If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord: Volume 3

by CHIROLU

  “Sorry for imposing, but could you let us stay again, Jose—“

  “Watia!”

  Dale’s question was cut off mid-sentence. Along with that ecstatic shout, a black, fluffy bullet came flying their way.

  “Maya!”

  As if mocking her father, who hurriedly thrust out his hands to grab her, she aimed for his plump body’s blind spot and slipped between his legs. She gathered up her strength for an instant, and then the black fuzz-ball leaped straight at Latina.

  However...

  “That’s dangerous!” Dale managed to grab her just in the nick of time. She may have still just been a toddler, but if she leaped at Latina with that much force, both of them would have ended up on the floor. Latina, with her slender body, wouldn’t have been able to catch the living bullet made from momentum and the toddler’s full weight. Even if, fortunately, Maya didn’t have the same sort of build as her father.

  “Watia, Watia!” Maya was kicking and squirming in Dale’s arms. It would seem she wasn’t fond of being there. “Nooo!”

  “Gah!”

  Using a headbutt, Maya landed a clean hit to Dale’s jaw. He was a pro when it came to brawls and had trained himself to handle them, but sure enough, a violent blow to such a tender spot really hurt. It was hard to imagine that attack had come from a toddler. Dale wanted to assume it was just a lucky blow; it was too frightening to imagine someone so young aiming precisely for one of a person’s weak spots.

  “Watia!”

  “Maya!”

  Dale quivered in pain but managed not to drop Maya, instead handing her to Latina. Latina looked up at him with concern, but he simply smiled back. With that, she at last calmed down and hugged Maya, burying her face in the toddler’s fluffy fur. Naturally, Dale’s smile had been a forced one. It was a subdued sort of pain and not the sort of thing to use healing magic on, but even so, when something hurt, it hurt.

  “Watia...” Maya clung tightly to Latina as well, looking blissful and completely satisfied. However, seeming to have suddenly realized something, she tilted her head. “Watia?”

  Her tiny nose started sniffing away, trying to catch Latina’s scent. All the while, the look on her face grew more and more grim.

  “Maya?”

  “What is it?”

  “Hmm?”

  In addition to Latina and Joseph, even Dale, who couldn’t read beastman expressions, could tell that something was up. Joseph bent forward a bit, then put his hand on his chin.

  “Dale, did you guys run into any big animals or anything?” Joseph asked.

  “Huh?” Dale responded.

  Just then, having arrived at a conclusion in regards to Latina’s scent, Maya unhappily shouted out “Noooo!”

  “Maya?”

  Paying no heed to Latina’s surprise, Maya started rubbing her body up against the girl, going at it full throttle.

  “Wah?!”

  Maya showed no sign of slowing down in enthusiastically rubbing herself all over Latina, whom she’d energetically knocked over and was now sitting on top of. She was using her whole body, and it was hard to think of it as anything but her rubbing her scent on the other girl. This continued, with Latina looking flustered at having been jostled so. She didn’t seem to know how to deal with the situation. Occasionally she’d let out a strange, pathetic cry as Maya rolled her over.

  “Um... what’s going on here?”

  “Like I was saying, did you run across any big animals or something? We beastmen can kind of sense that sort of thing from smells. Only sort of, though.”

  “Huh... So, why is she doing that?”

  “How should I put it..? It’s... you know, like how a wife ends up looking like that when she realizes her husband’s been cheating...”

  “Cheating?”

  “It was just an example.”

  Dale summed up the various things Latina did while they were staying in Tislow, from taming the dogs to petting the mythical beasts into submission. Hearing all this, Joseph gave a nod, half-astounded.

  “So that’s it.”

  “I see.”

  Apparently, Maya wasn’t fond of the smell of something other than her clinging to Latina, and when she’d picked up that those scents didn’t necessarily belong to things weaker than her, her mood grew all the worse.

  Latina sat there looking befuddled as Maya hugged her tight and then snorted in approval at her accomplishment. But she didn’t let go of Latina afterward.

  “No!” Maya said clearly, shaking her head from side to side.

  “Don’t say that! Come over here, Maya!”

  “No! Maya wants Watia!”

  “Maya...”

  Joseph was unable to say anything further, and his triangular ears sunk down pathetically. It was hard to tell how many times they’d gone through this exchange, but his beloved daughter kept on rejecting him. It was eating away at his mental hit points.

  Maya, meanwhile, was hugging Latina around the knees and had a burning gaze; she was ready for battle.

  “Watia is Maya’s!”

  “Waaaaah...”

  Having been captured, Latina was in the midst of this chaos, trapped between the father and daughter.

  “You sure are popular, Latina...”

  Dale was watching all of this from a few steps away. He rudely slurped his tea, staring off into the distance and trying to avoid the reality of the situation. He’d learned many things while staying in Tislow, including that it was essential for people to know when to give up.

  “Just try not to do anything too heartless...”

  He was in the midst of escapism, so the comment he gave wasn’t really suitable to be addressed towards a child, but Dale wasn’t thinking deeply on what he was saying at all at the moment, and Latina didn’t consider the statement deeply, either.

  “Watia, Maya, togetter!”

  “Waah...” Latina was flustered and could only think to hug Maya back as the toddler loudly asserted her ownership.

  It was then that the front door opened. Joseph’s wife Ute was standing there, with her familiar white fur and green eyes. She had a basket in one hand, filled with plenty of fresh vegetables. Apparently, the reason they hadn’t seen her for a while was because she’d been in the garden.

  “Oh, so you two have arrived?” said Ute calmly, noticing Dale and Latina. Dale stood up straight and greeted her.

  “Sorry for imposing on you, Ute.”

  “Miss U—”

  “Watia, no!”

  Latina tried to greet Ute as well, only for Maya to thwart the effort. With Maya as she was right now, even Latina paying attention to someone else was apparently enough to make her jealous. It was like she was trying to say, “Don’t look at anyone but me!”

  “What’s going on with Maya?” Ute tilted her head at her daughter’s behavior, knowing nothing of what had happened up until that point. After giving a hollow laugh, Dale gave a brief response.

  “Yeah... It looks like she wants to monopolize Latina.”

  “Her father is too soft on her, so she’s ended up spoiled, hasn’t she?” Ute said, entirely unshaken by Maya’s rampage. For better or worse, she was rather broad-minded.

  “Joseph...” Dale called out to the man, who was sitting in the corner looking downhearted and utterly exhausted, his hit points seemingly whittled away. Both of their gazes fell on Latina petting Maya’s fluffy tummy fuzz.

  “Did she cry herself out soon after we left last time...?”

  “No...” Joseph’s gaze drifted. “It gave birth to a legend.”

  “Sorry about that...”

  He dared not to ask what sort of legend it was. The two men remained silent for a while.

  “This time...”

  “How about leaving early in the morning, before Maya wakes up?”

  He may not have wished to drive out his guests, but the desperation in Joseph’s voice as he broached the subject was palpable. Apparently, he’d had to put up with quite the outburst last time.
Even Dale had been overwhelmed by its power. Considering how loud it was, it wasn’t hard to imagine that it had drawn the attention of all their neighbors.

  “If we fill her up with her favorite foods, then Maya will get sweepy! That’ll be our chance to separate them!”

  Hearing his middle-aged relative casually mix baby-talk into his sentence, Dale wondered in the back of his mind when he’d have a kid of his own, not realizing how those around him tended to see him when he talked about Latina.

  In front of those two doting idiots was Maya, lying face-down and happily wagging her tail as she was being pet. After ample attention from Latina, she seemed to have more or less calmed back down, and then she set up her stronghold on top of Latina’s lap. Separating them didn’t even seem to be an option. She wouldn’t be able to stand it if she looked away, only for some doggy to steal away all the petting! She loved her big sister above everyone else, so she needed to be Latina’s favorite, too. Young Maya’s pride and logic led her to that conclusion.

  While Latina may have been embarrassed by Maya monopolizing her, she didn’t seem entirely upset about it. To have the cute, tiny Maya adore her as a “big sister” flattered and delighted her. She wasn’t able to help out Ute, but in exchange, she got to spend plenty of time with Maya. Beastmen didn’t bathe as frequently as humans, so they didn’t have bathtubs in their homes, but they did keep a basin that could hold enough water to clean yourself off. Even so, Latina let out a cheerful shout as she filled it with hot water and got coated in bubbles along with Maya, which reached the inside of the home itself. This easily brought a calming scene to Dale’s mind, and a gentle expression crossed his face.

  Ute had prepared a soup with summer vegetables and plenty of meat in a stock pot. It was served alongside bread with a soft cheese smeared on top. Today’s dessert was a candied-fruit crumble. Just as Joseph had predicted, both the soup and dessert were some of Maya’s favorites dishes. Despite still being just a toddler, she soon gobbled down nearly as much as Latina. Perhaps trying to compete, Latina had unusually requested seconds, so there was still plenty of dessert left on her plate.

  Like Joseph had said, Maya grew drowsy now that her belly was full. She always did everything at full force, but she had now run out of power, as if someone had suddenly pulled her plug. Joseph was her father, after all, so he knew his daughter very well.

  At first, Maya insisted on sitting on Latina’s lap, but when the young girl tried to stand up for dinner, her legs had fallen asleep and she couldn’t move; the shock of the numb feeling brought about by the poor flow of blood was enough to cause her to collapse. That never happened to Latina in her everyday life. Maya, therefore, settled for sitting next to her at the table.

  After confirming that Maya had started to nod off, the two men winked at one another. Joseph leaped up with a swiftness that didn’t match his physique. He scooped Maya up and started swaying with practiced motions.

  “Umgh... un...” Maya squirmed around a bit, but she eventually found the most comfortable position and settled into her father’s arms. Before long, she started happily snoring away. At the same time, Dale rescued Latina, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

  “Dale, it’s rude to start playing around in the middle of a meal.”

  Her reprimand was sound.

  She slipped out of his hug and sat back down in the seat next to the one Maya had occupied up until just now. The whole scene was so pathetic that it was hard to think of Latina as anything but an adult dealing with a child.

  “Latina, we’re going to head out early tomorrow.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I’m worried about the weather, so I want to get out of the forest sooner rather than later.”

  It wasn’t entirely a random excuse, as Dale really was concerned by the somewhat cloudy sky. He did have a plan for dealing with the rain, of course, and when it came to a long trip, you obviously couldn’t entirely avoid moving when the weather was bad. But even so, he wanted to do his best to keep Latina from having to deal with anything too harsh. That was a natural feeling for a parent. But on rainy days, she could happily jump and splash in puddles or look up into the sky waiting for the raindrops to come, not afraid of getting her face wet. It wasn’t like such days were lacking in ways for her to act cute. He could keep watching over her forever, regardless of the weather. Anyway, that was a different matter entirely.

  Latina had seen the cloudy sky as well, so she accepted Dale’s explanation and simply gave a, “Right,” and nod of her head.

  After dinner, they returned to the same corner as before and started preparing for bed. After they were wrapped in their blankets, Dale held Latina in his arms, which felt only natural for the two. They were in a forest, so the nights were colder than they were in town. Taking advantage of that fact, he brought his cheek in close to feel her warmth. Latina used Dale’s arm as a pillow and pointed a relaxed smile back towards him. They were guaranteed a sound, relaxed sleep.

  No matter how you looked at it, Dale’s actions were born out of resentment for Maya’s monopolization of Latina. There really wasn’t much difference between him and Joseph.

  The next morning, the two doting idiots hung their heads, feeling exhausted and defeated.

  Latina was sound asleep, but for some reason there was an unnatural lump under her blanket. Suspicious, the two men rolled the blanket back only to find that Maya had snuck in at some point and was also fast asleep, clinging tightly to Latina’s waist. That was the moment they realized they’d failed to outwit the toddler.

  “I’ll make breakfast, so get ready to eat,” said Ute to the backs of the two dejected men.

  †

  After that journey through his memories, Dale looked up at his “big bro,” Kenneth. “Are you going to end up using baby-talk in front of your kid, too...?”

  “Of course.”

  “Did you know, Kenneth? Kids are, y’know... They’re amazing, in all sorts of ways...”

  “Seriously, what happened?”

  Maya’s wails had exceeded even the time before, and Latina got caught up in Maya’s explosive crying and teared up, too. The two men desperately pried them apart, and Latina and Dale fled the scene. With this, the legend grew even further. When they still heard the faint echoes of her cries from outside the forest, Dale felt seriously guilty.

  “It really does seem tough, raising kids...”

  “You trying to scare me?”

  “I’m seriously grateful that Latina’s suuuuuuch a good kid and doesn’t make any trouble.”

  “Yeah, it really wouldn’t be smart to think of Latina as the norm.” Even from Kenneth’s point of view, Latina was an excessively well-behaved child. While holding the package of meat he received from her in one hand, Kenneth asked the girl, “Latina, how do you use this?”

  “Um, it’s got a lot of salt, to preserve it. It’d be too salty as-is, so you have to wash that all off first.”

  Kenneth hadn’t asked because he didn’t know how to use it, but rather as a sort of off-the-cuff test.

  “Then you can put it with vegetables to make a soup or something.”

  “I see.”

  After confirming that she knew how to cook it properly too, Kenneth’s expression lightened a bit. For now, he could give her a passing grade. If she could also prepare the ingredients and present a dish, he would have no problems calling that a complete success.

  “So did you manage to cook alright on your trip?”

  “Yeah, just like you taught. Latina did occasionally mess up, though...”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. The strength of the flame and stuff was tricky, so she occasionally burned things.” Kenneth and Latina looked at Dale while continuing this conversation between master and disciple. “Dale always said that it was tasty every time...”

  “Huh? But you really did always get it right, didn’t you, Latina?”

  “Well, if he didn’t have any reaction, then I guess there
was still merit in making it, but...”

  “Huh? But it really was tasty!” Dale asserted.

  Both master and disciple cast Dale a sidelong glance and then nodded to one another; they both refused to compromise when it came to cooking.

  “So, do you see the task ahead of you now?”

  “Yeah. Latina thinks that she needs to work even harder,” she said, looking serious as she told her master of her future aspirations.

  Having been half-ignored, Dale looked over at Rita with a strained expression. “When we were camping, Latina always did the cooking.”

  “She really gave it her all, didn’t she?”

  “Was she... not satisfied with that...?”

  “It seems that Latina’s been heavily influenced by Kenneth in some strange ways.”

  There was a clear difference in enthusiasm when comparing this conversation to the passionate one between master and disciple.

  While looking over at Latina, Rita’s eyes suddenly stopped on the ribbon tying up her hair. “Oh, my, that’s quite a cute ribbon.”

  “Um, it’s Latina’s protective charm. She was told to keep it on when she traveled,” Latina responded in a lively voice, happy that Rita noticed it. It was a refined, gorgeous, and wide ribbon that shined gently in the light.

  “It’s made from something Latina got from friends she made in Tislow.”

  “Oh, so you made some friends? Good for you, Latina.”

  They both broke out in carefree smiles, but Dale looked like he had to hold himself back from saying something after hearing their exchange. Kenneth had no idea what part of that conversation was causing that reaction, but he decided to throw a guess Dale’s way.

  “Did Latina do something...?”

  Kenneth was well aware that she wasn’t exactly an average girl.

  “It’s more that I’m still astounded that there’s a mythical beast habitat next to my village.”

  “That’s a hell of a story you brought back from your travels...”

  “It’d be dangerous if someone did something stupid, so it’s probably best to keep this information to ourselves. It’s not a breeding ground. A pack actually settled there.”