One sunny Parent-Teacher Day.

There was a cooking class, and my child was making curry rice with a practiced hand.

While the other children her age were awkwardly using their kitchen knives, that child was wielding hers deftly.

The teacher approached me with a smile on their face, saying it must be a result of learning it at home.

I managed to play it off with a vague smile and a nod in response.

...That was because I had never once taught my child how to make curry rice.

Even then, she was peeling vegetables with a practiced hand, adding them into the pot in the order of which took longer to cook.

For a normal parent, they might unintentionally clap their hands together, happy at their child's actions.

But in my case, it was different.

...There was no mistaking that somebody had taught her how to make that curry rice when I wasn't taking care of her.

...Thinking that, I quietly fell into an unpleasant mood.

When I asked, it seemed she could also sew and do the laundry.

I had never taught her how to do those, and again, never saw her do it around the house.

Be it cooking or sewing or the laundry.

...Again, that was probably because the elderly villagers taught her all sorts of rubbish when I wasn't looking.

And not only that, they probably taught her all sorts of strange superstitions, trying to prop her up as the living incarnation of Oyashiro-sama.

I said as much to my husband, suggesting that we should keep our child away from the elderly folk.

But my husband, who was in the position of being the head priest of the Furude Shrine, had little power against the elderly who supported it.

...He took the rather uncommitted stance of saying that as long as she was being doted upon, wasn't it fine?

I argued against that.

That she was our child, and should be a completely normal girl.

That what the elderly were expecting, that she was the living incarnation of Oyashiro-sama, was simply odd.

The elderly villagers believe that child has divine powers.

We would discuss the weather for the following day, but there were many times when I left the house without an umbrella and came back soaking wet.

Rather than having clairvoyance, that was just second-hand knowledge from her watching the news all the time.

The things that she knew that she shouldn't have known were just a result of the people who were trying to indoctrinate her and the people who were gossiping getting together in the village.

However... there certainly were days when everybody thought it was going to be sunny all day, and that child would stubbornly not go out without an umbrella.

It would occasionally rain, and in the end, we would be saved.

...There might also have been times where Rika knew of major accidents in foreign countries faster than the news did.

I thought that she must have heard it break over the radio or something.

...Knowing things she shouldn't have,

something like that...

Was in front of me right now, wasn't it?

That child was making curry rice when there shouldn't have been anybody who taught her how to.

No, no... that couldn't possibly be the case.

Somebody had taught her, indoctrinated her.

When I wasn't taking care of her, somebody had indoctrinated Rika with something.

"Furude-san's curry is absolutely splendid.

I'll give it a gold star!"

"......Nipah~☆."

"Where did you learn to cook, Furude-san?

At home?"

"......Yes.

At home."

The other parents in attendance were impressed.

Lies, all lies.

...I didn't teach her anything.

Who was it? Who was it?

Who was the person who had completely indoctrinated my child?

She was my normal, average daughter, not the living incarnation of Oyashiro-sama!