Before Kasumi could plunge the dagger down, Adel quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Don't."

Still glaring at her mother, Kasumi asked, "why?"

"Her rank is <B>, so you can't kill her anyway. Besides, I don't want to get into trouble for killing the Empress' only servant." 

Kasumi gritted her teeth, but eventually relented and got off her mother, who stood up and patted her black clothes down.

"Rest assured," Kasumi's mother said as she carefully made her way toward the nearest shadow, "I'm not here for the Imperial princess, and I won't hurt anyone here."

Then, she disappeared without any further complication. As soon as she did so, Adel glared at me.

"What did you do?" She asked icily?

"What? I didn't do anything!" I immediately replied.

"Then why would the Empress send someone after you?!"

"How do you know that it's me?"

"Who else in this room would she send her servant after?"

"W-well..."

Thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that Kasumi's mother's target was most likely me. Judging by the words she last said before she disappeared, it was even more probable. And, knowing my luck, it was probably the case.

"Fuck me... what did I do to catch the Empress' attention?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because your feat was announced to the entire world," Adel said as she lowered her eyes at me.

"That was a rhetorical question, don't look at me as if I'm some sort of idiot," I muttered, noticing the look Adel was giving me.

Adel rolled her eyes and grabbed Kasumi's arm. "Anyway, I have some matters to attend to. See you later."

Before she left the room, Adel inspected Glacia. Luckily for her, she had already dozed off for some time, so she could easily remove her for her wings.

"Catch," Adel said as she threw Glacia through the air. 

Widening my eyes in surprise, I hurriedly caught Glacia, right in time for her to wake up.

"Nn... where fluffy?"

But I ignored her for now and continued to glare at Adel's back until the door was closed. Then, I sighed and placed Glacia down on the floor. 

Staying in absolute silence, I stared Glacia down, musing over what to do with her. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that if I was going to take care of her, I would need some equipment.

"I guess this means that we have to do some shopping."

"Yay!"

***

Empress Angelica was sitting his her bed when she heard a loud thud right beside her. Without even turning around, she addressed the source of the sound casually, "Kazumi."

"Your highness," Kazumi, the source of the sound and also Kasumi's mother, answered, "I'm here to report."

"Yes, please do tell what our favorite Void slayer is doing."

Kazumi nodded, not particularly affected by the slight sarcastic edge that the Empress had in her words.

"As soon as he returned to Avaron, he visited the princess' dorm; and I got through the defenses of her dorm room just in time to see the child that was mentioned calling the princess 'mommy.'"

"So Freywright wasn't lying," Angelica muttered. Sighing, she laid back on her bed. "Anything else?"

"Yes, your highness. It seems that the princess does not know how to react to that child, seeing as she called her 'it.'"

"Mhm..."

Angelica wasn't really surprised. Eleanor had always been cold since she was little, addressing her own parents as 'Empress' and 'Emperor' instead of mother and father. Not just that, she also treated the maids and knights of the Imperial palace like furniture, disposable and always replaceable. Though, that ruthless side of her was only known to Angelica since Eleanor was just that good at hiding it.

'She takes after me a lot...I don't like it.'

Thanks to years of navigating the cutthroat politics of the Imperial court, Angelica had grown ruthless and cunning. However, a person such as her still wished for her children to be somewhat normal. Regretfully, her wishes didn't come true as her son was a textbook arrogant idiot, and her daughter was too much like Angelica herself for her comfort.

Thus, she was a bit disappointed to find out that motherhood didn't soften Eleanor noticeably enough.

"Anything else to report, Kazumi?"

"Yes, your highness. I couldn't observe Theodore Gray constantly because of interferences."

"...?"

"I'm saying that I could only observe Theodore Gray once he entered the princess' room."

"I see..." Angelica nodded thoughtfully. "...Did you remove the pests?" 

"Yes, your highness. The interference was men from the Darkest night also spying on Theodore Gray."

"Why would they do that?"

"I do not know, your highness, but I can tell that their intent was malicious in nature. If I may, your highness, my theory is that they're simply keeping on eye on him because he slayed 2 Void lords."

"Mmmm..." Angelica hummed as she eyed Kazumi suspiciously. "I feel like you're still leaving out something in your report."

"I was about to get to it, your highness," said Kazumi with a cool, nonchalant, and shameless tone. "I was discovered."

"By whom?"

"Kasumi, your highness. The princess noticed my presence and notified Kasumi, who then knocked me out of my stealth."

"So you're saying that Theodore Gray knows that you're watching him now?"

"...Yes, your highness."

"Shit," Angelica mumbled a curse under her breath. "Cease all operations, do not engage with Theodore Gray anymore. Now that his guard's up, it's unlikely that your stealth will achieve much. We can't afford to sour our relationship any further with the Void slayer and—" she took a deep breath. "—my daughter's lover."

"As you wish, your highness."

"Instead," Angelic yawned, "protect him from any move made by the Darkest night. I don't care how, just eliminate any Cultist that comes to spy on him."

"What about direct threats, your highness?"

Thinking for a bit, Angelica answered, "leave them be. He's the Void slayer, is he not? He can deal with them himself. Besides—" Angelica yawned more loudly and pulled the blanket up. "—if he dies, then I guess that is as far as he can go."

"...I will carry out your orders flawlessly, your highness."

In response, Angelica gestured for Kazumi to leave her room. Then, she fell into a sound sleep.

***

With Glacia sitting on my arm, I stared at the store before me. It looked absurdly luxurious, and its products were probably expensive as hell. However, there weren't any other stores that sold these kinds of stuff. Thus, I had to swallow the bitter feeling of definitely losing a lot of money and enter the store.

"Welcome," the store clerk said as soon as I entered the store, "may I help you?"

"I can look for stuff myself," I instantly replied, not wanting to extend this conversation any further.

The store clerk nodded in understanding and left me to my own devices. 

Speaking of leaving others to their own devices, Glacia was getting restless in my arm. Knowing that she needed to expend her energy, I placed her down and whispered, "don't knock over anything."

She nodded, though I didn't know how trustable that gesture of affirmation was. Then, she ran deeper into the store, and I could only hope that she wouldn't be too much trouble.

Leaving Glacia aside, I continued my shopping. 

'Let's see, first, I need to buy a place for her to sleep.'

Coupled with the knowledge that dragons-like creatures were like cats or dogs, I selected my first item.

'Next, I need to buy food.'

 I briefly looked over the food items, but soon shook my head in disgust.

'Too expensive...'

I'd rather have Alicia cook for her than buy this waste of money. 

I looked at other items on the list, but they were either too expensive, or was easily replaceable by a much cheaper option. Thus, the only thing I took with me to the register was the "bed" that I first picked.

The store clerk briefly looked over the "bed" and said, "that would be 10 Gold, sir."

"Really? For a sandbox?" 

"Sir, you have to understand, the sand is taken fresh from the Great desert!"

"But there are Gates near here, aren't there?" I retorted.

Then, after a few minutes of bargaining, the store clerk eventually gave in with a sigh.

"Then, it'll be 2 Golds in total, sir."

Smirking triumphantly, I flicked 2 Gold coins toward the store clerk, who caught them with an almost inaudible scowl.

'I've already bullied him enough, no need to rub it in by demanding a further discount.'

Just as I was about to go and look for Glacia, I saw her running toward her with a smile.

"Daddy! Can I buy this?" 

I stopped her before she could collide into me and took the packets she was holding out of her hands.

'Bird seeds?'

Wyrms ate bird seeds?

As I was staring at the packets in confusion, Glacia exclaimed, "I want to grow birdies!"

"Pffft!" The store clerk covered his mouth, barely keeping himself from bursting out laughing. Though, I was certain that he didn't even think of laughing anymore when he saw me glaring at him.

But...I was pretty close to laughing loudly at Glacia's face myself. It was only because of the risk of having her cry and cause a ruckus here that I could stop myself from doing so.

Kneeling down to meet Glacia's eyes, I said, "are you sure you want to buy these?"

"Nn! I want birdy friends!"

"Sir," the store clerk interjected, "we also sell birds as pets, if you lik—"

"Plant pots," I said, not breaking eye contact with Glacia.

"Excuse me, sir? You want to buy plant pots?"

Still staring straight into Glacia's gray eyes, I smiled faintly. "Didn't you hear me? Plant pots, 5 of them."

... 

I walked on the streets of the Capital, with Glacia sitting on my arm and hugging the bird seeds packets with a smile, and the plant pots and the sandbox all in a bag.

'Heh,' I snickered inwardly as I looked at Glacia, 'stupid child.'

It was below me to say this, but Glacia was really dimwitted. The only reason why I gave in to her request and bought the plant pots, which costed 15 Golds in total, was so that she would resent me when she inevitably found out that she couldn't grow birds.

'And if she hates me, there's a good chance that she will attack me. Then, I can kill her without Syl being able to fault me.'

That was the plan I had in my mind when I accepted to look after her. I wanted to kill the variable named "Glacia," and at the same time, not have a future Duchess—Syl—out for my blood.

That said, the plan greatly depended on my capability for evil. Considering my... reactions to children, and the memories that the 5th Iteration me left me, I couldn't do anything like spanking her. Thus, I decided to build up resentment little by little, until Glacia couldn't take it anymore and attack me.

Satisfied with the first step of my grand plans, I quickly made my way back to my dorms.

...

It was late afternoon when I got back to my dorms. As soon as I opened the door, I saw Alicia just sitting on the couch, lazing around and doing nothing.

She turned her head toward the door to stare at me. Then, her eyes drifted toward Glacia. "Isn't she..."

"Yes, I'm sure you know her." 

Seeing Alicia's eyes sparkling at the sight of Glacia like that, I came up with a great idea.

"Alicia, how about you look after her while I'm away?"

"I'd love to!" She exclaimed. "But I can't all the time since I have to train with headmaster Alan."

"Fair enough."

As long as I could take a break from this annoying little brat once in a while, anything would do.

Then, I left Glacia to Alicia and placed the sandbox down in the corner of the living room.

"Glacia," I called out, "this is your bed from now on."

Glacia poked her head out from the couch and nodded. Similarly, Alicia poked her head out and looked at the sandbox in absolute confusion. However, she decided to not ask anything and went back to doing whatever she was doing with Glacia.

With that now done, I placed the plant pots on an empty desk and ripped the bird seeds packets apart. 

Hearing the clacking noise of the seeds hitting the table, Glacia jumped from the sofa and dashed toward me.

Again, I stopped her before she could collide with anything and let her stand on a chair since she was too short compared to the table.

"Do you know how to plant the seeds?"

Glacia nodded. However, all she managed to do was get the dirt and seeds everywhere but in the pots. Sighing, I grabbed her hands and guided her slowly. Eventually, she got the hang of it and started to successfully plant the seeds herself.

'Huh, I felt a weird sense of accomplishment doing that...'

But I couldn't think about it any further as Glacia had already finished planting all the bird seeds.

"What now, daddy?"

"We wait," I answered, "and also, remember to water them every so often."

Smiling brightly, Glacia jumped down from the chair and ran around the dorm to find things to play... or wreck. 

Sighing, I turned around, only to see Alicia crossing her arms and looking at me with a gaze that said, 'really?'

In response to her questioning gaze, I merely shrugged my shoulder and plopped down to the couch. Strangely, today was exhausting, so all I wanted to do right now was to sleep.

Thus, I asked Alicia, "make sure that Glacia don't smash anything."

Then, I fell into slumber.