When they arrived at home, Medea and Iris, as well as a maid, were awaiting Patrick.
Patrick greeted them one by one, and hugged them.
The maid as well.
Was it because he was a lower class noble, or was it just unique to him? Luru didn’t know because he hadn’t really met any other nobles, but Patrick treated people without much distinction, and he was social and open with both the villages and the maids.
It was enough that he even said it was fine to address him without honorifics.
If he took a step in the wrong direction, it would end up as a personality that was unbefitting of a noble, but the villagers were careful, and around people from other villages or travellers, they would properly attach ‘-sama‘ to his name, so there wasn’t much to worry about.
There was something to worry about when it came to children, but to begin with, not many people came to the village, so for now there didn’t seem to be anything that would cause trouble.
After that, Patrick organised his luggage and left them in his room, and gave Luru a few books that he had brought with him.
Each time Patrick came back from the capital, he would bring Luru books as souvenirs like this.
Luru remembered that when he asked Patrick why he brought these even though books were expensive, Patrick had replied that he had a friend with a large book collection, and because that friend often bought books, he could get them at a cheaper price.
Perhaps because they were obtained through that channel, they were slightly old editions and sometimes pages would be missing, but even so it was a good source of information, and was no problem to Luru.
Whilst eating the lunch that Medea and Iris had made, everybody sat together and chatted.
Patrick knew a lot, so he would speak about the conditions of the capital, but the contents were simplified things that a child of Luru’s age could understand, so even the detailed conversations were appropriate for a child of his age, and it seemed difficult to talk about things beyond this, so Luru felt that he was lacking information.
This was why he wanted to do the deal with Gran and Yuumis, and while thinking that it really was a good idea, Luru had a chat with his father for the first time in a while.
The conversations he had with his father had interesting contents, but as expected, it was quite different from the perspective of an adventurer, and though he could grasp the atmosphere of the capital from it, his father didn’t often speak of things like international relations.
Even when he did talk about it on occasion, they were mostly rumours or very general information, and rather than seeing these things himself, they were things he heard from others or knowledge he had learned from books.
The reason he didn’t speak about things in detail was because Luru had the appearance of a seven year old, so it might have been inevitable, but as expected, Luru felt a little disappointed about this.
Unlike adventurers, Patrick couldn’t just freely cross over to other countries, and as a knight who had sworn allegiance to the kingdom, he couldn’t touch on subjects that were classified and wouldn’t thoughtlessly speak about these things.
So in general, you could say that his father had the exact opposite character of carefree adventurers.
While they were having their meal, Patrick heard from Medea once again about adopting Iris, and readily agreed with a nod.
It was likely that after having a chat with Iris and making sure there was nothing wrong with her character, he judged that there were no problems.
As for the paperwork, they decided to have him hand in the forms when he returned to the capital.
The story about how the adventurers came to the village also came up.
While talking about that, Medea told Patrick about how Luru went to the ruins, but he wasn’t that angry, and it ended with him telling Luru not to try anything excessive.
And then, the most important topic came up.
Luru quietly began to talk.
“Also… Dad[/Tousan]. There’s something I need to talk about.”
It seems that Patrick sensed that something was up about Luru’s formal attitude, for his cheerful smile turned into a serious expression as he watched Luru.
“What is it?”
“I want to become an adventurer when I turn 14… Would that be alright?”
Without any pretences, Luru immediately cut to the point, and Patrick smiled at that.
“…That’s fine. Though we’re lower class, we’re still nobles so it isn’t as though there aren’t problems, but… That can just be solved by adopting a son from a relative. We’re still young too, so there’s the possibility of having a younger brother for you. But… Luru.”
When Luru was wondering if Patrick would accept without issue, Patrick’s words trailed off, and Luru’s was not so bad at guessing that he couldn’t tell what Patrick wanted to say.
Luru slowly nodded, and waited for his father’s words.