A Generous Heart Like Mine Will Understand
Someone lying unconscious in the street, bleeding?
Turn them into a pretty girl and the wounds heal—and they get prettier besides. A happy life from then on is just a bonus!
Someone tearing down the road, late for something, and I happen to have a way to get somewhere fast. Would I help them?
Just turn them into a pretty girl and give them a ride. I can't exactly put a man in my car, can I? And they're already late, so whoever they're meeting is going to scold them. If they become a pretty girl, that person will see a lovely face and get a little less angry. So it's a win either way.
A conflict with someone, and I can't tell which side is right?
First I turn the other person into a pretty girl, then I think it over. That way I can be more generous toward them, yield a little more, and arrive at a reasonable judgment. And if I still think I'm right after that, then I really am right.
I answered every question with a logic of my own, consistently, from start to finish. For some reason, though, the doctor looked faintly displeased.
"Yeonmin. Do you perhaps have some complaint about this examination? Your answers all feel rather... flippant. If you don't pass here, you'll have to go through the inconvenience of receiving education, and until then we won't be able to remove your restraints."
Ah. I see. I suppose it could come across as joking.
But I answered with complete seriousness and logic! It's unfair, but what can I do. I'll just have to explain it carefully to this poor doctor who can't grasp my grand design. After all, this doctor is the one who will decide whether I can blend into this society or not. Unfortunately, tests like this don't operate on the presumption of innocence.
"A complaint? Not at all. I understand that you consider it dangerous when someone with power but no ability to communicate mixes in among ordinary people. So if someone is likely to cause conflict with you, they receive additional education, and otherwise they simply listen to and experience the culture here. That's what you mean, isn't it? That's why I'm talking about ways to minimize conflict."
"Yeonmin. Changing someone else's body... wouldn't that usually make a conflict even more serious?"
"No—before it even becomes a conflict, that's the kind of act that upends the other person's entire life."
Even so, the doctor and Yegyeong both left me with voices full of reproach.
Hrm. Does changing how someone looks really upend their whole life? Ah—well, it does change things, I suppose. But once you become beautiful, it usually changes for the better.
Isn't the pursuit of beauty over ugliness simply the law of nature? This is instinct. I'm not talking about aesthetics or philosophy, or whatever shifts with the age and the culture. Strong, beautiful things tend to have distinct features. The clearer the eyes, nose, and mouth—or the more a body is built to bear children and protect a family—the more every animal finds that kind of mate attractive, don't they?
Of course, there are people who go beyond all that, whose hearts find each other even if their looks are plain. That, too, can truly be called beautiful. Still, wanting to become beautiful is an instinct every animal has. The particulars vary from person to person, of course. Some want muscle. Some want a fuller chest. Some want to be slender; some want to be fluffy with fur. They pursue it, and they hope their partner—or they themselves—will become that way.
So by my common sense, I simply couldn't understand them. I tilted my head and asked the two of them.
"Just because someone's appearance changes doesn't mean they become a different person, does it? Their name stays the same. Their memories stay the same. The people around them might find the new look unfamiliar for a little while, but they're still the same person. Isn't becoming more beautiful actually a good thing?"
In the old days, an argument like that would never have gained any traction. A person looking completely different overnight? You'd have been accused of filming a hidden-camera prank, or met with the confident insistence that the first face anyone saw must have been a disguise.
But in a world like today's, a change of appearance is hardly unusual. People even become entirely different species, from what I hear. So yes, the shape of the body is part of what makes a person—but even if that changes, this is a world where people are still easily recognized as themselves.
Perhaps it was that new common sense, together with my logic. Neither the doctor nor Yegyeong could come up with much of a reply.
"W-well, but if their appearance changes, even their family would have trouble recognizing them..."
"The doctor is right. Humans are a species that has a hard time living alone. If their relationships with other people get twisted, a great many of them will suffer."
"Humans change quite a bit around puberty, and their looks change again as they age. Isn't this not all that different? It would be pretty silly not to recognize someone just because they built some muscle, or because you met them a month later and their growth plates were still open so they changed overnight."
I laid it all out for them. Neither of them seemed to hear a word of it. Maybe they thought I would hide or run if I saw some unfamiliar movement. Or maybe their own hearts simply hadn't changed. They only watched me with uneasy wariness, as if I might rewrite their appearances at any second.
That really was going too far. Even I don't decide something like that on a whim. I only ever changed people because they wanted it. Agent Park. That firefighter, too. Ah—well, the firefighter hadn't exactly wanted to become a pretty girl... but she had wanted to be able to save that child, hadn't she? I only gave her a body that could.
Anyway, that was my thinking. It didn't seem to land with either of them at all.
"You all wear makeup because you want to be more beautiful, don't you? Becoming a pretty girl is the same principle. If everyone were beautiful, people might hold back their anger even when they were about to fight, and the world could overflow with love, don't you think?"
I tried the argument one more time. The uneasy looks they gave me didn't change. As if that weren't enough, even Helena was watching me with suspicion.
"Yeonmin. It's a little embarrassing to say this myself, but... surely the reason you saved me wasn't also...?"
Ah. She caught me.
The reason my eyes had gone to Helena a second time was, yes, because she was a pretty girl. But that was all it was. Even if the one lying there had been a boy, I would have grumbled and saved the dying child anyway.
"It's true that I'm even happier because Helena is beautiful. But I would have saved whoever was there even if it had been a boy who looked like a monster. I just would have turned him into a pretty girl, since my eyes deserve to be pleased."
"Then the fact that everyone who called themselves your children was outstandingly beautiful... and come to think of it, everyone who built statues of you and worshipped you was a woman, too...!"
"Ehehe. But if you're saying all that, that means Helena was already aware she was pretty, doesn't it? Heehee."
"......"
Strange. Is this really such a bizarre thing to say? Helena looked for all the world like she wanted to put some distance between us.
What's so wrong with liking pretty, cute things? She herself had teddy bears and bunny dolls and—ah. Back when she should have been playing with things like that, she was firing one more shot instead. Now I feel sorry. Yeah. I'll accept her looking at me with contempt.
At any rate, I had failed to persuade Helena before I even got to the doctor and Yegyeong. Of course my personality-test results were going to be disastrous. What else could I do? I would just have to take the education they had prepared.
"First, Yeonmin... Your values toward humanity are, unexpectedly, extremely warm. You want everyone to live in peace and happiness. That's probably why we were able to continue this conversation at all. I'm very grateful for that."
"Ehehe. Oh, it's nothing. Isn't it a good thing if everyone can be happy and have fun together? It's only natural, but I won't refuse if you want to thank me!"
"However, most humans will feel fear toward that attitude of yours. When something they never imagined happens suddenly, humans tend to panic. No matter how good your intentions were, it can still come across as terror to people."
"Mm, I understand."
I had done it for the simplest of reasons, and I had even explained them. Apparently the idea that I wanted the whole world to become pretty girls was a little too radical. Then again, they say that if you try to make a dog spit out chocolate, the dog will fear you and hate you for it—even though you did it to save its life. What can I do? I'll just have to be the one with the more open mind, and understand.
"So to make it a little easier for you to understand our world, we'll assign you a real-world adaptation course. If you'd rather not, and you'd prefer to return to another world or shut yourself away somewhere else, we can undo the restraints, but..."
"Helena will be happier if she stays among humans. I want to stay by her side and watch her become happy, so of course I should adapt to your culture. Taking a class or two isn't a problem, is it?"
"I'm grateful to hear you say that. Next, Helena. You're in a similar situation. Your way of thinking is far too pessimistic. Of course, being extremely cautious of your surroundings is useful for survival, but if you stay that sharp-edged, no one will be able to approach you. This world is peaceful enough that you can afford to live a little more gently, so we'll assign you the same course as Yeonmin, so you can feel that for yourself."
"...Understood."
Perhaps it was thanks to my showing a little understanding. I would get to stay stuck to Helena's side after all.
"Heehee."
I grinned, delighted—and Helena quietly put a little space between us. That actually hurts, you know. Still, a difference in thinking like this is something we'll come to understand if we just keep living together, right?
This, too, is something a generous heart like mine will just have to understand. What else can I do?