"Papa!! It's Papa!!!"
The little girl with blonde hair, who had her arms spread out, rushed at Proxer as soon as he entered her field of vision after coming into the house.
Upon seeing his beloved daughter, Proxer caught Suzannia in his arms and lifted her up in the air. She let out a contagious laughter as everyone else smiled at this heartwarming scene.
It was certainly a pleasant surprise for Suzannia, who hasn't seen her father for such a long time.
"I know Suzannia is so adorable that it melts your heart, but aren't the treatments towards her and me drastically different? Dad doesn't love me anymore~" Zanphia griped, although she still had the smug on her face.
"What? You want me to lift you up too? No no way you're too heavy." Proxer replied in a monotone as he put Suzannia back down.
"Hea-?! Hey! Dad you're so rude! Hmph! At least my little brother still loves me, right?" Zanphia turned her attention to Zenover who was beside her.
Contrary to her anticipation, what she received from Zenover was a look of cringe.
"I... I'm not loved anymore..."
"Big sis Zanphia! Suzannia loves you a lot!"
"Oh~ You're just the best, little Suzannia!"
Suzannia tugged Zanphia's finger as she expressed her love. In response to that, Zanphia knelt down and hugged her tightly while squealing.
"Enough frolicking around, guys. The food's going to get cold." Naytia urged them while holding up the bags of food with both her hands.
All 5 of them headed for the dining table and sat around it. With tableware and boxes of food laid on the table, they enjoyed their takeout meal.
However, it seemed Naytia had something on her mind as she stared at Suzannia with a solemn expression the entire time.
Proxer, who noticed Naytia's behavior, began dropping cold sweat. It seemed that he knew what was about to unfold. As his and Zanphia's eyes met, both of them sipped from their fruit juices from their cups nervously.
...
"Suzannia, can we talk?"
As soon as they finished eating, Zanphia volunteered to wash the dishes and dragged Zenover with her. Zenover was annoyed by her, but once she whispered something into his ears, he shuddered and willingly followed Zanphia.
"Hmm?" Suzannia raised a curious voice, but her curiosity turned into fear as soon as she saw the expression on Naytia's face.
"Why were you out late again?"
"Um... I was playing with my friends... and we were having so much fun..." Suzannia became a little teary-eyed while looking down.
"That's not an excuse!"
"I'm sowwy Mama... Papa... Save me, pwease~~"
The one who begged for mercy with teary eyes was none other than Suzannia. Sitting on the chair before the table, she was confronted by Naytia with the face of a lion while Proxer was holding her back with the best of his abilities. To an outsider, it would be unimaginable that a beauty like Naytia could make such an intimidating face.
"Suzannia! Stop begging for mercy if you knew I'll get angry! I'm not trying to strip away your free time after school, but I've been telling you to come back two hours before curfew! This time you barely returned before curfew!!"
"I... Umm... I..." Unable to find the right words due to intimidation from her mother, Suzannia's voice became like a broken record, while tears were dropping.
"Naytia! Just calm down for a sec! Can't we just talk about this not so harshly?"
"Darling! You're always like this! Always so soft on her and letting her do whatever she wants! It's high time for her to learn some tact!"
"I get it I get it! Just don't raise your voice at her and talk nicely and civilly with each other, okay?" Wryly, Proxer attempted to compromise while patting Naytia on the head.
Even though Suzannia was crying a river, this occurrence wasn't the first time, as Suzannia always return home late. However, today was especially late, which worried Naytia a lot more than usual. She'd also been compromising with Suzannia by letting her stay outside for 2 hours after school and play with her friends.
In other words, with her off time being at 3 pm, she was allowed to stay out until 5 pm, with the curfew being 7 pm.
"Fine... I was too worked up just now... I'm sorry Darling... and Suzannia, let's go sit down on the couch and have a chat, shall we?" Even though Naytia was talking in a soft tone, intimidation could still be sensed from her, especially with that stern expression of hers.
"Nn..." Suzannia could only reply as such, but at least she managed to stop her tears from dropping.
The three of them went to the living where the couch was and sat down. Suzannia hid behind Proxer and peeked at Naytia, who had calmed down... ostensibly.
"Um... Mama? I'm sowwy..."
"Apology isn't what I want to hear, but instead, please tell me where you went today..."
"We went to the playground near school and played a bunched there..."
"That's it?"
Naytia narrowed her eyes. She didn't quite believe in Suzannia as that was what she usually did. Something must've occurred to cause her coming home late. Suzannia hid her face entirely behind Proxer's wide back.
"Um..."
"Suzannia. Is that really all? Then tell me, what exactly did you play with the other kids?"
"We played... tag... then we played with the slides and see-saws and swings... And um, we also ran around, then hopscotch..."
"Is there anything else? It's OK, Suzannia, you can tell us. I'm here." Proxer patted her head as he genially encouraged Suzannia to reveal more of what she'd done after school today.
"My friends had to leave early so I was the only one left... I saw I still have time so I went on an adventure by myself."
"Adventure? Where did you go?" Naytia pestered on.
"Um... I saw a giant machine flying up the sky, so I tried to follow it, then I got to somewhere with a lot of grass after I got past some bushes... So I thought maybe I could go on an adventure there..."
Proxer and Naytia looked at each other, concerned. With the flow from Suzannia's description, they had a sense of foreboding this adventure had led her somewhere secluded. The place wasn't the issue, whom she could've potentially met was.
"Are you hurt anywhere, Suzannia?" Naytia worriedly asked.
"There are no ouchies..." Suzannia didn't comprehend where that came from, as she wore a look of dubiousness.
"How far did you go?" Proxer decided to ask for more.
"I found a... broken house."
With that, both Proxer and Naytia were absolutely certain that she had met the boy they parted with not long ago - Jogrin.