When Phyllo rammed the wall with all his power, he will surely get hit by the wall and injure himself!
...or so I thought, but his body quickly dissolved into water and could somehow seep through the wall, letting him through the room next door with ease.
"Awesome..."
And shortly after that, Mom appeared in our room along with the magical circle that mysteriously appeared at the floor of our room.
"Mom!!" Altaire and I quickly ran towards her and hugged her legs.
"Altaire, Lyra!" Mom crouched down and returned our hugs.
Phyllo quickly appeared, following Mom, and he returned to Dad's side. Dad thanked him and lightly patted his head, carefully as he tried not to injure himself with Phyllo's sharp horn.
"Alright, let me set up some magical portals first," Mom said, as she took out two devices, opened them to form some kind of carpet with inscribed magical circle, and imbued the two devices with her magic. Soon, the carpet glows in two different colors—red and blue.
"It's all done. The red one will lead to Meredea's room, while the blue one will lead to, uhm, what was formerly my room."
"Which will be mine and Rupert's room!" Gale suddenly responded.
"Yes, that's right. The room's equipped with a queen-sized bed so you two could fit just fine there... Sorry for the trouble," Mom smiled politely.
"No problem," Rupert replied.
"Well then, we'll be off to set our rooms~," Gale walked away along with his bags and stepped on the blue carpet. Once he did, his body and bags slowly disappeared. I guess he's being transported to the other room. Rupert followed him right away.
Which leaves the Hartmann family alone~ Family time, coming right away~!
After we take turns to take baths, eat dinner together, and play with magic, we lied down on the bed. Oh, we also modified the structure of the interior—as we combined the two queen-sized beds together, so the four of us can sleep side by side. Dad is lying down on the left side, followed by Alt-nii, and then me... with Mom on the right side of the bed.
I observed my surroundings carefully. As I moved my body to the left side, I could see my big brother and Dad—and when I turned right, I could see Mom, so close to me. Mom and Dad are both looking at Alt-nii and me, with their usual warm gazes.
As Dad and Alt-nii talked, I decided to roll over to the right side—to Mom's side and converse with her. We looked into each other's eyes as we did it.
Late night chat with my family.
Me being so close to Mom, sharing the same bed.
Back when I was Reinst and when my family had a vacation together, we'd sleep in separate beds if we rented a very spacious room or apartment—or separate rooms, if each room is small. Even when Mother and I shared rooms—we'd sleep in separate beds. ...I remember that I slept with her when I was a child, back then, but I don't think I feel as affectionate as it is, right now, with Mom, as Lyra.
...ah, perhaps it's also because the ones tasked to take care of my daily necessities were the maids...
I turned over to see Mom.
Whoa, she is so close!
My kind and loving Mom... with her doll-like features. She may not have the same noble air and elegance as Mother, and may seem odd at times, but she's my mom. And I love her with my everything. I can't compare Mother with Mom—and I know that the part of me that was Reinst definitely loved Mother with her everything, too.
I noticed that Mom's age isn't really that far from Reinst's age—and I often wonder if only we'd meet back then, would we be able to get close to each other? Would I know this side of her?
...or have I actually met her, but didn't take the chance to get to know her, as Reinst? I regretted that I wasn't paying attention to other noble children back then. I would love to know how Mom and Dad were like, as children or teenagers.
...who would have known that I'd end up here, though?
Even if I have the ability to time travel and tell this to the past me, I bet 100% that she won't believe any of my words. Pretty sure she'd think I'm just a weird child spouting nonsense. And if I were to give her concrete proof that I was her in the past, I bet she'd think I stalked her!
"Mom, will you go directly for work tomorrow?" I asked while looking at her face.
"Well, we're going to Chinosato's Magic Associations in the evening, so we can spend time together in the morning and afternoon. Maybe we can take a look around the city."
"Eh? But me, Altaire, and Dad would be on disguise, right?"
"That's right. Which is why we should share tables during the breakfast next morning and got acquainted enough to walk around the city together? Of course Meredea and I wouldn't wear our flashy magician clothes before it's work time."
"Eeeh, so Mom and Dad can't be so friendly in public, then? Me and Lyra would be okay to be really friendly towards Mom, but Dad..."
"Alt, don't remind me that...," Dad's dejected voice could be heard.
We laughed at Dad's words.
"I should have disguised as a woman... Aaaaah..."
Dad seemed to regret his choice. True, he can be very friendly and affectionate to Mom if they were fellow women—but!!
Oy, Dad, don't you start the rumors about Mom being attracted to women or what... nobody else but us would know that it's just you in disguise, after all. Don't make Mom's honor in the noble society to plummet with any weird gossip...
Anyway, walking around Chinosato, eh? I really can't wait to do that! It was rare occasions for me in the past to be walking around the Eastern area, and I've never been to Estrada island before! I am excited to see what I can find out in this Chinosato City.
When everyone has decided it's bed time, all of us stopped talking and we turned off the lamps. I snuggled up in my blanket—shared with Mom, while Alt-nii's blanket is shared with Dad. I woke up in the middle of the night after I experienced what seemed to be a nightmare (couldn't remember the content, but there is a recurring nightmare that I often have) and silently stared at the ceilings, rolled over to see my family members.
I thought back to everything that I've been through... and I was amazed at how this event here—a happy family vacation, this close family bond... is actually happening. I am not dreaming, right? This is all real... right?
I rolled over to face Mom and snuggled up closer to her. I really love her smell—I mean, won't most children love their mother's nostalgic smell? Her warmth really helped me to get back to sleep. I gotta store up energy for tomorrow!