“This all happened because you told Eddie he needed to protect Mom and his sibling. Think of how much the child must have worried all by himself.”

And what is this hand doing while we’re talking about Eddie? Giselle added as she slapped Lucas’s “bad hand,” causing him to withdraw his hand from her with an awkward expression as he rubbed his chin.

“No, I didn’t mean to burden the child……”

“Just be careful from now on. I’ll also reflect on scolding him without listening to what he had to say first.”

Giselle was in the middle of reproaching him when she wrinkled her nose. She realized it wasn’t just Lucas who deserved criticism.

After all, she had immediately scolded the child without listening to his explanation.

⟨Mom! Mooom!⟩

The child must have been proud of defeating a scary monster and wanted to boast about it as soon as he saw her, but she had scolded him without understanding his feelings. How disappointed and wronged he must have felt.

“Ahem, so Eddie cried himself to sleep?”

Lucas cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke again. Giselle, who had been reflecting on her regret and guilt about the child, shook her head at his question.

“No. He fell asleep after I managed to calm him down. After eating three cupcakes, no less.”

⟨I want to eat cupcakes! One, no, three!⟩

The child had demanded cupcakes, showing three fingers to Giselle while pretending to still be upset even though he had calmed down. Giselle recalled this memory and laughed lightly before continuing.

“To think he had the presence of mind to set cupcakes as a condition for making up, isn’t our Eddie really clever?”

“Well…… he is my son after all.”

“Tsk. He’s my son too, you know?”

Giselle and Lucas were both boasting that the child was clever because he was their son when they simultaneously burst into laughter.

“Pfft, aren’t we really childish?”

“……Hmm.”

He couldn’t affirm or deny her words and just cleared his throat with an awkward expression. Giselle laughed again at Lucas’s reaction and then rested her head on his shoulder.

Lucas glanced at Giselle who was leaning on him and then wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

No other conversation was necessary. Just sitting side by side, sharing each other’s warmth and leaning on each other seemed to wash away the fatigue of the day.

He kept one arm around Giselle’s shoulder while using his other hand to pull her hand closer and fiddle with it.

Tiny pink nails.

And calluses beside them.

“……The calluses haven’t disappeared.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No.”

Lucas was touching Giselle’s hand when he shook his head and answered, then kissed her fingers.

“It’s evidence of how hard you’ve worked to get here, why would I dislike it?”

If anything, he felt reverence.

He pressed his lips to her slender fingers once more. Giselle seemed ticklish and slightly curled her fingertips before trying to withdraw her hand.

But as if he had anticipated Giselle’s action, Lucas firmly held her wrist and pulled her waist into an embrace.

The kisses that started at her fingertips gradually moved downward.

Past her wrist where he could clearly feel her pulse throbbing, to the concave area inside her elbow, and then…….

“Mmph, that tickles.”

She was somehow already lying on the bed and tried to push him away as he climbed on top of her. However, Lucas was not about to be pushed away so easily by Giselle’s hands.

Instead, he leaned down toward Giselle and began to explore her deeply.

Pink hair became disheveled on the bed sheets. Soon after, Lucas’s robe and Giselle’s thin nightgown silently fell to the floor beside the bed.

“W-wait a moment! I still need to be careful.”

She recalled the doctor’s advice about being cautious during early pregnancy and hurriedly tried to sit up. But Lucas pushed Giselle’s body back down onto the bed and replied with a smirk.

“I know. I won’t go all the way, so don’t worry. The doctor said that an appropriate level of marital relations is fine. I’ve already confirmed it.”

“Wh-what? When did you……”

Good heavens. When had he asked the doctor such a thing? Giselle lightly hit his chest, wondering how she would face the doctor now. But Lucas paid no attention and continued to caress her body.

It was still early for night to fall, but their night began earlier than others’.

* * *

“Meow.”

“……Mmm.”

Eddie frowned at the sound of a cat’s meow near his ear and waved his short arm. But that didn’t reach Coco, the cat that was near the child.

“Meow.”

Instead, Coco gently tapped the child’s arm with his front paw as if teasing him. He kept his claws retracted, careful not to cause any injury.

“Mmm…… I’m sleepy, big brother.”

Eddie whined and turned over in bed. But Coco seemed tireless and continued to nudge the child.

Get up now! Let’s play together!

It was almost as if he could hear Coco shouting. Eddie raised only his bottom and kept his face buried in the pillow for a while before slowly turning his head.

He could see Nana sitting on the windowsill looking outside. Nana’s ears were flattened in concentration, as if a bird had flown by outside the window.

“……Yawn.”

Half wanting to sleep more, half wanting to get up and see what Nana was doing.

The child hesitated between these equally strong feelings before finally emerging from under the blanket.

Of course, the child didn’t come out on his own; Coco had pulled down his blanket, leaving him no choice but to get up.

“Big sister…… hup!”

Eddie got down from the bed and was about to call Nana as he approached the window, but covered his mouth with both hands. Then he carefully moved step by step with Coco.

Nana was busily moving her head as if following something.

Eddie tried to stand next to her to see, but because he was short, only his forehead was barely visible above the windowsill.

In that position, even if he stood on his tiptoes and tilted his head back as far as possible, he couldn’t properly see anything.

“Sigh…… Ah!”

Eddie, who had been momentarily dejected, seemed to think of a solution and quickly turned around. He brought over a large wooden block from his toys.

It often served as a footstool when the child wanted to look out the window.

“Got it!”

Eddie stepped onto the wooden block and leaned his arms on the windowsill to look outside. Coco also lightly jumped up onto the windowsill and found a suitable spot to sit.

A cat. A child. And another cat.

The sight of the three of them looking out the window side by side was so adorable that anyone who saw it would smile warmly.

Perhaps that’s why.

The sunlight pouring through the window felt especially warm.

“But what were you looking at, big sister Nana?”

Eddie tilted his head in confusion as he could see nothing but the blue sky, garden trees, and flowers. He had thought a bird might have come, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Big sister?”

The child called Nana repeatedly, but she didn’t answer as she busily moved her head. She even looked somewhat serious.

“……Gasp. Could it be!”

Eddie, who had been quietly watching the cat, opened his eyes wide and covered his mouth with both hands. After hesitating for a moment, he whispered to Nana in a very small voice.

“Is there a monster?”

Since the day he defeated the snake monster that appeared in grandmother’s painting, Eddie had been behaving quietly for several days.

Although he had eaten three cupcakes that day, being scolded by his mother had somewhat dampened his spirits.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to completely abandon his “Protect Mom and Sibling” mission.

“Huh? Big sister, is there a monster out there?”

When Eddie pointed to the window and asked again, Nana swung her front paw in response. And caught in Nana’s paw was a plump spider.

Not outside the window, but one that had been descending on a web inside the window.

“Wow! It’s a monster! A spider monster!”

Big sister Nana caught it! Eddie raised both arms in excitement with his eyes wide open.

It was at that moment.

The door opened with a knock.

The child’s face brightened even more as he turned around with his arms still raised.

“Mom!”

The person who opened the door and entered was none other than Giselle. Eddie jumped off the footstool and ran straight to her, throwing himself into her arms.

Giselle staggered slightly from the child’s enthusiastic welcome, but the head maid behind her supported her, helping her regain her balance, and she smiled.

She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the child growing day by day.

“Good morning, Eddie. You’re up early? I thought you’d still be in dreamland.”

“I’m not a baby so…… Oh, right! Mom, guess what. Big sister Nana caught a monster!”

Monster.

At those words, not only Giselle but also the head maid momentarily flinched. They had enjoyed a few peaceful days, but anyone who knew that all the mischief Eddie had caused before stemmed from his determination to “catch monsters” would have shown the same reaction.

Giselle quickly surveyed the room. However, contrary to her concerns, the child’s room was in relatively good condition.