Mushoku Tensei

Volume 13 Chapter 3 - Her Feelings at that Time

Part 1

--Roxy's POV--

I heard a small noise and woke up.

The surrounding area is dark and narrow.

It's a confining space.

This room I had reached at the end of all of the teleporting was narrow, like a cradle.

The size of the area is barely enough to allow one or two people to lie down.

Even the ceiling hangs low.

It's low enough to nearly brush the top of my head.

At this height and narrowness.

As long as I am occupying this area, no demon will metastasize here.

As I sit at the very edge of this space, I recline against the wall behind me and fix my gaze on what lies before me.

There is a Magic Formation there.

And this Magic Formation shines with a ghostly pale light.

It is a Metastasis Magic Formation.

When I place a single foot on it, I will be teleported somewhere.

The most probable place is to a monster den.

A room of death, filled to the brim with different kinds of demons.

One Month Ago.

I blundered into a trap.

The only excuse I can make is [It couldn't be helped.]

During a battle, I leaped away to avoid an oncoming attack, then I took a step backwards, and then I tripped on a stone.

This caused me to stagger forward with my other foot,

And with that step I landed on a Metastasis Magic Formation.

Before we entered the combat, we had confirmed there was a trap there.

And yet, I easily wound up stepping on the trap.

Ahead of where I metastasized, there were an absurd number of demons.

There were 20, no… 30… I guess?

I am a magician.

I myself happen to think that I am an excellent one.

Even though I cannot use the chantless magic, I can use chanting omission, so I am able to cast faster than most other magicians around.

But despite all the enemies I've become accustomed to battling…

There was never a panic I had felt like this one.

I expected to be wiped out immediately.

No matter how many I destroyed, demon after demon kept surging forward.

As demons continually began to appear one by one and fill my field of vision.

The demons of this labyrinth, after all, knew the routes of all the metastasis magic formations.

And so, this place had become a demon's nest.

This place was where demons lie in wait for their victims, the so called [Trap] room.

I was prepared for death.

But I still fought.

My magic was not infinite however.

And my intuition tells me sooner or later it'll run out, and I'll probably end up succumbing.

I know my limits.

I probably have about 30% of my MP left, no it's probably closer to 20%, and the number of enemies it seems hasn't decreased at all.

Only the number of corpses has increased, and the demons still continue to surge forward one after another.

It was a complete and utter checkmate.

There will be no rescue for me.

Was I forsaken by everyone after all?

If I were in someone else's shoes, wouldn't I leave behind such a clumsy woman?

No matter how much magic I can use, a fool who walks into traps is a burden.

No, I don't think they deserted me.

Rather, Paul was also in the range of the trap's activation, did he metastasize to another location?

With the obvious lack of fighting potential, did he have to withdraw temporarily?

Either way, help hasn't come.

While I fought desperately, I couldn't help but begin to lose my composure and began to sob and wail.

I felt the magic power within me decrease ever steadily.

Meanwhile, I noticed one bright light.

In this wide room were six magic formations.

Yet, not a single demon has appeared for a while from around any of them.

Perhaps, there might possibly not be any more demons around the place where the magic formations are.

It's All-or-Nothing.

I used every spell at my disposal to break through the swarm of demons, and I launched myself onto the magic formation.

And at last, I had arrived at this room.

I had managed somehow to survive.

It was pure luck.

I could produce as much water from magic as I wanted.

I had a bit of food stored in my backpack.

Somehow I will recover my magic and escape from here.

And so I spent the rest of that day in thought.

The next day, I stepped on the metastasis magic formation.

And the destination point was a passage I was still unfamiliar with.

Apparently, being teleported to these random locations was a typical characteristic of the metastasis magic formation.

However there were no signs that there were people nearby.

I was doing the mapping by myself, in order to escape the labyrinth, I continued moving forward.

Though I had thought about waiting for a rescue effort, but there was the possibility that the rest of Paul-san's party had been wiped out as well.

I can say with confidence that the metastasis trap is a terrible thing.

I walk around the passageway, and discover 3 metastasis magic formations.

I make a mark on a nearby rock, and jump into the first one.

I metastasize to an unfamiliar passage.

I repeated this action several times.

If I don't do things this way, I won't be able to advance in this metastasis labyrinth.

While I try and be careful not to step on a trap, or any of the metastasis magic formations hidden in or by rocks, I advance ahead.

Have I managed to advance ahead, or have I ended up just going back? I just don't know.

I cannot seem to grasp where my current location is in this metastasis labyrinth.

My senses are unreliable.

Though I am uneasy, I must somehow keep on moving forward.

And I need to secure some new food supplies.

So I defeat a demon, eat its meat, and continue onwards.

How many times have I metastasized into a demon's den?

I fight desperately, and find similar magic formations where demons don't emerge from.

Then, I return.

To this same narrow room.

How many times have I repeated this I wonder?

Five times? Ten times?

The magic formation before my eyes always sends me to a different point.

However, I somehow always end up returning back here.

I became drained, mentally and physically.

As could be expected, I was tired.

My biological clock tells me about a month has now passed by.

And after a month of going around and around, there are no useful results.

The fights are not easy.

No, there is never an easy fight.

I receive many attacks, blood loss often causes my consciousness to dim.

How many times now have the demons begun to run into the magic formations to block themselves from my magic?

I began to think that these demons actually have brains after all.

In the end though, I cannot help but just waste my magic power breaking through their blockade.

I feel like I'm being cornered.

My joints ache.

I ate all the food already.

The demons here are tough and taste horrible too.

If I don't use detoxification magic when I am eating, my body health becomes poor.

I can feel my physical strength falling.

Only my magical power do I possess in excess.

I have no idea what will come next.

Will there be many more enemies?

Will there be more cleverly coordinated enemy attacks?

Will my magic be exhausted, and my limbs torn from my body and eaten by these demons?

Only good luck will allow me to avoid having to break through a group of demons just to end up back here, the next time.

Just thinking about that prevents me from stepping onto the magic formation in front of me.

Perhaps the demons here have realized my existence.

They know that I am in the narrow room.

And they know when I step on this magic formation in this narrow room, that I will once again be returning to that den.

Surely they are waiting for me.

Hiding, and waiting for that moment when I finally make my fatal mistake.

I have a hunch.

That there won't be a next time.

[…]

It was here. It wasn't when I came here that I became truly conscious of my own death for the first time.

Surely no one will discover my corpse.

I doubt there will be any items left behind to be discovered after I die.

I will die, unable to leave a trace.

Scary.

I am so scared.

My back teeth began making a chattering sound before I had realized it.

Impulsively, I wanted to just unleash a loud shout, but instead I just gripped my staff tightly.

How many times have I looked upon death up until now?

I had lived as an adventurer, so I have witnessed people dying in my presence before.

I've seen a demon cleave a powerful warrior in half like a withered branch right before my eyes.

And I've seen an intelligent magician squashed like a tomato by a demon right before my eyes.

An accomplished and clever thief, a nimble swordsman…

All of them I have seen die in my presence.

On the days I saw such things, I dimly became aware that my turn would also come someday.

But at the same time, I also thought [At least I am safe!]

However, now that I actually have to face it, I am scared.

What have I managed to accomplish up until now?

There are things I still want to do.

I even have a dream!

That's right, my dream…

I want to become a teacher.

I love teaching other people.

Even if I have no talent for it, I love to teach.

Then, when this business is over, when we safely rescue Zenith-san, I am going to go take the examination for magic teachers at the magic academy.

I will be a school teacher!

A teacher at the Magic Academy.

I parted with my Shisho there after an argument.

Maybe I will argue with my Shisho again.

Though, I have a feeling it'll be better this time around, perhaps.

…that person was greedy for recognition, I wonder if they've at least made it to being vice-principal already?

I want to feel what it's like to have ordinary happiness.

That's right. If I was a teacher, I could possibly even get married.

Marry a man I have come to love, we would live together, and spend passionate nights together as well.

Even though I am of the Magic Race, with a short and childlike figure.

I still think there is at least a chance.

[Haa~]

The scorn leaked out.

Even if I do say so myself, with the situation like this, to remember something like my dream…

I'm going to die.

My dreams will never come true.

I will only die a miserable death.

When it comes down to it, there is no way I'll be saved anymore.

I have never known of such a person to be rescued from a situation like this.

……I do not want to die.

However, I put my foot forward, and stepped onto the magic formation.

Because I do not want to die.

Part 2

My feelings proved correct.

I metastasized to an unknown passageway, some of the magic formations that I marked had moved, and it seemed that I was naturally being driven towards another demon's den.

The moment I saw, I realized it was impossible.

Demons were piling on the corpses of the other dead demons onto the magic formation.

Is it because the demons don't metastasize into that narrow a room after all?

Since it's become like this, then there is no option left other than to get ready to take the plunge.

[All while fighting this crowd?]

I did think their formation was beautiful.

A heap of corpses, defending the metastasis magic formation that leads to my refuge, the demons are deployed radially around it.

At the vanguard are the [Iron Crawler], who have moved in front and devoted themselves as the front line of defense. On top of them are the [Death Road Tarantula], evil red spiders, moving and stopping occasionally to spit out threads while on top of the backs of the [Iron Crawler].

At the rearguard is what looks like a huge clay doll standing there, the Mad Skull, shooting out clumps of rock.

I began to weave my magic while thinking, [This is clearly an army.]

"Oh, armor of the majestic land, gather around me and become my trappings, 『Earth Fortress』!"

The surrounding soil began to take the form of a fortress around me.

Eventually, it covered the top of my head, I became protected within the dome.

However, I had to stop once it reached a certain height.

I don't need it to reach the ceiling.

If it's to the extent of my chest-height, it is enough to block the charge of the Iron Crawlers.

"Oh, falling rain, I call upon you to scatter, and flood the whole world! 『Water Splash』!"

Innumerable drops of water suspend themselves aloft around me, and then become bullets which tear through the area.

However, as the offensive power of this magic is extremely low, the demons were barely kept at bay by this spell.

I understood that, though.

So, I began chanting the next spell immediately.

"Blue Goddess, fly down from heaven and wave the scepter which would frost the world! 『Icicle Field』!"

All the demons' exteriors, which were covered in the sticky water droplets from before, made a hard sound as they quickly froze solid.

[Water Splash] and [Icicle Field], and then the melded magic [Frost Nova]. The entire forward guard of the demon army came to a complete stop.

I still had to hammer more magic in there. Advanced level magic.

"King of Frost. Supreme ruler of the great snowfields.

Clad in white, oh King of Naught, who reaps all passion.

Cold-hearted king, which rules the frozen death! 『Blizzard Storm』!"

The magic that I shortened was complete.

A spear of ice shot out towards the entire area.

It flies out in a wide arc before me.

The spear of ice pierced into the demons behind the frozen vanguard, one after another.

I did not manage to defeat the enemy vanguard.

While statues of ice play the role of the wall, I chant advanced magic, and instead struck at the back row.

When I traversed the labyrinth near Shirone, this was the strategy I learned.

The strategy of victory.

However…

[…Just as I thought.]

At the same time the demons in the back row are dying, demon after demon springs up from the metastasis magic formation.

Stepping over the pile of demons I just defeated, the new wave of demons filled the room at a surprising pace.

[Is it no good after all?]

The room quickly became full of demons in no time.

My heart quickly became full of despair, as well.

At the same time the room filled, I began to lose my composure.

This is bad.

I can't break through if I don't first do something about that mountain of dead bodies.

However, I don't have enough hands.

[Kuu~!]

From the distance, the Mad Skull sends a rock bullet flying.

Part of the Earth Fortress is destroyed, and the Iron Crawlers who had their movement dulled, began to restlessly squirm through the gap.

A cold sweat slowly rose to the surface of my spine.

"Flaming sword of my charge, tear my enemies to pieces! 『Flame Slice』!"

The blade of flames sprung forward, and the shell of the Iron Crawler is made red-hot.

The Iron Crawler writhed around as it died.

Iron Crawlers are weak to fire.

However, it is not a good idea to use fire in a cavern.

It's like something is tied around my neck.

I have no choice but to use it.

"Oh, armor of the majestic land, gather around me and become my trappings, 『Earth Fortress』!"

Once more, I create a wall of soil.

The residual amount of magic I possess steadily decreases.

I must hurry.

What's the best way to do it?

How can I survive?

Think.

I defeat demons absent-mindedly while I think about how to survive.

However, I cannot think of any way.

Have I finally been checkmated?

Is it already time for it to end?

Is it here that I am to die, after all?

Even as I continue working to kill demons, I think so.

[…~Aah~]

My feet stagger.

My head swims.

I feel the magic power inside of me beginning to dry up.

I know I will faint after I fire off a few more spells.

[I don't want to…]

I grab on to my staff.

I do not want to die.

I do not want to die.

Even though I think this, in my mind, one thing after another begins to re-surface.

Soon after I was born, I remembered my parent's disappointed faces.

In the quiet village I lived in, I was the only one unable to talk with the others.

My parents pitied me and taught me words.

I was impressed by the magician who came to visit my village, and so I learned magic.

I rushed out of the village, knowing only beginner rank water magic.

After I headed out, I met three boys.

I traveled with them as an adventurer for many years.

One of the companions died, and so the party dissolved.

Then, I traveled to Central Continent.

I had met many people, and thereby came to know of the Magic Academy.

I then entered the academy.

I took a class for the first time, and I was impressed.

I got a good score on a test, and the results of my practical skills test made others jealous.

I talked about many things with my friend in the dormitory.

When I became advanced-rank, I met my Shisho.

From Shisho, I learned saint class water magic, and it came to the point where I could easily use it on the spur of the moment.

My Shisho said this and that, and got angry.

I graduated around then, and left to travel without saying anything to my Shisho.

I thought myself good enough to work in the Asura Capital City, so I traveled there.

However, with no work to be had, I gradually moved towards the border.

And at the border, with no work to be found either, I was at a loss.

But, it was then that I found the piece of paper asking for a tutor.

I met Paul and family, and I had also met Rudi.

I was surprised to see the love affair of Paul and his family.

I was excited and jealous of the talent Rudi had.

I watched Rudi who did not get carried away with magic like I did, and my feelings of respect towards him rose.

Once I had taught Rudeus water-saint class magic, I had left.

I began to dive into the labyrinth near the Shirone kingdom.

After traversing the labyrinth, I had become employed by Shirone kindgom.

I taught magic to Prince Pax, and it was dreadfully different than when I taught Rudi. I realized the lack of talent I had as a teacher.

A letter came one day from Rudi, and I worked very hard to make a book on the Demon God Language for him.

I found myself disgusted with Shirone Kingdom, and so I left.

It was then that I heard of the Metastasis Event.

I met Elinalise and Talhand.

I was surprised at how free Elinalise and Talhand were.

I traveled around the Magic Continent.

I met my parents again after so long, and was able to confirm that they truly did love me after all.

Then, I met Kishirika.

And then, and then…

Such scenes streamed inside my head in an instant.

An Iron Crawler approaches in front of me.

The room is warmed by the heat of the previously cast fire magic, so the effect of Frost Nova has weakened.

It's already over.

I do not want to die, I hate this.

I HATE THIS!

[No…NOOOOooooo………!]

I swung my staff around awkwardly.

Sticky threads come flying at me, and entwine my staff.

In an instant, my staff falls to the ground.

[I do not want to die. He-, help me, somebody…!]

I edge backward, but there is a wall behind me.

An Iron Crawler approaches.

How many of these are there?

I can't cast any more magic spells.

Am I going to be eaten alive like this?

I hate it, why does it have to be like this?!

[Somebody, please save me…]

Ah~.

…~ah.

I guess I'll never be able to meet my mother again.

At that moment, that was my final thought.

And, as the demon who approached before me, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.

Part 3

I waited for an eternity, but that moment never came.

Did I die instantly?

As I thought that, I realized I wouldn't have been able to think that if I was already dead.

I am unable to reason what has happened.

However, I no longer hear any sounds.

Perhaps, I have already appeared here in the world after death.

I'm scared, but I open my eyes.

Filling my view was a sight beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

It was a world of ice.

Death Road Tarantula, Iron Crawler, and Mad Skull.

All had become statues of pure white ice.

The Mad Skull, which was inside the inner part, collapsed with a crunching sound and fell apart.

The skull and the main body cracked and collapsed onto the ground with a loud sound, similar to a window breaking.

It was completely frozen to the very core.

Compared to my own Frost Nova, which only freezes the surface, this power is in another league entirely.

I doubt there is a demon left alive after this.

"…Eh?"

I don't understand what just happened.

I reached for my staff, while being confused.

"Hyaaah!"

The staff was so cold, that I dropped it instinctively.

In this world of silence, I heard a clanging sound.

Was that the reaction to the sound? One voice reached my ear.

"Ahh, what a relief…"

Walking confidently between the statues of ice, it was a solitary young man.

The moment I laid eyes on him, I began to feel my heart beating really fast.

It was the man of my dreams.

Features that seemed kind, and hair that seemed to be soft.

He was tall and wearing a robe, but despite appearing to be a magician, he also seemed to be solidly built.

Dressed in grey robes and holding a large staff, he came towards me.

He looked down at me with a face that seemed to be openly relieved.

"EHH? Ehh?"

I was embraced tightly.

It was a warm, powerful, and reliable pair of arms wrapped around me.

It was a lightly sweet scent mixed with a little bit of sweat. However, it seemed to be a nostalgic smell to me.

He squatted down, and buried his face into the nape of my neck, and as he inhaled deeply he was moved to profound emotions.

"Su~u…"

"…!"

And then I had noticed something.

I had not had any kind of a bath for about a month.

"Ah!"

The second I realized this, I pushed him away.

"What's this?"

His face had a surprised look.

Ah, I'm hopeless. I did something inexcusable like that.

Even though he just came to rescue me.

Ah, but still, I don't want to be thought of as stinking…

Ah, no… wait… do I really need to worry about such a thing right now?

What's this?

I can't follow this line of thought.

"S-Sorry, I think it may be a little smelly…"

"S-Smelly… is it? Ah, I'm sorry!"

I received a bit of a shock when he started to smell his sleeves.

"Ah, not that! I meant myself. Because I have been trapped in here for a month now."

"Oh, that's what you meant? Well, I don't happen to mind it, you know?"

"Well, I do happen to mind it."

I shouldn't have said that.

Well, it was fine as it is thought.

I should first give him my thanks.

Then, I should properly hear his name.

"Thank you very much for taking the time to rescue me."

"No, it's only natural that I do."

Only natural?

No companion I know would feel any kind of obligation that would make them try and rescue me from certain death from such an amazingly large crowd of demons.

Ah yes, his name. I must hear his name.

"*ahem*… Pleased to meet your acquaintance just now, I happen to be called Roxy Migurdia. If it is at all possible, would you please allow me the honor to receive your name?"

After I said that, he suddenly froze like a statue.

Did I say something strange?

"J-just now… pleased to meet my acquaintance?"

"Eh? Ah, have we met somewhere else before now? If that's the case I am truly very sorry, but I cannot seem to remember it at all…"

Come to think about it now, I have a funny feeling that I have seen someone like him before.

Now, where could it have been?

He does seem to look just a little bit like Paul-san…

Could I really have forgotten such a person?

"I can't seem to remember you…"

He looked blue in the face.

Did I anger him?

Whether I like it or not, I have certainly met someone like him somewhere.

There's something about his face I can recall, something from a long time ago certainly…

"Remember…Re…member……"

His head bobbed from side to side, and he staggered backwards several steps.

Suddenly, it seemed like he was holding something back in his mouth…

"UEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

He vomited.

---

That little boy Rudi - after such a small amount of time, had grown up to become an adult that I now knew as Rudeus Greyrat.

Paul-san and everyone else who caught up shortly after had brought me back to safety, and it was then that I understood how narrowly I had escaped death.