The contract is pretty messed up. Rykell and his wife were 2 of 4 archmages/transcendentals in the empire, and there is a custom to bind them with chain of pledge (not only the archmages, the hero/master swordsman and the emperor's late wife got chained too. the queen sacrificing her life to save her child so the child won't grow in that corrupted environment).
Rykell had 2 chains of pledge, and his wife (now dead) and daughter (free) became hostages. it happened to Kyle, too (his son and wife became a proof of loyalty). the other mages also met the same fate.
what makes Rykell stands out from the other daddies is that he is a genuine person under the icy demeanor. he truly cares for his precious daughter and his "family" (the butler and his lil bro, the nymphs, and his disciple) and wanted to build a happy family with his wife & daughter. Now he focused to raise Maybelle and slowly explain more about her mother's backstory. Maybelle will loves her mother, too.
tl;dr = it is a story about Rykell and Maybelle move on with their life and build a happy future (and their main agenda to create the future is to dethrone the damn emperor and free Rykell from the chain of pledge. The father and daughter also thought about a way to save Bellerophon from his doomed fate, too..XD)
thank you for the info! Can't wait!
I enjoy the fact that she isn't in fear of her life and forms a genuine relationship with her dad out of mutual desire to be with each other. It's refreshing that he already loves her and only couldn't be with her for reasons beyond either of their control (seriously though, what kind of contract requires you to give up your baby?) This makes this much different for me compared to the other "scary daddy with a little daughter" comics out there right now. He GENUINELY cares for his daughter already!