V1C2 Part2

Translated by 64990022

Chapter 2

Part 2

Sigibert left the hospital behind him. His next appointment was at the port; another Eden operation briefing.

However, as he crossed the hospital yard, a boy stepped in. He had the same jet black as his, his eye like an ink well. Sigurd Siegfried, his son.

Sigibert halted a pace before the boy, entrusting the silence to do the talking. For he could not.

Words, speech, writings, Sigibert wasn’t accustomed to any kind of communication. Silence was his perennial companion, silence did the speaking for him. In this case, he switched to a specific note of quietude.

The boy carried his shoulders high, his accusing eyes bore into Sigibert. Just like the boy’s late mother.

He sighed inwardly, dealing with the dragon’s daughter was infinitely simpler.

Numbly, his son began, “I heard you went to see Brunhild…”

“I did.”

His rebellious son did not use honorifics, but he ignored it.

“Are you going straight for the port?”

“Yes.”

Sachs had said that there was an invisible bond between parents and children. Sigibert believed him, he could not be more perplexed than with his son.

“Will she get military protection and status? A rank? Command?”

“She will.”

“Then why am I just a sergeant,” he did not demand, but his cold voice might just as well.

However, he will not yield. Sigurd’s rank was higher than it should be already. House Siegfried does not buy rank commissions, but once in a while, commanding officers promote family members on their own, hoping to curry favor. Despite Sigibert’s active disencouragement.

Sigurd started as a private and worked his way up. To the boy, the army was his everything.

But,

“Leave the army.” He scowled. “Dragonslaying is not about honor and glory as you would think.”

Sigurd stepped closer. Sigibert held back the urge to backhand him.

“I need to show you what I am made of! I am a soldier! I will prove it to you and be the next dragonslayer!”

“No matter how committed you are… Balmung, my mantle, I will not give it up, not to you.”

“‘Not to me’?” The boy quickly caught on. “Don’t tell me…Brunhild?”

“Possibly.”

“Why! She just landed here and you’d readily give her everything?!” He trembled in anger.

Sigibert failed to come up with an explanation, so he sidestepped and made for the port.

“I’m not leaving the army!” His son’s voice followed him tenaciously. “I’ll prove I’m better than her! Then you can…!”

The father pretended not to hear his son’s voice and left.

◆ ◆ ◆

Johan Sachs was a colonel in the Norveland Imperial Army.

He and Sigibert Siegfried were of the same age. But other than that, they were exact opposites. Sigibert was a man of few words, a rationalist who always takes the shortest route. For Sachs, rowdy would be an understatement for him. He was an optimist who believed that the best parts of life were the side trips.

It was a miracle both of them got along so well. Or perhaps, it was because they are opposites that they see more in each other than others could. The rationalist and the optimist naturally differed in the speed at which they rose in the ranks, but Sachs didn’t mind. In fact, he even found command bothersome.

Back to the point, Sigibert usually came to him with requests.

This was their usual occurrence. Sigibert takes the command, he does the talking. Sigbert plans an operation, Sachs talks people into it. Their talents complimented each other’s, that was why they clicked.

He would whip the new recruits into shape and correct capable but problematic soldiers. Sigibert solved problems with violence and domination. They worked fine as a stopgap solution, but far from permanent and reliable.

That’s where the amiable Sachs comes in…

“Sighhhhhh～”

As Sachs sighed loudly, the driver of the pickup truck gave him a dubious glance.

But this time, the trouble maker was of a different caliber.

She drank the dragon’s blood, the dragon’s daughter, Sigibert’s daughter, and a sixteen years old to add??

He suppressed the urge to muss up his hair. He had gone to the trouble of setting it up, he couldn’t let it go to waste. Especially with girls, first impressions were crucial. Moreover, he was old enough to be her uncle, Sachs was more concerned than ever with his cleanliness…

To distract himself, he recited the girl’s profile.

Brunhild Siefried, the girl recovered during last month’s operation. From his analysis, there were four contributing factors to the problem she presented.

First, the dragon’s blood. It was well known to the public that the blood was more potent than any poison, with a fatality rate of over ninety-nine percent. But there was also a confidential secret, the few samples of people who survived suffer from mental illness. In Sachs’ view, the girl in question was ninety-nine percent mentally deranged.

Otherwise, she would not call herself the daughter of the dragon. This self-description was the second problem. No, he wasn’t sure. I had heard of a girl who was raised by wolves. Under special circumstances, it might not be impossible to self-identify as a daughter of a non-human…?

Moreover…the third problem is that despite such a barbaric upbringing, to my surprise, her bloodline was the prestigious Siegfried family even people from continents over have heard of. She was the daughter of Sigibert. He got it that Sigibert wasn’t good at communication, but this was his own daughter.

Here comes the fourth problem. Sachs had cajoled the busy man Sigibert to remain at the capital until Brunhild recovered, and sent him as soon as word got out that she woke up.

But when Sigibert got back, he murmured in his lifeless monotone, “I can’t handle her. I can’t, I don’t want to. It itches me not to kill her.”

Oh, come on, that’s too much. She might have been separated for thirteen years, no, considering him, he probably had never met her before. But she’s your daughter, right?

Sachs couldn’t understand why he would say that, nor how he could be so cold to his own daughter. At that moment, he snapped.

Before it could get bloody, Sigibert took advantage of his sentiment and skillfully shove Brunhild to him. “ You are the one who insists we bring her back, you are the one who cared for her the most. To me, you seem to be a better father to her than I possibly could.”

—Don’t just throw her at me…

Sachs stroked his neatly trimmed beard.

He knew Sigibert Seigfried. Not just the dragonslaying hero who made Eden campaigns a reality, but the man behind the name. However, Sachs believed that Sigibert’s true strength was his insight. The frown of his had a way to see things for what they were.

He was certain Sigibert had what it took to climb to the very top of the military, with that insight of his.

“But, duhhh… Sigibert,” he grumbled, “Why did you make such a stupid choices this time around…?”

–No matter what I do, I can’t be Brunhild’s father. You’re the only one, Sigibert.

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