“Admiral!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs and scrambled toward him.
I planted my feet, hopped up, and spread my arms wide. The Admiral caught me, lifting me into the air in one fluid motion.
“…….”
But he just held me there, silent.
I felt a little breathless, so I poked him in the shoulder until he finally loosened his grip.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No!”
“Good. Let’s go home.”
Wait, no! Not just me!
I whipped my head back, pointing at my half-elf friends.
“Over there—we have to take them, too. I promised. I told them I’d protect them. That I’d come to save them!”
The Admiral followed my finger, raising an eyebrow.
“Half-elves, are they? Very well. I shall take them.”
“Yay!”
I hadn’t noticed before, but there were navy personnel everywhere.
For some reason, they were all older sisters, and their snow-white uniforms looked so crisp and sharp that I stared, mouth agape.
*‘Me too! I want to be in the navy too!’*
To be precise, I just really wanted to wear that uniform… but seeing them look so cool while rescuing half-elf children?
It was just breathtaking!
“Huh?”
But wait a second.
Where did that kid from earlier go?
“He’s not here.”
“He’s not?”
“He’s not! Lashifer is gone!”
“Lashifer?”
He was definitely here a moment ago… did I dream him up?
While I fussed in confusion, one of the half-elves approached me. It was the friend who had hissed at me earlier.
“That boy said he was leaving on his own. He told me to tell you to meet him again next time.”
“Ah…….”
I wanted to take him home.
Dejected, I pressed my cheek firmly against the Admiral’s shoulder. Still, knowing his name meant there was hope for a next time.
* * *
“Ah, I’m happy.”
Lashifer.
His full name was Lashifer Laksimon.
The boy walked alone along the riverbank as the reddish sunset faded, his heart overflowing with a strange, bright joy.
*‘I do not regret going to see you, I.’*
By nature, a Bijou’s destined partner must be met at the perfect moment, dictated by the intricate arrangements of fate.
The warp and weft of time already woven. The fleeting seconds carved into it. The interval permitted by all laws of causality. Only then are they strongly drawn together, their fates entwined as partners.
It was, therefore, a massive problem that he had satisfied his own selfish desires using his eyes that see the truth. It was a transgression grave enough to be brought before a trial of fate.
But Lashifer was so willful that no one could stop him.
The army of spirits sent by the Spirit King of Fate rushed toward him, intent on piercing his soul. In response, the golden energy shrouding Lashifer’s body flared like the heat of the sun, striking them all down.
“I decide my own fate. Begone.”
*Whoosh.*
As he exerted his formidable power, the Bijou blooming near Lashifer’s left eye was revealed.
He was a genius among geniuses. Even looking back through all the Laksimon bloodlines, no talent like this had ever existed.
It made him a human disaster, to be sure, but the Laksimon family could not let him go. They only had a single child, so they were short-handed, with no replacements; and above all—
“If there is a fate already set for me, I shall smash it to pieces. You had better fix it to my liking while you still can.”
His temper.
This personality—so nasty that even in hell, one would hand over money to beg him to leave—was the biggest problem.
By the time Lashifer turned three, the elders of Laksimon lamented that something which should never have been born had come into existence. By four, no mage in Laksimon could defeat him.
Then, at five, he memorized every magic book in the mansion. He mastered every existing magic circle and improved them to make them easier to use.
A being loved by magic. Born of it. A person whose very veins and every drop of blood were permeated with mana.
Now, he even attempted to interfere with fates invisible to the eyes of ordinary people. The price for that would not be light, but he didn’t particularly care. Even now, the mana swirling around his body acted as if it were alive, pulsing to protect and guard him.
*‘I’m happy.’*
Ah, how addictive is the happiness felt for the very first time!
He wanted to keep tasting it, but he had to endure. Not for his own sake, but for his partner’s. His partner still had much more to learn, to experience, to grow.
“Now, I shall wait patiently.”
Until you are fully grown and come to me. Until the moment we are bound by our own names.
Standing at the edge of the river where the blue roof of the Pashayen Mansion was visible, Lashifer whispered softly. It was a sight that would make anyone who saw it faint in shock, trembling as they raved in a fit of madness that it couldn’t be Lashifer Laksimon—that it must surely be a homunculus.
* * *
“The Bogeyman Grandpa?”
On the way back to the mansion, I learned the identity of the kidnapper.
“The Bellarions of the Eclipse have many children. This is the ability possessed by the second son, Goliath Velarion.”
“So, I was kidnapped by an ability?”
“You could say that. The Bogeyman Grandpa is a sentient type of ability. It hides in shadows and collects useful things in its shadow sack. It also exerts a cognitive impairment that keeps people from noticing it.”
“Then how did the Admiral find us? We kept moving!”
“As long as one can pinpoint its hiding spot, one simply needs to move faster than the bastard.”
Wow. The Admiral was pretty cool just now.
“Naiad tracked the movement of the shadows through plant communion, and Micard sealed the entire Pelun with a Colosseum to ensure it couldn’t escape. Then, the search squad drove the bastard into a corner.”
“The older sisters from earlier?”
“Yes.”
Everyone had tried to save me. Feeling inexplicably happy, I giggled.
“Me too. Later on, if something like this happens, I’ll save them, too.”
“How admirable. Were you not afraid?”
“Not even a little! Because I had so many friends!”
At first they hissed at me, but later we sang together. In my book, if we sang together, we were friends.
“We… we were together, and we sang, and we became friends.”
“Is that so? How brave. You endured well.”
“Hehe. Because I knew the Admiral or my brother would come to get me!”
“…Yes. That will remain the same in the future.”
I believed it. I didn’t doubt it for a second. That the Admiral, and Micard Oppa, would save me.
“Oh, and Micard Oppa?”
“Naiad collapsed, and Mical is resting after sustaining internal injuries. It was the first time both of them used their abilities on such a wide scale. But it was a good experience.”
“Gasp! I have to make cookies for them.”
I was receiving so much love. Suddenly, I felt like I might cry.
So… so…
*‘Was I, by any chance, a little bit scared?’*
Staring blankly into empty space, I slumped against the Admiral’s thigh.
*Plop.*
I buried my head, but no tears came. I just wanted to be like this.
“The Bellarions will surely pay a corresponding price.”
The Admiral said in a low voice, stroking my hair. I smiled bashfully; I liked his calm touch.
We arrived home in no time.
* * *
“Because I knew the Admiral or my brother would come to get me!”
The moment he heard those words, Diegon thought: *Ah, I cannot live without this child now.*
*‘Thank goodness. This time… this time, I protected her.’*
In truth, an ability like the Bogeyman Grandpa was trivial. It was only the ‘cognitive impairment’ attached to it that was bothersome. It wouldn’t work on an adult Awakener, but Micard was still young, so he had fallen into the trap.
It was a simple story. He had hunted the Bogeyman Grandpa and torn it to shreds; the owner of the ability must have felt the phantom pain of his own raw flesh being ripped apart.
His daughter was safe and even looked unfazed.
*‘So it is fine. It is fine.’*
Diegon felt the cold sweat on his back turning damp and chilling.
When he had heard that Shuperti had vanished from within the Pashayen Estate—with everyone watching, no less—Diegon had nearly dropped the sword he was holding.
*“Lord, Lord……! The Serenity has—the ship that Aurora was on has sunk……!”*
*“Lord, no matter how much we search… we cannot find the bodies. We’ve scoured even the depths of the water but……”*
*“Perhaps they might still be alive. Both of them.”*
*“We cannot find them. We cannot find……”*
*“I cannot remember. Lord! Is it the same for you? I cannot recall what Aurora looks like at all!”*
A deep, jagged scar was etched into Diegon’s core. A trauma.
It had not healed even a little. It was merely lying dormant, hidden beneath the surface.