WNC SS 158

That night.

Titi, freshly washed and lying in the bed of her new room, didn’t realize how late it had become because she was chatting so much.

“Rowan has two older sisters, and Emily only has one older brother. Rowan’s eldest sister is already at the Academy, and she said she’s in the Swordsmanship Department. That’s why she loves daddies so, so much. She said there are three portraits of Mika’s daddy in her house. Then Emily said she started practicing swordsmanship too.”

“I see, is that so.”

“And, and Lucy. Lucy makes rings and bracelets out of flowers. Aunt Marianne could only make ones with two knots, but the one Lucy made for me has four knots and six flowers. I tried to do it too, but it didn’t work well. But Lucy said she’ll make me another one next time. And Andrew…”

“Titi. You have to sleep now so you can play again tomorrow.”

“Will everyone be here tomorrow too?”

“Yes. Your birthday party lasts for three whole days. Your friends will sleep at the palace and play with you tomorrow and the day after. You have to sleep now if you want to wake up early and play together.”

“Okay… I’ll sleep. But you know, Daddy. Do you know something?”

“What?”

“Mari has the same name as Aunt Marianne. She said her mom named her that because she’s a wizard. Mari said she wants to be a wizard too. So I told her I’m going to learn magic, and we hooked our pinkies and promised to enter the Department of Magic together. Do I go to the Academy too?”

She was endless.

Titi’s cheeks were still flushed from how much fun she had today. The more I looked into those sparkling black eyes, the more I couldn’t help but smile.

I ruffled the hair of the excited little puppy and then gently smoothed it back down, coaxing her.

“Of course. When you reach the right age, you’ll go to the Academy. You’ll study and play with your friends.”

“I want to go quickly. How many nights do I have to sleep?”

“You only have to sleep for 3,649 nights. Since the semester starts in February.”

“…Three thousand…?”

Titi loved counting days, even for trivial things. Ruben was always the one to answer her frequent questions about “how many nights.” When Ruben gave her a number significantly higher than usual today, a surprised Titi blinked her eyes.

I shook with laughter and eventually couldn’t resist taking a little bite of the child’s chubby cheek. I pressed my lips against her skin. Then Ruben did the same, pressing his lips firmly against Titi’s other cheek, pretending to eat her.

Titi giggled and hid under the covers before popping her head back out. Even though it was past her bedtime, there wasn’t a hint of sleepiness on her face.

Ruben calmed the child again in a steady tone.

“You’ll be able to see your friends all the time before then. Don’t worry and sleep tight.”

“Mm-hmm… but do I really have to sleep three thousand nights?”

“If you enter early like Mika’s daddy, you might be able to go a bit sooner.”

“Right, so for now, let’s think slowly about who you want to attend the Academy with until then. For today, let’s go night-night. Okay?”

“Okay. Where do the daddies sleep?”

“Now that we’ve come to the Imperial Palace, we’ll sleep in the Emperor’s bedroom. There’s a very large door two floors above your room. The daddies are inside there.”

“Can I go too?”

“Of course. But, since you’ve become a five-year-old big girl, you can’t just run over in your pajamas. If you want to come out into the hallway, put on the gown here and pull the string next to the bed. Then the maidservants will come and help you.”

“Huuuum…”

The child, who had been buzzing with excitement, grew quiet. Seeing her look thoughtful, rolling those big eyes for a while, I guessed what she was worried about and tickled her tummy vigorously.

I hugged the cute bundle of blankets that was smiling sheepishly and whispered with utmost tenderness.

“If you’re too scared to even think about that, just call out ‘Daddy!’ loudly. I’ll come find you.”

“…Yes!”

“I love you, my daughter.”

“Me too. I love you too! Goodnight, daddies.”

“Yes. Goodnight, Titi. Daddy loves you too.”

“I wish it were tomorrow already.”

“Me too. Let’s hope tomorrow comes quickly so you can play with your friends again.”

“Yes!”

I gently stroked the forehead of the child who had closed her eyes tightly and quietly stepped out.

However, even after closing the door, I lingered in front of the child’s bedroom for a long time.

Perhaps the Emperor’s palace was a bit too large, even for the same building. The ceilings were high, the hallways wide, and there were many rooms and stairs. Though it was only two floors up, it often took sturdy attendants ten minutes or more to traverse the long corridors and high stairs.

We had lived with the child practically attached to us since Titi was born. There were only a handful of times stolen contentwe had slept while keeping the child stolen contentat such a distance. Even if a piece of my heart had been torn away, it wouldn’t feel this empty.

Still, one must leave the nest to fly far. Steeling my heart, I pulled Ruben’s hand, which seemed unable to move away.

At least now, Titi wouldn’t be bursting into the bedroom in the middle of the night without knocking. I took solace in that one thing.

Ruberian Calendar Year 14, June 30th.

Titi has now turned eight.

Lately, a month in Justitia’s life is busier than a year.

The child learned a total of thirteen subjects over five days a week. At first, Ruben helped with her studies to match her level, but soon he appointed professional teachers to instruct her. The clever and quick-learning Titi frequently satisfied Ruben.

She even took double magic classes. While a human wizard came twice a week to teach her universal magic formulas, Spiritus would drop by once every two to three weeks to teach her how to categorize, analyze, dismantle, and reassemble mana—which submits to the dragon language—to fit those universal magic formulas.

Outside of classes, Titi had many things to be busy with. Her friendships were particularly so.

Whether she was making friends or dating, the little thing spent more than half the week sighing and clutching her head. There were four boys and two girls completely smitten with Titi. It was [stolen content]both cute and funny [unauthorized [unauthorized copy]copy]to see how much they bickered and engaged in psychological warfare with one another.

Since Damian’s child was mixed in among them, I didn’t know how embarrassing it was to look at my friend’s face. As they grow older, Titi’s heart will eventually settle on one person. I only hope the child isn’t hurt in the process.

On the other hand, Ruben, who had grown closer to forty than thirty, had become much more leisurely than before.

Part of it was because the country had reasonably gotten on track, but in my view, it was because he had cured his terrible habit of trying to hold every single thing in the world in his own hands.

I heard that in the early days of his accession, he was sharp, demanding to be reported strictly before and after even the smallest action. These days, Ruben entrusted work to talented people and only looked after the major agendas himself.

He occasionally worked overtime during the Imperial Conference held every two months, but generally, he worked only three days—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—and spent the rest of his time in leisure.

He completely cured the habit of seeking alcohol whenever he felt slightly upset, as well as the habit of vomiting everything down to a piece of bread. Instead, he developed a habit of spending the whole night sweating it out with me and filling his stomach with thin porridge when something upsetting happened.

I also followed Ruben’s lead and worked three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

I would commute to Duke Ernhardt’s Territory by 10 AM and return to the Imperial Palace by 5 PM. The one-hour distance one way didn’t decrease, but since Ruben always started his day at 9 AM and finished all work by 6 PM, it wasn’t a great loss.

Thanks to Asdel, who held the position of Young Duke and lived at the Duke Ernhardt residence to manage affairs, my workload wasn’t that heavy. My primary duty was stolen contentto [unauthorized copy]read and sign documents that the Young Duke couldn’t handle—things that had already been decided but only required the final approval of the highest decision-maker.

Still, since it was my territory, I couldn’t just let them do everything without knowing anything, so I consistently received reports and explanations.

During work hours, I also patrolled the territory. I checked if the monsters were in their places, if humans with bad intentions weren’t harassing the monsters, or if the monsters hadn’t eaten pieces of contaminated mana.

Occasionally, I climbed up and down the summit of the Yuil Mountains.

Even after the great event, the habits of the gods were the kind that could not be cured. Because of this, the north of the Yuil Mountains was teeming with terribly mutated anomalies. Since I felt more at ease slaying grotesquely mutated monsters than fighting with paperwork, I set a few days each month to go on solo subjugations.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I spent time with the child, and on weekends, I spent time alone with Ruben.

It wasn’t that we were trying to push the child away; it was simply because Titi’s friends coveted Titi’s weekends very much. Although Titi said it was bothersome, she always seemed excited and happy to see her comrades.

Thanks to that, we could go on dates on weekends without worrying about Titi, so it was a win-win.

Unfortunately, today was Monday, the day for signing documents.

Five bundles of documents were placed on the office desk.

Marianne had expressed her desire for the expansion of the Magic Tower several times, but I wasn’t entirely pleased.

Due to the sharply designed structure, another building as large as a Magic Tower could not be erected within the Duchy.

That said, building another Magic Tower outside the Duchy was also absurd. Do other Duchies’ Magic Towers have so much space that they only have one per Duchy?

No matter how I thought about it, I felt she was acting this way because Edwin Kiadris had recently built a new Magic Tower taller than the one at Duke Ernhardt’s castle. No matter how many times I tried to persuade her that such a pride battle was unnecessary, it didn’t work. I should have just let her when she said she’d go and blow the roof off the Kiadris Duchy’s Magic Tower.

Instead of a signature, I just stamped it as ‘pending’ and looked through the next documents.

The rest were all necessary things. Requests to release part of the finances for food supply, or requests for subsidies because there was a need to re-examine the components of the salt produced in the Ernhardt territory.

As I flipped through the piles of paper and signed them, Damian, who acted as my direct aide, let out a chuckle.

“Are you actually reading them before signing?”

“Of course. I see that the people who wrote the reports are all acquaintances, and Asdel already left notes saying they [Read on Read BL NovelsRead on Read BL Novelsstyle="font-size:0;position:absolute;left:-9999px;">]were absolutely necessary. Do you think otherwise?”

“They are all necessary. Can’t you just tell them to send the Magic Tower expansion request higher up?”

“Then Ruben said he dislikes it because the shadow length isn’t what he wants.”

“Please have mercy on me too. Marianne visited four times in one day yesterday.”

“Marianne? Hasn’t it not been long since she gave birth?”

“Benjamin watches the child. Once she comes, she pestered him for two hours before leaving. I’m seriously dying.”

“If Ruben and Marianne fight, I must take Ruben’s side. I’ll tell her to persuade Ruben first.”

“Ha…”

“You can see it’ll be hard, right?”

“…That… is true.”

“Hahaha! So, is this it for today?”

“Yes, I suppose. There aren’t usually that many documents that the highest decision-maker must see personally. Our Emperor is a bit peculiar… no, a great person. I believe Duke Valentia usually checks about four or five cases a day, unless he’s starting a new business or there’s civil engineering work due to a natural disaster.”

“Hmm. Uncle… right. He’s excited by his grandchildren’s antics.”

“Speaking of children, I just remembered. Is Her Highness Justitia completely unavailable during the weekdays?”

“What’s the point of bringing her along to a place of work?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s the point’.”

A hollow laugh escaped me at the staring gaze. I awkwardly avoided his eyes.

“I’d love to become in-laws with you. But Titi…”

“Who’s asking for an immediate engagement? It’s just that Silas cries and wails every night, so it’s heartbreaking. Just let her show her stolen contentEND: stolen content -->style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[visit our site]face once for a field trip. What’s the point of having friends if not for this?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll ask Titi. …You’ve become a complete doting father too.”

“How could I possibly compare to His Majesty?”

I laughed loudly, looking at Damian’s pouty expression.