Ophis’ Growth

Cleria knew that the Claire that was running in front of her was just a hologram. Even then, she still tried catching her but with a wry smile on her face since she'd be seeing her daughter's disappointed expression after not seeing her for so long.

However, to her surprise, she was able to catch Claire, 'What!?'

Claire, on the other hand, was not thinking any of this and just savored the familiar warmth of her mother that she hadn't felt for months. Although she noticed that something was missing, she was already incredibly happy at the moment.

Cleria silently turned to Kisuke with her eyes wide open as she tightly clutched Claire and only to see him giving a wink and a thumbs up. With an expression that was about to tear up, she silently whispered in his direction, "Thank you."

A few moments later, Masaomi also appeared within the detection range of the communication device and was shocked that Cleria was hugging the illusion of their daughter, "Wait, you can do that!?"

"Papa!" Claire shouted when she heard his voice but she didn't want to separate from her mother so she just reached out one arm towards him.

"Well, whatever!" Masaomi immediately discarded his questions and joined in on the family hug.

The three of them stayed like that for a few minutes until Kisuke scanned the long couch on their side and transferred a holographic version of it to Cleria and Masaomi's side.

With that, Cleria and Masaomi sat down with Claire on the lap of the former and at that point, Claire finally noticed what had been missing and it was her parents' smell which saddened her a bit.

"What's wrong, baby?"

"...I can't smell Mama.", answered Claire dejectedly.

Cleria then started chuckling while pinching Claire's face, "Silly girl~ Mama's not here so how could you smell me?"

"Ah!" Claire finally realized that this was essentially a video call and turned to Kisuke with bright eyes, "Kisuke-niichan! This is amazing!"

"Fufufu~ As long as I put my mind to it, Kisuke-niichan can do almost anything~!" Kisuke then took out something from his storage and inserted it into the console for the communication device, "But that's not all. We also have this!"

Within a brief moment, a display screen appeared in front of the three showing what seems to be a list of image and video files.

"This is?", asked Masaomi.

"It is what it looks like and you can operate it yourselves."

Hearing that, Masaomi curiously touched one of the image files randomly and it suddenly showed a picture of Claire eating sweets with Ophis and Hestia, "Hoh~ This is amazing and useful."

Seeing the picture then prompted Claire to start talking about it excitedly. From then, Claire continued narrating her adventures while viewing the pictures and videos with Cleria and Masaomi.

A few moments later, a picture depicting Claire, Ophis and Tanis appeared, which reminded the kid, "Ta-chan! Come over! I'll introduce you to mama and papa!", urged Claire to one of her best friends.

However, Tanis started fidgeting as she looked around nervously, not knowing what to do. It was then that it clicked in Kisuke's mind, "Ah! All this time, we've been speaking in Japanese!"

Even Claire didn't notice it as she started speaking Japanese the moment she heard her mother's voice.

"That really slipped out of my mind too...", muttered Koneko, as she found Tanis' lost expression a bit amusing.

Kisuke patted Tanis' head and took out a small candy, "I'm sorry about that. Here, take it."

Tanis curiously looked at the candy on Kisuke hand, but she got a whiff of its sweet and delicious scent. She immediately picked it up and put it in her mouth. 'Looks like she developed quite a bad habit.', thought Kisuke with a wry smile.

Although the candy looked hard, it was incredibly soft and Tanis started chewing on it, relishing its sweetness and a bit of a sour flavor that tingled her mouth in a very pleasant way. After finishing it, she craved for more but didn't ask for it. It was a good development for Tanis who didn't even have a shred of self-control when she came to them.

"Can you understand me now?" Kisuke asked in Japanese.

Tanis stared at Kisuke in amazement because it was a language she had never heard before but clearly understood, "Yais!" She tried answering back with the same language but there was still awkwardness which was normal.

"Ta-chan, Ta-chan! Come over, quick!", urged Claire again.

This time, understanding her words, Tanis happily ran over, "Yais!"

.

.

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After an hour or so, Claire fell asleep on her mother's lap and Tanis also took the spot next to her, [It felt like I've gained another daughter~], said Claire as she caressed both of their heads gently.

"You look happy about it.", commented Kisuke while chuckling.

[Of course. This is the second time Claire found a friend.] Cleria smiled gently.

Masaomi, meanwhile, looked toward Ophis and said, [You also have our gratitude, Ophis-sama.]

Ophis, who has been silently and endlessly chewing on snacks finally spoke up for the first time, "Your gratitude is unneeded."

Naturally, Ophis didn't say that to be rude but she really couldn't remember doing anything that warranted their gratitude so she has no need for it.

Kisuke's hand landed on her head and said, "He meant to thank you for taking care of Claire."

However, Ophis only looked up to him and tilted her head in confusion as she still couldn't remember doing such a thing.

Kisuke instantly guessed what was going on in Ophis' mind and added, "Taking care of someone means looking out for them and keeping them safe from harm. You've been doing that, haven't you?"

"Oh." Realization finally dawned on Ophis. Since she was only doing what she wanted to do, 'taking care' of someone never really crossed her mind, 'So this is what it means to take care of someone.'

Ophis then turned back to Masaomi with a proud expression, "Your gratitude, I shall accept it."

Cleria and Masaomi looked at each other before chuckling. If it wasn't confirmed that she was the Dragon God, they wouldn't believe that she was the one and only even if someone told them.