Sculpture (3)
The grass was lush and green. The fountain ran cool and clear. Children’s laughter rang bright and pure through the first days of spring.
“Kids, unlike the planets where minions live, the Divine Realm has no seasons.”
“What’s a season?”
“Season…”
Tilt, tilt.
“You children were born and raised here, so of course you wouldn’t know. The vibrant spring, the hot and humid summer, the crisp clear autumn of high skies and fat horses, and the bitter dead of winter—those four together are called the four seasons.”
Cheonsol’s explanation was surprisingly good. Even I, a twenty-second-century guy whose planet never fixed its climate disasters, found myself picturing spring and autumn landscapes.
“Huh? That’s just your planet talking. Once you head out to other worlds, there are tons more.”
I couldn’t help but cut in while hanging from a rope tied to the rock at the center of the fountain, still carving.
“Lady Sophia… our planet only had four seasons as well.”
“Did it? Anyway—there’s the Poison Realm stuffed full of toxins, the Water Realm where over ninety percent of the planet is underwater, elemental realms made of every kind of element like the Spirit Realm… seasons are everywhere.”
“I see. My knowledge was lacking.”
“Always remember you became a minion.”
Lady Sophia was clearly thrilled to finally know something better than her minion for once. I just listened; I needed to concentrate.
The part I was carving now was the ankle and a bit of calf peeking out between the hem of the dress and the feet.
To recreate Sophia’s pretty lines, I had to pour my whole soul into it.
“Once the preseason ends, the regular season starts, right? Right now there’s no theme so we just battle in the Colosseum, but once the regular season locks in a seasonal theme, a bunch of different maps appear.”
It was too interesting a topic to ignore while carving. I left my hands to the instinct of craft and kept my ears on Sophia’s words.
“I already found out what the next season is! Luckily, it’s spring!”
“So that’s why you decorated the garden like spring.”
“Exactly! Cheonsol’s so smart!”
Lan-lan-i and Evni started wandering the garden all over again.
“This is spring?”
“Spring…”
“Look at the sun I bought with a heavy heart just to set the spring mood!”
Sophia puffed up proudly and pointed at the sky. A sun that poured out warm sunlight rose into view.
—Oh… my power is returning…
—I told you we need sunlight. Look how life force is filling the soil.
“Good…”
The spirits and the half-elf were delighted. Evni bounced in place, hopping up and down.
Timid little Evni doing consecutive jumps that actually left the ground by a full ten centimeters? That told me exactly how excited she was.
“Lan-lan-i doesn’t like sunlight much.”
“Our Lan-lan-i is a proper Vampir now. Unlike those mongrel vampires, she overcame sunlight, but that doesn’t mean she enjoys it.”
“Does Mad Demon not like sunlight either?”
Both Lan-lan-i and Evni—who had been happily running around the garden—looked at me. If I said I liked it, Lan-lan-i would be disappointed. If I said I hated it, Evni would be disappointed.
A smart head of the household never disappoints his kids.
“As long as Daddy has Lan-lan-i, Evni, and Lulu, sunlight or no sunlight, it’s all good.”
“Mad Demon!”
“Daddy…”
Tilt-tilt-tilt!
The moved daughters came toddling over at full speed. Lulu rolled along with all her might too.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Lulu got caught. Nestled in her stepmother’s arms, she trembled finely with rage.
“Lan-lan-i really loves Mad Demon!”
Lan-lan-i plastered herself to my back. Thoughtful Evni didn’t cling to me; instead she stood at the foot of the half-finished Sophia statue.
As expected of Evni…
“Daddy… here…”
—There’s a scratch. You can’t treat precious spirit stone like that. Even if the slave fixes it… hmm. Come to think of it, we can treat it even rougher, can’t we?
—You’re seriously going to die.
—Ebebe. Kill me right now then. Ebebebe.
Near the ankle Evni and Krista pointed out was a tiny, tinier-than-a-hairline scratch.
I’d been staring at how cute the kids were and made a mistake. Just like Krista said, I could just work the slave.
“Hey.”
—At least call me Lirota, please…
“Hey, Mr. Li. Shut up and fix it.”
—Yes…
Lirota filled the scratch while sniffling.
“Lan-lan-i, Evni. Mad Demon is working, so don’t bother him too much.”
“Yes!”
“Yes…”
“Instead, I’ll play with you! It’s Goddess Common-Sense Education Time!”
Education wasn’t exactly playing, but it seemed the Goddess had finally found a hobby other than forum-surfing: childcare.
The kids were that cute, so I understood. If I’d had kids like them back on Earth, I would’ve thrown myself into parenting too.
Same now, really—Cheonsol and Sophia took such good care of them. Anyway, back to sculpting.
I’d finished the dress hem ages ago. The chest area was done too. Looking at the breasts where I’d properly captured the fabric folds and the faintly protruding nipples, my lower half gave a little twitch.
As expected, Lady Sophia was a no-bra one-piece kind of woman. Was that why ancient Greek sculptors carved nipples too?
They might have been ancients, but I respected them. They were artists.
“Yohan. Stop the nonsense and finish the face already.”
“Yes…”
No matter what oppression came, an artist’s soul would not break. Even if Sophia complained, the chest was never getting revised.
“Master…”
“Maaaster!”
“Aww, how can they be this cute? Cheonsol, can I hold them?”
“Can’t… breathe…”
“I can’t breathe! Master’s boobs are too big!”
Now was my chance.
“Mr. Li. Isn’t the spirit stone for the chest a bit lacking? We need more volume, so grow it some more.”
—It’s already enough…
“Look at Lady Sophia. Does that still look enough to you?”
—How does such a tiny goddess have bigger breasts than me? Mr. Li, even I think it’s lacking. Let’s fill it more.
With the spirits’ help I enlarged the chest further. Perfect! This was it!
I had to finish the face before Sophia noticed.
The face was far harder to sculpt than the body.
Even a slightly higher nose or a tiny shift in bone structure completely changed the impression.
“Mad Demon. Isn’t this enough already?”
“Still not enough.”
—Mad Demon-nim, wouldn’t it be fine to finish it here?
“No! This isn’t the face!”
Like the old man who kept carving the same bat, I stubbornly shaped Sophia’s face. Faces that came out too gentle or too seductive appeared, but I made Lirota tear them down and started over for days.
“Daddy… I’ll help you…”
Evni, worn out from playing with Sophia and her mother, joined the fight. I didn’t really want to borrow those tiny hands, but Evni’s skill was so good I had no choice but to allow it.
She seemed better at sculpting than me. Was I imagining it?
—Our Evni was born with craftsmanship and earth-affinity. Of course she handles spirit stone better than an ordinary human, right?
Talent after all. Once Evni grew up, it would be nice to craft items together in the workshop.
Anyway, borrowing Evni’s little hands, we sculpted for a full day. At last I finished a face I was satisfied with.
Sculpture skill has been integrated into Crafting skill.
Crafting skill rank has increased!
“Evni!”
“Daddy…!”
Slap.
We high-fived.
—Krista.
—You don’t actually think I’d high-five the likes of you, do you? That’s a massive miscalculation.
Looking at the finished divine statue of Sophia, my heart grew peaceful. An auspicious aura seemed to linger around the statue—was it just my imagination?
No. I’d felt it before. Precisely during the big-sister determination battle among the children, I had sensed Sophia’s divinity.
“Daddy…?”
I widened my eyes and stared hard at the statue. Like five-colored radiance falling from the sky, the auspicious energy circled the sculpture and then approached me.
When I stretched out my hand, a warm power flowed into my fingertips.
You have awakened Divine Power.
So this was… Divine Power?
It felt good for a moment, but then a sense of wrongness hit me. In novels and games you couldn’t use martial arts with divine power. Same with magic.
Surely having divine power didn’t mean I couldn’t awaken mana or something, right?
“No way! Yohan! What on earth is going on?!”
Sophia, who had gone into the room to rest while I was carving my bones off, came charging out. She’d been in such a hurry that her clothes were only half on, leaving half her chest fully exposed.
Not long ago I’d freely kneaded those massive breasts. The statue’s chest was excellent, but of course it still fell short of the real thing.
Next time I would definitely recreate that charming mama dispenser…
“Divine Power?! Our Yohan has Divine Power?!”
“Did you say Divine Power?!”
Cheonsol came running out with sleeping Lan-lan-i on her back and Lulu in her arms. Unlike Sophia, who rushed straight to me, Cheonsol looked at the statue.
“Hoh. You finished it. Truly magnificent. Its completeness surpasses even this lady’s stone statue that once stood in the church.”
“That’s not what’s important right now… well, it is important! You really did amazing! But Yohan awakened Divine Power, I’m telling you!”
Since the Divine Power expert herself had arrived, I should ask.
“What exactly can you do with Divine Power?”
“You can use the holy magic of the god you serve! And the efficiency of holy-attribute skills goes up too!”
“What about martial arts?”
“Ah…”
Sophia averted her eyes.
“Um. Umm. Yohan already fights well without martial arts, so it’s fine, right?”
“If it’s the holy magic of the god I serve, that’s Lady Sophia’s authority. Do you have any attack techniques?”
“Uuuugh! Yohan already has those skills, doesn’t he?”
“Ah…”
Cheonsol let out a low hum. My mood wasn’t great either.
Lady Sophia was still a young goddess and only managed one domain. That domain was healing.
In other words, I was still a one-trick pony of Self-Healing and Impregnating.
“Y-Yohan? I’ll work really hard and take on other domains too. Earth has plenty of imagination, so it’s good for picking up other fields, right?”
“You don’t have to comfort me.”
Thinking about it, it wasn’t a bad thing at all. In fighting games I always preferred martial-arts or physical characters over magic types.
That experience had helped a lot in actual battles too. Strengthening or healing my body with Divine Power would make it even easier to recreate those character movements.
“Now that I think about it, this is good.”
“Right? See?”
“Yes.”
Evni tugged hard on my pants. She must have wanted to show off the statue we made together.
“Please evaluate the statue Evni and I made together. It’s a masterpiece we poured our hearts and souls into.”
“It really is a masterpiece…”
Sophia murmured blankly. I still hadn’t checked either, so let’s look at the information.