Chapter 214 - Friends, Nighttime — Words Unspoken

At the front door, Nanahoshi suddenly slid off my back.

I frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"How do I put this... it's a bit inappropriate."

"Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

"Think about it — middle of the night~ and you're carrying a woman home."

"......How many times has this happened before?"

"Not once since your kids were born, right?"

"Has it?"

"It has."

Hmm... that does seem right.

After the children were born, I rarely carried Nanahoshi home anymore.

Though carrying her back to her dormitory still happened plenty.

And my wives definitely wouldn't mind, this is Nanahoshi we're talking about. They know her well.

"You're so close with our family that it's strange you're only starting to care about this now."

"......Mm. But I've already gotten down."

"Fair enough."

We looked at each other and smiled.

I knocked. The door opened to Sylphiette, with Aisha standing just behind her.

"Welcome back! Rudeus~ The kids are all asleep... we... Hm? Miss Nanahoshi is here too!"

"I'm home."

From behind me, Nanahoshi followed up,

"Sorry to bother you. I'm here to stay the night."

"Welcome, welcome! This is the first time Miss Nanahoshi has come to our house at night while actually sober!"

"Uh..."

"Did you two go drinking just now?"

"Yes, a bit."

"Oh~ Does Miss Nanahoshi want some hangover soup? Roxy and Eris are already making a late-night snack."

Nanahoshi glanced back at me, then answered,

"Hangover soup's fine, but I'll take some of the snack. We were mostly drinking earlier and barely ate anything."

"Mm! Rudeus wants some too, right?"

"Mm."

With that settled, Sylphiette gave me a hug and headed toward the kitchen.

Then Aisha stepped up.

She patted down my coat and slipped it off my shoulders. After that she pulled me into a hug and, while she was at it, took a good sniff.

Ah~ I really am a happy man.

But then Aisha leaned close to my ear.

"Big brother~ you were sitting that close to Miss Nanahoshi while drinking?"

"Huh?"

"Your whole body smells like her. Nice and sweet~"

Hm?

Was Aisha reading something into me and Nanahoshi...?

But nothing happened, and nothing happened.

I answered plainly,

"I carried her on my back on the way home."

"Oh~ Then no problem."

"Honestly."

I ruffled Aisha's hair and walked inside.

At this hour, the maids had already turned in for the night.

I went upstairs, got a room ready for Nanahoshi, then came back down.

I settled into a chair at the dining table, watching my wives move around in the kitchen.

Nanahoshi sat down across from me, chin resting in her hand. She watched them for a moment, then spoke.

"You bastard... you've got it way too good, haven't you?"

"Right?"

"Four wives..."

She looked me up and down.

Then a teasing smile crept onto her face.

"What..."

"Can you keep up?"

"What do you mean?"

"At night. That department."

"......Obviously. Completely under control."

"Want me to brew you something~ The kind with zero side effects."

"Zero side effects?"

"See, now you're curious."

"......I'm asking on behalf of my father. My own body is perfectly fine."

"Heh."

We chatted idly, trading remarks back and forth, until my wives finished getting the late-night snack ready.

Eris happily carried out a bowl she'd made herself, hmm...

A soup. With something that looked a lot like tangyuan floating in it.

It really did look like tangyuan. There was a black filling inside...

I had no idea what the filling was.

Eris stood tall and announced,

"Rudeus! I already tasted it! It's delicious!"

"Oh!"

Well, I started with the broth. Then I bit into one of the tangyuan.

Sweet. Even more like the real thing.

But... a warm, sweet soup like this. I hadn't had anything like it in this world for a long time.

I nodded.

"Eris made all of this herself?"

"Mm! I made it today! From scratch, starting with the potato flour!"

"It's really good. How much have you improved?"

"Mmm mmm mmm!"

Eris broke into a big smile and scooted over to sit beside me, spoon already raised.

I let her feed me. Aisha squeezed in on the other side and joined in.

I was getting stuffed from being fed from both directions when Roxy and Sylphiette came over carrying their own bowls.

Same soup, by the look of it.

Roxy set hers down and said,

"Eris worked really hard today. She kept saying she wanted to give Rudeus a surprise."

Sylphiette placed a bowl in front of Nanahoshi, then added,

"That's right~ Everything today was Eris's work alone~ We just helped get the ingredients ready."

Aisha, pausing from her feeding duties, offered a small protest,

"I helped too, you know. I'm the one who gave Sister Eris the ingredient ratios!"

Eris turned and nodded at her.

"Mm mm, thank you, Aisha!"

We sat together, drinking the warm soup, talking about the day.

What kind of person Zanoba is. What kind of child the new recruit Julie seems to be.

Roxy shared a few funny things that had happened at the academy.

Speaking of the academy, thanks to Nanahoshi's push, an elementary division had already been established. Children could enroll at seven. Good enough grades meant free tuition; below the standard, you paid.

The commoners of Ranoa Kingdom were living well these days. A lot of families would probably send their kids.

Windsor was almost seven herself. Should I send her?

I'd ask her when the time came. If she didn't want to go, that was fine.

I wasn't going to force my children into anything they didn't want.

Roxy's voice cut through my thoughts.

"What are you thinking about, Rudeus?"

"Hm? Whether to send our kids to school."

"School..."

Something seemed to occur to her. She lowered her head, murmured to herself for a moment,

"She has to go. Lara absolutely has to go..."

"Why?"

"She's too mischievous. She needs the academy to knock some sense into her! And I'm right there — when the time comes I'll transfer to the elementary division and supervise her personally!"

"Shouldn't it mainly be the child's call? If Lara really doesn't want to..."

"Rudeus~ you spoil them too much. A father can't just indulge his children endlessly."

"I just want to respect what they want..."

"That's not right~ Here, let me explain."

"Hm?"

Roxy cleared her throat.

She straightened up, full teacher posture.

"If, Lara, Windsor, Lucy, Tina — if Rudeus keeps spoiling all of them like this, do you know what could happen?"

"What could happen?"

"Say they grow up and start acting purely on their own feelings. For example..."

A sly smile crossed her face.

"Say one of them finds a boyfriend. And he turns out to be a complete piece of trash. No matter how much Rudeus objects, she won't listen. What then?"

A boyfriend. A rotten one at that.

No, no. How could that happen?

Our family's circumstances are good. There's no way some worthless man could get close enough to deceive my daughters.

And who would even dare try?

That's what I thought. But the words that came out weren't quite so confident.

"H-How... how could that happen... Who would dare come after my daughters?"

"How could it not? You spoil them this much now — will they actually listen to you later? What if they fall in love with that rotten man themselves?"

"They wouldn't..."

"It's completely possible~ So Rudeus needs some actual fatherly authority, to prevent that from ever happening."

"......Is that right?"

I glanced over at Sylphiette and Eris.

They were both nodding along with Roxy.

Sylphiette smiled.

"Well~ Roxy, don't put it so ominously. You'll scare Rudeus."

"I just want him to understand that education isn't about blind indulgence."

"I think Rudeus simply transferred all the love he has for his wives onto his daughters and treats them the same way. That's how the spoiling happened."

"Mm, there's something to that..."

And then it turned into a full discussion on parenting philosophy.

Aisha's take: the daughters were all smart girls, something like that would never happen. I agreed completely!

Eris, meanwhile, declared with absolute confidence,

"The daughters have been watching Rudeus's back their whole lives! When the time comes, they'll only settle for someone better than Rudeus! Not that such a man exists!"

Mm mm! Exactly right!

Sylphiette and Roxy just laughed helplessly.

"Well~ when the daughters do get married someday, Rudeus just needs to make sure he doesn't cry too ugly."

Why say something that hurtful...

Through all of this, I noticed Nanahoshi hadn't said a word. She'd been sitting there the whole time, chin in her hand, watching us with a quiet smile.

"Nanahoshi."

"Hm?"

"No opinions?"

"It's your family's parenting decisions. Why would I weigh in?"

"You were listening so carefully though."

Nanahoshi glanced around the table. Her smile didn't change.

"I just thought... all my friends are this happy. That's really something."

The table went quiet.

My wives had all stilled, looking at her.

Nanahoshi noticed the silence and her voice shifted, just slightly uncertain.

"Wh... what is it...?"

Sylphiette was the first to speak.

"Miss Nanahoshi, you should come over more often!"

The other three nodded right along with her.

Nanahoshi gave me a slightly puzzled look.

I smiled.

"We just don't want you to be lonely. You're starting to look like a hermit... come by whenever you want. Lucy loves your magic lessons. So does Lara."

"I know... alright, I'm tired. I'm going to sleep."

"You really aren't honest, are you."

"Heh... Thank you, Rudeus."

Nanahoshi stood up from her chair. She'd only taken a couple of steps when she stopped.

"And thank you all... Sylphiette, Eris, Aisha, Roxy."

My wives smiled back at her, all four of them together.

"Sleep well~ Miss Nanahoshi."

➤ Next: Pudding