Rather Than The Son, I'll Take The Father

I kissed Regen on the forehead and smiled. His ears turned red.

“Then, let’s sleep together until tomorrow……. Nanny said I shouldn’t bother Father and Your Grace in the middle of the night.”

It was a mistake to understand at once what Mrs. Teresa meant by that.

She would have assumed we would be happy at night, since we’re getting along so well.

Of course, we were always close, even at night.

In an affectionate way.

Certainly my husband had to fret a little, too.

“It’s okay if you bother me. If you can’t sleep, come to me anytime.”

“Your Highness, your eyes have become like those of a dead fish.”

“It’s all in your head, all in your head.”

I lit a small spark of vengeance and kissed Regen’s cheek as well.

It remained to be seen who would lose control first, me or Aedis.

* * *

There was a lot to do in the morning.

First, since the northern vassals and my parents were due to arrive soon, the vassals’ asked for Aedis.

I checked the lighting in the room my parents would be staying in, and called in the workers I had assigned in advance to make sure they remembered what I had asked them to do.

In the meantime, Regen followed me around in a nervous state.

Regen’s head seemed filled with very serious concerns. So, around the time I started to worry about whether his head would be really heavy, Regen finally called me.

“Excuse me, Your Grace.”

“Now Regen has the heart to tell me, what are you thinking about?”

When I asked with a smile, Regen’s ears went red.

I glanced at the butler. The butler and servants left, leaving only me and Regen in the room. Only then did Regen comfortably share his concerns.

“What if two of them don’t like me…… ?”

Huh?

“Regen is my son, so there’s no way that could be.”

“That’s something you don’t know.”

Regen murmured pessimistically. I gave him evidence.

“In fact, my parents are very satisfied with Gilbert’s dissolution. No matter how ugly Regen is, they will be very generous with you.”

Then, instead of being hurt, Regen was relieved.

“Really? Thank goodness.”

“…….”

“But I’ll do my best without making that mistake!”

I stared at Regen’s eyes, like soft strawberry jelly.

“Regen, don’t you want to see Gilbert?”

“I don’t want to see him. It will be the same in the future.”

“…….”

“Brother bullied Your Grace. So I don’t want to see him. I don’t even want to think about it.”

Regen’s eyes narrowed.

In his eyes, words, and actions, the longing for Gilbert was nowhere to be found.

If he hadn’t been brainwashed by Kadan, Regen might have been begging for Gilbert like in the novel.

“…… I see. Regen can do whatever you want.”

Regen returned to me with gentle eyes at my words.

“All I want is for Your Grace to be happy.”

“I am still very happy thanks to Regen and Aedis.”

Of course, even after kissing, Aedis, who still felt like an impregnable wall, was in a slightly intoxicated state.

Right before returning to the Cyclamen Castle, even though Aedis had said that he had not given Kadan his immortality and that Aedis’ body was entirely his own, nothing had changed. From the impression, it was too plain.

—Yes. I’m glad I can give you my all.

―So when all of that…….

―Eve, are you hungry?

―It’s a bit like that, but!

“…….”

Thinking about it again made me mad!

At that time, I was really hungry, so it was even sadder. Regen flinched as I inadvertently closed my fist.

“Well then, to be the happiest in the world!”

I quickly opened my fist and smiled broadly.

“Good. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Yes! I will definitely make you the happiest in the world!”

Regen said bravely.

* * *

After eating lunch with Regen, Paimon was in full swing, tapping the floor with his tail and glaring at the chick.

I took advantage of a moment of free time and called Shaula.

When I grabbed Shaula, who was about to die, and winked at the chick, I spun us out of the space and attached us to another space.

We were surrounded everywhere by reddish sand. The only buildings were the three towers built by Kadan. Shaula looked at the chick in the dry wind.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a chick using movement magic.”

“Ppiii?”

[“I don’t like that.”]

Paimon grumbled.

[“Eve, I’m much more helpful to you!”]

“Pppii ppii!”

[“Eh, you can talk back at me?”]

“Ppii!”

The chick was angry with Paimon and took a few steps across the desert by itself.

However, its feet were deeply buried, so it flew up and landed on my shoulder lightly, sprinkled with stardust.

[“Hey! Where are you sitting at!”]

“Calm down, Paimon.”

Even after hearing the circumstances, Paimon still hated the beast’s power I had inherited. The reason was simple.

[“Eve, is this the power you received because you wanted it? They borrowed people’s mouths and threatened you with death?!”]

When I said I was fine now, Paimon stopped running amok. He still hated it though. He hated it so much that he stopped even making himself transparent and started a war of nerves.

Shaula gave me a pitiful look.

“Your Grace, you lead a very tiring life.”

[“What did you just say, human-demon hybrid?”]

Paimon lit his eyes and glared at Shaula. I was dumbfounded.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but Shaula, is it for you to say that? You’d be much less tired if you hadn’t had an accident?”

Shaula grinned.

“As long as Your Grace takes me for a walk on time like now, I’ll try to stay calm.”

Shaula was proudly demanding that she be treated like a dog.

As I shook my head, Shaula opened her mouth and looked back at the red desert that was once Kadan’s home.

“So, Your Grace, I can just destroy this place?”

“Yes. But it was Kadan’s residence, so I don’t know what will come out.”

“It will be fun.”

Shaula thrust her fist straight into the tower closest to her. It seemed to be a test-run level movement, but at once the wall was smashed and the tower tilted.

But, of course, she got closer and closer to the tower, which I knew would fall on the other side.

“Huh? Why does it feel like it’s falling toward me?”

I threw a bewildered look at Shaula.

“Your Grace, why are you not avoiding it?”

“You are my escort knight. Hurry up and protect me.”

Observing the wreckage begin to fall from above my head, I spoke calmly, and Shaula picked me up and ran.

“Pppiii!”

Paimon laughed when the chick that had accidentally fallen from my shoulder managed to catch up, chirping.

[“That’s good!”]

Ch, childish…….

Shaula dropped me off in front of the second tower, and asked.

“I’ve always wondered, but is Your Grace originally fearless? Did you change while living with the Lord?”

“It happened like this with you as my escort knight.”

“…… Suddenly I have nothing to say.”

This time too, Shaula broke the tower with a single blow of her fist. It must have been because the barriers installed in the tower after Kadan died were also broken, but hers was an admirable force.

Shaula was warming up her hands with the final tower in front of her and suddenly frowned as if she sensed something.

“Your Grace? That tower looks a little different. The smell of corpses lingers in the tower and even under the sand. It’s not just a body. There are also many evil things.”

The news wasn’t surprising since it was the home of a guy who had murdered his parents and used his younger brother as a test subject in order to gain immortality. Rather, I had to consider it fortunate that there were no experimental subjects suffering alive.

Well, that’s probably why Aedis gave way to Shaula, who had no place to use her surplus of power.

I nodded.

“I will burn the rubble, so you just break it. But if it’s too loud, the beasts nearby might swarm here?”

“That’s really good thinking!”

Shaula laughed loudly and began tearing the tower into pieces. Soon, I heard the noise Shaula deliberately caused, and the beasts flocked to her.

Shaula defeated those monsters, and I waited leisurely under the shade created by Paimon, who had returned to his original gigantic form.

“Oh, I worked out for the first time in a while!”

Since she did not use a greatsword, there were no dead beasts. They were just beaten so badly that they felt more miserable than a corpse.

I dozed off and waved to Shaula casually.

“It’s good that your stress is relieved.”

Shaula bared her teeth and laughed.

“Did you bring me here on purpose, Your Grace?”

“Because I’m a boss who thinks of welfare differently other than some crappy subordinate.”

“Pyaak pyaak!”

I gestured

“Then Paimon, I’ll leave it to you.”

[“Oho. Should I burn them all?”]

Roar, the flames rose. Because it was a fire that burned everything equally, I felt comforted.

Now, all that was left was for Regen to walk on the flower road, not the hard road. As my son, for a long, long, happy time.

I had the power to heal even if there were side effects because he was born as a result of Kadan’s experiments, which were not mentioned in 〈Esmeralda’s Crescent Moon〉. That was fortunate.

“Thank you, Paimon.”

When I muttered softly, Paimon felt embarrassed.

[“Hehe, why are you doing this…….”]

“Pppiiiii!”

[“Why don’t you quiet?!”]

“Ppiiipp! Ppii! Ppii!”

[“What? You know how to do it too? So what? Eve asked me? How unreliable you must have been, huh?”]

…… Will it be possible to hold a conversation?