Chapter 158: Persuasion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 158: Persuasion
After leaving the Imperial Palace’s basement, Yohan was guided out of the Imperial grounds by a maid. He immediately turned to the companions who had followed him.
“I have somewhere to be now… what are you two going to do?”
“I have to follow you… She might not know, but I came along to be your escort.”
“—As for me, I have something I need to do.”
Makina had told her that after several decades away, the witches’ help was no longer needed—so Adelheid figured she could just retire.
If she retired, she could probably receive the salary she hadn't been paid for decades, as well as her pension.
And if she didn't get paid? Impossible. Makina wasn't foolish enough to make an enemy of her just to save what amounted to pocket change for the entire nation.
“I’ll come find you when I’m done. See you then.”
After sending Adelheid off into the distance, Yohan, now alone with Hekaterina, began to loiter near the entrance of the Imperial Palace.
Hekaterina was wondering what on earth the man was doing when she saw a woman appear a short while later and nodded in understanding.
“—Have you been waiting?”
“No, we just got out too.”
Looking at Aris, who had changed into civilian clothes, Yohan gulped. She was a spitting image of the Elesis he had known.
Though he wasn't certain she was his granddaughter, he could tell with certainty that she was Elesis's granddaughter. Yohan nodded quietly and let her lead the way.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes.”
Yohan pressed a hand to his chest, which had begun to feel tight with nervousness, and followed Aris toward the city center.
To the place where his daughter, decades older than himself, now lived.
-
The Imperial Capital.
Except for the fact that no one held a smartphone, the city was surprisingly similar to the Earth Yohan had lived on.
People in neat suits walked briskly, heading somewhere, and some of them cast blatant stares at Hekaterina and Aris.
If Yohan hadn't been standing between them, some men would have surely tried to hit on the two of them.
Feeling a pang of nostalgia, Yohan let the corners of his mouth lift slightly as Aris led him to a building in the heart of the city.
“It’s here.”
“She lives in a nice place.”
“My grandmother was rich. What was it called? A founding contributor to the nation?”
Elesis had a history of defeating the monsters that tried to destroy the world alongside Yohan and the witches.
Not only that, but she had also been a saintess of the battlefield who stabilized the psychologically distressed and spread her religion.
The reason she could live so well-respected, instead of being persecuted, was likely thanks to Makina, who had judged it to be the more rational course of action.
‘Something’s different…’
He had expected the rational, machine-like Makina to rule with blood-and-iron politics, devoid of all emotion, but the reality was different.
A superhuman who could judge even her own desires as irrational and restrain them was, in fact, perfectly suited for domestic governance.
Wasn't she the madwoman who had filled her court with her own clones to prevent other power-hungry figures from emerging? There was no way she would needlessly impoverish the country.
‘No, maybe that’s not it.’
If there was a machine she wanted to build, she would probably try to make it even if it meant ruining the country. The only reason she didn't was likely because there were more machines she could build by running the country moderately well than by destroying it.
She wasn't a human who lived day by day, or year by year—she was a witch who felt that even hundreds or thousands of years was a short time.
“—We’re here. This is our home.”
“Ah…”
Arriving at a large building, Aris walked inside without a second thought. Yohan casually passed the security guards in the first-floor lobby and got on an elevator.
It felt like being in a luxurious American hotel from the 1980s or 90s.
Ding! The elevator stopped, and Aris stepped out with Yohan. Although the building was needlessly spacious, this floor contained only four rooms.
“I wonder if Mom’s home…”
Click. Aris opened the door, sniffed the air inside, and immediately turned back to Yohan with a bright smile.
“That’s a relief. I think Mom’s home.”
“You can tell by the smell?”
“Because this is the smell of my mom’s cooking.”
With that, Aris had Yohan wait at the entrance while she went inside to talk with her mother.
From inside, he could hear a woman's voice. It sounded like a slightly older version of Elesis. The granddaughter’s voice hadn’t resembled hers at all.
“She says you can come in.”
Having spoken with her mother and gotten permission, Aris beckoned Yohan inside. Yohan swapped his shoes for a pair of indoor slippers and stepped in.
A sweet scent he vaguely recognized wafted from within. Yohan realized it was the soup that Elesis used to love.
“—Welcome. I heard you have some business with me?”
Aris’s mother. Elesis’s daughter. In other words—his own daughter asked him this.
Yohan stared blankly at the face of his daughter, who looked older than him, before whispering to Aris.
“…You didn’t tell her?”
“That you might be my grandfather? How could I…?”
“Right. Well, I’ll tell her myself then.”
Not that she would believe him easily just because he said it… Yohan’s lips parted as he looked at his daughter.
She was a fifty-fifty mix of Elesis and himself. It was a relief she took more after her mother. To be honest, he had never been particularly handsome.
Elesis, on the other hand, had been so beautiful that he had mistaken her for a noble lady when they first met.
Ahem. He cleared his throat and looked at his daughter. She tilted her head, her expression puzzled.
“So… your name is?”
“It’s Elis. Didn’t you have business with me?”
“—To be precise, my business isn’t with you, but with Elesis.”
Hearing Yohan’s words, Elis’s face filled with incomprehension. What business could this young man possibly have with her mother, who had died long ago?
And even if he did, how dare he speak so informally of her mother, who was much his senior? If her daughter hadn't brought him here, she would have already yelled at him and thrown him out.
“…What business do you have with my mother?”
“Ah, um. Well… I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but…”
I am your father.
Yohan carefully let the words out.
Hearing him, Elis blinked, unable to understand.
“What did you say…?”
“I said I’m your dad.”
“…To suddenly play a prank like this, there’s a line even for jokes. Aris, I’m disappointed. To think you’d bring someone like this home—”
As expected, Elis immediately flew into a rage. It made sense. If some guy who looked the same age as her own daughter claimed to be the father she hadn't seen a trace of in decades, it wouldn't be strange if she started cursing him out.
In a bind, Yohan shot Aris a look, pleading for help. Aris let out a sigh before trying to calm her mother down.
“Mom, calm down. It’s probably true.”
“Aris, you too?! Dad? You know very well your mother doesn't have a father! It would be absurd even if he showed up after decades, but for a young brat like this to claim he's my dad—”
“Hey, can you stop your yapping?”
Just then, Hekaterina, who had come in with Yohan and had been looking around the house, made her appearance.
Hearing Hekaterina’s sudden, informal interruption, Elis could no longer hold back. She grabbed some cooking utensils from the kitchen that could serve as weapons and stepped forward.
“Why you little brats—”
“What, you gonna smack me with that?”
With a smirk, Hekaterina instantly transformed into a monster. Seeing the little girl before her turn into a beast, Elis let out a strangled groan before fainting with a final gasp.
“Mom!”
Aris caught her mother as she fell, checked her condition, and then lifted her into her arms.
“…She fainted.”
“Haaah…”
“I’ll take her to her bed and be right back.”
As he watched Aris leave with Elis, Yohan shot a fierce glare at Hekaterina, who had made his daughter faint.
But Hekaterina just stared back defiantly and scoffed.
“What? You got a problem?”
“…Go easier next time.”
“Depends on how they act.”
Yohan’s hands trembled at Hekaterina’s words, but realizing he couldn't harm her here, he swallowed his anger.
She hadn't made his daughter faint for no reason. She knew he couldn't hurt her in front of his daughter and granddaughter—it was Hekaterina’s teasing brat nature coming out to play.
‘Just you wait until we get back.’
With that vow, Yohan thought of his unconscious daughter and wondered how he could possibly persuade her.
Honestly, it wasn't going to be easy.