Beneath the Fireworks, Within the Eyes, Upon the Heartbeat

Rudeus let out a silent sigh in his heart.

However, Alan’s subsequent response made it impossible for him to continue feigning childishness to vent his resentment.

From Alan’s expression, it was evident that he truly believed he would meet Roxy again in the future, and the answer to why became painfully obvious.

"This guy is genuinely planning to seek out Roxy in the future, and perhaps even travel the world as an adventurer with her."

"To be honest, although I’ve said similar things with my mouth, deep down I haven't mentally prepared myself to go out and travel the world with Roxy. From that perspective, it’s completely reasonable for Roxy to look at Alan in a different light."

"Perhaps this is just his personal charm... he loves to say pretty things... but every time, they surprisingly sound just right... If I were a young girl, I probably would have fallen in love at first sight, right?"

"When will I ever be able to spout such cool-sounding nonsense to girls?... What a frustratingly lovable guy..."

Rudeus helplessly scratched his hair, looking at the three of them with a tone usually reserved for coaxing children.

"Come over here... Teacher is leaving tomorrow, and I figured setting off some fireworks would give us a better atmosphere..."

Rudeus's house had a large window. The few of them stood side by side in front of the windowsill. Rudeus used wind magic to protect the wall while extending his hand out the window to summon a massive fireball. The fireball seemed to be mixed with wind magic, spinning rapidly in his palm. Illuminated by the scorching wave of flames, Rudeus's expression gradually softened.

"Look at the sky, everyone, don't blink~"

With a loud bang, the fireball spell shot from Rudeus's hand high into the upper atmosphere. Immediately after, a succession of fireballs swirled from his fingertips, following closely behind like a string of cannonballs.

The fireballs rose higher and higher, disappearing from everyone's sight. Roxy and Sylphie blinked in confusion, about to turn their heads to check the expressions of Rudeus and Alan and ask what tricks they were playing.

Just at that moment, Rudeus, gazing up at the night sky, smiled.

"Bang!"

Just as his voice fell, those fired fireball spells seemed to respond to the call of the future Magister King, bursting rapidly and densely across the sky!

A dazzling series of shooting sparks erupted across the firmament, setting the night ablaze.

The firelight illuminated the eyes of Rudeus, Sylphie, and Alan.

Alan squinted his eyes, looking thoroughly relaxed, and applauded at the opportune moment.

"That is genuinely cool, Rudeus. This must be the true charm of magic."

Hearing this, Rudeus rubbed beneath his nose, not saying much, but simply raising his head to watch the fireworks continuously bursting in the sky, a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

...

The wind hovered before everyone's faces, light and shadow flickering.

Roxy wasn't watching the fireworks.

Within the ripples of her deep blue eyes, Alan, with a somewhat childish expression, was resting his chin in his hand and gazing at the sky with a smile in his eyes.

——

Alan wasn't watching the fireworks either.

Within his field of vision, right in front of the fireworks, a hazy mist of text materialized before his eyes.

[The path of cultivating favorability has not ended. You have further increased the favorability of Roxy, Rudeus, and Sylphie.]

[Participation score for the Mushoku Tensei major event has increased.]

[Current stage: Childhood Period. Cumulative participation score: 70 points.]

[Keep up the good work. At this pace, the Host can easily secure the extra reward for a perfect score.]

"Extra reward... If you hadn't mentioned it, I almost would have forgotten. The previous prompt didn't go into detail, so what exactly is this extra reward?"

[Don't you think unknown surprises are even more anticipation-worthy?]

Alan curled his lips.

"Not really. You're being so mysterious—is this reward even decent? It couldn't possibly be some mechanic common in galgames where someone's favorability hits the threshold and clearing their route grants magical attachments... Though, thinking about it that way, it's kind of interesting... Wait, no... Doesn't that mean I'd have to clear Paul-aniki's route first, considering he's the first person in this household whose favorability I raised????"

[...If that is the Host's wish, I can only wish you happiness.]

"Damn it... Seriously though, what is the reward?"

[Major event character location tracking in Mushoku.]

Alan was stunned, his expression gradually freezing.

"Location tracking? Clairvoyant Eye?? Satellite positioning??? Does this mean after the Teleportation Incident, I can track everyone's real-time locations?"

[Yes.]

"How do I use it?"

[Usage method: Mediated by the system search, a map of the Mushoku world is projected via the interface, displaying the target's location with an accuracy of up to a hundred-meter radius.]

[Target subjects: Individuals from whom the Host has previously acquired points.]

[Usage cycle: Once per person per week.]

Joy burst forth in Alan's eyes. This system reward was practically invaluable; to a large extent, it solved his dilemma of finding it difficult to participate in the Mushoku events after the Teleportation Incident. In the original work, the timing nodes for various events following the Teleportation Incident weren't precise enough. Coupled with location tracking, he could basically determine which part of the novel's plot the target was at based on Rudeus's location, giving Alan the opportunity to intervene.

That's right. He had no intention of risking his life to get dragged into the Teleportation Incident. If something went wrong and he got thrown into the ocean or hurled high into the sky, it would be an immediate game over.

[Please do your best, Host... It's a pity there might still be a possibility of acquiring points from Mrs. Zomard...]

"...Get lost."

[Understood.]

Though Alan cursed at it to get lost, he was actually quite happy. Judging by the current progress, achieving 100 points was entirely possible. There was still over a year left before the end of the childhood period, which was more than enough time for him to farm points within Paul's family.

"There's an affair incident coming up later. If that matter is handled well, I should be able to acquire quite a few points. Judging from how things are going, the way to earn points is by influencing the characters' behaviors. Even though the system keeps spouting cheap nonsense about favorability, the scattered points I've earned so far all stem from prompting these characters to take actions they never would have taken in the original worldline of Mushoku."

"Looking at it this way, it feels like the system is encouraging me to trigger the butterfly effect... Is it intentionally turning up the difficulty on my major event missions? Relying on my foresight from reading the novel is safer, but it won't let me farm points quickly. Stirring up the butterfly effect will definitely impact my future foresight, but it allows for rapid point accumulation."

"That's right. So far, triggering smaller butterfly effects yields fewer points—for instance, Paul's actions to search for me, Sylphie and Rudeus meeting earlier, and Rudeus hiding his panties in the shrine in advance. The single instance where I earned the most points... was encountering Roxy. That action triggered a massive butterfly effect, directly causing a major deviation in the plotline, prompting Roxy to turn back and re-engage with Rudeus's family..."

Thinking of this, Alan felt a burning gaze upon him.

He blinked, shifting his gaze away from the dying fireworks to look beside him.

Roxy happened to turn her head, looking out at the night sky, which had now burned down to dark embers.

Alan subconsciously scratched his head.

In his pupils, Roxy's head movement caused the loose strands of hair across her forehead to bounce and spring into the air, before gracefully falling back down right before her blue eyes, diving into that pool of deep azure.