After that, Ars said he would prepare the necessary paperwork for the adoption process, so Guldo and I left the office and headed to the guest room where we stayed last time. After entering the room and sitting on the sofa together, there was a brief silence that lasted for a few minutes. The situation was somewhat embarrassing.

As I was thinking about starting a conversation, Guldo spoke up first, “…Are you really glad to be adopted?”

“On the contrary, I’d like to ask you the same question. After all, from your perspective, I’m a complete stranger, right?”

“That’s true, but for me, Lark is no longer a stranger.”

“…For me too, Guldo-san is not a stranger. You take care of my daily life and train me for combat… I can’t thank you enough.”

“I see… Well, that’s enough of that conversation. Nice to meet you again, Lark.”

“Understood. Nice to meet you too, Guldo-san. I mean, since we’re family now, I have to change the way I address you, right? Nice to meet you, Father.”

When I addressed him as such, Guldo, now my stepfather, blushed and smiled. After a little while in the room, we were interrupted by a knock on the door. When we responded and opened it, a maid was standing in front of us. It seemed that Ars had finished creating the documents and had sent her to fetch us.

When we returned to the office, Ars smiled at us. “You both look much happier than earlier. I guess you’ve come to terms with being a family,” he said.

“Well, I suppose so… By the way, have you already created the documents?” Guldo nodded and asked for confirmation.

“Yes, Lark-kun is an abandoned child, so it wasn’t too difficult. Oh, but please stay here for a few more days. I’ve only prepared the paperwork, the official procedures haven’t been completed yet.”

“Ah, I see. Is there anything else you need from us?”

“Well, actually, there is one more thing. Would you both like to live in this castle for a while?”

“Huh? Why?”

When asked in response to a sudden and unexpected comment, Ars turned towards me and replied:

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but Lark-kun, you’re always going back and forth between the guild, the castle, and the inn, right? It must be tough. I want you to continue your work as a private tutor, and I think it would be easier if you lived here.”

“That’s true, but… wouldn’t that cause trouble for the people in the castle?”

“Increasing the number of children and adults by one each wouldn’t cause any inconvenience. On the contrary, Lark-kun can be a good listener for the children, so I would be grateful,” Ars answered.

As Ars spoke, my stepfather furrowed his eyebrows and said, “I don’t necessarily have to live in the castle, you know.”

“No, no, I want to give Lark-kun the opportunity to help Riolas practice as well, Guldo. He respects you and I think he would be very happy. And besides, it must be tough for the master to keep using the teleportation magic to go back and forth between the guild and the castle like before.” Ars rapidly presented his reasons for persuasion.

However, it seemed that my stepfather was still hesitant. “…Lark is fine, but I have guild work to do. It’s better for me to live at home.”

Then, Ars said something outrageous. “In that case, why don’t you just take a break from work?”

“What!?”

“If it’s for the sake of training, I’m sure the guild would be okay with you taking a break. As a receptionist, you’re not that useful anyway, so it’s easy for you to take a break, right?”

“Well…that’s true, but…”

“And besides, you’ve been giving up your days off to work, so I don’t think it’s a punishment for you to take a long vacation.”

“Maybe, but…wait, how do you know about my day off situation?” Guldo raised an eyebrow.

Ars then made an ‘oops’ face as if he had made a mistake, then quickly put on a smile. “Well, you know…we’re friends, so.”

“…Wait, you’ve been spying not only on Lark but also on me? I had no idea…,” Guldo muttered in shock.

“Well, you know, the spy I had for you was a veteran who had been working for me for years, so it’s not surprising that you didn’t notice,” Ars sent strange encouragement towards Guldo who had fallen into a slump.

‘Well, it’s quite impressive that there was a spy at a level that even Guild and I didn’t notice.’

As the conversation took a sudden turn, a knock on the door echoed in the office. Wallis peeked his head through the door. “Father, are we not doing magic training today?”

“Oh, sorry. The conversation went on a bit longer than I expected. Well then, Guldo, think about what we talked about earlier. Shall we go, Lark-kun?”

With that, Ars took Wallis’s and my hand and moved to the training ground.

And so, the training for today began, with the conversation left unclear.

‘Well, living with father and everyone in the castle will surely be fun, so let’s think positively.’

◈◈◈

A few days later, in the end, my father and I ended up living in the castle. The reason being that during a recent dinner, Ars had revealed to his family that I had become my father’s adopted son, and at the same time, he had declared that my father and I would be living in the castle from now on. As a result, Emma and the children were ecstatic about it, and to be honest, I was quite happy too, so I think it turned out well in the end.

Today, I received a summons from Ars and came to his office. Apparently, the formal adoption procedure had just been completed a while ago. He then asked me to check my status, so I immediately appraised myself. As a result, the name on my status board had changed from just “Lark” to “Lark Voltoris.” Voltoris is my father’s last name.

“It looks like you have Voltoris attached to your name now.”

“Yeah, it seems like I’m officially his son now. That’s good, that’s good.”

Looking at the newly attached last name, I felt happy for some reason. And so, my new life had begun.

[1] In the raws, it says here as Stepfather, but I think translating it as Father will have a higher emotional impact in this context.