After Allen and Rudeus had walked for a bit, Rudeus turned to look back at his distant home, clapped his hands together twice, and bowed his head piously.
Paul, Zenith, please enjoy yourselves. You've had it rough these past few days.
Allen glanced at him from the side.
"Do you usually play with the other kids in the village? Or have you seen anyone arguing or bullying others?"
Rudeus paused.
"No. As for bullying, I haven't seen anything memorable. I usually just greet people when I see them. I've seen groups of kids playing together, but I don't plan on joining them, so I avoid them from a distance."
Is this guy trying to play the hero? Rudeus wondered.
"Do the kids ever run off to play far from the village?" Allen asked.
"Uh... I haven't seen them. Mostly they're around the fields."
"Around the fields... are there any plants there to identify?"
"Huh?"
Rudeus looked at Allen with a baffled expression.
This guy seems to lack some basic common sense...
"Probably... not."
"Good. Then let's go to the fields."
Rudeus looked at Allen. He didn't seem to have misheard him; rather, it seemed he had planned to go to the fields from the very beginning.
What is this guy up to?
Then, Allen added.
"The fields near where those kids are playing."
An expression of understanding dawned on Rudeus's face.
Oh, so that's it. He wants to go make friends. He really is the type who's starved for affection. He's composed, but he likes to befriend all sorts of people, doesn't he?
"What's this one?"
"That's a weed."
"What about this one?"
"That's wheat."
"Oh~ and this one?"
"...That one is also a weed."
Rudeus's lip twitched as he watched the absent-minded Allen counting weeds.
Hey, hey, your mind is clearly elsewhere! Could you at least pretend to be serious, you idiot!
Allen kept an eye on the group of children playing nearby. A tall, chubby kid among them was bossing the others around. He shifted his gaze back and, seeing Rudeus's increasingly perfunctory expression, seemed to hear his inner thoughts. He pointed to a plant that looked very much like the lavender of his past life—a Bartels flower—and asked with a smile.
"And this one?"
Rudeus's eyes lit up.
Finally! He's not asking about weeds anymore! You're learning, Allen!
"That's a Bartels flower."
"A what-tels flower?"
"Bartels flower."
"A Bar-what flower?"
"...A Bartels flower."
"Oh~ A Baralattice flower."
"..."
Rudeus looked at Allen's teasing smile and suddenly realized he was doing it on purpose. Just as he was about to get angry, he saw Allen's straight eyebrows shoot up, as if he were the one getting annoyed.
"...Uh... actually, it's Bartels flower."
"Listen."
"Bar-what-tels?"
The sound of an argument drifted from the distance. Rudeus looked at Allen. At some point, Allen had straightened up and was staring intently at the nearby fields, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword at his waist. The posture reminded Rudeus of a leopard on the hunt.
Rudeus followed his gaze to the source of the noise.
A gust of wind flattened the wheat sprouts in the field, revealing the group of rowdy children by a paddy field, shoving a smaller figure.
The voices carried faintly on the wind.
"The demon kid is here again!"
"Haha, get out of the village today, too!"
"He's not fighting back! How about we throw mud at him?!"
"Good idea!"
The little demons gleefully jumped into a nearby paddy field, bent down, and started rolling mud balls.
Allen watched this scene with what seemed like perfect calm, but the hand constantly stroking the hilt of his sword showed he was far from it. He waited for a moment, and seeing no reaction from his side, he turned with a frown to look at Rudeus.
Rudeus was staring at him intently.
Their eyes met, and they fell into a momentary silence.
Allen, watching the trembling Sylphie out of the corner of his eye, who was too scared to even run away, raised an eyebrow and asked.
"There's a kid being bullied over there. Didn't you see it? Or do you enjoy being bullied, too?"
Hearing this, a flicker of displeasure crossed Rudeus's face. He took a deep breath and spoke in a calm tone, but his words came out extremely fast.
"I saw it. But you're with me today, Teacher. I understand what you mean, but if I were to teach those kids a lesson, their families would probably complain. And with Father's... straightforward personality, he might think I was causing trouble and get angry at me. But you're different. He likes you so much, he'd probably believe whatever you say without even asking, right? So it's better if you go."
Allen looked at Rudeus quietly, as if he were looking at a bag of trash with a green light on top.
"You go. Even if you hurt someone, it's fine. When you get back, just tell Paul I did it. I'll take the consequences for you."
Rudeus froze, seemingly not expecting Allen to say such a thing.
Just then, the children in the paddy field had already scooped up handfuls of mud and were raising them high above their heads.
In his daze, Rudeus felt a flash of light from a reflective surface catch his eye. He subconsciously turned to look at Allen and saw him drawing his longsword. His pupils widened, and he quickly said.
"Wait! Hold on!"
The blade flashed. Allen then threw the sword in his hand, sending it flying high into the air.
Rudeus's eyes went wide. The rapidly spinning blade, in his vision, flew like a butterfly over the head of the bullied child. The sunlight glinted off the blade once, as if something in the air had collided with it.
With a thunk, the blade landed in front of the bullied child's back, very, very close.
The children let out a sudden gasp.
The bullied child's legs gave out, and they collapsed onto the ground.
Rudeus's body trembled. He immediately broke into a run towards where the blade had landed. When he got there, he saw that the blade was stuck upright in the ground in front of the child's legs, humming faintly. It hadn't hurt anyone as he had imagined. And on either side of the blade, splatters of mud were distributed around the child's body, as if they had been intercepted in mid-air by Allen's precise throw.
Rudeus's mouth fell open in shock. His gaze couldn't help but travel up the blade to the bullied child in front of it.
They were staring at the blade as if in a trance, but still felt Rudeus's gaze. They looked up and met his eyes.
The wind blew, mussing their not-so-short, medium-length hair.
Under the sun, it shimmered with a verdant green luster.
Rudeus couldn't help but be stunned.
"A S-Supard?"
"Where would you find a Supard here?"
Rudeus turned his head. Allen had already walked up behind him and was looking expressionlessly at the boys in the paddy field, who had now recovered and were glaring at him.
The tallest among them suddenly shouted.
"Is the knight's kid protecting a demon?! And you over there, using a sword to bully us just because you're tall! Who do you think you're scaring—"
Before he could finish, Allen chopped the air beside him with the side of his hand.
The next moment.
With a loud bang, a blast of air pressure plowed a trench in the ground at the edge of the paddy field, sending dirt flying.
It splattered all over the dumbstruck Rudeus, who had been observing from the side.
The other children had never seen such a thing. They turned to run.
But before they could take two steps, the water in front of them erupted in a spray. As the spray fell, a gleaming blade stood upright in the water.
Allen retracted his throwing hand and looked at the suddenly rigid backs of the little brats. He glanced at the equally astonished Rudeus and spoke coolly.
"Get out of the paddy field. Line up in front of me. I'll count to three. If anyone runs again, I will chop off his head."
"3."
Rudeus finally processed what Allen was doing. He turned to look at Allen, wiped the mud from his face, and spoke carefully.
"Teacher Allen... maybe we should just leave it at that? Their behavior was indeed awful... but they are just children, after all. It's not worth getting too worked up over, right? It'll be even more troublesome if their parents come looking for us later..."
...This guy! Why is he so reckless! Bullies deserve to die, sure, but if something really happens, how am I going to explain this to Paul...
Allen ignored him.
"2."
The boys scrambled out of the paddy field and lined up in front of Allen, all of them trembling.
Allen asked.
"Who is the oldest among you?"
No one answered.
Allen made a move as if to retrieve his sword from the water.
"Nine!... Nine years old!"
Hearing this, Allen smiled and turned to look directly at Rudeus.
"What a coincidence. The same age as me. In that case, I'm just a child, too. So don't mind me, okay?"
Rudeus's mouth opened and closed, but for a long time, he couldn't say a word.
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