Chapter 610: Grandpa’s Playthings, And My Room.

“I’m home.”

“Welcome back. Was everything okay?”

“Well, somehow.”

Yumina welcomed us as I deployed a [Gate] at the entrance and returned home. I was practically dragged to the kitchen by the eager Lu and Arcia, where I took out the things we bought from [Storage]. The vegetables, rice, kitchen appliances, and various other things would be delivered by evening, but I brought back the side dishes we bought at the supermarket and the smaller kitchen utensils in my [Storage]. Ah, I also bought ice cream as a souvenir for everyone. I bought plenty of various kinds anyway.

“Sue, can you distribute these to everyone?”

“Ohh! Is it ice cream? There are so many kinds!”

I handed the bag of ice cream to Sue, who had come to the kitchen to see us. Seeing the contents, Sue let out a happy voice. Ah, is ice cream okay for Fuyuka? What about allergies? Feeling anxious, I decided to call Mom to confirm.

‘Ah, she doesn’t have any allergies, so it’s fine. Just don’t let her eat too much. She won’t be able to eat dinner. Oh, we’ll be eating dinner over there too, so come pick us up.’

“Roger.”

It seems it’s fine. Relieved, I watched Sue take the ice cream to the living room. I could hear the excited voices of the children from over there.

“For now, let’s cook the rice and start preparing dinner!”

“My arm is itching to get started!”

Facing the rice, vegetables, meat, and fish I had brought in [Storage], Lu and Arcia were fired up. Since I was dismissed for the time being, I headed towards the living room. In the living room, the children continued playing games as usual. This time it was a racing game. The one where you drive in karts. The ones battling were Allis and Linne. Watching from behind, both of their bodies moved in sync with the movement of the cars, which made me laugh involuntarily. Or rather, stop playing with ice cream in your mouth. Beside them, the four of them—Elna, Steph, Yoshino, and Sakura—were playing a board game they had found somewhere. It was the one where a cat and mouse chase each other.

“Muu. Nyantaro is fast…”

Don’t name the cat piece that tries to eat the player’s mouse ‘Nyantaro’… Even that guy wouldn’t eat a mouse, you know? Elze, Yumina, and Sue were feeding ice cream to Fuyuka, who was sitting on Elze’s lap. On the sofa next to them, Leen was reading a book she likely brought from Grandpa’s study. Since [Reading] is enchanted on the wives’ rings and the bracelets made for the children by the God of Craft, Craft-san, they can read the text of any country without difficulty. In the garden, Yae and Yakumo, and Hilda and Frei were sparring with wooden swords. Eh, you’re kidding. You guys train even when you come on a trip… Those wooden swords were the ones in the umbrella stand, right? The ones Mom said she used to use in fights or something… One of them is the one I bought on a school trip, though.

“Huh? Where are Kuon and Quun?”

“Kuon is upstairs watching TV.”

Yumina told me with a bitter smile. There is a small TV in Grandpa’s room on the second floor too. It seems he’s watching TV programs up there. Since the one in the living room has been occupied by games.

“Quun is…”

When Yumina looked toward the garden, there was a disappointing young lady lying on her stomach on the ground, trying to peek under Mom’s car, behind where Yae and the others were sparring.

“What is that child doing…”

“She said she’s investigating the differences between it and the magic powered car, Ether-Vehicle. Good grief… I wonder what she’s doing even after coming to a travel destination.”

Leen looked up from her book and let out an exasperated voice.

“No, well, if you’re her mother, stop her…”

“If you’re her father, go stop her.”

Urgh, if you say that. I headed to the entrance, put on my shoes, and went around from the outside to the garden. In front of me, there was the figure of Quun on all fours, struggling to peek inside from under the car. I wonder why; I feel incredibly sad as a father.

“Quun. Your clothes will get dirty, so stop that.”

“Ah, Father, Father! Please lift this up a little!”

“Don’t say unreasonable things.”

No, well, if I use [Power Rise], it might not be impossible to lift it, but still.

“Ah—ah—ah… Your nice clothes got all dirty.”

Quun, who was dressed in children’s clothes that looked like they could exist on Earth instead of her usual clothes, was dirty with soil here and there. Don’t get dirty on the first day. I slapped the dirt off her shoulders and back, but I couldn’t get it all off.

“This is going to the washing machine…”

We brought several changes of clothes, so it’s not a problem, but I can’t stand it if she gets dirty over and over again. I recall there should be books about cars in Grandpa’s room. A visual encyclopedia with lots of photos detailing the history of cars and their cultural transition. I remember reading it when I was a child. It explained not just the cars, but also the social environment behind them, and it was very easy to understand. When I told Quun about it, she immediately took my hand and dragged me into the house. She really is restless… After getting Quun changed, we entered Grandpa’s room on the second floor. On the small TV sitting on the sideboard, Kuon, sitting in the rocking chair, was watching an afternoon talk show. On the TV, commentators and experts were discussing difficult topics regarding political news.

“…Is it interesting?”

“Setting aside whether it is interesting or not, it is educational. As someone who will eventually look after a country, I believe they serve as a negative example.”

A negative example, huh? No, well, the news is highlighting themes like public anger against tax hike after tax hike, so I understand the feeling that we shouldn’t become like that. I feel like Kuon is probably better than me when it comes to politics… In my case, I leave everything to Kousaka-san… Kuon has probably been receiving teachings from Yumina and Kousaka-san since he was old enough to understand. Well, the political system is different between the other world and Earth, so I don’t know if the knowledge gained here will be useful or not. When I found the intended book on the bookshelf and handed it to Quun, she immediately started reading it on the bed in the room. She was reading it happily and intently. It seems my existence is already far beyond her consciousness. Well, that’s fine. Before returning to the living room, I decided to take a travel-related book I had seen before. If Dad and Mom are going with us, our range of action will expand further. Traveling by Shinkansen would be easy too. Since we gained two more chaperones. When I came down from the second floor with the book, Yumina was running a bath. It seems Yae and the others, who sweated from training, are going to get in. The bath in this house is a bit large, so it should be fine even if multiple people, including children, enter. When I entered the living room, Fuyuka was laughing happily on Elze’s lap. Beside them, Blanca, having had his feet wiped, was lying down after coming inside.

“It seems Fuyuka has become completely attached to Elze.”

“I used to take care of my younger brother and sister a long time ago. I’m used to it.”

“Eue, eue.”

“Ye—s, it’s big sister Elze—”

The brother and sister Elze is talking about must be her cousins’ children. That family has many children too. It must have been natural for the older children to take care of the younger ones.

“Darling, what is that book?”

“A travel book. I thought we should think about where to go.”

Since I brought a few, I handed one to Leen, who was reading a book on the sofa. It’s a magazine specializing in domestic travel. It has more introductions to ryokans and hotels than sightseeing spots, but where we stay is important too. I flipped through the magazine. There are many hot spring areas. Hot springs… might be nice. It would really feel like we’re traveling. However, come to think of it, this magazine is from before Grandpa passed away… I hope this ryokan still exists. While I was looking at the photos in the magazine for a while, Lu called out that the rice was cooked. I wrapped the freshly cooked rice from the rice cooker in plastic wrap and tossed it into [Storage]. Then, I cooked rice again in the empty rice cooker. I really do need to buy a large rice cooker at a large electronics store… I bought several packs of precooked rice at the supermarket, and we have rice from the other world, so we won’t run out, but still.

“Father, what is this—?”

“Hm?”

When I returned from the kitchen, Linne, who had gone down to the garden, was holding bamboo stilts in both hands. That brings back memories. Those are the ones Grandpa made for me. They were still here? I went down to the garden too and taught Linne how to ride the bamboo stilts. Since they were made when I was a child, the size is perfect.

“Yo, ho, oh?”

At first, her walking was wobbly since it had been a while, but eventually, she remembered the trick and began walking tokotoko. In the past, I used to get excited by the higher field of vision, but now even if I get on the stilts, I’m shorter than my original height…

“Looks fun! Father, lend it, lend it!”

“Linne, I’m next!”

“Steph too—!”

The children swarmed the bamboo stilts. As expected, or perhaps naturally, Linne and the others easily mastered the bamboo stilts without falling. Perhaps enjoying controlling them with their physical abilities, they were frolicking around, even doing backflips while on the stilts. Though I scolded them to stop since it was dangerous. Come to think of it, I believe there were various playthings inside the storage shed… Grandpa loved new things and would try his hand at anything he thought looked interesting. Ignoring the children playing on the bamboo stilts, I rummaged through the storage shed. Well, there was plenty. Baseball gloves and bats, soccer balls, badminton and putter golf sets, sports items, and even pogo sticks, hula hoops, skateboards, and jump ropes.

“Oh, this is…”

There was a radio-controlled car inside the storage shed. The stick-type transmitter was also there in the box with it. The RC car is a four-wheel-drive buggy type. I had the same one. I used to go run it at the circuit with Grandpa a long time ago. Nostalgic. The battery is probably dead, though. There’s a quick charger and a spare battery in the box, so maybe I’ll charge it and try running it. While glancing at the children playing badminton and on pogo sticks in the garden, I charged the RC car in the living room. At the table, Sakura and Sue were reading the travel magazine I brought. It seems their eyes were drawn more to the food served there than the ryokans or hotels. Well, that is also one of the pleasures of travel.

“Hello—. Here for a delivery—”

A light truck stopped near the entrance, and a cardboard box full of vegetables arrived. It’s not the bearded shopkeeper. It’s a young brother. His son, maybe? As if they were waiting for it, Lu and Arcia went to receive it. Yae, Hilda, Yakumo, and Frei, who had just gotten out of the bath, also carried the cardboard boxes containing vegetables into the house. Starting with the greengrocer’s light truck, the items we ordered for delivery from the rice dealer and fishmonger arrived one after another. Hmmm, should I have staggered the dates…? I stored the luggage Yae and the others carried in into [Storage] one after another in the back room. Otherwise, the room would burst.

“Did you buy this much?”

“Yeah, well, it’s for twenty people…”

I could only answer Yumina’s exasperated voice like that. If I choose one thing saying, “I want to eat this,” I end up having to buy twenty of them so that no one misses out… We need twenty fish too… It’s a bit late, but would it have been cheaper if I went to the sea with [Gate] to fish or catch them? It might get troublesome with fishing rights and such, so maybe I shouldn’t… While doing that, the RC car battery became fully charged. Let’s try running it a bit.

“Daddy, what is that?”

“Well, just watch.”

I placed the 4WD buggy car in front of Steph, who approached with great interest. Receiving the transmission from the controller I operated, the RC car dashed off with great force.

“Wawawa!?”

“Oops, that was close.”

It almost hit the bamboo stilts Linne was riding, so I steered the stick to the right. It dodged the stilts nicely but crashed straight into the wall of the house. I reversed it and made it run again.

“Amazing! Daddy, you are moving it!?”

“That’s right. It’s called a radio-controlled car.”

“Rajikon!”

Steph was frolicking with her eyes sparkling at the RC car circling the garden.

“Want to try?”

“Yeah!”

I handed the transmitter to Steph, brought a few spare batteries from the storage shed, and connected them to the charger again. That RC car’s battery only lasts about twenty minutes. Linne and Allis were also drawn in and looked passionately at the RC car Steph was controlling. Beams saying “Lend it, lend it” are shooting from their eyes.

“Take turns by time—”

” ” ” “Okaaay!” ” ” “

Just when I heard energetic voices, there was one extra person. Looking over, Quun had come down from the second floor at some point and was glued to the RC car. Microwave ovens, cars, RC cars… that child is busy too… For Quun, Japan might be something like a Dreamland. After teaching Quun how to change the RC car’s battery, I returned to the living room. In the living room, Yakumo, Frei, Yoshino, and Elna had joined in, reading the travel magazine and getting excited together. Yae and Hilda seem to be helping Lu and Arcia in the kitchen. Those two can’t cook much, but their knife skills are top-notch…

“Touya. Shouldn’t you go pick up Linze and the others soon?”

“Hm?”

Prompted by Sue, I looked up at the clock in the living room; it was just about to turn 5:30 PM. I could call them after the food is completely ready, but I’m also curious about the progress of the manuscript. Eating makes you sleepy, too. I guess I’ll take a peek. I opened a [Gate] and connected it to the living room of my parents’ house. Dad’s workroom is on the first floor, and Mom’s workroom is on the second floor. Leaving the living room I hadn’t visited in a while, I opened the room at the end of the hallway, where Dad and Linze were scratching away at manuscripts on lined-up desks. Dad is still on analog manuscripts. I think he should switch to digital soon. It’s convenient in many ways.

“You two, dinner is soon, what do you want to do?”

“Eh? Ah, ahh, is it already that time? We made quite a bit of progress.”

Dad looked up from the manuscript and glanced at the clock. Linze looked up in the same way.

“How is it? Linze’s assistance?”

“No, it’s beyond my expectations. At first, I had her draw a background as a rough sketch, but it was too photorealistic, so I had her redraw it just once. Since then, no problems at all.”

Ahh, she drew too much detail. It was a background where the touch didn’t match Dad’s art style. It seems Linze read several of Dad’s paperbacks and, by imitating those backgrounds, immediately absorbed that art style. I wondered if an amateur could draw with a pen right away, but the other world has a normal pen culture… Well, there are manga artists who draw with milli-pens, and there’s no rule saying manga must be drawn with a dip pen.

“Linze, aren’t you tired? Are you okay?”

“No! It is fun to draw various backgrounds! Manga is wonderful, isn’t it!”

Ah, really… Did she awaken to something? Is this okay? W-Well, just being able to draw doesn’t mean you can draw good manga, so nothing will happen immediately… …No, wait. I forgot Linze had a friend, the Writer Princess of Refreese, Ririel. If that Princess takes charge of the original story, couldn’t they produce a one-shot immediately…? Or rather, couldn’t she just adapt her novels into comics naturally…? Will a comic adaptation of ‘The Rose Knights’ come out…? The words ‘Danger: Do Not Mix’ floated in my mind, but there is nothing I can do now. All I can do is check the manuscript and apply the brakes so it doesn’t become too extreme…

“Anyway, stop at a good stopping point. I’ll go check on Mom.”

“Got it.”

I left Dad’s workroom, went up the stairs, and headed to Mom’s workroom on the second floor. With the setting sun shining through the window, Mom was painting colors onto the picture book manuscript, peta peta.

“It’s almost dinner.”

“Nn—…? …Okay.”

Mom continued working without turning around. Is she listening or not? Same as always. Suddenly, the door of the room at the end of the hallway caught my eye. …My room. The prefix ‘Ex-‘ might be attached to it, though. I left that spot, turned the doorknob, and entered inside. When I saw the room, I felt as if time had rewound in an instant. The large desk Grandpa gave me, the bookshelf Dad bought me. The carpet of Mom’s taste, the poster of a movie I liked, the board games I got from friends, the bed I was trying to get replaced… The room where I spent my time before departing to the other world that day remained exactly as it was. Rather than nostalgia, a feeling of ‘I’m back’ and the happiness that my place was left for me welled up.

“Is it nostalgic?”

When I noticed, Mom was standing behind me.

“I didn’t think my room would still be here…”

“We thought about disposing of it, you know… But I felt like if we did that, the fact that Touya was here would disappear too… So Touya-ichiro-san and I decided to keep it at least until Fuyuka grows up and can understand that she had an older brother.”

I see… My existence disappeared from this world, but the fact that I was certainly here does not disappear. The boy named Mochizuki Touya certainly lived in this house, in this room. And there is a family who remembers that. There is nothing more grateful than this… I felt like I was being told to come home anytime.

“You kept everything.”

“I felt like I’d get scolded from the other world saying ‘Don’t dispose of things on your own’. Touya-ichiro-san organized it properly and kept it.”

Dad tidied up the room? It was messier when I was here. That is something to be grateful for.

“We even properly lined up the books hidden under the bed on the bookshelf and kept them, you know.”

“Gaaah! You didn’t have to do thaaat!?”

Dammit! My feelings of gratitude were blown away in an instant! Dad, you should have secretly disposed of those too! You understand, right, if you’re a man! Having your mother know your tastes and preferences, what kind of punishment game is that! I want to die! Even though I’m already dead here!

“[Please keep this a secret from my wives…]”

“Wait, I got it! I got it, so don’t cling to my leg!”

I’m begging you, My Mother… I have a position to maintain too, you see. It’s not like they would lose affection for me if they knew, but I don’t want to be embarrassed unnecessarily.

“I finally finished up to a good stopping point. Shall we go then… Ouch!?”

“Nothing.”

I delivered a low kick to the calf of Dad, who came to the second floor smiling. Later, I’ll use [Search] to find Dad’s treasured books too. I’ll place them on the living room table. Beg for forgiveness from Mom as much as you can. Fuhaha.