This Family Is So Weird
After restoring the training ground to its original condition following the wreckage that had resulted from the spar, Rudeus was brought Philip's office where they discussed how they could arrange his bodyguard services. Only a few minutes passed before they both heard a bellow from the corridor.
"PHILIP!"
The man in question gave Rudeus an apologetic smile, "And that will be my father. Please bear with this for a bit."
The door swung open forcefully and Sauros Boreas Greyrat strode in with gusto as Eris followed behind him while imitating his actions. It was clear who she learned her mannerisms and bad behaviour from, Rudeus observed. It was one thing for the Lord of Fittoa to act without restraint around people of a lower social hierarchy than him. But Eris, who was born a girl and thus had no legal claim to her ancestor's titles, did not really have such a right.
"PHILIP!" Sauros thundered as he stomped towards his son, his voice seemingly able to tear through every wall of this manor, to the point that Rudeus wondered if it was possible to enhance one's voice with mana.
"Father, why are you-"
"Shut it!" He yelled out before striking his son across the face. Philip flew across the room but then quickly recovered and went down to a knee.
"Why are you denying Eris her bodyguard!? Do you run this family or do I!?"
Rudeus watched this scene in horror. 'What kind of a family did I just join? How can you punch your granddaughter's father in front of her? Or are all nobles like this? How ridiculous! No wonder she acts like a beast!'
"Father, Eris is demanding to learn Rudeus to teach her his secret techniques. Since he refused, Eris then threatened to chase him away. Rudeus is very talented, and I find it would be worthwhile to employ Rudeus. So I still arranged for him to serve as a bodyguard, just not for Eris." Philip explained.
Sauros huffed, "Hmph! I know that already! Incantation-less casting right? But since when has the Boreas family lowered their head so easily? You, boy! Tell me. How many gold coins do you want? 5? 7? We will give you 10 Asura Gold Coins a month to teach our Eris your techniques. What do you say?"
Rudeus frowned. 'This man is used to getting his way with either force or money. How distasteful...'
"Lord Sauros, I cannot accept that."
"Oh? Is 10 Gold Coins a month not enough? You sure have a big appetite!" The Lord of Fittoa demanded.
The child shook his head, "That's not the issue. In the first place, I did not come here for money. I only accepted this position so that I can learn from Master Ghislaine. So it is not the salary that I am unsatisfied with."
"Then what is the issue!? Are your secrets that precious!?"
Rudeus stared at Sauros' eyes, not showing any sign of weakness of subservience.
"When I was still in Buena Village, I already taught someone my Magic Sword techniques. In fact, one of my ambitions is for my Magic Sword style to gain fame equal or greater to the existing three sword styles. So it is not that I am unwilling to share what I know, it is that I am not willing to teach Eris!"
The aforementioned girl pointed an accusatory finger at Rudeus, "See, like I told you, grandpa! He is so arrogant!"
"What did you say!? What is so bad about our Eris!? Look at her! Look at how cute she is!" Sauros defended, gesturing at his granddaughter.
"Lord Sauros, let me ask you this. If someone came to you and demanded to buy Eris, offering you large amounts of gold. Would you do it?" Rudeus turned the question back to him.
"Someone like that, I will gather my men and slaughter him!" The Lord of Fittoa answered without hesitation.
"Precisely! My Magic Sword style is something I poured my heart into developing. It is like my child that I have raised painstakingly. Eris wants to learn it, but she has not even asked politely! Instead, she demands it as though I owe it to her. I am afraid that in the future, once she learns my techniques, she will become even more overbearing and forcefully take things that do not belong to her just because she is rich and powerful. How can I accept this? It will go against my conscience!" Rudeus announced, staring back resolutely.
Sauros did not scream at Rudeus like he had expected him to. Instead he considered Rudeus' words for a moment.
He wasn't always the Lord of Fittoa. When he was young and had only scarce influence, he had also encountered people who would overbearingly snatch things from others like they were common bandits. But because those people were lords and ladies at the highest echelon of aristocracy, consequences were things that did not apply to them.
Now that he had become the Lord of Fittoa, he had become one of those people who sat so high up in nobility that there was little he could not get away with. But even though he was loud and domineering, Sauros always reminded himself to be fair as well. Which was also why Fittoa and Roa was as prosperous as it is.
Did he really want Eris to grow up and become one of those lords and ladies who relied purely on their family's background to be tyrannical? Of course not! So he found what Rudeus had said to make a lot of sense.
Sauros nodded his head. "Mm, I understand where you are coming from. Eris! Come here!"
The girl blinked, seeing that Rudeus had somehow managed to convince her grandfather as well.
"Y-yes, grandpa?"
"If you want something then ask for it respectfully!"
She paled, "What? But you said you would make him teach me! You promised!"
Sauros glared, "Eris!"
The red-haired Boreas lass pouted unwillingly, but complied regardless. Her grandfather was someone even she did not say no to.
Eris walked over to Rudeus and looked away grudgingly, "P-please, teach me your magic!"
"Is that any way to ask for something!?" Sauros bellowed with a glare.
"Uuu…" Eris sulked and then she brought her hands up to her hair and pulled it into pigtails.
"Rudeus, P-please teach Eris your magic, nyan!" She asked cutesily and winked.
Rudeus stared at the sight, stunned, while Eris' eyebrow twitched at his silence.
'Bruh. This family is so fucking weird…'
-----
The next day.
"You don't have to teach me language and math. Just teach me magic." Eris declared.
Rudeus sighed for what seemed like the tenth time that day. He had accepted the Boreas Family's offer to teach Eris. He had a feeling he might he regret this decision in the future, but for the sake of learning swordsmanship from Ghislaine, he decided to take the job.
Though Eris was enamoured with his Magic Sword style, she did not care at all about the other two subjects he had been hired to teach.
"Like I said, I can't teach you magic if you don't know language or math!" He repeated.
"Why not!?"
Rudeus brought out the magic textbook, 'Introduction to Magic'. This was the even more basic version of the 'Guide to Magic' he had studied when he first learnt magic in Buena Village.
"If you can't even read the magic books, how are you going to learn magic?" He questioned.
Eris crossed her arms, which seemed like her default position for a myriad of emotional responses, be it anger, frustration, anxiety, or haughtiness.
"Then just read it to me."
What she said also made sense. One did not necessarily need to learn how to read to learn magic. In truth, Rudeus could just read the textbook aloud for her and it would have achieved roughly the same result. But since he also needed to teach language to the rascal, he decided to trick her. It was a white lie that was mutually beneficial.
Rudeus sighed and explained, "That's not how magic works. Okay, let me give you an example. If you wanted to learn swordsmanship from Ghislaine, what is the best way to do it?"
Eris thought about it for a moment before answering, "Training! Swinging the sword with my body!"
"Right. But, magic is the opposite. Learning magic with someone else reading it for you would be like teaching you swordsmanship just by talking about it. It wouldn't be as effective."
It was pure sophistry. A clever but false argument with the intention to deceive. Someone else might have thought that the reasoning didn't make sense and questioned the logic of the statement, but Eris was still too naïve.
"Uuu…" She sulked, "Fine. But just enough to read the book! And I don't need math to read, right?"
Rudeus shook his head.
"Math is even more important to learn incantation-less magic. Once you start reading the textbook you will know. Magic actually requires a lot more knowledge than just reading the words and pushing out your mana. That goes double for casting without chanting. You have to understand the fundamental principles behind magic, the theoretical structure of the spell you want to cast as well as its arcane arrays. All these needs math to do the calculations required."
Once more, Rudeus was bullshitting through his teeth by throwing out complicated jargon. The way he and Sylphiette had learned to used silent magic was through feeling the mana and visualizing its effects. Things like magical theory and spell structure was only needed when one learned a new spell, not for casting it without incantations.
Eris widened her eyes, "What, that sounds hard…"
Rudeus shrugged in a helpless manner, "If you want to learn Magic Sword you need to learn voiceless magic. If you want to learn voiceless magic, you need to learn math and magic. If you want to learn magic, you need to learn language. That's how it is."
The noble girl pouted, not liking his explanation one bit. However, she was obsessed with Rudeus' Magic Sword style. The night before, she had hardly been able to sleep because the image of Rudeus swinging his sword and unleashing a wave of fire was stuck in her head. She had been so excited to learn how to do the same thing as well, only to be disappointed after find out it had such stringent requirements.
Her determination did not dampen, however. Eris was dead set on learning how to unleash fire from her sword, how matter what she had to do!
And so their language and math lessons began, with Ghislaine joining in as well. The Sword King was similarly illiterate and innumerate, the mathematical equivalent of illiteracy. So she had expressed desire to learn how to read and do math as well.
Rudeus was more than happy to teach her, given his admiration for the beastwoman.