Chapter 1435 (1/2)
“Mommy!” Delilah spread her arms and dashed directly forward toward Annie as though she was drawn with a magnet.
Annie kept the smile on her face serene while glancing sideways toward Dozer with an ‘I told you so’ look. This kind smile was a far cry from her true feelings; in her mind, she was kekeke-ing like a malicious witch who finally lured her target to willingly hop into the cauldron of boiling water. Heh, as expected, she comes out of the Dungeon completely filled with fondness for her mother. Ah… my cute daughter has finally returned to me…
Feeling very generous, Annie glided forward and swept Delilah up into a hug. As she spoke to her daughter, Annie rubbed her cheek against the top of her head. “I’ve missed you, honey. How was the Dungeon? How long were you in there for?”
Dozer rolled his eyes and stood to the side to keep other people from interfering with the reunion. The small family was standing below Kharon away from the Orchard, but almost the entirety of the area around the Wandering City was now thick with hastily set up housing and restaurants to handle the excess population that had come for the tournament. Even the expansive Orchard was unable to handle this many visitors at once.
Luckily, the Orchard itself had been expanding pretty constantly over the past several years and had a lot of experience with throwing up new buildings on short notice. In the seven days since Kharon had settled down next to the Orchard, they had already completed the sewer and electric system in the area and were now constructing buildings in earnest. Apparently, they intended to create a new suburb in this area with all the manpower that they had access to right now.
As it was, the reunion was forced to take place in a rather loud area, beset on all sides by people sparing them glances as they hurried about their business of either training or seeking lodging or constructing the lodging. But seeing the genuine emotion on her daughter’s face, Annie didn’t care at all about the scene around them. Ahh…. yes, truly, Randidly Ghosthound has no idea of the favor he did for me. It felt like only a few days to me, but my disobedient daughter is now wagging her tail so joyously in my arms…!
For a few seconds, Delilah buried her head into Annie’s shoulder and ignored her mother’s questions. But then Delilah slowly seemed to relax and pull back. “...the Dungeon was okay. It was a couple of months, I didn’t really keep track. But mommy… am I… weak…?”
Immediately, Annie’s eyes gleamed. But outwardly, she made a great show of releasing a grand sigh and shaking her head. Annie was definitely a mother who could empathize with her daughter’s plight. “Well… weakness is always relative sweetie. You are strong for your age…. But there are a lot of people in the world. Some of them are even as strong as your parents. That’s why training is so important.”
Delilah even began to tear up. “...yeah. I’m sorry I ran away so much. I’m sorry I skipped out on training so often. But I…”
“Hush. It’s all forgiven.” Annie squeezed her daughter tightly. Even the fickle and pessimistic Annie couldn’t help but be swayed by the straightforward nature of her daughter. Her knuckles went white from how hard she wanted to grip her daughter to protect her, but she kept her grip within normal bounds. Since Randidly had so generously taught their daughter how powerful the dangers in this world was, all Annie needed to do now was play the concerned parent. “Daddy and mommy are here.”
Dozer, hearing his cue, reached out and used his broad hand to gently pat Delilah’s back. Annie was slightly miffed that they hadn’t thought to bring a camera to immortalize this harmonious moment when Delilah spoke again and shattered Annie’s rosy sense of satisfaction.
“Also… is it possible that I’m in love? Isn’t love an adult thing?”
“...eh?” Annie blinked. Strangely, her lips were abruptly dry. “Wait, what did you just say?!?”
Delilah was still held in Annie’s arm, but it was difficult for Annie to see her daughter’s face as she was frowning down at Annie’s shoulder. “Love. Like mommy-daddy stuff. A boy I met in the Dungeon said that I was in love with him but I would need to wait until I’m older to marry. So how do I know if I’m in love with him?”
“He said…” Annie felt like breathing out fire. She shot Dozer a glance to warn him not to stop her from hunting this boy down, but as soon as she saw the set of Dozer’s eyes Annie immediately felt the aggression drain out of her body. And again, that inner version of Annie began to laugh maniacally. Hehehe… this husband of mine might be very stoic normally, but he does have quite the temper when the mood strikes him… Ah, this is the wild man that I fell for…
The corners of Dozer’s mouth were very tight as he took the initiative to answer Delilah’s question. “...if you don’t know if you love him, you don’t. Love is a big thing, but mostly it’s being sure. Now, this boy-”
“But doesn’t mommy talk about how long you pursued her before she said yes?” Delilah insisted. “So she didn’t love you immediately? So maybe I just don’t know yet. How can I be sure I won’t love him someday?”
Dozer’s expression tightened further. “If it happens, it will happen. What is this boy’s name?”
“His name’s Annon,” Delilah replied without much thought. Then her face pinched, as though the key to concentration was simply pressing her features more closely together. “Are there Skills for love too? Maybe I should learn some...”
Dozer turned and walked away without saying anything. Annie had to release a bit of her image power as a White Hunter in order to screen Delilah from the ominous cracking sounds that Dozer released as he moved. The two-and-a-half meter tall man moved silently, but Annie could see the veins on Dozer’s neck pulsing with his heartbeat.
Annie batted her eyelashes at Dozer’s back. Break some bones for me, my lovely prince.
*****
Tatiana stepped off the small platform onto the island and raised her voice. “Randidly? Are you prepared?”
Her voice clearly echoed through the misted areas of the Ghosthound’s island. Not that she needed to speak for him to sense her, but undoubtedly Randidly was tied up in some sort of training from which he would need to be disentangled. But to her surprise, the only noise that Tatiana heard in response to her call was the sounds of hammering and shouts from where the Ghosthound’s residence was being erected. Despite her words, Randidly Ghosthound didn’t respond at all.
The mist spirits circled around Tatiana cheerfully, doing a lot to alleviate the feeling of awkwardness in her heart. Is Randidly not here…?
Shaking her head, Tatiana followed her intuition and began to walk across the island. Although the information she received from the Skill wasn’t exact, it was more than enough to track Randidly down on the small island. He was definitely present. She walked for a few minutes and soon came to an area where the perpetual silver mist was thinning; it seemed Randidly was currently sitting in the sun.