Chapter 27 · A Real Papa (1)

“Is that such a big problem?”

Alter shrugged.

“Are you saying that because you don’t want to miss the chance to become prince consort, you’ll settle for me as a substitute?”

“Oh my, oh my. Please don’t take it so badly, Princess.”

“But I don’t see what benefit I’d gain from being engaged to you.”

“You truly don’t know? A little thought would make it clear.”

Aquila furrowed her brow.

“Surely you don’t mean that child…”

“Yes. Honestly, aren’t you thinking of her as a nuisance? Surely you intended to isolate that bastard completely so she couldn’t even dream of the succession, and then get rid of her in a few years.”

“Get rid of—how unpleasant to hear.”

“I apologize. I couldn’t think of another way to put it.”

He rose from his seat and walked to the fireplace. The crackling fire illuminated his deep blue eyes.

“But the situation has changed. That child is now perfectly protected by the temple, possesses outstanding mana, and has won His Majesty’s favor.”

“…She’s only caught my father’s interest with her peculiar piety.”

“That child turned the royal palace upside down and received no punishment at all. Rather, she only drew endless worry. Is that merely interest?”

“…”

Aquila bit her lip. His mockery stung, but she had no rebuttal. That bastard child was far more troublesome than she had thought.

“But there is a way to resolve all these problems with perfect justification.”

His voice echoed low in the quiet room.

“What if I were to marry you and adopt that child?”

“…!”

Adopting Anastasia. A method she had never even considered until now.

“…Is the position of grand duke so tempting to you?”

Despite the question that could sound rather rude, Alter didn’t seem offended. He grinned and answered.

“There are those trying to climb over the Alter family these days. And…”

He briefly thought of Paeon. ‘That’ Paeon, holding a young child so preciously. He felt like laughing.

“That brat of a bastard child has her amusing sides too.”

“So you’re saying you’ll enter a loveless marriage?”

“Honestly, how many nobles have marriages with love? For nobles, marriage is little more than a means by which two people use each other, isn’t it?”

“…”

“You have desires too. I haven’t spent all this time watching only Princess Beatrice, after all.”

Alter smiled gently. It was a very dangerous and alluring smile.

“I like that honest desire in people. People without desire aren’t attractive.”

“You’re truly rude. To insult the lady before you by saying you like a desire-filled look.”

When Aquila snapped at him, Alter came closer to her.

“Am I so unattractive that you’d be that disgusted?”

He asked, kissing the back of her hand. There were very few women who could call him unattractive. He was a man whose charm even the large scar cutting across his chin and lips only enhanced.

“Or perhaps you’re hoping for true love?”

She looked straight into his eyes. She had no need for true love. A relationship where they only used each other would be fine, but a lifelong promise was another matter.

“…Very well. I’ll accept your proposal.”

Aquila made her decision after a long hesitation.

“However, how do you plan to handle the gossip?”

Alter answered with a satisfied smile.

“Creating a plausible story is not difficult at all, Princess. People are enraptured by romance.”

◇ ◆ ◇

Ten days after locking myself in the room with Paeon for special training, I had finally managed to endure more than thirty minutes without his divine power. It was a feat achieved after repeating hundreds of times the torture-like pain that came in increments of minutes.

And on top of that,

“Papa! Look at this!”

“Princess! What is this…!”

I had just come out of washing and dragged him, who hadn’t even dressed properly, into my bedroom.

“Look. It’s Asha’s divine beast. Asha summoned a divine beast!”

Beside Rosa’s white bird floated a small creature that hadn’t yet taken proper shape. It was a round, cotton-ball-like thing with eyes, nose, and mouth attached, but it was hard to guess what animal it was.

But even that alone made me so happy that I clapped and hopped around him.

“It’s cute, wight? It’s tiny now, but soon it’ww gwow biggew than youws. It’s definitewy a dwagon! Huh?”

I stopped hopping, startled.

“Papa smiled!”

“…I did not smile.”

Paeon said flatly.

“Yes, you did~! The cownew of youw mouth went up! Asha definitewy saw it!”

This man definitely smirked! It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile, and it’s a smirk!

“To mock Asha’s divine beast—unfowgivabwe! Attack!”

At that, my divine beast struck his face. Of course, being a cotton ball, it couldn’t deal any real damage.

Then I’ll use my secret weapon!

“Tickle, tickle!”

“Princess! Stop that at once!”

Seeing him flee in alarm, dripping water, he definitely was weak to tickling. As I giggled and ordered it to keep chasing, Paeon stopped, cupped my divine beast in both palms like catching a mosquito, and squashed it.

“Papa killed Asha’s divine beast!”

I cried out in a shocked voice.

“I didn’t kill it. It was reabsorbed into the princess.”

“Papa~! You killed Asha’s divine beast! Waaah!”

I understood what he said, but for some reason I wanted to tease him, so I flopped onto the carpet and pretended to cry. Paeon, flustered, knelt beside me as I sobbed.

“It’s not dead!”

Just then, the three priestesses entered the bedroom carrying lunch.

“Oh my, Sir Parsiel!”

“Goodness gracious! What are you doing without even proper clothes on!”

“…!”

His face turned redder than a tomato in an instant.

“I-I apologize.”

I laughed loudly as he scrambled back to the bathroom to grab his clothes.

“Hahahaha! Papa, you fell for Asha’s twick!”

“Princess, please stop teasing Sir Parsiel. He is, after all, the savior of your life.”

“But it’s fun. Teasing Papa is the most fun thing in the wowwd.”

“…That much is true.”

Sierra couldn’t hold back and kept giggling.

“Sisters, Asha can summon a divine beast now. Wook!”

As I recited the holy word in a singsong voice, my fluffball divine beast popped into being.

“Wow! Perhaps because the princess is a genius at magic, she handles divine power quickly too.”

“Truly amazing. It took me years to summon a divine beast.”

My divine beast floated about and bobbed in front of each of them, as if greeting them.

“Oh my, how cute!”

“It looks like the princess. White and fluffy.”

“But what animal is it?”

“Could the princess’s be a bird too?”

“It looks like a rabbit to me.”

“It could unexpectedly be a dog or a cat.”

I pouted at their excited guessing.

“You’we aww wong! It’s a dwagon!”

“But dwagons don’t have fuw—”

Sierra covered Yuz’s mouth.

“Ahahaha! A dragon! Yes, it must be a dragon! Sir Parsiel’s must have been a fluffball like this at first too, right?”

Sierra’s white lie nearly brought tears to my eyes.

“Right, Sir Parsiel?”

She said to Paeon, who had appeared with wet hair. It was pressure—the answer was decided, so just answer.

“There was no fur. Mine was nearly fully grown from the start.”

“Haa…”

She pressed her forehead at his tactless answer.

“Let’s just eat lunch. You worked hard alone all morning doing childcare again today, Sir Parsiel.”

“Childcare? This is strictly high-intensity training.”

“Yes, yes. I’m sure it is.”

I chuckled at Yuz’s perfunctory answer as she handed him bread. It seemed everyone had grown much closer over the past few days. Was this the effect of shared childcare?

Anyway, because I had adapted far faster than expected, everyone had regained some ease. The first few days had been truly hellish. They were days of chaos and wailing, a mix of my screams, Paeon’s shouts, and the three priestesses’ tears. It was truly fortunate that mine was the only bedroom on the floor where I stayed.

At any rate, perhaps because of that ordeal, we had all lost weight, and the three priestesses kept raiding the great dining hall at all hours, insisting we had to at least eat properly.

I chewed a sandwich packed with a large slice of ham and spoke.

“Papa, wet’s go to the twaining gwounds today.”

“No.”

He answered immediately. Um, could you at least hesitate for three seconds?

“But! I haven’t been in so wong! I want to see Wizen and Awk.”

“They’ll be living fine without the princess. There’s no need to go and stir up trouble. The princess has a secret to keep right now, doesn’t she?”

“If we don’t get caught, it’s fine! Wet’s just go for a wittle bit, okay?”

I pushed my face close to his and pleaded earnestly.

“Papa, pwease. Okay? Okay? Okay? Asha wowked so hawd.”

“…”

Heh heh, I think I won.

◇ ◆ ◇

“Princess!”

“Commander!”

“Princess!”

There was no chaos like this chaos. The moment we arrived at the training grounds, the knights abandoned their practice and flocked around us. Rizen was the fastest of all, and Ark too slipped out from the Dini tas group far off and, grunting, pushed through the crowd to shout to me.

“Are you all right? Is it true you were badly hurt?”

“Commander, how long will you not come out? Without you, everyone’s gotten lax, and—”

“You’re the laziest of all, so where do you get off scolding us!”

“Princess, why have you gotten so thin? Your cheek fat has disappeared! When one says ‘princess,’ one means plump cheeks!”

“Papa, put me down for a moment. I have something to say to Wizen and Awk.”

“…Only for a moment.”

After giving them a warning look not to divulge the secret, he set me down. I dragged Rizen and Ark away from the noisy crowd.

“Princess, what on earth happened? After they caught all those men, we heard you collapsed. Do you have any idea how worried we were?”

“I-I really thought I’d die of a heart attack. While I was fighting that pig-like bastard twelve to one, he got up and went outside. I heard Sir Parsiel arrived just before he could get to you?”

“If anything had happened to the princess, our lives wouldn’t have been spared either. It’s truly a relief.”

“Though my calves weren’t spared. Ah! Princess, come to think of it, this—”

Ark took my locket necklace and seed pouch from his pocket and handed them to me.

“Awk, weally, weally thank you! Awk is a bwave knight.”

When I took them and smiled brightly, Ark scratched his nose as if embarrassed.

“But Princess! Th-that girl who was with us—”

“Who is this, if not Princess Anastasia!”

Someone cut off Rizen’s words. It was the commander of Dinitas, Count Edwin Alter.

“Little friends, may I borrow the princess for a moment?”

As they glanced at each other and hesitated to answer, he lifted me up in one swift motion and began striding far away.

‘What on earth is this man doing all of a sudden…?’

I had mountains of things to talk about, and being interrupted so suddenly made me angry, but I forced it down.

“Commander, take me to Papa. I have to go back soon.”

“I think you need to practice calling me Papa instead of Sir Parsiel, Princess.”

“?”

He gave me a shameless smile as I looked bewildered.

“Because soon… I may become the princess’s real papa.”