Book 5: Volume 5 Chapter 2, Twins and Dragon

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

After safely giving birth to Twins, Collete chose to remain in the Elf Village until the children were old enough.

 

Having observed Floria and Sylvia’s children grow up in the Management Floor, she had come to understand that it wasn’t an ideal environment for raising the young. The limited circle of people with access there meant that a child’s worldview could end up shaped by too few perspectives.

 

Everyone had reached the same conclusion without much debate: it would be better to provide a proper environment from the beginning.

 

Kousuke agreed. The arrangement was settled quietly and without fuss. Collete would live in the Elf Village, raising her children while commuting to the Management Floor to oversee the Tower. Unlike the arrangement with Towa and the others, there were no restrictions placed on Kousuke’s visits—he could come and go as he pleased.

 

He had no complaints about that.

 

There was another reason he stayed based in the village during this time. Peach’s child was still unborn, and becoming too visibly attached to one child before another had even arrived risked causing harm to them.

 

Children were perceptive in ways that adults sometimes forgot. They were sensitive to differences in attention. Floria and Sylvia had explained this to him carefully, and Kousuke had listened with the kind of expression that suggested he would remember this advice for life..

 

As for life in the Elf Village itself, it proceeded without incident. Every Elf he passed either offered congratulations or regarded him with quiet reverence, but that was the extent of it. Unlike the city in the Fifth Floor where his true identity would have ignited chaos, Kousuke moved through the village and visited Collete’s home daily without difficulty.

 

The house itself was modest.

 

Collete had insisted that something large wasn’t necessary; it was a place for raising children, not for drawing attention. She still had her duties as the World Tree Priestess, of course, and so other attendants were present to help when she couldn’t be.

 

The foxes had also made themselves indispensable, as they always did with children. Wanri announced with unmistakable pride that there had been no shortage of volunteers for the role of childcare fox. In fact, the final selection had apparently required rounds of deliberation.

 

And so, visiting the Twins in the morning and again in the evening became part of Kousuke’s daily rhythm. The other women watched this with expressions somewhere between bemusement and acceptance. They’d known something like this would happen eventually. It would happen again when Peach’s child arrived, too.

 

If anything, it made Towa and the others’ circumstances feel like the unusual ones in hindsight.

 

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Kousuke was on his way back from the Elf Village when Luca caught him just inside the Management Floor.

 

“Father, you were visiting Seiya and Shea again today?”

 

Seiya and Shea, they were Collete’s Twins.

 

Kousuke felt a small twinge of guilt at the question, knowing he hadn’t been showing his face to Luca nearly as often as he should have. But when he studied Luca’s expression, he found no resentment there.

 

Luca was old enough now to understand; a grown child didn’t begrudge their Father for visiting their newborn Siblings. Kousuke still felt guilty though.

 

“Yes, that’s right,” Kousuke said. “But Luca, is school closed today?”

 

Luca let out a small sigh. “Father, school is closed today.”

 

“Oh. Is it?”

 

“It is. More importantly, I brought the assignment you gave me.”

 

“Ah. You finished it already. Let’s look it over in the lab.”

 

“Yes.”

 

They made their way to the lab, and Kousuke set to work reviewing what Luca had prepared. Something shifted in him as he read. His eyes moved through every line carefully, and the change in his expression was noticeable enough that Luca, waiting in silence across from him, felt the weight of it.

 

To occupy himself while he waited, Luca asked.

 

“Father, I haven’t seen Haku lately. Has something happened?”

 

“Hm? Haku?”

 

“Yes. Haku.”

 

Kousuke paused for a moment,

 

“Haku’s in the Tower as usual,” he said at last. “But… ah. Right.”

 

He set down the work in front of him and looked up.

 

“Lately, Haku only comes to the Management Floor when it’s absolutely necessary. The same as Nana and Wanri.”

 

Luca blinked. “What?”

 

Kousuke nodded, having expected that reaction. Luca had only started coming to the Management Floor regularly recently and it seemed like Haku’s absence had felt notable. But the original premise in Luca’s mind had been wrong.

 

“She always spent most of her time on the Tower’s lower floors,” Kousuke explained. “It’s just that she comes up to the Management Floor about once a week now.”

 

“I didn’t know that.”

 

“No, you wouldn’t have.”

 

What followed was the explanation Kousuke gave without hurrying. The Northwest Tower, which Haku managed, had always drawn more Dragon-type familiars than the others. But some years ago, after it had become clear that the Elemental Towers, including the Northwest, were no longer showing meaningful progression, Haku had made a decisive change in direction.

 

She stopped summoning Non-Dragon species entirely.

 

The familiars already present remained, but no new ones of other types were brought in. Over time, the Tower had transformed into something close to a kingdom of Dragons. More than eighty percent of its familiars now were Dragon-type. And at the top of that hierarchy was Haku, moving between floors in her true form, keeping watch over the creatures she had gathered.

 

When Kousuke had mentioned this to Riku, Riku had stared at him for a long moment before saying, flatly, “They’re trying to kill adventurers.”

 

The Northwest Tower was not open to the public though, so it was just a joke. But the observation hadn’t been wrong. If someone were to walk through the first-floor entrance without knowing what waited inside, it would be a grim experience. In terms of raw density of powerful dependents, it might rival even Amamiya Tower.

 

Even so, neither Kousuke nor Haku had found an answer to the question that kept surfacing: why wasn’t the Tower Level increasing?

 

“…So that’s why,” Luca said quietly, processing it. “She’s busy looking after all of them. There’s no time to come up.”

 

“That’s about it.”

 

Luca’s shoulders settled, and Kousuke smiled a little.

 

“Want to go see her now?”

 

“Huh?! N-no, that’s—”

“…Please.”

 

There had been something in his Father’s smile that he could not quite read, but the answer was still obvious. If he said no, he didn’t know when the next opportunity would come.

 

Kousuke rose from his chair and headed for the teleportation gate.