Chae-a!?

Chae-a!?

 

Recalling that Grandma Lecia said she would visit, I fell into deep thought for a moment.

Logically speaking, it would be right to inform those around me about this.

‘If I were to tell those around me about this.’

As always, it was clear that the association would be in an uproar.

I thought it might be better not to say anything and let things proceed quietly, as if flowing naturally.

‘… Hmm.’

After pondering for a moment, I decided to rub my cheek with my palm and tell Han A-rin in advance.

To be honest, I didn’t want to say anything…

But I thought it would be better to tell her beforehand because if a problem arose, people around us could be affected.

Having reached this conclusion, I immediately approached Han A-rin and told her about this fact.

Han A-rin, upon hearing my words, smiled as if she already knew and said to me.

“Really? Thanks for letting me know, Ha-eun.”

“Yes.”

While I was dangling, feeling Han A-rin hugging me and rubbing my cheeks vigorously.

Chae-a, who had just woken up, approached us rubbing her eyes.

“… In my dream, Ha-eun was gone, but when Chae-a cried, the Spirit User Uncle brought Ha-eun back, and Chae-a was so happy. Is Ha-eun happy too?”

“…?”

She seems to be still half-asleep.

I smiled at Chae-a and nodded while still being held by Han A-rin.

* * *

The next day, Grandma Lecia came to visit early in the morning.

Judging by her early arrival, it seemed she was very eager to have my seals.

I was about to stamp them right away, but Grandma Lecia calmed me down and first took out the lunchbox she had brought.

“You must be hungry, let’s eat first.”

It was literally ‘early morning’ at this time.

I had just woken up, so rather than feeling hungry, I actually felt quite full.

However, I couldn’t refuse Grandma Lecia’s kindness, so I nodded with a smile.

Seeing my response, Grandma Lecia smiled very happily.

She sat me on her lap and stroked my head while talking.

“Have you had any difficulties? Or is there anything you need?”

To this, I shook my head and said I was fine.

Grandma Lecia moved her hand faster as she stroked my head and continued speaking.

“Really? That’s good then.”

“Yes.”

“Well then, let’s call the other children and eat quickly.”

Thinking that would be good, I nodded and got up from Grandma Lecia’s lap.

As soon as I stood up, Grandma Lecia showed signs of great disappointment.

But since I couldn’t keep sitting there, I ran to the main room calling for Chae-a, Yuna, and Seo-a who were still sleeping.

“Everyone, wake up!”

The first to react to my voice was Yuna.

When Yuna heard my voice, she wagged her tail gently, but.

Still not wanting to wake up from sleep, she remained still with her eyes closed, lying face down.

Seeing Yuna like that, I giggled and slowly approached to pat her head.

Yuna slightly opened her eyes and said to me.

“My eyes keep trying to close… They’re very heavy.”

Ha-eun keeps blinking, so it seems she’s still very sleepy.

I nodded to Ha-eun, indicating that she could sleep more, then checked on the other kids.

‘Chae-a is sprawled out, snoring, while Seo-a is clinging to my pillow.’

Chae-a tends to roll around in her sleep, so she’s against one wall.

Seo-a always sleeps close to me, so she’s curled up near where I was sleeping.

I smile at the two of them again and gently shake them to wake them up one by one.

“… Mmm. Ugh. Don’t wanna.”

Seo-a, not wanting to get up, throws a tantrum and pushes me away.

But soon she comes to her senses and sees my face.

“Mama…”

She clings to me right away and whimpers.

I pat Seo-a’s head, telling her it’s okay, and she giggles while grabbing my hand.

‘Next are Ha-eun and Chae-a.’

I figured Ha-eun would wake up on her own if she’s last, so it seemed more important to wake Chae-a.

I shook Chae-a’s body to wake her up.

“Chae-a, are you hibernating?”

Unlike yesterday, Chae-a seems to have no intention of waking up, making strange noises and continuing to sleep.

Having no choice, I decided to use my secret weapon and whispered the magic words in Chae-a’s ear.

“If you wake up now, you can eat something yummy.”

“…!”

At my words, Chae-a suddenly sits up and starts looking around for food.

I thought I had succeeded in waking up all the babies, so I took them to the living room.

*

“Hoho, eat a lot.”

 

Grandmother Lecia smiled very happily as she watched Chae-a stuffing her cheeks full of food.

I don’t know much about cooking since I haven’t done it much.

People say that when others enjoy the food you’ve made, it makes you very happy, so I tried my best to eat it deliciously.

‘Well, actually, I don’t need to try because the food Grandmother Lecia made is incredibly delicious.’

Just eating it naturally brought out the impression of how delicious it was.

Anyway, while I was thinking how delicious it was and stuffing my mouth full of food like Chae-a was doing.

Grandmother Lecia looked at us, chuckled, and said.

“Ha-eun, do you remember when grandmother said she would give you a gift?”

I nodded as I remembered her saying she would give a gift in exchange for (?) the seal during our phone call yesterday.

Grandmother Lecia smiled brightly and continued speaking.

“This grandmother thought about it well, and decided to buy land and a building near the association and donate it to you, Ha-eun…”

“…?”

Isn’t that too much…?

I shook my head quickly to mean absolutely not.

But Grandmother Lecia seemed to have no intention of listening and chuckled as she said.

“Yes, and it would be good to put an ice cream shop and a candy store that the babies like there too.”

At the mention of ice cream, Chae-a’s eyes widened and she jumped up from her seat.

She let out an exclamation of “Woah” with sparkling eyes.

While I was awkwardly smiling at Chae-a’s reaction, Grandmother Lecia hugged her and said.

“Chae-a, you shouldn’t get up during meals.”

“Okay! I got it!”

“That’s right, good girl, good girl.”

Chae-a was so happy that Grandma Lecia was patting her head that she nodded vigorously to show her agreement.

Grandma Lecia looked at Chae-a with a satisfied smile and continued speaking.

“Then let’s go take a look after we finish eating.”

I felt my head spinning as I couldn’t keep up with Grandma Lecia’s scale of thinking.

Even though I wasn’t sure if this was right, Grandma seemed very pleased, so I could only nod my head, thinking it was difficult to say anything.

*

In this world, hunters were treated as preferred facilities… no, preferred humans, whose mere existence could raise property values, in addition to being celebrities.

The Association, a facility where many hunters gather, was considered one of the most preferred among preferred facilities.

As a result, the surrounding land prices were not just expensive, but shockingly high. However, Grandma Lecia told us she would buy such land for us without hesitation.

“It wouldn’t be bad to buy this whole place and turn it into whatever we want. It’s close to the Association, so it’ll be easy to come here, and the exterior isn’t bad either.”

Led by Grandma Lecia’s hand, we looked around the building.

To me, everything looked good, so I couldn’t really tell what was what.

I was still conflicted about whether it was right to accept this when Yuna offered one opinion.

“I like it because there’s a bear uncle.”

It seems she liked the giant bear statue installed in front of the building.

As I was staring at this, thinking that Yuna and Seo-a’s love for bears was amazing.

Seo-a, who was holding my hand, shouted “Bear!” and started jumping up and down in her spot.

While I was moving closer so Yuna and Seo-a could look at the bear statue, in the midst of examining it.

Grandma Lecia looked at this intently and then made a phone call somewhere.

Thinking “it can’t be,” I tried to ignore it and stared blankly at Yuna and Seo-a, who were standing like bear statues making “kwaang” sounds.

After that, I looked around for a while.

In fact, I wasn’t very interested in this area, so I didn’t know what they were talking about and just kept nodding my head.

While I was just thinking it was nice to walk around together and holding Grandma Lecia’s hand tightly, Chae-a pointed down and said.

“There’s an ant brother here…!”

When did she notice something like that?

Hearing those words, I looked down and saw an ant three times larger than any ant I knew, waving at us.

‘It’s huge.’

In cases of such abnormally large sizes, there was a high chance it was influenced by Chae-a.

While I was watching this ant closely, wondering if it was actually a spirit.

The ant quickly ran towards a snack that was nearby, then detached it with a thud and started shaking it vigorously.

Perhaps it wanted us to eat the snack it was holding?

I felt a great deal of goodwill from the ant, but.

If we ate something like that, we could get an upset stomach or food poisoning, so I waved my hand to refuse.

“Wow, Chae-a loves snacks. Thank you…!”

Chae-a didn’t seem to mind and quickly grabbed and ate what the ant offered.

I closed my eyes tightly as I heard Grandma Lecia’s scream of shock beside me.