Chapter: 01
Hello! My Future Father-in-Law (1)
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 679, July 3
Weather: Sunny!
Mood: Super, super excited!
Tisha made an alliance with her future father-in-law and enrolled in Hersen Academy! But guess what! Tisha found a candidate for his son!
It was a very, very pure-white and pretty owl. But it looked really hurt, so Tisha put it in her bag.
Mister, I did a good job, right?!
Tisha’s Daily Today’s Report: None!
Imperial Year 679, July 17
Weather: Sunny!
Mood: Hmph!
Mister, you’re so mean! You only correct my spelling in your replies! You’re a bad grown-up who never praises me!!
Sulky Tisha isn’t going to write you a report today anymore!
And Tisha did NOT kidnap the owl!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 679, July 18
Weather: Sunny!
Mood: A little happy.
Today was Tisha’s first day of school!
Tisha and the owl candidate for the son are not getting along. ㅜㅜ
I’m doing my best to win him over! And guess what?!
Tisha met another son candidate! He’s a super, super prickly little bear! We met briefly in the cafeteria on the first day, and now we’re in the same class and assigned as desk mates!
But I think this guy is a little annoying!
For the record, I did NOT forgive him because of the snacks!
And now there aren’t any typos, nya-ha!!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 679, July 25
Weather: Pouring rain.
Mood: Bad!
Ughhh, Mister! Stop sending me letters all the time!
Tisha is busy trying to win over her son candidates!!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 679, August 20
Weather: Cloudy.
Mood: Strange.
Future father-in-law…… When are you going to leave the Beastfolk Island?
The little bear’s dad keeps crying!
Turn the ship around already!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 680, March 3
Weather: Warm.
Mood: Fluttery with excitement.
Today, the third son candidate Tisha met last summer, the orca, enrolled at the academy!
He’s pretty and cute! I’m glad he doesn’t go berserk anymore.
But my best bear friend and my pet owl keep fighting with the orca?
Can’t they all just get along……?
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 680, March 11
Weather: Warm.
Mood: Extremely angry!
Today, I rescued a baby tiger who was being beaten up by some nasty tigers!
He’s so gentle and cute, so why do they bully him like that?
Tisha gave them a good scolding with a sacred scallop shell.
I deserve at least 100 praise stickers for this!
Come to think of it, he’s a son candidate too……?
Future father-in-law, you have way too many son candidates!!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 683, June 8
Weather: Blazing sunshine.
Mood: So-so.
The bear, owl, orca, and tigers keep fighting over Tisha!
The little bear keeps pestering me to play hunting games, the owl keeps barging into the dormitory in his beastfolk form, and the orca keeps clinging to me!
And you, tiger! Stop bringing me hunting prey already! I hate dead rabbits!
Why is everyone being so annoying?!
Maybe I should just crack their heads open with my shell!
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 683, June 10
Weather: Blazing sunshine.
Mood: Dumbfounded.
Future father-in-law…… Why are you here again?
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 689, June 7
Weather: Blazing sunshine.
Mood: Extremely happy!
I’m seventeen!! I’m an adult now!!
Just one more year until graduation!
But when am I going to find the son candidate……?
Future father-in-law, it’s not that I can’t find them, okay?
Your candidates keep claiming that they’re your sons! Is being your son really that great……?
Tisha’s Daily Report
Imperial Year 690, December 20
Weather: Snowy.
Mood: Extremely surprised and excited.
I found him!!
Imperial Year 678, May 15.
This was the saddest day of Sertisha’s life.
It was the day she said goodbye to her paternal grandfather, Rodrick Ritea, the head of the Ritea family who had supported the family for countless years.
The day before her grandfather passed away had been no different from any other.
Her grandfather, the oldest sea otter in the family at well over five hundred years old, spent most of his days lying in bed due to old age.
When the sunlight filtering through the window shimmered faintly, his light brown beard glimmered along with it.
Sertisha stayed close by her grandfather’s side every single day.
She was afraid that one day, without warning, his gentle touch might disappear.
Oh, you’re wondering where Tisha’s parents were?
When Tisha was very, very little, her grandfather had told her that Mommy and Daddy had become sea-star pearls.
So, when she was still a baby, Tisha would search through the pearls beneath the sea every day, hoping to find her mommy and daddy.
Back then, she genuinely believed that her parents were trapped inside clamshells and couldn’t come out to visit her.
Every time she opened a shell with both hands, she would bring her ear close to it, wondering if she might hear a familiar voice from inside.
But now, she knew all too well that wasn’t what had happened.
She hadn’t wanted to know the truth, but she had learned it anyway.
After all…… Tisha was a six-year-old adult now!
No, wait! She was a big, strong sea otter who would soon be seven!
Grandfather had promised that when she turned seven, he would officially recognize her as a truly wonderful adult sea otter and take her all the way out to the distant sea.
Hearing those words had made Sertisha so proud and excited that she couldn’t fall asleep for a long time that night. She had stayed by the window, where the sea breeze drifted in.
Sertisha had been counting down the days until that moment.
But…… Grandfather hadn’t been able to keep his promise.
It had become a promise that would never come true, no matter how long she waited.
My grandfather was such a wonderful adult sea otter who always kept his promises……
That day, Grandfather gently patted Sertisha’s head with his trembling hand and said,
“I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. Truly…… I’m so, so sorry…… my little one…….”
Grandfather kept whispering that he was sorry, and his voice hurt so much that it made her want to cry.
No, no, it’s okay, Grandfather.
Tisha doesn’t mind if you can’t keep your promise. So please don’t cry, Grandfather…….
That day, Sertisha hugged her grandfather tightly and fell asleep, clinging to him like he was a bubble of sea foam that might disappear at any moment.
Until the very last moment before she fell asleep, she could feel his chest rising and falling ever so slowly.
Just a little longer. Let’s stay together just a little longer.
She kept shouting those words silently in her heart.
And the next day, her grandfather lay beside her, his body as cold as the sea.
Not a trace of warmth remained.
Before anyone could even explain to her that the absence of warmth meant death, Sertisha was forced to accept the reality with her entire being.
The butler and the maids and manservants were sprawled across her grandfather’s bedroom floor, weeping.
The family’s many retainers and older relatives busied themselves preparing Grandfather’s funeral.
Truthfully, even then, Sertisha didn’t really understand what death meant.
Having grown up as her grandfather’s most cherished granddaughter, she had never witnessed or experienced anyone’s death up close.
So, even until the moment her grandfather was placed inside his coffin, she couldn’t truly believe that he was dead.
She simply stood there, motionless, among the relatives bustling about.
It was as though Sertisha alone had been left behind in a different flow of time.
The day of the funeral arrived.
As befitted the funeral of the head of the Ritea family, the funeral hall was magnificent.
Among beastfolk, it was customary to decorate funeral halls as lavishly as wedding venues. There was no food, but otherwise, the hall was dazzlingly adorned with the Ritea family’s signature sky-blue coffin and white flowers.
Countless mourners visited the Ritea family.
The older relatives warmly welcomed the visitors, keeping themselves busy as they moved from one person to another.
Not a single person here was weeping in sorrow.
Where grief should have been, there were only carefully calculated smiles.
Sertisha gazed down at the beautifully decorated sky-blue coffin, then looked at the white flowers, the sky-blue ornaments, and her older relatives, who were elegantly dressed in black.
Even though they had lost their family patriarch, none of them seemed sad in the slightest.
Instead, they appeared busy greeting the mourners attending the funeral and strengthening their social connections.
The lavishly decorated funeral hall……
It was so luxurious that it almost hurt her eyes, yet to Sertisha, everything looked nothing but black.
The coffin looked black. The flowers looked black. Her older cousins, laughing and chatting at a funeral where everyone was supposed to remain solemn, looked black.
And then there were the dark gazes subtly sizing up Sertisha, the girl who would become the next head of the family.
Everything in this place had turned black and white.
It felt as though the entire world had suddenly grown cold.
More than her grandfather’s death,
the situation unfolding right before her eyes terrified her.
Sertisha’s heart ached with sharp, stabbing pains.
Only then did she finally realize that she had truly lost someone precious to her.
Just then, in that scene that had faded into black and white,
a man who alone possessed color stepped up beside Sertisha.
The dazed eyes of the little sea otter naturally turned toward the dark blue-haired man.
The man, whose navy-blue hair was neatly slicked back, gazed down at Grandfather, lying alone inside the sky-blue coffin.
Human……? He looks like a human……?
I can’t sense any of the energy that beastfolk have.
Sertisha scrutinized the man sharply.
He’s not planning to hurt my grandfather, is he……?
He was as tall as the enormous conifer tree she had planted with her grandfather when she was little.
His thick arms looked as hard as boulders.
His long, amber-colored eyes were fierce and frightening, like those of a wild wolf.
His nose bridge and jawline were as sharp as blades.
Sertisha was looking at a man with a piercingly sharp appearance, unlike anyone she had ever seen before.
The man paid no attention to Sertisha’s gaze. He silently stared at her grandfather for a while before casting a scornful look at the relatives who were chatting merrily among themselves.
“What a fine mess this family is in.”
That was the day Sertisha first met the man who would one day become her future father-in-law.
