落とし穴５６堀：猫は喜び庭駆け回り 犬は炬燵で丸くなる (Part2)
"Good morning, Riel. I just arrived. It seems Labyris and Shera are struggling with this cold, so their help with the cooking will be delayed. My apologies, Yuki."
"Don't apologize. It can't be helped in this weather. Just think of it as having more time to cook slowly with Kirue, right?"
"……Yes. You are quite right."
Oh, look at Kirue, she’s actually looking happy.
I get it, you know? Even if you play the part of the iron-masked maid, I can tell as a fellow spouse!
There’s no way you wouldn’t be happy hearing that from Yuki.
Anyway, we finished preparing breakfast with fewer hands than usual and brought it to the banquet hall, but...
"Huh? Only about half of everyone is here."
"Labyris-chan hasn't come yet."
"I shall go call her!"
"I'll go check on Shera."
With that, the three of them immediately left the banquet hall to fetch the others.
"Hey, is Ria awake?"
"……Ah, Yuki-shan? Shall we sleep together?"
"Come on, wake up."
Ria gets a tap on the head from Cleena and Jessica.
"Ouch!? That’s mean, Jessica!?"
"It is not 'mean.' Please pull yourself together."
"Cleena, your hair is all messy, too."
"I don't need to hear that from someone who is currently having Samantha fix her hair."
"Yes, yes. Sasari."
"Yes. Leave it to me. Excuse me, Cleena-sama."
It seems everyone is feeling the bite of this cold.
Wait? Come to think of it, Tori isn't here.
"Hey, Eris. Where’s Tori?"
"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her. Milly, have you?"
"No. What about you, Ratz?"
"I haven't seen her either. Kaya, how about you?"
"……I don't know."
Huh? It seems nobody knows. Is she still sleeping?
"Yuki-san, I'll go check on Tori."
"Yeah. Bring her over before the food gets cold."
"Yeah, got it."
With that, I left the banquet hall and headed toward Tori's room.
"Oh, what's the matter?"
"Mama?"
"As Deryu says, it's rare to see Riel here at this hour."
"Mama!!"
On the way, I ran into Deryu, Rurua, and Seraria. The children were bundled up in warm clothing, so they seemed fine.
"Morning. It's Riel-mama. It looks like Tori isn't up yet, so I'm going to wake her."
"Oh, how rare. Well, since Riel is going to wake her, it should be fine. Let's head to the banquet hall. Sakura and the others will catch a cold."
"Yeah, it's okay. See you later, Sakura."
"Mama!!"
After parting ways with Seraria and the others, I arrived at Tori's door.
"Hey, Tori, breakfast is almost ready."
……Silence.
"Huh?"
There's no response. Could she have collapsed inside?
"I'm coming in, okay?"
I was worried, so I just went in. The door was locked, but since we're all family, we don't really use the keys. So, I got in without any trouble.
"Tori? Wait, she's not in bed?"
I looked at the bed, but it was empty. Tori was nowhere to be found. Where did she go?
*Clatter.*
"……Riel?"
"Ah, there you are. What are you doing?"
I looked toward the sound and saw Tori, with only her hands waving from inside the *kotatsu*.
"……It's cold. There's so much snow outside... I'm taking the day off..."
"Ah, come to think of it, you're bad with snow, aren't you?"
If I recall, back in her adventurer days, she went on a quest to gather medicinal herbs in the snowy mountains, a blizzard hit, and her ears almost got frostbite, right?
"My ears will fall off. It hurts. Yuki-san will hate me..."
Ah, it seems it's a full-blown trauma. I thought she was fine since she didn't react to the snow last year, but maybe it's the sheer volume of it this time. Or perhaps the fact that Yuki-san was the one who prepared it makes a difference.
Well, for now...
"Yes, yes. Come out of the *kotatsu*. Everyone is waiting."
"Kyaa!? It's cold!! It's cold!! I'm going to freeze to death!!"
"You won't. You're wearing enough layers to be fine. Come on, let's go."
It was a rare day where the roles between Tori and me were reversed. Thanks to that, my workload increased, so I'll have to make her make it up to me later.
……Usually, isn't it the other way around?
I hurriedly wrote this chapter while dealing with the effects of this massive cold wave. Fukuoka forced me to stay holed up at home on Sunday, and today I had to desperately work in the snow.
Yeah, they say everything is best in moderation.