Translator: Nox

Chapter 26

“I should assign her a personal maid and knight just for my daughter.”

“…Gasp. Like a young lady of the Young Master?”

“……?”

Sparkle!

At Bunny’s words, her eyes sparkling, Kiriel nodded awkwardly with a puzzled look on his face.

“Well… yeah.”

“Wah… Bunny Young Master’s young lady……?”

A ducal family young lady was right.

Since he had decided to adopt her, after all. There were still many procedures left.

Kiriel slowly closed his eyes and then opened them as he thought.

“For now… should we sleep a bit more? There’s a meeting in the afternoon.”

“Meeting?”

“It’s where we gather and do annoying stuff. Apparently, they found something strange in a dungeon or whatever…… Sigh.”

Kiriel Yudia gently dried Bunny’s hair and laid her down on the bed before lying down beside her.

Bunny’s eyes went wide.

“Bunny sleeps on the floor though…….”

“Don’t make me out to be trash.”

“Trash……?”

Bunny tilted her head.

Why would giving up her spot like a grown-up and sleeping on the floor make him trash?

When he stretched out his arm to make a pillow for her head, Bunny’s eyes went beyond round to perfectly round.

“Pat pat……?”

“Ah… yeah.”

Kiriel hesitated for a moment before awkwardly reaching out to pat pat Bunny’s back.

Bunny’s eyes widened hugely, then began to quiver as they filled with joy.

“Good night, baby. Sweet dreams.”

“Luri too!!”

“Eek! Of course our baby will have super happy dreams with you here!”

“If Bunny hugs, Luri happy?”

“Yes! Baby is an all-purpose cheat key, so even when this Luriel is struggling, just holding baby and sleeping chases away nightmares and brings only the happiest dreams!”

“All-purpose cheat key?”

Remembering something after a long time, Bunny squeezed her eyes shut and wriggled slyly into Kiriel’s arms, grinning.

“As expected, Bunny’s an all-purpose chicken.”

“……?”

Kiriel looked down at Bunny, who was saying something incomprehensible again, with a puzzled expression.

Taking care of a child really wasn’t easy, he thought as he slowly closed his eyes.

Unlike those times when his insomnia made it hard to fall back asleep once he woke up.

Kiriel felt his eyelids growing heavier thanks to the child wriggling into his arms.

‘…Was that demon energy I sensed just a mistake?’

He didn’t feel it now.

Demons were supposed to have very cold, chilly skin to begin with, which was definitely different from this child who was slightly warm and toasty.

Kiriel’s breathing soon evened out as he thought.

* * *

“…Why’d you bring a kid to the meeting?”

“Because she likes me so much she doesn’t want to be apart even for a second, so what can I do but bring her along.”

He answered and slowly rolled his eyes.

‘She did look a bit like she was reading a book in a weird way.’

But those were Bunny’s actual words.

“Bunny, Young Master is so nice, Bunny goes everywhere Young Master goes. Because Bunny doesn’t want to be apart. Without Young Master, Bunny super sad.”

“…….”

Because Luriel had said in her notebook that to properly tame a guardian, you had to tell them every day that you like them, follow them everywhere, and help them.

“Hah, do you think my eyes are knotholes? How dare you wag that three-inch tongue of yours? Want it cut off? Since when have you ever taken care of kids…….”

Bunny’s mouth dropped open at Rudbride’s fierce words.

Rudbride, who had locked eyes directly with the shocked Bunny, realized his mistake and shut his mouth.

But Bunny didn’t miss it.

“…Grandpa, bad words.”

“No, that’s not…….”

“Yeah. Don’t bother with an old man who says such nasty things, daughter.”

“Kiriel!”

Bunny’s body trembled.

With her round eyes wide in tension, she clutched Kiriel’s clothes and shrank her neck.

‘Is he mad?’

Humans yell when they’re mad. They say they don’t want to see you, to get lost, or to get out right now.

Luriel and Bunny had been through it a lot.

‘Bunny get kicked out again……?’

She had to apologize quick……

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Bunny’s face stiffened slightly at the sound of her rapidly beating heart.

“Um……!”

The moment Bunny opened her mouth to apologize quickly.

Kiriel strode into the meeting room as if the noise didn’t bother him at all, plopped down indifferently in his assigned seat, and sat Bunny on his lap.

“The kid’s eardrums are gonna burst.”

At Kiriel’s words, his brows furrowed, Rudbride looked at Bunny’s expression—which had gone from stiff to terrified—and quickly softened his face.

“Ahem. That wasn’t meant for you, Bunny. Anyway… you’re here now, so no helping it, but you can’t be noisy, okay?”

“Yeees…….”

Bunny rolled her eyes and nodded at Rudbride’s gentle voice.

“Ugh, what’re you doing……? Doesn’t suit you.”

A muscular man in gleaming silver armor with dark skin entered and shot Rudbride a disgusted look.

Then he glanced at Kiriel and Bunny before striding toward Bunny.

“Oh, the quail egg kid who was flopping around greeting me before.”

“Not quail egg, holy dragon egg.”

“Holy dragon? What’s that. Anyway, if the baby brother’s adopting you, that makes me your uncle.”

“Uncle?”

“Yeah, call me Uncle from now on.”

The man with silver hair and blue eyes chuckled heartily as he ruffled Bunny’s hair.

His large hand roughly stroked Bunny’s hair and then pulled away.

“Anyway, Father, stop fighting with the baby brother already. Let’s report quick, conclude, and split. No one but you calls the Holy Knight Commander and the Saintess out for something this boring.”

Direct bloodline of the Yudia Ducal Family.

With a belligerent personality that was hard to believe came from a family of clerics, hearty and straightforward, with a cruel streak… Klein Yudia, the eldest son of the current Yudia Ducal Family.

He was the Captain of the 1st Holy Knight Order and a man who made subjugating monsters his hobby.

He sat in the seat to Rudbride’s right, crossed his arms, and let out a deep sigh.

“Father must’ve been really frustrated to call us. Brother’s the one who’s mad about fighting.”

A beautiful woman in pure white clothes, with long silver hair swaying and blue eyes, walked in with clicking heels and sat at the large round table. It was the seat to Rudbride’s left.

Salame Yudia.

The empire’s one and only Saintess, said to possess the purest and most pristine holy power, a woman who loved money and fame so much it was more like obsession.

Once they had filled their seats, people poured in from outside and packed the long table.

‘…All in pure white clothes!’

Bunny… if found out, turn to powder.

Bunny whipped her head left and right before pressing her body even closer to Kiriel in high tension.

Kiriel glanced at the child and chuckled softly.

He’d only decided to keep her close because of the demon energy bothering him… but surprisingly, the kid was clingy.

“So, they found an item leaking strange sounds from the subjugated dungeon?”

“Yeah. But we can’t understand a word of it, and it might be cursed, so we’re taking custody here for now.”

“So what is it? That item leaking strange sounds.”

At Salame Yudia’s words, one of the retainers stood, placed something in the center of the table, and unfurled it—a fist-sized crystal-like object wrapped in a cloth covered in golden glowing letters.

A very faint sound was leaking from the object that looked like a fist-sized crystal.

“έτυμοςδήμοςάνατομήπάθοςμίσοςκύριοςάμαρτία”

It really was incomprehensible words.

The moment they furrowed their brows at the sound that seemed to crawl up from the abyss.

<Sa, sa, sa…ve… me…….>

Bunny’s ears perked up.