"Hey! Darkness! You're completely missing the point!"
Kōichi shouted in despair.
"This kid hatched from an egg! The egg Aqua bought!"
Meanwhile, Megumin gave Kazuma, who was crouched in a corner drawing circles on the floor, a look of utter disdain. Her tone was perfectly calm, yet every word struck like a critical hit.
"Kazuma, look. We're both in relationships, but Kōichi already has a daughter, while you still haven't even mastered that 'Lurk' move. As my man, shouldn't you reflect on why your level of Explosion isn't even one ten-thousandth of Kōichi's?"
"Those aren't even remotely the same thing! Megumin, how did your understanding of Explosion get this messed up?!"
Kazuma sprang to his feet in outrage.
"Besides, I don't want some daughter who came out of nowhere! All I want is those thirty million Eris!"
After a chaotic round of explanations, along with ten full minutes of Darkness indulging in her own fantasies, everyone finally managed to accept the ridiculous fact that the child had hatched from the egg Aqua bought.
"Anyway, if she's going to live with us, it would be rude to keep calling her 'Hey' or 'Egg-Born Creature.'"
Chris gently stroked the little girl's head. The child seemed to enjoy her touch, narrowing her eyes and humming contentedly.
"Kōichi-san, since you're her daddy, why don't you give her a name?"
"How about Soap? It sounds very Axis Order, doesn't it?"
Aqua suggested enthusiastically.
"Rejected! A name like that would make her too ashamed to show her face for the rest of her life!"
Kōichi refused without hesitation. Then he thought for a moment, looking at the rising sun outside the window and the little girl's silvery hair.
"Since she was born from light and has silver hair... let's call her Sylphy. It means 'spirit of the wind.'"
"Syl... phy?"
The little girl looked up, her eyes sparkling. She seemed delighted with the name and bounced happily in Kōichi's arms.
"Sylphy! I'm Sylphy! Daddy gave me my name! I love Daddy the most!"
At the sight, Darkness covered her face and collapsed onto the sofa.
"Ah... this child... every time she says it, my heart feels like it's breaking... This crushing burden of being forced into the role of stepmother... Please, give me more!"
In the mansion's dining room, Kōichi was clumsily feeding Sylphy oatmeal with a spoon. Darkness sat beside him, twisting a handkerchief in her hands while staring at him with an expression that practically begged him to seduce her and then abandon her.
Amid this warm, if deeply perverse, atmosphere, an incredibly faint knock suddenly came from the mansion's front door, so weak it sounded as though the person outside might collapse at any moment.
"Um... excuse me. Is Kōichi-san here? I'm Wiz from Wiz's Magical Item Shoppe..."
Before Kōichi could get up, Kazuma had already opened the door with an ominous look on his face.
"Wiz, if you're here to sell us another automatic dishwasher that's guaranteed to explode, forget it. This house is chaotic enough already."
But Wiz looked unusually uneasy when she entered.
The voluptuous lich shopkeeper was deathly pale, her body trembling slightly. Even her ample chest rose and fell sharply with fear. The instant she stepped inside, her eyes locked onto Sylphy, who was sitting on Kōichi's lap, and she nearly collapsed on the spot.
"Eek! W-what a terrifying divine aura! This feeling... it's like standing in front of dozens of Aqua-sama at full power... No, it's even purer than that!"
Wiz hid behind the door, her teeth chattering as she spoke.
"Um, Kōichi-san, Vanir asked me to give you a message. He... he suddenly started laughing like a madman in the shop and said the source of trouble capable of either plunging the world into chaos or bringing it salvation had finally hatched. He also said that if you don't want this mansion torn apart by Heaven's enforcers or the Demon King's Army generals, you should bring her to the shop and have her aura concealed."
"Huh? What nonsense is that masked bastard spouting now?"
Aqua slapped the table in irritation. She hit it so hard that the half-eaten piece of bread in her hand went flying and landed on Wiz's head.
"With this Goddess here, who in Heaven or on Earth would dare cause trouble? Besides, I personally bought this child! That basically makes her a sacred relic of the Axis Order!"
Sylphy looked curiously at Wiz, apparently sensing the faint aura of undeath around her.
She reached out a tiny hand, and a gentle white light spilled from her fingertips.
"Big Sister, cold? Sylphy, warm!"
"Nooooo! I'll be purified! I'm really going to be purified!"
Wiz let out a shrill scream and scrambled behind Kazuma, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes as she begged for mercy.
"Kōichi-san! Please, control your daughter! Vanir also left you a note. He said it was your child-rearing allowance!"
With trembling hands, Wiz held out a sheet of parchment covered in extraordinarily arrogant handwriting.
[To the junior who picked up a huge problem: This Scales Ring is one of the keys to opening the Heavenly Ruins. Keep it safe. Also, unless you want your poor lover to turn into a real Devil out of jealousy, hurry up and buy this child some snacks that seal magical power. Yours truly.]
Kōichi looked at the note, then at Sylphy, who was innocently trying to warm Wiz up. He had the distinct feeling that his future life as an adventurer had now completely left the rails.
Kōichi looked at Wiz, who had been frightened by Sylphy to the point that she was almost turning into a transparent spirit, and sighed helplessly.
He carefully pulled Sylphy, who was reaching for the hem of Wiz's skirt, back into his arms and pointed toward the armchair at the far end of the dining room.
"Wiz, sit over there for now. Keep some distance from Sylphy. Don't worry, I'll hold onto her. I won't let her accidentally purify you."
Wiz looked as though she had just been granted a pardon. She hurriedly floated into the corner and sat down, clutching her knees with both hands. Her complexion finally regained a little color after having gone an almost translucent bluish-purple.
"Th-thank you, Kōichi-san. You really are a kind person. No wonder this... this sacred little lady chose you as her father."
Still shaken, Wiz wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. Then her expression became more serious.
"As for the Heavenly Ruins Vanir mentioned, they're a place that exists only in legend. It's said that long ago, the gods sealed away certain living weapons or divine agents deep underground near Axel to fight calamities that ordinary magic couldn't destroy. The keys used to open those ruins are usually ancient sacred relics that come in pairs."
Wiz pointed toward the obsidian ring in Aqua's hand.
"That Scales Ring probably sensed a resonance coming from inside the ruins, which accelerated the egg's hatching. Vanir said this child... Sylphy-san... may very well be the core that was sealed inside the ruins. Her very existence acts as a beacon. If she keeps giving off her aura this openly, it won't just be the Demon King's Army coming after her. Those greedy nobles and the hunters of the Eye of the Gods will probably swarm here too."
"A living weapon? You're saying this little runt, who only knows how to say 'hungry' and 'Daddy,' is actually some Great Demon King-level monster capable of destroying the world?!"
Kazuma pointed incredulously at Sylphy, who was currently sitting in Kōichi's arms and trying to chew on one of his buttons.
"Hey, Kōichi, this isn't funny. If we're keeping a nuclear bomb that could go off at any moment inside the house, I'd rather move back into the stable right now!"