Free Web NovelThe air touching the tip of my nose changed first. It was damp and warm in some indefinable way, carrying the scent unique to the south.
Oh, magic.......
It was completely drained.
Of course, the ticklish magic of the south clung to my whole body, but it was nowhere near enough.
I swallowed, genuinely feeling like I might throw up, and just as I was about to open the eyes I had squeezed shut—
“Ruby.”
There was a large chest filling my entire field of vision. Strong arms pulled my back tight, and magic like a wave flooded in, filling every corner of my body.
“Khal?”
“Thank goodness.......”
His voice sounded as if something knotted tight inside him had suddenly come undone. Hot breath touched the slight bit of [N O V E L I G H T] nape my collar had exposed.
“I came before I could see you open your eyes.”
His muffled voice spilled out.
“That kept weighing on me so much.......”
“Hey, heeey. I’m fine. And I can’t breathe.”
As if he intended to scrape out every last bit of his own magic and give it to me, Khalid kept pouring magic into me without stopping.
The magic I had lost from the transfer just now was replenished so quickly it felt like it had been nothing at all, and strength rose all the way to the top of my head.
“Were you really worried?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
“Aw. Sorry.”
“......A whole lot.”
A faint laugh slipped out of me. For some reason, today he was neither blunt nor sarcastic, just a perfectly obedient puppy.
I was wondering if I should pat the top of his head, so I eased my body back a little.
“......?”
“......?”
“......?”
And met three question marks lined up side by side.
“Those, those little runts....... What exactly are they doing right now?”
Ah.
“Father? I don’t believe there’s dirt over my eyes yet. So why? What did I just see?”
“Holy shit? Khal? Your armor looks insanely tough?”
Right.
This was absolutely a situation my family could misunderstand.
I calmly pulled away, cleared my throat, and said, “Everyone, this is nothing strange. Khal was just giving me magic—”
“Let’s go. It isn’t far from here.”
What? How could he cut me off there?
Whether I protested or not, Khalid simply kept striding forward with my hand in his.
“No, I have enough magic now.......”
“So do I.”
What was that supposed to mean?
I glanced back, intending to gesture for my family to hurry up and follow, only to whip back around at once.
“What’s wrong?”
“Walk fast. Fast. Speed-walk! Or you’re dead!”
“......?”
The last thing I saw was Mom smiling sweetly as she began quietly drawing her bowstring, while Grandpa stopped her as if swallowing tears of blood.
Whoooo—
A bleak, acrid wind blew through the gorge.
I stood in front of a large rock cave.
“This is the other exit?”
“Yeah.”
Khalid stared at the jagged rocks jutting out every which way and muttered, “There’s still no sign of him.”
The explosion inside the cave had weakened the ground. It was a dangerous place where one wrong touch of magic could make something collapse from who knew where.
“Any traces of the magical beast?” frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
“Nothing strong....... But illusion magic or something like it is tangled up inside in a complicated way, so it’s hard to read.”
I chewed my lip as I gauged the range of magic I could use.
Just then, despite everyone trying to stop him, Grandpa rolled up both sleeves and pushed aside one massive boulder.
A narrow gap appeared among the chaotically tangled pile of stones.
It was a space created by broad, flat stone slabs falling slightly out of alignment in a strangely precise way. From what I heard, they were traces of construction done by the villagers, who had found this place ominous and tried to seal the entrance......
If this goes well, it might connect to the inside of the cave.
My eyes narrowed faintly.
“Wow, thank goodness I’m short.”
Khalid raised an eyebrow as if to ask what nonsense I was talking about.
Ignoring that questioning look, I briskly rolled up my sleeves.
Because right now, there was only one thing for me to do!
*****
Dad!
Leviathan turned around.
“Just now...... she said Dad, didn’t she?”
When he said that, an incredulous snort came from beside him.
“What nonsense.”
The baby lying quietly in her cradle wiggled her little hands and babbled.
“Daaahbuuu!”
“See? She said Dad.”
Leviathan insisted stubbornly, but Rosetta lightly ignored him by picking up the baby, who had begun to fuss.
“Ruby. Our pretty little wigglebug is going to say Mom first, isn’t she~?”
“Myaaah.”
“Oh, she answered. My daughter.”
Leviathan ended up letting out a small laugh.
There was no way the baby had called him Dad, nor any way she had properly answered Rosetta. And yet both of them were completely disarmed in front of the cradle.
It was a warm spring day.
Sunlight poured through the window like a blessing, softly wrapping around Rosetta and the baby.
The very moment Leviathan was staring blankly at the sight, the child, who had been playing peacefully, burst into tears with a loud waaah.
“Aw, you’re hungry. Leviathan, just a moment.”
He took the baby skillfully.
At first, honestly, he had not known how he was supposed to hold something as tiny as a thumbnail. But he had grown used to that too, bit by bit.
When he held her lightly and soothed her, Ruby smiled with a little wahwoo, as if she had never been whining at all. Babies were soft and warm, the kind of existence that seemed like it might melt at any moment. So weak. So delicate.
Leviathan stared down at the black crown of her head, then smiled softly.
Her hair whorl is on the right.
The black hair she had inherited from him stirred adorably around the whorl on the right side of her head.
Damn it, she was cute.
“.......”
Then, suddenly.
His hand stopped.
At some point, he felt as if he had thought something similar before......
Impossible.
He shook his head. Children were always busy crying the moment they saw him.
There was no way he had ever seen a cute little head like this before.
“......How can something this small exist?”
Leviathan looked down at his daughter, bundled tightly in swaddling clothes, and found himself thinking it all over again.
Hm. At this size and weight......
“She’s just like the miniature cannonballs Father was developing—”
A sharp palm immediately came down on his sturdy back. Slap.
“Should we compare our daughter to a weapon, or should we not?”
Rosetta was clutching a milk bottle, eyes flashing.
Indeed, that had been rash.
He frowned gravely and pondered before correcting himself.
“Then a hot dog bun—”
“Get out.”
In the end, he was thrown out.
Time passed peacefully.
In that time, Ruby learned to toddle, and though clumsy, she learned to speak too.
“Miss! Slowly, slowly!”
The maids anxiously chased Ruby as she roamed the garden.
Every garden in Zebbert ducal castle had been covered thickly with soft grass so the child would not be hurt even if she fell while running.
Leviathan followed behind the child leisurely, his hands clasped behind his back.
The weather was good today too.
It felt like only yesterday that she had first stood on two feet, and now she moved her short, chubby legs so diligently that she sometimes even got ahead of him.
Just then, the child, who had been toddling along so well, whipped around. Their eyes met.
“......?”
Ruby blinked her big eyes a couple of times, let out a huge hiyu of a sigh, then turned forward and walked again.
Then she whipped around again.
“Hiyu.”
Then toddled on again.
One more whip around.
“Hiyu.”
Toddle, toddle.
“......Good grief.”
He covered his forehead, groaned briefly, and laughed low.
“How did something like that come out of us?”
He was the strongest man on the continent, and Rosetta was also strong enough that she was hardly lacking anywhere.
But the Ruby born between them......
It seemed she had been born timid.
“My cowardly daughter.”
So timid she had to take three steps and peek back at Dad, then take another four steps and peek back at Dad again.
“Dadaa.......”
Just then, Leviathan felt a force clutching his clothes. The weakest force in the world, yet to him, more powerful and destructive than any other.
“Dis, scawy.......”
The child, who had somehow come close to him, was pointing somewhere. When he followed that round fingertip, he saw a small beetle.
It was clinging to a green leaf, planted squarely in the path Ruby had been walking.
“Come here.”
Leviathan laughed and swept the child up into his arms. When he leapt over the beetle in one long stride, the child laughed, huehe, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Not scawy now!”
My timid daughter, who could not even properly look at one little insect.
I should never show her magical beasts, not even in drawings.
Of course. It would not be difficult.
The child would be safe and peaceful forever inside the fence he built. She would see only harmless, warm, bright, and beautiful things.
It was enough for him alone to experience that hell. This tiny, fragile child would never have to advance into a battlefield where dreadful blood flowed.
“My precious.......”
At that moment, lightning flashed through the bright sky.
“Sir, is the war really over?”
“.......”
Leviathan drew in a rough breath.
As if someone had come to steal the child from him, he hugged Ruby tight.
“......No.”
That cannot be.
Absolutely not.
Leviathan murmured in a wet voice and hid the child deeper in his arms.
She smelled of that sweet, powdery scent unique to babies.
And with that, he erased everything all over again.
