Life in Vain: Jobless Reincarnation

202 – A Moment of Re-spite

The white magic circle that appeared in the sky vanished.

Aleksander slumped to the ground, unconscious and unmoving.

The black limbs that appeared on Gal Farion and Reida vanished.

Gisu dissolved into a faint white mist.

Then Nina fainted, followed by Isolte and Atofe.

And like that, it was just Orsted and the person who must be Laplace floating in the sky.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence.

But then 'Laplace' muttered, "It's almost over now."

Orsted tensed, wondering if he was going to do something else. At the same time, Orsted wracked his mind for a solution.

That spell was something he had never seen before.

In an instant, it had drained away the mana from the magic circle, and everyone but Orsted.

Not only that, but there had been enough control to drain in separate level.

Gisu became mana, Aleksander was drained enough to become a normal human (at least temporarily), the girls were drained enough to be knocked unconscious, and then Atofe was drained enough to faint.

And it was instantaneous as well, with an incredible range.

...If that man wanted to, he likely could target Rudy's family in a single moment.

Thankfully, he hadn't.

Orsted could still sense them all in the palace, moving as they were. And the man also hadn't targeted the knights.

Even so... while he didn't appear to emit animosity or hostility, he was dangerous.

Orsted took in that information and ran through those thoughts in an instant.

In the next, he decided to attack.

Friendly or not, the man was too dangerous to be so close to Rudy's family.

But before Orsted could act, someone else did.

A flash of brilliant golden light appeared in an instant.

Arumanfi, swinging a sword at the silver-haired man's neck.

But it didn't connect.

No. It did, but the blade suddenly dissolved, leaving Arumanfi unarmed.

The silver-haired man idly glanced at Arumanfi before clicking his tongue. "You are as quick to attack as always. Perugius is impatient, is he?"

Arumanfi didn't respond. Instead, he glanced at Orsted below and back at the silver-haired man in front of him before saying, "It appears the message was true. But-"

Before he could say anything else, a black light enveloped Arumanfi and he vanished.

And in that moment, Orsted crossed the gap between him and the silver-haired man and swung his sword.

A thin silver line distorted the air.

But like with Arumanfi, Orsted's attack didn't connect.

And like with Arumanfi, Orsted suddenly found himself at the whim of his opponent, caught in mid-air by an invisible force.

Thankfully, it seemed that Orsted could still move. But-

"You can relax, Orsted."

Orsted froze.

A different face. A slightly different voice. But standing there in front of him, speaking in that way...

"...Rudy?"

The man let out a sad smile and then walked forward to pat Orsted's shoulder. "It's good to see you again. And I hope this ends well this time."

Orsted was confused. But before he could do anything, he was back on the ground, and the man was gone.

But a moment later, space rippled and Rudy walked onto the courtyard. Taking a quick look around, he frowned and then turned towards Orsted. "What'd I miss?"

Orsted sighed.

-RNG-

"...I still think that you were dumb for not telling anyone about that, Onii-chan."

I casually batted aside a flurry of fireballs from Fai, dodged an icicle spear from Wata, and punted Leo who was trying to bite my ankles.

After that, I said, "When your archnemesis is a divine being who can see across the entire world and also acts petty for no reason, you can't take any chances."

We were in the training grounds out behind the palace.

By 'we,' I meant me and my younger sisters, Norn, Stella, and Aisha.

Speaking of which-

I tilted my head to the side to dodge a slash from behind by Norn and then grabbed her arm.

"Wha-"

Before she could react, I chucked her over my shoulder at Stella.

"Nee-chan!" Stella gasped and ducked to the side to avoid getting squished.

But that meant Norn was going to crash on the floor.

Thankfully, Aisha was there and stopped her by casting a quick wind spell to act as a buffer.

After that, Aisha let out a deep sigh and said, "You two are both not good enough to fight Rui while talking. I'm not either. So can we PLEASE focus? We're supposed to be training, not playing."

I tilted my head. "I thought we were playing though?"

Aisha gave me a blank stare. And then she instantly raised her wand and sent a giant water ball blasting towards my face.

I laughed and caught it with my left hand before condensing it into a shimmering ice sphere in my palms. "Hey now, jealousy is no good. You'll catch up... probably."

Aisha glared at me and said, "I hate you, Rui."

"You don't mean that, and I love you too, Ai-chan."

Aisha clicked her tongue.

Stella helped Norn back on her feet and then turned to look at me. Frowning, she said, "So... you're not going to explain why there was an evil version of you running around here to help Orsted?"

I held up my hand and said, "First of all, he's not evil, just a master of the dark arts."

Stella crossed her arms. "So... evil."

"Hey now, magic prejudice is a real thing, and you shouldn't have it."

After saying that, I conjured up a table and some bowls of ice cream.

...It totally wasn't a bribe or anything.

Thankfully, my sisters took the peace offering and sat down to munch on ice cream.

...And in the meantime, Stella's spirit friends went off to a corner for a huddle.

It seemed like they were upset at me smacking them around so easily.

But anyway.

I sat down too with an affogato. A cup filled with coffee with a fresh scoop of vanilla ice cream... nothing was better after dealing with your energetic younger sisters who kept playing at being adventurers.

Though they'd loudly protest if they heard me say that.

Stella took a bite of her ice cream and then said, "Don't think I'm ignoring what you said about the dark arts, Mister Flight From Death."

I pointed at her with my spoon and said, "To be fair, if Mister Riddle was smart about things and wasn't all murder-y, he would have been a proper Dark Lord over the Wizarding World."

Stella stared at me for a while and then said, "...Are you sure that YOU'RE not the evil version of you, Onii-chan?"

I raised my affogato to sip on the coffee and then said, "One man's villain is another man's hero. And vice-versa."

Norn sighed and then looked between me and Stella. "You two are still so close. I'm jealous."

Stella flinched.

I reached over to pat Norn's head. But then I realized she was too tall for that now and patted her shoulder instead. "It's alright, Norn. We both suffered through the hug monster in her heyday, and nothing will take that away from us."

Norn blinked and then giggled. "True. Though..." She twirled her spoon around in her ice cream and said, "Big Brother's going to be even busier soon..."

Aisha frowned. "Yeah." She looked at me and said, "You still owe me a big birthday party. How are you going to do that between dealing with three babies?"

"First, it's seven babies. Second, I don't sleep. Third, time travel... probably."

Still working on that limited temporal field where I could locally pop back in time. Just had to work out some kinks that could cause an infinite time loop.

Aisha's eyes widened. "Wait, SEVEN!?"

Norn gasped. "I'm going to have seven nieces and nephews?!"

Stella facepalmed. "Of course. Seven. It couldn't just be four. Seven..."

I coughed. "Well... your aunts worked hard?"

Stella turned up her nose. "Ew."

Aisha crossed her arms. "Pervert."

Norn... just laughed and held out her hand for a high five?

I blinked but returned Norn's high five.

She grinned and said, "Good job, Big Brother! At this rate, you'll pressure Dad to finally give us more baby siblings!"

Aisha coughed just as she was putting a spoonful of ice cream to her mouth. She wiped her face with her sleeve and then said, "I don't think that's how it works, Nornie..."

"Hm?" Norn tilted her head. "Of course it is."

Stella gave Norn a weird look and said, "Do you even know how babies are made, Onee-chan?"

Norn nodded. "Of course I do! When a guy takes his pe-"

I clapped my hands. "Ooookay! Change of subject." I looked at Norn and said, "Are your friends Nina and Isolte okay, Norn?"

Norn looked a bit upset at being interrupted, but then she nodded. "They're fine. Mister Farion is staying with Nina in her house, and Miss Reida is staying with Isolte at her house."

I blinked. "Wait. They have houses? Are they even old enough?"

Norn paused to think about it. "...Maybe? Well, they're A-ranked adventurers anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter?"

"A-ranked adventurers?!"

Stella rolled her eyes and said, "What are you surprised about, Onii-chan? You became a Demon Lord before you were even ten years old."

"Well, yeah. But I'm a literal heaven-sent genius." I scooped a bit of ice cream from my affogato and munched on it. After that, I said, "I didn't get that impression from Nina or Isolte. Huh. Guess I should congratulate Ruijerd for being such a good teacher?"

Norn nodded. "Mister Ruijerd really is a good teacher. He's not the best fighter, but he's really good at explaining!"

Aisha sighed and said, "I wish I could say the same about my teacher."

I blinked and said, "What do you mean? Roxy's a great teacher."

Aisha glared at me and said, "I'm talking about you, Idiot Big Brother! Do you know what I have to deal with at the academy now? Nobody but me gets what you say, so suddenly I'm the assistant professor helping everyone!"

I coughed and said, "W-Well, as the student council president should."

Aisha paused and then quietly stood up.

I stared at her and raised an eyebrow. "Ai-chan?"

She smiled and quietly walked over to my side. "Big brother~?"

"...Yes?"

"DIE FOR ME!"

"Aisha, hold grk! Gak!"

"Aisha, no!"

"Nee-chan, stop!"

"Let me at him! I've been losing my mind too long!" Aisha squeezed her hands around my neck and started rocking me back and forth. "First breaking the fundamental theories of magic, then making ME in charge of the class since he just left behind holographic records on loop, and now being an absentee professor along with Roxy and the school making ME the substitute teacher!"

Oookay. Confirmed that all my sisters have a tendency towards being yanderes when they snapped.

Then again, considering Mama Lily and Mom...

"Aisha! Let go! Big Brother's not breathing!"

"THAT'S THE POINT! AND HE'LL GET BETTER ANYWAY!"

"...Even if that's true, it's not right!"

"Just because you're right doesn't mean you're correct! Let me have this!"

Ahaha...

-LIV-

Lively and energetic days.

After Ena was saved and Hitogami's plans to ambush Rudy's family was thwarted, there wasn't much left.

Were this a chess match, it would undoubtedly be the endgame.

The 'white' player, Hitogami, had gone first and run through his gambits. But at this point, he had lost all his pieces but his queen.

In contrast, although the 'black' player, Rudeus, started after, he had most of his pieces. And while a few had left the battlefield, they hadn't been captured.

It was a situation where two kings remained along with their most powerful pieces.

For Hitogami, it was Perugius and that Dragon King's spirits.

For Rudy, it was Pierre, Paul, and Orsted.

That much had been confirmed in the last exchange.

Hitogami watched as Perugius meticulously modified the Fighting God Armor to remove both the limiters and the side-effects.

Rudy began creating a moving fortress to counter Perugius over the Ringus Sea, as well as to serve as a final battle ground.

Time flowed as everyone entrusted themselves to their chosen paths and objectives.

Summer turned to fall, which became covered by the white winter.

And then spring arrived.

And with it, the end began.