"Hey, Uncle, are wyverns tasty?"
"What's with the sudden — oh, right! Tenma went out hunting wyverns, didn't he!"
Technically, it was a subjugation of a "flock" of wyverns, but for Tenma and the others, it was probably like dealing with winged lizards. Tenma and Merlin might come away with scrapes, but they wouldn't suffer any serious injuries. Amur, the strongest fighter among the group after those two, should be fine too. Chris might be a little risky, but even so, she's one of the top fighters in the Royal Guard. I don't think she'd die. The problem is...
Those three.
...Right?
"So, are they tasty?"
"Hm? Oh yeah, wyverns are delicious. I've eaten them a few times before, and the meat was excellent — great for stewing, great for grilling."
As I told Luna about the taste of wyvern meat from years past, recalling it as I spoke, she unexpectedly pulled out paper and a pen from her pocket and started taking notes.
"Stewing would be... a stew, maybe? Grilling would make a good hamburger steak, and deep-frying could work too, like karaage..."
It seemed she was brainstorming wyvern dishes to push on Tenma. For all that she's my niece, she really is first-rate when it comes to her appetite. I wonder who she takes after... well, it can only be my father.
Still, Luna is being steadily fed by Tenma... Maybe I should seriously consider finding a way to marry Luna off to Tenma, or conversely, I might need to find a way to put some distance between them.
I'll deal with Luna's matter by consulting with Mother and the others soon enough. For now, the question is whether those three are safe. With Tenma and Merlin around, I don't think anything would happen to kill them, but if by some chance Tenma and Merlin were incapacitated and then attacked, those three wouldn't stand a chance. If they ended up dead or permanently incapacitated — well, the Sanga Duchy and Marquis Samons still have younger children who haven't been
removed from the family register —
so they'd be fine. But it's hard to predict what would happen to House Hausto, the Earldom... They'd probably have to adopt a relative, but that relative might not belong to the Royalist Faction, and the confusion from losing their heir could cause their power to decline significantly.
"What do you want to eat, Uncle?"
"Me? I'd go with a thick steak, salted and grilled. The better the meat, the less you should do to it."
The simpler the dish, the more you can appreciate the meat, and above all, there's nothing better than stuffing your cheeks with bloody, dripping meat and then washing it down with booze while the fat and juices still linger in your mouth.
"You've got such a simple palate, Uncle. I'm a gourmet, so plain grilled meat just doesn't satisfy me..."
"Hey, watch it!"
"Uncle hit me!!!"
It didn't seem like she was genuinely trying to mock me, but I went ahead and gave her a light knuckle rap on the head. I'd pulled my punch considerably, and Luna didn't seem to be in real pain despite the volume of her cry, so it was probably just the usual fooling around.
"Besides, it's not like it was decided that Tenma would treat us to wyvern meat, was it? He didn't even make any promises."
The wyvern subjugation had been decided pretty suddenly, so even if there was an agreement, it would've been just a brief verbal promise at best. He might have even forgotten about it entirely, what with how busy he'd been.
"Huh? Big Brother would never forget a souvenir! Even if he did forget, he'd definitely have set aside some wyvern meat for us, and if you ask him, he'll cook it right up. If me asking alone isn't enough, I'll get Amy to ask together, and if that still doesn't work, one word from Grandma and he'll do it in a heartbeat!"
Well, that's certainly true, but you shouldn't be counting on other people from the get-go. Especially bringing Mother into it — that's playing dirty. The moment you mention that, Mother's lecture will begin. And not just any lecture — the full-length, special-edition course.
That said, Tenma really must be soft on Amy and Mother if Luna's confident enough to count on him like that... soft on Luna too, I suppose. I can understand it with Amy since she's my disciple, but with Luna and Mother, I sometimes have to wonder... It's not like Tenma is into little girls or mature women or anything...
"Ah! Uncle's thinking something terrible! I have to report you to Grandma!"
"Wait a second! I wasn't thinking anything weird! I was just thinking that Tenma is soft on you and Mother, that's all!"
I grabbed the back of Luna's collar as she tried to dash off and blurted out what I'd been thinking. Well, not everything, mind you.
"Hmm, is that really true~... Oh well. Uncle, about how Big Brother is sweet on me — that's just how it should be, isn't it!"
Dangling in midair with me holding her by the back of her collar, Luna puffed out her chest proudly.
"There's no big brother in the world who wouldn't dote on such an adorable little sister! Oh! I'm excluding real, blood-related brothers, of course!"
Whether Luna is
a cute
little sister to Tenma is beside the point — treating her as one might actually be the right call. Tenma was adopted and an only child, and apparently there were no children close to his age in Kukuri Village either. Even after becoming an adventurer and venturing out into the world, he'd barely interacted with anyone younger. So Amy, Luna, and Tida were probably the few young people he was actually close to. And among them, Luna is the one who clings to him without any reservation, so he might genuinely think of her as a handful of a little sister.
That brings me to Mother, though...
"As for Grandma... isn't it because he's scared of her? She's strict about everything and always nagging."
"Ah, that makes sense."
That's yet another convincing argument. Tenma had witnessed Mother beating Father to a pulp right after they first met, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if some deep-seated fear had been planted in him!
"Well, I guess there's no helping it!"
"Right, right, there's nothing we can do!"
"That's right, it can't be helped..."
The moment we heard the voice of a third party who had suddenly barged in, time stopped for Luna and me. That expression is normally used as a metaphor, but at that moment I truly felt like my
heart
had stopped.
Slowly, the two of us turned our heads toward the voice, and sure enough, the person we expected was standing right there. Behind her, our entire family — Father foremost among them — was staring at us with looks of utter exasperation.
"I managed to get my hands on some delicious sweets, so I was looking for you all, thinking we could have a tea party for the first time in a while... But it seems what you two need isn't a tea party so much as a lecture. Don't worry — no matter how strict I am, I'll let you go before"
breakfast
"starts."
Mother said all of this with a bright smile on her face, but "before breakfast starts" meant she was planning to lecture us for nearly half a day! It was almost sunset already!
"Wait, I still have work to do..."
"It'll be fine. Your subordinates are more than capable. The military won't fall into chaos just because you take a single day off."
Damn. What was supposed to be half a day might have just stretched into a full one.
"Grandma, that's not it! I wasn't trying to say that! Uncle was having dirty thoughts about me, Grandma, and my big brother, and I was just trying to warn you that you'd be angry if you found out about it..."
"And what does that have to do with me being scary, strict, and naggy? Also, Lyle — I'm going to hear all about what Luna just said, so you'd better explain everything thoroughly... Now then, both of you, shall we go?"
After that, Mother's lecture continued until just before sunrise the following day. We were grilled relentlessly about what Luna had meant by "dirty thoughts," and by being completely honest, we managed to earn enough understanding to cut the originally planned full day of scolding short. But what we saved in duration was made up for by an extra session on our general behavior and daily habits, and just when we thought it was finally over, our elder brother piled on with a lecture of his own, telling us that Luna's words and actions were having a bad influence.
Even as I thought it was all so unfair, I couldn't help but feel a small sense of satisfaction watching Luna — who had been dozing off beside me the whole time — get scolded too.
Luna has been getting a bit carried away lately, and Maria and the others have found out about it, so she's going to receive her punishment sooner or later. Incidentally, Lyle got dragged into it as well.