Hated

Rudeus stayed the next few days in Buena Village mostly spending time with his family. Dinner time saw Rudeus devouring the meal with gusto. Though the food served at the Boreas household was usually luxurious and decadent, there was always a hint of familial warmth that was missing. Zenith and Lilia's cooking on the other hand were made with love and tenderness, even if the ingredients used weren't as fancy. The difference was palpable.

He also visited Sylphiette on the second day of his return to Buena Village. The elf girl was, as expected, beyond ecstatic to see him. She even cried a little, asking herself if she was dreaming when Rudeus showed up at her house.

He learned that Sylphiette had never stopped her magic training even after Rudeus left for the Citadel of Roa. She had reached Advanced rank in Water and Wind magic, as well as Advanced rank in Healing magic which she learned from Zenith.

In terms of socialization, she remained friendly with Soma and the other village kids, often playing soccer with them. Now that Rudeus had left Buena Village, Sylphiette was now the number 1 soccer player in Buena Village, which earned her a lot of street cred.

Her swordsmanship on the other hand had stagnated. She was never able to progress beyond Intermediate Water God rank, and the same went for her Beginner-rank Sword God and North God proficiency. She was never very talented in swordsmanship originally, and after Rudeus left Buena Village she didn't have anyone else to teach her. Paul was a bad teacher in the first place, so she received no help from him.

But Sylphiette still stayed true to Rudeus' Magic Sword style, despite having little talent in the sword. She incorporated incantationless spells into her meagre swordsmanship, and managed to develop Advanced-rank Magic Sword techniques that were entirely different from Rudeus' own techniques.

Because she had a higher affinity for Water magic, Sylphiette used a lot of Water magic in her Magic Sword techniques. The technique she was proudest of, which she showed Rudeus, was one that materialized blades of water and ice with every swing of the sword, with their speed and lethality enhanced by Wind magic.

Even as a Magic Swordsman, Sylphiette had a personality that leaned more towards a mid to long range combat style.

But since a lot of what she developed was self-taught, Sylphiette simply didn't have the battle experience to utilize what she could do effectively in combat. Her blades of water and ice cut down trees and grass, not flesh and blood. No matter how strong she was theoretically, it meant nothing if it could not be applied practically.

Rudeus was satisfied with that however. Not every child needed to follow his path of fire and blood. In the first place, Sylphiette had asked to learn magic and swordsmanship from him to get strong enough to stand up for herself. Her mission was now already obsolete since she had befriended her bullies. Living in a peaceful village like Buena Village, she would not find it necessary to have strength above Advanced rank.

Though he wanted to propagate his Magic Sword techniques in the future, and establish it as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, martial school in the world, he would not force every disciple to follow him and carve out a bloody place in history with their magic and sword.

They spent the day catching up, Rudeus telling her stories of Roa while she recounted the days she spent in Buena Village. Sylphiette told him the story of how Soma had developed a precocious crush on her, even blurting out what one might construe as a confession.

This Rudeus did not find surprising. There were only so many girls in Buena Village, and Sylphiette could be considered to be the prettiest one. Add to that her ability to hang out with the boys and trounce everyone at soccer, the other kids were bound to start looking at her with pink tints on their cheeks.

Sylphiette turned Soma down amiably, Rudeus learned. When he asked why, Sylphiette was too bashful to tell the truth.

At the end of his visit, Rudeus gifted Sylphiette with a magic item as well. It could not be compared to the magic items he had given to his family and the Boreas family, since he did not have that much of an attachment to the elf girl, and Sylphiette was already able to use chantless magic in the first place.

So he ended up just giving her a ring with the [Air Step] spell enchanted in it. Similar to Eris, Sylphiette took the ring with trembling hands with her cheeks almost glowing bright red. She was misty-eyed and wore it on her ring finger while muttering "I do."

'…Did she think that was a proposal? Maybe giving her a ring wasn't the best idea.' Rudeus thought to himself as he left.

Aside from visiting Sylphiette, Rudeus also spent a lot of time with his two sisters. He spent the few days he could stay in Buena Village teaching them magic. His motive for doing so wasn't very complicated. Strength was a necessity in this world where monsters and brigands roamed.

Learning just enough to protect themselves was good enough in Rudeus' book. And if they were discovered to have immense talent in either magic or the sword then that was even better.

Besides, after talking to other magicians, reading more about magic theory and from what he learnt teaching Eris and Sylphiette magic, it seemed like there was a precondition to learning incantation-less magic – training from a very young age.

Perhaps it was because no one other than Rudeus who had been reincarnated would have the rationality to practice magic when they were still in their diapers, but the world was mistaken when it came to the mainstream belief that magic had to be casted with incantations.

Himself, Sylphiette and Eris. These were his subjects and evidence to the contrary. Even Eris, though she had started learning magic later than the rest, was still able to learn how to cast spells without incantations. Only older magicians, who were already too used to a certain way of casting spells, were not able to learn silent-spell casting.

Thus, now as the best time for Aisha and Norn to learn magic, so that they too could learn how to cast spells without chanting.

Teaching magic was also only just an excuse for Rudeus to spend time with his sisters. He had been gone for a large part of their lives after all; he did not want to be a negligent brother who failed to look after his siblings. He had been an only child back on Earth, though he always wanted a brother or sister. Now that he had two, he wanted to be the best big brother he could be.

Aisha was really smart. She reminded Rudeus of Sylphiette when he first started teaching the elf girl. His half-sister could already read, write and do arithmetic almost at the same level as Eris even though she likely only started learning. Teaching magic to her was a joy, since she understood everything after he explained just once.

There were still some holes in her vocabulary such as 'mana circulation' and 'spell incantation', which was to be expected from a 3 year old child, but she was smart enough to pick up on the v lexicon of magicians quickly.

Norn on the other hand was, simply put, average. Compared to Rudeus, who was a heaven defying genius in his own right, and the same aged Aisha who grasped Beginner-ranked magic in just one day, she was considerably more normal in her learning speed.

She wasn't stupid by any definition of the word. Norn was three years old. Her slow progress in learning magic was perfectly understandable. Furthermore, she was not as fluent in the Human Language as her siblings, so understanding Rudeus' explanation was difficult to begin with.

Norn was just too normal as compared to her freakish brother and brilliant half-sister.

Norn had been upset. Even if Rudeus did not mean to do so, the way he looked at her and the way he looked at Aisha had the tiniest difference that children who were sensitive to such things could perceive. Even after a few days of trying, she still could not grasp Beginner-rank magic before Rudeus had to leave.

Eris took a week to learn her first Beginner Fire spell, but she was already 9 years old then, and had a reasonably good understanding of the spoken Human Language at least. Norn, who was still struggling with the alphabets, just couldn't understand magic like Aisha could.

It was unfortunate, but this was the painful reality of being mediocre in a family of geniuses. Norn grew frustrated, throwing a tantrum and ran off crying. Rudeus went to console the little girl but she declared that she hated him.

"I hate you! Why did you come back? We were just fine when you were not here!" She had shouted at him before running away.

This broke Rudeus' heart, even though he was well aware that Norn was just a toddler, closer to an infant than a child. Kids said things they didn't mean when they were young because their minds weren't developed enough to understand the implications of their words. He tried not to take it personally, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to hear "I hate you!" from his sister.

Broken hearted, Rudeus walked away and entrusted Zenith with how to teach Norn to use silent spell casting. Even though his mother did not know how to cast spells without incantations, with the notes he left behind, she should still be able to teach it.

It was on this slightly sour tone that Rudeus left Buena Village, since his time off was ending and he needed to go back to continue his body guarding duties at Roa. Despite the way his visit had concluded, he still greatly enjoyed returning to his hometown and spending time with his family. Hopefully, the next time he saw Norn, she would have forgiven him.