"Let's organize the information."
The young man stopped writing and tapped his notebook with his fingertip. All extraneous emotion had vanished from his face—a trick he learned from his father. The man would reduce his emotional display when doing anything that involved deep thought; he claimed that keeping facial expressions from changing drastically generally allowed one to concentrate better.
"Twenty years ago, my father, mother, and the uncles and aunts formed an unknown organization. After achieving its initial goal, the organization disbanded. The day after the disbandment, Mother organized a party, proposed to Father that night, and announced it to everyone the following day."
"For the past twenty years, they have lived harmoniously, but Auntie Mobius was secretly plotting something and may have already succeeded, which is the scene I witnessed back then."
"But Auntie Vil-V said that given Mother's cleverness, she couldn't possibly be kept in the dark... So, let's assume Auntie Mobius didn't actually do anything that Father and Mother would find inappropriate. Is it possible they were really doing academic research that night?"
"Following this line of thought, could my witnessing another person in Father's room have also been my misunderstanding? And Mother, knowing all of this, simply let me misunderstand?!"
He had initially thought his father was the great offender and his mother the innocent victim, but after visiting a few people, the positions had instantly reversed. This dramatic shift caused the young man's forced calm expression to waver.
"But why..." The young man covered his head. He felt like he was overlooking something, an inexplicably awkward feeling lingering in his heart.
After gathering his thoughts and tucking the notebook into his chest, the young man, with a sense of dread, knocked on the last door of his journey.
A seemingly ordinary laboratory door.
...
"You seem quite fond of playing detective games."
The green-haired woman, her hands tucked into the pockets of her white coat, stood in front of a tubular culture dish in the laboratory. The faint, eerie fluorescence was the only light source in the dark room. Her face was obscured in the shadows, and only the upturn of her lips carried a hint of transient amusement.
"Actually, not really..."
"Then have you found the truth?"
"The truth?" The young man didn't understand the green-haired woman's choice of words. He just wanted to clarify whether his father had cheated—simply put, resolve the misunderstanding. Why use a puzzle-like word like "truth"? "Father was just discussing academic problems with you, wasn't he?"
"...Are you still dwelling on that?"
The green-haired woman was clearly somewhat surprised, but not by the young man resolving the misunderstanding, but rather... a mostly disappointed astonishment.
"Huh?"
"Tch, I thought they would tell you what happened back then directly. I guess I have to be the one to say it." The green-haired woman clicked her tongue. "If you knew what happened back then, you would understand that love is the scarcest thing for people like us. So, there was no ridiculous palace drama of vying for affection; your father and mother simply naturally walked together to where they are now. There was no case of one side playing tricks."
"W-what does that mean?"
The young man was confused. Why did all their accounts differ?
And he noticed one thing: the green-haired woman mentioned what "happened" back then. He had never paid attention to what they were doing at the time, but now he was curious. What was their organization doing, that even a scientific authority like the green-haired woman was a member?
"Heh, I don't really want to admit it, but your father, Lin, is better at playing tricks than anyone. It would be easy for him to figure out what your mother did back then. Naturally, we weren't fools either. Everyone was fully aware of the situation. Nobody really cared who Lin would marry; it was a natural progression with anyone."
The young man suddenly thought of the Sakura-haired woman's slight anger. Her anger at the time was actually not about someone playing a trick, but the young man questioning the authenticity of his parents' marriage. In their eyes, such a thing was indisputable, a result of their acceptance after enduring hardship. To deny the marriage was to deny their friendship.
He was tricked by Auntie Vil-V!
The young man immediately realized the meaning behind the magician's subtle smile.
She was the most detached person, making her the best outsider to sit back and watch the show. The more distressed he was, the happier she would be.
Therefore, all her words were ambiguous and highly misleading.
The green-haired woman tucked a strand of hair behind her ear: "The truth is, your mother was also drunk at the time. She hugged your father and talked a lot of nonsense, then got herself emotional and shouted that they should live happily together forever. Your father, whose mindset in certain areas is straighter than a utility pole, interpreted her words as a proposal."
"It's not entirely his fault, though. Everything had just ended at the time, and your mother is generally outspoken, so such a misunderstanding was normal."
"So, your father thought for thirty seconds, and then said one thing..."
Her expression changed strangely.
"'You want to reproduce with me'?"
"..."
The young man was silent.
The father who often sat in the corner, silent and gloomy, seemed relatively normal to him, but he never expected him to say something so... not even cheesy.
If it were any other girl, he would probably have been slapped for saying that.
"Hmph... Judging by your expression, you must misunderstand Lin. Before you were born, he held some extreme concepts of continuation—everything for the sake of those who come after. He saw exchanging his own happiness for the happiness of the future generation as a worthwhile deal. So, reproduction, something he never thought about before, was suddenly the most important thing to him."
The idea that he would ignore his own happiness to exchange it for the happiness of his descendants—such a contradictory thought really existed in this era?
"So, my parents are happy... Father didn't cheat, Mother didn't trick anyone, and the uncles and aunts are all important friends to my parents..." The young man slowly raised his head. "But what exactly happened before that? Why did Father have such a mindset? Why were his parents not around when he was little? Why did Mother say 'live happily forever'?"
"...So, do you want to know the truth? Even if it shatters your worldview? Even if it puts you on another path?"
The green-haired woman smiled in the darkness.
"A path your father once walked."