Butler, Coach, Lover 1 (Patreon)

Butler, Coach, Lover - or ‘The moment I took sympathy for a poor orphaned girl was where life screwed me again!' (ViVid Strike!, SI!Butler/Coach)

I am not sure if this dimension was one of those based on an anime or not but… I have a feeling this very scene made it one.

Perhaps I should offer some retrospective on the topic. It all started a couple of years ago. It was 074 by the calendar adopted by this very human and yet very magical society when I ‘happened’ to be hurled into this dimension.

At first glance, one may not see much of me. Humans were common after all, but most had ‘mana’ to rely upon. Mana and influence to secure wealth and favors.

While my entry in this world was one that didn’t gain the attention of the appropriate authorities, it still left me in a precarious situation of dubious legality in the matter of documentation for my birth and citizenship. I would later learn that someone had gotten that done for me right as I was ‘shifted’ here, but for the time being, I was a rather jobless and quite homeless fellow.

It was an awkward situation that didn’t actually last long. All thanks to the kindness of a good man. Roy Berlinetta had no particular reason to ‘pick’ me and give me a job as a butler.

Not when we just shared a conversation as I sat by one of the outdoor tables of the nearest bar. He was enjoying the morning around, a habit I would learn to remember as the main servant of the Berlinetta household, and it was just before paperwork-related chores.

We spared a few words about life, about the fact that luck is not always kind when it gives you something and we both poured our accounts of bad luck on each other. It was… refreshing and made the idea of serving a rich man as his butler feasible.

It took me a while to get things under check, but the old man clearly kept me around mostly for company. As years went by he would start to appreciate my hard work too as I managed to do flawless tasks without any trouble or delay.

Two years passed by smoothly, but 076 was where things changed in the Berlinetta Family’s lives. Roy’s son and daughter-in-law, Dan and Lorry, adopted a daughter as they had been struggling with fertility related troubles.

The child that they chose was someone with incredible mana potential, but was nonetheless a polite but goodhearted child. Little Rinne was adorable from the very beginning.

Very formal, but not too shy in dropping into a more extrovert self when around her grandfather and me. Due to her parents’ busy schedules, the girl would spend most of her time at Roy’s manor. She was a little sunshine wherever she went, but while I had expected her to be rather nervous around me since I was not family…

I would soon find out that it wasn’t the case at all.

Proof of it came in the form of me being the one to help her bathe. I was surprised when Roy just gave me the chore, saying that he was too old to handle it and would just break his bones while helping the girl and Rinne was more than fine with it.

At the time, she was quite innocent about it, yet I would eventually learn that there was more to it. For now, however, it was just a little girl wanting someone around to help her clean her long hair.

Another year went by, and trouble came up in the form of a death in the family. Months after Rinne’s adoption, Roy had been suffering some severe abdominal pain that doctors confirmed to be cancer. It was too big to remove, too entrenched also.

It had eluded attention for so long that it was already terminal. How it didn’t appear sooner was a mystery, but Roy was months away from dying. The family was aware of this and Rinne was heartbroken by the news.

She had also gotten a lot more uneasy at the prospect of going outside. I thought it was just because she worried about her grandpa, but Roy suggested the kid had trouble at school. It was surprising, but I wouldn’t put it behind with the cruelty of some children.

While doctors couldn’t cure Roy, they could give him an appropriate date for his passing, the expectation was precise due to magic, and plans were made for everyone to be by his bedside by the time this came up.

Rinne was kept in the dark about this, with her fragile self unprepared to have a date so important to keep in mind. Her studies were yielding average grades, with teachers lamenting that she was distracted and ‘disruptive’.

This last bit was heavily rebuked, to the point of Roy almost jumping the moron that dared to call the innocent child as a ‘troublemaker’. As the day of Roy’s passing drew close, I made plans to pick up Rinne early from school.

Roy had been neutral on this, knowing it was fair but not wanting to steal a day of school from Rinne… but my argument of having her nearby when the inevitable struck was needed.

The day came, and I quickly planned to take the girl out of school around mid-school break. I had the car parked outside ten minutes before the established time, then I walked up to the school and spoke with the principal and got Rinne an early leave document for school.

I personally walked up to the classroom, the lesson had just finished when I knocked at the door and introduced myself to the teacher before presenting the certificate. Rinne looked stunned, but her worry erupted as I gave her a tense but restrained look.

She had her bag ready, and she bolted to walk beside me out of the classroom without saluting anyone. Rude, but reasonable considering that time was of essence. We stopped by her locker, picking up the rest of things she had left there earlier this morning.

The trip back home was nerve wracking as Rinne pestered me with questions. She sounded so insufferable but with the kind of reason I couldn’t fault her for. Despite that, she still held her tears back. Those would only come out when she finally got to her grandfather’s side.

Roy looked pleased. He had been getting paler on his face each day, now looking close to being a proper cadaver. He gave Rinne a few kind words.

“My beloved Rinne. So pure and yet strong… do not let my passing hurt you, for I will always be by your side.”

Short but… proper. He sounded content- it wasn’t the ending he wanted, but it was one of the best. Rinne’s parents were soon there too. His family kept him company as he slipped away from life’s embrace upon death’s own hug.

Sorrow struck the Berlinetta family as a whole, and Rinne was devastated. The girl didn’t leave Roy’s side for a full hour. Her parents were… concerned, but I told them it was fine considering how deeply caring Roy was for her and how Rinne knew and reciprocated this.

Still, I had to peel her off once it was time to move his body, with the girl sobbing on my shoulder as I carried her to her room to find some privacy. She cried and bawled her eyes out until she was ‘spent’.

Rinne just cried herself unconscious. I held her a bit more as she slept, but decided to ultimately let her rest on her comfy bed. There was still much to do, and while she was going to get a lot of attention these days, I had to assist her adoptive parents in handling the various paperworks and phone calls needed to be done for the many services required for a proper funeral to be prepared.

Hours went by, and Rinne would wake up briefly around lunchtime. She was somber, quiet, her adoptive mother looked ready to console her, but she spent so little time around her own daughter that she looked unprepared for it. Dan looked uneasy too, but he kept his face stoic in most part.

Like lunch, dinner proved to be a tense but overall silent affair. But as I was done clearing the table and getting all the cleaning done after the meal, I went to sleep… and yet not.

I couldn’t exactly rest on my own bed while knowing that the man that had given me so much for just the sake of being a good friend and listener died here today. I felt… depleted. It was not how I expected it to end up like.

My lack of tiredness allowed me to also be awake when someone knocked at my door. I lifted my head up as I saw the door open slightly revealing a nervous little girl.

“Rinne-”

“I can’t sleep. P-Please?”

She couldn’t muster the right words, the child still demolished by what had just happened, and I thought about Roy. He definitely would have been fine with this despite how awkward it felt for a butler to cuddle a young ‘master’ to sleep.

“Sure. Come here.”

Stepping inside, the girl closed the door behind her before pacing up to the bed and settling herself on my chest. She wasn’t wearing her PJs, something that was quite common actually considering that she didn’t like how the ‘pretty fabric’ felt on her legs.

So her sleepwear was ‘unconventional’.

“John?”

The girl mumbled as she sniffled by my chest, enticing me to reach for her head and caress her hair.

“Yes, Rin?”

She hummed. “I want… to become stronger. Strong to be better.”

“That’s a tall request. Why do you want to become stronger?”

“...So no one hurts me.”

I sighed, ruffling her hair a bit. “That’s not a good reason.”

She huffed at the treatment, but appeared more curious on my rebuttal.

“Why not? Grandpa said that I had to be strong for myself.”

“Strength of mind and soul, not of body. The kind of strength one can only muster by understanding that pain is here to stay, but that you can beat it back by remembering the good things you had with your grandfather while he was still alive. Only with that will you keep him close to your heart.”

“...but what if I want to be strong too?”

“Why?” I asked again and she turned so her chin rested on my chest, giving her a chance to look up at me.

“Because I want to be strong.”

…

“That sounds selfish. But… it’s honest.”

“So… Can I learn how to be strong?”

“Under my supervision,” I replied tightly. “I can tell you would be up to no good if someone didn’t keep an eye on you.”

“I am not bad,” Rinne whined softly, hugging me tightly. “I am adorable.”

I snorted and she smiled cheekily.

“Fighting is something you learn to do to protect those that can’t defend themselves. Think of the other girls like you… can’t defend themselves. They lack someone that can tell the bully off.”

“Fighting a bully is not the right way. Grandpa said that, I think,” The silver-haired child didn’t sound too convinced of this.

“If you abandon yourself in the craving of beating them to hurt them, then yes. It would be very wrong. Self-defense will never be wrong if you understand one thing, kiddo.”

“And that is?”

“From great powers come great responsibilities. The stronger you are, the greater the burden shall be to remain a good person. Because strength can be good if gained honestly- cheap ways to secure it, fear to lose it… those are not good things.”

“Got it. Thanks, John?”

I nodded, thinking that it was now over as Rinne went to sleep. What I couldn’t hear as Rinne kept it in her heart and mind was a rather ‘scary’ promise that would eventually become louder and vocal.

I will become strong… so I can marry John too.

—--------d-d-d-d—----

AN

Rinne is not as ruthless as she would have turned in canon, but the bullies are getting karate kid’d once she gets more control over her abilities to deal with them. It’s going to be brutal, but not enough to frighten students.