Chapter 106 - No Count
"What is it?"
"...Father, do you perhaps... feel like you don't want any more children...?"
"It's not that I don't want them, but I already have a child, don't I? I'm raising you as my foster daughter."
"I'm only calling myself your daughter; in reality, I'm practically like her, so it's a no count, a no count. That's not what I meant. I was wondering if you have any desire to see a baby that carries your own blood."
I think it might be bad to call that part a no count.
Since she has an uncharacteristically serious look in her eyes, I'll refrain from pointing that out.
"I was wondering if you think that only a child made with Elsa-san would be your true child, and that you couldn't imagine any other child—or something like that."
"...I wonder."
I close my eyes, searching my true feelings. A child of my own whom I have never even seen.
If they had been born properly, how would they have grown up?
A boy, or a girl?
Would they have resembled me? Or Elsa?
I do think I would have wanted to meet them in a proper way. If you call it lingering attachment, then perhaps that's true.
I open my eyes and answer.
"It's true that it's not as if I don't have those feelings."
"I see..."
Angelica looks dejected. It seems that wasn't the answer she was hoping for.
"So, after all, Elsa-san is still inside you, Father."
"In many ways, that's true."
I feel like the conversation is unexpectedly moving in a good direction.
Since my feelings still belong to Elsa, this might be a chance to make her realize that no matter what she does, we can never have a relationship beyond father and daughter.
Sure, it doesn't feel bad to be pursued by a beautiful girl, but I am a devoted and sincere man.
If there were a Chastity stat, I would have hit the cap long ago.
...While there have been moments where I let my guard down here and there, all things considered, I have a track record of not crossing the line with any woman other than Elsa. I'd like her to take that into account.
"But Elsa-san is already deceased."
Angelica says that I should move forward.
"It's a lovely story to hold a vigil for a dead lover, but Father, your life still continues. Japanese people live a long time, don't they? Do you intend to remain single forever from now on?"
"...Even if you say that. It's only been a little over a year since I lost Elsa. I can't just switch my feelings that easily. Besides, do you find charm in a man who can easily remarry, thinking, 'Since my previous wife died, next is a young wife'?"
"I don't."
"Right?"
"Paradoxically speaking, the more you appeal your affection for Elsa-san like that, the more it sets us on fire..."
"No, how does it turn out like that?"
Angelica speaks with a face that says, "Isn't it obvious?"
"Don't they say that men who already have a girlfriend or a wife are more popular?"
"Ah... I hear that occasionally. That once you get married, certain young women start flocking to you."
Is that like the female version of people who like Married Women?
"Surely, people want what belongs to others even more... I understand that very well now."
Angelica's eyes take on a suspicious light.
It was the face she made when a certain bad switch was flipped.
"You might not realize it, Father, but when you talk about Elsa-san, you make a very kind, yet very sad face."
"...No one is conscious of their own face during a conversation."
I have the consideration not to tell her that, you, are usually acting like a cat in heat when you're talking to me.
"That is... well, for the type of girl who feels she must support a man when he is vulnerable, you are a total knockout..."
"In other words, it's your weakness?"
"...I think it's not just me, but Ayako and Rio-san as well. I get the feeling they are struck by you in a different way than I am, though."
"Well, those two aren't the type of people who want to support a weak man."
"Ayako feels more like she wants to take advantage of him while he's weak, and Rio-san probably wants to torment a weak man and then have him launch a fierce counterattack in a sudden offensive."
"You know them well."
I am impressed by her analytical skills. Because I completely agree.
"Both of them find you attractive in different vectors, but the goal is the same. They want to become your wife and give birth to your babies. They have nothing else on their minds. We're the same kind, so I understand perfectly."
Actually, Philia has also joined this race for my body, but far from just joining, it feels more like she suddenly crashed in with an F1 car; however, since confessing that wouldn't lead to anything good, I remained silent.
Perhaps because the current Philia has become honest due to her mental breakdown, when I am with her, she presents me with various challenges almost every hour. In the end, with a flushed face, she utters delusions like, "I want to give birth to Father's children."
...Was that her true feeling, which had been suppressed when her reason was still intact?
Or was it a new desire born from the result of being dominated by madness?
As of now, there is no way to know. It is something only Philia herself can know.
"Ayako is... a formidable opponent. At first, I thought she might be led by Rio-san, who looks like Elsa-san, but that's not the case. Her inner self seems to be somewhat outside of Father's preferences."
"...How do you know something like that?"
"You can tell just by looking. Father, doesn't it actually suit your nature to let a woman take the lead and not think too much for yourself?"
Sharp.
There is almost no room for rebuttal.
"A Danchi Wife in mourning clothes, or a beautiful neighborhood older sister in a vertical-striped sweater—that's the kind of thing you like, isn't it? The kind who gives you a Lap Pillow and does lewd things while saying, 'Do your best, do your best'."
"Wait. You looked at my PC, didn't you? Did Ayako-chan teach you how to use it? Or did you see Ayako-chan messing with it?"
Angelica doesn't answer the crucial question at all, boldly evading it to continue.
"Did you see Ayako's private clothes? She's always in vertical-striped sweaters... She says it's because she gets cold easily. And because it's just right for hiding her skin."
I know that. I've known since I first met her. In fact, when I first met a cute girl wearing such clothes who was a tenant, I decided to frequent Otsuki Books.
What on earth am I thinking right now?
"Besides, Ayako is... skilled."
"At what?"
"At making people feel good."
"..."
A strange question wells up in me: What have you two been doing while I wasn't around?
"I never thought that just sticking a stick in an ear could lead to such a thing..."
"Ah, an ear pick. Did Ayako-chan do it for you?"
"That was incredible. It's a demonic technique. ...To think she had such a trump card... It felt as if a rod-shaped pleasure pierced through from my eardrum to my brain."
To be good at cleaning other people's ears even though she's still in her teens, she is quite dexterous.
I feel a bit depressed, imagining whether she used to do that for an ex-boyfriend.
When there's a shadow of a man behind a quiet girl, it's a bit of a shock even if it's not your own girlfriend.
"Apparently, Ayako has been practicing lockpicking since she was in elementary school because she kept trying to break into her father's study. And then, as a stroke of luck, her ear cleaning improved as well. Both are skills involving inserting a thin stick into a hole and doing it bit by bit, after all."
"Ah, yeah, that's a very Ayako-chan reason. I'm somehow relieved."
"...If Ayako does that to Father, I think she'll rack up Affection Levels like crazy... It might even lead to going all the way, just as a matter of course..."
Saying that she must prevent that at all costs, Angelica began to fidget her knees.
What does she intend to do?