Chapter 7

Hello! My Future Father-in-Law (7)

Exactly one hour later, Iren’s worries became reality.

The eastern wing, where the guest rooms for distinguished visitors were gathered.

Beyond the corridor lined with white walls and wooden floors, the faint sound of waves drifted through the air.

A small black silhouette crept stealthily into a corner of the otherwise quiet hallway.

Just then, the moon, which had been hidden behind the clouds, timidly peeked out. Moonlight streamed through the windows and settled over the corridor.

Under its glow, the silhouette gradually came into view.

Soft, pale beige baby fur.

A chubby body with short, plump arms and legs, and a blunt little tail drooping against the floor.

With its tiny ears and round, clearly defined eyes, it was an adorable baby sea otter named Sertisha—the sort of creature that could melt anyone’s heart at first sight.

Clutching an iridescent seashell about the size of an adult’s palm tightly in both hands, Sertisha cautiously wandered through the eastern wing’s corridor.

Since it was just approaching dawn, there was hardly anyone around.

Amid the silence, a low vibration began to hum from inside the rainbow-colored shell Sertisha was holding. Soon, a familiar voice emerged.

“There’s nobody here, so why are you sneaking around? This is suffocating. Just take me already!”

Iren, who had been dragged out against its will, grumbled irritably.

Perhaps because the surroundings were so quiet, Iren’s voice sounded even louder than usual. Startled, Sertisha hastily pulled the shell against its chest.

“Waaah!! Hweh! Hweeng! (Be quiet!! They’ll catch us!)”

“Can’t you just say that in words?”

“Hweeng!! (I am saying it in words!!)”

“How am I supposed to understand you when you’re speaking sea otter?!”

“Hweeng! Hweeng! (We have to go find my mister!!)”

Sertisha was still in its sea otter form, unable to speak properly and making nothing but distressed little squeaks.

At that very moment, an unfamiliar, low voice sounded from behind.

“Why is there a baby sea otter in a place like this?”

“Hweeng?!”

“!?”

The finest and largest room among the eastern wing’s guest accommodations was the Coral Chamber.

Its walls were decorated in subtle shades inspired by coral, and a spacious, open arched balcony offered a refreshing view.

The room was dim, but the sound of waves drifting in from beyond the balcony was as soothing as a lullaby.

Sitting all alone on a luxurious coral-colored sofa, the baby sea otter rolled its tiny, pink, bean-sized eyes around nervously, glancing at the man seated opposite.

The infiltration mission had somehow succeeded. However, the man’s expression was rather chilly as he pushed a cup of freshly warmed honey milk toward Sertisha.

“Why don’t you change back into your human form? You’re cute like this, too, but I’m afraid I don’t understand sea otter.”

“Hweeng!”

Sertisha tightly covered both eyes with its fluffy little hands and tensed its entire body.

With a poof, the soft fur disappeared, and in its place appeared a child wearing adorable starfish pajamas.

Fortunately, this time, Sertisha had been wearing an artifact designed for young beastfolk, so it didn’t end up naked as it had earlier that afternoon.

Sertisha shook its head vigorously, then looked up at the man—or rather, Grand Duke Hikaros—and smiled awkwardly.

“Helwooo…?”

“Hello.”

His expression clearly conveyed how utterly ridiculous he found the situation, but he seemed willing to return the greeting, at least.

Seeing that expression, Sertisha instinctively hunched its shoulders and spent a long moment wondering what to say next.

Should I tell him I’ll find his son if he agrees to become my guardian?

But Grand Duke Hikaros was human, not beastfolk.

There was no doubt that the elders of her clan would fiercely object, declaring him unsuitable.

So simply asking him to become her guardian wouldn’t work.

Oh! Come to think of it, she vaguely remembered seeing a similar clause in that children’s beastfolk law book Delphina had forced her to read once…

Ugh, what was it again?

It was definitely…

“So. Would you care to explain why our little baby sea otter was wandering around the eastern wing at such an ungodly hour?”

Sertisha had been so absorbed in trying to recall the law that she’d completely forgotten about Grand Duke Hikaros sitting right in front of her. Only then did she open her round eyes wide and jump in surprise.

Grand Duke Hikaros silently watched Sertisha.

The child seemed to be working so hard at thinking that steam might start rising from her head at any moment. It was rather cute.

He couldn’t help feeling curious about what she was pondering so seriously.

But something else caught his attention even more.

The iridescent seashell she was holding looked a little too heavy for the tiny hands of a six-year-old child.

It seemed to be the very same shell he’d picked up and handed to her yesterday afternoon…

Yet, for some reason, it now carried a strange, unfamiliar aura.

When he’d seen the child in the corridor, she had clearly been talking to the shell.

It hadn’t been a monologue. Anyone could tell that she was having an actual conversation with it.

Although Sertisha had been speaking in sea otter, the voice coming from the shell had been different, so Hikaros had been able to hear it faintly as well.

Everyone knew that seashells couldn’t talk.

And yet, that shell had unquestionably spoken.

On top of that, it now emanated a strange aura that he hadn’t sensed at all during the day.

There was definitely something inside that shell.

But what could it be?

Even so, he couldn’t simply snatch the shell away from the child.

Hikaros was still considering what to do about it when he suddenly felt a persistent gaze fixed on him. He raised his head.

The owner of that gaze was none other than the adorable intruder who had barged into the eastern wing.

Her sparkling pink eyes were filled with an intense longing.

Confronted with that almost obsessive gaze, Hikaros secretly swallowed a sigh.

What on earth does she want?

His curiosity was shattered into pieces by Sertisha’s next words.

“Please become my father-in-law!!”

Whoooosh—

A salty breeze slipped through the open balcony doors.

Was it just her imagination, or did the breeze that should have felt refreshing suddenly seem icy cold?

An oddly chilling silence settled over the Coral Chamber.

Grand Duke Hikaros hesitated, wondering whether he had misheard, before finally parting his tightly closed lips.

“Um… What kind of father did you say?”

“Oh, come on! My father-in-law! You know what a father-in-law is, don’t you?”

Watching Sertisha tilt her head from side to side as if she couldn’t believe he didn’t know something so obvious, Hikaros answered somewhat dazedly.

“No… It’s not that I don’t know what one is.”

“Then please become Tisha’s father-in-law!”

Sertisha paused for a moment and recalled the children’s law book that her only friend, Delphina, had forced her to read.

There were two ways to appoint a guardian for a young beastfolk child.

The first was to appoint an elder of one’s clan or one of its retainers. The second was to appoint the parent of one’s betrothed.

Under the first method, only clan elders and retainers could serve as guardians. That meant someone from another clan was ineligible, let alone Grand Duke Hikaros, who was human.

Even if the law hadn’t explicitly stated it, the clan elders and retainers would undoubtedly rise up in protest.

Therefore, there was absolutely no way to appoint Grand Duke Hikaros as her guardian through the first method.

That left Sertisha with only one option.

She had to become betrothed to Grand Duke Hikaros’s son.

Unlike humans, among whom arranged marriages were common, beastfolk had a law stipulating that betrothals could only be formed with the consent of the individuals involved.

This law existed to prevent beastfolk from being forced into betrothals at will for the sake of their clans’ interests.

No matter how young Sertisha was, her clan couldn’t force her into a betrothal simply to satisfy its own ambitions.

Therefore, the only option available to Sertisha was to appoint the parent of her betrothed as her guardian.

She would find the Grand Duke’s son and promptly enter into a betrothal with him.

Then, once Sertisha grew up, she could say goodbye to her betrothed and formally take charge of her clan.

It was a perfect plan.

Unlike before, Sertisha narrowed her eyes with determination and called out energetically to Grand Duke Hikaros, who was watching her as though trying to figure out her true intentions.

“In exchange, I’ll find your son for you!”

Sertisha had seen it clearly.

The moment her strong determination to find the Grand Duke’s biological son stirred the ripples of light, several glimpses of the future had surfaced faintly in her mind.

Among them, two things had been unmistakably clear.

First, the child would eventually become the leader of a Guardian clan, just like the Rithea family.

Second, he would attend Hersen Academy.

Perhaps because Crendia amplified the power of the Guardians, she had been able to glimpse part of the future this time using only a tiny amount of blood.

Her head felt a little dizzy as a result, but that was a price well worth paying.

The fact that a child who carried Hikaros’s blood would one day rise to the position of a clan leader dramatically narrowed down the list of candidates she needed to search for.

Only the five Guardian clans had leaders who could be called Heads.

Just as the Rithea family led the semiaquatic beastfolk, the other Guardian clans governed the beastfolk under their respective authority. The heads of these Guardian clans, who commanded multiple beastfolk races, were called Heads rather than clan heads.

In other words, Hikaros’s son was highly likely to be a child from one of the four Guardian clans other than Rithea.

Furthermore, in her vision of the future, the child had been wearing the uniform of Hersen Academy.

Since he was supposedly around her age, she only needed to look for him at the academy she would soon be attending.

With an expression full of confidence, Sertisha looked straight up at Hikaros.

Then she spoke.

“Your son is at Hersen Academy!”

Sertisha made an earnest effort to convince him.

She explained everything she knew: that Grand Duke Hikaros’s son was a beastfolk rather than a human, and that he would soon enroll in Hersen Academy, a school exclusively for beastfolk.

She had given him information and even promised to find his son.

Naturally, she believed that the Grand Duke would agree to become her father-in-law.

But…

BANG—

Sertisha was left all alone in front of the firmly shut door.

“…I’ve been kicked out.”

Her pink eyes trembled.

Why?

She’d given him information and promised to find his son!

Sertisha pounded on the door with her little fists, which were about the size of pen shells, and shouted,

“Uncle! That’s a total rip-off!!”

She huffed and puffed, furious that he’d taken all the precious information her little sea otter had provided without giving her anything in return. But the door never opened.

“Just you wait! Tisha is going to become your daughter-in-law!!”