139 – Papa is Conflicted

“B-but, even Rohan…! If he doesn’t receive a kiss, ah, doesn’t he… remain captive by a powerful allure…?”

Ichinose’s bombshell.

Even Noah, usually engrossed in filling his belly no matter what, stopped eating, startled.

Shion and Clara dropped the chopsticks they were holding onto the table, their mouths agape.

“…”

The silence in the private room was like a sheet of ice.

Startled by the chilling sensation crawling down her spine, Ichinose-child scrambled to regain the reason she’d cast aside.

Sense returned.

She realized what she’d said, fueled by jealousy.

‘Ah?’

With her impulsive action, the girl belatedly thought, ‘Oh no!’

Her consciousness flooded white with embarrassment.

Everyone was frozen solid, and even her own movements ceased.

‘W-what should I do…’

They say affection makes fools of people and obstructs rational judgment.

Ichinose Yui, while hearing those stories and experiences, had always been confident that it would never happen to her.

Yet, she had failed to control a single churning emotion, a sliver of jealousy; remorse and shame burrowed deep into her heart.

“Yui. This is a story even Mommy is hearing for the first time?”

Momo, after placing her hand back on her husband’s thigh to calm him down, his spirit having deserted him while seated,

Looked at Rohan, utterly flustered and speechless, and then shifted her gaze to her daughter.

Of course, Momo wasn’t angry.

It wasn’t merely surprise at his daughter’s actions that struck him.

“T-that is…”

Ichinose’s lips trembled.

Momo and Noah, and even Sion and Clara, clinging tightly to Rohan’s sleeve, were shooting him fiercely questioning glances – had it really happened?

Especially Clara looked on the verge of tears, and Ichinose felt a sharp pang of regret for his imprudence.

“Really, at the time, that was the only method I could think of…there was no other choice…”

“Yui. Mama isn’t angry. She just wants to hear the story, that’s all.”

Momo took Yui’s trembling hand.

Calming her, she waited for her to continue the tale.

“It all started when I was afflicted by charm. My lack of skill was the problem.”

Rohan, having regained his composure, interjected.

A single sentence to offer some breathing room, and Ichinose, his voice barely above a whisper, recounted the situation.

“R-Rohan’s injuries were severe, and we couldn’t use physical shock to break the charm…”

“If it weren’t for Yui’s quick thinking, I wouldn’t be here today. She saved my life.”

Rohan, projecting an air of confidence, added an explanation to steer the situation.

Everyone in the private room pictured the two of them returning from the dungeon.

Rohan’s attire was soaked and caked with blood, far beyond anything Ichinose had suffered.

Such a backdrop.

Was enough to grant girls, eager to escape reality, a degree of self-justification.

“S-so, it wasn’t that Oppa initiated it, but he was targeted first…?”

“A concept like CPR to save Rohan…surely such an act…deserves gratitude…”

Sion and Clara, desperately trying to salvage their crumbling mental state, asked as if clinging to a lifeline.

If Rohan’s first kiss was stolen, now they must aim for a kiss directly from Rohan himself.

Having been in a situation to just lick the screen, the current situation had never been so heartbreaking.

“…”

The conversation alone made him dizzy, and Ichinose Jun squeezed his eyes shut.

Momo tried to soothe her husband.

“Nose-chan kissed Rohan!?”

Finally snapping out of it, Noah thrust his face toward Ichinose. His tail stood straight up.

Overwhelmed by Noah’s intense approach, Ichinose reached out and pushed his friend’s face away.

“Uh, it’s just that it was unavoidable, you know…!”

“So, Noses, even if I was under a charm, you’d still give me a kiss?”

“No way! It wouldn’t even work on someone of the same gender!”

Ichinose Yui didn’t have the guts to declare outright, right in front of him, that she liked the man.

She could only try to smooth things over by saying it was necessary, unavoidable.

In the midst of all this, Ichinose thought,

‘Still, it’s a relief…’

She was immensely grateful that she hadn’t blurted out the secret she kept while Rohan was asleep.

If she had confessed to that act while out of her mind, she would have bolted from the room and hidden herself away somewhere.

Gathering her wits, Ichinose opened her eyes and looked at Rohan.

She felt bad seeing him so flustered trying to explain everything. She’d apologize properly later.

And then.

Her eyes met those of the girls flanking Rohan.

‘…’

She couldn’t tell what either of them were thinking.

But it didn’t matter.

Because Yui Ichinose had absolutely no intention of giving up on Rohan.

Seeing the shock on Sion’s and Clara’s faces made her feel guilty, but she had no intention of lying or pretending it never happened.

She’d be lying if she said the fact that she’d openly declared that she kissed Rohan didn’t give her a sense of satisfaction and superiority.

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Ichinose Jun stepped out of the side room to clear his head and calm his jumbled emotions.

He knew how intense and burdensome his gaze could be to the students.

He didn’t know how long he stood in the garden, letting the breeze wash over him.

Momo came out of the side room and approached him.

“How are the kids?”

“They’ve calmed down a bit. Yui seems to have regained her composure too.”

“I see…”

Momo smiled and came to stand beside Ichinose Jun.

She snuggled close to her husband, who wore a troubled expression, and linked her arm with his.

“Dear, isn’t it strange, somehow?”

“Hmm?”

Ichinose Jun answered curtly, then quietly regarded Momo.

The silence held the question: What is strange?

“Yui took exactly half of each of our personalities, didn’t she?”

“Certainly…”

Ichinose Jun had wished Yui inherited only Momo’s personality completely.

Momo’s gentle nature, reminiscent of flowers, would be more suited for navigating the world than his own rigid one.

However, saying such a thing would undoubtedly provoke Momo’s serious anger, so Ichinose Jun simply listened to his wife’s words and nodded.

“I was going to push her along, worried she’d end up like someone who couldn’t even hold a hand if left alone. But I guess not~”

“…”

Ichinose Jun knew that ‘someone’ referred to himself.

If Momo hadn’t launched such an aggressive offensive against him, consumed by his sword, he wouldn’t have the happiness he had now.

“Just the fact that you didn’t draw your sword in front of our daughter is wonderful. Our husband has finally become a real adult.”

“Honestly, I wanted to draw it, though.”

Momo chuckled, watching her husband’s earnest face.

“Dear, are you feeling lonely now that our daughter is drifting away?”

Ichinose Jun nodded without hesitation. It would be a lie to say otherwise.

However, the statement about wanting to draw his sword in front of his daughter was a lie.

“But I have no intention of acting recklessly based on my own desires or feelings. I don’t want to see Yui sad…and experiencing love is a necessary experience for her.”

Momo couldn’t help but laugh, listening to her husband’s words.

He spoke like that, yet he couldn’t quite manage the new emotions that had sprouted in him.

Only Momo, who had been bound to him for so long, knew.

That Ichinose Jun, standing right here, was the one person who couldn’t scold Yui for her actions.

“It’s so clear whose daughter she is, you know? It almost made me burst out laughing, thinking about the old days.”

“…”

Yui’s sudden outburst in the private room mirrored Ichinose Jun’s past self perfectly.

A precious trait, all the more so because only those closest could recognize it.

“But don’t worry. Yui has an eye for men. No matter what anyone says, she’s our daughter, isn’t she?”

Ichinose Jun and Momo recalled the conversation they had with Jooyeon at the cafe.

Even that fastidious lead actress thought well of Rohan.

Ichinose Jun and Momo, here with us, held no ill will towards Rohan either.

They’d been through the uninhabited island incident together, and weren’t they at a stage where they could size someone up just by looking into their eyes?

Even from a few words of conversation, Rohan was different from those simpletons who’d tried to get involved with their daughter until now.

“The problem is he comes from a country where polygamy is the norm, but Yui will have to settle that and decide for herself.”

“If it’s Yui’s decision, I have no intention of meddling.”

He’d grasped the basics about Rohan through information he’d heard from his daughter and the lead actress.

He didn’t know the women beside him in detail, but he knew Rohan was from Southern Solareah.

Thank goodness he hadn’t asked where he was from during the meal.

“Still, to make Yui be the one to approach him first… That part I don’t like.”

“Honey, aren’t you one to talk?”

“…”

Ichinose Jun, having unintentionally targeted his own past self, entered a mode of speechless silence.

“Well, maybe so. Perhaps our daughter likes someone who has similarities to her father.”

“Someone like me…”

For Ichinose Jun, it was a statement both joyful and difficult to laugh at.

“There seem to be many powerful rivals around him. I hope Yui can manage well.”

“Momo, you seem more amused than worried.”

“Hehe, did I get caught?”

Momo gave an affectionate smile.

And then, pulling her husband along, she suggested they return to the private room.