Jobless Reincarnation: Sword, Magic Hat and Romance System

Chapter 60 The Butterfly's Wings Never Cease to Flutter: Is it Luck? Or Destiny? [4k]

When Senis touched her belly and announced the news of her pregnancy, it was right after dinner.

Paul was clearly prepared, but he still couldn't contain his excitement. He was about to hug Senis, but he stopped himself and just stood there dancing around.

Ever since Senis gave birth to Rudy, the couple had wanted to have another child, and now that wish has finally come true.

Rudy looked at Senis with curiosity and quickly ran to her side, pressing his ear against Senis's stomach along with the excited Paul.

The latter, however, wore a gentle expression and stroked Rudy's head.

"That's great, Rudy, you're finally not alone."

At this point, she suddenly paused and looked at Allen, who was standing beside them with his arms crossed and a cryptic smile on his face.

"That way, you'll have another younger brother or sister! There will be a third child in the family to play with. You'll have to fulfill your responsibilities as an older brother!"

Rudy nodded, then turned to look at Allen, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

Allen, being some distance away, didn't quite hear Senis's words. He sensed that the two had mentioned him, so he stopped laughing and tilted his head in confusion, looking on with a questioning expression.

Rudy smiled, ignoring Allen's questioning gestures, and then pressed his head against Senis's stomach again.

"The fact that Allen is my distant cousin still feels a bit unreal. This guy is quite amazing; he's incredibly perceptive in his interactions with people, able to accurately grasp their emotional fluctuations and then say the right things. But how should I put it, he's a bit oblivious when it comes to his own feelings."

"Is it a lack of confidence? He didn't fully grasp Paul and Senis's true feelings towards him. He'd heard Paul mention before that his family situation seemed complicated, and he was even being hunted by his supposed biological father. Although I don't feel much belonging to this family either, his situation is different from mine. I was reincarnated, while his is affected by his original family. Is it a lack of familial affection, or difficulty handling others' feelings for him?"

Thinking of this, Rudy glanced at Allen, who was also a time traveler, with a hint of pity, while the latter looked on with increasing confusion.

Paul lifted Senis off him.

Then he happily took Rudy's place and crawled on his wife's lap with his face.

Allen:

Rudy:

Just then, Lilia finally finished washing the dishes and came out of the kitchen. She glanced at Paul and then bowed her head.

"Congratulations, madam."

Senis stroked Paul's head and joked with a smile.

"You're welcome~ By the way, Lilia has been here for over five years now. How about we find you someone in the village to keep you company? You must get lonely all the time, right?"

Lilia looked at the hem of her maid's dress and said meekly.

"Thank you, Madam. I... don't have any plans in that regard yet; I'm completely lost about the future."

"Ah, that's true. Lilia, you used to be a nobleman's guard, so there probably isn't a suitable candidate in the village. At the very least, someone of Paul's status would be worthy of Lilia, right? Paul, do you think we should ask Philip for help? Wouldn't it be more suitable for Lilia to find a minor nobleman?"

Paul glanced up quickly at Lilia and saw that she was looking down, her red hair slightly obscuring her vision, her eyelids lowered, and her red pupils fixed on him. Their eyes met briefly before quickly looking away.

Paul's face stiffened as he recalled his past experiences of violating Lilia and his occasional harassment of her, and a sense of panic welled up inside him.

"Ah, well, I think so too. Lilia is really excellent. Haha."

Allen stood to the side, arms crossed, watching the interaction between the two, a slow smile appearing on his lips.

The infidelity incident from the original novel is coming.

The timing is right this time, so there shouldn't be any more butterfly effects, right?

Knock, knock, knock—there was a rapid knocking on the door.

Allen was taken aback and turned to look at the door. This plot point, which did not appear in the original work, subconsciously reminded him of Loki's late-night visit a month ago.

"No way? This can't be some strange butterfly effect again, can it?"

Just as Allen was filled with doubt and uncertainty, Senis and Paul calmly began to talk.

"Has Roltz arrived?"

"Ah, it must be him."

Under Allen's questioning gaze, Lilia had already opened the door.

Sure enough, it was Roltz with blond hair and long ears outside the door. He nodded to Lilia, then looked at Rudy and Allen inside the room, and chuckled as he stepped aside to make room for them.

A small figure emerged from behind.

It was Hilfi. She was wearing winter clothes that had never appeared in the story. The fluffy collars on both sides of her coat completely covered her small face. The tip of her nose was red because of the cold wind, and her red pupils reflected Allen's figure under her long eyelashes.

Good morning, Allen.

Rudy sidled up to him from the side, looking rather annoyed.

"Hey, Sylphie, why are you only greeting Eren?"

"Sorry, Rudy, good morning."

Allen couldn't help but smile as he looked at Silphie. It had snowed for more than ten days in a row since the beginning of winter, and he hadn't seen Silphie at all. Now that he saw her wearing thick winter clothes that had never appeared in the anime, he found her very cute.

Allen reached out and pulled Rudy into his arms, then casually patted Sylphy's head.

"Good morning, Silphie. This is the first time I've seen you in winter clothes. You look so cute."

Hilfi's ears twitched.

".Thank you for the compliment."

It's worth mentioning that during these six months together, thanks to Allen's early intervention, Hilfi did not suffer the year-long bullying that occurred in the original story. She also experienced friendship earlier, and her personality gradually shed its timidity, becoming more and more like the gentle, understanding, and kind-hearted "White Mother" figure from the original story.

Even now, when she hears praise from Allen from time to time, she doesn't panic or feel shy. She can accept it gracefully and express her gratitude.

Seeing this, Roltz couldn't help but smile, then looked up at Paul, who had already walked up to him, and said...

"The snow has stopped; it's time to prepare to exterminate the monsters."

-

The Kingdom of Asura has few monsters because during the winter when monsters are at a low level, the surrounding villages regularly organize raids led by knights from each village. This is a national policy of Asura to ensure a thriving commodity economy.

This kind of thing doesn't even need to be explicitly mentioned in the original storyline, because it has nothing to do with Rudy, but we can glean some clues from subtle hints, such as:

The book in Rudy's house: "The Monster Ecology of the Fituia Territory, Weaknesses".

You should know that books in the Mushoku Tensei world are very expensive. The fact that he has such a book at home means that he definitely didn't buy it as a children's book.

Speaking of which, in theory, the monster extermination should not have any connection with Rudy in either the original storyline or the present.

However, in the past six months, Allen's elderly father has frequently fallen ill. Because he was worried about Sylphie, he would drag Rudy along to deliver food to Roltz, and in doing so, they also helped hunt down many monsters that had escaped from the forest. In return, Rudy would also take on the role of cook and clean up the mess. Over time, almost all the adult men in the village realized something.

That is, although Alan and Rudy are both under ten years old, they cannot be simply regarded as children. In some aspects, they are even more capable than adults.

Naturally, they were also fortunate enough to participate in the preliminary preparations for eliminating the monsters. Paul himself believed that boys should go out and gain more experience, so he naturally took Allen and Rudy with him to see what it was like.

At the edge of the forest, the dense leaves of summer have completely fallen, and the trees are covered with a thick coat of snow, each distinct and clearly defined, allowing one to see clearly into the depths of the forest, unlike in other seasons when they are hidden in the dense shade and indistinct.

The men of Buena village stretched out specially lengthened and widened thorn nets, stepping on the thick snow, and tied them tightly to the tree trunks in the forest section by section, gradually enclosing the entire edge of the forest.

This is to prevent escaped monsters from sneaking into the village during the formal extermination of monsters.

Allen and Paul stood at the front of the group to keep watch and prevent monsters from suddenly jumping out from under the snow from hurting people, while the two little ones stayed at the back of the group, watching everyone's activities from a distance.

"Uncle, is this kind of cleanup carried out every year? I've never heard of it before."

Paul looked around, sword in hand.

"You wouldn't see something like this in the capital. How novel is it?"

"It's alright. Then, what's that?"

Paul paused, looked at Allen, and saw that the other man was pointing to a corner deep in the barren forest in the distance, where a simple wooden house with its mottled eaves was exposed between the tree trunks.

"That one, the safe house."

"Safe house?"

"Yes, it's a temporary shelter specially prepared for hunters crossing the forest in winter or for caravans that have strayed into the forest due to blizzards."

"A temporary shelter?"

"Don't be fooled by the open view now. When it snows in the Crimson Dragon Mountains, it can snow for a whole month. At that time, it's almost impossible to tell which way is which in the forest. If someone gets lost in the blizzard and their carriage gets stuck in the snow, they can easily die in the snowstorm. That's why the kingdom ordered the construction of many small shelters like these in the forest to deal with this situation."

Allen was taken aback by what he heard, recalling the scene of struggling through the forest using his fighting spirit when it snowed last year. His original plan before his assassination last winter was to travel by carriage.

"When the winter wind blows, the updrafts on the hillsides can easily cause terrain snow to fall, making it impossible for horse-drawn carriages to move."

"This point was overlooked in the initial arrangements. In this light, if nothing unexpected had happened and I had continued on my original plan, would the carriage have actually delayed my journey? At that point, I certainly wouldn't have been able to make the timely decision to abandon the carriage and continue on foot through the forest, and would have instead chosen to wait for the blizzard to end."

"We might find a shelter and stop to rest. If the snow continues for a long time, stopping and then discovering the carriage can't move could cause a significant delay. It would be faster to travel on foot using our battle aura."

"That might have meant I wouldn't have been able to meet Luo Qixi. Without meeting her, my points would probably have hovered around the passing mark. It was a close call. Although constantly using my battle aura to travel through the snow was extremely arduous, it seems the assassination attempt turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Is this a case of fortune within misfortune, and misfortune within fortune?"

"Good luck."

Dozens of meters away from the two men, Roltz was setting up a net with three other people around him on the edge of the area.

"Hey Roltz, didn't you dig a little deeper this year? It's dozens of meters deeper than usual. Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

A bearded man scratched his head as he tied a net to a tree trunk, saying with some concern.

Roltz replied in a very serious tone.

"It's alright. In previous years, there was only one senior swordsman, Paul, so we were more cautious. This year, we have Allen with us, so even if we awaken some monsters from the east, we can deal with them quickly."

The man smiled upon hearing this.

"Allen is indeed excellent, but I didn't expect the Knight's son to have such talent in magic. In the past two years, first it was Loki, and now it's Allen. I'm sure he will make a name for himself in the future. I heard that your daughter, Hilfi, has a good relationship with them. That's great. It's a pity they don't play with my child."

Rolz was taken aback by what he heard.

"Rufi. Yes, ever since Allen came, Rufi has made friends, and she smiles more often."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the back of the group. There, his small figure, Hilfi, and Rudy were looking at Allen in front of the forest through the crowd, their little hands outstretched and breathing on their mouths, their ears twitching.

This adorable image was etched into Roltz's pupils, and his face melted like snow. Roltz actually cared deeply for Lufie, but he wasn't very good at coaxing children, which created the illusion of him being a strict father.

"That's good. If Lufi is happy, Noda can rest easy a lot. She felt guilty for a long time after giving birth to Lufi because the child had green hair. It wasn't her fault at all; who can you blame for atavism?"

The next moment, the distracted Roltz stepped into a clump of snow in front of the tree.

Still in a daze, he seemed to feel as if he wasn't stepping on the air of snow, but rather on something cylindrical.

His gaze was tilted, his feet were trembling, and he was about to stumble and fall when he heard the terrified shouts of the people around him.

"Roltz!!"

"Get out of the way, Roltz!!!"

Almost simultaneously, the snow beneath his feet, which didn't feel compacted, made a loud thud. Roltz's eyes widened in surprise, and he turned his head with all his might.

Clumps of snow burst forth from the ground in a flurry of motion, and a gigantic maw was already inches away.

As Roltz stared at the enormous maw, a surge of heat coursed through his waist, his adrenaline coursing. The rings of tiny fangs within the maw were so clear in his vision, glistening with mucus.

But the body was too late to make any effective response.

Roltz felt a chill in his heart.

A mutated forest snake, a D-rank monster.

The monster was awakened from its hibernation.

He delivered a fatal blow to the humans who disturbed his sleep.

This is a transitional chapter, filling in a hidden plot hole in the main storyline and digging some new ones.

Tomorrow we'll enter and exit the track, no delays.

(End of this chapter)