Father, I Won’t Do Anything

“My apologies for the abrupt interruption. There was a sudden report… It seems a non-human who wants to become a squire has entered, causing a commotion in the Magic Tower lobby.”

Mikael gulped hard. Diamid’s delayed response only heightened his anxiety.

“What should we do about this non-human prospective squire?”

* * *

It was an unremarkable evening like any other.

“I thought the color meant it was sauce. But this is actually offal.”

“We eat the offal too?”

“Yes, scrape it with your fork like this and eat it with the meat…”

Jaina was learning from Hilvenzia how to eat an unfamiliar dish.

It was an etiquette lesson that also covered using forks, knives, and dining protocol.

Though initially seeming bothersome, listening to the reasoning behind such manners proved quite intriguing.

“How is the taste?”

“It’sh delishush!”

With bulging cheeks, Jaina vigorously nodded her head.

A look of pride gradually blossomed on Hilvenzia’s face as she watched Jaina.

No matter the daily fare, Jaina never forgot to politely express her gratitude.

“Thank you as always, Lady Hilvenzia.”

“What for. This is the first time in my life that I have had the pleasure of feeding someone like this.”

Unlike her usual wry smiles, Hilvenzia smiled easily.

She then playfully poked Jaina’s plump cheek.

Poke!

“Like a squirrel with its cheeks stuffed full of acorns.”

“I’m not as cute as a squirrel.”

“Oh, Jaina. Are you questioning my taste now?”

Amid their lively banter, the previously excluded Mikael jabbed sarcastically as he stabbed at his food with a fork:

“You enjoy preying on children?”

“Oh my, do you even know how to prepare what you’re eating?”

“What’s so important about eating in life anyway?”

Hilvenzia chuckled leisurely.

“Well, before that, did you never learn how to charm someone?”

“You old hag…”

“Our Mikael has no friends, no lover. Who will bury him when he dies?”

Though Mikael glared at Hilvenzia, she paid him no mind, her chin propped up as she smiled radiantly at Jaina alone.

A potentially awkward situation for others.

Munch munch.

But Jaina remained unfazed, diligently eating away.

Such intense atmospheres were nothing new, already the dozens of times she had witnessed it.

Moreover, the two maintained a certain decorum when dining with Jaina, preventing full-blown conflicts.

However, there were occasional instances when Mikael crossed the line.

Bang!

Mikael slammed the table with his fist as he stood up.

“You crone. Let’s fight it out, see who wins.”

“Isn’t fighting me all you ever do?”

“Aargh, it’s because you keep provoking me with that smug attitude!”

And amid it all, Jaina sat with a bewildered expression.

“Shrimp…”

Jaina wistfully eyed the shrimp that had flown off her plate and onto the floor.

She had just peeled off the shell and was about to eat it with her fork.

“Sir Mikael…”

Unintentionally, Jaina had been struck by the projectile Mikael had flung.

“Ah, no I didn’t…”

“Poor shrimp.”

At Jaina’s plaintive voice, Mikael seemed quite taken aback.

“Didn’t you know not to play with food, sir Mikael?”

Though new to him, Jaina’s matter-of-fact tone left Mikael unable to refute her as he stammered.

“That’s…”

“Tsk, noisier at eighteen than ten years old.”

With a concerned look, Hilvenzia sighed deeply.

“I can’t tell if it’s the little sister being mature or the big brother being childish.”

“Shut up!”

“If we’re calling it as it is, you’re the loudest of them all.”

Mikael’s face flushed crimson. He always felt mocked whenever arguing with Hilvenzia.

Mikael looked to Jaina for support, but she ignored him, focused on eating – or perhaps deliberately, due to the fallen shrimp.

“Dammit…”

Feeling utterly humiliated at his defeat, Mikael felt a strong need to turn the situation around.

And that opportunity soon arrived.

In an entirely unexpected manner.

“The Tower Lord is here!”

Hilvenzia’s previously relaxed expression hardened.

Lastly, Jaina, whose attention had been absorbed by her meal, widened her eyes in surprise as well.

The entire dining hall erupted in commotion at the Tower Lord’s appearance.

But that wasn’t all.

“Is that a non-human standing beside him…?”

“Surely he didn’t actually accept him as a squire?”

Murmurs murmurs.

Though everyone tried to speak discreetly, their voices gradually escalated.

Jaina silently gazed toward Diamid.

‘Does the Tower Lord have any reason to come to the dining hall?’

‘Doesn’t he always sustain himself solely on potions?’

Jaina, Mikael, and Hilvenzia rapidly exchanged glances.

The playful air from moments ago instantly dissipated.

No matter how they tried to convince themselves it was nothing, seeing Diamid directly across unsettled them.

Coincidentally, Diamid and Izren were seated in plain view of the three.

“…”

It felt like the food they had swallowed was caught in their throats, impossible to ignore no matter how hard they tried.

Mikael and Hilvenzia whispered at a volume audible only to Jaina.

“The Tower Lord must be nearing his end.”

“Maybe one of my potions accidentally went to the Tower Lord.”

With her keen observational skills, Hilvenzia remarked:

“The Tower Lord hasn’t touched his food at all. Though that’s normal for him, why would he come all the way down to the dining hall… unless…”

Trailing off, she eyed the lone figure eating – Izren, seated with his back toward them.

Bewildered, Mikael asked:

“You can’t mean the Tower Lord personally came to the dining hall to attend to a squire?”

“A squire, you say?”

“Well, you see…”

Mikael explained the previous day’s events to Hilvenzia. Her eyes widened as she asked in turn:

“So the Tower Lord really did accept a non-human as a squire?”

“I’m not sure either. I conveyed it expecting an obvious rejection…”

“Are you certain he accepted him as a squire? Absolutely sure?”

“But if not a squire, why would he have him beside him?”

Their exchange soon escalated into an argument.

Yet undoubtedly, Jaina was the most shaken.

Izren’s presence in the Magic Tower meant Diamid had accepted him as a squire, deviating from the original story’s events.

Her reflection surfaced in the steaming goat milk tea she had prepared in advance to chill.

‘Could this be because of me, altering the novel’s course?’

Had her intention to spend her remaining days indulging in small luxuries at the Magic Tower triggered a butterfly effect, prompting Diamid’s actions?

‘Could the Tower Lord be using Izren to target me somehow…’

But Diamid already possessed the ability to toy with her as he pleased.

There was no need to involve a non-human squire.

‘I may be overestimating my significance.’

So absorbed in her contemplations, Jaina failed to notice the two who had been raising their voices fall silent.

‘We needlessly bickered right beside Jaina. She must already be troubled enough.’

‘How must she feel, seeing the father who never acknowledged her arrive with a squire?’

Mikael and Hilvenzia’s eyes dimmed with concern.

The two parted their lips as if to speak, but soon closed them again.

‘Jaina, who was always so composed… seems shaken this time.’

‘For her to be this quiet is quite unlike her.’

Of course, their actual thoughts differed.

‘If I try to fetch dessert now while she’s distracted, she might notice.’

With a sullen pout, Jaina chewed loudly with the fork in her mouth.

“Jaina. If you do that, your lips will get chapped…”

Hilvenzia began worriedly, but trailed off as the surrounding voices swelled once more.

“How can that be human? Its eyes are completely different.”

“It must have been born between a human and a beast. No way its bloodline is pure.”

As she listened to the diners’ chatter, a thought flashed through Hilvenzia’s mind.

Non-humans were persecuted because of their eyes, born with gem-like irises unlike humans’.

Jaina was no different, having faced ostracism from the dragons due to her differing hair and eye color.

‘Could it be… the Tower Lord sees Jaina and the non-human as the same?’

No, surely not Diamid of all people.

Hilvenzia quickly dismissed her own conjecture.

* * *

“Brother, it’s been a while. Have you been well?”

“Who are you calling ‘brother’? Don’t be so familiar.”

“Very well, I shall omit the honorific as you wish.”

That afternoon, Rosian visited the Magic Tower for the first time in a long while.

Though family visitations were normally only allowed under special circumstances, Mikael’s sparse use of the privilege meant Rosian could come anytime.

In truth, Mikael disliked this family visitation system.

Having lost his parents at a young age, and with his sole relative being the icy Diamid, familial bonds held no meaning for him. His staying beside Diamid was merely to temporarily leech off his power – had the man not been formidable, Mikael would never have associated with him.

‘Blood relations that you can’t choose at birth.’

Hence, Mikael had never placed any value on ‘family’ until recently.

‘Though things might be slightly different now.’

Mikael glanced down at Jaina.

From his taller vantage point, the back of her petite head gleamed glossily.

‘Come to think of it, she does rather resemble a squirrel like the old hag said.’

No, since she’s a dragon, would a lizard be more accurate?

Then again, they both had tails, so maybe it was a toss-up.

“Aargh…”

The warmth in Mikael’s gaze as he watched Jaina soon turned sinister.

Though his aunt Princess Elia had paid him more attention than Diamid, her approach had been far from desirable.

Her every action had only served to discomfort Mikael.

Forcing him into ridiculous outfits for balls, demanding he memorize entire noble genealogies by rote.

But her most infuriating demand was for him to become a noble of the Empire – a notion that had recently shifted because of a new subject: his half-cousin Rosian.