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Chapter 4
“You’re together with Lieze-chan and Seran-kun, eh? You three are as close as always,” Roel spoke with a cheerful voice as he sipped on his tea.
They couldn’t just stand around in broad daylight, so they went back inside and asked Klaus for a meeting room, who took them to one. Roel was relatively relaxed, as he wasn’t acting any differently. Compared to that, Kyle sat deeply inside the cushioned chair, yet he found himself unable to relax.
Dad’s always been more of a translucent guy…Can’t wrap my head around it.
In a way, Kyle struggled to deal with his father for different reasons compared to his mother. He didn’t particularly hate him or anything, and he wanted to believe that they were actually on fairly good terms, but there were times when Kyle struggled to understand what his father was thinking. And maybe because of that, he just happened to forget about his father’s existence in general. Since Kyle departed from his hometown, he has not once thought of his father, incidentally.
“Hey, why are we even here?”
Seran stabbed his elbow into Kyle’s side, but that was Kyle’s question first and foremost. Meanwhile, Lieze was perfectly fine, as she asked about their hometown and whatnot.
“Everyone’s doing fine, I see.”
“Rimarze is a-okay. If anything, they’re excited because of all the hard work you put in.” Roel nodded as he looked at his son’s face. “Y’know…To me, he still looks like a young lady who barely learned how to walk.”
“Th-That’s not my fault…”
Roel was getting a bit absorbed in his nostalgia as Kyle wasn’t even listening.
“By the way, that outfit of yours just now must have been so that you don’t stand out, right? Must be rough being famous.”
“N-No, there’s a particular reason for that…But more importantly, I’m surprised you knew it was me right away,” Kyle returned a stressed expression as he remembered what he looked like prior to this.
He didn’t think that someone would see through his disguise instantly, which was the biggest thing that threw him off this early.
“What are you talking about? You’re my son, remember?”
Roel argued that it’d be weirder if he didn’t recognize Kyle, but he probably never would have expected his own son to forget about him. Kyle averted his gaze from his father for that reason and cleared his throat.
“A-Anyway, there’s a lot of things I wanna ask, but for starters…Why are you in Luos, Dad?”
The Kingdom of Zilgus was closest to their hometown Rimarze, but Luos was quite a fair distance away. And since Roel was working as an artisan, he would periodically make his way to Zilgus’ capital Malad, but Kyle couldn’t fathom why he came all the way to Luos.
“Did I never tell you that Seraia and I are from Luos? That’s why we came here together.”
“Oh yeah, I think I remember you mentioning that…But, wait. That means Mom is here, too?”
Kyle reacted to Roel saying ‘Together,’ as he grew worried.
“I mean…Isn’t Mom pregnant?”
It certainly wasn’t a clever idea for Seraia to move a long distance like this while carrying their second child. And that was the first time Roel’s expression dampened a bit.
“That’s the reason we came here…Seraia hasn’t been feeling too well. I don’t think it’ll be an easy birth.”
Hearing that, Kyle and his friends all grew pale.
“Wha…Is Mom okay?!” Taken in by the shock, Kyle leaned forward.
It wasn’t anything rare that a mother could lose her life during childbirth.
“Yeah, no problem. We just want to make sure. And although the long travel taxed her a bit, we’ve got a lot of holy magic users here,” Roel said, stressing it was to make sure.
This world without any conventional doctors greatly impacted the leaving process of diseases or injuries, but by using the power of the gods by relying on divine magic, it was technically possible to even bring people back from the dead, or so it was said. These types of magic greatly helped during childbirth, so with a high-ranking priest at their side, there was next to no danger.
However, this was only possible if a priest serving the gods was present. And as they mostly gathered in larger cities, you had to travel further if you couldn’t just rely on beginner magic users in small settlements.
“They’ll be able to assist us, which we came all the way here.”
“Th-That’s good, at least…” Kyle fixed his posture and sighed in relief.
“I would have loved to ask you for help in that, but since I didn’t know where you were…At least be in contact with us from time to time. We’re both worried about you,” Roel said as he showed a rare determined expression, which left Kyle without words.
“Ack…Y-Yeah, my bad.”
Kyle averted his face and scratched his cheek with the tip of his finger as he grumbled up an apology. Something like this has rarely ever happened. That’s why these pleas and scoldings really hit Kyle where it hurt.
“Well, I wasn’t all too worried. The rumors reached us all the way here…Though a lot of what I heard sounded a bit reckless. Defeating a demon to save a town, defeating forty giants, and even overwhelming a dragon…”
“Yeah, that’s about half of it.”
Kyle purposefully spread these rumors, so they must have reached his parents, too.
“Anyway, you should go and meet Seraia. I’m sure she’ll be happy.”
“No, that’s…”
Roel spoke like it was expected, but Kyle didn’t know how to respond. He wanted to avoid dragging his parents into the mess that was the war for succession in the Empire, especially since his mother was pregnant.
“Where…is Seraia-san right now?” Lieze must have guessed Kyle’s worries as she asked in his stead.
“Ah, she’s with Beadola-sama at her residence right now.”
“W-With Beadola?” Kyle almost jumped up in shock at hearing that name.
He even looked over at Seran and Lieze.
“Seraia’s Beadola-sama’s disciple, after all. She’ll be one of the helpers for the birth,” Roel explained and smiled, acting like this wasn’t such a big deal, but Kyle couldn’t just laugh that off.
He found a connection to the one person he literally headed out to meet.
“Ah, did you have other plans? You can just stop whenever…”
“Actually…we were just about to visit Court Mage Beadola.”
Kyle thought about it for a second, but with his parents already there, they might figure it out eventually.
“Great timing. Let’s go.”
Kyle wanted to ask if that was good enough for his father Roel, but he quickly stood up after him. And like this, Kyle managed to get reunited with his family under the weirdest circumstances.
As expected of a high-ranking individual in the Empire, Beadola’s home was about three times the size of the average person. However, as it was located in the noble quarter of the Empire, there weren’t any other people around.
“…And yet, the security here is tight,” Kyle muttered as he looked up at the roof.
To ensure that no trespasser could make it through, the entire building was surrounded by strong magic.
“That’s why I couldn’t find any way inside,” Minagi grumbled.
In a way, the security here was stronger than at the imperial palace, where you could just walk inside. Even when she came to the Empire before, this was the one place she didn’t figure out a way inside.
“I never visited Beadola’s home myself,” Angela had tagged along after hearing what Roel said, and she said she would love to see Kyle’s parents, too.
Preferably, Kyle himself wanted to come here alone, but he couldn’t win against everyone else, as they tagged along with their disguises. It was a suspicious group that stood out more than normal. They could thank their lucky gods that nobody recognized them yet.
“Over here,” Roel led the group along as he entered the residence through a backdoor, and Kyle with friends followed.
It was an extra exit and entry so Roel could come in whenever he wanted, and the people he took with him were the same. Upon entering, they immediately stepped out into a garden. It was probably taken care of, but there was no sign of personality to be found, which quite accurately reflected the owner.
“Somehow…the atmosphere resembles the book storage at home.”
Kyle saw the detached building they headed towards, remembering the hut at home that would lead down to Seraia’s storage, as Roel delivered an explanation.
“It is exactly that. When Seraia was still studying under Beadola, she lived there.”
As expected of book lover Seraia, who could spend the greater half of the day simply reading. It may not be an appropriate place for a pregnant woman, but it allowed the person in question to relax, so this building was perfect. Roel headed down the stairs underground, knocking on the wooden door. A response came from the inside, so he opened the door. Kyle felt nervous because he heard a familiar and nostalgic voice, as he took a faint breath to calm himself, and finally followed after Roel.
Two women were inside the room. They sat around a table, enjoying a conversation. On the desks were several leather-wrapped books or other documents, as well as a crystal ball the size of a child’s head, which reminded Kyle of the book storage back home. One of the women turned around and spoke up.
“Ah, welcome back…Oh my! If it isn’t Kyle!”
That woman, Kyle’s mother Seraia, flashed a bright smile as she called the name of her son. It’s been around ten months since Kyle left his hometown, but his mother’s appearance didn’t change much. The only two things were her grown hair and the slight bulge on her stomach.
“Have you been doing well? Are you hurt? Never would have imagined I’d see you here!”
“Stop moving! Stop moving! Just sit still!”
Seraia wanted to stand up, only to be stopped by Kyle.
“You’re exaggerating. This bit of exercise will be great for me,” Seraia sat back down again with a wry smile, as she hugged Kyle who walked over to her.
“…You grew a bit, haven’t you?” Her eyes grew damp as she buried her face in Kyle’s chest. “Don’t overdo it, okay?”
“Um…well…yeah…”
Kyle had many things he wanted to say, but he just gave an honest reply.
After a while, Kyle was brought back to his senses and turned around to find his allies smiling. Roel, Lieze, and Urza were all observing this with a warm gazes, as Angela seemed a bit bewildered, with Shildonia and Minagi just enjoying the show. Seran grinned as he was definitely planning on teasing Kyle about this later. Yet again, Kyle regretted that he didn’t come here alone.
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