Reborn as the Hero's Daughter - Side Story 05 - Fina’s Request

A few days passed since we returned to our village.

The villagers were giving us curious gazes too, but we could ignore it since it wasn’t on Stollar or Raum’s level.

Thanks to that we were able to relax every day.

“Cloud and Michelle seem to be a little unsatisfied though.”

“Can’t be helped. Kids of their age have too much vigor on their hands.”

“I’m also their age, ya know?”

I was grumbling about such things while drinking tea with Cortina and Maria.

Now that my identity was busted, I started to refer to myself using both female and male pronouns. This was probably because I still couldn’t quite grasp my standpoint yet.

As I was grimacing to myself from such inconsistencies in me, Fina suddenly leaped toward my lap.

“Nico, I wanna ride!”

“Ride? You mean my lap?”

I interpreted the lisping speech that lacked vocabulary as her wanting to ride on my lap, and lifted her up and put her on my lap.

The soft and warm sensation coming from her made me reflexively rub my cheeks on her fluffy head.

“Ahh, you’re healing my soul.”

“Ugh…”

“What’s wrong, Cortina? You have a complex expression.”

Cortina had wrinkles on her forehead as she observed me. It was the face of someone tasting some bad cooking.

“I mean, this would’ve been a lovely sight if you were still Nicole. But now that I know you’re Reid, I can strangely only see you as a criminal rubbing his cheeks on a little girl.”

“Who’re you calling a criminal!”

“Aren’t assassins criminals?”

“Okay, you’re right, s̲h̲i̲t̲!”

As she said, I was an assassin, undoubtedly a criminal in my past life.

But wasn’t it dirty to bring that up here?

“Nico, are you a bad person?”

“I’m not. I’m a good person.”

“She’s good enough to become a hero. She had to evacuate to the boonies like this because of that, though.”

“It’s quite rude to call it the boonies.”

Maria pouted, disliking that her village was called the boonies. She was already nearing fifty but you couldn’t tell her age from her devilish appearance.

The drug she got from the God of Destruction played a part too, but she really hasn’t changed at all.

“That’s not it! Fina wants to ride you!”

“Aren’t you already on my knees?”

Fina was flailing her hands and protesting on my lap. I tilted my head in puzzlement, unable to figure out what she meant.

“I can sit on your lap all the time. Fii wants to ride mister Dragon!”

“Dragon… Oh.”

Apparently, I was visible from this village when I transformed into Evil Dragon Colchis and rampaged nearby.

Seeing that, Fina apparently wanted to try riding me in the Dragon form. It really was a thought of a kid that knew no fear.

“Ugh, well I don’t mind but…”

“You should mind it. If the Evil Dragon shows up again, it’ll cause an uproar.”

“I mean, I guess that too. But more than that, it would be dangerous with Fina alone as she could fall off.”

“I will cling hard!”

“With your strength, you’d definitely fall off.”

She wasn’t even five yet, so it would be difficult for her to support her own body. In fact, when I was five…

“I…I couldn’t even swing a practice sword properly and it always slipped off my hand.”

“Nico, you were a clutz?”

“Fin, that’s a normal thing. By the way, who taught you the word clutz?”

“Tina.”

“I see.”

I glared at Cortina, but she looked away while sipping tea, feigning ignorance.

While watching our exchange, Maria focused on one part of it.

“Riding the Evil Dragon… That never crossed my mind.”

“You’re focusing on that?”

“I mean, it’s the Evil Dragon, you know? It’s a being that you have to fight to the death, or rather, you’ll be one-sidedly trampled down upon the encounter, so even I’m interested in the opportunity to ride it.”

“Polymorph is quite a bit painful, you know?”

“But you’ve been using it every month, right?”

“Well, yeah but…”

Maria was well aware that I was constantly using Polymorph every month to meet up with Cortina.

Nowadays I could use that spell on my own too. As long as I could ignore the pain of the transformation.

“You won’t?”

“Ugh?!”

Who could possibly oppose Fina’s puppy-eyed plea from the lap? I for sure couldn’t.

“But it’d be dangerous if you fall off.”

“Then I’ll just ride along with her. It’d be no problem if I supported her.”

“Maria, you backstabber!”

“Call me mommy.”

“I didn’t do that even when I was still not found out.”

I just called her “mom” normally before that. The “mommy” thing was from my younger days. Anyway, I suppose Fina’s safety would be guaranteed with Maria coming along. I would obviously grant Fina’s “request.”

“There’s no helping it. But just once, okay?”

“Yaay!”

“Hold it, Nicole. I mean, Reid.”

Cortina, who was staying silent, butted in. Her serious tone made me wonder if I had overlooked some kind of risk.

“Listen here. The only ones allowed to ride you are Finia and I!”

“That’s what it was about?!”

I ended up yelling back at Cortina who brought up a dirty topic with a serious face.

The mansion’s yard or the village’s plaza wasn’t wide enough, and we’d also scare the villagers, so we headed to the grasslands outside of the village.

I ended up getting sentimental, remembering the days I used to run around here with Michelle.

Then I started to undress…

“Oh boy!”

“Cortina, drop your weird cheering.”

“We get to see Nicole’s exhibitionism performance.”

“Shut up!”

My clothes would rip if I transformed, so it was unavoidable. That’s why I only brought women with me. But still, I couldn’t deny it felt a bit weird to get undressed in the wild.

It’s also a fact that I’d be seen as a total pervert if I did it in male form.

“…Polymorph.”

I activated the spell that I had only recently learned to use, and transformed into a giant Dragon.

My body swelled up to twenty meters in size, and hard scales started to cover it. My giant eyes opened wide and my fangs grew to a meter long. I was giving off such an overwhelming presence that the animals around me were frozen from fear.

Fina, who was showered in it from near proximity, was no exception.

“Hawawawa—”

She raised a silent shriek and sank to the ground, wetting her crotch.

“Oh dear.”

Maria quickly started to clean her up.

Maria and Cortina have encountered it twice, so they were used to it, but it was too much for a four-year-old child, in the end.

Seeing that I became quite depressed too.

I didn’t hate having Fina whom I loved so dearly riding on my back. And I was already used to the Polymorph’s pain too.

But having her ride me right after wetting herself was making me look kinda miserable, you know?

“Grrrr…”

I ended up groaning while feeling like crying.