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Chapter 02 ….
“…Father? My father came?”
The innkeeper cast Kanis a sorrowful look, then straightened up.
“What kind of father are you talking about?”
While Kanis kept muttering to himself, the innkeeper silently stepped aside.
There was someone else standing outside the door.
“Oh.”
Kanis’s mouth fell open.
The man who stepped forward past the innkeeper was someone Kanis knew as well.
Crown Prince Michael Cloven.
Black hair, violet eyes. Draped in a dark ash-colored cloak over a black uniform, he was absurdly tall, like someone stretched out by force, giving him the impression of a grim reaper.
The Empire’s Crown Prince, with his pale face and unusually red lips, bent down on one knee directly before Kanis.
Every movement was graceful and flawlessly precise.
In Kanis’s opinion, he was a bastard whose thoughts were completely impossible to read.
Those reddish-purple eyes carefully examined Kanis from head to toe.
“Mysterious silver hair, blue eyes… a little child.”
How the hell did this bastard find me here?
As expected, people from the Imperial family were not meant to be associated with. They were even more persistent than mages.
“Could this perhaps not be the daughter you were looking for?”
Toward the utterly bewildered innkeeper, a young woman who appeared to be Michael’s aide held up a plaque bearing the Imperial seal.
“This is an important matter for the Imperial family. Would you mind stepping aside for a moment?”
“So you weren’t looking for the child’s mother? You’re not planning to do something to this child, are you…?”
“We swear on the Imperial name that no such thing will happen, so please rest assured.”
After hesitating, the innkeeper reluctantly stepped away.
This son of a bitch… so when I thought maybe, just maybe—he really was searching for me.
What do I do? Did he figure it out?
An awkward silence stretched between the three of them.
“Do you think this child is connected to the Tower Master? First, we should make sure…”
“He resembles him.”
“I don’t know about resembles… this is more like he looks exactly the same.”
“Indeed. Astonishingly identical to the Tower Master in childhood.”
“…Your Highness, how exactly do you know what the Tower Master looked like as a child?”
“Do you truly wish to hear how I know?”
“No, never mind. In any case… this child said he was waiting for his mother, correct?”
“Yes.”
“…Then could it be…”
Michael let out a sigh, propped his chin on one hand, and stared intently at Kanis.
Kanis desperately resisted the urge to step backward.
Otherwise, his instincts might make him blast the man with magic on the spot.
Of all people, for my escape to end in humiliation like this after being caught by him…
“…The Tower Master’s hidden daughter.”
“That does seem likely, doesn’t it?”
Huh?
Kanis nearly asked them to repeat themselves because surely he had misheard.
Daughter?
Hidden daughter?
I hid a daughter?
And that daughter is…
“How old would you say this child looks?”
“Hmm, five? Maybe six?”
…Me, right now?
What kind of—what even—
“Five years ago was certainly when the Tower Master secluded himself and stopped appearing publicly. The timing matches.”
“Of course, the Tower Master was always shut up inside the Magic Tower anyway… but surely not. Was it to hide a child?”
“If the invincible Tower Master had gained a weakness, it wouldn’t be strange for him to want to hide it.”
“Indeed… Then the reason he disappeared this time as well…?”
Michael murmured in an unusually gloomy voice.
“…Perhaps, belatedly, he wanted to show his child the world.”
“To think the Tower Master had such heartbreaking circumstances. I can hardly believe it.”
No! That’s not it!
Stop deciding that on your own, you lunatics!
While Kanis was rendered speechless by their absurd deductions, the canyon of their misunderstanding deepened beyond repair.
I need to explain something right now. Quickly.
But what the hell am I supposed to say?
I look exactly like the Tower Master, and I did run my mouth pretending I came to town with my mother, but actually there is no mother waiting for me, and I’m just a perfectly ordinary little child wandering dangerous lands around the Magic Tower alone?
Rejected.
Hey, you crazy bastards! Say something that makes sense! I am the Tower Master, Kanis Riventi himself!
How the hell would I give birth to myself?!
Even if I look this tiny right now!
And even if my magic is practically disabled!
And even if I was in the middle of running away!
Rejected!
Absolutely rejected!
In the end, Kanis could only open and close his mouth like a goldfish, failing to actually say any of it aloud.
“Child, is your mother truly Kanis Riventi?”
“……”
“Where did your mother go? Can you explain?”
As Kanis’s prolonged silence made suspicion begin to surface on the aide’s face—
“Could it be… if you’re not the Tower Master’s child—”
“I-I am! I’m the Tower Master’s daughter! A-and… a hidden daughter at that!”
Damn it all!
Kanis wanted to cry.
The powerless “Kanis Riventi” being escorted to the Imperial Palace was a scenario that absolutely had to be avoided.
And imagining himself, in front of that blockhead Michael no less, being asked in this tiny, humiliating form, “Could it be… are you actually the Tower Master himself?” was simply unbearable.
T-that alone! Never!
Ha…
L-life really is… this bitter…?
Michael, who had not taken his eyes off Kanis for a long while as Kanis spiraled into bleak despair, finally spoke.
“Is that so? Then prove that you are the Tower Master’s daughter.”
“……”
…What, you bastard?
Even the aide’s eyes widened as she looked down at Michael like he was insane.
Michael remained kneeling before Kanis, now smiling brightly.
You’re the one who started spouting nonsense that I’m my own daughter, and now I’m the one who has to prove it?
There was no helping it. If he said do it, then do it.
Kanis was quick to understand his circumstances.
“The Tower Master has silver hair and blue eyes.”
“That much is common knowledge to every Imperial citizen older than an infant.”
“The Tower Master lives with a disciple. His name is Yenen. Took him in five years ago… a disciple. Male. Blond hair, golden eyes.”
“That information still doesn’t directly prove you’re his daughter.”
Hah?
Kanis felt a vein bulging in his forehead.
“…I know why the Tower Master always complied with the Imperial family’s excessive demands.”
“Excuse me? Was there such a reason? I just thought the Tower Master was a pushover—”
“Jehel. Could you step away for a moment?”
Aide Jehel shrugged and backed off.
Did that bastard just call me a pushover?
When Kanis glared at her, the aide simply waved cheerfully from afar as though he were adorable.
Kanis, offended, sharply turned his head away.
“Now then, speak. What is the reason?”
“Frankly, I’m not even certain you know the correct answer.”
“…I know. So speak.”
Kanis clicked his tongue. This damned Imperial family really had no secrets. If even a brat who had only been Crown Prince for two years knew this story…
“Fine. It’s hardly a secret. Kanis Riventi and the First Emperor were—”
Michael and Kanis spoke at the exact same time.
“Master and disciple.”
“Lovers.”
Michael and Kanis stared at each other, both frowning. Then again, simultaneously—
“What did you say? Lovers?”
“You’re saying they were merely master and disciple?”
The two fell silent. Then Michael’s face turned icy cold.
“You’re lying.”
Despite demanding proof, Michael now seemed more interested in the truth of this particular story.
“They really were master and disciple. What nonsense are you even talking about? Go ask the Emperor yourself.”
Kanis grumbled irritably.
“That alone does not explain it. Simply being master and disciple is not enough reason to—”
“To spend over three hundred years pretending to be a dog on a leash?”
“……”
“It is enough. More than enough.”
“Why?”
“Because Kanis Riventi’s master died in his disciple’s place.”
“……”
Not a story he particularly liked.
Only after speaking the words aloud did Kanis realize it had been nearly three hundred years since he himself had last said it.
It felt strange, like becoming a third party to his own life. Oddly relieving, too.
Kanis let out a faint laugh.
“Anyway, that proves it now, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
Michael gestured for his aide to return.
“Good. Then let us escort our hostage to the Imperial Palace.”
“What?!”
Kanis’s eyes widened.
“You weren’t going to let me go?!”
“When did anyone ever say that? If memory serves, no one did.”
“……”
Why was it that even when saying ordinary words, Michael somehow made them ten times more irritating?
Kanis imagined jabbing both of Michael’s eyes with his fingers.
Meanwhile, the aide who had quietly approached offered another opinion.
“Wouldn’t it be better to stake out the inn instead?”
“If he has not appeared yet, then the likelihood is high he will not appear at all. But if we keep hold of his child… we will meet him somehow.”
Kanis crossed his arms, standing crookedly, and glared at Michael.
