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Five days have passed since. Raum had finally regained its calm and the normal every day was at our doorstep.

Today was the day where I could use my Polymorph scroll stock to transform and meet with Cortina. Lyell and Maria also attended this time, and we were having lunch at the park with nostalgic expressions.

Finia acted considerate for us and decided to stay home.

“Oh, so this is your daughter?”

They took Fina along, so I had to pretend to be meeting my little sister for the first time. Lyell had a satisfied expression for managing to show his prided daughter to his comrade that just came back.

That irked me a bit honestly. This guy’s smug face was always getting to me.

“Hold her too, Reid. She’s my precious daughter.”
“We also have another daughter called Nicole, but she’s a bit of a rascal. She’s out of town today on an adventure.”
“I-Is that so…”

Actually, that daughter of yours was standing before your eyes in a disguise now. And did he call me a rascal?

“Still, her appearance is quite something. She’s a peerless beauty, like an even prettier version of Maria.”
“Really? Thank god she didn’t take after your looks.”
“S-Say what!? …Is what I’d like to say, but I’m compelled to agree with you on that.”

Fina, on the other hand, had Lyell’s blond hair and Maria’s red eyes. She seemed to have taken after Lyell physically too as she was bustling with energy.

“How about you, Maria? I heard you were feeling unwell.”
“Yes. I ended up burdening Cortina due to that.”
“No such thing. The enemy this time was just Goblins, in the end. If the nobles dispatched the chivalric order, we could’ve easily driven them away.”
“So the battle was tough because they were stingy, huh? Good grief, why are nobles always such a…”

Lyell couldn’t help but frown when hearing the full particulars of this incident, but it was still politics of a foreign kingdom. He couldn’t just butt in. Our words held enough influence that doing that could lead to more problems.

“Anyway, I fully understood how cute Fina is, so take her from my hands already. Honestly, she’s so soft that I’m scared she’d break in my arms.”
“Jeez, your boorish personality still remains even after reincarnating.”
“Leave me alone.”

My trained fingers were hard enough that they could prick her soft skin. The other parts of my body were looking quite rugged too, making me feel like they’d be enough to injure her.

Like that, my fingertips were sinking into her soft flesh, so I was at my wits’ end.

“Still, Fina is quite shy with strangers, but she’s surprisingly calm with you, Reid.”
“Oh, really?”

Whenever I checked in on her, she was always in a good mood. She wasn’t uncomfortable with the maid at our house either, so I never really realized that she was shy.

“That aside, Reid. You’re using Polymorph for your current appearance, right?”
“Yeah. I have a somewhat problematic appearance.”
“And you wouldn’t be willing to show it to us…”
“Not a chance. I have some circumstances, so sorry but endure it.”
“Is that so.”

Lyell seemed half-unconvinced, but he didn’t press on any further.

Then, I suddenly noticed that Cortina was acting strange. She had taken her distance from both Maria and me, and was sitting where no one could touch her.

Normally, she clung to me as if her old attitude was a lie, so this was strange.

Could it be that I did something to get hated?

“Uh, Cortina…”
“W-What is it?”
“Well, why are you sitting so far away? Why not sit next to me like you always do?”
“W-Why do I have to sit next to you!”

It didn’t show on my face but her words shocked me. Did I do something so bad to her without realizing it?

“Um, if I did something bad, I’ll apologize.”
“Ah, no, it’s not really your fault. Um…”
“Is it something hard to say? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“That’s not it…”

Cortina started pondering for a while, but then raised her face as if she had collected her thoughts. Her face was dyed red, as if she was about to reveal some embarrassing secret.

Could it be that? Did putting the results of my “special training” to use on her cause some problem?

“Could it be that I overdid it or something?”

Maybe I could understand why Aste’s wife left him for “overdoing” it now. Even if you clash your feelings with your loved one, there are times when they wouldn’t be able to accept all of it.

“That’s not it! Agh, why are you always so tactless!”
“S-Sorry?”
“Don’t just affirm it while looking confused.”
“O-Okay?”
“In the first place, why did you disappear from that battlefield without even greeting me once…”
“Hey, that would have been too unreasonable. It’d have caused needless chaos, right?”

If people heard that the Six Hero that was supposed to be dead had been revived and participated in that battle, it was hard to imagine just how much panic it would have caused.

As I sat with an inclined head, Cortina sighed as if she had given up. Plus, she knew best just how inattentive I was.

“Well, leaving that be… My actions were the problem this time so I’ll apologize. B-But it’s not like I hate you guys or anything okay?”
“Then why are you sitting all the way there?”
“……Well…Because of the Goblins.”
“Goblins?”
“The flees… They brought in a large quantity of them from the outside!”

With those words, she scratched her head without caring about her hairstyle getting ruined. During that moment, I didn’t miss a small bug jumping from her head.

“Ah, yeah, they were quite dirty.”
“I can’t get them out no matter how much I wash my hair, and Fina’s hair is growing already so I can’t approach.”
“It would be a problem if they start biting her. She’d start crying at night once again.”
“So yeah, I can’t come near today, got it?”
“Okay, but why are you so pissed?”
“Can’t you guess?”
“…Okay.”

I couldn’t argue back in the face of her glare. And well, I found her current expression cute too. I suppose this was one of the weaknesses that accompanied falling in love.

“Still, looks like the beastmen have their fair share of problems huh.”
“I’m trying to pay attention to my daily life precisely due to that.”

Seeing her dropping her shoulders, I suddenly recalled a thing from the past. About the incident where she got isolated because she was a beastmen.

It happened at the hot-spring inn that the Elves managed.

“Right, how about you dip yourself in hot spring water and drive them out?”
“Hot spring? Won’t people there hate it?”
“The bathtubs in the nearby hot-spring town are free-flowing, so the floating flees would just go down the drain. There was also a sauna there, right? You could steam those bugs too there.”
“The beastmen bathtubs were certainly like that… That’s a nice idea considering it came from you, Reid.”

Cortina clapped her hands with a happy expression. The academy still had to be cleaned up after the whole evacuation matter, so it wouldn’t be usable for a while longer.

Maxwell had finally heard of the situation, but as everything had already ended, he decided to remain in the north for some time.

Apparently, someone had been getting in the way of communication, so he was helping to find who it was.

In other words, Cortina and I had nothing to do for the next few days.

“It’s settled then. Why don’t we go on a hot-spring trip?”

With those words, she looked towards Lyell and Maria with a bright expression.