I steadied myself—I needed to send this baby home, no matter what. “You don’t belong here. All you’d do is get in the way,” I said, adding a firm hostility to my voice...just enough to make the message clear.
“Bii...”
Even though it had only just been born, the baby instantly picked up on my tone and shrank back, taking a few steps away from me.
“I lost my parents, and so did Rocket and Shiromaru. Solomon doesn’t even know who his are.”
I doubted a newborn could understand all that, but this was the only way I knew how to talk about it.
“But you have a mom, and she’s waiting for you to come back. I can’t keep a kid like that here. So go back with Namitaro!”
“Bii, bii, bii!”
It probably didn’t understand what I was saying, but I could tell my intent and tone had gotten through.
The baby looked down dejectedly.
“Biiiiiiiiiiii!”
And then, it rubbed its head against my leg.
I had failed.
I’d figured if it came to this, I’d just have to seal the bag tight and force Namitaro to haul it back. But then...
“Biii!” The baby turned and started waddling towards the exit on its own.
“So you’re going?” I asked.
It gave me a short little squawk in reply.
I felt bad for the way I’d treated it, but at least the big issue was resolved. Or so I thought...
“Tenma! You did it, huh?”
Namitaro suddenly stuck his head into the bag like he knew we were finished here.
“Biiiiiiiiii!”
“Bon! No, don’t bite! No, no, no! Not the nose! Argghhh!”
The baby immediately chomped down on his face and started thrashing about. I wondered why Namitaro had known the exact moment things had been settled, but I decided to let it slide. They seemed to be bonding in their own weird way.
So I stepped outside, and everyone was looking at me with a strange gentleness in their eyes. I had a really bad feeling about that. I didn’t want to know what they’d heard.
Maybe I can just sneak off...
“Tenma, even if Ricardo and Celia are gone, I’ll always be here for you,” Gramps said.
“That’s right, Tenma. If you’re ever lonely, you can call on us anytime,” Kriss said.
Both of them had tears in their eyes, and their voices broke with emotion as they spoke.
“You...heard that?”
I asked the four standing behind those two, barely managing to get the words out.
They all nodded.
“Tenma, we may not be like your real mom and dad, but I’ll do my best to be a part of your family!” Amur said.
“Yeah! I may be a slave, but I’ll do my best to be your family!”
“That’s the spirit, Jeanne!” Aura agreed.
“Lady Amur! Let’s work hard to practice cooking and sewing too!” Leni said.
Honestly, my brain just shut down. I had no idea what to say. I tried to keep calm and just breathe, but the embarrassment I was feeling was too much.
“Aaaaaghhhhhh!!!” I screamed and then bolted from the dining hall. I sprinted to my room, slammed the door, locked it, shoved my dresser in front of it, then dove under the covers of my bed and wrapped myself up like a burrito.
I wasn’t even tired, but I stayed there, ignoring knocks and the voices of Gramps and the others who were trying to coax me out. That just made me even more mortified.
At some point, Gramps and Amur gave up on the door and tried sneaking in through the window, only to get chased off screaming by the anti-intruder golems I’d posted there.
“It’s morning already...? Yeah, this is getting bad.”
I’d been holed up not just overnight, but for more than half a day on top of that. It was probably time for me to give up and face the music.
“Okay, just take a deep breath. Let’s do this.”
I threw off the blankets, moved the barricade, and stepped into the hallway...only to find Gramps and the others grilling fish and meat right outside my door.
“Tenma’s out! Get him!”
Namitaro pointed at me with a skewer like it was some kind of weapon. Gramps and the others were too busy grilling and fanning the smoke to actually make a move on me, so I had more than enough time to shut the door again.
“What the hell are they doing?”
My embarrassment had disappeared in an instant. If this was some kind of distraction tactic, I had to admit that it worked perfectly. But instead of being impressed, I just kinda felt drained.
Why should I even engage with this?
As I sat there with my head in my hands, thinking about Gramps and the others’ nonsense, I heard someone yelling at them from outside.
“Tenma, open up, would you?”
I also heard Queen Maria’s voice calling for me.
“You look better than I expected. I heard you were holed up in your room, so I was worried.”
I opened the door to find Queen Maria standing there, looking visibly relieved. Behind her were Gramps, the king, Lord Ernest, and Prince Lyle, all sitting formally on their knees. A little further back stood Prince Zane, looking at the four of them in exasperation. And Namitaro was dangling upside down out the window, courtesy of Rocket and the others.
Queen Maria glared at the king. “Last night, Kriss came running to me in a panic, saying, ‘Tenma won’t come out of his room!’ so I figured I’d let him handle it since he said he’d talk to you, but that clearly didn’t work out,” she said.
Apparently, when I hadn’t come out the night before, Kriss had gotten worried I’d been having some kind of emotional breakdown and had gone to report it to Queen Maria. Since it had already been late and there’d been a chance that I just needed space, they had decided to wait until the morning.