Chapter 18
“Dad, I’d been disappointed lately because you seemed distant, but I had no idea you were drawing something like this just for me. In the end, there really is no one like my daughter.”
“Right! So, um… next time I’ll draw Dad really, really big like this!”
“No. This is more than enough. I honestly had no idea my daughter thought of her dad this way. It’s okay if Dad takes this, right?”
I shook my head vigorously at Dad, who was spreading out the crumpled piece of paper with sharp snaps.
“No. It’s just that I don’t really like that one, and… a-actually, I’m preparing something really carefully just for you, Dad!”
“Huh? R-really?”
Dad’s eyes grew moist. I didn’t want to lie, but if I didn’t do this, I had a feeling he’d carry that drawing around the entire neighborhood, showing it off.
Dad had such thick rose-colored glasses on when it came to me that he couldn’t see the picture as a whole, but if someone looked just a little more closely, anyone could tell it was a map.
Probably…
So taking that away had to come first.
“Come to think of it, Dad did used to go around the whole neighborhood bragging about my drawings.”
It was something from the past, a memory I wanted to forget, so I’d completely forgotten about it—but now that I thought about it, it was true.
He’d show my clumsy drawings to everyone—Grandma, anyone he met—saying a genius had been born. Because of that, he even earned the nickname of being crazy about his daughter. I had to see people clicking their tongues at Dad with my own eyes.
“This time, I’ll absolutely stop it.”
“Yeah! So give me that now, and I’ll give you the one I’m preparing next time!”
“But I want to have this too, and that one too…”
“No.”
Dad, please. This is all for you. You’ll end up being called an idiot everywhere you go. My dad isn’t an idiot. He just loves his daughter a little too much.
“Why not?”
“People shouldn’t be that greedy. If you take that, then I’ll never draw for you again!”
“Ahh… but I really want something like this…”
Dad hesitated for a long while, looking regretful, but maybe he wanted the new drawing I promised him—because in the end, he handed the crumpled paper over to me.
“Do I really have to give it to you?”
“Yes.”
I should burn it all today or something. I didn’t realize he’d even inspect what I threw away like that.
“Promise?”
“Yeah! Ah—right.”
I felt like if I let this go on any longer, I’d hear “You have to give it to me” about two hundred more times, so I hurriedly changed the subject.
“Is something going on?”
“Yeah! Dad, Dad.”
“Hm?”
“Do the older brothers eat different food from us?”
I looked at Dad with sparkling eyes, as if I knew nothing. Just as expected, Dad shook his head side to side, looking completely clueless.
“They eat different food? What do you mean by that?”
“Oh. Is this something you don’t know about, Dad?”
Dad, who had been patting my head, bent down to meet my eyes.
“Something I don’t know about?”
“Yeah. The servant said some weird things, so I asked the older brothers!”
“And?”
“It’s strange, right? If they ate the same food as me, they should be getting nice and chubby, but they haven’t gained any weight at all.”
Only then did Dad let out a small sigh.
“I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to pay much attention or really look into things, but now that you mention it… they really haven’t gained any weight. I thought they just weren’t eating much, but…”
Dad stroked his chin with an awkward expression. It seemed like guilt was settling in—guilt over not properly taking care of the children he had brought in.
“Mm-hmm. So I asked them.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. They didn’t say anything, but it felt like there was something going on. I’m sure they only get proper meals when we’re around or watching. Otherwise, there’s no way the older brothers wouldn’t gain weight!”
At my words, Dad nodded as if he agreed.
“Now that I hear it from you, that does sound possible. I think we’ll have to look into this.”
“Yeah! And how about starting tomorrow, we have them eat together with us so this doesn’t happen again?”
“Huh? That’s a great idea—no, but would that be okay, Amanet?”
“Huh? Why?”
I tilted my head, not noticing anything strange about what he said. What was the problem?
“You didn’t like other people coming in before, remember?”
“Oh.”
Right. In the past, I would’ve made a huge fuss.
“I’m not who I used to be.”
“What?”
“I-it’s okay. And those are the older brothers you told me to get along with, Dad. S-so, that’s how it is.”
Dad was the kind of person who would believe me even if I said a stone by the roadside was gold—no, beyond that, a crazy man who’d probably turn all the stones on the street into gold.
“That’s how it is, right? I keep telling you—our daughter is so kind. Where did such a kind, pretty, and genius daughter come from?”
Dad looked at me with shining eyes, as if he were deeply moved by my pure heart.
“Mom gave birth to me!”
Pointing out the exact fact made Dad flustered, and he started stammering.
“R-right. Mom gave birth to you. Still, you look just a little bit like your dad.”
“No. We really don’t look alike at all.”
“Uh… ah, no. I mean… uh, um…”
Dad’s eyes anxiously scanned my face. He stared at me for a long time, as if trying to find something we shared, but in truth, we hardly resembled each other at all.
Our hair colors were different, our eye colors were different—honestly, we didn’t look alike enough that you could believe we weren’t even related.
“So? Which part looks alike?”
“Well… um… our ears…?”
“Huh?”
“Our ears look alike. Exactly alike!”
I burst out laughing. At this rate, he’d probably say our eyebrow density or the size of our nostrils was similar too.
“Yeah. We look alike. Totally alike.”
“Right?”
“Then hurry up and go back now. Dad has work to do.”
“Huh? No. You can rest more!”
“No. Did you work out today?”
I kneaded Dad’s chest. Even after several days, there wasn’t a hint of muscle. Startled by the sudden skinship, Dad tensed his chest, but instead of muscle, all I felt was bone and skin.
“Huh? N-no, that is…”
“Are you eating well? You have to eat lots of meat.”
“Meat is…”
“Do you know how good meat is for building muscle? Chicken, pork, beef. Eat meat for all three meals every day. Got it?”
At my words, Dad nodded very awkwardly. It was as if he absolutely didn’t want to do it, but felt he had no choice since it was me asking.
“You have to stick to it. I’ll check too. Did you work out?”
“Well, working out isn’t exactly that easy…”
“Dad’s just full of excuses. I don’t really like a dad with so many excuses…”
At my sulking, I could see Dad’s eyes shaking back and forth.
“You don’t like Dad?”
“I like you now, but I think I might start liking you a little less.”
“Uh… really?”
“Yeah. So listen to me!”
This was all for Dad’s future, after all. I widened my eyes at him. Only then did Dad nod, very heavily and slowly.
“Okay.”
“You can’t just say you understand again and then do nothing.”
Dad’s body flinched for a moment, but I simply stared at him.
“O-okay…”
Squeeze, squeeze.
Would my dad ever have a nice, muscular chest someday?
As I kept touching him for a while, filled with regret, Dad cleared his throat.
“Um… th-that is… do you really have to… my chest…”
“I’m checking. Checking. How strong my dad has gotten. When I check like this, I can tell for sure. That Dad isn’t exercising and isn’t eating properly.”
Maybe that hit a nerve, because Dad laughed weakly and nodded.
“R-right. That’s true. Everything my daughter says is right. Haha.”
“Yeah. Anyway, after my birthday party, you’ll have the older brothers eat together with us, okay?”
At my words, Dad smiled slightly and nodded.
“Alright.”
Since I suggested eating together with the older brothers, Dad wouldn’t harbor any suspicion toward the twins.
I brought this up today partly because it suddenly came to mind, but also to make sure not even the slightest suspicion would arise. So that even if the twins escaped, there would be nothing to doubt.
The difference between running away after being discovered and running away without being discovered is the scope of the search.
“If they manage to escape on my birthday, he’ll only start looking for the twins afterward, thinking they couldn’t have gone far, and search the house and nearby areas.”
In any case, since the twins weren’t exactly aboveboard, they wouldn’t be able to conduct an open search. That was why I deliberately mentioned the twins so conspicuously.
