Sure enough, Anna froze once again with her mouth open wide when she opened the door to Watt’s home.
That’s why I wasn’t a fan of this! Watt thought. While taking in a girl who claimed to be his daughter sounded simple enough, it was incredibly difficult in practice. After all, he was divorced and living on his own. He’d never dreamed he’d find himself living with a teenage girl.
Given that he carried freight around all day for a living, Watt’s life revolved around the station and the company, so he treated his home as just a place to sleep and store things. It wasn’t just him in particular—others living similarly in the city were far from uncommon. As a result, the monstrosity that had exploded into existence was a splendidly messy room. While he’d at least tidied up his trash, his room was so messy it was easy to lose track of where he kept his bed. As Anna looked across the room, her eyebrows shot up in disbelief.
“We need to talk, father.”
“Hold on now. It’s just—you know! Gimme a minute, I can explain! See, normally I’m just fine at the station, so it’s not all that often that I go inviting guests here and—”
“I’m going to clean this place up.”
“Wha?”
“Naturally, the blame falls on me for being so rude as to suddenly impose on you. I hardly think the blame rests solely with you. That’s why I intend to make a place for myself on my own. You don’t have any objections, do you?”
“N-Not a one. Make yourself at home...”
The expression on her face made it clear that she was so strong-willed that once she’d made up her mind— In other words, she looked like the poster child for a stubborn ox. It was the first time Watt thought she might’ve taken after him, and he couldn’t help but feel just a bit delighted.
“What do you use this for?” she asked. “It doesn’t show any signs of use at all.”
“Hey, hold up! Wait—please! I can still use it, and I just might need it down the roaaa...!”
“Even assuming you could use it, whatever you have in the bottom of this closet isn’t coming out. In that case, now’s a perfectly good chance to dispose of it.”
“Everything’s disappearing! It’s all disappearing on me!”
It was only at the very start that Watt had the luxury to be thinking idly around her. Anna was a force to be reckoned with after she started to clean. Watt could only watch as his belongings steadily disappeared from his home.
“Oh? Maybe I got a little carried away...” she muttered.
It hadn’t even been a day since they’d met, but Watt had already arrived at a universal truth: There wasn’t a single father out there who could win against an angry daughter.
Desperately trying to calm down his daughter before him, Watt had forgotten all about it in the moment—forgotten what would happen if he caused such a stir on his way back from work.
And so, all those around found out right away about the young girl with a looming giant of a man at her beck and call. In a provincial city lacking in recreation, nothing was more enticing to the people than a good scandal. The rumors rippled throughout the city until both the facts and the fiction of the matter had sprouted a dazzling set of embellishments and frills.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Master! You must explain! What’s going on?”
“Well, you see...”
That was the question that had been tossed at Watt when he visited the company building the very first thing the following morning. He’d wound up spending the previous night scrambling about with cleaning and meals and such. After having yet another dispute, this time over where she’d be sleeping, it was far later than usual that Watt had finally fallen asleep...which was likely part of the reason he was clutching his head so lifelessly.
“I can’t believe it! You’ve got me, don’t you? Did you make a pass at little miss stumpy there?!”
“Excuse me?! Where do you get off hogging master all for yourself!”
“And might I ask that you refrain from butting into employees’ personal affairs, ma’am?!”
With Meddié and Turqis exchanging death glares at the front desk, Watt didn’t even know where to begin. While he could understand Turqis being there at first—he’d decided to ignore what she’d said then—what on earth was Meddié doing here? Shouldn’t you be out there cheering on the Steelriders? Watt wondered, as that and other pointless thoughts crossed his mind.
“All righty, that’s enough now,” he finally interrupted. “Listen to what I’ve got to say first, please.”
Although at this rate, he’d collapse out of sheer exhaustion before he could ever get to the point. Pressed, Watt practically squeezed himself into the conversation before pointing to Anna, who was standing behind him.
“This is Anna!” he explained. “She’s been living apart from me, but she’s actually my daughter! There’s a lot going on, so she’ll be staying here with me for a while.”
“Wugh?!”