After distributing a batch of Devil Fruits, everyone ate while chatting.
Nino, who had been formally promoted to Makoto's wife in the One Piece World, eagerly said, "Starting today, we're moving in too. Will we be sleeping in Makoto-kun's room?"
This met with immediate opposition from everyone.
"In your dreams," Utaha rolled her eyes. "Everyone has their own room. At most, you'll share a room with Makoto-kun at night."
After all, Makoto understood the principle that 'it's not scarcity but uneven distribution that causes discontent'.
Nino pouted but didn't argue.
After all, she was a latecomer and still had to give some respect to her seniors.
Makoto told Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba to follow Ayano to pick out rooms later.
The three sisters all looked eager, while Ichika and Itsuki, who weren't named, looked somewhat dejected.
Especially Itsuki... her expression was far too obvious.
Itsuki barely managed a smile and asked Miku sitting next to her, "If you guys move in here, what about Dad?"
Miku blinked, looking unconcerned.
"Dad's never home anyway. He won't know if we move out."
Hearing this, Makoto was speechless.
'She was indeed a filial daughter.'
However, Maruo usually did lack proper control over his five daughters, so it was no wonder they were taken away by the useless male lead in the original work.
Makoto thought for a moment and felt this still wasn't appropriate.
"After dinner, let's go see Nakano-san. This kind of thing needs to be clearly stated."
Hearing that Makoto wanted to meet their parents, Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba all blushed.
The other girls had no objections to this.
After all, after they had gotten together with Makoto, he had also directly brought their parents in.
Then, the girls started chatting again.
Chika said cheerfully, "After dinner, everyone should play games together!"
Kaguya immediately refused, "Won't play."
Chika asked pitifully, "Why not, Kaguya-san?"
Kaguya said flatly, "Fujiwara-san, you cheat too much."
Laughter filled the room.
Eriri said, "I realized it's close to the submission deadline. I'm busy catching up on my manuscript. I won't play either."
Utaha directly teased, "Eriri, now that you don't have to just draw panels, you can directly conjure characters using your Brush-Brush Fruit's ability, right?"
Hearing Utaha so blatantly reveal her identity as a 'doujinshi artist', Eri immediately bristled like an angry kitten, threatening Utaha:
"If you offend me, I'll draw you as my main character."
Utaha was completely unthreatened, smiling as she retorted, "Do you think Makoto-kun would tolerate that?"
At these words, Eriri's expression changed, and she quickly apologized to Makoto, "S-sorry, I was just angry and misspoke. It's all that fat woman Kasumigaoka Utaha's fault for provoking me!"
Makoto waved his hand.
"Talking like this at home is fine. Just be a bit more careful when you go out."
Many people at the table were learning for the first time that Eriri had this identity as a 'doujinshi artist', and started chatting with her about it.
Finally, Eriri blushed and had to admit that she was the doujinshi artist, [Kashiwagi Eri].
Many girls were very surprised.
After all, at school, Eriri was the typical refined young lady. They hadn't expected her to have this other side.
Reze took out her phone, looked up some of Eriri's doujinshi, and licked her tongue.
"It feels like many of the poses are very interesting. How about we try them out tonight?"
Ran, sitting beside her, immediately yelled with a red face, "Reze, watch yourself!"
This nymphomaniac friend of hers really just said the most thunderous things with no warning.
Most people chatted happily.
But there were still a few who couldn't be happy.
Like Nayuta and Kokoro, whose bodies had shrunk again.
And Itsuki and Yukino, who wanted to fit in but hadn't yet.
After dinner, Makoto took the Nakano quintuplets to Nakano Hospital to meet the director, Nakano Maruo.
Seeing Makoto arrive in person, Maruo, who usually showed a poker face towards most people, was flattered.
"Commander actually came personally. You're too kind. If you needed something, you could have just called me over."
Then, Maruo invited Makoto to sit down, personally served him tea, and then asked what business he had.
Makoto didn't beat around the bush and immediately said, "From today on, Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba are living with me. If you don't mind, Nakano-san, you, Ichika, and Itsuki can move in too."
At these words, Maruo immediately understood.
He looked at his three daughters in disbelief. They were all, including the usually most headstrong Nino, blushing and looking down, which said it all.
Maruo was very shocked by this, but he still consented to the relationship between his three adopted daughters and Makoto.
He certainly knew that Makoto had many women, but in this new era where Anomaly ran rampant, Makoto was undoubtedly the best possible match.
However, regarding the invitation to move into the palace, Maruo thought about it and refused.
He was generally not very good at getting along with his five adopted daughters, let alone living under the same roof with them.
And since universal free medical care had been opened, he had become even busier as director, spending most of his time at the hospital.
Maruo then asked Ichika and Itsuki, "Do you want to move in?"
The two remaining Nakano girls were torn.
Nino hugged Itsuki, with whom she had a good relationship, and said, "Didn't we do everything five ways equally when we were growing up? Of course we need to stay together."
Itsuki finally nodded and agreed.
But inwardly she muttered, 'Since we did everything five ways equally, why was this not the case this time?'
Ichika also went with the group and agreed.
Just then, Maruo asked his five daughters to step out first. He wanted to talk with Makoto alone.
Nino was a little worried and asked Maruo, "He's not going to make things difficult for Makoto-kun, is he?"
After all, in many of the idol dramas she'd watched, there was often a scenario where the main couple was dating, and one parent disapproved, casually pulling out a check and handing it to the other, telling them to leave their child.
Maruo saw through Nino's thoughts at a glance and couldn't help but frown.
'She wasn't even married yet, and already she was siding with an outsider. And this girl had watched too many idol dramas.'
'How could I possibly dare to give Commander a hard time?'
Makoto also waved, signaling the quintuplets to go out.
Soon, only Makoto and Maruo sat facing each other in the office.
Maruo kept a very lowly attitude, expressing his hope that Makoto would treat Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba well.
Watching this usually expressionless father act so humble, Makoto was somewhat moved.
"You should say these words in front of them."
Makoto had always disliked the 'silent sacrifice' way of doing things.
He felt that if you did something good, you should say it. Especially for matters involving emotions like this, if you didn't let the person involved know, it was basically as good as not doing it.
This was the flaw of the 'nice guy' approach, always thinking that silently being good to someone would move them.
Damn it, if the other person doesn't know, how can they be moved! You're just moving yourself.
Oh, right. Maruo did have a serious 'nice guy' trait.
But he had a puffy face, which made it easy to overlook.
"...That would be a bit awkward."
Maruo scratched his nose, somewhat embarrassed.
Makoto agreed to Maruo's request.
Then, perhaps because he hadn't had anyone to speak with for many years, Maruo gradually opened his floodgates.
"Back then, I greatly admired my teacher… Mrs. Rena, their biological mother. But due to the teacher-student relationship, I never dared to express my feelings."
"Then, many years later, after I graduated from university and became an attending physician, I never expected to meet the teacher I'd secretly admired for so many years again at the hospital. By then, she already had five children, and she was terminally ill."
"So, I mustered up the courage to confess to my teacher. After all, if I didn't confess now, I'd never get another chance. I also promised her that I would take care of her five children after she passed away… that is, Ichika and the others."
"But because they were already elementary school age when I adopted them, they already had their own independent thoughts. I had no idea how to get along with them. So over the years, I basically just met their financial needs. Besides that, there was hardly any communication."
Maruo poured out these words.
When he looked up at Makoto again, he saw that the other party was looking at him with a very peculiar expression.
How to say it?
It was a feeling that seemed to blend disgust and sympathy.
Makoto said to Maruo, "This kind of hands-off adoption style you have makes it easy for your daughters to be taken away by delinquent male leads."
Hearing this, Maruo frowned.
'Were you referring to yourself when you said 'delinquent male lead'?'
Makoto then asked Maruo, "Before that Rena died, did you ever have sex with her?"
Maruo, who was taking a sip of tea, almost spit it out.
'This was far too direct, wasn't it?'
Seeing Maruo's expression, Makoto knew that this cuckold hadn't even slept with her, yet had been raising her daughters for so many years, and they didn't even feel close to him.
To be honest, it was pretty rare to be such a pathetic cuckold.