Raise Them Well!

Raise Them Well!

Han A-rin tried to hold back her laughter as she watched Yuna asking her seriously how to eat more ice cream.

The question itself was cute, and it was also adorable how she was so seriously worried about such a trivial concern.

So, unconsciously patting Yuna’s head, she shared her thoughts.

“When you become an adult, you might be able to eat more, don’t you think?”

At the mention of becoming an adult, Yuna tilted her head, looked up at her.

With an expression that showed she didn’t understand at all, she continued speaking.

“Then, do I need to sleep for ten nights… no, a hundred nights to become an adult?”

It seemed that the largest number Yuna knew was a hundred.

Using a hundred days as a standard, she asked if sleeping for a hundred days would be enough.

Finding this question cute, she held back her laughter again and shook her head as she spoke.

“I think you’ll need to sleep more than that.”

“……”

Yuna blinked her eyes with a shocked expression at her words.

Then, she fidgeted with her fingers and stared blankly at the ground.

If she ended the conversation here, it would only leave Yuna shocked for no reason, so she quickly added.

“If you listen well to your sister and do many good deeds, you can become an adult quickly, so there’s no need to worry too much.”

She added the word “maybe” in an extremely small voice at the end.

Let’s skip over that since it’s not very important.

Anyway, when I said that, Yuna’s eyes sparkled and she nodded, then spoke to me with an expression as if she had made some decision.

“Then Yuna will do her best.”

I didn’t know what she meant by doing her best.

I was glad she became more energetic.

… At least until 30 minutes ago.

* * *

“I brought this. Does Yuna want some?”

It seems the words “listen well to your sister and live a good life” were stuck in her mind.

Yuna started doing what she thought were ‘good deeds’.

The problem was that what a young child considers good behavior and what an adult considers good behavior are quite different.

Han A-rin chewed on the snacks and candies that were stuffed into her mouth, feeling dizzy from the sudden sugar high.

Though she was still far from the age of diabetes.

It was inevitable to feel lightheaded after eating food with so much sugar.

As she barely held onto her spinning head and looked forward.

She saw Yuna still struggling to move snacks and candies even after 30 minutes had passed.

It seemed Yuna thought she should give all her snacks and candies to her, as she poured them out in front of her with grunting sounds.

“Eat this.”

“More, more?”

“Yes.”

Ha-eun wagged her tail and nodded, then seemed to remember something.

She perked up her ears and looked at me eagerly, trying to say something.

“Did Yuna do well? Is Yuna cute?”

“Oh, uh? Yeah. But Yuna? You can stop now, it’s okay.”

At the words that she could stop, Yuna’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked at me.

Then she lowered her head with a very dejected expression.

Seeing her like that made my heart soften, so when I said “Just kidding,” Yuna nodded again with renewed determination.

‘…This is trouble.’

They say babies tend to repeat one thing endlessly once they get fixated on it.

Of course, I read this on a blog so it might not be entirely reliable, but the important point was that they get bored less easily than adults.

If I wasn’t careful, I might end up having to put snacks and candy in my mouth for a whole week.

‘What should I do?’

While I was wondering if there was a gentle way to refuse,

I saw Ha-eun and Chae-a, who had just woken up, walking out of the bedroom rubbing their eyes.

Seeing this, I panicked, thinking what if those two also behaved like Yuna.

“Yuna, you shouldn’t do that… If you eat too many snacks and candies, your teeth will hurt. So we shouldn’t give you too many.”

Unexpectedly, I could see Ha-eun trying to calm Yuna down by explaining this to her.

Yuna listened to Ha-eun and seemed to understand, nodding her head as she sat down on the floor.

Ha-eun smiled brightly and started to clean up the snacks and candies.

* * * * *

I grinned at the sight of snacks and candies piled up all over the living room.

Ha-eun found it cute and funny that she brought lots of snacks and candies to become an adult.

So after laughing for a moment, she turned her gaze to look at the seedling that had grown a little since she brought it last night.

‘It looks like it’s in a good mood.’

She wasn’t sure if it was because they were all gathered together or because it was receiving sunlight.

Seeing it display such a happy reaction made Ha-eun feel good too.

While thinking about this and staring intently at the seedling, Chae-a made a suggestion to her with a serious expression.

“Since the seedling is awake too, shall we dance together?!”

Tilting her head in confusion at the sudden suggestion to dance,

Chae-a told her with a proud expression.

“The seedling likes dancing together…!”

Although dancing was embarrassing, it wasn’t difficult, so Ha-eun nodded.

They decided to dance together, calling their fluttering movements that could hardly be called choreography a dance, and started dancing enthusiastically.

As they were dancing like that for a while, Seo-rin seemed to have woken up and came in, yawning widely.

“What are you doing?”

She seemed curious seeing them giggling and dancing from early in the morning.

Seeing Seo-rin like that, Ha-eun briefly explained what had happened.

Seo-rin squealed and lifted Yuna up, saying,

“Oh my, oh my. Isn’t our Yuna just too cute?!”

“…?”

Yuna herself didn’t seem to understand why she was being called cute at all.

But Seo-rin, as if Yuna’s opinion didn’t matter at all, hugged her tightly and rubbed her cheeks vigorously.

“Ah, this is healing… This is what healing is.”

“What’s healing?”

“Well, healing is… being cured? Or becoming happy? By the way, Yuna, what do you think when you see Ha-eun?”

“My heart feels like cotton candy.”

“Yes, that’s the feeling.”

Yuna, happy to learn the meaning of healing, sparkled her eyes and wagged her tail vigorously.

Then, while still in Seo-rin’s arms, she spoke to me.

“Seeing Ha-euni is healing.”

Hearing such words directly makes me a bit flustered.

As I fidget with my fingers, unsure of how to react,

Chae-a brings up what happened last night.

“You know, yesterday we went out with Somteol… but Somteol was at home!”

Since that alone was difficult to understand,

I quickly added an additional explanation.

“We took Somteol out, but Somteol said he didn’t go out.”

Even after all the explanations, Han A-rin still didn’t seem to understand and repeated the same question.

“Huh? You went out with Somteol, but Somteol didn’t actually go out?”

“Yes…! It’s like a ghost.”

At the mention of ghosts, Han A-rin stiffened slightly, laughed awkwardly, and then fell into thought.

“Ghosts… There are no ghosts in this world. It’s usually just an abnormal phenomenon caused by distorted mana.”

Ha-eun seems to not be particularly fond of ghosts, given her sudden serious tone.

Since there was no need to talk at length about something she doesn’t like, I just nodded silently.

Han A-rin brought up one strange point.

“But it’s strange. Usually, when mana gets distorted within the association, it leaves traces. But no matter how much I search, I can’t find anything that could be called a trace.”

Then what could it really be?

As I couldn’t come up with an answer no matter how much I thought about it, I just crossed my arms and went “Hmm.”

Suddenly, Seo-rin next to me starts taking pictures, saying I look cute.

While hearing the rapid clicking sound beside me, I pondered for a moment and brought up one thing worth considering.

“Could it be because Seed came?”

The question of whether it might have been caused by Seed’s appearance.

Han A-rin seemed to think this was a plausible idea, as she nodded and agreed with my words.

“That could certainly be possible. The World Tree has powerful mana and the ability to spread it around. But what’s strange is that when I detected mana earlier, I didn’t find anything unusual.”

Han A-rin said we need to think about it more and patted my head.

“But there’s one strange thing. Last night, you don’t remember going out with Somteol, right? Why is everyone saying you went out?”

Oh no, I’m in trouble.

I looked at Seo-rin with pleading eyes, but.

Seo-rin avoided my gaze and started showering Seed with endless praise.

As I was making a shocked “meong” expression at this behavior, Yuna stepped in for me and boldly said.

“We went to see Seed. It was fun.”

“Without telling me?”

Yu-na blinked, looking back and forth between me and Han A-rin, then shrunk back and hid behind me.

As I patted Yu-na’s head, who quickly admitted defeat, I was contemplating what excuse to make when

 

this time, Chae-a stepped forward and said triumphantly,

“Yeah! We didn’t tell you because it wasn’t an adventure!”

 

Chae-a spoke so confidently that Han A-rin momentarily seemed at a loss for words.

Han A-rin sighed, gently poked Chae-a’s cheek, and softly explained why it wasn’t okay.

 

“What if something dangerous had happened? Of course, the association is safe, but still, you never know. What if Ha-eun got kidnapped by a bad person while out at night? Would Chae-a be okay if Ha-eun got kidnapped?”

“Chae-a is brave, so I can protect her!”

 

“Really? Then could you protect Ha-eun if I kidnapped her right now?”

At those words, Chae-a blinked, looked at Han A-rin, then suddenly became dejected and shook her head.

 

“We have to raise her well…”