episode_0045

[Episode 45] – Family Meeting

On the last evening of the weekend, Catherine brought up the subject of ‘class’ after dinner, and it was dessert time that we all finished eating together. I finally felt that it had come, so I gulped down the wine in my hand and tried to calm my stuffy stomach.

‘It’ll be okay… Elise will want me to attend class, but Lily and Sylvia won’t. In Trisha’s memory and my memory, Lily and Sylvia were good kids. If they think about me as their mother, they’ll refuse to let me attend class… right..?’

Somehow I wasn’t sure. But for now, I had no choice but to trust my daughters. If either Lily or Sylvia refused, I wouldn’t have to attend class anymore. I looked at my daughters, trying to suppress my heart that was pounding with anticipation and anxiety. When they said it was about ‘classes’, my daughters looked at Catherine with sparkling eyes.

“First of all… As I said last time, future classes will be different. Before I talk about that, there’s something I need to say first…”

Catherine, whose words were trailing off, snickered and turned her head to look at me. As Catherine looked at me without saying anything, my daughters’ gazes naturally turned to me as well. ‘Surely, are you telling me to talk?’ When I turned my head to look at Catherine, Catherine just smiled slyly.

When I looked at Catherine as if to ask if I really had to tell her, Catherine smiled with the corners of her eyes arching, and when she pursed her lips and urged me to say, “Speak quickly,” I had no choice but to let out a deep sigh and raise my head to meet my daughters’ gaze.

The girls looked at me with expressions that were half worried and half expectant. Elise was looking at me with a face full of anticipation like a child waiting for a gift, Lily was tilting her head as if she still didn’t know, and Sylvia was looking at me with a slightly worried look.

Surely, Sylvia is the only one I can trust?

“Now… I don’t need you in class, do I? I’ve been attending for a week… and you guys have done the ‘practical training’ Catherine mentioned. So…now, I want to stop.”

In order to prevent any unfortunate incidents, I lowered the corners of my eyes and mouth and spoke to my daughters with the most pitiful expression I could muster. I really didn’t want to do this, but I bit my lips hard, held back tears, and moved around like a rabbit, making a sad face. Then I glanced up at my daughters to check their reactions.

“Is that okay…?”

“……”

“……”

“……”

After I finished speaking, silence fell over the large dining room. All of the girls covered their mouths as if they were worried, or rolled their eyes and glanced at me. Should this be enough? Honestly, I wonder if I would ask them to continue after crying this much?

Confident of victory, I began to ask each of my daughters, one by one, with a tone of voice mixed with tears. First, I asked Elise, who was staring at me with her mouth covered.

“Elise..? Is it okay for Mom to stop now..?”

“…I wish my mother would continue. Because we are still immature.”

When Elise lowered her hand covering her mouth, I could see the corners of her mouth smiling. Then she gently lowered the corners of her eyes and smiled brightly. I knew this would happen, honestly, I didn’t expect it! This time, I turned my head and asked Lily, who was slightly hesitant and lowered her head.

“Lily…Does Mom really have to attend class..? It’s so hard for Mom…”

“….I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Mom… I wish Mom could continue to do the same for me as Elise….”

“……”

Lily said that and lowered her head, refusing to make eye contact with me. Yeah… Honestly, I had expected Lily to be like that. Lily is a devoted daughter at best, and a mama’s girl at worst. She’s a child who likes skinship just as much as Elise, so I expected that she might want me to continue participating in class, but I was actually shocked when she rejected me.

Now, I can only really trust Sylvia. She is the eldest daughter, has a strong sense of responsibility, and cares deeply for her mother. Trisha and I both thought of Sylvia as a ‘filial daughter’ in the true sense of the word. So, Sylvia would definitely understand my feelings. I looked at Sylvia with great anticipation.

“Sylvia..?”

He looked at Sylvia with such sadness that he seemed like he might cry at any moment.

Then Sylvia met my eyes.

“Huh..?”

Just like that, I turned my head away.

“shi, Sylvia..?”

“…..”

Sylvia didn’t say anything, but I could sense that it was a clear expression of rejection. Despite my earnest pleas, all my daughters wanted me to continue attending class. That was so shocking that I burst into real tears, not fake ones, and cried out to my daughters, especially to Sylvia, in my mind.

‘I believed it!!’

Sylvia, I trusted you!! I believed that you, the eldest daughter, would think of me!! Even with Elise and Lily, I truly trusted Sylvia. Because I trusted her more than anyone else, I felt a great sense of betrayal. My body trembled with betrayal and I couldn’t speak, so I just looked at the children, and then I heard Catherine holding back laughter from the side.

“Phuh”

How long did she have to hold back her laughter? She covered her lips with her hand and giggled, then eventually turned her head away from my gaze and began to hold back her laughter, shaking her shoulders and chest. When I heard that squeaky, suppressed laughter, I thought I knew why Catherine accepted my offer so easily.

“Catherine…? You… knew that? The kids wouldn’t refuse the class, right?”

“Haa… Hehe… Of course I knew. I taught these kids, so how could I not know that much? I’ve been watching your daughter the most for the past week.”

“……”

“Trisha… I’m giving you advice as your friend. Your biggest weakness is that you’re clueless. And hopelessly so. Why don’t you look around you a little more closely? Don’t just think about yourself, think about other people’s thoughts too.”

“What are you talking about…”

“Well, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”

Catherine shook her head, let out a deep sigh, and got up from her chair to focus her daughters’ attention. Clap, clap. Catherine clapped her hands, and after confirming that her daughters’ attention was focused on her, she continued speaking.

“First of all, the reason Trisha told you to skip class is because of a promise she made with me. If even one of you didn’t want Trisha to participate in class, she promised to skip class. The result was… as I expected. I’m glad I taught you guys well.”

Catherine looked down at her daughters and smiled happily. To be honest, she had barely talked to them in the past week, except for evening classes. As if to prove that she had seen them the most in the past week, just as Catherine had said, her daughters were concentrating on what Catherine was saying.

Something… makes me feel left out…

“Back to class…there will be no etiquette class next week. Instead, we will have another class.”

“Are you okay..? There’s no time until the ball…”

“Honestly, I don’t care. And can you please stop interrupting me? I’m talking to the kids.”

“That’s bad…”

I was already so sad that I was deceived, but now they were even beating me up. I was so upset at Catherine and my daughters who had rejected me even though I had cried and begged them. Now, I was in a situation where I couldn’t do anything, and my heart was burning black. To soothe my burning heart, I drank wine and listened to Catherine and my daughters’ conversation.

“Anyway… To be honest, there’s not much left to teach you in the evening classes. I’ve already taught you almost everything I need to teach you… I taught you things like petting and hand techniques outside of the evening classes, right? So what’s left…”

Catherine slowly approached me and placed a hand gently on my shoulder.

“We will learn about not only sex that involves just mixing bodies, but also romantic relationships.”

“Huh..?”

I thought, “Isn’t that usually the opposite?” But in front of Catherine, such common sense was useless. Finding out about a romantic relationship? Maybe because I was drunk, my mind wasn’t working properly. I blankly raised my head and looked at Catherine, and Catherine tapped my shoulder and continued talking.

“Next week, you will take turns being romantically involved with Trisha on each day of the week. You will be a lover for a day. You can do whatever you want with Trisha for a day. If you want to go out on a date in the town, I will lend you a carriage. You can stay in your room and just have sex for a day. That is a very romantic thing to do.”

“Catherine..?”

“And I won’t ask you what happened, but you will have a consultation with me on the last day of the week. The contents of the consultation will be kept confidential, and you must not tell anyone.”

“Okay, hold on. Catherine, hold on!”

What is this? I turned my head to the side in a hurry and looked at Catherine. Even if my opinion was buried anyway, this wasn’t it. Becoming lovers with my daughters for a day? I couldn’t figure out what Catherine was thinking.

“What, what are you thinking?! You want me to be your daughter’s lover for a day?!”

“If you succeeded in becoming a concubine and having sex with her, then you’re in a romantic relationship, right? I think that’s normal education, right?”

Now, looking at Catherine’s face, who was sighing deeply as if she didn’t even want to bother explaining, I thought I understood a little bit. Her tone of voice, which was like she was avoiding eye contact with me and slowly dragging out the end of her sentences as if she was annoyed.

“….Is this an excuse..?”

At my words, Catherine opened her eyes wide in surprise, then quickly arched her eyes and smiled softly. She looked at me with a smile as if praising me for a job well done, but she didn’t answer my question.

“Anyway… You promised me, right? If my daughters all want to, you’ll keep attending class, right?”

“That, that’s…”

“Then keep your promise.”

Catherine took her hand off my shoulder as if she had nothing more to say and went to her daughters. She handed them lots that she had prepared at some point and decided the order by drawing lots. Anyway, I knew that Catherine wouldn’t explain any more even if I argued further, so I had no choice but to give up.

‘Haa…what on earth are you thinking, Catherine?’

Why were the girls being dragged in, why were they being made to play lovers, and what was this ‘counseling’ that Catherine had mentioned? Right now, I had no way of knowing. As I was groaning and wrapping my head around it, the eyes of the girls who had drawn the lottery turned to me.

As I looked into my daughters’ eyes, I thought I understood why Catherine had told me to be careful. The way my daughters stared at me made no attempt to hide their lewd lust, and the lust flowing out of their eyes seemed so real that it was almost sticky.

“The first is…”

As if the order had been decided, Lily lifted up the red swallow and smiled at me. There was a strange expression in her purple eyes, and an obscene smile spread across her lips, making me tremble involuntarily.

“It’s me, have a nice day tomorrow, Mom.”

*