Family (5)
Only after the tea in their cups had gone completely cold did Ain's parents finally drain them. Then a thought that had just occurred to them found its way out into the open.
"You're not sleeping on the streets, are you? Or blowing all your money on other things instead of finding a proper place to stay?"
"O-of course not. What do you take me for, Mom?"
"You say that, but I don't think I've ever seen you looking well-off."
That was Ain's father. He had called up the faintly destitute air his son always seemed to carry whenever they managed to meet, and Ain could only fumble for an answer.
"...I'm saving up. Saving."
"Is that what it was? I was sure it was all going to food."
"What do you think I am, some pink puffball the size of a dodgeball? Food only accounts for eighty percent!"
"...Huh?"
Er tilted her head, sensing that something in Ain's words had gone seriously wrong. Jina was ready with an explanation.
"That's just an excuse. He wouldn't tell you even if you killed him."
"Really?"
"Even back at the temple he got a little something for living expenses, even if it wasn't much... I have no idea where it all goes."
Jina narrowed her eyes as she said it, and Er's expression turned equally suspicious. Ain seemed to catch the shift in the air between them. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he looked anywhere but at the two of them.
"So, Ain, where are you staying? I looked into it a bit, and it seems most adventurers live in inns and places like that."
"Ah, well, about that..."
"There's one more party member who isn't here right now. We've been using their home as our base for a little while now."
"Oh my, their home?"
"That's unusual for an adventurer."
People who never knew when they might die rarely bothered buying a house. Haru had gotten one because she had confidence in her own ability, because she took guild investigation requests, and because mages as a profession were relatively less dangerous — but most adventurers simply made do at an inn. That was why Karpe, for all its heavy foot traffic, had a surprising number of cheap houses once you stepped even a little way off the main streets. The problem was that "surprisingly" cheap was not the same as actually cheap. Objectively speaking, it was still a considerable sum of money.
Ain's father spoke as though he knew the ecology of adventurers well, and Ain tilted his head, a little surprised.
"Dad, you know a surprising amount about adventurer work."
"H-huh? Ah, didn't I mention? I used to think about becoming an adventurer myself, back in the day."
"Hmm..."
Maybe adventurers in the old days had been much the same. That thought seemed to settle the question — and yet something about it still felt off.
"Anyway, what does it matter? It's all in the past."
"...I suppose so."
Ain said it absently, and without thinking he lifted his empty teacup. He set it back down with an awkward look on his face.
"...When are you leaving this time?"
"Oh my, you look like you want us to leave."
"Honey, read the room. If we're around... he has less time to see other people."
"Aha!"
"That's not it... You said you'd already finished sightseeing."
Karpe was a city with plenty of people passing through and very little worth looking at. It was an adventurers' garrison in all but name, so taverns and entertainment districts aimed at that crowd had flourished — but it left something to be desired if you were after wholesome sightseeing. Ain's mother nodded as though she understood exactly what he meant.
"That's true enough. And there have been some ugly rumors going around lately."
"...Rumors?"
"I heard there are people robbing tourists. Yesterday while we were looking around the city, we were warned to be careful quite a few times."
Ain narrowed his eyes.
"...Nothing happened to you, did it?"
"Oh my, of course not. Everyone we met was so kind."
"Yes, they really were kind. Later they even asked if there was anything they could help with, and they tried their hardest to assist us."
"...Help you?"
Something in his father's words snagged. Ain pressed.
"Was there a problem? Help with what?"
"Huh? Ah, no, it wasn't like that..."
His father stammered under the unexpectedly sharp question, and suspicion flickered through Ain — but his mother stepped in smoothly.
"Your father's terrible with directions, you know. We just asked the way. Isn't that right, dear?"
"Y-yeah. That's what happened."
"...Really?"
"Of course. Why would we ever lie to you?"
Ain couldn't find anything to argue with in his mother's words, and before long he let the doubt slip out of his mind.
Jina, however, was still turning it over.
"...Robbers, huh. So there are people who do that kind of thing."
She tilted her head, looking genuinely surprised. Of everyone present, Er had lived in Karpe the longest, and she answered with a small sigh mixed into her voice.
"Most of them are probably low-rank adventurers. It happens sometimes — adventurers who lose out in the competition and turn to robbery."
"And the city just lets that happen?"
"If they get caught, it's over for them. The Adventurer Guild forbids harming civilians as a matter of principle... but as you know, Ain, plenty of people don't follow that rule."
It was bad enough that Rojo, the chief of that frontier village they'd taken a request for not long ago, had felt the need to threaten the adventurers — warning them to be prepared if they caused any damage to the settlement.
"Ordinary people freeze up when they see a sword. They figure it's an easy way to make a bit of pocket money without much effort. Especially if the target is an outsider — a tourist visiting Karpe for the first time..."
It was a city you came to not for wholesome sightseeing, but purely for entertainment and amusement. Adventurers who joked about living one day at a time and spent accordingly, and the people who flocked in after the nightlife that spending had built. Naturally, more than a few of those people carried heavy, well-lined purses — and just as naturally, predators gathered to meet them.
"If they tried that in the city center or the downtown, the guards or knights would cut them down on the spot... but you know what the outskirts are like."
"...That's true enough."
"Still, I'm glad nothing happened to the two of you."
Er said it with a bright smile, then spoke more carefully.
"So, Father, Mother. When are you planning to leave?"
"Well, we haven't decided yet..."
As if she had been waiting for exactly that answer, Er put on a look of quiet resolve.
"If you're not planning to leave today, would you like to come to where we're staying?"
"Hmm?"
"Would that be all right?"
"Hold on, Er. Can you just decide something like that all of a sudden?"
Ain asked it, startled by the proposal, but Er was unfazed.
"It's not sudden. I've already talked it over with everyone else."
"Everyone else? They're my parents and you left me out of it?!"
"Yes. I already told Haru, the homeowner, and got her permission."
"...Just to be sure — you didn't offer her blood or anything, did you?"
Ain dropped his voice, a certain remark of Haru's from some time ago rising unbidden in his mind. Haru had said she wanted to study not only him, but his parents as well. He looked at Er with thoroughly suspicious eyes, and she answered without missing a beat.
"Of course not. I couldn't do something like that to your mother and father."
"I knew it. I figured you wouldn't—"
"I just agreed to give her a little more of your blood."
"...I don't remember agreeing to that."
"It's fine. I agreed for you."
"No, what is this..."
Ain let out a hollow laugh, the back of his head stinging from what had to be the umpteenth ambush. Er smiled faintly at the sight of him. Ain's mother, watching the two of them, looked thoroughly pleased.
"You two seem close. Whispering like that."
"We used to be like that when we were young... it's almost sad now."
"...Dear, what is that supposed to mean?"
"H-haha... I just meant I'm sad that I've gotten old."
She gave her husband a long, pointed look, then turned back to the others.
"Wouldn't we be a burden if we went over there? Our son doesn't seem all that thrilled about it either."
"That's not true at all! Ain was just surprised, that's all. Right?"
"Uh, yeah? Y-yeah, that's right..."
Er jabbed him in the side, and Ain nodded before he could think better of it.
"Mother, come with us~ I already don't want to say goodbye."
Jina hooked her arms around theirs as she said it, and Ain's father seized the opening.
"...Honey, Jina's saying so too. Why don't we?"
She seemed to weigh it for a moment. Then she nodded.
"If both Er and Jina are asking... all right. There were things I wanted to talk about with Ain anyway..."
"With me? About what?"
"We'll talk about that later."
She rose from her seat.
"Then would you lead the way? I didn't say so, but I did want to see where my son lives."
"Of course! I'll show you!"
"No, I'll do it! Stay out of this, Er!"
"Jina, even now you...!"
The two of them launched into a war of nerves that was, by their usual standards, almost lukewarm. Ain sighed, pulled them apart, and said something to settle it. His parents watched the whole exchange — and there was an unusually heavy, sunken look in their eyes.
"Here?"
"Yes. That building over there."
The building Ain pointed to was Haru's house. Thanks to the cleaning he had poured his soul into, the exterior looked quite presentable — not a trace remained of the gloomy, desolate sight it had once been.
"The house is... rather large, isn't it? I thought it was in a somewhat out-of-the-way spot, but a place this size would be hard to find downtown."
"Dear, stop appraising other people's houses and go inside. Er, would you open the door?"
"Of course!"
Er brightened at the request and hurried to the door, unlocking it as she spoke.
"Please, come in!"
"Hmph. Acting like you own the place."
"Jina, you're not much different."
A brief skirmish, and then the whole party filed inside. The exterior had been tidy enough in its own right, but the interior was spotless — not a speck of dust anywhere, as though every particle in the house had been burned away. Ain's mother took it in with genuine admiration.
"How did you clean this? It's like magic. I almost want to learn how."
"H-haha... I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you."
"Ain, where's this Haru, the homeowner?"
His father held up the bundle in his hands as he asked.
"I ought to give her this therapeutic heated stone mat as a thank-you..."
"...She doesn't need that."
"Nonsense! An adventurer who's made it this far must have one or two chronic ailments, right? That's when you use this stone mat. Ain, you're still young so you wouldn't understand, but for older people, every day is a struggle. Nothing doesn't hurt."
"...Older people? Haru?"
Ain realized his parents were laboring under a rather enormous misconception and opened his mouth to set them straight — and that was when it happened.
A sudden tug on his sleeve. Then a dazed, drifting voice.
"Ain... you're here now...?"
He followed the sound and dropped his gaze a little. There stood a girl who had shed the oversized robe she usually swam in, dressed instead in a perfectly decent set of indoor clothes. The light-blue bangs she normally let hang however they pleased had been lightly braided and tucked behind one ear. Anyone who looked at her would have called her adorable.
"Hey, you..."
Ain started to say something in a startled voice — and never got the chance.
"Oh my, are you Haru's daughter? Or her little sister?"
"Huh...?"
"She's so adorable. I wanted a daughter like this... instead of that sullen son of mine."
Ain's mother had clearly been completely disarmed by Haru's cute appearance. She stroked the girl's hair with a smile that could not have been more warmly disposed.
"What's your name, sweetheart? Is Ain treating you well? I'm sorry about my prickly son. Be nice to him anyway — he's just shy, that's all."
"W-wait, Mom! That's..."
The questions poured out faster than her son could stop them. Ain was just about to intervene when Haru answered in that same vacant tone.
"My name... Haru."
"...Pardon?"
"Ain, kind... Still, sometimes hurts me. Last time, hurt so much here..."
As she said it, Haru gestured around her waist — more precisely, the area of her lower abdomen and the small of her back. Anyone who knew the full story would have understood: it was the backache she got from Ain tucking her under his arm whenever he had to carry her around. Ain's mother, however, did not know the full story.
"...Ain."
"W-wait a second, Mom!? I don't know what you're thinking but that's not it?! L-let me explain—"
"But Ain, makes me feel good. Last time, ate what Ain gave me... felt nice..."
"Hey, don't say it like that! It sounds weird!"
Of course, she was talking about the blood she had drawn from him. How that landed on someone hearing it for the first time was another matter entirely. Ain's parents' eyes went ice-cold at a terrifying speed, and he shouted in a panic.
"I-it's not like that, I swear! Hey, hey! You say something too..."
"But Ain, broke promise."
"H-huh?!"
Haru cut him off, her dazed eyes filling with discontent.
"Ain said he'd take responsibility... didn't..."
"W-what..."
"Said he'd fill my belly..."
She meant he had promised to cook her a meal. Heard in isolation, there was no reason on earth to misunderstand the conversation. Unfortunately, it landed on top of every cryptic thing Haru had already said, and the misunderstanding ballooned beyond anyone's ability to contain it.
"...Ain. Let's have a word."
"D-Dad! It's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!!"
"...Not only did you impose on this little girl's house and do unspeakable things, you even... g-got her pregnant..."
"Ah..."
"Mother!!"
His mother clutched her head and crumpled. His father was still smiling, a vein standing out starkly on his forehead. Ain looked from one of them to the other. Then, as if he had simply given up, he let out a hollow laugh.
"Life. Fuck."