It was still early in the morning. A maidservant passed Urschel—still in his nightwear—a letter.
“Letter?” Urschel rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned; then, he opened the letter. It was addressed to him… and the sender was…
“…It’s from Mother!”
As Urschel read the letter, he broke into a smile and rushed out with the letter in hand. He entered the dining room that was filled to the brim with the smell of breakfast and yelled out loud, “Mother is coming today!!!”
Theodore blinked at those words while Hubert, who heard his wife was coming, spat out his tea with great force.
For Theodore, that morning’s breakfast was so mystifying that he couldn’t hide his confusion. Sitting next to Urschel, who excitedly ate his breakfast, Hubert kept glancing at his son while grabbing his breakfast in a melancholic mood.
Eventually, as if he couldn’t take it anymore, Hubert began to humbly and impatiently address Urschel, “Say, Urschel, it’s still not too late, how about we send a letter to Mom to decline? Won’t you?”
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“Eh, I don’t wanna. I haven’t met her since my fourteenth birthday. Mother, who is always busy, is finally coming here, you know? Besides, I have a lot to talk to her about Theodore.”
“B-but, but you know, if Mama is coming, I, I kinda don’t like it.”
“Then Father, why don’t you just go out? Isn’t it fine to have just me meeting Mother?”
“Noo! I don’t like that! If I do that, won’t Mama monopolize Urschel then?”
Considering Hubert’s tone and diction, it seemed like he really didn’t want to meet his wife.
“Come on, let’s just decline it! Even without Mama, Urschel still has me, isn’t that good enough!”
“No~ When I say no, it’s a no. I do need Father, but Mother is equally important! Besides, it’s only a few times that I can meet her, why don’t you just let me be. Father, you cannot be selfish.”
“Urgh… My son is so strict!!”
Hubert hung his head in disappointment as if he had given up all hopes. Beside him, Urschel started munching on his breakfast happily; Theodore was at a loss for what to do in this situation, so he decided to finish his breakfast for the time being.
Once breakfast was over, Urschel talked to Theodore, “Theodore! I want to introduce you to Mother, so, when she comes, let’s meet her together!”
Behind him, Hubert was indignantly glaring at Urschel, but the latter didn’t seem to notice at all. Theodore chose his words in his mind at first, and then he asked what he had kept quiet about earlier but still bothered him nonetheless.
“Um, before that, about your mother…no, this is my first time that I know I have a mother…”
At Theodore’s words, Urschel snapped his gaze to Hubert. Hubert quickly looked away and started whistling unnaturally. On his forehead, beads of cold sweat were visible to the naked eyes.
Urschel released a slight sigh.
“Theodore, I’ll explain it properly to you. Somewhere Father is not present!”
Afterwards, Urschel let Theodore into his room and offered an apology.
“I’m sorry, Theodore! It’s our family business, but it never occurred to me that it was not explained to you at all.”
“Oh, it’s okay. It’s complicated, isn’t it? Even without explanation, I could understand that.”
Looking at Hubert’s behaviour, their relationship as husband-and-wife must be strained. Theodore already clued in on that. On the other hand, it appeared that Urschel was close to both his parents.
Urschel lowered his gaze with a troubled look in his eyes.
“Hmmm. It’s something like that—you said complicated, right?—that might be the best way to put it… Our parents, their marriage was based on political interests, but their compatibility is as bad as it can get… As for me, I like them both, you know? Actually…”
From what he was told by Urschel, Hubert and his wife never got along since the start of their marriage. Even then, they still somehow went along as husband-and-wife, but as Hubert only had his heart wholly on his work, eventually Urschel’s mother had run out of patience for his lack of affections and decided to step out of the house to live at another place.
However, Urschel’s now late grandfather gave an ultimatum that they needed to conceive a child if she insisted on leaving. Although they loathed it, they still made a child—Urschel was born.
There, something happened that made their already bad relationship turn to the worse.
“My parents fought over my custody. According to Father, at first, both of them tried to push that responsibility of taking care of the to-be-born child to each other but never had they imagined that between a raccoon and a gorilla, a cute hamster could be born. So, they squabbled over who could take me.”
“…Uh-oh….”
That was pretty selfish of them. While at first, they were trying to push the responsibility onto each other, once the child turned out to be so cute, they squabbled. Anyhow, what bothered Theodore, even more, was that… the mother was compared to a gorilla.
Ignoring Theodore, Urschel continued to speak without hesitation.
The two fought over custody, but, in the end, Hubert won; Urschel was raised under Hubert’s care. This matter had created a complete rift between the two.
For Urschel’s sake, they decided not to get a divorce, but his mother started to live separately, and, besides coming to visit Urschel a few times a year, she wouldn’t stop by this manor. Furthermore, in recent years, she was rarely in the country and started on a new ascetic practice1. This practice made her fully occupied, so they rarely were able to meet each other.
Theodore wondered just what was this ascetic practice about, but Urschel took no notice of that and continued speaking, “So, the last time I met Mother was during my birthday; I haven’t met her at all since then. She’ll probably be pleased to hear that Theodore and I have become brothers.
“…Do you think so?”
“Yes, she surely will. Mother has a scary appearance, but she’s truly gentle, you know?”
At those words, Theodore turned somewhat anxious. ‘Gorilla’, ‘Ascetic practice’, ‘Scary appearance’; these terms that popped up here and there in his explanation gave Theodore the creeps.
“Say, Urschel, is it really going to be okay?”
“It’s alright! Rather, I really want to introduce Theodore to Mother. Thinking about how Father never mentioned Mother to Theodore, he for sure hasn’t told Mother anything about you either. Therefore, I really want to tell Mother how I now have a super great brother called Theodore.”
Theodore couldn’t say anything as Urschel smiled and laughed happily.