Ren's children were riding on Kinako's back.
They were still so little.
Yet they were already up and moving around.
Apparently, their biology prioritized securing a base level of intelligence and motor function first.
Once they gained mobility, their growth slowed to a crawl as a counterbalance.
Then, when they hit puberty, a sudden growth spurt would balance the books.
In an elementary school class, the Beast Race was always the shortest of the bunch, but by high school graduation, they would average out or even end up on the taller side.
Life truly is a mystery.
Though if I looked at it rationally, it was simply the result of ancient scientists thoroughly tampering with them through technology.
...An absolute insult to life itself.
Still, considering their track record of modifying their bodies to successfully settle new frontiers, they couldn't exactly be painted as the villains.
Katori-sensei was a descendant of settlers, too.
We Jesters were also supposed to have been modified humans once upon a time, but recent discoveries proved we were actually naturally occurring variants.
It seemed to be an evolutionary adaptation meant to counter our natural predator, the Zen Divine Race.
"Papa."
"Yes, yes, Amane-chan. Papa's right here."
The leader of the sextuplets, Amane-chan, beamed at me.
She was a precious little girl with cat ears.
She had finally reached the point where she could handle basic communication.
"Papa!"
"Yeees, Amane-chan."
"Eeeek!"
The other children squealed with joy alongside her. "Eeeek!"
We were interacting, sure, but whether we were actually understanding each other was another story.
Sorry, kiddo... I have no idea what you're trying to say.
I mean, how do other fathers out there... even manage this?
As I was agonizing over it, someone walked in.
Amane-chan's ears perked straight up.
"Mama!"
"My, were you having fun with Papa?"
"Eeeek!"
Her energy level was way higher than when she was with me.
Yeah, mothers are simply on another level.
Besides, I'm pretty sure Kinako was the one doing all the playing.
"Alright, it's naptime. Kina-chan, bring everyone along, please."
"Eeeek!"
"Meooow!"
And with that, the children were shuttled away.
Kinako was a massive cat, already so big she could barely squeeze through the hallway.
Even so, she never knocked over a single piece of furniture.
She slipped through the gaps with effortless grace.
Our cat really is incredible!
The little ones spent most of the day asleep.
It seemed they did most of their growing while snoozing away.
Well, that's just how babies are.
Now, as for our kids, they might seem like a handful at first glance.
Yet they never cried at night.
In fact, they hardly ever cried at all.
Even when they needed a diaper change, they just gave us a heads-up without making a fuss.
Thanks to that, we were spared from sleepless nights, which kept things pretty easy.
I wonder why that was?
Maybe I should ask our Bavaa.
"Leo, you never cried either, not even when you were an infant."
All majesty befitting the King of Chronos was gone.
There was only "Mom."
"Oho, so I was an easy baby to manage, then?"
"Hardly. The moment you learned to move, you caused endless trouble—running wild and escaping at every turn. That is why I left everything entirely to a childcare robot."
"Oho... A wise decision."
Now I could finally understand.
It wasn't neglect.
Bavaa simply couldn't handle me anymore.
I mean... our kid... already drifts around corners while crawling and has an unnatural obsession with corn.
And Ren's children were playing tag with a cat... or rather, I suspect the cat was teaching them how to hunt.
Even I didn't have the confidence to raise them properly...
There was no way a foster mother with no blood relation could manage it.
Deep down, I had resented her a little for it, but now I completely understood how she felt.
Given our family's finances back then, hiring a private tutor would have been out of the question.
The salary for a tutor suited to the prestige of a Marquis House was astronomical.
Then again... the folks from the Duke Association who actually had tutors assigned to them turned out completely devoid of class.
Even a wild monkey like me had better manners than that lot.
Is an educational robot truly the ultimate solution after all?
I mulled it over for a second.
No amount of brooding would give me the answer. Better drop it.
Still feeling unsettled, I headed back to my office.
Wifey was waiting for me.
"Ah, there you are. I've been waiting."
Towa wasn't with her.
That meant this was strictly business.
"What's the matter? Did the results from the ruins survey come in?"
"Not yet on that front. It will still take time merely to erect the scaffolding."
Well, that made sense.
We were in the middle of constructing several spaceports and colonies to serve as relay points with Rosaria, after all.
Labor was in such short supply that it felt as though everyone had completely forgotten the economic slump brought on by the war.
The factories were running at full steam, too.
That said, a sharp drop in demand was inevitable once spaceport construction wrapped up.
The rush to build new factories had finally started to cool down.
Now, if only we could build factories with profit projections solid enough that shutting them down later wouldn't saddle us with debt.
Factories inevitably attracted environmentalist opposition groups.
Throwing money at them to keep them quiet... Hmm, was that actually what harmed the economy the most?
Handing cash over to shady private organizations was practically the same as funneling money into the underground economy.
With Chronos's level of technology, pollution shouldn't even be an issue.
Setting aside legitimate grievances like, "Our electric bills are gonna go through the roof, you morons!"
The real headache was the rise of tax eaters within economic organizations and academic circles.
The kind of parasites who "steer economic policy in the wrong direction just to line their own pockets" or "take taxpayer money for research while trying to derail society just to enrich themselves."
Despite all the talk of industry-academia collaboration, countless academics had done nothing but churn out papers while their practical ventures had been dead in the water for years!
Chronos's previous administration had been a bunch of idiots... or perhaps democracy was simply doomed to walk hand-in-hand with corruption.
Because at the end of the day, nobody takes responsibility.
Was a monarchy, where someone's head ultimately rolled on the chopping block, actually the better system?
Then again, in a monarchy, if the king happened to be a moron, the whole country went down in flames.
Even under a constitutional monarchy, a foolish king spelled doom.
On the other hand, take Shogun Tsunayoshi—everyone thought he was an idiot, but he turned out to be a pragmatic reformer who successfully prolonged the shogunate...
Though by making the development of new technology subject to government permits, the nation fell behind its neighbors, fringe ideologues took root, and the whole system eventually fell apart.
Yet staging revolutions on a regular basis would run a country into the ground.
So in terms of societal metabolism, a democracy where the state deliberately reinvented itself over time was theoretically stronger...
Except if the populace was stupid, con artists would run rampant and tear the nation apart from the inside...
Alright, my brain is completely fried!
For now, let's just promote "self-sacrifice" as a glorious aesthetic virtue.
Even high-ranking state officials should be ready to disembowel themselves.
Wait a second...
Was Repsitore the ideal model all along?
No, those guys... lacked morals so completely that their entire economy collapsed...
Uwaaah... Politics and economics are way too hard!
"Someone give me the perfect political system, pwease!"
"What kind of nonsense are you babbling?! The economy is turning just fine for now!"
"Then what's going on? Did something happen?"
"It is about our communications with Rosaria. As matters stand, there is no response, no matter how many times we hail them."
"Well, it is pretty far away."
Wouldn't it still be out of range?
"Even so, one would expect them to have prepared relay satellites at the very least."
The mood in the room instantly took a dark turn.
"Uh... don't tell me..."
"Rosaria may truly have fallen."
Gaaaaah!
Deep down, I knew it was a possibility... but things had finally escalated into an absolute nightmare!
"Keep an eye on Charlotte. I am counting on you. Until later."
Leaving those parting words, Wifey stepped out of the room.