Seo-yul loved to be cuddled.
He always reached out his arms towards me, his eyes shining with longing, silently begging for a hug.
I could understand that.
I felt really good when I was cuddled by someone too.
If I had to put it in words… it felt cozy, like being wrapped up in a thick blanket.
After all, don’t babies love to be held by their guardians?
They feel a psychological bond by being close to their parents and form attachments.
They feel secure knowing they are being protected, and the sound of a heartbeat nearby brings a sense of warmth.
Seo-yul must have felt that way too.
I didn’t have the confidence to firmly assert myself as a protector, but I still made sure to hug Seo-yul whenever I could.
“Daddy, I like it! Hug me!”
Even now, it was the same.
The warm sunlight streamed through the window.
My belly was comfortably full, and drowsiness began to creep in.
Seo-yul smiled brightly and stretched out his arms. His wings on his back opened wide like he was stretching.
In an instant, his pure laughter pushed the sunlight away, brightly coloring the surroundings, and I couldn’t help but smile softly.
‘How can he be so cute?’
The word “fairy” fit perfectly.
The fairies in the original illustrations were undoubtedly beautiful, but Seo-yul was even more so.
Just like before, I put on my best plausible smile and opened my arms.
In the past, I could only wrap one arm around him, but now I had both arms to hold him.
I could hug him well even without help from the sky’s feathers.
“Daddy, you’re the best!”
Seo-yul jumped straight into my arms.
I gently pulled him in, reminiscing about the experience—
– Urgh…
His similar-sized body clung to me, overwhelming my arms.
A shock greater than I imagined.
I couldn’t help but lean back from the impact.
‘Gyaaah…!’
Fearing Seo-yul might get hurt, I tightly embraced him.
Seo-yul and I tumbled backward in unison.
The impact was nothing; the living room floor was completely covered with a soft mat.
Those were the supplies I laid out in my dormitory.
I had spread them around fearing Seo-yul might get hurt, yet here I was taking advantage of that help, which felt quite strange.
“Hehehe!”
Seo-yul seemed to enjoy it as he burst into a giggle.
His laughter rang out fresh like someone playing a xylophone.
“Haha, our Seo-yul is excited!”
Elia, who was in the kitchen, chuckled softly. She was tidying up the dishes wearing an apron I had prepared for her.
It was quite a delightful and peaceful scene.
Seo-yul even wriggled against me like a little animal.
It was extremely cute and lovable behavior.
‘Ugh…’
…The problem was that he was wriggling on top of me, pinning me down.
If it had been the past, I would have accepted it without issue, but now that our sizes were similar, the pressure was quite intense.
“Daddy likes it!”
[Me too]
“I like Seo-yul too…”
“Hehehe… Daddy’s cheeks are soft!”
[Aaagh…]
[Don’t bite… please…]
While playing by rubbing his cheeks against mine, Seo-yul suddenly looked up and opened his mouth.
Then he leaned down and bit my cheek.
[Gyaaaaah…]
With the bizarre sensation on my cheek, I squirmed, but being pinned down made it hard to escape.
– Hmph… Huh… Daddy…
…Above all, the countless heavy karmic debts loomed, making it hard to resist.
It would be embarrassing to assert myself as a guardian, and I couldn’t refuse such a game.
Eventually, I gave up resisting and let myself go limp.
Enjoying the thrill of tormenting prey, Seo-yul continued to wriggle on top of me.
Seemingly thrilled, his fluttering wings flapped even more vigorously.
– Click
‘?’
At that moment, I flinched at the unusually loud sound ringing in my ears.
What was that sound? I couldn’t possibly not know.
It was the camera shutter sound manifested on my smartwatch.
I straightened my trembling lips and asked.
[Elia?]
– Click click
“Yes, yes. I’m listening… Ah, just a little more to the left! I can’t see Ha-yul’s face well… right now!”
– Click click
Elia lightly responded as though asking what the problem was while taking photos.
The kitchen was spotless without a speck of dust, clearly tidied up while I was busy.
With the shameless camera shutter sound, something of mine was chipped away as well.
[Please don’t take my picture…]
[Just take a photo of Seo-yul at least…]
“That’s not possible.”
Her tone was blunt, yet for some reason, it was a firm rejection infused with pleading.
Elia shook her head resolutely.
“It’s cuter when both babies are in one photo.”
[I’m not a baby…]
“Hmm… can your detection ability recognize photos too?”
[I can do that.]
“Every time I hear it, it’s quite impressive. Usually, detection abilities only recognize locations and outlines and nothing more…”
As she tilted her head, Elia displayed a photo in hologram form.
It was a picture just taken of me, who lay limp on the living room mat, with Seo-yul happily smiling while squishing me.
“If someone who doesn’t know sees this, they would think you two are a lovely brother and sister.”
[…]
[Wait a minute.]
[Why a brother and sister…?]
“Yes?”
Elia blinked, surprised.
Her attitude seemed to question what I was asking, and I found it absurd.
[No matter what, that’s not right.]
[Why would I be the younger sibling?]
“Seo-yul is clearly bigger, right?”
[No, I’m not!]
A sudden clattering sound echoed from the pendant around my neck.
I felt a surge of resentment rising within me.
Even if I had gotten younger, not that much.
The information from my observational powers also…
[…I’m bigger!]
“Yes, yes, I understand~ Oh, this time to the right.”
[Don’t ignore me…]
“Daddy, am I smaller than you?”
[Huff…]
In that moment, a sharp pain buried itself in my heart. My breath was caught midway.
– Click
In the meantime, the shutter sound rang out again.
Seo-yul also began to chew on his lips.
“Omnomnom…”
[Gyaaah…]
Something else chipped away…
…
“Yawn…”
A cute yawn escaped from Seo-yul’s wide-open mouth.
His eyes were slowly drooping, and his actions were sluggish, indicating that sleepiness was overwhelming him.
A perfectly normal response.
Babies usually sleep a lot.
Having filled up their bellies and played to their heart’s content, any ordinary baby would have fallen asleep long ago.
Seo-yul had held on for a long time, but it seemed like he was finally entering power-saving mode.
“Oh dear, is our baby already sleepy?”
Elia, who had been watching nearby, came over, gently took Seo-yul’s arm, and cradled him.
My previously pinned body trembled with a sense of liberation.
“I can still play more…”
“Your eyes are closing, though? Let’s take a nap now, and then we can play with Daddy when you wake up!”
“Umm…”
Elia skillfully comforted the whimpering Seo-yul in her arms.
Seo-yul seemed to shake his head for a moment as if resisting, but slowly succumbed to sleepiness as his eyes began to close.
And soon, his breaths became calm and serene.
“He falls asleep super easily, doesn’t he?”
[Yup.]
[That’s amazing.]
“It wasn’t like this at first. He was such a crybaby when Daddy wasn’t around… he was a real spoiled princess.”
Despite expressing how hard it was to deal with, her touch was gentle. She smoothed his hair and occasionally patted his bottom and back with grace.
[It must have been really tough.]
[Thank you for taking care of Seo-yul.]
[I promise to reward you much more.]
I smiled awkwardly at Elia’s words of sorrow.
At that moment…
As if suddenly remembering something, Elia giggled softly.
“But you know, he falls asleep easily when someone holds him and pats him. At first, he was quite picky, but surprisingly, he was very clingy, breaking down his defenses quickly…”
Someone’s resemblance…
At that point, Elia’s gaze slid over to me quite obviously.
That gaze felt incredibly unjust.
To think she would throw such a look, not knowing who that child was born to as a parent? It was nothing but a slander.
…However, I had no objection to bring up, so I chose silence.
“Oh whoops…”
Elia, who had been cradling the sleeping Seo-yul, entered the bedroom.
I stood up with trembling legs and followed her.
Elia laid Seo-yul in his baby bed.
There was a cradle next to it, but it seemed to be unused now since Seo-yul had grown at an unbelievable pace.
“I initially used the cradle, but he was so active that he often tried to escape, making it quite a hassle. So in the end, I held him far more often instead.”
Before I even had a chance to ask, Elia responded as if she knew what I was thinking.
I kept my mouth tightly shut.
If he was trying to escape from the cradle, surely it wasn’t to his liking, right?
None of the supplies Seo-yul would use were made crudely.
Every material was of the highest quality, and the magical inscriptions were meticulously crafted by hand.
Thanks to that, the balance in my bank account, which had hardly fluctuated, was now significantly lower…
‘Hmm…?’
While feeling a bit gloomy, I felt a poking sensation on the top of my head that made me raise a question mark.
It felt as though something was sighing heavily while looking down on me from above.
I turned my observation abilities towards that peculiar sensation, but I sensed nothing.
An odd sense of discomfort.
“Well, one down. Now for the next…”
After covering Seo-yul with a blanket, Elia clapped her hands and turned her gaze towards me.
Her line of sight, upon returning, landed upon… me, who was still caught up in that strange sensation.
[?]
That peculiar gaze. The elongated tail of words. The clue of “one.”
Suspicious thoughts crept in as I subtly pulled my legs back, and her swift hand slipped into my armpit.
– Eek?
Without the chance to resist, my legs left the floor. A feeling of floating enveloped my body.
“Now… shall we let Ha-yul take a nap too?”
Elia’s movements mimicked those she had done with Seo-yul earlier.
She supported my bottom with one hand and held my neck and upper back with the other.
Buried in the soft sensation of being held, my face was enveloped in warmth.
[Wait a minute…]
[Hold on a second…]
– Thud… Thud…
Just when I was desperately trying to squirm away, I could hear the sound of someone else’s heartbeat next to my ear.
Even through the plump flesh, I could feel the pulse, and my heart, which had been racing abnormally, gradually slowed down to a regular rhythm.
A drowsy and cozy sensation pressed down on my rational mind.
The strength I had been trying to muster in my struggling limbs slowly drained away.
With my resistance crushed in an instant, I could hear the giddy laughter echoing above me.
It was embarrassing, but with every pat on my back and bottom, my mind became even foggier.
My head felt blank.
It was a sweet, happy feeling as my rational thoughts melted away like honey.
It was so absurd. No matter how I thought about it, my reactions were far from normal.
I pouted my lips out of petty defiance.
[…This feels strange.]
“What feels strange?”
Elia replied in a tone that seemed to soothe a whining child, which only made my feelings even more mixed, but I pressed on.
[I’m just…]
[I feel like my mind is becoming childish.]
I was aware.
I definitely wasn’t an adult.
Even if my body had grown, my mind seemed to be stuck at a childish level.
It was a realization I suddenly had again.
Just a few days ago, it seemed I acted like a spoiled child with Professor Riana, and now I was doing it again.
Ordinary adults don’t have their minds dissolve simply from being held and petted by others.
“That’s a matter of personal preference, so is there really a need to be concerned about it?”
Listening to my concerns, Elia explained.
That was fair enough.
I wasn’t doing anything wrong to harm innocent people, so I wasn’t doing anything to be scolded about…
‘……’
Despite recognizing my own uniqueness and trying to accept myself, I couldn’t shake off the embarrassment.
“And, isn’t it something that can’t be helped at the moment?”
[?]
Elia’s response seemed to imply that it couldn’t be helped, leaving me puzzled.
“The term ‘one heart, one body’ (一心同體) can be interpreted in various ways, but generally, it means that the mind and body are one. It’s a concept I encounter frequently when studying healing magic.”
As I tilted my head, Elia looked down at me with a benevolent smile.
“Essentially, wounds occur to both body and mind simultaneously. When the body is harmed, the mind is affected, and when the mind suffers, the body weakens.”
I had heard something similar before. I remembered a similar concept from the original story.
“To summarize, it means that the younger body can influence the mind.”
Is that so?
“In other words! Ha-yul wanting to be held and pampered is a very natural result of being in a younger body! It’s something that can’t be helped at the moment.”
Something that can’t be helped…? A natural phenomenon…?
“Moreover, suppressing such a desire forcefully is considered to be a behavior that does not yield good outcomes. According to Ha-yul’s intuition, it seems that such feelings will come back in no time, right?”
Suppressing it is an undesirable act…?
My body felt in alignment with her words. Intuitively, I understood that.
I nodded in agreement with what Elia said.
The wall that was built around my feelings seemed to be crumbling a bit.
‘……’
After some consideration, I shyly buried my face in her embrace.
“Good boy, very kind~”
Elia beamed with a smile.
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