Not a Baby...?
Not a Baby...?
Seo-yul loved being held.
She would always stretch her arms out toward me, eyes shining with earnest expectation, silently demanding to be picked up.
I understood that.
Honestly, I felt really good when someone held me, too.
Cozy, like being wrapped snugly in a thick blanket.
After all, babies love being held by their guardians, don't they?
Physical closeness with a parent builds a psychological bond, forming attachment.
They feel secure in being protected, comforted by the sound of a heartbeat so close.
It had to be the same for Seo-yul.
I wasn't much of a guardian, and I certainly didn't have the confidence to call myself one, but I still wanted to at least play that role. So I held her whenever I could.
"Daddy, I love you! Hug me!"
It was the same right now.
Warm sunlight streamed through the window at this hour.
Stomach full of a warm meal, drowsiness creeping in,
Seo-yul beamed and stretched her arms toward me. The wings on her back unfurled fully, as if stretching themselves.
For a moment, her pure smile outshone even the sunlight, brightening everything around her. I couldn't help but smile gently back.
'How can she be so cute?'
The word "fairy" fit her perfectly.
The fairies I'd seen in the original illustrations were certainly beautiful in appearance, but Seo-yul surpassed them.
As I always did, I opened my arms with the best smile I could manage.
In the past, I'd had only one arm and couldn't hold her properly. Now I had both arms in their own way.
I could hold her well without help from the Sky Wing Feather.
"Daddy, you're the best!"
Seo-yul pounced.
I calmly drew on experience and readied myself to catch her—
—Oof...
A body nearly my own size crashed into me, far beyond just filling my arms.
The impact hit harder than I'd imagined.
I couldn't absorb the shock properly. My body tilted backward.
'Eek...!'
Afraid Seo-yul might get hurt, I hugged her tight.
We toppled backward together, Seo-yul and I, a neat pile.
Thud... No real impact. The living room floor was covered seamlessly with soft mats.
They were items I'd set up in my dormitory.
I'd laid them everywhere in case Seo-yul got hurt, and now I was the one benefiting from them. It felt very strange.
"Heeheehee!"
Seo-yul burst into laughter as if even falling over was fun.
Her bright laughter rang out like a xylophone.
"Ahaha. Our Seo-yul's having fun, huh?"
Ellia chuckled from the kitchen. She was wearing an apron I'd had on hand and tidying up the dishes.
A very harmonious, peaceful scene.
Seo-yul even nuzzled against me like a baby animal.
Incredibly cute and lovable.
'Augh...'
...The problem was that she was squirming while pinning me down.
In the past, I would've taken it without any issue. But now, with us similar in size, the pressure was considerable.
"I love Daddy!"
[M-Me too...]
[I love Seo-yul too...]
"Hehehe... Daddy's cheek is soft!"
[Agh...]
[Don't bite it...]
Seo-yul, who'd been rubbing her cheek against mine, suddenly lifted her head and opened her mouth.
Then she lowered her face and gently bit my cheek.
[Gyaaah...]
Nibble nibble... I flailed at the bizarre sensation on my cheek, but pinned beneath her from the top position, escape wasn't easy.
—Sniff... sob... Daddy...
...Above all, countless heavy, heavy debts flickered through my mind, making resistance even harder.
I was too ashamed to even call myself a guardian. I couldn't refuse even this kind of play.
In the end, I gave up resisting and went limp.
As if savoring prey whose breath had stopped, Seo-yul pinned me down and nuzzled even more enthusiastically.
Her wings, which had been gently fluttering, beat more excitedly, as if she was that happy.
—Click
'?'
That's when it happened.
A sharp sound reached my ears and made me flinch.
What sound was that? I couldn't not know.
The camera shutter sound, recreated on the smartwatch.
I steadied my twitching lips and asked.
[Ellia?]
—Click click
"Yes, yes. I'm listening... Ah, just a little more to the left! Ha-yul's face isn't showing well... Perfect, right there!"
—Click click
Ellia answered nonchalantly, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, and kept taking pictures.
Somehow, the kitchen was already spotless, not a speck of dust.
Click... Along with the shameless shutter sound, something of mine was chipping away too.
[Don't take pictures...]
[Just take pictures of Seo-yul, at least...]
"Can't do that."
Her tone was blunt, but it carried a plea-like finality that cut me off in one stroke.
Ellia shook her head with a rather firm attitude.
"It's even cuter with both babies in one picture."
[I'm not a baby...]
"Hmm... Can your detection ability perceive photos, too?"
[I can.]
"Every time I hear that, it amazes me. Normally detection abilities only register location and outline..."
Ellia tilted her head, then casually displayed a photo as a hologram.
A picture she'd just taken and printed.
It showed me lying limply on the living room mat, with Seo-yul pinning me down and smiling broadly.
"If someone who didn't know saw it, they'd see a close sister and baby brother."
[...That, going by size.]
[Wait a moment.]
[Sister and baby brother?]
"Huh?"
Ellia blinked.
Her attitude—as if she had no idea what I was asking—left me dumbfounded.
[No matter how you look at it,]
[why am I the baby brother?]
"Because Seo-yul's bigger, isn't she?"
[No, she isn't.]
Clack! The Confession Necklace clacked loudly.
A surge of defiance welled up inside me.
No matter how much younger I'd become, I wasn't that much smaller.
The information brought by the Authority of Observation also...
Also...
...
[...I'm bigger.]
"Sure, sure, I get it~ Ah, now to the right."
[Don't ignore me...]
"Daddy, are you smaller than me?"
[Guh...]
In that instant, a dagger stabbed into my chest. My breath caught halfway.
—Click
The shutter sounded in the meantime.
Seo-yul mouthed something.
"Numnum..."
[Gyaaah...]
Something else chipped away...
.
.
.
"Haaam..."
A cute yawn escaped Seo-yul's wide-open mouth.
Drowsiness filled her eyes, and her movements grew sluggish, as if sleep was pouring over her.
Perfectly normal.
Babies sleep a lot.
Full meal, lots of squealing and playing—any ordinary baby would've fallen asleep long ago.
Seo-yul had held out a long time, but it seemed she was about to enter sleep mode.
"Oh my, is our baby already sleepy?"
Ellia, who'd been watching from the side, came over, gently caught Seo-yul's arm as she rubbed her eyes, and scooped her into her arms.
My body, no longer pinned down, trembled with liberation.
"Can... pway more..."
"But your eyes are closing like this? How about we go nigh-night now, and when you wake up, you can play with Daddy?"
"Mm..."
Ellia soothed the fussing Seo-yul in her arms with practiced skill.
Seo-yul briefly shook her head as if resisting, but then, sinking into drowsiness, her eyes slowly closed.
Soon, a comfortable breathing sound followed.
"She falls asleep so easily, doesn't she?"
[Yes.]
[You're amazing.]
"She wasn't like this at first. She was so busy whining that Daddy wasn't here... A total fussy princess, I tell you."
Despite complaining it was hard because Seo-yul was fussy, her touch was extremely gentle. She smoothed her hair and occasionally patted her bottom and back—movements that were clearly practiced.
[It must have been really hard.]
[Thank you for taking care of Seo-yul.]
[I'll definitely repay you a lot more.]
At Ellia's remark about it being hard, I forced an awkward smile.
That's when it happened.
Suddenly, as if just remembering, Ellia let out a small giggle.
"But you know, I wonder who she takes after—she falls asleep so easily when I hold her and pat her. At first she was fussy, but she was more babyish than I expected, so her guard dropped quickly..."
Who she takes after.
At that part, Ellia's gaze blatantly swept over me.
That look felt utterly unfair.
In a situation where I didn't even know who that child's parent was, to get looked at like that? Pure slander.
...But since I had no comeback, I chose silence.
"Oof..."
After holding the sleeping Seo-yul in her arms for a while, Ellia went into the bedroom.
I got up on trembling legs and followed.
Ellia laid Seo-yul down in a baby bed.
There was also a cradle on one side, but given Seo-yul had grown rapidly beyond imagination, it didn't seem to be in use now.
"We used the cradle at first, but she was so active. She kept trying to climb out, causing trouble. So in the end, I held her in my arms much more often."
I hadn't asked yet, but Ellia answered as if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
I kept my mouth shut.
She kept trying to escape the cradle? Could it be she didn't like it?
None of the items I got for Seo-yul were carelessly made.
I used only the best materials and personally engraved the magic marks with precision.
Thanks to that, my bank balance, which had been fairly stable, went down quite a bit...
'Hmm...?'
While I was feeling glum, a sensation of something poking the top of my head made a question mark pop up.
It felt like something above me was looking down at me and letting out a deep sigh.
I thoroughly scanned with my observation power, but nothing was detected.
A strange sense of incongruity.
"There, one down. Now, next..."
After covering Seo-yul with a blanket, Ellia brushed her hands off with a pat and drew out her words, turning her gaze.
At the end of that turned gaze... was me, who'd been directing my observation at the strange sensation.
[?]
That odd look. The drawn-out words. The clue of "one."
An ominous imagination arose, and I edged my legs backward—but a swift pair of hands slid under my armpits.
—Huh?
Before I could resist, my legs left the floor. A floating sensation washed over my whole body.
"Okay... shall Ha-yul baby go nigh-night too?"
Ellia's actions were exactly the same as what she'd just done with Seo-yul.
She lifted me, supporting my bottom with one hand and my neck and upper back with the other.
In the pose of carrying a child, my face buried into a soft sensation.
[Wait a second.]
[Just a sec...]
—Thump... thump...
Just as I hurriedly tried to struggle, the sound of another person's heartbeat echoed in my ears.
Feeling that pulse beyond the plush softness, my own abnormally racing heart gradually calmed to a normal pace.
A drowsy, comfortable sensation pressed down hard on the reason that wanted to struggle.
The strength drained from my flailing limbs, and I went limp.
At my instantly squashed resistance, I heard a stifled laugh from above my head.
Embarrassing, but soon the patting on my back and bottom made my mind even more languid.
My head was fuzzy.
A happy feeling, as if my reason was melting sweetly like honey.
I found that utterly ridiculous. No matter how I thought about it, it was an abnormal reaction.
Out of pointless defiance, I pouted my lips.
[...I think this is strange.]
"What's strange?"
Ellia replied. Her tone—like soothing a whining child—made the feeling even stranger, but I continued.
[I'm too...]
[My mind is like a child's.]
I was aware of it.
I was by no means an adult.
Even though my body had grown somewhat, my mind seemed stuck at the level of a brat.
It was nothing new, but I became aware of it once again.
Just a few days ago, too.
Although I can't remember clearly, as if covered by dark clouds, I think I even acted spoiled with Professor Liana. And I'm doing the same now.
A normal adult wouldn't have their mind melt just because they were held in someone's arms, being petted and patted.
"That falls into the category of personal preference. Do you really need to worry about it?"
Ellia, having listened to my question, said.
It was a fair point.
I wasn't harassing some innocent person, so it wasn't something I'd be cursed at for, but...
'......'
Regardless of realizing my innate tendencies and trying to accept myself, the embarrassment was unavoidable.
"And, maybe for now, it can't be helped. Don't you think?"
[?]
Ellia spoke. "It can't be helped"—what on earth did that mean?
"One Heart One Body. There are various interpretations, but roughly, it also means the mind and body are one. It's a concept I often encountered while studying restorative arts."
As I tilted my head, Ellia smiled affectionately and looked down at me.
"By nature, a wound occurs simultaneously in the body and mind. If the body is injured, the mind suffers; if the mind is injured, the body weakens."
I'd heard that somewhere before. I remember a similar concept from the original work.
"To sum it up, it means the mind can also be influenced by a younger body."
Ah... Really?
"In other words! Ha-yul, the desire to be held by me and act spoiled is a very natural! And, for now, an unavoidable phenomenon caused by your younger body."
Unavoidable...? A natural phenomenon...?
"Furthermore, forcibly suppressing such desires is considered an action with absolutely no benefits. You said your intuition told you it'll come back soon, didn't you?"
An unhelpful action...?
My body returning? Intuitively, that's what I sense...
As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Ellia, continuing her lengthy explanation, stroked my hair.
"So, if you feel like you can't stand it, you don't have to hold it in too much; you can let it out. Don't think it's rude. I can take it any time."
The continuous touch and the tone were all kind... and, as if affirming her own words, full of affection, as though she truly would accept anything.
Even thinking it over with my melting mind, her earlier explanation sounded quite plausible.
Hadn't I seen and heard countless cases of people causing trouble because they bottled up their desires too much and then burst out in the wrong place?
My melted reason accepted it that way.
A part of the barrier seemed to crumble with a thud.
'......'
After hesitating for a moment, I quietly buried my face in her chest.
"There you go, what a good boy~"
Ellia smiled brightly.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Ellia Srade
●●●●●●●●○○(78▶80/100)
「Affection」 「Gratitude」 「Chick」 「Sorry」 「Guilt」
...
[The Tower Master of Growth lets out a deep sigh.]