I was moved. I cried. I was shaken. In such a short span of time, my heart had shifted through extreme magnitudes. The cause of this was, of course, Rion’s graduation. That was all. But shock naturally gets better over time, so at the moment, I’d managed to regain a fair amount of calm. My father-in-law was the same. We had both just been so shocked that we couldn’t articulate words properly, but now we were fine.
Seriously, thank goodness. People really do need to be able to maintain a somewhat objective view of things. My level of calm right now is perfect. Well, I’m a Daemon and Gustav is a demon, so none of us are really human.
And so, with our regained calm, and with a massive amount of food ordered by Mel, we were of course making our way toward Rion, who was saying goodbye to her friends now that the ceremony was over. Of course we wanted to give our greetings to the friends who had gotten along well with her over this past year, but most importantly, we needed to resolve the issue of DarkMel continuing to go to school unguarded. Now that I’d calmed down, I’d remembered what I’d prepared, and I was impressed by how much foresight I’d had.
Oh man, I can’t believe I forgot.
“My foolish son,” said Gustav.
“Yes. They’re there.”
Mel chewed noisily.
We walked while keeping track of Rion and DarkMel’s presence, so it didn’t take long for us to find them. As expected, Rion was with Bell and Dorothy, and they were all surrounded by their friends. DarkMel was also seeing them off, mixed in with the gaggle of friends.
“Rion looks really good with that student mantle.”
“Indeed. Bell looks even smarter than usual. If I hadn’t already shed all the tears in my body, I’d have broken down and created an ocean right here and now,” said Gustav.
Mel continued to eat audibly.
Let’s just enjoy how Rion looks right now for the moment. I’ll have to act like the proper big brother once her friends notice me, after all. Huh? I’ve already disgraced myself with what I did earlier, you say? Ha ha! Well, that might be partially true, but we only exposed our pathetic side to those who would have tried to talk to us. Those bigwigs from some random place that I don’t care about. The students and graduates are gathered somewhere different. Timing-wise, there’s no way Rion’s friends already heard about what we did.
“Okay, Gustav. We have to shape up from this point on.”
“That is my line, my foolish son. You better not damage Bell’s reputation, you hear me?”
Mel let out an audible swallowing noise.
“Um...Mel? We’re being serious right now, so could you please store all that food in your arms in Clotho’s Storage for now?”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
I decided to warn Mel while I could, as she’d basically been playing a symphony with her mouth.
“No need to worry. I finished everything with that last gulp,” said Mel. “I can enter former goddess mode at any time.”
I had nothing to say to that.
Mel was right; all the food she’d had in her arms was gone. As always, the way she ate was incredible, it made me fall for her all over again.
To think she was able to eat so fast my eyes couldn’t follow... Well, um, anyway, this clears up one of my worries. I can finally call out to Rion without worry!
“Rion! DarkMel!”
“Ah, Kel-nii!” Rion replied.
“Papa!” DarkMel exclaimed.
The moment I called out to them, Rion and DarkMel turned and ran over to us. I patted their heads to welcome them. Beside me, my father-in-law looked at Bell longingly, but she was completely ignoring his gaze.
“Congratulations, Rion. I’m amazed you managed to skip so many grades to graduate. Did you enjoy your school life?”
“Yeah, I sure did! I made so many irreplaceable memories! There’s so much I want to tell you about! Of course, I made lots of precious friends, and I enjoyed studying too!” Rion said.
“That’s great. I’m glad for you, Rion.”
“Yeah, um...thank you for allowing my selfishness, Kel-nii,” she said.
With that, she showed me a thousand-out-of-ten, no, ten thousand-out-of-ten bashful smile.
Oh crap, oh no, the destructive power of her smile is pandemic level! The cool facade it had taken so much effort to put on was frozen stiff and on the verge of breaking already. No, even if it was a fatal blow, I can’t afford to lose in this situation. I can’t!
“Heh heh! That smile alone made all this worth it. You can tell me all about your experiences when we have time... DarkMel, Rion and Bell are leaving the academy now that they’ve graduated. Will you be okay for the rest of your time in school?”
“Um, I’m going to be lonely, of course. But...I made a lot of friends too,” DarkMel replied. “I tried my best so that papa won’t worry. So, um...I’m gonna be fine! Yeah!”
The way she puffed herself up to show confidence and motivation was adorable. I just barely managed to keep up appearances, but inside my heart was pierced by her words. She was rapid-firing arrows with perfect, merciless precision. I really wanted to just shout to the world that this tiny little goddess was my beloved daughter. I really, really wanted to. But I was in the academy, being watched by so many students. So I held it in.
Keep it inside you! Hooold!
“H-Hey, everyone? That guy... He’s Rion-kun’s older brother and DarkMel-kun’s papa, and his name is Kelvin—no, Sir Kelvin, right? My Charles Eye isn’t on the fritz, is it?” Charles asked.
“No need to ask; that definitely is Kelvin. You saw him at the exhibition match—he fought me,” Dorothy replied.
“Hm... Looking closer, he seems even stronger,” said Graham. “Bakke-dono, whom I fought, was also powerful. Rank S adventurers are so incredible!”
“Certainly! W-Well then, that world-class beauty next to Sir Kelvin... Could she be...?!” Charles refused to say it out loud.
“No need to wonder. That’s Mel-chan, his wife, I believe? Look, DarkMel looks like her!” Rami exclaimed.
“She’s DarkMel-kun’s mama?!” Charles shouted. “No wonder she’s so pretty! No, wait, isn’t she too young? She doesn’t look much older than us! And wait another second... That scary-looking dude next to them is sending a lot of pressure this way! He’s glaring at me super hard for some reason, isn’t he?! Is it just my imagination?! It’s gotta be! I mean, who is he?!”
“Ah, that’s my papa,” said Bell.
It took a moment for Charles to respond. “What?”
“I said he’s my papa,” Bell repeated. “It looks like he’s worried, wondering if some worthless bugs have attached themselves to me. So stupid. Well, he’s basically harmless, so don’t worry.”
“Uh...”
It sounded like we weren’t making a weird impression on Rion and DarkMel’s friends, at least. In my case, it seemed they were actually looking at me with respect.
Great! A good first impression! However, it seemed one of the friends was terribly shaken. As for why... Ah, it’s because of all the pressure my father-in-law is emitting. Come on, man, who points such a scary face at a student? What? You’re catching the scent of a womanizer from that scared kid? Ah, you’re right. So this is what you mean by bad bugs? Well, since DarkMel is staying in Lumiest, that would make him a top priority elimination target. So what do you want to do? Get rid of him? Deal with him before he manages to make a mistake? I’ll happily help you.
“How about you calm down a bit, honey,” said Mel.
“You’re doing it too, papa,” said Bell. “Why are you spreading so much killing intent on school grounds?”
Both Gustav and I grunted in pain. Mel’s and Bell’s words were accompanied by a swift and fierce blow to the back of my head. Gustav was given the same treatment, though his attacker was Bell.
Okay, I’m calm now. Sorry...