Branch Point
“I'm full.”
Siwoo and Sia had picked out the best for me.
Thanks to the all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu place with a salad bar, I could eat until I was stuffed without worrying about portions at all.
[Aah~ I'm full. Now, should I have dessert?]
[What should I have?]
“Let's have shaved ice, shaved ice!”
[Shaved ice sounds good.]
[Shaved ice is great.]
Shan had eaten enough to turn her winter-bear chubby body into a proper winter bear.
“Sis, what are you going to do now?”
“Hmm, how about eating shaved ice while we finish all the stories we couldn't tell before?”
“Yeah, yeah! I like everything, hehe.”
Sia didn't want to be even one second away from me, which made things difficult, but...
“Sia.”
“Tsk.”
Even while pouting at her older brother's words, she still let me go.
“Angel-nim, eat this and this.”
“Yeah, got it. I'll remember to write it down.”
“And...”
The interesting part was that Dorothy and Sia had stuck close together while we were eating earlier.
I hadn't expected Dorothy and Sia to become friends so quickly.
It was a bit worrying that the topic was me, but what could I do? They were both precious little sisters.
We ate together, went to the park for a walk.
Most of the time we spent talking.
After not seeing each other for over two years, there was so much to catch up on.
As we walked and chatted, we turned into a somewhat quiet alley instead of a crowded place.
“Sis, you know about places like this too?”
“This is my first time coming here. I only heard the rumors that it was delicious.”
The small cafe I was heading to was a place that appeared in the original game.
It sold cost-effective high-appeal items and recovery items, and it could also be used as a date spot. Most heroines in the game liked it and remembered it.
Clink clink.
“Welcome, everyone.”
“This and this, please.”
“Yeah, sit wherever you want. I'll bring it over.”
After entering the shop, I ordered one shaved ice for each of Siwoo and Sia and sat down.
An elderly shopkeeper who was nearing old age began calmly preparing the shaved ice.
Calm classical music played from the shop.
It was truly a peaceful atmosphere.
It would be wonderful if this peace continued.
Before entering school, this time when I could relax and enjoy myself might be the most free and happy time I could have before the rest of my school days.
Whenever I rest, I have to rest with full power.
[Good... the calm music makes me a little sleepy... haaam.]
[Yeah.]
After a moment of drowsiness, Siwoo and Sia chatted about all the things they hadn't been able to talk about in two years.
Listening to the two siblings' eventful stories left no room for dozing off.
“Wow.... Really? Awesome.”
Dorothy's eyes sparkled as she listened intently to their stories.
The stories of the two spending time in the Secret Society would sound like thrilling adventure tales to little kids.
We hadn't specifically decided on a topic; we just threw out whatever came to mind and exchanged stories.
Even after two years, we laughed just like when we met yesterday and kept meeting again.
.
.
“From the moment I first saw you, I thought you were like a prince and a princess, Siwoo-oppa and Sia-unnie.”
“Eh...? P-princess? No way. Embarrassing.”
“Hahaha, thank you, Dorothy.”
Siwoo's kind smile and Sia's blushing face were both adorable.
“Siwoo grew really tall. Almost 180 cm now?”
“Yeah, 182 cm.”
Amazing. At 14, he's already over 180... winner.
I thought he must be enjoying the taste of air he hadn't been able to savor when he was male, so I felt a little... jealous.
“Is our oppa not creepy? He's too big. His body feels like solid stone.”
“No, Sia. You have to grow that much. It's good to see you growing well. Same for you, Sia.”
“R-really?”
“W-well, if unnie says so...”
They both somehow blushed and scratched their cheeks.
Sia was tall for her age, but her upper and lower volumes were not normal.
At that age, she was on par with Mary... scary future.
I wanted to be like that too... but in my previous life I hadn't trained like that, and in this life there's no sign of my height or heart growing.
[I-I'm fine. Tiss's ears and tail are cute.]
[...Thank you.]
Shan's comforting words made me feel strangely empty.
Swish swish.
“Hic...!”
Without realizing, my tail was wagging, and Sia’s eyes were completely drawn to my tail, her pupils moving left and right.
“Sia, your eyes look like they're about to pop out.”
“Hic...! S-sorry, I mean, no.”
“Can I touch your tail?”
“Tail?”
“Yeah.”
The strong desire to touch it, the way her eyes sparkled, and the way she tried to hold back rationally was too cute.
[T-Tiss, I'm not acting spoiled, right?]
[Huh? Acting spoiled! You can't tell just by looking? I'm playing with my little sister.]
[S-suspicious.]
Ziing.
Shan gave me a slightly suspicious look.
[No!]
[Just... because I'm happy, you know. Don't get mad.]
[If you know, why do that?]
[Just... I was ignoring you... and only playing with Sia and Siwoo.]
Aah, so that's what it was.
Besito.
[You're jealous right now?]
Chuuuk.
I pulled out the ichor inside me like a hand and grabbed Shan's cheeks.
[Nueeng.]
Her soft cheek flesh was pulled like a rice cake following my transparent hand.
[H-hic.]
[Khh...! Sorry, you're too cute, I couldn't help it.]
We never usually touched each other's bodies, but this time I couldn't hold back.
Half cuteness, half punishment, half affection, I fiddled with it.
[You should be more spoiled for me.]
[I can't understand what you're saying?]
Clink.
“Here, shaved ice came. Toast is on the house, so if you're short, ask for more.”
While pulling Shan's cheeks, the shop owner suddenly brought our shaved ice to the table.
“Thank you for the meal!”
One was an old-style red bean shaved ice piled high with toppings like red beans, mochi, and powdered rice, and the other was a modern style shaved ice topped with plenty of seasonal fruits and drizzled with condensed milk.
With slightly buttered and browned bread and fresh cream for spreading on the bread.
We paused our conversation and focused on eating the shaved ice.
“Oh, it's delicious?”
“Sis, you know this place well?”
“I recommended it, but it really is delicious.”
I'd wondered what the heroines always ate so deliciously in the game, but actually eating it was different.
“Aah, my head feels dizzy.”
“Eating too fast can do that. Come here.”
I called Dorothy, who was clutching her head, over to me.
Dorothy, who had been sitting next to Siwoo, came closer to me and naturally sat down beside me.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
She gently lifted my tail with her own hands and hugged it to her chest.
Then she gently fiddled with it like massaging with her fern-like hands.
“D-Dorothy, you can't just do that!”
“It's not sudden. I was allowed to do this since I was smaller than Angel-nim.”
“Really?”
“We played together.”
“Wow...”
Sia looked at Dorothy with envy.
I had been the one caring for Dorothy while Mary was gone.
“Angel-nim has it. It's super warm and super soft.”
Dorothy, whose headache had disappeared, kept massaging my tail with a happy face.
[Wow...! It's twice as cute!]
Shan said she was the cutest and liked kids the most.
But when asked if she was a child lover, she denied it and hit them.
Hmm.
Seeing Sia in internal conflict, Siwoo spoke honestly first.
“Honestly, I'm curious too. How did you get ears and a tail like that? Can I touch it?”
“Oppa! I was holding back too, how dare you go first!”
“Hahaha, sorry.”
Seeing Sia blush and squeak, Siwoo smiled with a kind face.
Good.
Right now, this looked like a reward for the decision she made back then.
“It can't be helped.”
If it had been anyone else, they would have cut off the hand reaching out, but since it was Siwoo and Sia, it was different.
“I don't want to say it with my mouth, but my fur is super soft. Dorothy, let me take it for a moment?”
“Ah, yes.”
After naturally pulling the tail from Dorothy's hands, I placed it on Sia's thigh.
“Hehe.”
She started gently stroking it as if touching treasure.
It was a little ticklish because she was too careful, but I held it in.
“Where should I explain from?”
Since I would have to reveal this fact someday, I had already discussed with Shan how to explain it to others.
“As you can see, the power of this world is real.”
Even someone who sees my perfect human-like body with ears and tail without any animal features.
“But I didn't gain the power of a specific animal. I just introduce it that way in front of others.”
A mix of appropriate truth and lies makes it harder to notice.
“The ability I awakened is predation.”
“Predation means eating something... no way?”
“Yeah, it's similar to the ability the chef of the Hero Party has.”
The chef of the Hero Party who killed Abaddon had an ability like this.
“Sis... you were starving?”
“Tiss...”
Siwoo and Sia looked at me with complicated faces.
Acquired abilities, not innate ones, are greatly influenced by the trauma a person has.
If the power of predation awakens to that extent, it's inevitable that they experienced something horrific related to eating.
“Then, are the ears and tail a side effect?”
“Yeah. I don't remember when my body became like this or what I ate.”
Powerful abilities usually come with corresponding drawbacks.
Each person experiences different drawbacks.
I thought of it as a excuse: absorbing the entity affects the body and mind physically and mentally, and sometimes even the memories themselves disappear.
I knew my appearance had ears and tail like a beastkin, but honestly, I didn't know either.
“Our sis... how pitiful... how were you going to eat a monster?”
Coop.
Sia hugged me while sniffling.
“It's okay. Thanks to you, I'm stronger?”
“U-um, if we had come a little faster...”
“No, don't blame yourself like that.”
[Monster... t-tastes good? Did Siwoo and Sia not go to good places?]
[Normal humans don't go looking for monsters to eat.]
They process magic stones and process byproducts like bones, skin, and tendons, but they don't really eat them.
Shan and I absorb the essence itself, which is the ichor of the entity, not meat, so we can eat without worry. Normal humans, unless they have hunter knowledge like poachers, won't even put it in their mouths.
Because you can't know what kind of mold and poison are in a monster's body beyond wild mushrooms.
But I didn't think the conversation would turn out like this.
I had to change the topic.
“What about you two? Did you awaken your abilities?”
“We're still waiting. We don't know why, but we haven't awakened our abilities yet. Instead, we've been training mainly to train our mana.”
“Chris-ajusshi also doesn't know the reason and is really annoyed. It's necessary to start training for abilities as soon as possible.”
Siwoo had a calm reaction, and Sia had a displeased expression.
There was a similar event in the game as a DLC. It wasn't choosing an ability at the start, but an event where you enter the academy and randomly awaken after.
With probability and randomness added, you could get overpowered abilities, so I remembered testing by resetting and trying out what was there.
After testing multiple times, I realized that normal daily life wouldn't awaken you, but it would trigger a huge experience.
“It's okay. No need to rush. First, decide which department to go to...”
“Ah, right!”
“I forgot to tell you the important thing!”
“Huh...?”
Both of them jumped at my words and shouted at the same time.
“Where are you applying, Tiss? Hero Department? Or Hunter Department?”
“We were going to apply to that side too.”
Branch point. Normally it would be decided at the entrance ceremony, but Siwoo and Sia had planned to follow me no matter what.
Depending on my words, their growth directions could completely change.