I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother – Chapter 4

Author: isuzuuy

Axion, who had been busy scooting around on his stomach, started crawling around on all fours.

From then on, his range of movement gradually grew, and now that he had started walking, he toddled around here and there.

Step, step.

Step-step-step.

“Axion, you’re here?”

“Ue!”

Axion, who had been toddling around everywhere with Carl following behind him with a grandfatherly smile on his face, eventually took over the sitting room where I was.

“Axion.”

“Uwa!”

He could now understand when I called his name, and whenever I called him, he would meet my eyes and smile brightly.

A wide grin.

When he did, his round eyes curved into crescent moons, his tiny lips parted, and the tip of his tongue peeked out slightly.

He looked so adorable that I almost wanted to bite his plump cheeks, which were flushed red like peaches.

‘Phew. I never thought I’d end up finding Axion this adorable.’

Even though this child might kill me in the future……. Axion right now was nothing more than an innocent baby.

At first, I had paid close attention to raising Axion so that I wouldn’t accumulate points toward the gruesome death route.

But.

After actually spending time with him and getting so close, I was only human, after all, so there was no helping the affection that gradually began to blossom.

“Kyahaa-!”

Axion, who was adorable even though I saw him every day, seemed to be a little too lethal to other people.

“Keheuk.”

Drip. Black tea spilled from the mouth of the mage Elston, who was sitting on the sofa across from me.

Whether he realized it or not, Elston’s eyes remained fixed on Axion as the reddish liquid soaked his pants.

“……Elston?”

“Gasp…….”

Axion, wearing a diaper that made his little bottom look even rounder, toddled over to Elston and smiled at him.

“Ui!”

“Kheup.”

Elston, who had been hit head-on by Axion’s lethal smile, covered his mouth with both hands and hurriedly leaned his upper body backward as if trying to escape.

But his escape route was practically blocked already, since he was sitting on the sofa.

“Oh my, Axion. Come here.”

“Ma-!”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

As soon as I called him, Axion came toddling over to me and clung to me. Although he was my child, he was also smart. Ha. Good grief. Was it really okay for him to be this smart already? Was the male lead truly different from the moment he was born?

“Our Axion is really cute, isn’t he?”

“…A little. Ahem!”

That didn’t seem like an answer someone whose pants were completely soaked should give.

Elston seemed to be less honest than he looked.

He had clearly said back then that he couldn’t lie, yet someone who was even hiding his own identity didn’t seem particularly incapable of lying.

“Elston. Your pants are wet.”

“What? My pants? Ah!”

Elston looked down at his pants, which had been stained red, and quickly waved his hand.

His fingers moved busily as if drawing some strange formula, and before long, his pants returned to their original state.

It was a skill befitting the master of the Magic Tower.

‘That’s why I, or rather, the Master of the Magic Tower, was so surprised…….’

‘Me too, no! We also became curious…….’

In fact, I had realized that he was the Master of the Magic Tower on the very first day I met him. He had said several times with his own mouth that he was the Master of the Magic Tower, so I would have to be an idiot not to realize it.

Besides, according to Cilia’s knowledge, casting magic originally required complicated incantations.

Even simple magic couldn’t be cast with formulas alone.

And yet, seeing him casually use magic with nothing but a quick wave of his hand…….

‘Isn’t the Master of the Magic Tower a little too careless? I’m starting to worry about the future of the Magic Tower.’

Come to think of it, he had appeared several times in the original story as well.

A character who helps the protagonist with a smile from beginning to end, but is actually plotting something behind the scenes.

A character in such an ambiguous position that you can’t tell whether they’re an enemy or an ally.

His name wasn’t even Elston, and it was definitely much, much longer.

‘Can a mastermind really act like that?’

Looking at him gazing at Axion in my arms with an expression that seemed ready to die from sheer adorableness, I couldn’t imagine him as a mastermind. Not to mention those rosy cheeks.

“Ahem. So, how does he look? Is there anything wrong with Axion’s heart?”

Elston had arrived just in time for Axion’s usual afternoon nap and checked on Axion’s condition.

It was something he had been doing regularly ever since the day I first met him. Although lately, it seemed like he had been coming over a little more frequently…

“Yes. Lord Axion is very healthy today as well.”

Elston, who had been startled back to his senses by my voice, answered while vigorously wiping away the drool that had slightly dripped from his mouth with his sleeve.

I wondered if I should give him one of the bibs our Axion used as a gift.

“The Dragon Heart is quiet as well. However, I believe what I mentioned last time is probably certain.”

“Ah… You mean the dragon’s magic has been sealed?”

“Yes.”

Just like in the original story, Axion had unconsciously sealed his own power.

“It’s fascinating. For a child who has just turned one to seal a dragon’s magic.”

Elston scribbled something frantically into a notebook that I had no idea when he had pulled out, then made a deeply troubled expression.

He sometimes did that on his own whenever he checked on Axion, so I ignored him and adjusted Axion in my arms.

Axion had fallen asleep in the meantime.

I guess he had gotten tired from toddling around the mansion all day.

I gazed lovingly at Axion as he slept with his thumb in his mouth, then gently brushed back his fluffy blond hair.

A child’s hair was as soft as cotton. His neatly grown eyebrows were soft and delicate, and the tip of his nose was squishy.

I knew that if I poked his plump cheek, it would sink right in, but since he was asleep, I shouldn’t bother him.

Thanks to gaining some lacking childcare knowledge while acting as an Axion-mom in my side character account, I had become more relaxed about raising Axion than before.

……That was actually just a bluff. I still wasn’t relaxed, but at least I was gradually getting used to it.

‘Axion-mom’s child must be so pretty, just like his mother!’

‘Right! But for some reason, Axion-mom looks kind of familiar. Haven’t I seen her somewhere before?’

When the middle-aged ladies had squealed excitedly like that, I had been startled, wondering if my identity had been discovered, but there was no need to worry about that.

‘It’s a good thing the territory’s residents don’t know exactly what I look like because I’ve hardly ever left the house.’

That was because the residents of the territory had never really seen my face.

It was thanks to the fact that I had stayed cooped up in the mansion while my older brother handled all the public affairs.

My brother was currently away from the mansion in secret, so the Evanroar was practically empty.

And there was no way I was going to act as the head of the household in his place.

“Carl, could you put Axion down for me?”

“Yes, My L:ady.”

Old man Carl, who had been watching us from a slight distance, smiled warmly as he took Axion into his arms.

Carl, who used to cry along with the child whenever Axion cried, seemed to have become a little more accustomed to life with a child as well.

Looking through my memories, it seemed that he had never married and had devoted his entire life to this place, Evanroar. To him, I was probably like a child or grandchild.

‘He practically manages the mansion all by himself since there’s no head of the household.’

As I was cutely watching the top of Axion’s head peeking over Carl’s shoulder, Elston suddenly snapped his notebook shut and spoke.

“Phew……. I suppose I should be heading back now.”

“Oh? Already?”

Normally, he was the type to linger around leisurely because he didn’t want to return to the Magic Tower.

What was going on?

“Yes. Unfortunately…… I have to go to a very frightening place today.”

“A frightening place? Where?”

At that, he fussed with the hem of his clothes before glancing around in every direction as if he were about to reveal a secret.

It wasn’t like there were many servants around anyway, so the Evanroar mansion was practically empty. What was he worried about?

“Lady Evanroar, you really don’t seem to have any interest in social activities.”

“……Are you picking a fight with me?”

I slightly rolled up my sleeve, subtly revealing an arm strengthened through farm work, and Elston hurriedly shook his head.

At the same time, he gently covered the area around his neck, as if protecting the collar I had grabbed and shaken on the first day we met.

“Ahem. That’s not what I meant. I was wondering if you hadn’t heard about the news that has been causing quite a stir in high society lately. Haha. I thought I’d tell you!”

“What news?”

“Surely you know the Siastor Duchy, even if you are a young lady of a noble family?”

How could I not know? It was the heroine’s family in the original story.

I nodded in agreement.

“Of course I know. I’m a young lady of a viscountcy, after all.”

“Ahem. As it turns out, Lord Dazar, the head of House Siastor, had a hidden child!”

“Ah-ha.”

Elston came closer to me and whispered as if he were telling me a huge secret, but when he saw my reaction, his face fell.

“What’s with that reaction? You already knew? Are you making fun of me right now?”

“No. Of course not. It’s just that…… isn’t it fairly common for nobles to have hidden children?”

As someone who knew the original story, it would have been strange for me to be surprised here.

In fact, the only daughter of House Siastor, the heroine Vanilla, wasn’t actually Duke Dazar’s biological child, just as Elston had said.

Vanilla was Duke Dazar’s niece.

The daughter of his older brother, who had passed away.

“Lady Evanroar really is something. Sometimes, you seem like the ultimate master of indifference.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“……Tsk. Anyway, I received a request from Lord Dazar, so I’ll be going to the duchy. Apparently, he’s gathering every expert he can find to determine whether the child really is his. That terrifying duke is going all out.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Yes. She seems to be around the same age as Lord Axion. It seems they’ve even started recruiting private tutors lately…….”

“……What?”

I had been half-heartedly listening to Elston until his last words made me shoot upright in shock.

Elston nearly got hit in the chin when I suddenly stood up and stumbled backward with a startled squeak.

“W-What is it?”

“What did you just say?”

“Pardon? About gathering all sorts of experts…….”

“No, not that!”

“Ah, that they’re, uh, gathering private tutors……?”

“Oh my God!”

Crash. A bolt of lightning suddenly thundered from a clear sky. It was a sound that rang out inside my head.