The Master of the Tower was momentarily at a loss.

    Once he missed the right timing, it just felt way too awkward to suddenly pop up and say, "Hey, I’m not dead!"

    “No way I’m telling them I got scared of those beasts...”

    Meanwhile, Namia had begun grunting as she turned his body over. The Master of the Tower instinctively shut his eyes. Somehow, it just felt like the right move.

    “No, no!”

    Namia cried out, her face a mess of tears.

    “I haven’t even called you Grandpa yet...”

    Wait a minute.

    “Please open your eyes... Grandpa...”

    You can’t just say Grandpa. That’s cheating.

    His eyes flew open.

    “Namiaaaaaaa!”

    He shot up and lifted Namia into a hug, spinning her around in circles.

    The old man’s firm muscles danced beneath his robe.

    “What are you even doing here?! Do you have any idea where this is?! Huh? Huh? Huh?”

    Namia just blinked her big, dazed eyes, clearly too stunned to react.

    “My baby graaandbaaaby! You wanted to call me Gwandpaaa, huh? My sweet girl!”

    As the Master of the Tower babbled in a ridiculous baby voice and tossed her up again, Namia’s eyes suddenly flashed.

    “Activate!”

    At her shout, every monster charging toward them from the distance dropped instantly.

    Only then did the Master of the Tower snap back to reality. They were still in a maze, and it was full of monsters.

    Namia took another quick scan from her high vantage point and muttered sheepishly,

    “Haha... Well, as you can see, your little girl who wanted to call you Grandpa got a lot stronger...”

    “R-right... I see...”

    He quietly set her down.

    ***

    Entering the inner temple was important, but there were priorities.

    We quickly caught each other up on what had happened.

    “You already knew, didn’t you? That I was a test subject...”

    “Well...”

    The Master of the Tower sighed with an awkward look.

    “I was hoping you’d never find out. I just wanted you to live happily, pretending you didn’t know anything.”

    Regardless, the one who knew the most about the Reformists was the Master of the Tower.

    He’d been investigating them alone for over twenty years.

    Not for justice—he just wanted to secretly take back his daughter.

    “So, according to my theory, here’s what happened,” he said gently, beginning his explanation.

    “Your mother underwent experiments using my blood while she was pregnant with you. Probably asked them to make you a great mage like me.” S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    “That sounds right. His Highness the Crown Prince obtained a monster test subject that was pregnant, and his deductions lined up with yours.”

    When I told him what Kiaros had found out, the Master of the Tower nodded, unsurprised.

    “But I only formed the theory after seeing you. Aran and the Reformists probably didn’t know.”

    “Yeah, if they had, there’s no way they’d have left me alone.”

    That much, I had already assumed.

    “Then at some point, Aran underwent a second experiment. I found that out while digging.”

    “Why though? Mom didn’t know how I turned out. She probably assumed the first experiment failed.”

    “I can’t say for sure. But she didn’t die, so maybe she figured it was worth trying again. Normally, subjects who don’t match the experiment die instantly. That’s what happens most of the time.”

    That tied in with something I’d always thought.

    The Reformists were supposedly experimenting constantly—but in the war, their subjects had never shown up. They weren’t even mentioned.

    Surely there were others like me.

    But from what the Master of the Tower was saying, the survival rate from the experiments was terrifyingly low.

    “So that’s why test subjects don’t become a major factor in the future...”

    That made me even more worried about my dad. Was he even still alive...?

    I bit my lower lip, and the Master of the Tower, watching my face, quietly /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ added,

    “So yes... Aran is precious to me, but—”

    It was obvious Mom was largely to blame for all of this.

    But I couldn’t badmouth her in front of the Master. She was, after all, his beloved daughter.

    “I wanted to rescue your father first... You said you wanted to see him.”

    “Yeah... That’s true.”

    I nodded as I wiped away a tear.

    That was the whole reason I’d come here in the first place—to see Dad, one last time.

    “I’m curious too, actually,” the Master of the Tower said, clicking his tongue.

    “What kind of man is your father, anyway...? Aran always said she hated muscular guys like me.”

    My dad was the exact opposite of the Master of the Tower.

    Thinking of his slim, paper-doll-like figure made tears sting again.

    “My dad has zero muscle. He’s tall, but super skinny and delicate! He’s really pretty, too.”

    “Huh? That sounds more like Aran’s type...”

    “His face looks just like an ethics professor—gentle and soft-spoken.”

    “Ethics, huh... Aran takes after me, so she doesn’t know right from wrong too well...”

    That meant my dad was the Master’s polar opposite inside and out.

    He gently wiped my tears and said,

    “Aran was spoiled all her life. She never did anything she didn’t want to. So if she liked your father, she really liked him.”

    “Yeah... probably.”

    I sniffled and nodded.

    The princess of the Tower, raised to have her way—there’s no way she’d have had a child with someone she didn’t want.

    But to go so far as to leave us and return to the Reformists... she must have been chasing something even more important.

    “Mom just did whatever she wanted, that’s all...”

    “Of course, Namia, I know you can’t understand Aran, but it’s not like she’s inherently bad or anything.”

    The Master was flustered, constantly reaching to wipe my tears.

    “She had her own goals, so, um... We should try to understand—”

    Understand?

    Even as I cried, the Master trying to defend my mom made me feel bitter.

    I cut him off firmly.

    “I had dreams too, you know.”

    “Uh... what?”

    “I liked someone too. I wanted to live happily with him, just the two of us... Have a baby, build the kind of loving family I never had...”

    The Master of the Tower froze. Even Kibon, who had been resting nearby, cautiously curled his tail and peeked at me.

    “Mom lived doing whatever she wanted, but because of her, I had to forcibly leave the man I love and come all the way here.”

    I sniffled and added,

    “His Highness said that unnatural things should be eliminated quickly when he was killing a monster test subject. And back then, not knowing anything, I completely agreed.”

    “N-Namia...”

    “And you, Grandpa—you told me to hide what I am because people might find me disgusting. You said no one would love me if they knew I was a test subject...”

    “If you hide it, it''ll be fine. Just say you were wrong, go back, and get married quickly!”

    His answer was utterly absurd. I immediately snapped back.

    “What kind of person keeps something that big a secret from the one they’re going to marry?! What if I turn into a monster or die because of Mom’s experiment?”

    “Right, so just hide it first, okay?”

    “What kind of trash would marry someone while hiding something like that?!”

    “Well, our cute and adorable Aran did!”

    So that’s where Mom got her messed-up ethics.

    As her victim, I finally broke down and sobbed out loud.

    ***

    The Emperor had always felt guilty toward Kiaros. Always.

    Since he was a child, Kiaros had never once asked for anything. A silent, obedient firstborn son.

    Whether it was because he didn’t know what he wanted, or because he just never dared to ask—he was a boy who never expected anything from his parents.

    That long, quiet history weighed heavily on the Emperor’s heart. But now...

    “Faster, please. Faster. We’ve slowed slightly—please increase speed. More power. Hurry.”

    His son was finally demanding everything he’d never asked for in his life.