Episode 36
Anyway, the video sphere was spinning smoothly.
On the screen, Dad and I stood in front of the vegetable garden. The cabin was visible like a backdrop behind us, and the hands of the employees moved swiftly.
<Really? Really? Lirin, you sprouted the potato shoots? Oh my goodness!>
<Heheheng. I just buried them.>
<I was wondering what you were fiddling with using those tiny hands…….>
The screen swished, and then a green sprout peeking out from the moist soil appeared. After that, my face appeared again with the cabin in the background.
Seeing the prideful expression on my face brought back the feelings I had then.
I think I was about six. That’s when I first thought I should try planting something.
<It’s kind of nice, right? It must’ve popped up because it rained a lot last night!>
<The nasty rain that used to bother my daughter helped a little, huh?>
<Mhm. Ah, but stop sucking my fingers!>
<What’s the big deal~ I’m kissing Daddy’s treasure~>
<Eek…….>
Smooch smooch smooch.
Watching Dad kiss each of my round fingertips, Grandma Eliza wiped away tears.
“Kalec, I don’t know how this will sound, but—”
“If you’re not sure how it’ll sound, you don’t have to say it.”
“You’re really embarrassing…….”
A vein popped out on Dad’s forehead.
“Ah, I meant to say ridiculous.”
Grandma corrected herself leisurely.
“Is that the same thing? Ahahaha!”
Ahem ahem!
Clearing throats of agreement echoed all around.
***
A few days later.
Clank clank.
The gate blocking off the east garden swung wide open.
“Grandpaaaaa!”
I ran toward Blaine, who was carrying a large piece of lumber.
Naturally, the person overseeing the recreation of the Lepi village house was Grandpa Diason.
“You’re really going to build the cabin exactly like the one in the video sphere I showed you? Really?”
“I dug a well and built a storage, too. All that’s left is to build the white fence… As for the doodles on it, are you going to do them?”
“Yeees!”
His thick brows lifted slightly.
Grandpa Blaine handed the lumber he was carrying to a servant heading toward the eastern forest with a cart and reached out to me.
“If you want to go see it… I’ll take you there.”
“Okay! Theo, hand!”
I reached my hand out to Theo, who was absentmindedly watching ants nearby.
“Let’s go!”
“Hmph.”
Grandpa, watching me and Theo holding hands side by side, tilted his head.
His bulging trapezius muscles flexed with strength.
“Up you go.”
Instead of the lumber, Grandpa lifted both me and Theo up at once.
With his long strides, the entrance to the eastern forest rapidly came into view.
“There’s quite a bit of distance between the main house and the east garden, so if you want to come, ask the servants to take you by carriage.”
“Nope. I can just run back and forth to practice my running.”
Though now that I thought about it, it might be a bit much to go back and forth several times a day.
The east garden’s one flaw is that it’s not easy to access.
I blankly stared at the back of the servant dragging the rattling cart.
“If it gets really hard, I’ll ask my uncles to pull me in the cart……”
As I babbled on and on, we arrived at the east garden before I knew it!
“Wooooow!”
I couldn’t hold back my amazement. Theo also sparkled his eyes and opened his mouth in awe.
I leapt down from Grandpa’s arms and ran toward the neatly built cabin by the lake.
‘It’s like they copied the Lepi village house exactly!’
Even the winding little path!
The vividly green roof and the square wooden planks stacked to form the walls.
Even the tiny deck in front of the door and the five exact steps leading up to it!
‘Everyone’s attention to detail is amazing……! I explained the parts not shown in the video sphere as thoroughly as I could, but still!’
Technically speaking, it was a perfect copy-paste.
‘Hm? Copy-paste? What was that again?’
Anyway, I continued marveling as I thoroughly inspected the green-roofed house. The inside was still being organized, so I couldn’t go in yet.
“The problem is the garden……”
Blaine spoke as he quietly watched me, immersed in awe. The sound of the servants installing the white fence echoed faintly.
“That garden is the problem. The video sphere doesn’t show the full view, so the gardeners are having a hard time recreating it……”
I shot up.
“I can do that! It’s my specialty!”
That’s why I only gave a rough explanation!
But Grandpa Blaine pressed his lips together like he’d heard something disagreeable. His usually expressionless face scrunched slightly.
“What would a child know about growing a garden…… A child. You’re still this tiny.”
“I’m eight, so I can do it!”
I’ve been in charge of our home garden since I was six!
Puffing out my chest, I declared proudly, and Grandpa’s beard twitched.
Theo, who had been toddling around, was now scaling Grandpa’s back and had finally reached the summit—his shoulders.
“Right, Theo? I’m good, right? I grow potatoes well, and tomatoes too, and lettuce……!”
“Kyaah!”
As I counted on my fingers and spoke, Grandpa suddenly swept me into a crushing hug before I could finish.
A few days later again.
I confidently led the way. A large, firm hand was holding mine.
“Alright, alright, we’re almost there.”
The person relying on my lead was none other than Dad.
“Even extreme training in the mountains would be less grueling than this.”
Dad muttered in a self-deprecating tone. His handsome eyes were completely covered by a pair of tiny hands.
Theo Valt (age 3).
Today, perched on Dad’s shoulders, he was dutifully fulfilling my request to act as a human blindfold.
“Give me even one reason why I need to go through all this to see a completed cabin. Just one, not a hundred.”
At that, my face drooped slightly in despair.
“Why……. Why are you correcting yourself? I can give a hundred reasons……!”
“I knew you’d say that. I’m doing this to prevent my ears from bleeding. You chatterbox brat.”
Tch, how did he know I like to babble?
“Move these soft and squishy hands right now?”
Dad growled slightly.
Of course, Theo didn’t budge, his usual dazed and gentle face unchanging.
“Aww, come on! All you have to do is follow me holding my hand! I wanted to go ‘ta-dah!’ and surprise you! Theo, make sure you block Daddy’s eyes tight! Not even a ray of light should get through! So dark he sees nothing but void!”
“Oooh!”
“Torture, is it.”
Dad eventually gave up.
It’s not like it’s even that far, what’s he being so sensitive for!
Far off, the tip of the green roof came into view. We’d bickered a little, but truthfully, my throat felt a bit tight.
‘It feels like going home.’
Of course, the surroundings were fundamentally different from Lepi village.
But there was a forest, a lake, and a narrow winding path we three—Dad, Theo, and I—walked along together.
To me, it was no different from the path home.
Truly, a long-awaited homecoming.
I sniffled and walked boldly again. Finally, once the cabin was fully in view, I gave Theo the signal.
“Ta-daaa!”
Dad’s eyes opened!
“……”
Dad swept his eyes over the cabin by the lake with his usual impassive expression.
“Well? What do you think, Your Grace?”
“Ha, I must’ve really been under some kind of spell.”
There was a faint hint of self-loathing in his grumbling voice.
Though he’d reluctantly agreed to build the green-roofed house, now that he saw it complete, he seemed conflicted.
‘Well, originally this was supposed to be a villa.’
I looked up at him and asked,
“Doesn’t anything come to mind? Hm? Hm? Look closely. Hm?”
“Nothing at all. You’re being noisy, so quiet dow—tsk, what is this? Getting in the way.”
Dad clicked his tongue and lightly kicked the white fence. The straight post tilted about 15 degrees……
“Oh my god…….”
I raised my hand to cover my mouth.
“That tilt…… that’s exactly it.”
“……?”
In the past, when the neighbor boy Jamie pulled my hair and made me cry, Daddy Alex kicked the fence in frustration—exactly like this. Detail score: 100 points.
“And what comes to mind when you see the cabin entrance?”
Dad muttered coldly as he looked at the wooden plank walls.
“Makes me want to scratch it all up.”
“Oh no…… that’s correct…… ding ding ding…….”
“……?”
I covered my mouth with both hands and looked up at him, eyes brimming.
“You always scratched that wall to mark my height……”
Sniff sniff. I’m so glad we built the cabin.
Detail score: +200 points.
Riding the momentum, I quickly dragged Dad’s sleeve over to the mini garden. It was only lightly sectioned, nothing had been planted yet.
“Okay, what does this scene remind you of?”
“Makes me want to plow it all up.”
Dad twisted his lips as he coldly muttered.
Then he glanced down at me as if wondering, ‘Surely not…?’
Of course…….
I was already clapping away, moved to tears.
“Correct! That’s it exactly!”
“Why, though.”
“Plowing the field!”
“……?”
“You personally plowed my garden for me…… sniff.”
I dabbed my eyes with my fingertips.
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
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