Chapter 006: The Full Story (Patreon)

Crackle-crackle... Crack-BOOM!!!!

A cluster of elemental particles barely a millimeter across. And yet it kept blossoming into a massive burst of energy. Huge white arcs of lightning lashed again and again at the ground beneath Rudy's feet. The temperature of the whole space was climbing fast. Fifty degrees, sixty, seventy... Just as it was about to hit eighty degrees—

Roxy's voice rang out from a distance!!

"Rudy, drop that thing now, it's about to explode!!!"

"Got it!!!"

Rudy answered at once. He raised a hand and sent six elemental spirits after it. They carried the millimeter-sized cluster of elements and shot up into the sky.

As for Rudy himself, he bolted toward the direction Roxy's voice had come from. It didn't take long. The moment Rudy reached Roxy—her face frozen in alarm—he tackled her straight to the ground. The two of them crashed down together.

And at that exact moment, in the night sky above—came a blinding, earsplitting explosion!!!! For an instant, everything within several kilometers lit up as bright as day. Fortunately, the spot Rudy had chosen was remote enough that no one else would be caught in the blast.

As the shockwave rolled outward, wave after wave of it swept over them. Rudy kept Roxy shielded safely beneath him.

Time crept by. Before long, the last tremors of the explosion faded away completely. Only then did Rudy finally get up. He pulled Roxy, still lying beneath him, to her feet.

Looking at her clothes, streaked with grime, and her face, smudged nearly black with soot, he couldn't hold back a grin. "Teacher Roxy, you've turned into a little black kitten."

Still shaken, Roxy glanced up at the gaping hole in the clouds overhead. Only then did she whip her head around and glare sharply at Rudy. "What in the world was that just now!!??"

Rudy said, "Something I've been secretly developing on my own—an elemental bomb!! After hearing all those stories about the outside world from you, Teacher Roxy, I realized how weak I still am. But this thing holds way too much power. One mistake and it could easily turn into a disaster. So, afraid you'd worry, I've been researching it alone in secret. I want it so that in the future, Mom, Dad, and everyone I hold dear never have to leave me because of my own helplessness. I hate goodbyes forced by death, so, for the sake of the future, I have to make myself stronger!!!"

Looking into Rudy's painfully earnest eyes, Roxy couldn't help herself and pulled him into a tight hug. Two lines of tears slowly slid down her cheeks.

"Rudy, can you tell me... what exactly did you go through, to make you this afraid?"

"Because I've seen my future self."

"Your future self!!??"

"That's right..."

"Actually, this concerns you too."

"Me...???"

He nodded solemnly. Rudy raised a hand and conjured a curtain of water. Then he turned and said earnestly to Roxy, "Will you watch it through with me?"

"Alright. What are you planning to do??"

Roxy looked at the water curtain hovering before them, her face full of confusion.

The next instant!!! images began flashing rapidly across the water curtain, one after another.

At first, Rudy had just been born, living happily with his family. Slowly, Rudy grew up. He got curious and started dabbling in magic, and once his family discovered his considerable talent for it, they brought in Teacher Roxy...

Seeing this, Roxy's heart tightened, and she started to speak—but before she could, Rudy caught her small hand.

"Keep watching, Teacher," he said gently.

"...Alright."

Roxy nodded. But as she watched the water curtain, her expression grew steadily heavier.

The images on the curtain kept flowing on. Rudy was the one at the center of it all, and as his age advanced, the curtain showed everything that happened to him.

Meeting Roxy, growing close, parting. Meeting Eris, growing close, parting. And then, all the good fortune and happiness came to an end.

Disaster struck!!! Teleport Incident threw countless lives off course. Rudy's family was torn apart because of it. Under the scheming of Hitogami, who delighted in toying with others, Rudy was killed by a dragon god.

He was later revived, but the ordeal drove Eris to leave, chasing after greater strength of her own. Rudy, his mind twisted by grief, sank into an endless darkness.

After that. He finally managed to find his childhood friend, Sylphiette. But right on its heels came his father's death. And his mother's loss of memory. At last, he and Roxy built something wonderful together.

But because of Hitogami's design, a rat carrying the Magic Stone Disease bit Roxy, who was pregnant at the time. From then on, Roxy turned into a Magic Stone. The shock of it broke something in Rudy. It indirectly drove a wedge between him and Sylphiette, and she was later killed by a villain.

After that, his remaining mother and sister, unreachable in time, were also killed by villains.

Eris, who had stayed by his side all along, unable to voice the misunderstanding between them, the two of them fought again and again, even trading real killing intent. Until finally, Eris took a fatal blow meant for Rudy. She collapsed into his arms, a look of contentment on her face.

And there, the images on the water curtain abruptly cut off. All that remained was the final image—old Rudy, standing alone, a pitiful, lonely figure.

Watching Roxy, tears now falling without her even realizing it, Rudy sighed. "If nothing changes, that's the future waiting for me."

"Why!!!"

Roxy couldn't make sense of it. She grabbed Rudy's arm, crying as she demanded, "Why!!?? Why would Hitogami do this to us, why!!??"

Rudy shook his head and gently stroked Roxy's cheek.

"Because," he sighed, "the dragon god also lost his home and family to Hitogami's scheming. The dragon god's lifelong wish is to kill Hitogami once and for all!!! And as it happens, our child will eventually get swept up into that very conflict. Once two powerful fates become entangled with each other, it finally bears the fruit of Hitogami's scheme against us."

After taking a deep breath, Roxy asked softly, "Our future child... he succeeded, didn't he?"

Rudy nodded and sighed. "Yes. Otherwise, why would Hitogami bother scheming against us at all?"