I’m the Youngest Daughter of the Serpent Family
Chapter 31
I could not forget the sight of Karma stepping between Retra and me in an instant.
“Ka'ma.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Karma looked slightly flustered, perhaps not expecting me to call him.
“Fank you for p'otecting Iwin.”
“……I only followed orders.”
“Still, fank you.”
Without his help, Retra would have grabbed me for sure.
I buried myself back into Kaid's embrace. My startled heart had not yet calmed down, its rapid thumping vibrating clearly against him.
To soothe me, Kaid stroked my back without pause.
Just when I thought the whole ordeal was over, Retra called out to stop the turning Kaid.
“Lord Kaid! P-Please, have mercy just this once! I will never make such a mistake again! I will pay double the toll—one hundred gold coins!”
Thud.
Retra dropped to his knees, collapsing to the floor.
Earlier, he had thrown a fit claiming fifty gold coins was too expensive. He really must have been desperate.
Though I did not fully understand the value of money yet, the murmurs sweeping through the crowd made it clear just how enormous a sum one hundred gold coins was.
Yet Kaid ignored Retra's words entirely and turned away.
“If there are other conditions you desire, I will fulfill every single one! Lord Kaid!”
In the end, as Retra scrambled up to rush closer, family members blocked his path.
Kaid really is cold-blooded.
“Irene.”
“Huh?”
“Do what you did earlier again.”
“Do wha'?”
Having returned to our original table, Kaid sat me down facing him.
Perched on his lap, I tilted my head.
What I did earlier?
The corners of Kaid's mouth lifted playfully.
“‘He's my daddy.’”
Ah.
Heat rushed to my cheeks. As even my ears burned hot, I hastily covered my face with both hands.
“You said it so boldly before. Are you embarrassed now?”
I only said that because I was so angry!
Seth and Arvan were watching me too while pretending not to. They seemed secretly expectant.
“……He's my daddy.”
“That's not quite the feeling.”
“No-uh. Iwin did it jus' like dat.”
Kaid frowned as if dissatisfied.
Having finished wrapping up the situation, Baon returned and mimed wiping away tears of profound emotion.
“I am deeply moved, Lady Irene. To personally sweep the Letra family out of the South—I hardly know how to compose myself.”
“Quite so.”
“That tendency to act first and think later felt oddly familiar, almost a little like our Lord Kaid.”
“That sounds like an insult.”
“……I meant that she was exceedingly valorous. Truly magnificent.”
Baon gave a swift thumbs-up, rapidly changing his tune. Kaid retracted his murderous gaze and looked down at me.
“Be careful from now on. What would have happened if I hadn't been there, hmm?”
He lightly flicked my forehead with no real force.
“Ouchie!”
“You came back practically drenched in tiger pheromones. Explain yourselves, Seth. Arvan.”
“……Tigeh?”
I've never seen a tiger, though?
I sniffed at my clothes. Tiger pheromones?
Seeing my confusion, Seth let out a sigh.
“I believe we warned you not to wander off.”
“Iwin didn't go fah. I only stayed where I knew.”
“She doesn't get it if you beat around the bush. You have to tell her straight up that there's a tiger nearby so watch out. Everyone else knows, but she's the only one clueless.”
No way.
At Arvan's words, an uneasy suspicion crept up my spine.
……The Seiji I was playing with all this time is a tiger?
Roar?
Then did I just make friends with a tiger?
“She really didn't know.”
So that's why he climbed trees so well and was so strong.
The pieces finally seemed to fall into place.
“Iwin was pwaying with a tigeh all dis time……?”
“Why? Scared now that you know?”
“Nuh-uh, no. Iwin isn't sca'ed at all.”
I continued matter-of-factly.
“Daddy will p'otect Iwin.”
I knew everything that happened inside the estate reached Kaid's ears. And running into Karma today had cemented that certainty.
I was safe here.
At my words, Kaid's eyes widened in mild surprise.
The hand rubbing my forehead paused for a brief moment.
“Right?”
“……That didn't mean you have permission to drag tigers around with you.”
“He seemed quite high-strung, yet you managed to befriend him. You truly have a remarkable talent.”
Having grown accustomed to the family's pheromones, I never felt threatened unless a presence crossed a certain threshold.
Kaid's pheromones in particular were so overwhelming that I likely failed to recognize Seiji's distinct scent.
Kaid spoke gravely.
“We must begin pheromone training soon. Along with teaching her the physical traits of other clans.”
“That would be wise. Young Master Seth and Young Master Arvan can now freely shift between their true forms and humanization, whereas Lady Irene is quite late.”
Late again, just me.
What am I going to do if I'm always this slow?
My shoulders drooped dejectedly. Everyone else was growing up so fast, while I felt left behind in an infantile state.
Surrounded by Black Mambas whose growth was exceptionally rapid, the gap felt even more pronounced.
Reading my distress, Kaid cupped my face with both hands and met my eyes.
“Nothing can be done about it.”
“Huh?”
“My daughter is special, so we must make allowances.”
* * *
An intriguing scene had unfolded at a banquet she was attending for the first time in a decade.
Muhela, ruler of the North, chuckled quietly as she recalled what had just transpired.
It was a rare spectacle that would be talked about for ages, never to be seen again.
“I'm glad I attended this banquet after all. I almost missed out on quite a show.”
Tossing a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear, Muhela lightly swirled the glass of ice water in her hand, making the cubes clink.
Her deep blue eyes sparkled with amusement.
The banquet hall was currently in utter turmoil.
The sound of countless minds calculating how to seize the vacuum left by the Letra family could practically be heard from where she sat.
Leisurely scanning the room, Muhela kept an eye on several key families.
Though they had not made an overt move yet, they were keenly watching how the situation unfolded.
Muhela leaned back comfortably against her chair.
“Seiji.”
“Yes.”
“I hear you decided to befriend the youngest child of the Astrophel family?”
Muhela pointed toward Irene, who was perched on Kaid's lap eagerly accepting food from him.
The way her round eyes darted about as she busily chewed made them look for all the world like a mother bird feeding its chick.
Seiji merely turned his head to look at Irene. Every time she nibbled on a bite, her soft, chubby white cheeks bounced along.
Sitting amidst the dark presence of the Astrophels, Irene looked exceptionally pale and snowy—reminiscent of a Northern snow rabbit.
“Who knew he would treasure a child so dearly.”
“Indeed.”
The edge of Seiji's lips curled into a faint smile.
Seeing Seiji, whose thoughts were usually impossible to read, display an emotion so uncharacteristically, Muhela narrowed her eyes.
“You seem quite fond of that child.”
“She's like a snow rabbit.”
“The ones you tease whenever you're bored? She does resemble them, I suppose.”
Imagining Irene nestled among the snow rabbits living at their fortress, the picture felt surprisingly natural.
Muhela's eyes gleamed with curiosity.
“What did you play with her?”
“Tag.”
“The rules must have been different from the North's, no?”
Tag in the North was a game created to teach hunting methods, so rougher play was permitted compared to other regions.
Concealing one's presence and severing the prey's windpipe in a single strike before it could even notice—that was what passed for ‘tag’ in the North.
“We agreed to play again next time. Because I was caught at the very end.”
“……What?”
Muhela looked at him in sheer astonishment, as though she had heard something impossible.
“You were?”
“Am I not allowed to be?”
It wasn't that he wasn't allowed.
It was just unbelievable that Seiji, who was fiercely competitive beyond measure, had conceded a step.
Seiji stretched lightly and lazily rested his chin on his hand.
Had he been in his true form, his tail would likely be swishing languidly.
“Mother.”
“Yes.”
“One shouldn't eat a friend, right?”
“…….”
“My mouth kept watering, and while I was trying to hold back, she caught me at the end.”
In other words, he had let himself be caught by the baby bird solely to suppress his own appetite.
Shocked by her son's confession, Muhela broke into a dry cough.
Furrowing his brow in deep contemplation, Seiji opened and closed his left hand—the very hand Irene had grabbed in the garden.
“……Seiji.”
“Yes.”
“The fault is largely mine.”
“What is?”
The fault of raising you this way.
Unable to bring herself to say it aloud, Muhela merely let out a low groan.