As mentioned on SJ, I have plans this week and SS comes out on Thursday, so there may be a bit of a longer wait until I get the next MS chapter out. Definitely one this weekend for sure.

Thus, I was able to find Angelica.

Except… what was I supposed to do now…? This should be obvious, but I"ve never had a teenage daughter before, so I didn"t know how I was supposed to deal with her! This applied during the entire ordeal, but, right now, I had no idea what to do! To put it plainly, the difficulty level was way too hard!

Angelica also wasn"t sure what to do, and she kept looking away from me. I myself directed my gaze to a completely unadorned wall.

"Angelica, why did you not return home? If you were going to stay over at a friend"s house, you should have notified us beforehand. I looked all over for you."

"……There"s no way the hero would return home to where the demon lord is. That"s why I"m setting up base here."

We were somehow able to hold a semblance of a conversation. She used the phrase "setting up base," but I don"t think she meant it like she was going to attack me. I still wasn"t sure what to do, but I should at least address the fact that I was intruding in this house.

"Preparations are ready for dinner. If there is no reason you must stay here, then come home. If you hold on to me, I can teleport us back in an instant."

At times like these, that spell was super convenient.

Angelica didn"t say a word. I didn"t know if I should say any more. As someone who had no experience raising a daughter, I had no idea where she got her stubbornness.

"Angelica, you should look mister demon lord in the eye. It would be immediately apparent that he is seriously thinking about your welfare. As the hero, it is not fitting for you to ignore the true intentions of your opponents."

The mage girl Selene said this while folding her arms. Apparently she was on my side.

"You"re only saying that because the demon lord didn"t become your dad."

Selene was hard-pressed to find a response to that. It"s true, this strange situation didn"t exactly happen often!

"Selene, think about it. The other day, our party was able to get all the way to the demon lord, right? We got taken out immediately, but… still, you could say we were only one step away from beating him. And yet, when I woke up, all of a sudden the demon lord was my dad… would you be able to deal with that kind of nightmare?!"

Angelica rambled on, trying to argue her case.

"If that"s not enough, now the demons are trying to make peace with the kingdom, which means they don"t even need a hero anymore…! Everything"s happening so fast, I don"t know what to do! What would you do if you were in my place?!"

It sounded like Angelica bottled up a lot of worries… I certainly wasn"t thinking to myself that she was like an overflowing, muddy stream…

I didn"t think I should bring her back like this… Well, at least I knew she was safe, so maybe it was fine… However, a moment later, something unbelievable happened.

"Angelica, you idiot!"

Selene whacked Angelica really hard on the shin with her staff. This must be one of those fabled "critical hits."

"Ah—! Gah—!"

Grabbing her leg in pain, Angelica bounced around wildly. Man, that looked like it hurt. It probably hurt so much that she couldn"t even express how much it hurt.

"What was that for, Selene…! I don"t think you"re supposed to use your staff like that…"

"Angelica, heroes are said to be filled with courage. Right now, you are nothing more than a coward!"

Selene"s words cut deep. I was happy for the a.s.sistance, but when we got back this was going to make the story a lot more complex, and frightening. What a complicated feeling.

But, at least this didn"t require my intervention… This was an internal issue in the hero party…

"If the demon lord became your dad, you probably wouldn"t know what to do either! This kind of thing just never happens! So you could at least show me a little consideration, couldn"t you?!"

"Angelica, you need to stop thinking about the demon lord. Think about your mother instead! You need to go home!"

Those words appeared to touch Angelica"s heart since her eyes opened wide.

"Oh… you"re right… I can run away from the demon lord all I want, but not if that"s going to make Mama sad…"

No wait, I don"t think you should run away from me either. But, I guess she already did that, so whatever.

"Besides that, mister demon lord here looks to have seriously been worried about you. Even I could tell that. If that were not the case, I would not have let him in here," Selene chuckled, smiling.

She may be part of Angelica"s party, but, out of the four of them, she was a cut above. Mages were the most knowledgeable, after all, so it looked like she ended up taking on the thankless role of the older sister.

"If the demon lord was worried about me… that"s just because he didn"t want Mama to worry about me."

"Even if that were true, should you really dismiss out of hand people who are willing to do everything they can for your mother"s sake?"

Now that this became a logical argument, it was clear that Angelica could not match brains with Selene. Angelica sighed, then finally turned to look at me.

"All right, then let"s go home. I"m sorry for not telling anyone…"

"It"s sufficient to know that you were safe. You don"t need to apologize to me, so instead save it for Laetia."

"Nn…"

I teleported us right in front of the hero"s house. No one knew why, but transfer spells couldn"t be used to go directly into buildings. However, in this case, it would be perfect for softening the blow.

"Haaah… What do I say to Mama…"

Ahh, I guess she was still worried.

"In times like these, simply give an honest apology. If you try to make up an unnatural excuse, it will just come back to bite you later. That is how you deal with scandalous incidents in an organization."

"Don"t compare this to some company scandal."

"A family is just like a smaller organization. Similar concepts are applicable."

Angelica stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath. I suppose she was preparing herself.

"Thanks, demon lord. I feel a little better."

This was the first time Angelica had ever smiled at me. It wasn"t a bad feeling.

"Save your grat.i.tude until you"ve succeeded."

"That wasn"t grat.i.tude."

Angelica opened the door. When Laetia saw Angelica, she ran up to embrace her while crying. Aah, I"m glad I searched so hard for her.

After that, the three of us reheated the food and had a late dinner. We still had a ways to go until we were a happy family, though. But then, another problem arose.

"Demon lord, why are you eating so much… Geez, you"ve had enough for three people…"

"Is this not a normal amount? Rather, Angelica, you"re the one not enough very much."

"I already ate a bit at Selene"s house."

"Are you perhaps afraid you"ll get fat if you eat too late at night? Do not worry about your diet, just eat your fill. Worry about being fat after you become fat."

But wait, if that was actually her worry—

"Quiet, you demon lord! You don"t need to say things like that!" Angelica angrily yelled back at me.

It seemed I still needed to figure out how to get closer to my step-daughter. However, Laetia was smiling and giggling as she watched us, so maybe this was all right.

 —  — Chapter 11