Father, I Won’t Do Anything

“Since you normally eat only special foods, I suppose you don’t even know how to eat lowly foods like bread that uncivilized humans eat. Hm?”

Jaina blinked her clear eyes at the gaze staring intently at her with chin propped on hand. Was he interested in what dragons ate?

“Are you going to keep watching me? Aren’t you going to eat?”

“Ugh.”

When Jaina spoke softly, Mikael’s face flushed bright red. He coughed awkwardly and replied:

“Hmph, hmm. Does it bother you that I’m staring? Why?”

“You can keep watching if you want to.”

“I wasn’t staring because you bothered me, I was trying to tell you that you must ‘never’ leave food uneaten in the Magic Tower’s dining hall!”

He answered shamelessly, but Mikael’s face showed no signs of settling down. Especially the tips of his ears were like ripe apples.

Anyone else would have looked ridiculous all red and flustered, but Mikael’s sleek appearance didn’t falter in the slightest.

“But you uncouthly took so much bread that you’ll have no choice but to leave some. I warned you clearly. Don’t leave any, you idiot.”

‘Even though he usually hates it so much when other people bother him.’

Mikael, the Tower Lord’s disciple and nephew, greatly disliked the attention of others. Jaina didn’t understand well why he was showing interest in her.

‘Anyway, now that he’s said this much, even if just for his pride, he won’t interfere anymore.’

In fact, when Jaina asked ‘Are you going to keep watching me?’ it wasn’t just because of Mikael.

The people sitting around were all staring this way, sneaking glances, so she deliberately said it loud enough for them to hear, but Mikael alone just flushed and babbled incoherently for nothing.

Anyway, not all the sticky gazes left, but Jaina decided to focus on the food in front of her.

‘Freshly baked white bread… It’s piping hot.’

Jaina tore the white bread with her tiny hands. It was surprising how it tore perfectly even without using much strength.

“Mmm.”

Jaina’s cheeks turned faintly red as she chewed with her squishy cheeks.

‘It’s delicious.’

The thin crust crumbled crispy, but the inside was chewy and soft. As she moved her mouth, the bread was gently chewed.

Bread wasn’t an unfamiliar food to Jaina. It was good for cheap meals, so she ate it often in her previous life. But it was her first time eating freshly baked bread.

The bread she used to eat was mostly old and stale, sold bundled for inventory clearance at stores or with just a new sticker slapped on.

But this bread was different. To think it would have such a chewy and soft texture.

‘How can other people eat bread like this and have no reaction at all?’

This time, Jaina dipped the bread in jam and brought it to her small mouth.

‘Wow.’

Jaina’s eyes sparkled brightly.

‘The bread tastes different depending on the jam too.’

The taste of the accompanying jam was extremely excellent. She had eaten grape jam in her previous life too, but the jam here was somehow different.

‘Delicious. Are there other ingredients mixed in?’

Jaina pondered and realized the jam’s taste differed based on fruit content.

‘It’s really delicious…’

Jaina ate the bread nonstop without any rest, mixing in exclamations in between, and as a result, what Mikael hoped for didn’t happen. Jaina alone ate almost all of that large quantity of bread.

After diligently eating bread for a while, Jaina stopped moving and raised her head.

“…?”

Contrary to his earlier unpleasant expression looking down at Jaina, confusion was now written on Mikael’s face.

“Hey… Shorty, are you crying right now?”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?”

Her eyes were red, and her voice was choked up as if her throat was clogged.

Belatedly realizing it, Jaina firmly shut her chattering mouth.

“Hey. What are you doing that for?”

Mikael was dumbfounded. She was someone who didn’t waver in the slightest even when the Tower Lord denied she was his daughter and he himself had scraped at her so much.

But suddenly she cries while eating bread…?

“You’re seeing wrong.”

Well, to be precise, tears didn’t stream down but welled up and disappeared, but…

Jaina seemed to have calmed down now, her expression blank again.

However, there was still a hint of red on the tip of her tiny nose. Mikael didn’t miss that.

‘Sniffling or crying, it’s the same thing.’

Did she hear harsh words in the dining hall? But if she cried because of that, it would be a matter of wounded pride.

He couldn’t even make this kid cry, but someone else did. Mikael couldn’t accept that.

‘Right, yes. Who else is more eccentric than me except for the Tower Lord.’

Clearly, there must be another reason. For example, if she was physically attacked…

Right. Mikael’s eyes shone with urgency.

“Was there something spicy in the bread?”

“Ah.”

Mikael snatched the white bread Jaina was holding and chewed it aggressively.

But it was just plain white bread.

The bread that always came out in the dining hall, nothing more, nothing less. His brows grew dry.

This time Mikael turned his gaze to the jam.

‘Is it not the bread but the jam?’

But the jam was the same. There was no difference from usual. Mikael tilted his head.

“What, the bread and jam are both fine though.”

Mikael, chewing bread with a disinterested face, was startled to see Jaina.

“…”

Because Jaina’s face, who had her bread and jam taken away, looked quite devastated. That calm expression from before had crumbled as if she lost the world.

Yes, would it be right to say a face as if she lost the whole world?

With her mouth blankly open, reaching out with short arms that wouldn’t even reach him, Mikael found it utterly pathetic.

“…”

After fidgeting her hand with trembling eyes for a moment, Jaina returned to an expressionless face and spoke softly:

“I can get more bread, right?”

There wasn’t a set limit on the amount of food one could eat in the dining hall.

Somehow unable to ignore the question, Mikael nodded reflexively.

* * *

“What am I looking at right now?”

Mikael gaped as he watched Jaina moving her hands nonstop. He couldn’t take his eyes off Jaina’s chubby cheeks until the end.

“How do you even eat all that? Are you a monster? Are you really hum-“

As he continued talking, Mikael flinched and snapped his fingers.

Jaina could tell he used a sound-blocking spell so others nearby wouldn’t hear.

“Damn it, I almost misspoke with so many people around.”

But it was something shocking enough to surprise anyone watching.

The fact that a ten-year-old tiny child consecutively devoured twenty-five fist-sized bread rolls was no ordinary matter.

Jaina calmly spoke while chewing bread.

“I didn’t expect you to ask me if I was human.”

“What does it matter if your mother is a dragon. Even if you’re a half-blood, shorty, you look a couple years younger than your age.”

“Right now I have a human appearance, but I’m originally a dragon. Before transforming, I weigh hundreds of kilos. I don’t know the exact weight since I haven’t measured.”

Information about the dragon tribe was shrouded in so much secrecy that even Mikael, the Tower Lord’s disciple, couldn’t know in detail.

Jaina, in a pretty good mood after eating delicious bread, decided to kindly explain.

“Currently I’ve reduced my weight since I’m in human form, but considering my original physique, I need to eat at least this much every day.”

However, when Jaina was in the dragon village, she couldn’t have such high-quality meals.

Because the relatives would intentionally not prepare food just for Jaina, or give her inferior quality food.

Having to eat a lot, but when the food was so disgusting it made her retch, it was truly agonizing.

‘Using food to be petty was worse than harsh words.’

Jaina surreptitiously glanced around at the magicians gaping at the pile of empty plates in the corner.

In fact, thanks to magical power, eating just a little was enough to sustain life, but Jaina didn’t want to do that.

The reason she obediently came to the Magic Tower and didn’t say anything to Diamid was not so much to live, but to enjoy small luxuries for her remaining time.

‘Well, it’s not like I used magic or revealed my true form, so it shouldn’t be a big issue.’

This was the first time she had eaten such delicious bread.

And at that moment when Jaina took a big bite of bread.

“…?”

Jaina suddenly felt a tingling gaze directed at her and whipped her head around.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing, suddenly stopping while eating like you’ll chew up the plate?”

It was different from people sneaking curious glances.

‘How should I put it… It felt like a thick, sticky gaze…’

Jaina looked around where she felt the gaze for a bit, then turned back to the front.

“No. I think I was mistaken.”

The keen senses unique to dragons were good, but sometimes they were overly sensitive and caused misperceptions.

Mikael pointed somewhere with his chin.

“Wasn’t that old hag glaring at you because she was waiting for you to leave leftovers and got disappointed?”

In the direction Mikael pointed, a woman was leaning against the wall with arms crossed.

When the two stared intently, she disappeared into the kitchen. Mikael snickered at the sight.

“She seemed peeved.”

Jaina knew the reason Mikael earnestly advised her not to leave food.

Because ‘Hilvenzia of the Green’, the chef and alchemist of this Magic Tower, never forgave those who left her food unfinished.

‘But… The direction of the gaze seemed subtly different.’

Jaina vacantly stared that way, then turned her head again.