My Other Daughter
I watched as my daughter Maribella and the nameless girl faced off, and immediately noticed the strangeness about the girl. Her eyes were a pale ivory, so close to white that they were clearly distinguishable from the sclera. The inner layers of her hair were pure white. It was a face both familiar and alien. Yet something about her eyes, her build, and the way she carried herself felt deeply known to me. The girl resembled Baek Seolah.
While I kept my mouth shut, wondering if my suspicion could possibly be true, Maribella stood with her arms crossed, looking down at the girl.
Maribella sneered as she looked down at the girl.
The girl was shorter than Maribella by about ten centimeters. Slightly taller than average, but still quite small compared to me. A perfectly ordinary height. Because of that, she had to look up at Maribella. Yet even while doing so, there wasn’t the slightest hint of fear in her posture.
Considering the status vampires held in this world, that was impossible. Just seeing how the orcs had tensed up when Maribella threatened them was proof enough. A vampire within arm’s reach was nothing short of a nightmare. Even I had only been able to defeat a knight of the Blood Clan thanks to the unique traits I possessed. It was not something an ordinary girl could handle.
That much was certain. And yet—
The girl laughed mockingly and placed a hand on her hip.
A crackling tension filled the air, as if something electric were racing through it. The girl’s hair began to float on its own, and an indescribable energy flowed across her body. It was the same faint sensation I felt whenever someone used mystic arts, divine power, or magic. Only this time, the overwhelming output made my skin prickle.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt it.
The girl looked her up and down and pointed.
A sharp whoosh cut through the air. The sound of a hand slicing through space as it swung forward. Maribella’s physical abilities far surpassed my own, so even though I had read the preliminary movement, I couldn’t block it in time. My outstretched hand failed to stop hers, and a terrible possibility flashed through my mind.
Even if it was just a slap, if it came from Maribella—the greatest prodigy of the Blood Clan—the result would be entirely different. A fragile human body wouldn’t endure it. Her head would burst like an overripe fruit in a single strike.
That was why I had tried to stop it. But I couldn’t. Just as I was about to raise the lightning within me in shock—
What happened next was nothing like the tragedy I had imagined.
WHOOSH!
The girl had already created distance and stood straight. In the spot where she had been moments before, some kind of shimmering energy lingered. It was a type of magic. I wasn’t particularly skilled with magic, but I understood. Acceleration? Or spatial distortion? My curiosity stirred, but there was no time to investigate.
I grabbed Maribella’s arm.
“Maribella, calm down. You’re not usually like this… why are you—”
“Maribella Malefis!”
Maribella flinched, her shoulders stiffening, but she glared at me with narrowed eyes. Her lips were pressed tight in anger, and the fangs peeking between them were slightly stained with blood.
The girl continued to provoke Maribella. I stepped between my two daughters in a panic, hoping to stop things from getting any worse.
“Wait, wait. Don’t fight. We didn’t come here to fight. This isn’t like you at all.”
Maribella’s eyes twitched. Even with her arm caught by me, her heart wasn’t racing. Instead, her pupils narrowed as she entered a combat stance, and her pulse grew eerily calm.
I really didn’t know. Still, I couldn’t just nod along.
“I know you’re not the kind of child who acts like this. So please, calm down.”
Maribella had been the one to start throwing harsh words. But taking the other girl’s side would be a mistake. I looked at my other daughter—Eunha—who was staring at Maribella with clear discomfort, and spoke.
“Yes, I am Ha Jinwoo. And you are…?”
Her expression changed instantly. My other daughter broke into a bright, radiant smile.
The girl smiled bashfully. If I had to compare her, she reminded me of the Winter Mystic I had once adventured with. Bright, kind, and feminine. That was the impression she gave.
Eunha approached shyly. I felt the muscles in Maribella’s arm tense beneath my grip, but since I was standing between them, I believed she wouldn’t do anything reckless. After all, Eunha had countered her earlier. Still, I couldn’t let my guard down. I watched her carefully as she stopped right in front of me.
The girl looked up at me with nervous eyes. Her facial features, the shape of her eyes, and her straight hair that differed from mine all felt familiar. She looked astonishingly like Seolah.
“…Yes. You resemble Seolah.”
There was no way I could deny it under the circumstances. At that, Eunha let out a sigh of relief.
The girl smiled. She glanced at me cautiously before continuing.
She trailed off, seemingly a little embarrassed, but I understood what she meant. Unlike Maribella, who had been created through medieval methods, this was proper artificial insemination. I wondered if this was the work of the Scientist, Tilia. My emotions grew complicated.
Baek Seolah had been my first love. I had truly loved her. I had never conveyed my feelings, nor had I heard her answer. Even so, the thought that this girl was a child between Seolah and me couldn’t help but stir something deep inside me.
“For now, shall we move somewhere more comfortable?”
I accepted my daughter’s suggestion.
*
After the orc mage who had been acting as our guide left to fetch Tilia, we exited the library and entered a building along the straight path, eventually arriving at a café. It was a genuine café. Unlike the café buildings I had seen so far that were being used as taverns, this one was the real deal.
“…It’s real coffee.”
“Ah, yes. It’s one of the things my master restored. The beans were grown in a hydroponic facility and roasted by hand.”
What sat before me was real coffee. It had been so long since I last tasted it—having been unable to find real coffee beans—that I couldn’t help but marvel at the aroma and the bitter flavor. The coffee meticulously prepared by the barista android carried the unmistakable taste of a time when civilization had still existed. It was almost moving.
As I reflected on the fact that the traces of civilization hadn’t completely vanished, Eunha sat so close beside me that our knees touched. On the opposite side, Maribella glared at us with sharp, axe-like eyes. But as long as they weren’t fighting, it was fine.
“That would be appreciated.”
I widened my eyes for a moment at the sudden use of “Papa,” but Eunha continued.
When my gaze turned to her, my daughter looked at me and smiled sweetly.
Was that how it had been? My memories were hazy. I had simply struggled to survive day by day, doing everything I could just to keep living.
At Maribella’s blunt remark, Eunha’s eyes narrowed halfway as she turned toward her. Then a small “Ah” escaped her lips.
Eunha covered her mouth in an exaggerated show of surprise, then grabbed the sleeve of my coat.
“Of course you can. Call me whatever feels comfortable.”
Maribella cut off Eunha, who had been smiling brightly. My daughter hadn’t touched her coffee at all and simply glared. I could see the vertical pupils in her red eyes contracting.
They were fighting again. I felt a headache coming on and glanced at Vertea. The halfling was happily sipping her coffee. My loyal servant, this tiny woman who claimed to be my faithful subordinate, blinked twice when she met my gaze.
All eyes turned to her, but Vertea didn’t flinch.
Unbelievable. I clutched my throbbing head. Thanks to Vertea’s absurd remark, the two girls stopped arguing and turned to look at me. Even the fully automated parenting method I had thought was perfect had its weaknesses. The sibling relationship was far from ideal.
With no other choice, I sighed and changed the subject.
“So, what happened?”
“Pardon?”
“I’d like to hear how you ended up here.”
I had expected as much. After I killed most of the military’s high-ranking officers, the political power structure had completely collapsed. It would have been impossible to allocate resources to a mere research lab. Just as I thought.
The Scientist, Tilia. When I nodded, my daughter smiled.
Suddenly, something she had said earlier came to mind. The criteria by which the Scientist chose her disciples—aptitude for mystic arts and learning ability.
“Were you a fast learner?”
What talent had I passed down? I blinked, and Eunha smiled, her eyes curving beautifully.
My eyes widened. Although the emphasis she placed on “sister” bothered me a little, the fact that even the Scientist Tilia knew that Ha Jinwoo was the Incarnation of Darkness—and that Eunha knew it too—meant something significant.
I had never possessed such talent, yet I could only nod quietly. It was true that Darkness favored me. I didn’t know what that had to do with magic, though.
“There’s nothing like that. Just by looking at your eyes and facial features… I can tell.”
The eye shape that resembled Maribella’s, the features that looked like they would be similar to mine if I looked in a mirror, and the facial structure that reminded me of Seolah.
“You are indeed my daughter.”
Ha Eunha was my daughter. The sense of déjà vu I had felt while looking at Maribella was even stronger when I looked at Eunha. Although Maribella frowned and sharply turned her head away in displeasure at my words, Eunha beamed with joy.
My shy daughter asked. I nodded and opened my arms. Eunha hurriedly threw herself into my embrace. The scent of old books tickled my nose, along with a faint trace of ink and the soft fragrance of flowers. As I patted her back, I could feel her heart pounding rapidly. Still in my arms, she climbed onto my lap, buried her face in my chest, and spoke.
“Of course.”
My daughter clung tightly to me as if she wanted to melt into my chest. Unlike Maribella, she was incredibly affectionate. Maribella’s expression, on the other hand, looked like it was rotting away. Still, I couldn’t treat this daughter—who was being so sweet to me on our first meeting—coldly.
As I listened to her sweet whispers, Eunha rubbed her face against my chest.
“And?”
When she said things like that, how could I possibly treat her coldly? I could sense Maribella’s irritated glare through my micro-current, but for a while, I simply indulged my daughter’s affection. At least until the Scientist came to find us.