Chapter 203: Comfortable

Mission accomplished.

She slipped out of Boris’s arms and ran toward Kaelus.

"Papa!"

Kaelus immediately crouched.

She threw herself into his arms.

He caught her effortlessly, lifting her against his chest.

"Good morning, little one."

"Good morning!"

Kaelus adjusted the collar of her navy dress, inspecting it with absurd seriousness.

"Comfortable?"

"Yes."

"Too warm?"

"No."

"Too tight?"

"No."

"Can you breathe properly?"

Seraphina giggled.

"Papa, I’m wearing a dress, not armor."

Kaelus ignored this.

He checked the seams anyway.

Alistair watched the spectacle with a slowly developing expression of despair.

The Reaper of the North.

The man who once marched into a battlefield with three hundred soldiers and personally broke an entire siege.

Now inspecting a child’s dress seams.

Seraphina suddenly looked over Kaelus’s shoulder.

Her eyes met Alistair’s.

She smiled.

It was a tiny, sweet, completely innocent smile.

Alistair’s eyelid twitched.

She knows.

That was when Kaelus spoke.

"Alistair."

"Yes, Your Grace?"

"Why are you holding the registration documents upside down?"

Alistair looked down.

The papers were indeed upside down.

His beautiful face went blank.

"...Administrative fatigue."

Seraphina burst into laughter.

Boris followed.

Then Gallahan.

Even Lucas looked away, shoulders suspiciously shaking.

Kaelus stared at the documents.

Then at Alistair.

"Get into the carriage."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"And turn the papers around."

"...Yes, Your Grace."

Alistair climbed into the carriage with what remained of his dignity.

Seraphina was carried in immediately afterward.

As Kaelus stepped inside, he paused beside Alistair.

The aide stiffened.

Kaelus leaned slightly closer.

"For the record," the Archduke said quietly, "if you ever make my daughter sad again, I will personally assign you to inventory the northern grain warehouses."

Alistair’s face drained of color.

"Your Grace..."

"During winter."

Alistair looked genuinely horrified.

"That is barbaric."

Kaelus entered the carriage.

"Then behave."

The carriage door slammed shut.

Inside, Seraphina sat happily between Kaelus and Boris.

She looked across at Alistair.

The beautiful aide was sitting rigidly in his seat, staring straight ahead.

Seraphina leaned toward him.

"Mr. Shiny Princess?"

Alistair closed his eyes.

"...Yes, My Lady?"

"Do you want a strawberry candy?"

Alistair opened one eye.

Seraphina held out a small wrapped candy.

He hesitated.

Then slowly accepted it.

"Thank you."

She smiled.

"You’re welcome."

A pause.

Then she whispered:

"I still think you’re pretty."

Alistair’s face immediately turned crimson.

Boris made a strangled noise.

Gallahan looked like he was about to cry from laughter.

Kaelus stared out the window, pretending very badly that he hadn’t heard anything.

Seraphina smiled sweetly.

One shiny Princess successfully neutralized.

The carriage rolled toward the Spire of Arcana.

And completely unbeknownst to the unsuspecting Imperial authorities, the most dangerous magical registration of the century was about to take place.

The carriage ride to the Spire of Arcana was dedicated entirely to a high-stress rehearsal.

"Listen to me very carefully, Seraphina," Kaelus instructed, leaning forward in the carriage, ignoring the beautiful architecture of the Holy District passing by outside the window.

"The testing crystal at the Spire is designed to measure mana density and elemental affinity. Your Dark Core is an anomaly that defies their scales. If you allow a fraction of your true power to touch that crystal, it will not just glow. It might detonate in any case, shatter the cathedral, and immediately classify you as a national security threat."

"I know, Papa," Seraphina nodded seriously. "I have to squash the dark."

"You must suppress it entirely," Kaelus emphasized, his violet eyes burning with protective intensity. "You are to project a Water Core. Water is the most common, unremarkable, and passive element in the Empire. It contradicts the destructive nature of dark mana. When you touch the crystal, simply imagine a single drop of condensation. Be mediocre and average."

"A tiny drop of water. Got it," Seraphina agreed.

Her adult mind found the aspect of this highly entertaining.

She was a god-tier archmage preparing to masquerade as a leaky faucet!

The Spire of Arcana was an intimidating, awe-inspiring architectural marvel.

It was an enormous cathedral of white marble and gold, towering over the city square, surrounded by statues of the Sun Goddess and ancient saints.

The air smelled thickly of burning frankincense, myrrh, and magic.

As Kaelus and Seraphina stepped out of the carriage, the crowds of minor nobles and commoners immediately parted, giving the terrifying Archduke a wide, fearful berth.

Kaelus’s presence alone was enough to silence the bustling courtyard.

They walked up the grand steps and entered the vast nave of the Spire.

Standing near the altar were the Church officials responsible for the registrations. The High Priest, a stern, imposing man in flowing white and gold robes, stood near the testing pedestal.

But standard protocol demanded that the child be separated from their guardian for a preliminary "spiritual cleansing" before touching the holy crystal.

A young junior priestess hurried over to them.

She was perhaps eighteen years old, wearing simple white novitiate robes.

She had soft, warm brown eyes, a dusting of freckles across her nose, and a genuinely sweet, nervous smile.

"Y-Your Grace, Duke Nacht," the young girl stammered, bowing so deeply she nearly hit her forehead on the marble floor. "I am Sister Elara. It is my duty to escort the young Lady to the preparatory font to wash her body and change into ceremonial robes before the ceremony. It will only take a moment."

Kaelus’s jaw tightened.

He absolutely loathed letting Seraphina out of his line of sight, especially in a building filled with Capital loyalists.

But refusing the cleansing ritual would invite immediate legal scrutiny, which was exactly what they were trying to avoid.

Kaelus looked down at Seraphina, his violet eyes silently communicating a thousand lethal warnings.

Stay alert. Do not use your power. Come back immediately.

"You have ten minutes, Sister Elara," Kaelus warned, his voice cold enough to shatter steel.

"If she is not back in this hall in exact time, I will dismantle this cathedral stone by stone to find her."

Sister Elara squeaked, nodding frantically. "Y-Yes! Absolutely!"