I wouldn't be able to understand Melle's apparent brother as things
were, so I applied translation magic on him. He showed apprehension for a
moment when I held out my hand, but Melle's soothing words were enough
to have him cautiously reach out with his own.
"It feels weird..." Halle said. The magic must have taken effect—I was
able to understand what he was saying clearly.
"Can you understand me now?"
My sudden question made the boy jump.
"Y-Yeah, I can. Who are you? Are you my sister's servant?"
Melle chuckled and answered, "Halle, this is Touya Mochizuki. He's the
sovereign of this land, as well as my savior."
"The sovereign?! D-Do forgive me..."
The boy bowed his head as he apologized to me. What a polite kid. Was
he really the Sovereign Phrase?
"So, Halle, what's going on? Why do you look like that? Why are you in
this world?" Melle asked in short order.
"That's..."
Just as Halle was about to respond to the barrage of questions, someone
entered the garden.
"I'm home! Whoa, what's with this big body? Did something happen?
Wh— Huh? You're..."
Faced with the large corpse of the Gemstone Phrase and Halle gripping
Melle's hand, Ende could only blink.
"I know who you are," Halle muttered in a chilling voice, letting go of
Melle's hand as he stood, crystalline armor crackling as it formed around
his hand to create a large red blade. Why was everything suddenly getting
so tense?!
"Endymion! How dare you?! This...is for my sister!"
"Halle!"
"Halle? Your sister? Wait, no way, are you that Halle?!"
Ignoring Melle's cries for him to stop, Halle lunged at Ende, swinging
his blade down toward the man's head. Managing to evade the attack at the
last second, Ende immediately equipped the phrasium gauntlets that I had
crafted for him.
"You were the one who...!"
"H-Hang on!"
Ende successfully deflected the blade with his gauntlets.
Yeah, no, that kid's just relying on the weight of his body to swing his
sword. His strength isn't anything special. Ende's got this.
"Stop right this second, Halle! I will not forgive you if you harm
Endymion!"
"But, sister, you're being tricked! If he hadn't come along, Phrasia
would never have been thrown into chaos!"
Halle's assault on Ende was relentless, even as Melle told him to stop.
Thrown into chaos? What's Ende done?
Ende continued to dodge the slashes from the boy's blade. It didn't seem
like he had any intention of retaliating. Halle didn't seem skilled enough to
hurt Ende, anyway, but it wasn't as if I could just leave the situation be.
Just as I went to step in, someone jumped in ahead of me.
"You quit thaaaaaaaaaaaat!"
What blocked Halle's next attack was not Ende's gauntlets, but Allis's.
"Who are you?! A Dominant Phrase that isn't my sister or her
attendants...? What? What is this echo?!"
"I won't let anyone bully my dad!"
"Uh, Allis, slight clarification: I wasn't being bullied..."
Allis charged at Halle, ignoring Ende's trivial remark.
"Prisma Rose!"
"What?! But Prisma Rose is my sister's—!"
Crystal rose thorns burst out of Allis's outstretched hands, restraining
Halle in an instant.
"Allis, wait!" Melle yelled.
"Resonance Plasma!"
"What?!"
Melle's interference had come too late, however, as an electric shock
akin to lightning traveled through the thorns and into Halle's body. That
was meant to be Allis's restraining skill. It was similar to the [Paralyze]
magic that Kuon and I could use.
Being electrocuted so directly caused Halle to pass out, still caught up in
the crystal thorns. He was okay, right? I...would like to think that Allis
would at least know how to control her strength.
Ney frantically rushed to Halle and placed her hand on his chest.
"He's okay," she said. "I think he just temporarily entered a sleep state.
Or at least, assuming this body is similar to that of a Phrase..."
Everyone instantly felt relief at her words.
"Huh? Was I not meant to take him down?" Allis asked, realizing that
she had perhaps done something wrong.
"Not quite, but, uh..." Kuon answered with a nervous smile on his face.
"Man, I wasn't expecting this at all. Is this kid really Halle? He looks
completely different."
"He does, but his echo is undeniably the same. If not Halle, he's at least
someone related to him in some way," Melle responded to Ende's question
while gazing at the boy's unconscious body.
By his appearance being different, they must have been referring to how
Dominant Phrase were born as adults. "Adult" in this case was just
someone whose body had developed, though, so there were apparently
cases that could look as young as fifteen.
Ney sighed as she picked up Halle's body.
"I can't say for certain if this is really Lord Halle, but we'll have to ask
for specifics once he has awakened. Endymion, don't return home until we
contact you."
"Huh?! Why?!"
"The boy cannot freely speak with you present. It will simply turn out
like earlier. If he is really Lord Halle, then to him, you are a despicable
villain who deceived Lady Melle."
Ende was clearly in shock from those words, but upon hearing her say it
like that, I could understand why Halle was so mad at him.
I get it. In his eyes, Ende's just this evil dude who kidnapped his precious
sister.
"It becomes a lot more believable when Ney says it."
"I know, right? Even Ney immediately jumped for Ende when she first
met him."
Lycee and I nodded in understanding.
"Ngh, don't bring up such old stories!" Ney protested, her face bright
red.
Perhaps it would take giving Ende a good punch to calm Halle down,
just like it did Ney.
◇◇◇
"Phrase that look like gemstones, huh? Sorry, but I haven't a clue."
Ende tossed the fragment of the Gemstone Phrase onto the table and
took a sip of his iced tea. I had taken him to the bar after he was thrown out
of his home. Naturally, I sent Kuon back to the castle first. It was getting
late, and that meant the rough sort would start appearing. Didn't want them
serving as a bad influence on my kid or anything.
"That boy, Halle, he had a core that it seemed like those Phrase were
trying to protect. Are you sure you don't know what this is about?"
"Yeah, man, I seriously don't know. We aren't even sure if that's really
Halle. The Halle I knew was a boy that was just a little shorter than me."
Though Dominant Phrase didn't have a juvenile period, the forms they
were born into were each slightly different. Usually, they could look
anywhere from fifteen to forty years old, but there was no way someone in
their forties would look younger than someone in their teens, right...? Then
again, the long-lived species here were similar, so I guess it wasn't so
strange.
Halle, Melle's younger brother who used to be the Sovereign Phrase,
had been a little shorter than Ende. Would that place him at around fifteen,
maybe sixteen? Actually, that would depend on what age Ende was. He
looked around eighteen, but he was definitely older than me. The age of
inhabitants of different worlds was way too difficult to discern for its own
good.
"When Dominant Phrase have children, they take a replica of their
partner's core and fuse it with their own. They have no concept of marriage,
so usually, when people say they have siblings, their parents are different.
Melle and Halle's circumstances are a little different, though," Ende
explained.
The Sovereign Phrase had to give birth to a strong child to be their
successor, so in order to do that, they would fuse with the core of someone
they deemed strong. That way, the strength would be inherited, and an even
stronger Sovereign would be born. That was the case of Melle's birth,
conceived between the previous Sovereign and a chosen warrior.
"But Halle was a Sovereign Phrase born as a division of the Sovereign."
"Hm? I do remember being told that Sovereign Phrase can give birth to
a new core without a partner, but that just makes them a deficient replica of
the original, no?"
"Because it was already determined that Melle would be the next
Sovereign Phrase...well, Halle was a kid that the previous Sovereign created
for the hell of it. He was basically made as an attendant who would never
betray Melle."
It felt a little unpleasant hearing about how Dominant Phrase practically
viewed children as simple objects, but at the same time, that was likely
normal over there.
"Melle and Halle got along great. As her younger brother, Halle looked
up to Melle, and as his older sister, Melle coddled Halle. A while after the
previous Sovereign passed and Melle took up that role, I arrived at Phrasia,
and that was when we met. The first time I met her— Ah, wait. That isn't
important here."
"Oh, c'mooon, tell me! It was love at first sight, right?" I prompted him
to continue, grin wide on my face. Ende's face scrunched right up in
discomfort.
"If I tell it to you, you'd totally tell Allis, so how about no."
"Tch!"
It seemed like it would be such a fun story too. Not like I could blame
him, though. Your kids learning about how you fell in love was
embarrassing. Hell, my romances had been outright turned into stage plays.
I wondered if they'd ever cancel them entirely...
"Basically, a ton of stuff happened, and now Halle hates my guts. It's
pretty much just the same as what happened with Ney."
"Can't blame him. You're his precious sister's kidnapper. Of course he'd
hold a grudge."
"'Kidnapper'?! At least say we eloped. And anyway, we really did try
again and again to persuade them before we left, but Ney and Halle just
wouldn't listen to us."
Yeah, I could see that. No way they could have reached an agreement.
On one side, you had the people of Phrasia who didn't want to lose their
Sovereign; on the other, you had the Sovereign who wanted to live together
with her beloved. There was no right or wrong side here.
"There were people who said it was irresponsible for her to just abandon
her duties as Sovereign Phrase, but it wasn't as if Melle voluntarily chose
that role. Why does she have to abandon her happiness for a handful of
selfish people? Melle was in despair seeing how reliant Phrasia was on her,
and desperately wanted to do away with the crown, so she left the title of
Sovereign to Halle, her most trusted person, and left that world together
with me."
What Ende said made sense, but it was hard to deny that those left
behind would be left with negative feelings themselves.
With these kinds of situations, Kousaka would always say to me, "The
leader doing absolutely everything is not good for the country." I could
really understand what he meant by that now. If the country became too
reliant on the individual, that individual ever disappearing would cause the
country to simply fall apart.
There were already many examples of that in history: when charismatic
men like Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi died
during the Warring States period, the regions they had been in charge of
splintered. Perhaps if they had firmly appointed successors before their
deaths, they would have been fine. In fact, Melle had likely foisted the role
onto Halle hoping there was still a chance of salvaging the situation.
"Like I said, Halle is a Dominant Phrase born solely from the last
Sovereign Phrase. Compared to someone like Melle, who was born through
a fusion with a chosen warrior, he's much weaker. That led to a lot of
Dominant Phrase like Gila or his brother, General Xeno, rejecting Halle as
their Sovereign. Whatever their opinion, though, there's no denying that
Halle is the son of a Sovereign, and that meant he did have at least some
supporters, but..."
A number of citizens had fought against the decision until the end,
including Ney and Halle himself, and that led to extremist groups forming
with the goal of taking down Melle and stealing her power of the
Sovereign. The aforementioned Dominant Phrase were likely the leaders of
such a movement.
Realizing how much danger they were in, Melle and Ende eventually
decided to leave Phrasia altogether.
"Neither of us knows what happened to Phrasia after that. Is that kid
really Halle? Just what exactly happened over there...?" Ende muttered to
himself, mindlessly poking the fragment of the Gemstone Phrase while he
was lost in thought.
I was surprised at being faced with such a somber Ende.
"Are you still caught up on Halle accusing you of being the reason
Phrasia's a mess now? I'm kinda surprised you're actually such a sensitive
soul."
"Guh! Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I am sensitive! Unlike a certain
someone who keeps getting told by their wives about how slow to catch on
they are!"
"Huh?! You wanna say that again?! You've crossed a line this time, my
dude!"
"Then I'll happily cross that line!"
"Calm yourselves."
A hand stretched itself between the two of us, who were snarling at each
other. I looked up, and there Lycee suddenly was, looking utterly
exasperated.
Do you have to let out such an exaggerated sigh?
"Lycee... How's Halle?" Ende asked.
"Sleeping. He's probably fine. But Lady Melle said that if you're
present, things will just become far more complicated, so you should go
sleep somewhere else tonight."
"Yeeeah, take that, loser!"
"Gnnnrgh!"
Ende looked like he had eaten a sour candy at my taunt.
We won't be able to find anything out until Halle is awake, so I guess I
may as well just go home myself.
Apparently, Lycee was going to have dinner with Ende at the bar first
while she was here. Was that the real reason that Lycee had come here?
Well, whatever. Today had been hectic enough that I was utterly exhausted.
The big question now was what to do with the fragments of the
Gemstone Phrase. I decided I'd consult with the girls first. And so, with a
goal in mind, I exited the bar and opened a [Gate].
◇◇◇
The next day, Melle brought Halle to the castle. Compared to yesterday,
he was much quieter. Maybe he was ordinarily a much calmer boy so long
as Ende wasn't around. Naturally, Ende wasn't present right now. As
requested, he was making sure to avoid contact with the boy.
Allis, who had come together with the girls, went straight off to get her
etiquette lessons from Yumina. Today, she would apparently be learning
meal etiquette.
I was meeting with Halle, Melle, Ney, and Lycee in the reception room.
Kuon was also in attendance.
"So, to put this as simply as I can, this child is Halle...but also not,"
Melle attempted to explain.
"I'm sorry, but that is the complete opposite of putting it simply," I
responded with a frown.
No, seriously, what do you mean? At least start from the beginning.
"Put less briefly..."
According to what Halle had told Melle about what had become of
Phrasia after she left with Ende, having been thrust into the position of
Sovereign Phrase, Halle had done all he could to try to support the country
in his new role. However, due to those with complaints, and those who
refused to acknowledge Halle as their Sovereign, Phrasia gradually grew
more and more fractured. The previously united Phrase began acting on
their own accord.
As Halle had been fighting against a rebel force, an incident occurred:
Yula and his men, having discovered the technology to cross worlds, left
Phrasia. Those who did not acknowledge Halle, along with those who either
wanted Melle or her power, left Phrasia all at once.
According to Ney and Lycee, who had accompanied those Phrase at the
time, what had once been a fair number of Dominant Phrase at the start of
their journey had only grown fewer and fewer through their constant
conflicts with each of the many worlds they visited.
"At the end of the day, none of us really thought of each other as
comrades," Ney explained. "We shared the same goal, but we all knew we
were just using each other."
Her words brought to mind the Dominant Phrase I had met before. The
battle maniac Gila, the pleasure-seeking twins Leto and Luto, and then
Yula, the man who had desired power greater than even the Sovereign.
Neither Ney nor Lycee likely had any sense of comradery with them.
Even I didn't think I could get along with them.
Halle had thought that with the rebel forces gone, Phrasia would regain
its peace. But the moment there was a mass exodus of Phrase, even though
it meant outright rebel forces had been quelled, the Sovereign Phrase's
reputation in Phrasia had hit rock bottom. He was seen as an incompetent
Sovereign who couldn't even unify his people.
Faced with such hatred, the only thing Halle could cling to was the
previous Sovereign, Melle. If he could gain her power, Phrasia would once
more be united under the rule of the Sovereign. And so, Halle had turned to
the research Yula had left behind.
"Thus began Project Quos, the creation and production of artificial
Phrase. It was research developed to give birth to a whole new kind of
Phrase soldier, ones that went through a much different kind of crystal
evolution," Melle explained. In Earth terms, it was essentially a plan to
make a bunch of android soldiers.
Halle continued the research on his own, all to gain the same power as
the previous Sovereign. Though he was only a division of an original, he
was still born to a lineage of Sovereign Phrase. Plus, while perhaps not as
talented as Yula, he was still a spectacular researcher.
Yula had already created the base for the artificial Phrase, so all Halle
had to do was refine it. But there was one fatal flaw to these Quos: if the
most apt comparison was to an android, that would mean there needed to be
someone who could control them, not unlike a Gollem's Master. If he
wanted the Quos to obey him, Halle would have needed to create a whole
new Dominant Phrase that could lead them—a Phrase made from the fusion
of the cores of a Dominant Phrase and a Quos.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're not telling me that the Halle we have here is..."
"It is as you have surmised. This child is a fusion created from a replica
of Halle's core and a Quos core."
◇◇◇
"If he was born from a fusion of Halle's core and a Quos core, does that
mean that, uh...this isn't Halle?"
"Correct. A division of Halle, his child, is the more accurate descriptor."
His kid, huh? Well, I...guess that makes sense?
Personally, it felt more like he was a clone. Would I really call my own
clone my son? I would think he'd be closer to a brother.
"But he has Halle's memories, right?"
"Yes, it does appear that Halle implanted his memories inside this child.
Those memories and emotions were what took control yesterday due to the
exhaustion. That is not this child's natural personality."
"Hang on, things are just getting confusing again."
He implanted the memories into the kid? He had a personality of his
own? This was getting complicated.
"So, in other words, it's like Halle has two personalities?" Kuon
supplied, noticing my confusion.
"Two personalities... Why, yes, I do think that would be an appropriate
way to view it."
That did make it easier to understand.
"This child does not quite appear to have an identity. The two sets of
memories are jumbling together, leading to instability."
I glanced at Halle, who was sitting beside Melle. He did appear much
more nervous and jumpier compared to how calm he'd been yesterday (at
least, before he encountered Ende). That must have been his original
personality.
"Sorry if this wording's a bit rude, but basically, Halle was trying to use
this kid to unite Phrasia?"
"Yes, though his plan failed. A coup d'état occurred before this child
awakened fully. Apparently, the few remaining armed forces like Gila
suddenly attacked Halle's army. Afraid that the opposition would acquire
his newly created child's power, Halle implanted his memories, and sent
them off with a crystal beast to seek out my echo."
Why did he appear in the future, then? Had I released the [Prison]
sealing the Dominant Phrase's echoes? But then, why would I do that? Had
I known things would turn out this way? That was the only way that made
sense to me, but...
"What happened to Halle after that?" I asked.
"We don't know. That is where this child's memories stop," Melle
mumbled, her face clearly pained. I couldn't blame her—her brother might
be dead, after all. "But whatever happens, there is no denying I abandoned
Phrasia. I have no right to get involved with that world's affairs anymore."
Her words were clear and sharp.
Phrasia is your home, though. Should you not be at least a little more
worried? I thought to myself. But this was a show of the resolve that
Melle'd had when she chose to leave Phrasia. There was no point in going
back on that now.
"What's the plan for the kid, then?"
"If we could, we'd love to take them in, but..." Melle's words trailed off.
"Endymion is the problem," Lycee elaborated.
"Oh, right..."
I turned my head up at that reminder. If the kid and Ende met each other
again, we would just end up with another fight like yesterday...and it would
feel way too bad to force Ende alone to live elsewhere.
"You don't think we could do what we did with Ney and just let him get
a punch in, do you?"
"I only held back because I had to worry about Lady Melle at the time,
but I would've punched him far more if I could've, you know? So much
that he'd never be able to stand again," Ney said.
Just how much did you hate the guy? I couldn't help but wonder upon
hearing how exactly Ney had felt at the time.
"But that isn't how you feel anymore, right?" Melle asked.
"W-Well, he makes good food, he notices all the small details, and he's
actually quite considerate, but..."
Though the words were said with reluctance, they made me realize just
how much she had softened. Hopefully, we could expect the same from
Halle.
"Maybe we just have to slowly get them used to each other."
"Better make sure Halle learns to not lunge at Ende first, though."
Ende not being able to relax even in his own home was way too cruel.
Halle could hate him if he wanted, but at least put away the intent to
murder.
"I'll leave the kid to you guys, anyway. Which, while on the topic, are
we okay with still calling him Halle?"
Even if he had Halle's memories, he still wasn't really Halle. It felt
appropriate to give him a different name.
"You raise a good point. It would likely be okay to call them Halle when
that personality is present, but we should think of a name for their original
personality."
"Am I...not Halle?" "Halle" asked, looking up at Melle.
"Don't worry. Even if you aren't Halle, you're like a niece to me, so we
won't chase you out or anything. You could even stay here forever if you
wanted."
"...Wait. They're like a niece. Huh?"
They were essentially her brother's child, so it was the right idea, but
why a niece, of all things?
Melle awkwardly chuckled at my confusion and answered, "Actually,
when we gave this child a bath yesterday, we realized that, um..."
"She's a girl," Lycee finished off.
I had thought she looked like a girl, but given that Halle's personality
had been active at the time, I ended up completely convinced she was a boy.
So this kid was really Halle's daughter, and that was why she was like
Melle's niece.
Wait, Phrase take baths? I knew that they had different genders, but
Ende had told me it had no bearing on their ability to fight or most other
matters. Also, wasn't a kid born through division meant to be the same sex
as their parent?
"Maybe it's because of the Quos core that was fused during the process.
I can't theorize any specifics, though."
Oh, since it was fused with a Quos core, it wasn't really an individual
birth. Wasn't having a male personality inside a girl's body a bit difficult,
though?
"Not particularly. Phrase don't perceive differences in gender so much."
Of course, I forgot that it never really mattered to them who was a boy
and who was a girl. The only thing they really had to consider was that
fusing two cores from same-sex Phrase could leave the child disadvantaged.
I'd asked Ende about it once and, apparently, they didn't really feel sexual
desire either.
"Anyway, we should give the personality that is not Halle a name."
"In that case, I think we should combine Lycee and Melle to make
Lylle."
"No! We should combine Melle and Ney to get Mey!"
Melle's suggestion had instantly resulted in a fight between Ney and
Lycee.
She isn't even your kid...
"Leylle...?" While the two were arguing, a combination of the two
names raised slipped out of the child's mouth.
"Leylle sounds wonderful. If you like it, shall we go with that, then?"
Leylle gave a small nod at Melle's question. It was easy enough to say,
so I thought it was good.
"In that case, it's nice to meet you, Leylle. I've already said my hellos to
Halle, but I'm this country's ruler, Touya Mochizuki. If you ever need any
help, I'll be right here."
Leylle gave me a nod.
She's so quiet.
If I compared her to my kids, she seemed closest to Elna in personality.
Well, if we ignored the fact that she became someone else entirely when
Halle's personality was at the forefront.
"My name is Kuon Mochizuki. I'm...a relative of the grand duke."
Everyone here apart from Leylle knew that Kuon had come from the
future, but he seemed to have gone with the "relative" explanation to avoid
any confusion. Wasn't Leylle technically also from the future herself,
though?
"Also, about Leylle's ability as a Quos..."
Regardless of whether or not Leylle could fully control the Quos, the
Gemstone Phrase that she had created was a key issue right now. If they
ended up going loose in the town, everyone would go into a mass panic. As
the leader of this nation, I couldn't simply ignore a potential danger to my
citizens.
"According to 'Halle,' her abilities won't activate so long as she isn't in
danger. If you deem it too dangerous, I believe you should be able to seal
her echo just as you did ours. It seems so long as that order does not reach
under the earth, the Quos will not be born."
Did that mean the Quos that we saw before were a self-defense
mechanism? Hmm, I could definitely understand her believing she was in
danger once her bodyguard crystal beast died. She'd been left in a core state
in the forest where magical beasts were roaming wild. Those Quos had only
been hunting the surrounding monsters—it must have been because they
were specifically trying to protect Leylle.
In other words, those Quos won't go out of control. Or, at least, I hope
they won't.
That said, while the possibility existed that they could, I decided it
would be best to do as Melle suggested and seal her echo with [Prison].
After getting permission from the girl herself, I erected a barrier only
around the core within her. With that in place, no more Quos should be
created by her.
"If we're blocking off her ability to create Quos, though, we'll need to
think of another way for her to defend herself," Ney said, dropping into
thought.
As it turned out, the fighting ability that Leylle had shown yesterday was
entirely Halle's. He already hadn't been very suited to battle, but Leylle was
even more lacking in physical ability than he was.
"Leylle's whole reason for being created was to lead the Quos, after all.
With that sealed, she's practically lost her hands and legs."
"But she at least has the base abilities that a Phrase has, right? Like
being able to turn her hand into a blade."
"She can, yes, but not reliably."
To be honest, I don't even think she's in that much danger here,
especially if she doesn't leave the town. They're so overprotective, I thought
to myself, though I refrained from saying any of it out loud. Leylle was
pretty much a refugee from a world that they had abandoned, so they might
have been feeling guilt over the matter.
"I'll leave Leylle to you guys. Don't let her do anything dangerous
now."
"We won't. Thank you, Touya."
In this case, my desire for her not to do anything dangerous was more
for Brunhild's sake than her own. But at least with this, that was one issue
dealt with. There was still the issue of Leylle and Ende's relationship, but
that was more of a household problem, so I'd rather they dealt with that
themselves.
Once Allis returned from her etiquette lessons, the Phrase family all
returned home together.
"Whew, well, I'm glad that situation didn't get any worse," I said as I
stretched out over the sofa in exhaustion. Kuon placed a hand on his chin in
thought.
"Allis seemed a little strange there. Did something happen during her
lessons?"
"Did she? She looked normal to me."
She just seemed the same as always. Maybe a little less lively than
usual, but it wasn't as if she was excitable every second of every day. Could
she have had a sore stomach or something?
◇◇◇
That's what I had thought. But that night, Allis arrived at the castle by
herself. Why was she here this late?
"I've...run away."
"Huh?!"
Just as Allis muttered her explanation, my phone started ringing.
It's Melle. Perfect timing, I suppose.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Touya? Allis hasn't shown up at the castle, has she?"
"Yup, she sure has. What's going on?"
"Well..."
Apparently, the girls had been fussing over Leylle so much that Allis
threw a tantrum and ran out of the house. She ran away for a trivial reason
like that?
"I'm sorry for the trouble, but do you mind letting her stay the night?
She'll probably be quite stubborn as she is."
I didn't particularly mind, and to be honest, seeing the usually lively
Allis frown so much, I was just a touch worried. She was sitting on the sofa
in a huff, wrapping herself around Kuon's arm, refusing to let go. For now, I
would just let Yumina and the others know about what Melle had said.
"Ahhh, the Phrase girls have been giving Leylle so much attention that
it's got Allis in a huff, is she?"
"But Leylle doesn't have anyone else that she can rely on, so I can't
really blame them."
It wasn't as if the girls were deliberately trying to leave Allis out; they
just wanted to help a child who was thrust into this world all by herself.
"It's a bit of a tall order to ask a child to understand that, darling."
"I guess..."
I felt like Kuon would understand, but maybe that was a sign of a
parent's neglect more than anything...
"I'd say it's pretty normal when you have siblings," Elze said. "Oh,
though you wouldn't know that, huh, Touya?"
"I agree. There were times I was so frustrated that I would cry when my
brother got praised all the time," Hilde added.
Huh? Is it really that common? Admittedly, they're not wrong. I didn't
grow up with siblings, so I can't relate.
I had a younger sister now, but we didn't grow up together, so I couldn't
say I fully understood the sentiment.
"I understand that feeling, as well, when I get compared to my sister..."
"I do get compared to my brother too, I do..."
Even Lu and Yae had experience.
"Hmm, I've never particularly felt that way with my little brother,
though?" Sue said.
"You may not understand so much when you have a large age gap,"
Linze replied with a wry smile.
Yumina, Sue, Sakura, Leen, and I didn't have any siblings close in age,
so it didn't quite click for us in the same way. Well, Allis and Leylle
weren't really sisters, more cousins, but it was a similar idea.
"Oh, but I have been compared to Yumina before. I remember that
making me feel a little annoyed. Now I get it."
"What? You were compared to me?"
Apparently, there was a time when Sue had been compared to Yumina at
a noble function, and she'd felt quite unhappy at the time. Sue and Yumina
were also cousins, so I could imagine that people would compare them.
That meant Sue joined the ranks of the ones who got it.
"We're not making comparisons between Allis and Leylle, though, so I
doubt it's quite the same."
"Basically, it's to do with jealousy. Allis feels as if her parents' love has
been stolen from her...perhaps?" Leen analyzed.
Jealousy was the root cause of this predicament, huh? When you see
love directed at your sibling instead of yourself, you start to get jealous
because you're worried that your parents don't love you anymore.
Something like that?
Honestly, it made me a bit worried. I wasn't showing more love to one
of my kids over another, was I? Well, whatever the case, Allis was the focus
for now. She was a good kid, so I personally thought she'd understand if we
just had a chat with her about it.
I turned to go talk with Allis, but then Yumina yanked me back by the
sleeve.
Huh? Why are you stopping me?
"Do you hate Leylle, Allis?"
"...Not really."
"Then why are you angry?"
"...I dunno."
Kuon and Allis were talking. Yumina was glaring at me, practically
shouting at me to read the room. Was it really okay to just leave it to him?
"Leylle has arrived at this world alone, where she knows not a single
soul. If we didn't have Grandmother Tokie, we would have been in the
same boat. Do you not think she's quite scared right now?"
"..."
"You're angry at yourself, aren't you? You weren't able to be kind to
Leylle, despite her experiences, so you directed all your anger at your
mothers. You can't forgive yourself for what you did, but you aren't sure
what to do. Did I hit the nail on the head?"
"...Yeah, probably. How'd you know?"
"I am your fiancé, after all. I can at least understand how you're
feeling."
Kuon smiled at Allis as her face turned bright red. What a tactful choice
of words... Was Kuon really my son?
"Kuon's nothing like his dad, huh?"
"That's because he's my son!"
"I wish his father would learn a thing or two from him, I do."
Elze, Yumina, and Yae were all muttering about me behind my back.
Now, come on, you shouldn't take Kuon as the base level here. I'm pretty
sure most men are as bad as me... Surely.
"I said some really mean things to my moms..."
"Everyone sometimes says things they don't truly mean. I sometimes
accidentally say some really mean things to Silver myself."
"You what? Things you don't mean? Only sometimes?" came the
questioning voice of Silver at Kuon's waist. The moment Kuon laid his
hand over him with a smile, the Artificer shut up.
"If you've done something bad, then simply apologize. Your mothers
will forgive you."
"Leylle too?"
"Leylle too, I'm sure. You two are pretty much cousins, right? In fact,
Leylle is almost like a newborn child, so you have to make sure you teach
her all kinds of things as her big sister."
"As her big sis? I get to be a big sister?"
As if she hadn't realized that fact until this very moment, Allis's face lit
up in utter delight. Technically, since she came from the future, she would
be younger than Leylle, but far be it from me to ruin the mood. Actually,
wait, Leylle was from the future too, so maybe it was right.
"Allis!"
Just as I was thinking such trivial things, Ende burst in through the
balcony window.
Hey, don't come in through there! We have an entrance for a reason!
I've really gotta work on the castle's security...
"Hey, didn't we already decide that Allis would be staying here
tonight?" I asked him.
"I was worried, so I came here by myself! I can't go back home right
now, anyway! Lemme stay too!"
So now the father was tagging along. We had spare rooms, though, so it
was whatever.
"Allis, daddy will stay with you for as long as you need today, so—"
"I'm going home. Sorry, dad."
"Huh?"
Ignoring Ende looking dumbfounded in the corner, Allis came over to us
and bowed.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused! I'll go home now! See you later,
Kuon!"
After saying her farewells with her usual liveliness, Allis simply left
through the balcony.
No, seriously, both of you need to learn to use the front door.
"Wait, Allis?!"
Ende went back out through the balcony in pursuit.
What did I just say?!
"Well, uh, I guess everything worked out?"
"Most likely. The rest is for Allis herself to handle," Kuon said, giving
his body a big stretch.
"You really know how to handle her, huh?"
"Well, when you have as many sisters as I do, you learn how to
mediate."
Oh, so that was what he was used to. Did that mean I was partly
responsible for my son having no choice but to learn how to handle
women...? He'd probably had to learn those skills in order to live in peace
with a family of mainly girls. I gave him a gentle pat on the head, beginning
to feel a little bad for him.
And then, Yumina tossed me aside and took over that role.
Why...?