The Slippery Mage

Julian was very excited when I carry him while using slip magic to travel. Since he's a kid, I lowered the speed so he could still enjoy it. We ended up staying the night at an inn somewhere during our journey. This is why I told Sabine to bring Cornelia tomorrow.

"Miro, what if Cornelia doesn't like me?" Julian asks as he sat on the bed at the inn we're staying. We're sharing a room because I know he feels nervous to meet up the person who became the reason why he was sold even though the person herself doesn't know it.

"Should I give you some options you can take if that happens? There are many things I can think of but it's just for a what if situation. Even if someone gives you an option, it's you who will decide it. I want you to know that first," I say.

I don't want to be responsible for letting someone I take care to make a horrible decision. So if I give him some options to take, I need him to know that he's the one fully responsible for his decision. He might still be a kid. Probably eleven or twelve years old. But he needs to learn about responsibilities.

"So you will show me some options but I have to decide it myself? Then please show me the option," Julian says.

"That will only for when we meet your sister and she doesn't care about you. But be at ease, you have another way to live without relying on your sister if it does happen. Maybe several ways. Just stay calm and talk with your sister calmly. Tell her how you feel and let her explain what you want to know. Get some rest because we will meet her tomorrow. Also, I'll increase the speed so we will get there sooner."

Lying down on his bed, he slowly falls into slumber. And I smoke another cigarette while looking outside the window.

What do I want to do in this world? I surely don't want to be a Hero. I just want to protect myself and people I care about. So what should I do as someone who knows the future?

First is getting stronger. It's something that I have to do. Since there's no such thing as level in this world like in the game, I don't have anything to gauge my strength compared to other people. I can only keep trying to get stronger.

Should I shoulder everything? Absolutely not. Good thing I met the Goddess and the Holy Knights. Now there are more people who will be more prepared for the future.

Do I want to make my own private military force? I don't have enough charm or knowledge to make that but maybe it's doable.

The only thing I can do is to help people, to teach them that talents are not everything while also telling them that those who have talents haven't properly showed what they really can do. I learned this after teaching several people. From Hal, Natasha, and then the seven Holy Knights.

I guess it's teaching then. To raise people to be strong enough to fight the demons. I will fight when I have to but if possible I want the others to do it instead while I just simply protect my family.

Is it wrong to do that? Not at all. It's normal to protect what you care most.

…And I don't want to lose my family again. They're more important than the world for me. Now I have a new family I care about, I have to do everything I can to protect them.

Will my own family know that I'm protecting them? Will they scold me if I let other people die to protect them? That doesn't matter. This is just my selfishness and I'm completely aware of it.

I'm looking at the boy sleeping on the bed. He's just around the age of an elementary school student. People will say that children that age are the future hope of this world.

That's bullshit. There's no future hope if there's no hope in the present as well. He went through a lot because his parents prioritized his sister more than him. They don't even know that she's living her second life.

Back in the library, reading reports about Cornelia, I only learned one thing. She's just a regular teenage girl. Enjoying her life with her friends and studying.

Does she not know about the future? Maybe she doesn't expect it to be so complicated. The novel she read must not have explained everything that really happen and will happen.

I guess I will need to teach Cornelia as well. Maybe she was just another teenager in her previous life?

If that's the case, then she's not an adult at all. So what if her mental age is in her late 30s or early 40s? That doesn't make her an adult. She hasn't experienced real adulthood yet if she died as a teenager in her previous life. She's simply someone lucky enough to be a kid twice with the mental age of a teenager. Never that of an adult.

She doesn't even realize how her parents treat her brother. I guess someone needs some discipline.

No matter if it's in my previous life or in this life, I guess I can't get out of teaching. I wish I can just simply living my life freely but that won't happen with the demons coming. But I guess I can live my life as freely as possible during some free time when I'm not thinking of the future. That should be okay. Everyone needs a hobby. I got my music.

The next morning, after breakfast, we leave the city and rush back to Dahlia. I don't think Cornelia will be there early in the morning because today is a weekday. So Sabine must have called Cornelia to come over after class is over.

This is like in my previous world. Five days of school and two days of break from school. Though there are still activities that can be done during the break and some things that are forced to be done by the school during the break. It's horrible.

Now that I think about it, I think I died during a weekend when I was forced to bring the students for a field trip to the city. What a way to spend my break, right?

"Damn. You really take a day to travel here and there back and forth," Felix says as we enter his office in the library.

I think I should find my own inn after this. But that can be done later.

"Where's Sabine?" I ask.

"She's a busy receptionist at the guild. She will come later in the afternoon. Probably with Cornelia," Felix says as he looks at the boy I brought here with me.

"I guess we have a lot of free time until then. Julian, you can go to the library and read some books. There should be books for children, right? Just ask the librarian there to help you if you have something you want to read," I say.

I sit at the sofa and grab some snacks from my Storage Ring to eat. But then I notice that Julian is still standing there not knowing what to do.

"What is it?" I ask.

"…I don't know how to read," he says.

…Idiot. Idiotic family. How could they put everything they have for the sister when they haven't tried to do anything to him?

…I have some horrible thought. Maybe it's because of Cornelia's fault. She was born with memories of her past life so even as a baby she wasn't that difficult to take care of. But because of that, her parents believed that it's normal for a baby to grow like that. And when the second child is born, learning that he needs to be taken care of for every little thing, they believe that he's an idiot that is not worth to care.

And Cornelia doesn't know it herself. I guess she's either still a kid when she dies or even as an adult in her previous life she was being extremely pampered. That's why she thought that everything is normal. Or that she believed that not caring for a child is normal in this world.

"You have never read a book before?" I ask.

"No. My sister just sometimes read a book for me before bed. But I have never read one at all," Julian says.

The exceptional older sister made the normal younger brother looked stupid. I hope that's not the case but it is the case.

"Then Miro can teach you how to read and write. Miro, I'm busy. You take care of him until Cornelia comes," Felix says.

Damn. And I can't just leave a little boy here not knowing anything. I guess I should do that.

"Come with me. Let's go to the library and I will teach you how to read and write."

Do I have some papers and pen for him to write? I do. Now I should ask the librarian to help me find books for children to learn to read. Good thing there are some.