Something is approaching the villa.
Convinced of this, Tia clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and began to track its movements.
Regardless of what it was, she could never allow anything that put her mother in danger.
Her mother was far too weak.
Even with all her might, Tia could not hold her mother tightly enough to provide any real strength.
“Ugh?!”
At that moment, Tia detected a thud and opened her eyes wide.
It was the sound of something falling from the roof to the ground.
She had no choice but to assume so.
Soon, the noise of something running on the roof transformed into the sound of slowly walking shoes on the ground.
Tia, still with her fists clenched, tiptoed along the wall, tracking the footsteps.
The footsteps stopped right in front of the main gate of the villa.
“It’s Sailor.”
Click.
As he whispered quietly, the iron gate opened automatically.
‘A superhuman who can open doors at will?!’
Tia’s pupils trembled.
She had heard that there were people who could wield extraordinary magic, but it was the first time she had faced one in person.
Could I really confront him? She felt tension as her whole body stiffened.
Immediately after his shoes stepped inside the main gate, Tia overcame her fear and dashed forward.
“Who are you?! Huh?”
In the moment she leapt into the air, Tia quickly scanned the figure and was taken aback.
Dressed in all black with a loose hood covering their face, the figure looked familiar in both attire and build.
In the brief moment she lingered in the air, Tia racked her memory and recalled the figure’s identity.
“A black-horned person!”
“Uh.”
Thud.
Startled by the sudden ambush, he instinctively grabbed Tia around the waist.
Tia quickly remembered the rest of the details.
Sailor.
He was definitely someone known by that code name.
The errand boy who helped Irina when she was struggling with money.
Her mother seemed to have used a bit more complicated terms, but she couldn’t recall that part.
“We meet again. And you’ve… grown a lot…”
Sailor lifted Tia and looked her up and down slowly.
The last time he saw her, she was nestled in her mother’s arms, but now she had grown tall, exhibiting the signs of a young girl.
It was bewildering.
As Sailor sensed the flow of blood in her body with his fingertips, he gasped and dropped Tia.
It was not a normal blood flow.
To put it more accurately, it was not human blood.
“You’re just like Tia!”
“What?”
“Because Tia has horns too!”
“………..”
Without giving her a chance to ask what he meant, Tia quickly pulled off her hood.
As the half-human hood disappeared, a pair of black horns emerged on the girl’s head.
Sailor’s mouth dropped open.
Although horns were not that rare in this world, it was still astonishing.
After all, these horns were those of a dragon, not those of a half-human or a demon.
The question of why this girl appeared at this villa was unfurled immediately.
Thinking of the villa’s owner, it was easy to deduce who her father was.
“Identical?”
“Hmph! There’s also an uncle! Horns!”
“No, my horns…”
“Because you are a demon! Just like my uncle!”
“………..”
Sailor was at a loss for words.
It was not that he was being misunderstood as a dragon.
It was that she believed herself to be a demon.
How to convey this shocking truth caused him some inner conflict.
“This is the first time! I met someone just like Tia! So, uncle, will you be friends with Tia?”
“Friends…”
Did he really have to convey this?
As he looked into Tia’s sparkling eyes, the words that had climbed to his throat sank back down.
After all, he would probably never meet this child again.
There was no need to make things uncomfortable by revealing the truth with his own words.
“Alright. Friends.”
“Muhuh! Starting today, Tia and Sailor uncle are friends!”
“Sure…”
He decided to go ahead and do it.
A one-day friendship.
After briefly chatting, he would complete his mission and never see her again.
Until that moment, Sailor thought that way.
“Wow! Waaaah!”
“Ugh.”
Moments later.
As a sharp pain gripped his neck, Sailor let out a deep sigh.
Unknowingly, he had let Tia ride on his back.
He could not recall how he had come to this point in the sequence of events.
It was a wonder how he had ended up kneeling and offering his shoulder to her silly demands.
‘It must be that language magic…!’
Language magic. A skill that could only be wielded by skilled magicians, imbuing words themselves with magical power without a special incantation.
Tia was undoubtedly controlling him with low-level language magic.
With Tia on his shoulders, bouncing around, Sailor thought seriously about this.
“Hehehe! So high…”
“Tia! Are you not getting down?!”
“Hik?!”
At that moment, a loud shout echoed, causing Tia to be startled and hiccup.
In her surprise, she grabbed onto something within reach.
The problem was that it was Sailor’s horn, hidden beneath his hood.
When her fingers clasped around the horn, Sailor froze in place, standing upright.
“I’m friends with this uncle!”
“Tia! I told you to use honorifics in front of the duke!”
“Hahaha. It’s okay.”
Sailor did not feel okay.
How dare someone who was not of his kin touch his horn?
Moreover, it hurt terribly as she was incredibly strong, almost breaking his horn.
He felt an overwhelming urge to grab this child’s collar and throw her to the ground.
But could he really throw a child in front of her parents?
Sailor decided to suppress his anger for the sake of the duke’s presence.
“Hurry and get down. You’re making it hard on him.”
“Hiiing…”
“Go to the accommodation and stay still. After the guests leave, I’ll come back to take you.”
“Friends…! Can we meet again?”
Tia, who had been clinging to Julia, glanced back.
Sailor, enchanted by her pitiful gaze once more, sighed and leaned down to meet her eye level.
Then, the sharp jawline and beautiful skin of a stunning face briefly appeared from within the hood.
“Let’s meet again, friend.”
“Yep…!”
The daughter of a benefactor.
And the protagonist of the prophecy.
He never wanted to be entangled with them again, but since he had made a promise, there was no choice.
It seemed that they would have to meet again soon.
How much taller would she be then…
There was a certain fun in imagining that.
Click.
The teacup settled onto the saucer with a pleasant sound.
I placed the cups down on either side of the reception desk and stepped back a few paces.
“You don’t seem like someone who enjoys small talk, shall we get right to business?”
“Certainly. I will report the results of the mission, Your Excellency.”
The contractor, Sailor.
I had only thought of him as a low-level errand boy, but I did not know he accepted requests from high-ranking nobles like dukes.
In that world, he was quite the big deal.
I wondered if the ten million that Irina spent to capture a person was not so expensive after all.
‘Demon, hmm…’
Tia had said it.
She had clearly seen horns protruding from beneath that hood.
There couldn’t possibly be two dragon-human hybrids like Tia in this world; he must indeed be a demon.
Of course, that wasn’t particularly important.
Knowing that this person was a demon did not change anything.
I simply had to treat him with the courtesy due to the duke’s maid.
“So, you’re saying you succeeded in the discovery?”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“May I place an additional order?”
“I must decline. I already have the next request scheduled for tomorrow. If you wish to place an additional order, even a duke would have to wait after making a reservation.”
“Hahaha. I suppose being a celebrity makes you busy.”
I had been lost in thought, and the conversation was already drawing to a close.
I hadn’t heard it properly, but it probably wasn’t all that important anyway.
“I’ll go get the check.”
“Oh, sir. Shall I go?”
“No, no. I will bring it myself. Please stay near the guest.”
“Yes…”
For something as simple as bringing the check, they could have sent me.
The duke stood up abruptly and exited the reception room.
This left only Sailor and me in the quiet reception room.
As I waited in a formal pose, this errand boy seemed incredibly reserved, and it soon became awkward.
Perhaps the awkward silence was better than someone who spoke too much.
“Huh? Guest?”
“………..”
At that moment, Sailor suddenly stood up and started to leave.
The duke hadn’t even returned yet.
In my confusion, I followed him closely and spoke.
“Are you looking for the restroom, sir? The restroom is on the opposite side…”
Sailor stopped abruptly.
Then he turned around swiftly to face me.
His hand slowly moved to remove the hood that completely covered his face.
“Oh…”
I unintentionally let out a sound.
The face beneath the hood was very different from what I had expected.
Unlike Tia’s, his horns protruded straight upward.
It was undoubtedly that of a demon.
Yet his green bobbed hair, fair skin, and slender, beautiful face seemed far removed from the traditional image of a demon.
What I had envisioned was a dark-skinned creature with an orc-like ugly face.
I was surprised.
“Take it.”
“Yes?”
Before the surprise could fade, he reached out to me.
In a daze, I extended my hand, and something dropped with a thud into my palm.
Looking closely, it was a metal token.
A strange token engraved with a peculiar design I had never seen before.
It was a thing whose purpose or identity I could hardly grasp.
“Hey! What is this?”
“Keep it safe. It will be needed.”
“………..”
With that, Sailor opened the reception door and left.
I was so bewildered that I didn’t even think to chase after him.
I had just disobeyed the duke’s order to stay by the guest.
“What the heck is this…”
I stroked the metal token before putting it in my pocket.
It couldn’t possibly be some kind of bomb, could it?
I would have to ask the duke or Leopard later.
“Was the reunion satisfactory?”
“………..”
Thud.
Sailor’s expression hardened as he stepped out of the reception room.
The duke had been waiting right next to the door.
As the check was produced, Sailor clicked his tongue and snatched it away.
“Oh. It’s not a reunion after all. I heard you had already crossed paths at the Ryuba tavern.”
“………..”
I never expected that you were the one who got the holy maiden pregnant.
Suppressing the rage that swelled within him, Sailor continued walking.
He didn’t even want to face the duke.
To corrupt Erial and make her bear a child during her lost memories was more repulsive than he could imagine; he never wished to come back again.
‘A friend, huh…’
But there was still a debt owed to the holy maiden.
Although she had lost her memory, Sailor intended to fulfill that duty until the end.
He could always visit under the pretext of his promise to Tia.
“Duke.”
“Mm?”
“You may one day have to pay the price for your actions. Brace yourself.”
“………..”
It was a rather menacing warning.
It was likely a warning for having hidden the holy maiden and her child while knowing the prophecy, but strangely, there was a personal grudge intertwined with it.
He had unintentionally revealed his emotions.
Sailor contorted his expression and turned away, leaving.
‘A debt… I will repay it, Erial.’
Sworn in his heart, Sailor vowed to save the holy maiden from the greedy dragon’s clutches for sure.
Though the holy maiden who had rescued him long ago was no longer present, she still lingered in Sailor’s memory.
As long as he remembers, the debt will never fade.
“Does he think I got her pregnant…”
Meanwhile, after Sailor had left, the duke was left alone and burst into a hollow laugh.
It seemed he had been terribly misunderstood.
I am not the father of that child.
The duke sighed and shook his head.
