Chapter 5: Father and Daughter, Divided

I, Maria Campbell, was walking toward my own home with newfound courage, courage given to me by the loving warmth of the hand that was holding my own.

When my magic powers had appeared, my mother had started leaving the house less and less. It was Lady Katarina’s visit during the academy’s summer vacation that had convinced her to break out from her hermitage. Thanks to her, on that day, I was able to have a proper conversation with my mother. This helped us mend our relationship, and now our bond was as strong as it ever was.

As things between us improved, my mother even started working at a bakery. She only did so a few days per week initially, but she gradually increased them and was now working almost every day.

One day, coming back home from her job, she had told me with a smile how fun and fulfilling it was for her. Moreover, she was able to make friends in the workplace, and on her days off she would even go out into town with them.

My mother had changed a lot in the span of a couple years, but my father had still not come back. He would occasionally send money to help us with our expenses, but he never showed up in person. I had thought that my father hated me. I was sure that he did not want to see me. But the letter I recently received from my mother made me think that maybe this was not the case.

Truth be told, I had already had my suspicions before that. Now that my mother had started working, neither she nor I were subject to as many nasty rumors as before. At first, they would blame her for giving birth to a magic-wielding child, saying that she had been unfaithful to my father. Now, instead, many people had come to sympathize with us, blaming the man who would get drunk and then cause trouble at the tavern or pass out on the streets—my father.

He used to hate liquor. Why had he started drinking so much? Was it because of the rumors? Or was it something else...?

So far, I had never tried to find a definite answer to those questions. However, recently, I had received a letter from my mother in which she told me about how a friend of hers had seen my father. He had apparently come home while my mother was away to leave some money there. As he did so, he had a newspaper cutting in his hands. The article he had cut was the one mentioning my enrollment at the Ministry.

Did my father not hate me? Did he actually care about me? I could not help but wonder. At the same time, I feared that, if I asked him, he would tell me that he did indeed hate me. This thought had kept me from facing the truth for so long...but I did not want to cower any longer. I had found the courage I needed, thanks to seeing Dewey and his brother clear up their misunderstandings and to the things that Lady Katarina had told me.

Today was the same day of the month as the one on which my father had been seen delivering the money to our house. He had probably done so during his lunch break from work, which was probably around this time of day.

I could not be certain that he would come. Maybe last time he had just happened to pass by. Of course, I could just go to his workplace and be sure to find him, but I had never been there and definitely lacked the courage to go.

If he does come...

Once I reached home, I saw him there. It was as if fate had chosen this day for me to talk to him. I called out to him from a distance.

“Dad.”

He turned around, and I saw that he looked much older than I remembered. After all, it had been more than a decade since I had last seen him.

“Maria...” was all that he said. He then stared at me with his mouth open in surprise. He probably wasn’t expecting to see me there.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, and his face twitched as he struggled to come up with an answer.

“I was just passing by. See you then,” he replied, already trying to leave.

I cannot let him go. I barely talked to him.

Without thinking about it, I strengthened my grip around Lady Katarina’s hand, and she did the same in return. I looked at her, and she nodded at me as if to say, “You can do it.”

I can. If she is with me, I can do anything.

“Wait, dad!”

He stopped, and I walked toward him by myself. I was no longer holding my friend’s hand, but the courage she had given me was still with me, and I needed it to look my father straight in the eye.

“I thought you never came back home because you did not want to see me,” I told him, and he seemed surprised to hear this.

“O-Of course not...” he stuttered.

My fear that he really did hate me disappeared, and relief took its place.

“I heard that the people in town have started blaming you instead of me and mom. Are you doing this on purpose? Are you pretending to get drunk and pass out on the streets to deflect the gossips’ attention from the two of us?” I asked him.

I had been considering that possibility since I had first heard about the situation from my mother. My father was never a drinker, and in fact, a sip of liquor was enough to make him fall asleep. I could not imagine him drunkenly causing trouble at the tavern. Furthermore, despite this supposedly debauched lifestyle of his, he was still managing to deliver us money every month. None of it made any sense.

As my mother started working again, I was able to find out more about what was actually happening, and I immediately suspected that things were not as they appeared. I believed that my father was just putting on an act so that the ill rumors would focus on him instead of mom and me.

Hearing my question, he first looked surprised, and then somewhat dejected. Looking at his face confirmed my suspicions, and I took his hand.

“Dad, you don’t need to do that anymore. Mom and I both have friends that trust and understand us now.”

My mother’s new friends knew what kind of person she was, and they found the rumors about her alleged affair with a nobleman ridiculous and infuriating. She had told me that now she finally felt understood, unlike back when some people had started avoiding her when those rumors began circulating.

I, too, had many wonderful friends—including, first and foremost, Lady Katarina. I glanced at her, and so did my father. She greeted him with a nod, and he did the same. I could tell just how relieved he felt. Before attending the Academy of Magic, I had always been alone. I was happy to finally be able to introduce a friend of mine to my father.

“And we are both stronger now,” I proudly told him.

My mother and I no longer feared rumors. No matter what people said, we were ready to go on with our lives.

“So, please...come back home, dad,” I pleaded, firmly gripping his hand.

He stared at me silently for a moment. “I will,” he answered as he gripped mine with his big, strong hands.

I saw the tears welling up in his eyes, and I felt like crying as well.

He told me that he had to go back to work for today, and I had to go back to my room at the Ministry as well, but we promised to meet the next time I had a day off.

Lady Katarina, who had been listening the whole time, was crying harder than either of us.

“Dat’s so sweed! I’b so glad!” she blubbered, sharing all of my happiness.

“Thank you so much. I would not have been able to do this if it were not for you,” I told her, and she sprang forward to hug me. Her embrace felt incredibly warm and undeniably kind.

★★★★★★★

“Sniff... Sniff...”

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, thank you. I feel much better now,” I answered, blowing my nose in my handkerchief.

I had just learned about Maria’s family situation, and seeing the love that she and her father shared for each other had moved me so much that I’d started crying harder than either of them. I cried so much I even made Maria worry about me.

Her father had to leave for work, but, before doing that, he commented that, “I see that you’ve made some good friends.”

If that was his way of describing the weird wailing girl grasping at his daughter, I figured that he was a really kind and understanding man. Had it been my mother, she would have scolded me for having my face covered in tears and snot in public. After calming down, I followed Maria inside her house, where she made me a cup of hot tea.

Thank you so much, Maria...

While I was sipping my tea, my friend was writing a letter to her mother, telling her what had just happened. Maria said that she wouldn’t be able to tell her in person, since she always came home very late.

“She seems to be enjoying her work so much that she keeps at it until the evening,” she explained, sounding very happy as she did so. I hoped that she would soon start sounding like that when talking about her dad too.

“You know, it’s hard to believe with all that’s happened, but it’s still early in the afternoon. I wonder if we should just go home,” I pondered.

Our original plan was to go shopping in the castle town, but what I actually did was go to Dewey’s house, get attacked by Sarah in the forest, check back in on the Percy children, and meet Maria’s dad. I felt kind of exhausted already, and, come to think of it, I hadn’t even had lunch. My brain informed my stomach of this sudden realization, receiving a loud growl in response. I actually had made plans about what restaurant to go to, and I was looking forward to stuffing myself with desserts.

Cakes, cookies, ice cream, and... Ugh, just thinking about those made me even hungrier.

“Actually, you know what? Why don’t we go and have a few sweets before heading back home?” I suggested, and Maria, giggling at the sound that my stomach was making, quickly agreed.

“Okay, here we are.”

Our inconspicuous carriage had safely brought us to the fanciest part of the capital, the one closest to the castle.

Actually, before setting out for the capital, I was so hungry that I couldn’t resist and bought some bread from a bakery close to Maria’s house. It was so good that, if it had been closer to my house, I would have probably become a regular. However, since I also wanted to enjoy the sweets from downtown, I made sure not to make myself full with just that. It wasn’t easy, but I restricted myself to just a few kinds of bread.

“Now, Maria, let’s decide which shop we should go to first!”

“Yes! Oh, now that I think of it... Do you still want to buy that tea I talked to you about?” Maria asked, reminding me of the tea that allegedly relieved drowsiness, which was actually the whole reason I’d decided to go shopping in the first place.

“Right! Buying that was the whole point. Let’s go buy that before focusing on the sweets then.”

Maria guided me to the store where she had found the tea in question, and right outside, we saw a familiar face.

“Here you are, finally. I thought you wouldn’t come at all, or that maybe I’d missed you,” Alan brazenly greeted us as he sent off a white bird that had been perched on his hand.

“What?! Why are you here? And what’s with that bird?”

“I heard that you would be shopping downtown, but since you weren’t coming, I found one of the shops you’d be likely to go to and remained on the lookout near it. The bird is to signal that I’ve found you,” he replied.

“Oh, I see... No, wait, I don’t! First of all, how did you know I’d be coming into town?”

“Well, that’s not so important. Anyway, everyone’s dying to see you,” he said, and, just as he did that, I saw yet another familiar face running in my direction. It was Mary, who jumped at me and quickly hugged me.

“Lady Katarina! I’m so glad I was able to see you. I couldn’t come here before lunch, so I was worried we wouldn’t be able to meet at all!”

It’s been a while since I’ve last met her, but I’m glad to see she hasn’t changed one bit.

She kept saying, “Lady Katarina! Lady Katarina!” embracing me with her sensually curvaceous body, until someone dragged me out of her arms from behind.

“I ask that you refrain from hugging my fiancée in public, Lady Mary. And you, Alan, do something about your own fiancée instead of just staring.”

“Prince Jeord?!” I exclaimed, surprised that Mary and Alan weren’t the only ones there.

“We are here too,” Sophia chimed in, popping up out of nowhere with Nicol behind her. She looked as cute as always, and her brother’s smile was as potent as I’d come to expect.

Ugh, his attractiveness is out in full force today, I thought, trying to catch my breath as I barely resisted his charm.

“Except for a certain somebody who is so obsessed as to have come here first thing in the morning, bringing his work with him, we actually all gathered not long ago,” Keith, also appearing out of nowhere, smirked. He looked kind of sweaty, which just made him even sexier than usual.

“Has nobody ever introduced you to the concept of efficiency in one’s work, Keith? As your future brother-in-law, I would be happy to teach you.”

“I politely decline the offer in consideration of how I have no plans of becoming your brother-in-law.”

While Jeord and Keith went at it as they usually did, Sophia came closer to me and explained what was going on.

“We all wanted to meet you, even for just a little while, so we did our best to finish our work early.”

I thought they all had a day off... I’m flattered they’d do something like that for me.

“Well, why don’t we all go and have sweets together?” I suggested, and everyone quickly agreed. As for the tea, my friends had already bought it for me beforehand. I gratefully accepted it and looked forward to drinking it before the start of my next afternoon shift.

We all walked into a pastry shop, and I couldn’t help but feel that our group—despite everyone’s best attempts to dress down to the level of townsfolk—was extremely conspicuous. All my handsome and beautiful friends were getting quite a lot of stares.

“Wow... They all look so delicious...”

“Hehehe. We should order several and then share them between us, Lady Katarina.”

“That’s a wonderful idea, Mary! Let’s do that!”

“Do not forget about us!”

“Of course. We can share them between the four of us!”

Since there were so many of us, we had to split: the boys at one table and the girls at another.

“I came here specifically to be with Katarina. Why do I have to sit here with three other men?”

“I’m afraid there is no other option now. Please have some of this cake, Your Highness.”

“Oh, this is pretty good.”

“You have cream on your face, Prince Alan. Here, take my kerchief.”

“Thanks, Keith.”

“As I’ve said before, I think that you would really make a great mother, Keith.”

“As I’ve said before, I’m a man, Nicol.”

Judging from what I could hear, the boys were having fun at their table too.

As I took a brief pause from eating, Mary asked me a question.

“Incidentally, Lady Katarina, where have you been up until now?”

I realized that, in my excitement at seeing my friends after so long, I’d forgotten to tell them about all that had happened during the morning. I gave a very cursory explanation of how we’d run into Dewey and gone to his home, I’d been attacked with Dark Magic, Dewey had made up with his brother, and Maria had made up with her dad.

Mary held her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, but that recounting raised more questions than it answered... May I ask you for some more details, Maria?”

W-Was I that bad at telling the story?!

Maria, after giving both me and Mary a slightly concerned look, masterfully retold all that had happened. The boys also came next to our table to listen.

Once Maria was done with the story, my friends took turns at expressing their dismay.

“Katarina, you really cannot help yourself, can you?”

“Big Sister, what am I going to do with you?”

“Lady Katarina...”

“There you go again...”

“Lady Katarina...”

“Katarina...”

I thought I did great today! Why are they mad at me?!

And so, several appalled remarks later, my day off was over.

★★★★★★★

I, Susanna Randall, known as Larna Smith, had just finished reporting to the Ministry and helping out the family of my subordinate Dewey Percy with moving to a new home.

I made my way to the quarters of Jeffrey Stuart, my fiancé and main supporter and collaborator.

I knocked on the door, and he told me to come in with his usual nonchalant tone.

“It’s me,” I called out as I entered, finding him behind his desk face to face with stacks of papers. Contrary to what one may think due to his casual attitude and apparent lack of motivation, he was a fast and effective worker.

There were many people who thought he was the most fit candidate to succeed the king, but he had no interest in taking the crown.

“I finished my report on the matter I told you about earlier,” I explained, handing the document to him.

“Hmmm,” he commented once he had quickly skimmed through it, “this seems to be more or less what you told me earlier. Still, I feel for Lady Katarina. She is involved in the worst kind of incidents with such regularity that you would think she is cursed.”

“Quite so. Not that she seems to notice, or care.”

Katarina remained happy and fearless despite the tremendous number of misfortunes she was subjected to, including, for example, the recent Dark Magic run-in near the orphanage. I could not help but worry about her, and I imagined that her many loving friends were at least as worried.

“For the time being, I gave her a magic tool to call me for help. I also instructed her to rely on her Dark Familiar, but whether she will follow that depends on her,” I continued, referring to the beast that lived in her shadow. It could transform into a giant wolf, making for a very powerful ally. Unfortunately, she had come to see this creature of darkness as a cute little pet, therefore forgetting about its usefulness in battle. It was a terrible waste, albeit unsurprising considering her personality.

“We should look into having someone keep watch over her from the metaphorical shadows then. However, it would be better to consult with Duke Claes first, as he may have already hired someone to do just that,” Jeffrey replied, handing me back the report. “I must say... It seems you weren’t as coolheaded as usual this time,” he added. A trace of concern appeared on his face.

“Yes, I’m fully aware of that.” I knew very well that using magic on a civilian was not something to be done lightly. However, when I had Dewey’s father in front of me, I could not help myself. “The way that man treated his children as tools got under my skin.”

Only two things were able to elicit emotional responses from me: the mysteries of magic, and parents who used and abused their children. The latter was probably because of my own upbringing.

My father, Marquis Randall, was a man who was exclusively interested in his social advancement. Wives and children were but tools meant to turn a profit and aid the achievement of his own goals. Love was not part of the equation.

He had chosen my late mother as his wife because of her high social status, or so I had heard, and as soon as illness overtook her weak body, she was relegated to a guest house, where she passed away without ever seeing her husband again.

As a child, my remarkable intelligence allowed me to fulfill my father’s wishes, to the point that I was eventually chosen as the prince’s fiancée. However, once my mother died, I realized that I no longer wanted to live as a puppet in the marquis’s hands, and I started defying his orders. This led to him hating me so profoundly that he wanted to have me disposed of, something which he could not easily do because of my engagement to Jeffrey.

Even now, in his constant quest to be rid of me, the marquis kept suggesting to the prince that he marry one of the other Randall daughters instead. Having been raised by such a man, I had no tolerance for parents who behaved in similar ways, and it took active restraint on my part not to kill them on the spot.

“I cannot blame you for that,” Jeffrey, who was privy to my situation, replied with a shrug.

“Right after that, it didn’t take much digging to uncover just how terrible those ‘parents’ were,” I explained.

Dewey’s mother was just as despicable, giving birth to child after child, leaving them in the care of their older siblings and enjoying her life without a single worry. While her husband’s means of entertainment seemed to be gambling and drinking, her main pastime was one enjoyed while laying down in a bed—I was not sure how many of those children actually belonged to the man they called father.

“The children lived for each other, devoting themselves to helping their siblings,” I continued, thinking back at Ronnie’s attempt to protect his younger brothers and sisters. “Unlike me.”

I had a few half-siblings born of a different mother, but I barely knew anything about them. All I could infer about them was that they were treated even worse than me, since being born of a concubine surely made them less valuable in the eyes of our father.

Owing in no small part to Jeffrey’s collaboration, I had considerably expanded my power in the past few years, but I was yet to reach the point where I could openly oppose the marquis. As such, I felt I could do nothing to help my siblings.

“I can’t do anything,” I muttered, looking down at my hands.

The sound of my younger half sister crying how she wanted to live by her own means echoed in my memory. I felt sorrow, something I was not used to. At that moment, Jeffrey gently pulled my head toward him and against his chest.

“Maybe now you can’t, but you just need to become more powerful. Isn’t that what we’re working so hard for?” he said gently, hugging me.

The warmth and smell of his large chest healed my dejected heart.

“You’re right. Thank you,” I answered, and he started caressing my hair. I stood still, enjoying his embrace a while longer.

★★★★★★★

“Welcome back, Sarah.”

When I returned, still disgruntled because of Katarina Claes, my master greeted me. I replied with a bow, but I couldn’t help but keep my eyes on the man standing next to him.

“It’s been a while, huh?” the second man remarked with a smile, noticing my glance. “Now you even go outside by yourself? That’s unusual. I’d like to hear what brought about this change.”

I looked away from him. I hated the way he looked at me from the darkness, as if I was an animal on which he was ready to experiment.

“There has been no change, and I have nothing to tell you,” I replied tersely.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take that long.”

He ignored my absolute rejection, and then my master intervened.

“I would like to hear your report first,” he said to the man. “And you, Sarah, may leave. It is your day off after all.”

Relieved, I quickly left the room. I knew that I should have reported about finding Katarina, but I was too exhausted to do so. I lay down on my bed, curled up, and soon fell asleep.

★★★★★★★

After my very eventful day off, it was time to go back to work. When I got out of my carriage and walked past the Magical Ministry’s gates, I noticed Dewey and Sora walking together. It was normal for newcomers to come to work early, but I’d never seen just the two of them together like that, so I curiously approached them.

“Good morning, Sora, Dewey.”

“Morning,” Sora answered with his normal curtness.

“Good morning,” Dewey replied with a huge smile. I was happy to see him smiling after all he’d been through the previous day. “Thank you so much for yesterday,” he then told me, lowering his head.

“Not at all. I didn’t do anything,” I demurred, but he shook his head.

“The things that happened only did so because of your help. My siblings and I are all grateful.”

Being thanked so openly had got me blushing, and Sora, noticing that, was silently sneering at me.

“It’s rare for the two of you to walk to work together,” I observed, trying to change the topic.

“Sora helped me with moving yesterday, and today I went to his room to thank him, so we decided to come to work together,” Dewey explained.

“You moved already?”

Dewey had already told me that he would eventually move in with the rest of his brothers and sisters, who now lived in a proper apartment, but I hadn’t expected for him to leave the Ministry dorm so soon.

“Not yet. I was just preparing. Sora noticed me having trouble packing all of my things by myself, and he offered to help.”

“I mean, I could tell you weren’t used to that kind of thing. It’s not like I did anything huge. You’re really polite though, going out of your way to thank me for something like that,” Sora commented.

“Oh, I owed you as much.”

Sora, even though he could sound harsh at times, was actually a very kind guy, and Dewey seemed to have quickly taken a liking to him.

“So you’ll move in with the rest of your family soon. Have you seen their new place already?” I asked Dewey.

“Yes. It’s a clean, nice house, and all the neighbors are also from the Ministry, which makes it extremely safe. I cannot thank Miss Larna enough,” he replied enthusiastically.

That’s a huge step up from that shack they were living in... I’m so glad for them.

“Good morning, everyone!” a cute voice greeted us from behind.

“Oh, Maria! Good morning,” I responded, and Dewey and Sora quickly followed.

She was always as beautiful as you’d expect from a game’s protagonist, but today she looked particularly radiant, possibly because of how things had gone with her dad on the previous day.

“I’m glad to be able to see all of you so early in the morning.” Her smile was so adorable that if I were a man I’d already have been on a knee asking for her to marry me.

Dewey’s red face hinted that he was probably thinking the same thing. As for Sora, I couldn’t really tell. He looked the same as usual, but that didn’t prove anything since he was so good at hiding what he really felt.

While I looked at my two male friends, I noticed that Sora gave Dewey a slight slap on the shoulder.

Hm? What was that for?

“M-Maria, thank you so much for yesterday,” Dewey started speaking. “My siblings and I are all grateful.”

He said the exact same words to me, but this time it feels...different. His eyes look twice as wide...and kind of moist too. That’s not really like him at all...

He then went on to say something that he definitely had not said to me.

“I-I would like to take you out to eat as a way to thank you when you have the time.”

What’s this?! He’s asking her out?! Who are you and what did you do with Dewey?!

Sora, noticing how I was staring at Dewey with my mouth agape, whispered something into my ear: “I also taught him how to ask older girls out yesterday.”

“How dare you taint pure, sweet, innocent Dewey like that!” I whispered back.

“I just gave him some advice. He told me he’s got a crush on an older girl.”

“But he’d never act like that on his own!”

“I know, so I told him that looking all cute and defenseless works wonders with older girls. He’s got that sweet face, but he didn’t know how to use it right.”

That’s like a straight punch to a girl’s maternal instinct... Maybe Sora is a bad influence on him... Now I wonder if it’ll work on Maria though. She looks surprised...

“Yes! I would love to.”

She said yes?! They’re going on a date?! Maria’s going on a date ALL ALONE WITH A BOY?!

I was happy to see Maria finally get involved in romance, but at the same time I couldn’t shake away a certain kind of loneliness.

“Then we shall decide the date,” she continued with a smile. “When are you free, Lady Katarina?”

It took me a moment to process those words. “Huh?”

“Oh, did you not hear that? Dewey offered to take us out to eat. When would you be available?”

“I, um... I’ll have to check my schedule. Do you mind if I get back to you later?”

“Of course. We could discuss it further during lunchtime,” she replied.

I couldn’t find the courage to tell her that the “you” in Dewey’s “take you out to eat” was a singular “you.” The poor misunderstood boy was visibly saddened, while Sora was laughing with pretty much no restraint or respect.

I’m sorry, Dewey...

We all kept walking together, and, when we reached their department, we split up from Maria and Dewey, promising to meet again at lunchtime. Dewey still looked quite sad.

“That girl can be pretty thick too, huh...” Sora chuckled to himself.

Wait... Too? Who else is supposed to be thick?

Left with that mystery, I decided to warn Sora not to give Dewey any more questionable advice.

The weather’s really good today. All right. Let’s get on with work!