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“Coming in,” I say a moment before entering the private room on the second floor. I open the door and—

“I’ve waited so long, Illya!” One beautiful scarlet-haired man flies at me. I sidestep the tackle and flash him my best look of contempt.

“…First, don’t you have something you want to tell your own child, Dragon God?”
“Why so cold?”

The man looks hurt for a fraction of a second. Even the dry smile that spread over his face looked like a work of art on his beautiful features. Yep, that’s the Dragon God.

…I didn’t think the man would come himself.

“You probably agree with Illya, don’t you? You are a Kirin, after all.”

“Y…Yes…” the young, brown-haired man says awkwardly, averting his eyes. I can’t tell if it’s because it was him who forced the dragon child on me in the first place or if it’s his aversion to criticizing the Dragon God. However, even then, he can’t help but voice his true thoughts. Like a true Kirin.

“Of course, I came with the full intention to give this child of mine a hug. …Yes, it’s nice to see a rather fine child be born.”
“Pi…”

Despite being caressed by the Dragon God, the little one doesn’t seem particularly happy.

“Pi!”
“Ouch!”

The Dragon God’s hand is slapped away with a flick of its tail. Wow, would you look at that. Even your kid doesn’t like you.

“Wow, ow… I guess what they say is true. I guess kids really do imitate their parents. Well, since things have come to this, how about you just marry me and get it over with?”
“I refuse.”

Who are you calling a parent? And get what over with? You think anyone’s going to change their mind if you say that? A rush of thoughts runs through my head, but I can’t choose which one to voice. Which is exactly why I hate dealing with this idiot. I’m tired already.

“I know what goes on in your heart. And you know about how my body works too, right? There isn’t a single person more able to accept you for who you are.”
“No thank you.”

I couldn’t care less if you have both a hole and a rod¹.

“If you have time to waste talking about these kinds of things, then hurry up and tell me what you want.”
“Yeah, says the person with a longer lifespan than a Dragon God.”
“I don’t think there’s a single person out there other than me with enough time or energy to deal with you. I’ll go call the guildmaster. Please explain the situation once he’s here.”
“No choice, huh?”

Yep, no choice at all. A couple moments later, Frank was sitting across from the Dragon God, and the Kirin and I stood behind both of them. The Dragon God looked like he wanted to say something, but I pretended I didn’t notice.

“Let’s start with introductions. Ji-n, this is guildmaster Deshan. Guildmaster, this is the Dragon God Ji-n.”

Ah, I think Frank might have stopped working. On the other hand, the Dragon God smiles like a noh mask. Thanks to his rather androgynous appearance, the expression looks rather beautiful on him, but also quite unfriendly.

“I see, Mister Deshan, yes? As introduced, my name is Ji-n. Since my wife has been in your care, you may call me Ji-n or Dragon God—whichever you like, really.”
“I-it’s a great honor. Your honor, please just call me Deshan.”
“I hate to interrupt, but I would like to make a slight correction. The Dragon God and I are little more than strangers.”

My gut told me it would be a real pain in the a̲s̲s̲ if Frank believed him, so I decided to deny it before things got that far. Like I’ll let that idiot make a move on me. I should guide the conversation towards a more useful direction. Wouldn’t want him to ramble about a wedding ceremony again.

“Your honor, could you tell us the true intention behind leaving your child in our care?”
“Hm.”

The Dragon God ponders for a second, then opens his mouth to speak.

“I’d like to clear up any misunderstandings. To be honest, I wasn’t aware of the current situation a few moments ago.”

I wanted to say something, but decided against it, opting to listen to what he had to say.

“Auriel. Tell them the situation.”
“Understood, your honor.”

This Dragon God… just doesn’t want to explain, does he? Well, at least I can be sure that the Kirin won’t lie, so that does make me feel better about one thing.

“This incident begins with when the Dragon God was giving birth to the second child, which is currently in your care.”
“Huh? Second child?”
“Well, specifically, the second twin.”

Twins, the Dragon God’s offspring, and the Kirin’s duties. I think I see what’s going on here.

“Normally, if the successor of the Dragon God was a single child, we would have no problems, but there are some individuals who plan to use this as a chance to do some rather distasteful things.

“Successor… wait, you mean there’s internal fighting?”

The Kirin nods in confirmation at Frank’s comment. I’m sure it was pretty easy for Frank to guess what’s going on. Humans are much more familiar with internal conflict, after all. I’m sure becoming the guildmaster came with plenty of conflicts.

“By the time I had noticed hostility in the Heavenly Palace, one of the eggs was already surrounded. I had no choice but to carry the other egg to the planet’s surface in order to protect it from harm. I needed someone who had no interest in the power struggle, and would not use the Dragon God’s egg for their own benefit… They also had to be someone I could trust, and you were the only person I could think of, Illya. I wanted to make sure that you would receive it, and tempted some passerby into carrying the egg. And that should lead us to the current situation.”

The Kirin didn’t mention that I also had the power to protect the egg. Full points to the young man with brown hair. However, Frank’s admonishing eyes still hurt. I look back at the Kirin, but he refuses to make eye contact.

Yeah, maybe I would have refused to help if he handed it to me directly, but I have my own life too.

“I didn’t think it was serious enough to make a proper commission for the guild, and got several unrelated individuals wrapped up in the whole thing. Please accept my apologies.”

The Kirin bows as deep as his hips allow him to.

“Please raise your head. What’s important is that there were no serious casualties, and what’s done has been done.”
“Thank you. Still, I am incredibly sorry.”

Meanwhile, the Dragon God nods as if he’s the one in the right. I want to punch him so bad. If you weren’t putting babies in other people and giving birth all the time, none of this would be happening. Why are you even here if you have no intention of solving your own problems?

While I try to hold down my frustration and play with the little dragon, Frank remains calm.

“I understand the events that led up to the current situation now. If the two of you are here to visit, I’m assuming that everything has settled down?”

“Nope.” The Dragon God answers instantly.

Well, I knew this was how it would go. There was no way this idiot solved his own problems. The guy is so naive that he let a demon take advantage of him, and I guess he hasn’t learned his lesson since.

“Like I said earlier, I just found out about the situation a couple of moments ago. The moment Auriel felt the hostility directed at this place disappear, we headed here immediately.”

“So what—”

“We wanted to express our thanks as well as apologize. We also wanted to make one more request.” The Dragon God says that last sentence to me, then bows his head.

The monarch bows so low that his head almost touches the table sitting in front of him. I hear Frank and the Kirin swallow a gulp of air. On the other hand, this is the third time this has happened, so I’m not too surprised. Rather, I actually quite like seeing this view.

“I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for protecting my beloved child. For causing you so much trouble because of my own family circumstances, I apologize. I am sorry.”
“Both are not things I have done on my own. Please take both of those, and complete the proper documentation to the guild.”
“Understood. If that’s how things work here, that is what I will do.”
“So, what’s the request?”

The Dragon God nods, then looks straight at me. His eyes, and his expression displayed an unusual seriousness.

“I beg of you, please raise that child.”

I thought so. The fuss about marriage and whatever was probably just for confirmation. If I had changed my mind about marriage, then his request might have changed into something like “please come to the Heavenly Palace.”

Putting that aside, if I were to become this child’s nanny, what would happen?

The internal conflict should calm down, and the child’s safety would be ensured. In addition, the Dragon God would be able to make another connection with me. I would say he gets a pretty good deal for letting one of his children go.

What a weird way to adopt a child.

No f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g way! …Is something I wish I could say, but…

“Rest assured. I will.”

Everyone else in the room opens their eyes wide in surprise. Each of their expressions has a smidge of other emotions mixed in, but that’s not the problem.

“However, I have two conditions.”
“Ask for anything. You can even have my love in return.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.”

1. TL note: If it isn’t clear enough, the Dragon God is a hermaphrodite.
   Robinxen: Yooooo we got a futa.