Chapter 18: Family
“Mom! Is it true that Dad used to be an adventurer and defeated the Demon King?”
Her son was looking at her with sparkling eyes.
(Ah, so he’s finally learned about that…)
Rio couldn’t help but hold her head in her hands.
Her son, Rei, seemed to take after his father, being a bright child. He was good at sports and had a lovely face. He was a child without any flaws.
He was a bit chubby for her child, but that made him cute and cuddly.
However, he was too quick to learn. At just six years old, he had mastered reading and writing perfectly and started reading all sorts of books.
Rio had intentionally tried not to place any literature about the Demon King or heroes near her son, but this was a matter of world history. There were limits to how much information could be blocked.
Perhaps he had heard it from friends, or maybe an employee of the company had accidentally let it slip (despite the gag order).
She would have been grateful if he had asked that question when he was a bit older and could understand more about his father, but Rio didn’t know how to convey the facts to a six-year-old child.
“…It’s true.”
Rio answered, trying to give off an air of “please don’t ask any more,” but it didn’t work on the innocent six-year-old child.
“Hey, Mom. How did Dad defeat the Demon King?”
As expected, that question came. Rio hesitated.
She couldn’t possibly tell the truth, like [He used your mom and the others as bait, and then struck from behind without warning].
She had just recently told him, “You must be kind to girls, okay?”
She couldn’t teach him that his own father was the kind of person who subjected women to hellish special training and mercilessly used them as bait against the Demon King.
“…Well, he made lots of friends, and they all defeated the Demon King together.”
Rio thought it was a perfect answer that made her want to praise herself.
“Friends? Were there such strong friends? To defeat the Demon King, they must have been really strong, right?”
Rei looked puzzled. He didn’t seem very convinced. Indeed, this child was clever and cute. But now, that intelligence was tormenting Rio.
“Y-yes, there were about a hundred strong friends! Your father was good at making friends! Your mom and the others fought together too!”
They weren’t really friends, but members gathered with money. It was closer to an employment relationship than one of trust.
In fact, some of the hero party members who fought together then were still employed by the company. They were useful for guard duty or when rough troubles occurred.
“Wow! Mom was strong too! So that’s why everyone is always afraid of you, because you’re strong!”
…My son, the reason your mother is feared is because she strictly controls the employees, not because of physical strength.
She wanted to explain this, but Rio just laughed it off.
Rio was feared both inside and outside as the demon vice-president of the Trao Trading Company.
“But Mom, you can’t use magic like Lilith or Dominique, right? Were you a warrior? How did you become strong?”
Another difficult question came.
Rio wasn’t originally that strong of a warrior. Although she became stronger to some extent after receiving Trao’s guidance, she would have probably remained an A-rank warrior at best.
The reason Rio was able to fight against the Demon King was thanks to the blessing of the God Kusanagi.
“…I worked really hard and prayed to God to make me strong.”
Effort… could that really be called effort?
Rio felt sick remembering the time she fought in the country of Yamato.
Fighting to the brink of death, forcibly recovering with ultra-high-grade potions, and repeating this endlessly.
Looking back, she must have been out of her mind.
If her husband ever tried to make their son do the same thing, she would cut him down without hesitation.
“Can you become strong if you pray to God? How did you pray?”
How? With the power of money?
She couldn’t tell a child, [We rebuilt the god’s shrine, improved the road to the shrine, and even made a stone statue of the god].
Rio had always been teaching her child, “There’s more to life than money.”
She didn’t want him to become someone like his father who only thought about making money.
“…Well, if you work hard and make various offerings, you can become strong.”
The fact that those offerings required a national budget-level of money was a secret.
“I see. Then why was Dad strong?”
Why?
Because he was good at making money? Because he stripped equipment from his comrades’ corpses and exchanged them for money, or sold addictive potions to monsters to swindle them?
She couldn’t say such things. This child respected his father, who was a great merchant, and now that he knew his father had saved the world, that respect had become enormous. She didn’t want to destroy the child’s admiration for his father.
However, there was a problem. She couldn’t quite remember her husband fighting like a proper adventurer.
Of course, it’s not that he didn’t fight. It’s just that the impact of everything else was so strong that the impression of him fighting was weak.
If she remembered correctly, he defeated Necros, one of the Four Heavenly Kings who was an undead, by dousing him with holy water like a waterfall. For Helg, the Lizard King who was also one of the Four Heavenly Kings, he poured plenty of oil on him and roasted him crispy. For the Demon King, he struck from behind in one swift motion.
Wait, wasn’t he just a coward? What about being a hero?
“…You see, your father was very smart. Of course, he was also strong, but as a merchant, he used his head to fight by exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses.”
It was more like he used the power of money to fight, but that’s similar enough.
“Hmm, if I work hard, can I become an adventurer who saves the world like Dad?”
“I want to be like Dad” – What an adorable thing for a child to say.
Rio couldn’t help but hug Rei.
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Then she answered:
“You absolutely must not become like your father!”
“Huh? Why not?”
Rei was surprised. His mother, who had been gentle just moments ago, now had a scary face.
The father Rei knew was a great merchant conducting business across the world.
There wasn’t a person who didn’t know his name, and on top of that, he was a hero who had saved the world.
Why shouldn’t he become like his father?
“Rei, you’re a smart child. But you’re still young. There are many things you wouldn’t understand even if I explained them, okay? Do you understand?”
“Y-yes…”
Faced with his mother’s unyielding words, Rei could only nod silently.
“That’s what happened,”
Rio complained at the Trao Trading Company’s executive meeting.
Although it was called an executive meeting, the people around the table were Lilith and Dominique.
Since all three were also Trao’s wives, it was more like a family meeting.
“That’s still better, Rio,”
Lilith sighed deeply.
With age, Lilith had become a little plumper and even more approachable, the very image of a loving mother. She oversaw the human resources and general affairs departments at Trao Trading Company.
“Our daughter Erika asked me, ‘Why did you marry Papa?'”
“Oh no…”
Dominique’s face fell.
Dominique, who single-handedly managed the development department, had grown out her once-complex curly hair to her collarbone, adopting a hairstyle that matched her refined features.
“What did you answer?”
Rio asked with a grimace.
“Of course, I said, ‘Because we were in love.'”
“Did Erika accept that?”
Dominique inquired.
“She said, ‘Were you, Mama, Rio-san, and Dominique-san all in love at the same time? Isn’t that called infidelity?'”
“She hit a sore spot. Girls really do mature faster. I’m glad I have a boy,”
Rio said, placing a hand on her chest in gratitude for her good fortune.
“Infidelity, huh? Well, he did propose to all three of us simultaneously. It was so brazen it was almost refreshing, but from a common-sense perspective, it’s not normal,”
Dominique said, her gaze distant.
Incidentally, Dominique also had a son named Roberto. Roberto took after his mother, being intelligent and quiet, so he didn’t trouble Dominique with strange questions.
The three children were the same age.
“I told her that such love exists too, but even I felt it was a weak excuse. I’m worried Erika might become involved with married men in the future,”
Lilith said, concerned about her daughter’s future.
“Why did we get married, I wonder? Was it a lapse in judgment? I suppose I did like him at the time,”
Rio tilted her head.
“What are you saying, Rio? You liked him the most!”
Lilith immediately chided Rio.
“That’s right, Rio. We weren’t as enthusiastic, but you agreed right away. Seeing that, we felt like we had to agree too, you know?”
Dominique chimed in.
“Ugh, was that how it was?”
Rio closed her eyes, trying to recall her memories.
“Well, I did like senpai back then. But once the child was born, all my attention went there. It’s like I stopped caring about my husband entirely…”
“Rio, you’re pretty awful, aren’t you? Like you’d toss aside an old husband for a younger man?”
Dominique looked exasperated.
“We still have more love, don’t we? At least I don’t regret getting married that much. He’s not a bad person, after all. He may be called stingy, but he does spend money for others,”
Lilith said. She also played a central role in Trao Trading Company’s charitable activities. The company put effort into philanthropy, especially in promoting harmony between monsters and humans. Trao Trading Company aimed for a world where neither a Demon King nor a Hero would ever be needed again.
“I don’t regret it either, I guess. The work is rewarding, and I wasn’t that interested in men anyway, so it was good to get married quickly. Plus, it’s great that I can always be with Rio and Lili chan. Usually, when people get married, everyone lives separately, right? But because the three of us married the same person, we didn’t have to worry about that,”
Dominique seemed satisfied with her married life.
When Trao married the three of them, he built a large house so they could all live together.
However, the building also served as the headquarters for Trao Trading Company. The fact that it wasn’t just spending money on a house was very typical of Trao.
“It’s not like I regret it either! I just don’t want Rei to become like senpai!”
Rio hastily explained.
“Well, yeah…”
“That’s true…”
Lilith and Dominique agreed on that point.
Trao himself was away on a business trip to another country.
There was a time when the three wives told him, “As the chairman, you should stay put at the headquarters,” and he worked from home.
However, when he started to gain weight, the wives allowed him to work outside again due to their preferences.
Trao, with his three wives and three children, remained frugal but was a caring father who loved his family.
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