“He was a great swordsman, but he had no disciples. One day, the gods sent him a disciple.”
“That’s papa!”
“That disciple was named Sansui. Suiboku taught Sansui his techniques with great dedication and raised him into a full-fledged swordsman. Then, one day, near the house where the two of them lived, an abandoned baby was left behind.”
“That’s me!”
“Suiboku told Sansui, ‘Raise this child,’ and sent him on his way.”
“Hey, Sansui. I know I’m going to show up soon, but if this is supposed to be a picture book, isn’t the introduction a bit too long?”
At that point, Blois reminded us that this was meant to be a children’s book. She was right. If Lain was going to draw the pictures, the introduction probably should have been shorter.
“Then let’s skip a bunch of stuff and start with how Blois and I met.”
“Y-Yeah!”
Lain must have also realized that drawing everything in detail would be hard work, because she agreed to shorten it.
“Long, long ago, there lived a princess named Douve. She had two special bodyguards.”
“That’s papa and Mama Blois!”
“One was a swordsman from a foreign land, and the other was a girl who could use magic.”
“Mm-hmm. That works as one picture.”
“The two of them...fell in love, got married, and had a child.”
“That’s the second picture. And then?”
“And they lived happily ever after.”
“It ended in just two pages!”
Lain looked extremely dissatisfied.
Still, if the story was limited to just Blois and me, that was about how it would go.
“Well... For me, that really is happily ever after, but...”
Blois agreed, looking slightly embarrassed. From our point of view, it really was happy enough.
“This won’t make a good picture book. Isn’t there a love rival or something?”
Our daughter insisted that her parents’ love needed an obstacle. She was already a proper storyteller.
“Well, I mean, the only one who loved me was Blois, and the only one Blois loved was me.”
“That’s true. It was a very peaceful romance.”
“Then let’s base a love rival on someone we know!”
What happened to wanting to faithfully draw Momotaro’s animals? Our daughter began imagining a love rival who didn’t even exist.
Still, with so few characters, maybe we really should add one or two. Ideally, it would be better if there weren’t real-life models, but for amateurs like us, that was a high bar. And since it was a picture book, drawing it would already be hard enough.
“Then the one who goes after papa can be Lady Douve! There are stories like that!”
“Now that you mention it, there are...”
Douve cut a distinctive character, so she would probably work well in a picture book. But there was a problem.
“Hey, Lain. With that casting, I’d be competing with Lady Douve, right? Honestly, I don’t think I could win.”
Blois spoke weakly, trying to reason with Lain. After a moment of thought, Lain herself conceded.
“Yeah. You couldn’t win.”
Lady Douve didn’t have combat ability in the sense of killing, but when it came to interpersonal relationships, she was unmatched. There was no way a character based on Blois could defeat one based on her—especially not in a picture book.
“Then let’s have another man fall in love with Mama Blois, and have papa win!”
“That sounds nice... Really nice.”
Blois looked blissfully happy. She probably didn’t actually want to be the crux of a real love triangle, but she seemed to enjoy the idea of being fought over in an imaginary situation.
“Then...should the rival be Lord Tahlan?”
“Lain, I can’t win against that.”
“You’re right. In a story, you’d have no chance.”
There was no way Tahlan would fall in love with Blois; he’d fallen for Lady Douve, after all, so someone with the exact opposite personality wouldn’t interest him. And Blois wouldn’t like Tahlan either. At the very least, when they were together, she had never once felt her heart flutter.
But if a character based on Tahlan fell for a character based on Blois, I—or a character based on me—would almost certainly be defeated. Well, maybe not as bad as all that, but readers surely wouldn’t accept it.
“Then the reason I marry Blois becomes ‘Prince Tahlan was wonderful, but she preferred Sansui, so Blois married him instead.’ That would be pretty lame as a romance story.”
“Mmm, but no one else really fits...”
If the only possible character models were the lady and Tahlan, that was a bit worrying from a father’s perspective regarding Lain’s social circle. Still, Blois and I were pretty much the same, so maybe that was normal.
“Then let’s just draw people who look like papa and Mama Blois and make that into a story!”
After wandering all over the place, we ended up back at the starting point. Whatever happened to drawing my story? Granted, that would require Lain to have some serious drawing skills... No, pointing that out would be tasteless.
“Then papa will be the strongest swordsman, and Mama Blois will be a princess.”
“I see... So I’m the princess.”
Blois still looked embarrassed. Being cast as a princess seemed to please her more than her original role. It hadn’t exactly been her choice to become a guard, after all.
“The reason they met is because Mama Blois gets driven out by an evil king, runs away, meets papa, and gets saved. Then papa defeats the evil king, and they share a happy kiss.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Lain’s imagination—no, her story—was actually quite good. Blois, the heroine, looked delighted. But then I noticed a serious problem. It might have been tactless to say it, but realizing it later would have been far more awkward, so I spoke up.
“Hey, Lain. Your story isn’t bad at all, and I think it’s perfect for a picture book.”
“Right?!”
“But with that setup...isn’t that not Blois, but you?”
“Oh... Yeah.”
“That’s true...”
A princess who was driven out by bad adults, saved by me, protected by me, and had her homeland’s villains defeated. That was completely Lain.
“It kind of turned into a story where papa and I get married.”
“Yeah. It’s Lain with Blois’s name...”
I felt guilty for extinguishing the joy of my wife and daughter. Still, it was better than realizing it during or after finishing the book. Lain and I weren’t related by blood, but we were truly parent and child, so it would have been extremely awkward.
“Making a picture book is hard...”
“It really is...”
Personal experiences were boring, but even fiction that overlapped with our lives became awkward in its own way.
As we wondered what to do...
“Let’s go ask Lyra!”
“Even Lyra might be troubled by this.”
“I hope we’re not a bother...”
We ended up deciding to rely on Blois’s younger sister, Lyra Wynne. She was extraordinarily capable despite her age, but even so, this might be difficult for her. She was intelligent, but surely a novice at creative writing.
Still, since Lain wanted to ask her, we couldn’t say no.
Lyra Wynne was yet unmarried and not yet employed, still living at home at the Wynne estate. It felt bad to interrupt her studies, but the four of us went together anyway.
“So, we tried to make a new picture book, but it just wouldn’t work.”
“Oh my, that sounds lovely. It’s much more fun than throwing something together randomly.”
“I think so too, but not being able to come up with a suitable story is really frustrating...”
“But me making something up for you feels a little off, doesn’t it?”
“That’s true too.”
“Then...why not turn what’s happening right now into a picture book?”
And just like that, Lyra’s idea became the final decision.
Several years later—
“Hey, Lain! Aren’t there any other stories?”
“Oh my, are you bored already? Then I suppose I’ll read you my special one.”
“What kind of story is it?”
“It’s a story about a big sister, a papa, and a mama who try to make a new picture book for children who want to read something new—just like you.”
“There’s a story like that?”
“They think very hard and try to make a wonderful picture book, but they can’t, so they go ask a wise witch for advice.”
“And then? And then?”
“That part’s a secret. Now then, shall we read it?”
“This picture is weird. It looks like I drew it.”
“That’s because I did draw it—when I was a child. It brings back memories... Now then, I’ll begin. The title is...”
The book was titled A New Picture Book.