A Very Busy Birthday

The morning of my tenth birthday finally arrived. Ghislaine has been trying to keep me busy so that I won't find out about the surprise party. I used the time to show her some of my figurines I'd been working on. I had made one to look like her in a battle pose, and gave it to her as a gift. Ghislaine was thankful, but looked a little conflicted at the same time; it was my birthday after all.

Once everything was prepared, Ghislaine led me downstairs to grab some food where I was welcomed by a huge surprise party. I put on a performance of being surprised and moved to tears by everyone's compassion. This led to Lord Sauros shouting he'd declare war on the Notos household to put me in charge, as well as Hilda finally accepting me as a member of the family.

Eris gifted me my iconic staff, Aqua Heartia and after the party Philip offered to instigate a coup to place me at the head of the household. Of course, I didn't accept. I have no interest in noble power struggles, and the displacement incident coming tomorrow makes the offer meaningless anyway.

That night, Eris showed up in my bedroom in her sleepwear. Her parents had put her up to this, trying to push us together. Seriously, what kind of parents would do this to their daughter at such a young age.

I couldn't do anything to her, especially not after all she did for me today.

"What are you doing here so late at night, Eris?"

"I thought you'd be lonely since your parents couldn't make it, so I'll sleep with you tonight", she boldly answered.

"I appreciate it Eris, I really do, but I'm so tired after such an exciting day and I doubt I'll be able to sleep if you're in bed with me", I answered.

"Oh. I see." Eris looked relieved, but also a little disappointed.

"Go back to bed, Eris. Tomorrow I want to try out my new staff you gave me. Would you like to come with and watch me test it?"

"Yes! That sounds really fun!", she answered.

"Well then, goodnight Eris. We can head out after breakfast tomorrow."

"Ok, see you tomorrow Rudeus!"

Eris opened the door and ran back up to her room. I closed the door and turned the light off, but I wasn't about to go to sleep, I had a lot to do tonight.

I reached under my bed and pulled out a large sack filled with rolled up scrolls of magic circles I had prepared in advance. It was already quite late, Sylphiette and her family should be fast asleep by now. I unraveled one of the scrolls and laid it flat on the floor. After pumping mana into it I could feel myself being teleported; moments later I was on the roof of Sylphy's house.

I pulled out a small container of bluish powder. This was a strong sleeping drug I had purchased in Roa. It was quite expensive, but during my time in Roa, I'd been saving up a small fortune over time by selling my figurines at the marketplace. They fetched quite a high price, after all.

I put on a mask I had bought in Roa, and quietly jumped down off the roof, using gravity magic to drop myself down softly so I wouldn't make a noise. The lights to the house were off, and I couldn't hear anything. I peeked in through the window and couldn't see anyone moving. After I was certain it was safe, I lifted myself in through their window, recalling how the door to Sylphy's house would creek a little.

First I snuck into Laws and Hope's room. I dashed a handful of powder onto a cloth and placed it gently over their face, so that they would breathe it in. Laws woke up momentarily, but quickly fell back into a deep sleep thanks to the drugs. Next, I snuck into Sylphy's room and did the same. It felt kind of wrong doing this to them, but I only wanted to save them and I couldn't let them know it was me. I wanted them to think the mana disaster had transported them just like everyone else.

After all of them were in a deep sleep, I laid out a large magic circle on the floor and lifted all three of them onto it. I stepped on myself as well and poured my mana into the circle, causing us to be teleported to the circle I had designated.

Shortly afterward, I found myself in a stone building in the forest outside Sharia. I left the building, carrying the three with me using gravity magic. Once outside, I immediately warmed the area with fire magic, as it was quite cold, despite being summer. I hurried towards Sharia as fast as I could. It took me about three hours before I reached the outskirts of the city.

Carrying three people with gravity magic while also using fire magic to warm the air at the same time burned through an absurd amount of mana. Thankfully, my training over the years had built up my mana pool to a truly obscene degree. At this point I was confident I would never run out of mana no matter what I did. I wondered if this was why Orsted never seemed to use gravity magic. I felt it was incredibly useful, but it was true that it required a lot of mana.

I went to the nearest Inn I could find and rented two rooms. I carried the three with me, one at a time, up the stairs to our first room. I carried them physically with just a little help from magic to avoid suspicion.

Once I got Laws, Hope, and Sylphy into their room, I placed the three of them together in the bed.

I cleared out everything from the center of the room and laid out another magic circle I had prepared on a scroll. I also did the same thing with another scroll in the second room I had rented, but I hid this one under a rug in the center of the room.

I placed a small pouch with ten Asura gold coins on the table in both rooms. I lifted myself outside the window of the first room and then remotely activated the magic circle I had prepared at my house in Buena Village all those years ago.

Sure enough, my whole family was teleported into the room as I watched from outside. I double checked that Paul, Zenith, Norn, Aisha, and Lilia were all there before dropping back down to the alleyway below.

Finally, after making sure nobody was around, I teleported myself back to my room in Roa.

I'm sure everyone will be completely confused once they wake up in that Inn. If everything goes to plan, they will eventually hear about the displacement incident and assume that they were simply transported as well, lucky to have wound up in such a convenient location. I had designed all of my teleportation scrolls to crumble to dust after being used, so I shouldn't have left any evidence behind.

'I feel completely exhausted', I thought as I plopped down into my bed. It was only a couple hours until daybreak, so I decided to get some much needed sleep. 'Tomorrow is going to be another busy day', I thought as I slowly drifted off to sleep.