I"m slowly working my way through SJ32, so I"ll try to get that out by Sunday. Might be hard because I got some new books to read, so that might distract me… We"re also planning to work on Kenja 29 this weekend, so I guess we"ll just see how things shake out. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

"How was breakfast?"

"Whatever. Normal. Don"t talk to me."

Angelica"s words were cold. She wasn"t interested in opening up to me. Even still, I will persist. It"s only natural for the demon lord to harbor the hatred of the hero.

After eating breakfast (she ate it all), Angelica set about preparing to leave for an adventure.

"You should return before it gets dark."

"Even if you"re trying to act father-like, it"s weird to say that to a hero! I"m strong enough to make it through the demon lord"s castle, I"ll be fine!"

"It"s not just that. Regularly staying out late is not good for your body. Work while the sun is out, then rest when it goes down. You should stick to that cycle. You shouldn"t want to work overtime into the night."

As I said that, I wondered if I should look back over the labor management policies for demons as well. Maybe the ones fighting on the front lines against adventurers should receive higher risk compensation.

"Adventurers don"t work regular hours. When you"re in a dungeon and can"t check the sun, it"s really hard to keep track of time. If you"re at a point where you"re almost done, then you just keep going."

"If you"re just barely able to conquer a dungeon, that means you"re still too inexperienced to consider that dungeon cleared. If that ever actually happens, instead of forcing yourself to keep going, you should just be patient and go back. Otherwise you risk being defeated."

"You know, you"ve been saying a lot of things that a demon lord shouldn"t be saying…"

I can"t help it. You"re my (step-)daughter. If I were to treat my wife"s daughter coldly, then I"d be no better than trash. And for Laetia to be married to that trash would be really hard on her.

I could never make the woman I fell for be sad!

"By the way, where do you plan to go today?"

"You"re really pushing this father act, wanting to know your daughter"s plans!"

But, I am your father now. It"s not an act.

"I went straight to the demon lord"s castle, so there are a bunch of areas I haven"t gone to yet. I was planning to go to the Ghost Tower or the Caverns of Lamentation."

"Ah, it"s fine if you go to those areas, but I don"t think there will be any bosses there anymore."

"Huh?! What do you mean…?"

"Well, once I married Laetia, demons and humans basically entered into an alliance. Since there"s no point in fighting each other anymore, we"ll be withdrawing our forces."

Rather, if I didn"t do that, Laetia might get ostracized by other humans. It would be bad if they thought she was helping me destroy humanity or something.

"What?! Then there"s no point in me being a hero…"

"I wouldn"t go that far. I only lead demons, unintelligent monsters still run rampant everywhere. Why don"t you go exterminate them?"

Monsters were basically just animals, so they couldn"t really be controlled. The reason demons and monsters were always lumped together was because they both turned into magic stones when they died.

Apparently, the race of demons was spontaneously birthed from magic stones, stones with magic power hidden inside them. They had the ability to procreate, and you couldn"t make a demon out of a magic stone, but it had been proven that our origins were actually magic stones.

"You"re not really helping, but I get what you"re saying… but going out and fighting lame monsters every day sounds so boring…"

"A hero"s goal is to bring about peace for humankind, isn"t it? Then isn"t it good if it"s peaceful?"

I didn"t think I was saying anything odd.

"I guess… then the hero would become just another adventurer. Another random thug, or a washed-up braggart…"

"You"re also an adventurer, so you shouldn"t badmouth adventurers too much."

"What"s your problem… You"re the demon lord, so adventurers should be your enemies too…"

Ugh… she did have a point, but if demons and humans stopped fighting then they wouldn"t be my enemies anymore.

"Anyway, if you hate being an adventurer that much, maybe you should join the knight order. You"d get to keep fighting that way."

Angelica didn"t respond to that. We both stayed quiet as time just pa.s.sed. Awkward…

Did I do something wrong? We spent some time together at breakfast, and I thought I saw signs that our relationship was improving, but now things became weird again… On the other hand, it would also be strange if I kept warring with the humans just for my step-daughter"s sake. I really did need to stop the conflict.

"Join the knight order…?"

Angelica was mumbling to herself. It was so quiet I almost didn"t catch it.

"I see! The knight order pays a salary, it"s a stable job. Mom wouldn"t worry as much either. Anyone could see that it"d be the best choice—

"I was right, you know nothing about heroes, and you know nothing about me! Of course you wouldn"t!!!"

My daughter just yelled at me…

With that, she turned her back to me and walked to the door. I couldn"t see her face, but I imagined that she probably looked quite upset. Teenagers are complicated.

"…I"m going out."

"Come back before it gets too late."

"I already said, I don"t want to hear that from the demon lord!!!"

She yelled at me again…

"See you later, Mama."

"Angelica, I don"t think Galtau said anything that was wrong. It would be a good thing if there were no more fighting. Isn"t it the hero"s goal to stop the war with the demons?"

I was happy that Laetia defended me, but, in this situation, it might not be a good idea to feel relieved. But I was still happy.

"Also, I won"t say that you have to get along with Galtau, but you can"t let your temper get the best of you either. That"s not how a hero should act, right? Angelica, I"d like you to apologize."

Laetia"s eyes narrowed just a little bit. This was probably how she looked when she was disciplining her daughter. I thought this face was also beautiful, but that was neither here nor there.

"Laetia, I don"t really mind it…"

"Galtau, Angelica went too far just now."

"…Bye."

That was Angelica"s only response before she left the house.

Even if she had apologized to me here, it"s not like her pent-up feelings would just disappear, so I was fine with this. As long as Angelica herself didn"t agree to it, any words she threw out in that situation would have had the same meaning.

"I"m so sorry, Galtau. My daughter was very rude to you."

"Not at all, I also spoke without considering her circ.u.mstances or feelings. If I had suddenly gotten a new parent when I was a child, it would"ve been hard for me to stay calm if that parent tried to tell me how to act."

"I suppose you"re right. We"ll have to give it more time."

Laetia smiled brightly and rolled up her sleeves.

"I"ll go all-out and cook a huge feast for Angelica! We"ll celebrate the end of the fighting between humans and demons!"

"Ooh! Please allow me to a.s.sist!"

Laetia really was such a wonderful person. I daresay she was on the same level as the sun!

Unfortunately, I was worried about the time. After spending all that time with Angelica as she was getting ready to leave… ah, I had to leave for work now too.

"I"m sorry, Laetia, I need to leave for the demon lord"s castle now. I"ll try my best to make it back in time for dinner."

"All right, have a good day at work!"

I teleported myself to the castle.

 —  — Chapter 8