Chapter 44
Then Iri peeked her head out and said.
"Yes! It's drawing the Family Portrait-nimida. Could you come draw with us-nimikka?"
She looked toward Seraphin, who was shrinking back shyly.
As time passed, the distance between Declan and Seraphin had grown increasingly awkward.
They were conscious of each other but had lived lives unable to get close.
But Declan knew.
That the time he could keep his child in his sight was running out.
In that case, there was no reason to refuse and hurt the child when the child had reached out first.
He looked around at his retainers and said.
"Today's meeting is over."
"Pardon?"
"Let's go. Iri, Seraphin."
"Yes! Going to draw-nimida!"
"......Where to? The garden would be better for drawing the portrait."
He headed to the garden, vowing once again today to maintain a certain distance from Iri.
The barren garden, without a single blade of grass and only one withered old tree, didn't appeal to him today.
It was when he found a spot less contaminated by magi and stood there, keeping his distance from Iri.
Seraphin, growing a bit sulky, cautiously muttered.
"Th-that....... Perfect! Stay like that!"
"......Like this, ongoing?"
"Yes, yep."
Was meeting his eyes making him embarrassed again?
Seraphin, standing before the easel the servants had hurriedly brought, fixed the half-drawn portrait in place and avoided his gaze.
He silently watched as Seraphin picked up the brush and wildly swung it over the easel.
"I'll draw you!"
Seraphin painted so diligently that beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
A cheerful family portrait was emerging from the tip of his brush.
How much time passed?
Seraphin, still holding the brush, fell deep into thought.
At the top, he drew a bright blue sky and sun, and in the middle, his father's face.
Now came the part where he had to draw himself and Iri.
*'Where do I fit in?'*
For some reason, placing himself and Iri next to Declan felt a bit awkward.
"Wh-what do I do?"
"Hm, Seraphin suddenly stopped! I'll go check-nimida!"
Then Iri shot her hand up and scampered over.
"What's wrong-nimikka?"
"You and me, me and, ah, with Father too, but I don't know how to draw it."
"Eh? Me too in the picture-nimikka?"
"Yeah! Gotta draw you too! You're family, right?"
Doubt flickered across Iri's face, but Seraphin was too busy glaring at the easel to notice.
"Where, just where do I draw it......!"
When the children were floundering, it was naturally up to the adult Declan to step in.
"Seraphin."
"Yes."
"Don't know where to draw the family?"
"......Yes."
It was when Seraphin, with a serious expression, looked toward Declan.
Declan's throat bobbed greatly.
And he spat out words he'd suppressed for years, as if finally releasing them.
"In the picture, we can all be as close as we want, then."
Seraphin's eyes widened a bit. To his ears, the permission to get close sounded just like......
*'Permission to get close for real too.'*
Thanks to that, the awkwardness eased just a little.
Seraphin, with slightly brighter complexion, finished the brushstrokes magnificently.
"All done!"
"Al-already-nimikka?"
Iri looked at the completed portrait.
"......Huh?"
"How is it! This body's great artwork!"
"Th-the faces are weird-nimida!?"
Spiky devil horns protruded around Declan.
Iri was tiny, almost stuck to the ground.
Only the presumed Seraphin in the center took up the vast majority of the paper enormously.
"Sh-shocking......"
After Iri shortly gave her impression and staggered back to her spot.
Declan, who had come to check the drawing, looked at Seraphin's artwork.
It was truly a mess of a picture, but he noticed something different from Iri.
"We're all holding hands."
"B-because you said we could get close......"
Because of the magi Declan harbored now, their family could never hold hands.
Even facing each other for long was difficult.
But in the portrait, they could hold hands as much as they wanted.
"Yes, well done."
At the praise of 'well done,' Seraphin's eyes widened largely.
Then, Iri, who had been watching them, hopped up.
"But you see, me! I have a question-nimida. Is the sun drawn on the portrait your body-nimikka?"
"N-not telling you!"
"Got it-nimida."
Seraphin's eyes narrowed at Iri's dejected expression.
He let out a deep sigh, almost like a sob, and said very quietly.
"Olivia Ortejo. Our mom."
Seraphin shrugged his shoulders.
"Can't have a Family Portrait without Mom, right?"
Mom had passed away, but he drew her as the 'sun' to mean she was always watching from afar.
*'Mom loved me so, so much. Like a warm sun!'*
The mom who tightly hugged little Seraphin and sang lullabies every day.
Back then, things had been good with Declan too.
The warm memory that faintly surfaced made Seraphin's eyes bloodshot in an instant.
Declan wore a troubled expression.
"......Seraphin."
"W-wah......"
He was the Academy's top martial artist; he couldn't cry over something like this.
Seraphin shed bead-like tears.
Declan brushed back his hair and muttered.
"Don't cry."
"T-tears, tears won't stop......"
"Then cry more. Until the emotions end."
"Hic, sob......"
"I don't know what to do when you cry."
Unlike Declan, Iri was calm.
Even after hearing about mom, with the same expression as before, she held out a handkerchief toward Seraphin.
"Wipe your tears-nimida!"
"Sniff, th-thanks. Anyway, I'm strong......!"
"Yes. Now doing thanks properly too? Perfect if you don't cry-nimida!"
"I'm strong, so what's flowing from my eyes isn't tears."
"Pardon? Then what is it?"
"S-snot."
Iri nodded calmly. Then she watched Seraphin's tears intently.
"Got it-nimida. You're letting out snot."
As he blew his snot into the handkerchief, Seraphin felt a sense of incongruity.
They'd drawn the portrait and talked about mom, yet Iri's expression showed not a hint of shaking.
Seraphin found that a bit strange.
"What? You, you."
"Yes?"
"......Why, why aren't you crying?"
"Why should I cry-nimikka?"
"D-don't you miss Mom?"
"Never met her-nimida though."
Only then did Seraphin realize the incongruity emanating from Iri.
Iri probably didn't even know what a mom was.
*'No thoughts even seeing the Family Portrait, can't even miss Mom.'*
That realization struck Seraphin's head like lightning.
