The Magical Girl Likes the Small Room
I finished packing up Yeorum's belongings from her family home and settled all of her assets entirely under her own name. It wasn't mine to touch. It was hers. Something I had no right to lay a hand on, and no desire to anyway. I was perfectly content with the way I lived now. Money wasn't an issue either. This was more than enough to live comfortably.
Once I brought Yeorum back to the house, she looked up at me with a slightly startled voice.
“Um… Mister…”
“Yeah?”
“This… is this really your house, Mister…?”
“Yeah, it is. Why?”
“But…”
Yeorum blinked, glancing around the house before tilting her head up at me. Her wide, sparkling eyes were so adorable that I crouched down to meet her gaze. She spread her arms wide.
“It’s hu~uge…!”
“Huge?”
“Yes…!”
The size of the house I’d seen while sorting through her family’s assets had been smaller than this one. Around thirty pyeong. But my place was a full fifty pyeong.
“Mister… are you rich…?”
…I’d heard kids these days were precocious, but I didn’t expect it in this particular direction.
“Mister won the lottery once.”
“Really…? For real…!?”
“Yeah. For real.”
Of course it was a lie. The house had already been mine by the time I possessed this body. It was probably thanks to the funds the organization had prepared for Nacht to live as the human named Gu Hyunmin. The source of those funds was almost certainly illegal. It did prick at my conscience a little, but there was no reason to get hung up on it. What mattered now was raising this child—raising Yeorum—safely and happily.
“Yeorum, you can pick any room you want. Whichever one you choose will be yours.”
“Any room…?”
“Yeah. You can even take my room if you want. I’ll move out right away.”
Yeorum shook her head, then wandered inside and began looking around. Eventually she pointed at one of the rooms.
“Mister, I want this one.”
The room she pointed to was the smallest one. Practically a storage closet I barely used.
“You want to use this room, Yeorum?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The answer she gave was exactly what I’d feared, and it broke my heart.
“Because it’s empty.”
Her voice was completely calm, nothing like the excited tone she’d had earlier. Maybe she thought it was only natural. After all, I wasn’t her real father. I was just her guardian. Even a child would understand the difference. The realization made me angry and sad at the same time, so I bent my knees again to look her in the eye.
“Yeorum, you really can pick any room you like. I mean it.”
“But… I still want this one…”
She looked so hesitant that I reached out my hand. After a moment of uncertainty, she grabbed it tightly. I led her around and explained every single room in the house.
“This is the narrowest room. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just left it alone.”
“So it can be my—”
“Let’s look at the others.”
I gently guided her to the room across the hall.
“This one on the opposite side is the storage room. It’s really big because it’s for storage. Plus it gets tons of sunlight and even has its own bathroom.”
“It has its own bathroom? Then why don’t you use it?”
“…It just ended up this way.”
Probably because of all the sunlight. Main like me generally disliked light. A villain on the level of Nacht wouldn’t be severely weakened by it, but it still felt unpleasant. I continued showing her the rest of the rooms—my dressing room, my bedroom, even the study. After looking at everything carefully, Yeorum chose one.
“Um… I still want the room I picked first…”
The first one. The smallest empty room.
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
“Yes. It’s about the same size as the room I used before… and I think I’d feel more comfortable there…”
If she was that insistent, I wasn’t going to push anymore. Still, I had to make one thing clear.
“If you ever want a bigger room, just tell me anytime. Okay?”
“Yes, Mister…”
She gave a small nod and stared straight at me. I wondered why this little girl was looking at me so intently, until it finally hit me. The room had been decided, but she had nowhere to stay until then. Of course she couldn’t just go into an empty room. She needed a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, an air conditioner—things like that. Fortunately, I hadn’t disposed of her personal belongings from her old house. Her fluffy bed, the pink desk, the luxurious wardrobe, and all her clothes. Since they were all things she would need, I’d asked the moving company to bring them over. They should arrive in an hour or two. Until then, Yeorum had nowhere to sit, even though she now had her own room.
“…… Yeorum, do you want to watch TV?”
She nodded quietly, still staring at me. It felt like she was waiting for permission for every single action. I led her to the sofa and sat her down.
“You can watch anything you want.”
“Anything…? Really…?”
I nodded, and she hesitated for a moment before skillfully operating the remote. She opened an OTT service and started watching an animation. But the animation was—
"Magical Girl Prettia, appear—!"
⟨ Magical Girl Prettia ⟩
…Of all things, it had to be a magical girl show.
So Yeorum had loved magical girls since she was little. The blood of a magical girl really did run through her veins. I’d just told her she could watch anything she wanted, so I couldn’t very well say, “Can’t you watch something that isn’t a magical girl anime?” I quietly stood up and headed to the kitchen, pretending to work while watching her. The girl who had looked so uncomfortable just moments ago was now melting into the house, completely absorbed in the magical girl animation. The way she watched with her mouth hanging open was unbelievably cute. Was it even legal to be that adorable?
…Did I need to study that anime if I wanted to get closer to her?
That actually sounded like a good idea. The best way to get close to someone was to share their hobbies and tastes, after all. I quietly approached her and asked about the show.
“Yeorum, what’s the name of this animation?”
She flinched and turned her head, then started glancing around nervously again. It looked like she was constantly checking whether it was okay to speak. I used the gentlest, softest voice I could manage to reassure her.
“You were watching it because it was fun, right? I’m just curious, that’s all.”
An awkward silence fell. The only thing filling it was the sound of the magical girl anime Yeorum had left playing. Maybe I’d made her too uncomfortable. I apologized to her in my head and started to stand up.
“Yeorum, when the movers come in a bit—”
“Magical Girl… Prettia…”
Her voice was so quiet I couldn’t hear it properly, so I knelt down again, met her eyes, and spoke slowly.
“I didn’t catch that. Could you say it again?”
“Magical Girl… Prettia…”
She answered in a shy little voice. I smiled at her. Why was she embarrassed? Maybe magical girls seemed childish at her age? Or was she shy about talking about them with an older man? Either way, I hoped she wouldn’t feel embarrassed. I had decided to use this life—this life as a monster—for her sake.
I gently ruffled her hair, then stood up and began cleaning out the empty room that would become hers, getting it ready for the furniture that would arrive soon. As a side note, I would normally have used my tentacles to clean, but with Yeorum in the house now, that was out of the question. How terrified would she be if her guardian turned out to be a tentacle monster? Besides, if my initial plans had already fallen apart and Yeorum really did become a magical girl, she would never forgive me for being a monster.
In Magical Girl Estia, depending on the player’s choices, Yeorum could become incredibly lewd or incredibly conservative and pure. But in every ending except the Corruption Ending, she was always upright and good-hearted. Maybe that was why I’d liked the character Seo Yeorum—her nobility, her goodness, and her unyielding will in the face of hardship.
Anyway, for today I’d clean her room, organize the furniture and belongings once they arrived… and then I’d have to cook something before heading to work.