LIGHTNOVELONLINE (Chpt. 35.5) Warm welcome.
“This is useless… Totally useless!” I clenched my fist and looked at my desk.
BANG.
Where is my daughter… It has been one week since she… since she disappeared. Why… Just, what did I do to deserve this!? Was I a bad father?! Yes… That must be it. There is no other way… This is god’s punishment for a sinner like me. I am not religious, but dear god. I hope my daughter is fine. I want her to be fine. I want to see her. I will no longer care about noble etiquette. I will only care about her well being. I will on—
Slam.
“Lord Firil!” A panting butler (Gerard) that had jolted into the room breathlessly exclaimed.
“... W-What?” That was…
“My lord… I-I have come to report… I, I was by the gates and I think I saw milady!” Gerard informed me. I jolted from my seat and looked at him for a second before ringing the master bell and issuing orders to some other butler. I still had questions to ask.
After asking a few questions I asked Gerard to bring her safe—he left shortly after.
* * *
It has been quite a while and Gerard is not back. What happened? I want to see my daughter. However, I don’t really know what to do now. What if Gerard ran into trouble? That would not be a desirable outcome. I want to see Cecil, but do I even deserve to see her at this point?
As I was questioning myself, I heard the door open.
“Milady. Cecil, is back!”
Gerard joyously exclaimed. I froze and jolted from my seat. Not believing what he just said. I saw her peeking from the door, she was shaking and looking at me with teary eyes. I wanted her to know how sorry I was. She looked at me fixedly expecting something. However, that look in her eyes was of fear… At that moment, I remembered... I remembered all of the things I had done for the sake of the family and not for my daughter. I had made up my mind. I walked across the room and stood in front of her. She just looked at me in hopelessness making me slightly flinch.
“My daughter. No, Cecil. I am sorry,” I regretfully said as I knelt looking at the ground. I could not see her expression, all I heard was silence.
“What are you sorry about? I should be the one apologizing…” she quietly said. However, I just grit my teeth. That was not true. I started shaking my head.
“No, I am sorry… for everything… for neglecting you… for not paying attention… for—”
I paused as I heard some sniffling. I lifted my head up.
“No…" she quietly shook her head before looking at me teary-eyed. "That’s a lie!”
She sprinted out of the room in dismay. Leaving me with a wide-open mouth. Gerard was frozen. I just did not know what to do… No, there was nothing to do. I had done everything in the worst way possible. Over the last few days, I had been questioning myself, however, no matter how much I thought about it. I was the one that was wrong. I stood up and tried to straighten myself, but it was hard with such a dagger in my chest.
“My lord…”
“Don’t mind it.” I quietly shook my head. Gerard started fidgeting and sweating. I just looked at him not knowing what it was all about. His shoulders were tense.
“My lord… You have guests…” he informed me.
“I don’t remember having visits scheduled,” he just shook his head in response to my statement.
“They are the adventurers that rescued Cecil, and… I had the guards point their spears at them…” So that’s how it was… I normally would be mad about it, but seeing my daughter again is priceless. I noticed Gerard was sweating as he waited for my reply. I placed my hand on Gerard’s shoulder and firmly looked at him in the eyes.
“Don’t worry about it, let’s go see them,” I quietly said as I started walking out of the room. I would have liked to go with my daughter to see if she was fine. But she needed her time alone, she needed to think. I had failed, but I won’t fail again. Not this hard…
“Gerard, what kind of adventurers are they?” I curiously asked him.
“Emm… I don’t know… they are all girls,” Gerard told me the only thing he knew. I don’t know what kind of thing happened, but I will see what actually happened later.
Although… All girls? Are they going to be like those female adventurers I saw once that looked stronger and more masculine than most of the guards at the noble council? Just thinking about it makes me shiver… But guests are guests, and they did save my daughter. I ought to compensate them properly. They are guests of honor, yes.
“Anything I need to know about the guests?” I asked Gerard as we walked down the hallway.
“I guess the only important part is. One of them has a wolf monster as a pet? It seems to be tamed but it’s way too relaxed to even be tamed,” Gerard informed me as he second-guessed himself. It was still valuable information. Being scared by a wolf in the room would make me look bad, so I had to prepare myself for it.
I kept silently walking with Gerard behind me. Eventually, we arrived at the main entrance. I took a left turn towards the guest room. As soon as I entered I couldn’t help but stare fixedly at the wolf.
‘Cute.’ I unexpectedly muttered as I saw him licking his paws and playing with a golden-haired girl. There were two girls on the couch. A silver-haired one with amber eyes; she gave me a quick glance and then returned to enjoy her tea. And a white-haired girl with two different eye colors just enjoying her tea. She did not even notice I had entered. Giving me such a warm welcome made me slouch and I just quietly took a seat. I had no energy to actually receive them properly, the only sleep I got was when I passed from exhaustion...
Gerard stepped into the room, the silver-haired girl gave him another curious glance before returning to her tea. Gerard petrified when he saw me just sitting on the couch not doing absolutely anything. He stood in front of the fireplace for a few seconds. He straightened himself and looked at the girls.
“Ehem… This is my lord, the viscount Firil Cereslin.” He gestured towards me once he had done the introduction. I stood up and looked at the white-haired girl, then at the others.
“Just Firil is fine.” I tried being friendly with them. I had no idea how adventurers were. Besides, etiquette shouldn’t even be a thing when they saved my daughter.
“I see,” the silver-haired girl said as she took a sip.
“Kugh,” the golden-haired girl let out a weird sound when she tripped over the wolf.
“Woof.”
What’s with these people? Oh, the white-haired girl is looking down? Is she thinking about something? She lifted her gaze and looked at me.
“Umm, I am sorry about that,” she flashed me a wry smile. “I am Yami, she is Aizen, this is Ari and this cute one over here is Fenri.” She introduced the entire group and then started petting the wolf.
Finally… Someone with common sense. Now onto what Gerard told me.
“Is it true that you girls saved Cecil?” I gulped as I finished my sentence. I noticed the girl that was named Yami started scratching her cheek.
“Well, yeah. We did save her,” she quietly confirmed. I had listened to everything I wanted.
“Thank you!” I exclaimed as I deeply bowed.
“My Lord?!” Gerard was flustered but that didn’t matter. I had to do it.
“Thank you for saving my daughter,” I thanked them again. As I lifted my head I noticed the white-haired girl was scratching her cheek again and averted her gaze.
“Are you Cecil’s father?” I nodded towards her question, the scratching stopped and she looked at me fixedly. “Well… I kind of had a feeling she did not want to see you.” I froze. I don’t know what I was expecting, but considering how I treated her in the past, it's likely that this girl knows her better than me. What a disaster… I went back to sitting.
“Yami was the name right?” she nodded. “Mistress Yami—”
“Yami is fine,” she interrupted me with a bitter smile.
“... Yami, I really love my daughter, rather… after she went missing I realized the mistakes I had made, thank you for bringing her back, it's unfortunate she did not want to see me. I will treat her properly now.” It pained me to word it like that, but it was the truth. She nodded with a faint smile. I noticed the golden-haired girl looked at me fixedly as I finished my sentence. I think her name was Ari.
“Umm, Firil right? This might be rude of me, but I think she just needs time alone. If she did not want to see you, she would have refused the idea of being taken to the capital,” she quietly informed me.
Who is this girl? She seems just a bit older than my treasure (daughter) yet she is really mature. The 'me' of two weeks ago would have been very proud. But that is in the past… Her opinion seems completely logical, I guess she is right. I should just give her time and allow her to do what she wants for now. I can’t completely let her be free sadly, I still want her to be able to do something for herself when she is older.
“Can we go now?” the silver-haired girl asked without interest. Yami just looked at her with narrowed eyes, Ari paused. I guess that was her normal behaviour. What a weird group. However, even if they want to go, I can’t let them go without giving them something.
“Are you girls leaving now? I will give you anything you ask for, anything, it will serve as my gratitude for saving my daughter,” I informed them. The white-haired girl or Yami; started scratching her cheek again.
“Well… We don’t really need anything…” she dejectedly informed me something impossible.
“Don’t be like that, it can be money, it can be items.” What type of adventurer wouldn’t want a [Rare] grade flame sword? Something they can never hope to get. I noticed Yami just gave me a wry smile.
“About that… we seriously don’t need items. I am pretty sure I lost a few [uncommon] ones already. They are pretty disp— ouch...” She was hit in the head by Ari.
“Don’t listen to her, sometimes she doesn’t get what she is talking about,” Ari said with a bright smile.
What’s with these people. [Uncommon] items are disposable? Ha? I don’t even think of them as disposable… Looks like items won’t convince them. But wealth is never bad.
“What about money,” I looked towards Yami who seemed to be the one doing the talking most of the time.
“Money isn’t really a problem either…” she said scratching her cheek again.
How is this possible? Are these girls nobles? Wait… Now looking at their clothing, they do seem pretty expensive. While they are dressed in a total casual attire, the fabric glisters under the light, it’s sparkly clean. Well, what a problem… What can I give these girls-
“K-Yami, can we get an inn with a bath?” The silver-haired girl asked out of the blue with a slight stutter. I think her name was Aizen.
“You are being really pushy today…” she tiredly said. Wait a second, I just realized. She did say an inn with a bath… I do want to repay them… They look better and act better than most nobles… Well, aside from the Aizen girl… Though… They do dress well and seem to be fairly relaxed. Gerard is probably going to be surprised by this decision, but it doesn’t matter. I am sure Cecil would like that as well.
“Do you girls want to stay here?” Gerard froze. One of the girls instantly nodded, one paused, and Yami went into deep thought.
“I-Is it really fine?” Ari was the first one to speak after a brief silence.
I just nodded. I noticed Aizen stood up and placed her empty teacup on the table.
“Gerard was it? I want to have a bath,” she commanded him. Gerard looked at me with a troubled face and I just nodded. This girl… She behaves like some type of royalty or something. She left the room with Gerard.
“Umm… Can I have a bath as well?” Ari quietly asked me. I just nodded. She sprinted out of the room to follow after Gerard. The house suddenly got a lot livelier. I was left alone with Yami.
“Um… I am sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I paused. ”Has Cecil said anything bad about me?” I asked Yami. My curiosity could not be quenched anymore. I had to know. She placed a finger on her chin and looked up for a second or two until she looked back to me.
“Well, I don’t exactly remember her saying anything about you, however, she did seem pretty depressed about her life routine.”
“Routine?” I asked reflexively. What routine? Does she have one? I noticed Yami thought for a second again and turned to me.
“Something along the lines of ‘behave, magic academy, sleep,’ or that’s what she said.” She shrugged. “But, magic-academy might not be an issue anymore.”
Before I could say anything she said something unbelievable.
“What makes you think that?” I had to know.
“Well… Remember Aizen?” I nodded. “She is a magician and Cecil did seem to have a slight interest in her, oh right… Don’t judge her too much, she is a good dra—” she froze as she spoke in affection
Dra-? Dra what? Well, I guess I cannot push her… To believe that girl was a mage… I normally would say something, but seeing they probably know Cecil more than me then I guess I should trust her...
“How long can we stay?” she asked as she was fidgeting. I wonder… Well… we don’t have aristocrat meetings here often… I guess it doesn’t really matter? Besides, the servants were eyeing the wolf as if it was the new family pet.
“As long as you’d like,” I said with a smile.