What Do You Do on Holidays? (5)
There is such a thing as the standard body type. The feel of it varies by era, but there's no doubt that humans have a clear idea of the most ideal physique.
But in this world—the world of Breadcademy—not just humans live. Among the intelligent beings, there are elves, orcs, dwarves, goblins, dragons, and lycanthropes. Incubi were wiped out by those angels, leaving none behind, but succubi still exist. For whatever reason—maybe because some angels hope for female corruption—even massive demonkin standing three meters tall remain on the surface.
In a world like that, how does "love between different races" play out? If the angels had tried to erase knowledge, concepts, or laws around that, humanity probably wouldn't have survived this long. Shorter lifespans than elves. Weaker strength than orcs. Inferior fertility to goblins. Lacking in technology compared to dwarves. Inferior mana handling compared to dragons.
Despite all these shortcomings, the fundamental reason humans dominate the Midgard continent isn't just the "wisdom" people always talk about. As someone who came up from the demon world, I can confidently say adaptability plays a huge role too.
Yeah. Adaptability. They change their bodies to fit any environment, adapting to it. Even if it takes generations, they end up suited to the present. And if it's a problem they absolutely need to solve in their lifetime, they invent tools or learn magic—whatever it takes.
In cases like this—where a small-statured being wants to share love with a much larger race—humanity overcame racial limits with magic. More precisely, one of hell's dukes left humanity a blessing that wasn't quite a blessing, much like providing the Jerque technique or Mana Milk technique.
A Fair and Square Fight!
The hell duke called [Gaecheon-gwang] always craved a fair and square matchup. In a 1v1, even if he was stronger, he'd lower his power to match the opponent. If they were stronger, he'd pour out everything he had, reshaping his body to find a way to win.
The same went for battles in bed. Against a massive race with an arm-thick endowment, smaller folk had to reshape their bodies, if only for that moment, to handle it.
Males could manage some "adjustment" with the Jerque technique. But when even that wasn't enough, they could use the method Gaecheon-gwang bestowed on surface humanity to conquer the challenge.
The man became a giant of light.
It's similar to the ether body and its texture that the current Red Sol Phoenix possesses. A single small human turns into a giant of light matching a dragon's size, then builds that body to take them on. And afterward? Well, he even shoved a dragon-slaying spear into the dragon's guts.
So what about the opposite case? Like with me and Evangeline right now—where if it went in, she might straight-up "burst."
Obviously, it's about bread. For something like a choco-so-ra bread stuffed with cream, the piping bag has to be smaller than the bread, right? But if a bread that needs tons of cream is smaller than the piping bag—treating the bag as the bakery's mold in this scenario—stuffing in whipped cream would be impossible. Force the bag's tip inside, and the bread's shell would split and tear, ruining the shape.
Now imagine pumping in a massive amount of whipped cream?
It'd overflow like crazy. You'd aim for cream bread and end up with bread cream—a shredded, exploded mess of bread chunks swimming in cream.
Can't have that. For this issue, Gaecheon-gwang provided one answer.
Gaecheon-gwang strengthened the bread.
Through magic, through mana, by working momentary miracles on the human body, he solved it.
Just make it big enough with magic for that moment, right?
…….
-Oh, right, bread talk. Ahaha!
Anyway. To cut to the chase.
In this world, there are so-called "horsegirls." More precisely, among beastkin, there's the "Horse Human" race—with horse ears on their heads and a horse tail above their butts.
How were they born? A man did it with a mare. Or a stallion mounted a woman.
In the latter case, could a woman really withstand that lion-like, giraffe-like, elephant-like power?
Gaecheon-gwang worked a miracle.
Fair fights weren't just human vs. human. He challenged the laws set by this world's gods with the "power of love."
-Sigh. Fine, fine.
This too... Cumming Dream knows the answer.
If it's true "love," not force, I'll make it possible.
For example.
"Evangeline."
"Yeah."
"You know the mana beast Minotaur? Ever wonder how its origins came about?"
"......I don't, and suddenly I don't wanna know."
Yeah, something like that.
Pasiphae fell in love with a majestic bull, asked a craftsman to make a cow body for her, made love to the bull, and out came the Minotaur.
"Maybe even mermaids—"
"S-Stop thaaat!!"
The curse of knowledge is truly terrifying.
March 2nd Week, Saturday Evening.
"Evangeline was muttering to herself in disgust—what happened?"
Instructor Esta invited me to her room and asked right away.
"Just some mana theory talk."
"Mana theory?"
"Yes."
I shared my theory with Instructor Esta—more precisely, a hypothesis I'd dressed up with guesses and inferences from the "myths" I'd heard directly from the parties involved.
"Makes sense."
"Does it?"
"Yeah. Familiars fall in love with humans sometimes too."
Maybe because she's an adult woman, Instructor Esta didn't call it weird, irrational, or unreasonable.
"My case is a bit different, though."
"Different how?"
"Well..."
Instructor Esta reached out sideways, and white light poured from the back of her right hand.
"Come on out."
Neigh.
With the white light came the unicorn symbolizing Instructor Esta—a majestic beast filling the whole room.
"This one's actually a girl."
"......Pardon?"
The truth was revealed by Instructor Esta.
Shock. Esta's unicorn was a female!
"Not a male?"
It hit like learning the protagonist was actually a girl disguised as a guy, now enrolled as a female student at the academy.
"We pretended it was male publicly. Avoided a lot of hassle."
Instructor Esta reached under the unicorn's belly, but there was nothing. Or rather, what had been there was gone—as if it had never existed.
"Illusion magic, huh."
"Right."
"Why?"
"Some lunatics kept yapping about breeding their familiars with mine."
"Ah."
I got it instantly. "Can't resist a horned white stallion."
Familiars aren't ordinary. Even by breed, they're beyond top-grade thoroughbreds—a one-of-a-kind grade.
"Once word got out it was male, nobles with female prized horses wouldn't let theirs near. Feared the sharp horn would gore them."
"It's not the horn, though."
"Figure of speech. They worried their mares couldn't get up if pinned under a male unicorn."
In short, afraid it'd wreck them.
"And another thing. They colluded—no one offered to take the unicorn's seed. Getting familiar offspring is rare, but imagine only one kingdom got horned white foals. What then?"
"Indeed."
"Beyond rarity or symbolism, the powerful and rich wouldn't sit idle. So they all shut up and boycotted tacitly. I wasn't planning to anyway."
Esta shrugged lightly.
"Weirdos dropped the idea once I summoned and rode the unicorn everywhere. Riding a unicorn... you know."
Neigh.
Esta reached out, and the unicorn nuzzled her hand.
Okay unless it's direct action? Or maybe the unicorn doesn't care about Esta's fantasies or Cumming Dreams, doesn't control that far?
"Come to think of it, Phoenix. I could show you a little."
"Pardon?"
No way. That?
"Those with high familiar affinity can handle them in special ways. Like... this."
Esta gathered mana, and golden light sparkled as the unicorn began to change.
"Whoa."
As expected. Gaecheon-gwang's miracles lingered on the surface.
With a whoosh, the unicorn's body shrank.
"Say hi. To my charge, Red Sol Phoenix."
"Uh, um..."
A white being just like Esta—her little sister—popped out from behind her, golden horn on its head, bowing politely.
"H-Hi thereee~"
"......."
Gaecheon-gwang's miracle. Fair and square.
Yeah, against something like that, you'd think, "I could give it a shot."
"Polymorph, right?"
Humans fight monsters. But when monsters talk and mingle with humans, they take human form too.