Chapter 103
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 103
But it was only a fleeting moment.
Dain quickly composed himself, his voice returning to its usual playful tone.
"Back then, when you go traveling with that guy, won't Dad get pushed to the back?"
"Come on, I can go with Lahedis and with Dad too."
"That said, these days whenever you have free time, you're off to see that guy."
"So from now on, should I stick right by Dad's side? Follow you when you go to work, train with the Knight Order together?"
"...You're using that as an excuse to skip etiquette lessons, aren't you?"
Vivian answered with a sheepish grin instead—a habit that emerged whenever her true intentions were exposed.
As they continued their banter and walked, they soon arrived at the Lakeside.
The Lakeside remained frozen solid, just as we had seen it before.
Watching Vivian strain with her small feet to break the ice, Dain caught the wobbling child before she could fall.
"Dad will do it."
He then methodically trampled the ice around a large stone—the ice at the edges always froze thinner than the flat surface.
"Wow."
Seeing Dain skillfully break through the ice, Vivian gave him a thumbs up.
At that, Dain chuckled softly.
Soon, as the unfrozen lake was revealed, Vivian released the fish she had brought.
"Goodbye. Now don't get caught and live well."
The fish disappeared beyond the lake's ice the moment it was freed.
Vivian watched the lake where the fish had vanished for a moment, then rose to her feet.
"Let's go, Dad."
A small hand—grown so much, yet still small in his eyes—grasped his once more.
Looking at that small hand, a memory suddenly surfaced.
"Vivian, when you were little, you came out at night with Dad to release fish. Do you remember?"
"Huh? When?"
"When you were this small."
Dain gestured to his thigh with his hand.
It was summer, when Vivian was around five or six years old.
Dain had taken the child to the Stream in the Village for a swim and caught a fish.
Vivian had taken quite a liking to it—she'd splash and play happily, but would return to the bucket from time to time to look at the fish.
The problem arose when it was time to prepare to head home.
[Dad, can't we take the fish home? Let's raise it as Bibi's little sibling. Okay?]
Vivian had whined for a moment, but when Dain reasoned with her, she quickly relented and fell silent.
Yet separate from understanding, she couldn't hide the dejected expression that crossed her face.
That weighed on Dain's heart.
He thought—how lonely must a child who had lost her mother so early be, to want to raise a fish as a sibling?
[...All right, let's take it home and raise it well together.]
In the end, he made up his mind and brought the fish home with them.
The fish would likely die before long, but for him, soothing his daughter's loneliness, even for a brief moment, was far more important.
Vivian was naturally delighted.
But that evening.
When Dain came upstairs after tidying the Kitchen, he found Vivian crouching in front of a bucket.
Yet her expression was dark.
"Dad, do fish have fathers too?"
"Yes, they do."
"Then since we brought this one here, the fish won't be able to see its father anymore, will it?"
Tears quickly welled up in the child's eyes.
"If I couldn't see my dad, I'd be so sad I'd cry every single day. What if the fish feels that way too?"
Watching my daughter's eyes glisten as though she'd been separated from her own father, I couldn't help but smile at her tenderness.
Dain looked at Vivian, who was regarding me with a puzzled expression, and made a suggestion.
"Then how about we take the fish back to its father?"
And so, Vivian's tale of her fish sibling ended as a summer evening's fleeting moment.
On the way back from releasing the fish into the Stream where it had lived, the warmth of that small hand clasping mine remained vivid even now.
"Oh! I remember when Dad gave me a piggyback ride that day."
Vivian too held a faint memory of that day.
She had grown quiet from her earlier chatter when she spotted a child hanging from both parents' arms as they walked together.
She had envied that child deeply, but showed no sign of it.
She understood that talk of her mother would wound her father.
Yet Dain seemed to sense her heart, for he lifted Vivian onto his shoulders to give her a piggyback ride.
In place of her mother, whose arms could not reach.
That summer night, sitting on Dain's shoulders and gazing at the world from that lofty vantage point, what I felt was...
Not the absence of my mother, but my father's love.
"That's right, it was like that. Now that our princess has grown into quite the lady, I don't think I can give her piggyback rides anymore."
"But you can hold my hand forever. Like this!"
Vivian laughed brightly and held up their joined hands.
Dain, who had been quietly observing how much his child had grown, let out a soft chuckle in response.
And so they walked hand in hand along the Lakeside for quite some time.
Vivian, who had been glancing at Dain, suddenly spoke up.
"Thank you, Dad."
"...?"
"For loving me so very much."
After finally speaking the words, embarrassment overtook her, and Vivian shyly averted her gaze, kicking at the pebbles beneath her feet.
Yet she did not stop speaking.
"Because of you, my world was filled with love when I was young."
"..."
"I grew up well with that love, so you don't need to worry about me anymore."
Then, after a moment's thought, she corrected herself.
"Actually, no. Worry about me just a little. It would be boring if you didn't worry at all."
The child said this with a laugh.
Dain couldn't bring himself to speak the words caught in his throat, and simply held that image in his eyes.
For a very long time.
* * *
The day after returning from the journey.
Dain woke early, before the dawn darkness had fully lifted.
Winter's long nights were partly to blame, but more than that, sleep simply wouldn't come.
With a clarity of mind sharper than ever, I sat at the table and opened my notebook.
The worn notebook, weathered by time, bore a drawing of a rabbit.
It was a notebook Vivian had collected one by one from the General Store when she was young, without my knowledge.
As children do, she had quickly lost interest after buying them and left them rolling in the corner of her room, which I then picked up and began using.
Dain opened a clean page and began writing slowly.
1. Take a journey with Vivian.
2. Prepare a birthday gift for Vivian.
3. Prepare marriage gifts for Vivian.
4. Draw a family portrait.
.
.
.
19. Tell her I love her often.
As I wrote down each thought that came to mind, dawn broke completely.
Just as I was pondering the twentieth item, a knock shattered the morning silence.
"Master Dain, did you call?"
It was Butler Liman.
"What is it?"
"The Young Lord of Edelwein has come to call."
At the unexpected news and unexpected name, Dain found himself frowning without thinking.
'...Early in a romance, and quite smitten, it seems.'
Judging by how eagerly he came rushing as soon as Vivian returned from her journey.
Thinking back to when he had been courting Serenia, I could understand the feeling.
But understanding and acceptance were two different matters.
"Vivian is still asleep, not yet recovered from travel fatigue. Tell him to come again this afternoon."
I was being petulantly difficult out of displeasure at this fellow trying to take my daughter away again after merely three days, but an unexpected response came back.
"That is... he says he wishes to speak with you first, before meeting with the young lady."
* * *
When I descended to the Reception Room, Lahedis rose and bowed respectfully.
His manners were impeccably refined, his face objectively flawless.
Yet to me, he was nothing but a cunning schemer who had seduced innocent Vivian, even going so far as to disguise himself.
Dain sat down and lifted his teacup, speaking first.
"Surely you haven't come at this ungodly hour to settle the score you couldn't finish last time."
"If you desire a contest, I am prepared at any time, but my purpose in coming today is different."
Dain looked at Lahedis instead of answering.
Observing Dain's silence, Lahedis hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
"I know that Vivian's mother was the previous Demon King."
Dain's hand, holding the teacup, froze mid-motion.
It was a secret he had never revealed to anyone—not even to Vivian.
Dain attempted to compose the emotion that had momentarily surfaced and feign ignorance, but Lahedis was faster.
"When do you intend to tell Vivian? What were you thinking, returning as the Emperor's Knight?"
"...."
"I wish to know."
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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