“I can’t thank you enough for always helping out.”

“I do what I can ma’am.”

“Young men don’t need to be so humble! Hah, tell ya what, you can drop by whenever you want. You’ll always be welcome here.”

“Haha, thank you.” I gave a hearty chuckle.

“Say, you aren’t married yet, are ya? She may not be all that right in the head but—”

“Oh, I just remembered! I had to make lunch for my daughter! I’ll drop by again when you need me ma’am!”

“Daughter?”

With that, I ran full speed away.

Did I have a daughter?

No.

Did I want a daughter?

No.

Did I want to get laid?

N—well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves there.

Who in the world would want to be chained by marriage? But implying I did was the perfect excuse… Until it wasn’t.

“Papa, you’re home so fast today!”

“Have you been well at home?”

“Yeah! Melly cleaned the floor and Papa’s sword!”

“My sword?”

“Yeah!”

‘How did she find it…’

‘No, wait. How did she clean it!?’

On closer inspection, her hands did not seem to be wounded or anything. That was good. I’d need to check out what she did to my Arkaphet later. Hopefully, she didn’t mess up any of the magic layerings.

“Papa?”

“Ah, good job Melly!”

I disguised my worry with a fake smile.

In all honesty, I didn’t even know how to parent a child so I could only hope I was doing everything right. While I have heard stories of parents beating their children for misbehavior, Melly did not seem to have that problem so I’ve never really reprimanded her. Her naive and innocent little smile was something I didn’t want to ruin. It was cute, and anything else, I would think myself a monster.

“Come here.”

Her scrawny little legs ran to me with her arms out.

“Ehhee.” She gave a shrieky cry as I scooped her up.

We moved to the kitchen, and as I looked around, I was given a decent surprise. The floor was cleaner than yesterday, which meant Melly was getting better at sweeping the floors. It must have been time-consuming to do it every single day with the small child-sized broom.

‘We all start somewhere.’

With my many years of experience, I could see every minute detail in the room, and that included the plops of dust hiding in the corners, though indistinguishable to the normal eye.

‘She’ll get there eventually, eh?’

She was sure progressing fast. At this rate, I could teach her swordsmanship in no time. It only made sense for a beauty-to-be to know at least some self-defense. The world was a scary place for the weak.

Thinking back, it reminded me back when I started.

I guess we could start sometime this week. She must be bored all day at home too. It’ll give her something to invest in until she can wander the world on her own.

I lit up the stovetop with a mediocre spell before bringing a pot of water over.

“What do you want to eat Melly?”

“Steak!”

“Eh? But it’s lunch not din—oh, alright.”

Visible drool fell out of Melly’s mouth as she took a seat at the table. I didn’t know if it was normal for children to do that, but I knew my childhood was no standard for comparison. She also had a strange habit of breathing aggressively when doing some things, like eating. It was how she physically expressed herself I suppose, and I wouldn’t fault her for it. I could kind of understand that restless experience with adrenaline pumping fresh from the heart. It was excessive, but she should grow out of it. It’s not like she’s hyperventilating or anything.

It would be bad if it became a long-term habit…

“How is it?”

“Delicious!” she said, with cheeks bagged out like a chipmunk.

I stuck my fork in and tried a piece myself. I had pre-cut them before serving so Melly could eat with less chew. And as expected, it was supple with juices exploding from being soaked in the broth. It wouldn’t be bad to eat it every day, except it took a while to dissect and fully prepare the game. Hunting wasn’t a problem since there were plenty of those furry cows lingering everywhere.

It was well-done, not because I was a psychopath, but Melly had a problem with red streaks. Even those of medium quality were too pink for her. She said she didn’t want to eat blood so I left it at that. I didn’t really mind since food was food.

“Eat the noodles.”

She hadn’t touched a single strand, yet the blanket of meat covering the white goodness had disappeared within seconds. The little bits of vegetables I put in her bow, she ate. This was something else I thought was strange. From what I heard from the people around, children apparently don’t like greens.

“Let’s go play.”

“Eat everything in your bowl first.”

She gave a defeated expression and quietly resumed doing as I told.

The more I thought about it, Melly was a very well-behaved child. I guess this was a girl thing or something because all the people I remembered when I was that age were… Yeah, she’s a good kid. She deserved a lot better. That kind of toxic environment wouldn’t do any good for her mentality.

‘She’ll become as antisocial as… I should… Really forget about that… World.’

“Papa?”

“Alright! Let’s go play!” I stood up, ignoring the fact that she had not finished.