Chapter 390 – Might Be Real, Family (3)
Blue water splashed in the pool. I put my foot in the water and rocked it lightly. Waves rose at the edge of the pool. Ai lay down next to me. I put her head on her belly and listened to her. No sound was heard. Her firm belly was so smooth that she couldn’t believe she was pregnant.
“What are you doing?”
“I am listening to the baby.”
“You can’t hear it anymore. Under…”
AI sighed. I asked as I rubbed her belly her.
“Did you hate being pregnant?”
“I don’t know. My parents can’t imagine that I’ve become this way, can they?”
A.A. Had her parents her alive. They were not particularly important figures. They appeared briefly in the beginning of the game as a role to shake the main character’s hand when he went on an adventure saying that he would catch the devil and return home.
“Have you ever been home?”
“I was going to go once after defeating the demon king… Your body has changed like this. I haven’t been there since.”
“Now you have to face reality. Did you confess the truth in the letter?”
“No. That… I don’t think you understand that either… I do not know. What to do.”
“But if we are going to have a wedding, I hope the warrior’s parents will participate.”
At my words, A.A smiled bitterly. Apparently, it was very difficult for her to contact her parents her. A short distance away, Eve was giving Selu a drink through a straw. Sellu said she was sucking on a drink through a straw with her head sticking out in the pool. Eve said angrily.
“Mom. Just come out and eat What do you drink like this? Is it a pet?”
“This way, Eve will make eye contact with her longer with me.”
“Even if you don’t do this, what are you doing by sticking together all the time?”
“Hehe.”
“Uh, spill!”
Eve caught the wobbly juice glass and narrowly prevented her drink from falling into the pool. Selu jumped out of the water and perched astride her edge. Eve set her glass on her table and shook her head. I asked Eve.
“Eve. When is Matilda coming?”
“I don’t know. I think it will arrive tomorrow or the day after tomorrow…”
“But this vacation is going fast, hasn’t it been such a long time since the last vacation?”
“They’re protesting at the academy these days.”
Soya walked out, she said. She started humming her tune her and hanging her magic tool her from her hand her on the wall of her mansion. Her cane her, leaning against the wall, was polished to a shine. Soya lowered her head and stammered as people’s eyes focused on her words.
“Oh, that, so there is an analysis that I intentionally took an early vacation to disperse the protesters.”
“What protest were you talking about?”
“Human rights liberation demonstration of mermaids and beasts.”
Eve reacted awkwardly to those words. Sellu was also making an expression as if I was using jargon. I asked.
“What’s wrong? It’s a protest to live happily with mermaids and beastmen, don’t you like it?”
“It’s more awkward than disliked. There are times in my life when days like this come.”
“Mom, those words look really old.”
Selou seemed to have a heartache at the words, so she dived back into the water and she splashed the water on Eve. Eve was started and said, avoiding here and there.
“Oh mother! Your clothes are wet!”
I swept AA’s belly once more. She leaned back in her chair, still as she flinched. Eve’s gaze on her, which had been moving very slowly, turned to A.A. And then turned her gaze elsewhere.
****
Matilda arrived several days later. It was a sudden vacation, so it took her a while to prepare in many ways, she said. The fact that she came late didn’t seem to matter too much to Eve. Matilda carried a large luggage bag and looked at us trembling like a baby bird.
“Oh, hello.”
“Hi Matilda. Long time no see. Right?”
“Ah yes. Hello. Lord Lucius. Thank you for allowing him to stay in the mansion this time.”
The hard tone was filled with a wary light. She was paying more attention to Eve than to me, the lord. I laughed at her reaction and spoke softly.
“Yes. Matilda. Then, take a good rest here. Studying is studying, but it is also important for children to rest and play.”
Matilda nodded her head at my words. Eve looked more excited than Matilda. Her face was repeating a bright smile that spread and then faded. It was clear that she was thinking of Matilda’s parents’ letters now.
“Then, do you two want to talk? I have some work to do.”
“Yes? The groom has work today. Don’t do that together…”
Eve tried to catch me with her slightly embarrassed face of her, but I politely declined. Eve and Matilda became quite close, but I thought the two of them should be closer.
“No. You two are talking I’m a bit busy today.”
So I went up to the office first, leaving the two alone. Looking down from the window on the side of the hallway, Eve glanced at her gate for a moment before starting to talk to Matilda with a bright smile on her face. In the office, Sieri was organizing papers to assist with work. She looked at me and smiled.
“You look good.”
“Does it look like that?”
I looked in the office mirror. I was really smiling. I twitched my mouth and made a funny face at myself in the mirror. When Xie Li saw it, she couldn’t hold back her laughter. While she covered her mouth and laughed, I approached her side of her sieri and poked her at her.
“Ah, ah!”
I laughed more and clung to her as Sieri winced at her in surprise. I could hear Eve and Matilda chatting from below.
“Okay. How was your academy life? You only learn very difficult things there?”
“It’s not that difficult. Rather fun. The professors explain things in a very easy and fun way. If you listen to it even once, you will be surprised. There is a [Golden Mine Theory] Advocated by Tommy Everson, and the professors there explained it simply with a compass and a drinking glass.”
“Oh yeah?”
Of course, Eve didn’t know what the [Golden Mine Theory] Was. Incidentally, I didn’t know, and Sieri didn’t seem to know what the Golden Ore Theory was either. I turned to Sieri to ask what the golden light theory was, but I laughed again when I saw Sieri looking back at me with the same eyes.
The two continued to chat as they came up to my office from the first floor. The sounds of pleasant chatter mingled and spread cheerfully. Both Shieri and I were listening to the story with happy expressions on our faces. Eri would normally say that eavesdropping is bad, but she also seemed curious about what Eve was talking about.
Miscellaneous stories from the academy continued. Matilda was delighted to have someone she could tell her story for the first time in a while. Eve was responding to her story with a slight nod of her head or a reciprocal chuckle. Peeping through the crack in the door, I could feel the warmth of the two people walking towards Eve’s room.
“Eve, how have you been lately? There are a lot of interesting people here in Yeongji, so I think Eve had a lot of fun.”
Eve laughed again at Matilda’s words her. And she told her
“Of course. How well my groom treats me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, if you…”
Eve tried to say something to her, but shut her mouth. She grimaced at her in an uncomfortable expression as if she was pretending to be her, then smiled awkwardly and then she did. Matilda was staring at her. Eve licked her lips again.
“You also…”
And Eve shook her head again and smiled as if it was nothing.
“…You’ll find out later when you get married. Okay. I was going to talk about marriage. I was trying to tell you that if you marry someone as wonderful as my husband, you can live as much fun as I do. And, if possible, when you stay here, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy it. That… Like family.”
“Family… Like?”
“Yes.”
Eve said so and she looked down. I heard the nun’s voice.
“Hey Matilda. You must carry your burdens. Are you going to leave everything to me?”
“Oh, sorry! Sister, I’ll be there soon!”
Matilda was startled to hear her nun’s complaint of her and shot down again. Eve grinned at Matilda and entered her office. We peeped at the situation through the crack in the door and sat down at our desks in amazement. Sieri cleared his throat and sat in the passenger seat, pretending to sort through papers, while I looked out the window and rubbed my chin.
Said Eve, opening the door to her office wide.
“Groom. What will you do for lunch? You said you had a meeting with some local dignitaries today and went out to eat.”
Pretending to have been lost in my thoughts from the beginning, I slowly turned around. Sieri was struggling to hold back a laugh at my actions of her. Eve, unaware of her situation her, looked at her and tilted her head as if she could n’t understand why Xie Li was holding back her laughter. I opened her mouth to avert her gaze.
“I know. Shall we just put it off today and eat it tomorrow? Matilda is here, we should eat together.”
“Will you?”
“I’ll have the soldier contact me, so I’ll have to postpone the meal date. It’s good to eat all together. It’s been a while since I’ve come here and the awkwardness should have been resolved, so I formally greeted Matilda properly and had a conversation.”
“That would be good.”
Eve seemed to like that I was trying to make friends with Matilda. I walked out with Eve and Sieri’s arms crossed. Just in time, there was a servant passing by outside the office, so he changed his lunch date, and then slowly walked to the lobby.
