The reincarnated Demon (Male Mendoris Reader x Mushoku Tensei)

Chapter 10: Confession

It's been two years since Eris' birthday party. The three of you were sparring in the courtyard, while Rudeus was doing his own thing, since he's finally given up on sword fighting in general. Eris got a pretty good hit on Ghislaine, which she had difficulty in blocking. Additionally the redhead reached Advanced rank in Sword God Style in no time, she was, like you, a sword fighting prodigy. But where Rudeus was a prodigy in magic and Eris with the sword, you were in both, more often than not combining the two together to create your own unique fighting style. You were so good at it that even Ghislaine had, unknown to you as she didn't show it, difficulty keeping up with it. As you were standing on the side, since Ghislaine and Eris were fighting one another, you looked up to that black hole like thing. It seems bigger than before and the amount of mana gathered in it has increased by thousand fold since I saw it the first time, two years ago. you thought

It was Rudeus' tenth birthday, so all of you decided to have a party for him, without him knowing of course. Philip even tried to get Paul and Zenith and the rest over, but apparently they couldn't come due to monsters acting up again. Eris was in the kitchen with a maid trying to bake a cake, while you were in your room, trying to make a figurine of Rudeus himself, since he always made ones of the ones close to him, he even had one of you. Over the past three years, the two of you have really bonded. Mainly due to the fact that you were both reincarnated and could this relate to each other on a lot of things. You found out that he was a middle aged man, who was shut in and wasn't the best human being he could be, but now he tried to redo his live over again and tries to change himself for the better. That's also what you really admired about him. When he asked you how you changed after being reincarnated, you didn't really know. Of course you changed a lot physically, but that wasn't what he meant. You didn't feel like you changed that much, personality wise, but that could also be because you weren't that old when you met your unfortunate demise. You had this conversation while playing a game of squash against one of the walls in an empty room.

'Rudeus! Happy Tenth Birthday!', everyone said and all of you started clapping. Eris then stepped forward and gave him a bouquet of pink flowers. 'Oh yeah, I'm ten years old today,' he said before he started crying, 'S-Sorry. I-It's just that this is new to me. Ever since I got here, I thought I might not be welcome. I'd never thought... you'd throw a party for me.' At this point Lord Sauron couldn't hold back his emotions anymore and yelled, while swinging his cane: 'To arms! To war with the Notos'! I'll murder Pilemon and put Rudeus in charge!' Philip ran up to him: 'F-Father, restrain yourself!' They collided and fell to the ground. 'Philip! Don't dare stop me!' While he was taken outside by a guard he said: 'You fool! Let me go! Let go!' You and everyone else was quite dumbfounded at what in the world just happened. 'Forget about grandfather,' Eris stated. 'Yeah, the old man was being kinda weird,' you said. 'I've got a surprise for you today, Rudeus!' the redhead said. 'What is it?' he asked. 'Take a guess.' 'Are Father and the others coming?!' he answered while looking excited. 'Unfortunately no, we tried contacting them, but they couldn't make it due to monsters being absolute dipshits,' you answered. '(Y/N)! Language!' Philip warned you. 'Alright, alright, sorry for that,' you apologized. 'I see. That's a shame,' he said looking down again.

*Rudeus' Point of View*
Eris was pointing her fingers together while murmuring: 'Uh, umm...' when all of a sudden Hilda hugged me, practically shoving my head between her big breasts, while saying: 'Rudeus! You're one of our children now!' It'd cost me a couple of seconds to process what was happening, as I thought she hated me. 'I'll adopt you. No, marry Eris!' she exclaimed. At that moment I could notice that (Y/N) unconsciously moved his hand towards his sword, but he bursted out in laughter. 'M-Mother?!' exclaimed my student. 'What?! Is my Rudeus not good enough for you, Eris?!' 'Rudeus is only ten!' 'Age has nothing to do with it!' I could swear I heard (Y/N) say: 'And jail is just another home'. Hilda continued ranting: 'You need to be more feminine and-' Philip just sighed and she was taken outside too, while she continued along the lines of: 'Unhand me! I must save that child!' Not that I wasn't grateful for their reactions, but this was a bit too much. Meanwhile, (Y/N) was still laughing and rolling on the floor, clutching his belly. Once he calmed down I asked him: 'What was so funny about this?' 'Those are the exact same reactions I got when I turned five!' 'Oh.' was my only reactions I could bring. 'But there's one difference,' he told me. 'What's that?' 'Eris didn't refuse to the proposal of marrying me. She did by you. Instead I refused. I mean, I was five!' 'Oh, ok.' Why?! Why can't I ever get a girl to like me?! What am I doing wrong?! What does he have what I don't?! 'Mind reading,' I heard beside me. 'Shit! You heard that?' I asked, panicking. 'Of course not, moron. I just wanted to scare the living shit outta you,' he said with a beaming smile on his face. Luckily we kept our conversation quiet, so no one except us could hear it.

*Second Person Perspective*
'So what is it? The surprise I mean,' Rudeus asked. 'Right,' Eris said, cleared her throat and snapped her fingers, 'Alphonse, give it to him!' 'At once,' the elder butler said and gave the package to Rudeus, 'For you, sir.' 'A staff?' the blonde boy asked. 'For your sake, Master Rudeus, we gathered the finest materials from around the world and had this fashioned by the Asura Kingdom's foremost staff-maker. It's name is Aqua Heartia,' the head butler explained. Rudeus unwrapped it and revealed a dark brown staff, with a big deep blue sphere. You could tell at a glance that it cost a fortune, especially since the sphere was completely made from sapphire. 'Take it! You're a great mage, so it's weird that you don't have a staff! Even if (Y/N) doesn't have one.' Eris said. 'I've got my sword. That's more than enough. Additionally, a magic staff like that isn't suited for combat. It could take one or two hits at most,' you retaliated. 'Thank you very much. It's a very valuable gift,' Rudeus thanked you all. The young red haired girl said: 'The price doesn't matter!' 'I've got a present for you myself,' you said as you stepped forward, 'I noticed that you have figurines of everyone close to you, but I couldn't help but notice that one important person missed: yourself.' And as you said the last word you pulled out the figurine you made of Rudeus and gave it to him. He examined it closely and then said: 'Wow, it's as good as mine! Thank you much!' 'Let's get this party started!' And you all started stuffing yourselves with cake and doing other things, with Rudeus as the center of attention of course.

*Rudeus' Point of View*
Philip then explained the situation with his sons to me and also how I could become the new head of the Notos branch of the family, but I didn't want to be part in power struggles, so I refused.

'W-Welcome home,' said someone in my room. 'I'm home,' I said and then realized someone said it before me. I looked into my room and saw Eris sitting on my bed in a white night gown and her hair draped over her shoulders. 'What's wrong? I thought you went to bed?' I asked. 'I-I thought you'd get lonely, so I'll sleep here tonight,' she simply answered. Did Philip put her up for this? Still now I look at her, she's quite... I put my staff against the wall and sat down besides her with my hands on my knees. I then decided to surprise her by grabbing her face and attempting to kiss her. Key word: attempt. Instead she hit me hard and knocked me off the bed. 'I didn't tell you you were allowed to do that, idiot!' she yelled at me. 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me,' I apologized in order to diffuse the situation quickly.

*Second person perspective*
Unknown to the both of them you were standing outside of Rudeus' room in case things went wrong. As you heard Eris pummeling Rudeus you knew the situation was under control and wanted to walk away to your own room to sleep, but what she said next made you freeze in your tracks. 'I don't like you that way! You're a good friend, but I just don't love you. I love (Y/N)!'

A/N: Oh a cliffhanger! What will you do next? Next up: the aftermath of the confession, the mana catalysm and maybe an introduction to an original arc.
Until then and as always let me know what you think about this chapter. Support and criticism are always appreciated and as always laterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - Dodominic2021