So what exactly is supposed to be fine?
It was still ridiculous and absurd, but watching Bliss chatter nonsense in high spirits somehow made him want to tease him. Cassian feigned ignorance and asked,
“So you’re marrying Papa? You said I was like Papa.”
Now he would have nothing to say. Curious how this tiny brat would get out of this, Cassian waited—and Bliss produced an astonishing solution.
“I’ll be the baby and the partner. That works.”
Cassian froze for a moment. Bliss grinned brightly and added,
“Sweetie Daddy!”
That sounded dangerously wrong. Dizzy for a split second, Cassian quickly steadied himself and took a deep breath. What kind of conversation was he even having with a snot-nosed kid? A wave of emptiness washed over him, and he continued walking in silence. The wetland, their destination, spread out before them.
“Wow, it’s huge! It’s so huge! Cassian, look! It’s this big!”
Cassian flinched and turned around. Bliss was excitedly lifting and lowering the binoculars, shouting.
He exhaled and unconsciously pressed a hand to his chest, then belatedly felt embarrassed and quickly looked away. The damage from yesterday must have been greater than expected. Perhaps for the rest of his life, every time he heard the word “huge,” his heart would drop in panic. The thought sent a chill down his spine, but Cassian corrected himself.
It’s absurd to be this shaken by something a seven-year-old said.
He shook his head sharply a few times and returned to assembling the equipment. Meanwhile, Bliss busily searched for birds, completely absorbed, shifting the binoculars back and forth.
“Have you seen many birds?”
As Cassian set the assembled field scope on the ground and adjusted the focus, he asked. Bliss answered,
“Yes! I can even see the beak with this. It’s amazing!”
His voice brimming with excitement, the child kept talking.
“Earlier I saw one that was all white, but just the top of its head here was red.”
“The crown.”
Cassian supplied the word. Bliss repeated it, then hurried on.
“The other birds with it were all white, but only that one had red there. So I wondered why, and guess what—another bird was pecking it right there with its beak!”
A bird being bullied.
Cassian thought of it indifferently. The animal world was not much different from the human one. The weak were excluded, harassed by the flock—it was common enough.
“That’s sad.”
Bliss seemed to pity the bird. Just as Cassian was about to give a casual response, thinking it was only natural for a child, Bliss said,
“Maybe it got caught cheating. It should’ve gotten divorced first. If it goes bald, no one will want it anymore. What will it do? It’ll have to live alone forever. And bald, too.”
Bliss kept sighing, muttering, “Bald and alone,” and Cassian stared at him silently.
“…How old are you again?”
After a pause, Bliss answered brightly,
“Seven!”
As Cassian knew. Frowning, he asked in a slower tone than usual,
“Then who taught you about… getting caught cheating and getting divorced?”
Were Ashley Miller and his partner’s relationship not as harmonious as they appeared?
There were countless couples whose public image differed from reality. Especially in high society, where reputation mattered, there were plenty of show marriages. Perhaps the Miller family was the same—
“Larien!”
At the unexpected name, Cassian frowned.
“Lari… who?”
Looking up at his confused expression, Bliss answered excitedly,
“Larien, my sister!”
Ah. Only then did Cassian understand who Larien was. Bliss continued eagerly,
“I watched Sweet Betrayer with Larien, and she said all cheaters should have their hair ripped out and be made bald. In that show, the main character’s husband cheats, so the main character and her family beat him up together. It’s amazing. They pull his hair and hit his thing and grab whatever’s nearby and hit him like this, like this.”
Watching the runny-nosed kid flail his clenched fists wildly, Cassian suddenly felt tired of everything.
“Do you even know what cheating means?”
At the question, Bliss kept hopping around on the ground as he answered,
“Of course! It means getting hit in the thing and going bald.”
You know nothing.
Cassian closed his mouth and returned to his task.
Right. What would a seven-year-old possibly know?
Considering that not even five minutes had passed since he promised to keep a secret before blabbing to Papa, expecting too much from a child who was only seven had been foolish.
No, I’m worse. He’s seven, but I’m an adult.
After adding that self-reproach, Cassian lifted his eye from the field scope and beckoned to Bliss.
“Come here. Look through this.”
“Wow!”
Bliss cheered again as he pressed his eye to the lens. Cassian had adjusted the telescope to match the child’s height and said,
“That one’s hard to see. We were lucky. You can sometimes see endangered birds in this wetland, so I used to come often when I was young.”
He had always thought himself fortunate that such a wetland was part of the territory. Thanks to that, he could observe birds at leisure whenever he wished, without rude interruptions.
“Do you see the bird with black tips on its feathers? It comes here this time of year and then crosses the sea to the opposite continent when the season changes. It’s that small, but impressive, isn’t it?”
“Yes! It’s impressive.”
Bliss echoed his words, staring intently at the birds. Cassian let out a quiet chuckle. Just then, a flock flew in. Saying, “Wait,” he moved Bliss aside, turned the field scope toward them, and adjusted the focus.
“Now look.”
He waited for Bliss to peer through the lens again before continuing.
“That bird came here to mate. If we wait, we might see the male perform a courtship dance for the female. When they dance in a group, it’s quite a spectacle.”
For quite some time, he explained facts about the birds and shared interesting anecdotes. Bliss listened, fascinated, losing track of time as he hung on Cassian’s every word. So when it was finally time to leave, Bliss’s shoulders visibly drooped in disappointment.
“We can come again next time.”
Cassian stroked his head as if to comfort him, but the child could not easily recover his spirits. Seeing that, Cassian opened the rear door of the car, took something out of a bag, and held it out.
“Here.”
Bliss, who kept glancing regretfully back at the birds, tilted his head at the item in Cassian’s hand.
“What’s this?”
Nothing was written on the cover of the fairly thick book. Still puzzled, Bliss turned it around in his hands. Cassian said,
“It’s a bird guide I made.”
“Huh?”
Startled, Bliss quickly opened it. Inside were clearly hand-drawn illustrations of birds and neat handwritten descriptions filling each page.
“You drew all of this? You wrote all this too?”
“Yes.”
Cassian smiled faintly.
“When you observe birds, it’s good to record the ones you’ve seen yourself. It helps bring back memories, and it’s enjoyable to look through later.”
“Are you really giving it to me?”
“Yes.”
As Bliss shouted in excitement, Cassian nodded and added,
“About half of it should be empty. You can fill the rest in. What do you think? Can you do it?”
“Of course!”
Bliss answered instantly, without hesitation. Cassian gave me something like this. My friend gave me a book he made himself. A treasure that exists nowhere else in the world. His chest swelled so much he could hardly breathe.