Chapter 89
A daughter had appeared in my life.
“Dad!”
It wasn’t some cheap joke.
I had literally become the father of a daughter.
“Dad! Hold me!”
Dad (Abba).
A word meaning someone’s father.
Something I didn’t have.
Despite not even having a father of my own, I had somehow become someone else’s dad.
I stood there frozen and blank, then soon looked down at the short little body clinging to me.
“······.”
“Mhe.”
A youthful girl of around ten years old.
Long black hair tied into twin tails, and eyes faintly tinged with blue.
Her blemish-free skin looked soft and milky white.
The girl clung to my shoulder, then broke into a grin when our eyes met.
‘Hmm.’
I was swept up in complicated emotions.
An ineffable perplexity that couldn’t be put into words.
It had already been two days since I met my daughter (not really).
I had brought her to the dormitory for now, but none of it felt real.
‘A dad at my age···?’
Of course, in terms of my past life, I was an adult.
Even so, in terms of this body’s age, I was barely in my late teens.
It wasn’t as if I was speedrunning an appearance on some teen-parenting show, so how had I already ended up with a daughter around ten years old···?
“Warm···.”
Fidget, fidget-
Regardless, the girl snuggled into my arms.
I awkwardly embraced the child anyway.
Perhaps it was a habit carried over from my previous life.
I automatically adjusted my posture so the girl wouldn’t be uncomfortable.
Along with the sense of defeat at having been so easily conquered, I lay sprawled across the dormitory sofa.
“Victor.”
“Ah··· Your Highness.”
“What is that child?”
The situation involved bringing an unfamiliar girl home and claiming she was my daughter.
The reactions of the people who witnessed it were truly something to behold.
“She seems to have been calling you ‘Dad’ for a while now···.”
“Your Highness.”
“Could it be that you had a hidden daughter all along, without my, my knowledge···?!”
“Would I?”
“Answer me. Did you even set up house with another woman?”
“That’s the ninth time you’ve asked. Aren’t you tired of it?”
“Ahem, indulging one’s liege’s jokes with sincerity is also the role of a loyal retainer!”
Her Highness had been playing that sort of prank since yesterday.
She seemed to be enjoying my flustered reactions.
I had already told her several times that the child in front of us was Wriggler.
After always being the one teased by me, she seemed determined to savor the opportunity to turn the tables and destroy me.
“When you think about it, isn’t this karma?”
“I suppose, but···.”
“Take it like a man.”
Poke, poke-.
A white finger poked my cheek.
Carmilla carefully examined the girl in my arms.
“That aside··· an Ego Weapon, you say? This is my first time seeing one in person.”
“It’s not a common concept. I doubt there are even a hundred of them on the continent.”
“A weapon with a self that grows alongside its user···.”
“Quite unusual, isn’t it?”
“What name did you give her?”
“I named her Lua.”
Lua.
It was the new name I had given Wriggler.
Even if she was an unintended daughter, I couldn’t very well keep calling such a lively, living child Wriggler.
“It’s a lovely name.”
“I gave it quite a bit of thought.”
Come to think of it, there was something that occurred to me.
It was related to the title of “Dad” I had been given.
Lua was undoubtedly an existence born from the master of the seventieth floor of Purgatory.
After defeating the master, I acquired its scales and nurtured them until I became Lua’s father.
‘Then···.’
I hadn’t been alone in conquering the seventieth floor of Purgatory.
Carmilla had lent me her aid, and she had also been with me for most of the time I spent with Wriggler.
‘Could Mom be Carmilla?’
A serious question.
Was this what they called immaculate conception or something?
I went ahead and shared that thought with Carmilla.
“W-what···?”
Perhaps she really had no resistance to this sort of thing.
Her reaction was thoroughly satisfying.
She was instantly sunk, her face flushing bright red.
The momentum with which she had been teasing me vanished, and she went rigid.
Since her reaction was so satisfying to watch, I calmly added a few more words.
“Doesn’t it sound plausible?”
“What are you talking about?! I, uh, a mother···?!”
“Of course, I’m joking.”
“Th-that, that’s···.”
“Your Highness?”
“A child of Vic, Victor and me, me···.”
The girl looked strangely dazed.
Carmilla mouthed the words as if chewing over what I had said.
Just as I began wondering whether my joke had gone too far, Lua suddenly poked her head out from beyond my shoulder.
“She’s not Mom!”
“What?”
Had she been listening to our conversation?
She abruptly cut in to correct the misunderstanding.
“Her Highness is Her Highness.”
“Y-yes, wha···?”
It was almost as if she were refusing to let Carmilla ascend to the rank of Mom.
While Carmilla was flustered by that firmness, Lua’s next words rang through the room.
“And she’s someone precious to Dad.”
“······Huh?”
Carmilla was left completely speechless.
What did she mean, suddenly saying that Her Highness was precious to Dad?
Just as I was growing flustered too, the status window suddenly added a brief footnote.
Ding-!
[Ego Weapons form a deep bond with their users.]
[They may receive some of their user’s emotions or thoughts.]
No.
Excuse me?
“S-someone precious···?”
“Yes! That’s what Dad thinks! Her Highness is someone precious to Dad.”
“What do you mean, ‘thinks’···?”
“Because Lua can know what Dad feels!”
The conversation between the two continued before I had any chance to stop it.
Carmilla was dazed for a moment, but soon came to her senses and cleared her throat.
“Ahem! I-I see. I’ve heard that Ego Weapons are bound to their masters by the soul···.”
The corners of her mouth twitched strangely.
The awkward atmosphere around the girl eased considerably.
Carmilla strode over and stroked Lua’s black hair as gently as silk.
“Is there··· anything else?”
“She says you’re a noble person!”
“Hmm! Ahem···!”
“She also thinks it’s rewarding to serve you!”
“R-rewarding, you say? So that’s what she thought···.”
What on earth was she asking the child?
Her Highness fiddled with Lua’s cheek as if she found her adorable.
Perhaps the commotion had drawn their attention, because the two girls who had been hovering nearby joined the conversation as well.
“Miss Lua! I’m curious too!”
“Um, if it’s all right, I’d like to know too···.”
Ranne and Alice.
They had happened to be visiting the dormitory.
Ever since I came clean about Carmilla, they had occasionally come by the room like this.
Today, when they heard I had gained a daughter, everyone had rushed over to take a look.
Lua’s tiny face was reflected like an image in the blinking surfaces of their violet and pale-blue eyes.
“As for the older sisters···.”
Was our daughter simply without any sense of caution?
Even though she was surrounded by three people, she laughed merrily instead of being afraid.
“Sister Ranne is a cool person!”
“Oh!”
“Sister Alice is a cute person!”
“C-cute? Me···?”
Her unreserved declarations.
Ranne’s eyes sparkled at the positive evaluation.
Perhaps because she had received such unexpected praise, Alice wore an expression combining awkwardness and embarrassment.
“Miss Lua.”
“Dad···?”
Lua’s mouth showed no sign of stopping.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I swiftly lifted the girl’s small body.
I met her gaze at eye level.
“You shouldn’t spill everything so readily just because other people ask.”
“Why not?”
“Because it puts me in a difficult position.”
“Are you in trouble, Dad?”
“I do have some capacity for embarrassment, you know.”
“······.”
A simple exchange.
That alone was enough to make Lua’s expression stiffen.
The girl mumbled for a moment, then soon clutched my sleeve.
“I’m sorry···.”
“Miss Lua?”
“I didn’t know Dad would dislike it.”
“It’s not that I disliked it.”
“Dad, are you going to throw Lua away···?”
Eyes gazing up at me pitifully.
Her black-painted pupils shimmered with tears.
Though I pretended otherwise, I was powerless against eyes like those.
Perhaps because of a habit inherited from my past life, children could completely disarm me.
“Of course not.”
I answered gently.
I settled the girl who had been lifted into the air back into my arms.
Lua hesitated for a moment, then wrapped her arms tightly around me.
“I won’t throw you away.”
“Really···?”
Yeah.
The details had changed quite a bit, but she was still my weapon, after all.
If I abandoned you, I’d be left without a weapon to use right away.
I quietly held out my pinky.
“Then shall we make one promise? Don’t tell everyone what Dad is feeling so easily.”
“Okay···! Dad is the best!”
Her tiny finger curled tightly around mine.
The worried look vanished, and Lua grinned brightly.
Even beyond that sunny smile, there were a few things I needed to check.
“Miss Lua.”
“Mmm?”
“There’s something I’d like to check for a moment. Could you come with me?”
“If it’s Dad’s request!”
An evolved item.
I had to check whether anything else had changed.
She might have suddenly become my daughter, but she was still my main weapon for now.
“Ignition. Scythe.”
Sliiide-!
When I recited the activation phrase as usual, a faint light began to swirl around the girl.
Before long, her entire body turned black and transformed into the shape of a scythe.
It was a scythe no different from the one I always held.
‘No, has it changed a little···?’
The surface of the scythe seemed to be tinged with more blue.
It had originally been nothing but jet-black, but now its colors were beautiful, like a night-sky landscape.
“Ignition. Gauntlet.”
Sliiide-.
The other forms worked without a problem as well, not just the scythe.
The change from the old Wriggler was that the weapon itself had gained a growth option.
‘And I can use unique skill number 3 now.’
Ding-!
[A growth option has been added to the exclusive weapon ‘Black Mist’!]
[Exclusive weapon ‘Black Mist’ unique skill 3 is now available!]
I brushed aside the message before my eyes.
Afterward, I lightly swung the scythe in my hand.
As expected, it had no discernible weight, and its blade sliced fiercely through the empty air.
“Miss Lua, does swinging it make you dizzy or anything?”
<[No! I don’t feel anything at all in this form!]>
“That means it doesn’t hurt either, right?”
<[That’s right!]>
“Then that’s a relief.”
It seemed that swinging or striking the weapon caused Lua no pain.
It would be a shame if I couldn’t use an S-minus-grade weapon I had gone to such lengths to obtain because I felt uneasy about it.
Especially since Lua was a high-ceiling weapon with a growth option attached.
‘Her grade should rise as she grows.’
It was quite a haul.
I had gotten my money’s worth from a single Reward Selection Ticket.
Its base performance had already been absurd, so I looked forward to seeing what it would be like after reaching the end of its growth.
“Ignition. Lua.”
Sliiide-.
At my brief command, Lua returned to the form of a short little girl.
I lightly caught her as she was about to fall from my fingertips.
The girl giggled when our eyes met.
‘For now, I suppose this worked out···.’
I adjusted my disheveled mask.
Life flowed on peacefully.
In any case,
I felt I would need a little time to adjust to the daughter who had appeared so suddenly.
***
Meanwhile, the midterm exams came to a noisy conclusion.
Since the exams had just ended, the academy was unusually quiet.
The professors moved busily, with grading still left to do.
The students, on the other hand, enjoyed a week off from classes.
Of course, even in the midst of all this, most of the cadets still showed up at the library.
Seeing them prepare for the finals, which were still a long way off, reminded me anew that this really was an elite academy.
‘It has nothing to do with me, though···.’
For a week, I lazed around in the dormitory.
With one more member of the household, I didn’t exactly feel bored.
And so, on the first day after grading was complete, when we returned to the classroom.
“······.”
“Dad!”
I arrived at the classroom together with Lua.
The black-haired girl looked up at me and called me Dad in front of the students.
Lua waved cheerfully.
“Dad! Lua found her!”
With her other hand, she was clutching someone’s sleeve tightly.
A neat uniform and rose-colored hair swaying softly.
A woman known to be the academy’s de facto number two.
Chief Investigator Jaber.
Lua held her hand tightly and looked toward me.
Jaber looked momentarily shaken, while Lua beamed in front of her.
“Mom!”
Mom (Umma).
A word meaning someone’s mother.
Lua hopped up and down, declaring it in front of the students.
“This is Lua’s mom!”
Her refreshing voice rang clearly through the classroom.
Around us, the E-class students stood with their mouths hanging open.
Every one of them had been rendered speechless, staring back and forth between the three of us.
““······.””
Their eyes looked as though they had just witnessed a morning drama unfold in real life.
A situation that had come crashing in out of nowhere.
I blankly ran a hand over my mask.
Ah.
Where had it all gone wrong?