chapter 9
9 – Lancia is a baby!
Sunlight comes through the window.
Next comes the chirping of birds that tickle your ears. I woke up earlier than usual, thinking about this situation, recalling the memory of yesterday.
Yeah, obviously I had a good conversation with Ga-eun.
I have memories of diligently examining Doona, answering her questions in an appropriately packaged manner.
When asked how he first met Duna, he pretended to have met by chance after winning an amateur fighting contest where he had won a martial arts competition for selecting warriors.
About the place of our first kiss and how Christmas was spent, Doona blushed and barely covered it up with a poorly made up lie.
Unexpectedly, Ga-eun was a person with a much more gentle disposition than I thought, and thanks to that, we were able to have a leisurely dinner.
After that, they parted ways to their respective homes and returned home.
Doona’s last memory was lying on the bed with a mattress on the floor, covering her eyes with the blanket over her.
“Ugh-, Uncle…”
“Why is the child here?”
Why is Lancia sleeping in my arms?
The warm warmth and naked curves unique to a woman’s body remind us that this situation is reality.
Overall, the face of a cat, white hair that has lost its luster due to being crumbly.
She must have fallen asleep exhausted from crying. The red and swollen eye area and the dark circles under it.
Even the chubby cheeks that were slightly flushed and full of health became slimmer, which made my heart ache.
What kind of bastard made my child like this?
No, you can wake up later and ask. All I had to do now was get up, wash up, and prepare breakfast for Lancia to eat for her.
Our youngest, our precious Healer, needs to be restored to health quickly.
“Duna, Doona!”
“Umm, I want to sleep better.”
“Wake up now.”
I grabbed Doona by the shoulders and shook her awake.
I was annoyed at the touch that cut my hand once in the middle, but since she didn’t seem to know that Lancia was there, she decided to put up with it.
I used to jump up and jump, but now I’m strangely lazy, and I often think of myself as a sloth.
Today, I’ll watch over Lancia because she has to get up quietly so she doesn’t wake up, but if she does this again later, I’ll have to squeeze her in and wake her up.
“Kiss.”
“What?”
“Give me a kiss and I’ll get up.”
She poked her head eagerly in my direction, whining at the subject of not even opening her eyes properly.
Because the situation was the situation, a sigh escaped my mouth without realizing it.
“You should open your eyes now and check who is lying on my blanket?”
“Have you heard of a thief?”
“If it’s a thief, beat him up long ago and call the cops.”
Doona was still awake, so she made a joke that wasn’t even funny. I snorted and turned her head towards her sleeping Lancia.
Can I not catch a thief with the jjambab that caught the devil?
“…Why are you out there?”
Doona opens her eyes and immediately turns to me.
I frowned at her gaze asking for an explanation and shook her head.
Rather, the person you should ask is me, not you, so I don’t know why you’re asking me for an explanation.
“Do you know anything? Didn’t you bring it?”
“No! It can’t be!”
“Then why is he lying here?”
“How do I know?!”
As if he was truly offended by my accusation, he was crying and shaking his head vigorously while holding onto my wrist.
I asked just in case, but Doona doesn’t seem to know anything.
“First of all, wake up. I’m not talking like a kid. I’m thinking about making some soup for breakfast.”
“…I’ll do it. When Sia wakes up, I’ll watch her.”
“Yes.”
At my words, a pity appeared on Duna’s face as she approached Lancia and looked after her child.
Carefully caressing Lancia with her trembling hands, she watched her back as she disappeared into the kitchen. She, too, seemed upset in her own way.
I checked Lancia’s condition once again.
Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any injuries.
“Oh, why is your skin like this?”
It was so soft to the touch that my healing cheeks, which I had taken care of for all five years, were gone, and only the thin, rough, tired skin was visible.
How did she raise the child, but she thought that she would be able to live happily ever after. When the child came back half-brothered, she couldn’t control her upset heart.
“Ugh heh heh.”
“The goofy laugh is still there.”
As I carefully stroked her hair out of pity, she let out an invariably stupid laugh and rubbed her hair in my hands.
Seeing that, I couldn’t force myself to wake him up because I felt more sorry for him.
I’m not a kid who would walk around like this.
I was always worried about whether I would get hurt or if I was having a hard time.
“You haven’t woken up yet?”
“Yes.”
I blankly stared at Lancia’s face and carefully stroked her hair for several tens of minutes.
She nodded at Doona, who approached her anxiously.
“I think I need to feed him a potion when he wakes up.”
“hahahaha, did the Imperials do anything while we were away?”
“Maybe it’s someone else.”
Lancia herself knows best why she is here, so when she wakes up, she will be quick to ask.
She says that in the end she has to wait for Lancia to wake up.
“Let Lancia sleep some more, and we eat first.”
“I’ll reward you.”
“Yes~, it’s like a real family, so my heart is pounding.”
“I’m worried about Lancia, so my heart is pounding.”
Doona’s face wrinkled at my words.
I don’t know why you’re doing that all of a sudden, I didn’t say anything wrong, I was just being honest.
“If you say that, what am I going to do!”
“Do I have to ask for that?”
“Really!”
“Eat quickly and get ready to go out. Today is the day to go to the group assignment, so I’ll do the dishes.”
“Okay.”
Her lips pouted out with a curt reply.
A look we’ve never seen in her, her warrior.
While feeling a subtle sense of difference in the new appearance as Doona, I just quietly understand that the burden as a hero was that heavy.
I was a strange guy who moved forward without hesitation through the 3rd clear experience.
At the beginning, I was stumbling around because I didn’t have enough teammates and lack of strength, but after that it was a breeze.
The reason our journey took 5 years was because the land on the continent was unnecessarily and ignorantly wide, and it was not delayed because we had a problem.
“Enjoy your meal!”
“I’ll eat well.”
The menu for breakfast is warm corn soup, crusty baguette bread I bought from the bakery two days ago, and a simple salad to go with it.
Choosing a menu that Lancia can eat comfortably, Duna’s consideration for Lancia was evident.
If not as much as me, Duna was Lancia’s formidable nanny.
After we quickly finished our meal, we washed up in turn. Doona prepared her outing, and I cleaned up the tableware that was left after eating.
“Lancia, you should watch closely.
“I know.”
It’s useless to worry.
There was no way I could neglect Lancia. As her colleague, the experience of caring for Lancia rather than the longest-serving warrior did not disappear.
I was already a doctor who didn’t know anything about Lancia.
“Okay, give me a hug.”
“Yes, yes.”
“hehehehe, be strong.”
“What kind of warrior laughs so pervertedly.”
She buried her face in my chest and let out a silly laugh.
Today, there are almost no childish things that have increased day by day.
Seeing that the troublesome condition on her necklace was no longer disturbed, it seemed that I could spend a carefree day today thanks to Lancia.
“I’m not a hero, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Because I have nothing to do with being hurt?”
“Ahh-, don’t be short-lived.”
With a pretty face, she pulled her nose with her index finger.
I laughed because I was making noise and grumbling like a child scolded by its mother.
“I’ll buy something delicious and come back.”
“Never buy tteokbokki.”
“…Can’t you?”
“Yes, no.”
Knowing that Lancia can’t eat spicy food, why did she bother to buy tteokbokki?
Lancia should avoid irritating food for the time being. I don’t know if she ate properly, and maybe her internal organs were weakened, but she didn’t want to see her suffering from a stomachache.
“I’ll eat Lancia too, and buy me the toast I bought you the other day.”
“Hey, Lancia. Lancia. I’m afraid someone isn’t my father.”
“So you’re the mother?”
“Hello?”
After exchanging nonsense with each other and arguing, they finally managed to get Duna out.
She said that she would stay with me even for a little bit, and she clung to me like a koala and wouldn’t fall off, so she struggled a little.
After tidying up the table she had spread out, she sat down beside Lancia, who was lying down breathing lightly.
“Lancia.”
“…”
When I called her name, laughter escaped from my trembling eyelids.
“Wake up.”
“…Caught.”
A child looking up at me with a haggard face and a wry smile.
The person I know best among my colleagues.
To prove Lancia’s importance to Owen, he always stuck with him, and it became a habit, and from a certain point on, she spent all of her time together, except for sleeping and going to the bathroom.
If you can’t see through a weak performance, you’ll have to hit the guardian.
“I’ve been hanging out with you for four years, but I know you better than Doona.”
“Uncle.”
“First of all, I’m sure you know this. You’ve come with us.”
“…Yes.”
I kept my mouth shut at the feeble answer.
Lancia took my hand before I knew it, as if it were a precious treasure, and hugged her tightly in her arms, and smiled briskly.
“I came across the world like this to teach Doona, who kidnapped the uncle, a proper character education.”
“…”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Fuck.”
There’s no way you could cross the dimension just for that reason.
I know better than anyone else that I’m not the type to do that, but you calmly spout lies.
There is only one good reason why this child came this far.
“You liked me more than I thought.”
I.
“…If you knew that, you should have treated me as a woman.”
Lancia did not deny what I said.
She just put her head on my lap naturally, not hiding her sadness, as if she was finding her place.
“My heart. Even though I knew it, I always turned away with one excuse that I had to defeat the demon lord.”
“I’m sorry.”
I had nothing to say.
Lancia wasn’t wrong, and I wasn’t brazen enough to casually make excuses.
“It’s okay, because I have no intention of losing to Doona.”
The child smiled lightly and brushed the nape of my neck.
A colleague whom she always thought of as a child addresses me as a woman.
“Wizard, listen carefully from now on.”
“Yes, my dear saint.”
“I will not give up on you. I will always stick by your side like a leech, even if I have to fight against you.”
A low, subdued voice that I had never heard in my life flowed from Lancia.
Her face contains her love, and she reveals her true feelings without filtering.
“So give up, mister. I won’t give up.”
The girl I love proclaims to me.
Looking at me with intense longing in his burning eyes.
“Since when did my child be able to say such gruff things?”
“Uncle!!”
Of course, I never said I would accept it.
No matter how much she asked to be seen as a woman, it was unreasonable to see the child she literally carried and raised as a woman.
“I’m sorry…!”
“It tickles me.”
No, how can you see this cute little little girl as a girl?
With teardrops hanging from the corners of her eyes and biting my fingers, I unconsciously put a warm smile on my lips.
Doona was like a puppy, but Lancia is a cat.