Daihan’s eyes gradually calmed down as he looked at Sephiel, who was laughing loudly.
“……You’re a fearless child.”
“Huh?”
Of course, it wasn’t that Sephiel was truly enjoying that.
‘If I beg for my life, he’ll definitely kill me.’
That is the feeling she had.
‘Yeah, if this guy is really Erga’s father, then that makes sense.’
It was the result of the brain working at full capacity in an extreme situation.
“Alright. Fine.”
“Woah!”
Without hesitation, Daihan picked Sephiel up and threw her into the air before catching her again.
“Should I throw you even higher?”
‘Come to think of it. How is it that I can’t hear anything like the sound of the wind or anything like that?’
In the midst of that, Sephiel glanced around. A transparent barrier surrounding the wyvern was blocking both sunlight and sound.
“Yes! Higyher, higyher! It’s fun!”
Sephiel said with a big smile.
She was actually scared to death.
“Okay.”
—Thud.
Sephiel’s small body was thrown high into the air before landing back in Daihan’s hands.
“You said it’s fun.”
“Yes! It’s fun!”
‘What nonsense. I was absolutely terrified.’
Inside, Sephiel screamed.
But when people are pushed to their limits, sometimes they don’t even have the energy to cry.
“Kyahahaha!”
Sephiel boldly slapped Daihan’s arm with her tiny palm, laughing.
Daihan lifted Sephiel high up in the air once more.
“Wahhh!”
Sephiel raised her arms and cheered, but inside she was already half mentally exhausted.
‘Higher and higher… I must have set a world record…’
‘Since the creation of this continent, no one had probably experienced a more thrilling ride than this.’
“What a funny little kid.”
Daihan muttered.
“Hold onto the saddle.”
Then, he commanded the wyvern to move.
“Wow, it’s so pretty! Amazing!”
Sephiel widened her eyes and gripped the wyvern’s saddle.
It was just as the sun was setting.
The golden sunlight poured down, making the entire world glow as if bathed in liquid gold.
Protected by Daihan’s barrier, Sephiel soared through the sky, and finally gracefully circled over the castle wall.
By the time they landed on the ground below the castle walls, a group of familiar elf soldiers had already gathered.
“Master!”
The soldiers all knelt on one knee in unison.
‘Ah, I’m at my limit.’
Sephiel, trembling in Daihan’s arms, climbed down from the wyvern.
‘I’m scared. I just want to go back to my room quickly.’
That’s when Sephiel realized that even a child’s body could break out in a cold sweat when truly terrified.
Daihan glanced at Lev and asked.
“Who is this child?”
“Ah, well… This child has been chosen as the fiancée of Young Master Erga. Everyone in the castle calls her Miss Baby.”
Daihan nodded after hearing Lev’s explanation.
“I had a feeling. I almost threw her off the wyvern. That’s how I usually deal with suspicious people.”
“Hic!”
Then, she carefully took a step back, putting some distance between herself and Daihan.
It was then that Daihan’s sharp eyes reached Sephiel.
“Why are you running away?”
“…..”
The elf soldiers gulped and stood in front of Sephiel.
“You were acting completely different a moment ago. Suspicious. Are you afraid of me?”
That’s—”
“Lev. I didn’t ask you.”
‘I have to protect Miss Baby!’
Lev quickly spoke up.
“A-Ah! I just wanted to make sure nothing happened on your way here.”
“Nothing happened.”
As he said that, Daihan suddenly spoke as if he had remembered something.
“Oh, by the way, I killed someone. The body should be outside the castle wall somewhere. I hate the stench of rotting corpses in my space. Make sure to clean it up.”
“……Yes? You kill someone? All of a sudden?”
Exactly.
Sephiel wanted to fully agree with Lev’s reaction.
“Was it an intruder?”
“Do I need to tell you that? Are you stupid?”
‘Oh. That rude tone—it must run in the family.’
Sephiel thought.
“……”
Anyway, while Daihan was distracted, Sephiel quietly took tiny steps backward.
‘Let’s go and tell Barry to pack my things.’
‘I have to run away to the annex and never see this guy again.’
‘That would be for the best.’
Sephiel thought quickly.
“I apologize. I had no idea an intruder had entered. We’ll strengthen security around the forest. Though… sometimes you kill people for no reason, so I wasn’t sure.”
“I wasn’t in that kind of mood today.”
Besides, listening to the conversation that followed made Sephiel’s head spin.
But Sephiel stopped walking after hearing Daihan’s next words.
“Oh, right. The guy I killed said something strange before he died. ‘I’m not Bob’.”
“Oh? Really? His name must have been Bob, then.”
“On top of that, he was wearing the Allegro royal knight’s uniform. He was probably a deserter, so it wasn’t a big deal. But just in case, check whether he was a spy sent by Allegro.”
“Yes. But… if he was a spy, he wasn’t a very smart one. Who blurts out their name like that? Come to think of it, in the ancient language, ‘Bob’ meant ‘fool’, right? So he really was a fool.”
Lev could speak the ancient language. Elf half-bloods often did.
Upon hearing that, Daihan nodded.
“Hm. Now that you mention it, I remember. He was such an idiot. I swung my sword once, and he ran away alone, but then hit his head on a tree and passed out. He was so pathetic that I wondered if he was really a knight.”
That was when—
Sephiel started to run quickly.
It was as if the bomb button had been pressed.
Daihan’s eyes became cold again.
His eyebrows furrowed.
“I hate deceitful human children. Capture that child immediately.”
But Sephiel’s target was not the main building.
‘I hid the star candy earlier.’
A secret place only Sephel knew. She quickly retrieved the basket from there… and spun around like a swallow. Then, she ran back toward Daihan.
“….What?”
Sephiel looked up at him with bright, sparkling eyes, hiding something behind her back.
And then she shyly held out what she was holding in her hand.
“Gyand Duke…. this..…”
“…….”
“This is my heart…”
Sephiel shyly held out the sparkly star candy she had received from the chef today.
“This is my tyeaswure, but I’ll givve it to ywou.” (This is my treasure, but I’ll give it to you)
Though it had only become a treasure today, it was a sincere gesture, without a trace of hesitation.
Sephiel said with a big smile.
“Thank ywou for provtectying me.” (Thank you for protecting me)
Then, she bowed deeply, performing a traditional belly-button bow.
Daihan, who had accepted the star candy bottle absentmindedly, closed his mouth.
And the gazes of the elf soldiers fell upon his face.
‘This is it, this is it!’
A crazy person on our side is a good person.
That was the lesson Sephiel had learned since arriving here.
‘My intuition was right after all.’
‘This feeling may turn out to be a little wrong!’
Lotto, the second-ranked name on the Death Note, had not left after all.
The memory of that rainy night, seeing the shadow and feeling terrified, resurfaced.
Just imagining that it had been Lotto all along was enough to send chills down her spine.
‘If Lotto really did sneak over the castle walls…’
Just the thought made her hair stand on end.
“This kid… is she always like this?”
“That’s….”
“What made her so excited that she couldn’t tell up from down?”
“She originally followed the adults well, but….”
“……”
“It seems that you have won her favor by giving her a ride on a wyvern.”
Sephiel was holding onto Daihan’s pants and looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
It was the kind of gaze that made one instinctively want to stroke her hair.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a human child who isn’t scared of me.”
Daihan said as if it was ridiculous.
“Well, actually, she does have a bright personality.”
“……”
‘Lev. You too…’
Sephiel felt an overwhelming urge to bite Lev out of annoyance.
‘Stop spreading nonsense!’
“So even the young Master, Erga, follows her quite well.”
“That kid? With his personality, It’s hard to impress him.”
At least Daihan was objective about his own son. That was a relief.
Regardless, the fact that Daihan had taken care of Lotto had already skyrocketed his standing in Sephiel’s heart.
‘Yeah, as long as he doesn’t actually throw me off the wyvern, it’s fine. He must have had a reason for trying to throw me.’
‘Yeah, I love you, Remdragon.’
Sephiel recalled her feelings the first day she came there.
Daihan looked down and looked into Sephiel’s eyes.
“What do you mean by thank you for protecting you?”
“Gyand Duke! Ywou’re the styongest in the world. Ywou always get ryid of bad gwuys.” (Grand Duke! You’re the strongest in the world. You always get rid of bad guys)
“Is that so?”
The corners of Daihan’s mouth twitched.
“It doesn’t sound like a lie.”
The only fire dragon in the human world.
Born as a half-dragon, but now a fully matured dragon. The Grand Duke of Remdragon, Daihan.
He pursues the path of nothingness and enjoys fighting, and what he hates is lies.
The thing he liked most…
“The strongest in the world.”
Score: 100 out of 100.
It was the moment when Sephiel hit the exact center of Daihan’s tastes.
* * *
