The Abandoned White Magician’s Tea Life - Chapter 39 : Conversation Between Men
Translator: Sunnyshies
Editor: Ryuubii
Chapter 39 : Conversation Between Men
Amalia wanted to thank Yugo as well. But she couldn’t find Yugo since he seemed to have gone somewhere in the meantime, and Leonardo told her that he would talk to her when he came back.
Amalia rested a little more upstairs after a light meal. Leonardo gave her a hand and walked her to her bedroom like a gentleman, and after kissing her goodnight on her forehead as she lay quietly on her bed, he returned to the living room.
There, a blond-haired boy was waiting for Leonardo.
“Oh, Yugo… I’m sorry you had to go through that trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can at least sense the atmosphere.”
The boy, who was standing in the middle of the living room with his arms crossed, said plainly in a completely different tone and voice from what he usually used with his mother, and sat down on the sofa.
Leonardo chuckled and asked, “Do you want some more tea?” Yugo nodded, so he brewed cold tea and returned to the living room to sit in front of the boy.
He took a sip, but it was still too thin and astringent. Yugo added honey to sweeten it, but even with his ingenious idea, it seemed to be bitter, and he drank it with a not-so-pretty face that he would never show in front of Amalia.
“…will the guild be able to handle it?”
Yugo asked, and Leonardo, who had been actively drinking the bad tea, nodded, accepting responsibility.
“Those three men have ‘met with an unexpected accident on their way to work in the rural area’, that’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s not like the guild is going to cancel their registration right now, but adventurers and mercenaries are used to losing their lives all the time. No one will care.”
“Well, that’s fine.”
Yugo chuckled wickedly, then said, “That’s not good,” and drank his tea.
“So, Leonardo. Will you still continue to work as a mercenary in the guild?”
“…I really want to protect Amalia-san, instead of going to work all the time. But if I don’t have money, Amalia-san will be in trouble when the time comes. I’m just a sudden tenant, who moved in out of nowhere, and my food costs more than what Amalia-san normally eats… does Hugo blame me for my decision?”
“I’m not going to interfere with your and my mom’s decision. I’m the one who’s being fed here by my mom… but.”
Yugo folded his chubby, little legs arrogantly and looked at Leonardo with his moist grey eyes, which did not appear to be that of a child.
“If you’re so concerned about being a tenant in my mom’s house, why don’t you just become a mating pair?”
“Wah―wait a minute, Yugo. Perhaps you’ve misunderstood the human concept of marriage.”
“You are treating me like an ignorant child, aren’t you? I know at least a little about human marriage and procreation.”
Yugo, who was clearly in a bad mood, pouted his red lips and pointed to Leonardo’s chest.
“Don’t humans pair up and have children just as we do? It seems that humans are not born in eggs like we are, but when a man and a woman pair up, a child is born. You are a man, though a little short, and my mom is a decent woman. If you stay with my mom, you will be able to stay in this house without worrying about the world. And if a child is born, the bond between you and mom will deepen.”
“Maybe it’ s not the wrong way to go about it, but there are a lot of things I need to figure out.”
“What, is there something wrong with that?… umm, surely if I let mom have a baby, my position as an adopted child will be jeopardized…? No, but I’m sure my mom will love me just the same, and I will be called “Oniichan”, right? Well, in that case, as an elder brother, I will take care of my younger siblings.”
“…although I am convinced of many things, I am sorry, but what about the basic premise first?”
While Yugo looked unconcerned as he drew a picture of the future in his mind, Leonardo calmly intervened― or meant to.
He felt his face turning hot and his ears going red, he tried to keep his voice from trembling as much as possible and tried to maintain his pride as a mature man.
“I don’t know what kind of views demons and dragons have on marriage, but I think that in order for things to play out the way you’re thinking, there has to be an assumption that the man and woman are in love with each other.”
“What’s wrong with that? You and my mom are deeply in love, aren’t you?”
“Eh.”
He was going to rebuke the dragon that looked five years old, but was in fact hundreds of years old on the inside, but Leonardo received an unexpected blow that left him at a loss for words.
Yugo recrossed his legs and pointed his index finger at the ceiling― the bedroom where Amalia was.
“At the very least, I know you love my mom. If you didn’t, were simply an old friend, you wouldn’t be so caring and concerned about her.”
“…”
“And if you don’t like her, then why did you act the way you did? I was standing behind her, watching you, but the way you looked at her was so pathetic, and I could tell just by looking at you that you were madly in love with her. I had to leave the room because my back was itching so much.”
“…”
Leonardo, age twenty-three.
He thought that he had become a bit more skillful in speech than when he was a child, but he was completely defeated by the golden dragon.
But to make excuses here would only add to the awkwardness.
Leonardo sighed and drooped his head.
“…why are you being so hard on me?”
“What can I say? I don’t really care about people other than my mom, but you and the people of Polk are still in the better category. Besides, perhaps because I’m the same gender as you, I understand your feelings better.”
“…maybe the fact that you had been threatening the young men who had approached Amalia-san so far was because you sensed something from those men?”
When he asked what he thought might be the case, Yugo chuckled.
“Hmmm. Some of them approached Mom with ulterior motives, so I kicked them to the curb. It seems that you also have some ulterior motives, but you are much more innocent and trustworthy than the others. I’d even be willing to let you take the role as my foster father.”
“Haha… thanks for the acknowledgement!”
“Good, good, good… well, let me take care of things while you go to work. This time… I wasn’t even aware of it.”
“It’s okay, Amalia-san also doesn’t seem to mind… you went hunting for prey for me, didn’t you?”
Yesterday, he bumped into Yugo in the forest near Polk, who had just killed a magnificent bird and was dragging it away.
As he was walking back to the house, he noticed that there was a lot of noise in the village. While Yugo was hiding the bird, Leonardo rushed back and ran straight into the living room when he heard a commotion coming from the house.
…when he saw Amalia in tears, carried roughly by a large man, his eyes turned bright red.
He could never forgive that man for hurting and causing grief to the people he cares about. Killing him would not be enough to make him feel better.
He wanted to retaliate so badly that they would regret coming to this village and hurting Amalia even if it meant killing them himself― this was the first time in his life that he had been driven by such passion.
Amalia used to pat his head, pick him up and kiss him.
She would scold him when he did something wrong, but she would always give him a big hug afterwards.
After she decided to follow Alphonse, he hastily made her a pressed flower charm. Although they promised to “reunite” with that kiss, he felt bitter about his lack of height and thin body, thinking that if he had been more mature, he would have been able to give her a sacred kiss like a knight vowing to a princess in a story, instead of such a childish kiss.
But now he can protect her. He is older than Amalia, taller, and stronger.
Sometimes he may have to rely on Yugo, but as long as it is within his capabilities, he will protect the people he cares about.
This has been Leonardo’s lifelong goal since he was a child.