The Visit Of The Black-Haired Stranger (4)

“Really?”

Even though I guessed it right, I still can’t believe it. It’s hard to imagine a grown-up daughter suddenly appearing like this. I might understand if she were still a child. Suddenly becoming a dad feels kind of surreal.

“It’s true! Then who else could it be? Dad’s nose! Mom’s eyes! Mom’s face! According to Dad, I’m a spitting image!”

The real dad, huh.

So it must mean the dad in the future.

Well, since I was sure she was my daughter, it was a fitting story. She looked a lot like Rurin overall, and parts of me were mixed in. The nose was definitely an exact copy of mine.

If I were to say how I felt, it’s that she grew up beautifully.

Of course, since she’s the daughter of me and Rurin. Hehe.

No, no, the shock was so great I forgot, but this isn’t the time. The important thing was Rurin.

Pulling myself together, I looked at my daughter and asked seriously.

“So what’s the cause of Rurin’s illness? You said you knew earlier? And that you’d tell me if I guessed who you were.”

“As I said before, Mom isn’t sick.”

“She has a fever like that and isn’t sick?”

“Well, apparently there’s such a thing. It’s a Black Dragon tradition!”

“A fever is a tradition? Is there such a tradition? Is she really alright?”

I went back to Rurin and held her hand. It was still hot. And she still didn’t seem to regain consciousness.

“Come on, Dad! Do you think your own daughter would lie? Especially about Mom?”

“Hmm, that’s true. I wouldn’t have raised my daughter like that. Then could your coming to the past be related to Rurin being sick?”

Shake, shake.

My daughter shook her head.

“No! But it feels weird for me to say the cause directly. Let’s call it a taboo word. So it’s better to ask the Red sister and go see Elder Grandpa!”

“A taboo word? But earlier you said you’d tell me if I guessed?”

“Uh, that’s because, well! I don’t know? Just hold Mom’s hand.”

Suddenly, she rolled her eyes and acted distracted.

I am at a loss for words.

It is exactly what Rurin does when she’s at a disadvantage.

“Then you don’t even need to call Sereina. You can teleport us, right? Let’s go to the Elder. If we have to hear it from the Elder.”

“No, that’s…! I’m the Dragon Lord, and being from the past, it’s not good for these things to be known in the Sanctuary now. Since this is the past, we have to be careful about my birth. We must not create even a single risk of my existence disappearing. Dad, do you want to erase me?”

“Huh? No way. Erasing such a pretty grown-up daughter.”

“Right? Mom looks like this but is sleeping. So there’s no rush. By the way, Mom looks young. Cute. Hehe.”

She said something reasonable then poked Rurin’s cheek. It was an awkward scene. I wasn’t sure whether to scold her for poking Mom’s cheek or not.

So I chose a different question. I was more curious than wanting to scold.

“Has that Rurin changed?”

“Hehe. Curious? There’s a picture. But I can’t show it! Dad shouldn’t know the future yet! Just think she’s more mature than now. She’s cute now, though.”

Heh, that made me insanely curious. Knowing the word ‘picture’ confirmed she was indeed my daughter.

If my daughter was born, there’s no way I wouldn’t have taken pictures.

“Ah! What’s your name? I don’t know how to call you.”

“You’re my dad and don’t know my name? You named me!”

My daughter suddenly puffed her cheeks again at an unexpected moment.

“I haven’t decided yet… But please stop puffing your cheeks.”

I pressed on her cheeks with both hands, and with a ‘pffft’ sound, her face returned to normal.

“If it’s not decided, then I can’t say it either. Anything that could go wrong with my existence! A name is a sensitive matter. If I say the name and the namer becomes me, and not Dad, it might cause anomalies in my existence!”

That makes sense too.

If I think calmly, that’s right. Prejudice on the name would be problematic.

Then I have no choice but to call her ‘you’.

“Then another thing. How exactly did you travel back in time? Dimension travel touches the time axis, that’s true, but you can go to parallel worlds arranged in the same direction on the time axis. Going backwards on the time axis requires an enormous amount of mana…”

Speaking for myself, if I wanted, I could produce the mana of 100 dragons. But even that mana can’t perform time reversal.

Crossing dimensions consumes tremendous mana, and to reverse it against the flow is impossible unless you’re a god.

“Th-that’s because I’m a genius?”

“Oh, our daughter is that genius?”

When I said that, my daughter said “Ugh?” and opened her mouth again.

“Ugh! No! Coming here was a mistake. Hehe.”

“A mistake?”

“I got swept away by a dimensional current… I came here without realizing!”

Then embarrassed, she stuck her tongue out and scratched the back of her head. Wow, to accidentally reverse the time axis. Ridiculous.

“Then going back…?”

“That’s why! I came to Dad. Only Dad can help me.”

“Me?”

Nodding repeatedly, my daughter shook her head wildly, grabbed my arm, and whispered.

“If Dad and I combine our powers, it’s possible to go to the future!”

“Aha, I see. With your mana and mine, it could definitely be possible.”

“Yeah!”

This one has mana surpassing Rurin’s. That means I raised my daughter very strongly.

In other words, she has abilities like mine. She even inherited the Dragon Lord’s crest, so there must be buffs.

Time reversal. It’s nonsense. It can only happen if you’re unlucky and get sucked into a dimensional rift and caught in a time-axis vortex. Even if me and my daughter here combined our power, it’s impossible to cause it intentionally.

Maybe if there were about ten with the same power as me.

Given the arrangement of the time axis, reversal is almost impossible.

But going to the future is easier than reversal. Jumping forward on the time axis doesn’t violate causality like going back.

That’s because going back in time easily changes the future. So not being able to go back in time might be a restriction set by the gods.

“If I just jump the time axis, I can move like Dad does in a parallel world of the same time zone, so you can go home!”

“Sounds about right.”

“If it was a world without Dad, I guess I’d have to live here? Hmm, that’s not bad either, right?”

“No? How worried would I be in that world? Just thinking about it makes me sick. So hurry up and go back.”

“Ah! I didn’t think of that. Right. Dad might cry if I disappear.”

“…You say that while I’m standing right in front of you.”

“I’m just stating facts. Dad loves me that much!”

It was a confident declaration.

It’s like how Rurin strongly insists that I love her no matter what.

Of course, I can’t deny it.

The daughter in front of me feels a little unreal, but if she’s my own daughter, that’s only natural.

“Then, for the sake of that me, hurry back. I’ll help you.”

“Got it. Heh. I’ve seen everything I wanted. At first, I was so surprised, but once I realized this was the past, I came to the restaurant and met Dad. I tried to act like a perfect guest, but my habits kept showing, so I failed.”

“Oh, chopsticks?”

Suddenly I remembered. How well she used chopsticks.

“…That! Because I followed Dad from childhood, it got ingrained in me, so I unconsciously used chopsticks. Ugh. It’s unfair.”

“There’s no reason to feel unfair. Even without that, you’re really bad at acting since you look like Rurin.”

“No! I’m good at acting!”

My daughter puffed her cheeks while making a baseless claim.

Still, it wasn’t a bad feeling that she automatically reached for chopsticks just like me by following me.

“And I also saw Dad and Mom together at night…”

My daughter was embarrassed. What did we do last night? It’s also embarrassing that we didn’t notice the intruder.

“By the way, how did you completely erase your mana? Without feeling mana, how can you detect intruders? Normally, humans can’t enter the lair at all.”

“That’s my specialty! Because I’m a dragon-human hybrid! Neither Dad, Mom, nor anyone else can do it. Because I’m the only dragon-human hybrid who became a dragon. Dad is human but has the Dragon Heart…”

So that’s how it is.

“That’s right, you’re special.”

“Hehe, I like being special! So I went out to play and beat up all the dragons. Hehehe. And I claimed the Dragon Lord!”

Oh dear.

Just as expected of Rurin junior. Did it end up like that? I once told the Gold Dragons that.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. Because I was allowed to go out and play once I became an adult!”

Well, once you’re an adult, naturally you leave home to experience the world.

“I’ve seen everything I wanted, so I can go now! No, I have to go. And there’s a reason Mom ran away when I saw her briefly at the clinic earlier. It’s better not to talk with Mom now.”

“What?”

“So even if Mom wakes up, don’t mention me. That she has a daughter, or that the daughter came, never!”

“…Unnecessary influence?”

“There is such a thing! Then I’ll really go to Dad. Though Dad is Dad, you’re still not really my dad yet. Ugh? It gets complicated when I say it.”

“Yeah, that’s right. The real Dad is pitiful, so hurry up and go.”

Thinking of that me, it’s better to send her off quickly. How worried must my future self be!

Rurin sometimes teleports and accidentally ends up in weird worlds, so that sort of resemblance includes messing up time travel.

I had nothing to say, but somehow that similarity felt good.

“Then send me off, and take Mom to the Sanctuary around tomorrow! That’s the original future! Don’t change it.”

“Got it. Watching you stay like this is painful, but the butterfly effect can’t happen, so it can’t be helped. Phew. By the way, before you go, can I hug my grown-up daughter once?”

“I’d like that. Hehe.”

As soon as I said that, she quickly jumped into my arms. Then she looked up at me and whispered something.

“Oh! And when I’m born, tell that me. When I go out to play, please listen to Dad. I regretted not listening a bit. That future me said it’s a must! A must! Once I exist, the butterfly effect afterward isn’t scary. Hehe.”

This one changed by coming here.

Thanks to that, I immediately realized Rurin isn’t sick but it has another cause.

Would that have no effect on the future?

Well.

From the conversation now, it seems Rurin might be pregnant.

So if that thing is already formed inside Rurin’s body, does it even matter?

Whether the prediction is true will become clear when we visit the Elder.

Then is it still too soon to rejoice?