Jeron was more passive than expected. Even when asked what he wanted to eat, he gave no answer.
If asked whether this was okay, he said it was okay.
If asked whether that was okay, he said that was okay too.
He just said everything was okay.
In the end, after hesitating, Luzbel ordered the entire menu.
“Who is going to eat all of this?”
“Dad will eat it all. Don’t worry.”
When he said he would eat it all, Jeron shut his mouth tightly again.
Before long, the dishes they had ordered began to come out one by one.
From light side dishes to the main courses, everything arrived quickly.
“Do you want steak?”
“…Yes.”
Luzbel carefully cut the meat with a knife and placed it in front of Jeron.
“Try it.”
“…I will eat well.”
Jeron, who had learned etiquette strictly from Edith, greeted in a voice that almost trailed off, then stabbed a piece of meat and ate it.
“How is it?”
“It is delicious.”
“Eat a lot.”
It was a relief that it suited his taste. Luzbel kept placing various dishes in front of Jeron.
Every time a new dish came out, he acted as if he were anxious not to miss giving it to him.
Thanks to that, Jeron was eating until both cheeks were puffed full, while Luzbel was barely eating at all.
“Your Grace, please eat as well.”
Unable to watch any longer, Jeron urged him, and only then did Luzbel begin to eat.
If Edith had been there, Jeron would have chattered, and they would have exchanged this and that in conversation.
However, today’s meal was nothing but quiet.
The one who spoke first was Luzbel.
“Jeron.”
“Yes.”
“…What is your favorite food?”
“I like everything.”
“Still, there must be something you like the most.”
He was curious. When it came to Jeron, he wanted to know everything.
As a late father, his desire to do better for him was strong.
After thinking for a long time, Jeron spoke.
“There is really nothing I do not like, but it tastes good when we eat together. …As a family.”
“What?”
“…I am eating well. Even now.”
Luzbel’s eyes widened.
“So, Your Grace, please eat quickly as well.”
“Oh, ah.”
Flustered, Luzbel hurriedly picked up whatever food was near and put it into his mouth.
At the same time, he carefully turned over Jeron’s words in his mind.
‘It tastes good when we eat as a family.’
He was eating well even now.
In other words, it was delicious.
‘Family…?’
“!!”
He would never call him Dad, but in any case, it seemed he had been acknowledged as family.
From that moment on, Luzbel kept smiling foolishly.
It was the first time he had heard something so direct.
At the same time, he even thought about giving a reward to Mika, who had planned today’s project.
If Edith had been there, Jeron probably would never have said something like this.
***
After finishing the meal, they went for a walk, just as Edith’s routine dictated.
Since they had come out to the outskirts of the duchy, the surroundings were nothing but walking paths.
While they walked silently for a while.
Once again, it was Luzbel who spoke first.
“Jeri.”
“Yes.”
“Perhaps you don’t dislike it when Dad does things like this?”
It was something he had always worried about.
He had read countless parenting books in order to grow closer to Jeron, but those were all based on parents and children who had formed a normal relationship, so there were times he wondered whether he was doing this right.
That was why he hadn’t dared to ask.
But today, somehow, he felt brave. Jeron had called them family himself earlier.
“What?”
“…Do you dislike it?”
“…Sigh.”
The moment he heard the question, Jeron asked back, but as soon as he saw Luzbel looking dejected, he let out a deep sigh.
As if the courage he had just gained had vanished, Luzbel shrank again.
“…Are you like this because I said I did not want to come out together?”
“…No, I read in a book before that unwanted advances can be violence to someone.”
“In which book?”
“…I didn’t look properly at the title. It was in the parenting section at the time.”
“There was a book like that in the parenting section?”
Luzbel didn’t know, but it had been a book on romance.
It was an accident that happened because someone read it and didn’t return it to the proper place.
Since he hadn’t checked properly, he would never know.
“…So I was always mindful of it. I wondered if I was burdening you for no reason.”
Jeron was silent for a moment.
“I did not know you were thinking like that all this time.”
“…Maybe because I am such an inadequate dad, I had many thoughts. I kept wondering what I should do so that you would like me more.”
“Hmm… I do not know if it is appropriate to say this in this mood, but…”
“What is it? You can say it.”
“You have no conscience.”
“…”
“I was hurt and in pain for years, so just because you treat me a little well now, should I smile and act like nothing happened?”
“No, that’s not what I meant, I…”
“Say it all. What you are thinking.”
To begin with, Luzbel’s childhood hadn’t been very happy either.
His father had been oppressive, and he had no mother.
Growing up under harsh abuse, Luzbel thought all families were like his.
When Jeron was first born, it was true that he had thought he should treat him well, but the standard for treating him well had been based on his own father.
If it had been a normal marriage, Edith would probably have been horrified watching what Luzbel was doing.
He might have come to learn what a real family was in that process, but now they had taken too long of a detour.
Of course, even words like that sounded like excuses from Jeron’s point of view, so Luzbel simply apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
“But it is not bad.”
“What?”
“I still do not intend to call you by anything other than Your Grace.”
“…”
“But someday, maybe I will call you that? Depending on how you act?”
“I will try, Jeron.”
Luzbel smiled brightly.
It was a smile he rarely showed to anyone except Edith, but recently it had become an expression he often showed to Jeron as well.
***
Dad’s Day had been quite a successful project.
At least, that was what he had thought until yesterday.
When the next day came, having to be alone felt lonely.
Even Luzbel himself was surprised.
‘I’m lonely?’
It was a feeling he hadn’t even experienced when he divorced Aisha and was left alone.
Back then, rather than loneliness, it had been shock at being abandoned and days of blaming himself for the countless wrongs he had committed.
While digging into his own misery, his relationship with Jeron had collapsed, and he had made things hard for Monet as well.
“What do you think they are doing?”
“Pardon?”
“I miss them.”
“…”
He really missed them.
When he spent time alone with Jeron, it had simply been nice, but now that he was alone, why did time not pass?
“Your Grace, you are holding the documents upside down.”
“…The work is not entering my eyes.”
“Ha, honestly. Who are you?”
Monet let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
It was the same time as always, but just because Edith and Jeron weren’t in the manor, his concentration today was utterly ruined.
“I should rest.”
“You are going to rest? No, seriously, who are you? You are not His Grace, are you? Hey, whoever you are, get out of that body right now!”
Monet looked as if he might start throwing salt at him at any moment.
Was saying he would rest really that surprising?
“Monet, shut your mouth. You are so loud I could die.”
“…”
In the end, Luzbel really went on strike that day.
Since he had been running breathlessly all this time, even Monet thought that a day of rest wasn’t a bad idea and didn’t say much.
Though he had been somewhat shocked that Luzbel was voluntarily taking a break from work.
Luzbel waited desperately for the two of them to return.
Urging Monet every single minute.
“…Your Grace, would you rather just work?”
After the question, ‘Where do you think Edith and Jeron are now?’ had been asked over a hundred times, Monet, unable to endure any longer, clicked his tongue in irritation and stormed out.
Saying he didn’t want to stay in the same space anymore.
And a few hours later.
“Edith, Jeron!”
The two people he had been waiting for finally returned.
Luzbel ran out to greet them and tightly hugged them both, saying he had missed them.
At the unusually intense welcome, Edith smiled with a slightly bewildered face.
“What is this? Why are you welcoming us like this?”
“How did you spend your time yesterday, Edith? For me, today was difficult because time would not pass at all.”
“I felt the same way.”
“…Ha, I am starting to envy Jeron.”
Letting out a low sigh, Luzbel muttered.
Jeron asked with a puzzled face.
“What are you envious of?”
“…On Dad’s Day, I get to monopolize you, and on Mom’s Day, Edith gets to monopolize you. I am envious, so envious…”
His tone sounded one hundred percent sincere.
Jeron let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.
“Then should we get rid of it?”
“No!”
That wasn’t it.
“Because the time I spend alone with you is precious too.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Yes. Of course I missed Edith today, but I missed you a lot too.”
Whenever he rested, he would go find him and say, let’s do this, let’s do that, but with no one to say that to, the emptiness had been enormous.
“It feels like it will be like this every month. Really.”
“…Tch.”
Jeron, not seeming to dislike it, smiled slightly and his cheeks turned faintly red.
“Shall the three of us spend tomorrow together?”
“…If you want.”
“Then how about Family Day, Family Day?”
“That doesn’t sound bad.”
Luzbel smiled brightly.
If he tried just a little more, it felt like he might finally hear the word Dad.
