Half a Father

Leonard had initially opposed leaving outright. Only after Pallez described in detail how terrifying Amon was did he accept the suggestion, writing Klein a letter in the process.

The letter made little difference to Klein. He had already decided to head to the Southern Continent once the Mummy incident was over, and had made ample preparations, including asking around about conditions there and sending Danitz ahead to keep abreast of current events.

But Neph was ultimately forced to get involved in the Mummy incident anyway.

Considering the effects of aggregation of Extraordinary Characteristics, Neph took Ais the rat away with her and told Klein to ask for her back before he began his operation. She did this despite feeling that, under the influence of something as enormous as Sefirah Castle, an ordinary Parasite would hardly make much difference.

Klein had no objections, nor could he possibly have any. So, just as before, Neph took Ais into a restaurant, then let her out to forage.

This time, however, someone else brought Ais back.

When a shadow fell across her, Neph merely looked up in confusion-then froze at the sight of the Monocle over the visitor's right eye.

"-Hi?" Neph ventured.

An unidentified white object was tossed toward her. Neph caught it instinctively, then looked closely and discovered it was a trembling Ais.

For a moment, she had no idea how to feel, so she could only look at Amon before her. The Angel of Time asked in a tone of mild wonder, "You can't even afford pet food? You actually make her steal her own meals?"

"That's right," Neph replied calmly.

Across from her, Amon leaned languidly against his chair, smiling. "Then I suppose getting you to treat me to a meal is out of the question."

Neph blinked, then heard