(Daiki Greyrat) - (POV)
It was the night following the kidnapping incident. The day had gone by far too quickly, with Eris insisting on sparring with me, even though she couldn't even graze my heel or keep up with my footwork—which, from what I could tell, disoriented her quite a bit.
My brother was on the other side of the room, separated only by an ajar door. I saw him looking very pensive as he read his book, so I wanted to at least offer some encouragement.
I opened the door and walked in, nearly startling him.
"What's on your mind, brother?"
My sudden appearance seemed to jump-scare him. He spun around almost immediately.
"I was thinking about... how weak I consider myself to be."
Did he say that? Did he truly think that? I was confused. He was a great mage, undeniably so—why would he believe he was weak?
"What are you talking about, brother?"
He seemed to gulp down something invisible.
"You see... well, I was useless in that fight. I could barely keep up with your movements."
Ah, I see what he meant. But that wasn't a bad thing; he simply hadn't trained much with the sword.
"Do you want me to teach you?" came out before I could think. To be honest, it was the only thing I could offer to make him feel better. Still, when I saw him nod almost instinctively, something inside me was surprised.
My brother had changed, and now he wanted to become stronger.
It made sense... he needed real danger to find motivation. And perhaps I was the cause of that: I had defended him too much physically, without worrying about how he felt emotionally.
"I... I'm sorry, brother. But I'll make it up to you. We start training tomorrow. Mind you, it will be intensive. And it will be after my practice with Ghislaine and your lessons with Eris, understood?"
"If I can become better, I accept. I want to be able to protect you too, brother."
"And you will. With your mana control, your capacity, your talent, and your creativity, you will undoubtedly be one of the best mages."
And that was how I inspired my brother to become a "Magic Swordsman," capable of applying the principles of the sword while wielding magic.
--
The next day, my brother arrived at the training field—which was actually just the mansion's garden—completely exhausted. I wanted to believe it was due to the lessons with Eris; I understood those wouldn't be easy.
"Alright, brother," I said, tossing him the wooden sword.
He tried to catch it, but I used wind magic to deflect it away.
"Lesson one: Anticipate your enemies. You cannot win a fight if you lack initiative. An enemy won't wait for you to finish thinking."
To emphasize my point, I lunged at him at full speed with my own sword raised. He didn't expect it at all, but instinctively unleashed a gust of wind that pushed him back... maybe ten meters.
"Very good... but that is just instinct. Even though you escaped, I would have advanced regardless. You must learn to dodge, yes, but without leaving openings. What would you do if I caught you in mid-air? How would you dodge then?"
--
Exactly three hours and two minutes passed, and the sun was beginning to hide. I watched my brother panting heavily, while Ghislaine observed everything from a distance. If I'm honest, I still can't keep up with her, but one day... one day I will. I want to.
Returning to the matter of training, my brother had learned to dodge, yes. But he kept making a fatal mistake: he separated movement from attack.
He would move, pause, and then cast magic.
That single pause would be the perfect moment for an Advanced-tier swordsman to kill him three times over without him noticing.
And I wanted to change that.
So, I approached with more determination.
"You're thinking like an artillery mage. You move, you plant your feet, you fire... That works if you have a tank in front of you. But you are both the tank and the gunner."
"It's... hard... to concentrate on two things..." Rudeus panted.
"It's not two things. It's one." I raised my wooden sword. "We're changing the rules."
I walked over to a nearby tree.
"Watch this."
I placed my bare hand against the trunk. No wind-up, no shoulder movement.
"Shockwave."
But I didn't cast the spell outward. I detonated it inside my palm, right at the moment my muscles tensed.
BOOM!
Rudeus's eyes went wide.
"Physical reinforcement? No... That was Shockwave."
"It's propulsion," I explained. "I didn't use the wind to push the tree. I used the wind to push my hand into the tree at explosive speed from zero distance."
I turned to him, brushing the dust off my clothes.
"Rudeus. Your body is slow. Your magic is fast."
"Stop using magic to attack the enemy."
"Use magic to accelerate your body."
"Micro-explosions..." he muttered. "At the elbows to strike. At the heels to dodge."
"Exactly. You don't need to run fast. You need to burst fast."
"Let me try!"
He got into a stance. This time, his posture was different: less rigid, more alive.
I lunged at him.
Rudeus didn't back down.
I saw the mana concentrating in his right heel and his left shoulder simultaneously.
Paff!
A small explosion of air burst beneath his foot. His body didn't "run"; it slid, almost floating, moving at an impossible angle toward my open guard.
It was messy.
He almost lost his balance.
But he was inside my guard.
And then he released a second micro-explosion from his elbow, launching his fist toward my stomach with a speed he didn't possess before.
I caught his fist inches from my abdomen.
Rudeus stared at his own hand, trembling with excitement.
"I... I did it. I moved without thinking about running."
I removed my hand, feeling a slight tingle.
"It was rough. You almost fell. Your balance was terrible. And if that had been a real sword, you would have cut yourself on your own momentum..."
Rudeus lowered his head, expecting a scolding.
But then, I smiled.
"But you still did well for your first time."
Rudeus looked up, eyes shining.
"That is the foundation, brother." I pointed to his chest. "Turn your body into the projectile. That will be your 'Sword'."
"Yes!" he shouted, with a renewed energy he didn't have five minutes ago.
And that made me incredibly happy. Seeing that I could shape my brother into something better brought me great joy.
I turned to see Eris watching from a window. Was she interested too?
"You can't teach her, can you?"
"Yes."
"Does she get bored?"
"Of course, she says she only wants to be an adventurer and isn't interested in anything else... Well, she insists on wanting to beat you, but that's impossible for now."
"She won't be able to do anything to you now either... At least for now."
I looked at the sky.
"Alright. Now do it a hundred more times before dinner."
"A HUNDRED?!"
"Do you want to survive Eris tomorrow or not?"
"..."
"That's what I thought... I'm going to grab a bite; I'm starving."
And so I left, leaving him alone with the uncertainty... but also with a different spirit. Or so I believed. Perhaps he would finally see that he can stand by my side without weakening me; he is still the prodigy of magic, but I am the prodigy of the sword... and together, together we are unstoppable.
I grinned broadly as I entered the mansion, walking straight to the kitchen to ask the chef for those desserts whose name, ironically, I had forgotten. For the first time, I forgot something; I was improving. Others would consider it a weakness, but I saw it as an advantage. I could finally feel human. I had always been one, of course, but every day confirmed it a little more.
--
## (Rudeus Greyrat) - (POV)
My brother had left, leaving me alone with Ghislaine watching me from high atop a roof... A part of me didn't know how to move forward without him.
No, Rudeus... if there's one thing your older brother would hate, it's you depending solely on him. I can be better. I can stand by his side without overshadowing him or being a burden. And I will do it, even if I can't sleep at all afterwards.
I won't repeat the mistakes of my past life; I won't go back to being someone who needs to be taken care of by his family.
"AAAAH!" I shouted as I applied the same principle he did, causing the tree to crack. I had more mana and more magical control than my brother, yes, but the result was still imperfect... How does he do it? I'm sure he'd be capable of destroying my organs without damaging anything else around them.
I stared at my own hand, trembling. It wasn't fear... or perhaps it was, but mixed with frustration.
I took a deep breath and made another attempt.
The tree creaked again, louder this time. The leaves shook, but the crack expanded to where it shouldn't have. My control dispersed.
"Tch..." I bit my tongue.
From above, I could feel Ghislaine's eyes boring into me. She said nothing, and that was worse. She never talks more than necessary; she just watches, judges, waits. But I know that if she sees something wrong, if I'm straying, she'll notice in an instant. And yet, she doesn't come down. Maybe she wants to see if I'm capable of standing on my own two feet without my brother nearby to hold me up.
I can do it. I can do it.
I raised my hand again. Just like Daiki did.
I concentrated the flow, slow at first. Then a twist, a finer torque, just as I had seen in his movements. No brute force. No sudden perfection. Just... feeling it.
And nothing, the same result... But I was getting there; I already had the basics. I just had to study and practice, as I usually do with spells.
With that said, I took an effective leap, using wind beneath my feet.
"I can be better!"
And so, I began my training... casting the spell a hundred times in a row. But I had the confidence to do it.
Will I be able to? Will I finally be able to be someone better? Yes, definitely...
My brother already taught me that the past is just memories, that this body is new, that this life is new, so... effectively, I can be better than the 'me' from the past. Although he told me: "You are already better. would the Rudeus of the past have tried to convince Eris to be his student, or would he have left at the first opportunity to make money?"
And it was true. Of course it was. He always seemed to know everything.
## (Daiki Greyrat) - (POV)
Exactly one month has passed since we arrived at this mansion. To be honest, I couldn't be happier about coming here. The training sessions with Ghislaine have intensified since then, urging me to strive twice as hard as before... But I wasn't complaining; I had that obsession. I couldn't simply stay behind.
Even so, it seems my brother is having a hard time with Eris.
She hasn't paid attention to him since he started giving her lessons. She disappears all the time as soon as it's time for reading, writing, or arithmetic. With me, however, it was different: every day she came to challenge me; every time she trained with Ghislaine she believed she had surpassed me, but she still couldn't touch me.
My brother, meanwhile, was already much faster than before thanks to his wind magic control. He had learned to optimize it so much that he could move by softening his steps and giving himself small boosts without getting too tired, although his biggest advantage was the exorbitant amount of mana he possessed.
Magic class was the only one Eris faithfully paid attention to. The first time she produced a Fireball she was happy and enthusiastic. She watched as her fire roared and consumed the curtains, and said:
"Someday I'm going to create fireworks in the sky just like you did."
I hope Rudeus warned her not to use fire magic when he is nearby... or inside the mansion.
Although... I didn't expect to find my brother in a situation like this. I arrived at the stables and saw him approaching Eris, who was asleep, in a... strange way.
I quickly grabbed him by the collar and threw him outside.
"Rudeus..." I said in Japanese.
He just smiled nervously.
"I was just going to stop her from getting cold!"
I couldn't help but smile a little.
"Fine, but next time I don't want to catch you doing something like that, understood?"
He nodded, nervous.
## One Year Later
It was barely a week until Eris's tenth birthday. The entire mansion was chaos; honestly, Edna was anything but competent. She was supposed to be an etiquette instructor, but she seemed incapable of finding a solution for the "Crimson Whirlwind," as if Eris were a force of nature impossible to contain. Although... if I'm honest, that was part of her charm.
She's like me, but in a different sense. I appear to be the typical "cool guy" who doesn't care about anything, but those who really know me know how much I would be willing to do to protect them.
I was walking alongside my brother when a voice stopped us.
"Rudeus-sama, Daiki-sama," she intercepted us in the hallway. "Eris-sama has escaped her dance lesson again."
Rudeus sighed.
"Again. I'll go find her."
"No," I stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You have to prepare the gifts. I'll go."
I found Eris in the stable, hitting a sack of hay with a stick. She was sweaty, frustrated, and had that murderous look she used to get when she couldn't solve an equation.
"Get out..." she growled without looking at me.
I leaned against the pillar, crossing my arms.
"Edna says you're running away."
"I'm not running away!" she shouted, throwing the stick. "It's stupid! Dancing is for the weak! I am a swordsman!"
I walked toward her. Her breathing was ragged.
"Dancing isn't for the weak, Young Eris. It is control. It is rhythm. It is anticipation." I looked her in the eyes. "It is combat without blood."
Eris snorted.
"Nonsense. Edna just says 'one, two, three, turn.' It makes no sense."
"It makes sense if you know how to look."
I took off my jacket, remaining in my shirt. I extended my hand toward her.
"Attack me."
"What?"
"Try to step on my foot. Now."
Eris smiled maliciously. She loved it when I challenged her.
She lunged forward, trying to crush my boot with hers.
I slid backward.
One step.
She adjusted and attacked again.
I slid to the left.
Two steps.
She spun, frustrated, trying to sweep me.
I caught her hand and spun with her.
Three steps.
When we finished, we were chest to chest, and my hand was still resting on her waist. She was breathing heavily, completely surprised.
"That was a basic waltz," I whispered to her. "Movement, counter-movement, turn."
Eris's eyes opened wide.
"That... that was dancing?"
"Dancing is fighting with rules, Eris. Your partner is not an enemy, but a cooperative opponent. You have to read their intention, follow their weight, anticipate their turn. If you can predict my sword, you can predict my feet."
I let her go slowly.
"Edna doesn't know how to explain it like that. She teaches ladies. You are a warrior."
Eris looked at her feet, then at mine.
"Teach me," she said, with that fierce determination I liked so much. "Teach me to fight with music."
A smile appeared on my face, and I offered her my hand.
"You said dancing wasn't combat... or that it was for the weak. Do you remember when I made you dance the first day we met? I think you turned red."
I said it with a soft laugh, knowing that teasing her a little always made her give more of herself... and try to erase that awkward memory.
"Th-that was...!" she choked on her own pride, unable to finish the sentence. "Whatever! You were stronger than me, but I'm going to surpass you!"
And so began her dance lessons, just a week away from her grand debut.