3. Secret of the Bloodline (1)

The devil.

A devil was born.

‘How could such a devil be born from that innocent body?’

Despite being his own child, Kalcion found Magna fascinating every time he looked at her. When he was a newborn, he was so fussy that he could barely run, but once he started walking, there were no incidents.

From the time she started crawling, Magna had unusual incidents.

It was not just crawling sideways, she demonstrated the ability to crawl up and down. People who witnessed a newborn climbing up the bookshelf to the top of the study felt a mixture of awe and shock.

The pinnacle of these incidents was when she climbed a mandarin tree planted in the garden.

When Selena mentioned mandarins during her pregnancy, they uprooted a mandarin tree and planted it in the garden. The soil and climate suited it well, and the mandarin tree grew well, bearing fruit regularly.

Unlike other garden trees, the tree had yellow and beautiful mandarins, catching Magna’s eyes.

Despite the adults having removed any potential danger in the garden and thinking everything was fine, as a warning, Magna climbed to the top of the mandarin tree, seized a mandarin, and shouted in victory.

The adults, watching the mandarin burst within her tiny fist, had a similar feeling.

For Selena, who always dealt with problems by eliminating the cause, the decision to pull out the mandarin tree or not became an ordeal that forced her to think for a long time. As such incidents repeated, she even began to doubt whether what she had given birth to was truly human.

“How can a child climb?! Walls! Trees! Even the ceiling! All the way to the top. Does this make any sense?”

“Hmm… I don’t remember, but I’ve heard that I used to climb up a lot when I was young.”

“That’s hereditary?!”

That was even more astonishing.

However, Magna’s absurd stamina and athletic ability could only be explained by genetics or mutation.

But the physical acts, like climbing walls and reaching the ceiling, were cute. Her acts involving the body were manageable within limits. Although it was annoying to be pestered day and night, handling a child’s energetic play was not difficult.

Kalcion’s stamina was more than enough to cover that.

The real challenge began around the age of four when she started talking like a human.

That little face seemed to have so many thoughts. What was once shown through actions was now starting to be expressed through words.

* * *

“Where did your military discipline go?”

“I’ll correct it!”

“You think you can catch a beast at this speed?”

“I’ll correct it!”

“Do you want to die?”

“I’ll correct iittttt!”

Today, Renbird’s training ground was being turned into a mixture of dust, tears, and sweat from the soldiers.

Wouldn’t a person become softer after marriage? It was not an unreasonable thought.

Duke Renbird, Kalcion, had no connection whatsoever with such rumors. If he used to have eight angles in the past, after marriage, he became perfectly square. Now that they had been promoted to the Queen’s army, the number of enemies also increased accordingly.

The hungry beasts going down the mountain range hadn’t disappeared either.

There was no choice but to continue intense training.

Even though it was understandable in theory, resentment naturally arose during the actual thing. That monstrous Duke Renbird. D*mned human. He could make a fuss because he’s superior to the queen, but his child would surely be messed up.

Acting as if he were superior to us, the children would definitely be ruined.

While under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t entertain such thoughts with a sound mind, the challenges were so daunting that they found themselves having such thoughts.

“Can’t you do it properly?!”

“I’ll correct it!”

“Put strength in each move…”

“Dad!”

Kalcion’s stern command was abruptly interrupted.

The stern atmosphere shattered from the Dad attack.

Soldiers stood still, glancing at the two who entered the training ground with a side-eye. Crossing the training ground, there was a small figure running towards Kalcion, followed leisurely by an adult figure.

It was Princess Magna and Queen Selina.

“Take a short break.”

At Kalcion’s command, the tension among the soldiers was released.

Smiling while watching the little princess running through their ranks, the soldiers saluted the two precious ladies. Princess Magna, who rushed towards her goal, her father, completely ignored the saluting soldiers.

The soldiers’ expressions softened.

Looking at Princess Magna felt like biting into a mouthful of cream filled with sugar. Just as consuming overly sweet food makes one involuntarily close their eyes and tense their limbs, the body responds in a similar way.

With two large fists tightly clenched and shivering soldiers around, Princess Magna didn’t give them a single glance. She walked five steps for every adult, but as she was not an ordinary child, her speed was surprisingly quick.

“Daadd!”

In an instant, Magna reached Kalcion and once again clung to his calf, calling out to him with determination.

Magna’s growth rate was as fast as her walking speed, and Kalcion’s height was anything but ordinary.

Soldiers had rarely seen her properly outside official ceremonies. They usually caught glimpses of her as she passed by. Today was the first time Magna had come all the way to the training ground. It was indeed an unprecedented event.

How would the Duke handle the cutest princess in the world?

“Dad! I want to say somthing!”

“Yes, sure. Our princess.”

Kalcion smiled broadly and lifted Magna with one arm.

“Did you come here because you have something to say to Dad?”

“…?”

Although their mouths were closed, a palpable silence settled among the soldiers.

What did they just hear?

They exchanged awkward glances as if they had heard something so strange and unreal.

The soldiers weren’t even visible in Kalcion’s eyes anymore. The once majestic commander who commanded the soldiers had instantaneously vanished. All that remained was the affectionate gaze of a father.

“Why did our princess come all the way here? Did you miss Dad?”

He was speaking a lot, too. The soldiers’ faces became even more awkward.

“Dad! I want to say!”

“Ung? To Dad? What is it?”

“Merry me!”

An incident erupted without any warning, leaving no room for mental preparation.

This incident later became known as Princess Magna’s proposal. Even the soldiers who had been paying attention were left open-mouthed, and Kalcion was bewildered.

Selina crossed her arms.

“Kuhk.”

This means that he has to take care of handling this incident himself.

Unlike physical incidents where she crawled in all directions, verbal accidents like this one were a different story. Once she started like this, no one knew how far the argument would continue. Apart from the cuteness, her persistence was like the devil.

Kalcion collected himself and gently asked Magna.

“…Ung? Our princess, what did you just say?”

“I merry Dad!”

“…Suddenly?”

“Ung!”

While laughing, Magna was too serious.

Kalcion barely tightened the muscles in his face and replied as seriously as Magna, biting back the urge to find her cute.

“Why do you want to marry Dad?”

“Mom said soo.”

“Oh.”

“If merry Dad, I sleep in the same bed evry niightt, oh, do, ho hor?”

“Horseback riding?”

“Yes! Hose ride, too!”

Magna, as if she had said everything she wanted to say, puffed up her shoulders with a proud face. In the meanwhile, Kalcion, restraining the desire to bite her cheeks because she was cute, continued with a serious question.

“So, our Princess Magna wanted to sleep in the same bed with Dad every night and do horseback riding together. Is that why you want to marry Dad?”

“Ung! Do everyting with Dad! Every day!”

Seemingly thinking everything was good as long as it was done with Dad, even without knowing what horseback riding was, Magna looked satisfied.

Where on earth did this story come from?

As he asked Selina with his eyes, she smiled playfully and turned her head far away, pretending not to know anything.

The culprit has confessed. Selina was bragging to tease.

When the typical possessiveness of children flared up for a while, it was only natural that the target would be Dad.

Selina found it cute how ridiculous that the tiny thing was trying to compete with her Mom. This brief period would probably end in one or two years at most, and she would find Dad ‘disgusting’ and run away. So, if he responded with a cheerful ‘Sure, fine,’ the stubborn little devil would likely quiet down.

“Well, what should I do? Dad is already married to Mom.”

However, there was one thing he couldn’t concede.

“Huh?”

Magna’s eyes widened.

Dad was someone who agreed with everything Magna did. So, she thought, as usual, it would be fine this time as well.

It was Dad’s betrayal.

“With me, too!”

Magna shouted again, putting strength into her voice.

“Dad promised to only marry Mom for a lifetime, so I can’t do that.”

How could it be?

…Dad refused twice?

It was the first time she was rejected by her Dad so strongly. Magna’s eyebrows began to gather. The nostrils were also unusually fluttering.

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