A Very Normal Day for Brunhild’s Grand Duke

In a little corner of the Babylon workshop, there was a

spot where machines and junk were piled up high. It was a

space that Quun had carved out for herself. She'd requested,

pleaded, and begged for her own little area to work on her

projects...and since the workshop was the best place for that,

I let her have it.

It was a very convenient engineering space, that was for

sure. It was basically the ultimate factory. Tools in

abundance, replication and printing facilities around every

corner... Still, it wasn't perfect. It could only be operated by

Babylon's master and the facility's assigned gynoid. That

being me and Rosetta. Even though Quun was my daughter,

she couldn't freely operate the things around her.

I came up with a solution to that problem by building a

little prefabricated room in Quun's corner. I called it the

mini workshop. It was a smaller version of the workshop

contained within it. There were actually a bunch of these

little prefab buildings around Babylon. There was an ammo

workshop that specialized in supplying the Frame Gears

used by Yumina and my other wives, and a smartphone

workshop that specialized in making those mass-produced

smartphones I gave to other world leaders. In effect, they

were miniature automated assembly lines.

Quun had requested one for her personal use, and I had

been initially reluctant...but then I realized it was a way to

relieve some of the burden on her when she worked, so I let

her have it. She still had a habit of staying up here without

eating or sleeping, though...which I wasn't exactly the

biggest fan of. I wasn't the only one with a problem either.

"...Well? Anything to say for yourself?"

"N-N-No... Not... Not really..."

The younger of the two, the daughter, sat stiff on the floor,

sweat beading on her brow. The older of the two, the

mother, stood in front of her with narrowed eyes and folded

arms. As for me? I was just kind of standing behind Leen,

imitating her angry cross-armed pose as best I could.

"It's fine to appreciate your hobbies, I understand that

much. But if you get too into it to the point of sickness or

exhaustion, then you're going to cause trouble for yourself

and everyone around you. Understand where to draw the

line."

"That's right, ma'am! That's definitely not hypocritical to

hear from someone who's spent days at a time cooped up in

the library, no ma'am!"

"Silence!"

Rosetta butted in, prompting Leen to go red in the face

and start yelling. Rosetta responded by whistling to herself

and scampering off.

...You really shouldn't have interfered there, Rosetta.

We're the parents, so we need to reprimand our kid!

Leen looked at the object sticking out of the mini

workshop.

"So this is what you've been neglecting your health for?"

"Yes! I restored and successfully miniaturized the

skyskipper we picked up from the Sapir Sea! I've improved

the ether lines connecting the power reactor to the mana

oars, so now it's much more magically efficient! I've also

replaced the propeller floating system with an antigravity

dean drive. Then, I—"

"So you regret nothing?"

"Agh!"

Leen's glare only intensified in the face of Quun's excited

explanation. She began to give another sermon, and I just

stood there nodding. It wasn't the place for a father to

interject... Probably, anyway. My dad never joined in when

my mom yelled at me.

It wasn't neglecting my parental responsibilities! Leen

was just saying enough for the both of us. It did kind of

erode my authority, though...

"And you, Touya. What were you thinking when you gave

her this thing?! Wasn't it obvious what would happen?"

"Gah!"

Oh crap, now she's pointing her anger right at me!

"I mean, it was Doc Babylon who gave her the stuff, so..."

"I'm not bothered about the fact that she got it, but

shouldn't you have seen this coming and told her to be

mindful of her health?"

"I did, though... Didn't I? I told her she should only be

using it for certain periods and stuff..."

"But you never followed up on that, Touya. You just gave

her these things and left her to her own devices. Of course

she'd take advantage of that!"

I glanced over at Quun and noticed a small grin on her

face. Leen was right on the money...

Ugh... I guess I could've been a little clearer when I let

her work here. Compared to Leen, I'm definitely super

lenient...

I sighed, then raised my hands in surrender.

"All right. Quun, you've gotta be punished. I'm

confiscating this...flying boat thing. Okay?"

"Not okay! I'm so close to finalizing it!"

Quun looked up at me with big, teary eyes. I could feel my

heart waver. Leen glared over from the side, quietly

communicating her feelings to me.

Forgive me. I'm a powerless father...

"Wait! Please! Just a little bit more! Just one more day!"

"No more complaining. Or do you want to be banned from

Babylon entirely?"

"I don't! Please don't do that!"

Leen's words brought Quun crashing to her knees. It was

a complete and crushing defeat. I was pretty impressed by

how much Leen had developed her daughter-wrangling

skills, personally.

Quun was at fault here. There was no getting around that.

If anything, her not being banned from Babylon entirely was

pretty merciful. It was like saying she could still do some

work, but she needed to be more punctual about it. If she

pushed her luck again, though, she'd have her access

revoked... The mini workshop would be temporarily

restricted too.

"Ugh... Why punish me like this?"

"You reap what you sow. Think about that in the future.

You can assist Monica and the others in the hangar until

your things are returned."

"Okaaay..."

Quun listlessly obeyed her mother. Helping Monica and

the others involved stuff like Frame Gear maintenance, as

well as other menial tasks like checking drives and

inspecting weapons. If anything, the lack of stimulating

work was probably the real punishment.

After that, Leen headed off to the library. I decided to

head for the alchemy lab. When I entered the alchemy lab's

facility, I came across the managing gynoid, Flora, sitting

across a table from Elze.

It was rare to find Elze up here. She basically never came

up to Babylon. She usually spent her free time honing her

physical skills in our castle basement's gym or the knight's

training grounds, after all.

It was then that I spotted Elna sitting a short distance

away, shaking a test tube in her hands.

Ahhh, now I see. You're escorting her.

"What's Elna got there?"

"She's trying to see if she can make effective potions with

cheap raw materials."

My question was casually answered by Elze.

Potions, eh? I know high-grade potions can be pretty

damn expensive, yeah...

Very few people in the world could use restorative light

magic, and magical tools that had healing properties were

remarkably expensive. Thus, the average adventurer had to

rely on healing herbs or potions to keep them in tip-top

shape out in the field. But since good potions were often on

the pricier side, most had to settle for the herbs.

Both Linze and I were capable of casting healing spells.

That was why I'd really never thought about potions during

my adventuring career. My experience with them was fairly

limited. We'd taken on a few foraging quests to get

medicinal herbs, though.

Brunhild's guild branch sold low-tier potions produced in

the alchemy lab, alongside potions that could heal harmful

status effects like poison, paralysis, and petrification. I'd

actually gotten into a small argument with the guild over

pricing. I wanted to sell them on the cheap, but Guildmaster

Relisha told me that if I did that, it'd cause trouble for the

alchemists that brew potions elsewhere, as well as the

adventurers who collect ingredients to earn a living.

I didn't feel right knowing adventurers could die out there

while a cheap means of survival existed, so we reached a

middle ground by agreeing that adventurers who couldn't

afford potions could freely take emergency potions with

them. Any potions used would be incurred as debt to the

guild, but it would be better than being dead. They'd be able

to give the guild a cut from any quests they did after that and

slowly pay off their debt.

Ideally, we'd soon have Elna's high-tier potions to help

improve the chances of survival for any adventurer on the

go.

"How's it coming along?"

"Well, we don't really know what the best ingredients are,

you see? It's been a lot of trial and error. There are many

new ingredients that didn't exist five thousand years ago, as

well as old ingredients that are now extinct."

So we're just mixing things at random and hoping for the

best? I wonder if we can actually make the high-grade

potions we need purely with modern ingredients...

"Eureka!"

My negative concerns were blown away by the sound of

Elna's voice. She ran over toward us, a vial of yellow liquid in

her hands.

Flora took the vial and poured it into a small flask on the

table. Suddenly, something resembling the page of a book

was projected on the table. It kind of looked like a list of

ingredients to me.

"I can see you've done a good job, you see? This one heals

much more than the last."

"Good job, Elna! That's my girl!"

"Thank you, mother. Oh? You're here too, father?"

...Ouch. You only just noticed me? I-I guess you were

really into your work...

"Good job, Elna. Now we can sell cheaper potions to the

adventurers."

"It's even better than that. The herbs used in this one are

quite abundant. Novice adventurers should be able to make

good money collecting them," Elna replied, then smiled

widely in response to all the praise she was getting.

Huh, I didn't even think about that kind of benefit. Look

at my girl, creating jobs!

"Can we help you, master?"

"Oh, I brought a spellstone for the ether liquid..."

I opened up [Storage] and handed over a blue spellstone

roughly the size of a basketball to Flora. We excavated it

from Rephan after getting permission from the queen. The

queen had originally wanted to reward me for finding her

country's regalia, but I declined. She'd been looking after

Steph to begin with, after all. But then, she reminded me

that Steph had been the one to fight for her and put herself

at risk, and that was something worth more than what I had

done. With that in mind, I ran a search for large spellstones

in Rephan's territory. Sure enough, I found one, so that's

what I asked for as my reward.

There weren't many spellstones of that size around

anymore, and it was harder still to find ones suitable for

ether liquid extraction, so this was a pretty lucky find. The

current model of Frame Gears I used and maintained didn't

actually need ether liquid to operate, but the various ether

vehicles and other magical tools still required it to function,

so it was never bad to have a steady supply.

"Oh, right. Touya, can you take Elna's new potion to the

guild? You need to talk to the guildmaster about it," Elze

asked as she held up the vial.

"Sure, how many?"

"Just these three for now, you see? But we can begin mass

production at just about any time," Flora stated as she

handed over a list of ingredients needed for Elna's potion.

Bellflowers, moonbeam dew, and arrowsnuts. These are

all pretty common, nice. I can't believe these things actually

improve potion potency when combined...

"I'll make sure to mention we need quests up for

gathering these materials while I'm down there."

"Glad to hear it, you see."

I gave Elna a little pat on the head, then opened up a

[Gate] to the local guild branch.

I exited my portal in a small alley behind the guild, then

entered through a door that had effectively become my

personal entrance at this point.

"Oh? Fancy seeing you here."

"Hm? Frei? Oh, Hilde, Yae, and Yakumo too."

Once I stepped into the guild, Frei approached me from

the side. I turned toward her and saw Hilde, along with Yae

and Yakumo.

"Questing today?"

"Sure were. We got a special request from the guild. Just

finished up. It was a quest all the way in Roadmare, but with

Yakumo helping us, we were back in a flash."

Though Frei and Yakumo were still children, their

exceptional abilities meant they technically could register

with the guild as special exceptions.

I kind of wondered if them being registered in the past

would cause any issues in the future, since they were

registered there already... Granny Tokie would hopefully just

be able to wave that away with timey-wimey stuff, but I

didn't want to cause any possible complications. Therefore,

we never formally registered Frei and the other kids. So even

though Frei was talking about this quest as if it was her own,

it was more likely that Hilde or Yae had officially accepted it.

Yakumo and Frei were along to assist.

Yae and Hilde were probably more than happy to have

their daughters come fight with them, even if the tykes were

just tagging along.

"What did you have to fight?"

"We needed to dispose of a Calamity Boar, we did. It was

quite a large one at that, it was."

...Calamity Boar? If I remember right, those things even

give top-tier red-rank adventurers serious trouble.

Yae and Hilde had recently attained the silver rank in the

guild. Silver-ranks could receive quests directly from heads

of state and were more like mythical champions than regular

adventurers. But my daughters were actually even higher

than that. The two of them were ranked gold, same as me.

This was only in future terms, though. It was foolish to

compare the present Yae and Hilde against my kids from an

age yet to come...but I could tell it was worrying my two

wives. They were both somewhat annoyed that their

daughters ranked higher than them. Their pride as parents

had driven them to come to the guild a lot more in recent

weeks, taking on as many jobs as they possibly could. They

were obviously shooting to overtake their daughters, but

that would be a long way off at this rate.

I asked the guild receptionist to call over Relisha, then

headed to the dismantling yard with Yae and the others. The

monster dismantling yard in Brunhild was a relatively large,

open space. There weren't many large monsters in the local

territory, but Ende and I were gold-ranked and could warp

our hunts back home, so making it large enough to

accommodate that was kind of a necessity. It was pretty

much only people related to me who hauled the

unreasonably large stuff over to our guild branch, though.

Frei took the Calamity Boar out of storage, thwapping it

down on the dismantling table. A few of the guild workers

went wide-eyed, but the sight of huge beasts was definitely

much less sensational than it used to be. When you

considered that stuff like Dragons were regularly brought

around here, even a massive boar became a bit less

impressive.

The Calamity Boar was around ten meters long, making it

quite a hefty creature. Its fur was a gleaming sapphire color.

If I had to guess based on the injuries, either Yae or Yakumo

had cut it down...but there wasn't much damage to the pelt

at all. It'd fetch a high price.

"Thanks for your patience, Grand Duke," Guildmaster

Relisha said as she appeared before us. I handed off the

three potions and informed her about the relevant

ingredients.

"I see... What a relief. With these ingredients in demand,

we should have a lot more opportunities for fledgling

adventurers to earn their keep. Fewer will be forced to trawl

the dungeon islands for treasure."

Adventurers who came to Brunhild usually weren't

residents here. They came from all over the world. Many of

them wanted to pillage our dungeon islands, which were

connected to Brunhild through a portal. Most of them were

well-equipped for such a dangerous venture, so they

navigated the catacombs with ease.

The problem, however, was the large number of newbie

adventurers who'd come in from Belfast and Regulus.

Newbie adventurers typically did basic assistance quests or

gathered ingredients. These kinds of jobs were in

abundance, but there wasn't much good money in them. A

lot of these newcomers got impatient about making such a

low income and decided to try braving the dungeon islands

in the hopes of finding riches, only to find doom instead.

It was true that the monsters over on the dungeon islands

could be dismantled and sold for a high price, but they were

also very dangerous. A common trap these newcomers fell

into was thinking they had safety in numbers. They'd party

up, thinking if they had five or six people, then they'd at least

be able to take down one tough beast and split the

earnings...

That wasn't a bad line of thinking, of course, since there

was definitely strength in numbers. But it wasn't necessarily

enough to contend with the monsters in those dungeons.

The reason parties made people stronger was because they

introduced the element of teamwork. But a bunch of

newbies who'd only just met wouldn't be half as efficient as

adventurers who'd been questing together for years. If

anything, they'd just slow each other down or get in each

other's way...causing the entire group to collapse.

Ideally, we'd have novice adventurers gradually

developing their skills and experience in safer areas, even if

that meant waiting a while before going for real challenges.

With any luck, these new ingredient-gathering quests would

be just what they needed to keep stable money while still

staying safe.

"Once we have these ingredients, we'll be able to massproduce the potions."

"Wonderful. I look forward to doing business."

Relisha told the receptionist to begin drawing up quest

listings for the herbs. And with that, my work was done.

I returned to the castle via [Gate], bringing along Yae

and the others. They quickly went to the bath together,

having worked up quite a sweat in their fight against the

Calamity Boar.

I was a bit parched, so I went to the living room to brew a

cup of tea. When I opened the living room door, I was

greeted by the sight of Linne in a beautiful dress. She

seemed a little awkward in it.

"Hmm... Not quite right..."

"Mother..." Linne mumbled as she wearily glanced over at

a pile of dresses on the nearby couch. Linze sat nearby,

stitching at one with incredible speed.

"You said we were going to re-tailor some of your old

dresses, so how come you ended up making them fit me?"

It seemed my daughter had been pulled into a trap. But I

had to admit, she looked really adorable in that outfit. Quite

rightly too. Any daughter of mine would look beautiful in

any dress!

I took out my phone and snapped a photo of her. Linne

didn't normally wear this kind of stuff, so I had to seize the

moment.

"It's not like I don't wear these things every now and then.

When we have parties, I have to wear them, you know? I

don't really like them, though. They're all fluttery and

frumpy."

According to Linne, my children participated in royal

parties in the future. Not any official royal events, however.

Apparently, it was just get-togethers hosted by royals,

basically family parties. It was a time for adults to chat with

adults, and for children to chat with children.

I'd assumed that family events would be a bit more casual,

but it was seemingly proper to have children wear formal

clothing when attending them to mentally prepare them for

formal events in their adult life.

"It's done!"

A sense of accomplishment was present on Linze's face as

she waved the dress high. It was a gothic lolita dress, similar

to the kind Leen often wore, but this one was white. If I

remembered right, this style was called white goth or

something... It definitely seemed fluttery and frumpy, just as

Linne had said.

"Oh? You're here, Touya?"

"I've been here a while..."

Ugh... People just keep failing to notice I exist... It

wouldn't kill you guys to be a little more aware of your

surroundings!

"Okay, Linne. Try this one on! You'll look amazing!"

"You told me the last one I wore would be the last one,

and the one before that!"

"This really is the last one! I promise! Come on!"

Linne sighed in defeat and submitted to being dressed in

the white goth dress.

Just as I was wondering where Linne was going to get

changed, Linze pulled a dressing room divider from her

[Storage] and walled me off.

"Even if you're her father, you can't go peeking at a lady

changing."

I agreed with the sentiment, but she didn't have to say it

like I was at any risk of wanting to peek in the first place... I

wasn't exactly keen to watch my daughter change her

clothes.

"Okay, this is the last one!"

Linne was a little grumpy as she walked out of the

changing area, but I thought she looked really cute.

Just as I was snapping a few more shots of her in the

white goth outfit, we found ourselves joined by Steph, Sue,

Yumina, and Kuon. The gold crown, Gold, toddled behind

them.

"Wooow! Big Sis Linne, you're sooo cuuute!" Steph

exclaimed, going bug-eyed at the sight of Linne's dress. She

then charged over at full pelt.

What did I say about using [Accel] indoors?

"It's so different from your normal clothes! I love it!"

"I-I know it's different... Don't you think it's weird,

though?"

"No way! It looks so good on you!"

The praise from Steph must've done something for

Linne's confidence. She gave us a little twirl, and shortly

thereafter, a smile spread across her face.

...You got your opinion swayed a little too easily there,

didn't you? It's fine if a girl compliments you, but don't go

getting charmed by boys that easily, Linne. You'll make me

panic.

"The garment is different from your usual look, that's

true...but I think it suits you very well. You're as beautiful as

a white lily, dear sister."

"He he he... You really think so?" Linne asked, smiling

bashfully as Kuon lavished her with praise.

Who taught you to smooth talk like that, kid?! Agh...

Yumina's probably right, I'm gonna have to beat the ladies

off him with a stick. This could be tough... Then again, I get

the feeling he'll probably be able to slip right by any

possible girl problems all by himself. Kinda feels like Kuon's

the kind of kid who can handle just about any woman who

comes his way... I'm jealous of guys who can do that, to be

honest... Girl trouble is the worst... But I'm happy too! No

trouble is always better than some trouble. Keep up the

good work, son.

"So pretty... I want a pretty dress too..."

"Come now, Steph. Don't sulk like a baby, okay? Those are

Linne's dresses."

"Five minutes! No, give me three! I'll have a dress ready

for you right away!" Linze exclaimed as she began sewing at

a nearby pile of clothing. She was going so fast that it was

like watching a video on fast-forward.

That speed is obscene... I genuinely fear what she could

become in the future...

The sheer level of skill displayed by Linze had stunned

Sue into silence. I couldn't tell if she was simply

dumbfounded or just envious.

In precisely three minutes, Linze had created a smaller

white goth dress to match the one Linne was wearing. I

couldn't believe how good it looked. I had the feeling Linze

would be more than capable of launching her own fashion

brand all on her own... That wasn't actually a bad idea... I

made a mental note to ask Zanac about it at some point.

Linze handed the dress off to Steph, who immediately

headed past the changing partition.

"Well?!"

Steph had swiftly changed her clothes before charging

back out. She looked positively adorable.

"Mmm... It suits you nicely, Steph."

"It really does! Oh, Linze, could you make one for Kuon as

well?!"

"But of course!"

"Er, no! M-Mother Linze! I'm quite fine without one, I

promise!"

Kuon actually spoke out against his mother for once, but

given the ludicrous request she'd just made, I couldn't

exactly blame him.

...Kuon in a white gothic dress, dolled up like a woman...

Why do I get the impression he might actually be able to

pull that off? Better not say that out loud, though.

"We're back!"

"We're back..."

"Hwhah?!" I let out a frightened yelp as a certain duo

materialized right next to me.

Yoshino! Sakura! How many times have I told you not to

teleport right in front of people?! You'd never catch me

doing that! Whenever I use my transportation spells, I

always aim for quiet areas and back alleys! Follow my

example, please...

If I recalled correctly, the two of them had been out at

Brunhild's schoolhouse. Sakura's mother and Yoshino's

grandmother, Fiana, was the headmistress at our castle

town's main educational institute. The two frequently went

there for lunch. They often brought food to the students and

helped Fiana out with chores, but sometimes they gave

music classes to the students.

The school was equipped with a range of instruments like

recorders, castanets, harmonicas, melodicas, and mini

guitars. The students kept their own mouthpieces for their

recorders and melodicas, of course, what with public health

concerns and all. Sakura and Yoshino taught them how to

properly use the instruments, as well as basic music theory.

Our knight order had some musicians in their ranks, so

they'd been going along to teach the lessons with Sakura,

and eventually, Yoshino found herself tagging along as well.

Her presence helped the students improve a lot, probably

because she was closer to their age.

I was of the opinion that studying the arts was a good

thing for any child, and I hoped that some of them might

grow up to be talented musicians. At the very least,

presenting them with the opportunity felt like the right thing

to do.

"Wow! Steph and Linne look so pretty!"

"Would you like one too, Yoshino? If you just give me

three minutes..."

"W-Wait! Wait! It's almost dinnertime. How about we all

eat first, and then we can think about dressing up. Okay?"

I quickly put an end to Linze's seamstressing before she

ran completely rampant. Steph and Linne couldn't exactly

eat dinner in their pretty dresses, so I politely asked them to

change back into their regular ones. Their new outfits were

white, so I didn't want to run the risk of stains. Then again, I

did have magic that could clean them up pretty much

instantly...but I didn't see why we should start relying on

such things.

We all headed to the dining room in high spirits. Yae and

the others were already there, feeling warm and refreshed

after their bath. Elze, Elna, Leen, and Quun were seated at

the table as well. Quun still seemed to be a little sulky about

her punishment, so I quietly promised to talk to Leen about

potentially shortening her sentence.

We all gathered around the table as one big family. Karen

and a handful of the other earthbound gods were there too.

As far as anyone outside of the castle was concerned, Karen

and Moroha were my sisters, while Kousuke, Takeru,

Sousuke, Karina, and Suika were other relatives of mine.

Thus, it wasn't out of the ordinary for us to dine as a family.

Given how many of us there were, it often led to some lively

dinnertime interactions. It was almost like having a little

party on a daily basis.

Once we took our seats, the dishes started coming out to

the table.

...Hmm? There's twice as much food as usual, and it's all

being served on two different plates... Don't tell me...

Lu and Arcia came through the kitchen door, carrying

more food. They had their eyes narrowed at each other and I

could feel the tension emanating from both of their bodies.

Oh boy. Not again...

"Another cooking contest?" Elze muttered in mild

exasperation.

That was precisely what it was. This mother-daughter duo

competed with one another at any opportunity they could

get. I personally didn't see the point. They were both capable

of creating incredible meals, so who cared which was

marginally better?

I wondered if the colors and patterns on the plates

represented which ones were made by Lu and which ones

were made by Arcia. They weren't going to tell us, of course,

since it had to be a blind test, but I couldn't help but feel

curious.

Once we were finished, Lu and Arcia would go back to the

kitchen to quietly determine the results. This was another

unspoken rule of their weird dinnertime game. In all

honesty, though? I could tell who made what. It was very

obvious to me. Because when we sat down to eat, Lu only

ever ate the meals Arcia made, while Arcia only ever ate the

meals Lu made... Arcia also made this annoyed expression

every time she ate Lu's cooking, while Lu made a kind of

determined expression whenever she ate Arcia's cooking, so

it wasn't really a mystery at all.

The kids didn't really seem to notice, though, at least not

all of them. Yakumo and Quun probably caught on, since

there was also another tell...

"Mmm, this soup sure is nice."

"Isn't it?! The sweet and sour aspects of the tomato bring

out the flavor just enough, I think! I mean, er... I'm sure it's

nice."

Arcia often responded very positively when something she

cooked was openly praised. I wasn't lying about the soup

being nice, though.

"Steph, eat your carrots."

"Gah... Don't wanna..."

Sue noticed that Steph still had a lot of carrots on her

plate, so she nudged her daughter along. Kids tended to

dislike carrots. Or well, I know I certainly did. I was fine

eating them now that I'd grown up a bit, though. It was often

said that your tastes changed as you grew older, but I knew

plenty of people who'd grown older and still hated carrots.

"You won't be able to grow up big and strong if you ignore

the parts you don't like, Steph. It's very childish."

"But mommy...you left all your green peppers..."

"Gah... N-Not at all! I just left them for last because I like

them so much, see?!"

Steph had apparently hit a sore spot for Sue. Desperate to

save face, she jabbed a pepper with her fork, stared at it for

five long seconds, then shoved it into her mouth.

"M-Mmm... Yuhhh... Yummy..."

Everyone else at the table knew Sue absolutely despised

green peppers, but we didn't say anything. She had parental

respect to maintain, after all. She'd sooner swallow her leastliked food before swallowing her pride.

"There we are, all done. Now it's your turn, Steph."

"...Okay."

Steph jabbed a carrot with her fork, stared at it for five

long seconds, then shoved it into her mouth.

"Ahhh, great job! You beat the carrot! That's my girl!

You're the best!"

"He he he..."

Sue's praise spurred Steph on to eagerly swallow the rest

of the carrots she'd left.

Huh, what's this? My girl's growing up... I can feel

myself tearing up...

"...Touya, are you crying?" Elze asked as she stared at me

like my face was arranged the wrong way.

Ugh... Don't blame me for this. You'd do the exact same

thing if it was Elna, I know it!

We finished the meal and had after-dinner tea. Then, I

started checking on world affairs. It was more me calling

various world leaders over the phone than anything fancy,

though. It wasn't exactly state-level confidential stuff, since

we were just catching up and checking that things were fine.

Usually, I'd just hear stuff about the weather or interesting

stage plays some of the royals had seen lately.

It was kind of fun, to be honest. It was like having a little

window into the private lives of various royals. I still

dreaded my talks with the overlord of Xenoahs, though.

He'd often interrupt our chats with random demands for

pictures or videos of Yoshino. I usually just complied with

his demands to save me the hassle...

After getting another request from him, I started to record

Yoshino as she played the piano in the living room. Sakura

stood in front of the piano, singing alongside her daughter's

performance. It was one of the main songs from a particular

animated movie about a genie in a lamp.

The part sung by Sakura was supposed to be performed by

the man, so it felt a little out of place. Since it was a duet, I

wondered if she'd sing both parts...but then Yoshino came in

for the woman's lines. The two of them matched their

breathing in perfect harmony. They knew each other well as

mother and daughter. Everyone in the room was drawn in by

the beauty of their voices.

Once they were done, we all gave them a standing

applause. Yoshino and Sakura looked at each other and

smiled. That was my cue to end the recording.

I attached the video file to a message and sent it to the

overlord. He'd definitely start blubbering like a baby when

he watched it, I could just tell.

Man, it's been a long day... I'm gonna take a bath and

then head to bed, I think... Huh?

My phone suddenly started vibrating. I wondered who it

was.

...Oh no. It's Kousaka.

"Y-Yes, hello? Oh, right. Okay. I'll be over in a minute..."

Crap... I still have some documents I need to approve. I

wish Kousaka could just handle it all, but I can't ask that of

him... Guess there's no rest for the wicked...

I finished up my tea, then slowly dragged myself up from

my couch and shuffled off to my office. It wasn't easy being

the grand duke... And it wasn't easy being a dad either.