"Is there anyone else who wants to visit their family later?"
Lothar looked at Fringilla. As far as he knew, among all the retainers, she had the most living relatives.
"I'll pass. I've only been away from home for a little over a year—I haven't even had time to miss them."
Fringilla shrugged. "Besides, I've got nothing to say to that old man of mine. Every time he sleeps, it's for decades at least. Maybe he still hasn't noticed I ran away from home."
Lothar was relieved. True enough—among longevity races like vampires, who could lie in coffins and sleep for ten years at a time, emotional detachment between family members was perfectly normal.
He then turned to the Candle Knight, who stood quietly nearby. "What about you? Do you want to have a proper talk with the Elector Prince?"
"Better not."
Vivianna hesitated slightly. Compared to the Elector Prince, whom she had rarely met since childhood and who had always been stern, never letting her experience what fatherly love was, she would rather use this opportunity to visit the German Emperor.
As for the others—
Most of them had no remaining attachments in their original worlds. Otherwise, they would not have been recruited to another world by a single word from Lothar.
The Voice of the Babel Tower was not merely for the retainers to visit their families. It was actually an item that allowed Lothar to selectively recruit retainers from the world of Yesterday's Great Ship, reducing the randomness of his usual draws.
Its usefulness was actually considerable.
For instance, when recruiting a four-star retainer, there was a vast difference to Lothar between getting a combatant and getting a technical specialist skilled in crafting agricultural tools.
The former was almost useless to Lothar now, while the latter was