Chapter 105 - Lunatic Lunatic
"You're going to try your best, you say..."
"It's also that kind of timing. ...A bonus time, you could say."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Please wait a moment. I'll show you right now."
No sooner had she spoken than Angelica pulled her smartphone from her pocket.
She tapped at the screen, operating it with single-minded focus.
She must have learned how to use it from Ayako-chan. Her handling of modern devices was becoming quite natural.
She's adapted so well you'd never think she's from another world.
Just as I was admiring the learning ability of youth, Angelica's hands stopped.
It seemed she had finished displaying whatever it was she wanted to show.
"Here."
She let out a single sound and thrust the screen toward me.
This is... a calendar function?
I think it's an app for recording dates, but I don't quite get the purpose. The cute layout with lots of pink tells me it's probably aimed at women.
Is that it? One of those "anniversary of the day we met" things?
Girls really like that kind of stuff, huh, I thought, feeling a mix of exasperation and fondness, an indescribable mood.
"What's this heart mark? It's on today's date too. ...Huh? Sorry, is today some kind of anniversary? Actually, there have been about four in a row since the day before yesterday. What kind of anniversary lasts four days...?"
"...It's not an anniversary. This is my... um..."
"Your?"
"...Day."
"Your voice is too quiet, I can't hear you."
"It's my fertile days! Right now, I'm on my dangerous days!"
My entire body froze solid with a crack.
"...What did you say?"
"...It means the days when it's easy to make a baby if we do naughty things."
No, I didn't ask again because I didn't understand the meaning of the words.
I couldn't understand the nerve it took to bring up that term.
What the hell are you thinking!?
Where in the world is there a daughter who shows her father her fertile days while sitting on the toilet?
Right here, apparently. And she's my stepdaughter, no less. What the hell is this life?
I felt a shame so profound I was at a loss for words, but it seemed the same was true for Angelica. Her face was bright red, and her thighs were fidgeting as if she was holding back the urge to pee.
Of course she was. Normally, this is something you keep secret in the world of girls alone, and no matter how you look at it, it's not information you convey to a male parent.
"Y-you..."
"By the way, in another week, Ayako's fertile days will start, so it would be helpful if you could hold her before then."
"You don't need to tell me about Ayako-chan's too."
"Really? Father, you sometimes send passionate glances at Ayako, so I predicted you might want to know various things."
"Wha—what are you saying? There's no way I'd be conscious of a high school girl as a member of the opposite sex."
"It looked to me like you were sending those kinds of glances mainly at her chest and buttocks."
Why do my stolen glances get found out so easily?
Am I just an easy-to-read man, or are these two just too perceptive? It's a mystery.
"...Ayako is the same Japanese as you, Father, and she has a cute face, so maybe it can't be helped that you look at her with lecherous eyes."
But I won't lose, Angelica declared with fighting spirit.
"I think I'm more likely to get pregnant than Ayako. I've never met her, but my real mother gave birth to nine children, and my older sister had four in her twenties."
Indeed, even by the standards of that other world of high birth rates and high death rates, that's a fertile family line.
So her strong libido was hereditary, I thought, feeling like several things now made sense.
"...Is your bloodline making you run wild?"
"It's not running wild. It's perfectly normal consideration. Father, you immediately become reckless and self-destructive, so you should have a wife and children. Then you'd surely take better care of yourself. Before my premium naughty days are over, it's definitely better to get me pregnant, absolutely."
"Don't talk about your fertile days like it's some work-style reform."
"It's pregnancy-style reform!"
Angelica cupped her cheeks with both hands, breathing heavily.
It seemed she was getting excited by her own words. The system message told me as much.
I don't know what kind of scene she's imagining, but is she not aware that Ayako-chan and Philia are in a bed just a few meters away?
She probably isn't.
Because Angelica isn't that kind of fragile girl.
Basically, she always goes her own way, and what's more, that path is littered with lewd books here and there. That's the kind of girl she is. Like a country school route. You know, those spots where porn mags are frequently dumped get named things like the National Diet Library by elementary and middle schoolers.
Engaging in pointless escapism, I turned my eyes to Angelica.
A girl, barely sixteen, pressing me to get her pregnant.
As an adult and as a father, I should scold her here.
No matter how you look at it, this is straying too far from the path of decency. Your farm road is starting to head straight for a love hotel right now.
"Look, Ange. I'm happy you're worried about me, but baby-making isn't something you just casually do with that kind of motive."
"...? Children are something you make casually, like when you're free or when you want a few more hands to work, aren't they?"
An old woman born in the Meiji era said something similar once...
Well, as living creatures go, Angelica might be more correct.
But by my ethics as a modern person, her words and actions are unforgivable.
"You're still sixteen. I can't lay a hand on you."
"Even though you can get married at sixteen, if you touch someone under eighteen, you get arrested, right, in this country?"
"...If you have the parents' permission, it's not a problem... but these days, even with permission, it's a bad look."
"Isn't that law strange? Honestly, I think once you're physically able to make children, it's better to just go ahead and have a baby quickly."
"No... well... teenagers' main duty is studying... they say you should learn various things while your memory is still good. Things like that have a higher priority than raising children, in this world."
"But I don't go to school."
Say one thing, and she has an answer. Why are girls so quick-witted?
Maybe I'm just inarticulate, but I get the feeling that if I keep talking, I'll be talked into it.
"Anyway. I might have a constitution that makes it hard to have kids. I lived a life like a married couple with Elsa, but she never got pregnant for nearly fifteen years."
"Isn't that perfect? With a combination of me, who gets pregnant easily, and you, Father, who has a hard time getting someone pregnant, it'll surely settle at an average probability."
"I don't think this kind of thing works with that kind of calculation..."
Or rather, even I was starting to understand how to deal with this.
I'll slam down the conclusion I'd been putting off. That's fine.
"In short, you'll be satisfied if I stop being self-destructive, right? Fine, I get it. I'll go to the hospital. I'll see a head doctor. Is that good enough?"
"..."
Angelica blinked her eyes rapidly.
She looked bewildered.
"What? Is there still something else?"
"No... it's just. You're awfully obedient, I thought."
"Even I have days like that sometimes."
"Hmm..."
Angelica looked up at me with upturned eyes and opened her mouth.
"I'd like to ask you something."