“I’ll have to get a personal maid and a knight for my daughter.”
“…Gasp. Like a lady of the ducal house?”
“……?”
*Twinkle!*
At Bunny’s words, her eyes shining, Kyriel tilted his head in confusion and nodded awkwardly.
“Well… I suppose so.”
“Wow… Bunny is a lady of the ducal house…?”
She was a lady of a ducal house, alright. He had decided to adopt her, though many procedures remained.
Kyriel closed his eyes slowly, thinking, before opening them again.
“For now… shall we sleep a little more? I have a meeting in the afternoon.”
“Meetin’?”
“It’s when people gather and do tiresome things. They said they found something strange in a dungeon or something… Haah.”
After drying Bunny’s hair until it was soft and fluffy, Kyriel tucked her into bed and lay down beside her.
Bunny’s eyes went round.
“Bunny can sleep on the floor…”
“Don’t make me out to be a villain.”
“Villain…?”
Bunny tilted her head. Why was it villainous to be mature and give up her spot?
When he reached out an arm to provide a pillow, Bunny’s eyes went beyond round and turned into wide saucers.
“Pat-pat…?”
“Ah… right.”
Stumbling, Kyriel reached out his hand awkwardly and patted Bunny’s back. Her eyes widened, then began to tremble, filled with joy.
“Sleep well, Little One. Have sweet dreams.”
“Luri too!!”
“Eek! With our Little One here, of course I’ll have incredibly happy dreams!”
“Bunny here makes Luri happy?”
“Yes! You’re a universal cheat key. Even when I’m having a hard time, if I hold you in my arms, I don’t have nightmares—only happy dreams!”
“Cheat key?”
The memory surfacing after so long made Bunny squeeze her eyes shut as she shyly burrowed into Kyriel’s arms and beamed.
“Bunny is a universal chicken, for sure.”
“……?”
Kyriel looked down at Bunny, who was spouting nonsensical things again, with a puzzled expression. Thinking that taking care of a child was truly no easy task, he closed his eyes.
Unlike the times when he suffered from insomnia and struggled to drift off, for some reason—
Kyriel felt his eyelids growing heavy, buoyed by the presence of the child wiggling into his embrace.
‘…Was it my imagination that I felt demonic energy?’
He didn’t get that feeling now. Demons were characterized by cold, chilly skin; this child—slightly lukewarm and soft—was definitely different.
Kyriel’s breathing soon evened out as he fell asleep.
* * *
“…Why did you bring a kid to the meeting?”
“What would you have me do? She likes me so much that she doesn’t want to be separated for even a second, so she came along.”
He replied, rolling his eyes.
‘Though she did sound like she was reading from a book.’
Those were words Bunny had actually said: “Bunny likes Duke-nim so much, Bunny wants to go everywhere Duke-nim goes. Because I don’t want to be separated. Bunny is very sad without Duke-nim.”
Because, as Luri said in her notebook, to properly tame a guardian, you must tell them you like them every day and follow them everywhere to help them.
“Hmph, do you think my eyes are just decorative holes? How dare you wag your three-inch tongue so recklessly! Do you wish to get it cut off? Since when have you ever cared for children…”
At Ludbreed’s ferocious remark, Bunny’s mouth dropped open.
Ludbreed, catching the eye of the horrified girl, shut his mouth, clearly realizing his mistake. But Bunny hadn’t missed it.
“…Grandpa, mean words.”
“No, this isn’t what it looks like…”
“That’s right. You shouldn’t associate with an old man who says mean things like that, daughter.”
“Kyriel!”
Bunny’s body shuddered. With wide eyes and stiff tension, she grabbed the hem of Kyriel’s clothes and pulled her neck in.
*Is he angry?*
When humans are angry, they yell. They tell you to get lost or get out. Luri and Bunny had heard that a lot.
*Is Bunny getting kicked out again…?*
I have to apologize quickly…
*Thump. Thump. Thump.*
Bunny’s face stiffened at the sound of her own rapidly beating heart.
“Um…!”
It was the moment Bunny opened her mouth to apologize, but Kyriel—who had strode into the meeting room as if the commotion were nothing—simply sat in his chair and settled Bunny on his lap.
“You’re going to blow the child’s eardrums out.”
At Kyriel’s dry rebuke, Ludbreed furrowed his brow, but seeing Bunny’s terrified expression, he quickly softened his face.
“Ahem. That wasn’t directed at you, Bunny. Anyway… since you’re here, it can’t be helped, but don’t be noisy, alright?”
“Okay….”
Bunny nodded at Ludbreed’s gentler tone, her eyes darting around the room.
“Tsk, what are you doing…? It doesn’t suit you at all.”
A muscular man with dark skin, clad in shimmering silver armor, walked inside and glared at Ludbreed with a disgusted expression. Then, he looked at Kyriel and Bunny in turn, and strode toward her.
“Oh, the little quail egg that was flapping and greeting me the other day.”
“Not a quail, a Heugyeomryong egg.”
“Heugyeomryong? What’s that. Anyway, if the youngest decided to adopt you, I guess I’m your uncle.”
“Uncle?”
“Yeah, call me uncle.”
The man with silver hair and blue eyes laughed boisterously and rubbed Bunny’s head with a large, rough hand.
“Anyway, Father, stop fighting with the youngest. Let’s report, reach a conclusion, and be done with it. You’re the only one who calls the Holy Knight Captain and the Saintess here whenever you’re bored.”
A direct bloodline of the Judia Dukedom. Possessing a militant personality one wouldn’t expect from a clerical family—boisterous, easygoing, and possessing a cruel streak—the eldest son of the current Judia Dukedom, Kline Yudia. He served as the First Holy Knight Captain, a man whose favorite hobby was monster subjugation.
He sat to Ludbreed’s right, crossed his arms, and sighed.
“If Father wasn’t so frustrated, he wouldn’t have called us. Brother really seems obsessed with fighting, too.”
A beautiful woman with snowy white clothes, shimmering silver hair, and blue eyes walked in gracefully. She took her seat to Ludbreed’s left.
Salame Yudia.
Known as the empire’s one and only Saintess, she possessed the purest divine power and was a woman who didn’t just like money and fame—she loved them.
As the room filled, the long table became crowded.
*…Everything is white clothes!*
If Bunny… is found out, I’ll be turned into powder.
Bunny whipped her head back and forth, tensed up, and pressed herself even closer to Kyriel. He glanced down at her, a faint smile touching his lips.
He had kept her by his side out of concern for the demonic energy… yet the child was surprisingly social.
“So, you’re saying an object that emits strange sounds was found in the recently subjugated dungeon?”
“Indeed. However, we cannot understand what it is saying, and since it could be a curse, we decided to secure it first.”
“So, what is it? This object that emits these strange sounds.”
At Salame Yudia’s words, a retainer stood up, placed an object in the center of the table, and unwrapped a cloth covered in golden, glowing letters.
A faint sound emanated from the crystal, which was the size of a fist.
“έτυμοςδήμοςάνατομήπάθοςμίσοςκύριοςάμαρτία”
It was an indecipherable, crawling language that seemed to rise from the abyss.
The moment they furrowed their brows, a voice cut through the air:
Bunny’s ears perked up.