The mage stammered for a moment, then said with a face full of emotion, “Th-thank you, Your Grace.”

“Bring her in at once.”

“What?”

Right away?

Leaving the flustered mage behind, Leviathan turned to Leon, exactly as they had arranged.

“Leon.”

Leon vanished from sight, exactly as arranged.

And then, a moment later—

“Oh, Goddess above!”

Rubian entered the cabin, exactly as arranged. Her hair was thoroughly mussed, and her clothes were in disarray. Anyone who saw her would think she had come running in a panic.

Of course, Rosetta had painstakingly arranged every bit of that appearance by hand.

And up to this point, Khalid had brought her here at a perfectly unhurried pace.

“You...”

Rubian staggered forward and covered her mouth.

Her eyes were wide, as though she had been struck speechless with shock.

Leviathan swallowed a laugh as he watched her.

So she says she’s going to act in a play at the Academy academic festival.

Her acting was excellent.

Though wasn’t “Oh, Goddess above!” laying it on a bit thick?

“Uh, well...”

The mage looked a little flustered, but quickly threw himself back into the emotional mood of the scene. Leviathan did not miss the flicker of agitation that passed over his face.

Apparently, he had not expected to meet Rubian like this.

Caught off guard, he froze for a moment. Still, having achieved his goal of meeting Rubian at all, he seemed to decide this was an opportunity, and he hauled himself unsteadily to his feet.

“M-my child...”

Child, my ass. She’s my precious girl, and I raised her beautifully.

Leviathan sneered inwardly.

Now it was Rubian’s turn to say, according to the script, Are you my real father?

But then—

“You’re my f—”

Rubian froze.

Surely not.

Leviathan’s eyes narrowed.

“F...”

“Yes! I’m your father!”

“F-f-f... freezing! This place is really out of the way!”

The mage, who had been on the verge of shedding tears of emotion, went rigid.

At the same time, a pair of blue eyes rolled toward Leviathan as if begging him to salvage the situation.

What do I do? I couldn’t say it like we planned!

Rubian’s gaze spelled it out plainly.

Only then did a truly satisfied smile appear at the corner of Leviathan’s mouth for the first time.

“What are you saying? Are you... very cold?” the mage asked in a trembling voice, and it was magnificent.

Well? How do you like that, you straw-brained fool? My daughter’s ironclad refusal to call you that.

He admitted his own childish competitive streak. Even if it was just an act, he had no desire to share the word father with that man.

Feeling much better already, Leviathan tipped his chin up.

*****

Damn it, I tripped over the line.

But now that I’ve actually seen him, I just can’t make myself say father!

I stared at the man in front of me.

Do I resemble him? Even a little?

Soft silver hair and blue eyes. On top of that, he had a round, mild-looking face. If someone really wanted to compare us side by side, then yes, our looks were somewhat similar.

No. No way.

The Mage King must have deliberately picked someone like that.

He’s not from the royal palace.

Because I knew the faces of most of the people there.

“My child...”

The man reached a trembling hand toward me, his shaking lips impossible to hide.

“You’ve grown so much, but I knew you at once. You, you really were alive.”

The air rippled strangely.

I glanced over to see what it was, and black energy was pouring off Dad’s shoulders.

What happened to your kindly-character act?!

Apparently neither Dad nor I had any future in theater.

The man had looked extremely flustered at first, but now he was diving headfirst into every melodramatic move he could think of.

“Come to your father, hmm? Let me hold your hand just once.”

He staggered toward me.

Honestly.

I had no choice but to stick out just my index finger a little.

The black energy around Dad increased by about twenty percent.

The man tried to grab my hand outright, but the moment our fingertips brushed, I whisked mine back.

Dad’s black energy returned to normal.

What was that? Remote control?

“I have no regrets now. This is enough... You have no idea how much I blamed myself after losing you. I never once slept in peace again.”

The man dabbed at his tears.

I answered vaguely, “Ah. Really.”

“What a relief. I’m just so relieved you’re alive... It’s enough just to see that you’re healthy. You have no idea how happy I was at the thought that you might be somewhere in Babilon. I kept searching for you all this time, but I could never find you...”

Meanwhile, inside my head, I was rapidly running simulations for the possibility that this man was one of the Mage King’s lackeys.

“Ah. Really.”

“I truly wanted to see you.”

“Ah. Really.”

“You even appeared in my dreams.”

“Ah. Really.”

“Achoo!”

“Ah. Re—ally.”

Oops. I broke the line wrong.

“......”

A short silence followed.

The man gave a small, awkward cough, then asked carefully, “My child... why do you keep saying only ‘Ah. Really’?”

Because I don’t have anything else to say.

Once I had sorted through my thoughts, I slipped back into my wistful act and dropped into the chair Sir Leon had brought over.

“Um... are you really my father?”

“That’s right!”

“And your proof?”

“The things you used as a child are over there...! Here, try feeling the magic carefully. Isn’t it yours?”

I nodded.

“Mm, it is. But if I believed anyone was my real father just because they happened to have my old belongings, what would that make me?”

“Ah, of course, it’s natural that you’d be suspicious. Then let’s end things here for today, and this father of yours will return after making a more certain verification—”

“No, no! Why don’t we verify it right now?”

“What do you mean...?”

“It seems blood verification is all the rage these days.”

I took a small potion bottle out from inside my coat.

“I’m one of those modern young people who reacts quickly to trends. Right, Dad?”

“You keep up with them well enough to wear me out.”

“You heard him, right? Anyway, because of that, I tend to keep all the famous items on hand. Which means we can prepare this immediately. So—shall we begin?”

The man lifted a blank face.

Why is that potion here?

“Would it be all right if I pulled out a hair?”

“Ah... uh...?”

“I’ll do it.”

Dad, who had been quiet until now, rose to his feet.

The way he cracked his knuckles made him look less like someone about to pluck out a hair and more like death itself coming to snap off an entire head.

*****

What? Why is this...?

The man panicked.

Why is it... mixing?

He stared down at the bowl where the potion had been poured.

At the center of the mysterious liquid, which shimmered with sparkling rainbow light, one long strand of hair and a whole clump of his own hair were spinning in a confused swirl.

This really does look like a blood-relationship-determining potion.

He was flustered enough to forget even the sting from his scalp.

He had never expected the princess to produce one herself, right here and now.

I was going to get the potion from the King of Casalia!

That had been the Mage King’s order as well.

And why—

Why had the Duke agreed so readily to let him meet the princess?

And how did they prepare that?

The seventh was supposed to be highly skilled in magic, yes, but had she made it herself with magic? Even then, where had she gotten the ingredients? How had she done it so quickly?

It was almost as if they had known he was coming.

His thoughts spun in confusion.

This was not the scenario he had expected.

First, once he was out of the Duke’s sight, he had planned to make secret contact with the King of Casalia, who was staying in the Imperial Palace in Babilon. He knew the king had secretly brought a bottle of the potion from Casalia.

Then, with the tampered potion, he had planned to set everything off at Princess Rubian’s coming-of-age ceremony tomorrow and wreck the event completely.

But then why—

“Wow, it’s mixing!”

—why was it mixing now?

I’m fake!

The surface of the liquid twisted in a brief whirl. The two silver strands that had been drifting gently ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) in circles spun together like dancers, then tied themselves into a firm knot.

As though they were shaking hands.

“Then it really...”

Rubian lifted damp eyes.

“It really is my rea— that.”

“Ah? What? Uh...”

What was this?

Was the potion tampered with?

But why would the princess tamper with it?

Shouldn’t she have brought the real thing and tested it properly?

Then it shouldn’t have mixed!

He was sincerely bewildered. He touched the edge of the bowl, trying to see whether some suspicious magic circle had been engraved there, but that was beyond his ability.

“Dad! I found my rea— cough, cough— found him!”

“That’s good.”

The Duke’s mouth and expression seemed to be moving independently. He still looked like someone bitterly disappointed he had not yet gotten to wring the man’s neck.

“Oh no! It’s so nice to meet you! But why did you abandon me? No, no, that’s not right. You said you lost me. To come looking for me at the risk of your life... then you really are my rea— ahem! My throat’s dry.”

“Drink some water. Put your scarf on.”

The princess drank from the water flask, and the Duke carefully wrapped his scarf around her as well.

Then she looked over at him and smiled brightly.

What exactly was happening here?

“Seeing it confirmed with my own eyes does put me at ease.”

The Duke rose and patted the man on the shoulder.

Patted, he said—but it nearly drove him into the floor like a stake.

“Come back to the estate with us.”

Really? I’m fake. And he’s taking me to the estate?

“Come with us! My rea—”

“You’re sleepy.”

“Very.”

Was this right?

He could not get his bearings at all. It felt like he had stumbled into a trap, but with the father and daughter hemming him in and pressing him from both sides without pause, he couldn’t think straight.

By the time he came to his senses, he was already in a carriage being taken—no, transported—to the ducal estate.

Could it be I somehow ended up with a cute daughter without realizing it?

Of course not.

B-but when you think about it... the plan is proceeding well overall, isn’t it?

It felt as though the middle of the process had been simplified to an absurd degree, but in the end he had still succeeded in approaching Rubian while pretending to be her real father.

And on top of that, he had even infiltrated the ducal estate, where he could target Rubian from close range.

Right?

The mage rolled his eyes around, then fell silent.

Rubian and Leviathan, watching him, exchanged a wordless glance.

It was very close to laughter.