Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 190 - Grandmother 2 — The Conversation
We returned to the mansion entrance to find the guards already sprinting back inside the moment they spotted us.
Then came the whole routine again.
Hmm. Was this really necessary?
The head maid stepped forward.
"Lord Rudeus, Madams... the young ladies have been waiting for you for quite some time..."
Young ladies?
Oh.
My daughters.
I nodded and headed inside.
-------
The pattering footsteps reached me before I'd even cleared the entryway.
Then a small, blue figure came barreling straight at me.
"Daddy!"
Lara crashed headfirst into my chest. I dropped into a half-crouch to catch her and ruffled her hair.
"Miss Daddy?"
"I missed Daddy! I missed the mommies! Great-grandmother is so annoying!"
My wives all smiled in that helpless way they had.
Well. I'd expected that.
Lara already hated studying anything that wasn't magic. Making her sit through etiquette lessons was never going to end well.
"It's fine, it's fine. No more lessons."
"Yeah! I'll study my characters properly when we get home, just please don't make me learn etiquette anymore!"
"Deal."
Getting Lara to study her characters, on a normal day, she'd refuse flat out. But if you made her try etiquette first, then offered characters as the alternative, she'd accept them without a fight.
Not a bad result, all things considered.
While I was still patting her head, a cold voice cut through the room.
"So this is how you raise a great-granddaughter?"
I looked up. My grandmother had come out of the hall.
Windsor and Lucy stood at her sides.
Lucy looked all right. Windsor looked tired.
I was about to say something when Grandmother reached out and touched the tops of both their heads.
Windsor and Lucy went rigid, backs snapping straight.
Then, like the noble young ladies I'd seen at court, they turned toward me and my wives and bowed.
"Wel... welcome back... Father... Mothers..." x2
Oh.
Not because it was proper, or because it had any particular noble bearing.
I just thought Windsor and Lucy were incredibly cute like that.
Though something was missing, wasn't it?
"Windsor? Lucy?"
At the sound of my voice, they broke into a small jog and came to me. I wrapped my arms around both of them. All three daughters, right there in my arms.
Windsor and Lucy didn't say anything like Lara had. Probably because Grandmother was standing right there.
"Hmph. You spoil them far too much. I wasn't anywhere near that strict."
"Knowing basic manners is enough, isn't it? I don't know noble etiquette. Neither do my wives. If the parents don't know it, what right do we have to demand it from our children?"
Uh...
Actually, thinking about it more carefully, aside from me and Eris, the other three wives did know some etiquette. Aisha especially. She'd gone through a complete course of it back when she was doing missions.
"Hah. You really are Paul's son. He didn't know anything either, and this philosophy of yours on raising children is definitely inherited from him."
Hmm.
Hard to argue with that.
Paul was absolutely the doting type. Except with me, he'd spoiled Norn and Aisha without reservation.
I understood it. If I had a son, I probably wouldn't spoil him either.
"Great-grandmother! We don't like learning etiquette!"
Lara declared this from inside my arms, perfectly unbothered.
Windsor and Lucy nodded along.
Grandmother's brow furrowed. She opened her mouth, but Windsor was faster.
"I hate learning etiquette. But I don't hate Great-grandmother that much."
Lucy nodded.
"I don't hate Great-grandmother either... but... I really do hate those etiquette lessons..."
Grandmother's expression shifted. Something in it softened.
Then Lara landed the final blow.
"Me too! I actually don't hate Great-grandmother that much either... but if Great-grandmother makes us learn that stuff again, I'm never coming back to Great-grandmother's house!"
Grandmother exhaled slowly and shook her head, somewhere between resigned and defeated.
"Tomorrow is His Holiness the Pope's wedding. I only wanted you to know a little more etiquette so you wouldn't embarrass your father."
Lara immediately shot back.
"But Daddy and the mommies don't know it either!"
Grandmother turned and fixed her gaze on me.
"Still your fault. No — Paul's fault. Actually..." She paused. "Ultimately it's Zenith's fault for choosing a man like that."
My grandmother really had no filter.
Her posture was immaculate. Every movement was precise and composed. The words that came out of her mouth, though, were another matter entirely.
"Grandmother, you just insulted both my parents and me in one sentence. Even I'm allowed to be a little unhappy about that."
"Hmph... fine. If my great-granddaughters don't want to learn, they won't learn."
She turned and took a few steps away.
Then she stopped.
"Have you eaten dinner? If you have, don't bother."
"We haven't."
"I happened to have dinner prepared. Come eat."
My wives and I exchanged a look, the helpless, fond kind, and followed her to the dining room.
...Just happened to, huh.
The table was covered in dishes. My wives stared.
They did look delicious.
Once we were seated, there wasn't much in the way of formality. Whether Grandmother had given up enforcing it or whether her own table manners were simply relaxed, I couldn't tell.
Either way, I wasn't complaining. I let my daughters sit next to me and my wives settle in together on the other side.
Lara claimed my left leg. Lucy claimed my right.
Windsor informed me that she was grown up and didn't need to sit on my lap.
Windsor. You're five years old. Nearly six, yes. But does that really count as grown up?
Still, I only had two legs. Three daughters wouldn't have fit regardless.
A few bites in, Sylphiette spoke up.
"Who made this? Could you call them out?"
Grandmother glanced at her, then told a maid to fetch the chef.
The woman who appeared was nearing fifty. She walked into the dining room without a hint of nerves, composed and smiling.
"Madam, which dish caught your attention?"
My wives spent the next while asking her every question they could think of.
A few new recipes were about to find their way onto our family table. I could already tell.
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After dinner, Roxy pulled Lara off to study her characters.
Windsor went out to the courtyard with Eris to practice swords.
Aisha and Sylphiette disappeared into the kitchen to try recreating what they'd learned.
Lucy stayed with me. We read.
"Daddy."
"Hm?"
"Where's Aunt Norn?"
"Still traveling."
"Traveling? With Mister Ruijerd?"
"Yeah."
"Oh..."
Lucy admired Norn. That much was obvious. She loved books, and Norn was the most famous author in the Asura Kingdom, the most powerful human nation there was, which meant Norn was essentially the most famous author in the world.
It hadn't always been that way. Books used to be rare in this world. The kind of thing only nobles might own, one or two at most. Now, thanks to the push Ariel and I had made years ago, they were something anyone could buy.
That same spread of books had done something else too. The old prejudice against green hair had nearly vanished.
"Lucy."
A cool voice. Lucy looked up from where she was tucked against me.
Grandmother.
"This is a gift for you. You'll be leaving after the wedding, I assume?"
I answered for her.
"Not necessarily."
"I see."
She held out a book.
"I loved this one. It's from before books were common — before any of this." A small pause. "You might find it worth reading."
Leather cover, clearly old, clearly once expensive. A noble's book.
Lucy took it carefully, her face lighting up.
"Great-grandmother... I'll read every page... And next time I come, I'll tell you what I thought!"
Grandmother nodded once.
That was when I noticed the two servants standing behind her. One held a small staff. The other held a sword. Both were sized for children, the staff the kind made for small hands, though nothing cheap about it. The sword had been forged to match a child's reach.
This grandmother of mine.
"The sword and the staff — those are for my daughters as well?"
"Yes."
"Thank you."
"It's simply proper etiquette. You are guests. Sending you away empty-handed would be a discourtesy."
"Noted. Though we won't be leaving Milis any time soon."
"If you find yourselves without lodgings, you're welcome here. There are rooms."
She turned and walked away.
Lucy leaned up close to my ear.
"Great-grandmother... she's actually not that bad... When she was teaching us etiquette, she was just a little strict. She never actually scolded us..."
"So — would you want to come visit her again?"
"Not really... but I wouldn't mind coming."
We read together after that, Lucy and I, working through the book Grandmother had given her.
It was a storybook. An actual storybook.
Not that storybooks were rare now, but they had been, once. Back when books were something only nobles touched.
Lucy read with her full attention. I read alongside her. Every so often she'd pause and ask me a question, making sure I was actually following along and not just turning pages.
So cute.
------
Night.
I slept with all three daughters.
Lara had been thrilled about the staff. She'd even hugged her great-grandmother before bed.
Roxy told me afterward that the old tsundere had been quietly pleased about it, though she hadn't shown it at all and walked off almost immediately.
Windsor had used the etiquette she'd learned to bow and thank her great-grandmother properly when she received the sword.
Eris told me Grandmother had looked genuinely moved. She'd nodded, then stepped forward and stroked Windsor's head.
All good things.
The daughters had warmed up to their great-grandmother. My wives and I had figured out what she actually was: sharp words, soft heart. The words were still pretty venomous, granted.
But still.
Lara reached up in the dark and touched my cheek.
"Go to sleep, Daddy."
"Why aren't you asleep? Windsor and Lucy are already out."
"Just checking if Daddy was asleep~"
The real reason: I always waited until Lara fell asleep before sleeping myself. This little face-hugger had a habit of latching onto my face in the night and nearly suffocating me awake.
"Okay~ I'm sleeping now, Daddy. Windsor-sis has terrible sleeping posture, so watch yourself."
You're one to talk.
A warm night. I waited until I could hear all three of them breathing steadily.
Then I closed my eyes.
➤ Next: Cliff, the Wedding