Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 124

124

Come back stronger…

Raido arrived at Klausen’s mansion after nightfall.

He had visited the royal palace in the morning, so his appearance was long overdue. However, Sion didn’t rebuke him or even hint that he was late.

‘They say it’s best not to provoke a mad dog.’

Despite his exceptional skills, Raido was so difficult that even the royal palace didn’t restrain him when he said he was leaving to “cool his head.”

Moreover, he was strong enough to unleash a tremendous offensive even while injured in the battle against the Celestial Race, forcing them to resort to a suicide attack.

Kim Yu-hyeon even treated him as a mentor, so his level of freedom was widely acknowledged.

‘Besides… I’m a sinner anyway.’

Unlike the original novel, they had a very healthy and beautiful relationship based on mutual consent.

Even so, as a father with a daughter, he couldn’t possibly look kindly upon the guy who “took his daughter away.”

That’s a parent’s heart, and it’s a natural reaction.

Of course, King Geus was an exception.

“I ended up being quite late. I’m sorry. That junior was whining so much. Can you believe she couldn’t manifest her magic because she couldn’t solve such a simple equation?”

“What kind of magic was it that made her like that?”

“I heard it was something that creates a huge explosion. They said it could completely burn down an entire castle? But the equation wasn’t very reliable, so I don’t know the exact power.”

“…”

Isn’t that just napalm? Sion seriously pondered this and listened to Raido.

“I don’t know why she’s researching magic that seems useless in war. If you’re going to burn everything, who would want to fight a war? There has to be something left and something to gain to make it worth fighting. She should have become obsessed with healing magic like me. Tsk.”

That healing magic—wasn’t it just an excuse to beat people up more? You’re getting your priorities backward. Do you know that?

The words almost burst out of his throat and tickled his lips.

Sion forced out a “Haha, is that so?” Raido chuckled and opened his mouth.

“Don’t give me such a half-hearted response. Even if you’re a war hero or a righteous noble of the kingdom, you still look like a kid to me.”

“I may be a kid, but you’re missing one important thing, Raido.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m a kid who’s in that kind of relationship with Lucia. So you shouldn’t call me a kid anymore, should you?”

As Sion said that and subtly stepped back, Raido noticed Lucia standing there with her eyes wide open.

Raido looked at Sion as if to say, ‘Is this guy using his daughter as a weapon?’

But what could he do? They say a daughter is a father’s greatest weakness. He had to use it.

“I told you not to use such harsh words with Sion.”

“It was a mistake, a mistake. I was so happy to see you that the words just slipped out, Lucia.”

“What did you say happens when you repeat a mistake several times? It’s something my father used to say to me.”

“…I said it’s intentional.”

“You’re confessing?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

“Wow. Now you’re even raising your voice?”

“Ugh.”

Raido was silenced by Lucia’s gentle counterattack.

The man who killed those strong demons and Celestials with his staff and crushed them with his fists was so docile in front of his daughter.

Raido was also a father, after all.

“No, Lucia. Why are you protecting that guy so much… ahem, Sion. I know you have feelings for him, but this is too much for me, your father…”

“We, we did it.”

“…What?”

“We did it! What Mom used to tell me when she was alive! Me, a man and a woman… eugh!”

Worried that the crazy physical mage might actually go insane and rampage, Sion quickly covered Lucia’s mouth.

He was going to tell him slowly over time, but what was he going to do if she suddenly dropped a bombshell like that!

“…Hehe. Ehehehe! AHAHAHA!”

The problem was that Raido wasn’t so oblivious.

He was convinced by the way Lucia kept taking care of Sion and the phrase ‘that kind of relationship’ that Sion had used. He lightly clenched and unclenched his fist as he opened his mouth.

“I think I heard a pretty scary story.”

Crack, crack—.

Crack, crack, crack!

…Is that the sound a man who’s almost an old man should be making?

Barely managing to hold back from shouting, ‘I’m more scared of you!’ Sion opened his mouth to rationally resolve the situation.

“I was just faithfully carrying out Raido’s words!”

“What?”

“You asked what I thought of your daughter! Didn’t that mean you wanted me to get along with Lucia!”

“You! That was just supposed to mean you should develop a closer relationship little by little! You’re telling me you went all the way in less than half a year, let alone a year!”

“Isn’t that a reasonable amount of time? It’s not like we’re upholding some premarital purity! And I talked it over with Lucia!”

Raido frowned, dumbfounded, and strode towards Sion.

“Why is this crazy bastard bringing up my daughter and causing a ruckus…”

“Sion is right. And I approached him first, not the other way around. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted to be loved, I wanted to be by your side.”

“No, you crazy…”

Sion wondered if it was a really big problem when Raido suddenly cursed.

But the words that came out of his mouth were something that neither Sion nor Lucia could refute.

“Me too?

You bastard! How many women are there! Aren’t you just with my daughter? Me too!”

“…Ah.”

“Ah, my ass!”

At this rate, Sion thought Raido might collapse from a sudden cerebral hemorrhage instead of dying in a fight with the Celestials, so he quickly added a bit of embellishment to the story.

As you know, Lilith was due to a contract issue, and all the other women had somewhat unfortunate stories, so he couldn’t push them away and had no choice but to accept them.

‘The important thing here is to emphasize that Lucia, your daughter, is the best.’

The meal was already ruined, but he had to pick up whatever he could and fix it right away. That way, he wouldn’t get hit with the table.

“Damn it…”

Raido wanted to catch him and beat him up, but Lucia was standing right next to Sion with a fierce look in her eyes, so there was nothing he could do.

No, even if Lucia wasn’t there, he really couldn’t touch him now. If those words were all true, then any harm to Sion’s body would soon cause Lucia’s heart to ache.

“Did you call me here to talk about this? Are you trying to give me a heart attack and kill me?”

“A heart attack? Where else would you find such an excellent son-in-law?”

Sion’s confidence soared after gaining a shield.

He spoke with a slightly sly tone, but Raido didn’t respond with another curse. Instead, he began to look at Sion with a serious face.

“…”

“Raido?”

“Well. If some other idiot had taken my daughter, I would have twisted his head off right away. But I can understand it a little if it’s you.”

“…Suddenly?”

“What do you mean suddenly? Until recently, the nobles of the kingdom were only talking about you. A war hero, a liberator of different races, a righteous noble, and so on. It gave me goosebumps.”

I understand. I’m getting goosebumps like that right now too. Sion nodded as if he understood.

“But when I thought about it, it didn’t seem so bad if someone like that was connected to Lucia. At the same time, I felt even worse when I had that thought, even for a moment.”

“…Just pick one. Is it good or not?”

“If I say it’s not good, will you break up with Lucia?”

“No.”

If he were a fool who answered yes here, he would have died long ago. Sion firmly grabbed Lucia’s hand as if to say absolutely not.

He was originally thinking of hugging her, but he held back because he thought Raido would really go crazy if he did.

“Ah, am I suddenly getting mana exhaustion symptoms? Why am I so drained?”

Even the great Raido seemed to be greatly shocked by his daughter’s confession that she had slept with another man.

He staggered slightly as if he was really dizzy, and Lucia was surprised and tried to approach him.

But she was stopped by Raido’s gesture.

“It’s okay, Lucia. Just hold that guy’s hand tightly. He pretends to be strong, but he’s also weak, so you never know when he’ll let go of that hand and run away. Hold on tight when you can, so he can’t run away.”

Still, he had a faint smile on his face, as if he was secretly proud that his daughter was happy.

Sion, who didn’t miss that change, opened his mouth, thinking this was the time.

“Um, Raido. Actually, there’s another reason I called you here.”

“Yeah. There’s no way you called me just to hear this confession. Alright, let’s hear why my wonderful son-in-law called me.”

Yes, this kind of reaction is normal. King Geus was the strange one!

Thinking that, Sion looked at Lucia and carefully opened his mouth.

“Where do you think Lucia’s talent lies?”

“Hmm?”

Perhaps sensing the suddenly serious atmosphere, Raido narrowed his eyes and stared at Sion, then showed a serious reaction in response to Sion’s change.

“Isn’t it obvious? Of course, she’s showing outstanding talent in magic, just like me. The amount of mana she possesses is beyond the level of ordinary mages, and she can handle many spells.”

“But her output control isn’t smooth.”

“…”

Lucia lowered her head at Sion’s remark.

As he said, she had failed to control her output in the last war with Nudia and almost turned Sion into ashes beyond being roasted.

“I admit that too.”

Raido also admitted it, showing a sharp look on his face.

It was fortunate that it was a basic Fire Bolt spell, but if it had been a more powerful spell, there would have been a mass friendly fire incident.

“But thanks to that, the enemy couldn’t pursue the Klausen Frontier Army any further and retreated.”

Of course, Raido subtly defended his daughter.

Sion nodded as if it was natural. From the beginning, he had no intention of bringing up Lucia’s mistakes.

“Raido, have you ever taught Lucia martial arts?”

“Hmm?”

“Sion?”

Raido and Lucia turned to Sion at the same time.

In response to their reaction of asking why he was suddenly asking that, Sion looked at Raido as if expecting an answer.

“…I did teach her the basics.”

“What about after that?”

“I couldn’t. My now-dead wife kept nagging me about why I was teaching my daughter such barbaric things, so I had no choice but to back down like a dog.”

“But she still remembers the basics. But why are you suddenly asking that, Sion?”

In response to the father and daughter’s questions, Sion turned slightly and took Lucia’s other hand.

Then, gathering both hands, he slowly opened his mouth.

“I think magic might not be her real talent, but just a supplement. Her real weapon was hidden elsewhere.”

In the novel, Lucia mainly showed a caring and comforting side, taking care of Kim Yu-hyeon’s mental state, except for a few times she showed her magic in the beginning.

Even those few times, she didn’t show outstanding talent like Raido. It was just that she had as much mana as two ordinary mages combined.

‘What if, like Captain [referring to a character with two hearts], she has a talent for something much more dynamic than magic?’

It wasn’t just absurd nonsense, but a prediction with some valid evidence.

That was the part where Sion Klausen had a hard time with her unexpected resistance when he kidnapped Lucia in the novel, or the description of how she had fended off the attack when Kim Yu-hyeon was away before that.

‘Everyone is too rushed to respond with magic. But how could there be a conclusion that she made it difficult or fended it off? Then there’s only one answer. That means there’s something that’s so basic and her body remembers it so well that it goes out before magic in such urgent moments.’

And one more thing.

What if, just what if, the author had set the initial settings differently?

Even though Lucia inevitably became Kim Yu-hyeon’s mental refuge as the story progressed, what if she was originally a character who helped Kim Yu-hyeon with her fists?

‘I have to try. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but if it does, I have to keep doing it until it does.’

Sion was once addicted to a fighting action game called Tekken. A nostalgic arcade game that everyone has played or at least heard of.

The character that Sion always used there was Paul Phoenix, a game character that the children of that time remembered as ‘O-AH!’

Sion got a hint from there.

‘It would be impossible to do all the flashy, sometimes heavy, and sometimes light martial arts like Raido. But if the basics are solid, the lack of destructive power can be made up for with magic. It’s similar to our O-AH! First, the basics are solid, and the lacking parts are just pressed down with raw damage.’

Holding Lucia’s hands, Sion slowly stroked them and opened his mouth.

“Sometimes people walk the wrong path to the end, thinking it’s the right path. It’s not that it’s wrong, but because they regret the path they’ve taken so far. But wouldn’t it be too unfair if you met a dead end at the last minute, Lucia?”

“That’s…”

“Try it, Lucia. I like magic too, but I want to see you learn and achieve something else. That appearance that is calm like a flowing stream and rough like a typhoon, like Raido. Don’t worry, I won’t think of Lucia any less as a woman just because she learns martial arts.”

Sion subtly included praise for Raido.

Raido naturally had a ‘what?’ reaction, but he was still a man, and he didn’t seem to dislike the fact that he was being recognized and praised, and he had a light smile on his face.

“Try it, Lucia. There’s nothing wrong with trying, right?”

“…Then, promise me one thing, Sion.”

“A promise?”

“What you did with Lia, the same for me. If there’s progress, you’ll grant me a wish.”

Sion nodded without a second thought.

If it’s to bring down the number one villain, O-AH!, then isn’t that a great deal!

―――――――Author’s Notes―――――――

I went to the hospital and got about 3 weeks’ worth of medicine.

I’ll get healthy soon and unleash my ultimate skills again…

I’ll have to see when that will be.

This acid reflux is really driving me crazy.

―Recommendations are always welcome!

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