"Monster… forest?" Rudeus asked.
Mordred slightly smiled. "Yeah. I came here from Roa to visit the monster forest for training. It's in that direction, right?"
After speaking, he pointed straight east.
"Ah, yes. Somewhat. But the entrance to the forest is this way." Rudeus absentmindedly pointed in a direction that was slightly off from what Mordred had shown.
At the same time, Rudeus thought: 'Roa? That's the largest city in the region… And he especially came here to train in a forest filled with monsters? This person shouldn't be someone weak and his clothes are also expensive, and so is his staff. He should be a Noble. I can't piss him off.'
"Oh, I see… Thank you." Mordred sent the two a polite smile as a thanks, then looked away in the direction of the forest. It seemed as if he would leave at that moment, but before that he suddenly turned back to look at them again. "And isn't this a Magic Wand? Are you two aspiring Magicians?"
"... We are Magicians," Rudeus replied after consideration. A Magician was anyone who could at least cast a single Elementary ranked spell.
"Oh, that's interesting. I'm a bit of a Magician myself too, as you can see." Mordred glanced down at the staff in his hand with a small smile.
"Yes…" With the size of that Magic Stone, Rudeus guessed that this staff had to be ridiculously expensive!
"At any rate. My name is Mordred Kingdragon. It's nice to meet you two." Mordred performed the royal greeting of Kingdragon, except the more casual version that a superior would use.
"… Rudeus Greyrat, nice to meet you." Rudeus politely bowed down, attempting to imitate a noble's greeting with a very humble attitude. He had never heard of the surname 'Kingdragon', but this young Magician was clearly a high-ranking noble at least.
"Syl… Phiette." Sylphiette imitated Rudeus, but in a far more clumsy manner, speaking timidly and so quietly that it could barely be heard.
Mordred plainly smiled at her. "Sylphiette? Then you are not a Superd?"
It was only a natural response when meeting someone with green hair like Sylphy, so that's what he said.
"No!" Sylphiette said strongly.
"I see. Superds proudly use the name of their race as their surname, their skin is white and they have a red gem on their forehead, so I believe you."
"Ooh…" Rudeus was enlightened and slightly surprised. It seemed that this noble Magician was quite knowledgeable; that much was not something that even Roxy had told him.
Mordred continued, "You have elf ears, so one of your parents should be an Elf or a Half-elf, and you also have some Demon race blood in you, am I right? One of my sisters is like this. Her mother is a Demon and she inherited her blue hair."
Sylphiette was quiet as she seemed to be taking all of that in.
Meanwhile, Rudeus observed the young noble boy with curiosity. This person was both highly perceptive and his background was mysteries…
However, after a moment a realization struck him and a shocked and frightened expression appeared on his face.
It was because this young blonde boy was just too handsome! He was no different from a young prince charming from a light novel!
In comparison to Rudeus, who felt that he was only average, the difference was too great!
'Oh, no… Don't tell me he might steal my Sylphy!!!' Rudeus felt a crisis approaching as he saw an awed expression on Sylphy's face while the young noble boy talked to her.
However, this worry was completely unnecessary because Mordred had no interest in Sylphiette… Sylphy was one person that he could leave for Rudeus, so he'd be happy and not alone.
Unless the stars aligned for them to end up together, he also had no interest in other flat-chested lolis in general. He preferred well-developed women, if possible.
Mordred noticed Rudeus's terrified and twisted expression and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah…" Rudeus forced a smile that looked awkward and ugly as if he was mocking the other person.
It was a kind of nasty mocking smile that made you think the other person was a total creep and it made you want to punch them, or if you had more insight, that he was extremely bad at socialising and at smiling.
Mordred said, "Are you sure? You look like you have constipation. Want me to cast Healing Magic on you?
"What…" Rudeus was stunned. What?... Constipation? Does his face really look like this?
And would Healing Magic even help with constipation? Would you not need Detoxification Magic for that?
Rudeus's train of thought took a strange turn.
"I'm just joking! Hahaha!" Mordred began to laugh out loud. He laughed at him for a while, before saying, "Anyway, it's Fate that we met. Here."
He rummaged through his storage pouch and took out two gold coins. He then approached the two and gave them a gold coin each.
With a light smile, he said, "You can use it to buy some sweets. But do this through your parents or you might get it stolen instead!"
Rudeus and Sylphiette received the gold coins in a daze.
After wavering for a moment, Rudeus quickly bowed his head low. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome!" Mordred grinned and then turned away. "Farewell, Rudeus, Sylphiette."
In the next moment, he leaped off the ground and flew away.
Rudeus and Sylphiette remained at the tree, looking up at the mysterious boy they just met by chance.
After Mordred disappeared behind the horizon, Rudeus looked down at the gold coin in his hand. 'A single gold coin is equal to two months of Roxy's salary, but he gave us one each so casually. His name was Mordred, right? Mordredo Kingudoragon or something… This gives me a familiar feeling.'
Rudeus felt that Mordred was a very mysterious person. And very likely, he was a son of a high-ranking and filthy rich Noble family. It's too bad that as a typical Japanese weeaboo, Rudeus was not very familiar with the Arthurian legends.
And interestingly, something like Fate/Stay Night had not even come out by the time he died and reincarnated.
"Rudy… Can you fly too?" Sylphiette suddenly asked him.
"What? Uh, no… My Master hadn't told me that Flight Magic even existed…"
…
After leaving the hill with Rudeus and Sylphiette, Mordred flew to the forest just like he told them.
Although he used the monster forest as an excuse to strike a conversation with the two, he also planned to visit the forest since he was already there. That was, to practice his Magic without worry about damaging the terrain!
He had used Gravity Magic for hours to get to Roa, but he only used it to create a Zero Gravity Field to negate the present gravity, which was not costly. Mana Burst was also used periodically and not much energy was needed to propel a speeder which defied gravity. He still had Magic Power to spare.
To use fairly cheap spells like Railgun, it was enough.
After flying along the beaten village path for a while, Mordred noticed a wooden watchtower on the way near a gate that led to a forest.
He paused there and landed.
High up from the watchtower, two men looked down at him with stunned faces.
Mordred put Mana into his eyes and saw a blonde-haired half-elf and a browned-haired young human man being the ones on the lookout.
"Hello there." Mordred raised his hand.
"..." The two men still seemed to be stunned.
Mordred continued, "I'm going to go into the forest to do some Magic, so don't be alarmed when you hear some explosions."
"..."
"Well, bye!"
After saying his piece, Mordred leaped up into the air and then shot out through the air like a red arrow.
Up on the watchtower, Rawls and Paul continued staring in a daze at the empty space where the little flying boy was earlier, before looking at each other.
"You saw this too, right, Rawls?"
"Yeah…"
Furtheraway, after leaving the watchtower, Mordred began to sing as he flew through the forest while doing a barrel roll: "~All along the watchtower!… said the joker to the thief. There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief!..."
'Damn, I feel like picking up an instrument…'
He didn't care about finding monsters and began to take a stride through the forest while mainly practicing to improve the power of his Railgun on the trees and rocks, sometimes using Lightning Explosion.
After spending a period of time training in the forest, he flew back to Roa and reached the castle in around 10 minutes.
…
Later that day.
Greyrat household in Buena village.
Paul returned from his daily watch near the forest. While the family sat down together for the evening meal, he casually said, "You wouldn't believe it. Today I saw a flying kid at work. He came into the monster forest, flying through the air like a bird. At first I thought it was an illusion or a ghost… but Rawls saw him too."
Rudeus heard this and was stunned. A flying kid? It must have been Mordred. He said, "Actually, I've seen him too."
"Huh? You saw him too, Rudy?" Paul looked at him, surprised.
Rudeus nodded. "Yes. I met him when I was with Sylphy. We even talked. He said that his name is Mordredo Kingudoragon."
"Eh?" Paul was stunned. "Kingdragon? Are you sure?"
Rudeus was slightly confused by Paul's shock. "Yeah. Why?"
At this moment, Zenith spoke up, explaining, "Kingdragon is a surname of the royal family of the Kingdragon Kingdom!"
"Oooh…" Rudeus was taken aback. So Mordred was not nobility but actually royalty? A Prince? It seemed he was someone very special!
"Rudy, you've met such an amazing person?" Zenith stared at Rudeus with an intense gaze and a smile.
"... Yeah."
"How old is he?"
"About… 2 years older than me, I think."
"Did you two become friends?"
'Eh? Okay, I get it now.' Rudeus by now realised that Zenith simply treated him as a kid and rooted for him to find more friends. That's why she interrogated him like this.
Rudeus sighed, then said, "Yeah… I guess so."
"Yay! My Rudy has a new friend!!!" Zenith was very cheerful.
Paul calmly said, "No, but this isn't right. Kingdragon Kingdom is all the way at the edge of the continent. Why would their prince be here in Buena village?"
"Who knows, maybe he's traveling." Zenith shrugged.
Rudeus said, "He said that he came from Roa. He came here to practice in the monster forest."
"To practice in the forest? That's what he told us at the watchtower too…"
"Father, what do you know about Flight Magic?" Rudeus suddenly asked.
"Huh? Well, I didn't even know it existed until today…"
"Ah. Really?"
"..." Paul felt speechless when he saw Rudeus's expression that looked as if he realized he shouldn't have expected anything from him in the first place... He felt that he didn't want to be such a useless father, so he exercised his brain cells for a while and finally said, "The only explanation I can give you is that he might be related to the Heaven race or a rare Demon race… or he could be a Miko."
"Heaven Race? Miko?..." Rudeus heard these terms for the first time. Roxy mostly taught him Magic and only answered his questions on other objects when he asked about it, so his knowledge of the world as a whole was still a bit lacking.
Paul explained, "Heaven Race are people with wings who can fly. They live on the Heaven Continent in isolation. But they're supposed to have wings… As for a Miko, it's someone born with an abnormality in their Magic Power. They have a special ability or a trait as a result. If it's something beneficial, they're called a Blessed Child. If it's something negative, then it's a Cursed Child."
'A Blessed Child? So was Mordred a Blessed Child?' Rudeus thought.
Later that day, Rudeus attempted Flight Magic in his room by repeatedly jumping up and down like Mordred did... But with no success.
As for the gold coin he received from Mordred, he told Sylphy to make it their secret and kept the gold for an emergency – an emergency like him being kicked out of the house again.
***
***
***
Name: Rudeus Greyrat
Nicknames: Rudy
Age: 6
Strength: F-
Endurance: F-
Agility: F-
Mana: C* | peak King rank
…
Water Magic: Saint rank
Fire, Wind and Earth Magic: Advanced rank
Healing Magic: Intermediate rank
Detoxification Magic: Elementary rank
Barrier, Summoning and Divine Strike Magic: No clue
Sword God Style: Elementary rank- (almost there)