I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 34

“Come on, shall we head back now?”

After having had plenty of fun playing with the well-chosen soil, Axion’s little palms were covered in dirt. I lightly dusted off his tiny hands before picking him up.

“Did you have fun playing today, Axion?”

“Wah! Wah!”

Axion looked delighted. His slightly flushed cheeks looked just like peaches. Worried that he might be cold, I put the baby coat I had taken off earlier back on him before leaving the fields.

“Mommy had fun playing in the dirt with our Axion, too. Shall we go back and take a nap together now?”

“Must be nice. Even getting to take a nap.”

Oh my. Has our Axion already started speaking in full sentences?

……Of course not.

“What’s with that sour face? You should be welcoming your lifesaver, not looking like that.”

“Lifesaver? Sounds like I hear a dog barking somewhere.”

“Hah.”

Dazar, who had suddenly appeared just to pick a fight, let out a crooked sigh.

I adjusted my hold on Axion and briskly walked past him.

“Our Axion, shall we go back now?”

“Wait, wait. Where are you going?”

“Where else? Back to our room. It’s cold. Axion shouldn’t stay outside for long on a day like this.”

After I rattled off those words, Dazar fell silent. He looked at Axion, then at me, before crossing his arms and nodding his head.

Roughly in the direction of the mansion.

“Then take him back and come to my room.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think? Did you forget something?”

“I don’t think so?”

“……”

Dazar’s face crumpled.

Oh, had I inherited the original owner of this body’s genuine sadistic tendencies as well?

Why was seeing that crumpled face making me feel so good?

“You look pleased.”

“I’m not.”

“Hah. I think your personality got even stranger after the ‘Day of the Rift.’”

“You were strange to begin with. Let’s call it even.”

“What? ‘Call it even’……?”

Dazar made a strange expression, clearly not understanding what I meant, but I simply ignored him and continued walking.

I heard his footsteps following behind me.

“You have a promise with me.”

He really was persistent.

“A promise? What was it……? Oh.”

I had wondered what kind of promise I could possibly have made with that dog, but then I suddenly remembered the conversation we’d had on the day he officially became a dog in my mind.

‘Give me that soy sauce egg rice you took from me last time.’

‘Fine. Fine, I will.’

Right. I had said that.

Although we hadn’t exactly called it a promise.

“What, you mean the soy sauce egg rice? You could’ve just asked for it. Why make such a big deal about it being a promise?”

“Do you think nobles make promises by simply saying, ‘Hey, from now on this is a promise, okay? Pinky swear’?”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

Dazar rattled off the words with a sullen expression.

“It means that even an ordinary conversation that merely appears to be an exchange of words can constitute a promise between families, my lady. Though I suppose an Evanroar young lady who has shut herself off from high society wouldn’t know that.”

What did high society have to do with making soy sauce egg rice?

I absentmindedly picked at my ear with a bored expression and completely ignored him.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Just wait for now. I’ll be there soon.”

I shook him off as best I could, hurried back to my room, and handed Axion over to Carl.

“Huh? Are you leaving again right after coming back?”

The area around his lips was dark and murky, making it obvious that he had been drinking loach juice. Carl hurriedly wiped his mouth and widened his eyes.

“Lord Cedric should be returning soon.”

“Hmm. If he comes back and I’m not here, tell him he did a good job and send him off. I think I’ll have something to take care of for a while.”

“Yes, understood.”

Carl carefully took Axion, who had fallen asleep again on the way back.

After making sure Axion was sleeping soundly, I hurried away—not toward Dazar’s study, but toward the kitchen.

The kitchen servants I had seen before greeted me.

“Can I use this for a moment?”

“Y-Yes!”

The person who appeared to be the head chef hurriedly answered, looking slightly nervous.

I left them behind and started cooking rice with the remaining rice grains when I heard whispering behind me.

“Is that the famous legendary chef?”

“That’s right, it is! I heard our lord changed after that person visited the kitchen!”

“Indeed. I heard he’s been looking for food more often lately.”

What? What on earth were they talking about?

They were whispering, but they were right behind me, so their voices inevitably reached my ears.

“That legendary chef must be restoring our lord’s appetite!”

No, in what way did I look like some legendary chef?

I stared at myself with a sullen expression.

Although hidden beneath my dress, I passed over the iron legs honed by farm work and paused at the sturdy forearms that could carry Axion for hours without tiring.

They looked delicate on the outside, but they were packed with muscle underneath.

‘Hmm. I look extremely slender.’

My hair was a shining shade of blonde, and I had quite a pretty face, too.

No matter how favorably they looked at me, I certainly didn’t look like some legendary chef. But apparently, the fact that Dazar had started eating all sorts of things again was enough to overwhelm my appearance.

“It’s done.”

Having somehow become a legendary chef in an instant, I timed it perfectly and fried an egg just as the rice was nearly done.

After all, if you fry an egg too early, it’ll cool down and become hard.

I placed the fried egg on the freshly cooked rice and drizzled a little soy-sauce-flavored sauce over it.

In no time, a delicious-looking bowl of soy sauce egg rice was ready.

“Well, I did promise to make it.”

I placed the bowl of soy sauce egg rice onto a tray and marched confidently toward Dazar’s study.

My officially designated dog, Dazar, was waiting there.

 

***

 

“……You came?”

For once, Dazar was sitting at his study desk instead of on the windowsill. His polished desk looked luxurious at a glance, making Dazar himself look somewhat impressive as he sat there.

But I could see it.

Despite pretending to be composed, he was actually brimming with anticipation.

“Do you read books upside down these days?”

“……!”

The book in his hands was upside down.

The moment Dazar heard my words, he slammed the book down as though throwing it aside and sprang to his feet.

Then he crossed the room in a single stride and reached for the tray.

“Oh my, where are you going?”

“……What?”

“You can’t eat the sacred soy sauce egg rice with those dirty hands. Go wash your hands first.”

“Hah. Honestly.”

Dazar shook his shoulders as though dumbfounded, but surprisingly, he obediently followed my instructions. He quickly went to the adjoining room in one corner of the study, brought back a wet handkerchief, and wiped his hands right in front of me.

Then he sat primly on the sofa and began staring intently at me.

“Ahem.”

It was a little awkward seeing someone who was normally arrogant enough to pierce the heavens suddenly behaving in a way he never usually did.

I set the tray down on the table in front of him and turned the spoon toward him.

“I brought you the soy sauce egg rice you wanted so badly. About what you did to save me back then……”

Ahem!

It was a little embarrassing for me to do something I normally wouldn’t either.

I lightly scratched my cheek with my index finger and continued.

“Th-Thank you. I survived because of you.”

Of course, the reason I nearly died in the first place was also because of him.

‘He didn’t know I had a constitution that prevented the barrier from affecting me.’

He hadn’t intentionally put me in danger, either.

At my words, his expression became slightly strange.

His eyebrows lowered a little, his lips twisted, and the tip of his nose scrunched up.

He stared at me before cautiously parting his lips.

“What’s wrong with you? Did you put something in this?”

“……”

This bastard.

The tiny bit of gratitude I had just started feeling toward him disappeared at lightning speed.

“Correction. I’m not grateful at all. Just eat.”

“A noble lady shouldn’t speak like that.”

“You should try using nicer words yourself.”

Hmph. We both snorted at the same time.

“Just eat already.”

At this rate, the rice would get cold.

At my urging, Dazar seemed to come to his senses and quickly picked up the spoon.

“Eat it like that for now. Next time, try mixing it together.”

Dazar nodded solemnly.

The spoon slowly moved toward his mouth.

“……!”

His face lit up with an unmistakable expression of Delicious!

What a proud-looking face.

Seeing him so delighted almost made me think that becoming his legendary chef wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

While I lightly wiped the tip of my nose and secretly grinned, he quickly devoured the soy sauce egg rice.

In the blink of an eye, there wasn’t a single grain of rice left in the bowl.

“Phew.”

He set down the spoon with a satisfied expression and dabbed the corners of his mouth with a napkin.

Even that small gesture carried the elegance of a great noble, which somehow made him irritating.

“That was good.”

Well, seeing how happily he ate it, I suppose I could overlook him being a little irritating.

Just as I thought that and picked up the tray to clear it away, he casually said,

“Now, come with me to the temple.”

Excuse me? The temple that punishes anyone it doesn’t like as a heretic, whether they’re demons or humans?