Chapter 60: The Butterfly Wings Never Cease Flapping—Is it Fortune, or is it Destiny? [4k]

It was just after dinner when Zenith gently rubbed her belly and announced the news of her pregnancy.

Paul was clearly prepared for this, yet he still could not contain his surging joy. He moved to embrace Zenith, but forcefully stopped himself mid-motion, dancing on the spot with excitement.

Ever since Zenith gave birth to Rudy, the two of them had always wanted another child, and now that wish had finally come true.

Rudy looked at Zenith with a fascinated expression, quickly scurrying over to her side. Joining the excited Paul, he pressed his ear against Zenith's stomach.

Zenith wore a tender smile, gently stroking Rudy's hair.

"That's wonderful... Rudy, you won't be alone anymore..."

At that moment, she suddenly paused, glancing sideways at Allen, who stood with his arms crossed and an enigmatic smile playing on his lips.

"That means... you're going to have a little brother or sister! There will be a third child in the house to play with. You must fulfill your duties as an elder brother, okay~?"

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

Because Allen was standing a bit further away, he hadn't caught the entirety of Zenith's words. Feeling as though they were talking about him, he dropped his amused expression, tilted his head in confusion, and offered an inquiring look.

Rudy smiled, choosing not to respond to Allen's nonverbal inquiry, and pressed his head back against Zenith's stomach.

*It still feels a bit surreal that Allen is my distant cousin... This guy is pretty amazing, too. He's extremely sharp when interacting with people, perfectly capturing their emotional fluctuations and then sweet-talking them... But how should I put it? He's a bit dense when it comes to his own feelings...*

*Is it a lack of confidence? He hasn't completely picked up on how Paul and Zenith really feel about him... Paul mentioned before that his family situation is quite complicated, and he was even hunted down by his biological father on the surface... Although I don't have much sense of belonging to this family either, his situation is different from mine. I'm here because of reincarnation, while he's shaped by his original family background... Emotional detachment, clumsy at handling other people's goodwill toward him?*

With these thoughts, Rudy cast a slightly pitying glance at Allen—who was also an otherworlder—right before the latter's increasingly puzzled gaze...

Paul hoisted Rudy up and away from Zenith.

Then, happily taking Rudy's place, Paul burrowed his face against his wife's lap.

Allen: ......

Rudy: ......

Just then, Lilia finally emerged from the adjacent kitchen after finishing the dishes. She glanced at Paul, then lowered her head and bowed.

"Congratulations, Madam."

Zenith stroked Paul's head, smiling as she made a joke.

"You're welcome~ Speaking of which, Lilia has been here for over five years now. Should we find someone in the village for you to keep each other company? It must get lonely being by yourself all the time."

Lilia looked down at the hem of her maid uniform, her gaze lowered and submissive.

"Thank you, Madam... I... don't have any thoughts about that for now, and my future feels quite uncertain..."

"Ah... That's true. Lilia, you used to be a noble guard, so there might indeed not be a suitable match for you in the village... At the very least, someone with Paul's status would be worthy of Lilia... Paul, do you think we should ask Philip for help? Is a minor noble perhaps more suited for Lilia?"

Paul raised his eyes and cast a quick glance at Lilia. He noticed that she was keeping her head down, the red bangs across her forehead slightly obscuring her vision, her eyelids lowered as her red pupils seemed to fixate on him. The moment their gazes tangled, they quickly averted their eyes.

Paul's expression stiffened. Remembering his past transgression against Lilia and his occasional impulsive harassment of her, a wave of panic stirred within his heart.

"Ah... Well... I suppose so... Lilia is very capable... Ha... haha..."

Standing to the side, Allen crossed his arms and watched their interaction, a subtle smile slowly forming at the corner of his mouth.

Is it about to happen...? The infidelity event from the original story.

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

Knock, knock, knock. A hurried knocking sounded at the front door.

Allen paused, turning his gaze toward the entrance. This development, which had never appeared in the original story, made him instinctively think of Roxy's late-night visit from a month ago.

*This... No way, right? Surely this isn't another strange butterfly effect?*

Just as Allen was feeling uncertain, Zenith and Paul calmly began to speak.

"Is that Rolz?"

"Ah, it must be him."

---

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

Outside stood Rolz, the blonde-haired, long-eared elf. He nodded to Lilia in acknowledgment, then looked past her into the room at Rudy and Allen, stepping aside with a chuckle.

A small figure emerged from behind him.

It was Sylphie, dressed in winter attire that had never appeared in the original plot. Fluffy fur collars on both sides of her coat wrapped around her small face, the tip of her nose reddened by the biting wind. Beneath long eyelashes, her red pupils reflected Allen's figure.

"Good morning, Allen."

Rudy sauntered over, looking slightly annoyed.

"Hey, Sylphie, why are you only saying hello to Allen?"

"Sorry, Rudy. Good morning."

Allen smiled as he looked at Sylphie. With snow falling continuously for over ten weeks since the start of winter, he hadn't seen Sylphie at all. Seeing her now in thick winter garments not shown in the anime, he found her immensely cute.

Allen reached out and pulled Rudy into a headlock while casually patting Sylphie's head.

"Good morning, Sylphie. This is the first time I've seen you in winter gear. It's very cute."

Sylphie's ears twitched.

"...Thank you for the compliment."

It is worth mentioning that over the past half year of interaction, thanks to Allen's early intervention, Sylphie had not suffered a full year of bullying as she did in the original work. Having experienced friendship earlier on, her timid personality had gradually faded, bringing her much closer to the gentle, understanding "white-haired mother" persona from the main story line.

Hearing Allen's occasional spontaneous compliments no longer caused her excessive panic or shyness; she could now gracefully accept them and express her gratitude.

Seeing this scene, Rolz couldn't help but smile. He then looked up at Paul, who had walked over.

"The snow has stopped. It's time to prepare for the monster subjugation."

---

Monsters were rare in the Asura Kingdom. This was because the surrounding villages experienced a period of lethargy among monsters during winter, prompting regular culls led by the knights of each village. This was a national policy ensuring the Asura Kingdom's prosperous commodity economy.

Such an event did not even need to be explicitly mentioned in the original plot because it had nothing to do with Rudy, yet hints could be gleaned from small details, such as:

The book in Rudy's house: *Monster Ecology and Weaknesses of the Fittoa Region*.

Books were expensive in the Mushoku Tensei world, and keeping such a volume at home meant it certainly wasn't purchased as children's reading material.

That said, logically speaking, the monster subjugation should not have intersected with Rudy in either the original timeline or the current one.

However, over the past half year, Allen had frequently experienced a sudden surge of paternal worry. Fearing for Sylphie's safety, he would drag Rudy along to deliver food to Rolz, ending up helping to hunt down quite a few monsters that wandered out of the forest. In turn, Rudy would pitch in by handling the cooking cleanup. Over time, the adult men in the village basically came to a realization:

Although Allen and Rudy were both under ten years old, they could not simply be regarded as ordinary children; in certain aspects, they were even more capable than adults.

Naturally, during the preliminary preparations for the monster sweep, they were fortunate enough to participate. Since Paul firmly believed that boys should go out and gain life experience, he naturally brought Allen and Rudy along to witness it firsthand.

At the edge of the forest, the dense summer foliage had completely fallen. The woods wore heavy coats of snow, standing distinct and clear, allowing one to peer deep into the forest unlike in other seasons when the thick canopy obscured the view.

The men of Buena Village pulled specially lengthened and widened thorn nets, treading on thick snow as they tied and fixed them section by section to the tree trunks, gradually enclosing the entire edge of the forest.

This was to prevent any monsters that managed to escape the formal sweep from slipping into the village.

Allen and Paul stood at the vanguard of the formation to maintain vigilance, preventing any monsters suddenly leaping out from beneath the snow from injuring anyone, while the two younger children stayed far in the back, watching the activities from a distance.

"Uncle, do they hold this kind of sweep every year? I've never heard of it before."

Paul swung the sword in his hand and looked around.

"You lived in the capital, of course you wouldn't see this kind of scene. What, is it novel to you?"

"Sort of... Then, what is that?"

Paul blinked and looked at Allen, only to find him pointing towards a remote corner deep within the bare forest. Through the tree trunks, the weathered eaves of a crudely built wooden cabin were exposed.

"That? A safe house."

"A safe house?"

"Yeah, it's a temporary shelter prepared specifically for hunters traversing the forest in winter or caravans caught off guard by blizzards."

"A temporary shelter?"

"Don't look at how clear the visibility is now. When it snows at the foot of the Red Dragon Mountains, it often snows continuously for an entire month. During those times, it's almost impossible to tell north from south in the forest. If someone gets lost in a blizzard and wanders into the forest with their carriage trapped in the snow, they easily perish in the elements. Therefore, the kingdom ordered the construction of many such small refuge huts in the woods specifically to deal with such situations."

Hearing this, Allen paused, recalling his difficult journey through the forest relying on battle aura amidst the snowfall last year—just before his assassination attempt, when his original plan had been to travel by carriage.

*Right... When winter winds blow and updrafts form along mountain slopes, terrain-induced snow is very common... A carriage definitely wouldn't be able to move.*

*If I had overlooked this during planning and traveled according to the original schedule, wouldn't the carriage have delayed my journey? At that time, I certainly wouldn't have been able to make the timely decision to abandon the carriage and hike through the forest; instead, I would have chosen to wait out the blizzard.*

*I might have even stayed put upon finding a refuge. If the snow fell for a long time and I only realized the carriage couldn't move after it stopped, it would have wasted a huge amount of time. Traveling on foot using battle aura was actually much faster...*

*If I did that, I might not have run into Roxy. Without meeting Roxy, my score would probably have hovered right around the passing mark at best... That was close. Although pushing through the snow using battle aura the whole way was exhausting, looking back, the aftermath of that assassination turned out to be a blessing in disguise... Misfortune might be the foundation of fortune, and fortune the hiding place of misfortune?*

*Pretty good luck.*

Several dozen meters away on the edge of the formation, Rolz was securing the net alongside three other men.

"Hey, Rolz, aren't we setting this net a bit too deep this year? We're dozens of meters deeper than in previous years... Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

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

Rolz replied with a serious expression.

"It's fine. In past years, we only had Paul as a Senior-class swordsman, so we had to be cautious. This year we have Allen, so even if we wake up some monsters on the eastern side, we can deal with them quickly."

The man smiled upon hearing this.

"Allen is certainly exceptional, though I didn't expect the Knight-大人's boy to have such a talent for magic. Over the past two years, first Roxy, then Allen—no doubt he'll make something of himself in the future... I heard your Sylphie gets along very well with them~ That's wonderful. Too bad they don't play with my kids."

Rolz paused at those words.

*Ruphy... Yeah, ever since Allen came around, Ruphy has made friends and smiles much more often...*

Thinking this, he couldn't help turning his gaze toward the rear of the formation, where Sylphie's small figure and Rudy stood watching Allen from across the crowd. Sylphie blew on her little hands to warm them, her ears twitching.

That adorable image imprinted itself in Rolz's pupils, and his stern expression melted away like snow in spring..... In truth, Rolz cared deeply for Ruphy, but he was truly inept at coaxing children, which had inadvertently created the illusion of a strict father.

*...That's good. As long as Ruphy is happy, Noda can rest easier too... She blamed herself for a long time after giving birth to Ruphy because the child had green hair... Clearly it wasn't her fault; who can you blame for genetic reversion?*

The next moment, the distracted Rolz stepped into a patch of snow in front of a tree.

Still lost in thought, he felt no sensation of empty air beneath the snow; instead, his foot seemed to land on something cylindrical.

His vision tilted, the soles of his feet trembled, and he staggered as if about to fall. At that instant, he heard terrified shouts erupt from the men beside him.

"Rolz!!"

"Get away! Rolz!!!"

Almost simultaneously, a crisp *bang* echoed from the loosely packed snow beneath his feet. Surprise flashed in Rolz's eyes as he forcefully wrenched his head around.

Clusters of flying snow erupted from the ground within his field of vision, and a massive set of jaws was already inches away...

Rolz stared at those giant jaws. A surge of heat rushed through his waistline as adrenaline skyrocketed; the rings of tiny, jagged fangs inside the maw were terrifyingly clear, dripping with mucus.

Yet his body was too late to execute any effective reaction.

Ice crept over Rolz's heart.

A mutant forest snake... a D-rank monster...

Awakened from hibernation by the disturbance.

Delivering a fatal strike to the human who had interrupted its slumber.