Reborn as the Hero's Daughter - Chapter 621: The Hero’s New Beginning

Author’s Note: Thank you very much for staying with me for so long. We have finally reached the final chapter.

When I entered the dining hall, all eyes focused on me.

I stiffened up from all those gazes. But then, Maria gently pushed my back from behind.

“Lady Nicole, you’re awake!”

“Ah, yeah. I’m glad that you and Cortina seem to be fine too.”

“Yes, we simply fainted due to the magic power deficiency.”

“You really gave us a fright when we saw you collapse right as the flash settled.”

Finia and Cortina were talking to me as usual. Or well, Cortina’s speech had turned to the one she used for the former me, but that was unavoidable. The two of us held quite a complex relationship, after all.

“Nicole, uhm…”

While I was thinking, Michelle hesitantly called out to me.

She most likely heard about my identity. Well, either way, since Lyell and Maria already knew it already I couldn’t just leave them in the dark. So I guess I’ll be explaining everything here and now.

“Yeah, I know what you’re trying to say, Michelle. I’ll explain everything, so will you listen?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Following that, I explained everything until the present point to everyone around. To Michelle, Letina, Cloud… and Finia, who already knew about my situation. And also to Fina who sat on Finia’s lap.

Though I guess Fina wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. She had an astounding memory thanks to her Gift of Pharmacy, but it only covered things related to drugs.

When it came to normal conversations, her comprehension was only as high as it was appropriate for her age. But still, I wanted her to hear it.

Once I finished my story, Michelle opened her mouth wide in admiration.

“So Nicole was Lord Reid all along!”

“You really took that easily, huh?”

“Not at all, I’m suuuuper surprised, you know?”

“I mean, I can tell that much.”

But her reaction was simply of surprise. She merely accepted everything I said. And she didn’t change her attitude even after that.

I was really grateful for her open personality.

Letina, on the other hand, couldn’t hide her bewilderment. I guess it was only natural for her, who was such an ardent devotee of the Six Heroes, to be so shocked after hearing her close friend was one of them.

And that went for Cloud too.

“I mean, I guess I’m convinced now that I heard it from you…or maybe I’m not. Well, I, uhhh… Can I remain as your comrade after this?”

“Aye…I plan to continue being an Adventurer, so I’d be glad to have you.”

“I don’t really get whether you’re a girl or a guy with the way you talk.”

“Oh shut up. I’m also confused and don’t know which speech style I should stick to here.”

“Um, are you really Lord Reid?”

“Yeah. Sorry for staying quiet, Letina.”

Letina addressed me nervously with an uncharacteristic attitude.

She seemed to be having a hard time accepting it, though. She flailed her arms and darted her eyes around.

“But um, back during the senior academy incident…”

At the Methuselah Senior Academy, I disguised myself as Haumea while Gadius disguised himself as Nicole.

Letina saw Nicole and Reid’s reincarnated self present at the same time, so it was hard for her to accept it as easily as Michelle. Once Maxwell and I explained the details regarding that, she finally seemed to have accepted it.

“Looks like I was perfectly deceived, huh?”

“Don’t blame Maxwell and Gadius, okay? I was the one making them help me.”

“I believe I am not so narrow-minded. But to think you’re really Lord Reid…”

“You still can’t believe it?”

I extracted a thread from my broken gauntlets, coiled it around my teacup with a light swing, and brought it to my mouth instead of using my hand.

This was something even her guard Sullivan, who was also a thread user, couldn’t do.

“Now that I think about it, you did use threads. Why did I fail to realize it, I wonder.”

“Preconceptions do wonders, huh?”

In Letina’s case, it was the preconception that I was Nicole and also her glorification of Reid that she couldn’t connect the dots.

It was a little different from Michelle who didn’t care about the trivialities and Cloud who didn’t know much about thread users.

Still, though, I felt a bit bad for deceiving her.

“Anyway, yeah, I was Reid. Sorry for not saying it. But I’ll be happy if you continue treating me as you have.”

“I mean, you’re still Nicole, right? Then I see no problem!”

“Michelle, I have never been as impressed as now about your flexibility.”

“It’ll be hard at first, but I’ll also try to act as I have with you.”

Michelle and Cloud’s words brought me to the verge of tears. They were willing to accept the current me too.

Letina also nodded to say she was of the same opinion. As for Finia, I didn’t even need to ask.

“What heartwarming friendship, eh, Reid?”

“Eek?!”

That was of course Maria’s voice. I said it earlier, but she did accept me. She did, but I felt some coldness in her tone unlike before.

I guess calling it coldness was a bit misleading. It was more like she had returned to treating me like she did in my past life when I was Reid.

“Now then, Reid. You did say you’d do everything to be accepted, right?”

“Y-Yeah. Maybe I did? I feel like I might have said something along those lines…maybe?

“Don’t talk your way out of it now. And so, I have pondered about it.”

“A-About what?”

“I’m already past my prime. I would like to see my grandchild’s face soon.”

“I-Is that so… But I—”

“It will take a while until Fina grows up, and Lyell always gets in the way too.”

“Wait, when have I ever done that?!”

Lyell hurriedly protested, feeling a bad premonition at her words.

But Maria just gazed back coldly and answered.

“Didn’t you keep all the boys in check on her birthday a little while back?”

“N-No, I have…maybe done that.”

“Girls aside, all the boys were celebrating her with stiff expressions. Restrain yourself a little.”

“…Okay.”

Lyell ducked his head like a young turtle and agreed.

I sighed in relief since the topic was diverted, but Maria once again faced me.

“So then, Reid. As a condition to forgive you… Show us the face of our grandchild.”

“Come again?”

“Show us our grandchild.”

“You don’t have to repeat it, okay?!”

“Then don’t ask to.”

“So what, are you telling me to give birth? I don’t even have anyone like that!”

My mind was still heavily influenced by the part of me from the time I was still a man. I really didn’t want to do this and that with a guy to make children.

“I-I can’t! Plus I have Cortina and Finia, so I can’t just cheat!”

“A little late to say that when you’ve already put your hands on both of them.”

Maria looked at me with an exasperated gaze while Cortina and Finia had complex expressions.

I was showered by the three’s gazes and felt like running away. But then, a young, high-pitched voice cut into the conversation.

“Heere, I made a sex change potion!”

“Fina?!”

When I looked her way, Fina was standing on Finia’s lap while holding out a small bottle.

Her face was the very definition of smugness, and while it did make her look adorable, her words were quite disturbing.

“The white goddess told me this would secure my family or something.”

“That little—?!”

I quickly tried to steal the dangerous drug from her hands. Wasn’t it perfect for me instead?

But before I did, someone else snatched it off her hands before me. Needless to say, it was Cortina, who had used her agility to its fullest.

But by the time I followed her with my eyes, she had already lifted the seal and moved it to her mouth.

“Wh- you—”

“Gulp!”

She sighed like an old man, and then she was wrapped in smoke with a puff. Once the smoke cleared up, there stood a wild-looking boy in Cortina’s clothes.

Since Cortina was flat and the youth was petite, her cloth size wasn’t a problem. But that wild-looking youth gave me a really uncomfortable feeling. Seeing her like that, I felt a cramp in my abdomen.

“C-Co-Cortina?”

“Who else would it be?”

After saying that, she checked her crotch and chest as if to confirm something.

“Okay, looks like I can do it without problems.”

“Do what?!”

“What…you know what.”

“PLEEEEASEEE STOOOPPP!!”

If Cortina had a little brother, she looks just like this. A youth like that was gazing at me with a beast-like desire.

“Sorry, Finia. I’ll apologize for this later.”

“I-It’s okay…”

Finia looked quite shocked by the events, but she finally caught up to the situation and replied a little regretfully.

But the troublemaker of my family dropped another bomb.

“I considered this and actually made another—”

Before she even finished that line, the small bottle disappeared from her chest pocket. The one who reacted to it before me was Finia on whose lap she was sitting.

Her movements were faster than even me, an assassin. And she moved it to her mouth before I had the time to stop her.

She got wrapped in smoke like Cortina and turned into an elven youth in his mid-teens.

“F-Finia.”

“It was the same with Lady Cortina, but this potion does make you shrink, huh?”

Finia said while tapping her head, which looked really adorable, and I felt like my heart received a shock. So this is what they call moe huh? Wait, that’s not it—

“That’s not the problem here!”

“There’s no problem with this. I leave it to you two.”

“Don’t leave it to them!!!”

Maria told something to the transformed duo without being perturbed. Maxwell and Gadius stood up in reaction to that and headed out of the room. Lyell and Maria were all grins.

“H-Hey, you two.”

“Reid. I cannot hold those two back.”

“Even I don’t want to do something that scary.”

They said that with resigned expressions. They had “we’ll not get involved no matter what” written on their backs decisively like men. You f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲!

“Come on dear, let’s head to the other room. It’s too tactless, you know?”

“R-Right. Well, Reid. Do your best.”

“Like hell, I will?!”

“Then Cortina and Finia, you do that.”

“Leave it to me!”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I said stooop!”

Finia and Cortina grabbed me on either side.

Michelle and the rest were left dazed in the room, but they seemed to have realized the situation and exchanged gazes and silently followed after Maxwell.

“You traitors?!”

“I mean, it’s scary.”

“I can’t possibly face off against the Six Heroes.”

“I do not wish to be kicked by the horse.1”

And then, they heartlessly closed the door shut on me.

I was then carried to the private room as is and thrown on the bed. I wasn’t so ignorant in relations that I didn’t know what would come after this. I mean, I was actively doing my part when I was keeping them company as a man.

So I did understand these girls(?)’ feelings. But only if I wasn’t on the receiving side!

In the first place, it was that White God’s fault that she reincarnated me as a girl. So I really wanted to sit down face to face and blame her for an hour straight.

“Goddess, turning me into the daughter of my comrades was too much—!!”

Reborn as the Heroes’ Daughter! Time to Become the Hero Once More!

The End

This marks the End of Reborn as the Heroes’ Daughter! Time to Become the Hero Once More.

Thank you very much for keeping me company for these two and a half years.

I am currently revising the prequels, Destructive Eyes and Half-Dragon Girl, and reporting on Kakuyomu.

I am slightly altering the place and people’s names, so I would be happy if those who have read them also have fun rereading them.

Well then, let us meet again in a different work.

1. t’s refers to the Japanese saying that if you butt in in other people’s love affairs, you’d get kicked by the horse.