Chapter 6 - The Squirrel-Like Saintess

“Ah!”

I had never even thought about it. 

‘Miltiades has those kinds of thoughts? It’s possible, but my favorite character isn’t that kind.’

“Hmm.”

Luciana’s words made sense, but Miltiades wasn’t that kind of person. There had to be something else.

Miltiades didn’t have that sense of responsibility. 

‘Maybe he doesn’t want a family.’

He hated dealing with family and love. How was I going to solve this problem?

“There’s nothing else I can do if he rejects me like this.”

‘Does he know what I had to do to shut up the Pope and the elders?’

I was seriously thinking of going back, holding onto his clothes, and telling him that I could help him since I know everything about the future. But then, I heard a noise near the door and a servant appeared.

“Saintess, His Holiness is looking for you.”

An uncomfortable feeling filled the air. 

***    

It was a frosty day.

Miltiades remembered the first day he had arrived in the Vios Empire. He was once again spending the night unable to sleep.

‘This is so tiring.’

Someone had said that he was suffering from a curse, but his doctor had simply diagnosed him with insomnia. 

The name of his ailment didn’t matter. 

It was important to calm down his sensitive nerves. Which was why he went out on a walk.

He was holding onto his throbbing head when it happened.

Hearing a whining noise as if a small animal was caught in a trap, he walked toward the direction of the sound. 

When he got there, he saw a strange sight.

“Ack!”

A little child was struggling while holding onto a window curtain.

‘Why is there a child here? Is it a training apprentice for a priest?’ 

Miltiades suddenly became interested and stared at the child. The child let go of the curtain she was holding onto.

“AAH!”

She was screaming too loudly for someone trying to run away.

Maybe he was half amused. Maybe it was an impulse. Maybe it was because the pain he was feeling disappeared when he found the child. Whatever the reason was, he saved the child. The child curled up in his arms.

‘She looks like a squirrel.’

The little kid opened her eyes, thinking she had fallen. Miltiades had never seen such clean, red eyes before.

“Oh, thank you!”

He placed the child on the ground, and she bowed to him.

Miltiades thought the child was scared when she found out who he was. He was used to it. Yet, when he saw the child he saved act like this, he felt saddened. However, he soon realized that he was mistaken.

“Miltiades!”

The child shook in excitement after fearlessly calling his name.

“Who are you?”

Was he amazed at the arrogant behavior of the child who didn’t run away after recognizing him?

“I asked you who you are.”

The trembling child didn’t answer him.

Miltiades thought that the child was going to beg for forgiveness after realizing who he was, but…

“Daddy!”

A word he didn’t imagine came out of the child’s mouth. 

It was the first time he had been so panicked.

The warmth he felt was unfamiliar. It was a suffocating warmth.

The warmth was as unfamiliar as the happy child in front of him. 

The fact that he wasn’t rejecting the feeling was unfamiliar too.

“…Who are you calling your dad?”

“Hehe. Daddy!”

It didn’t make sense. The child was so shameless that Miltiades had to seriously think about whether she was his actual child.

The child, who held on even though Miltiades was trying to let go, suddenly played her trump card.

“Daddy, wait for me. I’ll take you away!”

‘Take who away? Me?’

The smiling child went inside the room with a shout. 

Miltiades was unaware at the time how those words would come true later. 

***    

‘That’s what happened.’

How could he have predicted that a saintess would choose him as her father?

Miltiades woke up from his thoughts and looked at the twelve elders and Pope Raphael, who were sitting across the huge table.

Sitting next to Raphael was a timid little child.

‘Arrogant little thing.’

Before, she was laughing and brightly talking, but now she was just sitting there and avoiding him. 

“So, Emperor Miltiades.”

One of the elders opened his mouth.

“We heard that you told the saintess herself that you did not have the qualifications to be her guardian,” Elder Roquel’s solemn voice rang out in the hall. “Is this true?”

The tearful child looked at Miltiades when another elder suddenly raised his voice. 

“We should have chosen a different person to be the saintess’s guardian from the beginning!”