Chapter 8: Let’s Witness the Fight Between a parent and Child, Part 6
「Huh?」
「What’s wrong, Sofia?」
Bored and without anything to do, Lilu asked Sofia who made a strange noise just now.
Contrary to Aur who had a hard time against the traps, the air here was nice and relaxed.
「Daddy’s gone.」
As she said that, several images popped up in the air in front of her. That was the scenery that Sofia surveyed. She saw everything that happened within the Dungeon. It displayed various rooms and passages, but Aur was nowhere to be seen.
「Maybe he got overwhelmed and fled from the dungeon to rethink his strategy?」
「It must be something like that.」
「That’s probably what’s going on right now, yes.」
Both Sakuya and Lilu tilted their heads as they awaited Tena to foretell what Aur was doing right now.
She nodded shortly and activated her power.
Misha was watching them with her arms folded comfortably on her chest, Yutsu appeared to be deeply in thought, and Tatsuki just munched on a third bowl of lunch today.
Yunis sat next to Hoderi, who was holding his head and smiled brightly.
[But that was Lilu’s cooking! I simply had to eat it!] [Yeah yeah. That makes me happy, but you’re still a fool.]
Lilu was both happy and amazed at her friend, and bonked her lightly on the head with her fist for her stupidity.
Behind them, Tatsuki was nodding fiercely as she consumed another bowl of food.
Mari said so to Sofia, who was deeply troubled.
At the exact moment that Mari said that.
The ceiling exploded and pieces of rubble flew towards everyone on the ground.
Three people responded to that with lightning quick reflexes.
Yunis flew in her Spirit form, slashing away at the debris.
Sakuya waved her fan and destroy the pieces of rock that retained its shape.
And Tatsuki, while still munching on her food, slashed with her tail, creating a vortex of water that blew all the remaining rubble to the sides of the room.
Sofia’s body had not even a scratch on it.
Aur jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, lifted Sofia up and hugged her, much to her surprise.
Aur looked over everyone without letting go of his daughter.
Nodding to Lilu’s words, he let Sofia down after a while.
Sofia answered Aur’s question with another question.
Aur took a deep breath and began his explanation.
Magma that flowed through the mountain was like a liquefied dragon vein, a mass of pure magical power. Thanks to that he could use as much magical power as he wanted, which made the task of creating another smaller Dungeon within this one rather easy.
Aur nodded at Lilu’s words.
Aur’s sermon was interrupted by Sofia, who made a face as if she was about to cry.
All this time she was clinging onto his robes around his navel, so she didn’t even looked at him as he was lecturing her. Way to ruin an impression.
Aaaaaaand there you go, he made her cry. I hope he’s proud of himself.
Aur only blinks his eyes, dumbfounded.
He thought she was mad at him for neglecting her and Mari. That she was jealous about him being with other girls.
His every assumption completely missed the mark. She was jealous, that much was true, but of his skills as a Dungeon Master!
Aur looked at others for help, but everyone just turned their eyes awkwardly or they pretended that they didn’t see anything.
Because they knew that to him, Dungeons were the most important thing in the world. But not as a subject of his obsession.
To Aur, Dungeon was like a wall, a foundation of his home that protected everyone he held dear. Its value was only as high as the number of people it could protect within its walls.
But that kind of reasoning would not pass with Sofia, because she is the Dungeon itself.
Aur’s Dungeon could never protect someone like her.
He could’ve lied that she was more important to him.To him, a cunning old sorcerer, deceiving a little child was the easiest thing to do in the world.
But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, so instead he got on one knee so that his line of sight could match Sofia’s and looked into her teary eyes.
Aur nodded at his daughter, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat.
Sofia nodded to show that she understood him.
As he stroked her head, she calmed down completely and shown her usual, brilliant smile.
It was a tiresome and bizarre, but fun experience.
It can even be said that she bested him as an adventurer.
Sofia is the Dungeon incarnate, of course she’d know what was going on inside of it.
Persuading her not to peek anymore took another hour or so of steady psychological manipulation and all of his persuasive skills.