I see... Bureizu died did he..."[1]
"Ah, it seems that a Red-Fang Cobra swallowed him whole."
It's been several years since I left Magic Continent.
There should be a number of things piled up to talk about, but all we talked about were things of the old days.
Roxy closed her eyes and remembered things about Bureizu.
With a face like a pig, and a bad mouth, the moment Roxy made any sort of mistake he would start with the abusive language.
However, he wasn't a bad guy.
He was a reliable man in terms of warriors.
It seems that until he died he managed to make it together with a veteran party of B rank members.
He was the leader of a B rank party on the Magic Continent.
That sarcastic guy became a fine person.
However, the party name was Super Bureizu.
It seems that his naming sense hadn't changed from the past.
It seems that the opponent who wiped out that veteran party, was effortlessly defeated by Rudeus and the party he just formed a short while prior.
Soon after he started his adventure he subjugated an A rank monster.
It was something the old Roxy would never have been able to outdo.
However, that as well is just like Rudeus, thus Roxy laughed weakly.
"Roxy has changed quite a bit."
Nokopara said that while slowly drinking the specialty strong impact alcohol of the Magic Continent.
Roxy looked at the cup in her hand.
She looked at her own face reflected on the surface, and wondered if that was the case.
"I don't really get it myself though..."
"No, I mean you've become quite adult-like."
"What is that supposed to mean, are you treating me like a fool?"
During the time with Nokopara and the others were adventuring, Roxy had already reached the adult form of the Migurd race.
After that, there have been almost no changes to her figure.
I haven't changed at all, is what Roxy was self-conscious about.
"I'm not taking you for a fool. How do I put it, the atmosphere. The old you used to be more childish."
"Even though my outer appearance hasn't changed, I've been properly living after all."
While saying that Roxy was crunching away at some roasted bean snacks.
These beans are the seeds from Stone Treants.
With Roxy's sense of taste, she would never think they taste good.
Just, somehow or other she's moving them to her mouth.
It's a flavor that becomes a habit.
"In that sort of way. In the old days you were always desperate to be seen as an adult. If it were the old you, you would have been flying high from my words you know?"
"Is that the case? ...there may have been that sort of period."
We're talking about the time when I didn't want to accept my body height.
In the old days I didn't want my surroundings to think I was a child, so I gave it my best so that no one would underestimate me.
I'm a magician, there are no elements that I'm bad with, I made it public that I could do anything.
Before I noticed, that assessment had reversed, and my name alone started walking on its own.
Around the time I started being called "Water Saint Class Magician" things that I couldn't do were always being forced upon me.
In regards to the Magic Continent as well, the fact that I was Rudeus's teacher was a fact they were awfully surprised about.
It seems that Rudeus was going around saying, "It's the result of my shisho's teachings" at every chance he could.
Thanks to that, they even started to think that Roxy could use voiceless incantations.
Even though there's no way she could use something like voiceless incantation magic.
Once upon a time, I wonder if my own teacher felt this way about me is what Roxy was wondering.
If that's the case then she feels she did something bad and wants to reflect on it.
The agony of shisho who has disciples that are too superior.
It's not something you could understand until you actually experience standing in that position.
It's a feeling of pride, while at the same time a feeling of shame.
Although, as mysterious as it is up to now, she's never felt that she doesn't want to be called shisho.
Rudeus is protecting what he said, the fact that he's making public that Roxy is his shisho simply makes her happy.
"Nokopara hasn't changed a bit."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, other than your appearance."
The fact that he's greedy for money, how he aims for the weak, it's just the same as the old days.
That she doesn't want to turn Nokopara into an enemy is something Roxy thought a number of times in the old days.
"What is that, is that indirect way of saying I've grown old?"
"I guess you could say that is true. Nokopara has grown old."
"You've become able to say it haven't you."
Nokopara laughed in a nihilistic way with a hihin sound.
"How nostalgic..."
"That's right."
In those days there were two more here.
A boy who would spout abusive language every time Nokopara said something and a boy who would say "Oh my" and sigh every time a fight started before attempting to break it up.
Already those two are gone, the ones remaining were just these middle-aged two.
Although, thanks to their race one of them isn't really all that old?
Passed days will no longer return.
That day, until Nokopara drank himself unconscious, those two let old memories bloom.
Her parents and an old friend.
Just the fact that she met these two gave meaning to her return here.
With those feelings, her chest has grown one cup.[2]