Dole François’s POV
“I’ll be off, then. Please take care of what we discussed, Dole.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
I saw Thane out with a deep bow. After he left, I frowned. “Hmm…”
“Is something the matter, Father-in-Law?” Lana asked. She was assisting me with the supply logistics for the battle. My office in the royal palace was piled high with unprocessed documents. I needed all the help I could get, even from the most unexpected of places.
Initially, I had been a bit put off to see this girl was the one sent to be my aid, what with her eccentric behavior, but I decided I could overlook her personality on account of her surprising competency. I could not, however, overlook how she addressed me.
“Enough with the jokes. I am not your father-in-law,” I said.
“Jeez, you’re sooo stubborn. But I kinda like that. It’s super like Ms. Rae!”
I sighed. No matter how many times I warned her, she didn’t relent.
As soon as I had returned to Bauer, I began preparing for the battle with the Demon Queen by coordinating supplies for the soldiers with Lene. Lene was handling her end of things near the front lines, while I saw to this end of things.
Thane, who had just left my office, set about supporting the soldiers the moment he returned to Bauer as well. Understanding that our kingdom hadn’t yet stabilized from the revolution and would have difficulty procuring provisions alone, he opened negotiations with leaders from Sousse and the Alpes. He still lacked experience as a king, but he was proving capable. Someday, he might even surpass his father l’Ausseil, who had been extolled for his wisdom.
“So? Like, what’s with the long face?” Lana asked.
“I sensed the magic I cast on May activate.”
“Oh? You can use magic, Master Dole?” Her eyes opened wide with surprise.
“Yes, but it’s not the kind suited for battle. It’s called dream magic. I use it by laying a trap within a mind.”
“Whaaat, that’s so cool!” she said with gleaming eyes.
My dream magic was medium-aptitude earth magic, and it worked by entrapping the victim in an endless dream. Generally, I only set the trap on my own mind for protection, but I could also set it on the minds of others. I’d set such spells on all of my family, and I sensed the one I cast on May had sprung.
Dream magic was powerful, but it came with strict activation conditions. It only responded when it sensed a specific magic from a specific person, both chosen when I set the magic, and I could only set it on so many people at once. Furthermore, if I wanted to set it to respond to, say, Salas’s hypnosis magic, I needed to intimately understand the inner workings of his magic. He had kept the details of his power a secret, posing quite a challenge for me. I’d worked with former Cardinal Lilly to try to analyze it, but it hadn’t been until Lana offered up her magical tool headband that we had been able to fully understand it.
I’m sure remembering Salas had brought Lana joy as well as grief, but she had still eagerly helped us. Thanks to her, I had been able to work out Salas’s magic while in the imperial capital, cast my dream magic on my family in Zurück before leaving, and ultimately sprung my trap on Salas.
“At this moment,” I said, “Salas is trapped within my magic.”
“Oh. Then…”
“His days of evil end here.”
Lana seemed to flinch for a moment before forcing a smile. “I see… So Papa’s done for, then.”
“Yes.”
To me, Salas was nothing more than a bitter enemy; but to Lana, he had once been a stand-in for a father. She must have felt conflicted. I waited quietly for her to gather her thoughts.
After a short silence, she said, “Just what is a family, anyway?”
A simple question that lacked a simple answer. I found myself hard-pressed for a response.
“Papa and I were strangers, but Lilly and Papa were blood relatives. So why did he see us both as tools?” Her words seemed less for me and more to process her own thoughts. “Ms. Rae and May aren’t related by blood, but they share a bond stronger than most families.”
I thought of my daughters and granddaughters and found myself in agreement with her assessment.
“What does being a blood relative mean, anyway? What does it mean to be family?”
Her questions made my heart ache. Slowly, I found the words to speak. “Have I ever told you I used to be of nobility?”
“Yeah. Minister of Finance or something, right? Pretty cool.”
“Yes, but that’s not important. As a noble, I believed maintaining a direct bloodline was crucial.”
Lana didn’t say anything but urged me to continue with her gaze. I did just that.
“That’s why I was initially opposed to Claire and Rae’s relationship.”
“Whaaaat?!” Lana went wide-eyed. I was surprised she found it so unexpected. “B-but, Master Dole! Ms. Rae told me you’ve never once said anything against their relationship!”
“And that is true.”
“Okay, so what’s up with that?”
I continued to open the vault of secrets I kept inside myself. “Until I saw them together, I’d always believed a family had to be of blood, that children had to be directly descended from their parents.”
“Yeaaah, that’s what most people think, right?”
“Indeed.” I had been educated to believe such and never thought to consider otherwise until I met Rae Taylor, my second daughter. “Meeting Rae changed Claire. She began to smile as well as to express her frustration.”
“Really? Ms. Rae told me Ms. Claire’s been a willful person for forever.”
“There’s truth to that, but Claire as she was then was dissatisfied with the world around her.”
Claire had lost her mother, been enclosed in the small world that was aristocratic society, and had her future set in stone—by me.
“But Claire as she is now is different. She can smile from the heart and show her anger when necessary. She can express herself freely now.”
My daughter, who had once forced herself to die with me for the kingdom’s sake, was now free. I was sure I had Rae and my granddaughters to thank for it.
“I want nothing more than for Claire to live happily, and she’s doing just that these days. There’s no way I could take that away from her by demanding something as foolish as marrying a man and bearing a child.”
“Do you still want Ms. Claire to continue your family line?” Lana asked.
I thought for a bit, then shook my head. “Lana, I’ve considered this for quite some time: Just what exactly is it that I want to pass on to Claire? Is it my blood? Could that possibly be enough? No, surely not.”
Lana listened quietly.
“What I want to pass on to her isn’t my blood but my values, my beliefs, my ambitions; and I’m certain she’s come to receive them. Even if they aren’t our blood relatives, I’m sure Claire will pass on the same things to May and Aleah, though I’m sure they’ll take new shape as the times change.”
As their grandfather, that was alI I could possibly want.
“These are my thoughts as a parent. I’m not sure if I managed to answer your question, but I hope it helped.”
“Thank you, Master Dole. Your words were very clear. But I don’t think I’ve received any such things from Papa, and I don’t think I’d want to have, anyway.” Lana smiled weakly. I understood what she meant: There was nothing to be gained from inheriting the values of a villain.
“But of course,” I said, “you are not a parent, but a child.”
“Huh?”
“Forgive me for speaking so misleadingly, but all I’d said just now was spoken from the perspective of a parent.”
“What do you mean?” she said, curiosity written on her face.
“A parent can try to pass along many things to their child, but it is a child’s right to refuse what they wish. Children create their own values, beliefs, and ambitions. A parent can wish for their own to be inherited, but they can never force it. A child’s life is their own to lead.”
“My…own?”
“Yes. Live life your own way, Lana. Sometimes, a parent isn’t a guide but a model of what not to become.”
Lana fell into deep thought. I returned to my own work so as to not disturb her. After some time passed, she said, “Yeah, these kinds of things are a little too hard for me to understand.”
“I see.”
“But even then!” she said in a trembling voice. She fought to gather herself before continuing shakily, “Would…would it really be all right for me to try to find my own happiness?”
Oh, Lana… I had seen many like her. After deadly wars, many of those who survived were plagued with something known as survivor’s guilt. Having been one of the few who survived Salas’s experiments, she too bore those feelings.
“Of course. You’ve avenged your own. Is that not atonement enough?”
Those lost to Salas’s human experiments were gone forever, but Lana’s assistance in defeating him had to have brought their souls peace.
Though she couldn’t even bring herself to cry, I brought her into my arms in a soft hug all the same.