Father-Daughter Reversal
Father-Daughter Reversal
He had always been careful with his words and actions around Lee Seo-yul.
As the saying went, parents were mirrors to their children—a parent's words and actions profoundly shaped their child.
Unlike himself, Lee Ha-yul had wished for Lee Seo-yul to speak only gentle, kind words, even in her private thoughts.
"Common-sense-wise, would that be okay? Your parent was dying with a spear through their chest, so what kind of vermin-like child would clap and cheer at that?"
'Dy... dying... v-vermin...'
Lee Ha-yul couldn't help but have his breath catch in his throat.
Lee Seo-yul's face, which had been smiling adorably, hardened coldly, and harsh words poured from the mouth that had been fluttering like a skylark's.
Just then, it felt like the world was crumbling.
"Just how unfilial and immoral of a child would you have to be to be okay with that? Or did Dad think I was some kind of bitch worse than a beast?"
- No, noo...!
Lee Ha-yul, who had been frozen still holding his breath, gasped and shook his head violently.
The thickly spreading telepathic voice reached Lee Seo-yul's ears as well.
A telepathic voice thick with tears and sincerity.
It was enough to convey Lee Ha-yul's thoughts, but Lee Seo-yul kept her cold expression firmly in place.
"Then what? Dad ended up in that fucking state, so did I eat well, lie down, and sleep peacefully? Huh?"
- Uu, uugh...
Her cold gaze pierced his face, and her tongue swung like a blade.
Those weapons tore into Lee Ha-yul's chest and slashed his heart to pieces.
It wasn't simple slander. The fact that it was resentment born from his own karma tormented Lee Ha-yul even more.
He clamped his mouth shut and swallowed the sobs that rose up instead of breath.
But Lee Seo-yul didn't stop.
"What if the situation were reversed? If I were dying with my chest pierced through, and only my corpse was left behind while you babbled about the separated soul returning soon—"
- Nooo—!
Bbiiiiik! A shrill telepathic wave swept through the surroundings.
A telepathic voice that stimulated the head, not the eardrums.
Lee Seo-yul closed her mouth at the desperate emotional waves contained within it.
- No, nooo... don't say things like that...
Lee Ha-yul, finally bursting into the tears he'd been holding back, wrapped his arms around Lee Seo-yul's neck and sobbed.
The sight was deeply pitiful and heartbreakingly pathetic. One wanted to hold him close and soothe him, telling him not to cry.
Lee Seo-yul, seized by such a desire, trembled her hands for a moment before letting out a deep breath and adjusting her hold on Lee Ha-yul.
He had grown since he first awakened, but the still-young Lee Ha-yul was easy to lift.
Lee Seo-yul turned her head.
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been agonizing nearby about whether to intervene or not.
Terramor, who was alternating his gaze between Lee Ha-yul and Lee Seo-yul, not knowing what to do.
Fairies poking their heads out beyond the roots and branches of the fairy robes, with question marks floating over them.
"And you are..."
A fairy with a build relatively similar to a human, standing nearby.
Long black hair. A beautiful face and impression befitting a fairy... a voluptuous figure.
Kariade gently bowed her head under Lee Seo-yul's scrutinizing gaze.
"Fairy Grand Minister, Kariade greets Princess Lee Seo-yul for the first time."
Though no particular explanation was given, from the way she had talked about 'Dad' to Lee Ha-yul, her status was immediately clear.
At that, Lee Seo-yul nodded as well.
"Yes, I'm pleased to meet you too, Kariade. But may I postpone the detailed greetings for a bit?"
"Of... course."
'Should I save Lee Ha-yul?' She had briefly stumbled over her answer due to the fleeting worry that crossed her mind.
But the answer was acceptance.
Because Lee Ha-yul himself and Lee Ji-yeon had stayed still.
"Thank you for your consideration."
Lee Seo-yul, who had smiled softly, turned her body toward Lee Ji-yeon this time.
"Hello, Lee Ji-yeon. I'm sorry, but may I go have a brief talk with Dad?"
"Of course. But since he's in a young state right now, please don't torment him too much."
Lee Ji-yeon gave a bitter smile.
"Yes, leave him to me."
Having asked for Lee Ji-yeon's understanding as well, Lee Seo-yul walked away with quick steps.
.
.
.
Lee Seo-yul stopped walking before long.
After quickly scanning her surroundings, she sat down on a tree root stretching over the ground.
"Dad."
Lee Ha-yul, held in her arms, flinched.
How pitiful it was that he grew frightened at a single call.
Lee Seo-yul felt like garbage for no reason. In the end, she relaxed the tension in her voice a little.
"Dad?"
- ...sob, I'm sorry...
Lee Ha-yul, who had been hesitating, tightened his arms around her and quietly sent a telepathic message. Lee Seo-yul nodded.
"Do you know you're sorry? This isn't the first time. How many times has this happened now—how do you think my heart burns up?"
- I'm sorry...
"Sigh..."
As a small sigh escaped, Lee Ha-yul shrank back. Realizing her mistake, Lee Seo-yul stroked Lee Ha-yul's head.
"If you're sorry, shouldn't you take better care of yourself?"
- Yeah... sob, it's all my fault... so please... don't say things like that...
Lee Ha-yul, sobbing with bated breath, clung to her as if pleading.
The stifled, hesitant crying looked even more pitiful than open wailing.
It probably wasn't intentional. Lee Seo-yul, who had been about to sigh but swallowed it back, spread her wings wide and wrapped them around Lee Ha-yul.
"Yes... I went too far with my words just now too. I won't say things like that in the future."
- Yeah... thank you... sob
"So Dad, stop crying too."
Lee Seo-yul soothed and comforted Lee Ha-yul in her arms. Under the touch that traveled between his head and back, the sobbing sounds gradually subsided.
- Princess?
- Eh?
- Super emergencyyy... huh?
As they stayed like that, Spirits came from all directions.
In the middle of slaughtering the undead filling the battlefield.
Sensing their contractor Lee Ha-yul's intense emotional waves, some of them had come flying in a hurry.
At the sight of the Spirits blinking their eyes, Lee Seo-yul shook her head.
- It's nothing.
- Aha, yes yes yes
- What the, why are you turning back... ah
- The Princess was just scolding the King. Let's go back.
The Spirits, who had flown over like lightning thinking something might have happened to Lee Ha-yul, turned away.
Though an undead massacre was taking place on the battlefield beyond the forest, silence once again settled over the area.
In the midst of that, Lee Seo-yul, who had been patting Lee Ha-yul, suddenly let out a chuckle.
"Dad, doesn't this remind you of the old days?"
- ...The old days...?
Lee Ha-yul, who had his face buried in Lee Seo-yul's embrace, poked his head up.
The area around his eyes was red, but the crying had mostly stopped.
In the meantime, Lee Seo-yul's condition had also returned to normal.
Her once-dry hair flowed softly, and the fatigue that had settled on her face had disappeared. Her dull wings regained their color too.
As a spirit body, changes corresponding to her state of mind were distinct and swift.
With the corners of her eyes curving, Lee Seo-yul giggled as she spoke.
"Yes, when I was little, I used to be held like this, remember?"
- ...That was me holding Seo-yul, wasn't it...
It was a statement missing a subject in many ways.
Anyone would think Lee Seo-yul had taken care of a young Lee Ha-yul.
"No matter who sees it, it'll look like Dad is the one being taken care of."
At Lee Seo-yul's calmly stated truth, Lee Ha-yul closed his mouth.
Had his mood improved by now?
Smiling brightly, Lee Seo-yul brushed up Lee Ha-yul's bangs and gently pressed her lips to his forehead.
An expression of affection that Lee Ha-yul had always given to Lee Seo-yul.
As the pecking sound resonated within her wings, Lee Ha-yul's eyes, which had been pretending to be sulky, rounded.
It was truly easy to soothe his pouting.
Lee Seo-yul, smiling softly, hugged Lee Ha-yul tightly. Her wings, now pressed closer, warmly embraced him.
"Hee, I want to stay like this forever~"
- Yeah... I want to too, but...
"Yes, yes, we don't have the leisure to keep doing this right now."
Lee Seo-yul murmured, rubbing her cheek against the pure white crown of his head.
It was also an intentional change of topic.
"Right now, undead are marching up from the south in army corps units, aren't they?"
- ...? How did you know that...?
Lee Ha-yul, held in her arms, raised a question mark.
Perhaps the earlier shock had been too great—now he didn't even feel embarrassed about being held in her arms.
Lee Seo-yul shrugged.
"I received a report from the Spirits as soon as I arrived."
- Aha...
He had been so out of it that he hadn't even noticed the telepathic messages going back and forth. As Lee Ha-yul nodded, Lee Seo-yul nodded back.
"So, in other words, Dad is about to dive headfirst into war again... is that it?"
- Ugh, uuugh...
"I'm not scolding you too much. So don't cry again... stop, good boy?"
- I haven't cried yet...
"Yes, yes, I believe you~ So stop? That's right, good boy~"
Lee Ha-yul, who had almost started sniffling again, pouted his lips. Lee Seo-yul lightly kissed Lee Ha-yul's cheek and spoke casually.
"Well, since I've come all this way anyway, I'll fight too."
- Wha, what...? No, noo!
Lee Ha-yul, who had been quietly listening, shook his head in alarm.
And then, he froze solid under Lee Seo-yul's coldly hardened gaze.
"Is Dad in any position to be telling me what to do right now?"
- Hic
Though Lee Ha-yul's shoulders trembled at the gaze that reminded him of the earlier memory, he mustered strength into his eyes.
- Tha, that, that and... this is... different... Just because someone did wrong, doesn't mean I should do the same...
"What...?"
Lee Seo-yul, tilting her head, asked back.
Under the fierce glare, Lee Ha-yul crumpled.
"Whatever. Hurry up and give me the blessing too."
- Ble, blessing...
"The one you were giving to the Spirits earlier. I can grow with Dad's blessing too."
- Okay, I got it for now...
As Lee Seo-yul's wings spread, Lee Ha-yul, who had stepped back a few paces from her embrace, carefully fluttered his wings.
It wasn't because I was afraid of Lee Seo-yul.
Whatever the reason, I had intended to give Lee Seo-yul a blessing as well.
- Fwoosh!
Droplets of light scattered by the wingbeats clung to Lee Seo-yul.
As Lee Seo-yul closed her eyes, the pure white droplets coalesced and took the shape of a sphere—an egg.
- Crack, craaack!
It took longer than usual.
About five minutes, maybe.
Fissures raced across the egg, and then five-colored wings thrust upward, shattering it from within.
Still a single pair of wings. But they held a radiance distinctly brighter and richer than before.
Crack! As the wings fluttered, the egg, now riddled with cracks, split cleanly left and right.
The shell fragments came showering down.
A deeply impressed look settled on Lee Ha-yul's face.
Lee Seo-yul's Origin Egg—the one she had broken through when she came into being.
He still kept those fragments carefully stored away. He had saved them so that someday, when Lee Seo-yul was all grown up, they could serve as a keepsake.
"......."
Thinking that, Lee Ha-yul blinked.
His head slowly tilted upward.
His vision was nothing more than a blur, but his gaze reflexively tracked the place his point of view had reached.
"Hoo..."
Rising from the egg, Lee Seo-yul drew a slow breath.
A deep, cool forest fragrance filled her, and hair of pure white settled over her full chest.
"Puh-hoo..."
Exhaling again, Lee Seo-yul inspected her own body.
It had noticeably matured, as she'd expected. A body that had grown exactly as she'd wished.
Smiling in satisfaction, Lee Seo-yul abruptly lowered her gaze.
She saw Lee Ha-yul staring up at her with a dumbfounded expression.
"Heh."
That had been the same a moment ago. It was only natural, since Lee Ha-yul was in a de-aged state.
But now, even when Lee Ha-yul returned to normal, she would probably have to lift her head to meet his eyes.
Grinning, Lee Seo-yul reached out.
She slipped her hands under Lee Ha-yul's arms and lifted him right up.
The weight was almost absurdly light. A floating sensation that soaked into his frame—Lee Ha-yul's eyes trembled.
"Daddy."
- ...uh... uuh...?
"You're incredibly cute."
- ......
A soft smile on her face, Lee Seo-yul hugged Lee Ha-yul to her chest.
Buried against her fullness, Lee Ha-yul's body gave a small shudder.
Lee Ha-yul's heart crumbled all over again.
* * *
The Taesan family's formal elite forces are divided into two units.
The Pure Life Unit, specializing in earth and vitality energy. The Dark Evil Unit, specializing in the undead.
Between the two, under peacetime conditions, it is the Pure Life Unit that carries a heavier and busier workload.
The Taesan family is the single largest producer and exporter of agricultural goods in the world.
Top-grade crops that spring up in abundance from a comparatively narrow territory.
The secret lies with Taesan's manifestors, who, in times of peace, toil and pour sweat into tilling the land and correctly drawing up the earth veins.
The finest talents in that field are the Pure Life Unit.
Hence, in peacetime, the Pure Life Unit tends to have more work.
But when wartime arrives, the situation changes.
War is, in the end, a contest of numbers.
It is a world where monsters and superhumans run rampant, and a single powerful being can sweep away dozens or even hundreds of weaker foes.
Still, that, too, is simply a matter of whether the powerful have numbers on their side.
The Dark Evil Unit, which during peacetime uses its undead as multi-purpose tools and porters, only reveals its true worth in wartime.
'For us to see the light of day is never a good thing, though...'
A woman with long black hair swept hers back.
Dark Evil Commander Lee Su-yeong, vice-commander of the Dark Evil Unit, swallowed a bitter smile and waved her hand.
A viscous mana spread from her fingertips, flowing across the ground and drawing in the scattered corpses and thought residues.
- Crunch, crrrack...!
Intact corpses swallowed soil and rose upright. Corpses reduced to meaty chunks clumped together to craft passable effigies.
Once the appropriate thought residues were poured into those molded vessels, monsters that had just ended their lives staggered unsteadily to their feet.
- Uuooooo...
A low, chill wailing blanketed the ground.
With an indifferent face, Lee Su-yeong confirmed the added forces and spoke.
"The kids' positions?"
"Advancing on their respective target points at standard speed. Nothing abnormal."
The adjutant at her side answered. Lee Su-yeong, about to nod at his words, abruptly let out a snort.
"Saying there's nothing abnormal—isn't the whole current situation itself abnormal?"
Spatial isolation suddenly enveloped most of the territory, and undead were indiscriminately crawling out of ground no corpse had ever been buried in.
If this wasn't abnormal, what was?
"Even if you press me on that, I have no answer to give."
"I'm just saying it to say it."
"Yes, yes. Either way, the legion commanders have ordered us to take charge of internal stabilization."
An abrupt anomalous crisis.
Though it happened that the family head Lee Ji-ah and acting family head Lee Ji-yeon were absent, the upper echelon wasted no time, acting swiftly and without panic.
Pure Life Unit and Dark Evil Unit members paired up one-on-one to resolve critical zones.
The 2nd Corps, evenly deployed for territorial defense, prioritized civilian protection, while the 3rd Corps, charged with border defense, lured the undead toward the outskirts to guide a suppression campaign.
'We nearly found ourselves in some serious shit.'
It was a situation where undead were crawling up from places with no corpses, none at all.
An eerie yin energy seeped from the mana permeating the area.
If civilians died in droves in the middle of this chaos, they would certainly fall as undead.
And the undead army force scattering filth across the territory would only surge further.
Fortunately, they'd been able to suppress it before entering such a situation.
It was just barely held in check. All they had to do now was deal with the culprit causing the anomaly in the meantime.
The Pure Life Unit and Dark Evil Unit were currently advancing southward—where the culprit was designated—gradually rolling down their battle line.
'Building a front that skirts the Fairy District, huh...'
Lee Su-yeong tilted her head internally.
She agreed with advancing the front, but Lee Ji-yeon, who was carrying out guerrilla operations alone over there, had specifically ordered that the first line be established to overlap with the Fairy District.
'Wouldn't it be better to anchor it around the ravine a bit further down? Not that I'm going to quibble about it, since I don't know the details of the situation there.'
The chaotic mana wave disturbance inside the isolated zone made communication difficult.
They didn't know the exact state of affairs there, and Lee Ji-yeon hadn't been able to give a lengthy explanation.
So doubts rose naturally, but Dark Evil Commander Lee Su-yeong and Pure Life Pillar Lee Sang-gun followed orders without a word of complaint.
'The young lady must have a plan.'
It was loyalty to the family, and at the same time, it was trust in Lee Ji-yeon's judgment.
"...Huh."
"What is it."
Lee Su-yeong, who had been riding an undead mount woven from an eight-legged beast, turned her head.
At her sides were two adjutants.
One was a flame-type superhuman serving as a communications officer, and the other was a detection-type superhuman.
It was the adjutant with the detection-type unique ability who had just let out that exclamation.
"Uh, uh, uhhh...?"
"Are you out of your mind?"
On a battlefield, three dazed exclamations in a row was a taboo. Appalled, Lee Su-yeong smacked him with a purification magic spell.
"No, it's, uh...?"
Was he actually losing it? Maybe he was cursed and resisting it? But there was no sign of that.
Lee Su-yeong ran her hand over the staff—the blunt weapon—she was holding.
"...That is... a report... I am making."
"Hurry and spit it out."
Under Lee Su-yeong's urging, gripping her blunt weapon, the adjutant stammered out a reply.
"Southward, at long range... attribute power... I have detected... an aura estimated to be spirits."
"Spirits?"
In a place teeming with undead, they were picking up the aura of spirits?
It sounded strange at first, but it wasn't incomprehensible.
That spirits and undead were polar opposites was a well-known fact.
Perhaps spirits that had lived peacefully in the territory were now in the thick of a brawl with the undead that had suddenly poured forth.
"Oh yeah? Strong enough to be felt from here... ...?"
Lowering the blunt weapon slightly, Lee Su-yeong's eyebrow twitched.
The mana wave disturbance was rough, and even a thick yin energy filled the air, which made detection ability drop sharply.
And in the middle of all that, an aura of spirits was being detected from long range?
"Report accurately."
"I don't know. Their number is... impossible to gauge... Neither can I estimate their level..."
"What the hell is th—"
- Grrrrk...!?
Boom, boom! The advancing army of undead halted as one. To describe it more precisely, they lowered their bodies and shuddered.
Lee Su-yeong's mouth, about to demand a counter-argument, closed.
Her skin stung.
Attribute power touched her sharply honed qi sense. In an instant, her qi sense was pressed down and dulled. Lee Su-yeong's face twisted.
"This is insane."
Swearing under her breath, her gaze fixed on the far distance.
A sky stained darker than night. A land dying as the undead roamed.
Through the gap in between, spirits could be seen flying this way, casting vivid colors.
Upper spirits, exuding clear attribute power... in human form.
And their number was a staggering hundred.
Lee Su-yeong smacked a purification magic spell onto her own head.
Though pure white light cascaded onto her head, the sight before her did not change.
- Boom!
As the distance closed, the earth spirit standing at the vanguard landed on the ground.
The landing itself was light, but its weighty presence reverberated through the earth. Lee Su-yeong's eyes twitched at the force of it.
She had seen quite a few upper spirits while rising to this position, but that earth spirit... looked considerably stronger than any upper spirit she remembered.
- I am called Terramor, an upper spirit of the Fairy Kingdom.
Right before the front line. Keeping its distance from the cowed undead, the earth spirit halted and spoke.
"...Dark Evil Commander of Taesan, Lee Su-yeong."
What did I just hear.
Lee Su-yeong responded reflexively with her own self-introduction, even as she doubted her ears.
The other party's affiliation was profoundly strange.
Kingdom... The Fairy Kingdom?
Her quickened reason tried, naturally, to retort that this was bullshit.
But then she looked at the hundred-odd upper spirits arrayed behind a spirit whose aura was unnaturally strong, and she closed her mouth.
That within the span of a day or two, a catastrophe had struck the territory, and the Fairy Kingdom, once mere fairy-tale material, had planted itself here—so the story went.
Completely dumbfounded, Lee Su-yeong clutched at her reeling consciousness.
* * *