The next day.

Yesterday, I slept better than I thought I would. 'Huh, weird.'

However, I found out why that was the case as soon as I opened my eyes. In my embrace, Glacia was snoring softly.

'Well, what do you know, Alicia was right. Glacia is the best hug pillow.'

Though, she'd have to be much for useful than that for me to abandon the idea of killing her.

However, this situation was still strange. I distinctively remember putting her to sleep on a rug yesterday, so how she managed to get up here was beyond my comprehension. 

As I stared at her cute face, I came up with an idea.

"Wake up." I nudged her.

Glacia gave out a tired squeal before slowly opening her eyes. Staring at me and blinking several times, she smiled.

"Hello!"

In response, I smiled back.

"I killed your mother."

"...?"

Tilting her head in confusion, she slowly opened her mouth.

"Nn? But mommy's alive..."

Flustered, I subconsciously answered,

"N-No, I mean your real mother!"

"But mommy is mommy...so she's real."

I facepalmed myself.

'Right, of course she wouldn't understand what I'm talking about.'

I decided to let this go...for now.

.

.

.

.

After my embarrassing defeat, I took Glacia downstairs. It seemed that we'd woken up earlier than everybody else in my group. Thus, I sat her down on the counter and ordered food.

"There's only soup?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, even bread is a luxury for us." The innkeeper sighed.

I nodded and took the seat next to Glacia. Can't be choosy while travelling, I suppose. Since I didn't want the other patrons of the inn to stare at me, I pulled the hood of Glacia's cloak up.

Eventually, the soup arrived, and like always, Glacia began wolfing it down without a second thought.

I absentmindedly patted her head through the cloak as I fell into thoughts.

'How do I make her hate me...?'

Usually, pissing people off just came naturally to me, but I was truly stuck in this case. I couldn't think of any possible way to lower her affection for me, let alone making her hate me.

'Well, let's just try random things.'

One method came to my mind as I watched Glacia's tail wag in happiness when she devoured her food.

'Maybe I can—'

"O-Oh, you're up already?"

I turned my head to the find and found Emily looking at us from the staircase.

"Perfect timing!" I smirked. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure..."

"What do—"

.

.

.

"Catch!"

A red spherical object whooshed through the air at high speed. Though, to everyone, it looked like a blurring streak of red shooting across the grass field.

Chasing after the object were two figures; both had silver hair. Though, one had fluffy ears and tail, and the other had a scaly white tail.

They, funnily enough, ran on all fours, chasing the object with reckless abandon. As the object went over a nearby cliff, the furry-eared figure stopped dead in her track. 

Meanwhile, the one with scaly tail dove right into the cliff, shouting,

"MINE!"

As the seconds passed, the shout got smaller and smaller. However, after a while, it got louder again. Eventually, a violent gust of Wind brought her back to the edge of the cliff again.

The figure had the object—a red rubber ball—in her mouth. Avoiding the other figure, she ran right back to where the ball originated from—me.

Taking the red ball out of Glacia's mouth and wiping it clean, I sighed,

"It's the 8th time already, how much Mana does she even have?"

Surely, she couldn't use whatever Magic that propelled her back from certain death forever.

Clutching the ball in my hand, I looked at Emily, who was approaching me again. I didn't intend for her to also join this, I really didn't. All I wanted to do was ask her what canines liked to chase after. Of course, I could just use shiny things, but the problem was that I wasn't confident in my self-control.

Shaking my head, I tensed my muscles again and threw the ball over the cliff. As Glacia and Emily chased after it, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Ria, who was crossing her arms with a frown.

"Why are you treating your own daughter like she's a dog?"

In response, I pointed at Emily.

"She's doing it too."

"That's even worse!"

"You're lucky that I don't know what you chickens like."

"What did you say?!"

"You're hearing things."

Then, I ignored her and concentrated on carrying out my plan.

.

.

.

The plan failed.

It was now dusk, and Glacia looked more excited than tired. Heck, I didn't even know if I managed to make her Mana reserve go below half.

Meanwhile, my arm was sore.

'You win this one...'

Thanks to me wasting the entire day, we had to stay the night again.

Ria was, of course, less than pleased with this. However, with Emily having enjoyed the day, Eran praising whatever I did, and Amelia not wanting to go against me, she couldn't do anything.

"If we fail this mission, I'm going to kill you!" She shouted before slamming the door of her room shut.

But only after a few seconds, she opened it again, stomped toward me, and took Glacia's hand.

"Clearly, you can't properly look after her. I'll stay with her tonight!"

'But my hug pillow...'

Dejected, I went back to my room and used the less superior hug pillow—Lyra in her bird form.