* * *

Serena blinked. She understood yet didn’t understand what she had heard today.

“What is it again today, Serena.”

As always, Magnus, lying beneath Serena, asked while battling between reason and instinct.

“Oh, just…”

Serena slowly moved her lips.

“I heard some strange words.”

“Who said what again? I should beat up all these bastards…”

“No, the Marquis… Father, I mean.”

Serena scratched her cheek while lying on top of Magnus, listening to the thump, thump of his heartbeat with her cheek against his chest.

“He said he loves me.”

“Did you just realize that now?”

Serena’s eyes blinked at Magnus’s words.

‘What, as if he knew it all along.’

Serena rolled her eyes and then smiled slightly, rubbing her face against his chest.

A groan-like sound escaped between Magnus’s teeth.

Thinking she might be too heavy, Serena tried to lift her body slightly, but Magnus stretched out his arms and wrapped them around her waist, pulling her tightly against his body.

“If I’m heavy, I can get off.”

“…If you’re heavy, then I can’t even lift a sword.”

“You were making groaning sounds, so…”

“That’s just the sound of fighting. Reason is still winning for now.”

Serena tilted her head at Magnus’s unexpectedly resolute and out-of-place words.

‘Is he doing some kind of battle simulation?’

Serena blinked once and then nodded. Whatever it was, his expression looked quite serious.

Finding it quite fascinating that he could have a conversation while doing a simulation, Serena opened her mouth.

“No, actually, I’ve heard it a few times, but it didn’t really resonate with me. I just thought it was something people always say.”

A polite statement to eliminate slight guilt, or perhaps to make herself feel a bit better.

But today, for the first time, she thought that might not be the case, and it made her feel strange.

“Serena, my precious daughter. I love you. Even if you were a troublemaker, no matter how much trouble you caused, even if… you weren’t mature. I would have loved you. I would have loved you. Even if you were a baby who couldn’t do anything alone and cried every day.”

“Even if you don’t become an excellent adult, even if you’re not an extraordinary person, even if you… tarnish the family’s honor to any extent… You are, no matter what happens, my, Irdin Lavernia’s, only daughter and our beloved child.”

“I want to show you how blessed we were on the day you were born.”

Serena recalled the words she had heard from Marquis Lavernia today.

To say he would have loved her even if she couldn’t do anything, how sweet and… how desperately she wanted to hear those words.

“He said he would have loved me even if I couldn’t do anything. Even if I wasn’t mature.”

“…Is that so? But that’s only natural. That you… that you didn’t know, that’s what’s regrettable.”

Magnus recalled numerous words he wanted to say but swallowed them all.

“You are worthy of being loved. You should have been. It must be upsetting for both the Marquis and you that things went so wrong until now.”

Magnus slowly stroked Serena’s hair while holding onto his reason.

His hand, after running through her hair, slowly caressed down to her back.

“Magnus.”

“Yes.”

“I think if I had heard those words a little earlier, I would have been happy. At least…”

At least if she hadn’t been forced to go to the world where Lemerun was.

If she had heard it before then, she would have tried to survive somehow without giving up hope.

The reunion would have been joyful.

“I couldn’t say anything and just left because I didn’t know how to respond.”

“You can think about it slowly. I’m sure Marquis Lavernia wasn’t expecting an immediate answer.”

The Marquis Lavernia that Magnus knew was quite a patient person.

He probably anticipated failure when starting all this and expected it to take quite a long time.

“Don’t worry. If you have the heart for it, it’s already half done.”

“…My heart?”

“Yes, what do you want to do? Do you want to become closer, or do you want to just live on pretending not to know anything?”

Magnus used a gentle voice, but with somewhat provocative words.

“I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it. Family…”

Serena turned her head and buried her face in Magnus’s chest. Her hot breath stimulated Magnus’s chest.

‘…This is painful in its own way.’

Magnus mentally slapped his brain that wanted to writhe and indulge in desire.

Even if he wanted to suggest being intimate with her, now was not the time.

‘First, listen to her a bit more and after she’s settled…’

Magnus thought as he closed and opened his eyes several times. Fortunately, his blurred vision became clear again.

The only fortunate thing was that Serena had never refused when he suggested that kind of activity.

“I’ve never thought that I would have a family.”

Magnus’s mind snapped to attention at Serena’s words.

He realized it wasn’t the time to stupidly fight with his own desires.

Magnus, quite pleased with Serena clinging to him, carefully chose his words in response to her story.

“Why have you never thought about it?”

Everyone has a family.

It wouldn’t be easy to think that something given to you at birth isn’t yours.

“Well, I’ve never thought that someone would genuinely care for someone like me.”

Serena spoke and then, startled, quickly added more.

“Ah, this is an old thought. Now, I don’t… well, I don’t completely avoid thinking ‘someone like me,’ but I’m trying not to think it much.”

Serena remembered that Magnus really disliked that phrase.

Magnus looked at Serena quietly and then nodded.

“That’s good then.”

Magnus said.

“Yes, anyway… family seemed like a very distant story to me. You know, I’m not cute, and I can’t approach first and act coy… and I don’t have an affectionate personality either.”

Magnus’s expression became strange at Serena’s words.

“You’re not cute?”

“No.”

“You don’t act coy?”

“That’s… right?”

Serena’s expression turned strange in response to his voice that sounded as if he couldn’t believe it.

After she answered with a disgruntled expression, Magnus pulled her up with a very serious face and met her gaze.

“Then what is this you’re doing now? I thought it was completely coy.”

“Uh…? It’s something close to a cushion, like a sense of stability…”

Should she say it feels good because his chest is hard but somehow soft too?

Or should she say it feels like hugging a big heated teddy bear because it’s warm?

As Serena rolled her eyes around trying to answer, Magnus’s expression became subtle.

“Are you saying I’m a cushion?”

“No, just that it feels similar.”

“…I assume that’s a compliment?”

Serena immediately nodded at Magnus’s words. It’s more absurd that it could sound like an insult.

“It’s not an insult.”

“And you are quite cute. Your actions too.”

Serena’s face turned bright red again at Magnus’s direct words.

She lowered her flushed face and buried it in Magnus’s neck.

“You’re too mischievous.”

“…What made you suddenly say that?”

Not knowing is even more mischievous.

Serena sighed and scratched her cheek. She couldn’t even remember where she had left off.

“Hah, anyway, I never thought I would have something like a family and I didn’t live thinking about such things.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Magnus nodded lightly after a short hum in response to Serena’s words.

“So honestly, Father’s words are surprising. I understand intellectually that we’re family and blood-related.”

Serena spoke honestly after a brief hesitation.

“But, still… it’s hard to understand emotionally. I don’t know how to deal with this thing called family.”

“You should deal with it the same way you and I deal with each other.”

Serena blinked a couple of times at Magnus’s words, which he uttered as if it were nothing special.

“Um… like a gorilla and a pig?”

“…Why on earth does it become that kind of story?”

He said as if dumbfounded.

“Never mind then.”

Serena quietly retracted her words. When he said ‘the way you and I deal with each other,’ that was all she could think of.

“Tomorrow is the banquet. You know that, right?”

“Yes.”

“It would be good for you to see it directly. How much has changed.”

Magnus said so and lightly kissed Serena’s cheek.

“So, Serena.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re feeling alright, how about tonight.”

Magnus asked, slowly teasing her lips with his own to seduce her.