Mushoku Tensei: Sword, Magic Hats, and the Romance System [153]

“Oh~ only one wrong this time!”

Ghislaine lifted her face, accepting the little opening quiz from Rudy with a respectful air.

It was two-digit addition and subtraction.

In just half a year, Ghislaine had mastered two-digit arithmetic with the same control as the blade in her hand.

Precise.

Swift.

Carrying an unreasonable sort of beauty.

“42 + 17 = 96.”

“This one’s wrong. Remember what I taught you before—if a two-digit addition problem looks tricky at first glance, and if the sum of the ones digits is less than ten, break it apart to make it simpler. Up to that point, you did fine: 40 + 10 = 50, 2 + 7 = 9, then—”

...His words were enough to make one’s vision go dark.

Completely lost.

Ghislaine nodded after hearing him out, and beside the problem scrawled the solution method in crooked human script.

Her pace was slow, and every so often she had to look up to have Rudy repeat himself.

But her expression was very serious.

In some ways, though her reading and writing skills were still tragic, they had already improved considerably compared to her math.

Rudy’s face didn’t show the slightest impatience—in fact, there was even a faint smile at the corner of his lips.

At least this was a student who never skipped class, right?

And had a serious attitude.

He glanced at Ghislaine’s rather revealing attire, the smile disappeared.

He remembered the offhand remark from when he’d gone home to visit Paul last month: “Is Ghislaine’s chest really that big?”

Was that something you say to a child?!

And besides, he’d been hired here as the ojou-sama’s private tutor, not as her Sword King teacher’s teacher!

Keep this up and he might get thrown out of the Boreas estate, right?

He rubbed his face helplessly, glancing toward the clock.

Class had started ten minutes ago.

Just as Sylphy had predicted.

Those two problem “students” had, as expected, skipped class.

Rudy turned his gaze back to Sylphy, who was sitting there blank-faced, lost in thought.

“Even if Allen takes leave every time, this isn’t going to work. Eris has been imitating him—she used to skip once or twice a week, but these last few days she hasn’t shown up at all.”

“…Mm. Allen will persuade her to come back to class.”

Rudy narrowed his eyes at Sylphy, his expression pure disbelief, saying nothing.

After a moment, Sylphy seemed to realize her words weren’t exactly convincing; she scratched her cheek awkwardly.

“So… should we ‘go up’ and ‘persuade’ them to come back?”

“Yes! You only just figured that out?!”

---

On the eaves.

Allen’s mouth twitched at Eris’s smug expression. He took two steps to stand beside her, wiping the rain from his face.

With that motion, his battle aura began to steam off his body.

Its “texture” thick and heavy.

Between him and the sky, it was as if a transparent curtain had been drawn, separating him from the rain.

The rain still fell, yet at the edge of that curtain it could no longer reach him.

Dark water droplets struck an invisible barrier thirty centimeters above his head, then slid down helplessly like rain on glass, spilling in slanted sheets around his body.

Allen had entered his “room,” gazing across the rain-streaked “window” at Eris.

She wasn’t the least surprised at the sight; she simply blinked quickly, then reached out as if to poke at the “glass” where rain streamed between them.

Her fingertip stretched into the curtain of rain—passing through.

Raindrops tapped against her skin, flaring in a faint white outline.

And in the next instant, the outline vanished.

The leftover water trickled slowly down her finger, falling with a soft pat onto the roof tiles.

Had the rain stopped?

Eris arched a brow and jerked her head around to look.

No—the rain hadn’t stopped.

It flowed around her now, spilling from the air in front of her to her sides and behind her.

She had been invited into Allen’s “room.”

Seeing that the rain no longer touched her, Eris casually brushed her bangs back like Allen, exposing her entire brow. With her hair slicked away, though their brows and hair color differed, the siblings’ expressions looked startlingly alike—

A sharpness of brow and eye that gave off a powerful “presence.”

“I’ve seen this before! It's the Flow Technique! Allen, when are you going to teach me?!”

That impression came from the rainy night half a year ago in Buena Village, when Allen had used Flow Technique to shelter Sylphy from the rain.

Back then, he had been holding Sylphy’s hand.

Now, it seemed he no longer needed to touch someone to extend it to them.

Clearly, Allen’s Flow Technique had advanced in these six short months.

“When you’ve learned battle aura projection. But the way you use aura, this might not be easy for you to learn.”

Eris’s smile lifted; she folded her arms, brimming with confidence and about to speak—but Allen’s next words cut off her momentum.

“I’ve told you many times—this place is dangerous. Don’t follow me up here. Why are you here again? And isn’t this class time? You skipped class again?”

Eris’s smile froze. She retorted stubbornly:

“Allen’s skipping class too!”

Allen frowned, tilting his head at her, wearing the look of someone staring at a problem student.

“I’m the teacher. And before this, I asked Sylphy and Rudy for leave. You’re a student—”

“I asked for leave too!”

“Oh? Did they agree?”

“I agreed!”

The air went silent.

Outside the glassy Flow Technique barrier, rain kept streaming, the sound of it shh-shh-shh very clear.

At last, under Allen’s silent, steady gaze, Eris grudgingly dropped her lofty posture.

“I don’t want to go to class.”

“No. Go back to class.”

Faced with flat refusal, her cheeks flushed red in an instant. She stiffened her neck, staring at the rain beyond the barrier. After a long pause, she slowly raised her hand—

Fingers beaded with droplets slid into her hair, grasping the soaked red strands at the roots.

From the sides of her head, she pulled out two locks, twisting her wrists deftly, tying them into a quick ponytail.

Then, “Please, please take Eris to skip class, nya! ☆”

Eyes bright, cheeks puffed out, she stared straight at Allen!

Her wet hair clung to her face.

There was nothing haughty about her at all.

She looked more like a rain-drenched kitten.

—This was the Boreas-style way of making a request.

Allen froze.

He stared blankly at the little pinkie sticking up from Eris’s wine-red ponytail—

She was imitating cat ears.

And her expression was lively! Blinking, watching Allen’s face, she pressed the advantage:

“I don’t want to go to reading and writing class, nya! ☆”

“No need for arithmetic class either, nya! ☆”

“Just let me skip with you today, nya! ☆”

Allen’s expression seemed frozen in time. He stared for a long while before coming back to himself, teeth clenched as he forced out words through them:

“I’ve told you so many times...”

“This doesn’t work on me.”

“No way am I letting you skip class! Give up on—”

“Please take Eris to skip class, nya! ☆”

“No!!”

---

This is a fan translation of 无职转生：剑，魔法帽与恋爱系统 by 意外火灾 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!