Child Rearing Journal of the Strongest Wiseman～About My Daughter Being the Cutest in the World( Saikyou Kenja no Kosodate Nikki ～Uchi no Musume ga Sekaiichi Kawaii Ken ni Tsuite～) - Chapter 7

Taking a Bath With My Daughter
Just like that our troupe was able to stay at a noble mansion.
We quite literally received a warm welcome with a sumptuous feast.
It was natural of course, for I had saved the countess of the Otto house.
I was served while being waited upon by the butlers and maids of the house.

「The benefactor of Milady is our benefactor」

Saying so, they gave us a reception almost befitting that of royalty.
When I woke up in the morning, a maid brought me a change of clothes and a cup of coffee.

Of course, the change of clothes they brought included a brand new shirt, which was even ironed. Everything seemed to be first-class, made by the leading dressmaker in the Imperial Capital. Each one is worth a month of the maid’s wages.

After that, the breakfast too, was served to us together with the Otto family, along with the menu .
Freshly baked bread made from whole wheat, which had been smeared with plenty of butter.
You could smear honey and jam to your heart’s content if you wanted, and when I wished for it to be salty, they even served caviar.
I have lived for a thousand years, but I have eaten such expensive roe very few times.
As expected of a comital family1.
However, with the exception of all-you-can-eat caviar, there was nothing quite extravagant.

I was asked about my preferred method of preparation of the eggs, but it was to the extent of whether they were to be boiled, sunny side up or scrambled.

Moreover, the bacon and the sausage that accompanied them were also first class goods, but they were not quite different from the kind we usually ate.

While it may be true that they were nobles, it did not seem like they were in a situation where they could eat extravagant things on an everyday basis.
The usual meals were not very different from the meals that commoners ate.
But then, I didn’t know if it would be right to treat commoners and a Wiseman who has lives a thousand years as the same.
After we ate breakfast, we had a lot of time to kill before lunch.
Because they have a splendid library, let’s sneak a peek at it. (alternate: “I wanted to take a sneak peeak at it”).
Fiona spent her time playing and reading picture books with the children of the Otto house.

Those few hours might feel like an instant to me, who has lived a thousand years, but for her, who is a child, those same few hours may be manyfold longer than it is for me, and must be quite precious.

That I can easily guess.
So much that the girls were happily bustling about the mansion.
Though that figure was a pleasant one to look at, I thought simultaneously.

「Fiona might need a friend」

It was natural, for Fiona usually stayed at my house.
Although there are playmates in the form of toys and dolls, there were no humans.
There was a mechanical maid, but even if she had emotions, she was not a child of the same generation.

There was a village at the foot of my residence, but it was at a distance that took a few hours to go to and fro, and the villagers harboured some fear suspicion towards the unidentified thousand year old Wiseman who was immersed in research.

There were no children in the village who would play with such a girl.

「It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Fiona happily playing around like this」

Seeing my daughter frolic around with children of her generation for the first time, such thoughts came to mind, and soon, it was time for lunch.
Lunch too, wasn’t too extravagant, but efforts were put into it.

Even though we were quite far from the sea, they seemed to have procured seafood from somewhere, and lunch was clam chowder. Moreover, it had the taste of one prepared by a chef from a high class store, and was even more delicious than Chloe’s.

Incidentally, Chloe was not sitting at the table during both breakfast and lunch. She was standing and grinning beside me and Fiona.

She was a mechanical doll. She didn’t need food.
Rather, she didn’t eat meals.
Hers was a special body that could survive for many months just on the energy provided by the pseudo-philosopher’s stone in her chest.
I have explained that to the people of the Otto house.

The fact that Fiona was a Homunculus was an absolute secret, but there was no problem in revealing that Chloe was a machine doll.

It was not like you could say that machine dolls are overflowing in this world――, nevertheless, they were not existences that could said to be rare.

But then, an emotional and sensitive machine doll like Chloe was an unusual existence.
Moreover, a machine doll that could be cynical like this.
While I was smacking my lips at the Otto house’s clam chowder, Chloe said with a smiling face.

「It seems you are making a more satisfied face than even when you eat Chloe’s clam chowder. Master. 」

「…………」

I wonder when she became such a machine doll who could be so cynical.
I tried to recollect, but I remember her being more sincere when I created her.

When I ask her that, she presses her lips together saying,「It’s your imagination, Master」, laughing with a hohoho on top of it, she went off somewhere.

She said, she wanted to see the maids of this residence working and absorb their skills.
I wonder if a mechanical doll has nothing more to do than that.
After warning her not to be a trouble for the people of the residence, I gave her the permission.

Chloe spied on the trade secrets of the Otto house all day, and finally got the secret of that taste from the cook.

While the adults were spending their day like that, night arrived.
The evening meal turned out to be an extravagant dinner centred around meat.
As expected, when guests stay over, dinner becomes more extravagant than usual.
Day after day, we got beef and turkey among others, and moreover, we were offered the best cuts.
Fiona was astonished at the tender beef through which the knife passed smoothly.

「Daddy, Somehow this is as soft as butter. Is this really meat?」

It was strange to say so.
Indeed it was soft like butter, and moreover, it was quite fatty like butter.
It seems everything was expressly bought from an exclusive dairy farmer, and it was meat cured in a dedicated warehouse.
This is the only food fit for nobility that we absolutely won’t be able to eat in the vicinity of my residence, is what I thought.
After eating such a luxurious meal, I was advised to take a bath.
The bathtub was filled with hot water.
Of course, we have a bathtub at home too, but the one in the Otto house was at a different level.
It was almost as if it had splendour like one from an ancient palace.
The Otto house had installed a facility like those at public bathhouses in a big town.

「Daddy, sugoi! I’ve never seen such a big bathtub!」

Fiona said that, but so that she doesn’t run about, I catch her firmly by the shoulder.
It’d be terrible if she fell down and hurt herself in the bathhouse.
After warning her of that, we father and daughter happily immersed themselves in the bathtub.

「Our bathtub isn’t large enough for two people to enter, right?」

「You’re right」

I interjected.
Fiona made a water pistol with her hands.
I wonder if Chloe taught her that. It was quite a beautiful water pistol.
I also wanted to rival her, but mine was clumsy and did not fly as smoothly as Fiona’s
Left with no choice, when I chanted a spell, a《Water Current》magic was released.

The water current that was fired from my palm, vigorously came at Fiona’s face. Of course, it’s power was limited to a bare minimum.

Seeing that, Fiona repeatedly shouted out 「Sugoi, sugoi! 」.
She begged me to teach her magic, but it was still too early to teach her.
But, seeing the daughter who still was going splishy-splashy with the water, I thought.
I wonder till when this child will enter the bath together with me.

「Surely, if I ask her to enter the bath together even after she reaches puberty, she’d surely hate me like serpents and snakes (detest)」

It was a night when a understood a little of the feelings of the fathers of the innumerable daughters in this world.