Let's Go Home - 3
After arriving at the estate, unpacking our luggage, and finally getting our backs against the beds, evening was already drawing in by the time we finished welcoming the returned family head.
"I don't know if this will suit your tastes."
At the family dinner table where everyone had gathered, Mother spoke softly.
"It's perfect. I've never had a meal this enjoyable."
The Fourth Section Chief, who had been wound as tight as if standing night watch, answered without missing a beat. Mother seemed satisfied with the response and nodded with quiet pleasure.
Looking at the mountain of food, there was simply no way anyone could claim it was lacking. It was as if someone had taken the phrase "I didn't know what you liked, so I prepared everything" and made it real. I hadn't set foot near the kitchens today, but I could tell the chef was probably hovering between life and death by now. Could we even finish all of this?
"If it's not enough, just say the word. I'll have more prepared."
"Yes, Mother. Thank you."
It didn't look as though a full day of eating would put a dent in it, yet the Fourth Section Chief answered without the slightest hesitation once again.
If I saw in that the image of a junior obediently submitting to a senior's food torture, it was probably just my imagination. With the Fourth Section Chief, I was half afraid she would force it all down and then ask for seconds.
"My dear. Leave the children to eat as they please for now. One should be comfortable when dining, don't you think?"
From the head of the table, the family head—who had been eating in quiet composure—spoke in a low voice.
It was a warm consideration for daughters-in-law who might feel burdened. Yet when my gaze drifted toward him, I had to force myself not to react, afraid I would burst out laughing.
Treasure goblin.
I knew I shouldn't, but the words had been stuck in my head for a while. The family head, festooned with every gift imaginable, looked nothing like his usual self.
Unlike Mother's presents, which had all been unified as necklaces, his gifts were a chaotic variety—brooches, handkerchiefs, scarves, bracelets, and more. Completely mismatched items had been piled onto him under the banner of gifts, and he had put every last one of them on without a shred of resistance.
I couldn't tell whether this was a noble's proper acceptance of another family's gifts, or simply the pleased heart of a father-in-law under affectionate assault from his daughters-in-law. Either way, the result was a little grotesque.
Still better than Mother, at least.
Of course, it was more normal than Mother, who had cheerfully put on every necklace the moment she received them.
I never expected her to wear all six right then and there. Even the people who had given the gifts looked flustered.
"They're all precious gifts—how could I possibly rank them? At least for today, I want to wear every one."
They had withdrawn, looking rather moved by those words. Still, if they were going to persuade her, I wished they had tried a little longer. Of all things, every necklace had a different gemstone, so she looked as though she were wearing a rainbow.
"Not at all, Father. We're happy that Mother is looking after us so carefully."
Mother, who had looked briefly stricken by the family head's words, smiled again at Margarethe's reply. When the other daughters-in-law nodded in agreement, her expression brightened even further.
It seemed she was overreacting to the smallest things, and knowing why left me with a heavy heart. Right after we arrived at the estate, the head lady-in-waiting had quietly approached me with something to say.
"Her Ladyship never managed to form a warm relationship with her parents-in-law. The previous ladies of the house passed away early, and the previous family head never looked kindly upon her. So she wishes to enjoy, through her daughters-in-law, the harmonious bond she herself never had."
Because she had never received her parents-in-law's love, she wanted to love and cherish her daughters-in-law all the more. A wish to create the warm mother-and-daughter-in-law relationship she had never been able to enjoy herself.
Hearing that made every one of Mother's actions look different.
A person starved for affection.
I had never imagined it. I had simply thought of her as demure and sparing with her emotions—never that she carried a heart like that. It even made me wonder whether the reason she had shown so little interest while her children were growing was because she herself had never properly received affection within the Crassius family.
Come to think of it, hadn't she been making efforts since last year to improve her relationship with me and Erich? Mother wasn't a cold person—she was simply an immature one.
At least her marriage is good. That's a relief.
I turned my eyes toward the treasure goblin—no, the family head—whom I had been carefully avoiding looking at.
A spectacularly ruined relationship with her in-laws, an immature heart that had never fully shown affection to her children. Despite all those stacked disadvantages, the reason Mother had been able to endure was surely thanks to the family head. Even if every other relationship was lacking, having a husband she could trust and lean on would make it bearable, wouldn't it?
...Why is it good, though?
That thought struck me suddenly. If this was the person an immature Mother trusted and relied upon, then they must share some kind of wavelength—but the stiff, mechanical family head... could their wavelengths actually match? Was there any reason for those two to get along well?
It was a little confusing. Could the family head be just as immature as Mother? Were they simply two of a kind, and that was why they got along? Aside from selling me off to the Audit Department, he had never really put me through anything terrible. And his indifference toward his children wasn't any different from Mother's either.
I don't know.
It was far too complicated a problem to chew over while eating.
Still, it wasn't urgent, so I could think about it at my leisure...
Once the dam of questions cracked open, the doubts poured out as if the floodgates had been released. I had begun to wonder whether the family head might not be the strict, solemn, utterly serious machine of a man I had always pictured him to be.
"Young Lord. Forgive me, but might I ask you to approve these documents?"
"I don't mind, but isn't the family head present?"
That fundamental doubt took firm root the next morning, thanks to the steward who came looking for me with an awkward expression.
"W-well, His Lordship is in the middle of an important conversation with Her Ladyship..."
"A conversation?"
"That is..."
After a brief hesitation, what the steward said was rather shocking.
"His Lordship claimed he would be late due to work yesterday, but when I looked at the shoes he had been wearing, they were covered in dry grass and mud."
"And that means...?"
"Those are usually the traces left when he has been out fishing."
I was left speechless. In short, the husband who had gone off to play under the excuse of work had been caught by his wife and was currently getting an earful.
I was thoroughly confused. This was nothing like the family head I knew. Even the steward's reaction was merely sheepish, with no real surprise—as if this sort of incident had been happening from time to time for years.
"It does seem he truly gathered for work-related reasons. He didn't go fishing alone; Count Bardon and the former Count Horfelt went with him."
Perhaps my silence made me look like a son shocked at the sight of a father who had gone off to play right after bringing home a daughter-in-law, because the steward hurriedly continued.
I was shocked, yes—but not for the reason he thought. As someone who had been ground down as a high-ranking civil servant myself, I understood perfectly well that spending private time with certain people could also count as part of the job. Even I had been dragged out hunting by the Crown Prince before my Academy posting.
The shock I felt now was simply... simply the shock of an unexpected person showing an unexpected side.
In the middle of a conversation...
I nearly closed my eyes. "Conversation" was a nice way of putting it; in reality it meant he was being one-sidedly scolded by Mother and had no idea what to do with himself. Otherwise there would have been no need for the steward to come to me for approvals. If it had truly been a conversation, he could have simply slipped in, gotten a signature, and left.
It was almost funny that they had figured it out just by looking at the shoes. Unless he was a habitual offender, it would be hard to draw that conclusion from such a thin clue.
Ah. So he was a habitual offender, then.
Incredible.
I felt as though I had uncovered a secret of the family I never knew.
I wasn't particularly happy about it.
I felt as though I were sitting on a bed of thorns. I had never actually sat on one, but if I did, it would surely feel like this. Why was I even here?
"I'm sorry, Young Master. It was all so sudden, wasn't it?"
"Ah—no, it's fine."
While I stared blankly at the dust motes floating in the air, Lady Margarethe—who would soon become my first sister-in-law—spoke up.
In truth, it was not fine. It was far too sudden. But when not only Lady Margarethe but the whole crowd of prospective sisters-in-law had come swarming to drag me off, how could I possibly say no? If I thrashed around refusing and somehow offended my second sister-in-law... I dreaded what might happen to me.
Right. Fortunately Sera was with the nanny, so a short while should be fine.
"But... what is this about...?"
Still, I needed to finish this business as quickly as possible, so I asked bluntly. If the conversation dragged on, Sera might start wandering the castle looking for me.
"We need your advice, Young Master."
"My advice?"
It was such an unexpected remark that I could only blink. Advice? From whom? From me? With the Magic Lord—the greatest mage on the continent—right here, they were deliberately asking a mere student like me?
...Why...?
"It's the kind of advice only you can give, Young Master—as someone who is family to Karl."
Reading the confusion and doubt in my eyes, Lady Margarethe carefully added.
"Karl's birthday is coming soon, after all."
Ah. So that was it.
The moment I heard the word "birthday," something clicked and I nodded. My brother's birthday was right around the corner, and his lovers were seeking advice from me, his family.
Obvious. They wanted to know what kind of gift he would like. Asking only a few days before the birthday felt a little late, but buying a gift was something that could be done in an instant anyway.
"I don't know."
"Pardon?"
"His tastes. I don't really know them either. He's the sort who isn't picky about anything."
So I answered in advance. I had a feeling a similar question and answer had been exchanged once before, but I truly did not know.
From the past until now, my brother had never revealed anything that could be called a preference. He accepted whatever was given and used it until it fell apart. That easygoing, well-rounded person was my brother.
"It's an obvious thing to say, but you could give him anything and he would be hap—py..."
Before I could finish, the Magic Lord gestured into the empty air, and boxes came tumbling down around her.
One, two, then a dozen, then dozens, until well over a hundred boxes appeared and stacked themselves into a rather spectacular sight.
"We've already prepared the gifts. It's just that we prepared... rather a lot..."
"Ah. Yes."
I stared blankly at the still-accumulating boxes. What was this? Had they bought everything at random because they didn't know his tastes? Thinking that at least one of them was bound to hit the mark?
It was a certain method, I had to admit. Somewhere in that pile there had to be something that matched his preferences.
"If possible, we want to give him something he would truly love. Just giving him a lot of things would look so thoughtless, wouldn't it?"
No—once the sheer quantity passed a certain point, wasn't that its own form of sincerity? How could anyone match the devotion of preparing over a hundred gifts just to give him what he wanted?
Even so, with six pairs of eyes gazing at me so earnestly, I couldn't bring myself to shake my head firmly.
And those eyes belonged to three people I already knew well, two who were older than me, and one being I could barely even look up to.
"Um, or maybe something Oppa doesn't have...? Wouldn't there be something like that?"
While I stood pondering before the tower of boxes, Irina carefully spoke up.
Yes—that was a good approach. If we didn't know what he liked, giving him something he didn't have could work just as well. The best gifts were always the ones that felt awkward to buy with your own money, yet delightful when received for free from someone else.
What doesn't he have?
But I didn't know that either. I didn't even know what he already owned, so how was I supposed to figure it out?
...Ah.
"Leave?"
I blurted out the word that rose unbidden while I was turning it over in my head.
Ah—no. Not leave. Wasn't it retirement he didn't have?
If we were looking for something my brother desperately wanted but had never managed to obtain, then leave and retirement both seemed to fit.