Amid the panicked crowd pushing and shoving, Emilia was separated from Cardan.
A while later, once she had gathered her senses, Emilia realized she had accidentally wandered into an unfamiliar alley. She remembered what Elvin had once warned her, that the narrow alleys around the plaza were often dangerous and that stepping into one could mean getting robbed instantly. She was terrified.
Just then, a group of thugs suddenly appeared, sending Emilia scrambling to hide in fear.
Emilia thought she had managed to hide successfully, but the three men walked right up to her anyway, sneering. "Hiding well, are we? Look at this cute little kid. We could make a good bit of coin off her."
Terrified, Emilia warned them they had better not touch her, or they would regret it. Unfazed, the men only stepped closer.
Emilia tried using everything she had to bind them with magic, but her mana was still far too limited to pull it off, and instead she was seized and lifted off the ground.
Just as Emilia was terrified out of her mind, a burst of magic suddenly shot out from the pendant Tatau had given her, wounding one of the men.
While Emilia was still celebrating quietly, another man grabbed hold of her leg, trying to tie her up. She was telling herself this was it, this life was over, when someone suddenly charged in and beat the thugs senseless.
The young boy turned to her and asked coldly, "If you can't even protect yourself, why come to a place like this?"
She told him she could protect herself.
"What? With that?" He muttered something under his breath and turned to leave. "Fine, I'll walk you back to the plaza."
Looking at the face in front of her, Emilia realized this was the same boy she had crashed into at the plaza before. She thanked him profusely and said, "Just call me Emilia. That's fine."
After learning that his name was Addie, Emilia cheerfully jumped back in, landing a few extra punches on the thugs for good measure.
Once the men were tied up, Addie pulled her along back toward the plaza. As they neared it, Addie let go of her hand and told her to just keep walking straight ahead.
Emilia quickly grabbed his hand again and asked, "You're not coming with me?"
Addie smiled. "It's fine. There'll be people to protect you once you reach the plaza, and until then, I'll still be watching over you from behind."
It took some effort, but he finally managed to push Emilia out of the alley. And when she turned around, all she heard was his voice calling out behind her, telling her to be careful.
Emilia felt a pang of regret, unsure when she would ever see him again.
Reaching the plaza, all she found was a scene of devastation. Scraps of paper scattered everywhere. As she stood there reading through the chaos, Fay came rushing over and threw his arms around her, gasping, "Found you." Then he quickly pulled back to check on her. "Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Emilia almost said she was fine out of habit. But then she stopped herself, realizing she actually had family beside her now. So why did she still have to carry all her fear alone?
Seeing Cardan running toward her, fear written all over his face, Emilia forced a smile. "Papa, I'm okay."
But before she could even finish, Cardan had already pulled her into a tight embrace, his whole body trembling. And that was when Emilia finally could not hold back her emotions any longer. She burst into tears.
"Papa, I was so scared. In that dark alley, I ran into some terrifying men. I really thought I'd never see you again."
After she had cried herself out, Cardan carried her home to the manor.
That night, Emilia tossed and turned. Unable to sleep, she stepped out of her room and wandered around, noticing light spilling from Cardan's room, and went inside.
The first thing that caught her eye was a portrait of Cardan and her mother. So this was what the woman who had given birth to her had looked like.
Startled to see Emilia there, Cardan flinched and knocked over his glass of wine, asking, bewildered, why she was up.
Seeing him, Emilia ran over happily, saying she was just taking a little walk. Cardan said sternly that staying up this late would stunt her growth. With that, he scooped his daughter up and carried her to bed to help her sleep.
Emilia asked if it was because of what happened earlier that he could not sleep either.
Cardan laughed, tucking her into the blankets, and said, "Afraid of what? Sounds to me like you're the one who's too scared to sleep. Go to sleep now. It's all over."
The next day, father and daughter met up with Fay. And after hearing the analysis of what had happened the day before, it seemed to be tied to a large-scale group of terrorists. The men from the day before had been captured and brought back to the manor, where Cardan personally interrogated and dealt with them.
Hearing this, Emilia only regretted not throwing in a few more punches the day before, just for good measure.
Fay, sitting beside her, playfully clung to her arm. "Emilia, let's have lunch together."
Cardan's face darkened as he yanked his daughter away, snapping, "Back off, brat."
Then Cardan sighed and said that if she wanted to go out and have fun, he would let her. After all, yesterday it was thanks to this brat helping break the magical seal that he had been able to save her.
Fay blamed himself heavily for taking so long to undo the seal, which was why he had found Emilia so late. Seeing him beat himself up over it, Emilia smiled and praised him. "You did an amazing job, Fay."
It was only then that Elvin finally noticed Emilia's black hair and pointed out that it should have only lasted a single day, leaving Emilia just as surprised.
All at once, everything went dark before her eyes, and she collapsed.
When she came to, she heard Cardan angrily gripping Tatau by the collar, demanding he heal her at once. From what Tatau said, she learned she had been unconscious for two whole days. Once she noticed that her hair color and the mana in her blood had not reverted back, she realized she simply could not expel the excess mana on her own.
Thankfully, over those two days, Tatau had brought in small saplings capable of absorbing excess mana, which was the only reason she had woken up at all.
Seeing the worry in Cardan's eyes, all she could do was take his hand and reassure him. "I'm fine, Papa."
Just then, the nanny came in to tell Cardan that the master had arrived. Cardan had no choice but to leave the nanny to look after Emilia.
The moment Cardan left, Fay climbed in through the window, originally planning to scold the servants for not taking proper care of her, only to find Emilia lying there in bed like this. He gazed at her worriedly for a long moment, then thought to himself. Back then, he had sensed something strange in the flow of her mana, almost as if two separate currents of power had been tangled together.
Sue and Doe, sitting nearby, were also worried sick about Emilia, leaning down to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead and telling her not to get sick again, since Emilia meant so much to them.
The next morning, when Emilia awoke, she found Cardan sitting there watching her intently, and smiled to say she already felt much better. The pain was completely gone.
Cardan finally relaxed a little. But right after that, Emilia collapsed onto the bed again, sending Cardan into a panic as he called for a doctor.
A while later, he gently carried in a bowl of porridge, feeding it to Emilia with great care. Once she had finished eating, he indulged her by letting her ride on his shoulders and carrying her around everywhere.