Chapter 63

Silence fell.

The monsters were still staring at me, and Kyle, standing among them, searched my face with an expression that said he didn’t understand.

“But I...”

He hesitated for a long while, looking around at his surroundings, before his face darkened.

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“What?”

“I said you don’t have to apologize. I really am a monster.”

As he said it, Kyle hurriedly turned his head away to avoid my gaze.

It seemed Kyle had already realized it.

The way people looked at him.

And even the monsters waiting for him in the place he had fled to.

I had awakened the lesser god.

“......”

But this incident had made me realize something too.

He was a monster.

And at the same time, he was a person.

Sometimes, his irrational actions frightened me.

Even so, he had learned how to apologize to me.

Strengths and flaws.

People had those too.

“Then...”

I thought I could accept him.

“Then do monsters not need warm arms around them?”

As I carefully stretched out both arms, Kyle’s eyelids twitched where he had been avoiding my gaze.

At the word “arms,” his eyes trembled violently, but like a wounded child, he still couldn’t bring himself to open his heart.

“...Monsters don’t need things like that.”

“Then I’ll give you my arms as an apology.”

“An apology?”

But at that word, he looked at me.

It seemed he had remembered the lesson he had once learned from me.

“Yeah. I did something wrong. So this is my apology. Will you accept it?”

I lightly rose onto my heels and smiled.

“...Um.”

That expression Kyle was making right now.

It was the expression he wore whenever he was learning something from me.

“...What happens if I accept your apology? Then even if I’m a monster, I can go to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Like before?”

“Yeah. Of course!”

When I nodded vigorously, Kyle’s eyes widened.

Then, hesitantly—

Step by step.

He carefully approached me.

One step.

Then another.

Once, he whipped his head around and looked at the monsters as if warning them, then turned back to me.

Before long, Kyle was close enough that our noses would touch if he lowered his head.

As he awkwardly stretched out his arms, I hugged him with all my strength.

“!”

His shoulders flinched slightly in surprise.

“Aisha.”

But Kyle had always adapted quickly.

Soon, he lowered his head and rubbed his forehead against my shoulder.

“Kyle.”

I held him tightly too.

“I’m going to turn back into a cat and sleep in your arms.”

“Okay. Turn back into a cat, and let’s go under the blankets together.”

Then—

“Aisha.”

“Yeah?”

Kyle murmured as he breathed against me.

“...If monsters could hug each other like you do, this place might become a decent place to live too.”

Kyle’s lips curved in satisfaction.

With those words, he slowly began to shrink.

It seemed it was time to go home.

Before I knew it, the baby cat, now small enough to fit in my palm, had fallen into a deep sleep in my arms.

***

Meanwhile—

At some point, Calypse had shifted his weight onto one leg and placed a hand on his waist.

He opened his mouth.

“Now, maybe we should—”

“Shhh.”

“Aisha. You can stop hugging Kyle now—”

“Shhh.”

It was about time they went home.

But every time he tried to say anything, Aisha raised her triangle-eyes in warning and made a sharp “shhh” sound, leaving him unable to get a word in.

“Aisha.”

“......”

“Aisha, Father is cold too—”

“Button up.”

At his daughter’s firm advice, Calypse silently fastened the buttons of the coat he was wearing.

His five-year-old daughter, so merciful to cats and monsters, was unfortunately not merciful to her father.

***

That evening.

Once the cat had fallen asleep, the monsters moved away from Calypse and the children as if they had all agreed on it.

Step, step.

Their calm figures almost looked like people returning home.

Do those creatures have something they call home too?

The question suddenly crossed Calypse’s mind, but thoughts without answers were useless.

Holding the sleeping Aisha and the animal-form Kyle, Calypse returned to the ducal estate.

“Oh my, Lady Aisha’s condition...!”

“She’s asleep. Wash both of them quickly and put them to bed.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

After their baths, the children fell asleep, soft and clean.

Calypse looked down at Aisha and the white fluffball asleep beneath the blanket.

It was such a pretty sight.

His beautiful daughter had fallen asleep hugging a kitten, both of them purring softly. Who wouldn’t smile fondly at that?

It felt like only yesterday that this creature had awkwardly said his own name.

But Calypse had seen it.

He had seen the monsters bowing their heads to Kyle.

“......”

As hazy memories began to surface, the corners of his smiling mouth slowly lowered.

He had expected this from the moment he realized Kyle was a demon.

Children grew faster than one expected.

Aisha, who had once cried in a pile of dirt in the garden, now knew how to reach out to others.

And the boy who had once said he wanted to remain a kitten forever had begun to faintly understand what he was.

Whether I like it or not, this has to be dealt with.

Calypse’s gaze darkened as he looked down at the children.

“You’ve returned.”

When he left the bedroom and quietly entered his office, Knox, who had been working late into the night, pushed up his monocle.

“What are those?”

But there was something he hadn’t seen before.

Several suspicious potions were sitting on the office desk.

“Lady Aisha secretly left them here. They appear to be madness enhancers.”

“Hah.”

That little brat.

After checking the potions on the desk, he let out an incredulous laugh.

He’d thought she had simply gotten into a fight with Kyle, but had she snuck out to get these?

Where on earth had she even found something like this?

“I just want her to grow up normally, but she never listens.”

Knox replied to his words.

“She was never an ordinary child to begin with. Well, in any case, it’s true that matters are progressing quickly thanks to Lady Aisha.”

“I’m banning her from going outside.”

“Pardon?”

Calypse dropped heavily into his chair and pressed his aching temples.

“I’m going to end up dying from worrying about that child. She scared me last time, and now she’s caused another incident.”

“She’s five, isn’t she? That is the age when children cause the most trouble.”

“Kyle went into the snowy field.”

At the sudden shift to the main point, Knox’s hand stopped in the middle of writing a report.

Realizing that Knox was imagining the worst, Calypse hurriedly continued.

“He got sulky after fighting with Aisha and ran away. The two of them made up, and they’re sleeping well now, so don’t worry. But...”

“But?”

“Kyle found out. That he’s a demon.”

Tap.

This time, Knox dropped the pen he had been holding.

...So that was Knox’s worst-case scenario.

Calypse clicked his tongue as he watched his assistant scramble to pick up the pen.

“H-He found out himself?”

“Yeah.”

“How does a person find that out on his own? Did he suddenly undergo self-reflection in the snowy field?”

“The monsters around him were bowing their heads to the brat.”

“Good heavens. Are you sure that situation was reality and not a novel?”

“Don’t overreact. I’m tired enough as it is.”

It wasn’t an overreaction.

It was something worth being shocked about.

But with his head already aching from the children alone, Calypse didn’t have the energy to respond to every one of Knox’s reactions.

Fortunately, Knox quickly grasped the seriousness of the situation and returned to his usual rational demeanor.

“If the monsters have recognized the demon, they will likely attempt to interact with him in earnest. The Alosini from last time were also trying to imitate human language.”

“Exactly.”

Knox asked, “What will you do?”

A quiet silence settled after Knox’s question.

What would he do?

It wasn’t a simple question.

He was asking about everything from Kyle’s living arrangements to how they would handle the demon’s ability, which was tied to the very survival of humanity.

They praised me as a hero, and now I’m responsible for this too.

Calypse let out a long sigh.

Well.

What should he do with Kyle?

In truth, he had no intention of killing Kyle.

If he were going to kill a naïve child simply because Kyle’s existence was ominous, a child innocent enough to speak rudely to him without a second thought, then he would have sent Aisha to prison long ago.

But that didn’t mean he had any intention of letting Kyle go free either.

Tap, tap.

His troubled fingers drummed against the mahogany desk.

“He’s still young. He doesn’t know anything.”

“That’s true.”

Knox nodded.

He didn’t know anything.

And because of that, Kyle could still be guided.

Perhaps Aisha bringing him here hadn’t been entirely bad after all.

“It’s much better for him to be influenced in a good direction than a bad one.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better for us to raise him ourselves and cut off any chance of him becoming king of the monsters or whatever?”

“Yes, Your—”

Knox’s monocle flashed white as he answered on instinct.

“...Pardon?”