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Chapter 06: A Strange Relationship

Since then, Hannah rarely took her eyes off of me, and I also lost my chance to get out of the room. One night, I noticed that the door was opened. Is it Sebas? Recently, he’s gotten better at not sneaking in at night, so he comes during noon now, I thought. But no one came in.

The door’s not closing, was it opened by the wind? If so, then this is my chance to sneak out. I quickly got out of bed and speedily slipped out of the door. There was no one in the corridor at night, but that was fine.

“You’re here.”

Woah! I was about to jump in surprise. The person who was outside my door was father.

“You looked like you were going to slip out, and I thought that you would definitely come out if the door was left open. Ah, hey, wait!”

It seemed that father had finally said something, but there was no need to listen to him brag about snaring his daughter. Because he could have entered the room if he wanted to see me.

I started crawling while ignoring father. My goal was the stairs. I’m going down the stairs today! I’m already bored with staying in my room.

“Where are you going? Why are you sneaking out of your room in the first place?”

To explore, dur. Explore. I pretended not to know what he was talking about and continued to crawl.

“Why are you ignoring me?”

I stopped crawling. Why are you ignoring me, you say?

“Da, daai.”

“Wh-what?”

If you hate being ignored then why are you ignoring me? Why do you care about me now even though you’ve been ignoring me?

“Dai, agya, to, deeu.”

“What are you saying?”

I was getting extremely irritated at father who was standing up and looking down on me. I’m a baby, you know! The adult should be the one who tries hard to understand me!

I grabbed father’s leg, and he flinched for a second, but he knew that I would be hurt if he moved; so he stood there quietly, baffled at the situation. I held onto him and stood up. Father widened his eyes in surprise.

“So you can stand?”

Of course, I can stand. Since a while ago. Fumu. It’s pretty nice to use someone else’s legs to help myself stand. I hit father’s leg while in anger.

*HIT HIT*

“Why are you hitting me? What is it you really want?”

The one who doesn’t know what they want is you, isn’t it father? But, I suddenly staggered, when I took my hands off his legs to hit him.

“Watch out!”

Father’s hands moved out immediately to hold me up.

“I honestly don’t know what you’re trying to do. Listen, babies are well-behaved-......” 1)

“Aai.”

I’m ashamed, but father is too, huh? My feet dangled uneasily in the air because he was supporting me by the armpits while hoisting me in front of his eyes.

“Eeu.”

My feet are dangling. Ah, this is amusing.

“Aau.”

My feet are swaying. It felt ridiculous, and I laughed.

“You.”

Oh, I’m in the middle of being captured by father.

“I’m sure Sebas did this.”

Father awkwardly pulled me closer to him and hugged me.

“Dau.”

Splendid. It’s an excellent way to hold someone for a beginner. I put my head on father’s chest and shook my hands happily.

“So I pass?”

“Dau.”

“Do you want to go down the stairs?”

“Aai.”

Apparently, father walked around with me in his arms until I fell asleep.

“Lately, Leila-sama doesn’t wake up much in the mornings.”

Hannah complained to Sebas. He looked at me with an all-knowing look on his face and said, “There will probably be times like that. But, she’ll probably learn to wake up properly during this time, so it’s fine.”

I wonder what he likes about it. Father started coming here every day. And for some reason, he never entered my room; instead, he opened the door and waited for me to come out. And once I got tired from crawling around, he would gently pick me up and wander around the mansion.

That was all there was to our relationship. Why doesn’t he come in the day time? It’s strange.

Then, the weekend came around, and brother came home.

“I can only be with her on the weekend, so let her sleep on my bed.”

“Your bed is high, Luke-sama, so it’s dangerous for Leila-sama to sleep there.”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“Your body won’t be able to rest that way.”

For some reason, brother’s love for me keeps increasing.

“I heard that Luke is home.”

“Otou-sama.”

“It’s nearly time for you to practice your magic circulation, but what are you doing?”

It was rare for father to show up during the day. There was tension in the room and brother hugged me tightly on his knees as if he was protecting me. It’s okay because I’ve become friends with father. Slightly. Probably. I tapped brother’s knees.

Father saw that and frowned.

“Well, fine. I’ll ask you later during dinner.”

“Ok,” brother replied and hugged me again.

I didn’t know father well, but I also didn’t understand the relationship between father and brother. They would eat together when they were home, but they didn’t look to be on good terms. And, I heard an unbelievable thing.

“Neei, dau, nyo, eeou?”

What is magic circulation? Is there magic in this world?

“It’s fine, Lei. Even if Otou-sama is cold, I’ll protect you.”

“Daai, too, Niini.”

No, he’s not cold anymore, so what’s magic circulation? My body and mouth still don’t move well even if I know what I want to do and say in my mind. There was a limit to how frustrated I can feel. At that time, Sebas winked at me. Leave it to me, you say? What are you on about?

“Lei.”

Before I knew it, he started calling me Lei, and I gave up and let brother hug me.

That night, the door opened with a creak again. I moved as quickly as I could as a baby and went out the door.

He’s here. Father. But it was his trait not to reach out to me here. I wanted to move freely in this wide corridor. The baby who crawls as quickly as she could to the stairs and the man who stares at her as she does this; that was father and I., And recently, I’ve been giving the stairs a try. I stepped down the stairs one foot at a time. When I get tired, father would carry me, and we would walk. That was our current custom.

He also carried me today too when I got tired halfway down the stairs, and a voice called out to him from below, “Otou-sama.”

It’s brother!

“Niini!”

I happily stretched out my hands, but father held onto me tightly.

“Lei, Otou-sama, what are you two doing at this time?”