The Perils of Parenting Aren't Always About the Child
Sandwiches are a perfectly balanced complete food, aren't they…?
Ever since I started living with Eve, the number of things that worried me had begun to grow. Just to be clear and avoid any misunderstandings, I would never call her a high-maintenance child. She was a good kid who didn't have strong likes or dislikes and rarely got emotional. If anything, my biggest — and admittedly rather spoiled — concern was that her overly calm personality made it hard to figure out what she wanted in advance.
But the hardships of raising a child don't always come from the child themselves. The environment surrounding them, along with variables completely outside my control, had a way of popping up unexpectedly at any time. The external variable I was facing this time was the "school" system. Through this experience, I came to bitterly realize that a guardian's role didn't end with simply reading the school notices and packing the necessary supplies.
One day, I secretly grumbled about this reality to Caramel while she was working.
"Aha, lunchboxes? So that's why the teacher looked so grim."
"…It wasn't that bad. Packing Eve's lunch for school has already become one of those small daily joys for me. …It's just, well, difficult."
"Wait, the teacher makes it for her?"
"Pretty much."
Caramel asked in a tone full of interest, "Just out of curiosity, can I ask what menu Eve took today?"
"Ham and cheese sandwich."
"And yesterday?"
"…Egg mayo sandwich."
"What about a week ago?"
"……………Chicken avocado sandwich."
"It's sandwiches every single day! Are you trying to turn Eve's stomach into a desert?!"
This girl. She clearly didn't understand the greatness of sandwiches. They contained protein, vitamins, minerals, and even dietary fiber. They were a complete food that perfectly balanced the nutritional needs of a growing child like Eve.
"There's a school store, you know. She could just buy something there."
"Sending her with money every single day feels weird too."
"Aww, come on~ That's not true. So many kids buy their lunch. And it's not like they sell anything weird."
"Hmm… Still…"
I just couldn't feel good about it.
"People might think it's strange if a kid being raised by a single man eats nothing but bread from the school store every day without fail."
"Bread… why? Sandwiches are bread too?"
Caramel blinked, looking genuinely puzzled. Well, that made sense. In this western-style fantasy game world, bread was basically the staple food. The underlying food culture here was that tearing into a single baguette could count as a proper meal. But my deep-rooted preconceptions refused to let go of the idea that "plain bread without anything else is just a snack." No matter how you looked at it, didn't a proper meal need to include protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fiber like in a sandwich or hamburger?
"You really are quite meticulous, sir."
"By the way… why are you here in the middle of a weekday morning instead of at the academy?"
"Ugh."
Caramel let out a bizarre noise and protested with a hurt expression. "I'm on leave this semester?! I definitely told you last week and even adjusted my schedule around it. Have you already completely forgotten?! You don't pay any attention to your one and only part-timer! Think about the sales this gorgeous billboard beauty brings in!"
This was news to me.
"Billboard, huh… These days it feels like more customers come to see Eve. Are you sure you're the billboard?"
"Ugh… W-well, you see…?"
Caramel, who had been complaining so energetically, suddenly avoided my eyes as if I'd hit the nail on the head. "Even billboards go through generational change, you know? These days I'm more like an ambassador…"
"Ambassador my foot… And why are you already done with the semester? I thought it just started not long ago."
"The exams finished a while back too."
"Really? That's actually good news. How were your grades? How did it go?"
Once again, instead of answering, Caramel whistled and looked away. Her grades weren't exactly someone else's business to me. The reason I could ask about them so casually was because I had some stake in how much she studied for her major.
She was majoring in white magic, specifically the healing and medical branches of magic. After helping her with an assignment once before, I'd naturally taken on a sort of tutor role. Of course, all of it had started purely as a hobby, but even so, it was only natural to be curious about the grades of a student who was practically my apprentice.
"U-um, you see, sir. I definitely got a perfect score on the practical exam, okay?? But on the written test, questions from outside the study range suddenly appeared… So, um. That is to say…"
"That's unfortunate. I specifically told you to study similar concepts together."
"Ugh… It looks like the time has come for this disciple to repay her master's kindness."
"Don't try to gloss it over with nonsense."
"Sir, you said you were worried about Eve's lunchbox, right?! There's the perfect person who comes to mind when you think of cooking!"
I could clearly feel Caramel's blatant effort to change the subject. But it was a topic I couldn't just ignore either.
"…Cooking?"
"Yes! There's a perfectly wonderful person who's quiet, polite, an excellent cook, and practically the top candidate for a bride!"
"That's strange… I don't recall anyone like that around me."
At that, Caramel's face crumpled into a pout again. "Why are you pretending not to know! Even though half of Eve's birthday feast came from a restaurant, I made the other half myself!"
"Oh, right. Thank you. Eve and her friends said it was really delicious."
Only then did I realize that the "quiet, polite, excellent cook and top bride candidate" she kept mentioning was referring to herself.
"Come visit our house with Eve on your next day off!"
Caramel declared confidently, pointing her index finger straight up. "As a senior in childcare, I'll teach you a hundred different recipes that will captivate children's taste buds!"
It was the first time since meeting Caramel that she had looked so radiant. I thought to myself that a senior in parenting really was on another level.
*
…Or at least, that's what I thought until this morning.
When I thought about it calmly, no matter how much I'd been invited, casually visiting an employee's house was something I needed to be careful about in many ways. After all, Caramel was biologically female. No matter how I looked at it, the picture of me and Eve holding hands and going to play there didn't seem quite right. I'd actually turned her down a few days ago because it didn't feel appropriate, but her response had been the same every time.
"I already got permission from my parents, so it's fine~"
And so, on the day off itself, I found myself at Caramel's house — a place I'd only known by its address until now. Just as I was about to press the doorbell, loud voices came from inside the door.
"Hey! Mey! I told you to put the dishes in the sink if you're done eating! And Luka! How can you just leave the place like this?! Aaaah…! I can't take it anymore!"
………Was it really okay to ring the doorbell?
"…Should I press it?"
"Eve?!"
While I stood frozen, Eve was already standing on her tiptoes reaching for the doorbell. Ever since I'd told her we were going to visit her big sister Caramel's house, Eve had been quietly excited since last night. Of course, if I told Caramel about it, she would probably spend the whole day going on about "How cuuute… Eve is looking forward to coming to my house today…" while hugging and kissing her nonstop.
I placed my hands on Eve's shoulders and lifted her high enough so she could reach the doorbell at eye level.
"…!"
"Okay, go ahead and press it."
"……!"
"Eve?"
"…I-it tickles…"
"Sorry. Is this better?"
Still seeming ticklish around her shoulders, Eve wiggled her lips a little before pressing the doorbell. Ding~ Dong~
"Yeees~ Coming right now!"
Caramel's voice from inside suddenly turned into a scream.
"Uwaaah! You guys! If you spill milk here…! !@~@~!@@!@!!~@ Do whatever you want, go ahead and turn the place into an ocean……!~#@~! Oh right, we have guests…! Just a moment! I'll be right there!"
It already sounded completely chaotic. After a loud clattering and banging, the door finally opened. The usually energetic Caramel looked like she might collapse at any moment, her face completely drained.
"It really was you, sir! I'm so sorry for being late."
"It's fine. But… is everything okay?"
"Well… the kids caused a little trouble. It's nothing serious. Come on in, Eve."
Before I could say anything, Caramel grabbed Eve's hand and led her inside first. She must have moved preemptively because she thought I might turn around and leave. She really knew exactly how to target my weak spot.
"Are you sure it's really okay for me to be here?"
"Of course! You're here to learn how to cook, right? There's absolutely no problem!"
"What about your parents? I should greet them first."
"They're working right now. Weekends are always a bit busy for them."
After saying that, Caramel gathered up her siblings who had been rolling around in the living room.
"Luka! Mey! We have guests, so come say hello."
They seemed… a little younger than Eve. The children who had been running around with innocent laughter and squeals were completely absorbed in their own world even after Caramel spoke. The younger brother's name was Luka, and the younger sister's was Mey. Since they were Caramel's siblings, I'd half-expected names like "Vanilla" or "Chocolate," so I was secretly surprised by how normal their names actually were.
"Hello!"
"Hello!"
They greeted us at the same time. I returned the greeting briefly. The two children tilted their heads when they saw Eve. Caramel introduced her in their place.
"This big sister here is Eve. She's older than both of you, so don't mess around with her too much, okay?"
"Big sis, what do you take us for?"
"Yeah. We know that much at least."
But Caramel just shrugged as if she didn't believe a word of it and spoke to Eve. "Eve, I'm sorry, but could you play with them until I finish cleaning the kitchen?"
"Yes."
Eve nodded.
"Sir, shall we start cleaning up quickly?"
Caramel spoke briskly and immediately headed to the kitchen.
"Is there a lot to clean?"
"Hahaha… Well, you see…?"
Caramel's eyes darkened as she stared off into the distance. What on earth had happened? I looked into the kitchen with curious eyes. The reason became clear immediately.
Broken plates and an overturned chair. The frying pan that should have been on the stove had somehow slammed into the wall and was now rolling around on the floor. So that's why she was late coming out.
Because Eve was so well-behaved, I'd been underestimating what children were really like. …So this was parenting…?
"I'm sorry, sir. You just got here and now you're helping with housework."
"I'm here to learn cooking, so this much is only natural. Here, these are the ingredients you asked for."
I took out the ingredients I'd brought and placed them on the now-clean table. Some of them had been in Eve's school bag. Even though one would think she'd be tired of it by now, her obsession with that bag showed no signs of fading. It was one of the very few things Eve was stubborn about. But quiet obsessions were the scariest kind. I secretly thought that if she developed a crush on someone later, it might become a real headache, and with that in mind, I began to cook.