Chapter 26 - Affection For The Child

It's peaceful...

Quite some time had passed since the divorce ceremony with Kailyn.

Nothing particularly significant had happened since then.

I had been repeating the same routine every day, training, taking care of the child, and talking with Levia.

It's not time for the story to start in earnest yet.

We were at the very beginning of the story right now.

It was still a little while before the Demon King started his full-scale activities.

In this situation, of course, nothing much was happening.

Magic beasts occasionally came down to some villages.

But for me, who had the Spirit Sword and Beepbee, the darkness spirit, magic beasts weren't any problem at all.

Thanks to this, I've been living a peaceful daily life.

I hope this peace lasted as long as possible.

I'll have to move at some point, though.

Of course, I didn’t think this peace would continue forever.

The story would eventually progress.

Tigna and her party, who were currently traveling around to defeat magic beasts, would soon encounter the Demon King's army.

And then the hero's story of defeating the Demon King would begin in earnest.

When that happened, I wouldn't be able to just sit still.

I'd have to move when it was time to move.

I intend to pay back the price of taking the Spirit Sword.

So I continue to train hard today as well.

From physical training to swordsmanship training, even though I wasn’t talented, I was doing it whenever I could.

Most importantly, I was preparing hard for battle using spirit arts with Beepbee.

All of this was for me to live well, and for my daughter to live well.

I was working hard for that today as well, but...

A worry that had been on my mind lately had prevented me from fully concentrating on training.

Am I really doing well as a father?

The worry wasn't related to the story, but a different issue.

It was about my daughter, Eleana.

Actually, I was trying hard to raise my daughter well, but...

I often wondered if this was really what it meant to be a good father.

I'm leaving almost all of the childcare to Levia.

I wasn’t doing much childcare at all.

Levia was taking care of almost all of the childcare.

This was because Levia said she was much better at childcare and asked me to leave it to her.

I didn’t deny that.

I knew Levia was good at childcare, so I was trusting her and leaving it to her, and I knew this was right.

Plus, I was donating a considerable amount of the reward money from subjugating magic beasts to Levia's church.

Levia said she wanted me to leave it to her as a way of repaying for that donation.

Looking at it from various angles, I didn’t think I had made a wrong decision.

But I couldn't help but keep questioning whether this was really right.

Is this really okay?

Because in some ways, this situation could be seen as me lacking affection as a father…

Just giving money and leaving the child to someone else.

I kept wondering if this was the right thing to do as a father.

What should I do in this situation?

Simply thinking, shouldn't I start showing affection to the child from now on?

I thought that, but...

I'd have to have been a parent to know...

To begin with, I had no idea what the right actions were as a father.

Even if I tried to show affection for the child, I didn’t know how to do it at all.

I had no memory of being cared for by parents in my previous life or this life.

How would someone like me know how to give affection to a child?

Because of this problem, my worries kept deepening.

Then...

One day, Levia told me to confide my worries to her.

"Brother, what are you thinking about so much?"

"Ah, Sister Levia."

"Brother, you've been looking very worried lately. If you have any concerns, why don't you talk about them? I might be able to help."

As usual, after finishing my training and stopping by the church, I was looking at Eleana.

I didn't think I was showing it, but Levia seemed to have noticed that I was worried.

How did she know...?

I wasn’t sure how Levia knew, but she was telling me to confide in her if I had any worries.

It might be okay, right?

I hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell Levia about my worries.

"Sister Levia. Well... I've been having these worries lately..."

Whether I was doing right as a father.

Whether I lacked affection for the child.

How I should show affection for the child.

And so on...

I confided everything about the issues regarding Eleana to Levia.

I wonder what Levia thought about this problem?

After listening to everything I had to say, Levia gave her answer.

"So that was your worry. If that's the case, I don't think you need to worry."

She told me with a bright smile that my worries were unnecessary.

"What?"

Huh? What does this mean?

I showed an expression of complete incomprehension.

Levia then began to explain why she said that.

"I think the very fact that you're having such worries shows that you have enough affection."

She said that just thinking about Eleana like this was affection in itself.

"If you didn't have affection, you wouldn't even have such worries."

She said that if I really didn't have affection, I wouldn't even be having these worries.

So, Levia explained to me that I had enough affection.

This was the answer Levia gave, but...

"But..."

Well, of course, it was difficult to accept at once.

"Shouldn't I still show affectionate actions?"

Even if I had affection for Eleana as Levia said, I wasn’t showing affectionate actions.

I felt that as a father, I should still do such actions.

To this question of mine, Levia answered again, "Brother, you're already taking responsibility. That's equivalent to showing affection."

She said that such actions didn’t matter at all when I was taking responsibility for Eleana.

"There are so many people who have affection but don't take responsibility."

Because taking responsibility wasn’t at all easy.

"Brother, you're already excellent in that regard."

She told me that I didn’t need to worry about this.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's right."

Levia smiled brightly again.

Thanks to her, I felt a bit more encouraged.

I was always grateful to Levia, who even listened to these worries for my sake.

To be honest, I'm not sure.

Of course, I didn't completely agree with or understand her words.

I didn’t think Levia said anything distorted or wrong to me, but this might be my own problem.

Issues about children were too difficult for me to know what was right and what was wrong.

It felt like I was still far from being a good father.

Let's do our best for now.

Wouldn’t it work out if I worked hard?

Maybe if I worked desperately hard at raising the child, I might become a good father.

Of course, there was also a possibility that I wouldn't become a good father.

I was clearly lacking as a father.

I'll definitely take responsibility.

But even if I couldn’t become a good father, I would definitely take responsibility.

I never had any intention of becoming an irresponsible parent like Kailyn, neither before nor now.

Let's focus on what I need to do.

I decided to just think like that for now.

When the story started in earnest in the future, I'd have a lot to do.

Let's work hard and try to live well.

As I was thinking this and regaining my strength...

"Davian... Levia..."

An unexpected visitor came to the church.

A girl with navy blue hair wearing a mage’s robe bigger than herself.

It was Daphne, who would later become the mage of the hero's party.

Daphne visited the church with a tearful expression in this situation.

"Oh my. Daphne? What brings you here?"

Levia couldn't help but ask the reason.

With her sudden visit and tearful state,

We couldn't understand at all.

"Sob..."

At Levia's question, Daphne burst into tears.

Then she slowly began to explain why she was like this.

"I... my research results..." Daphne said, shedding tears like chicken droppings.

The reason she came here.

"I think they were stolen."

It was because the research results she had worked hard on were stolen by someone.

Daphne sobbed with a messy face, feeling so wronged and upset.

Levia asked Daphne who that person was, "What? By whom?"

We heard from Daphne who that person was.

"Ka... Kailyn..."

The person who stole Daphne's research results was Kailyn.