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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Gifts and Goodbyes
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* * *
The next day.
Today was the day before I was due to enter the Training Center.
‘Alright, this is it! The meeting with the final boss, the Emperor! I can’t afford any mistakes at the Training Center, or it’ll be a disaster. I have to stay sharp!’
I steeled my resolve and started packing my bags, stuffing them full.
Jeti, who was helping me, suddenly pulled something out from her pocket.
Princess Lala stationery?
Jeti whispered in my ear.
“This is a gift from our boss. He asked me to give it to you, milady. He said it’ll be quite useful at the Training Center.”
“Ooh.”
I slipped Rico’s letter into the front pocket of my teddy bear backpack.
“Sob. How will we live without our young lady? I can’t do it, I can’t!”
“Jun, are you really crying? I-I’m not going off to die…”
Was this how a mother felt sending her child off to the army?
Seeing Jun sobbing made me feel bad, too. When I hugged her and patted her back, she only cried harder.
“Wow, how noisy.”
A gruff voice spoke up.
It was Oscar, slouched crookedly in a chair.
“What are you doing during study time?”
“Sniffle. I apologize, Master of the Magic Tower. We’ll take our leave now.”
“Have a good, sniff, have a good day.”
Jeti and Jun left the room in tears.
I glared at Oscar, annoyed.
“Why’d you chase them away! I finished all of today’s problems!”
Oscar shot up from his seat and walked over to where I was packing my bag.
He crossed his arms arrogantly and looked down at me.
“What’s the volume of a rectangular prism with a width, length, and height of 3, 4, and 8?”
“96.”
“What’s the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with sides of 2 and 4?”
“2 root 5.”
“What’s the area of a circle with a radius of 12?”
“144 pi.”
Only then did Oscar nod, looking pleased.
“At this rate, you really might graduate from the Training Center in just a month.”
“Picking a fight for no reason…”
I grumbled and went back to packing my bag.
“Here, a present.”
“Huh?”
Oscar abruptly held something out.
It was a bracelet.
A pearl chain with a large, heart-shaped crystal in the center.
“I designed it myself.”
Oscar said proudly.
I looked at it dangling before my eyes and burst out laughing.
“It’s so childish!”
“Are you asking for it?”
*Thump.* Oscar flicked me on the crown of my head.
“Ow, why’d you hit me!”
“Give me your hand.”
Oscar fastened the bracelet on my wrist.
Hmm, now that it was on, it didn’t look as bad as I thought…
“It’s a magic tool.”
“Really? What kind of magic tool is it?”
“You’ll find out when you get to the Training Center. Wear it and take good care of it. That’s all for today’s lesson.”
Oscar turned and waved his hand dismissively.
He let me off 40 minutes early. Maybe Oscar was a surprisingly nice person.
“Thank you, teacher! Goodbye!”
I slung my teddy bear backpack on securely and scurried past Oscar, but—
“……?”
—*thwump*, my backpack strap was grabbed, lifting me up.
“Whazzat?”
“Where do you think you’re scurrying off to like you’ve been waiting for this?”
“To play with my friend.”
“Which friend.”
“Chessier.”
“……”
Oscar stared at me with a strange expression, then plopped back down in his chair.
“I take back what I just said. Sit down. We’re studying more.”
“H-How can you do that?”
“Right here~”
“A man shouldn’t go back on his word!”
“My rules~”
There was no getting through to him. It felt like talking to an annoying little brother in elementary school.
I had no choice but to huff and puff as I put my bag down and sat back at the desk.
“Hey.”
“What.”
I scowled, glaring at Oscar.
“Do you like him?”
“Who? Chessier?”
“Yeah.”
“…? Of course I do. He’s my best friend.”
“Not as a friend.”
Oscar drew a heart on a blank piece of paper.
…Seriously, what was he talking about?
“Why are you curious about that?”
“Aren’t you eleven now? You’re so young. And you still like him?”
“……?”
I couldn’t for the life of me understand the point of his question.
“Chessier is four years older than me, you know?”
“……”
Oscar stared at me intently.
Not backing down, I stared right back.
In the end, Oscar was the first to surrender. He leaned back in his chair and muttered.
“This is ridiculous.”
“What’s your problem?”
“No problem.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Open your book. Let’s study.”
Oscar opened his book. I clenched my trembling fists.
“Ooh, so scary. What, are you going to hit me with those cotton-puff fists?”
Oscar snickered.
He was so annoying, I could die…
* * *
The next day.
The day of Lilis’s admission to the Imperial Ability User Training Center.
The moment a ray of sunlight streamed through the window, Enoch Rubinstein shot up in bed.
“Hah.”
Dark circles hung under his eyes from a sleepless night spent tossing and turning, worried about his daughter.
He glanced beside him. His daughter was still in dreamland.
Her plump, doughy cheeks were squished against the pillow.
Enoch smiled quietly at her cute face, then got up to get ready.
He washed up, changed his clothes…
It was the start of a day like any other, yet his heart felt heavy.
“Princess, it’s time to wake up.”
His voice was as small as an ant’s.
The truth was, he didn’t want to wake her. No, to be precise, he didn’t want to send his daughter away.
“Ugh.”
After rubbing his face a couple of times, Enoch carefully lay down next to Lilis.
His daughter, sleeping with soft, quiet breaths, still smelled like a baby.
‘How can I send this little one away…’
Enoch bit his lip and gently placed his index finger in Lilis’s small palm.
Her short, chubby baby fingers reflexively squeezed her father’s finger in her sleep.
“Hehe.”
*Mwah.* He kissed her cheek, and Lilis’s closed eyelids fluttered.
Seeing his daughter slowly open her drowsy eyes, Enoch quickly grabbed Tosuni, her favorite stuffed animal.
Then, clearing his throat, he spoke as if telling a story.
“Lilis, the sun is saying hello! Tosuni is already awake, but Lilis is still in dreamland?”
“…Ehehe.”
*Rub, rub.* Lilis rubbed her eyes, sat up, and hugged Tosuni.
Enoch grinned.
“Sleep well, Princess?”
“Yup!”
Clutching the doll, Lilis, with her messy hair, smiled and snuggled into Enoch’s arms.
“Up we go.”
His daughter was always cute, but she was at her cutest right after waking up in the morning.
Even though she’d become uncharacteristically mature for her age at some point.
“I had a dweam about a ghost…”
“Gasp. A ghost?”
Was it because she was still drowsy in the morning?
She was acting just her age.
“What did the ghost do? Did it try to eat Lilis?”
“Nuh-uh…”
“So? Did you run away?”
Enoch asked, setting Lilis on his lap and picking up a comb.
Still rubbing her heavy eyes, Lilis nodded.
“But it caught me… But then Daddy came and got it with a fire poker…”
“Ahaha! Did he?”
Enoch chuckled as he combed Lilis’s hair.
“Today, a bunny…”
“You want bunny hair?”
“Uh-huh. A sad bunny…”
“A sad bunny! You got it.”
A sad bunny with droopy ears.
Pigtails tied low.
After skillfully finishing her hair, Enoch turned his daughter around to face him.
“Oh, so pretty. My daughter is an angel, an angel.”
“I’m going today!”
Lilis beamed, thrusting both hands into the air.
“……”
Enoch’s smile froze on his face.
What was she so happy about when she had to be away from her dad?
His daughter, who had been excitedly packing her bags since yesterday, was even more thrilled now that the day had come.
“Princess, are you really going to be okay without Daddy? Can you wash up, eat, and sleep all by yourself?”
“Yup!”
“……”
“Oh, no. It’s not that, I’ll just be brave and come back.”
“Haaaaah.”
Only after her father let out a sigh that could shake the earth did his daughter start to cautiously read his expression.
‘I’m really going crazy.’
His daughter was being so brave, and here he was, the father…
From the time he first held her as a newborn, Enoch had never been separated from Lilis for long.
At least a month. It was unlikely, but if her grades were poor, she might be at the Training Center even longer.
And visits weren’t allowed.
Being apart from Lilis for over a month… would he really be okay?
“Daddyyy.”
“Hmm?”
Lilis snuggled into the arms of a gloomy-looking Enoch.
“Guess who the sweetest pop in the world is~?”
“So suddenly? My princess, are you talking about soda pop?”
“No, no, guess! Who’s the sweetest pop!”
“The sweetest pop…”
He loved chocolate and macarons the most, but soda…
“A lollipop? My princess likes lollipops.”
“Bzzzt! Wrong!”
“No? Then who is it?”
Lilis grinned, wrapped her arms around Enoch’s neck, and said.
“My Pops~!♥”
“…Ah.”
Really, she had to go and do it.
“Ehehehe! I’ll be back soon. Just wait a little while, Daddy.”
She was making him cry.
This little angel.
“Okay, my princess…”
Covering his stinging eyes with one hand, a choked-up Enoch hugged his daughter tightly.
“Daddy will be waiting for you…”
