A Father's Duty

Irene was about to rush out when she was stopped by Heine.

"Mistress, his majesty has asked for you to meet him in the throne room. Apparently it is an important matter as well. His majesty needs your presence immediately." Heine said making Irene torn between searching for Noctis and her daughter and the Majesty's summons.

She finally made a choice to relent on finding Noctis at the moment as it is rare for his majesty to summon her to the throne room.

She looked at the direction at where she smelled Noctis unique scent and burned the direction to her mind, she went back to answer his majesty's summons.

Meanwhile back in the wasteland of death

I am living my life like a hermit as I planted the onion seeds and garlic seeds. I don't have any ideas about planting as I regretted about the fact that I didn't read books in the library about farming to help me get started when I fetched Kagura and Erza. I tried doing the basics back in my old world as I put them in pots before burying them down and separated them with some space and watered them.

After planting them, I am sweating like crazy as I washed myself. After washing, I prepared breakfast for the now three chipmunks.

I have bought supplies when I fetched my daughters enough for us to last for 3 months.

I made a fried milkfish for Pitou while I made chicken curry for Kagura and sweet and sour chicken for Erza to celebrate our permanent house.

Even though I don't have anything to offer right now, with my stocks on hand, I can still serve a customer, be it food and bedding in the 2nd floor.

The room for my customers are your typical inn room, the only difference is the mattress in there. I asked the system about the quality of the mattress there and I got this.

(For my fellow Filipino Countrymen who watches Cong TV read this in Yow's indian accent 😂😂😂😂)

[We only offer the best mattress for the customer. This mattress provide the best comfort and helps the customer regain their stamina. When they woke up all fatigue in their body is released and they will wake up refreshed and full of energy.]

After preparing their breakfast, I woke the trio up and was surprised that all of them are already awake.

"Erza, Pitou, Kagura. Let's go food is ready." I called for them but they are still dazed, maybe they just woke up. I played with them for a few minutes, tickling them and playing with them until they woke up fully.

After playing, we went down and had our breakfast. Pitou was the first one to dig in as she eyed the Milkfish with shining eyes while Kagura is looking at her food with gusto. Erza has been looking at her food with drool in her mouth and regained her senses as she wiped her mouth and they started digging in.

In this world, rice is food for provisions and they only used it for cooking porridge, but I know that there are other ways to cook rice and I introduced the chipmunks to rice early on for them to see the glory of rice.

They grabbed a handful of rice with the serving spoon and paired it up with their food. Only Pitou ate her milkfish without rice but I don't mind, if she wants to eat it that way, so be it.

Looking at the chipmunks in front of me, my mind wandered around for a few minutes as I unconsciously muttered in a low voice

"I wish you were here to see this."

Maybe Erza heard me or noticed me, she pulled my shirt as she invited me to eat with them. Shaking my thoughts away, I joined them in the breakfast.

After we had our breakfast, since I don't need to worry about a customer right now, I taught Pitou about alphabet and I thought Kagura to read. As for Erza i'm teaching her about multiplication table. I taught them patiently and told them if they have any question they can ask me about it.

In a span of few hours, I'm astounded of Pitou's intelligence. She can already speak in a fluent way that even Kagura is jealous about it, but I told her that nothing beats hard work to motivate her.

In the original, she became the strongest in mermaid heel to be able to match Erza in a fight due to her talent in the sword and hard work.

Erza have mastered the multiplication table. Kagura felt left out so she promised herself to work hard harder than anyone.

Its better to mold one's character when they are young as they are a clean slate and you can influence the path of their character growth.

I don't want Pitou to become a sadist who kills for fun and curiosity like in the original.

I let them play in the playground outside the house as Pitou was the first one to rush out and ran to the running wheel and ran like a hamster in it. Erza followed suit as she looked at Kagura who's not yet finished at her studies.

Seeing that, I urged Kagura to take a rest to play with them but she shook her head as she said that she wants to finish her studies first before she plays outside. I told Erza to go on and just play with Pitou first as I guided Kagura patiently.

After 10 minutes, we finished her activities. And urged her to go on and play with them but she asked for the next activity sheet from me and I said in a soft voice.

"Although studying is important, taking a rest is also important Kagura. Knowledge is never-ending, you cannot master them even if you spend your whole life studying. You can only do so much in your entire life so go do what you wanted to do and not what you are required to do." I said to her as she reluctantly nodded.

"Don't worry, if you're done playing and you still want to learn, I will teach you." I said with a smile as she finally smiled and ran to the backyard and played with Erza and Pitou.

Meanwhile, as I am cleaning the table and wiping the bar counter, a man entered the place and looked at the place in interest. I didn't think a person would actually venture in the wasteland of death, but when I saw his face, I immediately knew how he can travel in the wasteland of death without worries.

The man is a tall, muscular man with shoulder-length orange hair (usually kept slicked back) and a stubbly beard.

As he inched closer to the counter, he finally spoke.

"Its a rare sight, to see a tavern in this land where no man dares to explore." He said.

"Well, aren't you also exploring this land?" I replied back with a smile, he's a potential customer so I treat all of them amicably.

"Thats true, I guess. So? Mr. Keeper, what are you serving today?" He asked.

"Just call me Noctis. As for the menu, we don't have one as of now but I can whip up something for you. As for beverages, we don't have any yet as I have to brew it and I just opened up this place." I said as I explained why there's nothing he could order yet.

"Hm. Then can you whip something up? I've ventured into this land because I've been searching for something that is in this place." He said and continued.

"Anyway, I'm Gildarts, Gildarts Clive." He said to me.