Chapter 128: Chapter 129: Aunty Loves Her Niece! (6)

Nod— Nod—It was past midnight.A black-haired child was nodding off on a sofa in the reception room.She must have been tired judging from her half-closed eyes.

━Miaaaao

When a strange ball of fur jumped onto the girl’s shoulder, she jumped awake and yelled.

“... Naru didn’t sleep! Naru only closed her eyes!”

Smack— Smack—Watching the child hit her own soft cheeks, the White Mage, Friede, crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

‘Naru Barjudas. Supposedly Brigitte’s daughter. There was no news of her giving birth. But the fact that she has a 6-year-old child means….’

There was something that she couldn’t tell them.If the former head, Faust, had still been alive, he would’ve had his eyes on her saying, “I’d like to take her in for research.”

But Friede was no such person.She also wasn’t stupid enough to make enemies of her sister or the King of Thieves. As the head of the family, Friede Walpurgis needed to protect many things and couldn’t risk doing anything dangerous.

And the reason for her being awake at 2 am was to wait for the return of a certain man.Though she had given a ‘gate’ magic scroll to him and his companions, anything could happen.So Friede was here at the 「Junk Mansion」 to prepare for that.

‘Of course, Brigitte doesn’t seem happy with my presence.’

The relationship between Brigitte and her oldest sister, Friede, was worse than strangers.

Being well aware of everything that the Walpurgis family had done to Brigitte, Friede also knew that trying to make amends was a selfish desire.So Friede didn’t say anything.She simply waited on the sofa.And her eyes returned to the girl who was nodding off again.

“Naru, was it?”

“Naru didn’t sleep! I was just… closing my eyes! Naru is going to wait for Dad!”

The girl jerked awake in surprise.She kept rubbing at her tired eyes and it was rather cute.

Waiting for her dad, hmm.Friede recalled her own son who would fall asleep on the sofa waiting for her to come back from work.

“Naru, how about you go to your room and sleep? It’s already past bedtime for kids. If you sleep too late, you’ll be tired at school, no?”

Graham Academy was known to be an excellent education facility like the Magic Tower. If she dozes off in class, won’t she have trouble keeping up with the lesson?But Naru shook her head.

“It’s okay! Naru sleeps well at school!”

“…….”

What a strange child.Black eyes and black hair.At a glance, she looked like a barbarian called a ‘Barbaroi’ from the distant vast plains but her pointed nose and strong features took after a certain someone she knew.

‘Fascinating. She looks like me. Though Gudrid’s daughter, Morgan, also had a resemblance. I can see some of Brigitte, too,’

Being Brigitte’s daughter, it was obvious that she would resemble Brigitte.

‘More than that, her mana is quite dense. It’d be difficult to gauge if one wasn’t a mage of my level. This child has high chances of succeeding greatly as a mage.’

She heard that the child recognized the「Painting」that assesses the ability of Walpurgis mages. How she even discovered the ‘teardrop’ that no one else could find.

‘She must have inherited her abilities from Brigitte. But it doesn’t seem like she has learned much magic. Doesn’t even know the breathing technique for controlling one’s mana. Neither does she know how to meditate.’

Mages were valuable human resources.

Mages generally belonged to a specific ‘family’ and trained from a very young age about the breathing technique amongst other ways to be in touch with mana.Born human and raised as a mage—would be the way to put it.But she couldn’t picture that for this child, Naru.

‘Likely because Brigitte doesn’t know about the training that young Walpurgis mages go through.’

The curriculum for fostering mages.It was basically the family’s manual of secret techniques.

The young Brigitte had usually been excluded from the family’s curriculum, and her current accomplishments were achieved through self-study.

Due to that, she probably didn’t consider it important to be training the child. Brigitte herself hadn’t experienced it, after all.

‘This child’s talent is like an overflowing bowl. Even without training and practice, she’ll become a great mage. But if she were to train, she could become even greater….’

Raw gemstones should be cut and shaped properly.That was Friede’s instinct as the family head.

Swoosh—Friede waved her finger in the air. Then from her hand, white, shimmering butterflies appeared and fluttered towards Naru.

“Wow, holy shh…! Butterflies!”

Sparkling magic butterflies.That was enough to catch Naru’s attention.

Now awake, Naru reached into the air and the butterflies fluttered around the room. It was a beautiful sight.

“So pretty!”

“They’re made from magic. An application of a single-word light magic. With a little practice, you can make them as well.”

“Oh, holy shh! Naru can become the queen of butterflies?”

Queen of butterflies—Friede wasn’t sure what that was but children tended to say things that only they knew about.She nodded lightly and spoke.

“Try sensing the mana. Breathe in. Breathe out. That’s what’s important. Anyone of the Walpurgis bloodline has a strong respiratory system. It’s best to inhale deeply.”

“Huuuuup, like this?”

Fuuuuu—Then Naru released the big breath she held in her chest.

“Butterflyyyyy—!”

Then something happened that shocked Friede.

From Naru’s exhale, some butterflies appeared and flew around.

“There! Ah, but they’re already gone!”

Although they had only lasted for about 3 seconds, Naru easily mastered the application of the spell. Even talented children would have needed to practice for a month.

“Impressive. I have been called a genius but I believe you surpass me.”

Stroke— Stroke—Friede stroked Naru’s head.Just then.

“What are you doing?”

Brigitte entered the room.Then she hid Naru behind her, separating her from Friede.

“Don’t teach Naru something strange.”

“It isn’t strange. It’s the Walpurgis breathing technique for mana sensing. That child has talent. If she just….”

“If she learns from people like you, then she’ll become the same. Naru doesn’t need that kind of teaching.”

“…….”

Brigitte was firmly closed off.As Friede scratched at her forehead, uncomfortable and disheartened, she felt a mana shift in the garden.

“They must be back.”

* * *

“Two in the morning. Came back sooner than I thought.”

I looked at the clock in the reception room and let out a huge yawn. Although Cecily did all the work, I was still feeling tired.Must have been tense from being in Pandemonium territory.It was nice stretching out on the sofa.

“Welcome back, Dad…!”

Hug—

Just then, Naru came running at me with open arms. Didn’t think that she’d still be awake.

“Naru, I picked up some woodland strawberries from Pandemonium for you.”

“Oh, holy shh…! Woodland strawberries! Where are they?”

“I ate them all because I got hungry.”

“Hiiiik…!”

“Hehe. Just joking. Here’s a few.”

I snickered and reached into my pocket. I grabbed a few of the round fruit that looked like raspberries. I didn’t know exactly how many were in my hand but it was a lot.

“Here, share it with Hina tomorrow.”

“I’m glad I waited for Dad! Now I’m going to sleep!”

Naru climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor.Cecily followed after.She must be tired.

“Mission accomplished?”

Brigitte approached and asked so I held out the patch to her and replied.

“We brought the seeds.”

“Seeds? That’s interesting.”

We were tired so it was better to sleep first and talk in the morning.Thinking that, I leaned back on the sofa and closed my eyes.And then I opened them to see that it was 7 in the morning.

“What the. Who stole the time?”

“Mwehehe, it was Naru!”

“Yeah?”

“But it’s a lie!”

I see.It was already time for school so it was a busy morning with Naru, Cecily, and Hina getting ready.

“Then this Sifnoi will be taking the little Kores to school…!”

The kids left enthusiastically for school.I also naturally got ready and headed to the facility.It was to show Elle Cladeco the ‘seeds’ that Cecily had brought.The way there, I was accompanied by Astarosa and Cariote.

“This is the facility?”

Astarosa, who had been tied up in the basement throughout the night, let out an impressive noise at the sight.Then she asked out of curiosity.

“So then, where is this artificial Demon King?”

“You’re standing on it.”

I pointed at Molu who was underneath Astarosa’s feet. Then Astarosa jumped and backed away before scowling.

“This is the Demon King? This wool cushion-looking thing?”

“Yeah. It’s cute. But if we can grow Childrakes from the seeds and feed it to this one, it’ll probably become a terrifying thing.”

I handed the seeds to Elle.Elle, who must have slept in the lab judging from her sleepy eyes, took the seeds and mumbled, “This is….” like she knew something.Then she explained.

“It seems to be a man-made parasitic plant. I can sense some ancient technology. It must have been artificially cultivated using children, but with today’s technology, that won’t be necessary.”

Elle put the seeds in the tank.

“We’ll use a growth catalyst. Growing it naturally would take more than 5 years.”

The seeds within the bubbling tank sprouted rapidly and then soon, beautiful flowers and healthy roots spread throughout the container.It was a fascinating sight.

“I’ve figured out most of its composition so we should be able to reproduce it. As a replica, it won’t be as effective but the amount should make up for it.”

With that, an hour passed.Elle had already replicated more than 12 Childrake roots.Seeing this, Astarosa clicked her tongue.

“Was it always this easy to reproduce Childrakes? That’s just trampling all over the deaths of those children and my hardships.”

“Because a millennium had passed since the destruction of Uruk. Now, I will boil the root and make a potion.”

Ziiiing—The Childrake root was put into boiling water.Soon, a black concentrated liquid dripped through the faucet attached to the machine and filled the potion bottle beneath it, appearing like asphalt.

“It’s complete for now. Concentrated evil karma. Drinking this would even tarnish a saint. I will spill this on Molu.”

━ KongKong—

The fluffy wool-like Molu.The potion of evil karma was spilled on top of it.

Twitch— Twitch—The thing started to shake its furry body, the air tense. Then about 10 seconds later, there was an astonishing transformation.

Its white, cotton-like form started to turn black!A black form.It was an obvious symbol of evil.And furthermore, it started growling like an enraged beast.

━ Grrrrr…!

The gentle and good Molu.The sound coming from such a creature shocked Priestess Iris.

“It really must have become tainted by evil karma…! Forcing a pure child to turn evil…. I’m uncertain as to this being the right thing….”

Iris held the fluffy Molu.But Molu struggled as if bothered and escaped her arms.

━ Miaaao

“... It’s refusing human touch!”

The Priestess was fairly taken aback.But I could tell.

“... No, this guy, it’s Molumolu.”

The artificial Demon King that we worked so hard to create.… Its identity was /genesisforsaken