“Oh! This black tea tastes amazing!” Anticas took a sip, hooking a finger around the cup, and his eyes lit up with delight.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

The Dragonkin maid gently set down the teapot, then returned to stand behind Tiran.

Mimi really had picked out some excellent tea. The head maid had practically threatened Mimi while stuffing a pile of things like teaware and towels—the sort of stuff Mimi usually used to take care of Tiran—into the storage ring before they left. Mimi had been a little annoyed, but she never imagined any of it would actually come in handy.

“I really never expected to find another of my kind in the human world. Miss… Aya, was it? Would you mind telling me your parents’ names?”

Anticas set down his teacup, interlaced his fingers, and rested his hands on the knee of his crossed right leg as he asked.

Dragons were rare to begin with, and Golden Dragons even more so. For all Anticas knew, the ones he’d met might have been every Golden Dragon in existence.

Still, failing to recognize one’s own kid when they had such an obvious feature as being a white Golden Dragon was just ridiculous…

“They…”

Aya subtly curled the corner of their mouth, then calmly said, “They’re dead.”

“Huh?”

“They passed away when I was very young. I can’t even remember their names, so I’m very sorry, you two.”

At that, Tiran’s eye twitched before he could stop it. He grumbled through their contract.

“Aya, that’s even harsher than what I did… You’re just cursing your own parents to die?”

“Just getting back at them. Besides, they went off to enjoy themselves, and I nearly died for real more times than I can count.”

Meanwhile, the two on the other side…

“Honey, that poor child!”

“Yeah! If Astrelitin were still alive, that kid would probably be about her age!”

You two bastards are just assuming I’m dead, too?! If Aya didn’t have to keep their identity hidden, they’d have leapt up and slam-dunked both those unreliable parents’ heads.

Still, this meant even Anticas and Ruko had no reason to keep asking questions. For now, they were safe. They did feel a little bad for the two of them, but neither Aya nor Tiran wanted to suddenly meet them in their original identities. They could apologize later.

Thinking that, the two exchanged a glance and gave each other a quiet nod.

But just as they began to relax, a dull thud suddenly came from the kitchen Aya had just left.

It sounded like something hard had slammed into a wooden board, and with quite a bit of force—like a little hammer going forty, a big one eighty-eight, eighty, eighty.

“Could that sound be…?” Aya’s heart skipped a beat. The calm expression they’d copied from Mimi nearly fell apart.

“Aya, why didn’t you knock that kid out before you came out?!”

“You think I didn’t? I didn’t expect her to wake up so fast!”

“…Aya, I really underestimated you. I can’t believe you actually laid a hand on a kid that young.”

“I told you I had no choice! And you were thinking about doing it too, you bastard!”

While the two of them traded barbs through the mental link created by their contract, the banging from the storage cupboard kept coming, one thud after another.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Tiran set down his teacup and got up to head into the kitchen. He couldn’t let Doris keep making a racket forever. Xiao Feizi had already restricted her movements with a halo, so knocking her out again shouldn’t be too hard.

The storage cupboard, huh?

Tiran’s gaze passed over the kitchen utensils before settling on a wooden door.

Thud.

Another impact came from inside. This had to be the place.

He grabbed the handle and yanked the door open, already clenching his other hand into a fist. “Sorry about this—what the hell?!”

As the wooden door swung open, a red-haired girl sprang out like a jack-in-the-box. Her hands and feet were bound tight, but her body had compressed and shot forward like a spring.

“Big Brother—it’s you, you homewrecker! Die!”

The moment Doris realized midair that it wasn’t Aya, her expression flipped from excitement to disgust. She bared a set of gleaming teeth and lunged at Tiran to bite him.

Hey, hey! Is this kid’s magic resistance way too high or what? How’d she break the seal on her mouth?!

The next moment, the people sitting in the living room heard a scream from the kitchen.

“Ow, ow, ow! Is this kid a shark or something?!”

Tiran came stumbling out, waving his arm around, with the red-haired girl clamped onto his left forearm and refusing to let go.

“#￥*￥……&@#￥! (Doris is gonna bite you to death!)”

“I got here first! Why should I have to give you up to her?!”

The princess was so furious at those words that she nearly bit back.

The two wrestled all the way from the kitchen into the living room. Tiran, too worked up to notice the sofa in front of him, tripped over it and fell right onto the cushions.

“Hey…”

Aya couldn’t help covering their face with a sigh.

The two other guests looked even more surprised than Aya.

“Little Doris? What are you doing here?”

“Huh? You know her?!” Aya asked, pointing in surprise at the intruder who’d just attacked them.

“Ah! It’s Uncle and Auntie!” The red-haired girl had been biting Tiran with all her might, but when she saw Anticas and Ruko on the sofa, she reflexively let go. Tiran managed to shake her off.

“We told you to call us Mom and Dad, didn’t we?”

“Hold on—she’s your daughter?!”

Still stunned, Tiran looked at Aya. If he remembered right, this kid had barged in and tried to force herself on Aya, hadn’t she? If she really was Uncle Anticas’s daughter, then wouldn’t that make this actual sibling incest?!!

“Bleh, bleh! No way! Doris is only interested in Big Brother. You’re already married, Uncle, so go sit quietly off to the side!”

Doris stuck her tongue out at Anticas and made a face, then let go of Tiran and lunged at Aya. “Big Brother! Doris is back!”

“I couldn’t be any less happy!”

Aya traced a circle in the air with both hands. The anti-fire ring spell sprang into action, driving Doris back. Aya quickly dodged away, looking wary—but then realized something was wrong.

Oh no. If Doris was Dad and Mom’s daughter, then her showing up and shouting that just now meant—

No, wait. Thinking about it calmly, they might’ve known Aya was here from the start. They’d insisted on coming to the villa with Tiran as guests, after all. Maybe they just didn’t want to admit they wanted to see Aya.

Heh. Even after being away for so long, they were still Aya’s own parents. They must’ve had their ways of finding out where Aya was. They were only pretending not to recognize Aya… right?

“What?! Miss Aya is my son?!”

Anticas’s eyes widened, and his jaw nearly hit the floor. Beside him, Ruko stared at Aya in disbelief and waved.

“Actually, darling, now that I look closely, Miss Aya does look a little like our son…”

“So you really don’t remember me at all?! I’m gonna bite you both to death!”