Ch.254Chapter 254 – Meeting the Parents (3)

“Huh?”

“I’m asking what you just said.”

“Ah, that’s… um…”

The dice had been cast, but I still felt uneasy.

I’d only asked a simple question, yet I felt so suffocated.

If this person were to truly become angry with me, I don’t even want to imagine what might happen.

“…Ah.”

As I hesitated to answer, the old gentleman suddenly raised the corner of his mouth and whispered in a friendly voice.

“Perhaps… you were making a joke?”

“……?”

“You asked what kind of dragon I am, and answered ‘human’ because I’m a drag-‘on’?”

For a moment, I was completely dumbfounded. What on earth was this person, no, this dragon talking about?

“Hahaha… A joke that was popular thousands of years ago, quite impressive.”

“It wasn’t a joke…”

“Come now, this is going too far.”

Feeling the atmosphere grow even colder, I muttered, and the old gentleman opened his mouth again, looking at me reproachfully.

“Are you seriously claiming to be a human?”

“…Yes.”

“Haha, that’s impossible. Let’s stop with the jokes now.”

I was about to nod again while watching his reaction, but the old gentleman had already ignored me and started talking.

“You’ll be busy taking over the world soon, so why waste time on silly jokes?”

“I’m not making jokes, I’m being joked with…”

“Despite my humble circumstances, I’ve specially prepared that foolish fellow tied up next to my daughter.”

I wanted to shove the truth into his head right away, but I paused when I saw he was about to explain his reasoning.

“……….”

I deliberately ignored Professor Lovecraft, who had been staring at me with a bewildered expression.

“You know what? That child may be foolish, but he has a special ability.”

“I-I’m… not foolish…”

“That fellow can summon beings from outside dimensions. Higher dimensional beings from several dimensions above our own.”

The old gentleman ignored Lovecraft’s indignant muttering and continued with a smirk.

“And that is the power I’ve been searching for over the past few thousand years.”

“…I see.”

“Yes. The reason I cast a curse on the entire world, sacrificing half my power, was to find that ability.”

“Wait, you cast a curse? You did?”

When an absolutely unmissable statement came out during the conversation, the old gentleman smiled kindly and said:

“Feel free to call me Father-in-law.”

“…Ah, um. Yes.”

“Go ahead.”

“…Father-in-law.”

Only then did the old gentleman look satisfied, and continued with a beaming face.

“Of course, it wasn’t an easy task. My power was weakened by exactly half, and in the end, I allowed someone from somewhere to launch a rather cute surprise attack.”

“…So, I’m also under the curse?”

“But what does it matter? I’ve successfully revived like this, and by chance, I’ve found someone suitable to wield extra-dimensional power!”

Lovecraft, tied up next to the professor, began to mutter with a dazed expression, but the old gentleman, whose eyes were gleaming ominously, didn’t seem to care at all.

“They say all dragons have been exterminated? Then it’s only a matter of time.”

“…….”

“If the power of other dimensions combines with our power… don’t you think it’s enough to take this world into our grasp?”

His words certainly seemed to make sense.

However, there was one thing that puzzled me.

“That’s certainly true… but isn’t that excessive just to take over this world?”

“Wahahaha! My daughter has chosen a good son-in-law, hasn’t she?”

When I probed a little, the old gentleman suddenly burst into laughter.

“Yes, it’s certainly not enough to take just this world… no, this dimension.”

“Then perhaps…?”

“I didn’t cast a curse on the entire world, sacrificing my power, for nothing.”

His next words were enough to leave everyone in the office speechless.

“I have no intention of being satisfied with merely taking over this dimension.”

“T-Then…”

“Shouldn’t we advance to more worlds, more dimensions?”

It seemed that the ultimate goal of the being before me, though it sounded absurd, was dimensional conquest.

“That… seems a bit difficult…”

“Look here, son-in-law. Being able to wield extra-dimensional power without significant penalties is truly a rare case across all dimensions.”

“How do you know that?”

To my increasingly negative question, the old gentleman answered with a chilling smile.

“When beings like me live for thousands or tens of thousands of years, we attain divine status.”

“……..”

“Peeking into other dimensions is hardly a problem.”

Good heavens. What kind of being am I facing?

[What else could it be? It’s a bug that’s hard to find even across all dimensions.]

[If left alone, it’s only a matter of time before what he said comes true.]

[We need to eliminate him somehow.]

As I quietly broke out in a cold sweat, messages appeared before my eyes in System’s most serious font yet.

[I brought you back here despite the risk of dimensional collapse, so you can do this much, right?]

Yes, the reason that being was able to revive was because I returned to this world after filling in all the plausibility and disappearing.

If I hadn’t returned, that extraordinary being probably wouldn’t have returned to London.

Even if he did, it would have been in the distant future.

So I must resolve this.

But how?

“Excuse me, I have a question.”

As I was desperately racking my brain while fingering the reversal card I received from Miss Microny in my pocket, Sharlotte’s voice suddenly came from beside me.

“For someone with such grand ambitions, why did you want children and grandchildren?”

“……?”

At her question, the old gentleman looked puzzled for a moment, then looked around.

“Ah, I apologize. You were there.”

After a moment, he noticed Sharlotte beside me, and with a smirk, he said:

“But you don’t pay much attention to mosquitoes or flies that would disappear with a wave of your hand, do you?”

“…….”

“Please understand.”

The pressure from the old gentleman was enough to make my legs go weak, even though there was no explicit threat.

“Ah, by the way, I’m late with my answer.”

“Woong?”

“Woong?”

“Well, aren’t they cute?”

Therefore, it was truly difficult to adjust to seeing such a being poking the cheeks of figures presumed to be my children with his fingers and smiling.

“And there aren’t many beings who can fully handle the superior power inherited from me, which is more superior than any other race.”

“”Kyaa~””

“Most don’t have the capacity and die as infants.”

The old gentleman, who had been tickling the giggling children’s sides, glanced at Professor Moriarty, who had been staring at me with a shocked expression, and muttered:

“Even our Jane was the first child in my life who didn’t die…”

“…Then, she must have been a very precious daughter?”

“Yes, although she was the child who stabbed my weakened heart… but don’t children always try to take their parents’ lives during puberty? Heh heh…”

At his answer, I began to wonder what kind of social structure dragons had.

“Oh my, what shall we do?”

Suddenly, Sharlotte’s voice, tinged with laughter, echoed through the office.

“Those children, unfortunately from your perspective, have mixed blood with the ‘inferior human race’.”

“What do you mean?”

As the old gentleman asked with a displeased expression, I decided to clarify the facts once more.

“Well, I’ve been saying all along…”

“You…”

“That I’m human.”

And then came the silence.

“…Jokes are only funny when they’re in moderation.”

After staring at me with a blank expression for a moment in that silence, the old gentleman began to mutter with a cold expression for the first time.

“Don’t you think you’re crossing the line?”

At his voice, I felt my heart and all my organs freeze, making me tremble.

“Then why don’t you check for yourself?”

Nevertheless, I gritted my teeth and said so.

“Haah…”

At those words, the old gentleman sighed as if annoyed and flashed his eyes for a moment.

“…….?”

Then, he began to stare at me with wide eyes.

– Creeak…!

And suddenly, the old gentleman stood up from his seat.

– Thud, thud…

As he approached me with a pale face, I tried to maintain a calm expression despite breaking out in a cold sweat.

“……..”

When he stood right in front of me and looked down with dark eyes, I could no longer maintain my composure.

“You…”

How much time had passed like that?

“What are you?”

The old gentleman’s angry voice echoed through the silent office again.

“Your scent is too faint to be human, but something is strange for you not to be human.”

“…….”

“If this is a prank done through polymorphism, stop here. I’ll show you my last patience for my daughter’s sake…”

I felt like I might faint at his murderous question, but I had to continue the conversation nonetheless.

“…Ah, actually, I was once a Demon.”

“What?”

“And I was also a True Vampire.”

One moment of vulnerability. That was enough.

“And now I’ve lost my power, so I’m human.”

If I could create just one moment of vulnerability in that extraordinary being.

“So those children are… in other words……”

I’d be willing to stake my life on it.

“…..Demon, Vampire, Human, and Dragon hybrids.”

“……….”

“Hehe.”

With that thought, I delivered the final line that would make the old gentleman’s eyes turn white, putting as much force into it as possible.

“”……….””

And then, the most tense silence ever began to flow.

.

.

.

.

.

“Uh, uhhh…”

How much time had passed like that?

“Uhhh, uhhh…”

Such moans escaped from the mouth of the old gentleman, who was raising his trembling hands.

“Uhhhhck…..”

Then James Moriarty grabbed the back of his neck and began to stagger around the office with unfocused eyes.

“Now’s our chance!!!”

And that was our last chance for victory.

‘I hope the sealing scroll that Miss Microny hastily created works.’

– Fzzzzzzz…

It’s time to check the face of the thrown dice.