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He had been bleeding a lot from his temple, and all that blood had flowed down to his shoulder. But seeing how he was standing on his own, it was probably not that deep a wound. When he noticed us, his half-bloody face brightened up.

Stop, pulling a refreshing smile in such a state is scary instead. Look, even Fina is pulling back.

“Nicole! You came. You also came to welcome me, Fina?”

He rushed towards us with his arms wide, but I quickly grabbed Fina and jumped back. He looked like some undead monster with so much blood on his face. Lyell’s arms passed right before me as I dodged him by a hair’s breadth. That was close.

Having missed his body hug, Lyell looked miserably at me.

“Sorry, father, but we just came out of the bath.”
“How could this be! Do you hate giving your injured daddy some healing so much?”
“I’ve never seen an injured person acting as lively as that.”

He slumped his shoulders at my rebuttal, finally looking like an injured person.

“There there, but Nicole has a point, you know? Here, Cure Light.”

Lyell’s temple stopped bleeding instantly with Maria’s spell.

Cure Light of the interference system was by far the weakest healing spell among all healing spells, but it showed this much effect now. It was worlds apart from my own spell.

“There, done. But you are all bloody so go take a bath first, okay?”
“Okay, then I can finally hug Nicole!”
“That’s up to her.”
“Definitely not.”
“Not!”
“How could this be…”

Having gotten innocently vetoed by Fina and me, Lyell fell to his hands this time and dropped his head.

Maria patted him on the back to comfort him.

When Lyell got out of the bath, we went to have dinner in the dining room. Currently, this mansion had a maid settled in with her whole family, but she was busy washing Lyell’s clothes now. She was working hard despite it being night.

“So, father. What happened?”
“Well, I heard there was an Owl Bear and entered the forest but—”
“There was something else?”
“No, I found the Owl Bear itself quickly and subjugated it. Oh, I’ve brought the meat back so take it back as a gift and share it with Michelle too.”
“She would be overjoyed. But still, you can’t tell me some Owl Bear managed to injure you, right? Or have your skills grown duller?”
“Of course not. I bisected it with one swing. The problem was what happened after that.”

He frowned as he spoke while eating the stew Maria made. The stew had the meat of Owl Bear that he just mentioned too. She apparently added new ingredients.

“I heard flapping of wings from deeper inside the forest, and when I went to check it, a meter long horned beetle flew out of there.”
“A meter long…”

I had some knowledge about horned beetles, but a meter long one was too big. If we’re talking about one that could hurt Lyell…

“I can’t think of anything but a Needle Beetle.”
“Yes, that would be the case.”

Maria gave her approval to my guess. But I myself wasn’t convinced with my answer. The reason was simple.

“But haven’t they only been witnessed within the World Tree Labyrinth?”
“Yes, they were monsters of the middle floors from what I hear.”
“I’ve never heard of them appearing anywhere else.”
“So this would be the first sighting huh.”

The World Tree Labyrinth contained a special ecosystem. Not only were there monsters that bred within it, but also being summoned from another world as a defensive mechanism… The so-called Devils also existed there.

Given that they were summoned monsters, they had never been witnessed beyond the World Tree. And one such monster had attacked Lyell in the forest.

“That sounds strange.”
“Yes. We never had a precedent of a monster escaping from the labyrinth.”
“And it escaped not to the Holy Kingdom of Forneus, but all the way here…”
“It would be wiser to investigate this.”
“Yeah. But the sun is already set. If we go search in the middle of the night, it is us who can’t see in the dark who will be at a disadvantage.”
“Since there’s no harm to the village, there’s no need to hurry. Let’s do it tomorrow.”
“Right.”

Lyell and Maria started talking about tomorrow’s plans. I ignored that and focused on taking care of Fina. She was sitting on my lap and having a hard fight against the stew with a spoon gripped in her hand.

Of course, that caused the soup to fly around everywhere, and her surroundings were in a total mess. I already accepted I would be part of that disaster when I placed her on my knees, so I wasn’t very worried.

I could just get changed once I got back. I had nothing to do but sleep once I returned anyway.

“Sishh, ere!”
“Oh, thank you.”

She somehow managed to scoop up the meat with the spoon and offered it to me. Her mouth was stained with soup too.

I ate the meat in one bite and took a napkin to wipe her mouth.

“Nyauuu.”

The way she disliked getting her face wiped made her appear as charming as a little animal.

“Oh god, this child is just too adorable!”
“Mugyaa!”

As I hugged her from behind, she raised a shrill and laughed. This was how I’ve been spending my dinner as of late.