“Daddy! Listen listen!”
Ririi gets home from her test, and runs over to me without even putting down her backpack, and while starting to talk about something.
She looks really cute talking with a happy tone while gesturing. I almost stay quiet and listen, but contain that urge.
“Wait Ririi, wait. What do we say when we get home?”
“Ririh’s home. And you know, Lain…”
She starts again, like she’s dying to talk about it. I take her backpack while listening to her, and then her hat and robe… And notice that the hem of her skirt is dirty with mud.
“Hey hey Ririi. What happened?”
“Marks of adventure! A lot happened today!”
She says as she puffs out her chest with pride. I’m happy my daughter’s happy, but we need to get her clean. She really likes those clothes, so it’d be a shame if they were stained.
“So you worked hard today? Let’s change clothes first.”
“Yes! And there was this big bouncy and…”
“…Yes yes… That’s great. Raise your arms for me… There you go.”
She’s not taking her own clothes off, so I do it while she talks. This dirt… Should probably come off if we clean it. That’s good at least.
Wait… I feel like she just said something incredible. Did I mishear her? Did she say something about a big bouncy…?
“Wait. Did you say something about a big bouncy?”
“Yes! A really big bouncy! Hum… Thiiiis big!”
She spreads her arms, and jumps from the sofa to show how big it was. She doesn’t actually gain a lot of height from that, but judging by where she was looking when she spread her arms, I can tell it must’ve been really big.
A slime much bigger than a person… A slime king? I’ve never heard of any slime king in that forest.
“And then what happened with the big bouncy?”
“Ririh took it down with magic!”
“You did!?”
Slime kings don’t have a lot of offensive power, but they have high defense, and can regenerate even if they lose most of their bodies. To defeat one, you need to blow its entire body away with powerful magic in one go. They’re B ranked monsters that would be next to impossible for even an upperclassman to defeat alone.
“Yes! But… A lot of the forest got destroyed… The teacher said not to worry, but…”
“…Are you serious?”
I’m frozen in place.
I can picture the type of magic needed to take down a smile king burning a good chunk of the forest. I should go have a look later…
…Wait, what do you mean don’t worry? Are you being lenient because you also blew away the forest, Miss Esmeralda? What do you think nature is?
“…Ririh, didn’t want to do it. But then Ririh remembered what you said, and wanted to fight.”
“What I said?”
“To fight only to help.”
“…Ah…”
We talked about that a week ago, I think. That was my one idea when she said she didn’t want to fight slime.
“And… Did you manage to do it?”
“Yes! Hum, and Ririh made Ririh’s first friend too! Lain!”
“I see! That’s great!”
“W-wabuh!”
I hug her tightly without thinking.
“Daddy… Can’t breathe…”
“Hahaha, sorry sorry. But you did really well, Ririi.”
I’m even happier than Ririi herself about her making a friend. My number one goal in moving to the capital was for her to make friends her own age. I’m sure she wouldn’t be showing me this smile if we stayed in Zenith.
“Ririh talked lots with Lain while we adventured! Ririh was number one in the test too, because Ririh took down that big bouncy. And Lain praised Ririh too.”
Ririi shakes her body with excitement in my arms. I can’t contain myself, and run around the room while holding her.
I guess today for once, people would be right to call me an overly doting father.
◆
“…Isn’t she coming today?”
Sieglinde comes by every day like clockwork, but not today. And today of all days, when I have so much to tell her about Ririi.
Speaking of Ririi, she’s sleeping now, probably because she was very tired from her test. Beary is also looking sleepy, curled up on his rug.
That leaves me with nothing to do, and bored.
“…Maybe I’ll sleep too. All that excitement earlier today left me tired.”
I feel like this isn’t really how I wanted it to go, but I don’t have anyone to talk to, so there’s nothing I can do about it.
I turn off the lights in the living room… Or at least I’m about to, when suddenly the doorbell rings.
“Is she here!?”
I run to the entrance, and open the door with more energy than usual.
“…I had a fight with my parents. Sorry, but can I stay here?”
What I see when I open the door, is Sieglinde carrying a lot of luggage.
Thank you for reading so far. This is the end of part two, and the last chapter out so far.
I’ll start posting again when new chapters come out.
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Thanks for the great read, Hidamarisou. Unfortunate that the author stopped updating. Boo.
Oh! Is that what happened? I guess they ran out of ideas or lost interest.