Chapter 424: A casual talk and some commotion |
A sudden thought came to mind.
John's eyes widened and he muttered, "Oh heavens. What about my sisters...?"
Betty blinked. "What about them, Father? Will our Aunties do something?"
"Well..." John said, "I know you can handle yourself. But since that incident, my sisters... your aunties are all super overprotective of you, remember?"
Betty paused and then let out a deep sigh. "That *is* true..."
John nodded. "Right. So-"
"In that case, I will simply have to introduce them first thing to any potential suitors." Betty hummed and thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "It will help to screen them too... if they are truly loyal and care for me, they will be seeing our family often in any case. Ah, and I suppose I should introduce them to Mother as well. She is very good at detecting anyone who is fickle on loyalty..."
For a split second, John imagined that scene. Then he silently muttered a prayer for their everlasting soul.
Betty giggled and leaned down to play with Aurora in the stroller. As she did, Betty said, "I am not seriously considering it, Father....Yet."
Aurora giggled and reached up to pat Betty's face. "Bedi!"
Betty smiled and brushed aside Aurora's blonde hair. "That is right, Rory. I am Betty, your big sister."
Aurora giggled again.
John smiled at the sight. And at the same time he quietly pushed aside the thought that he might very well be dealing with insane romcom situations in the very near future that didn't involve him directly for once. Instead, he looked at Betty and said, "On a serious note though, how have you been recently, Betty? Is everything going alright in life for you?"
Betty straightened to look at John and said, "Like I said, everything is well. Why do you ask, Father?"
John leaned on the stroller and said, "Well... Honestly, it's been a bit weird not having you or Alphy around the house. I mean, Alphy is *technically* around, but she's been spending a lot of time with Asako these days."
Betty let Aurora play with her fingers. And as she did, Betty said, "I see." She sighed and said, "I can understand that. I do miss the hustle and bustle from before quite a bit. And while I have everyone from the studio, it has been surprisingly lonely." She paused and then let out a bemused smile. "I suppose something about this world and these times simply make me feel sentimental."
John nodded. "Tell me about it. I've been feeling the same way since my older brother somehow showed up again with a whole family..."
Betty blinked and looked over at John. "Older brother? We have an uncle? Since when?"
John paused. "Oooh. Right. I forgot to tell you guys, huh?" He chuckled. "I guess only Meggie knows since she was there... but yeah, you have an uncle. He went through a whole ordeal, just like me. Probably a whole light novel series' worth of adventures... but either way, it's been strangely emotional times recently."
Betty rolled her eyes and said, "There you are, Father. Skipping over very important information again..."
John laughed. "It isn't *that* important. I mean, we'll probably rarely see my brother anyway. He has his own family and everything, so he'll probably only show up around the holidays."
At that time, Aurora started squirming. "Baba!" Her bright green eyes started tearing up and she reached towards John.
John walked around and unbuckled Aurora before holding her in his arms. He pulled out a small baby bottle from a side compartment of the stroller and said, "It looks like someone's hungry~"
Aurora giggled and then grabbed the offered baby bottle before hungrily sucking on it.
John smiled and held her carefully, brushing her blonde hair aside.
Betty leaned against the nearby building and watched. As she did, her eyes seemed to shimmer a bit, shifting from her favorite crimson hue to a soft blue-green, just like John's. She let out a warm smile and said, "I never thought you would be good at taking care of infants, Father."
"Hey." John looked up at Betty and said, "I'm a good dad, okay? Not the best, but I know the bare minimum. Besides, you and your sisters... and even Little Xuan and Little Wu were all exceptions to the rule of a normal kid."
Betty chuckled and pushed herself off the building before looking at Aurora. She let out a soft smile before looking at John. "I suppose that is true. None of us were ever truly infants." She paused and then her eyes sparkled with mischief. "And our dear father was far from as calm as he is now today."
John groaned and said, "Please don't remind me..."
Betty giggled. Then she smiled and said, "Are you ever going to write down your travels about the Three Realms, Father? It would do wonders as a novel series or a game, you know?"
"I know." John looked down at Aurora's sleepy eyes and then pulled the bottle away to burp her. After Aurora let out a soft burp, he set her back in the stroller and adjusted it so she could sleep. That done, he looked up at Betty and said, "I'll consider it when Rory is a bit older and I can step away a bit from Myth Inc. There's a lot going on still, you know?"
Betty laced her hands behind her back and said, "How is that going by the way? I presume the girls are fine now, so there should not be too much trouble, should there?"
"Oh, they're all fine." John finished tucking Aurora in for a nap and then looked back up at Betty. "There's not much work to deal with for the girls. Especially since Kai joined and helped managed Prodigy. But there's been a growing demand for male VTubers too, so we're working on that. Not to mention we're expanding overseas... I've actually got a meeting with Bai and Qing about that soon too."
Betty hummed and said, "It sounds to me like Father is just starting more work that you need to..."
John felt his ears heat up and he said, "I'm not! Not really... okay, maybe. But I'm delegating more, so it'll be fine!"
Betty raised an eyebrow and said, "You had better, Father. You know that Mother will be quite upset if you spend too much time with work and not enough with Little Rory... not to mention what my aunts will do to you if they learn you are neglecting Little Rory in favor of your work."
John shivered and said, "Yeah, yeah. No need to lecture your old man..."
Betty chuckled.
John smiled and started walking. "Come on. It's getting late, so how about I treat you to lunch before you get back to your day, Betty?"
Betty moved to John's side and smiled. "That would be nice, Father."
John ruffled Betty's hair and then started walking off with her.
===
After school, in the cafeteria, Meggie got a text on her phone. She frowned and opened it to see a picture of John in a cafe waving, with Betty holding a sleeping Aurora on her lap.
...Jealous. Okay, Meggie wasn't before, but now she was definitely jealous...
Rin looked over after taking a bite from a burger. When she swallowed, she peered at the phone and said, "Oh! Is that Mister John?"
Yuri tilted her head, sipping on a bottle of distilled water. She grimaced a bit, but sighed and kept drinking. After that, she looked to Rin and said, "You still call him that, huh?"
Rin wiped her mouth with a napkin and said, "Mister John is Mister John."
Meggie stared at her cute sleeping baby sister one more time. Then she sighed and said, "Yeah. It's Dad. He just sent a sappy picture of Rory sleeping."
"Ooh!" Rin's eyes sparkled and she leaned over. "I wanna see!"
Meggie quickly hid her phone and said, "H-Hey! Get back! My picture!"
Yuri pulled Rin back and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Rin..."
Rin pouted. "I wanna see Rory too... Mister John and Miss Yue won't even let me hold her..."
Yuri shook her head. "That's because you look like you're going to run away with Rory all the time, Rin."
"I wouldn't! And I can't help that Rory is so cute!"
Meggie rolled her eyes at Rin's antics.
"Um." Emma, seated next to Meggie, glanced over. "Meggie... do you all really not care about this attention?"
"Hm?" Meggie looked around and realized that they were drawing a small crowd. Then she shrugged and said, "Who cares about those dweebs. They should mind their own business... It's not like there's a rule saying we can't eat with high schoolers."