As Zen tied up the unconscious Shiltz with sorcery, Keel came to his side. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill him?”
“I don’t want to kill people!” Zen protested. He knew that a human’s and a divine beast’s mentalities were fundamentally different, though.
Of course, since Zen was an imperial bureaucrat, he couldn’t say no if he received a transfer notice to the troops or the Ministry of Military Affairs. There, if his superiors gave the order (so long as it wasn’t lawless or unnecessary), he’d have to go to war and probably kill. However, for times when he had the freedom to stick to his own principles, he definitely did not want to do it if he could help it!
“We need to know if he has other comrades too,” he added.
“I see. That’s reasonable.”
Zen shared a conspiratorial smirk and nod with Keel, but the moment was over quickly. Now that he’d successfully protected Elysia from the assassin, he turned around with a look of relief.
Elysia was weak, unable to stand. She stammered, “I-I’m so glad you’re okay, father.”
“Are you okay?!” Zen panickedly rushed over to Elysia, who’d suddenly collapsed on the spot.
“O-Once the relief hit me, I just lost all my strength.” As Zen supported her upper body, Elysia smiled as she cried. The tears were flowing profusely. Yet she hadn’t cried or caused a commotion when faced with Shiltz’s frightening sorcery and murderous impulse.
“I was taught my whole life to be calmer than anyone else in the room and keep a straight face if I was ever attacked. I was told my anxiety would infect even the bodyguards,” she admitted, embarrassed. She swiped at her face repeatedly to hide her unstoppable tears.
As expected of the imperial princess. She had incredible bravery. But in the end, she was still a fourteen-year-old girl. She’d actually been terrified.
“I’m sorry for making you worry,” Zen apologized.
“Oh, no, I believed that you’d protect me with your life. What was actually scary to me was whether it would cost you your life.”
Elysia’s concern had been for Zen’s safety, not her own. That fact painfully conveyed her devotion to him as a daughter.
She continued. “I didn’t think the emperor would send an assassin from the Vajra Temple... I hadn’t realized how serious they were about getting rid of me... To be honest, I’ve been too optimistic... I can’t forgive how naive I was...”
“No, it’s okay, Elysia. You don’t have to worry so much.” Their foolish emperor was the crazy one here, making the imperial princess—his fourteen-year-old niece—say something like this.
Even so, Elysia cried, “It’s not okay! I can’t keep involving you anymore, Sir Zen! A sorcerer who’s even more terrifying might come next. That’s why... That’s why... Please, stop guarding me. Live for yourself...”
Elysia clung to his chest and fervently appealed to him. “You’re sick and tired of work now, right, Sir Zen? You want to have an easy retirement, right? So you must stop protecting a troublesome imperial princess like me! I’ll explain it to Lady Sharla myself. I’ll have her find me a new guard too. So, please... I’m begging you...” She continued to cry more and more, unable to continue her sentence.
Drawing Elysia closer, Zen answered her. “Protecting his daughter isn’t work to a father, Elysia.” Although he wasn’t actually a father, he said these things, acting like he was one to her. “There are all kinds of hardships out there. I had no life skills, and it wasn’t easy at all to learn to live outside my parents’ house—but even so, I’ve enjoyed my everyday life with you, Elysia. I’ll welcome these hardships, and even this is a fulfilling retirement to me.”
With a wry smile, the various failures he’d experienced up till this point came to mind. At the same time, he was filled with a warm feeling. “What about you? Hasn’t it been fun?”
As Elysia kept her face buried in Zen’s chest, she nodded her head.
“Then it’s fine. Let’s keep going like this.”
“It’s not fine,” she sniffed. “I’m sure another assassin will come!”
“Hmm... It’s true, that does sound like a hassle...”
“It’s not about it being a hassle! It’s a matter of life and death!”
“It won’t be. So there’s no problem,” he said with a mischievous look on his face.
“What?” Elysia looked up at him with a confused, blank expression.
“Even if the Vajra Temple sends every single one of their monks to attack us, your father here won’t lose. Well, I might not win either, but carrying you myself to the ends of the earth to run away isn’t a big deal. Leave it to me.” These weren’t baseless words he was spinning just to ease her worries. He was truly saying them from his heart.
“I’ve often been told that I’m too good-natured...” he said. “But as you can see, I’m pretty shrewd and cunning. I was raised being tested to no end by my terrible siblings, after all!” he exclaimed, adding in a joke at the end.
“There’s some merit to your words if Lady Sharla and your other siblings trained you...” Elysia forced a smile. Even so, Zen was relieved to see it.
“So yeah, we had a wild start to our year, and I might be unreliable as a father,” he said, “but I look forward to spending this year with you.”
“Yes, father. To tell you the truth, I’d also rather be with you. I feel safest when I’m by your side.” Elysia once again buried her face in his chest, clinging to him.