“Help me! El-emon!”
Nergal pleaded with her father’s subordinate.
“Yes, yes, what is it?”
The one she pleaded with caught her with practiced ease.
It was a deeply ingrained custom among Marius’s children to rely on El if something happened.
Furthermore, they were to call her “El-emon” at such times.
The one being called had long since abandoned any questions about it.
“I want more time to play with Papa!”
El stroked the head of the young girl, who was tilting her head with tearful eyes. She thought coolly.
From her perspective, Nergal was merely Marius’s daughter.
She was important because Marius doted on her, but otherwise, she was a trivial individual.
In this regard, El, a succubus, was even more cold-blooded than Zofi or Al.
“Have you tried asking him to be your training partner?”
“Yes, but Mama said she would do it.”
Nergal pouted.
When she tried what El had taught her, Auraniess butted in.
She probably found it a good way to kill time, but it was a major nuisance for her daughter.
And for El, too.
While being relied on by Marius himself would be more than welcome, being relied on by his daughter brought no joy whatsoever.
However, she didn’t let any of this show.
To do so would incur the displeasure of her master.
El was, to the core, a Marius-supremacist.
The fact that she kept this to herself was part of her terrifying nature.
“Then you should just play to your heart’s content with Auraniess.”
“Eeeehhhh?”
Nergal cried out loudly.
Even though her actions were casual, they were a mere disturbance to those around her.
El seemed to have anticipated this and had already covered her ears.
This was one of the reasons she was called a “scheming” succubus, though she didn’t mind it at all.
She maintained a stance that bordered on defiance, believing it to be her reason for existence.
This was precisely why Nergal relied on her.
“Wh-why would it be like that? I don’t care about Mama! I want to play with Papa!”
Towards Nergal, who protested with a sulky expression, El winked and said.
“If you play to your heart’s content with Auraniess, Master will pay attention to you.”
“?????????”
Nergal couldn’t understand the meaning.
It was understandable, as even a human who happened to overhear them tilted their head in confusion.
Why would playing with her mother lead to her father showing up?
Normally, he would just tell her to play with her mother.
Such a question arose in her mind.
If anyone else had said it, she would have either ignored them or become furious.
However, when it was El who said it, there was room for consideration.
“I guarantee it’s the quickest way if you want to play with Master,” she added gently, as if divining the young girl’s hesitation.
“I don’t understand, but I got it!”
Nergal withdrew, though still with question marks swirling in her mind.
She had no doubt that the succubus before her was reliable.
After all, young girls were naturally straightforward.
She went straight to Auraniess and shouted.
“Mama, let’s play!”
“Oh. Did El put you up to this?”
Auraniess couldn’t be fooled.
Nergal, having hit the mark, faltered and averted her gaze as she replied.
“N-no, I didn’t.”
She had a personality that couldn’t lie.
Marius would probably say that in this regard, mother and daughter were remarkably alike.
“Well, fine. Come at me. I’ll play with you.”
“I think something’s wrong with that.”
Nergal retorted with a deadpan stare.
“Wh-what did you say?”
Auraniess pouted.
Anyone witnessing this would have said one couldn’t tell which of them was the child.
“Ner, I want to play with Papa!”
Hearing her daughter’s cry, her mother crossed her arms.
“Now that you mention it, he’s been slacking off on playing with me lately too. …Alright, let’s go have a word with him.”
“Okay!”
Auraniess and Nergal clasped hands. (This is not a typo or omission.)
“Where could Papa be?”
As Nergal innocently started to toddle off, her mother grabbed her by the scruff of her neck to stop her.
“Wait. This way. I don’t know why, but…”
Auraniess leaped from the ground towards a mountain.
In an instant, she left her surroundings behind and reached the mountain.
This was natural given her leg strength, but she was subjected to tremendous strain, as expected.
“Wow! Amazing! Amazing!”
However, Nergal was innocently delighted.
Though she looked young, her strength and endurance far surpassed those of an ordinary Demon Lord.
It was likely that even Zofi, let alone Marius, could not match this.
“Now then, Marius should be this way, probably.”
Auraniess headed towards a spring on the mountain.
There, Marius happened to be drinking water from the spring.
“Ah, Papa’s here!”
Nergal cried out happily.
“Huh?”
Marius, called by name, widened his eyes and let out a startled cry.
It was understandable to hear his daughter’s voice suddenly in a place where no one should be.
However, upon seeing Auraniess with her, he understood everything.
“What is it, Auraniess?”
It was not entirely incorrect for Marius to ask Auraniess.
She was the one he should question about her true intentions first.
However, the one being questioned probably wanted to retort, “Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Play with us.”
The Demon Lord’s wife and Empress stated it concisely and to the point.
“Play with me!”
Nergal said with a grin.
Marius pondered.
Setting Auraniess aside, he didn’t dislike playing with his daughter.
“All right, Ner will do.”
That one line elicited two reactions.
“Hooray! Just as El said!”
While the daughter rejoiced at having listened to the scheming succubus, the parent was not appeased.
“Wait, what about me?”
“Rejected.”
Marius replied curtly.
“What?!”
Auraniess pouted.
Her daughter said to her.
“Nyah nyah, your past deeds~”
It wasn’t the mother who took offense at those words, but the father.
“Hey, Ner. Where did you learn to say something like that?”
“Eh? I’m sorry.”
Nergal, acutely sensing her father’s displeasure, apologized in a panic.
Marius softened his expression and spoke gently.
“It’s good that you understand. More importantly, who was it that said something like that?”
“Um…”
The girl eagerly answered, filled with the joy of being forgiven and her father’s question.
She named one of the maids.
(Alright, I’ll fire her.)
Marius was quite the doting father.
“Papa? Play with me?”
Nergal tilted her head and gazed at her father with innocent eyes.
“Sure. What do you want to play?”
She replied ecstatically to her father’s question.
“Um, let’s play tag.”
“Wait, hold on.”
Auraniess butted in.
“You think you can exclude me? You’re about a thousand years too early.”
Her voice and expression seemed to carry a hint of anger.
Marius had an intuition that if he brushed her off like this, there would be trouble.
“Fine, but then you be the one to run.”
Marius said.
There was a reason for this.
He was well aware of Auraniess’s terrifying intuition.
No matter where she fled, she would probably be found through intuition alone.
That was precisely why he wanted to make her the runner and neutralize that ability.
“Alright, I accept. I’ll run to the ends of the earth.”
Auraniess, fired up, stated something that could be taken as either serious or a joke.
She cracked her knuckles and vanished in an instant.
Seeing this, Marius turned to his daughter and said.
“Now then, the obstacle is gone. What shall we play?”
“Um, piggyback rides!”
Nergal replied with a beaming smile.
“There, there. Let’s do many of them.”
Marius immediately began giving her piggyback rides.
He was so oblivious to the negative influence he was exerting, truly a doting father.
