Father, I Won’t Do Anything

* * *

No one entered the reception room for a long time.

Quite a while passed, but Jaina, who was pondering how to spend her remaining life, didn’t even notice the time going by.

‘Since it’s a Magic Tower, at least they won’t let me starve, right? There should be lots of books stacked up too…’

She thought that maybe, rather than drifting between relatives who only tormented her, living neglected but freely in the Magic Tower might be better for her.

Click.

“You’ll have to pay a heavy price for wasting my time.”

It was then, as Jaina was organizing her thoughts. Breaking the silence of the reception room, a chilly and dry voice was heard.

“Is this the one who was claimed to be my daughter?”

Tall height, a sturdy but lithe muscular frame, a loose hood and long black hair.

An intense and heavy presence that nearly took her breath away emanated from the man before her eyes.

He wore a bored expression, but just meeting his gaze seemed to make her whole body break out in goosebumps.

The Lord of the Magic Tower, Diamid Bellafanian.

It was the appearance of her father.

The boy who followed behind Diamid read the letter and said:

“The now deceased Black Night dragon Bezrice said that the Magic Tower Lord is this child’s father. Of course, that’s what the dragon tribe asserts.”

“Bezrice…”

An indecipherable light flickered in Diamid’s eyes. The corners of his lips curled up coldly.

It was then that Diamid, who had been standing at a distance, strode over with his long legs.

“Yes. She certainly resembles her mother.”

He drew very close and looked down at Jaina as if appraising her.

“An appearance that can’t be called of the Black Night clan nor the Blue Sky clan.”

As the distance closed, the size difference between the two was felt even more starkly.

It felt like the overwhelming pressure emanating from him had thickened.

“I understand why the dragons are trying to kill you, calling you a symbol of impurity. Eyes that aren’t black in color are direct proof of mixed blood.”

Secret after secret unknown to humans poured from Diamid’s mouth.

The fact that the dragon tribe was divided into several clans, and that half-blood dragons had different eye colors were all details not known to outsiders.

Jaina could newly feel the reality that the man before her eyes had been her mother’s lover. Because those were all things one absolutely couldn’t know without hearing directly from a dragon’s mouth.

The other party must have felt the same, as Jaina felt Diamid’s gaze sharply boring into her face.

‘…Why can’t I look away from those eyes?’

Like that, their gazes remained locked for a rather long moment.

‘Our eyes seem similar.’

Like that, their gazes remained locked for a rather long moment, and Jaina could feel a fleeting sense of kinship in those alien features that she wouldn’t have thought resembled her if she hadn’t been told beforehand that he was her father.

A bright blue that could be compared to high-purity sapphire.

Perhaps Diamid was thinking the same thing.

A familiar word was heard from his mouth.

“Blue eyes…”

However, Jaina could immediately realize that it had been her misunderstanding.

“But that’s not proof that you’re my daughter.”

In an instant, Diamid sliced away the faint intimacy Jaina had felt. His voice held not a shred of lingering attachment.

The boy standing behind him also seemed to not have expected such a reaction, glancing back and forth between Jaina and Diamid with a flustered expression.

“A woman knows it’s her child since she directly gives birth, but a man can’t know for sure.”

Surely he too had counted the stars in the night sky with his lovers and smiled while whispering words of love. That’s why Jaina was here now, and yet…

His voice as he mercilessly crushed the time he had spent with his beloved woman was strangely calm.

Sharp jawline, distinct nose bridge, long lashes. And in that perfect face, blue eyes like embedded jewels.

His appearance, like a sculpted statue of an angel, was very unrealistic, but…

To Jaina, even more unfamiliar than that was his heart in which not a shred of emotion could be found.

To the point she wondered if to Diamid, other people were more trivial and unnecessary than ants.

‘Well, he is someone who let his own daughter die.’

He who had the power to make even emperors kneel before him if he so wished and destroy empires, had neglected and turned a blind eye to his own daughter.

Even though he could have easily saved that frail life.

The boy who had been silently watching the two from behind with pursed lips cautiously opened his mouth.

“I heard that dragon was the Tower Lord’s lover. Are you suspecting she carried another man’s child?”

“Is there anything absolute in this world?”

Following that, a contemptuous gaze bore piercingly into Jaina.

At that moment, Jaina trembled as she felt a chill run down her spine.

“That woman could have had a child with another human man.”

“Indeed, it’s been ten years since you left to slay the Demon King… If this child was the Tower Lord’s daughter, she should be around ten, but she looks even younger than that. The dragon tribe could have lied about her age by a year or two.”

Jaina looked down at her skinny wrist.

Because her growth was slow, she did certainly look young for her age.

“Even if she really is ten, is there any guarantee she’s my child?”

The boy nodded at Diamid’s cold words.

“Certainly, besides hair and eye color, she doesn’t resemble the Tower Lord at all.”

“That woman’s hair was also black.”

“Ah yes, you said she was from the Black Night clan. Then it’s even harder to believe. There were rumors that the dragon tribe’s circumstances have been unfavorable lately, so maybe that’s why…”

The boy took up Diamid’s words in a somewhat delighted voice.

But soon, he returned to his original stance and asked Diamid:

“Shall I order the magicians of the tower to research a magic paternity test? It seems like a ploy by the dragon tribe, but just in case she might turn out to be the Tower Lord’s daughter.”

“There’s no need.”

“Pardon?”

“Dragons are not serious when it comes to humans in the first place.”

Diamid’s eyes that had darkened returned to their original boredom. With his face back to its usual indifferent state, he said:

“So there’s no need for us to take this seriously either.”

As he turned away from Jaina, Diamid quietly murmured.

“I don’t know what expectations you came here with… How amusing.”

That was the first thing he said directly to Jaina.

Her father whom she met for the first time in this life.

The encounter with Diamid Bellafanian ended in the blink of an eye like that.

* * *

“Wow. I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

As Diamid left the room, the boy behind him shrugged and said. His voice was bold, unlike when Diamid was present.

“The cleanup always falls to me. It’s really a pain.”

The boy who instantly changed his attitude as if flipping a page soon sat down in front of Jaina without reserve.

“The Tower Lord left without a word. Now what should I do with you? Hm?”

As the boy tilted his head slightly, his golden hair caught in the sunlight sparkled like flowers in full bloom.

His eyes, contrasting that bright color, were the same deep sea color as hers.

“Tell me. Hey. Ashrid?”

At the words calling to her, Jaina spoke for the first time.

“That name isn’t my real name. The relatives just arbitrarily call me that, saying my real name reeks of human. in the Magic Tower, I’d like to be called  ‘Jaina’, the name my mother gave me.”

It seemed the relatives had mistakenly told the magicians of the tower that her name was ‘Ashrid’ instead of ‘Jaina.’

“You have two names? Terribly fussy, aren’t you? Besides, are you ordering me around like this? What if I say I won’t call you that, shorty?”

Mikael smiled crookedly, curving his picturesque eyes.

“I saw in the letter that your mother passed away early? Then you must have had high hopes coming to meet your father. It must feel awful to have the father you sought out expecting a welcome treat you so coldly.”

Finishing his words, Mikael burst into laughter again, covering his mouth.

“But it’s not like there’s anything you can do about it. Because you’re weak. Because you’re useless.”

Mikael’s eyes and the corners of his mouth were deeply imbued with an emotion of being too delighted to bear.

“In the end, you couldn’t say a word to the Tower Lord? But you did well. If you had even pretended to open your mouth, your head would have been cut off in an instant.”

The boy before her eyes, while looking young, exuded a dizzying, lascivious beauty.

His bright eye smile was enough to relax one’s guard, but Jaina instead heightened her wariness.

Because she already knew that unlike his beautiful appearance, the other party’s character wasn’t admirable.

‘Mikael Bellafanian.’

In , he was the right-hand man and nephew of the Diamid, the final boss, and the person who contributed the most to his evil deeds.

The novel depicted that after losing his parents, he became twisted from only obsessing over achieving.

‘His age this year was eighteen, I think? So for now, he’s my cousin.’

Around ten years later, when the protagonist’s mother dies, he grows into a fine villain, but that’s a story for much later. Right now, he was no more and no less than a magician belonging to the Magic Tower.

‘But even if he hasn’t committed any great evil deeds yet, I can tell he doesn’t have a good personality.’

Jaina, who had been quietly listening to him, spoke to Mikael in an unperturbed voice.

“I suppose so.”

And then she slurped the tea that had gone cold.

“…?”

A single line.

Compared to Mikael who had been speaking nonstop without resting for even an hour, it was an absurdly short reply.

Because there was nothing else to say.