CVS 01

Chapter 1

I’m the Class President of Carrot Class at Ppukkam-Ppukkam Daycare!

This child was not his daughter.

“So, what exactly is this?”

“She is a life-form that His Excellency is supposed to raise. In other words, she is your daughter.”

Diegon pressed a hand to his forehead at his adjutant’s explanation.

He had returned from wiping out a group of pirates only yesterday evening. It was his first time home in half a year.

And yet, when he woke up, he had somehow acquired a daughter.

What was he supposed to call that thing staring at him with her round eyes?

A baby horseshoe crab.

A baby starfish…?

“A baby sea squirt?”

Perhaps she disliked that, because the child puffed out her cheeks.

It was ridiculous enough that a child that age understood what a sea squirt was, but what was even more absurd were those fluffy, puffed-up cheeks.

What makes them look like they’re about to burst?

On top of that, there was something that looked delicious smeared all over them.

“Butter? Did you put butter on her too so I could eat her?”

“Your Excellency, she’s crying! You already look frightening enough!”

His adjutant, Carmin, was horrified and quickly covered the child’s ears.

But the child had already understood everything, judging by the way she scrunched up her nose.

For such a tiny thing, the way she so clearly expressed what she liked and disliked was rather amusing.

“You couldn’t have picked her up yourself.”

“Of course not.”

“Then?”

“It was the will of the Ancestral Whale. Please accept her. She is said to be the most promising Spirit Resonant of this generation.”

Diegon’s eyebrow twitched.

The child, who had been staring intently at him, copied his expression.

Finding that utterly ridiculous, he turned his gaze toward Carmin, who quietly added another comment.

“She’s apparently much smarter than children her age.”

“Huh.”

“According to her teacher, a Bijou spot has already begun to appear as well. She is definitely an ‘Awakened.’”

A Bijou.

It was proof that someone was an Awakened.

But Diegon had never heard of a four-year-old developing a Bijou spot in his entire life.

No, suppose one had appeared.

“Why me? Wouldn’t it be better to send her to my eldest sister, who has no children?”

He already had two sons.

And he had also had… a youngest daughter.

It was no secret that seven years ago, he had lost both his wife and daughter at the same time in an unprecedented storm.

After that, he had gone mad and roamed the seas, raiding every pirate den he could find.

“Ahem. There is a message from the family head.”

As though she had realized that he was refusing, the child’s expression brightened slightly.

Wait. Brightened?

Where in the world was there a child who would be happy when the man who was supposed to become her father said he didn’t want her?

Besides, the little thing wasn’t even crying. She simply sat there quietly, as though she were accustomed to this strange and uncomfortable situation.

But that wasn’t normal behavior for a child.

No… not even for a tiny baby.

Something about it made Diegon feel uncomfortable in his chest, so he fell silent.

He hadn’t done anything wrong, yet he somehow felt as though he had done something terrible to the child.

And of all things, she has pink hair. I can’t help but wonder if my daughter would have looked like that.

But this child absolutely could not be his lost daughter.

“His Excellency the family head said, ‘That good-for-nothing fourth son! If he gets a daughter again, maybe he’ll finally start living like a proper human being!’”

Ignoring Carmin’s words as they went in one ear and out the other, Diegon sighed.

Yes.

This child was not his daughter.

If his daughter had been alive, she would have been nine years old this year.

Wow, he’s big.

That was my first thought when I saw the man.

Big.

Really big.

Super, super big.

Then I had another thought.

He’s really handsome.

I was a little hurt when he called me a lumpy sea squirt…

I almost cried a little, too…

But I held it in.

Because!

Because!

I was the class president.

Ahem.

Even though I had been brought here with the butter still smeared on my cheeks, I was the class president of Carrot Class at the public Ppukkam-Ppukkam Daycare Center.

So I have to be brave. There must have been some kind of mistake.

I even knew difficult words like “mistake.”

That was because I had read them in a real book, not just the fairy tales that little runny-nosed kids read.

The word appeared in a book called Mommy and Baby Bake Yummy Snacks!

Why did I read a book like that?

Because the children in Carrot Class were destined to become kitchen maids or servants in the future!

You could say I was studying ahead of time.

And I had no complaints about that kind of life.

The public Ppukkam-Ppukkam Daycare Center was a place that raised and fed children who had lost their parents to pirate raids.

They even carefully looked into future jobs for us!

From the moment I strangely developed self-awareness, I had already been able to understand what people said, and I was much smarter than the other babies my age.

So I immediately asked a question.

Even then, instead of the handsome but scary man, I chose the man who looked a little kinder.

“Mister, can I not cook anymore?”

“Huh? Once you become a young lady, things like that will naturally be done by the maids.”

THUD!

But that was my dream!

The Carrot Class teacher was my favorite person in the whole world.

I wanted to wear that long hat that only the teacher was allowed to wear, too!

I wanted to tell them how I felt, but being able to think like an adult and actually speak like one were two different things.

Strangely, my body had grown even less than the other children’s.

I was the smallest child in Carrot Class.

My height, my body, my hands, my feet.

Anyone who saw me would mistake me for a two-and-a-half- or three-year-old.

Even though I was already four!

“So, little one.”

That was when I became quite serious about the threat to my future.

Out of courtesy, Diegon asked a question.

“What’s your name?”

“Syuu…”

“Syu?”

The child shook her fluffy pink hair from side to side and opened her mouth once more.

It was absurd how she even sighed, as though he simply hadn’t understood her and she had to explain herself again.

“Nooo, Syuu. Syu! U!”

“Shu, then.”

There was no way someone’s name could be Syu.

Through an extremely rational thought process, Diegon arrived at that conclusion.

The child puffed out her plump cheeks as though she were dissatisfied, but Diegon casually ignored her.

Although, he did feel like poking those cheeks once just to make her cry.

“Such a pathetic little thing… You look quite like an angry horseshoe crab.”

The child’s clear, spotless eyes trembled violently.

She looked as though she had suffered another massive THUD! of a shock, and once again, Diegon felt uncomfortable around his chest.

He had made a perfectly suitable comparison, so he had no idea why she was reacting like that.

His sons used to laugh happily whenever he said things like this.

Diegon glared at his adjutant, who was clicking his tongue beside him.

And he calls himself a bachelor. I’m much better with children than he is.

“How old are you?”

“Fow.”

“Four? And you still can’t speak properly.”

Thinking of the monstrous children in his family, Diegon said it without much thought.

Even his sons had been riding dolphins around the age of four.

Or they would run across the surface of the sea like madmen.

Ah, they had even pulled out a mermaid’s reverse scale and run away with it once.

Because of that, his family had gotten along terribly with the mermaids and suffered for quite some time.

But the little creature standing before him didn’t seem remotely capable of such things.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to use you for if you weren’t sent here to be eaten.”

Diegon’s gaze fell on the name tag attached to the child’s chest.

The bright yellow, sunflower-shaped name tag had the large word “CLASS PRESIDENT” written on it.

And, true to her title as class president, the child began to advertise herself.

“I have somethin’ I wanna say.”

So it really had been his imagination when she seemed as though she didn’t want to become his daughter.

Because there was no way that could be true.

Who in the world would kick away the chance to become a noble?

“I make snacks really good.”

“Hmm. And?”

“And… I’m good at eatin’ too. So I’m all chubby.”

“Useless. I don’t eat sweets. I hate them.”

“Then…?”

“Instead, I eat children who don’t listen.”

THUUUD!

That was the third THUD already.

He almost chuckled because he found it funny, but awkwardly touched the corner of his mouth instead.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he had smiled.

And yet, over something like this…

His expression quickly hardened again, and he gave a cold command.

“We’re sending her back. Get everything ready.”

“Yee…”

“Answer properly.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

His senile father apparently wanted to have a friendly fistfight with him after all these years.

Thinking that, Diegon ground his teeth.

The child was innocent, but he simply couldn’t tolerate being brought a child who reminded him of his daughter.

However, shortly afterward…

Diegon experienced something for the first time in his thirty-seven years of life.

He was rejected right to his face.

And this was before he had even said that he didn’t want to make her his daughter.

“I don’t wanna be that mister’s daughter. I wanna bake snacks.”

Well, well, look at this cheeky little brat.

Diegon’s pride was hurt.