At any rate, Liliana had ended up the destitute princess of a fallen kingdom, and after being forced to do hard labor had destroyed her body and had to pay steep medical fees. She’d also been swindled out of her house, and because she had to give Remia gifts for having twins, she was now in debt.
Remia smiled happily as she took Liliana’s lifeblood, happily giving birth to her ninth and tenth children. It was honestly kind of terrifying.
“You think we’re going to end up with a lot of grandkids?” Sumire asked Shizuku and Aiko with a knowing smile. Though they had their backs to Hajime, he could tell they were blushing, especially since they shot glances back at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.
Shu grinned at him as well, while Hajime simply pretended he hadn’t heard anything.
In an attempt to avert her eyes from how badly the game was going, Liliana turned to Sumire and asked, “Now that you mention it, how did you two meet?”
“Oh, that certainly came out of nowhere. What brought on that question, Lily-chan?”
“I was just curious. As a princess, I don’t really get to meet potential suitors the way commoners do. Even my meeting with Hajime-san was rather unorthodox.”
Sumire nodded in understanding. She could see how someone born into special circumstances would be curious about how normal people met their romantic partners. She looked off into the distance, reminiscing fondly about her meeting with Shu. She then looked over at Liliana and the others and started recounting her tale.
“I met Shu on New Year’s Day, at a shrine. It was freezing cold, and both me and Shu had snuck into the shrine in cosplay. I was in a shrine maiden’s outfit, while Shu was dressed like a priest.”
“Forget it, that doesn’t sound normal at all!” Liliana shouted. Remia, Shizuku, and Aiko all looked surprised as well. Shu’s ears perked up as he heard that and Hajime just shook his head in exasperation.
“I was really surprised when I saw Shu. That shrine had been featured in an anime I really liked, so I really wanted to play out being a shrine maiden there. That was why I snuck in while cosplaying, and while I was pretending to be a guide, I saw a priest who looked to be around the same age as me. We were in high school, by the way, so he looked way too young to be a real priest. But he was leaning against a nearby pillar, trying to look as priest-like as possible. Unfortunately, the actual head priest found him and took him to the office.”
“This is the craziest story of two people meeting that I’ve ever heard,” Liliana said, cradling her head in her hands. She looked over at Remia and the others, hoping they’d interject to save her, but they just all looked away.
Meanwhile, the mochi-pounding squad and the badminton-playing squad had stopped what they were doing so they could listen to the story as well. And at the same time, it looked like Shu wanted to run away as fast as possible.
“Anyway, after that they did a roll call for everyone in the shrine and I got exposed as well, so the two of us got on all fours and apologized profusely to the shrine staff. We figured we’d get off without being punished if we just looked as sincerely sorry as possible.”
In the end, it all came back to the almighty Nagumo family apology. It truly did run in the family. In a sense, though, it was fate that two people with such similar hobbies and a tendency to give overblown apologies would meet in such a manner.
“There was just one problem, though. Our cosplay was so perfect that we weren’t allowed to just leave.”
“Excuse me, what?” Remia shouted.
“I’m glad you asked, Remia-chan!” Sumire said, getting more and more into her storytelling persona.
“So what exactly do you mean by your cosplay being too good?”
“Well, you see, our outfits looked so realistic that they thought we’d stolen them.”
Of course they hadn’t. They were just that hardcore about their hobbies. Apparently, after a heated argument where the staff kept accusing them Shu had finally said, “This isn’t even a priest’s outfit! It may look like one, but it’s what I wear all the time! Got a problem with my fashion sense?!”
He’d gotten so pissed that he’d try to play it off that he hadn’t snuck in at all and was just a guy who wore this on the regular.
“When I heard that I started laughing...and that was when I decided I should probably marry this guy.”
“How did that make you want to marry him?!” everyone shouted at once. Yue and the others had all gathered around Sumire to hear the story now as well.
Meanwhile, Shu covered his face with his hands and started rolling around on the ground in pain. He was so embarrassed to have his daughter-in-laws hear this story.
“Anyway, he accepted my confession, then we got married later. What do you think? Pretty normal compared to how you met our son, right, Lily-chan?”
“Definitely not!” everyone shouted in unison. While Sumire and Shu’s meeting might not have been as dramatic, it was definitely just as special, if not more. At the same time, though, Yue and the others found the story oddly fitting. It only made sense for someone like Hajime to have been raised by parents like them. They all turned to look at him.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m not as crazy as mom and dad,” Hajime stated flatly. Everyone nodded with knowing smiles on their faces.
Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.
Hajime folded his arms across his chest and frowned, looking like he was unable to understand why everyone thought he wasn’t normal.
“Anyway, it looks like Yue and Kaori have finally calmed down, and the sun’s in the perfect spot, so how about we take a family picture?” Sumire asked.
“Oooh, that sounds like a good idea! I’ll go get the camera!” Shu replied, desperate to leave the scene. He ran into the house and started rummaging through the closet.
In the meantime, everyone walked out into the yard, cleaned up the mortar and pestle, stored the mochi somewhere cool to let it sit, and started lining up for the picture. The girls fiddled with their hair a bit to make it perfect before Shu finally returned with the camera.
The Nagumo family stood in front of their front gate with Hajime in the center. Yue and the others looked a bit nervous, while Sumire, who was standing on the far end, laughed.
“Now, now, no need to be so stiff! Smile! It’s our first family picture, so we’ve gotta make it a good one, guys!”
Indeed, this would be the first family picture with everyone in it since Hajime had returned from Tortus and tripled the family’s size. Hajime had suggested taking one to hang up in the living room.
Shu set up a tripod, placed the camera on it, and then smiled at everyone to show them how they should smile.
“Everyone ready?! I’m setting the timer for ten seconds! Here goes!”
Shu pressed the button and ran over to Sumire so that he, too, would be in the picture. Sumire wrapped her arm around him and hugged him close like it was the most natural thing in the world to do.
Hajime and Yue exchanged glances, and Yue’s nervousness vanished.
“Mmm, everyone smile like you normally do,” Yue said.
“Yeah, I know you guys can do it,” Hajime said.
Shea and the others relaxed as well, and as the countdown hit zero, everyone was smiling normally. There was a loud click and everyone pulled out their phones to see how the picture had come out. Shu had programmed the camera to send the picture to everyone once it had been taken.
“Fu fu, I love it. I’ll treasure it forever,” Yue said happily. It was indeed a wonderful picture worthy of being called a treasure.