Lair Expansion

Lair Expansion

 

Anyway, now that we knew the truth of the incident, we decided to head back home.

While I was in Seo-rin’s arms, making a humming sound and still deep in thought,

Seo-rin looked at me, giggled, then poked my cheek and said,

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“I’m not thinking about anything!”

“Really?”

In reality, I was thinking about what to do with the increased number of ghost cotton balls.

Rather than talking about it now, I decided to postpone the answer, thinking it would be better to gather and think about it together tomorrow morning when Han A-rin comes.

I was still feeling the sensation of fingers touching my cheek and smiling awkwardly when Seo-rin spoke to me with a big grin.

“It was fun, wasn’t it?”

“… Yeah!”

Realizing that I had indeed had a lot of fun as Seo-rin said, I nodded cheerfully.

*

The next morning, we gathered for a family meeting.

“This is our first meeting. The meeting title is… What are we going to do with the ghost cotton balls?”

Yuna, not knowing the word ‘topic’ yet, announced the start by saying ‘meeting title’.

We all sat around and pondered upon hearing those words.

After about 10 minutes of contemplation, Han A-rin was the first to speak.

“Can’t we all just live together at home? If the rooms are too small, we can move to a bigger place.”

As an ordinary citizen, I was a bit shocked by the words of Han A-rin, who was rich among the rich.

Just then, Chae-a, who was sitting next to me, got up from her seat with a giggle and said proudly.

“Yeah! Chae-a can lift many heavy things like this! So moving will be easy…!”

“Really? Our Chae-a is amazing, isn’t she?”

“Yeah!”

Han A-rin, seizing the opportunity, patted Chae-a’s head vigorously, replenishing her Chae-a essence.

Ha-eun seemed pleased to be praised, still looking proud as she continued to stand there.

I smiled a little watching the two of them, but thinking it would be better to continue the meeting for now, I changed the atmosphere and brought up the topic again.

“But you know, the ghost fluffballs said they like my lair.”

The ghost fluffballs were born to protect Seo-a.

So it would be right for them to be born near Seo-a, but seeing that they’re being born in my lair instead.

It means that my lair is much more suitable for them to be born in than next to Seo-a.

‘It’s definitely not because the ghost fluffball said it likes my lair…!’

Anyway, I thought it would be nice if my empty lair became bustling, so I said that with a lot of personal interest.

Everyone nodded and agreed with what I said.

“Myam… Come! Fluff!”

“Ha-eun is so cute. As her sister, I’m proud.”

 

That was agreement, right?

I had some doubts, but I was thinking that it’s good if it’s good, when.

This time, Seo-rin came forward and shared her opinion.

“As Ha-eun said, we should let the ghost fluffballs stay in the lair, and only bring the ones with flowers on their heads for communication.”

“Hmm, that would definitely be good.”

“Peeeeeee?”

The fluffball, not seeming to grasp what’s going on, expresses its confusion by hopping up and down.

I pat its head to calm it down and continued speaking.

“Then shall we go see the ghost fluffballs?”

Ha-eun decided to introduce the ghost cotton balls to others while heading to her lair.

*

“Wow! There are so many cotton balls!”

As soon as they arrived at Ha-eun’s lair, Chae-a excitedly looked around quickly.

It seems she was very excited to see so many things she likes gathered in one place.

Ha-eun giggled at Chae-a’s reaction and called the ghost cotton balls together.

“Cotton balls, come here!”

At those words, the real cotton ball was the first to jump up with a ‘peep!’ and cling to Ha-eun’s side.

Ha-eun picked up the real cotton ball and introduced the gathering ghost cotton balls one by one.

“This is Cotton Ball, this is Chae-a, this is Yuna…”

After introducing them all one by one.

Ha-eun picked up Seo-a, who was sucking her thumb beside her, and said.

“Seo-a, the ghost cotton balls came to protect you!”

“Kom…?”

“Yes. Like papa bear…!”

Seo-a’s eyes sparkled at the mention of papa bear, and she giggled.

Just as Ha-eun was thinking how relieved she was that Seo-a liked the ghost cotton balls.

Han A-rin picked up one of the ghost cotton balls in front of her and said.

“Except for being cold, they look exactly like cotton balls.”

“Peep!”

“They even get upset the same way.”

“Peep!”

As I was giggling at the ghost Somteol puffing up its feathers and chirping in front of me.

Suddenly, an interesting thought occurred to me, so I brought the real Somteol next to me and took it in front of the ghost Somteol.

‘I wonder how it will react?’

Will it like it as a fellow creature? Or will it reject it as a foreign entity?

Hoping for the former, I stared intently at this scene.

The real Somteol stared at the ghost Somteol for a while and then…

“Peeng? Peeee!”

It showed a very positive reaction and started licking the ghost Somteol’s fur vigorously.

After licking for a while, the real Somteol seemed tired and made a ‘peep peep peek’ sound, trying to tell me something.

“Pee! Peeee!” (I think it has a cold! Its body is cold!)

Hearing this, Seo-rin patted the ghost Somteol’s head and corrected the statement.

“It’s not that it has a cold. Its body is cold from the beginning.”

Upon hearing that it was cold from the beginning, Chae-a, who had been watching this silently, clapped her hands as if she realized something and said.

“Chae-a knows…! It’s snow…!”

“Snow?”

“Yes! Snow is always cold!”

At those words, Yuna nodded as if agreeing and said.

“Then it’s not Somteol, but more like Nunsom.”

“Nunsom? It sounds like a snowflake.”

The name Snowflake sounds better than I thought.

After hearing this, I decided to call the ghost cotton ball Snowflake and shared this with others.

“Snowflake… It’s a bit long, so how about Cotton… Should we call it Somi?”

“Somi is cute.”

“Somi…! Baby fluff?”

The ghost cotton ball’s name was changed to Somi.

We asked the ghost cotton ball if it was okay with the name Somi, and it jumped up and down happily, chirping “Pii!”

“Woaah. It’s Somi.”

Chae-a seemed to really like the name Somi, repeating “Somi Somi Somi” in front of it while giggling.

I smiled along with this and called out to Somi.

*

When everyone had calmed down a bit.

I asked the many Somis about their abilities.

“Pii? Pii!” (We’re amazing!)

They jump up and down repeating “amazing,” perhaps having learned it from Chae-a.

I asked again why they were amazing, but they seemed to have difficulty explaining precisely, so they just answered my question with “Incredible!”

In the end, I couldn’t figure out what abilities Somi had.

‘I’ll probably find out as I observe them.’

Since it wasn’t urgent anyway, I decided to leave it be and gazed at my lair.

Maybe because I’ve been living in a “proper house” recently.

The lair I saw again looked quite shabby.

‘Besides, it seems a bit small too.’

It used to be fine, but now that it’s full of plushies, the space looks cramped.

I, having grown tremendously compared to the past, felt it was time to expand the lair once again and my eyes sparkled.

‘Since I can do much more than before, I should be able to create an incredibly amazing lair this time!’

I decided to create a fantastic lair that also mixed the tastes of Chae-a, Yuna, and Seo-a, and said.

“I wanna expand the lair!”

Yuna was the most excited about those words.

Yuna, seemingly happy about my lair growing bigger, nodded her head vigorously and spread her arms wide as she talked about things she wanted to put in.

“Then can we put in a big teddy bear uncle like this?”

I tilted my head at the mention of a teddy bear uncle.

Yuna pointed to a convenience store far away from the lair and said.

“That one…!”

Wondering what it was, I looked closely and saw a large white bear doll sitting in front of the convenience store.

It seemed that Yuna, who likes warm things, was very tempted by the large, fluffy, and soft bear doll.

I nodded and decided to include the bear doll as well.

Leaving behind a very happy-looking Yuna, I asked Chae-a and Seo-a if they had anything they wanted to put in.

Chae-a gently stroked Seo-a’s head, thought deeply for a while, and then offered one idea.

“Chae-a wants a playground…!”

“A playground?”

“Yeah! I think it’ll be fun if we all play together!”

I nodded, deciding to accept it for now.

This time, Seo-a spoke while flapping her hands similar to Chae-a.

“Somi…! Come!”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand what Seo-a was saying, so I just nodded.

Thinking that she might ask again later if she wants something, I decided to focus on expanding the lair for a while starting today.

‘I should probably start by consulting with the core that makes up the lair.’

I approached the core I had received as a gift earlier and told it that I wanted to expand it further.

I heard a response asking how I wanted to expand it.

After pondering for a moment and looking around, I came up with a good idea.

‘I wonder if it’s possible to expand downwards?’

Underground space…!

Actually, basements aren’t that great of a space since they’re damp, don’t get much sunlight, and have poor ventilation.

But there’s something strangely appealing about them, so the idea of creating a basement this time blossomed.

As that thought rushed into my mind.

When I asked if it was possible to make a basement, I got an affirmative answer.

‘Then I’ll create an underground space and furnish it like a house…!’

Thinking it would be fun to have a housewarming party after it’s all done, I decided to send messages to the Elder Dragons and Grandma Lecia later.