# Chapter 11
As soon as we returned home after the festival ended, I sent Rite to the bathroom. While the child was bathing, I started organizing the bookshelf. I examined all the books to see if any contained monsters, and set aside the ones I didn’t like to move them to the storage room.
Rite, who loves books, would head straight to the bookshelf after finishing his bath. He’d quickly notice the missing books, but it would be fine since I could buy him new ones.
Just to be safe, I placed a few books on the bed, and when Rite came out after his bath, he sat on the bed reading the books I had left out. It seemed he hadn’t noticed the missing books yet.
“It’s time to sleep now. Let’s read books tomorrow.”
Despite saying that, I didn’t lie down right away. Rite also didn’t lie down at my suggestion to sleep, but sat facing me with his eyes closed. All these actions now felt natural.
“Breathe comfortably. Relax your body.”
At my words, Rite obediently took a deep breath in and out. I wasn’t sure if this actually helped, but I wanted to at least go through the motions.
Practicing horn control before bed. This had become a new rule in our household.
I could see Rite’s brow furrowing with concentration. His small hands resting on his thighs also tensed. But there was still no sign of the horns receding.
Most of the time, once the horns appeared, they would only disappear after a nap or sleep. I still couldn’t tell whether he controlled them unconsciously or if they only disappeared when he was in a relaxed state.
“Haah.”
Rite exhaled forcefully as if releasing held breath and opened his eyes wide. He immediately looked into my eyes. I smiled silently and stroked his head. The horns still hadn’t diminished at all.
“Good job. Now let’s really go to sleep.”
When I turned off the lamp at the bedside and lay down, Rite crawled into my arms. With still-alert eyes, he looked at me and blinked. I looked into Rite’s eyes and gently patted his small body.
“You need to close your eyes, Rite.”
“I’m not sleepy.”
“If you keep your eyes closed, you’ll fall asleep.”
Despite this, Rite didn’t close his eyes. He fidgeted as if uncomfortable, then squirmed and climbed on top of me.
“You’re getting heavier these days.”
Despite my comment, Rite paid no attention and settled himself, lying down on me. The way he nuzzled his head against my chest made him look so young.
Ever since he outgrew the cradle, Rite always shared a bed with me. He was so small and soft that I was afraid I might crush him in my sleep. That’s why I’d let him sleep on top of me, and it had become a habit I couldn’t break.
I should probably break this habit soon. I thought to myself as I looked at Rite. He stopped nuzzling and looked back at me. His purple eyes sparkled even in the darkness.
“You’re beautiful.”
“My eyes?”
Rite smiled with his eyes curving. It was something I’d said habitually from when he could barely speak until now. Perhaps because of that, Rite always responded with a clever retort.
I smiled back and stroked Rite’s hair, but he grabbed my hand and pulled it toward his face. Realizing what he wanted, I tried to pull my hand away, which made Rite’s eyebrows droop. There was more than one habit I couldn’t break.
“We shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
I should firmly say it’s not allowed, but my heart kept softening. It was natural that Plin came to mind at times like this.
How did Plin raise me? I don’t think I was ever severely scolded by Plin. Perhaps because I was well-behaved from the orphanage, I didn’t cause trouble even after living with Plin.
“Hurry, give it to me, Arden. Please?”
Rite’s voice began to take on a whining tone. His body had grown a lot, but he still had severe sleep tantrums. Sometimes he seemed so mature, but when he threw these sleep tantrums, I wondered if his mental age was still young.
“Still a baby, aren’t you, Rite?”
With a sigh, I relaxed my arm, and Rite pulled my hand toward himself. Then he put my finger in his mouth and began sucking on it. As my finger was sucked into his hot, moist mouth, a tingling sensation seemed to spread from my fingertips.
Even when he was younger, he had this fixation on my fingers, and still before sleeping, he would put my finger in his mouth. Like a baby searching for its mother’s breast. After putting my finger in his mouth, Rite’s blinking slowed. I gently patted Rite’s back with my free hand.
I would need to prepare. Besides training to retract the horns, there were more things to add to our to-do list.
* * *
After I spent the whole day looking at books and papers and then stepped outside, horns sprouted on Rite’s head as he watched me. He must have been bored because he excitedly followed right behind me.
“What are you going to do, Arden?”
“It’s a secret.”
“That’s not fair.”
His excited face was so cute that I wanted to tease him a bit. When I playfully said it was a secret, his eyebrows immediately drooped. I wasn’t sure if all children were like this or if it was just Rite, but his emotions showed immediately on his face.
“I’m going to build a tree house.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s like a secret hideout up in a tree.”
“Wow,” Rite’s eyes sparkled. He didn’t seem to know what a secret hideout was either, but he sensed it was something amazing. The books I read seemed to be right—children get excited about having their own secrets or private spaces.
I moved a large wooden box in front of a suitable tree and spread out well-worn papers on top of it. It was a blueprint I had completed after wrestling with books for days. Today was a good day to build since it wasn’t snowing.
I’d never done construction before, but I had watched Plin do it over his shoulder when I was young. Plin was very good with his hands and was quite skilled at this sort of thing. When I was young, I once asked him if engineers had to do these things too.
‘Try living alone. See if you can avoid doing it yourself.’
Plin had answered with a stoic face. After living with Rite, I couldn’t help but deeply sympathize with Plin’s words. After making a cradle and a mobile, now I was building a house.
Things that I could tolerate when living alone became different once a child came along. I wondered if Plin had felt the same way.
“Is this the tree house?”
“Yes. But I’m not sure if it will turn out well.”
I shrugged and admitted honestly, which made Rite look at me with wide, round eyes. “What?” I asked, and Rite immediately replied.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Arden not confident about something.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Arden is always good at everything.”
Whether it was true or not, it felt good to appear as a capable guardian to the child.
“Why, I heard you tell Mr. Markus you couldn’t fix his auto-carriage before.”
“That was just to get paid more.”
“……”
“I know everything.”
I could only blink at being suddenly caught out. While I was frowning, unable to respond from surprise, Rite gave me a sly smile.
“You still think I’m a little kid?”
“…You are still young. But how did you know about that?”
“When Arden says he can’t do something, people offer more money. Then Arden fixes everything perfectly. It’s happened so many times, of course I know.”
My face flushed hot at the thought of being caught in my embarrassing behavior.
I thought he was just standing beside me without thinking much, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Children don’t miss as much as we think.
At the same time, I felt mixed emotions. Pride that he had grown so much already, and regret that he had grown so much already.
“Are you going to build this house up in the tree?”
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
“Then how do we get up there?”
“We’ll have to make a ladder too. This here is the ladder.”
As I pointed to the drawings on the blueprint and gave a simple explanation, Rite nodded and listened attentively. I wasn’t sure if he really understood everything, though.
“We’ll make it with the wood in the storage, so let’s go to the storage together and…”
“Oh, it’s Pini.”
Just as I was about to explain what we needed to do next, Rite looked behind me and quickly ran off. When I turned around belatedly, I saw Pini coming toward us.
Pini had a large bag on its back and was holding luggage in both hands. When Rite ran up to Pini and greeted it happily, Pini looked alternately at its heavy hands, troubled. Had I asked for that much? I felt a little sorry.
“You worked hard, Pini.”
“Hello, Rite. Hello, Arden.”
Only after putting down the luggage near me did Pini raise its hand to greet Rite. Rite barely acknowledged the greeting and showed interest in the luggage Pini had brought.
“I’ve brought what Arden asked for and some gifts for Rite too.”
“Gifts for me?”
Pini took out something long wrapped in newspaper. Pini handed it to Rite quite confidently, but when Rite unwrapped the newspaper, he was indifferent once again. Pini’s gift was a plastic toy sword.
“I already have a sword.”
“Surely that can’t be it.”
Pini pointed to a wooden sword leaning against the front of the cabin. It was a wooden sword I’d made for Rite recently after giving in to his pestering. I pretended not to hear and examined the rest of the luggage.
“That’s right. Arden made it for me.”
“As consistent with carving as ever, Arden.”
“…What, it obviously looks like a sword.”
Pini seemed to dislike the toys I made for Rite and brought gifts every time it came, but Rite didn’t show much interest. Pini seemed hurt by this and persistently prepared gifts.
He’s already past the age for playing with toys anyway… I kept those words to myself.
“Humans are incomprehensible.”
Pini said as it watched Rite place the gifted sword next to the wooden one. I couldn’t help but smile at that. Even I, a human, think that sometimes, so it’s only natural it would seem even stranger to Pini, a robot.
“What are you trying to make this time? The blueprint doesn’t seem related to the materials I was asked to bring.”
“I’m going to build a tree house. Actually, that’s not the main goal, but I wanted to try making a small one as a test before making Rite’s room.”
I whispered quietly to Pini, taking advantage of Rite being far away. I added that it was a secret from Rite. Pini nodded and replied.
