NOVEL NEXT “Mom!”
“Elissa, why?”
Kyle went to the library for work, and I was… with the kids in the playroom.
Actually, it wasn’t so much a playroom as it was a multipurpose room where the kids could run around, read books, sleep, rest, and do whatever they liked.
Kyle and I had put in a lot of effort to decorate it together.
“My sister won’t give me back my doll.”
“Ah…”
“Hmph…!”
I was glancing out the window while sipping tea when it seemed another fight had broken out.
Honestly, I didn’t expect the girls to fight, but they fought more than I thought.
Really.
They didn’t throw punches or kicks like the boys, but there was definitely a lot of spirit battling.
They even had some intense staring contests.
“Astrid?”
“…That was originally mine…”
“But I was holding it first today!”
“This was a gift from Dad…”
Astrid was tightly clutching a cute white bear plushie.
It was a gift from Kyle.
He did give it as a gift, but it wasn’t specifically for Astrid; it was one of several toys meant for them to play with together.
I guess she thought it was hers because she grabbed it first.
“I was holding it first!!”
“…You were trying to play with a different toy first…”
“I was holding it the whole time!”
“…You weren’t gonna play with it anyway…”
“Hah…”
It was really cute how they were fighting.
It was just one doll.
Plus, it wasn’t like there was only one big bear plushie.
There was a black one too, and plenty of other toys, yet they were being so adorably competitive over just this one.
Honestly, it was a bit funny, but… I didn’t laugh.
They would be serious about it.
“Um… Elissa?”
“Yeah?”
I decided to put down my tea and resolve the kids’ dispute first.
It wasn’t really difficult.
Elissa was a daughter who listened to me better than she listened to Kyle.
“Astrid wanted to be with the bear plushie today… can you lend it to her for a bit?”
“But! I was holding it first…!”
“Hmm… but Elissa, doesn’t that stuffed animal kinda look like Dad?”
“…Dad?”
As soon as I said it, Elissa looked at the bear plushie.
She stared at it for a moment and started nodding, hmm, hmming to herself.
She was probably thinking along the lines of what I said.
“Doesn’t it have broad shoulders, and a blank expression, just like Dad?”
“Hmm… I guess it kinda does…”
“And it has white hair like Dad, right?”
“Ah!”
Only then did Elissa show a shocked expression as she understood what I was saying.
She looked so cute that I nearly laughed.
She was so adorable, I couldn’t help but think about whose daughter she was.
When I was four, I wasn’t like that at all.
“Which do you like more, Mom or Dad?”
“Mom!”
Straight reply.
Yeah, our Elissa definitely liked me more than Kyle.
Of course, sometimes when Kyle gave her chocolate, she liked him more too, but generally, Elissa liked me a bit more.
“Right? But do you want to play with that bear that looks just like Dad? Or do you want to play with Mom?”
“Hmmm… Mom!”
“Then… how about you lend the bear to your sister for a bit and read some fun storybooks with Mom?”
“Yes! Yes!!”
Elissa nodded her head so vigorously that her black hair flopped around… I couldn’t hold back my laughter, it just burst out.
She was just too cute to resist.
That said, I wasn’t going to show any bias against Astrid.
Reading was going to be Elissa’s job, but there was a reason behind it.
“Then Elissa, would you pick a book? If there’s something you want to hear, Mom will read it all!”
“Okay!!!”
Saying that, Elissa dashed toward the bookshelf.
Actually, even though it was called a bookshelf… it wasn’t that big.
I intentionally chose a very small one so the kids wouldn’t get hurt by it.
And then… I approached Astrid, who was slightly behind Elissa.
Maybe she was a bit quieter, inheriting more from her dad.
“Astrid?”
“Mom?”
“Did you really want to play with that bear plushie so badly?”
“…Yeah.”
Well, I could understand that.
Personally, I thought it was odd for kids to not feel possessive.
It’s natural for kids to want lots of things and crave everything when they’re young.
Ideally, kids should be kids, after all.
“It was given to you by Dad, right?”
“Hehe, was it really from Dad~?”
“Yeah…”
“Hmmm~”
Indeed, Astrid seemed to like Dad more.
Was it because of the hair?
Her eyes were red like mine, which was a bit disappointing, but still… it was sweet that both daughters liked me just a bit more, so I wasn’t too sad for Kyle.
“Our Astrid likes Dad a whole lot~?”
“Yeah…!”
As soon as Dad’s name came up, her eyes lit up.
Was that the same look I had when someone talked about Kyle?
Well, maybe, but the direction of affection was different.
“But that doesn’t mean you don’t like Elissa, right?”
“No, I like Elissa a lot too.”
“Heh, then that’s good.”
“Ugh.”
I placed my hand on top of Astrid’s snowy white hair.
She might feel a bit disappointed that it wasn’t something Dad was doing, but well…
Not my problem.
“Don’t mess my hair like that….”
“Our daughter loves it a lot, so can’t I…?”
As I ruffled her hair, she showed a dislike for it.
Of course… that was cute enough to keep going.
“…Can you just do it for five more seconds…?”
“Heh, thank you?”
“…Not really….”
Her blunt personality was just too adorable.
Maybe if Kyle were more gentle, he wouldn’t be like this?
Of course, Kyle was still quite mild-mannered, but…
That would still be cute in its own way.
“Ah!!! I was going to play with Mom!!!”
“Ah, Elissa, did you bring a book?”
“This one!”
Honestly… they were such cute daughters.
Should I have one more daughter?
*
“Sure, Kyle!”
“Why are you suddenly saying that?”
Just before going to sleep, a brilliant idea struck me.
I really felt like I might be a genius with how great of an idea it was!
Of course, I could have brought it up in the morning after waking up, but since it just came to me, I figured it would be better to say it now.
“Hey, Dad, you mentioned you were going to leave it to me next year for a bit, right?”
“Right?”
“But you’re just going to wander around, right?”
“Right…?”
Fortunately, Dad’s wanderlust wasn’t too severe.
At least he wouldn’t leave Eristirol for now.
“So… remember the house we prepared last time? How about asking you to come by occasionally?”
“Uh…”
Though we hadn’t used it much since getting pregnant and having the baby, it was a house we occasionally visited.
It was so quiet and the atmosphere was so relaxed that we sometimes went there for… those sorts of reasons, and we were still using it well.
Moreover, it was located in a sparsely populated area, so there was no reason for it to be exhausting.
That’s why I thought maybe it would be nice for Dad to stay over there.
“What do you think?”
“Hmm… I guess it might not be bad…”
“But…?”
“I think I need to think about that a bit more.”
“Really?”
It was a tad disappointing, but since it was just a suggestion, it was fine.
Wasn’t this successful enough?
Of course… it felt a bit iffy to have my love nest with Kyle being invaded by Dad…
Lately, Kyle had been really worried about that.
After all, living separately would mean a lot of thoughts would come flooding in.
“Then let’s talk about something else. We weren’t going to sleep right away anyway, right?”
“That’s true. What are we going to talk about?”
“Good question?”
I hadn’t really planned on what to talk about specifically.
I was just… not ready to sleep yet.
And I just wanted to talk more?
“Oh, next time, if you’re going to give the kids presents, make sure to give one to each of them. They had a bit of a spat over that today.”
“Ah… got it.”
“Well… I think they’ll handle themselves better once they grow up a bit, but they’re still quite young, right?”
“That could be, yeah. I hadn’t thought that through.”
I believed that to be true.
It hadn’t even been five years since I started raising them.
They were little kids still, and they had a long way to grow.
“Oh, and… is your schedule free this weekend?”
“Hmm… I have some work Saturday morning, but after that, I’m free for now.”
That was a relief.
Lately, Kyle had been quite busy preparing to take over the title of Duke, but it seemed like this weekend we could finally spend some quality family time.
Especially since Astrid had been lamenting how she hasn’t played with Dad lately.
This weekend… I thought it would be great for us to go out somewhere together.
“Kyle, want to take the kids out somewhere this weekend?”
“If you suggest it, of course we have to.”
“Great! Since you’ll have work on Saturday morning, how about we all go out together on Sunday?”
“That sounds fun.”
“Well… the kids will probably enjoy it more than us.”
“That’s true.”
Kyle and I kept chatting happily about the weekend.
Honestly, I had thought about the possibility of a third child today… but Kyle seemed a bit tired.
“Kyle, are you sleepy?”
“Hmm… a little…?”
“Is that so?”
Given how busy he’s been lately, it wasn’t surprising, really.
A third child… well, that could wait until after Kyle became Duke.
I figured a month or so was more than enough time to become duke.
We could take our time.
“Then why don’t you lean on me and sleep first? I’m… not ready to sleep just yet.”
“Thank you… sis….”
“Heh….”
As I said that, Kyle settled into my embrace.
What can I say… lately, I hadn’t been working, so this situation had happened quite a lot.
Raising the kids was tough, but still… it was easier compared to real work.
It seemed Kyle was often more exhausted than I now.
Well, every time we cuddled like this and he seemed well-rested the next day, I didn’t mind.
“Good night?”
“…Yes.”
It seems Astrid’s fondness for that bear wasn’t without reason.
They did resemble each other quite a bit.