That’s enough talking about the past. Let’s get back to the present.
As I said in the beginning, Ririi has been my daughter for about a year now.
“Ririi, do you want to go visit Miss Horo?”
“Yes! Ririh loves Miss Horo!”
Ririi can pronounce her ‘r’s’ without any problems and have normal conversations. I guess I should thank that high elf brain of hers. She also picked up numbers and counting pretty quickly, and has shown us in Horo’s store that she can handle money pretty well. Maybe it’s even time to start teaching her magic.
“Daddy, let’s go let’s go!”
“Yes yes, hold on a second.”
Ririi is holding on to my clothes and trying to pull me to the entrance.
I grab the hat she wears when we go out and put it on her head, and then I grab her with one arm and use my free hand to clean the table up a little.
“All right, here we go!
“Go!”
I look up, and the weather’s perfect for going out. There’s not a cloud in the sky, but it feels nice and fresh.
“Daddy, it’s nice outside!”
“It really is. I’m sure mister sun loves you too.”
“Really? Hehehe, yay!”
I really like walking down the main street with Ririi in my arms. It’s kind of a senseless happiness.
“Going out! Going out!”
I guess Ririi isn’t afraid of heights, because she spreads her arms wide without feeling the need to hold on to me. That dead-eyed elf girl is nowhere to be found now.
“Daddy, are we buying clothes today?”
“No, we bought them last time.”
“Buh…”
“And sulking will get you nowhere.”
I don’t want to spoil her. I can’t be the kind of parent that does everything his kid says. Letting kids be spoiled will be bad for them in the long run too.
I need to be tough on her for her own sake. And yes, I know this is coming from a guy that left his parents without saying anything to them.
“Please… Just one…”
Ririi is looking at me with tears welling up in her eyes. I can’t take it, so I look away.
“…Just one.”
“Yay! Ririh loves you daddy!”
She hugs my head, and I keep walking toward Horo’s place while trying to keep my balance.
◆
Ring ring.
“Miss Horo! Ririh’s here!”
“Hey Horo. Ririi, don’t run.”
“Yes!”
I put Ririi down, and she starts walking quickly towards the counter, where Horo is. She’s a good girl, and listens when I tell her not to run. I nod in recognition, and follow her.
“Ririi! Full of energy as always uh!?”
“Ririh’s full of energy every day!”
Horo comes out from behind the counter and pats Ririi’s head, and she hugs Horo’s legs with a pleased look on her face.
“And welcome to you too, Weiss.”
“Yes. Sorry for coming here so often.”
“This is a clothing store. I don’t mind if you come here every day.”
“Daddy, can Ririh look at clothes?”
Asks Ririi while looking up at me, still holding on to Horo’s legs.
“Sure. Go for it.”
“Yes!”
Ririi immediately starts walking fast and disappears into the kids’ clothes section, leaving me with Horo.
Horo then starts reminiscing quietly while looking to where Ririi went.
“She really turned out to be a really energetic kid.”
“True.”
“I didn’t know how things were going to turn out when you told me you bought a slave from Gess, but one thing’s for sure, I didn’t expect you to turn into this doting parent.”
“Doting parent? Me? Get outta here.”
I’m pretty strict with how I raise Ririi. She only gets to eat one sweet a day, and helps out around the house without me having to ask. That wouldn’t happen if I was spoiling her.
By the way, Gess died about a month after I bought Ririi. I don’t know the details, but it looks like he got himself involved in some trouble. It’s a pretty common thing in Zenith, and we weren’t friends or anything, so I didn’t really care when I heard.
To me, that just means I get to walk around with Ririi without having to care about him. He respected me and called me bro, so he’d probably think it was strange if he knew that Ririi is my daughter, not my slave.
“The fact that you don’t have any self-awareness just makes it funnier.”
Whispers Horo as she goes back behind the counter.
I turn to her, and start talking about the reason why I came here. It wasn’t to talk about the past, or buy clothes for Ririi.
“I’m thinking about going back to the capital.”
“Ah? Capital? You’re from the capital?”
“Oh? Didn’t I tell you that?”
“It’s the first I’m hearing of it. You never talk about yourself.”
“Really…?”
Well, there’s nothing interesting about my past anyway. There’s no shortage of people here in Zenith with good anecdotes to tell, so I never felt compelled to talk about me.
“So, you’re going back?”
“Yes, I was thinking next month.”
“Hm… I see… But why?”
I don’t know if she’s really interested, but she puts her elbows on the counter and prompts me to continue.
“It’s nothing major… It’s just that there aren’t any schools in Zenith.”
“Yes… I guess that’s true.”
It looks like that makes sense to Horo too.
“There aren’t even any kids here. The kids’ clothes I have stocked are pretty much only for you.”
This town that feels like the end of the world has very few kids, and I’m guessing most are slaves.
And slaves don’t get to go to school, and as a natural consequence, Zenith doesn’t have any institutions like that for kids. It might seem unthinkable, but that’s reality here.
“I want to put Ririi through school. The school I attended is in the capital, and I know a lot of people there.”
“You attended… How come you ended up in Zenith if you come from such a nice place?”
“Well… A lot happened.”
“Meaning you don’t want to talk about it.”
“It’s really not a big deal. I was just kind of being hounded by the ministry of magic.”
“Ministry of magic? That’s pretty serious. Are you sure you can go back?”
They were after me, but it’s not like I did anything wrong. They were just after me as a possible future chief.
“Yes, no worries. In any case, Zenith is just awful for Ririi’s education. There’s no decent people here, and she won’t make any friends in a place like this.”
“I guess you have a point.”
Horo and I aren’t decent either. She nods in agreement with a dry smile on her face.
“Still… I’m nervous about what’s going to happen with you gone.”
“Nervous?”
“Well, in my opinion, this melting pot of villainy maintains its shape as a town somehow because of you. It’s not like you’re holding it down by force, but…”
“Yes… I wonder what’s going to happen…”
Zenith wasn’t like this when I first got here, it was a lot rougher. People couldn’t sell stuff on the main street like they do now.
I started smacking down people causing trouble one after the other, and the town just sort of got back to kind of being a proper town.
That’s why people here call me bro. But whatever, that’s all in the past.
“I’m kind of worried because I’m wondering if this place is going to become just as lawless as it was.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine no matter how rough it gets.”
It’s pretty obvious to me that Horo isn’t your average person.
“But you know, a lot of people aren’t going to be fine.”
“You do something about it then.”
I say, and Horo squints and laughs.
“No way. I don’t have it in me to be a do-gooder like that.”
“Me neither. Zenith is a place where you need to look after yourself. What happens to people here is up to them.”
I honestly don’t care what happens to people I don’t know. I’m not an ally of justice or anything like that.
“So… You’re really going…”
“Yes. But you can call me if it really gets hopeless. I’m not saving people I don’t know, but I’ll come back if I have to save you.”
“What, are you professing your love now?”
Horo says with a grin.
“Consider it a thank you for getting clothes for Ririi for a year. She’d still be naked if it weren’t for you.”
Horo is about to say something, but then Ririi walks in very quickly, holding clothes.
“Daddy, this!”
She hands them to me, and I leave a gold coin on the counter. It should be more than enough, but Horo knows what I’m doing, and doesn’t give me change.
Thanks for looking after us.
“Ririi, what about saying goodbye to Miss Horo?”
“Miss Horo, bye-bye!”
“See you later, Horo.”
“Yes, see you later, Weiss and Ririi.”
Horo says as we leave, with the same smile as always on her face.
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