by Geli Cake
His pants were wet. Losing his composure for a moment, Haylan threw the blanket onto the floor and paced back and forth, agonizing over what to do.
How should he handle this? Finally, he pulled the cord by his bedside, but regretted it immediately. He didn't want anyone to see him like this. Everything was an obstacle.
Just then, he heard familiar footsteps. Unlike the silent steps of the others in the house, Chahyun's footsteps were somehow energetic and noisy.
As soon as Chahyun knocked twice, Haylan opened the door and pulled him inside.
"You know how to use cleansing magic, right?"
"Did you have a dirty dream or something?"
He noticed immediately. Since even he, with his nonexistent sense of tact, noticed right away, Haylan was sure he wouldn't be able to show his face if anyone else had seen him. Haylan's face flushed as he yelled,
"Yes, I had a dream!"
Chahyun must think he's pathetic. He felt like crawling into a hole and disappearing. But Chahyun, instead of teasing him, helped him clean up.
"You've grown quite a bit, Haylan. We'll need to buy you new clothes again."
Once again, Chahyun wasn't surprised at all. Why? Was he not interested in him? Feeling slightly dejected, Haylan asked,
"...Isn't it strange?"
"You're still cute in my eyes."
At those words, he felt a tingling sensation somewhere near his left chest. He didn't think Chahyun meant it seriously, but he couldn't control the fluttering feeling.
"You're strange."
A person who was his complete opposite, someone he didn't match with. If he was darkness, Chahyun stood in the light. If they had met by chance on the street, they would have passed each other without so much as a brush of their sleeves…
"Don't I seem like a monster?"
"Is there such a thing as a beautiful monster?"
His slightly longer limbs felt unfamiliar. According to the analysis, it revealed that the snacks Chahyun gave him were just ordinary snacks, nothing special.
He still didn't know the reason for his sudden growth. But Haylan believed it was Chahyun who made him grow.
Chahyun had planted desire within him. Being with Chahyun made him greedy.
He wanted to grow. He wanted to age normally.
'I want to stand beside him.'
He didn't want to remain stagnant. He wanted to move forward.
"Who appeared in your dreams?"
It was you. You were the one in my dream.
"Our young master is so healthy~"
He finally understood. He wanted Chahyun to look at him with sparkling eyes, filled with affection.
That was why he had demanded Chahyun to love him. It seemed he had been wanting Chahyun for a while now.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
"Oh my! You've grown taller again?!"
The servants frantically searched the entire house for clothes that would fit Haylan. Mr. Luke's grandson's clothes happened to be mixed in with the luggage, and they coincidentally fit Haylan perfectly.
The head butler brought back a repair scroll from the village. It seemed they were finally going to fix the collapsed wall. I felt a little disappointed. Why didn't they tell me?
"I could have helped with that…"
"How could we ask such a thing of you, guest?"
I was hired by Odin. They could have used me whenever they needed help, but the people in this house treated me like a precious guest.
Mr. Luke often repaired broken or old things around the house. Haylan and I watched from the open second-floor window as he attached the scroll he had bought to the collapsed wall and struggled with it.
Meanwhile, the others were trying to fit the fallen stone fragments together, looking around to see if anything was missing, and carefully clearing the snow around the area.
'They don't seem to know how to use it.'
Sure enough, after struggling for a while, they looked up at us with troubled expressions. As soon as I realized they needed my help, I grabbed the windowsill and jumped down.
"You really…!"
Haylan shouted. The others stirred slightly upon seeing me jump from the second floor, and I saw Haylan facepalming upstairs.
But it would be such a waste of time to go all the way around. This building was excessively large for the number of people living in it, and it would take more than 10 minutes just to walk from the front door to the backyard.
"I followed the instructions, but it's not working. Haha…"
Mr. Luke scratched his head, embarrassed. Instead of saying anything, I carefully read the instructions he handed me. Drawing a magic circle directly on the wall was slightly different from using a pre-made scroll.
Scrolls had activation conditions set by the mage who created them. And since this was a scroll made by someone else, it was even more necessary to consult the instructions.
'Let's see.'
Attach the scroll to the broken object and check for missing parts. And… As I turned the page, Mr. Luke looked embarrassed, admitting he hadn't realized there was another page.
"It says it needs water."
I pointed to the sixth instruction. The scroll's activation condition was submersion.
"Water? Ah, I see."
Mr. Luke shouted, "Someone bring some water!" Since it was winter, there was no running water in the garden, so it would take 10 minutes to walk to the front gate. And another 10 minutes to bring the water back.
'It would be faster if I do it.'
With the snow still unmelted, there was water everywhere. I picked up a twig and drew a magic circle on the ground, improvising as I went. Since drawing on the ground made it difficult to control the direction, I focused on the range…
'Should be enough, right?'
I realized my miscalculation 10 seconds later. With a flash of yellow light, the activated magic circle began gathering water in the air about three meters away. I didn't even have time to think, "Huh? That's too big?" before the gathered water grew rapidly and poured down like a waterfall.
"...."
"...."
Clatter. The waterlogged scroll started to piece itself together like a puzzle, but none of us could pay attention to it.
"...Achoo."
Haylan, who had taken 10 minutes to walk all the way here, was now drenched like a rat, just like us.
Fixing the wall was good, but because of the temperature, the water had turned the backyard into an ice rink. Everyone who got wet went back to the servants' quarters to change, and Haylan went into the bathroom.
"Guest, you'll catch a cold. You should at least change your clothes…"
"I'll wash up soon anyway."
"Is the young master inside? Since you're both men, wouldn't it be alright to bathe together?"
"Is that alright?"
"Of course. He bathed together with other men before. Like on days when there's no water in the servants' quarters…"
Why didn't they tell me sooner?
Sitting by the fireplace, drying my drenched body, I felt a clear stream of snot running down my nose and stood up. The carpet beneath where I had been sitting was completely soaked.
I could hear the sound of running water from beyond the door. I took off my sopping wet shirt and turned the doorknob to the bathroom, the only place in the house with hot water.
"Excuse me."
"Leave your clothes…"
Haylan, seemingly mistaking me for someone else, trailed off mid-sentence and splashed in the water he was sitting in.
"...!"
'Huh?'
What is that? The moment my vision finally cleared after taking off the shirt that had been clinging to my body, I sensed a ripple in the air where Haylan was sitting.
'Did I see wrong…?'
The ripple was fleeting. As I approached, not thinking much of it, Haylan flinched, moving as far away as possible to the edge of the bathtub.
"Go away! Why are you taking off your clothes?!"
"To wash up."
"What? T-Together?"
"We're both men, what's the big deal?"
Haylan hugged his knees tightly, covering himself, and glared at me. It seemed he was uncomfortable bathing together. I said dejectedly,
"I'll wash up quickly and leave."
"I-It's… okay if you stay."
"Then I will!"
"...."
It was warm. The humid, warm air soothed my body, making me feel drowsy. Then I suddenly looked up and made direct eye contact with Haylan. His face, finally regaining some color after being submerged in the warm water, was slightly flushed.
"Haylan, you've really grown a lot."
I murmured in an awestruck tone. His noticeably matured face, compared to the one I knew, was still quite unfamiliar.
Children's growth is dramatic. As the saying goes, you can tell a good tree by its sprout. If Haylan had grown at a normal rate, he would have been very popular.
His previously chubby cheeks were showing signs of becoming more defined, and his nose bridge became straighter and more prominent. Even so, he was still a cute child.
"I might grow even more."
"I hope so."
"...I might even become taller than you when I'm fully grown."
"No way."
He was a kid with big dreams. He was still so small.
"What if,"
"Yes?"
"What if… that really happens, what will you do?"
"...."
What would I do if he grew up? What did that have to do with me?
Unable to understand what kind of answer he was looking for, I just stared blankly at Haylan.
"If I'm no longer a child who needs your help…"
Haylan bit his lip and continued hesitantly,
"...You'll leave this place."