The End of the New Year and Childhood (6)
I might not have sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver like Judas, but I had zero intention of selling my life for one-fifteenth that price. Besides, I already had three wives. If King Solomon saw me, he’d probably scratch his head wondering whether he should cut me into three pieces instead. It was far too late to buy me off with two silver coins.
Anyway, after trading jokes like that, we headed to the restaurant we’d reserved in advance and enjoyed a rather classy dinner.
“Just the two of us eating in a private room? How suspicious~”
“Suspicious my ass. Right now I’m completely absorbed in this chicken breast. There’s no room for dirty thoughts to sneak in.”
“So now I’m losing to chicken breast too?”
Damn, this girl. For something that was just chicken breast, the texture was insanely chewy and satisfying. It had perfectly sniped the exact spot in Nord’s macho brain that craved this kind of thing. If this recipe didn’t have carb and cost-efficiency issues, the gym rats back on Earth would probably be crying and begging to work in this restaurant’s kitchen just to learn the method.
Maybe it was because I’d eaten until I was stuffed, but I felt like I was at someone else’s wedding buffet. When I got married to Franc, we’d gone all out with the food but never actually had time to eat any of it.
Larilura grumbled for a bit before stabbing a chicken wing with her fork.
“Mmm. It really is convenient that all the dishes are boneless. There isn’t a single bone anywhere.”
“It’d be pretty uncouth to be dressed up like this and then start tearing meat off bones with your teeth.”
“Aha! Lesson learned☆!”
While chewing on the sweet-and-sour chicken, Larilura glanced at the fancy restaurant’s menu, swallowed, and then spoke up.
“Um, Senior♡?”
“Yep~ No can do~.”
“……I haven’t even said anything yet?”
Larilura’s lips poked out in a pout. Even that looked ridiculously cute. I was starting to suspect she practiced her facial expressions in front of a mirror to see how they’d look to other people. Then again, since she used to be a performer, that level of rehearsal wouldn’t be strange at all.
“Anyway, the answer is no.”
“How do you even know what I was going to say?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Want me to guess?”
─Clink!
I tapped my glass with my fork and said,
“It’s obvious. ‘Senior~ In just a few hours I’ll be an adult, so can I order some alcohol~♡?’ Something like that, right?”
“Whoa… how did you know? That’s actually creepy. And that impression wasn’t even close to my voice, you know? It was so bad I almost got serious for a second.”
“Kids all think the same way. Plus, that was exactly how you normally talk.”
“No it wasn’t~. It was completely different~. Anyway, when exactly am I allowed to drink?”
“When the clock strikes midnight tonight.”
That was how the law worked in Romania. Our junior was only a few hours away from legally graduating from being a minor.
At those words, Larilura’s face lit up. She pointed at the menu.
“Then, you know~? I want to get this to go and drink it together with you and the unnies. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, that much is fine.”
I nodded. It was hard to keep rejecting her when she looked at me with such sparkling, hopeful eyes. Still, the way her eyes shone just at the thought of being allowed to drink alcohol proved she was still very much a kid. Had she really never snuck a drink behind everyone’s back before?
Maybe she’d read my thoughts from my expression even though I hadn’t said anything, because Larilura grumbled,
“What’s with that look? If you’d had to drink nothing but orange juice and grape juice at every single company dinner since you were ten, Senior, you’d understand how I feel.”
“Alright, alright. It’s better to drink in front of adults than to drink alone, lose control, and pass out somewhere.”
“Yay♡!”
See? Her tone was exactly like the impression I’d done earlier.
After we finished eating, we bought several bottles of alcohol and left the restaurant.
“One bottle won’t be enough! Let’s buy a bunch☆!”
That enthusiastic declaration from Larilura was the main reason. I was a little worried. Like most liquor sold in glass bottles in this world, this stuff was infamous for its ridiculously high alcohol content. At least it was convenient to carry around.
“Senior, this way next!”
Larilura, beaming at the thought of drinking, had reached the level where she could casually link arms with someone and drag them along without hesitation. Anyone watching would think she’d already snuck a drink somewhere.
The next place she dragged me to was a high hill. Since this was a big city, they’d paid attention to aesthetics; it was basically a natural park. There were well-tended trees on top of the hill, offering a clear view of the city below. If cameras existed in this world, this spot would probably become famous as a photography location pretty soon.
“How is it? The night view’s pretty nice, right?”
Larilura asked after nimbly climbing up a tree. I leaned against the trunk with a bottle in hand and let out a small laugh.
“Yeah, it’s great.”
Cities with bright night views were rare in this world. The territory where I’d spent the most time was Ainhir, home to Carmine University, but even though it was a trade city, it was quiet at night. Why? Because sailors in this world didn’t stay up past midnight drinking themselves stupid. Who wanted to roll off the ship the next day and become fish food?
Sargadis, out in the sticks, was even worse. In that sense, Lucregens was a city that never stopped being noisy from morning till night. During the day, upright people who worked hard and believed in God walked the streets. Once it got late, those who woke up at night mixed together with those who came out to play before going to sleep. The entertainment district glowing with seductive red lanterns contrasted sharply with the religious districts where solemn golden lights stayed on until late. It was the contrast between two streets and the completely different lives of the people who lived on them.
At least it was worth braving the cold winter night breeze to watch.
As I thought that and unconsciously looked up at Larilura, our junior stuck her tongue out and pressed down on her skirt.
“Ah! No perverted thoughts allowed! Even if you stare up from down there like that, there’s no service time♡?”
“Considering the time, it wouldn’t be service time—it’d be overtime. Don’t I basically look like I got hired at a kindergarten to take care of kids right now?”
“Kindergarten? Like an orphanage?”
“Not really the same, but there is a common point in that both involve looking after children in place of their parents.”
“Hmm.”
Larilura, sitting on the tree branch, tilted her head, then pulled the coat I’d given her tighter around herself and swung her legs.
“That’s not bad. Back then, I thought that after I retired, I might get a job at a place like that.”
Her gaze drifted slightly toward the religious district. There was probably an orphanage attached to one of the religious facilities over there. Larilura herself probably hadn’t come from there, but she would certainly know where the orphanages in this city were located.
“Retirement, huh. That’s thinking pretty far ahead for your age.”
“But I can’t work in a circus troupe my whole life. Like that bad clown lady you beat up, Senior—I could get hurt too, or the whole troupe could collapse. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.”
Larilura raised her hand and mimed something collapsing. Well, in a harsh world like this, there were countless reasons a circus could fail. Traveling the world meant dealing with monsters and bandits too.
“I can’t keep relying on the troupe leader forever… and I’m not actually her real daughter, right?”
“Yeah. I heard a little about that.”
“I figured you had. Well, honestly I didn’t notice until recently. You’re good at hiding things, Senior.”
Larilura spoke cheerfully, then bobbed her head and began humming a tune.
“Ran, ran Lariloo~. Roo, roo Larira♬ La, la Roorira~♪ Larilooriloo♬”
Singing like that, Larilura really did look like a young bird, just as Miss Alexandra had said. She chirped whenever she felt like it and stopped whenever she felt like it. She shook her head and legs in time with the rhythm before suddenly clamping her mouth shut.
“Priscilla, Priscilla…… Yeah. I still don’t really like that name.”
“So you heard about that too.”
“Yes. It still sounds like a stuck-up name to me. It’s unnecessarily elegant and doesn’t suit a rowdy kid like me at all—but it does have a good meaning.”
After muttering that, Larilura took off her disguise tools and stretched. Then our junior jumped down from the branch and walked over to the night view, leaving me behind.
“When the troupe leader took me from the orphanage, she followed the proper employee hiring procedures. She didn’t meet the conditions for adopting a daughter.”
“That’s why you didn’t have a last name?”
“Yes. I never even knew my real parents’ faces, so just knowing my own name was already something. Still, when I was even smaller than I am now, I used to secretly pretend to attach the troupe leader’s last name to mine and giggle about it.”
“Priscilla Leps, or something?”
“That’s right. It’s a really awkward combination, isn’t it? I actually started learning to read and write because I wanted to see that name written out in letters. But they said you can’t adopt a daughter if you don’t own a house. Even if she had owned one, I don’t think she would have adopted me anyway.”
“Probably not. If she gave you her last name, you would never have been able to leave Miss Alexandra’s side.”
When I said that while recalling the conversation I’d had with her, Larilura’s eyes widened as she looked at me.
“……Wow. I never thought of it that way. Is this the intuition of two people without last names?”
“I do have a last name, you know? I told you my real name.”
“Bukho Kang!”
“What the hell kind of frog name is that, fuck.”
“Pffft, ahahahahaha!”
Larilura burst out laughing, clutching her stomach as if my grumbling was the funniest thing in the world. She’d been laughing a lot today. I frowned, feeling like I was being teased about my name, and she promptly came over. Then she held out her small hand with a smile.
“Um, anyway, that’s how it was. Following you around seems like it would be better for my future, so I wanted to say please take care of me from now on too.”
“……Yeah. I’m the one who should be saying that. Please take care of me too.”
I took the hand she offered. I could feel the smile that had risen on my own face. Thankfully, it looked like this kid was still going to stick with us.