[Ghislaine's POV]
Rudeus had locked himself in his room.
He was up to something again.
He had a habit of surprising Ghislaine like this sometimes.
When she first met him, she thought he was just a child, and untrustworthy.
She thought Paul was being an overconfident and proud father when he forced her to take in this child.
Ghislaine owed Paul.
She felt nothing for him other than a sense of obligation.
Faced with the possibility that Rudeus wouldn't be appointed Eris's guardian, she still planned to propose that he stay here.
In the end, he gained Eris's trust in record time and secured a place in the house as her tutor
The kidnapping was something he had proposed. Ghislaine heard that the butler took advantage of the situation out of greed, but by the time she arrived on the scene to help Rudeus and Eris, he had already dealt with the two people hired by the butler on equal footing.
Beyond his fighting instinct, he was exceptional at organizing effective lessons for Eris that were easy to follow.
Moreover, at the young age of eight, he was already advanced in all three sword styles, something she had never heard of.
Ghislaine never thought she could learn to read, write, calculate, or receive a magic wand.
She, the village annoyance, had been entrusted to a wandering swordsman before she turned ten.
She, who had been rejected from adventuring parties despite having become a Saint-level swordswoman.
When she finally managed to join one, a frivolous and not-too-bright man kept telling her she had muscles in her brain, so there was no point in wasting time thinking.
What would those people say if she went home now? Just thinking about it brought her to the brink of laughter.
Ghislaine never thought the day would come when thinking about the people in her village would make her feel triumphant. And all of this, unprecedented, from a boy who would have been the same age she was when she was expelled from her village.
After her group disbanded, Ghislaine was swindled almost every day. The fraud left her penniless, but the strict discipline her master instilled in her not to touch others' belongings meant she couldn't resort to theft.
She was on the verge of death from starvation.
That was when Sauros and Eris took her in. Ghislaine paid Rudeus the same respect she paid them both. If she had ever called him "master," her swordmaster would probably have fumed.
"Don't you dare put me and that brat on the same level!" It was probably better to call him her teacher.
And Rudeus deserved respect for his skills as a teacher.
He was truly patient when teaching her arithmetic and magic. Ghislaine did her best, but she wasn't good at learning new things.
She made the same mistakes over and over again.
Despite that,Rudeus never showed the slightest annoyance as he carefully explained things to her.
He changed his phrase each time to help her understand better.
Thanks to his efforts, in just a short year Ghislaine had mastered the basics of fire and water magic.
Ghislaine's sword master, who was a divine-level swordsman, was always preaching to her about logic.
He said things like, "In other words, logic is the foundation." That her swordsmanship, cultivated over many years, was based on rationality.
Ghislaine's younger self detested the simplicity of the foundations, so her teacher did his best to drill them into her.
She was forced to practice them repeatedly.
Rudeus's teaching style was very similar. When he was gone, Eris often complained,
"I want to use extravagant magic."
But Ghislaine agreed with how things were. In a real battle, the most reliable fighter wasn't the advanced mage who took forever to cast a powerful spell.
It was the mage who could adapt to the situation and had full mastery of basic and intermediate-level magic.
In the past, she had thought mages were completely useless in battle.
But after watching Rudeus fight, Ghislaine had changed her mind.
An opponent who moved quickly while using offensive magic to restrict their opponent's movements would be a formidable foe for any swordsman.
She heard that her only real rival in her village was Paul.
Paul, who was immature, surely attacked Rudeus without holding anything back.
If the result of that was Rudeus gaining the ability to move strategically in a sword fight... then that was a happy coincidence.
Her thoughts had wandered.
Ah, yes. She wondered what Rudeus was doing in that room.
Unlike the Young Mistress, who seemed overwhelmed with the free time her day off offered, Rudeus was always dipping his toes into something new.
Since becoming a Sword Saint two months ago, he had become more ferocious in his training.
It was a shame Ghislaine only knew one style, but she was certain Rudeus had the potential to become a Triple Emperor.
Most recently, he had arrived at Ghislaine's room after dinner with a book in one hand, telling her he wanted to learn the language of the Beast God.
She wasn't sure what he planned to do with a language used only in a large forest village, but he spent the next six months learning it.
The language of the Beast God didn't have difficult expressions, so he could probably hold a fluent everyday conversation.
"Now I can go to the big forest village whenever I want," he said afterward, his expression bleak.
"And what are you planning to do in such an isolated place?" He grew nervous when she asked.
"Huh? Nothing in particular... It never hurts to learn about other cultures, especially my teacher's," he said, bringing a smile to Ghislaine's face and a thought to her.
"Oh yeah? Aren't you thinking about going looking for a girl? Aren't you satisfied with just one race?"
"I'm being serious here, stop joking," he grumbled.
It definitely wasn't just a joke.
This boy was going to be a womanizer someday.
Lately, a spark had begun to form in Miss Eris's eyes when she looked at Rudeus. Ghislaine may have been ignorant in matters of love, but even she could see it.
Eris resembled Zenith when she first began to fall for Paul.
Rudeus had apparently begun learning the Demon God's language lately.
First the Beast God's language, then the Fighting God's language, and now the Demon God's language.
In the future, it seems likely he'll embark on a quest to meet all the women in the world. Paul once said something similar about traveling throughout the Central Continent so he could create a harem.
He had abandoned the idea on the Millis Continent when Zenith took over, but perhaps Rudeus had inherited that idea.
Honestly, what a useless father-son pairing...
No.
Ghislaine respected Rudeus.
That wasn't a lie. Paul was the only one she despised.
Rudeus may have shown glimpses of the same disposition, but he hadn't acted on it yet.
He was still a boy worthy of respect.
Yes. At least for now.
"What is it, Ghislaine?" Eris appeared before her while she was lost in thought.
Eris had grown a lot in the past year.
Ghislaine had first met her five years ago.
At the time, Ghislaine thought she was a completely hopeless and selfish child.
On Eris's first day of sword lessons, Ghislaine trained her until she could barely stand.
At night, Eris came to Ghislaine with a wooden sword.
Ghislaine quickly put an end to this by turning the tables, but for months, Eris's burning gaze followed Ghislaine, waiting for her to let her guard down.
Ghislaine was usually a problem child, so she felt fond of Eris. She was like that when she was younger, after all.
At first, Eris was always complaining about this or that during training.
That finally disappeared recently. And after her birthday last year, Eris stopped screaming and staining her clothes.
Rather than attributing it to her etiquette lessons, Ghislaine was inclined to think it was because Eris wanted to look good in front of Rudeus.
Perhaps she said something to Eris on her birthday. Something she had learned from Paul, Ghislaine was sure, the kind of words that would move a woman's heart.
Come to think of it, Eris had spent the night in Rudeus's room. Could that be...?
No, it wasn't possible; they were both too young.
However, Ghislaine wouldn't be surprised if the two became a couple.
There weren't many men who could handle Eris.
"I was thinking about Rudeus."
"Hmm, why?" Eris tilted her head, a hint of jealousy in her eyes.
"Don't worry," Ghislaine thought, "I'm not going to steal it from you."
"I was wondering, why is he trying to learn the language of the Demon Continent?"
"He's explained it before."
"Did he?" Ghislaine thought he paid attention to his lessons, but she had no idea what was spurring his sudden interest in foreign languages.
"What was it?"
"It might come in handy someday," she said.
"Right, he said when they wandered through shops, he wrote down the names and prices of different merchandise Did it ever prove useful?" Now that Ghislaine thought about it, that thief in her group from long ago knew the market value of consumables very well.
His name was Gesse. She remembered him fondly, but she knew that with his skills and slippery nature, he would manage to live on.
Thanks to Rudeus's arithmetic lessons, she wouldn't be fooled as much anymore.
But it was still possible for her to feel cheated if a shop owner manipulated prices to begin with.
She couldn't become a merchant just because she'd learned some math skills, but those skills certainly had many uses.
"Forget about Rudeus for now. You can think about him all you want and you won't understand," Eris said. "Most importantly, Ghislaine, if you're free, join me in sword practice."
Lately, she'd really dedicated herself to swordsmanship. Ghislaine wasn't sure why, but perhaps she was feeling some pressure.
Rudeus was nine years old and already a sword saint and advanced double swordsman.
Eris was the same age when they met.
It was clear he was much more mature now than Eris had been at that age. Not just in reading, writing, arithmetic, and magic, but also in his social and conversational skills.
He may have lacked etiquette, but he had manners.
Perhaps Eris wanted to beat Rudeus at one thing.
If that thing was swordsmanship, Ghislaine was more than happy to help.
"Very well, Eris. To the courtyard."
"Okay!" She nodded enthusiastically.
If Eris continued training seriously, she might one day surpass Ghislaine. Right now, her skill level was at the Intermediate level, but after three years of working on the foundations, her potential was beginning to manifest itself.
Her steps were sharp and quick.
Her fighting spirit was beginning to fuel her movements.
If she consciously learned to use it, she would definitely reach the Advanced level of the God Sword Style.
And if she fully mastered it, she could reach Saint-level.
That future surely wasn't far off.
Ghislaine didn't know how much Eris would grow, but if she managed to reach Saint-level skills while Ghislaine was still teaching her, then Ghislaine would let Eris meet her master.
If possible, Ghislaine would also take Rudeus with her.
Ghislaine wondered how her master would react to this. She was looking forward to that moment.
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