Chapter 4: Sleepover
Left with no other choice but to follow the Duchess's request, Kielnode reluctantly brought the kids to his house. As a father, it made him happy to see his precious son bringing friends over but not like this. No matter, the important thing is that Rood was finally opening up to kids his age. He was getting so worried about his child being cooped up inside reading nothing but advanced, complicated books way beyond his age level. And the only time he does go out is usually for missions most of the time or running errands.
"Sleepover! Sleepover!" Dio runs around the living room all giddily like he was on a sugar rush.
Like Dio, Lidusis was kind of excited to be staying over at a friend's house for the first time. Still, he felt reluctant to stay as he felt that he was an intruder. He didn't understand why Rood wanted to be with him. It's probably because he still doesn't realize what he's getting himself into. And Lidusis didn't want that. He didn't want anyone to get hurt because of him not like back then.
"Hey Lidusis!" Rood calls out Lidusis's name snapping him back to reality. "What are you standing around for? Let's go."
"Hey Lidusis!" For a brief moment, the image of a young, blond girl with long hair flashes before Lidusis as her eyes were obscured by some shadows. "Let's go!"
Lidusis freezes up at the memory of the young girl.
"Lidusis?"
It was his fault. His fault.
"Lidusis?"
All because of him...
"LIDUSIS!"
Lidusis breaks out of his thoughts. The illusion of the young girl was gone and replaced by the form of Rood.
"Geez. You like to space out a lot. I was calling out your name for a long time." Rood had already lost count of how many times he's been trying to get Lidusis's attention.
So that voice wasn't her's but Rood's.
"Come on. Master said that we can play around a little while he gets dinner ready."
Master? Did he just call his father 'Master?' Normally, one would call their own parents either father or mother and their siblings brother or sister. Yet Rood called him Master. That was something Lidusis did not understand.
"S-Sorry for intruding..." Lidusis meekly lowers his head.
"What are you talking about Lidusis? You're a guest. You're more than welcome to stay." Rood gently pats Lidusis's head.
"Rood, I never knew you felt that way!" Dio bawls out buckets of water moved by Rood's words.
"You on the other hand are no guest. You're an intruder."
"How mean!" Dio cried at Rood's harsh comment.
While Kielnode was preparing dinner, Rood, Dio, and Lidusis were left by themselves. As the host, it was Rood's responsibility to watch over his two guests even if one of them was just an annoying pest. The only question was what should he do to keep them entertained until dinner time.
"Since we're at Rood's place, there's only one thing to do! Look at embarrassing pictures of Rood!" Dio announced. "Alright, Rood. Bring out the photo albums! Gck!"
One look from Rood said more than enough.
"I-I mean can we see your pictures... please?" Dio humbly asked taking a 180 degree change after given one glare from his blond friend.
"Well, there are a few embarrassing pictures in here, but I don't think they're what you're expecting." Rood hands over a photo album to Dio and Lidusis.
Seriously?! There were actually pictures! Dio was only joking when he said that he wanted to look at Rood's embarrassing pictures. He just wanted something to look at to kill time. It was more shocking that Rood would actually just nonchalantly hand them a photo album containing his pictures. If this really did have embarrassing pictures of Rood, is it really alright to see them? But at the same he still wants to see them.
Strangely enough, for someone showing his embarrassing pictures to his friends, Rood looked pretty calm.
Letting curiosity take over, Dio opens the album to see what sort of embarrassing pictures were there.
Dio freezes at the sight of the first two pages he sees. Lidusis too.
Hm, these certainly were embarrassing. Extremely embarrassing he might add. He kind of felt sorry for Rood in a way. To experience all these things was just cruel. They were worse the normal embarrassing baby pictures parents would show to their son/ daughter's boyfriend/ girlfriend. Rood had a tough life going through all this. That would explain why he's so mature and smart.
Well, Rood was right. This wasn't what Dio and Lidusis were excepting like he said.
The first two pages seemed to be more recently added since Rood didn't look much different in the picture. Based on the setting, it seems like he was at the zoo seeing all animals in background. But what caught their attention the most was the sight of the monkeys in the background throwing poop at Rood's father.
Not just that but in another picture lions were charging at Kielnode ready to tear him limp from limp if not for the cage they were in.
The scary part of the picture weren't the animals but how Rood wasn't even fazed by the whole ordeals behind him and just acted the same throughout the whole time his picture was taken ignoring all that stuff in the background. All the stuff in the back was so shocking that it wasn't a simple family picture anymore.
Just how could anyone take a picture like this! Although all of the pictures were mainly centered around Rood, their attention was more drawn to the events occurring in the background. From monkeys to lions to crocodiles, what on earth did Kielnode do to incur the wrath of so many animals or did they just plain hate him?!
In a way, it was embarrassing for Rood. To go out in public with his father like this was just plain harassment although it was more embarrassing for Kielnode. In about half of them, Rood either just ignored his guardian or wasn't aware of what was going on behind him when the animals threw random objects at Kielnode who was dodging them with all his might. And the other half, Rood just stared dumbfounded at the chaotic interactions between his guardian and the creatures.
The next few pages were no different except for the type of animals harassing Kielnode. Ostriches trying to peak at his head. Snakes wanting to strangle the life out of him. Gorillas throwing bananas at him. On the bright side, it wasn't poop this time. Tigers ready to pounce on him. Wolves barking at him. Even the animals in the petting zoo were the same.
Ponies charging at him to trample him. Goats trying to eat his hair. One picture even showed a goat sending Kielnode flying several meters ahead with its horns.
That was one scary goat especially considering how docile it was when it was being fed by Rood in a previous picture.
Dio and Lidusis weren't sure how to explain these odd situations. Did he emit some kind of anti-animal pheromone that would make animals berserk or something? This was just plain abnormal!
That aside. Although the other pictures other than the ones at the zoo were kind of strange but not as much as the ones from the zoo, most of them were generally pretty normal once you got used to the odd situations Kielnode got himself into.
Overall, they were pretty entertaining to look at.
"Hey Rood, your life is really funny! I can't stop laughing at how many times your old man got attacked by an animal or hit by some flying object! Bring out another!" Dio urged his friend as he laughed at yet another one of Kielnode's misfortune.
"Sorry, I don't have anymore. That's the only one."
!
No more! This caught Lidusis's attention.
"Ah, that's too bad." Dio wanted to see more. No helping it if there weren't anymore.
From what Rood said, this was the only photo album he had. Generally, that would be normal since Rood was still very young so it would make sense if he only had one or two photo albums. However, there was one thing that didn't make any sense to Lidusis. If this really was the only one Rood had, then why weren't there any baby pictures of Rood in here. Almost all parents usually take pictures of their kids growing up starting with their birth. Yet in here, Lidusis could only find pictures taken recently. In all of them, Rood looked exactly the same meaning they were all taken in the same year. So why was it that Lidusis couldn't find one baby picture of Rood? Not even one documenting his birth. Thinking about it, not a single one even contained a photo of Rood's mother. There was the secretary, Ren, but Rood said that she wasn't his mother.
This was strange.
A strange feeling of unease wells up inside Lidusis's stomach. He didn't have a good feeling about this.
"Waaahhhhh!" Dio screams out startling both Lidusis and Rood.
"What's wrong?" That nearly gave Rood a heart attack. He didn't expect Dio to scream so suddenly.
He also didn't expect him to suddenly grab both of his arms.
"Why?"
Why? Rood wasn't sure what Dio was getting so worked up about, but he might as well listen to what he has to say.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Tell him? Tell what? This slightly piqued Rood's curiosity.
"Why didn't you tell me you were cheating on me!"
Ch... Cheating? Okay, now he wasn't making any sense.
"How could you Rood?! Was all the time we spent together a lie? Did my feelings mean nothing to you?" Dio sprouted out like he was in some cheesy soap opera.
"What's with those lines?" Rood couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, I saw a woman saying those stuff to a man one time. And this kind of reminded me of it so I felt like saying them."
Basically, Dio had no idea those words meant and just mimicked the fight between the woman and man.
Rood sometimes wondered how the inside of Dio's head worked.
"So when did you cheat on me?!" Dio demanded once more.
Leaving Dio's choice of words aside, Rood calmly regained his composure. "First off, what the heck are you talking about?"
This was a first Rood's heard of this. He's never cheated at anything.
"I'm talking about this."
Dio pulls out a picture of Rood with a red haired kid standing next to him. He pulled out from the photo album awhile ago.
Rood turns to stone at the sight of the picture. That was the one picture he did not want to see. He thought he burned them all. But apparently, he was wrong. There was one left.
"Who is this man?!" Dio demanded.
Rood didn't get why was Dio making it sound like he was a husband caught cheating on his wife with another woman.
This even made Lidusis sweat drop.
Might as well put an end to this lousy comic routine and answer Dio's question.
"He's just the child of one of Master's acquaintances. Master was having a meeting with his father, and he brought him over to Opion once for a [play date] as Master would call it." Rood answered. He had wished he'd burn that memory from his mind.
"So he's not your best friend or number one bestest buddy?"
At this, Rood gets goosebumps all over his body. Him friends with that guy? Never!
"That's a relief. I thought for sure he was more important to you than me."
At this, Rood nearly vomited at the idea. Covering his mouth with his hand, Rood never felt so sick in his entire life. The color from his face drastically drains.
What a pleasant meal that was. Lidusis could hardly remember the last time he ate so joyful like that. This was probably the first time he's ever experienced such a lively meal time. Dio happily munching on the food. Kielnode putting more food on Rood's plate so that the latter could eat more on the basis that he was too thin and not eating enough. And Rood would often talk to Lidusis about various of things like how he found his master to be annoying and that Dio should learn to keep quiet.
With dinner finished, Rood, Dio, and Lidusis played around a little while Kielnode washed the dishes.
"Rood! The bath is ready." Kielnode announced after preparing the bath for Rood and his friends. Bath time was one of the few times where he could spend quality time with Rood without getting beaten up.
"Bath time! Bath time!" Dio cheerfully repeated as he, Rood, and Lidusis made their way to the restroom with Kielnode following suit.
That is until Rood slammed the door at his guardian.
"Wait, Rood! You forgot about me!"
"You'll be staying out there until we're done." Rood told him through the door.
"How cruel! After I've loved (?) and raised (?) you, you do this!" Kielnode whined on the other side of the door.
After much begging and pleading from Kielnode, Rood finally let him in not wanting his guardian's wails to disturb the neighbors. This made Dio and Lidusis wonder who was the real adult between them, because it obviously wasn't Kielnode. Rood just hopes that Master won't do anything stupid and embarrass him in front of his guests.
As for Kielnode, he was absolutely delighted to bath with Rood. He was afraid Rood was going through that phase where kids no longer want to bath with their parents or older siblings. It was far too soon for that. No matter how mature Rood was for his age, he'll always be the same adorable, little child he'll be. Ah, how he missed those old days where Rood would always follow him around and be too afraid to leave his side...
Kids these days change really fast in the blink of an eye.
At least, the only thing that won't change would be Rood's cuteness and small body.
*WHACK*
"Ow, that hurt, Rood!" Kielnode cried while the poor bump on his head. "What was that for?"
"I don't know why, but for some reason, I feel really pissed at the moment." Rood didn't really get it, but there was something about his Master that really irritated him. It annoyed him to no end when he saw that idiotic look on his Master's face. More than usual.
Oh well, Rood continued back to enjoying his bath. Fortunately, the bathtub was big enough to accommodate all four of them. It was bigger than the average bathtub but not as big as the ones in the public baths. And with three of them being only kids, it wouldn't be that hard to fit all of them in the bathtub.
"Hey Rood, I wanna wash your back!"
"No way." Rood bluntly shot down Dio's request while washing his body.
"So fast!" Dio retorted. "You didn't even think about it!"
"Like I need time to think about that kind of about that."
Rood's blunt words bore a hole in Dio's heart.
"Then at least let me wash your hair."
"No way."
"How mean, Rood?! First, you don't let me wash your back. And now I can't even wash your hair!"
Dio found this to be injustice.
"Of course not. That privilege solely belongs to me, his—"
"You're not allowed either." Rood deadpanned in the background after washing off all the suds from his hair and body then proceeding to join with Lidusis in the bathtub.
All Kielnode could do was nothing. For he froze upon Rood's cold words.
Now this was pure bliss. If this was a dream, he didn't want to wake up. Drying off Rood's hair made Kielnode feel like the happiest man in the whole world. It was one of the few times he could act like an adult towards the way too mature for his age Rood. Whenever he tried to do something grownup like for the kid, he would always get either a scolding or a beating. Usually the latter. Apparently, Rood was not too fond of the idea of him trying to set up a play date for Rood. Thinking about it, that was probably not his best idea either. Who knew he'd be setting him up with a deranged psychopath.
Finished, Kielnode lets the kids play a little more until bedtime. He had to set up a few extra blankets for his two guests.
Then bidding his sweet child good night only to get an extra large hard covered textbook thrown at his face, Kielnode had really wanted to read Rood and his friends a bedtime story, but Rood had shot down his request without even as much as batting an eyelash.
Now all that's what was left was to go to sleep and await for tomorrow's meeting with the chairman of the Association.
He was really going to let him have it after all the trouble the man's son has caused him and Rood. Mainly Rood.
Speaking of which, Kielnode remembered how excited Dio was when he learned that he was at Opion. He probably wouldn't have guessed who the Black Magician really was. Most people wouldn't.
No one would think that a five year old kid could possibly be the Black Magician.
Or that he was right next to the kid the whole time.
Slowly drifting to sleep unaware of the events to unfold.