“Ugh….”
Crack-!
(TN: The sound of cracking joints)
After several sounds that should never come from a child, Regalia finally shook off her stiff body and stood up.
Even though she was the chairwoman of a major corporation and shouldn’t dare leave her desk, things were different now. She had finished all the piled-up tasks and established a system to handle them.
“Finally, I can relax a bit.”
“Congratulations, Miss.”
“Thanks, Kitty.”
Ignoring the fuss of her subordinate, Regalia sat down on the sofa in the corner of the chairman’s office and flipped through the TV channels. It was a children’s animation channel, perfect for kids.
Didn’t the scientist say just recently that watching this at her age isn’t something to be ashamed of? She decided to humbly accept that advice.
While she was enjoying the TV program, Kitty, who approached from behind, whispered in her ear.
“Miss? Now that all the work is done, you can go to school.”
“…School?”
“Yes. Your attendance is dicey.”
Regalia was in elementary school, of course. And as it goes, elementary school is mandatory. No matter how much of a ruler of City E or the CEO of a major corporation she was, she couldn’t skip it.
Until now, she had missed school due to the expansion of Evilus Corporation and the increase in workload… but that couldn’t go on forever.
“I guess I have to go… right?”
“Yes. Even if you don’t want to, you have to go.”
“Ugh… I hate being around little kids.”
Your boss is a little kid too—Kitty managed to hold back that thought and handed her a notice that had come from school.
Receiving the notice, Regalia pondered. Parent observation class? Of all times for her to return, this event is scheduled for now?
“Ugh… Can’t I just finish this and go?”
“No. You can’t, Miss.”
“But…”
There was a big problem. Regalia was an orphan. Her parents were gone, and there were no adults to play that role at such times. That was the decisive reason she had appointed Eight to play the role of her dad…
* * *
I immediately called an executive meeting. I didn’t think I could solve such an important problem by myself.
When the executives gathered and heard the news about Regalia’s parent observation class, they got excited.
“Parent observation class?”
“Yes. Apparently it’s at the school the boss attends.”
“Then why was I called?”
Galm, who had neither attended school nor could play the role of a mom or dad, grew frustrated. True, he had no need to be called, but it would be troublesome if he ended up sulking and saying he was left out later.
Of course, I couldn’t voice that fact. That beast would certainly explode in anger if he heard it. So, I subtly reframed the statement.
“Well, since it’s the boss’s business, it’s natural for all executives to gather. So—we need to decide here who will play the mom role for the boss.”
At that, Vira trembled slightly. She shook so hard that the table rattled, her eyes darting around as she muttered.
“I… can be the boss’s mom? I can be called ‘Mama’ by her…?”
“…Vira?”
“I—I’ll do it!”
Realizing they could hand off this annoyingly troublesome task to her, the other executives nodded in agreement.
Just as Vira was about to be confirmed in the role of mom, Arima quietly spoke up.
“But who’s going to play the dad’s role♠?”
“That will be me.”
Boom-!
The loud sound that had echoed earlier rang out again. This time, it was two loud bangs.
Realizing that the source of the noise was not Vira but another pair of people, I turned to look at them.
Ayle and Levitan began to smile at each other.
Then they started to persuade Vira, looking at her one by one.
“Vira, right? Thinking about it, it seems unfair for you to bear that burden alone…”
“Me! Me! I’ll do it! Vira-! Give way!”
“Why are both of you suddenly like this? I won’t give up the boss’s mama role.”
“Vira is already past the marrying age… If you get caught doing that role, you might be misunderstood as a single mom and be unable to marry!”
“You’ll take the boss mama role, but I’ll play the role of wife!”
“Ayle…? What kind of nonsense is that? And you too, Levitan, there’s no way being a mom and a wife can be separate roles. What kind of chaotic family is that?”
A fierce battle ensued with no room for negotiation. Seeing that, I glanced at Arima, slightly frowning. When our eyes met, Arima smiled brightly and stuck out his tongue.
Realizing he had intentionally created this situation, I frowned again. A so-called sage wizard? He was just a clown reveling in amusing situations.
“Enough, enough-! Everyone, please be quiet.”
Clapping my hands to draw attention, I looked at the three people fighting over the mom role and made a fair suggestion.
“Let’s decide by drawing lots. Fair and square.”
“Ugh… but I was originally going to do it…”
“Well, if the Scientist says that…”
“Let’s do it as Eight-tan said!”
Thus the three came to an agreement, and I took out a pad to open a roulette app. Just as I was about to write down the names of the three, Ayle suddenly shouted.
“Wait a minute-!”
“What now?”
“If we draw lots among three people, there’s a 99.999…9% chance! The remaining 0.000…1% doesn’t go to just one of the three, right? It goes to someone else, doesn’t it?”
“0.000…1 is 0, Ayle. Do you skip studying?”
“But still! That’s a program! What if we add the remaining probability to someone else!?”
Despite being told scientifically and mathematically that it was impossible, Ayle kept insisting, so reluctantly, Arima and Galm also joined in the draw.
“Haha, being the mom would be fun. That sounds amusing.”
“Right♣. If I or Galm becomes it, that would be fun too, wouldn’t it?”
Thus the lottery began with five participants. The three from before seemed to stare at the monitor, hoping desperately that they would be chosen.
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
“Bwahaha-!”
The three, seeing the result of the roulette on the monitor, gasped, and Galm burst into loud laughter.
They shot daggers at Galm.
Someone who had just murmured that it would be fun if they actually got chosen scratched their cheeks awkwardly at their name on the screen.
“Looks like it really is me…♠.”
The mom role was assigned to Arima.
* * *
As children of that age often do, Regalia whined that she didn’t want to go to school—but her attendants ignored her words. They simply dressed her up to make sure she could go.
Dressed in an elementary school uniform and wearing a cute hat on a hefty backpack, the charismatic ruler of Evilus disappeared, leaving only a cute girl behind.
A beauty that could only be referred to as the role model of all elementary school students. Seeing her, Kitty clasped her face and sighed.
“Miss… You’re adorable.”
“Ugh- this outfit is so stuffy.”
“That can’t be helped. We packed all the functions of anti-knife, anti-bullet, and anti-explosion abilities into this. Sorry, but please bear with it a little longer.”
With that, Kitty took Regalia and headed toward the school. Since she was disguised as an ordinary girl from a regular household rather than the heiress of Evilus Corporation, the driver dropped her off at a suitable distance and guarded her from afar.
As she walked alone toward school, not long after, she heard the sound of tiny feet pitter-pattering-! Just hearing that adorable sound made it easy to tell who was approaching.
“Lia! Are you going to school now!?”
“Mae. It’s been a while.”
“Are you all healed up? I heard the teacher couldn’t come because they were sick!”
Faced with another innocent child of the same age, Regalia smiled and explained that she was all better now.
The smiles of the surrounding children erupted with joy upon seeing her. Regalia’s beauty was so exceptional that even elementary school kids recognized it, and there were plenty of children in school who had come to realize the feeling of love because of her.
Naturally, no child dared approach and confess, even if they didn’t know she was the chairwoman. Even if her title of chairwoman disappeared, her dignity as a ruler wouldn’t vanish either.
Arriving at school, Regalia greeted her classmates, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time, and sat down.
“Lia-! You made it to school!”
“Li-Lia, here’s something I made… want to eat?”
“I bought snacks just for you! Eat up!”
Seeing the completely innocent, kindness-filled faces of the children mixed with their laughter, Regalia smiled widely, but her expression hardened upon seeing the teacher entering.
Seeing the teacher’s face reminded her of what day it was.
“Um- everyone. Do you know what day it is today?”
““It’s the day our moms and dads come!””
“Yes! That’s right. Even if your parents can’t come, you shouldn’t say anything when you go home, okay?”
While she said that, there wouldn’t actually be any homes where parents wouldn’t come. This is an elementary school in City E. Most of the parents work at Evilus-related companies—Evilus Corporation even granted collective unpaid leave to parents with student children.
They received paid leave to see their kids, but would they actually not come themselves? For gratitude, they could well face disciplinary action.
So, Regalia had called for Eight. She couldn’t stand out differently from others.
‘…He should come normally, right?’
However, Regalia started to feel anxious.
Although she had asked for him, she couldn’t help but wonder if that scientist would show up in a normal outfit.
“Okay, we don’t know when the parents will arrive, but… you mustn’t talk to them during class. Understood?”
The school bell rang, and the class began. One by one, parents quietly entered, not disrupting the students’ lessons.
Before long, the back of the classroom and the hallway were filled with parents—
Suddenly the murmurs in the hallway began to grow louder.
—Is there a person like that…?
—Who’s their parent…?
—Wow…
The children’s curiosity sparked as adults gasped in awe, and unable to suppress their curiosity, several children turned their heads—only to realize the reason why the adults were so astonished.
People who were obviously recognizable as parents entered the classroom.
Regalia’s desk partner, who had been looking back, poked her and spoke.
“Lia, your parents really are beautiful…!”
“Um-?”
Beautiful?
The scientist doesn’t have that kind of face.
With confusion, Regalia turned around only to see a handsome blonde couple staring back at her, she tilted her head.
‘…Who?’
A stranger stood right there.
He was definitely not the scientist.
Yet, their faces resembled Regalia too closely, enough that anyone could think they were her parents…
