounds like something he'd do. Maybe I'll have to visit him soon. See if he's made any breakthroughs in the whole new body idea."

'Incoming message from Thorn.'

'Answer it.'

I felt a tug on my conscience. Like a rope tying together.

'Howdy! Can you here me Phoebe?'

'Loud and clear. How are you Thorn?'

'I'm actually having a wonderful day. How are you?'

'I think my hand might cramp if I sign one more document.'

'Ah. I see. Well I've got some good news.'

'Oh? About what?'

'Making new bodies like you talked about before.'

'Really? Well let's hear it.'

'So I was bouncing the idea around and talked to Roxy about it, and we realized something. If the bodies are meant to shift the way we want them to that could cause a bunch of problems for the brain. So what if we just didn't have one. Tie consciousness to the soul and you only need the brain to send signals and order your guts around, but if we make a body purely out of magic, then we could make a body without brains or organs, but could still eat, drink, sleep, and have all its senses. Given enough time I could find a way to transmutate food consumed into mana to power the body.'

'That's... incredible actually. When do you think they could be ready?'

'That's what I'm still trying to figure out. I'm going to have to find a way for the mana to flow freely throughout the body, and be able to shift while still keeping the correct physical composition and coloration. If I had to guess I'd saaaaay... Year? Maybe. Possibly a year and a half for a prototype. We're just gonna have to see how things go.'

'Alright. Well I've had a pretty boring day, so thanks for the good news. I've got a lot of documents to get through before I go to bed so I'm afraid I'm gonna have to talk more later.'

'Okay. Love you Phoebe!'

'L-love you.'

The connection severed and I picked up some papers and sat them in front of me.

"My lady? Are you alright? Your face is quite pink."

Mars quizzically looked at me from his spot beside the door.

"I'm fine. If I want the king's approval for another trip to Fittoa I need to get through all of this. Crunch time."

I flipped through the document and started reading through some reports. I glanced at the piles of documents on my desk. I said I was blessed with knowledge not endurance. Why must there be so many?!

A smaller chapter than what I normally write. This one only clicks in at around 9,000ish words. I do have good reason though. I'll be releasing another MT fanfic similar to this one. It takes place in an alternate version of this world, but before the Godkin's lives can begin an unseen issue is seen and changed. All I'll say is the name of the Series and MC. Withered Reincarnation and Khaos. What changes and what remains the same? Who knows? Withered Reincarnation will have a chaotic update schedule. Rosey reincarnation will be my main focus, so WR will be updated as soon as a chapter is ready instead of having a set upload date. That means that you could see updates 3 days apart, or you may have to wait a week or 2. It will follow the same system as RR. It will be rated Teen on FanFiction and Mature with NSFW scenes on Ao3. See you there!