Hoppy’s father expression shifted from pride to a look of mild, growing confusion. He scratched the back of his neck, his brow furrowing as he processed Maddy’s words.

"Drawing monsters? Recipes? My daughter wouldn’t touch a monster part if her life depended on it. She’s terrified of them! I think there’s been a mistake... My daughter has always been about her scales and her choir practice. She’s never mentioned anything about... cooking creatures."

The relief that had settled over Maddy vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, sinking weight in her stomach. She stared at the man, the realization hitting her.

"Wait, your daughter... do you have another one? I mean, Hoppy was clearly very brave and loved monsters—"

The color drained from the father’s face, and he looked at her with visible horror at the mention of that name.

"H-hoppy... M-Miss, I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, but my daughter’s name is Holly—"

Maddy interrupted him, stunned by his behavior after seeing him embrace the girl in this very spot only yesterday.

"W-what? What are you saying, sir? That girl had the same hair color as you. She was lost during the slime attack and walked for an entire day just to find you. She returned to your side... the one you hugged... and—"

"Please... you are clearly mistaken, miss. My daughter... she wasn’t lost during the attack. Oozewell may be my birthplace, but I do not have a daughter named H-hoppy. I think you have the wrong person."

Maddy backed away, her confusion turning into cold realization. Her voice began to rise.

"What are you saying? Why are you acting like this? Tell me, where is she? Where is Hoppy? Where is your daughter? I—I need to see her!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The man slammed a jar onto the wooden counter, the sound making nearby customers jump. He leaned over the stall, his eyes wide and frantic.

"I do not know who you are talking about. I have no daughter by that name. You are mistaken, and you are making my customers uneasy with this nonsense!"

"But sir—"

"Get out!"

He pointed a shaking finger toward the street.

"I have a son and a daughter; they are my only children. I have never seen you before, and I have never heard of this ’Hoppy.’ If you are not buying anything, leave my stall at once!"

The crowd began to mutter, looking at Maddy with suspicious eyes.

"What is she on about?"

"You’re disturbing our shopping, peasant."

"Someone find a guard!"

Maddy stood frozen as the crowd’s whispers turned into stinging barbs. The "peasant" comments and the threats of guards didn’t reach her ears. All she could see was the merchant’s frantic, sweating face, that face of pure denial as the flickering red lines of his deceit dancing before her divine sight.

Her mind flashed back to the moment of their reunion. She remembered the uneasy sensation that had pricked at her neck when she saw him hugging Hoppy—a hollow, practiced warmth that hadn’t felt quite right. At the time, she had dismissed it as her own cynicism and her inherent distrust of humans.

"My hunch was right... Damn it, I felt it. I knew something was wrong the second they met, and I let her go anyway."

Every nerve in her body began to boil. She had spent her second life protecting her own children, and the thought of this man... this fake, sniveling coward, discarding a soul like Hoppy’s made her vision swim. She was done with the games. She was done with the "Newbie" act. She was done with the pathetic masks men wore to hide their cruelty.

"This man... he was no father."

Her jaw tightened, the veins in her temples throbbing as her pupils narrowed into sharp, predatory slits. Her concealment trait began to ripple and weaken, the sheer force of her intent threatening to tear through her disguise. She wanted the truth, and she was prepared to force it out of him by any means necessary.

Lucy pinged her urgently:

[Maddy, your concealment is failing. I advise you to calm yourself. If it drops for even a second, your aura will erupt and alert the entire city to your presence.]

But Maddy was beyond listening to reason. Her hands began to shift, reminiscent of the form she took when she dealt with the adventurers who had attacked her womb. Her gaze remained locked on Hoppy’s father, who was pointedly avoiding her stare and busying himself with customers.

The air around her grew heavy and cold.

"I’ll make him say the truth..."

The air around her grew heavy, the temperature dropping so sharply that nearby customers ceased their murmuring and began to shiver. Even the eternal flames lining the street swayed.

"Is it going to rain?"

Someone whispered. Another added, clutching their arms.

"I—I feel so cold... Mama."

Maddy no longer cared about the guards or her disguise. She looked the merchant dead in the eye, and for the first time, she allowed a fraction of her true power to leak into her gaze.

Hoppy’s father felt the shift instantly. His heart gripped so tightly in his chest that he gasped, his knees buckling as he struggled to maintain his balance. The world around him seemed to darken, narrowing until the only thing he could see was the terrifying, predatory intensity in Maddy’s eyes.

But just as the veil of her concealment was about to shatter completely, a large, warm... hand and unmistakably human, rested firmly on her shoulder.

The contact was like a circuit breaker. The freezing chill snapped back, the shadows retreated, and the crushing pressure on the merchant’s chest vanished instantly. Maddy stiffened, her predatory slits widening back into human pupils as she spun her head around.

"Whoa there, take a deep breath!"

It was Johnn. He stood there with a grin so bright it felt like a second sun had risen over the marketplace. His presence didn’t just break the tension; it completely rewrote the atmosphere. The heavy, suffocating dread was replaced by the golden, heroic aura of the new SSS Rank.

"Hey! Is that the famous southern slime jam?"