Chapter 232: Papa, I Missed You

Chapter 232: Papa, I Missed You

"Complicated," I said.

Celine continued to stare at me in disbelief. She opened her mouth several times, but couldn’t seem to decide what to say.

Nivelle had no such problem.

"Complicated?" she snapped. "That’s all you have to say? You left your daughter with me for days and disappeared! When she woke up, she started tearing the whole room apart just because she was bored. Then she set the bed on fire. While I was trying to put that out, she set the curtains on fire, and while I was dealing with those—"

I reached out and closed my hand around Nivelle.

The little fairy realized what I intended and immediately began flapping her wings, trying to escape.

"Wait! I’m not finished talking!"

I pressed my palm against my chest.

Our soul bond reacted at once. Green light seeped between my fingers as Nivelle’s body dissolved into tiny motes of mana and was forcibly drawn into my soul.

"Big Brother! You can’t shut me up like this every ti—"

Her voice cut off.

I could feel her thrashing angrily in the depths of my soul. She had enough power to come back out, but she was too tired to make the effort.

At least she would be quiet for a while.

Celine finally recovered.

"Did you just put her inside your chest?"

"I sent her back into my soul."

Celine grabbed her hair with both hands.

"You carry a fairy who calls you ’Big Brother’ inside your soul. You have a daughter who’s six months old, looks six years old, and hatched from an egg. And you’re telling me all this as casually as if you were talking about what you ate for breakfast!"

"I told you my life was complicated."

Lunox was still standing a few steps away. After putting the cap back on the water bottle, Lunox looked at me.

"Dragon?"

I turned toward Lunox.

"What?"

"If she hatched from an egg, she’s probably a dragon."

Celine’s eyes widened again.

"A DRAGON?!"

Nivelle’s weary voice echoed through my mind from within my soul.

’They weren’t supposed to know that.’

’You were the one who told them.’

’I only said she hatched from an egg!’

’I don’t see much of a difference.’

Black smoke began curling around my feet. My bones cracked one after another as my body shrank, and within seconds, I had turned into a pitch-black crow with red eyes.

Celine’s mouth fell open yet again.

"See you later."

I beat my wings and took off.

"Wait! You haven’t explained anything!"

Celine shouted after me, but I didn’t turn back. As I flew over the academy’s outer walls toward the upper district of the capital, I glanced behind me with my keen crow’s eyes.

Celine was still standing in the same place, staring up at the sky.

Beside her, Lunox asked in a perfectly serious voice, "Are we going to keep running?"

"You’re thinking about the run right now?!"

I beat my wings faster.

I hoped Auralis had only burned the bed and the curtains.

---

By the time I reached the large window of the luxury inn, I could already feel the concentration of mana inside through the glass.

The room was filled with pure white flames.

The curtains were burning, and the flames on the bed reached all the way to the ceiling. One corner of the overturned wardrobe had been charred black, while some of the golden decorations on the walls had begun to melt.

Auralis sat in the middle of the room.

With one cheek resting in her hand, she was coloring her picture book with an expression of complete boredom. The white flames surrounding her might as well have been ordinary decorations.

After coloring the eyes of a figure on the page with her red pencil, she tilted her head slightly. Apparently dissatisfied with her work, she pursed her lips and went over the same spot again.

I turned into a thin stream of black smoke and slipped through the gap in the window. Once I reached the carpet, I returned to my human form.

Auralis still hadn’t noticed me.

I snapped my fingers.

Snap.

The white flames throughout the room trembled at the same time. Thin strands of black fire rose from within them and began devouring the white flames like hungry beasts. A few seconds later, not a single spark remained in the room.

The sudden silence caught Auralis’s attention.

She lifted her head.

Her red eyes lit up the instant she saw me. She dropped her pencil and picture book where they were and sprang to her feet.

"Papa!"

She ran toward me and slammed into my arms like a little spear.

The force of the impact would have been enough to break several bones in an ordinary person. I only slid back half a step.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her. Auralis wound her arms around my neck and buried her face against my shoulder.

"Papa, I missed you."

I let out a deep sigh.

"I missed you too."

I slowly rubbed her back. The two small white horns protruding through her black hair brushed against my chin.

I still couldn’t get used to a six-month-old dragon looking like a six-year-old child. Sometimes her behavior betrayed her real age, while at other times she acted like an ordinary child.

Auralis lifted her head and looked at me.

"Why didn’t you come to see me for three days?"

"I was busy."

Auralis narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Liar, Papa."

My answer hadn’t satisfied her. She puffed out her cheeks and buried her face against my neck again.

I looked around the room.

"Why did you burn the bed?"

"It was an accident."

"What about the curtains?"

"That was an accident too."

"And the wardrobe?"

Auralis thought for a few seconds.

"It fell over by itself."

Nivelle shouted from inside my soul.

’She’s lying!’

Auralis abruptly lifted her head and looked at my chest.

"Is Nivelle in there?"

"Yes."

She pressed her ear against my chest.

"Nivelle, I didn’t lie!"

’You knocked over the wardrobe!’

"It was already leaning!"

’It only started leaning after you kicked it!’

Auralis thumped my chest with her small fist.

"Papa, let Nivelle out. I want to talk to her."

"No. She needs to rest."

’You finally made a sensible decision.’

"She’s tattling on me!"

"Because you set the room on fire."

"I was bored."

Auralis twisted around in my arms and looked at the picture book on the floor. Two people were holding hands on the page. The smaller one had black hair and red eyes, while the taller figure’s hair had been colored white.

The picture showed the two of us walking outside beneath a sunny sky.

My gaze remained on the page for a while.

For six months, I had been hiding her in deserted cities, caves, and abandoned castles. She could only see the outside world from a distance and couldn’t walk freely through a city filled with people.

What I had been doing to protect her was slowly turning into a cage.

"Do you want to go outside?" I asked.

Auralis immediately turned toward me.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"With you?"

"I’m not letting you go out alone, so I’ll be coming with you."

Her red eyes shone with excitement. As she hugged my neck again, tiny white sparks began flying from her body.

"We’re going outside! I’m going outside with Papa!"

"Calm down first."

"I am calm!"

I extinguished the white flame rising over my shoulder with one hand.

"I have three rules."

Auralis immediately became serious and straightened up in my arms.

"First, you won’t use fire outside."

She pouted.

"Not even a little?"

"Not at all."

"What if someone attacks you?"

"Even then, there’s no need. I’ll deal with them."

She nodded as if she accepted that.

"Second, you won’t take off your hat. No one can see your horns."

"My horns are pretty."

"I never said they weren’t."

Auralis’s pout lessened slightly.

"Third, you won’t let go of my hand."

Auralis looked at me curiously.

"Did you understand all three rules?" I asked.

"No fire, the hat stays on, and I won’t let go of Papa’s hand."

"Good."

I set her down.

From my dimensional ring, I took out a thick black coat in a child’s size, a pair of gloves, and a woolen hat that would cover her entire head. I had bought them a few days ago in case I decided to take her outside.

Auralis tried to put on the coat by herself. She pushed her right arm through the wrong opening and struggled inside the fabric for several seconds before I had to help her.

Then I placed my palm on top of her head.

Dark mana seeped between my fingers and wrapped around her horns. They were still there, but no one looking at her from the outside would be able to see them. I also sealed her draconic aura inside her body, lowering it to the level of an ordinary child.

Finally, I pulled the woolen hat over her head.

Auralis tried to adjust it with both hands.

"My horns are squashed."

"Bear with it for a while."

"They can’t breathe."

"Horns don’t breathe."

"Mine do."

I wasn’t certain whether that was true.

I took her small hand, and we stepped into the shadows.

---

When we emerged from the shadows in an empty alley across from the inn, Auralis stood frozen in place for several seconds.

The morning was well underway. The capital’s broad streets were crowded with people, carriages, and merchants opening their shops. The snow had been cleared from the sides of the roads, leaving only thin white layers on the roofs of the tall buildings.

Auralis’s eyes darted from side to side as she tried to look at everything at once.

She tightened her grip on my hand.

"There are so many people."

"This is the capital. It’s normal for large cities to be crowded."

"Do they all live here?"

"Most of them, yes."

We started walking again.

When we turned the corner, the warm smell of honey and fresh dough drifted over from a nearby bakery. Auralis’s head immediately turned in that direction.

Her stomach gave a small growl.

"I heard you refused to eat breakfast."

"I wasn’t hungry."

"Your stomach thinks otherwise."

We approached the stall in front of the bakery. The elderly woman behind it smiled when she saw us.

"Good morning. Would your daughter like a warm honey bun? They’ve just come out of the oven."

"Three, please."

"Of course."

As the woman placed the buns in a small paper bag, Auralis continued staring at the ones on display.

"Ten."

"Three is enough," I said.

"Eight?"

"Three."

Auralis sighed once she realized the negotiation was over.

After taking the buns, we sat on a nearby bench. Auralis finished the first one in only a few bites, then started on the second. When she reached for the third bun, she paused and looked at me.

She split it in half, kept the larger piece for herself, and held the smaller one out to me.

"This is yours."

"You can eat the whole thing."

"We have to eat it together."

I didn’t understand why that was necessary, but I took the piece she offered and ate it anyway.

Seeing that, Auralis happily bit into her own share.

After leaving the bakery, she stopped in front of a small stall selling toys. Wooden knights, cloth dolls, and toys carved into the shapes of different animals were arranged side by side.

Auralis went straight for a black crow.

Its eyes were made from pieces of red glass.

"I want this."

"You can look at the others too."

"No. I want this one."

"Why?"

She held the wooden crow beside my face and carefully compared us.

"It looks like you."

I bought the toy.

Auralis pressed it against her chest.

"I’ll call him Little Papa."

I regretted asking why.

After a while, we reached one of the capital’s quieter parks. Rather than walking beside me, Auralis was practically dragging me after her.

When she spotted the clean snow piled along the edge of the park, she pulled me in that direction without letting go of my hand. First, she made a small snowball and threw it at my chest. When I lightly tossed one at her hat in return, she stared at me in surprise.

A few seconds later, she started laughing.

Before long, it turned into a small snowball fight. Auralis had trouble controlling her strength, so some of the snowballs she threw lodged themselves in the trunks of nearby trees. I had to tell her several times to throw them more gently.

Together, we made a small snow dragon with a crow perched on its head. When Auralis said the crow was stronger than the dragon, I didn’t argue.

We spent the rest of the day wandering through the streets of the capital.

Auralis asked about almost everything she saw. She wanted to know why the carriages moved so slowly, why people stood in lines, why the water in the fountains didn’t freeze, and why the street performers collected money.

I answered some of her questions and ignored the rest.

At noon, she ate two skewers of meat. A little later, she asked for roasted chestnuts, then stopped in front of another stall selling colorful sweets.

I had said three buns would be enough, but by the end of the day, I had stopped keeping track of how much food I had bought for her.

We visited toy shops, bookstores, and the ornate fountain in the main square. We also watched the street performers. When Auralis saw a magician produce a dove from his hand, she declared that it was an extremely simple trick, but she didn’t take her eyes off the man until the show ended.

As the sun slowly sank, the magical lamps throughout the city lit up one by one.

Auralis was tired, but she still didn’t want to return to the inn.

So I took her to the tallest building in the center of the capital.

We passed through the shadows and reached the roof within seconds. As the cold wind stirred our hair, the entire capital spread out beneath our feet.

The snow-covered rooftops shone beneath the light of the magical lamps. From up here, the people and carriages moving through the streets looked like tiny dots.

Auralis watched the view in silence for several seconds.

Then she sat in my lap and held her wooden crow up in the air.

"Little Papa can see the city too."

"He can’t. He’s a toy."

"He can."

"Then why did you tell me?"

"So you’d know that I knew."

I couldn’t follow that logic.

Auralis pressed the wooden crow against her chest again and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Today was really nice."

"Yes."

"Can we come again?"

"We can."

She lifted her head and looked at me suspiciously.

"Really?"

"Yes."

After studying me for a while longer, she narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Liar, Papa."

"Not this time."

A small smile appeared on Auralis’s face. She rested her head on my shoulder again and returned her attention to the city lights below.

I had spent the entire day without making plans, fighting, or killing anyone.

Normally, I would have considered that a waste of time.

But when I looked at the smile on Auralis’s face, the day didn’t feel wasted.

At the top of the tallest building in the city, we sat together and watched the lights until night had completely fallen.