There’s a girl in front of me with a strange aura to her, that just called me daddy.
And behind her, there are two great spirits emanating a frightful presence.
“…”
“Daddy.”
I would say she’s about five years old, and she looks happy when she calls me daddy. Meanwhile, the pressure coming from the two behind her gets more intense.
“All right.”
I ignore them for now, and crouch to meet the eyes of the girl.
“Hum, can you tell me your name?”
“Me? I don’t have a name yet.”
“…I see. Then why are you calling me daddy?”
She tilts her head like she’s confused.
I think I should be the one doing that.
“Isn’t daddy daddy?”
“No. I don’t think I am…”
As I say that, tears start to well up in her eyes.
“Forget it! Maybe I am daddy!”
I quickly smile and take back what I just said, putting a big smile back on her face.
“Daddy!”
“Oh…”
I catch her as she comes to hug me, and she feels kind of cold.
But then, I hear a low clanking noise.
I turn to face the sound, and see a round thing rolling on the ground that looks like a crystal.
I wonder what it is, so I keep holding her while I pick it up. It’s ice.
“What is… Hn?”
“Zzz…”
The girl suddenly goes limp. Apparently she’s asleep.
“Just doing what you want…”
Everyone I’ve met on this island seem pretty free anyway, but none of them are this young.
Then again, it’s only natural for a child her age to be childish.
“Well then…”
I can’t just lay her on the ground, so I hold her, and turn around.
Mister Guen is stretching his flames way up, and Mister Giarth is spinning the drills in his arms that I guess he got from somewhere.
“Ou ou ou… So Arata…”
“Damn you… You were aiming for that position from the start. We were careless.”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
Really, it is. So please stop that bloodlust.
“Let’s just talk.”
““Can’t.””
These two have really low boiling points. Who said everyone on this island was tolerant?
I did.
“Before we talk, there’s something we have to do.”
“That’s right.”
“You’re kidding? There’s nothing we have to do before talking. Nothing.”
Their magic energy keeps intensifying. It’s actually the largest concentration of magic energy I’ve felt since coming to this island.
Suzaku and Wil can probably produce this too if they get serious, but… Those two are calmer than they look, or I guess they don’t get seriously angry easily.
“Hn…?”
“Ah…”
The girl supposedly sleeping in my arms starts fidgeting like this is annoying.
And then, an intense blizzard attacks the other two.
“Oooooooh!?”
“Oooooooh!?”
They’re quickly frozen, and pushed far away in this prison of darkness.
“Hn.”
The girl sounds happy about it being quiet again, and sleeps in my arms.
And that leaves me standing here.
“What do I do…”
My only option to escape the prison of darkness is brute force, so let’s calm down for a bit.
I’m sure those two will cool their heads eventually, and then I can get them to tell me what’s going on.
And so, I sit down while being careful not to drop her, and wait for them to come back.
“Good grief. What a terrible situation.”
“Just awful…”
After a while, they come back unharmed and I assume feeling calmer, because they’re not shooting out magic energy or glaring at me anymore.
“Welcome back. So, I really don’t understand what’s going on, so can you tell me?”
“…I see.”
“Hm…”
And so, the two men (I’m running off the assumption that Giarth is a man) sit crossed legged on the floor, and talk.
They say it all started when there was a sign that a new great spirit would be born on this island.
There are six great spirits on this island, fire, ice, wind, earth, darkness, and light, but apparently there were more around the world.
It happens on a millennial time frame, but they say it’s common for new great spirits to be born, and to disappear.
And now, a new one was born. An ice great spirit, but…
“Even a great spirit is still a baby when it’s just been born. That’s why the already existing great spirits have to look after them…”
“Usually, the strongest one there is chosen…”
“…”
They stare at me, and I move my eyes away.
So basically, this small great spirit chose me because I’m stronger than them?
From their point of view, who wanted to decide who would be her grandpa before she was born, it’s unacceptable that some random guy showed up all of a sudden and took everything with him.
“So, what are you anyway?”
“Human.”
“Don’t lie.”
I’m not.
Lately people have been treating me like my race is Arata, but I am human.
But if even great spirits don’t treat me like I’m human, I’m really starting to get worried that maybe I really am not human.
“Hum, so I met god, and received some sort of power.”
“Ah, I see. In that case…”
“God can be whimsical.”
I feel like saying that made them understand a little.
I blurted that out without thinking, but could it be that the existence of god is just a regular thing for the inhabitants of this island?
“But that’s that, and this is this.”
“Exactly. I want to be called grandpa.”
Hold on you two, aren’t those desires of yours a bit too strong?
I feel like I just want to solve this situation already, but…
“Ah, I know.”
I have a good idea.
“When she wakes up, let’s try getting her to call Mister Guen grandfather, and Mister Giarth Grandpa.”
“Arata! From today forward, you are my son!”
“You can call me father.”
“Aren’t you two a bit too simple!?”
Well, at least they’ve accepted it. I’m just glad we’re on friendly terms.
“Now the problem is…”
What do I do with this girl that’s holding on to me like a little koala…
“Well, I’m sure it’ll work out.”
It always does.
For now, I’m just glad that it looks like I’ll get along with the two guys looking this way with big smiles on their faces.
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