The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 272: Changeling (2)

The “hello” was from the jellyfish bastard, but what the hell was that “Daddy.”

Don’t tell me one of my kids is actually here? …No way. It must be the jellyfish trying to mess with my memories. The mist swirled violently. It raged as if ready to devour me at any moment, but instead of touching me, it only circled, blocked by an invisible barrier. Then, mana began to steadily drain from my body. Toward my chest. Toward the wound there.

Normally, I would’ve passed out from that alone, but somehow, I was completely fine. Mana that seemed to come from nowhere kept flowing—no, wait.

‘Grace.’

I remembered the power of Grace, which had restored my body. On a hunch, I opened her item description window.

[Yu Grace – L-rank

A sword born from the magic stone of the Dragon Lord and master craftsman Sharlos.

Spring of Young Mana (Connected only to the Contractor).

Contractor – Han Yujin]

Spring of mana. That wasn’t in the description before. Myungwoo did say it was a growth-type item, but still—so new abilities can appear like this? It looked like it had absorbed part of the mana hole’s power.

Normally that wouldn’t be possible, but Grace was born from Sharlos himself. So… maybe I’ll never have to worry about running out of mana again?

Even so, the magic stone in my chest kept absorbing mana. Like it had been holding back all this time—and now, it was greedily taking in everything. And then—

“…This place.”

The scenery changed. I recognized the ceiling, the wallpaper, the sofa, the table. This was the house in the Breeding Facility. Obviously not the real one, but even the long scratch marks on the wall had been recreated perfectly. There were plenty of other traces too. It was still a new house, technically, but with all the kids around, it looked like we’d lived there for three years.

Most of the mess was left by the monsters, but there were a few things Yuhyun and Yerim were responsible for. Just in case, I opened a drawer and found it packed with brand new, still-sealed phones. The top drawer was Yuhyun’s, the bottom Yerim’s. Yerim had insisted first that she didn’t want to use the same phone model as Han Yuhyun, and Yuhyun agreed—so the backup phones were all different models.

‘This really feels real.’

Was it an illusion created by the mist? If so, poking around more would just drag me deeper into it. I shut the drawer and glanced around.

“It’s been a while, so let’s talk properly. And don’t show up looking like Yuhyun again. Same goes for the others. It’s still a dungeon, so the restrictions should be lighter, right?”

Let me see your real face, just once. Back then, all I could make out was some weird, jellyfish-like shape.

“Daddy.”

“Daddy my ass—w-who are you?”

It was a child. A little kid, maybe five or six years old, with silver hair tinged pink and golden eyes. And they were standing in front of me before I’d even noticed. No way… is that the jellyfish’s true form? That’s ridiculously cute. Did it figure out I’m weak to kids and do this on purpose…

“D-don’t call me Daddy!”

Have you no shame?! You’re probably hundreds, maybe thousands of years older than me! The child tilted their head. Adorably fairy-like, but I was not about to get charmed.

“Then, Mr. Yujin.”

“That doesn’t suit you!”

“Brother Yujin.”

“…Don’t act familiar.”

“Little Yujin.”

“Why don’t you just turn into an adult already?”

Something about a kid using that tone just felt wrong, no matter what they really were inside.

“Or… Master?”

A chill ran down my spine. I felt like I’d become some kind of criminal scum. Are you out of your mind?! I shouted in my head, scowling hard.

“Don’t say stuff like that in that form! Try looking your age, King of Harmless.”

“I’m not the King of Harmless.”

“…What?”

You’re not? I hurriedly activated the Promising Talent skill. A status window appeared above the silver-haired child.

[Illusion Fairy Dragonkin – Changeling

Current Stat Rank: ?

Potential Stat Rank: ?

Optimized Initial Skill:

As You Wish (?)]

…What the hell is this? Fairy Dragonkin, Changeling? Even the stat ranks and skill descriptions were all question marks. “As you wish”? What does that mean? Why did this thing suddenly pop out?

Now that I thought about it, the magic stone in my chest had stopped absorbing mana. I placed a hand near the wound. Don’t tell me—

“You, are you…”

The child—Changeling—smiled brightly.

“No, hold on. You’re a dragonkin, but… you’re way too different!”

I fused two Venom and Curse Dragonkin, so why is a fairy dragon coming out? It doesn’t look even remotely like Diarma or any other dragonkin. I did include a fragment of Seong Hyunjae, but… wait. Does it look… a little like that guy? I thought he wasn’t supposed to influence anything!

“I grew the way Daddy wanted me to.”

“Stop calling me that! And what do you mean ‘the way I wanted’—I just…”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. I… my goal was—damn it. Either way, if it’s a fairy dragonkin, it won’t work as Lautitars’ natural enemy. The stats are all question marks, too.

“To help you get Han Yuhyun back.”

My heart dropped.

“G-get… him back?”

“Yep.”

“H-how…”

My throat went dry. It was so sudden. It scared me—how purely happy those words made me.

“Because I was raised to do that. You raised me.”

“I just used Diarma’s skill to combine magic stones, that’s all.”

“But you’re a Nurturer, Daddy. A Nurturer with the power to raise. You can help someone grow exactly the way you want.”

“…If all I have to do is wish for it…”

“Not just anything. I can’t change what something truly is. I can grow a fish’s fins into something like wings, but I can’t turn it into an actual bird. But I inherited the nature of a Changeling.”

The child’s form changed. They grew taller than me, and a familiar face appeared. Only the hair color was different—it was Seong Hyunjae.

“The nature of being swapped into countless worlds, made to appear as if I belonged there. And because I didn’t start as a set form but began growing from a magic stone, I was able to change in accordance with what the Nurturer desired.”

The Changeling returned to the form of a child again. I tried to calm my racing heart and asked something random to distract myself.

“Even your appearance—is that what I wished for? I thought I wanted you to look more like Diarma or a proper dragonkin.”

I was pretty sure I did. That would’ve made things easier to handle.

“I can look like that too. But Daddy doesn’t like it. I don’t want to be disliked. I can become whatever you want, so please don’t hate me.”

“…I don’t hate you.”

I just tried not to like you. I took a deep breath. The Perfect Nurturer title…

“I had no idea I could do something like that.”

“If you knew, it’d become dangerous. That’s probably why the Unfilial Children don’t tell you much about your title or skills. If a transcendent with a memory-reading skill found out and it leaked out, everyone would start targeting you.”

“Then even knowing this much is dangerous!”

The jellyfish bastard was already targeting me—and now we’re adding even more to that? Just imagining it was horrifying. It might go after the people around me next. Should I erase my memories or something?

“It’s okay because I’m awake now. They can’t interfere.”

“Oh, right. The rookie said they had to send me into the virtual world in my real body because of you. …So we just need the Unfilial Children to keep their mouths shut?”

“They probably don’t even know everything themselves.”

The Changeling floated gently into the air and came closer. Something like translucent wings shimmered faintly behind its back.

“Open your Titles.”

I opened my status window as the Changeling instructed.

[Perfect Nurturer (L)

Proof of a nurturer who raised a globally renowned strong individual.

Even more perfect, as the nurturer’s past stats were 100% or more of the nurtured one’s current stats.]

“Descriptions for new titles and skills are filled in by the Unfilial Children’s best guesses, right? This is one of those.”

“…You can see my status window?”

“Yep. I can see Daddy’s. I’ve been watching it with you the whole time.”

“What? Then even my keywords—!”

“I already belong to Daddy, so it’s fine. I can’t get the buffs, though.”

The Changeling pointed at the title description, reassuring me not to worry.

“I can’t interfere with everything, but this one—I’ll try pulling out the true description. Since it’s yours, and I’ve been directly influenced by it, I should be able to do it.”

As the Changeling finished speaking, the description for Nurturer blurred, then cleared again.

[Perfect Nurturer (L)

A nurturer loved unto death by a naturally S-rank awakened one.]

I read that short line over and over again. The description blurred once more. I blinked a few times.

“You’re saying I can bring him back. But… he’s already been severed. They said it was impossible…”

“It’s because he’s become completely disconnected from this world. That causes extreme rejection, so normally, there’s no safe way to bring him back. But if you can protect him with a force greater than that rejection, then it’s possible.”

A greater force. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what level that meant. Even transcendents, when entering another world without preparation, lose most of their power. Which meant I needed power equal to that—at least—to protect Yuhyun.

If it were possible. If I could do it fully.

“T-then, let’s do it now—!”

“But Daddy.”

Golden eyes looked straight at me.

“You can protect this world too.”

My trembling chest settled into stillness. I had tried not to think about it—if I had the power to bring my brother back, then surely I had the power to do other things too.

“Chatterbox is disrupting the system, and the King of Harmless is destroying the dungeon. At this rate, even Daddy’s world will be affected. Every world has its own defense mechanism against invaders from other worlds, but even that has limits. If the King of Harmless keeps chipping away at it, the protective power will weaken, and transcendents will interfere more easily.”

“…Yeah.”

The Changeling’s voice barely registered in my ears, but I nodded vaguely.

“You’re saying I have to stop them.”

“There’s no reason Daddy has to take responsibility.”

“They’re targeting me. Because of me. Why are they going this far? That jellyfish bastard. It should pay the price.”

“It’ll pay a very big one. I think it’s already noticed. That Sigma became real—that’s because of the Nurturer’s power too.”

“…What? Just because I entered in a real body and acknowledged him, so—”

The Changeling shook its head.

“That had an effect, yes. But though less than me, Sigma also has the nature of a Changeling. And you nurtured that. That’s what made the swap real. I don’t know the full reason, but the King of Harmless has definitely realized that Daddy is very special.”

That’s why, the Changeling said, it was doing something that might require hundreds of years of slumber—or the loss of massive power.

“…So in the end, it’s all because of me. You should’ve just told me to go save the world from the start.”

The bitter words slipped out. A small hand touched my cheek. Cool, yet soft.

“It’s okay if Daddy just does what he wants and ends it there. It’s a world that would’ve perished anyway. You don’t have to suffer more.”

That I could bring my brother back, hold him in my arms—and end it like that. Yeah, if things had gone as they were supposed to, it would’ve ended there. I would’ve gone back to Yuhyun’s side, and stayed within the dungeon, never leaving.

Like that.

“…But there are too many people waiting.”

There should’ve been no one. If it were before the regression, I wouldn’t have had anything holding me back.

“You know too. There’s someone who said they wouldn’t change, because of the promise they made with me. He’ll reject it again. Because he’s someone who keeps his promises.”

He’ll keep waiting for me. Just like we promised.

“Same with Mister Noah. I haven’t done much for him, but… at the very least, I don’t want to be the one to leave first. I want to be the one behind him.”

He was still young, still figuring things out. I didn’t know how he’d change moving forward. But when he chose to move again, even if he made mistakes or wrong choices, I wanted to be a place he could return to. Somewhere he’d know it’s okay, and that he could do whatever he wanted.

“Yerim is still young too. I promised to help her raise her spirit. She’s only just started to spread her wings and have fun.”

I didn’t want it to end here. She was going to grow even more, in ways we couldn’t even imagine.

“Myungwoo will be fine, but he’ll still worry. I keep making him worry, and it’s not right. He’s probably waiting outside. With Chirp and Belare. And the others, the people, and the monster beasts too.”

I still needed to show him how Grace changed. And the Unfilial Children—can’t even trust them. I didn’t want to send Myungwoo there if I didn’t have to.

“Peace, too. That kid follows me so well. If I went and took him in as a monster mount, then I have to take responsibility, at the very least. Don’t you think? And…”

More than anything—

“…Yuhyun is my brother.”

My little brother who said he was happy just living with me again, like before. He smiles so much now. With a face I hadn’t seen for years. He’s only just twenty. And even before that, he was only twenty-five.

And also—

“…It’s more fun now.”

Me too. Right now. Even with a grave sitting in my chest. Still. I want to live a little longer.

So, just like I want.

“As you wish.”

The Changeling spoke. A small silver dragon with fairy wings appeared before me.

The place I wanted to return to. The home I had now disappeared—beyond a mist-filled space I didn’t recognize.

“I’ve been waiting!”

The King of Harmless smiled.