"…up…"
"Ly-…ma… ke… up…"
"Lyra-sama, wake up!"
Who? It's so noisy…
"Mmn… Five… more… minutes…," I rolled over on my comfortable bed. Yep, this is heaven.
"L-Lyra, uhm, sorry, we also fell asleep…"
"Lyr, are you going back to your slumber?"
"…?!"
After hearing Niina's voice to wake me up as usual, I thought it'd be fine for me to sleep a little longer… only to realize that Iris and Carbuncle were here as well!
What's more, they seemed to be fully awake even before me, the supposed party master—I mean, the original house owner and the one who invited them here…
…Did I just say the legendary 5 more minutes? Aaah, nooo, I'm so embarrassed!!! ԅ[ •́ ﹏ •̀ ]و
Let me cover my face with this pillow—no, wait, that'd make me fall asleep again!!
--Loading screen: Please wait for Lyra to calm down—
*Ahem!*
W-what? Did something happen before? 「(°ヘ°)
Anyway, we only woke up when Niina came to wake us up. If Niina came to wake us up, that means…
"Is it dinner time soon? Has Mom or Dad returned?" I asked while rubbing my still-sleepy eyes.
"That's right, Lyra-sama~ Cyan-sama has returned!" Niina confirmed my guess.
Mom's not home yet, but I think she will be back just right at the time for dinner.
So, all of us quickly washed our faces and went down the stairs. For the time being, since there was still time before dinner, Alt-nii and I led the others to the living room, and Dad was already sitting there, waiting for us.
"Dad, you're home!" Alt-nii quickly approached Dad.
"Welcome home, Dad!" I followed after Alt-nii and welcomed Dad.
Perhaps he was trying to maintain his image in front of our friends, Dad didn't activate his "silly doting parent" mode. He only patted our heads and smiled, "Yes, I'm home."
Then, he shifted his gazes towards our friends, who were still standing behind us.
"Well, I know Clavis, obviously. The other boy over there should be Harvey, and you must be… Iris, and this one is Carbuncle?" Dad guessed the identity of our friends, and yup, he guessed it right. After all, we had often talked about our friends, so naturally, Dad would figure their identities quickly.
"T-thank you for having us here! We'll be intruding for a while…," Harvey quickly bowed his head in a fluster, it was apparent from his behavior that he wasn't really used to this sort of thing.
"T-thank you for letting us stay over here, Lyra's dad… I'm Iris Sorreil, how do you do?" Iris' reaction and curtsey were more natural than Harvey, but her nervousness was apparent.
"Hoo? Lyr and Tair's father? Hmmm—"
In contrast to Harvey and Iris duo's reactions, Carbuncle was so carefree, and she even didn't hide her attempt in trying to "sniff" out and sense her surroundings even more.
"Yes, and there's no need to be that nervous. Thank you for being friends with my children!" Dad said.
At this time, Carbuncle was already near Dad.
"Oh? As expected of these two's real father! So, you're also one of us…," Carbuncle said.
""Eh??"" Alt-nii and I reflexively blurted it out in response to Carbuncle's words.
"Yup, though it's faint, but you also have the dragon blood running in your veins. So, it comes from you? Or Lyr and Tair's mother is also…?" Carbuncle tilted her head.
A surprised expression floated on Dad's face for a moment, before he quickly regained his senses back.
"Is that so? Tell me, what kind of dragon blood is running in our veins?" Dad unexpectedly asked this, instead of quickly denying Carbuncle's assumption.
Dad…?
"Hmmm… If I'm not wrong, it's that of the frail water dragon's. I'm not sure since I haven't really met them. They live even more secluded than the rest of the dragons, as they have to live in a very clean environment."
"Water dragon's…," Dad muttered.
"But I think it was your distant ancestor that mingled with them? As I said, the dragon blood I sensed in you was already faint, let alone Tair and Lyr," Carbuncle added again.
"I wonder about that… But you said [frail]… aren't dragons supposed to possess strong body and longevity?"
"Most of us, yes. There are differences among different types. That frail water dragon's type—just like their name implies, are frail. That's why they have to live in a very clean or pure environment. If they live in any slightly polluted area and don't take good care of their bodies especially in the early years of their lives, I'm afraid they'd fall sick and die quickly. Their lifespan is shorter than the average dragons' lifespan, in the first place," Carbuncle explained.
"Is that so…? Hmmm…?"
"So, it's true right, that you are of a dragon descent?" Carbuncle excitedly asked.
"Well, I'm not sure. I have no ways of confirming that," Dad smiled slightly.
I looked at him in confusion. Could it be that our family's ancestry record was lost? Logically speaking, tracing one's ancestry is quite easy. There's no record of a known noble with dragon blood, so we just have to look for the ancestor who married someone who was adopted to nobility, or someone outside the nobles. Unless a dragon assumed the position of an impostor in a noble's family and married into the Hartmann…?
Or has Dad tried to look at the record and found nothing, hence he said he didn't have ways of confirming that? In that case, could some ancestor be replacing their child with a dragon, or had a child with the dragon out of the recorded wedding, or adopted one…? Wait, in the first place, I can't make any sense of those possibilities.
I wanted to ask more about it, but I missed my chance as Dad then said, "Well, it might be true. But nevertheless, please don't spread this out to anyone else, okay?"
Everyone who was present at the room earnestly nodded.
…It's not like one would believe it easily even if we were to tell them, though?
"And you must be Iris Sorreil, right? I've heard some about the Sorreil family… and about yourself, from Lyra's story," Dad shifted his gaze towards Iris and asked her.
Then, we proceeded to talk about various things. Shortly after, Mom also came back and we… kinda repeated some of our previous conversation with Dad, but nobody seemed to mind it at all! We proceeded to play with the toys present in my home before sleeping—pillow fight came first, though!
I was so happy to experience this "sleepover with friends" event~! Dad and Mom even gave me and Alt-nii several days break from training so that we could enjoy our time. It also served as our "end-of-year" holiday, though.
On the second day, Dad seemed to be not so preoccupied with his work, so as promised, he took us along with his patrol (or I called it as sightseeing~!) the territory. Since everyone else besides me and Alt-nii didn't live and grow up in Riviera's East territory, they were so excited to sightsee the territory. Dad also introduced some of our specialties (especially food!) to them.
Too bad Luca and Kiri weren't able to join us today. However, we would be going to Capicastle tomorrow, no worries~
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***IMPORTANT! Author's Note***
...Not really, but I think it's important X"D
The other platform where I'm posting this novel, CrN is hosting a fan art competition and it's now in its voting period.
There are a total of 3 submitted fan arts of Lyra, so I'd like to ask you guys to see the submitted fan arts and if possible, please vote on Lyra there!
Since there are 3 Lyra fan arts, feel free to vote whichever you like, or even all of them XD
The art with most votes/hearts wins, so your vote will mean a lot :D
Here is the link: https://creativenovels.com/art-gallery/
You have to be registered on the site before voting, though. I believe it's a quick process and the site won't give you too many mails unless you're subscribed to anything there. You have to click on each art's page before you can give your heart/vote. I'm sure the artists and I will be very delighted!
And a little bit of advertisement while we're at it: Advanced chapters to this novel can be accessed via P*atreon or donation (Ko-Fi or Paypal), check my P*atreon page (p atreon.com/ConvallariasLibrary) for more info ^^ (delete the space. Webnovel is censoring P*atreon lmao, there shouldn't be any space or * there).
Thanks in advance and don't hesitate to drop some comments~!