Seraphim is a Bystander

Delivering the Souvenir – Part 3
 
It hadn’t been that long, but it still felt like a while since I’d last visited Grandpa’s place. Grandpa, in this case, being my father’s father. I was planning to visit my mom’s side of the family later as well.

I passed through the gate, bowing politely to the familiar guards, and was then guided by Kimura-san—the same servant who helped last time—toward the two people I had come to see. On the veranda near the well-maintained garden, Grandpa and Grandma were sitting side by side.
“Grandpa, Grandma, it’s been a while.”
“Mm, thanks for coming.”

“Welcome, Aoi-chan. Thank you for coming all this way.”
As usual, Grandpa gave a stone-faced greeting, while Grandma smiled warmly and began preparing tea. I took out one of the bags I had brought and offered it to them.
“This is a souvenir from the school trip to Kyoto. I’d really love it if you’d try some.”

“Oh my! Thank you so much, dear.”
“Hmph…”
Grandma carefully opened the bag and placed the Kyoto sweets I brought on a tray with the tea, setting them down in front of Grandpa and me. Grandpa didn’t seem to react much—maybe it wasn’t to his taste?

As I was thinking that, Grandpa started fiddling as if operating some nanomachines. I tilted my head, wondering what he was doing, and glanced over at Grandma. She looked like she was enjoying watching both of us.
“Grandpa—huh?!”
Just as I was about to speak, a pop-up appeared in my field of view, notifying me of a fairly large deposit into my account. The sender? Grandpa, who was now casually sipping tea and eating the sweets I brought.

“Wh-What the heck, Grandpa?! What is this!?”
“Hmph. I forgot to give you anything before your trip. Just keep it.”
“Isn’t this… a bit much?”

“My, dear? How much did you give him?”
“Just a little spending money.”
Grandpa turned quietly back to the garden, and Grandma, instead of scolding him, just sat beside him with a smile. …What the heck? Okay, I’ll hand this over to Mom when I get home.
“Oh, right—this is for the guards too. Could you give it to them later?”

“Oh? Well then… why don’t you give it directly to Kimura-san when you leave?”
“Ah, good idea. I’ll do that.”
We chatted while sipping tea, relaxing until it had gone lukewarm. That’s when I finally remembered—Seras-san! I completely forgot to introduce her.

“Grandpa, Grandma—there’s someone I’d like to introduce to you today.”
“Huh?” “Oh?”
The two of them gave me a curious look, as if wondering who I had brought with me. Well, they’d never met her before, so I guess that’s normal. Alright, Seras-san—if you would?

“...They’re going to be shocked. Maybe explain a bit first?”
Ah—yeah, good point.
“So… um, recently I found out that there’s someone else living inside me. It’s kind of hard to explain, but… I guess you could say I have a dual personality?”

“Dual personality? Like dissociative identity disorder? Did something traumatic happen—?”
Grandpa muttered with a serious look on his face, while Grandma looked at me with concern.
“Um, it’s not an illness or anything like that. Apparently, this other person has been with me since I was born. I only realized it recently, but they’ve started appearing now, so I wanted to introduce them.”

“...Yeah, maybe showing them is faster after all.”
You think so too? This situation is really hard to explain in words…
“Anyway, I’ll switch over to her now—this is Seras-san.”

“...Hmm.”
“O-Okay…?”
They were still clearly confused, but I went ahead and let ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Seras take over. When my appearance instantly changed, they both finally seemed to grasp that I wasn’t talking about some kind of mental illness. Still, even for them, this must have been quite a shock—they were both sitting there with their mouths agape.
“...!?!”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Seras, the one Aoi mentioned.”
…Yeah, I figured this would surprise them.
I wonder how many times I’ll have to go through this kind of introduction today…