Are You My Father-in-Law? - Epilogue
The president, who had returned late, looked back and forth between the blankly standing Dr. Kuroi and me, tilting his head in confusion. “Hmm? Dr. Eight? Dr. Kuroi? Did something happen between you two?”
In his hands were stacks of documents—most likely the endless paperwork required for research grant applications.
I let out a forced “Haha” and accepted the papers from him. The president’s face stiffened with clear apology.
“I’m sorry about this, Dr. Eight. Dr. Kuroi can be a little arrogant and eccentric, but he’s not a bad person…”
“Oh, it’s fine. We didn’t fight or anything.”
“That’s a relief, but… are you truly alright, Dr. Kuroi?”
The president glared at Dr. Kuroi with open suspicion. Just watching the scene made it easy to imagine how insufferably arrogant the man usually acted.
Yet Dr. Kuroi didn’t seem to have the mental bandwidth to care about the president’s sharp gaze. He gave a light, dismissive wave and trudged off somewhere. If you didn’t know better, you might have thought he’d just been dumped.
“It’s… not fine. In that case, I’ll take my leave now… Dr. Eight. I hope you continue to fare well.”
“Dr. Kuroi…?”
The president stared after the departing figure with a puzzled expression before letting out a gasp of genuine astonishment.
“How surprising. For that Dr. Kuroi to use honorifics toward someone.”
“Has he never done that before?”
“Never. Even when he received his invitation to Scholar, he was an arrogant bastard. We overlooked it because his skills were genuine, but still…”
The president only reminisced for a moment before promptly explaining how to fill out the documents. I wrote down the type of research I planned to conduct and the resources required, then handed them over. After skimming the pages, he nodded.
“For research of this nature, funding should come through at around one hundred million dollars.”
“Is that all?”
“If you can prove the entire sum was spent on the research itself, you’ll receive second- and third-stage grants. Assuming, of course, that no funds were pocketed along the way.”
“…Do people actually do that?”
“Not so far. Everyone here is sincerely devoted to their work.”
The president offered no further warnings, apparently assuming I would be the same. How naïve. I could easily finish the entire project with a single dollar and pocket the remaining ninety-nine million.
The world’s wealthiest donors weren’t going to throw a tantrum demanding leftover research funds be returned, after all. In other words, I had just gained a new wallet—one completely separate from Regalia—that I could draw from whenever I pleased.
It felt exactly like the thrill a married man experiences when he discovers a secret pocket his wife doesn’t know about. My heart began to beat just a little faster.
“So I just have to wait now?”
“Yes. The funds should be deposited into your account within a few days, Dr. Eight.”
“Excellent.”
I was still grinning like an idiot at the thought of soon having secret money when a sudden question occurred to me.
“Now that I think about it, you said Scholar is a secret organization, so they make you cover your eyes and don’t allow any escorts—but Dr. Kuroi brings Miss Lucia with him just fine?”
“Hm? Well, that’s because Lucia is a robot Dr. Kuroi built himself. You can’t exactly lose control of a tool you created. People may betray you, but tools won’t.”
“…Ah, I see.”
Only after hearing the president’s explanation did I realize that androids had not existed in this world for very long. In fact, the only android currently in existence was Dr. Kuroi’s Lucia, who would never be treated as fully human by society.
Indeed, it was far too early to start granting robots human rights. This was still a society where the rift between humans and beastmen had yet to fully heal.
It was simply too soon to accept any truth that transcended species…
When I returned to Evils Enterprise headquarters, I found Aile inside my laboratory, grinning ear to ear while staring intently at something. I quietly approached her side and discovered she was secretly browsing magical girls’ social media.
As expected, Aile’s love for magical girls showed no signs of fading. Here was someone who could meet real magical girls whenever she wanted as the dark magical girl herself, yet what did she do in her free time? Instagram stalking.
Who on earth would believe that this same girl spent every night cracking whips at those very magical girls? If you saw her right now, she’d look like any other common magical-girl otaku you could find on the street.
There were moments when Aile’s expression would harden slightly—usually when the magical girls subtly revealed their civilian identities and their everyday lives spilled out for the world to see.
To her, a high-school dropout, those girls’ sparkling youth must have looked unbearably bright. That was probably why jealousy kept bubbling up inside her every time.
“Aile, why don’t you go to school too?”
“—Kyaaaaaaaah?!”
Startled, Aile dropped her smartphone directly onto her own face. She rubbed her reddened nose, which had slammed into the hard screen, and stared at me with wide eyes.
Her expression practically screamed, When did you get here? I simply smiled and shrugged.
“U-um… how long have you been standing there…?”
“Let’s see… since around the time you were hearting that photo of a magical girl in a swimsuit?”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah?!”
Letting out a shrill, distinctly unladylike scream, Aile frantically dug crumpled bills out of her skirt pocket, begging me to forget what I’d seen. It was quite a lot of money for a student to be carrying around.
Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t nearly enough to buy my silence.
“Hmm… not enough.”
“P-please… If money isn’t enough, I’ll do anything…”
“Did you just say you’d do anything?”
“Hik—!”
Aile belatedly realized what had come out of her mouth. She hugged her arms to her chest and shook her head wildly.
“O-of course I don’t dislike the idea if it’s with you, Scientist, but… I-I want that kind of thing to happen when we’re in love, with a more romantic atmosphere and—”
“Let’s go to school, Aile.”
“…Y-yes?”
“I said, let’s go to school.”
Apparently the suggestion of attending school was far worse than the lewd scenario she had been imagining. Aile’s face crumpled instantly.
“I’ll strip instead. Should I take my clothes off right now?”
“No. You hate the idea that much? Why?”
“Someone like you, Mr. Eight, wouldn’t understand… how much of a living hell school is for an outcast like me…”
“You could start a brand-new life at a new school, couldn’t you?”
“Th-that’s impossible! High school is the wild…! A savage jungle where the beastly girls immediately sniff out loners like me and tear them apart…!”
She desperately insisted that because she was a non-powered person, she would never survive in that brutal ecosystem. She claimed she would be devoured on her very first day back.
Listening to her, I could tell her trauma ran deeper than I had realized—which only strengthened my resolve to send her back to school.
“I’ll go with you.”
“…Y-you will? You’ll go with me, Scientist?”
“That’s right. I can’t attend high school with you, but what about university? University students don’t bully each other as openly, and I’d be able to attend alongside you.”
I wanted her to experience more of the wider world. Other people might attend college for job prospects, but Aile had no such need.
If she didn’t have to worry about grades or her future after graduation, university would be the perfect place to meet people of every race and background, gaining all sorts of experiences. It would give her the chance to step out of the dark cage she had built around herself.
Fortunately, the moment Aile heard I would attend university with her, she began grinning again, clearly lost in some pleasant fantasy. Perhaps she was imagining us commuting together and enjoying a flower-filled campus life.
Sorry to disappoint, but I never said I would be going as a student.
If I mention it to Scholar, they’ll probably prepare a professor position for me.
They had already offered to grant me a doctorate the moment I submitted a paper. Arranging a mere professorship should be child’s play.
“Y-you’ll really go with me…?”
“Yes. You can pass high school through the equivalency exam, then we’ll prepare for the university entrance test. I’ll teach you properly right by your side.”
“P-private tutoring… just the two of us…!”
Aile’s mouth twitched as she imagined who-knows-what. Was studying really that exciting to her? Seeing her so happy made me smile as well.
First, I needed to create some energy drinks for studying. Something that would let us stay up for a full week without issue. Maybe even a supplement that made knowledge stick in the brain the moment you consumed it.
H City fought the World’s Enemies every single day. The grotesque monsters that crossed over from another realm came without regard for day or night, holidays or weekends.
Today was no different. The magical girls returning from battle groaned the moment they saw the jet-black curtain spreading across the sky.
“Not again…!”
“That damn dark magical girl—!”
“We just want to rest!”
After exhausting themselves completely, they were being forced back into the field. The magical girls charged toward the scene with fire in their eyes.
The dark magical girl was already there, muttering something to herself. The others strained their ears, wondering if she was casting a spell, only to tilt their heads in confusion.
“…The inner product of vectors a and b equals ab plus…”
“Is that… a math formula?”
“Did she eat something bad?”
“What’s wrong with her?”
While the magical girls stood there bewildered, the dark magical girl finally snapped back to her senses. She flinched, then slowly raised her staff toward them.
“Heh… uhuhu… Welcome, everyone…”
“…Are you sick? You look absolutely exhausted.”
“Does it show…? Then you’re correct…”
The dark magical girl waved her staff as though she bore them no real ill will.
“I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, so I came to beat you all up a little.”
“—You crazy bitch! I can’t believe I actually worried about you!”
“Ahahahahaha—! I’ll thrash you to the absolute limit!”
Seeing the magic flying toward them, the magical girls scattered in all directions. But as always, they couldn’t avoid the dark magical girl’s staff.
The slender magical girls’ groans echoed throughout H City, accompanied by the witch’s bright, ringing laughter.