Ch#92
Watching that sight, Lefha thought to himself.
‘Half-breeds between humans and demons have little resistance to demonic energy, so I heard they need to live among humans in their early childhood.’
That was why he had heard that a half-breed of fairly young age had left the village and begun traveling back then.
The last news he had heard was that they were founding a nation together with some dragonkin…
‘And that was a story from 1,500 years ago.’
No one he asked now would remember that being.
‘To think the only thing I can rely on in this dead-end situation is the Demon King who hasn’t even fully grown yet.’
Five years old, and already developed to that extent.
Judging by how fast she was growing, she would probably follow a human lifespan.
A five-year-old demon or elf was no different from a newborn human infant.
The child, who had been fidgeting with something while nodding her head, leaned against Kiriel as he held her close and patted her back, soon falling into a deep sleep with a little bob of her head.
Lefha, who had been quietly watching the scene, crossed his legs and turned his head away.
‘This is awkward, though. No money, nothing at all.’
He had at least followed her all the way to the human residential area where the Demon King resided, but he couldn’t just keep trailing after a young Demon King with no foundation whatsoever.
Lost in thought, Lefha finally spoke once Bunny had fallen into a deep sleep.
{That child. Your daughter?}
At Lefha’s sudden words, Kiriel narrowed his eyes.
After a brief silence, Kiriel nodded honestly.
{Yes.}
{I see.}
He slowly lowered his gaze. Since she was the parent of the young Demon King, it should be fine to speak about related matters with her.
{Dead? The other parent. Demon. Human, demon, half-blood. Loved? The demon. Quite a lot. Or wouldn’t do it. Such thoughts.}
Kiriel froze stiff at Lefha’s words, which came out in choppy bursts.
Somehow feeling like his neck was creaking, Kiriel slowly raised his head to look at Lefha.
He was a little surprised.
Not only had he instantly seen through Bunny’s true nature, which Kiriel had never spoken of, but it sounded as if ‘half-bloods’ were not all that rare.
{…So this child really is a half-blood?}
At Kiriel’s question after a long silence, Lefha’s eyes widened slightly.
{You didn’t know?}
{…I only suspected. Bunny is just a child I brought back from the orphanage.}
{Orphanage…?}
{A facility that takes care of children without parents.}
{Ah… I see.}
Lefha nodded, then rubbed his chin once and studied Kiriel.
An ordinary human. Except for the divine blessing granting him exceptional holy power, mixed faintly with demonic energy.
{Adopted?}
Kiriel nodded lightly in response.
Lefha’s expression turned subtle.
{I heard. The war. Demons disappeared. But you. Raising a demon’s child. Reason?}
As Lefha pieced together words that came to mind and asked, Kiriel hesitated for a moment before silently turning his head away. At that gesture signaling he wouldn’t respond further, Lefha fell silent as well.
Soon, the carriage came to a stop.
{Just two warnings. I’m the only one who knows the child is a demon. Better watch your mouth….}
{I will.}
A fairly firm reply came back to his drowsily uttered words.
Kiriel, who had narrowed his eyes, spoke again.
{And if you do anything unnecessary in the mansion or harm my children….}
{Elves like children. They’re sprouts.}
Only after hearing Lefha’s response, delivered with an odd expression, did Kiriel carefully gather the sleeping Bunny into his arms and step down from the carriage.
“Welcome back, Young Lord.”
Click. Click. Click.
Levon, with his calm and expressionless face, greeted him as usual without a flicker of emotion, circling around the sleeping Bunny nonstop while pressing the shutter on his camera.
“Levon.”
“Yes. And the one who came with you behind?”
Even as he asked, Levon quickly scanned Lefha from head to toe with his eyes.
Pointed ears, black skin, snow-white hair.
A unique and unfamiliar appearance, but the ‘pointed ears’ feature was one he knew well.
He had already heard about the being discovered in the dungeon recently.
“An ancient elf.”
“As expected….”
“Do you know the ancient tongue?”
“I only learned a bit during the exam at the mansion as basic etiquette. No interest otherwise.”
Levon shrugged as he answered, and Kiriel chuckled softly before starting to walk leisurely.
“We can’t communicate because they use an elven language we don’t know. We have to use the ancient tongue. Even that’s not perfect. You take charge and teach him the common language.”
“Pardon? Do you know how much work I have?”
“Do I have to keep track of your work too?”
“You should. How am I supposed to handle the mountain of tasks piled up on me, and now you want me to take on educating this elf who showed up out of nowhere?”
Kiriel passed by Levon without a word.
Lefha naturally followed behind Kiriel, slowly taking in the mansion.
At the divine blessing and holy power cast over the entire territory, he clicked his tongue in admiration. It was quite solidly fortified.
“No matter how I think about it, it’s impossible. Isn’t there anyone else who knows the ancient tongue?”
“You figure it out.”
It was just as Kiriel indifferently replied and strode toward the children’s room.
He halted abruptly upon spotting someone emerging from the children’s room.
“Ahh, Young Looord~!!! You’re back. Oh my goodness. I was looking everywhere for Miss Bunny since she hadn’t been around at all, and there she was with you. Oh dear, she’s fallen asleep.”
Kiriel narrowed his brows at Belial, who made a fuss before covering his mouth in surprise.
“Ooh, even asleep, she’s so cute and refined. As expected, the epitome of cuteness. Anyway, where have you been, Young Lord? I just arrived for my support mission and haven’t heard a thing.”
“Do I have to report that to you too? Belial.”
Belial froze at Kiriel’s icy words, then burst into laughter with a good-natured face, quickly shaking his head.
“Of course not. Just asking. After all, I’m Miss Bunny’s bodyguard knight. The winner who triumphed in a competition of dozens to one.”
“Young Lord went to pay respects to His Majesty the Emperor today. For reference, he’s in a bad mood because His Majesty made a request he didn’t much care for.”
Levon explained on Kiriel’s behalf, his words dripping with personal bias.
Kiriel looked at Levon in disbelief, but Levon didn’t even glance his way.
“A request he didn’t care for?”
Belial blinked slowly with wide eyes before looking at the man standing behind Kiriel.
Lefha’s eyes widened, and Belial’s eyes widened slightly too.
“Ah…?”
“You know how Miss Bunny deciphered the ancient elf language coming from the stone back then.”
“Yes, I was ordered to keep my mouth shut and ran around everywhere because of it.”
Belial nodded readily and replied. Smiling lightly, he slowly licked his lower lip.
“Based on that deciphering, we did a re-exploration and rescued this elf. The problem now is that he doesn’t communicate in any language but ancient elven, so Young Lord told me—buried under a mountain of work—to teach him.”
“Ahh….”
Belial let out a low exclamation and nodded.
“If it’s just teaching him letters, shall I help? Advisor Levon.”
As Belial smiled brightly and asked, Kiriel, who had been heading toward the children’s room, stopped short.
“You know the ancient tongue?”
“Yes~! Embarrassing as it is, one of my hobbies is archaeology, so I self-studied languages in that field. Not deeply proficient, of course.”
“Ooh, impressive. Then, may I ask you to handle it?”
“Of course. I’ll take him around and teach him everything.”
Even at Levon’s flat exclamation, which sounded like he was reading a rigid book, Belial smiled warmly and saluted before beaming at Lefha, who stood behind observing the situation.
Lefha’s brows furrowed tighter as their eyes met.
“One thing.”
It was just as Belial moved to step toward Lefha, who hadn’t budged.
“Why did you go into the children’s room?”
Kiriel asked in a chilling voice.
