I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother – Chapter 57

Author: isuzuuy

“You and me? Don’t be ridiculous. Who said we’re family?”

“Oh my. For once, you’re saying exactly what I wanted to say. That’s my line, you know?”

I gave Dazar, who had an incredulous look on his face, a refreshing smile. How could you and I possibly be family? That was simply impossible—

“F…… Family, not……?”

Just then, Vanilla muttered in a trembling voice. Perhaps she had been deeply shocked after hearing Dazar and me, because her face had crumpled.

Oh no. This is bad.

Vanilla’s lips trembled as she tearfully opened her mouth.

“Uu……. Cilia and Dazar are family!”

“V-Vanilla.”

She clenched her lips and cried out as tears rolled down from her big eyes.

“We’re living togetha! We’re family! Say it’s true! Sniff.”

She seemed to be desperately holding back the tears that were about to burst out. Seeing her reddened eyes made my heart ache.

To hell with Dazar and everything else. I was just about to let my heart soften when Dazar beside me tried to ruin everything.

“Vanilla. Listen carefully. The reason we live together is because of work……. Mmph.”

Oh, come on! Does this man have no sense of timing?!

How could he say something like that right now?

I hurriedly reached out and covered his mouth. My iron arm was strong enough to shut Dazar up, too!

“W…… Work?”

Vanilla’s eyes, which were shedding tears one after another, blinked once. She didn’t seem to understand what Dazar meant yet.

I smiled awkwardly, lowered my head, and met Vanilla’s eyes. Thanks to that, Dazar, whose mouth was in my grasp, had to lower his head along with me.

His eyes turned fierce, but I paid him no attention and opened my mouth.

“That’s right, Vanilla. We’re one family.”

“Mmph-mmph?”

I could feel someone in my grasp squirming as if having a fit, but I completely ignored him.

Because Vanilla’s face had brightened like sunshine.

“Reeeally? We’re one family?”

“Of course. We’re one family. Vanilla and Sion, me, and this…… Dazar here, too.”

“Right? It’s true? We’re family!”

As Vanilla said that with her face sparkling brightly, I somehow felt all warm and fuzzy inside, too.

Even though I had lied.

Well, if it meant Vanilla could smile, becoming family with Dazar for a little while wasn’t so bad.

‘People do count in-laws as family, after all.’

Ahem, ahem.

I nodded to myself as I rationalized it in my own way.

But somehow, Dazar in my grasp had gone quiet.

I glanced at him and saw him silently gazing at Vanilla, who was smiling brightly.

A warm light lingered in his golden eyes.

Just as I was thinking, So this man can make eyes like that, too, the heart of the problem I had forgotten beneath Vanilla’s crying suddenly came rushing back.

“So dat means we all go togeder! To da Hall of Rest!”

“……Ah.”

Just like that, the newly formed family had decided to attend the ‘Hall of Rest’ all together.

***

“Oh, she’s right. Axion has gotten a little bigger……?”

“That’s right, isn’t it?”

I looked at Axion, who was lying in his cradle and smiling brightly.

Axion had taken off the loose spacesuit he usually wore and was dressed in a neat suit appropriate for the ‘Hall of Rest.’

The suit was off-the-rack. Normally, he should have been dressed in a tailored suit, but since we had decided to attend the ‘Hall of Rest’ at the last minute, there simply hadn’t been enough time.

When I got this suit for Axion, I had definitely thought it would be a little big for him.

“It fits him perfectly, doesn’t it? There’s no doubt that Young Master Axion has grown in the meantime.”

Carl, who had been hurriedly packing my luggage for me since yesterday morning and had been working diligently all the way until today, spoke in a delighted voice.

“Indeed. He really has grown.”

I should have been just as happy as Carl.

But after remembering how much worse the recent food shortage had become, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.

So…….

‘Could it be that even the Imperial Family’s Miar has fallen ill, and that’s why Axion has grown?’

Just like Ruben, who was said to grow by feeding on misfortune.

Once that thought crossed my mind, I couldn’t simply be happy.

The possibility that Axion really was Ruben…… seemed a little more likely now.

And so did the possibility that Vanilla and Dazar could become his enemies.

“Lady Cilia? Is something wrong?”

“Hm? Ah. No, it’s nothing. I’m glad I bought the clothes a little big. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have fit him, would they?”

“Indeed.”

Axion simply giggled with the most innocent expression in the world.

I gently poked his adorable little nose as I spoke.

“Everyone is going to think our Axion is absolutely adorable.”

“Heee.”

It was probably just a coincidence.

I shook my head from side to side.

The thought that Axion might be Ruben and the thought that there was no way he could be Ruben went back and forth in my mind several times a day.

I let out a deep sigh and tried to erase those thoughts from my head.

Just then, Carl wiped the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief.

He looked as though he still couldn’t believe reality.

“My goodness. To think Lady Cilia would attend the ‘Hall of Rest’ for Young Master Axion’s sake. This old man could die without a single regret now.”

Sob, sob.

He sniffled repeatedly, dabbing at the corners of his eyes.

All I had said was that I would take Axion to the ‘Hall of Rest’ with me.

But Carl had somehow misunderstood and thought I was attending for Axion’s sake.

Perhaps it was because he was the only person who knew that Axion was not actually my biological child.

“Ever since Young Master Axion came, Lady Cilia has changed so much. This must all be thanks to Young Master Axion’s blessing.”

Carl said this with a deeply moved expression.

Considering that I had previously cut myself off from the outside world and shut myself away to do nothing but farm, I could understand his reaction.

‘Isn’t this getting a little old by now?’

He reacted like this every time I did anything, so I was starting to become rather indifferent to it.

I casually nodded and picked up the small bag beside him.

It was almost time to leave.

“Yes, yes. That’s right. It’s all thanks to Axion. So, of course, I can’t leave Axion behind when I’m attending a place like that.”

“Exactly! For young masters, an opportunity like this…… Ah.”

Carl’s eyes suddenly widened.

His face was filled with surprise, as though he had only just realized something.

“But it’s still a secret that Young Master Axion has been adopted, isn’t it?”

Since I already had a bad reputation, if people found out that I had adopted a child, it could lead to all sorts of strange rumors.

So we had kept it a secret.

I hummed thoughtfully, rubbed my chin, and shrugged.

“Well, Axion can’t even talk yet. It’s not like he can announce who he is, right? And I heard there’s also a space where only babies gather.”

“Yes, that’s right. Ahem. Lady Cilia used to be there when she was young, too, while the former head of the family was taking care of business. I was by Lady Cilia’s side back then as well.”

This time, too, Carl would stay by Axion’s side.

“The people who served as butlers alongside me back then should all be spending their old age by now. No one who could recognize me will be there, so please don’t worry.”

It was thanks to Carl insisting that he would go no matter how much I tried to stop him.

There was no way I could leave him behind after he said that. I had no one else I could trust with Axion, either.

I nodded lightly.

Without the slightest idea of what was going to happen at the ‘Hall of Rest.’

***

Elston looked down at the note lying in front of him.

The sentence, written in crooked handwriting, read:

[Our family is going. Hall of Rest. Cilia and Dazar and Sion! Elston isn’t family, so stay here.]

He put down the teaching materials he had prepared for Vanilla today.

He had taken a break from teaching Vanilla for a while as he worked on his research to accelerate the growth of rice, and this was the first time he had returned in a while.

Elston grabbed his forehead.

“Hmm. They should have told me beforehand. Did they think I was going to keep taking a break?”

With a deep sigh, he shook his head, picked up the teaching materials he had set down, and snapped his fingers.

He blinked once, and suddenly found himself standing in the middle of his room, where the walls and floor were completely white.

“So the Evanroar young lady and Axion went to the ‘Hall of Rest’ together. Then I’ll have to make a few changes to the plan.”

The expression of a diligent teacher disappeared from his face, replaced by a mysterious, calculating look.

He sat down at his desk and picked up a pen.

“You said I could start working soon, so the ‘Hall of Rest’ would make a suitable starting point.”

He placed the completed letter into the same white, holy-looking envelope he had seen before and sent it off with a pigeon.

“First, tie up the legs of the knight who’s supposed to protect her.”

Then he took out another sheet of paper and quickly began writing.

“I’ll report to …… and ask for the believers’ help.”