A preschool class with parents.
Today’s topic was drawing their parents’ faces.
Since Donum and Spei were twins, they each took one parent.
Judas took Donum.
Eliya decided to help Spei.
Donum naturally claimed Judas’s lap.
Next to him sat Eliya and Spei.
“I’m going to draw Dad!”
“Oh, I can’t wait! You’re going to draw him cool, right?”
“Yeah! Of course!”
Eliya stroked Spei while asking.
“Spei, who are you going to draw?”
“I’ll draw Mom.”
“Really? Then we can see how you view her!”
“…….”
“Just kidding! You can draw however you want. It’s still cute.”
Eliya pinched the flustered boy’s cheek, chuckling.
Even though he was quiet and calm, teasing him definitely got a reaction.
He’s so cute that it makes you want to mess with him.
Judas began to understand why Eliya found him so adorable, seeing how his children resembled him.
These days he’d reluctantly acknowledged his own cuteness, but that thought was a secret from Judas.
Just a bit embarrassing.
Donum, sitting on Judas’s lap, sniffed as he picked a crayon.
“I smell Mom on Dad.”
“Huh? Really?”
It seemed Eliya rubbed her head against him before coming in.
“Yeah. There usually wasn’t a Mom smell in the classroom, but now it suddenly feels nice. Also, did Dad eat chocolate cookies?”
“…Yeah.”
He’d recently discovered that Donum had a good sense of smell.
It wasn’t quite fair to compare this to their youngest daughter, but it was nearly canine in ability.
Just a whiff and he picks up everything.
Not just his sense of smell—every sense in his body was sharp and keen.
Those golden eyes could spot even the slightest changes instantly and accurately.
Just from footsteps, he could infer how Jugda and Eliya were feeling, and how far apart they were walking together.
“Why did Dad eat alone?!”
“Mom ate with me too.”
“Except me!”
“Technically, Spei too, right?”
“Ugh!”
“Donum, I’ll give you some later. Right now, we need to focus on class, okay?”
“Okay! It’s a promise!”
“Yeah yeah, promise.”
He sulked for a bit but quickly smiled, presenting his pinky.
Judas linked his own pinky with that tiny, insignificant finger.
Donum nodded as if he were satisfied and went back to picking crayons.
Meanwhile, Judas silently pecked the top of his cute daughter’s head.
Spei quietly mumbled beside him.
“…I don’t really like chocolate cookies anymore.”
You still do.
Judas and Eliya both knew that.
But lately, it seemed Spei wanted to appear more mature than Donum.
Eliya responded to her son’s desires.
“Our Spei is growing up~”
“Yeah… Hehe.”
As Eliya patted him, Spei smiled shyly.
What was cutest was that he genuinely believed he looked more mature.
Even though the act of being patted was, in itself, not very mature.
“Dad’s face!”
Donum boldly drew a huge circle first.
“…That’s too big, right?”
A circle that completely filled the paper from top to bottom and side to side.
It was way too round to resemble a person’s face.
“I’m drawing it!”
“Uh, okay. Do whatever you want, Donum.”
In contrast, Spei was careful.
He stared intently at Eliya’s face.
Unlike Donum, who didn’t even check Judas’s face.
Eliya watched Spei with a gently smiling face.
‘Smart. He’s trying to establish a standard.’
Before entering the academy, kids had received education at home.
Including art among other subjects.
Spei was quite talented in art.
His talent was a bit special.
He didn’t draw intuitively; he drew systematically and mathematically.
It wasn’t just art.
Spei was skilled in subjects that required thought, calculation, and insight.
‘Amor is similar in that sense, but… Spei’s perception and focus are… how should I put it? Sharp, perhaps.’
There was a strangely cold and sharp vibe to him.
Quite different from the endlessly gentle and soft Amor.
In that rational realm, he had quite a bit in common with Eliya herself.
After observing for a while, Spei began to draw slowly on the paper.
He measured the size with his fingers.
From left to right on the paper.
From top to bottom.
Calmly drawing as he estimated the size and proportions of the face with his hands and eyes.
After having looked at Eliya’s face once, he didn’t verify again.
‘His memory is good. His ability to focus immediately on a given goal must come from Judas.’
Spei drew quietly, while Eliya watched her son proudly.
Meanwhile, Judas and Donum were making quite a racket.
Since it was preschool, all the students and parents were equally rowdy.
“Why did you draw a foot on Dad’s face?!”
“That’s his nose!”
“Is Dad’s nose this shape?”
“Yeah!”
“…Hmm. If Donum says so, I guess it must be true.”
There was a lot to say, but Judas held back.
He decided to allow his daughter’s artistic freedom.
“Pick Dad’s eye color!”
“Let’s see… how about this one?”
Judas picked up a crayon that was slightly orange-yellow.
Donum took it and stared, then grabbed a bright yellow crayon.
“I like this one better!”
“Okay, let’s go with that.”
“Yeah!”
He didn’t bother asking why she needed him to pick if that was the case.
Kids are a mystery you think you understand, but really, you don’t.
‘Anyway, the one drawing is Donum, so what matters is that it makes Donum happy.’
In fact, Judas was more like a chair than a participant in the drawing.
But he didn’t mind.
In this class, what mattered was the parents and children feeling they were ‘together.’
There was no need for parents to get directly involved in their children’s activities.
“Let’s draw dust footprints and… I need to add Mom’s lipstick marks.”
Even when dust lays across the face in sleep, and with the frequent kisses from Eliya, there’s lips marks left behind.
‘…Surprisingly, the reflection of reality is quite well captured in the drawing.’
Aside from the oddly shaped nose, absent-minded eyes, and the face that filled the whole page, it was somewhat similar to reality.
Judas glanced over at Spei, who was focused on drawing Eliya.
‘As expected, Spei draws well.’
Though it wasn’t comparable to a professional artist, for a child’s drawing, it was pretty good.
While it couldn’t quite show fine details, you could feel the effort to understand and represent the subject.
As he watched, Eliya glanced back at him.
Their eyes met, and she smiled warmly.
A smile that made her cheeks round.
‘So cute.’
Judas smiled back.
It was hard not to smile at that face.
Eliya pursed her lips like a duck and made a pecking sound.
That act, resembling a kiss, was a signal asking the other to kiss her.
It was a habit formed after marriage, a little language just for the two of them.
Judas instinctively reacted.
He naturally kissed her lips like it was just another day in the Royal Palace.
But the sound that moment made was overly loud.
Smack.
A short and sharp sound that sliced through the preschool classroom’s chatter.
Everyone went silent at once.
In the heavy silence, both kids and adults turned to look at the origin of the sound.
“…….”
The two culprits of the sound looked like they had just kissed, their faces uncomfortably close.
Both stiffened, sneaking glances around them.
They had acted without any thought, way too comfortably as usual.
The homeroom teacher hurriedly tried to ease the awkward atmosphere.
“U-uh, showing affection between a couple is a completely natural phenomenon, and it’s even a positive aspect of child-rearing. If long-time couples express it freely, it’s because they love each other… I’m so sorry….”
It wasn’t a very helpful defense.
The preschool students resumed their chatter, while the parents coughed nervously, their faces flushed.
“Dad! Kiss me too!”
Judas kissed Donum’s cheek enthusiastically, trying to brush off the recent embarrassment while Eliya quietly hid her reddened face behind Spei’s head.
Meanwhile, Spei thought to himself that not wanting a kiss like Donum made him mature and felt proud of it.
*
“I’m done drawing!”
After a series of ups and downs, Donum completed her picture.
“It looks just like Dad!”
“Mm.”
The eye color definitely was a match.
It seemed the color Donum liked was the right choice.
‘As for…’
The drawing filled with Donum’s face.
Because of that, there was no hair visible.
He didn’t want to admit it was a self-portrait, but instead of breaking the news to his daughter, Judas chose encouragement and praise.
That’s what it meant to be a caring father.
“Wow, it really looks just like you. Our daughter is amazing.”
“Right! Mom, look at this!”
Donum proudly showed the drawing to Eliya.
Eliya just smiled kindly and nodded.
She said nothing.
To give a positive assessment, one could say it was a metaphysical abstract painting on the theme of a father.
It could also be a critique of the general perception of human facial features.
Anyway, seeing Mom smile made Donum happy.
As Judas watched his youngest daughter, who was filled with pride, he simply smiled.
The drawing was cute, so it didn’t matter how it turned out.
Compared to Donum’s drawing, Spei’s was extraordinarily conventional.
A child’s immature muscle and expressive limitations couldn’t create an excellent painting.
But his drawing was unmistakably Eliya.
Wavy black hair.
Bright red eyes.
A dot beneath her right eye. A round face.
What differed from the common perception of the Emperor was that the Eliya in the drawing was smiling brightly.
Of course, it made sense since it was how the child saw his mom.
“Hm, ahem.”
Spei awkwardly cleared his throat.
He wanted to boast because he thought he had drawn rather well, but it was too embarrassing to do so openly.
Just like any child, he shouldn’t indulge in boasting too much.
Yet, he wanted to hear compliments from his mom.
Eliya, having seen right through his inner thoughts, covered her mouth and laughed.
‘So cute.’
She gently tousled her son’s hair.
“You look just like me, you drew well.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Want to check with Spei?”
Eliya held Spei’s drawing beside her face.
Positioning it so Spei could see.
Looking up, Spei smiled in satisfaction and nodded.
It did indeed look quite similar.
“Isn’t it alike?”
“Yeah.”
“Spei! I look just the same!”
Donum shoved her abstract self-portrait towards Spei.
Spei pulled his head back and frowned.
“Isn’t it the same?”
“…Where do you see that?”
“Here and here! Look closely!”
“Not at all.”
“You’re lying!”
Donum held up the picture next to Judas’s face.
Side by side with her dad’s face.
The artist was adamant.
“It’s identical!”
Spei said nothing.
He simply shook his head.
Donum, unable to accept this, sought mediation.
“Teacher, teacher!”
“Uh, yes?”
“I’m drawing my dad. It’s the same, right?”
“…….”
Such is the trials of life.
They arrive unannounced.
The homeroom teacher of this particular preschool class was experiencing just that.
Should she side with the child? Should she reveal the truth?
Especially given that the subject involved the child of the Imperial Family and the topic was a national document.
Even though the academy disregards status, it’s not that simple.
Especially not when dealing with the Emperor himself.
If she agreed it was the same, it might insult the national document.
Conversely, saying they weren’t the same could lead to her punishment for disrespecting a child of the Imperial Family.
Moreover, the Empress was staring right at the homeroom teacher.
As if viewing the representative national document’s face was some kind of blasphemy.
Faced with the pressure to respond, the teacher concluded her internal struggle.
She delivered a finely curated response.
“Donum, you really… have outstanding artistic creativity.”
An ambiguous compliment that neither acknowledged nor denied.
Donum was just happy to be praised.
“Yeah! Right!”
Freed from her ordeal, the teacher hurried to wrap things up.
“Okay, everyone finished their drawings? Now I’ll hand out the frames. Let’s put our drawings in them and give them to our parents!”
Wooden frame.
The children placed their drawings in frames with their parents.
Donum passed over the picture that was now perfect in its frame to Judas.
“This is a gift for you, Dad!”
Judas was engulfed in a bizarre emotion.
‘What is this… It feels legit putting it in a frame?’
The neatly framed abstract art somehow resembled a unique and creative artwork.
‘Is my vision distorted? Am I seeing things differently because of my affection for my youngest? Or not…?’
Regardless of the outcome,
He joyfully accepted the gift from Donum.
“Receiving a present from Donum like this, it really is a good day. Thank you, my daughter.”
“Hehe.”
Feeling the large hand that ruffled her hair, Donum closed her eyes and smiled widely.
Eliya received the framed drawing from Spei.
“I really like it. You worked hard to draw it, Spei.”
“Yeah.”
“Can we hang it in the bedroom?”
Eliya wanted to place this masterpiece somewhere visible.
The wall in the bedroom seemed like the best spot.
Spei, though bashful, nodded shyly in approval of the delightful suggestion.
“…Yeah.”
Thus, in the couple’s bedroom, the two self-portraits were displayed.
They were drawings that brought smiles just by looking at them.
Especially Amor and Fides couldn’t resist and burst into laughter upon seeing Donum’s drawing.
While Donum pouted at her older siblings, Amor and Fides couldn’t help but laugh.
The drawings brought joy and happiness to those who saw them, so the quality of the art mattered little.
*
Amor found herself in a difficult situation.
She was quite flustered about what to do.
Before her, a man with a soft smile extended his hand.
This man, who she didn’t even know, had only met her in today’s class.
“Would you like to go out with me formally? As a couple.”
One day, she was confessed to by a senior in middle school.
Amor awkwardly smiled.
“Haha…”
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