No, no, no, no.

Not rawr! exactly, though.

It was just... just...

“W-wow?”

“What?”

“Huh? No...!”

I swallowed down the turmoil in my chest. I was so intensely aware of our suddenly touching hands that it was driving me insane.

Oh my God.

It felt like I was falling endlessly somewhere.

Spinning and spinning and spinning as I fell.

What am I supposed to do?

Right now...

I might be right on the verge of plunging headfirst into something.

*****

The next day.

The procession resumed.

The line of Casalian royals and their Zebbert escort quickly left the border village and arrived in Babiles, the capital.

Thanks to the acceleration magic tools Father had brought, we moved incredibly fast.

Twice, magical beasts hidden underground surfaced, but fortunately the knights led by Khalid stepped in, so the journey was barely delayed at all.

“Thanks to you, we have arrived safely!”

In front of the Imperial Palace.

Standing at the head of the long procession, the King of Casalia called out loudly to Father.

He was a short, pudgy middle-aged man. At a glance, I thought he looked a bit like a round potato.

“I shall never forget this hospitality!”

“It was nothing.”

Father answered flatly. Judging from the angle of his brows, the set of his mouth, and the slant of his posture—

You can tell at a glance he doesn’t want to talk to him.

The King of Casalia must have done something at the banquet to get himself thoroughly disliked.

“Well then, Sebelena. Why are you just standing there? Hurry and greet the Duke!”

“Thanks to you, we arrived safely. I’m deeply grateful for your generosity, Duke.”

Sebelena lowered herself in a flawless, perfect greeting, then raised her head.

At that moment, our gazes crossed briefly.

I’ll contact you if anything happens. And if you ever need my help, Princess, reach out anytime.

While we were riding, Sebelena had quietly come close and whispered that to me.

I had given the vague answer that I understood, because the words were coming from a princess as lovely as a rose at dawn.

But honestly, even if the Magic Kingdom attacked me, I didn’t think there would be much occasion to ask a princess for help.

That evening, there was a victory celebration banquet.

Khalid was awarded a baron title in recognition of his merit in clearing out the western gorge, one of the continent’s major magical-beast habitats and long-standing nuisances.

It was a noble title without land, all name and honor, but it was still a rise in status for a knight of common birth, so Khalid’s name swept through the capital, Imperial Palace included.

Though, as always, the man himself looked utterly indifferent, not even twitching an eyebrow.

The one who was more excited was me.

I spent quite a while teasing him together with my brothers—“Baron Khaliiid~”—but he barely reacted, so it stopped being fun, and I quit after three tries.

It was a shame.

“Sebelena! This is our princess, Sebelena!”

“I greet His Majesty the Emperor.”

At the welcoming reception that followed, the King of Casalia pushed Sebelena forward with painful obviousness all through the banquet.

He was desperate.

The King of Casalia had already married off all his daughters abroad, and the only place where he had failed to secure ties was Babilon.

“Ha ha! She’s my daughter, but isn’t she truly beautiful? She sings wonderfully too, and while her embroidery is a little lacking, she’s an excellent cook. If perhaps one of the princes...”

Sebelena remained in the banquet hall, smiling like a beautifully decorated commodity.

She seemed livelier when we were walking around the festival together.

“If you want to survive in the forest, you have to build strength. Though I suppose that’s true of everything!”

Maybe the Casalian royal palace was Sebelena’s second forest.

Then is this her stage of gathering strength...?

And is that why she came to see me?

Whatever the case—

Maybe what the King of Casalia wanted wasn’t his daughter, but a product.

I thought I’d be happier once I found my real family... But who should I choose? The family tied to me only by blood? Or... the family that held my soul?

I was curious about my real family for a while too.

When I was ten.

On the way back from Academy camp.

While exchanging magic letters with the second, who had fled beyond the Empire, I had casually asked once.

< Do you... remember what I was like before I was sent to war? I mean when I was very little... or the person who gave birth to me. >

The second said she didn’t know.

So I didn’t pursue it any further.

Honestly, if I said I still wasn’t curious who my birth parents were, that would be a lie.

I did wonder where this body had been born, and how it had ended up drifting into the Mage King’s hands.

More than anything, I wanted to know how I had come to carry Wigeria’s power.

Was that how the princess felt too?

Wanting to know her roots.

So she finally made it back to the royal palace with great difficulty, only to find that the texture of her life had grown too different from that of the parents she found there...

“Ahh.”

I shook my head to myself.

Looking at that, maybe it’d be better not to know your birth parents after all.

Then again.

If some extremely bizarre weirdos suddenly showed up and said, I’m your father! I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to keep a straight face.

“Mmm.”

Some things really were better left unknown.

“Ruby, what are you doing here?”

“Daaad.”

“What is it?”

I had been crouched near a statue in front of the Imperial Palace banquet hall, and I immediately ran over and clung to Father’s arm.

Father let out a snort of laughter, then lightly pinched my cheek and shook it.

“What did you get up to now? The way you’re dragging out your words, you definitely caused some kind of trouble.”

“No. There were too many people crowding around in the banquet hall, so I escaped. I was annoy— no, tired.”

And the reason I clung to Father was because I suddenly liked him so much!

Because unlike that king, he never forces anything on me, and he’s always cherished me!

That sudden rush of affection made me want to deploy my most desperate cute-daughter skills.

After thinking it over carefully, I broke into a grin and fluttered my eyes.

“Say, do you know what bread I like best in the whole world?”

At that, Father crooked one corner of his mouth.

Then he said—

“Dad bread.”

“......”

...What?

What was that! My killer move!

“Who was it? Who beat me to it? Boyd? Liam?!”

After saying it, I tried imagining it.

...It °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° was kind of horrifying.

My big, dark brothers going, Dad bread?

Sorry, brothers. But I mean it.

Father lightly pushed my forehead.

“What are you talking about? That’s ancient history. It was all the rage for a while in the dad circles.”

I awkwardly scratched the back of my head.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess it is kind of an old one. Still, for that to trend in your little club...”

Then I froze.

Huh?

It trended?

I never said it to him, though.

Then my dad...

I slowly lifted my eyes and snuck a look at him. He still had that crooked smile on his face.

“Back then, for a while. About ten years ago? Those bastards bragged so much.”

“It hasn’t even been ten years since you and I met. No, more importantly...”

“Forget it.”

“No way... you weren’t the only one who got left behind by the trend, were you? Because I never said it to you? What do we do...”

I tipped my brows in sympathy.

I had no idea something like that had been popular...

“I’m fine. I’m not the kind of man who envies things like that.”

So you were envious.

“It didn’t bother me at all.”

So it did bother you...

“Daaad. But why are you striding off ahead? Are you trying to hide your expression because your lonely past just came back to you? Is that it?”

Holding back my laughter, I hurried after him.

“Dad bread!”

When I clung playfully to his arm, Father glanced at me, then immediately whipped his head away again.

“The best bread in the world? Obviously Ruby’s dad bread!”

His cheekbones lifted slightly.

“Dad bread bread bread bread.”

“All right, all right, Ruby.”

In the end, Father failed to hold back his laughter. He ruffled my hair all over the place, then gripped my hand tightly.

This familiar warmth, this familiar touch!

After all, this was where I belonged. Right here beside my dad, in a place overflowing with love. I didn’t need anything else.

“What, want more? Go brag about it to your club! Get it all out of your system! Dad bread bread...”

“All right. Then... do it about two thousand more times, and we’ll call it even.”

“What?”

Just how much had he been bottling up?