Sweet Sweet Baby

 

I mean, this is what you get with people who aren't bound by mortality, right?

—Rin, the Blue Witch

 

"Look! Hey, come here! Chryse just crawled!"

Nina tugged at my arm, barely containing her excitement.

"She did! Amazing, amazing!"

"Aah, uuh!"

I clapped my hands, and Chryse broke into a huge grin.

Then, just like that, she pattered across the floor on all fours and dove straight into my arms.

"Hey, no fair! Come on, Chryse, come to me!"

Nina clapped her hands, mimicking what I'd done.

"Uuh!"

Chryse spun halfway around, crawled toward Nina with all her might, and clung to her tight.

"Mmm, good girl."

Nina stroked the baby with an unusually gentle expression.

She looked just like a real mother.

The baby girl we'd found in the forest that day. I'd named her Chryse.

It was the name of a goddess from Greek mythology, meaning "golden." I'd chosen it for her beautiful golden hair.

"Chryse really does have a way with people. She's just so charming."

Scarlet had an orphanage, too. Yet somehow, neither Nina nor I ever suggested leaving Chryse there.

"She must take after me."

What on earth was this girl saying? She said it so proudly that I couldn't help but mentally retort. First of all, they weren't related by blood, so there was no way Chryse could "take after" her, and even if she did, who exactly was the charming one here? In the past, perceptive as she was, Nina would've picked up on my thoughts in an instant. But she just kept happily cooing at Chryse, beaming all the while.

Just then, the bell for the fourth dragon hour rang out.

Eight in the morning. Around the time everyone started their day's work.

"Come on, you need to get the clinic ready."

"… I'm taking the day off…"

When I held out my hands, Nina clutched Chryse tight and said that.

"You know you can't do that. Everyone in Scarlet is waiting for you today, too. Do your best."

She probably didn't mean it seriously. With a sigh, Nina reluctantly handed Chryse over to me. This little exchange had been becoming something of a routine lately.

Unlike Nina, who was busy seeing patients, I hadn't given lectures in quite some time. I was essentially a freelance researcher these days. And so, daytime childcare for Chryse fell mostly to me.

"Good morning, Mentor!"

"Mornin', Mentoor."

"… Morning…"

When I showed my face at the lab, I was greeted by three distinct responses. Innis, who used to never show up before the afternoon, must have had something weighing on her mind.

Ever since the incident that had led to us taking Chryse in, she'd stopped skipping out altogether. Mind you, she still looked about as unmotivated and listless as ever.

Ara, too, had thrown himself into his work with even greater fervor, researching methods to fight spirits. He'd even taken up swordsmanship under Yuuka… Though according to Yuuka, he had "absolutely zero talent for it"…

"Chryse, you're sooo cute today too!"

The only one who seemed entirely unchanged was Mel. She toddled over to me and scooped Chryse into a tight embrace. Well, she was putting in effort too; she just came across that way because she did everything at her own pace.

"Kyaau!"

Chryse squealed and giggled in Mel's arms.

Being in a good mood pretty much all the time was our little girl's greatest virtue.

"Daa, uuh!"

Chryse swung her stubby arms and patted Mel's chest.

For the record, this was something she had never once done to Nina.

"Sorry, sweetie. Mel can't make milk yet."

Mel stroked Chryse's head apologetically. Chryse continued happily pawing at Mel's chest for a while, but as she gradually realized that what she wanted wasn't forthcoming, her expression began to cloud over.

"Sorry, Mel, can you keep her entertained a little longer?"

I hurried to start preparing, but I didn't make it in time.

"EWAAAAAAAAAH!"

A wail erupted that could have rivaled a dragon's roar.

"Wait, please, just hold on a moment!"

Pleading with a wailing Chryse, I scrambled to prepare her milk. I pulled a glass bottle from the icebox and poured six-legged goat's milk into a ceramic cup.

"Activate."

I spoke the incantation, and the cold milk warmed up, tiny bubbles rising to its surface. I blew on it to cool it down, then scooped some up with a wooden spoon and brought it to Chryse's lips.

This, as it turned out, was no simple task. A baby can't exactly drink milk from a wooden spoon. Worse, she couldn't even grasp that food was being offered; she'd just thrash about, refusing to open her mouth properly. If only we had something like a baby bottle, but we hadn't managed to make one yet. The bottle itself was easy enough, but finding a suitable material for the nipple had proven stubbornly elusive.

"Ewaaa! Ewaaah… Ewaaaaaah! EWAAAAAAH!"

"Come on, Chryse, it's milk, open up, Chryse…"

I kept bringing the spoon to wailing Chryse's lips, but perhaps because she was scared, she'd clamp her mouth shut the moment it got close. Pull the spoon away and she'd open her mouth to cry again, only to clamp it shut the instant it came back. If I could just get it past her lips even once, she'd recognize it as milk, but…

"May I?"

As I was floundering, Ara held out his hand. He let a few drops of milk fall onto his fingertip, then gently tapped it against Chryse's lips. Her mouth latched onto his fingertip and began sucking eagerly.

She stopped crying for a moment, but quickly realized that no matter how much she sucked, no more milk was coming. The instant she opened her mouth to protest, Ara slipped the wooden spoon in. Once she figured out there was milk to be had, Chryse became perfectly cooperative. Bring the spoon, and she'd drink endlessly.

"Ara, that was amaziiing!"

Still cradling Chryse, Mel stamped her rear hooves in lieu of applause.

"Quite well-practiced, aren't you. Don't tell me you've got a secret love child somewhere?" Innis teased.

"Don't be absurd. I'm just used to looking after my younger siblings."

Come to think of it, Luca, Ara's aunt, had been good with children too.

"… Hey, you know…"

Innis slowly floated her sofa over to me and whispered.

"They make a pretty good couple… don't they?"

"Yeah. I was thinking the same thing."

Keeping my voice low, I nodded in agreement. Mel's head was about level with mine, making her tall for a half-sheep woman. But Ara stood even taller, and the two of them made a well-matched pair.

A rugged half-wolf young man, strict with himself and others, and a soft, gentle half-sheep girl. The sight of Ara dutifully bringing milk to Chryse in Mel's arms looked for all the world like a young married couple with their baby, despite all three of them being different races.

A wolf and a sheep couldn't possibly have children together, of course, but different quadruped races could actually produce offspring with one another. I'd never heard of a half-wolf and half-sheep couple, but I had once met a married pair of a half-tiger and a half-cow.

"Welp, guess I'll go buckle down on some research."

"Wh…?! Innis is actually being motivated?!"

Innis stretched languidly and sat up straight on her sofa. Ara was so startled that he spilled the milk, and Chryse immediately burst into tears.

"Ah! Sorry!"

"Oh no. Oh no. Don't cry, pleease!"

The three of them scrambled to soothe her. When I happened to glance back, Innis had already slipped away.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"I'm home."

"I'm hooome!"

"I'm hoooome."

Three voices rang out as the door swung open, just as I'd finished preparing dinner.

"Welcome back. It's been a while, Rin."

The ones who'd come home with Nina were Yuuka and Rin. Yuuka dropped by fairly often, but it had been two years since Rin's last visit. Her periodic health checkups had been going so well that Nina had changed the schedule from yearly to every two years. Rin, of course, had taken that as license to only visit once every two years, so I'd had to ask her not to space them out any further.

"No comment about how we just walked in and said 'I'm home' like it's the most natural thing in the world?"

"Nope. If anything, it makes me happy."

I said that to Yuuka, who was grinning ear to ear. The fact that Rin still thought of this place as home filled me with an indescribable sense of relief and happiness.

"Though I wish you'd given me a heads-up if you were coming. I need to make more food for dinner…"

"Mm. Sorry, I'll let you know next time."

Nina answered curtly. Her expression hadn't changed, but the fact that she apologized so readily was proof that she was, in her own way, feeling remorseful. She was probably tired from work. As she sank into the sofa, I handed her a glass of chilled fruit water.

"… Hey, big bro."

As I poured glasses for Yuuka and Rin as well, the two of them looked at me as if they had something they wanted to say.

"Mentor and Professor Nina really aren't married, right?"

"We're not, no?"

They'd known that for hundreds of years now, so what were they going on about at this point?

… Oh, wait. For Rin, it hadn't actually been a hundred years yet.

"Daah!"

Just then, perhaps roused by our voices, Chryse came pattering in on all fours from the back room where she'd been sleeping.

"Wait, you even have a child?!"

"What are you talking about?"

Rin pointed at Chryse and cried out.

"You've met her before. This is Chryse," Nina said, picking Chryse up.

"… Huh? No, Professor Nina, what are you talking about…?"

Rin furrowed her brows in suspicion. Nina and I couldn't help but exchange a glance.

Could it be that Rin's memories had… again—?

"I met Chryse two years ago. Why is she still a baby?"

But as it turned out, the ones who had something wrong with them were us.