I’m in Tark today.
It’s not Spirit Festival season, but since Diane and Cosmos are piled up with errands, I wanted to clear those off while also taking this opportunity to strengthen ties with the Onyx Maid Group and Cosmos Main Shop. During festival times, everyone’s too busy to give proper attention. We have more time in peacetime.
Besides, on this trip, I’m also looking for Kei-chan’s mother. Even when I ask the Head Maid, she refuses to tell me anything, so I have no choice but to dig directly from locals around here and beyond. There’s no way the maternal relationship between them remains a complete secret even in Tark.
I want to express my recognition of their relationship anyway, and also discuss Kei-chan’s education with her mother. It might be futile… But if I just completely ignore things, there’s no telling how many more daughters will emerge infected with bizarre ideologies. I have to clearly state my intention to provide proper education for future considerations.
Anyway, resolved in my heart, as I walked through the Carlos family’s garden, Janet—Diane’s daughter—stopped me.
“Father, I have something I want to ask.”
“H-hey? What is it?”
There’s nothing improper on my part; rather, I’ve stepped forward intentionally to correct unhealthy matters with someone wholesome, so I should act bravely… but getting caught by my daughter while searching for maids makes me nervous.
Janet gazed steadily at her father’s unreadable expression, then suddenly pointed decisively to the side.
At the tip of her finger stood a sand-colored tower about fifty meters away.
“I thought that tower had always been there, but I heard Father built it.”
“Oh, I’m not a mason. I merely gave commands.”
“Why build it? The Tower Emblem is supposed to be a one-horned organization. It doesn’t make sense for someone loyal to Onyx like you to construct such things.”
That tower was named “Horn of Tark,” becoming both a new landmark in Tark and, substantially, the new symbol of the Tower Emblem. Their offices are even located inside it.
The reason it came to be… was simply because Minister Ashton told us to do so.
“If asked why, I don’t really know myself either. It feels like some kind of deal was struck between Onyx and someone else.”
“Doesn’t that feel a bit too casual to build something like that?”
“I think it’s probably also meant as a show of force anyway. Actually, for Lyra and her group, it wasn’t much of a long-term job in the first place.”
That’s right.
They built it using dragons. More precisely, Lyra and the lizardmen in the surrounding areas who worship her.
Rough labor was done by Lyra riding on her dragon body, while detailed construction work was carried out efficiently by the lizardmen under Diane’s instructions. Bringing together Elven and Dark Elf masonry techniques, they ended up creating something as sturdy—and unbreakable except for unprecedented earthquakes—as the once-destroyed “Tower Emblem” collapse tower that used to stand in Tark.
Diane mentioned that if an earthquake strong enough to destroy this ever occurred, the entire city’s sun-dried brick buildings would likely be completely demolished before the tower itself could fall.
Given how rare such durable structures are here, this basically means the time when Tark itself falls will come.
…Above all, the act of making dragons build it carried an incredibly strong message.
In other words, Onyx is claiming superiority by showing that if they really wanted to, they could easily surpass Tower Emblem in construction capabilities.
By generously “loaning” such a structure to Tower Emblem while simultaneously providing full surface-level support, they were emphasizing their absolute dominance with the message “such a thing holds only this much value for us.” Furthermore, by showcasing dragons, they issued an outright declaration: “If you defy us, we’ll always show that we can destroy it whenever we choose.”
…I think Minister Ashton was likely even more furious than Carlos about what Tower Emblem group members did previously.
While Carlos merely subtly demonstrated the “class” of a ruler, Minister Ashton chose to inflict far harsher terror.
Originally, this person established the family motto: “Protect allies, reward friends, entertain guests, and kill enemies.” While he currently entrusts the backbone of the family to Carlos for national governance, his nature is undoubtedly still even more extreme than that.
I vaguely explained all this to Janet.
My explanation was scattered because the sources of my information are rather dubious.
Minister Ashton continues to snap at me in strange ways upon meeting, only to be appeased by his family and depart. The tower construction request was even passed down through Diane. Even Carlos is basically similar in attitude, so it’s hard for me to gauge how serious they truly are about what matters.
“Anyway, the design was handled by Diane, and I didn’t do any of the labor myself. After saying ‘I’ll leave it to you,’ I just stayed inside drinking because it was too hot outside… and before I knew it, it was already built… So…” Is it really appropriate for me to say I built it?
”…As usual, Father is truly incredible.”
“Incredible in what way? There’s nothing incredible about it?”
“While fully aware that this massive plan serves as the centerpiece of intimidation over all of Tark, he speaks as if it were merely spare-time odd jobs. Shouldn’t this be something he’d boast about for a lifetime?”
“Truthfully, I was just drinking alcohol and had no spare time either… Moreover, no matter how grandiose a task dragons undertake, the meaning behind it is given by Carlos or Minister Ashton. Only when that’s established can great power truly make people happy. I’m not good with those kinds of things.”
I still occasionally borrow the dragon’s strength, but I’m all too aware that it rarely delivers results as promised on the surface.
Of course, if the task is merely to slaughter monsters, a single command—“Go get them!”—yields the expected outcome without fail. But in human society, things don’t work quite like that. “You need to figure out who this benefits,” “Some problems can be handled through other means,” “How do you convert the terror of a dragon’s movement into something useful”… These require meticulous planning. Without knowledge and experience, unforeseen negatives tend to explode unexpectedly.
Fortunately, Diane and Irina usually serve as my brain trust, so I rarely make truly fatal blunders. I simply admire their ability to orchestrate such intricate details from afar, while telling the dragons, “Leave it to us.” Honestly, it doesn’t feel like much of a personal achievement of mine.
“He often gets credit for his father’s great work wherever he goes. The mothers boast, ‘Your father did it!’ but my father tells me nothing about any of this.”
“Huh? No, if you ask properly, I’ll explain. I do that even now.”
“Truthfully, when no one asks, I can’t remember exactly which achievements I spoke of to whom.”
“U-um… ahhh… n-no…”
Well, among hundreds of people, there’s bound to be some forgetting I can’t deny.
As she felt uneasy, Janet suddenly averted her gaze.
”…I’m sorry. That was a cruel question. Since I can only speak to my father like that, he must find it irksome.”
“Huh?”
Wait, wait. Janet, that’s a massive misunderstanding.
“I have never once thought you were annoying!?”
“It… It just seems like you’re trying to minimize the time spent with me to an absolute minimum. You didn’t even invite me to last week’s camping festival.”
“Ahhh, no, I guess I wasn’t too interested… Besides, since it involves fire and sharp objects, the gist was that small children shouldn’t be invited.”
“But Floria and Lyra are the same age as me…”
”…No, honestly, if you wanted to go that bad, I’m sorry.”
”…Honestly, my only complaint is that you didn’t even ask. It wasn’t that I had a special desire to camp.”
“Oh, well… let’s pull back on that comment a bit… it was wrong of me.”
Seeing the tiny Janet standing so proudly and dignified, just like Diane, excelling in both studies and athletics, while throwing such an overly childish tantrum brings about a mix of frustration and overwhelming affection. …I can’t help but think that taking her along would have resulted in a total disaster. Floria still feels somewhat distant after the shock of witnessing her father and sisters’ actual sex; showing something so intimate to Janet, who usually keeps her distance from such things, might mean we wouldn’t be able to talk properly until she’s much older.
When I told Diane about this, she laughed.
“I don’t think you need to worry that much. She isn’t a daughter who can’t read the air. It’s already clear that Elenia and Frena are head-over-heels for their father.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re having actual sex right now, so it’s not the same thing.”
“I never told her to stay away from the palace. She has insatiable curiosity. I’m sure she gets one good look at whatever you do there.”
”…!?”
“There’s only one thing I can say: Don’t treat him harshly. To you, he might be just one person among hundreds, but to me, he is my only daughter. I don’t want her to grieve because she wasn’t loved by her parents.”
“Is this the attitude of someone who already has several daughters crossing that line into ‘loving’?”
“If that’s what she wants, then I’m on her side.”
It seems Diane, who appears so calm and collected, has been quite influenced by the Selen group. While Ashington hates seeing his daughters bare-breasted, he complains bitterly about it, yet here we are, giving permission. It’s somewhat incomprehensible from this perspective.
Later, while sneaking around the mansion grounds to gather information on Kay-chan’s mother, I accidentally stumbled upon her talking with Janet.
“So, you want to get along better with my master as well?”
“And to you as well, since he is your father. Let’s call him Father then.”
“No, I’m a maid and a sex toy first before I am even his daughter.”
By this point, I really wanted to object with full force, but since we were sneaking around quietly, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“If I ask you this question, I will judge it as your wish to join our ‘Virgin Dildo Collection.’” “Dildo? What is that?” “It is a tool designed to stimulate your master’s genitals and cause ejaculation.” I figured this was already too far gone. Trying to approach boldly after deciding to stop acting coyly, I suddenly found myself restrained by several maids and shoved into the servant’s quarters. “W-what are you doing! As her father, I have a duty to protect Janet from ideological contamination!” “Young Lady Janet is intelligent; please do not worry. She will surely learn to distinguish between knowledge and ideology.” “Besides, we are on Kay’s side too.” “I’d really appreciate it if you guys stood by me sometimes!” “Your words are touching, sir. But… given that Polka and Tark currently form your roots, wouldn’t attempting to block all sexual knowledge be futile?” “No, I’m not trying to block them out per se… honestly, I just wanted her to grow up cherishing herself if possible…” I truly understand that once Elenia has pushed me aside, my own words lack any real persuasiveness. Even so, I want to be heard. All I really want is to be a father to her—that’s all.