Under the Bed with Mom (1)
Under the Bed with Mom (1)
The moment I mentioned the dungeon, Mar lost it. She threw every argument she had at me to stop me—how dangerous dungeons were, that they were no place for a child, and so on.
But I kept whining until she finally relented and set a few conditions.
First: I had to wear every protective artifact in the house.
Second: I had to enter under the escort of the Knight Order, and if combat broke out, I was not to participate in any way.
And third.
"...Removing artifacts from the Treasure Vault. And the private use of the Knight Order. Both require the Head of House's permission. So you go ask Mother yourself, little brother. Let's see if you can pull that off."
"Ugh. I wanted to keep this a secret from Mom."
"Mom will notice the second you set one foot outside the Grand Duchy anyway. So forget any funny ideas and go get her permission like a good boy. I'm not helping."
"Spoilsport. Fine."
Get Mom's permission to go to the dungeon.
It seemed impossible at first glance, but I accepted it anyway. Like my sister said, trying to sneak out without her knowing was pointless.
But still...
'Convincing her feels just as impossible.'
For all her cold exterior, Mom was secretly the overprotective type. I couldn't imagine her ever agreeing to something as dangerous as a dungeon expedition.
Even if I loaded myself down with every safety measure Mar mentioned, from Mom's perspective, it would still feel like dangling her child over open water.
How was I supposed to talk her into this? Come clean about why I personally needed to go? Impossible. That would mean revealing Ryu Si-u's memories. And if I did that, she'd call me insane and ship me off to the Church.
I sat there munching on a cookie for a while, mulling it over, then let out a long sigh and stood up.
"Ahh. I never planned on using this."
"Hm? What're you talking about?"
"Nothing. Just didn't think I'd have to pull out my last resort this soon."
* * * * * *
Then I bolted for the Head of House's Office. Night was creeping in, so I had to reach her before she wrapped up work and left.
And,
-Creeeak.
"Yune? I've told you countless times that a noble young master must not dash about so frivolously. I really must summon an etiquette instructor soon...."
I caught her at the perfect moment, just as she opened the door to step out. Her hands were empty—she'd clearly just finished.
She frowned, ready to scold me for running inside the castle, but...
"Mom, Mom! Let's sleep together tonight!"
"...?"
My next words shut her mouth instantly.
Yep. My last resort... was sleeping with Mom.
She already agreed to almost anything when I was curled up on her lap getting petted. If I lay down beside her and asked, surely she'd say yes to a little dungeon trip?
"Yunes. You are nine years old now. Such babyish demands are hardly—"
"Please? I don't remember ever sleeping with you before. I really want to fall asleep with Mom."
"...."
"If I can't sleep with Mom, I might get scared at night and cry my eyes out, you know? Boo-hoo, I'm so scared~ I want my mommy~."
"......Fine. But only for tonight."
She'd raised an eyebrow, looking pained and ready to refuse, but my clinginess wore her down in the end.
Even I found this level of acting babyish a little cringeworthy, but...
Mark of a Manly Man: when you let go, you let go completely.
"Hehe. Then when are we sleeping? It's getting pretty late."
"Yune, are you sleepy?"
"A little?"
"Then we'll go to the bedroom. I've nothing left to do for tonight anyway."
* * * * * *
Erengard von Nordkirchen. The Northern Grand Duchess.
Her bedroom was stark to the point of barrenness. It didn't suit the name of the Northern Grand Duchess, who possessed a rotting excess of wealth.
Partly this was because her personality was ruthlessly practical—she had no attachment to decorating things—but...
'...Has it really been so long since Jürgen was embraced by Mana? Since anyone else set foot in this bedroom.'
It was also because she'd torn away every decoration the room once held after her husband, Jürgen von Nordkirchen, passed away.
She was clumsy at expressing affection, but her love had been genuine. So whenever she looked at the ornaments he'd chosen, she remembered him and grew sorrowful.
A loneliness like the northern cold lingered in her room, kept almost obsessively bare of interior design.
But tonight, a ray of warmth shone into that bedroom. All thanks to the last child she and Jürgen had together—Yune.
Yune, who for some reason had clung to her today and begged to sleep beside her.
She fully understood how the world would view a nine-year-old noble son sharing a bed with his mother, and she had meant to refuse...
Maybe it was because she'd only borne daughters before him. She simply could not bring herself to be strict with her precious youngest son, a boy so adorable she could gaze at him forever.
And so, after she gave her permission, she found herself inwardly regretting it, wondering if she was indulging him too much....
"But Mom, your bed's way bigger than mine! I could roll around in circles and still not fall off! We could even play hide-and-seek on it!"
"Enough with the fuss."
'...How cute.'
Seeing him put on all these little antics atop her bed, Erengard's regret flipped instantly into delight. Delight that her frail youngest son—bedridden for his entire life—had grown healthy enough at last to be so affectionate with her.
When she thought about how young lords of other noble houses already shunned their mothers' embraces, let alone their beds, by age eight, a sense of victory for reasons she couldn't explain flooded her heart.
'Yes. Etiquette training for noble standing can wait until he turns ten. Yune is still nine, and even then, he spent most of that time in bed. A little freedom can't hurt.'
Erengard, who had been thinking just moments ago that she needed to hire a noble etiquette tutor as soon as possible, flipped her plans as easily as turning over her palm.
Then she lay down in the bed together with Yune.
"Heehee. Mom is warm."
"...."
Her small, precious son snuggled into her arms. The warmth spread through her frozen heart like thawing happiness.
She lay quietly and listened as Yune chattered on before bedtime. Trivial stories—how the head chef's cookies were delicious, how he'd visited the rooms of his sisters when they returned home to hear about the Academy.
Had anyone else talked like this, she would have turned stern and said, 'And your point? Do not waste my time with meaningless noise.'
But she didn't chase him off or tell him to stop babbling. She hummed along here and there, responding to his words. To her, his chattering was like heavenly music—like a little bird chirping.
And then, just as drowsiness began to creep over her as well.
"...So Mom? I want to go to a dungeon with my sisters this time. You'll give me permission, right?"
"—What?"
At Yune's single sentence, her blood, which had only just grown warm, froze cold again.
* * * * * *
"—What? Say it again."
"Well, to a nearby dungeon. With my sister."
"You must be insane."
Just as she was starting to look sleepy, I'd finally brought up the main topic—and her whole expression changed in an instant.
Then she stretched her arms straight out at me.
-Snatch.
"Eh? Huh?"
"Let's hear it. What on earth possessed you to say something like that."
'...Did I just poke the bear?'
She hoisted me up and glared. Her eyes were narrowed more sharply than usual. Worse than the time I broke an expensive vase—nothing even compared.
"I-I mean... I want to go play with my sisters."
"And that leads to going to a dungeon? Do you even know what a dungeon is?"
"Huh? Well, it's a place with monsters. And traps. And treasure?"
"You truly know nothing at all."
After that, she started explaining dungeons to me.
Dungeons: places packed with vicious monsters that cause regular casualties even among veteran knight orders, and with cunning traps that bring injuries and deaths no matter how well you prepare.
"I send the Knight Order into the dungeons once a year for training, but even with every preparation possible, there has never been an expedition without injuries. Even the Nordkirchen Knight Order, the elite of the elite, suffers this. So what do you think would happen if you went inside, Yunes?"
"My sister said it would be fine if I borrowed the family's artifacts and brought the Knight Order with me...."
"Artifacts? Are you telling me that owning artifacts means you may hurl your body into danger? Yune, do you know what will happen if you get so much as a scratch? The knights assigned to your protection will lose their heads. The person responsible will offer up at least a finger."
"Th-That's! Just because of me... all that for—"
"'Just because'? Yunes von Nordkirchen. Know your place. You are a child of the Grand Ducal House of Nordkirchen. One drop of your blood is equal to the lives of a hundred commoners. No—it cannot even be compared. Even if you don't think so yourself, the political world of the Kaiserreich, and I myself, do think so."
"...."
I couldn't retort a single word. I just stared down at the floor. Because there wasn't a single thing wrong with what she'd said.
And honestly, I'd expected it to some degree. For the past year, an escort knight had shadowed me even if I just stepped into the mansion garden. I was never, ever allowed outside the castle walls. The excessive protection went far beyond looking after a sick patient, and it had kept going like that.
I knew well enough by then that I was far more precious than I'd thought.
'...I just didn't want to hear this serious lecture while Mom's holding me up in the air with my feet dangling.'
Even then, I was quietly griping about my current posture.
But Mom paid zero attention to my inner complaints and continued coldly.
"Enter a dungeon? Even if I were dead and buried, I would never permit it."