Mushoku Tensei

Volume 24 Chapter 2: 34 Years Old

Part 1

I woke up.

I felt like I had seen a strange dream.

It was a very peaceful dream.

Sylphy and Roxy were there.

Eris wasn’t there, but a child who looked like Eris was there.

It was a really comfy dream. I clearly remember everything.

The dream of my death.

It was somehow clear to me that after I closed my eyes, I would never wake up.

But it didn’t feel bad.

“Hmm?”

When I looked around, I saw a girl with a startled expression holding my hand.

A girl with blue hair. A braided-pigtail was behind her head which collected all her hair.

Her right hand was holding my hand and in her left hand, she was holding the bracelet.

Her expression looked as if she was a frog being glared at by a snake.

“...........Sorry.”

She suddenly apologized.

If you do something bad, you must apologize. I wonder if this was the result of education.

“Do you want this?”

“......No. I told Onee-chan that a really amazing crest was hidden beneath father’s bracelet.”

“Oh.”

Of course, there was no hidden crest or something like that.

Because I wasn’t the chosen one.

But on closer inspection, I could see something to the side of the girl that held that bracelet.

On top of the side table, I could see a pen.

Something like that wasn’t here before I went to sleep.

“Were you trying to draw it?”

“.............Sorry.”

That’s some amazing ability of trying to make your lies come true.

Should I praise her or scold her?

No, I should scold her here. Yep.

As a father to my daughter, it was my duty to educate her. Yup.

“Lara, lying is bad. Go and apologize to your Onee-chan.”

“Okay......”

When I lightly hit her on the head, Lara left the room with a dejected face.

When she left the room, I could see a huge white furball.

Looks like Leo was keeping watch outside the room.

As I put my bracelet back on, my eyes were suddenly caught by the pen.

I drew the Migurd Race’s crest on my arm by myself and got out of the bed.

“Ughh......my head hurts......drank a bit too much.”

I was getting an awful headache due to the effects of yesterday’s party.

Part 2

About 10 years had passed after the Battle of Biheiril Kingdom.

I’ll be turning 34 this year.

These 10 years were really peaceful.

Within these 10 years, there was no interference by Hitogami.

He really came to a complete halt.

The years simply passed by without even hearing the Hi- from Hitogami’s name.

Of course, I hadn’t loosened my vigilance.

While being cautious for any attack that may come from any direction, I continued to prepare for Laplace’s return just like before.

Still, because Hitogami wasn’t meddling this time, things were progressing pretty smoothly.

We were able to call out to all the countries within 5 years after the battle.

There were places that were no good, but most of the countries had accepted our request.

Therefore, I was putting my effort into researching and coaching Chantless Magic in the Asura Kingdom and Magic University.

Adding to that, we were coaching the military authorities of various countries about the countermeasures that should be taken against the tactics that Laplace would take.

And we were concealing the name 『Rudeus』 while making the name 『Silent Seven Star』 famous.

It was unclear to me whether the hypothesis Nanahoshi was talking about was correct or not.

However, 『If a friend from the previous world does end up coming here, then I wish that something be done so that he can find me.』after accepting this wish of hers, we were now spreading her name around the world.

There were some bad rumors floating around as well but I guess it couldn’t be helped.

The first priority was to increase her popularity, and if it was someone from the previous world, then the meaning or the convenience that I was using her name to do it would surely be understood.

These days, we were researching a mana recovery medicine in hopes of increasing Orsted’s mana recovery speed.

We were able to pretty much create such a potion but for some reason, Orsted’s mana didn’t recover.

I wonder if it’s because of the difference in the quality of mana between the Human race and Dragon Race, or was it some other reason?

We’ll be researching this matter a bit more, but I couldn’t help but feel that this was going nowhere.

Well, the potion itself was a great hit among the adventurers so it wasn’t completely in vain.

There were still a lot of things that needed to be done.

I had still some way to go before I could finally rest.

Our children had gotten bigger.

Lucy was now 17.

Lara was now 14, Ars was 13.

And did Sieg become 11 this year?

Every one of them were quickly growing up.

After that, our family grew with 2 more children.

Roxy’s child - Lily Greyrat.

Eris’s child - Christina Greyrat.

Both of them were girls.

6 siblings.

It’s a large family.

But the female to male ratio was higher in my family. Perhaps the Greyrat lineage is a matrilineal family.

When Lucy became 7, she started attending family councils, and decided on a broad education plan.

That is to say, she enrolled herself in Magic University. After her graduation and celebrating her coming of age ceremony, she attended the Asura Kingdom’s National University for 3 years.

It’s my ideology to not force my children into something but I did think that there was a need to guide them towards their education.

It was Ariel’s earnest request to let my child enter the National University of Asura Kingdom.

I had a huge debt towards Ariel.

I want to make blood ties with your family so make one of my child your son-in-law!

If she said something like that, I’d obviously refuse, but I couldn’t say no if she just wanted to enroll my kids.

I wanted to pay back my debts little by little.

Incidentally, Ariel gave birth after the Battle of Biheiril Kingdom.

Her companion might get a hold of too much power so she didn’t marry.

And it seemed that she had many concubines.

Ariel currently had 5 kids, on top of which the fathers of 4 of them were unknown, Luke said with a greatly perplexed blue face.

A question arises as to just how he knew about one of the fathers.....but if I think about it now, perhaps the father in question might turn out to be Luke.

It seemed that as part of her next plan, Ariel was planning on marrying my kids with one of those 4 kids.

I wouldn’t like it if she’s doing it for only political reason, but I’d permit it if the kids themselves consented to each other being their companions, or so were my thoughts.

The kids were still young but they would be growing towards adulthood with each passing year.

In particular, Lucy had already become a fine adult capable of judging things herself.

Though I say that, it’s not like she simply grew older without maturing as an adult.

Honestly, even I didn’t understand about change.

The moment one thinks that something bad has been fixed, a different bad thing might pop out.

And the one that had been already fixed would start deteriorating again.

It’s a feeling where you keep aging while thinking the same thing over and over.

Only my face could be seen to be getting older as the years went by.

These days, my face had gotten some smile lines.

Sylphy said ‘That part of you is good as well’ but Sylphy looks quite young for her age so I felt a little guilty.

Sylphy was aging quite well.

But she was the same age as me so her change in appearance was slower in comparison.

Since she’s the same age as me, she should be turning 34 this year too, but her body looked like she was about 20 years old.

Her skin was still spunky, and even though she gave birth to 2 children, her butt was still small.

Sleeping with her feels great as usual.

It’s just that her personality had already completely become like an old-la─ a mother, and so her scoldings had increased a lot.

Roxy didn’t change.

Neither her appearance nor her personality changed.

But when I told her, I get scolded, even though they were just words of praise.

As usual, she still guides me as a master whenever I do something bad.

She was still a little bit clumsy as usual, but it’s just the ups and downs of life. People make mistakes all the time.

Perhaps it was Eris that changed the most in regards to her appearance.

She was aging just like me.

But as a result of her not failing to do her everyday training, she looked a lot younger than me. Her body might be somewhere in the late 20s.

Her sex drive seemed to have dipped down a bit after giving birth to 2 children, but she still attacked me sometimes.

Contrary to Sylphy, her personality hadn’t changed too much.

However, she started teaching the children swordplay, so it felt like her ferociousness had dropped down a bit.

She had become patient.

Although she would still hit me if I touched her butt or breasts without permission, that’s expected of her.

Lilia and Zenith had obviously aged.

Both of them were still lively but because of Lilia’s foot condition which she had from the start, she was getting symptoms of lower back pains and stiff shoulders.

Although it was cured by healing magic, it came back after about 1 year.

Her complete recovery looked quite difficult.

The other guys were aging quite well.

Zanoba and Cliff had already become fine men.

They each had their family and work, and looked quite busy.

And they helped each other out in times of trouble.

Aisha and Norn, both of them got married.

Their companions.....were a little bit complex.

Well, they properly explained about those things and made me consent so there’s no need for me to say something this late in the game.

“...........”

Still, 34 years old huh.....

I had an emotional attachment to this age.

Part 3

During the very same day, at daytime. I made a visit to that place.

On the outskirts, on top of a small hill, a place where circular stones were standing in a row.

It’s the cemetery.

“Greetings, thank you very much for your hard work as always.”

I thank the gravekeeper standing at the entrance with a few words as always and entered the cemetery.

This cemetery too, saw a lot of new tombs within these 10 years.

People died and were born, but the tombstones didn’t decrease that much.

At the other cemeteries, when an entire family was no longer around, their tombstones were demolished, but this place was reserved for the nobles, and so even after an entire family died, their tombstones wouldn’t be demolished.

And now, the Ranoa Kingdom and Magic City Sharia was slowly building up its strength.

In addition to that, noble families were increasing as well, due to that gravestones were increasing too.

I stood in front of one of those gravestones.

Paul Greyrat was written on the circular gravestone.

It had gotten quite old compared to when it was first erected.

With the cleaning equipment I had brought along with me, I cleaned the surroundings and polished the gravestone.

After that, I offered alcohol in front of the gravestone and joined my hands together.

It had been a while since I came here.

I kept visiting at every opportunity I got and reported various things before but I ended up visiting less & less these days.

Still, I made a shrine visit once a year with all my family......

I wonder if it’s the problem with my feelings.

Rather than making a shrine visit to meet Paul, it felt more like that it was an event I had to attend.

Looks like I was lacking feelings of gratitude.

“Father, everyone’s lively and doing fine.”

The first thing that I told him was about the current state of other people.

I did this every year as well, but just in case.

“I’ll be turning 34 this year.”

34 years old.

It’s the age when I died in my previous world.

During the time when this and that happened, I ended up becoming 34.

But I wonder why.

It felt like it took quite a lot more time than the previous world to become 34.

I wonder if it was because I had a lot of things to do.

Or was it because it was a lot different as compared to my previous world.

“Even though I’ve just become 34, I ended up seeing a dream where I die at 74.”

I wonder just what that dream was.

Was it just a dream?

Or was it the future Hitogami showed me?

Hitogami was sealed.

And I accepted my death with a satisfied mind.

Right, maybe the moment Lara removed my bracelet, Hitogami was able to intervene.

“If that was really true then.....”

If Hitogami made me see that, then it probably meant that it was the result of my hard work.

In the Battle of Biheiril Kingdom, we were victorious.

Maybe that was really the final battle and Hitogami lost any way of winning against Orsted.

Therefore, Hitogami gave up.

Since there was no interference from Hitogami whatsoever for these past 10 years.

There’s nothing anymore.

Perhaps he’s stealthily moving in the shadows.

However, just as Gisu and Badigadi said, there was no news of him.

To the point where I forgot the purpose that I was moving for.

“Does this mean I don’t have to work hard anymore?”

If Hitogami had really given up.

Then that meant my job was finished.

I’m halfway through my current job, it should be fine to live a little more relaxed.

I could put effort into baby-making once every three days with my wives.

I could teach various things to my children......

It felt like I could even start living in retirement.

“Just kidding.”

I laughed in disagreement.

That’s something foolish.

So what if Hitogami had given up.

It’s not like I was unwillingly doing my current work.

It’s not that harsh either.

I was doing this for the sake of leading Orsted to victory, for the sake the last battle.

It was quite fun.

Of course, there were times when it was painful and hard, but it’s not something that I would run away from.

There are still things that have to be done, there are also things I want to do and that I’m still doing.

It may be Hitogami’s plan to make me think like this... to make me lax.

“Father, I’ll be working even harder from now on.”

I had been living like this as usual.

That was a dream.

A convenient dream where a desire was brought forth.

“Please watch over us all.”

I said the usual things and joined my hands once again.

“..........”

As long as I existed, that guy must be in the afterlife.

Or so I say. It’s not necessary that Paul was within this grave.

He’s definitely enjoying the show from some other place.

That’s why coming here might be an act with not much meaning to it.

But it was fine.

This was the ceremony.

I’ll be working hard again from today onward.

It was taking that pledge in front of Paul’s gravestone that was important.

“By the way, Gisu too.....”

I put offerings on Gisu’s tomb that was near Paul’s as well and joined my hands again.

I didn’t know what Gisu might think of this but.....well, it wasn’t like he seriously wanted to bring ruin to me.

“I’ll listen to your resentment in 40 years.....well, it might take bit longer than that or I could probably die before that.”

I had no intention of glorifying Gisu’s death, but if 10 years pass, things like that tend to fade away.

And as a result of those things fading, the thing that would be remembered would be his smiling face.

Gisu always laughed giddily while talking about jinxes.

When I recalled that smiling face of his, I couldn’t help but think of it as a nice memory.

It’s not like someone close to me had died because of Gisu, and I held no resentment towards him.

Because he died, I was able make a shrine visit to his grave like this.

“Well then, I’ll come back again. Next time, probably with my family.”

While saying that, I stood up.

Nothing in particular would be changing just because I saw a strange dream.

While doing what I can, I’ll do what I want to do.

While thinking that, I turned my feet towards my house where my family was waiting.