MagicalExplorer
Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim
—Ludie’s Perspective—
“You start out the day after tomorrow, right?”
I heard Mother’s voice through the phone.
“Yes, that’s right.”
The Tréfle Empire lay several thousands of miles away from my current location—the Hanamura House in Wakoku—yet her words came to me instantly.
“You be careful on your way home, got it?”
“I’ll be fine. Kousuke will be with me, and… Oh, right that reminds me.” I sipped the tea Claris had prepared for me. “I told you I wanted to bring some other friends who have really helped me out, right? Now there’ll be three of them. Will that be a problem?”
Claris went to brew me another cup, but I stopped her with a gesture. I wasn’t thirsty anymore.
“Oh, of course! I can’t wait to meet everyone. Lilou’s just as excited, too.”
“I can’t wait to play with Ludie and her friends.”
I heard my little sister’s voice. Clearly, she was sitting next to Mother and listening in on our conversation.
“I’m looking forward to it, too, Lilou. I can’t wait to see all of you. I just wish I could get the chance to see our sister, too.”
“She’s always busy with something. Lilou wants to see her just as much as you do, but there’s not much that can be done, I’m afraid… Which reminds me, Marino mentioned you’ve grown quite a lot, Ludie.”
Marino talked about that with Mother?
I did think I had grown a bit since first leaving for school, but…
“It’s all thanks to Ms. Hatsumi…and Kousuke. But I’m not nearly strong enough.” When I compared myself to others, I felt keenly inferior in many ways—in knowledge, in ability, and in mindset. “When I compare myself with Kousuke, I feel like I still need to grow even more.”
After I said that, I heard Mother’s laugh on the other end of the line.
“Hee-hee.”
“What is it, Mother?”
“My, my, you haven’t noticed yet?”
“Noticed what?”
“Oh no, nothing at all, just thinking how I can’t wait to see that face of yours, Ludie.”
“That laugh just now must have meant something,” I said.
“It’s nothing, truly,” Mother said before giggling to herself again.
Just as I was about to press her further about why she had laughed, I heard the sound of someone entering the room on Mother’s end, so I swallowed my words.
“Oh no… Looks like Father’s here. What? You want to talk, too?”
“Father?”
Based on what Lilou had just said, the new person in the room appeared to be my father.
“Yes, yes, your father here said he has something to talk to you ab— Hey, hold on!”
“Ludie.”
All of a sudden, the person on the other end of the call changed. My father. I could hear Lilou’s angry “geez!” in the background, so he must have ripped the phone out of Mother’s hands.
“Hello, Father.”
“How are you doing?”
“Just fine. You already know that, don’t you?”
He sent me messages almost every day, and I begrudgingly answered him every now and then, so he should have known how I was doing. While I could sympathize with how he must feel after what happened to me, I still wished he would stop being so overbearing.
“I worry because you only answer my messages once every three days.”
“Ludie, you don’t have to send this man any messages, okay?” my mother insisted, understanding my feelings on the subject. I heard my parents start to bicker on the other end.
It was strange, really. I hadn’t even left yet, but it sort of felt like I was already back home.
“Oh, be quiet. How are things going over there?”
Usually, Mother tore Father to shreds, but in a rare turn of events, he seemed to have won the argument. Though there was a chance Mother had reluctantly allowed him to have the receiver, instead.
“It’s been a lot of fun.”
“If you don’t feel like living there even the tiniest bit, you could just stay here in the empire forever—”
“What are you talking about! Like I’d let that happen!”
I heard a smacking sound from the other end. A pretty intense one, at that.
“Ludie, make sure you bring Kousuke Takioto with you. There’s something I’d like to speak candidly with him about.”
Candidly? Why “candidly”? I had a terrible feeling about this.
“Erm, Father? I’m sure you don’t need me to say this, but you’re not going to do anything rude to Kousuke, are you?”
“K-K-K-Kousuke…?”
I didn’t think I had said anything strange, but for some reason, Father’s voice was trembling.
“What’s wrong?”
“You call that b-b-boy by just his first name?”
Ah, now everything made sense.
If I recalled correctly, this same thing had happened once when Lilou was around four, when she had called a male friend of hers by just his first name. Father’s whole face had gone purple.
“Ugh, I swear…not this again!”
Mother was mad at him. I could hear what sounded like a very large spell being cast—was Father going to be okay?
It was the same old bickering as always, so I probably didn’t need to worry.
“Ludie, Mother and Father started fighting again, so I think you can hang up.”
Lilou was unphased, too, so they would clearly be all right.
“Got it. I’ll leave them with you then,” I said, hanging up.
“Haaah…”
I hung my head in my hands.
“I see they haven’t changed at all, then,” Claris said with a strained smile.
“Seems so. They usually get along so well, so I have no idea why they end up like that whenever something concerns their children.”
“That’s because they care so much about you, my lady.”
“I get that, but…it’s a bit excessive, isn’t it?”
Claris remained silent, her strained smile unchanged. She didn’t deny it.
“I knew it, he’s hopeless… Sheesh, should I be worried?”
This was my first time bringing a male friend home with me. I had nothing but bad feelings about this.
“Just don’t embarrass me, Father.”