Chapter 64: Motherhood

While we were gazing at the flowers and chatting under the tree’s shade, I started to feel hungry.

「Shall we have lunch soon? My stomach is starting to growl」

「Me too. Let’s have some lunch then」

With a bright smile on her face, Flora took off the lid of the basket.

We’re having sandwiches for lunch today.

Even though I already know what ingredients are in them since we made them together, I’m still getting so excited.

I bet they are going to taste so good with those ingredients we used. As I waited with such thoughts in eager anticipation, I saw some children coming towards us.

「Ohh! It’s Aldo and Flora!」

「Ooo! Isn’t that a boxed lunch? If it’s those two, maybe they might even give us some!」

「Really?!」

「Heyy, you two are going way too fast!」

It was Colette and the usual gang of village children.

They were running through the field of flowers with great speed while pointing at us.

From what Kuroru said, he was ready to have some of the sandwiches that Flora and I were going to eat for lunch. I don’t know if it was because he’s a child that he had such sharp intuition.

「Colette-san, Kuroru-kun and Rukina-chan, right?」

Flora said with a heartwarming expression as she opened the basket up.

It wouldn’t be very adult like of us if we tried to hide the sandwiches because we see kids coming.

With a bitter smile, I thought that having a lively meal with the children once in a while isn’t so bad.

「Yay! I’m first!」

Colette was the first one to reach us and she threw herself onto the cloth.

Perhaps it was due to her running here so quickly that she got some soil on the cloth. Luckily, the dirt didn’t reach the sandwiches that were inside the basket.

The children’s act of innocence almost gave me a heart attack.

「Boo, there’s no way I can catch up to you when you started running first」

「If you’re a boy, you should be able to run even faster than that, no?」

Colette said with a teasing smile to Kuroru while he was taking deep breaths after he got here.

「I-I’m not going to lose next time!」

Well, given Kuroru’s personality, he can’t complain if Colette put it like that.

I don’t know if she said that to him because she knew that’s how he would react, but Colette will probably grow up to be a strong woman in the future.

「*haaah*…*haaa*…You two, are way too fast」

And finally, the young girl who was having trouble catching her breath named Rukina arrived.

Because of her calm personality, she wasn’t the type of child who would run around everywhere like Colette and Kuroru. It’s only normal for a child to be out of breath after running at full speed through this field since it’s a big field after all.

「Wow Rukina, you really don’t have enough stamina~」

「…It’s you two who have too much」

Rukina muttered in response to Kuroru’s astonished voice. She didn’t seem like she had enough air to speak.

「It’s harder to catch your breath if you suddenly stop after running at full speed. It’s better if you try to fix your breathing while walking around a little bit」

「Ohh, is that how it works?」

While nodding to Colette’s voice, I put my shoes on and stood up. Then, I encouraged Rukina to give it a try.

Rukina listened to me and started walking forward as she took deep breaths.

Honestly, it’d be even better if she tries to calm her breathing as she runs, but since she’s tired, walking slowly will do.

As we walked around for a little bit, Flora wiped the sweat off Colette and Kuroro’s face and gave them water.

She kind of looked like a mother who was diligently taking care of her own kids.

「…I’m okay now」

When Rukina’s breathing returned to normal, we went back to the shade under the tree.

After we asked her to sit down on the cloth, she took off her shoes and dropped straight down on her knees there.

Then when I looked at Flora, she seemed to be wondering about what to do with the dirt that Colette got on the cloth.

We could clean it with our hands, but we’re going to use them to eat our sandwiches. Even though we have water, I don’t think we want to get our hands dirty.

「You can just wipe that off with the towel. We still have a spare one so no worries」

「Okay!」

Flora looked relieved and wiped the dirt off with her towel as I took another towel out from my bag.

Honestly, I might have looked cool if I told her that I can just clean it with the towel I used, but it had hardly been used yet. It would probably be better to just clean it with the one that Flora, Kuroru and Colette used and then have them use the fresh one.

But even the fresh towel that I took out just now is going to be used by Rukina first so she can wipe her sweat though.

「Here, it’s an unused towel」

「I think it’s better if you give that to Flora-san. Colette and Kuroru both used hers, so I’ll just use yours, Aldo-san」

「Hm? Are you sure?」

I know it’s common for kids to share in a lot of families, but she doesn’t mind sharing with me too?

I handed the unused towel to Flora instead and then got my towel that I hung up on the tree and handed it to Rukina.

Since it has been hanging on the tree branch, any sweat should have dried out, so there shouldn’t be any smell…And that one was also one of the new towels that Flora brought to our house. I think it should be good.

While worrying about if it smelled, I looked at Rukina as she wiped her sweat.

「…This towels smells really good」

「Flora scented it, that’s why」

Yup, all the clothes in our house were scented by Flora’s flowers. It appears that since most girls in the village do not get to take a bath every day, it’s crucial to do that for their personal appearance.

The scent of flowers would smell different from person to person since it depends on the preference of the person and the people around them.

In fact, even Flora’s scent has changed many times in the past few months whenever I met up with her. It appears that she had been changing the scent depending on my reaction every time.

I noticed the changes in her scent but I didn’t think that she was changing it for me.

The way she puts in an effort to appeal to me makes me happy even to this day.

「We scent our clothes at home too so how come it smells so different? Is it because of the difference in knowledge about flowers?」

「Yeah, Flora and Fiona-san know all kinds of things about them」

They make their own herb medicine as well. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that they could already be called pharmacists.

Other factors might be because the towels are made of good materials and the fact that Flora and I both take a bath every day.

「Wow, this sandwich! It looks completely different from the ones I’ve had in my house!」

「Woww, it looks so yummy」

Even though I know how many we made this morning, I still couldn’t help peeking inside the basket when I heard that.

There were sandwiches made with pan-fried meat, vegetables, eggs, various other ingredients and slices of bread. The fragrant aroma of the pepper and the sweet & spicy sauce coming from the basket stimulated our appetite.

My stomach made the same sound as the children’s as I looked at the delicious-looking sandwiches.

It’s a little embarrassing because I’m kind of acting like a kid.

「Since you guys are here let’s all eat together」

「Yayyy!」

With Flora giving her permission to the children, they cheered in joy.

Hmm? How come she didn’t ask if I was going to eat too? Oh well, I don’t mind since all my dignity is out of the window anyway after my stomach started growling.

Flora listened to the children’s requests and handed them the sandwiches that they wanted one by one.

Since kids obviously like to eat meat, they picked the sandwiches with grilled meat and sweet & spicy sauce.

When I also chose to have that one as a matter of course, Flora started laughing.

I can’t help it. Those just looked so good.

While Flora was laughing, I started to bite into the sandwich.

Then, the flavor of wheat spread inside my mouth as it matched the sweet and spicy chicken perfectly. While the seasoning was somewhat strong, it ended up just right thanks to the crunchy and refreshing vegetables and tomatoes that came right after. The acidity of the tomatoes made the sandwich go down very easily.

「Mmmm, so delicious!」

I knew it was definitely going to be delicious since this morning, but it still went beyond what I had imagined.

「Yummy!」

「The sandwiches that my mom makes can’t be compared to this!」

「…It’s completely different from the ones my parents make too」

The children’s impressions that had nothing but honesty were really interesting.

They continued to munch down the sandwiches that Flora and I made in a frenzy.

When they eat them with such a happy smile on their face, it makes the people who made them want them to eat more.

Is this how Flora usually felt when she sees other people eating her food?

When I glanced at her randomly, I saw her watching over the children with a smile while she ate her vegetable and cheese sandwich.

「Colette-chan, you got tomato juice on the corner of your mouth. Here, I’ll wipe it for you」

With that said, Flora wiped Colette’s mouth with a handkerchief.

「Mmnn, thank you!」

「Hold on, there’s still more」

After Flora finished wiping Colette’s mouth, she nodded and then Colette resumed eating her sandwich again.

Flora looked so happy as she watched her.

Would it feel something like this if we had kids?

I thought about it as I looked at this pleasant scene.

◆

Perhaps the children had become sleepy after they had lunch because they had been playing around for a while; they are now asleep on the cloth.

They looked so innocent as they slept soundly on the cloth that it makes me want to protect them.

The three of them looked just like siblings as they slept together like that.

Flora was gently stroking their heads as she looked at the peaceful expressions on the children’s faces. A smile naturally formed on my face from this scene that completely contrasted with the dangerous adventurer lifestyle.

It’s so peaceful.

I looked up at the sky as the wind blew. The leaves from the tree above made a wave of rustling sounds that cooled our ears.

Every time the leaves shook, the sunlight came and left through the gaps they created.

A leaf gently fell on top of Kuroru’s nose. Then, it tickled his nose and made him sneeze.

Flora and I laughed quietly at that really cute gesture.

When I took a leaf and gave it a try, Kuroru’s nose twitched again in a funny way.

「Jeez, stop that」

I gently tickled his nose with the leaf because it looked like fun, but I was scolded softly by Flora so I stopped. Her scolding was just like a mother’s.

As the cool wind blew, I zoned out and randomly muttered out to her,

「…Is this how it would feel if we had kids?」

「Yeah」

Flora answered while she stroked Kuroru’s head as if she was apologizing to him for my pranks.

Then, she suddenly said it.

「…They are so cute. I want a kid too」

「Wha-Huh?!」

「Hm? What’s wrong?」

Flora tilted her head in wonder when I responded in shock.

Huh? Did she not realize what she just said? Can you really say those kind of things without thinking?

「Well, I was just surprised at how bold you are today. When we were getting out of bed, you told me tonight would be okay, and now you are telling me you want kids…」

After she listened to me in confusion as I laid those words back out, she went from being expressionless to suddenly all red after she came to understand what she just said.

「Ehh?! Nonono, that wasn’t what I meant! That wasn’t it! Well, it’s true that I want a kid, and I want to do things at night too-Wait never mind! I-I-I didn’t mean to suggest it like that! That was just me saying how I felt inside, wait, errr…ahhh?」

Flora was trying to deny it in a hurry but I feel like she was digging herself a deeper and deeper grave.

But even with her telling me like this, I could still understand that she only said what she said with pure intentions.

「Yeah yeah, I got it. You don’t have to get too worked up」

「Uuu, okay」

Flora looks so cute when she’s looking down with a red face. It makes me want to hug her.

However, I can take my time to do that tonight, so let’s just have some relaxation time right now.

I broke my seiza posture and lied down on the cloth like the children.

It’s pretty comfortable thanks to the grass and the cloth, but it didn’t really feel right without a pillow. It’s not like I can’t sleep without one since I’ve grown to be quite adaptive to the environment in my adventurer days, but the me now wants to pursue more comfort when sleeping.

When I was wondering if I could use my bag in place of a pillow, I found something even softer than a pillow as I looked around. It was something that is much softer than my bag.

I slowly got up and slowly moved next to Flora.

Flora said in a quiet voice “…But the kids”. It looks like she was still thinking about what we were talking about just now.

While making a bitter smile, I rested my head on her thighs. The feeling of her soft skin touched the back of my head.

「Hya! …A-Aldo-san, you surprised me」

「Ah I’m sorry. Can I have you be my pillow?」

I asked even though I was already using her thighs as one.

Then, Flora chuckled and placed her hand on my head.

「Ehehe, sure」

She stroked my head as she gently smiled.

Her small and soft hands gently caressed my head. It was a little embarrassing but it felt so nice that I did not mind.

It was as if I was enveloped in her care; I could feel an overwhelming sense of maternity from her.

If I had a mother, would she have done this kind of thing for me? It isn’t like me to think about that but it just came to my mind.

「…It’s a little embarrassing but this feels really good and it really calms me down. I know why you like people stroking your head now, Flora」

「Then, please be my pillow next time and stroke my head, okay?」

「…Un. Sure」

After I made that promise with Flora, my eyes slowly closed.