Chapter 35
“Clack!”
Klasid spoke calmly, as if nothing had happened.
“Since I can feel pain, this must not be a dream.”
At once, Lilia hurriedly pulled Kiki off Klasid’s arm.
“Kiki! My daddy is still a patient!”
She scolded with a fierce expression.
Klasid, who had been unknowingly watching her, asked,
“…Is that beast yours?”
Feeling his gaze, Lilia turned to him.
“Yes. She’s my friend. But this really isn’t a dream, right? Are you okay? Your body… your heart, it doesn’t hurt?”
“There’s no pain.”
Klasid’s face was completely calm.
He looked like someone who had simply woken up after a good night’s sleep.
Her father had truly awakened.
Like a lie.
And he didn’t even look sick.
Jet-black hair, dark as a moonless night.
Beneath it, red eyes shining like garnets, though somehow they looked sorrowful.
It felt strange seeing her father awake after so long.
Even among the Roberk family, Klasid’s appearance stood out with a superiority that felt almost inhuman.
He’s my dad, but honestly, he’s way too handsome.
A small face filled with neat and refined features.
A well-balanced, firm body and broad, square shoulders.
Even just lifting his head created the perfect silhouette for a portrait.
The very definition of “perfect from head to toe.”
She found herself staring without realizing it.
“…What is it?”
Klasid asked, puzzled. Only then did Lilia shake her head quickly.
“Ah! It’s nothing. I should go tell everyone right away. I’ll bring the doctor too. Father, please stay here.”
“…There’s no need.”
Klasid shook his head.
“Then I’ll at least call one of the maids.”
Flap!
Klasid threw off the blanket and stepped fully out of the bed, placing both feet on the floor.
It was as if he wanted to prove he was perfectly fine.
“Don’t call anyone. As you can see, I’m fine.”
“No, you still need an examination!”
Lilia hurried toward the door, but Klasid caught up to her in an instant.
“Wait.”
Before she knew it, her small body was lifted up, dangling in Klasid’s grip.
“Uwaah?”
“…You seem to have gotten smaller.”
His blood-red eyes narrowed as he looked down at her.
“Daddy, your clothes are squeezing me. My tummy hurts.”
“Ah.”
He quickly set her back down. Lilia placed her hands on her hips.
“And I didn’t get smaller. I’m just the same kind of small. I still have to grow more, you know.”
Klasid tilted his head.
“The nanny isn’t starving you, is she?”
“What? That’s a terrible thing to say! Marit takes great care of me.”
“Good. Then that’s fine.”
“Hehe.”
Though he showed not a trace of a smile, the mere fact that her father had awakened gave Lilia strength.
But perhaps she had been too greedy.
She gently placed her small, chubby maple-leaf-like hand over Klasid’s.
There was something she had always wanted to tell him once he woke up.
Words she hadn’t been able to say before.
“I really, really like you, Father. I’m so happy just looking at you like this. I missed you so much!”
Klasid’s crimson eyes trembled greatly for a moment.
Did her feelings reach him?
Suddenly nervous, she clenched her fists.
She knew he wasn’t a very affectionate person, but she had hoped for at least one warm word.
Klasid said nothing.
He simply looked quietly at Lilia’s tiny hand resting on his large one with those shining eyes.
“Lilia, I’m sorry.”
His brows were tightly furrowed, and he looked deeply pained.
Sorry for what?
For not saying he missed her too?
For being sick and only now waking up?
Many questions formed, but they got stuck in her throat.
Lilia blinked.
“What?”
“…Go now.”
Klasid turned his head away coldly.
That’s it?
Lilia froze like a doll, eyes wide.
Even the mana surging in her heart seemed to turn icy blue in an instant.
Klasid awkwardly brushed back his hair and shook off her hand.
Lilia tried to step closer and grab his clothes, but she couldn’t.
“I want to rest.”
His expression was dry, completely devoid of emotion.
The father she had finally reunited with felt colder than even her icy grandfather.
It was unfamiliar and distant.
She had waited only for him to wake up.
Was it because he had nearly died?
Wouldn’t that make his emotions stronger instead?
But Klasid seemed the opposite.
Colder and more distant than before.
As if he had lost his feelings entirely.
Maybe his own life had become more important than the existence of his only daughter.
“…I’ll go.”
With her brows drooping, Lilia took Kiki and hurried out of the room.
“Maybe it’s just because he just regained consciousness today. I’ll come again tomorrow.”
The next day, Lilia returned to Klasid’s room.
However—
“…Don’t come for a while. My mind is too complicated.”
There was no change in his attitude. If anything, it had grown even more awkward.
In the original story, after returning from subjugating magical beasts with a hole in his heart, Klasid never regained consciousness. He slowly wasted away and eventually died.
Was I mistaken? I thought Klasid was a kind father… but maybe he was only considerate because I was a child?
After all, he carried the blood of the iron-blooded magical house of Roberk.
Or perhaps something had happened on the battlefield that changed his heart.
“Still, I can’t just sit here feeling disappointed. There’s only one thing I can do. I have to win Father’s heart back.”
After all, in this family, he was the one she could trust the most after her grandfather.
Clenching her small fist, Lilia made up her mind.
She stared blankly at Klasid’s tightly shut door before turning away with Kiki.
When she went out to the garden, the chamomile flowers were still in full bloom.
She rested her chin on her hand and looked toward Klasid’s room.
Servants went in and out, and soon there was bustling movement.
It seemed the attending physician, her grandfather, and the aide Emmet had arrived.
One of the driving forces that had brought her this far had been saving Klasid.
Maybe this was just a ship that had briefly lost its way while sailing smoothly.
Before she could win Klasid’s heart back, there was something she needed to do first.
Lilia murmured quietly,
“I want to know Father’s true feelings.”
Swoosh.
Inside her heart—inside her mana heart—something bounced lightly, and the words she had just spoken echoed again in her mind.
⟨I want to know Father’s true feelings.⟩
“Huh?”
At that moment, she felt someone pat her shoulder. It was Kiki popping out of her bag.
“Pip! Pip-pip!”
“Kiki, just now, from my heart… what was that?”
Kiki gestured with its hands and feet, telling her to summon the key.
“The key?”
