EDIT: I AM FIXING THE FORMATTING. Please be patient with me while I fix this post. I refuse to start all over again.
Chapter 9
Zenith had learned she was pregnant. I was going to have a little brother or sister. Our family was growing. Oh, Rudy, you lucky guy!
Keep your filthy paws away from the siblings. I feel bad enough for the parents having to deal with your ass as is.
For a few years now, Zenith had been worried about her inability to conceive another child. I’d heard her mutter and sigh on occasion about how maybe she couldn’t bear children anymore, but about a month earlier, there was a shift in her food cravings, along with nausea, vomiting, and a general sense of fatigue—in other words, symptoms of classic morning sickness. The feelings were familiar, and a trip to the doctor confirmed that her self-diagnosis was almost certainly correct.
I’ve beaten this point to death, but these are things that could have been
shown in previous chapters. Even just nausea and fatigue would’ve been a good enough reason to explain why Zentih has been a non-character in these past few chapters or so.
It was a day of bubbling joy and countless smiles. I was honestly very happy, hoping that I’d wind up with a little sister. A younger brother might break all of my precious things (with a baseball bat).
Oh, fuck off.
I’ve read a spoiler that the his full sister comes to rightfully hate him, so there’s that silver lining in all this.
The problems didn’t arise until about a month later.
Of course. His parents were too cool for too long at this point.
Our maid, Lilia, had discovered that she was pregnant, as well.
“I’m so sorry,” she announced matter-of-factly to the family as we sat at the table. “I’m pregnant.” In that instant, the Greyrat family froze. Who was the father?
But, given the circumstances, nobody could bring themselves to ask.
Since it’s been established that Lilia doesn’t get days off or have anything resembling a life outside of the Greyrat residence, there’s only one person who could have knocked her up.
Everyone had realized it on some level at least. Lilia was our maid. She sent almost all of her pay back home to her family. Unlike Paul, who frequently headed into town to help settle problems, or Zenith, who helped out at the local clinic at certain times, Lilia almost never left the house unless it was on work-related duties, and nobody had heard rumors about her developing an especially close relationship with anyone. Perhaps it had been a casual fling?
I love it when the text confirms what I previously said. I was not expecting it to tell me that his parents had lives outside of the house, due to Rudy never making a huge deal about them leaving the house (had he been an actual kid, he’d have a meltdown over Zenith leaving).
I knew the truth, though.
Ever since Zenith had gotten pregnant, Paul had been forced to go without sex. And he was an especially lustful man who’d been sneaking into Lilia’s room in the middle of the night. If I’d been an actual kid, I would have thought they were just playing cards or something. Unfortunately, I knew all too well what was really going on. They weren’t playing any game of Old Maid; there was playing around, and there was a maid involved, but this was no mere round of cards. Still, I wish they’d been more careful. Which is probably what both of them were thinking, too.
I could excuse an
actual child withholding this kind of information from a parent. Rudy has no excuse.
Hello, boys and girls! The phrase of the day is “You can do it!” Today we’ll be learning all about the importance of contraception! Part of me wanted to say that to Paul with a completely deadpan face, but I wasn’t sure if the concept of contraception was even a thing in this world. And obviously it wasn’t like I wanted to tear the whole family apart by spilling the beans. Also, if I messed with the maid, I was pretty sure she’d never forgive me.
Who fucking cares if the maid never forgives you?
What about your mother’s feelings and boundaries?!
Besides, I owed Paul for helping me through that incident with Sylphie. I’d let this one slide.
Fuck you, Rudy.
He went behind your mother’s back. She’s been nothing but kind and supportive of your endeavors.
Being a guy who all the chicks were hot for seemed tough. If they suspected him, I’d cover for him. Heck, I’d lie to give him an alibi if I had to. Having come to that decision, I looked over at Paul, letting him know with my eyes that he had nothing to worry about.
I didn’t think it was possible to hate Rudy even more.
At the same time, however, Zenith shot a look right over at Paul, her shocked assumption plain on her face. Conveniently enough, our gazes both fell upon Paul as one, bearing down on him.
“Uh, sorry,” he blurted. “This child is, uh…probably mine.”
The only redeemable thing about Paul is that he’s coming clean.
Good grief. Really? Well, no; I suppose I should commend the man for being honest. Seeing as how he constantly told me to “be honest” and “be a real man” and “be sure to protect women” and “never impugn your sense of honor” and other high-and-mighty stuff
like that day in and day out, the least he could do was practice what he preached.
Said the unemployed leech who stunk up his parent’s house.
Well, whatever. I couldn’t say I hated him for it.
He betrayed your mother’s trust. You should fucking hate him for tearing the family apart.
Anyway, this really was the worst-case scenario. That sentiment solidified as I watched Zenith draw herself up to her full height, her face livid, her hand rising into the air. And thus was convened an emergency family meeting, with Lilia included.
Isn’t it real interesting that we don’t really get to hear from Zenith at all?
So, we cut to the meeting.
It was Zenith who first broke the silence. She had the authority in this meeting. “So, what are we going to do?”
From what I could see, she was as calm as anything. Instead of going into a fit of hysterics over how her husband had cheated on her, she’d contented herself with a single smack. A red mark like a maple leaf spread across Paul’s cheek.
Dunno, I’d be down to see Zenith kick Paul to the curb and give us some divorce drama. It’d be fun but Author-San is allergic to following up on interesting ideas.
“After I’ve assisted with the lady of the house’s birth,” Lilia said, “I assume I would take my leave from your home.”
She seemed rather composed, too. Maybe this was a common occurrence in this world? The maid becomes her employer’s mistress; if people object, she just leaves the house.
Or maybe, just maybe Lilia’s morals have kicked in and she doesn’t want to be a walking reminder of Paul’s infidelity around Zenith?
A pitiful story like that would normally turn me on, but under the circumstances, I didn’t so much as twitch. I still had principles. Unlike Paul.
You were ready to fly cover for him, sociopathic shithead.
Paul was all huddled up in a corner. So much for paternal dignity.
What else should he do but shut up to avoid incurring Zenith’s wrath?
“What about the child?” Zenith asked.
“I was thinking I would give birth here in Fittoa, and then raise the baby back in my hometown,” Lilia replied.
“You’re originally from the south, yes?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re going to be physically exhausted after the birth,” Zenith said. “You’ll be in no condition to make a long journey.”
“Perhaps so, but I have nowhere else to turn.”
Zenith is way too good for Rudy and Paul. She deserves so much better than all of this.
The Fittoa Region was in the northeastern part of the Asura Kingdom. Based on my understanding, to reach what was considered
“the south” in this context took close to a month and required switching between multiple stagecoaches. Still, that was a month traveling through safe lands with good weather, and riding in stagecoaches wasn’t terribly arduous.
That, however, was for a typical traveler. Lilia had no money. She couldn’t afford to ride on stagecoaches, and would have go on foot. Even if the Greyrats paid for her travel expenses, that didn’t make it any less risky. She’d be a woman, traveling by herself, having recently given birth. If I were a bad guy and spotted her, what would I do?
Rudy putting himself in the feet of potential predators is pretty on brand for him.
I would attack her. She was an obvious sitting duck, practically begging for someone to take a shot at her. Take the child hostage, keep the mother distracted with empty promises. Meanwhile, take all her money and possessions. I’d gathered that slavery was a thing in this world, so in the end, I’d sell off both mother and child, and that would be that.
Of course you would, pedophile. Of course you would.
Of course, if Lilia didn’t survive the journey, neither would the child. Even if she simply fell ill, if she didn’t have money to see a doctor, she was done for. I suddenly had the mental image of Lilia lying dead in the midst of a blizzard, baby cradled in her arms. I, for
one, didn’t want to see her suffer that sort of fate.
And you don’t think Zenith wouldn’t find a way to make arrangements so that wouldn’t happen? I’m sure she would not out of obligation for Lilia, but just on the fact that the baby is Rudy’s sibling.
“Dear,” Paul started to stay, “surely she could just sta—”
“You keep your mouth shut!” Zenith snapped, cutting him off. He shrank like a scolded child. This was definitely one instance where he had no right to speak. Paul was useless here. Zenith chewed on her nails with a look of consternation. She was clearly conflicted as well. She didn’t want Lilia to suffer; on the contrary, the two were quite good friends. Considering how they’d
spent the last six years running this household together, it was probably fair to say they were best friends.
Zenith is the real victim in all of this. Paul was definitely abusing his power over Lilia, but Zenith doesn’t deserve any of this.
The fact that Zenith was able to keep her cool seemed connected to Lilia’s own attitude; she hadn’t tried to talk her way out of anything, and had taken full responsibility for betraying a household she’d served for so long.
If you asked me, though, it was Paul who ought to be taking responsibility here. It was weird to lay the blame solely on Lilia. Very, very weird. I couldn’t allow us to part on such weird terms.
I decided that I was going to help Lilia.
Okay cool, you care about her well being eno—-
But most importantly, more than anything else—She knew about my treasured panties and had kept silent about it.
Should have known better at this point that he wasn’t being selfless. He just wants to keep his enabler around.
Given that those panties have been sitting in a box for at least two years, his room must stink to high heavens.
We get a flashback of Lilia discovering the panties, but that scene is too fucking long as is and should’ve happened four chapters ago.
“Mother?” I asked, keeping my tone as childlike as I could. “How come everyone’s acting so glum about how I’m going to have two new siblings at once?”
I wanted to give off the naïve impression of: Hey, if Lilia’s pregnant, that means our family’s getting even bigger! Hooray!
Why’s everyone so upset about that?
“Because your father and Lilia did something they shouldn’t have,” Zenith said with a sigh, an unfathomable rage mixed in with those words. But it wasn’t directed at Lilia; Zenith knew full well who bore the brunt of the blame here.
“Oh, I see,” I said. “But is Lilia allowed to go against Father’s wishes?”
I mean, you could argue that Paul was abusing his position of power over Lilia. Kind of like Harvey Weinstein did.
What do you mean by that?” Zenith asked.
This wasn’t fair to Paul, but hey, he was reaping what he’d sown, here. I’d have to single-handedly try to cover up for Lilia’s indiscretions. My bad, Paul. I’d have repay him for Sylphie some other time.
“Well, I know that Father has some leverage over her.”
“What? Is this true?” Zenith said, looking over at Lilia in surprise.
He’s… her employer. OF COURSE HE HAS FUCKING LEVERAGE OVER HER! How would you
not know that?!
Lilia was as stone-faced as ever, though she did raise a curious eyebrow, as if my assertion had been on the mark. Did Paul actually have something on her? Based on the usual stuff I’d heard and seen,
it seemed more likely to me that Lilia had something on Paul, but…
No, never mind. I had my opening here. “A while ago, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and as I was passing by Lilia’s room, I heard Father say something like… ‘If you don’t want me to tell anyone, spread your legs!’”
“Huh?!” Paul blurted. “Dammit, Rudy, what the hell are—”
I have no comment on this other than, Paul deserves it.
”You shut up!” Zenith snapped, putting him in check. “Lilia, is this true?”
Lilia’s gaze wandered. “Um, so, well, actually…”
Was I actually on the mark? Or was she just playing along?
“Ah, I see,” Zenith replied, seeming to come to an understanding of things. “You can’t bring yourself to say it out loud.”
Paul’s eyes blinked over and over, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly like a goldfish’s, no words coming out. Perfect.
Time to wrap this all up.
“Mother, I don’t think Lilia is to blame.”
“I suppose not.”
“I think Father is to blame.”
“I suppose so.”
“It isn’t right that Lilia is in such a hard position because of something that was Father’s fault.”
“Mmm. I suppose.”
My mother’s responses were more noncommittal than I’d hoped. I just needed to push a little further. “I have fun playing with Sylphie every day, so I think it’ll be really nice that my little brother or sister will have someone the same age to be friends with!”
“I…suppose, yes.”
“And besides, Mother, they’d both be little brothers or sisters to me!”
“All right, Rudy. I get it. You win.” Zenith let out a heavy sigh. Jeez, way to give me a hard time about it, Mom.
Once again, Zenith deserves far better than everyone in her life.
”Lilia, I insist you stay with us,” Zenith pronounced. “You’re family at this point! I am not letting you do something as foolish as leave!”
This is the accompanying illustration we are given:
Paul’s face looks fucking weird for some reason, and I can’t put my finger on why. I’m not referring to the slap mark, either.
And so, with all of the responsibility laid squarely on Paul, we got through things without further issue. By the end, Zenith was looking at him with the cold dispassion of someone who was about to slaughter a pig.
As she should.
My balls tensed up in anticipation of what punishment she might unleash upon him.
Good fucking lord,
why was this written?
With that look still in her eyes, though, Zenith simply returned to her room. Lilia was crying, her face blank and expressionless, but tears streamed from her eyes. Paul looked conflicted about whether he should put his arms around her or not. For the time being, I was going to let the playboy do his thing.
“Shut up, Rudy!”
I followed after Zenith. If this situation wound up with her and Paul getting divorced, that would create its own host of problems. I knocked on the bedroom door, and Zenith poked her head out.
“Mother,” I said, deciding to just cut right to the chase, “the stuff I said earlier was a lie I just made up. Please don’t hate Father.”
She.has.every.right.to.hate.him.
For a moment, Zenith was taken aback, but then she grimaced and gently patted my head. “I know, sweetie. I would never have fallen in love with a man who was that terrible,” she said. “Your father’s got a weakness for women, so I’d prepared myself for the day something like this might happen. It was just a bit sudden, is all.”
“Father has a weakness for women?” I asked, playing ignorant.
“Yes. Not as much in more recent times, but back in the day he was pretty indiscriminate. You might have older brothers and sisters out there that we don’t know about, Rudy.”
Zenith is such a doormat, holy shit. Stick up for yourself, woman! Stop enabling Paul.
“Make sure you don’t grow up to be someone like that, okay, Rudy?” She rubbed—no, gripped the top of my head even more firmly. “Make sure you treat Sylphie real nice, okay, Rudy?”
Knowing full well what happens in future chapters, this lesson is falling on deaf ears. Truly tragic.
Anyways, we skip over to Lilia’s point of view.
I’ll just come out and say it: I was the one who seduced Paul.
Just like that, my sympathy has vanished.
Watching him reminded me of our first time. We were still so young, back when he was staying at the training hall where we practiced. Paul snuck into my room at night and forcibly had his way with me. I didn’t dislike him, but I certainly didn’t love him back. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic encounter. I’d cried, at first.
Nevermind what I just said, this is among one of the more horrifying things I’ve read in this Isekai slop. Pedophilia
and rape in one book.
The fact that she still harbors feelings for her rapist, and then spends two paragraphs blaming herself is pretty tragic. It’s too bad that the author has clearly based his knowledge of rape and sexual assault purely from hentai, otherwise I don’t think this is something the fandom would just overlook about Paul.
Several months passed without anything especially major happening.
Sylphie was growing remarkably fast. She was now able to cast Intermediate-level spells without incantations, and she was reaching the point where she could pull off some pretty subtle effects. In comparison, my skill with the sword was relatively unchanged. I’d gotten decent, but I hadn’t managed to win a single round against Paul so far, so it was difficult to get too excited about my progress.
This book is at least 90% walls of text.
Lilia’s attitude had softened as well. Previously, she’d always been on her guard around me—but since I’d been messing around with magic since I was a little kid, that was only natural. While nothing had really changed about her lack of overt emotion, I felt her words and her mannerisms now bore an overwhelming sense of reverence for me. I got that she was happy about my help, but I wished she’d tone it down.
I wish she’d get some therapy or something.
If nothing else, ever since that incident, Lilia had begun to talk to me a little—mostly old stories about Paul. Apparently, they had both studied swordplay at the same training hall many years back.
This is sad in hindsight. I don’t need to elaborate.
Or how Paul would skip training in order to
gallivant around town. Or how Paul had forced himself on her in the middle of the night and taken her virtue. Or how Paul had eventually fled the training hall.
Of all people to trauma dump on,
why a presumably six year old child?! Why the fuck would you tell a six year old child that
their father is a rapist?????!!
What the fuck is wrong with people in this Isekai world?!!
The more she told me about the past, the more my opinion of Paul dropped. He was a rapist and a cheater. He was trash.
Finally, some self awareness in the story.
Still, it wasn’t like he was rotten to the core. He was childish, irresponsible, and something about that seemed to tickle women’s maternal instincts. He tried to be a good, strict father to me, but he wasn’t good at keeping up that facade; when he set his mind to it, he
mostly just came across as frank and straightforward, and I knew for sure he wasn’t a bad guy through and through.
Why am I not surprised about a literal pedophile coming to the defense of a rapist?
“C’mon, look at me,” Paul said, pulling me out of my daze. We were in the middle of sword practice. “Don’t you want to grow up to be a cool guy like your dad?”
The nerve of this guy, honestly.
“Is it cool to be a guy who cheats on his wife and risks tearing his family apart?”
“Ngh…” Paul grimaced.
At the look on his face, I resolved to be a bit more careful. I was supposed to be young and oblivious. I didn’t cheat on anyone—girls could come to me of their own accord. That’s how I’d handle things.
“Look,” I said, “if that bothers you so much to hear, could you please keep your hands off of anyone who isn’t Mother?”
“O-other than Lilia, right?”
This man had learned nothing.
“Next time, Mother might move back in with her family without saying a word, you know.”
“Guh.”
My contempt for both characters becomes stronger with each scene they’re in together.
Was this guy hoping to build himself a harem? To have some secret retirement out in the sticks, where he had a beautiful wife, a maid he could get handsy with whenever he wanted, and a son to train in the way of the sword?
Obviously he is. Don’t know what else to say except that he’s a cheating rapist who deserves to die horribly. I hope Zenith sets him on fire.
Huh. That made me kind of jealous. That was probably the best ending from his perspective. It’d be like winding up with both Louise and Siesta at the end of that one light novel series. Maybe, rather than being oblivious, I should try to learn from his example?
Every single bad thing that happens to him from here on out is 100% deserved. I don’t care if he didn’t do anything to anyone who persecutes him; it’s divine karma.
When it came to video games, if nothing else, I was fond of girls, and loved harems. Perhaps, on an intrinsic level, I was the same sort of womanizer that Paul was.
Something tells me that Rudy is a huge Blue Archive fan.
Skipping over a few months, Zenith and Lilia give birth.
It was a girl. I had a little sister. I was glad it wasn’t a little brother.
Because a brother is more likely to hold you accountable for being a reprehensible degenerate?
Zenith’s daughter was named Norn. Lilia’s daughter was named Aisha.
Since I was spoiled and informed that Aisha grows up to be every bit as a pedophile as Rudy, I wish she’d was a stillbirth.
The chapter ends there. I hate how the author treats Lilia and Zenith. I want Paul and Rudy to die horribly.
That is all for now. We are mercifully close to the conclusion of Volume 1.
