Kaido straightened his back with a gag-like reaction.
Kaido’s expression seemed to say he understood Meguri-san’s words, his attitude clearly showing it.
Such a reaction was equivalent to declaring that there was something he was hiding.
“Spit it out, you useless son. Whenever you try to hide something, your eyes always drift to the right.”
Furthermore, his opponent had over twenty years of experience observing her son, making her something of an expert on Kaido.
Kaido’s action of tapping his right eyelid, as if to check his own eye, made him involuntarily turn his gaze to the left.
“Idiot.”
He couldn’t help but mutter it in a low voice; his attempt at deception was that poor.
It wasn’t hiding anything at all and was exactly what Meguri-san had planned for.
If the instructor saw this, he would surely beat him up severely.
Ever since coming to Memoria’s shop, I had a vague sense of foreboding, but the plan I had prepared was ruined.
I pressed my right hand to my forehead, as if to suppress a headache.
I had pushed things too quickly.
To Meguri-san, this place was a foreign country.
A world with a completely different worldview from Japanese common sense.
Kaido’s plan was probably to try and justify his actions by asserting that it was perfectly normal for me, who had made polygyny a reality, to exist. But Meguri-san’s mind worked fast.
Her ability to grasp the situation was so sharp that it made sense she was the former leader of a biker gang.
Was her ability to accept Kaido’s situation something she inherited from her?
Her adaptability was incredibly high.
Thanks to that, she noticed Kaido’s suspicious behavior in various places and was now questioning him so openly.
“Meguri-san.”
“You be quiet for a moment. I know you can explain this beautifully, but regarding this matter, it’s only right that you hear it directly from my idiotic son.”
I thought I might be witnessing an interrogation and decided to intervene by speaking up. But Meguri-san stopped me.
Meguri-san boldly stated that it was not right for me, who was merely an acquaintance, to hear something so important, even though she was his superior and we had known each other for a considerable time.
I had hoped to avoid any commotion at Memoria’s shop, so I looked at Memoria, but she simply indicated that it was fine by her and quietly erased her presence, then went to hang a “Closed for Preparation” sign on the shop door.
“Goodness, I’m a fortunate man to have such a capable wife.” Confirming that the stage was set, I took a step back.
“Um, well…”
At this point, I could no longer interfere.
It was now up to Kaido to state things boldly, and the subsequent scolding and persuasion were his responsibility.
While Kaido was stammering incoherently.
“Memoria, could you brew some tea in the kitchen back there?”
It seemed like this was going to take a while, so I decided to have some tea while watching the exchange between the Kaido father and son.
“Please make some for me too. There’s a slightly rare herbal tea I acquired the other day on the third shelf from the top, along with the jar of honey next to it.”
“Alright.”
It was a familiar shop to my wife.
I knew the entire layout and where everything was kept.
Kaido, who stood stiffly awaiting his turn to speak, was visibly intimidated by Meguri-san’s piercing gaze, a gaze forged from countless dungeon challenges.
To witness their exchange, I quietly retrieved the tea leaves and tea set from the shelf, as Memoria had asked.
I quickly boiled water with magic and poured some into two cups to warm them. While the cups were warming, Memoria stood beside me and took out a rather expensive-looking tin from a lower cupboard.
“These are cookies from Evia-sama. Let’s eat them together.”
“That sounds good too.”
After the tea had steeped sufficiently, I poured the beautifully yellowish liquid into the emptied tea cups and returned to the counter with two cups.
“You! You got that girl in the picture pregnant, and you’re involved with other women too!?”
“Gyaaaaah!? My spine!?”
“Ah, so it’s been discovered.”
“It was only a matter of time.”
I won’t reveal how it started for Kaido’s honor. He confessed after that, and now he’s being bent backward and squeezed.
Kaido’s body was trained to withstand attacks from instructors, even with their strength controlled.
He should have been fine against Meguri-san’s attacks, as she had no magic crest and was an ordinary person, but… he was yelping in pain.
“That’s not acting. Meguri-san’s techniques are also quite refined. She understands the limits of joints and controls her strength well. She’s quite skilled.”
“It might not be effective against certain species, but depending on magic compatibility, it could be a good fighting force.”
Upon closer observation, her technique was very skillfully applied.
She dispersed the opponent’s strength, preventing counterattacks, while using minimal force herself.
Despite her small frame, Meguri-san applied her techniques to Kaido’s larger body.
Just like their interactions at Kaido’s home, I wondered if Meguri-san was a fan of professional wrestling.
“Gimme gimme!? Rope! Rope!”
“We have rope here, but should I bring it?”
“That’s not the kind of rope she means. Just leave it; it’ll resolve itself soon enough.”
Gr grumbling about the trouble they were causing in someone else’s shop, I reached for the cookies Evia had given me.
A sweet, faint scent of cinnamon.
A sweetness that melted cleanly without being cloying.
The cookies that Evia, whose hobby was finding sweets, had found were delicious, and I could eat any number of them.
I leisurely sipped my tea, not paying much attention to Kaido and Meguri-san’s exchange. However, Memoria, drinking tea beside me, tilted her head curiously at Kaido shouting wrestling terms.
And from the word “rope,” she pointed to some sturdy survival gear prepared in the store, suggesting it might be useful, but I shook my head, indicating it wasn’t necessary.
Memoria didn’t know about professional wrestling, so she probably didn’t understand what Kaido meant.
“What do you mean, ‘soon’?”
Memoria, who was also keeping an eye out to ensure the shelves wouldn’t fall over due to the unusually noisy situation, looked even more puzzled as the commotion headed towards its conclusion.
“I’ve contacted Evia to gather the involved parties. They should be here within a timeframe that Kaido’s spine can withstand.”
“My shop isn’t a meeting place for this.”
“We’ll be moving soon. Keiri-san is securing a suitable place in the underground mall for us.”
And then the involved parties: Amili-san and the twin Seraphim, Shiik and Miik.
Hearing that these three were heading to this shop, I understood perfectly.
“Honestly, I had planned for things to proceed in stages. I intended to introduce Amili-san later, break the ice with a meal, and then move on to the main topic.”
“So, Kaido-san ruined everything.”
“Given the result, I have no intention of saying anything.”
More than half of my work felt complete.
It felt ridiculous that I had tried so hard to play matchmaker, as I alternably ate the subtly sweet herbal tea and cookies, healing my fatigue.
Meanwhile.
“I never raised you to be this kind of person!!”
“Gyaaaaaah!? I only said things to test you as a senpai, but you didn’t do this kind of move back then!?”
“Of course not!! Unlike you, that person seemed dependable, and both parties involved were in agreement. It’s unseemly for an outsider like me to interfere.”
“My bones, my spine, it’s screaming! I can’t anymore! It won’t bend any further, and it shouldn’t!”
The intense exchange between father and son continued.
“You have a close relationship.”
“Perhaps that’s their way of expressing affection as a parent and child.”
“I didn’t have that kind of physical affection.”
“Gray-san probably wouldn’t do that. Miruru-san… might, but Memoria wouldn’t go for someone as foolish as Kaido.”
Observing their relationship, Memoria deemed it affectionate, and I didn’t disagree, finding her assessment accurate.
Parent-child relationships are diverse.
There are parent-child relationships where they clash physically like that, and there are examples like Memoria, who grew up without experiencing such a relationship.
“Jiro-san, do you have any special memories?”
“I remember waking up on a plane bound for Saudi Arabia once.”
“Saudi Arabia?”
“Ah, that was before I entered middle school, so it was over ten years ago.”
And then there’s me, who has the experience of being taken on a trip abroad by means that were practically kidnapping.
With my mother’s exceptionally high-level abilities at play, I, as a child, was completely powerless.
My father probably wanted to take photos in Saudi Arabia.
That was the trigger for me to be brought to a foreign land where I didn’t know the language or the place, and my mother acted without considering a child’s feelings.
“I suddenly found myself surrounded by strangers, unable to understand the language. I desperately tried to stay by my mother’s side – that was the only sense of crisis I had.”
“From my perspective, it would be like suddenly finding myself in some country in Isal.”
“It’s a bit safer here in terms of public order, but it’s a similar feeling. When I became an adult and mentioned it, my mother said it was good for gaining experience.”
“I met her a few times too, and she was quite proactive in many ways.”
“I don’t know if ‘proactive’ is the word to describe my mother, but yes, we were taken to various places, both domestically and abroad.”
North and south, east and west.
Domestically, I enjoyed it, but the moment my father said he needed a picture of the aurora, my mother grabbed me by the collar as I tried to escape.
By the time I was in high school, I had learned to escape as a reflex, but it was met with resistance as if to say resistance was futile, and family trips were enforced.
That stopped when I went to university, but except for club activities and school events, I have memories of mostly being abroad.
“I’m a little envious of that. I’ve also been on trips with my father and mother, but they’re both busy, so I don’t have that many experiences.”
“Well, you are the head of a major merchant guild. I suppose you can’t just go out anytime.”
Memoria said this with a touch of envy in her eyes as she sipped her teacup.
While we reminisced about the past,
*“Gah, I can’t anymore… my back…”*
*“Have you reflected! You useless son!”*
The background music of the one-sided communication between Kaido and his mother was amusing.
“Ah, Memoria, could you give me a potion?”
Kaido’s spine was already nearing its limit. He was out of breath, his complexion pale, and beads of sweat on his forehead.
If this continued, Kaido’s spine was as good as gone.
At that timing, I sensed the magical fluctuations I had felt several times before. I took out my wallet, handed a thousand-yen bill to Memoria, and pointed to a potion on the shelf.
“Of course. I’ll prepare your change.”
“Ah, I’ll need it here, so no bag is necessary.”
“Then, I’ll take back the bottle.”
“Please do.”
Thinking it had arrived sooner than expected, I borrowed a potion from the shelf, opened the lid.
“Here, Kaido, open your mouth.”
“Gulp!?”
I inserted the potion into Kaido’s mouth, which was being held in an arc. Noticing what was flowing into his mouth was a potion, Kaido desperately swallowed it.
“What are you doing? This is between my son and me!”
“I know it’s a problem, but time is up. Meguri-san, we have guests.”
Meguri-san glared at me, thinking I was interfering with her actions. But her expression changed instantly when I said a guest was arriving.
“Yes, Kaido’s… opponent, perhaps you could say?”
However, her expression changed in an instant at my words.
Today’s word:
Sometimes, urgency is important to move the story forward.
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Pandora Panic Panic: Pandora’s Box Has Been Opened Again, But We’re Fighting Back with Various Things in Our Secret Base!!
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