So now we are sitting down looking at each other. Brother was calmly sipping his tea while Father was still worryingly looking at me.

 

“So Father, I think Lotte has something to say to you.”

“Eh?”

“Right, Lotte?”

 

Wait, I thought that he was the one that needs to say something to Father after hearing all of his rant last time, but now I’m the one that needs to start the conversation. I mean it was my plan to talk to Father in the first place but still.

 

“Um, Father is it okay for you to stay here? You usually go to the castle for work on time.”

“It’s okay, I already told the butler to inform my subordinates that I will be late today and also I just couldn’t leave like that with my daughter in danger.”

 

But I wasn’t in that much danger though. I was just tripped and hit the floor with my head. I thought that was pretty common for children, even the physician said that. Wait, this conversation is getting off track.

 

“Father, I want to ask something.”

“Go ahead. I will answer it to the best of my ability.”

“That… why are you always working too much?”

“Too much?”

“Yes, I know that a duke would have a lot of work to do, but I heard that Father works even more than that, you go to work really early in the morning and then you only go home in the middle of the night.”

 

After hearing my question Father wrinkled his words deeply, he appeared to be really thinking hard about the question. This is just my guess but, did he actually didn’t realize that he is a workaholic? While Father was thinking hard I could see from the corner of my eyes Brother looking intensely at Father like was going to burn him with his gaze. I felt like I was born in a really weird family.

 

“I worked that long because there was simply too much work to do. If I just worked regular hours like everybody else then the work will only pile up.”

“But Father, don’t you have some assistants and subordinates that can help you in doing your job?”

“That’s, um… They uh… they worked too slow, so I thought that if I wanted the work done correctly and quickly I needed to do it myself.”

 

It seemed that Father didn’t have that much trust for the people that worked for him if he needed to do that. I wonder if his subordinates just sit around all day because Father insisted on doing all the work by himself. 

 

While I was busy thinking to myself, Brother grabbed me and dragged me to the corner of the room. Then he whispered at me,

 

“That was the classic response of a workaholic.”

“You mean what Father just said?”

“Yeah, that was the usual response that a workaholic would give if people asked them about their work habit. You can even give the best men in the world and they will still say that those men are too slow compared to just them working alone, which of course doesn’t make any sense, how can one person work faster than a team of people?”

“I see. From his answer I also think that Father actually doesn’t realize that he is actually a workaholic. He thought that doing everything by himself was the best option.”

“That’s true. How can we stop him though? Even today, after he is done talking to us he will work until even later at night.”

“Should we set some rules for him?”

“I doubt that he will follow it.”

“Then what should we do?”

“The best option I could think of right now is to talk with him about his work habit. We also need someone who can control him while he is at work and tell him off if he tried to do everything by himself again.”

“Who will talk to him?”

“You.”

“He’s currently really worried about you so if you talk to him I think we will get a bigger chance of success.”

“*sigh* Okay. and who will observe him while he is at work?”

“Hehehe I will talk with the butler about that later.”

“Okay. Wait a minute, Brother you are essentially doing nothing then?”

“Yep.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Okay okay, I will help you talk with him then.”

“Okay!”

 

We then walked back to our seat. Father was looking at us questioningly. Now, how can I tell him to not work too much? Maybe distract him from work with something else? Or maybe I should just tell him directly?

 

“What were the two of you talking about over there?”

“Secret! Anyway, Father I need to talk to you about something.”

“As I already said before, you can talk about it and I will listen to you to the best of my ability.”

“Father, you should trust other people more!”

“Yes?”

“Um… you said that you did all the work by yourself because you work better than your subordinates, but you should trust them more. Maybe they just need to get more used to their job or maybe you just didn’t give them enough chances.”

“Hmmm… alright.”

 

He agreed! Wasn’t that too easy?

 

“So, you agreed with me?”

“Yes, I actually already thought about this problem too. Everybody else seems to be having a lot of breaks when I was working after all.”

 

I looked at Brother and he shook his head from side to side. It seemed that even though Father agreed with my suggestion only this much won’t be enough.

 

“Then, you also need to go home earlier than usual too and… and… you need to go to work much later too.”

“Those I cannot do. I would be neglecting my work and like I said it will just pile up.”

“But you said that you will trust you people more.”

“This and that are two different things.”

 

Brother was right. He wouldn’t change his habit that easily. 

 

“Why do you want me to go to work later and come home early?”

“Because… I want to spend more time with you.”

“Charlotte...”

“Is your work more important than me? Is it more important than Brother?”

“Of course not, the two of you are my children, I would always choose you...”

“But then why are you spending more time with your work than your children? You were never there when I was happy or sad, and when I want to meet you all I get is the butler saying that you are busy.”

“But you never...”

“No! You’re the one that never! Do you even remember when Brother gave you his test result? He worked so hard for it but you just put it aside with your work then you never mention it again.”

“Stefano, is that right?”

“Yup, you just look at it for a few seconds before throwing it away into the pile. No comment or anything.”

“That’s...”

 

Father looked down at the rug under his feet like a kid that was scolded by his parents. This talk will continue for a little longer.