When Eric tilted his head at the incomprehensible question, the girl also tilted her head in response. This caused her light golden hair, like silver threads, to cascade over one shoulder with a silky flow. It was like sunshine pouring down.

“Are you a spirit of sunlight?”

He only asked because she looked like a fairy. But could she have misunderstood it as something offensive?

The girl’s fair face suddenly seemed to turn pale and then…

“Dad!”

…she shouted and ran back the way she had come.

‘Why is she acting like that?’

Worried, Eric tried to follow her but stopped when he heard a voice from behind.

“Eric!”

It was Mom.

“I told you not to go far.”

When he turned around, his mother was running toward him, snorting like a bull.

“Come slowly. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Not going anywhere? I’m chasing you because you already went somewhere.”

“But Mom……”

Eric whispered into his mother’s ear as she ran up beside him, panting heavily.

“I met a spirit.”

Eric’s eyes were fixed on the end of the path where the girl had disappeared.

* * *

How far had she come?

“Dad!”

Only after running until she was out of breath did she see the rock where she had parted from her father.

“Elodie, I told you to wait here. Where did you go?”

But Elodie didn’t answer the question and instead threw herself into her father’s arms, whispering in a frightened voice:

“Someone called Elodie a spirit.”

“A spirit?”

Right now, that word from the unfamiliar boy scared her more than the faint smell of blood coming from her father.

“Who?”

The man lifted Elodie up and looked down the path she had come from, but there was no one there.

“A boy with black hair like Dad’s and bright blue eyes.”

A boy with black hair like mine and bright blue eyes?

Such appearances are common. She must have encountered a little boy playing in the forest.

Roderick had no idea what he was missing.

“He probably said that because Elodie is as pretty as a spirit.”

“Really?”

After finally calming the frightened Elodie, they continued walking. Before long, they began to hear faint rustling sounds from the forest.

‘Could there still be pursuers left?’

While walking cautiously along the forest path, Roderick spotted the source of the sound deep in the forest and felt relieved. It was a boy with jet-black hair.

‘Is that the child Elodie mentioned?’

Next to the boy was a woman wearing a straw hat, who might have been his mother or sister, both crouching with their backs turned. Neither seemed to pose any threat to them.

“Excuse me……”

So he could address them without suspicion. He wanted to ask the way to the gateway city of the mountain range.

But the woman and child didn’t seem to hear him as they stood up and disappeared into the forest.

He didn’t bother following them to ask. He didn’t want to be mistaken for a criminal. He was already tired of being mistaken for a kidnapper while traveling with a girl who didn’t resemble him, so he wanted no more misunderstandings.

He was about to take out a map from his bag when fortunately, a signpost appeared. Looking at the fork in the road and the sign, he chose a different direction from his original destination.

It would be safer to take a detour for now.

“Elodie, we’ll be able to sleep in a soft bed tonight.”

“Wow, that’s great.”

“And we can probably stay for a few days.”

“Did Dad win?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Wow, that’s great too.”

The conversation between the two, walking hand in hand like any father and daughter, was not at all like that of an ordinary father and daughter.

* * *

“I’m certain.”

Eric chattered as he placed spoons and forks on the small round table.

“It must have been a spirit of sunlight.”

“As I’ve said many times, ordinary humans can’t see spirits, Eric.”

“Mom, you have no romance.”

“Romance doesn’t put meat on the table, does it?”

Erica stuck out her tongue as she placed meat fresh from the oven onto the table.

‘No romance, he says. Where did he learn to talk like that?’

Not realizing it was something she herself had once said.

“I’m telling you it really was a spirit!”

“Yes, yes. Let’s just say she was a girl as pretty as a spirit.”

“Nooo.”

Eric sat in his chair at the table and stomped his feet.

“I saw it clearly with these two eyes!”

You sound like a servant from a historical drama. What did you see clearly with your two eyes?

“No talking while eating.”

“…Yes.”

The sunlight spirit talk, which had momentarily stopped in front of the meat, resumed as soon as the meat had disappeared into his stomach.

“But when I asked if she was a spirit of sunlight, why did she run away?”

“Well, I wonder why?”

“I know. She ran away because she really was a spirit. Her hair sparkled like sunshine.”

Seeing how he kept talking about a girl he had only briefly encountered, even while lying down to sleep, she must have been quite pretty.

‘Is he starting to become interested in the opposite s*x?’

Perhaps the time had finally come to instill proper and moral views about relationships.

“Even if you meant it as a compliment, it might not have been one to her.”

“Why?”

“For example, if she’s afraid of spirits……”

“Ah……”

Never do what someone else dislikes. While teaching these basic principles, Eric suddenly said something completely unrelated, making her wonder if he was really listening.

“But do you know what she said to me?”

“What did she say?”

“She asked if Dad had shrunk.”

What does that mean?

That girl seemed to have a different way of thinking than others.

* * *

“Stay close to me since there are a lot of people.”

“Okay.”

The next morning, Erica took Eric’s hand and headed to the nearby market.

“Little one, wouldn’t you like to take home a cute puppy?”

As they passed through the bustling market, an old woman crouching in front of a basket full of squirming puppies beckoned to them. Erica pulled Eric’s hand as he was already trying to stop, enchanted by the puppies.

“I’m telling you in advance, no.”

Eric’s lips protruded like a duck’s as he reluctantly let himself be pulled along.

“Then when can we have one?”

“Someday when we move to a house with a big yard.”

“When will that be?”

“When Mom saves enough money to buy a big house?”

“And when will that be?”