Aishia's warm welcome soothed Mahiru's heart, as she had been mentally preparing herself from the very beginning to be scolded like a homewrecker in one of the soap operas she used to watch.
Unfortunately, the real surprise had only just arrived.
"Papa! You came!"
A tiny, extremely cute girl suddenly ran at full speed past Aishia. Without hesitation, she threw her small body straight into Charlie's arms.
"P-Papa...?"
Mahiru was stunned.
A heavy wave of shock seized her mind, her eyes widening as she noticed the striking resemblance between the glow of Charlie's hair color and that of the little girl currently holding him tightly.
"Charlie-kun..." Her voice trembled violently, her eyes fixing him with a sharp stare. "You never told me that you actually had a child?!"
Her heart was severely shaken. Mahiru took a few steps backward, staring at Charlie with a look of anger mixed with deep disappointment.
It was already bad enough for her to tolerate and enter a relationship with a playboy who had three girlfriends at once, but now... the man before her turned out to already have the status of a father?!
If any other normal woman had replaced Mahiru in this position right now, she undoubtedly would have slapped Charlie's cheek hard and turned on her heel without bothering to listen to explanations.
The fact that Mahiru still stood her ground and demanded an explanation right on the spot only showed just how immense her affection for Charlie truly was!
"Est! What kind of nonsense are you talking about?! Please, don't joke around at a time like this, okay?!"
Seeing the glimmering tears starting to pool in the corners of Mahiru's eyes, Charlie panicked instantly. He quickly slipped both hands under Est's armpits, raising the tiny girl high in the air like holding up a doll, and looked at her face up close.
Est, lifted in the air, merely tilted her head innocently without a trace of guilt, her beautiful face showing no expression whatsoever.
"Does Papa... not want to acknowledge Est?"
Mahiru's body trembled as she suppressed her anger, her finger pointing straight at Charlie with her breath coming in quick gasps.
"Charlie-kun! How cruel of you to go so far as to refuse to acknowledge your own child right in front of her eyes?!"
Mahiru herself was a child who had never been wanted by her own parents, so she emotionally understood all too well how painful it felt to be shunned and abandoned. Because of that, she felt she had every right to be furious at Charlie's attitude.
"..."
Charlie held his temple, which suddenly throbbed with pain, feeling a severe headache coming on. He quickly set Est down onto the floor and raised both hands in the air.
"Mahiru, I swear on everything, this is completely not what you think! I don't know why Est suddenly acted like this! Didn't I tell you before that I have two Humanoid Spirits who always accompany me? Aishia and Est are those two spirits!"
Aishia, who had been watching the dramatic dispute in front of her all along, could only offer a faint smile. She stepped closer and gently patted Est's small shoulder.
"Est, stop teasing Charlie." She said softly in a calm tone. "If you continue this joke, Mahiru might really leave."
Est nodded obediently. Without changing her cute, flat facial expression, she stepped forward toward Mahiru and bowed her body slightly to introduce herself.
"Since my true name cannot be spoken by a human tongue, just call me Est. I am Onii-chan's Sacred Sword Spirit."
Hearing that confession, which flipped the situation a full hundred and eighty degrees, Mahiru was stunned.
"E-Eh? Is that true...? Est-chan isn't lying to me to defend Charlie-kun, right?"
Est shook her head slowly. "I am not lying. I did this on a whim because I wanted to tease Onii-chan as a form of punishment, since he didn't call for me when he went to another world even though he promised. Even though I am his weapon, I am used very rarely."
After confirming the truth, Mahiru patted her chest while letting out a sigh of relief.
A warm, embarrassing sensation burned both of her cheeks. Blushing red, she turned to look at Charlie with an awkward smile.
"I-I'm sorry, Charlie-kun... I'm sorry for my bad behavior and careless accusations earlier." She bowing her head.
Charlie waved his hand and shook his head. "It's fine, Mahiru. I don't blame you at all; that was a very natural reaction. Besides, Est's joke earlier really was a bit excessive."
After calming Mahiru down, Charlie squatted down on the floor so that his eyes were level with Est's for a direct face-to-face look.
While gently patting the head of the silver-haired spirit girl, Charlie looked into her eyes with a heart full of guilt.
"I'm sorry, Est... I'm sorry for not taking you along." He said sincerely. "I promise I won't repeat it next time."
"..."
Est stared closely into Charlie's eyes without altering her flat expression. "Is that sincere, Onii-chan? Will you really use me more often in battles from now on?"
Charlie offered a warm smile and extended his pinky finger toward the spirit girl. "Of course, I promise. Even if in the future I only have to fight weak monsters like Goblins, I will always use you, Est."
Using a Demon King-Killing Sacred Sword to deal with monster-class beings like Goblins was clearly an excessive form of overkill, but to coax and appease Est, Charlie was willing to make such a silly compromise.
As a result, Est was completely coaxed. Her cute face nodded in satisfaction as she held Charlie's pinky finger tightly.
After resolving that minor issue, the group of four immediately made their way out of the hallway and toward the other room where Kei was staying.
Aishia and Est accompanied Charlie on both sides to help introduce Mahiru to Astraea and Kei.
*KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!*
Charlie knocked on the wooden room door slowly. Before long, the sound of light footsteps approaching was heard from inside.
*CLICK!*
The door opened, revealing the figure of a young girl with shoulder-length white hair and side-swept bangs neatly brushed to the left, paired with a set of clear blue eyes and rather pale skin.
Mahiru, standing behind Charlie, suddenly felt a slight bitterness in her heart as she observed Kei's appearance.
Had she not known the truth regarding their origins, she surely would have thought that Charlie, Est, and Kei were a perfect little family—consisting of a father, a daughter, and a mother who matched effortlessly due to their visual similarities.
Kei glanced at Charlie's figure with a look full of vigilance, then turned toward Aishia standing beside him.
"Aishia-san... who is this man?"
Charlie had actually anticipated Kei's reaction of forgetting him, just like what Mahiru had experienced earlier due to the working of the God's Law.
Stepping forward, Charlie offered a gentle smile.
"I am Charlie Avalon, your boyfriend, Kei." He said lightly yet full of warmth. "For a certain reason, my existence was erased and forgotten by everyone in the world, except for the gods."
Kei knitted her brows. Her facial expression radiated clear disbelief at the absurd explanation.
"Strange man... what kind of nonsense are you talking about?" Kei snapped coldly in a rejecting tone. "I don't know who you are at all, and I have never had a boyfriend."
Witnessing Kei's reaction of rejection and her distant gaze, Mahiru felt as though she were looking at a reflection of herself from just moments ago.
(Kei-san... she really forgot Charlie-kun completely...)
Mahiru felt sympathy toward Charlie.
(How painful and torturous Charlie-kun's feelings must be right now... having to accept the reality that the most precious people to him suddenly look at him like a total stranger...)
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