Chapter 9: Practice Practice Practice

It's been a year since I took a disciple. To make sure I don't run out of things to teach her in a year's time, I've been developing my own spells. Well making my clay dolls was a way of making spells but now I'm coming up with incantations. Sylphie has been great for this. After she picked up incantation less magic I started hiding my spells from her to see if she could learn them off of just the incantation and a single demonstration. If it didn't work I would go back to the drawing board. She viewed it as a fun game rather than child labor so it worked out for both of us. To make sure that I didn't forget all these spells I was making I pestered mom and dad for a blank book. It turns out paper is actually quite common in this world but since books all had to be handwritten it made completed books expensive.

My initial view of her talents has only increased with time. I had 12 years of experience controlling magical energies and she has managed to match my rate of learning. This girl might be more amazing than Roxy, or maybe teaching is my calling. The old saying goes those who cannot do, teach and I certainly wasn't the top of my class in sorcery.

One day her mom came to house with her to thank me for teaching her the Laundry magic spell I developed. She also mentioned something about seeing her future son in law. While the idea of settling down for a slow life with a childhood friend seemed attractive to me, a girl with Sylphie's talents would probably be too busy earning a place in history books. If I had met a kind and earnest girl like her 10 or more years from now that might be possible but to me she will always be the cry baby that clings to her big brother Rudi. She doesn't call me big brother but it feels like it. Hmm didn't Roxy say something like that to me?

Off the topic of my mightiest disciple and onto my swordsmanship. I've hit a wall. It seems that to reach the advanced rank in a sword style one needs superhuman speed and strength. I know very well the line between what a person can do and what constitutes superhuman ability. I was tasked with spying on dozens of suspected curse users in hiding and I helped in Zenin-san and Miwa-san's training to reach grade three. Sometimes that line gets very thin but if you know it well it becomes obvious. Hell, to keep up properly at the intermediate level I've been using water and wind magic to improve my speed and striking power.

Dad has been taking this very poorly. Everyday he sees me improving and using unique and strange magics, but no matter how hard I try I can't muster the muscle for swordsmanship. In the meantime he's broken his promise and started teaching me the facets of the North God sword style. Apparently he learned Water and Sword God style from proper mentors while North God style was picked up in his adventuring days. Learning how the people of this world "fight dirty" will doubtless be useful in my future.

Everyday Sylphie comes to watch the tail end of sword training and after we finish I clean myself up and eat with her before heading out. Dad started wearing a shirt during sword training. I guess seeing a kid watching made him get conscious of his man-whore activities.

Today is no different. After we head out I do my standard Roxy rounds, helping people out on our way to the hill with the big tree. The hill is pretty close to my house but pretty far from hers so meeting here instead of the house is kinda a pain. Regardless, today we are working on advanced fire magic. Sylphie is the worst at fire magic so after all of her melded magic training we are doubling back today.

Roxy once taught me about magic affinities. Apparently early childhood experiences can have an impact on your magical developments. For the dwarves of the Millis continent they tend to live on cliffs that get flooded during the rainy season, in line with that most of them tend to have a hard time with water magic. Sylphie seems to have a similar hang up. On her hand she has a burn scar from when she was a baby, she doesn't claim to be scared of fire but her studies show otherwise.

Regardless, progress was good until it started raining. I could stop it in an instant but the farmers have been talking about having a dry spell recently so they probably need it. I tried using wind magic as an umbrella but after a small malfunction I just dumped a ton of water on our heads. Needless to say we rushed to the house.

When we arrived Lila was at the entrance with towels in hand.

"Master Rudeus I've prepared a bath for you"

"Thank you Lilia!" I answer while grabbing a towel.

"Miss Sylphiette here is a towel for you as well."

"T-thank you." With that we made our way through the house. Honestly I thought that I would hate baths after being trapped in one for all of my past life. However I came to realize that there is a massive difference between a cold bath and a hot one. When I get in that hot bath it's euphoric.

In the room I immediately threw off my shirt which caused Sylphie to flinch.

"Rudi can't we just clean up with magic"

"Lilia went out of her way to prepare this for us, it's only polite." I answer, starting to pull my shorts down. Ah I get it she must be embarrassed undressing in front of me.

"Don't worry I'll turn around so go ahead, I'll get in after you."

"Rudi boys and girls shouldn't get naked together!" Isn't this girl six? I guess it's important to teach this type of stuff while they are young but aren't baths an exception? I guess bathing with friends is a distinctly Japanese thing.

"I'll wait outside until you're done." I picked up my clothes and went to wait outside. Not a second after I slid my wet shirt back on, dad came rushing around the corner.

"Rudi, what was that shouting?"

"Sylphie wants to use the bath alone." I need to clear this up fast. I don't need a nymphomaniac like him lecturing me on the birds and bees.

"Rudi, boys shouldn't bathe with girls." I'm not gonna bring up how mom and him bathe together. Mostly because they do actually do naughty stuff in the washroom.

"But mom bathes with me"

"That's fine because she's family"

"Sylphie's practically family, she's my practice little sister." At that he started scratching the back of his head.

"Rudi what the hell does that even mean?"

"It's simple, one day mom and dad will have another kid and when that day comes I need to make sure that I'm a good big brother."

"So Sylphie is practice?"

"Yes." When I answered his face contorted in pain.

"You shouldn't use people like that. He said it like it was final. I didn't care to fight him on it as it was just some shit I came up with on the spot but she was important free labor for me. My precious magic spell tester was near and dear to my heart. While we sat in silence I dried myself off with magic.

"Right, you can just dry off with magic. Why are you bothering with baths and towels?"

"Lilia provided them, it's only polite to use what is offered."

"I guess that makes sense." After that dad and I turned to casual conversation. A few minutes later Sylphie came out teary eyed.

"Are you done syl…"

"I'm not your little sister!" With that she ran off into the rain. That's no good.

"See what you did Rudi, you gotta be more considerate."

"Ehh." Starting after that my brilliant disciple started to avoid me. It gave me more time to get ahead of our lessons but it was vexing. I still did my rounds in town and worked on my magic but without her things were getting boring. A week into this dad decided to speak up.

"Rudi, when you hurt a girl's feelings you have to apologize right away." He said with an aggressive lunge.

"Dad, don't you make excuses whenever you make mom mad." My reply was instant but my parry was a bit late. He hung his head a little while he pressed his attack.

"Well your father's mistakes are a good thing to learn from right, if you want to be a good man be nothing like your father." His follow up slice was half-assed at best and for some reason he looked proud of the crap he just spouted off.

"I see that makes sense, is grabbing Lilia's ass one of those mistakes?" It was a killing blow straight to his heart, oh and my sword was knocked from my hand.

"Please don't tell your mother about that." Despite the bout being my loss he was the one on his knees. Even if it will be ten years before I can best him with the sword at least my barbed tongue is still unmatched.

"I'll keep it secret as long as…" Just as I was about to push my advantage, a shock of green caught my eye. Standing at the entrance of our yard was Sylphie. Her ears are droopy and eyes downcast.

"ru…Rudi…"

"My Disciple! I hope you've been well since skipping out on your training." She flinched at that. I didn't intend to make her feel guilty but my words seemed to have that effect. As I was thinking of how to continue, Dad spoke up.

"Let's call it for sword practice today Rudi, you're free to go." Just like that I was free. I washed off with a simple spell and set off. Sylphie followed close behind but she didn't speak. She was trying to muster up the courage to say something clearly. I decided to skip my Roxy duties for the town and head straight for the practice tree.

"Sylphie, somethings bothering you, speak up."

"Rudi I…" She tried to get it out but rather than speak she sat down and hugged her knees to her chest. I took a seat behind her and started patting her head.

"Sylphie, there's nothing to worry about,"

"I…I…I love Rudi." Kids can be like that. I love nee-san. When I grow up I'll marry onee-san. It's a common line that comes out of a kid who doesn't know what it means. How do i let her down softly, hmmm. I don't want to give my disciple some kind of complex.

"Sylphie you don't love me, you love feeling safe. Even more so than your father, I make you feel safe right?" Logic works well for training, let's try it here.

"No I mean yes b-but, I really love you." Should I use Roxy's line? I didn't work on myself so I probably shouldn't go for it.

"Sylphie, you are my precious disciple. The best and mightiest student I will ever teach, but you're also a cry baby. You cling to my back when the townsfolk approach to talk to us. I love you dearly but I can never see you as something other than my cute little sister." At that her ears drooped as she whispered to herself.

"Sylphie there isn't any reason to worry about serious things like love right? Isn't it just fine to have fun like we always have." That first part seemed like too much so I offered an olive branch.

"But… But Rudi." Geez this kid is persistent. After that very little teaching got done while It took till sundown to get her to stop moping. I don't really want to hurt her but I can't say something like ~in ten years~ a smart kid like this might remember a fake promise and take it seriously. Her green hair is going to stop her from connecting with others no matter where she goes.

That will become my resolve. She needs to become someone who can be loved and trusted despite negative superstition. That fear and suspicion clings to her like a curse, and as sorcerer its my job to deal with such. I'll make sure she grows into an amazing and powerful woman so people can look past it. Is this how Utahime-sensei viewed Todo and I. People with such deep seated problems that she felt she needed to rehabilitate us. I don't know for certain but it feels right. Maybe Gojo Satoru wanted that for his freakish students. To get there she needs more practice, and I need to get serious.

Hope you liked this chapter. It took me a while to get it out because I was trying to figure out the route I wanted to take with it. Also for anyone who is confused with things that happen during this Fanfic, I've watched the anime but also i've read the manga and Web novel. So at times I will choose to use the anime as a source while for others I will follow the written materials. To tell you all the truth I wanted to write this fanfic because for this character I thought his story after the return trip from the demon continent would be very cool, however with Mushoku Tensei you really have to lay the groundwork to get there. So bear with me while I try to properly write this preamble to the story I want to tell you all.