Turning Point 1

{Part 1}

Shirone Kingdom.

Roxy Migurdia looked out the window with her brows knitted. The color of the sky was strange. Brown, black, purple, and yellow; a change of colors one didn't usually see. And yet, she had seen these colors somewhere before.

"What is it, I wonder?"

The hues were familiar to her, but she had never seen the sky like this before. The only thing clear was that this wasn't a natural phenomenon.

The most likely explanation was magic that, for whatever reason, had gone out of control. The scale of it was such that she could see it whirling even from a distance.

Then she remembered. The way it shone—she had seen this before at the University of Magic. The light looked like summoning magic.

"That direction… In the east. Asura Kingdom? Don't tell me it's Rudeus?"

She remembered the boy she had once taken as a pupil. That boy who, at the tender age of five, produced a storm while utterly composed. Now he would be ten. At half his age he had complete control of his bottomless pool of mana, so it was possible he might do something like this.

In his most recent letter, he wrote of his difficulties studying summoning magic. Maybe he had somehow obtained a book on it, or perhaps found a teacher.

"You're wide open!"

As she was deep in thought someone threw their arms around her from behind. As her breasts were grabbed, she felt something hard press against her thighs.

"Hnnngh..."

Roxy was fed up. No matter how he groped her, the thickness of her robes masked everything. Besides, even if he got pleasure out of doing this, the only thing she felt was displeasure.

"Raging flames consume my body—Burn in Place!"

"Gyaah!"

The force of the flames that covered her body sent the person behind her flying. She still couldn't cast spells without chanting them at all, but she had shortened the length of her spells greatly in these past five years. When she learned that Rudeus was teaching his own pupils to cast spells without chanting, she decided to practice shortening her own incantations. It hadn't been easy. Just how much was that boy genius expecting from his pupils? Not everyone was as blessed with talent as he was.

Roxy turned and gazed at the boy collapsed on the floor. "Your Highness, you can't come up behind a woman and just start groping her chest."

"Roxy! Were you trying to kill me?! I'll have you thrown in prison!"

Shirone Kingdom's seventh prince, Pax Shirone, was a kid with a bad attitude who had just turned fifteen. His bad behavior was endearing at first, but lately he had developed a real interest in sex and would make sexual advances toward Roxy every afternoon.

"My apologies. I didn't realize such a weak attack would be fatal. You must have the constitution of an insect."

"Grrr! Criminal disrespect! I won't forgive this! If you want my forgiveness, then roll up your robes and let me see your panties!"

"I'll pass."

He had already put his hands on multiple maids, leaving the king troubled over how to handle the situation. Now it seemed he had turned his attention to his curt household tutor.

Just what about a rude girl like her did he find appealing? Roxy didn't understand. Still, no matter how much he came at her, she had no reason to obey his commands. According to the contract she made with the country's governing party, no matter what selfish demands the prince made, it was up to her discretion on how to handle him.

There weren't many living in this castle that would obey his orders directly. Besides, he was the seventh prince. He was low in the line of succession, so he had next to no authority. In fact, if you looked at the privileges afforded to them, Roxy was in a much higher position as an imperial court magician.

The prince tried a different approach. "Roxy, I already know. I know that you have a lover!"

"I see, and just when did I manage to do something as incredible as finding a lover?" she replied to his sudden gibberish, tilting her head.

A lover? She did want one at some point, but she had yet to meet her ideal match. Even if she did, with the way she looked as a member of the Migurd race, he surely wouldn't reciprocate. She had already given up.

The prince was odd himself, which was probably why he wanted a taste of her body, even if just once. But Roxy had no intention of being so easily seduced.

"Eheheh, I slipped into your room and found all those letters you had piled up in the back of your shelf! I don't know what kind of backwoods peasant he is, but with my power I could have him crushed! If you don't want to see him face a cruel execution, you better become my woman!"

So this was his other method. He would take hostage the lover of the person he was interested in, then demand the object of his affection submit to him to keep their lover safe. After that he would take her in front of her lover just so he could feel empowered by dominating another person.

He had no such authority. Yet he was still the prince of a country. He had some troops of his own that he could do what he wanted with, and there was a rumor that he had taken one maid's lover hostage before.

'Such poor taste. All he does is creep me out,' Roxy thought. 'I'm glad I don't have a lover. All those letters were from Rudeus.'

"Feel free to do so," she told him.

"What?! I really will do it, you know?! If you want to apologize, you better do it now! If you do it now, all you'll have to give me is your body!"

The prince clearly wasn't thinking. He didn't even know Rudeus's location in the first place. Based on his attitude, he hadn't read the contents of any of those letters either.

"If you can actually succeed in doing something to Rudeus, then you can have your way with my body."

"What are you acting so confident for? You should know what kind of power I have!"

Of course she knew. She knew that the little bit of power afforded to him as a prince of the royal family was barely worth snorting at.

"Rudeus is under the protection of the Boreas family, an elite noble family in Asura Kingdom."

"Boreas...? As if nobles could stand up to the authority of a member of the royal family!"

He didn't even know the names of the elite royal families in Asura Kingdom. That realization prompted a sigh from Roxy. Had the other tutors even taught him anything?

As the four great regional liege lords, the Notos, Euros, Zepiroth, and Boreas families were of great renown. When the Asura Kingdom entered battle, they were the ones standing on the front lines. They had been military men for generations upon generations. Besides, members of those elite noble families might occasionally travel to Shirone on diplomatic engagements. Those names were definitely worth remembering.

"The country of Asura is ten times the size of Shirone. To take the child of an elite noble family on some baseless suspicion and escort them to the gallows, you would have to possess a tremendous amount of political power and strategic skills. That's impossible for you, Your Highness."

"I-I'll have him assassinated! I'll send my imperial guards!"

'Imperial guards?' Roxy sighed inwardly. He really wasn't thinking this through at all.

"There's no way your guards could cross the country's border. Even if they could, and the chance would be one in a million, the Boreas family has invited [Black Wolf] Sword King Ghislaine to their house as a guest. You truly think they could sneak into the Fortress City of Roa, into the Boreas manor, slip past Ghislaine's watchful eye, and assassinate a master magician? And even if you did manage to assassinate him, his brother a Sword and Water Saint Reinhardwould come and kill you for revenge."

"G-grrr!" The prince ground his teeth together and stomped his feet.

Roxy let yet another sigh slip past her lips. Ah, I can't believe this. He's already fifteen and he doesn't even know the first thing about distinguishing between what's possible and what's not.

Roxy heard that Rudeus's pupil, Eris, had been an uncontainable wild animal three years ago, but had recently become more refined. Meanwhile, her student was in this sorry state.

Years ago, she had found him endearing and even recognized his talent for magic. Unfortunately, as soon as he realized what kind of power he had, his will to improve vanished and he spent the better part of his lessons sleeping. Now she saw no potential in him.

"Anyway, I'll be quitting my position as your tutor soon, so you wouldn't make it in time even if you sent assassins out right this very minute."

As soon as she said that, he raised his voice in shock. "Wh-whaaat?! I haven't heard a word about this!"

"You must not remember then."

The agreement from the beginning was that she would work as his tutor until he reached maturity. At the time she had considered requesting to stay beyond her contract. However, there were many in the royal palace who resented her presence. Leaving was the wisest course of action.

"It's a good opportunity as well," she added.

"A good opportunity for what?"

"There's something strange about the western sky. Now I can go see it for myself."

"Wh-what the heck..."

She didn't say it was because she wanted to see Rudeus's face after all this time. It would only enrage the prince if she did.

"I-I still need you! We're still in the middle of our lessons, right!"

"Irrelevant. You sleep through them anyway."

"That's your fault for not waking me up then!"

"Oh really? Then as a bad teacher, I should take my leave quickly. Please be sure to hire someone who will wake you next time. I'm not interested."

'This prince is impossible for me,' Roxy thought. 'I can't stop comparing him to Rudeus. All I had to do was teach Rudeus one thing and he would take that, study it, and learn ten or twenty new things. Maybe I can't be a teacher again after meeting a student like that.'

And thus, Roxy left Shirone and set out on her journey. She was accosted by the seventh prince and his personal guards on her way out but swiftly repelled them.

Afterward, the seventh prince obstinately insisted that she should be apprehended and brought before him to answer for the unforgivable act of violence she committed against him. However, the king refused to pay his claims any heed. Instead, the prince was rebuked and severely punished for being unable to convince the Water King-rank magician Roxy Migurdia to stay.

Roxy was not the only one to notice the change in the sky. Every person in every part of the world took notice both of its abnormality and the abruptness of its appearance. Even those of wide renown took note.

-*-*-*-

{Part 2}

In the Red Dragon mountain range...

The 100th generation [Dragon God] Orsted looks up to the western skies.

"Mana is gathering there? What's it that caused this madness?" he scowled at suspicion. "No matter, I'll know once I saw it for myself."

And he progresses directly to the west, stepping over a Red Dragon's corpse that he killed in a single strike.

Countless dragons are revolving around him, but none of them makes any move. They know what being is walking on the ground.

They know that even if they attacked together they will be killed by him. At the same time they know they won't be killed if they don't do anything.

That's a Dragon God, an existence that's abnormal in the world's common sense... An existence that no one should fight...

Another arrogant young dragon without any sense attacks Orsted, and is turned it into a mass of flesh instantly.

The red dragons know, if they don't raise the ire of this existence, then flying in the skies is safe.

The red dragons are definitely the strongest in the central continent, but not because they have the combat ability, it's because they are intelligent and thus seen as powerful.

The red dragons know.

This is the strongest person in the world, even if they joined forces together they won't beat him.

He slowly walks down the mountains, under the eyes of the Red Dragons... No one knows his goals...

-*-*-*-

{Part 3}

The Armored Dragon Perugius, one of the three legendary heroes, looked down at the northern sky.

"What is that? It looks like the light emitted when the Great Emperor of the Demon World revives."

Standing nearby was a woman with a white crow's mask over her face, a member of the Heavens Race who possessed black wings. She whispered, "The mana level is different."

"Indeed. If anything, it resembles the color of a summoning."

"Yes, but that said, I've never seen that much light from a summoning before."

"It's similar to when we created Chaos Breaker. Chances of that Human child getting involved in this?"

"None, he's not involved in any way."

Perugius had to act.

He had spent today just like any other, seated atop his throne in Chaos Breaker, attended by his twelve followers, continuing to monitor the surface. He had only one objective, to vanquish his loathsome enemy, the Demon God Laplace, as soon as they revived. He waited in the sky for that moment when the seal would come undone.

"Could it be that the Great Emperor of the Demon World is trying to unseal Laplace?"

"It's possible. The Emperor has been unsettlingly quiet in the 300 years since their revival," she responded.

"All right. Arumanfi!"

"I am here." A man swathed in white and wearing a yellow mask appeared and kneeled before Perugius.

"Search immediately and—hmm, I'm certain whoever is behind this must be up to something. If you see anyone suspicious that seems to be involved with this, kill them."

"Understood."

The Armored Dragon Perugius made his move, his twelve retainers behind him. All to avenge the four friends that he had lost. This time, for certain, he would deal the Demon God Laplace a finishing blow.

-*-*-*-

{Part 4}

Holy Land of the Swords...

The Sword God Gall Farion gazed up at the southern sky.

"What's wrong with the sky? Also..." The moment his focus shifted to something else, two of his beloved pupils launched an attack on him at the same time. "Don't come at me while I've got my attention on other things."

His composure was relaxed. In comparison, both of his beloved pupils were short of breath.

As usual the two had no sense, he thought. They were overconfident from having earned the title of Sword Emperor, yet this was all it amounted to. What a load of crap. Fame had no place in swordplay. All you needed to do was get stronger. The only thing fame brought you was money and political power. There was no value in that. Anyone could obtain those things. Being as great as he was, he could cut right through that garbage in a single stroke. If you were strong, you could have things your way. Having things your way was how you stayed alive.

Ghislaine understood that best, but she had grown soft. That was why she was stuck at the level of Sword King. Those with a powerful lust for life were innately strong, no matter how physically weak or incapable of wielding a sword they might be. But those who had become strong could lose that driving force. That was why Ghislaine lost her way. She wasn't selfish enough.

It wasn't as though the pupils before him were especially gifted. It was their obscene greed that made them strong. The insatiable appetite of a pair that lived on a life-or-death battlefield.

"Hey, hey, come at me already. Defeat me then battle each other to the death so one of you can call yourself the Sword God! You'll have enough money to play around for a hundred lifetimes! You'll be able to line up women, from slave girls to princesses, and have your way with them! Your name alone will bring people to their knees in fear! One step forward and crowds of people will part to make way for you!"

"I didn't start learning the sword for something like that!"

"Master! Please don't insult us like that!"

This was it. They were going to learn to be more honest with themselves. For if they did, they would easily be able to crush someone like him and call themselves Sword Gods.

The Sword God Gall Farion had already forgotten about the southern sky.

-*-*-*-

{Part 5}

Somewhere in the Demon Continent...

The Great Emperor of the Demon World, Kishirika Kishirisu, gazed up at the eastern sky. "Hmph, when you become as great as I am, you can see things even if you face the opposite direction! How's that?! Amazing, isn't it?"

There was no one there to answer her. Not a single person was present.

"So you're ignoring me! Mwahaha! Very well, very well! I'll forgive you, humans! Or rather, no one will come near me because of the peace treaty, so I have no choice but to forgive you! Mwahahaha, mwahahaha, mwaha—gurgh…"

Kishirika was lonely.

The moment she had revived from death, she had cried out, "I, the Demon World's Great Emperor Kishirika, have revived! I must have kept you all waiting! Mwahahaha!"

But no one was there. She decided she would go to the city and repeat her declaration, only for people to look at her as if she were a pitiful child. Since then, no one paid her any attention.

She tried visiting one of her old friends, but they simply told her, "Things are peaceful right now, so behave yourself."

"What are those human diviners even doing? When I revived in the past, they would start trembling in sudden fear, babble weird things, then leap from their windows. Without that opening act, it feels like there's no value to my revival. Hah, honestly, youngsters these days..."

She kicked at a stone and looked up at the magic pooling in the western sky. Another name of the Great Emperor of the Demon World was the Demon Emperor of Demon Eyes. She possessed more than ten, and in a single glance she could tell what was happening, no matter how far away. With those eyes she saw powerful mana, the familiar light of summoning magic, and the person controlling it.

Or at least, she should have been able to.

"What's this? I can't see the one doing this? I wonder if there's a barrier. You must be a shy one, hiding your face after causing such mayhem."

Kishirika's eyes were not all-powerful. That was why she was merely the Great Emperor of the Demon World, and would never be called a Demon God, no matter how much time passed. Not that she was particularly bothered by that.

"It'd be nice if they could at least summon a hero. But lately everyone is all Laplace this and Laplace that. 'Kishirika? Who's that?' So it's not like it matters. I guess even heroes would rather go for young men with good looks like Laplace. I want some time in the spotlight too. I want to be showered with attention and put on parade!"

She sighed as she set out on her journey. A journey with no particular destination in mind...

-*-*-*-

{Part 6}

Reinhard and Isolte is on horseback travelling across the Asura Kingdom.

After the events the other week, she's missing her now. Reinhard did tried inviting her to be his servant, but she refused. Saying she would rather become an adventurer than being a servant of a noble.

He holds Lilia and Sylphy who pledged their loyalty on him dear. It's a pity that Sara refused. In the future he would have created the best Faction throughout the world.

"The monsters are going wild lately." Isolte sighed.

Afterwards they continued travelling from village to village. And now they finally ended their jobs after a whole 3 months of traveling together. Isolte recieved summons from the Water God Reida and she's obligated to go back.

They are now in the outskirts of the Capital City Ars.

"Happy 10th Birthday Reinhard." Isolte says and curtsied the hem of her skirt with practiced movements. Unlike a certain violent Oujo-sama, Isolte was a refined lady.

Isolte hands him a gift. It was a pair of earrings styled for men.

At first Isolte looked dumbfounded that in the day of his 10th Birthday, he's still at work. For a guy living in the world called 'Jobless Reincarnation' he sure is workaholic.

"Thanks." Reinhard said with a smile.

After fighting, sparring, and travelling with each other, they already considered themselves as comrades. Their relationship could be described more than just mere friendship.

"Isolte, after this. What are you planning from now on?" Reinhard asked her.

"Planning from now on? I think I'll undergo training to be a Water King." Isolte says.

Dressed in travelers clothes, with hair flowing gently in the wind, she would capture the hearts of anyone who sees her with that youthful seductiveness.

For the past months she had gotten only more stronger. Water God Style users get stronger the more skilled their sparring partners are.

"What about you?" She asked curiously.

Reinhard looked above the sky. His figure straight and his face shine by the sunlight. "I'm going on a journey."

"A journey? You mean you're going to be an Adventurer? That's a waste." Isolte said.

With his appearance, strength, and ability. He should be granted a high position in the Military of the Asura Kingdom. It wouldn't be strange if he married a member of the Royal Family in the future. After all he's still a Greyrat.

"I should have told you right? My parents were runaway from that way of life and become Adventurers. I just took after them." He said while already missing them so much.

"Well if you put it that way. But I would've liked if you come to my 15th Birthday." Isolte looked a little dejected.

"It can't be helped. I'll just buy you a gift and let Lilia send it to you in package. It should be fine right?"

"You mean your maid and servant? The homewrecker?" Isolte was a believer of the Millis faith.

Millis faith practiced monogamy, so thinking about someone married with multiple wives is a sin. And they also looked down on the 2nd wife like Lilia.

Zenith was also a Millis faith believer, that's why she's mad at Paul and Lilia. But a man taking multiple wives is accepted in this world.

"Don't badmouth her. I'm going to get mad, seriously." Reinhard made a glare to made her shut up.

Isolte just stayed silent with this. One time he talked about the situation of his family they fought each other. Reinhard got mad and Isolte didn't understand why he's siding with Paul and Lilia.

That fight got so serious they nearly killed each other. They were in a deadlock with each their swords both in the skin of their necks.

"Anyway see you next time. Give my regards to Water God-sama."

"Yes. Please stay well."

Reinhard left in horseback facing his back to Isolte. Wearing his cloak and armor beneath it, he truly looked like a young and valiant Knight.

These past few months

She was remembering the times since Reinhard's arrival.

It was a bad meeting.

Starting with humiliation, she had been forced to understand bitterness countless times.

But it was because of this meeting that it made a valuable experience.

Isolte had been feeling strange ever since they met. Seeing him leave like that, there's an uncomfortable feeling in her chest. Like she wanted to tell him to stay.

In the end she stayed watching him until he disappeared in the horizon.

"Millis-sama. May you guide him."

Isolte sent her prayers earnestly.

She never thought that it will really be the last time he'll see him until years later.