After the training session, Mordred and Eris ate second breakfast and Mordred came to his own room.
Soon after, someone knocked and Philip came in.
"Your Highness." Philip performed the noble's greeting in a way that did not make him seem overly servile but elegant instead.
"Mr. Philip." Mordred greeted him by simply standing up from his desk before sitting back down.
Philip sat down on the bed in the room, near Mordred. With his usual gentle smile, said, "I've seen you helping Eris during sword training. Thank you for that and thank you for being this patient. My father had spoiled her too much, so she's a bit hard to handle. However, you didn't try to convince her to begin studying reading and other subjects yet, did you?"
"Not yet…"
Before Mordred gathered his words, Philip continued, "You see, for my daughter it is even more important that she'd learn these scholarly subjects than improve with the sword... After all, as her father I want her to grow up to be an elegant noble lady."
Mordred felt slightly amused. An elegant noble lady? Why didn't you think about it before spoiling her? He doubted that Sauros was the only one spoiling Eris. Right now Philip was basically dumping all the parenting work onto him.
"What is it? Do you doubt my daughter could become an elegant noble lady?" Philip asked this with a smile.
Mordred chuckled and said, "That's not it. People can change. But I only think that you might underestimate Eris's talent for the sword."
"Oh?"
"Perhaps forcing her to become an 'elegant noble lady' is a waste. She might achieve even more with the sword."
"... I still want her to become an elegant noble lady," said Philip.
After a while, Mordred replied, "Well, she certainly at least needs to learn the basics like reading and writing."
"Well, we can agree on this. And so, I'd appreciate it if you convinced her to begin her studies."
The two chatter a bit more. Soon, Philip thanked Mordred, apologized and left.
Mordred let out a breath.
For now, he didn't try to convince Eris to do any kind of studying and only gave his advice during sword training… He felt that first he should gain more of her respect and get to like him. This way it will be far easier to make her do anything.
As for afterwards… If he really convinced Eris to begin studying already, there would be no need for Rudeus to be invited into the manor in the future.
That was both a good thing and a bad thing.
Firstly, Eris would begin her studies earlier, which is naturally a good thing. Mordred planned to make her begin studying at least Magic earlier anyway. He wished for her to become stronger than in canon and perhaps even learn some low-rank Silent Magic.
And although Rudeus might be a very good and fitting tutor for her, it is not necessary for him to be the one teaching her the most basic things like arthmetics or reading; anyone could teach her basic things like that because it was all just a matter of motivation.
Additionally, although Mordred was confident and doubted he'd end up cuckolded, he still felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of leaving Rudeus with Eris for years while he's gone out to do his training.
But for the bad things, Mordred would lose a chance to forge a relationship with Rudeus. In this world Rudeus would still be a Magician with great skill second only to him or Orsted; he'd be useful.
At least, Mordred had the idea of making Rudeus create stone roads all over his empire in the future…
Another point was that with Philip being so insistent, it was difficult for Mordred to not fulfill his request. If he purposely didn't do that for a year after all that happened, it just wasn't right.
The silver lining was that Mordred did not necessarily need Rudeus to come to the manor if he wanted to forge a relationship with him.
With this simple thought, everything became easier. If Rudeus won't come to him… then he would come to Rudeus!
Mordred planned to visit the village where Rudeus should leave, but first there was someone he needed to deal with.
To that end, before Philip visited him, Mordred invited Ghislaine into his room after the swordsmanship practice.
"Prince Mordred, why did you want to see me?"
Mordred closed the door, looked at Ghislaine and said, "Ghislaine, you work as a bodyguard and sellsword of the Boreas as well, right?"
"Correct."
"Then there's something you need to know." Mordred came in closer, then said, "I noticed that one of the butlers in the manor behaves strangely. He's been following me and acts in a suspicious manner. I suspect he's a spy of another faction."
"Hm?! Who's that?!" Ghislaine's eyes immediately turned cold and she placed her hand on her sword as if she fully believed Mordred's words without any hesitation.
"Shhhh. Relax. It's the butler that I saw with Mr. Philip, the burly one. I think his name was Thomas."
"Thomas?" Ghislaine frowned. "That guy did give me a strange feeling. So my instincts weren't wrong!..."
Mordred felt relieved when he saw that he easily bought Ghislaine onto this.
Half of what he said were made-up lies, but Thomas being a spy was a fact that he knew from the original show – he apparently worked for Darius, a perverted noble who's also an apostle of Hitogami. It was unknown if he worked for him at all times, but he did partake in Eris's kidnapping in canon. Mordred could not allow Thomas to inform Darius of his stay in the Boreas.
Mordred said, "That's why I want to propose this: keep watch of the entrance and exit of the manor. Because it's you, no one will find it suspicious. Then when you notice Thomas leaving, follow him secretly. If you see him being suspicious as he tries to send a letter, capture him and bring him back with the letter. Or if you see him meeting with someone suspicious, spy on them and barge in when needed. Remember that it's better if the enemy factions don't learn that I'm staying with the Boreas, so don't let the other person off."
The Asura Kingdom and the Kingdragon Kingdom were not enemies, but their relationship could not exactly be considered friendly. It is more that they were simply too far apart to fight. Sauros might have not bothered to think about it, but it was better for both parties if the outside nobles didn't know about him being with the Boreas.
"I understand, but I cannot watch the entrance and exit of the manor at all times."
"I know, but I think Thomas will come out soon. It's because he had just learned that I would be staying here. As long as you keep watch during the day and evening, you should notice him leaving. As a servant, the most likely time he would be free is during very early morning before dawn or in the late evening. But it's just my guess."
"I understand."
Following that, under the pretext of searching for a forest with monsters, Mordred learned of the location of Buena village from Ghislaine.
The forests near the city were all cleared up of monsters, but going past Buena village there was a forest area that still had monsters living deep within.
Journey to that village usually took around 6 hours on horseback, but for Saber Airlines that kind of distance was nothing!
With this piece of information, he decided to begin acting. Once he confirms Rudeus's existence and confirms the fact that he could form relations with him, he'd begin Eris's training in earnest.
After Philip visited him, Mordred set off.
He quickly rose high up into the sky to avoid being seen properly by others and then flew straight in the direction of the Buena village.
…
It was late morning.
On top of the tallest hill of the Buena village, a 6-year-old son of the village's knight and a 6-year-old green-haired girl played together like usual.
"Rudy. How do you read this?" Sylphiette asked while pointing at the book in her hand.
"This? It's 'avalanche'."
"Ava~lanche?"
"Yeah. It's when a large amount of snow falls down from a mountain side all at once."
"Ooh… Rudy knows a lot!" Sylphiette smiled.
"This… It's nothing special." Rudeus scratched his head, his face turning red in embarrassment; it was just recently that he learned that 'Sylph' was not a pretty boy but a girl.
"Hmm…"
As the two continued their usual Magic training, Rudeus suddenly accidently noticed something in the sky. It looked like a red shooting star, except it was way too close to the ground to be one.
He was surprised.
'What's that?'
Sylphiette noticed Rudeus being distracted and followed his line of sight.
As the two continued observing the sky, the shooting star suddenly lost her luster, slowed down and hung up in the sky high above them. That's when Rudeus noticed that it was not a shooting star but might be a living being.
Rudeus stood up in alarm with expression of fright. The thing was too far away so he couldn't see clearly. It wouldn't be some kind of flying monster, right? Like a dragon?!
In fact, it could not be anything else but a monster because there is no such thing as Flight Magic in this world!
Thinking of this, Rudeus grabbed Sylphy's hand and pulled her closer to the tree trunk to hide them both under the tree.
"Rudy?" Sylphiette was confused but didn't resist.
...
High above in the air, it was Mordred.
He looked down onto the hill. As far as he could see, it was the most eye-catching landmark in this entire area and that's why he came to check it out.
It was said in the novel that Rudeus and Sylphy made the 'tree at the hill' their base and played there every day. That should have been the case while they're 5 years old to 7 years old, or at least until 6 years old.
And indeed, while passing by the hill of the Buena village, he noticed two kids sitting under the shade of a tree. One of them had green hair and another light-brown!
'Did they hide from me? Too bad, but my eyesight is too good when I focus! Got you!'
After pausing, Mordred changed his direction and began to fly down toward the tree at the hill.
A dozen seconds later, Rudeus and Sylphiette, who still hid under the tree, were shocked to see a person descend straight from the sky like a divine being.
'What the hell?! It's a person?' Rudeus was shocked.
He had asked Roxy about it, but there had never been anyone who could straight out fly using Magic!
Sylphiette was also taken aback. After all, it was her first time seeing a person that could fly through the sky.
The other unfamiliar person looked at them calmly while holding a short Magic staff in his hand. It was a young boy that was not that much older than them.
Rudeus was still surprised, but after a moment felt a slight sense of relief. After all, it was not a monster but a person.
Mordred spoke up, "Hello. Can you two tell me where I can find the monster forest?"