Chapter 63 - Entanglement (3)

The moment I said "fuck off," Elisia paused for a moment and looked at me.

Then she calmly spoke, "...There's no need to decide right away, so please think about it more."

Has she become more composed? Or is it because the black magic accumulated in Elisia has disappeared?

I thought it was unexpected to see Elisia react calmly contrary to expectations, then got up from my seat and said, "Then I'll think about it."

"Yes. That's good. You never know what will happen in life. However, I want you to know that the offer I made to you, Dasoon, won't last long."

Seeing her subtly pressuring me, I snorted.

I wanted to tell Elisia, "Do you think such a future will come?" but fearing that unnecessary words might ruin Damian's plan, I kept my mouth shut and was about to leave the office when Elisia called out to me and said, "The nights in the North are too cold. How about staying for one night?"

Hearing those words and looking outside, it was clear that heavy snow was falling, making it impossible to leave right away.

Having no choice, I decided to stay for just one night and nodded.

Elisia smiled and said she would guide me to the lodgings.

It feels like there's some kind of scheme.

Deciding to wait and see, I followed Elisia.

***

As Daisy and Siren had said earlier, when night fell, Daisy started to glow brightly just like before.

Siren stared at Daisy blankly for a while, then said to her in a playful voice, "Pigsy firefly."

"Myeoak!"

Who would have thought they'd be fighting right before evolution.

I sighed and poked both their cheeks, saying, "Both of you, calm down."

"Okay."

"Myeong."

The fortunate thing is that they listen to me even while fighting.

Looking at the room that had suddenly become quiet, I put Daisy on my palm and said, "If you need anything, just tell me anytime. Okay?"

"Myeong."

"Good girl, good."

I was smiling while patting Daisy's head when Siren looked at this blankly, pouted, then subtly approached my side and talked about what she had done so far.

"I worked hard on the artificial sun research."

"Is that so?"

"And my magic skills have improved a lot too."

"I-is that so?"

Flustered by the sudden boasting of achievements, I looked at Siren.

Siren looked at me with eyes that seemed to want something and opened her mouth, "But why don't you pat my head? You pat Pigsy’s."

At those words, I could only smile awkwardly.

Patting her head itself wasn't a burdensome act, but because Siren was strangely clinging to me and staring at me intently, it created a somewhat ambiguous atmosphere for head patting.

How should I put it…? It feels more burdensome because she set it up?

So while I was smiling awkwardly and wondering what to do, Siren clung to me more, thrust her head up, and looked at me fixedly, saying, "...Do you dislike patting me, Damian?"

"No, that's not it."

"Then why don't you pat me?"

Unlike in the past, perhaps because she had been eating well, she had gained a bit of fat, and a unique softness and squishiness could be felt throughout her body.

Seeing Siren clinging more deeply, I was wondering what to do and helplessly tried to ask for help from Loraine, who was smiling strangely nearby, but…

"Don't you think you should pat her a bit by now?"

Far from helping, she poured oil on the fire and started smiling.

Looking at Loraine like that, I thought she wasn't helpful at all and calmly opened my mouth, "Alright. I'll pat you, so move away a bit."

"Why?"

"Well, you know."

I looked at Siren, who was bringing her face close to mine, and opened and closed my mouth.

Then I pushed Siren's forehead with my palm and said, "Anyway, that's how it is."

Siren seemed upset because I strongly refused, pouting and covering her forehead with her hand.

Seeing Siren like that, I sighed and patted her head.

I guess I have to do it because she'll really get upset if I don't.

Thinking I should do it, I was patting her head when the glowing Daisy started bouncing on the bed, appealing for me to do it to her too.

Having no choice, I patted Daisy's head, and the two shook their heads from side to side as if they had planned it, looking excited.

"Thank you."

"Myeong."

Watching this, Loraine smiled slightly and said to me, "Flowers in both hands."

"More like burdens in both hands."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

I looked at Loraine, who was speaking nonchalantly, pondered for a moment, then felt mischievous and raised the corner of my mouth, saying to Loraine,

"Loraine, should I pat you too?"

"What?"

"It seems a bit unfair to pat the others but not you."

I just said it jokingly, but Loraine looked at me, very flustered, blinked her eyes quickly, and waved her hand at me.

"I-it's okay. You know, you don't have hands now because you're patting Daisy and Siren, and I don't particularly have hair that's good for patting anyway."

To be honest, I was just joking lightly, but I didn't expect her to be so flustered.

Feeling somewhat reluctant, thinking I shouldn't have joked, Loraine tucked her side hair behind her ear, hesitated for a moment, then took a step towards me and said in a shy voice, "B-but if you want to pat, you can."

"Uh, okay."

It became quite awkward to say it was a joke now.

I patted Loraine's hair that was stretched out in front of me.

She said she didn't particularly have hair good for patting, but it seemed she took good care of it usually, as I felt the smooth and soft texture of her hair.

Just then, Siren looked at me with a blank expression and said, "You pat Loraine easily, but why didn't you do that to me?"

A voice closer to whining than jealousy.

Not knowing how to answer Siren, I poked her cheek and said sorry, when Loraine, who had come to her senses belatedly, shook her head and said to me, "I'll, I'll go out for some fresh air for a moment. I'll be nearby, so you don't need to worry."

Perhaps because her face had turned bright red, at a glance it felt like she was running away from here.

Thinking it would be better to let Loraine calm down rather than holding her back, I nodded and waved my hand.

It's somewhat chaotic.

Regretting that I shouldn't have joked if I had known it would turn out like this, suddenly Daisy in my arms started to emit a light much brighter than before.

It seemed the full-fledged evolution had begun, so I pulled myself together and looked at Daisy.

I guess I just need to stay by her side for now.

Since she hadn't asked for anything else, I thought I'd just watch her condition, when Siren calmly raised her body, looked at Daisy, and said to me, "If possible, it would be good to infuse mana or something into Pigsy. It's okay if you don't, but I recommend doing it because she can become a more powerful Pigsy if you do."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Siren's words had never been wrong, so deciding to trust and follow her, I slowly pushed mana into Daisy.

As gently and carefully as possible.

After all, the important thing was for Daisy to become a mid-grade spirit without getting hurt, so I was proceeding slowly when Siren came to my side, overlapped her hand on mine, and said, "I'll help too."

At Siren's reassuring words, I nodded and closed my eyes.

***

How much time had passed?

I had dozed off for a while, and when I came to my senses, I saw Daisy sleeping very happily.

It feels like she's grown a bit.

She was still chubby, but she definitely felt taller.

Seeing that she hadn't woken up yet, it seemed she needed a bit more time to evolve, so while I was looking at her, Loraine, who had been watching over us nearby, called me.

"Um, Young Master, is it okay to talk for a moment?"

There wasn't anything particularly problematic, so I nodded and looked back.

Loraine pondered for a moment, then pointed outside the door and said to me, "Shall we take a walk?"

It was just when my body was feeling stiff.

I said let's do that and followed Loraine outside, where the night air, which had become quite chilly by now, hit me.

As I was endlessly walking, feeling the calm atmosphere, Loraine calmly opened her mouth, "...Young Master."

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Rather than something being wrong... how should I put it. There's something I'm a bit worried about."

At those words, I looked at Loraine with full of doubt.

Loraine looked out the window and said to me, "If we summarize the events so far, 'black mages' have been involved in most of the incidents, right?"

"That's right."

"And if we list the groups involved with these black mages, there's the North, the church, numerous nobles... and even the imperial family was involved."

Hearing it all listed out like this, the number was certainly large.

I silently nodded and looked at Loraine.

Loraine turned to look at me with her arms crossed and said in a calm voice, "...If it was just the North and some nobles involved, it might be understandable. But the fact that the church and the imperial family are also related to black mages suggests there's a possibility of a darkness hidden that's even bigger than we expected."

In the original work, the final boss was the “Demon King” anyway, and because the problems weren't entangled this deeply, even I couldn't know what they were plotting.

So, thinking it was difficult to answer, I was nodding when Loraine said something somewhat blankly, "So... you're a regressor, right, Young Master? Could you tell me what happened in the past?"

...A regressor?

I looked at Loraine with an awkward expression at the completely unexpected words.