✧ Chapter 8 ✧
A house in the form of a temple, si`milar to Nox’s home, stood a little farther away from his residence.
Aura, the owner of the house, served tea in the reception room for Nox, who had come to visit after such a long time.
“Try it. It’s tea brewed from green tea leaves I grew myself, so it should taste good.”
“……No, it’s fine. I didn’t come here to drink tea or anything like that.”
“Drink it anyway. It might help you calm your mind.”
Nox wasn’t particularly interested, but since he had also made a mistake because of the misunderstanding earlier, he decided to go along with her for now.
He lifted the teacup and took a small sip.
Sip.
Perhaps because the leaves had been grown personally by Aura, the tea definitely had a stronger flavor and a pleasant aroma.
“How is it? Tasty, right?”
“Well, it’s not bad.”
“Hmm.”
At that moment, someone made a whining sound beside him and lightly tapped Nox’s thigh.
It was Lactea, who had been sitting across from Nox and Aura just moments ago.
He had somehow already moved next to Nox and was staring at him with sparkling eyes.
Almost to the point of being uncomfortable.
“This guy…… When did you get over here?”
“Hmm, it really is strange. Other than me, he has never approached anyone like this first.”
“Growl.”
“Perhaps he’s interested because you’re different from the creatures living here?”
Nox was sitting on the sofa while holding Rivera.
He looked displeased at Lactea, who was clinging closely to his side, and carefully moved Rivera to the other side.
Seeing the opportunity, Lactea quickly climbed down from the sofa and tried to climb back toward Rivera.
Before Lactea’s feet could even touch the sofa, Nox quickly grabbed him with both hands and lifted him up.
“You! Where do you think you’re going?!”
“Kyiu! Kyiu!”
“No! Stay away from my daughter!”
“Growl!”
Aura quietly watched them before saying,
“Why don’t you put him down? Let the children play together.”
“No. It’s dangerous.”
“It’s fine. Lactea won’t bite her or anything. His teething period is already over.”
Of course, Nox had worried about that too.
He was afraid that Lactea might accidentally bite or hurt the small and fragile Rivera.
But somehow, that wasn’t the only reason.
He simply had a strange feeling that Lactea shouldn’t be kept near her.
“What do you think of our son? The more you look at him, the more you can see that he’s practically my exact copy, right?”
“Yes, well. I saw him once before, but he really does look exactly like you, almost as if he was made from the same mold.”
“And he’s pretty and cute like me too.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“…….”
“My daughter, maybe.”
“Hmm?”
Aura gave a meaningful smile and leaned back comfortably against the sofa, crossing her legs.
“Come to think of it, you never liked children because you found them noisy. So when exactly did someone like you have a daughter? I still can’t understand it.”
“…….”
“And you’ve even become completely doting.”
“What do you mean, doting? I just care about my daughter a lot.”
“That is exactly what being doting means.”
Aura gave a light snort and continued.
“So…… Are you still not planning to properly tell me about it?”
“Pardon?”
“How you came to have a child.”
Nox had simply appeared with an egg one week before the birth ceremony, saying that there were signs it was about to hatch.
He had never explained the circumstances behind it in detail to anyone.
So everyone was curious, including Aura sitting right in front of him.
“……I told you back then. I simply wanted to have a child all of a sudden.”
“Hmm, really? There wasn’t another reason?”
“…….”
Aura’s eyes suggested that she thought there was more to the story.
However, she knew that even if she pressed him, Nox would never speak unless he decided to do so himself.
So Aura quietly dropped the subject.
“Well, I suppose whims always come suddenly. Even I, who had no intention of having a child for such a long time, ended up holding an egg in my arms thirty years ago using the fruit of the World Tree.”
But since it had never hatched until now, she had almost given up hope.
Aura looked at Lactea with a warm smile.
He was still struggling against Nox’s hands and whining.
“Your daughter was born at exactly the same time as my child. How strange is that?”
Even if magic power was put into a fruit of the World Tree, it did not always result in a child being conceived.
Sometimes no life appeared even after magic power was added.
There were also eggs that had gained life but showed no signs of hatching for more than a hundred years.
Lactea had been one of those cases.
“Could it be fate?”
“What?”
“Yes. Fate that could make the two of them very good friends…… No, that could make them have a good connection.”
“Why call it fate…… It’s just a coincidence.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Aura’s words made Nox even more cautious.
With a worried expression, he pulled Rivera closer with one arm, as if he were protecting a precious jewel and hiding it somewhere safe.
Then he frowned and spoke.
“More importantly, shouldn’t you give me what you said you would soon?”
“Alright, alright.”
Aura took another sip of tea before slowly getting up from the sofa.
“Then let’s go. It’s in another room, not here.”
Oh, they were finally getting up?
As the two dragons prepared to leave, Rivera felt strangely disappointed and clicked her tongue.
She had been fascinated by their conversation about their past, which had never appeared in the novel.
It felt almost like she was listening to an extension of the novel itself.
But……
‘It can’t be helped. I didn’t come here for that right now.’
Anyway, what exactly was the gift Aura had promised?
With that question in mind, Rivera followed them to another room.
When Aura opened a door decorated with light-blue rose patterns, there was a small orb in the middle of the room.
Nox tilted his head when he saw it.
“Hmm? What’s that?”
“Yes, that’s right. A Magic Power Measurement Orb.”
“Is that the thing you’re going to give me?”
“No, not that. But I thought it would be better to first find out your daughter’s potential.”
A Magic Power Measurement Orb.
It was one of the most common magic-power measuring devices in this world.
Once someone became capable of using magic, it could measure the potential of the magic power they originally possessed.
Since Rivera had awakened her magic power far too early, Aura thought it would be necessary to properly measure it.
“What do you think?”
“Hmm.”
In truth, Nox was worried about the power his daughter possessed, but at the same time, he also wanted to know how great her potential was.
And there was also the barrier.
‘Yes. To be honest, when I arrived home, there wasn’t even a trace that anyone had entered. It was almost too clean.’
Could Rivera have been the one who broke the barrier he had created?
The circumstances had made him suspicious from earlier.
When he considered everything that had happened before and after that moment, there really was no other answer for now.
“……Alright. Let’s do it.”
Nox gave a heavy nod and stood in front of the Magic Power Measurement Orb, which was about the size of Rivera’s face.
“Come here, little one. Put your hand lightly on top of it.”
At first glance, it looked no different from an ordinary orb.
‘So this is the Magic Power Measurement Orb I only ever saw in the novel.’
Rivera once again looked over the orb in front of her like an enthusiastic reader.
‘Oh, right. He told me to put my hand on it.’
Whoosh.
But Rivera’s short, tiny arm couldn’t reach.
She struggled and waved her arm around.
There was still quite a distance between her hand and the orb.
In the end, Nox had to bend down a little more before Rivera’s hand finally touched the surface of the orb.
Swirl……
Slowly, something like smoke began rising inside the orb.
‘So this will finally tell me about my magic power.’
Swirl……
The smoke gradually grew until it filled the entire orb.
And the color of the smoke was…….
‘Just as I thought.’
Just as they had expected, it was an extremely deep black.
Without a doubt, it was the Dark Attribute.
Now the important thing was the darkness and amount of the smoke.
The darker the color and the more smoke the orb contained, the stronger and greater the person’s magic power was.
And what they were seeing now……
Darkness like the night sky completely filled the orb.
With this amount and depth of color, could this be considered the level of a once-in-a-generation genius?
The two dragons stared at the orb with serious expressions and swallowed their words before slowly speaking.
“Aura…….”
“Yes, Nox. As expected, this child is far from ordinary.”
But just as Aura was about to continue—
“Hm?”
Aura and Nox both opened their eyes wide.
The color of the smoke inside the orb was gradually changing from black to gray.
More accurately, it wasn’t an ordinary gray.
It shimmered as if it were holding light.
Silver would have been a better description.
“Wh…… What is this? Why is the color suddenly changing?”
Nox was so confused that he even stumbled over his words.
Rivera was equally bewildered.
Among the six attributes she knew, there was no attribute in this world that had that color.
‘What is this? Why did the color suddenly change? What kind of attribute is that? Wasn’t I supposed to have the same attribute as Dad?’
‘Then what kind of power do I actually have…….?’
At that moment—
The smoke filling the orb suddenly increased.
It became so dense that it looked as if the orb would burst, leaving not even the tiniest bit of empty space.
Crack!
‘Huh?’
A thin crack appeared across the surface of the orb.
