"A cold?"
Uta jumped down from the sleeping Iron Thunder, carrying Bella, who had also fallen asleep, and regarded the man standing before her with suspicion.
"Yeah. I was sparring with Mihawk earlier and accidentally fell into the water."
Shamrock delivered the lie with impressive composure, maintaining the same carefree smile he had carefully practiced to imitate Shanks.
Uta didn't question him further. Instead, she walked straight toward him and slowly raised her hand.
"You've caught a cold, and you're still not taking care of yourself? It's freezing out here, with snow everywhere!"
Shamrock immediately tensed.
As Uta's fingers drew closer to his head, his instincts screamed at him to raise his hand and knock hers away. Somehow, he managed to suppress the impulse.
'What's she doing? Is she checking whether I have a fever?'
A surprisingly warm thought crossed his mind.
'How considerate. My dear nie—'
An inflatable hammer suddenly appeared in Uta's hand.
BONK!
She brought it straight down on his head.
Shamrock froze.
"And you're still wearing clothes this thin! Aren't you worried about getting even sicker? You're a grown man, Shanks. Stop making everyone worry about you!"
Holding Bella in one arm and the inflatable hammer in the other, Uta continued scolding him with an thoroughly displeased expression.
"Ahahaha! You're right. I suppose I do make people worry about me sometimes."
Shamrock awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
A vein throbbed violently at his temple, but he immediately used Life Return to force it back down.
At this rate, suppressing his irritation might actually give him high blood pressure.
He silently added another grievance to the increasingly lengthy list of things for which he intended to blame Shanks.
'Damn that idiot brother of mine! If he didn't dress like such a slob, I wouldn't be standing around in the freezing cold wearing this ridiculous outfit, getting smacked over the head!'
"Hmph. At least you understand."
Uta seemed satisfied with his answer.
She glanced around, searching for something that might help. Unfortunately, the surrounding forest was almost completely barren, and the man in front of her was dressed far too lightly for the weather.
Then her eyes settled on the enormous, thick cloak draped behind Loki.
Her expression brightened.
"I've got it!"
Without another word, she reached toward the sword hanging from Shamrock's waist.
His hand instinctively moved to stop her, but the moment his fingers brushed his sleeve, he froze.
He couldn't expose the left arm concealed beneath his cloak.
Besides, he was supposed to be Shanks. He would simply have to tolerate whatever his niece decided to do.
And so, grinding his teeth, Shamrock watched helplessly as Uta drew Cerberus, his treasured sword, straight out of its sheath.
"Huh?"
Uta examined the weapon curiously.
"Gryphon's handle looks a little different from before."
"…Oh, that."
Shamrock immediately scrambled for an explanation.
"When I took it to Mihawk for maintenance, I asked him to make a few adjustments while he was at it."
He had absolutely no idea whether that excuse would work.
"Really? Well, whatever. Gryphon's handle always seems to look a little different whenever I see it anyway."
Fortunately, Uta didn't pursue the matter.
Instead, she cheerfully carried the sword over to the sleeping Loki and began hacking away at his enormous fur cloak.
Shamrock remained rooted to the spot.
His face twitched painfully as he watched his priceless weapon being used like a common pair of fabric scissors.
'Endure it, Cerberus. You have to endure!'
This was the personal weapon of a Celestial Dragon and the commander of God's Knights. Under normal circumstances, Cerberus received nothing but the finest treatment imaginable.
Yet here it was, being used for something as crude as cutting up an old fur cloak.
The indignity was almost unbearable.
Shamrock was still silently mourning his sword's humiliation when Uta returned and tossed him an enormous section of the cloak.
"Here. Put this on."
She smiled.
"You shouldn't feel cold anymore, right?"
Shamrock stared at the old, rather shabby fur.
His immediate reaction was disgust.
But then he looked into Uta's bright, expectant eyes.
Suddenly, refusing became considerably more difficult.
After a moment of internal struggle, he reluctantly accepted the cloak.
'This is just so I can get Cerberus back.'
He repeated the thought several times.
'That's right. I'm doing this for my sword.'
Once he had wrapped himself in the fur and reclaimed his weapon, returning Cerberus safely to its sheath, Uta suddenly noticed something else.
"Huh? Shanks, where's your ring?"
"Ring?"
Shamrock went completely blank.
Then realization struck him.
'Of course!'
Shanks had a daughter who was practically grown up and preparing to get married herself. Naturally, he must already have been married!
How could Shamrock have overlooked such an obvious detail?
He hurriedly invented another explanation.
"Oh, that? I took it off before sparring with Mihawk. I didn't want to damage it during the fight."
"Really?"
Uta looked him up and down again.
"Something about you feels awfully strange today, Shanks."
Shamrock immediately realized that he needed to change the subject.
At the very least, he had to finish his mission before she discovered anything conclusive.
He forced another smile.
"Does it? Maybe it's just the cold getting to me."
Then he brightened.
"I'm sure listening to one of Uta-chan's songs would help me recover much faster!"
Once again, he displayed what he believed was Shanks' trademark grin.
Unfortunately, this time Uta noticed something unmistakably wrong.
Shamrock's personal feelings were coming into increasingly obvious conflict with his mission, making his attempts at appearing natural even less convincing.
And Uta could see it.
"Why does your smile look so weird today?"
She tilted her head.
"Come on, relax. Smile normally!"
Uta raised her fingers beside her cheeks and demonstrated with a bright, cheerful smile.
"See? Like this!"
Shamrock looked at her.
For a moment, he simply stared at the genuine happiness on her face.
Then, almost unconsciously, the corners of his mouth began to rise.
This time, he wasn't deliberately imitating Shanks.
The smile that appeared was entirely his own.
"Exactly! That's much better!"
Uta nodded approvingly.
"That stiff expression and weird smile you were making earlier were seriously strange."
She lowered her hands and continued cheerfully.
"So, Shanks, which song would you like to hear?"
"How about one from when you were little? Something you haven't released yet."
Shamrock had done his research.
He knew Uta had dreamed of becoming a singer since childhood and had started singing when she was very young.
What he wanted now was to hear one of those songs she had never publicly performed at a concert.
Uta smiled at his request.
The two found a place to sit, and she looked toward the dark forest in the distance before beginning to sing.
Where does this gentle breeze come from?
Even when I ask, the sky offers no answer.
Where will this song eventually find its way?
I want to discover an answer that's mine alone.
Shamrock listened quietly.
Meanwhile, the sword hanging at his waist began to change.
Cerberus silently dissolved into black flames, which gradually gathered into the shape of a three-headed dog.
Keeping carefully outside Uta's field of vision, it slipped away from Shamrock and crept toward the sleeping Loki.
A sharp blade emerged from one of its mouths.
With extraordinary precision, Cerberus pierced Loki's skin and collected a blood sample.
The operation was successful.
Without making a sound, the three-headed dog withdrew, dissolved back into black flames, and returned to its sheath.
The blood sample was secured.
Shamrock should have been delighted.
Yet for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to feel particularly pleased.
Instead, he lowered his gaze toward his hands and found himself questioning things he had never seriously considered before.
As a Celestial Dragon, he possessed privileges and luxuries that ordinary people could scarcely imagine.
The things commoners loved, hated, or became angry about were supposed to mean absolutely nothing to someone like him.
At least, that was how it should have been.
Yet the moment he descended to the world below and became involved in something connected to Shanks, his carefully maintained composure had started falling apart.
He couldn't even preserve his usual cold indifference.
Was it because of this child?
Shamrock turned toward Uta.
Her eyes were closed, and she continued singing peacefully, completely unaware of the complicated thoughts passing through his mind.
Watching her, Shamrock suddenly found himself contemplating an impossible alternative.
'What if things had happened differently back then?'
'What if Shanks had been the one taken back to the Holy Land, while I had remained in the world below?'
Would he have ended up becoming someone like his brother?
Perhaps having such an adorable daughter would have been enough to make him happy with a simple life.
For a brief moment, Shamrock could almost imagine it.
Unfortunately, the pleasant fantasy didn't last.
The instant he pictured Shanks wearing a permanently cold expression while he himself walked around with his shirt hanging open, laughing like a complete idiot, an involuntary shiver ran down his spine.
'Absolutely not.'
He immediately abandoned the idea.
'I'd rather die than turn into that.'
Just then, Uta's song came to an end.
She tilted her head toward Shamrock, stretched comfortably, and smiled.
"Thank you for listening all the way through. It's always nice to have someone who looks forward to hearing me sing."
"Don't mention it!"
Shamrock maintained his smile and answered without thinking.
"It's what I should do as your father!"
Uta let out a soft sigh.
"Well, even though you're not actually him, I really do appreciate you keeping me company."
Her smile remained perfectly calm.
"My dear Uncle."
The moment those words left her mouth, Shamrock went rigid.
And behind him, a pair of crimson eyes had already locked firmly onto his back.