Cid's vision went dark, then bright again. By the time he came back to his senses, he had already appeared in the Island Guard's main hall, with Asia and the two Infinite Dragon Gods beside him.
"Cid-san!"
"Cid?"
"Daddy..."
The first two were normal enough, but the moment Ophis Beta called him "Daddy," the atmosphere around them suddenly turned strange.
Everyone who heard it instinctively looked toward Ophis No. 2. When they saw that Cid, who had just been called that by a little girl who looked, at most, in her early teens, was himself only a teenager at most, their expressions changed. With looks of disgust, they hurried away.
"Being looked at like that is definitely not mob-character material. Oh well..."
Cid, standing at the center of that atmosphere, muttered a complaint, but did not really take it to heart. It was only a few people, after all. Compared to the two heavyweights in front of him, they were nothing.
Of course, thinking that was one thing, but if he left this alone, it would absolutely turn into a huge problem. So Cid walked over to Ophis Beta, crouched down in front of her, and placed both hands on her cheeks, squishing them so that Ophis Beta, whose beautiful eyes she had inherited from her mother, had to look straight at him.
"Now then, Ophis Beta, let's discuss something..."
Cid spoke softly. His attitude toward this cheap daughter of his was that if persuasion failed, he would simply use force. But when it came to actually beating up a little girl who had not even been born for an hour yet, he still found it a bit hard to do, so he would try talking first.
"What is it, Daddy?"
Even with her face being squeezed into a round bun shape by Cid, Ophis Beta's indifferent emotions, inherited exactly from Ophis, made her not care at all about Cid's little actions. She only spoke in a dazed, adorable way.
"It's nothing major. I just hope that from now on, when we're in front of other people, you don't call me Daddy. I suggest calling me by name instead. Cid or Kagenou is fine."
Cid felt that he had made it simple enough. Even Asia, who was speechless beside them, understood what he meant. Unfortunately...
"Daddy doesn't want me anymore?"
"Smack!"
Cid slapped a hand over his forehead. He knew it. Communicating with this kind of mentally unhinged person was far too difficult. Ophis Beta had completely inherited Ophis's magical thought process.
"I didn't say I don't want you. But Ophis Beta, have you ever considered that I'm actually not your father at all, so you shouldn't..."
Thin wisps of black Magical Power began drifting out of Ophis Beta's body. The highlights vanished from her purple eyes, and dangerous glimmers flickered within them.
"...Ophis Beta, don't make trouble. A daughter should listen to her father."
"Okay, Daddy."
After receiving the order, the Magical Power radiating from Ophis Beta instantly disappeared. She nodded very obediently, with no trace left of the way she had almost lost control just now.
Fortunately, because Ophis Beta's shocking words had already driven away everyone nearby, the situation did not cause much commotion or damage. As a result, no one noticed that Cid had just saved everyone inside the Island Guard.
This is troublesome...
Cid knew that he had now encountered the hardest kind of person in the world to deal with: someone who talked entirely to herself, had no idea what the other person was thinking, and automatically latched onto keywords like a lunatic.
Logically speaking, the only way to deal with someone like that was to use absolute power, pin them to the ground, and beat some correction into them with his fists. But beating up a loli in public was still something Cid could not bring himself to do. At the very least, it would have to be in an alley where no one could see.
Fortunately, it was not as if he had no other options. After all, he often used this kind of state himself, and after doing it for so long, he had gained experience...
"Ophis-chan, you manage Ophis Beta."
"Cid, I manage her?"
Perhaps she had not expected to be called, but Ophis, who had been crouching on the ground doing something unknown, stood up. She looked at Cid with her usual expressionless face, pointed a finger at herself, then looked toward Ophis Beta. There was a faint hint of confusion on her face.
"That's right, you manage her. She's your daughter. You don't want your relationship to get bad and have her refuse to help you deal with Great Red in the end, right?"
"...Oh."
As the saying goes, no one knows a daughter better than her mother, and the person who tied the bell is the one who must untie it. Not to mention, Ophis Beta was a daughter who had been born less than an hour ago and whose memories mostly came from Ophis herself.
Ophis had the same way of thinking as Ophis Beta, and was even better at it. She would definitely be able to persuade Ophis Beta. This is my way of dealing with lunatics like this. Hahaha!
"Cid..."
"Mm?"
Just as Cid was secretly feeling smug, he felt a tug on the corner of his clothes. Ophis's voice reached his ears. When he looked down, he saw Ophis looking up at him, clear confusion visible on her face.
"How do I manage a daughter?"
She spoke haltingly. Although she had only just acknowledged the other girl as her cheap daughter, and although she herself had lived for thousands of years, if one asked Ophis to manage a daughter... sorry, she truly had no idea what to do. She had no experience at all.
"Well, for now, no matter what, just make her stop calling me Daddy."
Cid lowered his head and whispered beside Ophis's ear, especially lowering his voice near the end to avoid making Ophis Beta lose control again.
At the same time, Cid kept his eyes firmly on Ophis Beta, confirming that Ophis Beta was only tilting her head and watching them with her expressionless face, as if wondering what they were talking about without her.
"Why can't she call you that?"
Just as Cid thought everything was settled, Ophis's confused voice sounded. She seemed not to understand why Cid was doing this.
"Because it's troublesome."
"Why is it troublesome?"
"Because it'll attract other people's attention."
"Why is attracting other people's attention troublesome?"
"Huh?"
Cid froze for a moment, not quite understanding. Was what he said really that hard to understand?
"...Why care about them?"
Perhaps realizing that Cid did not understand what she meant, Ophis changed the way she asked and questioned him again.
What was there to care about in the gazes of insects?
Although her strength was only half of what it had been, Ophis still had the right to say that, because even now, most people in the world were no different from insects to her.
The attacks of ordinary people were, at most, like a mosquito sucking blood. If she noticed it, she would swat it dead. If she did not notice it, she would ignore it.
Although she did not really understand why Cid, whose senses felt like those of an insect, gave her the feeling of being the same kind of existence as herself, it was precisely because of that that Ophis could not understand why Cid cared about this.
By that logic, since Cid gave her the feeling of being the same kind, then Cid should also think of the others as insects. So why should a person care about insects they could casually swat to death?
"Well... this might be a little hard for you to understand, Ophis..."
"I don't understand. Cid, you clearly don't care what those people think, do you?"
Cid rubbed his chin and was just about to come up with something to fool Ophis with, but Ophis suddenly interrupted him and asked a question that left him silent.
"Why do you say that, Ophis-chan? Personally, I still think I care quite a lot about the atmosphere."
After a brief silence, Cid smiled as he met Ophis's eyes, which were filled with sincere confusion.
Cid was wondering whether something had been wrong with him recently. Otherwise, why would Ophis ask something like that? But after thinking carefully, that did not seem right either. He might not notice if other people were following him, but there was no way he would not notice Ophis following him.
"Then why didn't Cid kill them?"
"Eh? Kill them?"
"Mm. The people from just now."
Ophis nodded blankly and pointed at the corridor. There was no doubt that she meant the people who had heard Ophis Beta call Cid "Daddy" earlier.
If he truly cared, then once he noticed the trouble, he should have acted immediately instead of ignoring it after the trouble appeared. This kind of selective trouble was simply like entertaining himself in his own little world. It depended entirely on Cid's mood.
"You can't do that, Ophis-chan. You're clearly so cute, so how can you talk about killing people so casually?"
Cid said it with a teasing smile, then chuckled and shook his head, amused that he had actually thought Ophis might have seen through his flaw. He even crouched down and rubbed Ophis's cheeks with both hands.
Besides... if I followed that logic, then I should kill you right now, Ophis. You're the Infinite Dragon God, the focus of the world, someone who could attract other people's attention at any moment, yet you're staying by my side.
Feeling speechless at that thought, Cid held onto Ophis.
"All right, all right. There's no need to care so much about this. Ophis-chan, what you need to do now is manage Ophis Beta properly and stop her from calling me Daddy. At the very least, don't let her call me that in public. Can you do that?"
Cid spoke gently, trying to guide Ophis with words that would not trigger any of her keywords. Unfortunately, it was useless. Sometimes, being expressionless also meant being stubborn.
"So, Cid, why not kill those people? If you really think their opinions are troublesome, wouldn't it be easier to just kill them..."
Ophis-chan, can you please stop courting death? I'm already working very hard to find reasons not to kill you.
Cid interrupted what Ophis was about to say, sighed inwardly, and held Ophis's head so she had to look at him.
"Ophis-chan, be good. Go tell Ophis Beta not to call me Daddy anymore."
"But..."
"Ophis-chan, you don't want me to give up on helping you defeat Great Red, do you?"
"!"
Hearing that, Ophis instantly perked up and tossed the previous question to the back of her mind. Her dreamlike purple eyes seemed to shine as she stared at Cid.
"Cid agreed to help me defeat Great Red?"
Faced with Ophis's expectant voice, Cid's eyes drifted aside as he mumbled and dodged the question.
"Well, if Ophis-chan can do it, then I wouldn't mind considering joining in..."
Only considering. And he had not said he could not back out...
Unaware of Cid's inner thoughts, Ophis walked toward Ophis Beta. Although her cute face remained expressionless as always, Cid could sense that Ophis was extremely excited right now.
It's settled. This is definitely settled.
"Um... Cid-san, is this really okay?"
Just as Cid was opening champagne in his heart, Asia's uneasy voice came from beside him. Asia looked at the two little ones crouching together and talking, then spoke hesitantly.
"Don't worry, they won't fight."
Cid casually reassured Asia. He really was not worried about the two little ones fighting. Ophis had an overwhelming advantage over Ophis Beta in both experience and strength, and she was even stronger in terms of logic. As long as she did not raise any flags, victory was guaranteed.
"No, Cid-san, that isn't what I'm worried about."
To his surprise, Asia shook her head, denying Cid's guess. She simply looked back and forth between the two Ophises and Cid with a strange expression.
"Then what are you worried about?"
"...Cid-san, are you really planning to name Ophis-chan's daughter Ophis Beta?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Everything about that name is wrong!"
Asia loudly retorted, her expression extremely strange. She was genuinely worried that when Ophis Beta grew up and learned where her name came from, she might be so embarrassed that she slammed her head into a wall.
"No matter how you look at it, that isn't a name you should actually use. Cid-san, please take this seriously. She called you Daddy."
Asia spoke as if she were about to cry, trying her hardest to persuade Cid to abandon the idea of giving her that name.
"I feel like it's a pretty good name. Alpha and the others never had any objections. Do you hate your name, Ophis Beta?"
Cid scratched his chin and thought for a moment, then asked Ophis No. 2, who had already finished talking with Ophis and had been persuaded by her.
"No. I like the name Father-sama gave me very much..."
"See, Asia? Look, Ophis Beta... what did you call me?"
"Father-sama!"
Cid blinked and turned to look at Ophis, while Ophis proudly puffed out her chest, as if showing off how amazing she was.
"You were right, Asia. She really shouldn't be called Ophis Beta..."
"Mm?"
"Let's call her Lilith."
Cid made the final decision on the spot, giving Ophis and Lilith no time to object.
"No, Cid-san..."
"Cid..."
"I like this name... Thank you, Father-sama."
Lilith had no objections. Or rather, she did not care about such a small matter.
...
Inside the Island Guard office, Natsuki Minamiya sat in the chair behind her desk, staring impatiently at the sloppy middle-aged man in front of her. She chose to speak first.
"I wonder what brings the famous Fallen Angel Governor General to my Itogami Island Guard. If it isn't anything important, I'll be leaving first. The island has been a mess these past few days..."
Before she could finish speaking, Azazel interrupted her and took something out of a Magic Circle.
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