Family (4)
The party had relocated to a nearby teahouse, and now they sat in silence, each with a steaming cup set before them.
In that suffocating quiet, Ain, Er, Ain's parents, and Jina had arranged themselves into their respective camps, and the air around their table was so thick that no stranger would have dared to encroach.
"Er, why would you say something like that...!"
Ain covered his mouth so the others couldn't see and hissed the words through his fingers.
"They already believe it completely! What are we supposed to do?!"
"I... I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself."
Er had nothing she could say in her own defense. Her voice came out a little dejected.
"I just... wanted to say you were a precious companion. And, um... that we were... that kind of close. I rushed it."
"So what now? Jina's over there looking like that. Think you can explain this?"
Just as Ain said, even Jina — who knew the actual truth of their relationship — was sitting beside his parents and glaring daggers at the two of them.
"The second I take my eyes off you, without me even knowing... I knew I should've killed you back then—"
Watching Jina mutter curses through lifeless eyes, Ain felt a chill race down his spine. His shoulders twitched.
"At this rate, we're both going to die. Physically."
"...I'll take responsibility. Let's be happy together."
"This is not the time for jokes!"
Ain shook his head as he said it — and that was the moment.
"Young lady, might I ask your name?"
"Of course. Please just call me Er."
"...Er?"
Ain's mother narrowed her eyes slightly at the name.
"Do you have a surname, by any chance?"
"...No. My name is Er. That's all there is."
She studied Er for a long moment, then let out a small, amused breath of a laugh.
"I'm sorry. It's just such an unusual name."
"What's unusual about it? It's a perfectly ordinary name."
"Ain, you might not know this, but Er is quite an uncommon name."
"...Is there a reason?"
"Ersia Arkhansiel."
It was Er who answered, her voice gone a little stiff.
"...That's the name of a duke's daughter whose entire house was destroyed five years ago. She's reacting because my name reminds her of that young lady."
"...Now that you mention it, there was something like that."
Treason, wasn't it?
Five years ago, an entire house had been wiped from the map on charges of attempting to assassinate the Crown Prince, the heir to the throne. The shockwaves at the time had reached even into the temple — enough that the incident still lingered in a corner of Ain's memory from his days as a trainee priest.
The recollection surfaced, and Ain waved it off with an easy smile.
"Come on, that's a needless worry. They said the duke's daughter died back then."
"That's what was reported, yes. But you never know. Someone as beautiful and elegant as Miss Er would have been more than worthy of that title, don't you think?"
"That's not something you can just decide you want to be. It's a pointless conversation."
Ain cut the discussion of Er's name short and pressed on.
"Father, Mother — first of all, let me say this. It's all a misunderstanding. Everything. Every single thing you're thinking right now!"
"So the part where you said this young lady is such a reliable companion that you want to keep her by your side, but you got ahead of yourself and the words came out wrong — that's the misunderstanding?"
"Yes! That's a misunderstand— wait, what?"
Ain caught the strangeness in it and asked again, and his mother lit up.
"Oh my, dear. She really might be daughter-in-law material."
"You're right. She's more capable than I expected."
"W-wait a minute, what are you two talking about?"
Ain spoke in a fluster. His parents only curled their lips into matching, thoroughly entertained smiles.
"Isn't it obvious? Our son would never be that bold!"
"If you were really my son, you couldn't pull that off even if you were about to die. Back in my day, your mother chewed me out so badly over that sort of thing..."
"That's because you were so hopelessly dense."
Listening to his parents' conversation instantly devolve into a harmonious marital exchange, Ain tried again.
"Then... that thing you said earlier about a grandson..."
"Humor, just humor. I don't want to become a stuffy old adult."
"This boy is still young and his sense of humor is lacking."
"..."
Unable to find a single thing to say to that, Ain clamped his mouth shut. His mother turned to Er.
"I'm sorry, Miss Er. If we offended you, I apologize."
"O-oh, no! Offended? If anything..."
"...If anything?"
Having heard a remark that loaded, how could they possibly let it go?
The playful smiles vanished. Both of them widened their eyes, looking faintly startled, and Er rushed to recover.
"I-it was a slip of the tongue! Please forget it!"
There was no chance they would forget it.
The look on Er's face just now had been, to anyone watching, no slip of the tongue. It was the look of someone whose true feelings had leaked out before she could stop them — of an unfiltered inner thought, jarred loose by sheer nerves, tumbling into the open.
"Oh my. Oh my, oh my."
As if she had seen straight through something, she covered her mouth and repeated herself, then turned to her husband beside her.
"Dear, this is..."
"As expected of my son. He knows exactly how to capture a woman's heart."
"...Father, did you already forget what you just said?"
Ain let out a hollow laugh of disbelief, trying to steer the conversation anywhere else — but the faint flush at his ears was already betraying everything he had tried to hide.
There was no world in which Ain's parents would miss that.
Having seen right through their son's heart, they each wore a smile they made no effort to conceal.
"Looks like it'll happen sooner than we thought."
"Right? We should really start picking out names."
"Both of you, please stop!"
Ain finally waved both hands in surrender, and they burst out laughing. Beside them, the look in Jina's eyes only grew darker.
"Vixen... waiting for her chance to steal points, that thieving—"
"...Jina, are you sure you should be showing your true colors so openly? Both of them are sitting right there."
"Ha! I'm different from you! I've already racked up a mountain of points, that's what I'm saying!"
She grinned with complete, unshakable confidence and pulled Ain's mother's arm into an embrace.
"Right, Mother?"
"Of course, of course. A little jealousy is what makes a girl cute."
She said it as she stroked Jina's hair, smoothing it back from her face.
The picture they made was so much like a close mother and daughter — or rather, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law — that a restless anxiety began to well up in Er's chest.
"But being too fond of your older brother is a problem."
"...Huh?"
"If a little sister likes her older brother too much, it makes him uncomfortable, doesn't it?"
Jina went rigid on the spot, unable to parse the words. Er, the only other person at the table who grasped the hidden meaning, spoke quietly.
"...You said you treated her like a daughter. You really do."
"N-no, th-this can't be..."
"We've known her since she was so little. From the moment I heard she'd joined as my junior disciple, I told him to treat her as a little sister."
Not a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who merely looked like mother and daughter. Just a mother and daughter.
Which meant, in no uncertain terms, that Ain's parents did not see Jina as anything more than Ain's little sister.
Having learned this after more than a decade, Jina froze solid. Ain let out a small, helpless laugh.
"I told you over and over it wasn't like that, but you never listened."
"B-but Mother definitely said it! She said to take good care of Ain!"
"He's my son, but Ain's a bit of a dimwit. I thought it would be nice if a capable girl like Jina could help him out."
Watching her tilt her teacup with such unbothered composure, Er found herself breaking into a cold sweat.
At first glance, aside from a face that was remarkably youthful for her age, she had seemed like an ordinary person. The side of her that had been showing for the past few minutes was anything but.
This woman was no pushover. She was no ordinary middle-aged lady. She possessed the kind of social finesse and ability to steer a conversation that only someone who had personally plucked countless flowers could ever have.
"So, Jina. Didn't I tell you? If you're going after Ain, you need physical means."
"Don't tell me Mother was the mastermind behind all the insane things that idiot used to do!?"
"Insane? That's a harsh way to put it. Call it an expression of affection."
"I don't think staring at someone's face all night from their bedside while they're sleeping really qualifies as an expression of affection..."
Ain shook his head with a look of utter exhaustion, then spoke in a voice that brooked no argument.
"A-anyway, let's drop this topic. It's uncomfortable for me, and for Er too."
"Oh my. Already looking out for your girlfriend."
"G-girlfrien—"
"This father is proud of you."
"That's not what this is!"
The moment Ain shouted it without thinking—
"...It's not?"
Er looked up at him with those green eyes as she said it, and Ain faltered so visibly it was almost painful to watch.
"I-I mean, it's not that it's not..."
"So she is your girlfriend, then?"
"No, that's not it..."
"...I see. That's all I am to you, Ain."
"No, that's not it either...!"
Pinned between two women in an instant, unable to move in either direction — it was his father, who had been watching the whole spectacle and roaring with laughter, who finally came to Ain's rescue.
"Dear, that's enough. Ain's going to sulk at this rate."
"Oh my, I'm sorry. It's been so long, I just wanted to tease him."
"That's your problem... Miss Er, please don't tease him too much either. He's my son, but he's petty — he might hold a grudge."
"Ain's a sweetheart, so he'll be fine. Right?"
"..."
Unable to say a single word to Er as she laughed and said it, Ain let out a long, defeated sigh. In a low voice thick with indignation, he muttered to himself.
"I'm just the meal, aren't I. Just the meal..."
"Oh my, that's all because you're just too adorable."
"M-Mother, wait...!"
"Come to think of it, why are you being so formal? You should call us the way you used to."
"Go on, try it. Mama, Papa..."
"H-how far back are you going?!"
When parents bring up their children's childhood, embarrassment is an inescapable fate. Watching Ain flounder against the invincible opponents that were his parents — a power no one could ever defeat, even if the world turned upside down a dozen times — Er spoke without thinking.
"This is a rare sight. Ain, with that awful personality of his..."
"Even he can't pull that barking-mad act with his parents. Look — he can't even shout properly. With us, the second anything happens he just dumps out fuck this, fuck that over every little thing."
As she said it, Jina was already watching Ain's profile, no longer paying either of them any mind, as he was toyed with by his parents.
"Ain wasn't like this at first, you know?"
"...Really?"
"Yeah. He was a little prickly, but he wasn't some rabid dog foaming at the mouth. He turned out like that because of Master's and this junior sister's education."
"...Just what kind of life have you people been living?"
"Heheh... Want to know?"
Er shook her head hard, having recognized the bottomless abyss sitting in Jina's eyes as she said it.
Just what had they been through, that both Jina and Ain changed like that the moment the past came up? She was desperately curious. She did not have the courage to ask.
"Maybe that's why? In front of Mother and Father, his old personality comes out. A sucker pretending to be prickly..."
"...That's a harsh assessment."
"Well, that's the Ain I fell for!"
Jina looked so utterly unashamed as she said it that Er found herself swallowing dryly.
Unlike herself, who hovered on the edge of his goodwill without quite crossing the line, Jina had no hesitation in her at all — and Er was a little envious of that.
She really thought the time had come to tell him how she felt. That was the moment his father spoke.
"So, Ain — how's the adventuring life treating you?"
"...It's all right, I suppose."
"Lady Veronica told us you're doing quite well. This father of yours once aspired to be a merc— I mean, an adventurer, too. Of course, I quit before long."
"You, Father?"
"Isn't it every man's dream? An adventurer, setting out in search of the unknown."
Watching his father's eyes light up as he said it, Ain made an uncomfortable face.
"Ehh... the reality's a bit different."
"...Looks like you've been through a lot, son."
As if he had read something in Ain's ambivalent expression, he stood up from his seat.
"I've got something to give you. This, you see, is a stone heating pad made from granite I personally sourced from the eastern volcanic region. Just sitting on it is effective against chronic conditions like muscle pain, menstrual cramps, growing pains, and so on, and it's said to have outstanding effects on indigestion, blood circulation, high blood pressure, and low blood pressure. So—"
His father looked so much like a quack medicine peddler as he said it that Ain could only stare.
"...Father. How much did you pay for that?"
"Thirty silver coins!"
"..."
It was hereditary.