Chapter 79
“Wow, you made so much?”
“Ahaha, Ms. Ophelia is incredibly fast with her hands, you know? And she’s such a good cook, too, so Eve must be happy, right?”
Indeed, Ophelia can even bake cookies and bread herself; she really can do anything. Come to think of it, she’s great at desserts too—maybe I should ask her to make that for me, too?
Well, you could just melt marshmallows and mix them with kataifi and pistachio spread. I’ll ask her later.
“Ehehe!! Ophelia really is good at everything!!”
“Princess, you must wash your hands before eating.”
“Oh, right.”
At Ophelia’s words, Eloise’s mother nodded too.
“Yes, that’s right. Did Ellie wash her hands too?”
“I’m going to wash up now. Eve! Come with me!”
“OK!!”
Eloise must be called Ellie at home. On the way to the bathroom, I also saw Doggo sprawled out on the floor, rolling around while clutching some spiky rubber-ball-looking thing against its belly.
The translation function is handled through the wireless earbuds I gave Doggo, so it’s no problem. My voice is being converted by magic too, so everything I say comes out in English right now.
“Eve, you’re leaving the country tonight, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“That’s a shame. It’d be nice if you stayed the night. We could take a bath together, too.”
“U-uh, eeh.”
Sorry, I’m still too embarrassed to do that yet. Eloise, you’re a good girl.
“They said Grandpa and Grandma would be coming today, too. I wonder when they’ll get here.”
“Really? I first met your grandparents at a restaurant. Did I tell you that?”
“I heard it from Grandpa. Ms. Eleanor is acquainted with Grandpa and Grandma.”
“Ah.”
Usually, Ms. Eleanor was the one who drove me around, but when we went to ride the London Eye, Grandpa took me there.
“Eloise, look at this.”
“Huh? What is it?”
I curled my palm into a little cup, filled the narrow gap with running water, and fired a palm water gun at the sink.
ㅡPshwoosh!
“Ahaha! What is that? How do you do it?”
“Watch closely, you do it like this and just shoot it out with your palm. It’s a water gun.”
“Heeey, Eve knows a lot of interesting things.”
“Mwahaha, I’m pretty smart!”
“I can’t do Reversi, though.”
“..Take this water gun!”
“Eek! I was just kidding!”
While I was playing palm water gun with Eloise, her mother called from the living room telling us not to splash around and to hurry out, so we came out quickly. I won the water gun game, of course. I was a total deadeye sharpshooter.
ㅡBip bip bip..!!!
ㅡGrrrrrrraaaaarrrr..!!!!
“Gasp, Doggo and Saffron are fighting!!”
“Doggo can fight too? But it’s a robot.”
“Hmm... well, it feels almost alive.”
As Grandpa and Grandma arrived, the Chihuahua Saffron came too. The little thing was trembling all over while standing off against Doggo in a state of extreme tension. When I picked Doggo up and held it in my arms, Saffron hid the teeth it had bared and trembled too.
So trembling was just its default setting.
“Grandpa! Grandma!”
“Hello!”
“Oho, what a cute granddaughter. Eve is here too; have fun while you’re here.”
“Yup, good.”
Eloise’s father, who had been confined to the master bedroom, also shuffled out into the living room, and with Grandpa and Grandma too, it was practically a big family reunion around the table.
“My goodness, dear, why did you make so much food?”
“Ms. Ophelia made almost all of it. It’s going to be incredibly delicious today.”
“What are we going to do? She’s a guest, and yet she helped with all the kitchen work.”
“It’s fine. I heard you’d just been discharged from the hospital.”
It was enough that I could practically see the affection meter above Grandpa and Grandma’s heads fill all the way to 100 percent. If you work as well as Ophelia does, it makes sense.
Come to think of it, Eloise’s mom and dad were hospitalized on New Year’s Day, so this seemed to be their first family meal together since the New Year began. Still, I wondered if it was really okay for me to be here...?
“So what? The more people, the better.”
“R-really..? That’s strange.”
I never really felt that way when I was at the orphanage, though? I wanted to whack those bastard jerks who stole all my sausages with a spoon, okay?? The toddler class kids didn’t do anything, but they always ate first, and they made the student class do all the dishwashing. I used to think, man, I wish there were fewer people.
Guess people from wealthy families really do think differently.
“Alright, dig in before it gets cold.”
“Thank you for the meal!”
“Ms. Ophelia, I’ll eat well.”
“Yes, please do.”
It was a British dining table, but today’s chef, Ophelia, wasn’t British, so it was piled high with all kinds of insanely delicious food. There were even meat chunks the size of a human head, pies and the like, plus tomato-based pasta. There was an insane amount of tasty food.
Ophelia sat to my left, and Eloise to my right, while Grandpa and Grandma ate the food Ophelia had made almost entirely by herself and kept showering it with praise five hundred times over.
Eloise’s dad told her mom that it would be nice if he learned some cooking from Ophelia, and got hit with 500-fold verbal abuse—“So you’re saying my cooking tastes bad? Then go eat outside. You’re awfully full of yourself. Tomorrow morning’s breakfast will be mushy peas with no toast—just you wait,” and so on—before losing his right to a peaceful meal for a while.
It was so funny that Eloise and I giggled for a long time. It really felt like a warm, happy family.
ㅡWoof!! Woof-woof-woof!!!
ㅡBeep-beep..!! Beep-beep-beep!!!
Saffron and Doggo were both given huge stacks of what looked like saltless boiled beef, but they were barking over a single piece of meat even though there was no way the two of them could finish it all. Since the two small dogs were yipping away in a corner, it just sounded like background music.
“Right, come to think of it, there was that.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Eloise’s dad brought up something in the middle of the meal, and Eloise’s mom nodded along. I looked around wondering what was going on, and Eloise’s face seemed a little tense.
“What is it? What’s wrong, Eloise?”
“Ah, um.... Well....”
“Mmm?”
Eloise’s mom and dad were discharged sometime this afternoon, and they’d been hospitalized for about three weeks. In other words... they hadn’t even been able to share meals together during Christmas.
Which meant....
‘T-they’re going to give me a present..?!’
I was seriously screwed. I had prepared a gift too, but it was just a doll Grandpa made that I bought at the neighborhood corner store. If Eloise’s mom and dad gave her something expensive and cool here, then when I handed over my doll, they might go, “Ha! What is this?? Just throw it away,” you know.
Of course, I didn’t think Eloise would do that because she’s kind, but I can’t exactly see the depths of her heart..!
“Ellie, could you close your eyes for a moment?”
“Huh? But I’m eating.... Fiiine, okay.”
And to think they even told her to close her eyes—just how amazing was this gift supposed to be? Cold sweat suddenly trickled down my back, and it felt like my hands and feet were starting to shake too.
Once Eloise closed her eyes, her dad dashed into the master bedroom, and her mom started rustling around, preparing something.
‘What is that..!!’
Then Eloise’s dad came striding out of the master bedroom holding some huge box with both hands; if you stacked it neatly, it was big enough to fit about three of me inside.
“Ellie? Could you open your eyes?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Eloise’s mom gently guided her by the shoulders and set her in front of the huge gift box. The moment she opened her eyes, shock hit Eloise so hard her pupils practically shook.
“W-what is this?”
“Want to lift the lid?”
“Ah, yes.”
ㅡClick!
When the lid opened, the walls of the gift box split apart in four directions. Inside was none other than....
“D-Dad!”
“Haha, aren’t you happy? You said you wanted one.”
“Hwaaak....”
A children’s scooter, of all things. It was cutely designed in pink, and even a helmet with character art on it was sitting right on the saddle.
The present that came from Mom afterward was something like a thin paper envelope, so I felt somewhat relieved at least.
“This is the musical I wanted to go see!!”
“Yeah, I said we’d definitely go together, didn’t I?”
“Thank you so much, Mom!”
The very expensive musical concert tickets Eloise had wanted. I’d thought it was just an allowance envelope, so I’d been relieved, but something even more extravagant came out.
‘Oh my god.’
It felt like I’d been hit over the head with a hammer. Maybe it’d be better not to give her the doll present I prepared after all.
“Miss Eloise, the Princess has also prepared a gift.”
“Hooeeek!!!!!”
I was going to try and get away without giving anything, but!! That idiot Ophelia just blurted it out, and now I had to hand over the doll I bought from the corner store for 20 pounds—after the children’s scooter (super cool) and the musical concert tickets (the thing Eloise wanted, and insanely famous)!!!
“Eve? Really?”
“N-no..? I mean.... it’s not really much of a gift..?”
“Pfft, what is it?”
“Well... after seeing the presents your mom and dad gave you, I kind of feel like I don’t need to give it..?”
“What do you mean? That’s not how it works. A gift is a gift, and they’re all good.”
“B-but it’s really a pretty worthless gift..? If you get disappointed after receiving it, it might even ruin your appetite..?”
“What are you talking about? It’s fine, what is it?”
And somehow Ophelia was holding the gift box, when had she even brought it over? She’d tossed it to me to hand over, but I didn’t have the courage to give this doll to Eloise right now.
“Th-this is... the present....”
With a face that was practically half-teary, looking dazed and silly, I handed the gift box to Eloise.
“Pfft... thanks, Eve. It’s okay if I open it now, right?”
“I-it’d be better to open it later, but...”
“You may open it now.”
“Ophelia?!”
Under Ophelia’s OK sign, Eloise’s absurdly cheap corner-store doll gift unboxing began. I was so embarrassed just watching that I felt like jumping into the lasagna on the table.
ㅡRustle....
As the green ribbon wrapped around the red box came undone, Eloise, with the gift box on her lap, opened the lid.
“A doll.... N-no. This is...?”
“Gah...”
I thought Eloise was probably about to say, Why are you giving me something like this?—but then.
“E-Eve..! How did you get this?!”
“Wha..?”
“This doll! How?!”
Eloise’s face had her eyes sparkling wider than I’d ever seen before, and her mouth hanging open in shock. It was nothing like the reaction I’d expected.
“I-It was just...? I got it while I was out walking..?”
“No way! You got a Bramble & Button doll while out walking?!”
“Huh..?”
Come to think of it, that was the toy store’s name, wasn’t it..? But so what...?
“I heard they haven’t sold a single doll in three years already..?!”
“Huh? They were selling it just fine. Why..?”
“Eve, don’t tell me you don’t know where this doll was made?”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That thing, what was it... scrambled egg...”
“Bramble & Button!”
“Oh my, really..?”
At Eloise’s words, Grandpa and Grandma, along with her dad and mom, were all startled too. They came up behind Eloise, gathered close together, and stared intently at the gift I’d given her.
“It is real, it really is.”
“My, even the embossing looks like it was made recently?”
It’s a 100-year-old doll shop in Mayfair, London’s priciest aristocratic district—a three-generation hereditary dictatorship disguised as a doll shop. Come to think of it, Grandpa wasn’t even running the shop; he was just fiddling with a sewing machine.
‘I-it’s expensive..?’
Suddenly my head started spinning. My absurdly brilliant 100-million-IQ brain went into emergency mode and started spinning like crazy.
“S-so, what do you think! It’s my gift!”
“I-I can’t accept something like this..! It’s way too expensive..!?”
“Is it that much...? I don’t really know how much it costs.”
I really didn’t know. When I bought them, I got two for 20 pounds, so they were 10 pounds each, weren’t they?
“They hadn’t sold for years already... I think one went for 3,000 pounds recently.”
“Y-you really, there are kids here!”
Eloise’s dad muttered under his breath for a bit, then got a painfully hard back smack from Mom.
‘3,000 pounds..? Does the pound even go that high..?’
Eloise suddenly welled up with tears. She stroked the doll’s face and hugged it tight.
“E-Eve.... Thank you so much...”
“Ehehe, I’m glad you like it. I bought it because it looked like you, Eloise.”
“I see.... Thank you, really, really thank you..!”
I don’t really know what happened, but I guess it worked out, right..?