5
“Ah! Gorgeous Tiger!”
“Whoa…be careful!”
When he saw Garfiel had come to visit, the boy’s face lit up and clung happily to Garfiel. Quickly catching him, he breathed a sigh of relief and concern.
“Watch those feet when you run. Don’t be the idiot who trips over his feet and hurts himself.”
“Oh, does it hurt to fall down? When Mimi was small, she was always splatting on the ground! Whenever it happened, Hetaro would wince. But it didn’t hurt Mimi that much. It’s a mystery!”
“That ain’t a mystery, it’s just your brother coddlin’ you too much.”
And as a result, he had a big sister who still didn’t pay enough attention to her footing even after growing up.
But setting aside Mimi’s story…
“Have things calmed down a bit here?”
“Mm-hmm. It’s okay. Mom and Big Sis are okay, too.”
Setting the boy—probably his younger brother—down on the ground, Garfiel looked up at the home in front of him.
Galek Thompson, the boy’s father and the head of the Thompson household, had not returned home. It would have been better if it was just that he was so busy with his work that he didn’t have time to come home.
But unfortunately, the reality was something else entirely. Galek had been transformed into a black dragon. Garfiel had confirmed that fact himself. Unlike the people who had been transformed into flies, it had been possible to communicate with Galek, so there was no mistaking it.
But Garfiel was reluctant to accept it on face value as something fortunate.
“Hey, Gorgeous Tiger, Dad will come back home, won’t he?”
“ ”
Garfiel couldn’t do anything but pat his uneasy brother’s head.
He could have tried to comfort him with empty words. But he couldn’t bring himself to put any emotion behind something like that. Children were ignorant, not stupid. He would be able to see through Garfiel’s clumsy lie soon enough.
So Garfiel didn’t want to hurt him, hurt his own younger brother, with false hope.
“Fred? Don’t keep guests standing around outside… Ah.”
“…Hey…”
As they were talking, a girl poked her head out from inside the house—probably his younger sister.
Seeing Garfiel, her expression brightened, and then it shifted to an awkward, almost embarrassed look. The expressiveness of her face was adorable, but the complicated emotions on her face were painful for Garfiel to see.
“D-did you go out of your way to come here again? You must have a lot of free time on your hands.”
“Yeah, I got the urge to see you guys, but if you’re not in a visitin’ mood, then I can leave… Ow!”
“Garf, look people in the eye when you speak to them!”
Garfiel’s lips twisted when Mimi pinched his waist from behind. But he quickly realized what she meant. Because of how pained the girl, his sister, looked.
“Supporting your mom, takin’ care of your little brother… It must be rough bein’ the big sister.”
“—! Y-yes. So, um, if you want, I can talk with you a little bit. Adding one more person won’t change much at this point.”
“Not one, two.”
“Adding two more people won’t change much at this point, either!”
The girl’s face reddened as she shouted, and Mimi and the little boy’s eyes were filled with anticipation as they looked at Garfiel. Garfiel couldn’t bring himself to be cold enough to betray that youthful hope.
“Then I guess I’ll come in. If it’s a trouble for Mom…for your mom, then I’ll leave right away.”
“That…”
“That would never happen, knowing our mom.”
The brother and sister looked at each other and flashed smiles brimming with confidence.
And they were right.
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