Krak!

Classid spoke calmly as if nothing had happened.

“Since I can feel pain, this isn’t a dream.”

Liria quickly removed Kiki from Classid’s arm.

“Kiki! Father is still a patient!”

Liria scolded with a fierce expression.

Classid, who was unconsciously admiring that sight, asked.

“…Is that a beast you’re raising?”

Feeling his gaze, Liria turned to look at Classid.

“Yes. It’s my friend. But is this really not a dream? Are you okay? Does your heart…, does your heart hurt?”

“There’s no pain.”

Classid’s face truly showed no discomfort.

He looked like someone who had just woken up from a night’s sleep.

Father really had awakened.

Like a lie.

And he didn’t even look like he was in pain.

Hair as black as the darkest night without a single light.

Beneath it, red eyes shining like garnets somehow looked sorrowful.

Still, seeing Father awake after so long felt strange.

Though they were both Robergs, Classid’s appearance possessed a superior quality that seemed almost of a different species.

‘He may be my dad, but objectively speaking, he’s too handsome.’

Fine, neat features filling a small face.

A balanced, firm body with broad, square shoulders.

A silhouette that looked like a fashion spread just by lifting his head.

The epitome of ‘perfect from head to toe.’

She found herself staring without realizing it.

“…What’s wrong?”

When Classid asked with a puzzled look, Liria finally shook her head vigorously.

“Ah! It’s nothing. I should let everyone know right away. I’ll bring the physician too. Father, please stay here.”

“…That’s not necessary.”

Classid shook his head.

“Then I’ll at least call for a maid.”

Flap!

Classid threw off the blanket, got completely out of the sickbed, and placed both feet on the floor while speaking.

He seemed to want to show that he was perfectly fine.

“Don’t call anyone. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”

“No way. You still need to be examined!”

Liria walked to the door with small steps. However, Classid caught up to her in one stride.

“Wait.”

Thanks to that, Liria’s small body was caught and lifted up by Classid.

“Huh?”

“…You seem to have gotten smaller.”

The blood-red eyes looking down at Liria narrowed.

“Dad. My clothes are pulling and my stomach hurts.”

“Ah.”

As he quickly put her down on the floor, Liria placed her hands on her waist and said.

“And I haven’t gotten smaller. I’m just the same small size. Well… I still have more growing to do.”

Classid tilted his head.

“Your nanny isn’t starving you, is she?”

“What? That’s ridiculous! Marit takes such good care of me.”

“I see. That’s good then.”

“Hehe.”

Though he showed not a hint of a smile, the mere fact that her father had awakened gave Liria strength.

But had she been too greedy?

Liria gently placed her small, plump maple-leaf hand on top of Classid’s.

There was something she had wanted to tell her father when he woke up.

Words she couldn’t say before.

“I… I like you so much, Father. I’m happy just being able to see you like this. I really missed you!”

Classid’s blood-red eyes momentarily widened with emotion.

Had her feelings reached him?

She clenched her fist tightly, suddenly feeling nervous.

She knew her father wasn’t naturally affectionate, but she had still hoped for at least one warm word.

Classid said nothing.

He merely gazed steadily with his elegantly shining eyes at Liria’s tiny hand resting on his large one.

“Liria, I’m sorry.”

With his brow deeply furrowed, Classid looked extremely pained.

‘What is he sorry for?’

For not telling her that he missed her too?

For falling ill and only now waking up?

Many questions arose, but they got caught in her throat and wouldn’t come out.

Liria blinked and asked.

“Pardon?”

“…You should go now.”

Classid coldly turned his head away.

‘Is that it?’

Liria’s eyes widened, and she froze like a doll.

Even the mana pulsing in her heart seemed to turn ice-blue cold in an instant.

Classid awkwardly ran his hand through his hair and shook off Liria’s hand.

Liria tried to approach and grab his collar, but she couldn’t.

“I want to rest.”

An expressionless, dry face without a trace of emotion.

The father she met after so long had become even colder than her icy grandfather.

He felt strange and distant.

Liria had only been waiting for Classid to wake up.

Was it because he had nearly died?

No, wouldn’t that make one’s emotions stronger?

But Classid seemed to be the opposite.

He had become colder and more distant than before.

Just like someone who had lost all emotion.

Perhaps he had come to value his own life so much that even the existence of his only daughter had become bothersome.

“…I’ll go then.”

Liria left the room hurriedly with Kiki, her eyebrows drooping.

“Maybe it’s because it hasn’t been long since he regained consciousness. Let’s go see him again tomorrow.”

The next day came, and Liria visited Classid’s sickroom again.

However.

“…Don’t come for a while. My mind is completely muddled.”

Classid’s attitude hadn’t changed at all. If anything, it had become even more awkward.

In the original story, after Classid returned from the magical beast subjugation with a hole in his heart, he never regained consciousness. He wasted away and eventually died.

‘Was it my misunderstanding? I thought Classid was an affectionate father… was it just consideration he showed because I was a child?’

After all, he too was of the bloodline of the iron-blooded magic family Roberg…

Or perhaps something had happened on the battlefield during the magical beast subjugation that changed Classid’s mindset.

“Anyway, I can’t just sit here feeling disappointed. There’s only one thing I can do. I need to change Father’s heart.”

Classid was definitely the most trustworthy person in this household after Grandfather.

Liria clenched her small fist and made up her mind.

After staring at Classid’s firmly closed door for a while, Liria turned away with Kiki.

When she went out to the garden, it was still full of blooming chamomile.

As she was looking at Classid’s sick room with her chin resting on her hand, Servants seemed to be going in and out of Classid’s room, and soon there were busy footsteps heading that way.

It looked like the physician, Grandfather, and Aide Emmett among others.

One of the driving forces that had brought Liria this far was the mission to save Classid.

Now it felt like a smoothly sailing ship had temporarily lost its way.

Before trying to change Classid’s heart, there was something she needed to do first.

Liria murmured quietly.

“I want to know Father’s true feelings.”

Swish.

Inside her heart, her mana heart, something bounced with a feeling of popping, and the words she had just spoken echoed in her mind again.

⟨I want to know Father’s true feelings.⟩

“Huh?”

Just then, she felt someone patting her shoulder. It was Kiki who had popped out of her bag.

“Beep! Beep beep!”

“Kiki, just now in my heart… what was that?”

Then Kiki gestured with his hands and feet, telling her to summon the key.

“The key?”