Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 16: 16-Your Parents Are On Your Side

Read chapter 16 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

“Babbyyy, why do you look so thin?!” Phoebe Tyrrell—Merlin’s and Nora’s mother—voiced, her brown eyes far too close to her phone’s camera, making her face appear extremely enlarged to her children through the video call. “Have you not been eating? Nora! Why has your brother not been eating?!” “Ugh…” Nora rolled her eyes. “He’s not thin, honey; I think he’s just building muscles.” Those were the words of Arthur Tyrrell, the twins’ father, and he was trying his best to keep his wife from jumping in through the phone—which seemed to be more of a task than he might have thought. They were both dressed in surgical wears with white masks hanging from their ears and below their chin, and, apparently, hiding in a drug storage room just so that they could make the call that the Tyrrell family was currently engaged in. “Muscles?” Phoebe blinked like she had heard wrongly. She glanced at Merlin and back at her husband. “Such nonsense. Don’t push your interests onto our son. Why would he be building muscles?” Merlin’s stomach tightened at those words. What did she mean by that? Yes, he knew that he had once been lazy, preferring to sleep all day than do anything else, but he was different now. Well, she didn’t know that, but still. “Look clearly, honey. He is. Our son’s going to the gym. Aren’t you, Merlin?” Arthur looked extremely pleased, which didn’t surprise Merlin much. His father had always liked keeping his body fit. Despite always being holed up in the hospital, he’d still always found a way to exercise, even a light jog was enough. He’d been surprised when Merlin didn’t take after him, but now that he was seeing some changes, there was a glint in his pearly, black eyes. “I am,” Merlin replied with a sigh. The couch sank deeper beneath his buttocks with those words, and that was because he knew what was coming next. “What?!!!” Phoebe screamed. “You stop that right this instant! Do you hear me?! Do you know how many patients I’ve performed surgery on because their herniated disc ruptured or shifted out of position? Your body’s not strong enough to handle such a thing, and I don’t want to have to operate on my own son.” This was the thing about his mother, she always found a way to complain. To her, everything had a negative outcome that she believed only she could see, and she had to warn them about. Merlin didn’t like that. It was why he didn’t tell her much, and why he was uncomfortable at this moment, considering the changes he was going through, and all that was happening to him. If she was this way about something like exercising, then what would she do when she heard about the System? All hell would break loose, no doubt. He didn’t want it to slip from his mouth, so he was looking for every means possible to escape before that could happen. However, he had never been successful before, so he doubted it would be any different at this moment. “And, you, Nora. Did you know about this and just let him carry on with it?” She continued, shifting her focus onto Nora. It was exactly for this reason that Nora always thought of herself as an elder sister to Merlin; after all, their mother treated her like one. “ Tsk . He’s old enough to do what he wants to do, Mom,” Nora replied with a dry tone. “Did you just click your tongue at me, young lady?” Phoebe frowned. Nora didn’t reply. “You should be glad we have this screen between us, I would have beaten that bad manners out of your little body.” “Honey…” Arthur put his hand on his wife’s shoulder; which she immediately pushed away. “See? We let your children fly across the world and this is what they’ve become? One’s trying to rupture his spine, and the other clicks her tongue at me.” Arthur sighed. “Relax. They’re fine. You’re just stressed.” Phoebe furrowed her brows and jerked her head back slightly. “Oh. I’m stressed now, am I? And that makes what I’m saying nonsense, I suppose?” “That’s not what I—” “Alright. Here you go then.” She handed the phone to Arthur. “Talk to your children.