On the balcony of the restaurant.

  “Father, I’m thirsty. I’m going down to drink some water; wait for me here, I’ll be back soon.” Amy placed her longsword off to the side before rushing downstairs.

  Mag smiled as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Sword training was one of his daily activities, and practicing every night for an hour before bed had been quite beneficial to his swordsmanship.

  We’ve been training for close to an hour now; I’m also getting a little thirsty. Mag also placed his longsword down before heading downstairs. He was still a little worried about leaving Amy on her own, even if she had only gone to drink some water.

  After arriving at the bottom of the staircase, Mag was just about to walk into the room when he suddenly stopped before carefully casting his gaze toward the entrance of the restaurant.

  As opposed to drinking water, Amy was dragging the two ducks by their necks toward the entrance in a sneaky manner that Mag found to be rather amusing. At the same time, he was rather confused as he thought to himself, What’s Amy doing there?

  “Meow~”


  Ugly Duckling followed along behind her with an urgent and concerned look in its eyes.

  “Shh, be quiet, Ugly Duckling!” Amy glared at Ugly Duckling before shooting a glance at the staircase as she whispered, “It’ll be bad if Father catches us!”


  “Meow.” Ugly Duckling gave a feeble cry before falling silent.

  She doesn’t want me to find out? Mag stuck out his head again and watched as Amy made her way over to the entrance. Where was she planning to take these two ducks behind his back?

  Amy placed the two ducks onto the ground, and both of them began to pant heavily, having just regained the ability to breathe as Amy had released their necks. Both of them then immediately tried to get away from her all horrified.

  “Stop!” Amy grabbed onto the ducks’ necks again, and then got up onto the tips of her toes to reach for the door handle. After a brief struggle, she was finally able to reach the handle with her fingertips, and the door was opened.

  “Phew.” Amy exhaled before looking behind her in a guilty manner, and then glanced at the two failing ducks in her hands. She hurriedly released them to give them a chance to breathe, and then grabbed onto their necks again before carefully dragging them out the door.

  From Mag’s hiding spot, he could only see a faint profile of Amy and the two ducks. However, they didn’t go very far. Amy placed the two ducks down in front of the entrance, and then said something to them before a ball of flames appeared in her hand.

  Is she going to roast them on her own? Mag raised an eyebrow before silently making his way over to the entrance and looking outside.

  The two ducks were staring at Amy with sheer horror in their eyes, and Ugly Duckling hurriedly positioned itself between Amy and the two ducks in an urgent manner, but there was also a hint of horror in its eyes as it stared at the fireball in Amy’s hand.

  Amy looked at the two Red-top Tricolor Ducks and slowly leaned down with an expectant look in her eyes as she murmured to herself, “These fat ugly ducks must be super delicious when roasted. They’ll be just like the roast geese from that restaurant. I’ll roast them until they’re golden brown, then pull off a drumstick to eat; it’ll be so good!”


  “Quack, quack, quack!!!”


  The two ducks flapped their wings in a terrifying frenzy, trying to get away from this demonic little girl. However, their legs had been bound, and they’d been tied together, so they couldn’t go anywhere. As such, they could only look on as the ball of fire slowly approached them, sending terrifying waves of scorching heat surging through the air.

  “Sigh, I wanted to eat the two of you, but Ugly Duckling clearly doesn’t want that, so I’ll let you go. I can’t let Ugly Duckling experience the pain of losing its parents.” After heaving a faint sigh, the flames in Amy’s hand were compressed to around the size of a chopstick, and she used it to slice through the ropes that had bound the two ducks, reducing the ropes to piles of ashes.

  The two ducks collapsed to the ground in fear as they felt a burst of scorching heat flash between their feet, and both of them wore blank expressions, seemingly yet to comprehend had just happened. In fact, they were to so frightened that they’d even forgotten to run away.

  “If you don’t go now, I’m going to change my mind. Father is going to cook both of you into roast ducks tomorrow!” Amy threatened as her eyes began to light up again.

  “Quack, quack!!”


  Both the Red-top Tricolor Ducks seemed to have returned to their senses at once, and they flapped their wings as they flew toward the plaza as quickly as they could. One of them was so panicked that it almost crashed into a tree, sending a flurry of dead leaves falling onto the ground in the process before the two ducks vanished, turning into black spots in the distance.

  “Meow, meow~!”


  Ugly Duckling looked on with excitement in its eyes at the sight of the two departing ducks, then turned toward Amy, and rubbed its little head against her foot.

  So she was worried that Ugly Duckling would be sad. Mag shook his head with a smile. It turned out that she was quite kind-hearted, after all.

  “Alright, I know you’re really happy,” Amy stroked Ugly Duckling’s head and looked at the blissful expression on its face with a smile before she suddenly asked, “But have you heard of the saying that the parents’ debt must be repaid by the child?”


  “Meow~”


  Ugly Duckling looked up at Amy with a perplexed look in its eyes.

  “It’s alright, you’ll understand in the future.” Amy picked up Ugly Duckling, and then looked up into the sky before entering the restaurant remorsefully as she murmured to herself, “It’s so said seeing these two roast ducks fly away. What am I going to tell Father? He spent an entire day to catch them……”


  Having seen all there was to be seen, Mag silently went upstairs again. Amy had clearly released the two ducks behind his back as she’d been worried that he wouldn’t agree to let them go. However, he was rather intrigued to see what kind of excuse she would come up with to inform him of this.

  “Please have some water, Father.”


  After waiting on the balcony for a while, Mag turned to discover Amy carefully making her way toward him, holding a cup of water in her hands that she was raising above her head to offer to Mag.

  “Thank you, Amy.” Mag smiled as he accepted the cup of water before taking a sip. It appeared that she was trying to soften him up before delivering the bad news.

  Amy looked up at Mag with an apologetic expression on her face as she said, “I’m sorry, Father, I let the two ugly ducks go because I thought Ugly Duckling would be sad.”


  “That’s alright. It’s a good thing that you’re considerate of your friends’ feelings.” Mag shook his head with a smile as he looked at Amy with approval in his eyes.

  Not only was she learning to be considerate of the feelings of others, more importantly, she hadn’t tried to tell a lie. It was very important to him that Amy had chosen to be honest in this situation.

  A smile appeared on Amy’s face as she nodded, and said, “But it’s alright; even though I let them go, we still have their child, so they’ll have to come back sooner or later.”


  Mag gave a slightly resigned smile as he patted Amy’s head, and said, “Let’s practice for a bit longer, then go to bed.”


  “Alright.” Amy nodded before picking up her longsword before imitating Mag as practice resumed……

  The next morning, Mag had just finished making everyone’s breakfasts when Yabemiya greeted him outside the restaurant, and asked, “Boss, what’s this stinky tofu?”