“Uhh… I’m hungry…”
My half-lidded eyes drifted through a dreamlike haze. Everything felt warm… soft… heavenly.
"Could these be… at buns?"
Two pillowy white orbs greeted my sleepy gaze—round, tender, and irresistibly plump. My instincts took over. Hands moved on their own, cupping the divine softness as if guided by fate itself. The texture was unreal… warm and yielding, yet perfectly firm.
My stomach grumbled. I leaned in, lips parting slightly.
“Ugh… it’s hard to bite… It won’t separate…”
No matter how I tugged or nibbled, the stubborn "buns" resisted. I frowned. Were these premium at buns? Blessed by the gods? The texture said yes. But the taste? Elusively absent.
And just as I gave one final determined munch—
“Ahnn…♥”
The sultry moan echoed like a forbidden lody.
My consciousness snapped back.
A strange squish t both palms. My tongue grazed sothing velvety. And above , a soft voice trembled again.
“Ahnnn…♥”
My eyes flew open.
Directly before —soft, bare, and undeniably real—a woman’s breasts pressed gently into my face.
“WHOAAA—!”
*BUMP!*
I launched backward like a startled squirrel, arms flailing, I crashed off the bed with a thud that shattered my dignity.
“Ow ow ow… It hurts…”
Clutching my head, I dared a glance toward the bed. There, still sleeping like a princess draped in moonlight, was Selena—her top pajamas were nowhere to be seen, her upper body bare, just pajama pants attached on her lower body.
“Phew… she’s still asleep.”
I exhaled in relief, crawling away from temptation like a guilty monk.
Then—
【What a mischievous boy. Groping a sleeping beauty while she dreams of clouds. Shaless.】
“Wha—!?”
I jolted upright, heart skipping. Aza’s voice rang inside my head like a sarcastic thunderclap.
I steered the conversation away, eager to escape the teasing note in her voice.
【We purified her curse for around seventy days. After that, we both passed out from exhaustion.】
【Ti flowed differently in that Imaginary World. One hour there equates to ten hours here.】
【More or less. After that, you’ve been asleep for about two weeks.】
【Yes.】
【She’s alive. But to be sure, we should reanalyze her body. Just in case.】
I sat back on the edge of the bed and looked at Selena’s sleeping figure. She wore only her pajama pants—her upper body bare. Yet the morning light spilled through the window, casting soft gold across her skin, draping her chest in a veil of modesty as if the heavens themselves tried to spare .
Before, I could only focus on saving her life. But now, in the quiet aftermath…
The gentle curves of her body, the glint of dried blood etched across her skin like war paint—it all painted her as both vulnerable and breathtaking. My eyes traced her form longer than they should have. Her slow, steady breathing made her chest rise and fall with a rhythm that tugged at sothing primal inside .
And then the forbidden thought slipped in, uninvited.
I want to grope those mountains…
I jolted, shaking my head violently.
No. Bad brain. Focus. Analyze. Don’t ogle.
But just as I tried to regain composure, Aza’s voice echoed in my mind, smug and all too knowing.
【Master, I felt your lust spike just now. Your body’s changing—getting closer to adolescence. Didn’t you also have a wet dream earlier? So you know what’s going on, right?】
I glanced down. My pants were damp.
All I rembered was a dream about eating at buns. Delicious, heavenly buns…
Could it really be…?
I feel utterly betrayed—how could I get this wet from dreaming not about girls, but about food? Am I really that far gone?
But, if what she said was true, then…
Because if my mind kept slipping into the gutter like this, I might do sothing truly regrettable.
【I think she’d be fine with you, Master. Actually, if you did sothing now, she might not even notice. She's still sound asleep.】
【Why not? I want to feel good too.】
She said it so casually—like she was just asking for a snack, not encouraging divine-level degeneracy.
【Ehe~】
Her voice chid sweetly in my head, the sound so saccharine it gave cavities. And probably a headache.
If she had a physical form, I imagined she'd be poking her cheek with a finger, tilting her head with that innocent “oopsie” look, maybe even sticking out her tongue with a soft “Ehe~”.
I ignored Aza’s pervy little celebration and placed my hands gently on Selena’s upper chest, just above her heart. As I channeled my Light mana into her, a soft glow pulsed beneath my palms, and Aza began her analysis.
【She’s fine. The curse is completely gone. But… since her soul was nearly devoured, she’ll need ti to recover.】
【Yes. Her soul is recuperating, just slowly.】
【Approximately one to three years.】
【One year, minimum. Possibly up to three. Her soul needs that long to fully stabilize.】
【She’ll be fine. Her aura passively aids in regeneration, and it recycles energy while she sleeps.】
【If you're really that worried, you could speed up her recovery by transferring mana to her every day. And…】
【She needs water.】
It made sense—she was still a living being, no matter how magical her recovery was. I paused, glancing at her peaceful face.
【Naturally, mouth-to-mouth.】
【Tch.】
So she was lying!
【But! I wasn’t entirely wrong. She does need water. You can give her a glass a day—more, if possible.】
【Yay~!】
…This girl was seriously sothing else.
【Yes. You should confirm it yourself—use your appraisal.】
With a small sigh, I activated my appraisal skill and turned my gaze back to Selena.
⟦ STATUS WINDOW ⟧
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Na: Selena Calytrix
Age: 398
Race: Half-Elf
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Essence ⟭
Vitality: 1775
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Attributes ⟭
Strength: 1555
Agility: 1912
Dexterity: 1826
Status Points: 23236
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Elent Affinity ⟭
Light, Fire, Heavenfire, Dark, Hellfire
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
*You need the target’s consent to manipulate the target's status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Approximately 98 percent of her stats are gone, Master.】
【Yes. About 98 percent of her soul had been devoured. The curse had intertwined with her essence so deeply that it beca a source of her strength—like a second soul. When it was burned away, so was the power it had granted.】
So that’s why she lost so much…
People commonly believe that power only cos from the body, and while that’s not entirely wrong, it’s far from the full truth. The soul is just as vital. Sotis, even more so.
【Unfortunately, no. Her body will recover, and her soul will nd—but the power she had while cursed is gone for good.】
【Yes.】
Her elental affinity now included Dark and Hellfire, alongside her original Light, Fire, and Heavenfire.
That definitely wasn’t there before.
【It’s because that curse was associated with Dark, Fire, and Hellfire elents. And she has accepted their souls—the essence of the curse.】
【The souls of those individuals you encountered in the Imaginary World. In fact, they appear to be aiding in the recovery of her own soul.】
【Didn’t you two take them into your bodies? It’s not only inside her, they are also inside your body.】
Tinkle!
A faint chi echoed inside my chest—like the gentle ring of silver bells in a still wind. A quiet presence made itself known, as if soone was whispering a soft, playful “Hi” directly into my soul.
“Are you the first kid who called ‘Big Brother’?”
Tinkle!
A giddy pulse of energy responded—cheerful, innocent. I could almost hear her voice in my mind, gleefully answering, “Yes! Big Brother Freed!”
She felt young, full of laughter and brightness, like a girl forever frozen in her seventeenth year. Yet her spirit bore a strange maturity. She wasn't human. A demon—specifically, from the Alp race.
If I rember her appearance correctly, long snow-white hair tumbled past her shoulders, catching the light like woven silk. Her crimson eyes glowed softly, like polished gems. Two graceful, pale horns curved slightly from her head, giving her an ethereal allure. A playful black tail swayed behind her, slender and tipped like an arrow.
At first, I thought demons were inherently evil… But seeing her smile, and rembering the joy in her kin’s eyes back then, it changed . They had hearts, just like us. Joys, sorrows—just people, trying to live.
Hmn!
“Huh? This one feels… different. Are you her younger sister?”
Hmn.
Another pulse, this one steadier, calr. Though they weren’t blood-related—nor even the sa race—they’d lived and suffered side by side as test subjects. In ti, they’d co to call each other sisters.
The younger one was of the Demonic Beastkin race. Her appearance suggested she was around sixteen. She had short, tousled black hair that frad her face with a wild sort of charm, and fierce golden eyes slit like a predator’s—untad, unblinking. Her two thick horns curved from her temples and forward over her head, their tips pointing upward like a battle-ready ram. Her tail mirrored her sister’s—black, flexible, and ending in a pointed tip that swayed with latent energy.
Where the older sister was more dreamlike, this one radiated strength—a quiet ferocity hidden behind a protective instinct. I could feel that she had always stood between her sister and the worst of the world.
Tinkle!
Hmn!
The elder sister gently nudged with a clear Tinkle, reminding to wipe the dried blood from big sister Selena’s body and dress her properly so she wouldn’t catch a chill. At the sa ti, her younger sister added a disapproving Hmn, pointing out the uncomfortable truth: I hadn’t bathed in months.
“Y-Yeah… good point,” I muttered.
I’m getting hygiene advice from ghost girls now. What’s next, a shampoo tutorial?
Bracing myself, I carried Selena in a princess carry toward the bathroom. Of course, I had to use my aura to boost my strength—there’s no way a kid like could lift an adult otherwise. Her raw stats might be low now, but her physique still outclassed mine. One accidental roll, and I’d beco floor paste.
Ah, right. I still hadn’t checked my status since waking up.
Eh… Well, I’ll do it later. Let survive this bath first.
Thankfully, the bathroom had a long magic-tool bathtub, designed for comfort and luxury. I gently laid Selena down, resting her shoulders and head against the edge of the tub.
Then ca the real challenge.
I stripped off my own clothes first. No big deal. Just cleaning up. Totally normal.
Then… I looked at her pajama pants.
“…This is for hygiene,” I whispered like a monk reciting a sacred chant.
I slowly reached for the pants—And I saw cute bears beneath it.
I gulped hard and pulled it down too.
And the mont I saw more than I should have—
Snap!
My “sword” sprang to attention like it was ready for war.
I shook my head rapidly, trying to banish all impure thoughts from my mind. I focused on turning the faucet and letting the water flow into the tub instead. Steam rose gently as the warm water filled the space.
Hmn...
Tinkle!
The sisters chid in again. The younger one sighed sympathetically, “It must be hard for you, big brother…”
The elder sister, however, decided now was the perfect ti to get cheeky. “Don’t worry! I can give you as many wet dreams as you like, big brother!”
“Oi! Don’t start teasing like Aza does! Wait—so it was you?! You’re the one who gave the dream—who made …!!?”
Tinkle!
“…Don’t ‘Ehe’ !!”
【Why are you suddenly dragging my na into this as if I’m so kind of pest, Master?】
I sighed. “Because I’m surrounded by teasing won… even the dead ones…”
In an attempt to calm my flustered heart, I focused on wiping down Selena’s body gently with a wet cloth. I figured chatting with the soul sisters would help take my mind off things. Yeah. Distraction. Safe, non-horny distraction. Please.
“Can I just talk to you both through my mind? I feel like a lunatic talking out loud to myself like this.”
【Yes, Master.】
Aza answered instantly, as if she’d been waiting for to realize it.
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Apparently, mind-chat was fully operational. Now I could keep up the conversation without looking like a kid with imaginary friends.
Hmn.
Tinkle!
The younger sister calmly conveyed that all 523 others were present too—yep, every single one of them. anwhile, the elder sister added that the two of them had been chosen as the “representatives.”
Hah… probably for the best.
I an, trying to process input from 525 different souls at once would make anyone go completely insane. They didn’t exactly “speak” in words like Aza, either. It was more like emotions or impressions, maybe? I don’t know. But strangely, I could understand everything they ant.
Tinkle!
My jaw dropped in real-ti.
What the hell has she been teaching them!?
That’s not even close to being true!
I don’t rember having any such preference in my past life either!
In the first place, I’ve yet to reach adulthood and they are definitely older than —W-Well… they knew my past life was over twenty five years old—not older than their true ages, but older in natural growth.
But still…!
Tinkle…?
Hmn…?
Both of them sent out a wave of sadness—like two puppies asking if I hated them now for being chosen.
Ugh… why do they have to hit with the guilty feels?
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Their joy sparkled in response. I could practically feel spectral tails wagging like happy puppies.
I’ve sohow ended up with two ghostly little sisters as emotional support reps. My life just keeps getting weirder.
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Their cheerful chis rang in unison.
Tinkle…
Hmn…
Their tones softened, delicate and almost wistful.
I see now…
Their current nas weren’t really nas at all—just cold, lifeless numbers. Number 13 for the older sister. Number 44 for the younger. Labels assigned by researchers who treated them as nothing more than data points in an experint. They want to cast those numbers away, to abandon the chains of the past along with them.
They’re asking to give them sothing new—sothing that truly belongs to them.
A real na.
Even now, I rember the fragnts they shared—the flickers of mories that flowed into in that dreamlike world. Their earliest days were a blur, filled with cold cages, sterile rooms, and shadows that lood like nightmares. They couldn’t recall how it all began, only the unshakable feeling of being unwanted. No nas. No family. No warmth. Just experints, silence, and the ache of being treated like objects—stripped of any sense of self.
Numbers… They were only ever numbers to the humans who did that to them.
I hesitated, my heart tightening.
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Their reply ca quickly and without hesitation.
A warm, reassuring acceptance. They didn’t see as the sa. Not because I was special—but because I saw them. Not only but Selena too. We treated them as people. As a family.
They sensed the sincerity in our hearts. And besides, they’d known other test subjects who were human too—ones who tried to comfort them, to help them smile in that bleak place.
A soft wave of warmth washed over from within. They trusted —no, they believed in . And that alone…
That alone made want to be soone worthy of their trust.
And so, if they no longer wished to carry the weight of their numbered past, then I would give them sothing new—sothing that belonged only to them.
Nas not born from cages, but from care.
Nas they could smile to.
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