Volume 4, Chapter 11 – Anastasia’s Father

“Clark, what are you spacing out for?”

From the sound of it, Clark must be Anastasia’s father’s name.

He was also the man whose beloved wife had been stolen by her own Father.

Fia’s feelings grew complicated. She didn’t know what kind of attitude to adopt with Clark. If possible, she wanted to sit down and speak with Anastasia’s father calmly, but she was King Yelido’s beloved daughter. It was hard to imagine Clark would have anything nice to say to her.

She was on the moral low ground from the very beginning. Even if Clark despised her, it would be perfectly understandable, and she couldn’t even refute it. The only thing she could possibly say was, “I didn’t ask to be born into this family either,” but that would make Anastasia’s position very difficult—though it was already difficult enough.

“Hey, hey, don’t you hate elves? Why are you staring at two little elf kids? Had a change of heart?”

“I…” Faced with the werewolf woman’s question, Clark wore an almost pleading expression, as if hoping she would say less. “This is my daughter…”

“Huh?”

The werewolf woman froze on the spot, then stiffly turned her neck to apologize to Anastasia.

“Uh, sorry about that. I didn’t know you were Clark’s daughter. Please don’t take what I said to heart.” As she spoke, the woman, who had a tear in one of her wolf ears, turned her gaze to Fia. “Black hair, red eyes, a cold demeanor… Is this the Eldest Princess of Silvar? Not as impressive as they say. No claws, and you don’t look very sturdy.”

Fia merely glanced at the werewolf woman’s teasing. Although her face was average, her figure was quite stunning. She wore only a fur-lined crop top and shorts, leaving her abdomen, thighs, and even the lower half of her chest exposed. Two wide-bladed daggers were tucked into her waist. Combined with her slightly tanned skin and firm muscles, she gave off a rugged and wild impression. Fia even felt that this woman would challenge someone to a duel over the slightest annoyance.

The beast-kin on the streets of Byrne City had dressed similarly. This rugged style was likely their custom.

The current atmosphere made it difficult to know what to say. Fia felt as if she were sitting on pins and needles. If she had known this would happen, she would have hidden in the carriage and not come out.

In the end, it was the werewolf woman who took the initiative to break the tension. She drove her carriage up beside Fia and extended a hand.

“Hey, Your Highness. Let’s go over there. It’s not every day a father and daughter get to reunite. Let’s give them some time.”

“Ah, right…”

Taking the werewolf woman’s hand, Fia climbed onto the carriage. The woman soon had the carriage moving forward at a slow pace. Fia intended to sit in the passenger’s seat—it seemed a bit rude to just duck into the carriage box—but this was an ordinary model. The driver’s seat wasn’t as wide as the one on her own carriage. Even with her physique, she wouldn’t be able to fit unless the werewolf woman scooted over.

As if sensing Fia’s predicament, the woman propped the carriage curtain open with a frame, then pulled out a small stool from inside, indicating that Fia could sit in the space connecting the driver’s seat and the carriage box.

“Your Highness can sit here.”

“Thank you.”

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“Don’t thank me. I’m grateful enough that you don’t look down on me,” the werewolf woman said with a light chuckle. “Nine out of ten elf nobles look down on us beast-kin, not to mention I’m an ill-mannered adventurer. You don’t seem to have any prejudice against me.”

“How do you know I have no prejudice?” Fia, sitting behind the woman, tilted her head slightly. Thanks to her petite frame, she didn’t feel uncomfortable even on the low stool.

The werewolf woman turned her head, pointed to her lupine eyes, and smiled.

“Intuition. Also, stop using honorifics like ‘you.’ Your Highness is probably sixty or seventy years older than me. Using honorifics gives me goosebumps. My name is Chiharu.”

The pronunciation of “Chiharu” was clearly from a beast-kin language, a different naming convention from that of human or elven kingdoms.

This werewolf woman was rugged on the surface, but her mind was quite sharp. As Fia had taken Chiharu’s hand to get on the carriage, she had clearly felt the hard calluses on her palm. It was the strong, steady hand of a warrior.

However, before Fia could continue her appraisal, something swaying in her field of vision caught her attention. As a werewolf, Chiharu naturally had a tail. Covered in gray fur, the wolf’s tail, which reminded Fia of a large calligraphy brush, swept back and forth, making one feel the urge to sneeze.

Perhaps because she was a warrior, the fur on Chiharu’s tail and ears looked quite coarse.

No, no, this is not the time to be distracted.

Fia shook her head.

“I am Dofilia—”

“No need for introductions. Everyone knows of the Eldest Princess’s wisdom. I know who you are. It’s just that the rumors are a bit skewed. I don’t see any coldness in you.”

That’s because I’ve lost my memory.

Of course, Fia didn’t say that out loud.

“Are you and Anastasia’s father companions? You seem to have a good relationship.”

“You mean Clark? We’re friends with benefits, a slightly better version.”

“Uh.”

Even if beast-kin had an unceremonious tradition, that answer was too blunt. It was hard to know how to respond.

However, Chiharu just continued on her own.

“About eleven years ago, I found that broken man covered in blood near my tribe’s territory. I thought he had a good build, good potential, so I brought him back to the tribe, planning to marry him. Turns out he woke up halfway through, caused a huge ruckus, and our tribe had to use our numbers to finally subdue him.”

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This was too surreal. The more Fia listened, the more bizarre the story became.

As if she were talking about a trivial matter, Chiharu waved her hand.

“Although we subdued him, we werewolves have a custom of respecting the strong. He earned our respect with his strength, so we didn’t force him anymore. The tribe’s elder brought me to apologize to him and even invited him to stay with us for a while. It would have been even better if he could have left behind some strong seeds, but unfortunately, he only accepted the offer of a temporary stay and refused everything else. He’s very devoted to your and Ana’s mother, that woman named Veronica.”

Fia couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but she sensed a hint of resentment in Chiharu’s tone. Since she couldn’t see her face, she had no way to confirm.

“To get stronger, he dueled the Wolf King near our tribe. They both ended up gravely injured, and he barely escaped the forest with the help of a magic item. After staying with our tribe for a while, he went looking for the Wolf King again, practically seeking death. But as luck would have it, he actually killed it.”

“The women in the tribe were already head-over-heels for him. After he killed the Wolf King, who had a long-standing feud with our tribe, those women went even crazier. They even tried to use aphrodisiac incense to climb into his bed at night. That guy has some serious willpower, though. He kicked all those women out of his tent and stormed out of the village in a huff.”

“Then, Miss Chiharu…”

“Haha, I was one of the women who was charmed by him. He’s a bit of a downer most of the time, but he’s strong and brave. When he left the village, I secretly followed him. He didn’t like me, but he couldn’t stand me following him around all day. Over time, we slowly became teammates. The ‘friends with benefits’ thing happened one time when he was drunk. I used a few tricks, and he went along with it. But he called out Veronica’s name the whole time. It was annoying.”

“I see…”

Aside from “wild” and “casual,” Fia couldn’t think of any other words to describe it. Beast-kin customs were excessively rugged. If a human woman heard her partner call out another woman’s name during sex, she would surely blow up on the spot. Yet Chiharu just seemed a little annoyed, nothing more.

After a moment of silence, Chiharu’s tone grew deeper.

“To get stronger, he keeps picking fights with monsters much stronger than him, always hovering on the line between life and death. Without my help, he would have died in some wilderness long ago. I’m glad I made the choice I did back then, but I also feel that fate has been unfair to him.”

“Veronica is an elf, and Clark is a human. Even if your Father, the Elf King, hadn’t stopped them, they could have only been together for sixty years at most. Your Father could have just waited, but he had to interfere. Now it’s ended up with no one being happy.”

No, no, not everyone’s view on partnership is the same as yours, Miss Chiharu.

Fia was at a loss for words. Chiharu was imposing beast-kin values onto elves. According to Chiharu’s logic, if the Elf King had just let Veronica and Clark be, Veronica would probably never have remarried her Father, even after Clark died of old age.

But speaking of which, Anastasia was at least 120 years old, which meant Clark and Veronica were together over 120 years ago. By human standards, Clark should have died of old age by now. Yet when she saw him just now, he looked to be only in his thirties or forties, in the prime of his life.

He must have used a life-extending or rejuvenating magic potion. Although such potions were expensive, Clark had killed many powerful monsters. The magic cores from high-rank monsters alone would sell for a lot of money. The price of a high-level magic core increased several-fold with each rank.

—Wait, I still haven’t collected the magic core from that spider-woman.

It’s already been knocked into the Abyss by Clark.

Fia couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret.

Chiharu, unaware of Fia’s thoughts, simply sighed with emotion.

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“Hah, well, that’s more or less my story. Now it’s your turn, Your Highness. That carriage up ahead is yours, right? How come I don’t see a single guard? That doesn’t look like the entourage of an imperial princess.”

“Well… I have my own circumstances,” Fia said vaguely.

Although her “memory loss” would be known sooner or later, she didn’t plan on revealing it just yet.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to say. I don’t need to know. At the end of the day, this is just to pass the time. The result is, Your Highness isn’t as bad as Clark said you’d be. As for him, ignoring the work arranged by Your Highness to go pick fights with monsters… he’s a complete idiot.”

With that, Chiharu grabbed a pinch of shredded tobacco from a saddlebag and rolled it in paper. Considering Fia was behind her, she didn’t light it, but just held it under her nose and sniffed.

“Hah. Running into you on the road is the worst possible situation. Maybe this is fate.”

“Miss Chiharu, you mean…?”

Chiharu turned her head, her wild, beast-like face furrowed in a deep frown.

“Can’t you tell? Clark has been wandering for so long, and now he’s suddenly back. What he’s here to do is written all over his face.”

“Hmm.”

Due to her position, Fia did not say what she was thinking.

He had challenged countless powerful monsters while wandering, and now he had suddenly returned to elven territory. Even without thinking too hard, Fia knew Clark’s purpose was undoubtedly related to Veronica. He most likely wanted to sneak her away. That was why Chiharu had said that running into her was the worst possible situation.

Thinking about it, Clark’s position was indeed very awkward. It was like a thief who was in the middle of picking a lock, only to have the owner open the door and run right into him, his whole plan exposed.

In Clark’s mind, the next scene in the script would probably be her returning to the capital and immediately reporting him to the Elf King, and then all of Clark’s 100-plus years of preparation would go down the drain. No matter how strong a Sixth-Rank Clark was, he would be no match for the quasi-Eighth-Rank Elf King.

If Clark still wanted to carry out his plan, his only option was to ensure she never reached the elven capital of Blossom. In other words, it was very likely they would soon be crossing swords.

A conflict in front of Anastasia would be too cruel to her. What kind of tragedy was this?

“Want one, Princess?”

With no tension in her expression, Chiharu offered the rolled cigarette to Fia. Fia hesitated for a moment.

“Thank you, but I don’t smoke.”

She didn’t like the smell of smoke.

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“Figured you wouldn’t. Elves hate smoke. Look, Your Highness, I know this might be a bit difficult for you, but could you please not tell anyone that Clark is back? That kid doesn’t have much time left. Just lend him your mother for a bit; he’ll return her soon. A few decades is just the blink of an eye for you elves. Just think of it as a final act of mercy.”

“…I thought you would use a more violent method to shut me up.”

Chiharu’s request surprised Fia. After her last sentence, she had been ready to get up from the stool and fight at any moment.

But Chiharu just raised an eyebrow, looking at her as if she were a fool.

“You have a strange sense of humor, Princess. Clark and I together would be no match for you, not to mention with Ana standing in the way. I don’t know what Rank you are, but I can smell that you’re much stronger than Clark. Someone as calm and composed as you can’t be weak.”

The intuition of a beast-kin is terrifying.

Fia marveled internally.

“It’s because we can’t win that I invited you to sit down and talk. I can’t promise you any valuable reward, I just want to say that if that guy is doing well, Ana can finally be at ease. You’ve done it with Ana, right? How about being a little nicer to your kept woman?”

“No. There is nothing of the sort between Anastasia and me. Please retract that ‘kept woman’ statement.”

That was too disrespectful to Anastasia.

Chiharu’s eyes widened, her expression full of shock.

“Unbelievable. You elves will even go for your own grandparents and grandchildren, yet you’re unmoved by a beauty like Ana at your side? I heard from Clark that Ana is incredibly grateful to you for getting both of them out of the Land of Exile. Any normal person would be tempted by a mature woman like her. Did you two really not…?”

“No means no,” Fia denied with a frown, already starting to get annoyed.

Chiharu pursed her lips.

“Is that so. Well, looks like this is a lost cause. I’ll have to think of how to persuade Clark to get over it.”

“You can’t exactly say that. I have my own circumstances as well. I need to think carefully before making a decision.”

“So there’s still a chance? A chance is all we need. Alright, let’s just wait here for a bit. The people from your carriage are coming down.”

With a long sigh, Chiharu stopped the carriage and lit her cigarette.

Just as she said, Renee had stopped their carriage up ahead and was walking towards them. Fia could also see Liti and Milu peering out from inside.

She hoped Clark wouldn’t make things difficult for Anastasia.