"What the hell? I bought the Precure outfit, didn't I? Is this not it? Did you want the opposite? What the heck. If I exchange it, it's done, right? You want a brand new one? Don't be so spoiled."
Hello. This is Naoya Zen'in-kun, currently in the midst of raising three-year-olds with rave reviews. What is so sad that I have to raise kids while still a virgin? I mean, yielding a million steps and setting aside the fiancée thing, why am I doing everything from cleaning up a kid's bedwetting to getting their bath ready? I feel like I'm going bald.
Even now, I thought I'd have some free time after waking up early, but they're already up. They say they'll wear the Precure outfits and watch Precure, but there's still over 3 hours until the broadcast, you know??? They're going on about the clothes, but black or white is fine, right? They're pretty much the same.
Why am I going through this, seriously? Next time I'll beat you to death, you shit-for-brains topknot turd gutter trash. If I don't gouge out your limbs and feed them to cursed spirits, I won't be satisfied, seriously.
"Naoyaa, what are you doing?"
"It's Naoya-kun, Maki-chan. Naoya-kun. Show at least a little respect."
"Hey hey, what are you doing?"
"Isn't a four-year-old too free? Is it like this? ...I'm chopping wood. Stay away. It's dangerous, so please, seriously, just go back to sleep."
"I'll watch!"
"Why? Did you listen to what I said? Are you an idiot? Is anyone there! Watch her for me!"
Let me do my morning routine in peace, seriously. No one's even answering; am I being looked down on?
Well, whatever. As long as she comes when called, I'll forgive her for now. She's a great beauty with big tits and ass, after all. ...But, haven't I seen that face somewhere? Where was it...? Well, as long as she watches the damn brats so they don't interfere with my training, anything is fine.
Alright then. Let's do my training as usual.
-----
It was only the other day that she, the mother of the twin sisters Maki and Mai Zen'in and the wife of Ogi Zen'in, was made to act as a servant in the 'detached house' where Naoya lives.
With her husband Ogi placed under house arrest by the order of the Zen'in clan head, Naobito Zen'in, Naobito ordered her, who had free time, to work at Naoya's detached house, saying, 'Bridal training is a mother's job'.
Of course, Mari is not a fool. She understands that the order was given out of concern for the mother and daughters. But at the same time, the fact that she sensed a slight 'fear of Naoya' within Naobito might have been something like the olfactory sense of the weak, born of her being a victim of abuse.
Naoya Zen'in.
One of Naobito Zen'in's many sons, a 'Special Grade Sorcerer' produced by the Zen'in clan for the first time in ages, and the strongest sorcerer in the Zen'in clan, the first in history to receive Special Grade certification as a user of 'Projection Sorcery' rather than 'Ten Shadows'.
In the Zen'in clan, which enforces thorough meritocracy and male chauvinism, the name 'Strongest' carries too much weight. It emits such authority that everyone in the household refrains from approaching the detached house where he lives out of sheer awe. If Mari's intuition is correct, he is the absolute strongest in the Zen'in clan, terrifying even the clan head Naobito.
Until the other day, Mari had thought that service under such a man would likely be far more painful than that under Ogi.
Still, the reason she obeyed the clan head's order was due to the feelings as a 'mother' that still remained strongly within her. Four years was a bit too short to strip away her maternal affection, and while she cursed her own circumstances for giving birth to the twins, she simultaneously continued to hold affection for them.
However, towards her who came to Naoya's detached house with such tragic resolve, Naoya has been, for better or worse, 'indifferent' so far.
What Mari felt after taking care of his daily life for several days was that he only showed attachment to his own strength and to those stronger than himself.
To Mari, that attitude of stoically seeking strength felt far more favorable than Ogi, who had let himself rot with jealousy and delusion.
But on top of that, wondering 'Isn't this a bit too stoic?'—is that just the naive perception of Mari, who is not a sorcerer despite coming from a sorcerer family?
After all, Naoya, who is currently before her eyes, laid out the firewood he had just split with his bare hands in the garden, sat on top of it, sprinkled kerosene, set it on fire, and is roasting himself.
The sight of him sitting in the lotus position amidst the raging hellfire, sweating on his forehead and meditating intently, exceeds the realm of an ascetic no matter how you think about it. It can only be described as the act of a madman that has stepped largely into the realm of execution beyond torture.
Naoya, who is said to have performed this training of resisting the scorching heat by constantly circulating cursed energy throughout his body for 10 years without missing a day, amidst conditions where not even a single breath is allowed until the raging flames run out, has a body that is smoked all over and dark. By the time the flames burn out after about 30 minutes, he is covered in soot and dyed black like a lacquered Buddha statue.
Truly an unimaginable penance. It is a training where it is only natural that Mari suspected 'suicide by burning' at first sight. However, this asceticism is merely the beginning of Naoya's morning routine.
After finishing his meditation, stomping out the burnt ash, and standing up, what Naoya does next is 108 prostrations.
Standing facing the rising sun, he performs the lotus palms together. Then, bowing deeply with palms still together, he drops to both knees, extends both arms as if offering his palms while breaking the clasp, touches his forehead to the ground and raises both hands, then stands up and clasps his hands again. Doing this sequence of movements, which seems like it would accumulate fatigue in the whole body just doing it once, 108 times is a penance that even a professional Buddhist monk would not readily think of doing. Moreover, Naoya does this amidst the smoldering ashes, so this too is indeed a penance.
That act, of a level that would likely sadden the Buddha who once preached something like 'Asceticism is just painful so stop it (paraphrased)', is sped up by being performed while activating 'Projection Sorcery', but because of that, it turns into something that looks even more 'painful', and soon, depressions form in the ground at the positions of Naoya's head and knees.
After going through such self-torture, he purifies his mind and body with water ablutions at the fountain set up in the garden, and what he does last is the practice of 'Blade Walking'. Fixing a honed Japanese sword on a stand with the blade facing up, he walks over that blade with bare feet 108 times. With this insane training, Naoya's morning routine is complete.
Although Mari cannot hide her bewilderment at this penance that is still one step short of suicide, by the time several days have passed, she can at least arrange a change of clothes and a towel.
"Thanks. Is the meal prep done?"
"Y-Yes."
"Good then. I'll eat in a bit. Take care of the twins' share too."
"Y-Yes."
While exchanging such conversation, Naoya wipes his steel-like body himself. At least no one in the Zen'in clan could blame Mari for running to the detached kitchen like a fleeing rabbit out of fear of having 'consciousness directed' at her by such a man.
However, Naoya was muttering towards Mari's retreating back with a complicated expression, "What's with that? Is she that scared? Of me?" but Mari, who possesses only the hearing of a normal person, never heard that.
-----
Damn hot, damn painful, then damn cold, and as a finishing blow, damn scary. Once that's done, it tastes damn bad.
Even though it's every single morning, I seriously don't know how many times I've resented my old man who 'thought of this binding'.
'Ten Bindings'. It was me from 10 years ago who had my drunk old man think up the contents and made it a powerful binding that included the point of 'submitting to unreasonableness from others'.
Even so, the head of my old man, who makes his own son do shitty training that looks like something out of a manga, must be screwed up from the alcohol. He really should just kick the bucket from cirrhosis.
So, going through terrible experiences from the morning is also part of that binding. The binding of 'Asceticism' where I impose 5 types of rough practices on myself daily based on the Five Elements Generating and Overcoming.
Based on Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water: 'Wood Eating' where I abstain from meat and grains; 'Fire Walking' where I meditate in raging flames; 'Earth Prostration' where I throw my body to the earth; 'Water Training' in the damn cold pond water; and 'Blade Walking' where I walk on the blade of a cursed sword. Instead of doing these 5 penances every morning, it's a binding that super-strengthens my physical body itself.
Is the guy who thought of this an idiot? I seriously think so too. Maybe his brain has atrophied from alcohol?
Though well, honestly speaking, if I've been doing it for 10 years already, the penance-like penance is no big deal. My body has been strengthened too. When it comes to this, the toughest one is actually 'Wood Eating'. Meals with no meat or fish, just leafy greens and mushrooms. How many times have I thought 'Give me a break' or 'I'm fed up'?
However, the servant who has been coming since a while ago seems to be skilled, or maybe the menu has become considerably better recently.
Today's breakfast is spinach with walnut dressing, kinpira (sautéed burdock root), persimmon and daikon salad, and grilled shiitake mushrooms. It's meager, but compared to the stuff until now, it's homestyle and nice. This kind of mother's taste isn't bad—hmm?
"Hey, you. Aren't you Maki-chan and the others' mom?"
"Eh, ah, yes. That's right, I am Mari Zen'in."
"Well, whatever. Do your best, take it easy. For the time being, I'm counting on you for the child-rearing."
I knew it. Man, this is super awkward.
Why is the shitty old man Ogi's entire family being pushed onto me? What is this unreasonable feeling? Is this a dream?
No, even if I pinch myself, it hurts normally. Seems it's not a dream?
...
Shall I seriously, truly beat that gutter trash to death! That shitty old man must know everything: that I 'must protect women and children other than enemies' due to the binding of 'Gentleman', that I 'can only execute acts considered "good deeds" by conventional wisdom' due to the binding of 'Promoting Good', and that I 'force hostility against conventional "evil" upon myself' due to the binding of 'Punishing Evil'!
Discipline your daughter in your own room or the toilet!
Why do it specifically within my line of sight, you shit-for-brains idiot asshole scum!!!!
I won't forgive you, I absolutely won't forgive you, Ogi Zen'in...!
—Gaaahhh!!!!
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]