Chapter 4: Master Roxy

I'm now three years old and I've finally learned my family name and frankly I was embarrassed. We are the Greyrats. Not that there's anything wrong with the name, it's just that I have spent the last three years thinking we had a rodent problem. On an unrelated note my pestering wasn't working. Every time I brought it up Zenith would get a very satisfied smile and start dooting on me, so I started bringing the Guide to Magic everywhere with me.

"Oh, Rudi really likes books." Zenith called out with a laugh. It would seem all I have done is make myself look cuter in her eyes. This wasn't going to work, I'd have to plow ahead in secret. So the next day after Paul came in from his sword practice I decided to take a walk. I snuck out the second floor window and lowered myself to the ground with a couple of preplaced wind spells. Book in hand I made my way to the wall and got a close look at the village below. My throat clenched as I looked at the fields, there were so many blind spots. I mean Paul had a whole gaggle of secret admirers, maybe one of them was crazy enough to kidnap me since they can't have him.

I should just go back to the practice room and fire my spells out of the window. Without an explanation I let myself back into the house before running back up to the practice room. Dragging the chest we store the books in under the windowsill. I had a nice step ladder to stick my hand out the window. Book in hand I began to 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]" Unfortunately even with the preparations I made, I miscalculated. It was larger than the widow and as the spell formed its edges rather than flowing around it compressed into the frame. The force with which it blasted out was immense, tearing a massive chunk out of the wall.

This was the first time I had ever made trouble for Paul and Zenith and it would be impossible to claim that anything other than a magic spell did this. I wasn't going to get out of this with just a scolding, I needed to escape the crime scene. Sadly just as I thought to leap out the window a voice called from behind me.

"What happened!? Whoa…" It was Paul still shirtless after his practice. He was clearly at a loss for words. I needed to think fast, a sorcerer's true worth was brought out at the brink of death. Maybe I could learn to cry on command like the girls at the clan compound or maybe I could luck into a believable lie. "Rudi are you alright..?" He continued before scooping me up. He held me close, his voice full of concern. He was mumbling something about monsters when Zenith and Lilia entered the room. Unlike my fathers concern she was calm, slowly scanning the room before her eyes landed on the book and unperturbed Lilia simply started cleaning.

"Oh…?" She cooed while stepping over puddles to read the page I left it on. The jig was up. Immediately her face broke into a mischievous grin. "Rudi, did you read out loud what was written in this book?" She said, staring me down.

"I'm sorry." I said shyly hoping to leverage my cuteness. When a little kid apologized like this even the awful clan heads would become lenient. From what I can tell my parents were a whole lot kinder than them, but this was a different world there was no telling how they would react. Paul, still holding me, made his way over to Zenith and peaked at the book.

"No, wait this is an intermediate…"

"Kyaa! Did you hear that, darling! Our boy's a genius!" Instantly Paul's protests were drowned out. With a sqee she took Paul's other hand and started jumping in excitement. After all of that worrying neither of them cared that I had put a hole in the house.

"Honey, we haven't even taught him how to read." Paul tried to get back in control of this conversation before he was bulldozed again.

"Let's hire a home tutor right now! Rudi will become a great mage in the future!" Paul never stood a chance against this level of excitement. I guess she was really happy to have a child that took after her. That being said, why hire a tutor? She could do magic herself, was she that busy with her work? Through all of this Lilia silently cleaned. From her lack of surprise she probably suspected this or maybe she had watched me while I was distracted. It wouldn't surprise me, this woman watched me more than both my parents combined.

"Dear, go out to Roa tomorrow and put up a job request! This talent must be properly trained!" She wasn't letting up, but this was convenient. If everyone just thought I was some unprecedented genius I wouldn't need to hide things anymore. It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I had met real geniuses in my past life and I hated them. I was born with a broken body, missing my right arm and both my legs. Not to mention skin so sensitive and weak I had to live in a bath of antiseptic fluid. All of this for the power to activate my cursed technique from a great distance and the power to bank my unused cursed energy. I spent my entire life mastering my technique to give my life some kind of meaning. Then Okotstu Yuta appeared. A genius with more cursed energy in his left pinky than I could bank in 10 years. In a single school year he grew to a height of jujustu that I died trying to reach. Even if he seemed like a good guy, I couldn't help but hate him.

"Darling, get a tutor! We'll definitely find a good one in Roa" I was pulled from my musing by Zenith's third time making this demand. We all heard her, why did she feel the need to keep saying it? Was her excitement making her brain short circuit. Finally there was some push back.

"Wait, didn't we decide that if he's a boy, we'll make him a swordsman?" and there it was. The reason for all of her looks when I asked her about magic and her excitement now. She had failed the 50/50 and was hoping to get her way regardless. She even went so far as to take control of this conversation before Paul could get a word in. Honestly this little body wouldn't handle sword training well. Even if I got a magic tutor for the next ten years it wouldn't stop me from training as a swordsman once I grew up enough to handle it. From the outside looking in, Zenith already had Paul in checkmate.

"But he can cast intermediate spells at this age! If he starts training now he will become an amazing mage!"

"A promise is a promise"

"What promise! You break your promises all the time"

"We aren't talking about me right now" This was bad. They were using me as ammunition in their marital dispute. Luckily we were saved by Lilia."

"Let him learn magic in the morning, and swordsmanship in the afternoon. Isn't that fine." Instantly the yelling stopped and my parents got all lovey dovey. I suspect Paul isn't going to wait until I grow up a little. Where do these two get off deciding my life without consulting me?

The very next day Paul went to Roa to put up a job posting for a magical tutor. This gave me a chance to ask what Roa was. Turns out it's the nearest city and the capital of the region. Considering we were far from the heartland of the Kingdom we were likely to get a shoddy tutor but one needed to be advanced ranked in at least one form of magic to qualify as a tutor. So they would at least be able to work me through the confusing parts about this book. There was no inn in town so as soon as Paul left Zenith and Lillia started getting our home ready to house another person. If Paul and Zenith weren't snubbing this guy's pay, it seemed like a pretty sweet gig.

Once he was back everyone started speculating about the type of tutor I would get. The consensus was that it would be a retired adventurer, no young person would come live out here for this job. Personally, I was hoping for an aged sage somewhere in his late 40's to early 50's with a big wizardly hat. Someone old enough to show their experience but not so old to start going senile. My adopted father was that type of man, minus the hat of course. He dressed like a traditional sorcerer, I liked it when people played into what they were. Utahima-sensei did the same, that's probably why I liked her even though she was nothing like a stereotypical sorcerer. But off the topic of old teachers and back onto new ones, Paul's posting was accepted immediately. So we would see very soon the type of person who answers.

"I am Roxy Migurdia. Pleased to meet you." The girl at our door was likely my new tutor. She looked to be 14 or 15 with braided blue hair with a traditional wizardly hat atop her head and a staff in hand. As for the rest of her she had white skin that was mostly hidden by brown robes. The girl looked tired with half open eyes and an otherwise expressionless face and lastly a single small suitcase as luggage. For a girl like this to take this job had she lived an unfortunate life?

My parents both stood speechless as they looked at her. They must have been thinking the same things as me. We had all been expecting an old man but had been met with a sad seeming girl. If she accepted the posting she had to be capable of advanced level magic. From what the book says to have mastered the advanced level at her age was a sign of great talent or great education. She'll probably be a good tutor, she needs to be welcomed properly.

"Ah… umm you're the home tutor?" Paul stammered out.

"Ah, that's really…" Zenith tried to add on.

They were bungling this badly, so I spoke up to bail them out. "Welcome to the Greyrat household Ms. Migurdia." Everyone present turned their gaze to me up in Paul's arms, a small smile forming on their faces, Roxy included.

"Your son is quite well mannered for his age." Roxy says much to Zenith's joy.

Her signature grin had returned as she replied. "Isn't our Rudi amazing?"

"Speaking of amazing children, where is the child I will be tutoring?"

Paul butted back in by holding me up and replying."It's this boy here." I'd made a good first impression so she was likely to be impressed I'd thought but, she had the opposite reaction. She let out a long sigh and mumbled to herself.

"I guess this happens from time to time, huh, that there are idiot parents who think their kid is special because he's an early bloomer." I don't know if she spoke just loud enough for us to hear on purpose or if she was simply oblivious like that but, Paul and Zenith both very visibly reacted.

"What was that?" Paul said his smile replaced by a vein popping on his forehead.

"It's nothing, it's just… I don't think a child this age can grasp the intricacies of magic."

"It's fine. Our Rudi is a Genius." Zenith said hands on her hips, becoming the spitting image of the idiot parent Roxy just brought up.

Roxy let out another sign and spoke up defeated. "I understand, I'll try my best." She had given up before we even started, which was fair. Back in my old world a cursed technique didn't tend to manifest until around five years old. Even with the instinctual control of cursed techniques I wouldn't bother trying to teach a kid as young as me. After that we all came inside and worked out my lesson schedule. Magic in the morning and swordsmanship in the evening, just like Lilia suggested. I can't believe my demon of a father was going to start physically training me at three years old.

Roxy chose a nice spot in our yard for my first lesson. Magic lessons were to be done outdoors. So at a minimum she was smarter than an idiot like me.

"Well, lets start from the textbook… no… before that lets get a look at your mana capacity. "I'll demonstrate. Bestow the protection of water to the place where thou demands, let the crystal clear stream appear here, [Water Ball]." As Roxy spoke a basketball sized ball of water formed at the tip of her staff before shooting out at blistering speed. It tore through one of moms trees like it was paper before splattering across our wall.

"How's that?"

"Very cool Master, very cool but, that was mom's favorite tree. I think she'll get quite mad." I schooled her. Paul had done something similar about a year ago. During one of his training sessions, he had carelessly cut off a couple of branches. Zenith exploded on him and there wasn't any moaning in the house for a whole week. Though I don't think Roxy is going to sleep with her regardless, she'll probably find a more suitable punishment.

"Isn't this bad? Got to think of something…" Roxy looked around frantically to make sure Zenith wasn't watching before rushing over to the felled tree. "Uu…uhh let the power of God be converted into a bountiful crop, and bestowed into one's who had lost their strength to stand up once again, [Healing]." As she chanted she dragged the severed top of the tree back to its wounded trunk. The spell's green glow fused them back together without even a scar. Healing a bump on a child's head was one thing but, healing a felled tree was a whole other level. Without even thinking I had started clapping at this display of magic.

If a beginner tier spell like [Healing] could do this much could it also reattach severed limbs, or restart a stopped heart? At my clapping she looked back with a satisfied smirk. "This is nothing impressive, Rudi." She was clearly weak to compliments. If I ever want anything from her I'll just shower her with praise. "Now then, Rudi try that."

"Okay." I raise my hand. Honestly I was kinda hurt by her calling Paul and Zenith idiots for hiring her. So I decided to give her a proper demonstration. Without an incantation I formed a [Water Ball] similar in size to hers and fired at an angle. The ball took a curved path around the trees to hit the same spot on the wall as Roxy's. With both my hands on my hips I looked over to her and said "How's that?" Her smug smile had been wiped off her face, nor had her expressionless look returned. She was dumbfounded. That was the intended reaction.

"Rudi do you always omit the incantation like that."

"Yep" No matter how much she tried to reign in her reactions, she couldn't return to her emotionless mask.

"... I see. Do you feel tired?"

I ran some quick calculations in my head. The increase in size had drastically increased the mana cost, or at least that's how it felt. But I had been tracking my limits for a very long time now so I answered honestly. "I could throw a thousand more without breaking a sweat." With that she was finally able to center herself. She wore a grin and locked down at me with a somewhat affectionate expression, or maybe I'm imagining it.

"Looks like there's some worth in teaching you after all." She stood with a hand on her hat to fight the wind, her sleepy eyes wide open and full of excitement. It was the most beautiful sight I had seen in this world, maybe it was my weakness for girls with blue hair. But I think I've fallen in love. From the corner of eye I could see Zenith gazing at us from the window, that same evil grin spread across her face. Don't butt into this moment mom I'm trying to form a foundational memory.

The rest of that lesson was spent showing Roxy the bounds of my research, though I chose to omit my ability to maintain multiple spells at once. I had overwhelmed her enough. With that Roxy went to make lesson plans and I was thrown to Paul. Lucky for me Paul was smart enough to not start sword training immediately however, he did start physical conditioning. My poor baby body couldn't handle this demon's training regiment. Jogging, push-ups, sit-ups, and so on. I have watched Todo-senpai's routine before but I've never had to move my body this much before. Hell even when I fought against Mahito I spent most of the fight on my ass in a mech suit. With teary eyes I have to beg him to end my training early.

This just so happens to give me more time to empty my mana pool. Spells cost more mana whether you increase or decrease the size meaning I can spend it more efficiently by constantly adjusting its size rather than releasing thousands of spells. Doing this I am treated to a new discovery. When you increase the size of a spell you increase the amount of the substance present but, when you decrease the size you compress the substance. Perhaps that's why [Splash Flow] was so destructive. The pressure on it would increase the speed and power as it was released …Isn't that the same principle of [Piercing Blood].

With those musing on my mind my lessons would go on and after those lessons my personal nighttime training would begin. I had found a way to work on power and accuracy but my next target was to get more acute control of my magic. If I could learn how to control a fireball in flight, it would become an indispensable tool in my arsenal. I had also been slacking on my earth magic so I started making puppets.

It was a secret obsession of mine but I always wanted anime figurines. I guess from a certain point of view Ultimate Mechamaru was an anime figurine but that's besides the point. Due to needing constant care my room wasn't in any way private. I couldn't have something embarrassing on display. When I confided in Utahime-sensei she had stifled a laugh, it nearly broke my heart. She then followed up by saying it might be an extension of my cursed technique. Her technique was based on dance and music and when she was younger she had been drawn to rhythm games. Maybe even here in a second life my love for puppets and dolls was engraved onto my soul.

So I pressed on with my training making clay and ice sculptures. After some time I stopped being able to deplete my mana pool. Even with eight hours of what should be exhaustive spells I didn't feel the fatigue. This was bound to happen, and it was a very good sign. If I already had more mana than I could spend in a day, maybe one day people would look at me and whisper about my "Boundless mana reserves."

What wasn't growing was my stamina. Oni Paul, as I've started calling him, has stopped letting me end my training early. He is a cruel and evil man who clearly wanted to work me to death. Whenever he was gone working and I tried to slack off Lillia would snitch on me and he'd work me twice as hard the next day. One night while I was making dolls, my parents were also hard at work. They did this a lot but you'd think with a young girl like Roxy living with us now they would learn to be a bit quieter. When I was younger I would interrupt them all the time but these days I was to busy healing my sore body. I could kill two birds, I could get back at Paul and help Roxy get some sleep.

So I went out into the hall to play a prank. I was a bit too old now to get them to read me bedtime stories or at least they knew I was too smart for that. So I would need a new angle of attack, maybe something like "Mom, Dad I heard you yelling, are you okay." or maybe "Mommy, Daddy why are you naked? Are you wrestling?" one of those would work. Regardless of my interruptions with the rate these two were going I would have little siblings here soon. Even though I was adopted I was closest to my older sister, not that we had a very positive relationship. Considering I'd be blood related to my siblings it shouldn't be a problem but just in case my parents are stranger than they let on I'll pray for a brother.

As I crept around the corner, my eyes caught an interesting sight. A girl with blue hair, back against the wall with a flushed face. Her breaths were quick and shallow and her gaze was locked on a sight beyond my parent's door. She had one hand in her robe making some suggestive movements. If I was a better person I would have turned around right there and returned to my room like nothing happened. I wasn't a very good person.

In my past life I had a habit of people watching. I lived vicariously through them. At times seeing people my age live happy lives would make me bitter enough to cry in my control room, other times they would bring me a great deal of joy. This was a sight I had seen before not with Roxy but I remember during my first year Momo-senpai had done some strange things in the air at night. I think once she saw the mini Mechamaru drones for the first time during training she stopped. I guess the idea that you could be seen became a lot less appealing when you knew who would probably be watching.

Roxy should be about that age where she starts to become interested in these things, I was much the same at that age. That begs the question, how old am I? I died at 17 and I've lived in this world for three years. So the easy answer is 20, I certainly didn't see myself as a three year old but these three years are like retreading old ground. Afterall can I really say I'm an adult who passed the threshold of 18 when I died as a kid and I'm still living like a kid now. While I mused to myself I missed the money shot and Roxy started to collect herself. I should make myself scarce.

Four months passed.

In a short four months Roxy had raised me to all intermediate in all of the schools of magic. After that she started night classes, maybe this was meant to distract her from Paul and Zenith's nighttime training. We didn't work on magic during these lessons but rather I learned history. During these history lessons I learned that the bedtime stories I was read were in fact historical rather than fictional. It's like if we read kids stories about the storming of normandy beach or if we sang lullabies about the reign of Oda Nobunaga.

During these lessons no matter the question I asked, Roxy would give me a sensible answer and when I would give a question she couldn't answer she would have an answer the next day. We talked about the many races that inhabit the world, the origins of magic and even magical items. On that last topic I learned some very interesting things. For one Magical items were naturally occurring while the term magical tools are reserved for ones that are man made. How could an item naturally gain magical effects? Well it turns out this world has naturally occurring dungeons and the longer an item spends in a dungeon the more magical they become. Like pseudo cursed tools, repeated exposure to this energy starts to make it a permanent part of the object. However, the effects given to the item are random and didn't seem to be influenced by the nature of the dungeon.

While this was very cool my main interest was in magical tools. Using magic circles like in the book you could create a tool that replicates complex magical effects. If I could learn how to draw these maybe I could make a new Mechamaru, not that I needed one but having him around would be comforting. Unfortunately Roxy has no experience with magic circles and the book doesn't include examples. It was a pipe dream anyway.

Tonight I'm being taught about the human demon wars.

"The first Human-demon war was about 7,000 years ago." Though I listened silently I was getting a bit distracted by Roxy's posture. Ever since that night I couldn't look at her without remembering that look on her face. "During that war the standard for how we identify people to this day was made. Those who fought against humanity were classified as demons and those that fought with humanity were not."

"That seems a bit reductive"

"Indeed Rudi, for example I am of the Migurd tribe. We look more like humans than nearly every other tribe of this world but, because my people fought against humanity in the previous war I am considered a demon. This isn't a hard rule as there were those who changed sides mid war but it stands in most situations."

"Ah so Master Roxy is a demon."

"Yes, do you remember how shocked your parents were when I arrived at your door?"

"I thought that was because you were so small."

"I'm not small." She seemed to have a complex about that. Maybe she was like Momo-senpai and was already 18 but her body hadn't grown to reflect it. As a person who has lived with an unfortunate body, I'll avoid the topic for her sake. She continued, "They were shocked by my hair."

"Your hair?"

"The stereotype is the closer a demon's hair is to green the more violent and dangerous they are. Under a certain light my hair can look green. Hmm green, I read a paper in my past life that certain colors evoked reactions in people's minds. Maybe where red is a dangerous color in my old world, here it's green. While she explained that she played with her hair, it was really cute. It reminded me of Miwa…in fact strange colored hair was common among sorcerer families, that's how they recruited her. The Gojo clan had naturally white hair, Zenin had naturally green hair. Maybe this is how people's bodies reacted to being born with a lot of mana. Regardless of all of that I had an opportunity in front of me to earn some doki doki points.

"Your hair is really pretty."

"...Thank you for the compliments, but you should save those compliments for a girl you like in the future."

"But I do like you Maser." I immediately counter attacked, if I kept this up long enough I might just get her to wait for me.

"Right. If you haven't changed your mind in ten years, then try saying that to me again."

"As you say Master." This was a major development, I could see the hint of a smile on her face. With a small cough she went on.

"Getting back on topic, the stereotype comes from a tribe from the Babinos region of the Demon Continent, the Superd. During the Laplace war 400 years ago they were known for massacres of both friend and foe. Not even towns full of innocent civilians were safe. After the war the other tribes of the Demon Continent banded together to chase them out." Listening to this story I got an idea of what was going on, A scapegoat. At the end of a war somebody had to answer for the horrors committed during the war and rather than having the leaders who gave the orders they chose to pin it all on a group with a poor reputation. Things like this happened all the time in my old world. It often led to the forming of powerful curses that haunted these people that only increased their persecution. It was an ugly sight.

"The Migurd Tribe had close relations with the Superd in the past so we have suffered for their actions as well. Right, your parents will probably tell you this eventually anyway but I'll do it now." Roxy's face became deadly serious as she spoke again. "Remember this. If you see a person with emerald green hair and a red gem in their forehead, don't approach them. If you have no choice, make sure you don't anger them."

"What happens if you anger them?"

"They might kill your entire family." She was serious about this. We started this conversation talking about stereotypes. However for this she was serious like she knew that this was true. My assumptions might have been wrong, maybe these guys were trouble.

"Thank you for the warning Master." I'll take her seriously here.

Back to my morning classes they were progressing well, I had reached advanced with the four elemental schools. These spells were all wide range, and very useful. Their applications were vast. These days whenever Oni Paul was working me to death Roxy would help around the village. From my perch in the yard seeing the way they look at her made me feel a bit possessive. Don't these guys know she's already taken. Turns out she was doing it to make some extra money. I guess Paul the Oni that he is wasn't paying Roxy enough, I should chastise him for that later. Speaking of Roxy I've noticed she visibly cringes whenever I call her master so one day I decided to broach the topic.

"Master Roxy, does me calling you Master make you uncomfortable?" She pauses for a moment to consider before she lowers her staff and squats down to my height.

"Rudy considering how easily you're going to surpass me I don't think you should call me master."

"You wouldn't call someone you surpassed master?"

"I just find the idea embarrassing, like trying to use my status to put myself over somebody."

"But it isn't the point of teaching to teach a student everything you know, so that they can be better than you." This was something Utahime-sensei had expressed to Todo-senpai when he acted out once. He was a troublesome guy but he seemed to listen when she spoke. After a short reply Roxy answered.

"That's one way to look at it but I don't want to become the type of teacher who has nothing left to teach my students but still pesters them with my expectations."

"Did your master do that?" to that her only reply was,

"A teacher's jealousy is an ugly thing." This was something that bothered her, far more so than her small stature. I'll still call her master in my heart but for her comfort I'll leave it at that.

Hope you guys liked this chapter. I wanted to get some reviews before I posted it because it's a pretty important one with the introduction of the Goddess of Wisdom. On one note I had read in a fanfic at one point that Kokichi was a part of a clan and assumed it was in the fanbook but that isn't the case. Going forward I'm still going to work with that assumption because Mushoku Tensei explores family very heavily so having him have a complicated home life just works better for the story. Seeing as he's been dead now longer than he was even in the manga it's not like Gege will ever expand on his home life. Oh and I intend to follow the beats of Mushoku Tensei fairly closely even at points that might make our MC feel a bit out of character as much of the story is driven by the MC's horniness so I'll be laying the groundwork to make it make sense but please bear with me through the process.