Ch#84
Around that time, the empire and the kingdoms had used that place as a base, but after the Demon King’s Castle fell, the borders had completely relaxed and been neglected.
“Othelloide.”
“Yes?”
“Start the investigation from Othelloide again. Through every single passage that leads into the empire from Othelloide.”
At Kiriel’s words, Levon abruptly halted his movements.
In truth, there was no one who didn’t know about Othelloide.
The boundary between good and evil.
The dividing line between castle and demon.
There were even rumors that long ago, it had been a city where demons and humans lived in harmony.
“…No way.”
“Don’t question it. Just investigate as ordered and bring back whatever you find. It would have been a newborn baby. High chance it couldn’t walk properly yet, and probably high chance it was with a woman.”
There was a good possibility that the woman named ‘Ruri’ whom Bunny often mentioned had stayed with her the whole time.
“…Understood for now.”
“Conduct it as secretly as possible.”
“Yes.”
At Kiriel’s words, Levon silently bowed his head.
His job was to follow Kiriel’s orders, not to harbor doubts.
Click.
As Levon closed the door and left, Kiriel let out a short sigh.
He stared blankly at the Glass Marble for a moment, then picked it up and glanced at the clock nearby before rising from his seat. It was about time for his meeting with the duke.
‘If it weren’t for that mine Bunny mentioned, I wouldn’t want to go at all.’
But the name ‘purification stone’ did nag at him a bit.
It was a term he’d never heard of before in his life.
Lost in thought, Kiriel grabbed his clothes and was about to naturally exit the study when he paused.
‘…I’ve become quite diligent myself.’
Since when had he started keeping promises, and since when had he been coming to the study every single day like this.
He thought it was utterly ridiculous as he lightly swept back his hair.
But ever since the child came into his life, he’d naturally become more diligent, and all sorts of tasks had piled up.
“Bunny… still useful and not a bother? If Bunny cute with Daddy, Bunny no go away.”
Oddly enough, Bunny had been remarkably mature for her age from the very first time they met.
The kind of child who seemed like she’d grown up only in love, without facing any hardships or adversity—soft and innocent, pure, yet strangely adult-like.
Come to think of it, every time the child came to see Kiriel, she always brought information like ‘A few days from now, this will happen here’ or ‘This thing from that merchant guild is going to be a huge hit.’
And if there was no info that day, she’d bring an old cloth pouch stuffed full of fairy tales.
‘She never came empty-handed.’
Bunny must have thought of that as her ‘usefulness.’
That she had to be useful, not a bother, and praiseworthy to avoid being abandoned.
“Bunny smart! And great egg too! And king big demon… magic too! So if Bunny here, king huge profit! Do everything alone, not annoying at all, and give allowance too!”
He’d thought her words at their first meeting made her a strange, odd child, but perhaps… she believed that’s what it took for someone to need her.
‘Is that why she wants to grow up so badly too?’
Throb.
At the sudden sharp pang, he pressed his hand to his chest.
Strangely, whenever he thought of the child, there was always this stinging sensation somewhere in his chest.
Kiriel finally pushed open the door to the conference room where he’d arrived and stepped inside.
“…I told you to leave that child alone!”
Crunch, bang!
Of course, it wasn’t something to hide that just a few minutes after Kiriel entered the conference room, the door was half-smashed and embedded into the marble wall.
* * *
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Roll, roll.
In the silence, the only sound was the constant rolling of eyeballs.
Bunny sneaked a glance at Allen.
Allen shook his head and sneaked a glance at Calvad.
Calvad shook his head in the same way.
‘Daddy prickly. Stingy-stingy.’
Bunny, feeling the very stingy-stingy aura emanating from Kiriel, cautiously spoke up.
“Daddy, mad?”
“Hm?”
Only then, hearing Bunny’s voice, did Kiriel slowly lift his stiffened head, still gripping his fork and knife, and look at the child.
Seeing the three children’s gazes fixed on him, Kiriel finally clicked his tongue inwardly, set down his utensils, and rubbed his furrowed brow.
“No, I just had something on my mind.”
“Liar.”
At Kiriel’s evasive words, Bunny immediately stamped a lie detector seal without hesitation.
Kiriel froze for a moment.
“Daddy stingy-stingy prickly-prickly.”
“…What’s stingy-stingy prickly-prickly?”
“Umm… Daddy keep stingy-stingy prickly-prickly, so zappy-zappy!”
Kiriel, unable to understand a single word of Bunny’s speech, nodded vaguely as if he’d heard, letting it go in one ear and out the other. At least it was clear she was saying he didn’t look in a good mood.
Suppressing his rising frustration and the dizzy haze in his mind, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Bunny.”
“Yeees.”
“Could Daddy ask you for one favor?”
Favor?
Bunny’s eyes sparkled at Kiriel’s words.
“A trial?!”
“Trial……?”
What random nonsense was this now?
Kiriel gazed at the wriggling Bunny, unable to hide his puzzled expression.
Because Bunny had once heard from a fairy tale book that Luriel had read to her. The stories where trials for the protagonist always started with a ‘favor’!
Usually, it was the protagonist’s king-big daddy, or the parents of the protagonist’s friend, or someone who hated the protagonist, who would give them some kind of ‘favor,’ and then the trial would begin.
“Save my son!!! You’re the only one with super king-awesome magic who can save my son!!! Sorry for ignoring you all this time!!!”
“King-king big Demon King-nim!!! Sorry for calling you a bastard and ignoring you. You are the true Demon King. Please, please save our Demon King Empire!!!”
“The only one who can save the world is you. I admit I’m a king-small emperor compared to you. So why don’t we join forces and overcome the world’s destruction crisis together. King-big great Demon King.”
Was Bunny finally getting the trial to save the world?!
Once she completed that trial, everyone would acknowledge the protagonist and see them differently.
And they’d all pledge loyalty to the protagonist too.
“Sorry for ignoring you all this time. You are one of our family too!!!”
“We will serve you as our true master. King-king big Demon King-nim.”
“Won’t you live with me, making this world peaceful? My king-big great Demon King.”
As her mind spun with all sorts of fantasies, Bunny’s body trembled with eager anticipation.
Bunny nodded with a bright smile.
‘Yudia Family number one Bunny, now kablooey! Show cool side and rule the world.’
Bunny overcoming the trial would make her even more grown-up.
“Do it?”
As Bunny asked full of enthusiasm, Kiriel looked at her with a slightly stiffened expression and opened his mouth.
“Do you remember telling me what the voice from the stone said a while ago? Bunny.”
“Stone?”
Bunny tilted her head, then shouted “Ah!” and nodded her head up and down vigorously.
Kiriel let out a short sigh as he watched her head shake wildly, then grabbed it with a flick.
“Yee! Save me~!”
“Yeah, that one. Could I ask you to do it one more time? I went to the place you mentioned and found elves there. But Daddy couldn’t understand what they were saying.”
“No kablooey?”
“Kablooey?”
“Bunny, no save empire?”
Bunny, who had expected some enormous trial, asked with a slightly disappointed face.
‘She wants to save the empire?’
Well, a kid who says her dream is to be the great Demon King might just dream of world conquest.
But should he give her high marks for wanting to save the empire instead of conquering the world?
“……In a broad sense, it’s a way to save the empire too. If the elves turn into magical beasts, the world will be in danger.”
Of course, before that could happen, all the manpower of the Yudia Ducal Family would be deployed to purify and demolish the entire area—but there was no need to mention that part.
