Chapter 227 – 15.6 Kohaku, Nanami’s Mother
That afternoon.
After class, I went to the shopping mall with Nanami.
To buy a present for Nanami’s mother.
“Gift? I don’t need anything like that. Rather burdensome! Don’t do it!”
Can’t be
To go away empty-handed while going to receive her daughter.
Are you trying to make me such a shameless bastard?
Above all, I sold my body to the military.
If you don’t spend it at a time like this, where are you going to spend all that money?
I forcibly dragged Nanami, who refused to go.
“I’m giving it to my nephew as a gift.”
The first place I went to in the mall was the game shop.
In addition to her mother, Nanami is said to have a 7-year-old twin brother and sister.
There I felt it.
In order to capture (?) Nanami’s mother, she must first capture her younger siblings.
I bought one of the latest popular handheld game consoles in pink and blue.
“Why buy two?!”
“If you buy me one, they won’t fight.”
And in order of popularity, I bought 5 game packs for boys and 5 game packs for girls.
Of course, there were also overlapping games. Pocket Gangster is something both men and women like.
“Ha… If you buy the game that much…”
“Isn’t it okay if the younger siblings only do it when they listen to Nanami?”
“Ugh.”
Nanami shakes her head as if in pain.
Hehe. It’s me, because I just need to look good to her younger siblings.
Leave the rest to Nanami.
The next place we went was the butchery corner.
“I ordered over the phone.”
I received the meat that I ordered in advance in the morning.
Premium wagyu beef gift set.
It was an expensive item that I had never eaten in my life.
“Knives, isn’t that expensive? Is it expensive?”
“At all. It’s the cheapest The cheapest one.”
“Lie! We only eat pork!”
Like that or not, next we moved to the luxury corner.
“I’ll buy Nanami one too. What do you want?”
“Noisy! You’re going to treat me like a whore!”
“Why is that?!”
I was so angry that I couldn’t hold back this time either.
Let’s give up Nanami’s gift.
I will buy it next time I’ll eat it again anyway.
Now that we have all the presents, let’s go to Nanami’s house.
“It’s shabby, but come in.”
“Here… Is this Nanami’s house?”
“Huh. Aren’t you a little shabby?”
Nanami scratches her cheek in embarrassment.
On the other hand, I was slightly shocked.
To think that there was such a shabby neighborhood right near the academy…
Nanami’s house was, so to speak, on top of a Japanese-style hillside village.
It’s probably an area that was destroyed during a catastrophe and never recovered.
The alley is narrow and bumpy. The house was old and looked like it was about to collapse.
“I’m back!”
Nanami entered a particularly shabby house in that neighborhood.
Living in a place like this, Nanami never showed off like that.
She seemed to see an unexpected side to Nanami.
“Sister!”
“Sister!”
Hearing Nanami’s voice, her siblings burst out of her house.
A bright girl who resembled Nanami, and a energetic boy who resembled Nanami.
If you look alike, twins are twins.
Even if you don’t know it, you’ll know that it’s Nanami’s younger sister.
“Kouta, Shouko, have you been calm?”
“Huh!”
Shoko, a girl happily clinging to Nanami’s leg.
“Who are you?”
And Kouta, a boy who is wary of seeing me as a stranger.
“… Uncle?”
Quick.
Kids these days have no fear.
If it wasn’t for Nanami’s younger sister, I would have beaten her.
I can’t. I decided to retaliate in a different way.
“Ah~ I brought you a present, but I shouldn’t give you Kouta~. Come on, Shoko. It is a gift.”
I took out a box of pink game consoles from my shopping bag and handed them to Shoko.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“Ah! Mintendo!”
His younger sister Shouko, who doesn’t seem to know what it is.
And Kouta, the younger brother who recognizes at once.
After all, a man is a man even when he is young.
“Ah~ I should just return the one more~.”
Wave the blue game box over Kouta’s head.
“Ah! Ah! Me! Give me!”
Kouta jumps up and down in place to grab the game machine.
Kkeuk. Stupid guy
Make me pay for calling me uncle!
“Nives. Kid?”
Nanami looks at me pathetically as I play with Kouta.
Originally, all men are children no matter how old they are, Nanami.
“Who is here?”
“Yes, Mom.”
A voice came from inside the house.
She must be Nanami’s mother.
“Knives, come in.”
Nanami leads the way into the house.
I was slightly nervous and straightened my clothes.
Ah. Before you go in.
“Kouta. I’ll give you all of this, so you’re on my side. Got it?”
He gives Kouta a game console with a shopping bag.
“Huh! Brother!”
Kouta smiled broadly.
Like a quick-witted kid.
After stroking Kouta’s hair, I followed Nanami into the house.
The house was small. Perhaps a two-room with a kitchen.
Compared to the shabby exterior of the building, the interior was clean.
“Hello. I am Nanami’s boyfriend, Knives Windsor.”
“… Foreigner? Oh.”
Nanami’s mother looking at me and opening her mouth.
I heard that her friend was coming, but I didn’t know it was a foreigner.
In fact, she is not even a foreigner.
“I am Nanami’s mother, Kohaku Shiina.”
My mother greeted me like that, but I couldn’t answer properly.
It’s because her mother’s appearance has taken her mind.
It’s not like she really had a crush on her mother.
Nanami’s mother was in her wheelchair, and her lower body covered in her blanket had nothing to do with it.
Her mother had lost both of her legs.
“Sorry, Knives. Are you surprised?”
“No… Hmm.”
“My mother told me not to tell you in advance. Sorry.”
Nodding, Nanami lowered her head.
It was not something Nanami would apologize for.
But… I was just a little flustered.
“Sister! Make an account for this!”
Meanwhile, the door burst open and Kouta poked his head into the room.
“Kouta, wait! You’re talking to a customer!”
Contrary to the serious family environment, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at the home atmosphere that was so free-spirited.
“Nanami. Look at Kouta. Mom will be talking to her friend for a minute.”
“Still…”
Nanami looks back and forth between me and her mother, and she hesitates.
Then, she followed her mother’s words and left her room.
… What? To be alone with your mother in this small room?
Did she still say she’s only a full name?
Nanami! Come back please! Don’t abandon me!
“…”
At a time like this, what on earth should I talk about? My mother talked to me first because I was restless.
“I am KW lieutenant colonel, right?”
“Eh.”
Is it. My mother was surprised not because I was a foreigner, but because she recognized me.
I was completely taken aback.
Nanami’s mother knew that if she was a rune holder, she might be a participant in the Great Disaster, which she should have expected. She should have expected the possibility that she would recognize me, but she never thought.
“I knew she was the same age as my daughter, but… No way, the man her daughter brought was Lieutenant Colonel KW…”
That’s probably what being a lieutenant colonel is.
I was given a colonel because it was near the end of the Great Disaster, right before I was discharged.
My mother probably knows me as a lieutenant colonel because she was discharged with an injury before that.
Is it… Then my mother lost both legs due to injuries during the great disaster…
“You grew up so wonderful… I can’t help my daughter falling for her like this.”
“… Sorry. I don’t remember…”
Unfortunately, there was no person in my head who matched my mother.
“No, because we were just soldiers. No wonder the lieutenant colonel doesn’t know.”
Is it ‘we’?
Besides mother?
“In that case, father too… ?”
“Yes. You were killed during the great disaster.”
“… I’m sorry.”
Father is a warrior. My mother had both legs amputated.
For Nanami’s family, the cataclysm was truly catastrophic.
As I swallowed the bitterness, I suddenly remembered something strange.
“So, the children… ?”
My father passed away 10 years ago.
But the twins were born 7 years ago.
Where are these children from?
Maybe this is the part that shouldn’t be touched.
But now I am no stranger to this family. What you need to know, you should know.
Her mother opened her mouth as if she had nothing to hide.
“I can’t work because my body is like this. Being a one-child family, taxes are high, and trying to raise Nanami forced her to undergo artificial insemination to give birth to more children.”
I was speechless at the reality beyond my imagination.
“… It can be.”
I was well aware that the treatment of the dead and wounded in the military was not good.
The pension for the deceased, which comes out to my deceased parents, is only a small amount.
However, I never thought it would be this much.
During the disaster, the husband was killed in action and the wife lost both legs and became disabled.
But her disabled wife was forced to give birth to her two more children in order to receive her welfare benefits?
Because you can’t pay taxes, because you can’t afford to raise children?
Does this make sense? Do you know old Arashi?
“Don’t think so badly. Because I am happy because of my children. Of course, it was difficult to have and raise two more children with a body like this.”
My mother’s jokes were so cynical that I couldn’t help but laugh.
This is not such a problem. Such a problem…
“… Mother. Sorry.”
“? Why?”
I was unaware of the reality.
I thought I knew. But it had nothing to do with me, and I was ignoring it as someone else’s business.
The voice full of resentment he had heard when he first met Sumire was revived.
‘A colonel is a colonel! Isn’t there such a thing as responsibility according to rank!’
‘How hard we were! It would be enough if you were discharged! What to do with the soldiers who depended on you!’
‘You shouldn’t have left like that…’
Just because the great disaster was over didn’t mean everything was over.
Even after the great disaster, the war called life continued.
“I’m more… I should have paid attention.”
What could I have done if I cared?
Probably couldn’t do anything
But it wasn’t a matter of being able to do it or not being able to do it.
I felt like a sinner.
“Whoops. You know nothing.”
My mother looked at me with the kind eyes of his mother.
“It is because of you that I am alive. I am one of the many lives you saved in that hell.”
When and where did you get it?
I couldn’t tell.
Because there was too much to guess.
“It’s not just me. Our children were also born thanks to you.”
Twin siblings Kouta and Shoko.
Because her mother survived, her twins were also able to be born.
“So, keep your head up, Knives Windsor. You are my hero And my children’s hero.”
My mother reached my face and raised his head.
The hand that touched her face was warm.
“Please take good care of Nanami. Just like you saved me, please protect Nanami.”
A mother bowed her head to the face of her mother with her daughter.
“… Yes.”
I nodded heavily.
