Poor Master Lloyd, thought the silver-haired knight Javier, satisfactorily chuckling to himself. He's going to be the weakest link in the family at this rate.
He wasn't wrong. The scoundrel of a lord he served, whose body had been taken over by Kim Suho from another dimension, was once a swordmaster. That was Duke Lloyd Frontera, prince consort of the kingdom. He had even once led the attack on the underworld, eventually losing his physical body in the final battle against the king of hell before returning to the original body of Kim Suho in Seoul, Republic of Korea. He lost the mana heart and circle he had worked so hard to obtain, in the process.
I thought he was going to get them back easily, but...
Javier had expected his master to pick them back up without a problem, but he was wrong.
I had no idea how stagnant his progress would be.
In fact, those who had once made immense accomplishments found it easy to climb back to the top after years of hiatus relatively easily. However, the Lloyd who had returned in Kim Suho's body was different.
It's as if he had stolen everyone else's incompetence and kept it for himself.
Regardless of how rigorous he trained under the instruction of Queen Alicia, Lloyd had failed to make any significant progress. It's been eight years since his return, but he was still a low-grade sword expert.
I remember he said he'd saved some RP for the moment when he would suffer from the Swordmaster Syndrome.
Javier wondered what RP even stood for. Lloyd was still the same mysterious guy as he always had been.
"Unco Javia!"
A bubbly voice full of sincere delight graced his ears and woke him up from reminiscing. Javier lifted his head extremely slightly to greet the small girl who had already approached him.
"Unco Javia! I just did whoosh-whoosh! Did you see?"
"I certainly did. That was amazing, Your Royal Highness," replied Javier, as he carefully and gently stroked the child's hair with his rough hand, causing her to put a huge, satisfactory smile on her face.
"Ehehe! He said amazing!"
The child ran back the way she came like a golden retriever on the loose and began playing with the wooden training sword by the arena with the clear excitement still lingering on her face. Her movement was impressive, to say the least. In fact, it was astounding for a six-year-old girl, who was just about to turn seven in a few days of time. She was already on the verge of making the breakthrough into a low-tier sword expert.
Such an amazing talent.
Charlotte Frontera Magentano, the royal princess, most definitely took after her mother. She was already showing immense talent in sword-fighting. Javier, the swordsmanship instructor of the princess, suspected she would surpass her own father in three years at this rate.
Thank goodness she didn't take after Master Lloyd.
She did exhibit certain sides from time to time that made Javier wonder if she had gotten it from her father Lloyd, though. Right now was such a moment.
"But unco."
"I'm listening, Your Highness."
"You promised. You have to keep your promise."
Charlotte had finished her sword-play and asked Javier again. The grandmaster confusedly asked.
"Promise? I'm not sure I follow."
"You said you were going to give me a present if I did whoosh-whoosh."
"...Please don't tell me..."
"You did."
"No, no. I'm not denying the fact I made the promise."
"Then?"
"I just couldn't believe that you still remember the promise, Your Highness."
"I did!" Charlotte robustly nodded her small head. "You showed me this when I was three. You said if I do this whoosh-whoosh, you were going to give me a present."
“...”
"And I just did whoosh-whoosh."
“...”
"But you tried to get away with just amazing."
“...”
Javier wondered if the royal princess had asked for the compliment in order to see if he still remembered the promise he had made a long time ago.
“...”
It sent minor chills down his spine. Every time she showed this side of herself, Javier saw Lloyd in her. In fact, she did not care one bit about the things that did not concern her but was extremely meticulous and persistent when it was related to her gain. She did not wish to compromise one bit, down to every penny. She was the little Lloyd back when Javier tagged along to the adventures he had gone on.
Whew.
Princess Charlotte had gotten the incredible physical talent from her highly prolific swordmaster mother, and the wits from the world's cheapest father. Javier wondered just how deadly she was going to grow into, yet suppressed the feeling with a smile on the surface. He then crouched down to make eye contact with the princess and beamed the way he would never in front of anyone else.
"Please forgive me, Your Royal Highness. I really did not expect you to still remember the promise."
"It's okay, Unco Javia. It's not your fault."
"What do you mean?"
"Papa said nobody remembers the promise to give something without a written contract."
“...”
"So the person that is receiving something has to remember it."
“...”
"He said I have to think about everything I need to receive before the bedtime story every night."
"H-he did?"
"Yeah!"
“...Alright. I will give you a present as I promised."
"Really?!"
"Of course. What kind of present do you want, Your Royal Highness?"
Javier responded with a genuine smile, expecting some kind of a cute answer from the smart and talented trainee. He was ready to give candy, a new dress or shoes, or even a new training sword.
Anything.
Javier was determined to get her anything in his power.
"Special summon."
"Huh?"
"I want a summoned creature," said Charlotte, in a clear and eloquent manner. "Unco Ppodo is chubby, cushiony, and soft. Aunt Bangul is gentle and kind. Unco Hama is funny. Unco Bibo is fat and I like playing on his belly. Unco Ggomi is fun to ride on. But they only listen to Papa."
"So you want your own special summon?"
"Yeah! I want a creature of my own!"
"Your Royal Highness."
"Yeah."
"Please forgive me. That isn't something I can do."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know how and where to get a special summon," replied Javier, with a genuinely sorry smile on his face. He cautiously added so as to avoid disappointing the child. "Sir Ppodong, Bangul, Hamang, and Ggoming were all summoned by the duke, with the exception of Sir Bibeong who was most likely summoned by somebody else in the past. Unfortunately, I don't know how to summon creatures like that."
"...Aww..."
"Please forgive me. Hmm. What if we were to try this instead?"
"Huh?"
Light returned to the eyes of the child that was about to be disappointed. Javier responded with a smile on his face.
"It will be your seventh birthday, three days later."
"And?"
"Why don't you ask the duke for it for your birthday present?"
"Papa? For a summoned creature?"
"Yeah. I'm sure he'll be happy too, and he definitely knows how."
Javier was pretty positive Lloyd would go so far as to summon a special creature for his daughter as her birthday gift, although he may draft an agreement with his daughter who was going to turn seven in a few days.
Master Lloyd would never give anything away for free, especially a summoned creature, even if it was for his daughter's birthday.
Javier suspected Lloyd would demand something like a 20% cut in allowance, or a kiss on his cheeks on a daily basis.
He definitely would.
But the little kid standing in front of him was no pushover in negotiations like this. She was the daughter of the one-and-only, world's cheapest Lloyd. Javier had expected amazing business dealing skills to be put on display, and he was spot on.
"Papa!"
An hour passed, and Lloyd visited the training arena just when the session was about to be over. Princess Charlotte giggled and ran straight to her father's arms.
"I did whoosh-whoosh today!"
"Haha. Really?"
"Yeah! But Unco Javia didn't give me a present!"
"Hahaha. Really?"
"Yeah! But Unco Javia said you're going to give me a present instead!"
"Ahahaha... Really."
Glare! Lloyd immediately gave Javier a dirty look, but the grandmaster only nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders as he watched the tension rise between the father and the daughter.
"Papa. It's gonna be my birthday soon."
"Yeah, it is."
"Birthday present."
"What kind?"
"Special summon."
"But that's going to be really expensive."
"How much?"
"More expensive than him," replied Lloyd, pointing his finger at Javier. The grandmaster was clearly annoyed, but Lloyd continued casually. "Just kidding. But those things cost a lot. Is that going to be alright?"
"It's okay. How much?"
"Hmm. Six hundred kisses on Daddy's cheek?"
"Can I pay in installments?"
"No. Only a one-time payment would suffice."
"That's gonna be bad. My lips are gonna pop."
"Uh-oh. That's not good. Then do you want an installment?"
"Yeah!"
"As long as possible?"
"Yeah!"
"Then I will make it a six-hundred-day installment. You give me one kiss on Daddy's cheek per day."
"Okay!"
"But you know installments come with interests, right?"
"How much?"
"Hmm. I will be lenient on you. 10 percent interest, so that will be 60 extra kisses."
"...That's too much."
"You don't have to take the offer if you don't like it."
"Uh, I don't...don't like it."
"Then?"
"Your beard hurts if you don't shave, papa."
"So you want Daddy to shave every single day?"
"Yeah."
"Haha. Okay, then it is decided."
"Decided!"
"Okay, what do we need to do once something is decided?"
"Contract!"
"Good. That's my daughter."
Javier chuckled at the sight of father and daughter nonchalantly drafting and signing a contract on the spot, as he approached the duke.
"Master Lloyd. Are you sure about this?"
"Well, I guess it'll be alright if she likes the creature that I summon."
"I'm sure. If you would allow, I would like to wrap up today's lesson."
"Right. I will see you later."
"Be safe."
Lloyd left the training arena as Javier and Charlotte waved, and clenched his fist in excitement.
…Nice.
He had just won 660 kisses on his cheek from his daughter. That was two years' worth of supply.
And it was getting tougher to get kisses from her as of late. Thank goodness.
Lloyd lightheartedly headed back, with one of his biggest concerns taken care of, with the intent to draw out the summon while he was at it since there was time.
And since even I don't know what kind of special creature would be summoned. Should I do the premium draw, with cute-looking as one of the requirements? I should, since I have more than enough RP anyway.
Lloyd still had RP with him even after returning to Seoul after the battle against the king of hell eight years ago. Because he couldn't really expend them, he had accumulated 27,595 RP by now.
I saved this up so I could instantly make the breakthrough to swordmaster after reaching the high-tier sword expert level. But I don't think I could make it that far at this rate.
He had saved this up just in case, but there was no reason for him to pick up his shovel or sword in battles anymore. The lack of strife and life-threatening events prevented him from making progress, but it didn't really matter.
My wife keeps me safe anyway.
The queen was the strongest swordmaster in the entire continent, second only to Javier. Since there was no particular reason to be stingy here, Lloyd decided to expend the RP and summon an awesome creature to satiate his daughter's desire. He went into the cozy living chamber reserved for himself and the queen alone and took a deep breath before summoning the system window.
[Premium Random Draw]
[Drastically increase the likelihood of drawing the special creature the summoner wishes to summon, by spending a little more
RP than usual.]
[Conditional Random Draw (2) = 1,200 RP]
[Current RP: 27,595]
[Would you like to perform a Conditional Random Draw?]
[YES / NO]
Yes, obviously.
Lloyd quickly selected YES, only to be met with an unexpected surprise.
Ding-dong!
[Your Random Draw attempt failed.]
What?
It was absolutely astonishing.
[A special summon is meant to be accompanied by you, and you alone. However, you have just attempted to summon a creature with the intent to transfer the ownership to someone else, defeating the fundamental purpose of this random draw. Therefore, your attempt has failed.]
What.
Lloyd was flabbergasted as he asked the system.
Ugh, but I'm trying to summon a creature to keep my daughter company. I can't even do that?
[No.]
The system replied adamantly.
Ugh.
Lloyd had no choice here. He couldn't override what the system had decided not to allow. No wit or clever tactic would suffice here, and Lloyd knew this from experience.
I must accept it. What a bummer.
It seemed that he had rejoiced about the deal to get a good amount of kisses from his daughter for nothing. He had to terminate the contract.
Tsk. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to her without hurting her feelings. And I wonder what she's going to demand as compensation for the breach.
Lloyd picked up some speed, as he thought the sooner he informed the other party, the less his daughter was going to be disappointed. To his relief, Javier and his daughter were still at the training arena, trying to wrap up today's session. Lloyd put on an honest, apologetic face and approached Charlotte.
"Uhm. My daughter?"
"Yes, Papa!"
"I am so sorry to tell you this, but about the contract."
"Huh?"
"I don't think it will be possible."
"What?"
"The special summon said it can't come by your birthday."
"Whaaaaat?"
"It can only come way later."
“...”
The young girl clearly became sulky, and Lloyd was flustered.
"So... I'm afraid I'm going to have to get you something else for your birthday. But Daddy will get you something way cuter and nicer."
“...”
The girl's eyes became teary. This was a state of emergency for Lloyd.
"Uh, Charlotte? Well, daddy will..."
Lloyd had to try his best to calm his daughter down for the entire evening. He was clearly having a tough time and had to endure the uneasy feeling. And he was still unable to.
Ugh. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow.
Lloyd strengthened his resolve to successfully calm his daughter down the next morning before he went to bed next to his wife. He was willing to take her on a picnic to the outskirts of the royal capital in a nice carriage.
He had no idea that his six-year-old girl was starting to make use of the innate ability she was born with, even without realizing, that very moment.
Ding-dong!
[Random Draw]
[You may summon a special creature by spending RP.]
[The special summon will offer the summoner unconditional loyalty alongside various special abilities and services.]
[1 Draw = 50 RP]
Charlotte Frontera Magentano, the little royal princess who had woken up from her sleep to use the toilet, began seeing the system message windows in front of her as though it was fated.
