Published at 18th of January 2020 11:51 pm

Volume 6, Chapter 4: The Event on New Year’s Eve, and a Chance Meeting in a Dream

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

It began with the approach of the new year, the first since Latina had come to Kreuz. In not only Laband where Kreuz lay, but also many other places, the eve of the new year was called the “Holy Night.”

On the Holy Night, families and those close to them would hold a feast and welcome the new year inside their homes, recounting tales of the year that had just passed.

It was said that those who endeavored to do good throughout the year were also visited by an Ahmar apostle clad in red sheets and granted a blessing.

Each house placed a charm provided by the temple on their door, to prevent bad things from coming inside. Originally they were simple charms, rings made of plants, but over the years they had grown more richly ornamented, and now they had the brilliant coloration of the year end festivities about them.

Furthermore, there was one more story surrounding the Holy Night.

“You mustn’t go outside on the Holy Night. On that night alone, magical beings appear even in town.”

“Magical beings will show up in Kreuz, too?!” the young Latina responded, looking surprised upon hearing that from Dale.

“Did they not show up back where you came from? Well, they hardly showed up back in my home village out in the country... In towns like this, though, the Holy Night is the one and only time that undead monsters will appear.”

“Undead?”

“That’s right. Undead in black clothes come after bad children who go out to play at night, and those who won’t listen to their parents... Hey, Latina, you don’t have to get so scared!”

As Dale had continued to talk, Latina’s face had gone completely pale and she was left sobbing, unable to even talk.

To Dale, children being told that “if you aren’t a good kid, the apostle won’t come and you’ll be taken away by magical beings” was an utterly cliché story. He hadn’t imagined that it would scare her this greatly.

Of course, Latina was this scared thanks to her childhood trauma. The memory of the incident in which her mother had tossed her into a graveyard remained all too fresh.

“It’s alright! It’s true that magical beings appear, but they won’t enter houses that have charms on them, so on the Holy Night, you’ll be fine just as long as you make sure to get home early!”

“Magical beings won’t come to where Latina is?”

“If they went out of their way to come after even a good kid like you, then all the kids in Kreuz would be wiped out!”

Dale had chosen his words poorly.

In her old home, she had been declared the greatest of criminals by those around her. And so, she now grew more and more pale.

“Everyone in Kreuz’ll be attacked?!” “They won’t!”

As a result, despite Dale’s intentions, Latina had come to think of the Holy Night as something terrifying.

The monsters that appeared solely on the Holy Night were called Hell Black Santas, and were known to surround the living while chanting mysterious curses like “Drop d34d yu b4st4rds with 4 lyfe” and “H8 y4, j3rks w/liv3s.”

They were truly mysterious curses.

It was said that they were originally just harmless ghosts, nothing but residual thoughts, but had been changed by encountering a being called the “king” that existed somewhere in this world, giving them a new sense of values.

It was thought that they only appeared once annually because they let their grudges build up over the course of the year. They used that power to infringe upon towns. Though with that said, the damages caused by these magical beings were limited to causing children trauma and making them cry, and getting in the way of secret rendezvous between lovers. It was truly dull mischief when compared to the power they possessed.

They didn’t directly cause any significant damage. Therefore, no towns directed significant effort towards eliminating them. And by the way, even if one succeeded in wiping them out, the same sort of outbreak would occur again years later.

Taking all of that into consideration, the elites in charge of town decided it was far more logical to simply have everyone place charms on their houses and wait inside for the night.

Even though Latina hated undead monsters more than anyone, the following year she ended up surrounded by Hell Black Santas. The cause was a plan constructed by her friends for a “grand adventure.”

They intended to slip out of their homes and get a look at the magical beings.

At times, children wanted to rebel against what the adults told them they couldn’t do, in order to have a modest adventure. Furthermore, the kids felt an irresistible allure to the idea of magical beings, which they had only heard of in stories. It wasn’t as if they were heading off out of town to some unknown place. They just were going to take a peek at what things were like out in town. It surely wasn’t as dangerous as the adults had said.

If any adults overheard, they would surely put a stop to a plan so filled with holes, but the children didn’t realize any of that. And that was also something that most adults had experienced when they were children.

The damage ultimately was limited to the crying of children. With that said, it should be clear that each year there were kids who ended up sobbing.

When Latina heard her friends discussing the matter in school, she tried to stop them.

She was a good kid who listened to what Dale and Kenneth told her, hardly ever playing pranks or acting belligerent. And above all else, she was scared of ghosts. So, she faced her friends and said, “We shouldn’t. It’s dangerous, not being in our houses.”

“Are you scared of monsters, Latina?” Chloe asked in concern, seeing that her friend had gone pale. That caused Latina to feel a little bit relieved. Her best friend would never pressure her. Surely with this, they’d rethink things.

“You don’t need to push yourself, Latina.” “Wah?”

Her friend’s reaction wasn’t quite what Latina had expected. After Chloe gave Latina a brilliant smile that was just like her, she turned to face their other friends.

“Well then, Latina won’t be coming along this time, so it’ll just be us!” “Wah!”

She hadn’t managed to stop them. The gears in Latina’s head spun wildly, trying to think of what to do. Her friends would head out and explore town even without her accompanying them. The thought of her friends running into magical beings in some place unknown to her and facing danger... The very idea made it feel like all the blood in her veins had turned to ice.

“Latina will go too!” she yelled out before she even realized it.

“Latina doesn’t know if she’ll be fine or not... but she’s going too!”

As a magic user, Latina was more capable of protecting herself than her friends. Rather than let her friends face danger all on the own, she’d prefer to be able to act as a shield for them if push came to shove. That was the conclusion she had reached.

And as a result of that decision...

By nature, the Hell Black Santas wandered around town. That meant that depending on the circumstances, it was possible they wouldn’t encounter them.

At first, they indeed didn’t run into any Hell Black Santas. But while wandering aimlessly about town, they turned a certain corner and unexpectedly encountered their first one. Trying to run away in their surprise was the proper reaction, but before they realized it, the number of them squirming about had increased. Amongst the adults it was said that by the time you saw one thirty would gather, but the children had no way of knowing that.

They were blocked off from the lighter areas and were steadily driven down gloomier alleys. It was impossible to read the expression of those undead monsters, but they somehow seemed to be greatly enjoying chasing after these terrified children.

In actuality, children who made such good reactions were a favorite “dish” for the Santas. It could be said that was what they lived for, even though they were dead.

That was why the Santas had gathered en masse, but it would be cruel to tell the children that.

The children, now scared and hiding while trying to come up with a plan, had never expected to run into this many magical beings.

“What’ll we do?!” Marcel shrieked, only for Rudy to instantly cover his mouth.

“Not so loud! They’ll find us!” Rudy said, looking pale himself. Beside him,

Anthony sat silently, thinking frantically.

Latina held her best friend Chloe’s hand tightly. While sobbing and trembling, she looked straight at Chloe.

“Latina will buy time... you all run away.” “Latina?”

“Latina has never used purification magic, but she knows enough to keep them from going after everyone, so please run to the Ocelot while she does so,” she said with a look of determination on her face, then took off before her friends could stop her.

“Oh light of heaven, grant this request. Grant peace to these lost souls. Oh light of heaven, grant this request. Grant peace to these confused, unrestful souls.”

What Latina was chanting wasn’t proper purification magic. The magic her young self could manage was limited to healing magic, protective wall magic, temperature change magic, and one type of attack magic.

What Latina chanted was a majestic song for the repose of souls that her mother had performed occasionally during ceremonies back in the great temple. Latina and her twin sister had secretly peeked in on it, and their mother had just looked so impressive that they mimicked her together over and over until they had it completely memorized.

Latina desperately raised her voice as she continued to chant.

The Hell Black Santas stopped in their tracks. It lacked the power needed to forcefully purify them, but her words were in the devil language, the same one used for casting magic. With a trace of mana added, it had enough power to keep those incorporeal beings at a distance.

“Acry1ng l17713 g1rlso mo3!”

“Y3sth47 l0l1t4, d0n0t 70ucH”

The Santas’ voices sounded more like shouts of joy than curses, but in her

panic Latina didn’t notice that.

After seeing Latina like that, Chloe bit her lip, turned around, and then ran in the other direction.

“Chloe?! We’re leaving Latina behind?!”

“We’ve got to go get help, for Latina’s sake too! And every second counts!” Chloe said, running at full speed.

Just like Latina had said, there would be plenty of folks who deal with undead monsters at the Dancing Ocelot. She didn’t want to have people angry at her, but at this point, she had no other choice. With that thought in her mind, Chloe desperately ran.

Latina was also giving her all for that best friend of hers. For a magical being hater like Latina, being surrounded by undead monsters was so terrifying an experience that words couldn’t even express it. Just facing off against them was enough to make her legs quake, and she didn’t seem to be able to move properly.

Even so, she tried to ignore that, to not think about it. If she did, her tongue would grow stiff and she would lose the ability to keep chanting. Latina was desperately encouraging herself to keep trying, but quite regrettably for her...

She was a beautiful young girl courageously raising her voice with tears in her eyes. Her adorable face warped with terror, holding back her trembling while resolutely chanting on.

Her trying so terribly hard had only gathered her more of a crowd. However, her efforts were rewarded.

“Are you the ones who made Latina cry...? You’re the ones who made my little girl sob...?”

That low voice sounded like it had come from the depths of hell, but as soon as she heard it come from behind, that was the signal that everything was over. That voice was full of bloodlust and anger, but Latina didn’t fear it at all, instead breaking down in tears of relief.

“Dale!”

“Latina... You all don’t think you’ll get off lightly for this, do you...?”

His hands were gentle as he stroked Latina and held her tight to calm the crying girl, but his tone and expression were enough overpower even those undead monsters.

He was completely enraged.

While facing the overwhelmed Hell Black Santas, who somehow looked prepared to flee, Dale had the appearance of an envoy of hell.

The fundamental method of dealing with undead monsters was to use magic. Furthermore, it was limited to magic of the Holy and Dark attributes. It wasn’t as if there were no methods based on divine protection, but those weren’t the normal means.

The Holy element magic guided the opponent, purifying them by showing them the way. In other words, it accomplished its goals by saving lost souls, the complete opposite approach to the Dark magic method.

As the Dark attribute also employed necromancy, its method of exorcising the undead was akin to using power to beat them to a bloody pulp.

Dale’s only attribute for dealing with the undead was already Dark to start with, but even if he could use Holy magic too, he would have taken the same approach.

Dale imbued both of his fists with Dark magic. In other words, he literally brawled with undead monsters. He grabbed, hit, and knocked down the mass of Hell Black Santas. There wasn’t even a shred of mercy to his expression as he mounted one of them and kept on pummeling. His opponents were magical beings, so there was no need for such things. That’s what he would later say with a smile on his face.

The regular rhythm of the dull sound of his blows filled the Kreuz night.

After a little while, Dale turned around, no longer a shred of the harshness he had about him when facing the Santas. At first he intended to have the girl who was seated with trembling shoulders stand, but soon after looking at her, he moved to pick her up in his arms instead.

“Are you alright, Latina?” Dale asked, seeming as if all the tension had drained from his body. Latina started sobbing loudly. Rather than hesitating, he gave a strained smile and hugged her tight.

It was thanks to Chloe that Dale had made it to Latina. She had had her friends stop at key points along the way. It was dark, and they were terrified, not knowing when magical beings may attack, but when she mentioned

Latina, who was struggling all on her own, they couldn’t do anything but agree to her plan. On top of that, she had rushed into the Ocelot by herself, where there was a great commotion because they had realized Latina’s absence.

With that notification from Chloe Dale went running, and was led by their other friends along the way until he made it to Latina.

Around now, Kenneth was surely escorting Latina’s friends back home.

They’d have to all be prepared for a scolding back in their own homes.

Dale had intended to lecture Latina as well, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so when she was in such a state.

“Latina’s sorry, Latina’s sorry...!”

Before he could scold her, Latina had realized her mistake and was repeating words of apology. On top of that, when faced with a Latina who had suffered such a terrifying experience, Dale had no choice but to comfort her.

“You had me worried. I’m really glad that you’re alright, Latina. You won’t do anything like this again, right?”

“Latina won’t...! Latina’s sorry, Dale. She’s sorry...” “...was it scary? I’m sorry I got there so late.” “Dale... Latina’s sorry, for being a bad girl...!”

“You’re not a bad girl... though I think you could stand to act up a little bit more. I just want you to remember that I worry about you because you’re so precious to me, Latina.”

Furthermore, Dale felt truly relieved to see that Latina now felt willing to show some selfishness or get into mischief, at least a little. She was just too much of a good girl by nature. He didn’t want to see her walking around on eggshells around him and everyone else, looking like she was searching for the place she belonged while trying to hold her breath. No matter how good of a kid one may be, they grew while doing the sort of things that adults would scold them for. And it was a guardian’s role to forgive a child for their mistakes, as long as it wasn’t something that couldn’t be undone. If they screwed up, then they just had to do better next time.

“Kenneth prepared a feast and a cake for the Holy Night festivities. He found it strange that you didn’t come down to help, so he went looking for you.”

“...Latina’s sorry.”

“Well, we’ll just have to give it our all so that the apostle comes next year, right?” he said while walking along with her in his arms. As his breath turned white and drifted upwards into the night sky, small snowflakes came fluttering down.

On a certain year, Dale thought back on those events.

Ever since then, it had been Latina’s role to place charms on the front and rear doors to the Ocelot. She made sure they were firmly in place, taking extra special care to make sure nothing could get inside. Immediately after doing so, she turned and looked at Dale with an unusually serious look on her face.

“Dale.” “What is it?”

“I was thinking of going outside tonight.”

“Huh?” Dale said in an astonished voice. That was because ever since that night, she not only wouldn’t go outside after the sun went down on the eve of the new year, she wouldn’t even go near the door.

Just what sort of sudden change of heart what this?

“Why would you do something like that...?”

“I’m bad with such things, so I want to overcome that! And Chrysos was also saying how purification magic was one of her strong points now!”

...So it wasn’t just Latina, Dale thought to himself.

Latina had been fired up to learn anti-undead magic because she was so afraid of them and wanted a means to deal with them, and apparently things were similar for her sister. Their difficulty in dealing with the undead was apparently the result of trauma shared by both twins.

Of course, Chrysos’s hatred of the undead, just like Latina’s, was rooted in the terrifying experience of being tossed into the graveyard.

“I can use not only Holy magic, but also Dark magic as well, allowing me to master anti-undead magic,” Chrysos had declared with a serious expression. In a way, she had followed her mother’s teachings and conquered her trauma by facing it head on. (Nobody dared touch on the fact that more than conquering it, she had used over-excessive self-defense on even nearly harmless low-grade spirits, unleashing powerful magic upon them.)

“I also had Lady Rose teach me purification magic, so it shouldn’t turn out like before, but I’d still be uneasy on my own...”

“Then you don’t have to go out of your way to do this...”

“But it would be even more frightening to not be able to use it if something happened, so I want to practice.”

That statement wasn’t all that positive. Apparently Latina’s path towards overcoming her fear of the undead remained a long one.

But now that I think about it...

It would be difficult to head out to a graveyard or underground labyrinth for the express purpose of magic practice, and it would be far too heavy a load for a scaredy cat like Latina anyway.

And this time, rather than running off on her own, she was asking him to accompany her. As long as he was by her side, even on the off chance that something happened, he wouldn’t let her face any danger.

“If you happened to run into any undead when I wasn’t around... that’d be a real issue...”

“I may be able to chant the spell, but I won’t be able to feel peace of mind until I do it for real.”

“I see.”

Dale gave a nod, having come to a conclusion. Even if Latina faced a frightening experience at the hands of the undead, it would earn him the side benefit getting to pamper her even more than normal. And so, everything seemed alright in terms of potential results.

“You won’t push yourself too hard, right?” “Yeah.”

Having finished discussing the matter, the two of them ended up going out for a walk that night.

She had said that she would try her hardest, but Latina was apparently still terrified and getting cold feet. She gripped Dale’s hand tightly, and drew even closer to him than normal as the walked together through town.

That time, which felt warm and passionate in spite of the winter cold, came to an end with them encountering even more Santas than Dale had expected. Seeing the undead continue to utter their curses, Latina hid behind Dale’s back with tears in her eyes. The curses grew even louder, but remained incomprehensible.

Though she was hiding behind Dale’s back, she was chanting a spell. It successfully activated, and several Santas vanished. Seeing that Latina felt relieved, and moved out in front of Dale. For whatever reason, the Santas wouldn’t come within a set distance. Latina cast magic once again. The number of Santas was clearly decreasing.

Latina didn’t understand the reason behind the Santas’ actions, but they were clearly afraid of the bloodlust emanating from Dale. That most terrifying of heroes who was a demon lord’s retainer was already far outside the realm of common sense. In a way, he was an even more vicious presence than a magical being.

“I did it...!”

“Yeah. You really did your best, Latina.”

Dale stroked the victorious Latina’s head he had when she was little, praising her for her success in battle.

They were near the Ocelot, but it would still be a serious matter if she were to run out of mana and collapse. When Dale sensed that was about to occur, they returned back to the Ocelot at his insistence.

So, this is a dream.

He clearly remembered getting into bed with Latina after that. They didn’t make out or anything. Dale simply hugged the still frightened Latina tight, pampering her like he had when she was young and returning to something resembling his old doting idiot mode.

He recalled falling asleep, so the scenery he saw now was clearly within a dream.

While reaching that conclusion, Dale thought to himself, A situation in which I’m going to introduce myself to Latina’s parents... that should be just plain impossible!

Even though he knew it was a dream, his palms were still drenched in sweat. And the girl with a wide grin on her face by his side was also adorable, even within a dream.

Dale wasn’t aware of the common lifestyle in Vassilios. And yet, he found himself walking through an unfamiliar orderly town, being led by Latina. While walking the stone path, he took a sidelong glance and saw houses made from white-looking bricks, bleached by being exposed to strong sunlight. After turning at countless corners, they entered an area that had a bit of a rougher feel to it. Latina stopped in front of one house in the area, a plain, simple one made of sun-dried bricks.

Latina’s parents were inside. With the sort of confidence in that fact characteristic of being in a dream, Dale was sweating bullets.

What’s with this feeling of nervousness, even though I know I’m in a dream...?!

His whole body felt stiff. It wouldn’t move like he wanted.

While Dale was unable to even call to mind how he should announce his arrival, the simple door opened without notice.

“Oh, so you can also show an appearance resembling a normal person, displaying your nervousness?”

It was Chrysos who suddenly poked her face out from inside the building.

Seeing the state Dale was in, she gave a cruel smile.

“Your remarks towards me are as awful as always.” “Now, you may come inside. Rag and Mov are waiting.”

While it would normally be unthinkable for the ruler of a nation to greet him at the door, Dale accepted the circumstances and came inside as he was beckoned to do.

As he stepped into the shade, the brightness abated, and the heat he was feeling dropped a bit. As if trying to calm his feelings as well, he unconsciously took several deep breaths.

“Ugh...”

“Are you really that nervous?” “Well... you know.”

Latina tilted her head and looked at Dale, whose expression had grown stiff.

“Latina, you also... well, I guess the circumstances weren’t the same back then...”

When Latina visited Dale’s home village, she was so young that the topic of marriage didn’t come up at all. There was no helping that, though, as Dale wasn’t even thinking of Latina in that way back then. Latina may have been in love with Dale, but her meeting with his family didn’t have that sort of feel to it. She was just so young that she hadn’t really felt anything but the nervousness of being in a new place for the first time.

The circumstances Dale faced now, reporting to her family on their intent to marry (or rather, ask their forgiveness), were completely different.

Completely indifferent to Dale’s hesitation, Chrysos pointed to a room further in. Latina gave a slightly troubled smile, but even so led Dale into the room by hand.

Dale stood petrified upon seeing a man with hair the same platinum color as Latina and Chrysos’s. From his weak-kneed attitude, it was hard to imagine he was the hero who had defeated numerous demon lords.

The man gently smiled, not ridiculing Dale for that in the least.

“Perhaps it’s a little strange to say ‘nice to meet you.’ It’s my first time meeting someone in this way, after all.”

The man’s green eyes were a color reminiscent of gentle, fresh leaves, and he possessed horns like elegant black precious stones, which Latina had inherited.

This man, Smaragdi, who Dale had only met after he was no longer amongst the living, was Latina and Chrysos’s father.

This is scarier than facing off against any demon lord...!

That was how Dale earnestly felt at the moment.

The man before him now didn’t have a very flashy appearance considering he was the father of Latina and Chrysos. He had the look of a gentle intellectual about him, but there wasn’t any conventional beauty to him.

When Dale had met him, a good deal of time had passed since his death, so he no longer had the appearance he had possessed when he was alive. It could be said that this was Dale’s first time seeing the man’s face.

There wasn’t any harshness to the man smiling before him now.

But perhaps because he was so worked up at the moment, Dale couldn’t simply accept his friendly attitude. “...Nice to meet you, I’m...” “Rag!”

The instant Dale had pulled himself together and tried to introduce himself, Latina went running up to the man. She hugged him tight and happily closed her hands.

Devils spent a long period of time as adults, so there wasn’t a visible age difference between Latina and her father.

Even so, Dale didn’t feel any jealousy at seeing him pamper Latina. “Oh, so you are unperturbed?” Chrysos asked with a grin.

“Just exactly what sort of person do you think I am...?” Dale replied with a sigh.

It was no surprise that Dale would be thought of as an incarnation of jealousy considering his words and actions, but he was aware of just how dearly Latina had missed her father. He accepted that it was only natural for him to dote on her after they finally reunited.

“Rag, I’m happy now.”

“Right. Seeing the way that you can truly smile now, I can tell that you mean that from the bottom of your heart... You’ve really worked hard, Latina.”

Latina was wiping tears from her eyes, but she still wore a happy smile as her father stroked her hair. And seeing his daughter like that, Smaragdi also looked truly glad.

Sensing the resemblance in Smaragdi’s gentle voice and smile, Dale thought to himself how this man truly was Latina’s father.

“That’s also because you watched over her with affection, right? I’m truly grateful to you for saving my daughter,” he said, thanking Dale with a gentle smile on his face.

The second he heard that, Dale felt ashamed at letting his nervousness get the better of his manners. He immediately adjusted his posture and expression and looked straight at Smaragdi.

“My sincerest apologies for being so late in introducing myself. My name is Dale Reki. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m Smaragdi... You humans have a name that indicates your family too, right? The closest thing devils have is a custom to employ our mother’s name to indicate whose child we are, but... Our race does not have as close relationships to our children as humans do.”

Dale could sense from Smaragdi’s clear explanation that he was skilled at teaching others. Despite his youthful appearance he had the feel of the respected teacher from back in Dale’s home village about him, so Dale maintained his proper posture.

“You don’t need to be so nervous...” Latina said while tilting her head.

She was in the midst of laying out the baked sweets she had brought as a gift atop the table.

A woman with long purple hair who Dale was acquainted with was staring straight at Latina as she did so. She didn’t even so much as blink while observing the sweets laid out in front of her. She seemed satisfied after a bit and so reached out slowly, then took a nibble out of the corner. Then, she silently chewed, looking reminiscent of a small animal.

When Dale had met her before she gave off a dignified, resolute impression, but seeing her nibble away at the madeline she was holding in both hands was very much reminiscent of Latina. Perhaps that impression was unnecessarily strengthened by the flower in her loosely done up purple hair.

After she finished the first one, her golden eyes remained fixed on the tray left in the middle of the table. With a strained laugh Chrysos took a new sweet from there and placed it in front of her mother. The woman took the offered sweet in both hands without hesitation, and started once more nibbling at it.

After watching that chain of events, Dale then turned to face Chrysos.

“...Hey, Chrysos.” “What is it?”

“My first impression was that Latina took after your father, while you took after your mother... but is it the opposite?”

“Platina was often told that she resembled Mov.” “Sure enough...”

Latina tilted her head while listening to this conversation between Dale and her sister. Apparently she herself had no awareness of that fact.

Still... I was prepared to be greeted with more open hostility...

Smaragdi had a far more friendly, gentle feel about him than Dale had expected.

I was at least expecting to be told, “I won’t let some mere hero who’s only taken down a few demon lords have my daughter!” I would’ve said it...

Even perusing the annals of history, Dale would still be the first to wipe out nearly all of the demon lords. That was no ordinary feat.

Dale only thought that to himself, not speaking aloud, but Smaragdi smiled and seemed to reply to Dale’s question. “Well, if you had happened to do something unreasonable or unjust to my innocent Latina... I would use any methods needed to drag you down here to the underworld,” he said, the smile remaining on his face as he made such a nasty statement without hesitation.

“Before you desired Latina, she desired you, after all.”

It felt like the temperature in the room had dropped. Neither his smile nor the tone of his voice changed, but even a storied hero like Dale felt the pressure he exuded.

“And there’s no way anyone could give my adorable Platina the cold shoulder.”

“I’m in absolute agreement,” Dale immediately responded.

That’s right. More than the matter of Dale himself, that girl who he held more precious than anyone having her first love unfulfilled, or in other words having her heart broken, was something that must never be allowed to occur.

Anyone insolent enough to do so would be deserving of a taste of the tortures of Hell.

With such contradictory thoughts, Dale’s thinking had reached its worst. “If you let Platina suffer misfortune in the future, then don’t go expecting to live to the peaceful natural end of your life.”

Dale reflexively thought that he’d end up cursed.

He may have been an extraordinary hero, but the methods needed to guard against an attack from that angle fell outside of his field of expertise. Dale was technically a priest, but it wasn’t as if the divine power related to Quirmizi was effective against the undead.

And besides, Dale figured this man would easily bypass any such hindrances in order to curse him anyway.

“...I’ll give it my all.”

“I’d be grateful if you did so,” Smaragdi said with a smile, seeing Dale’s stiffened expression.

“Platina would surely say that she’d never be happy if she wasn’t with you. That girl’s stubborn like her parents, after all.”

Mov had been nibbling away at her madeline the entire time that Dale and Smaragdi were having that conversation, but she now gulped down the contents of her mouth and looked at Dale.

“Do you wish to know whether it shall be a boy or a girl when you eventually have a child?”

It was a sudden question, coming out of nowhere.

Latina’s cheeks flushed bright red.

“Just your words that one will be born eventually is enough,” Dale responded with a slightly strained smile.

“I see.”

The words of a rare oracle of Banafsaj were more valuable than gold.

Devils were a race for which it was difficult to have children, but as long as they had those words on their side, they could wait as long as it took. And besides, they’d have plenty of time from now on, anyway.

Mov smiled at Dale’s response, and then elegantly brought the tea Latina had prepared to her lips. She looked like a different person than the one who had been acting so childishly before. Not even trying to hide that dual nature of hers, she gave a calm smile and then cuddled up close to Smaragdi.

Smaragdi looked back at her with a gentle expression that was different than the one he directed towards his daughters. The man reached out his slender fingers and casually readjusted the flower in her hair.

Dale felt he understood the fact that Latina was raised with love by these parents.

“I’ll keep on protecting Latina.”

“...If you could keep an eye out for Chrysos too, I’d appreciate it. That girl has her head on straight, but she still has some parts about her that resemble her mother...”

While speaking those words out of concern for his other daughter, Smaragdi gave a slightly troubled looking smile.

That was the last sight that Dale saw.

†

“Ugh...” Dale let out something like a groan into the still-dark room.

I lost sight of the fact that it was a dream somewhere midway through...

Dreams were often that way, but he couldn’t just write it off as a simple dream.

“I should take Latina for a visit to his grave...”

He also thought that he’d like to ask Chrysos’s opinion first, but he thought he should at least return her father’s remains to his old home rather than leaving them in that forest. And he also thought that he would get in contact with Gregor, who had the cleanup for the incident with the Second Demon Lord thrust upon him, so that Latina’s parents could be buried together, as they seemed so happy together in the dream.

“Hngh...”

Before all that, though, he wrapped up the girl sleeping soundly by his side in his arms. The strange, irregular sound of her breathing as she slept caused him to break out in a smile.

“I’ll do my best to make sure she experiences plenty of happiness,” Dale whispered, stating his aspirations to the sleeping Latina, and then he shut his eyes.

Latina awoke after a short while and tried to get up, only to find herself in a tight grasp. Dale enjoyed her squirming about, so he feigned still being asleep.

That was all so that he could exchange greetings for the new year with her before anyone else.

Dale entered into the new year enjoying the warmth of that beloved girl and looking forward to saying, “I look forward to spending the next year with you, too.”

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