Side Story 2. I’ll Protect You!

“Meow.”

“Shh! Brother Coco, you have to be quiet.”

The pink-haired child was intently peering through the open door when he quickly turned his head at the sound of the cat that had followed him and put his index finger to his lips.

As if laughing at the warning given by such short, chubby fingers, the cat meowed once more—meow—and promptly slipped through the open door past the child.

“Huh? Brother! Brother Coco!”

The child was startled and followed the cat inside.

“Brother……”

The storage room was dimly lit, with only a small window for ventilation. The child became frightened and unconsciously stepped backward, biting his lip tightly.

“No! I have to protect Mom and the baby!”

But the child shook his head vigorously and clenched his small fist.

“I promised Dad that I would protect Mom and the baby until a hundred nights of sleep!”

Despite his brave words, the child’s large navy blue eyes were already brimming with tears.

For a child barely four years old, a dark space was frightening in itself.

Nevertheless, the child steeled himself with his lips tightly closed.

“I am a brave knight. I’m not scared at all. I’ll defeat all the monsters.”

The child’s pursed lips were determined.

The child, Edwin Taylor, slowly entered the storage room, putting strength into his clenched fist once more.

……What happened afterward—ruining all the fresh carrots in the storage room by claiming to eliminate the carrot monsters—was a different story.

With a bit of self-interest from Eddie, a child who hated eating carrots.

* * *

It all started one night when Lucas was holding his son in his arms and reading him a fairy tale.

“Come at me, ……ahem, monster! Righteous……”

Lucas was rubbing his palm around his mouth and jaw, earnestly trying to read the fairy tale. But having never read fairy tales even as a child, trying to read one as a grown adult made the corners of his mouth twitch and spasm.

“Dad! Hurry, hurry and read!”

But his young son Eddie, who couldn’t understand his father’s struggle, urged him by wiggling his bottom while sitting on his lap.

The brave knight who had entered the tower to rescue the princess trapped at the top had finally reached the situation where only the final monster boss remained.

So it was natural for Eddie to be eager to hear the rest of the story.

“Daaad! Hurry!”

“Ah, yes. Sigh…… Receive my righteous sword! The knight shouted in a brave voice and swung his sword at the monster. The monster…… ahem, kraaarara, let out a monstrous……”

Lucas’s hand holding the fairy tale book tensed. At the same time, a strange sound—”Pffft!”—came from the table.

It was Giselle, who had been quietly watching the scene and made a strange noise while trying to hold back her laughter.

“Ah…… don’t mind me and continue reading.”

She waved her hand while coughing, as if she had choked. Her face had turned bright red from trying to suppress her laughter.

Just as Lucas’s face was about to turn red as well, the child tapped his arm.

“Dad, so did the knight defeat the monster?”

At the child’s question, Lucas looked away from Giselle and lowered his gaze. Eddie, nestled in his arms, was staring up at him intently, as if wanting to know the end of the story.

Lucas erased his embarrassed expression and once again proceeded toward the conclusion of the fairy tale with a serious face.

“……The monster fell down with a monstrous cry. Dust rose with a thud. The brave knight had defeated the monster. The princess exclaimed with joy……”

But he encountered another obstacle. The thought of having to say aloud what the princess exclaimed in joy made the embarrassment he had barely suppressed rear its head again.

“Knight……”

“Knight, oh! My hero! You’ve come to rescue me!”

Just as he was about to reluctantly open his mouth, Giselle exclaimed in a delicate voice, speaking for him.

Unlike him, who was about to continue the dialogue in a monotone voice, she was like an actor on a theater stage.

Lucas furrowed his brow at Giselle’s performance, then held back a laugh. But unlike him, Eddie seemed impressed by his mother’s performance, opening his small mouth with wide, round eyes.

Responding to her son’s expectations, Giselle clasped her hands at her chest and approached the child.

“Wow……”

In Eddie’s eyes, his mother was truly a princess from a fairy tale. She was always pretty, but now she looked even prettier!

“Brave knight, thank you so much for saving me.”

Giselle smiled gently at her son who was looking at her with round eyes, then kissed his rosy cheek. Eddie opened his eyes even wider and touched his cheek with his hand.

“Brave…… knight?”

The child’s eyes turned to the fairy tale book Lucas had been reading. His gaze fixed on the brave knight in silver armor defeating monsters.

“Dad, am I…… am I a knight?”

Eddie stared intently at the knight in the storybook, then urgently raised his head to look at Lucas. He looked at the child, smiled quietly, and nodded.

“Of course, you’re a brave knight.”

“But the knight rescued a princess, and I……”

Eddie shook his head despite his father’s words. Lucas smiled slightly, then pointed to Giselle and continued.

“Your princess is Mom, Eddie.”

“……Huh?”

“Isn’t that right? You always tell Mom she’s as pretty as a princess.”

Giselle jumped in with an embarrassed expression, speaking playfully. The child looked back and forth between his father and mother, then shook his head vigorously.

“Mom is a princess! The prettiest in the world!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Eddie nodded vigorously in response to Giselle’s question. The child’s face was more flushed than ever.

A knight.

The child seemed delighted by the fact that he, too, was a knight like the brave one in the fairy tale. Lucas looked at Eddie, laughed softly, then picked him up.

“Now, our brave knight, it’s time for bed.”

“Noooo……”

Eddie puffed up his cheeks and whined at Lucas’s words. But despite his son’s protests, he had no intention of changing his mind.

⟨This is a bedroom for you and me, just the two of us. I have no intention of sharing your side of the bed, even for our beloved son.⟩

When she had suggested that it would be fine to sleep together since he was only four years old, his answer had been firm.

Of course, his behavior wasn’t unusual. In upper-class families, or even decent middle-class ones, parents and children didn’t share bedrooms.

Even when they were newborns, they would be left in the care of a nanny rather than sleeping with their parents. In that respect, Giselle, who had practically kept Eddie in her arms until quite recently, was the unusual one.

“But Eddie is still so young……”

Giselle puffed up her cheeks with an expression similar to Eddie’s. Seeing this, Lucas let out a small sigh, then approached her with the child in his arms and whispered in her ear.

“Give your husband a break too. I’m about to burst from not being able to do it yesterday.”

“What? Burst? What would……”

She was processing Lucas’s whispered words when she suddenly understood their meaning and opened her eyes wide. Then she slowly turned her gaze to the child in his arms.

Her innocent son who was looking at her brightly, not knowing what indecent thing his father had just said.

“Are you crazy? There’s nothing you won’t say in front of a child!”

Giselle pushed him away with a bright red face. Lucas burst out laughing and allowed himself to be pushed out of the room.

He had undoubtedly said those words with the intention of teasing her.

……Though that didn’t mean they were completely untrue.

She recalled how Lucas had been displaced from the bed yesterday when she fell asleep playing with Eddie, and ended up sleeping alone on the sofa, looking pitiful.

She had been feeling sorry for him, thinking he must have been uncomfortable.

“Sigh…… He’s really incorrigible.”

Giselle fanned herself busily with her hand to cool her flushed face, then returned to the table.

On the table were the desserts she had been eating until just now. The chef had prepared a variety of snacks for her, as she had been craving late-night snacks these days.

“Mmm……”

To feel hungry again in the midst of her embarrassment. Giselle looked around even though no one was watching her, feeling awkward, and sat down quietly.

And just as she was about to put a canapé in her mouth, she suddenly felt nauseous.

“Ugh!”

She felt as if there was a strong fishy smell. She put down the canapé she was holding and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

“……It was fine just a moment ago.”

It was made with cucumber and flying fish roe to suit Giselle’s taste, and she had been enjoying it until just now, so she couldn’t understand why it suddenly felt so revolting.

“Ugh, urk!”

That wasn’t all.

It wasn’t just the canapé; everything else was the same. She tried a bite of sweet jam, thinking it might settle her stomach, but the result was no different.

“Urk!”

Just as Giselle stood up feeling like she might throw up, Lucas, who had returned after taking the child to his room, opened the door and exclaimed in surprise when he saw her.