I Went Out and Everyone Thinks I'm Cute
How long had I been rolling around on the floor, glancing back and forth between the empty pantry and the tower of Magic Stones stacked in the corner of the room, trying to decide whether to go out or not?
I swapped stones and chewed my way through another five or six of them, just to take the edge off, but that nagging sense that something was still two percent short refused to go away. I had been stuffing myself with nothing but sweets, and the stomach that had spent a lifetime as a Korean finally staged a revolt, insisting this was not a meal and that it would not stand for it any longer.
...God, I am dying for something spicy and salty.
Once you had eaten something sweet, you were supposed to follow it with salt and heat. That was the natural order of things. I shut the pantry door and opened it again, just in case this was all a dream, but the bleak reality of white dust drifting out of the shelves had not changed in the slightest.
Grrgl—
A pitiful little rumble rolled out of my tiny stomach, announcing that it would not wait another second.
...Maybe I should just run down to the mart in front of the building.
I had wanted nothing more than to stay holed up in my room, but there was no bargaining with an appetite. Besides, the Association still had not identified the culprit behind the Eunpyeong-gu Gate incident; the whole affair had sunk into a dead end. This was an age more than forty years on from the first Gates and the flood of Awakeners that had followed. Body Modification Awakeners and Hunters with unusual appearances were a common enough sight on the street, so a quick grocery run was hardly going to cause a scene.
I got to my feet and gave my tail a light flick. Tiamat, who had been kneeling at my feet, snapped her head up at once.
"My Sovereign, where do you intend to go?"
"I'm just gonna run to the mart out front. Need to pick up some food."
The words had barely left my mouth before a thick wash of horror and dread flooded those blue eyes.
"Y-you mean to go alone among those swarming, worthless insects?! That must never be! If you would but command this Tiamat, I shall tear that so-called mart from its foundations and lay the entire building at your feet!"
"You can't just rip an entire store out of the ground..."
A chill ran down my spine. If I left her to her own devices, she really would yank a hypermarket out of the earth like a weed.
"And if I go out with you, we'll stand out way too much."
"But... I cannot send My Sovereign alone into a deathtrap...! Pray, allow this lowly servant to hide in the shadows and stand guard, at the very least...!"
"It's not a deathtrap..."
Tiamat clung to me as if she meant to seize me by the ankle, her face so stricken she looked ready to burst into tears. I stepped closer, careful, and set my small hand on the head of the woman still kneeling at my feet. Then I stroked her hair, slow and gentle, the way you would soothe a dog.
"I'll be right back. Watch the house for me."
"......!"
In that instant, Tiamat's breath caught in her throat. Her pale cheeks flushed scarlet as a radish, and those coolly gleaming blue eyes melted into something thick and feverish. Every time my little palm brushed through her hair, she let out a fragile, rapturous breath, her chest trembling.
"Ahh... that the tiny hand of my most gracious Sovereign should personally caress the head of this lowly servant..."
"You can stay put and behave, right?"
"I... I shall obey...! Until My Sovereign returns, I shall not stir so much as a single hair, and I shall hold this place!"
Leaving Tiamat behind looking as though a simple head pat had melted her down to the soul, I grabbed my wallet and my phone and opened the front door.
Click.
I shut the door of my studio behind me, and the cool air of the corridor brushed my cheek.
Looking at it again, this viewpoint really is low.
I rode the elevator down and stepped out onto the street, and sunlight poured over me along with the sight of people. In my old field of view, the crowns of their heads and their shoulders had been the first things I saw. Now it was passing waists and chests that entered the frame first. The scenery was familiar, but with my height cut down like this, every building looked twice as enormous as it used to.
I lifted my tail just enough that it would not drag on the ground and pattered along.
Are they going to stare?
I would have been lying if I said I was not a little tense, half expecting people to mutter about a monster and call the police. My prediction missed completely.
All the way down the alley toward the big mart, the eyes of every neighborhood resident I passed swung toward me in unison. There was not a trace of fear or wariness to be found, no matter how hard I looked.
"Oh my, look at that one..."
"Goodness, must be a Body Modification Awakener. Look at those little horns on her head—she's adorable."
"Look at the wings fluttering on her back. Is that an actual doll?"
Aunties and passersby stopped in their tracks, clutching their chests and whispering. For modern people who had lived with Gates for forty years, physical changes from Awakening were hardly a strange sight. Hunters with wolf ears and tails, reptilian scales, or skin in every color of the rainbow were common enough. And a tiny child in an elegant black dress, toddling along with great horns and wings and a tail, looked like nothing more than a walking doll.
Cute, though? They're calling me cute?
For someone who had lived as a sturdy man, the cognitive dissonance hit like a truck.
I was a grade-A man's man who'd served out his full military term, I'll have you know...!
A hot little coil of injustice wound through my chest, but if I tried to protest here it would only sound like a cute kid whining. I shut my mouth and picked up the pace.
I reached the biggest grocery mart in the neighborhood and passed through the automatic doors. Cool air-conditioning washed over me, along with that smell peculiar to supermarkets. I picked up one of the green shopping baskets by the entrance. I got a grip on the handle and lifted, but the basket was so large it hung down past my knees and nearly dragged along the floor.
When your body shrinks, even picking up a shopping basket is a whole production. Unbelievable.
I tucked the basket firmly under my arm and headed for the snack aisle. Down another aisle I caught a glimpse of a man cheerfully muttering to himself while filming with a selfie stick, but I dismissed it as one of those personal-broadcast streamers you saw everywhere these days and paid him no mind.
I picked out my usual potato chips and chocolate snacks, then the cup ramen and spicy stir-fry noodles that were a studio dweller's staple, and dropped them all into the basket. Planning to throw together a hearty stew for dinner, I also grabbed a small bag of rice, a pound of pork, aged kimchi, stew tofu, and vegetables like green onion and onion.
The problem came after that. I reached for my favorite ketchup, figuring I would drizzle it over rolled omelets or fried rice later, only to find it sitting on the very top shelf.
Uh......
I stretched my arm as far as it would go, but at my height my fingertips did not even come close. I went up on my toes and flailed, straining, but there was no overcoming the hard limit of how tall I was. Frustration got the better of me for a second and I put a little force into it, and my wings gave an instinctive, fluttering beat.
Flap—!
With a light spring, my great wings sliced through the air, and my body drifted up as if it had simply shrugged off gravity.
Wait. I flew?
Floating there in midair, I plucked the ketchup off the shelf, dropped it into the basket, and settled lightly back to the floor.
"Oh my goodness...!"
A housewife shopping in the next aisle had witnessed the whole thing. She clapped both hands over her mouth and let out a gasp, her eyes shining with the look of someone thinking, is there actually a creature this precious in this world?
"Ah... haha..."
I jerked my gaze away. The woman just kept watching me, a thoroughly delighted smile on her face. My ears burned with embarrassment, and I made a beeline for the register.
"Welco— oh my?"
The Grocery Store Auntie tapping away at the POS poked her head over the counter, caught sight of me, and went round-eyed. I was so short that even hoisting the basket onto the counter was a struggle, and I grunted with the effort until she took it from me herself and lifted it up.
"Aigoo, aren't you just the cutest! Little one, did you come out on an errand all by yourself?"
"Ah... yes, I came to buy groceries."
At the sound of that sweet, crystalline little voice, her smile stretched so wide it nearly reached her ears.
"Oh my, oh my, listen to that lovely voice! Those horns and wings—you must have Awakened, hmm? So impressive at such a young age. Did your parents send you on an errand?"
Not my parents. Me. I sent myself...
I swallowed the truth that had risen all the way to my throat and just nodded. The barcode scanner chirped away in a cheerful rhythm.
Beep— beep—
"That'll be thirty-four thousand won, sweetheart."
I pulled my wallet from my clothes and held out my debit card. While she ran it, the owner kept glancing fondly at my horns and at the tail swaying out from under my dress, then rummaged in a drawer under the counter and came up with something.
"Running errands all by yourself, and so pretty too! This is a present from Auntie!"
What she pressed into my hand was a giant lollipop the size of an adult's palm, and a drink in a small plastic bottle.
"Um... I don't have to pay for these?"
"Of course not! It's a gift for my pretty little customer, so eat up and enjoy."
The candy itself was a perfectly decent snack, but being treated like a child still needled my pride in a strange way.
Ugh... this doesn't feel right.
Then again, she was looking at me with such a pleased expression that refusing to eat it felt a little rude too. Telling myself I was only accepting it out of courtesy, I peeled back the wrapper and popped it into my mouth.
A rich, sweet strawberry flavor unfurled across my tongue.
...Oh?
The moment the sugar hit, every taste bud in my body cheered. It was a different kind of sweet from Magic Stones—the clean, pleasant sweetness of refined sugar. I was in a bad mood, and somehow I was in a good mood. My pride was bruised, and the candy I was licking was so delicious I was happy anyway.
Regardless of its owner's complicated feelings, the tail behind my hips lost all self-control and started swaying cheerfully from side to side.
No! Why are you wagging, damn it?! Stop! Are you ignoring your owner?!
I issued the order. Reality did not change. The owner, watching all of this, finally clutched her heart, making no effort at all to hide how delighted she was.
"Get home safe! Come again!"
"Yes... thank you..."
Loaded down with the shopping basket and the drink in both hands, the giant lollipop still in my mouth, I dipped my head and left the mart. Behind me, back inside, that streamer from earlier was staring at his phone, his voice dropped low even as he made a huge fuss.
"Whoa, they clipped the kid taking off and posted it to Hunter Gallery?! It's already sitting at number one recommended...?"
He was muttering something or other, but it sounded like someone else's business, and none of mine.
On the walk home, the sunlight came down warm. I rolled the shrinking candy around in my mouth, and my steps were lighter than I had expected. I had become a tiny little dragon girl, and the whole neighborhood was drowning me in cuteness. But at home there was a loyal, beautiful subordinate waiting, both my hands were full of snacks and groceries, and my mouth was unbearably sweet.
Well... this kind of life isn't so bad.
I huffed a little laugh and brought the last of the dwindling candy to a crunching end.