IWBAACTWITOS Chapter 30

Thaleia and Rayan came out to see Julian off on his business trip, still in their pajamas. Since he'd be gone for about a week, Roxana had purposely woken the children.

Still not quite awake, Rayan was rubbing his eyes, and Thaleia yawned with her mouth wide open. The way they held hands tightly while doing so was incredibly cute.

"Dadada."

Royna had come out to see him off too. Royna waved her hand at Julian. Roxana, understanding she wanted to be held by him, handed Royna over.

"Royna, Daddy will be back. You can't cry because you miss Daddy."

Julian felt inexplicably sentimental, wondering if even a baby knew he was leaving, but Royna's target was his glittering silver hair.

She grabbed a handful of his neatly arranged hair and brought it toward her mouth.

"Ow, ow, ow. That hurts, Royna. Daddy's hurting."

"Aoo?"

Because she was a baby, she pulled mercilessly without any consideration, making Julian cry out involuntarily.

Roxana hurriedly removed Royna from him, but Royna had already obtained several strands of his hair.

"Aaah."

Royna tried to suck her fist along with the hair tangled in her fingers, but Roxana's intervention prevented her from achieving her goal again.

Julian smoothed the yanked section and let out a deep sigh, gazing wistfully at his hair falling to the floor.

Lately, Royna had been constantly targeting Julian's hair. Thaleia had never done such a thing, but Aegis had also tried to put his hair in his mouth when young.

Back then, he'd laughed it off, saying Aegis resembled Charlotte, but apparently his silver hair was extremely tempting to babies.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"Daddy's hair got all messed up."

Rayan worried about Julian, and Thaleia giggled at Julian's hair. Julian hurriedly fixed his hair, then bent his knees to meet the two children's eyes.

"This business trip is really important—will you give me a kiss for encouragement?"

"No."

When Thaleia flatly refused, Julian stared at Rayan. Rayan, who'd thought the question wasn't directed at him, floundered in confusion at Julian's kiss request.

"Yan, you do it."

At Thaleia's urging, Rayan briefly kissed Julian's cheek. Julian smiled broadly and vigorously ruffled both their heads.

"When I come back, will Tilly give me a kiss?"

"Ugh, I don't want to."

"When you find out what I'm doing on this business trip, you'll be so happy you'll give me one, won't you?"

Not knowing what this business trip was about, Thaleia snorted with an indifferent face.

Julian's business trip was to conduct some negotiation with the Celis Kingdom.

Rayan smiled brightly, remembering what Julian had said a few days ago. For Rayan, who grew prettier as time passed, Julian had decided to fight a long, long battle.

"The princess, mounted on the dragon's back, cried out to the prince. 'Prince, I'm going to travel the world freely on dragonback! If you'll break off our engagement and grant my wish, I'll help you become king with the dragon's power.'"

When I heard sleepy breathing sounds from both sides, I lowered the storybook I'd been holding up.

I'd offered to read them a storybook, but the story I'd been telling was actually completely different from what was written in the book—a total mess.

The princess everyone thought had been kidnapped was actually the dragon's contractor, requesting a deal with the prince to break off their marriage and live freely.

'That's way more interesting.'

Of course, the two little ones had fallen asleep before hearing the most interesting part.

'I'm sleepy too.'

When my eyes started fluttering closed, the nanny watching over us covered us with a blanket and confiscated the storybook.

The nanny's suspicious laughter was leaking out unconsciously because we were too cute. I smiled faintly at her laughter too.

Since I'd recovered, Asher had come to play almost every day, and the three of us playing together had become familiar.

Thanks to that, the nanny caring for us had been suffering "moe overload" several times a day lately, spending her days happily.

'Me too, of course.'

How happy was I, sandwiched between the male lead and sub-male lead on either side?

They didn't fight over me like when we first met, so there were no troublesome incidents.

After spending two weeks together peacefully like this, I'd reached one conclusion.

'There really is a reason why bratty black-haired male characters and gentle blond male characters come as a set.'

Not just in this novel, but appearing in many other works—a trope that wouldn't be an exaggeration to call universal now.

Among the many novels I'd written, this was the only one with such archetypal dual male leads.

'There's a reason classics are classics.'

Yan was still a pure young child, but by the time the original story began, he'd have developed a splendid temper.

His childhood was precious and cute, but what really made my fan heart race was the grown version.

Asher would grow into a handsome young man with a height approaching 190 centimeters, a solid build, but a pretty face capable of killer smiles.

As I thought about how wonderful it would be to see the two people I'd only kept in my imagination, I remembered I'd already seen Yan's side.

The moment I recalled that form, my happiness drained away like low tide. Though I didn't want to, I needed to meet him again and confirm things I didn't know.

'About two weeks from now should work?'

If I got sick again right after recovering, they'd make a huge fuss thinking I'd caught a serious illness, so I planned to make wishes while adjusting the timing.

Kids this age normally got fevers once every month or two anyway. Since the sickness came after the wish was granted, I needed to make a wish whose results I could confirm quickly.

'A wish, a wish...'

The criteria for what counted as a "wish" was too vague to begin with. For example, wanting steak for dinner tonight could count as a wish too.

The easiest and fastest, but that wouldn't be a wish that used divine power. Because the head chef or nanny could easily make it happen if I asked.

'Since it's divine power, it has to be something beyond human capability... I guess for the first wish, I have no choice but to go with weather like last time.'

"Not sleeping?"

While I was thinking about this and that with my eyes closed, a voice from beside me made me open my eyes. Blue eyes were looking at me.

'I thought you were sleeping?'

Asher's eyes showed no trace of sleepiness. I realized belatedly that he'd been pretending to sleep. Though I didn't know why.

"What about you?"

"I'm sleeping."

Asher, eyes wide open, calmly insisted he was sleeping. But that brazenness seemed purely innocent, and when I giggled, Asher grinned too.

'What? That's cute.'

I turned my body completely toward Asher and patted the empty space between us with my palm. Asher, who understood the meaning immediately, rolled over and came a bit closer to me, and I hugged him.

Holding warm, soft Asher, my troublesome thoughts gradually faded. Asher, held in my arms, smiled faintly.

'His eyes are really pretty.'

His blue eyes looked like they'd been taken directly from sparkling lapis lazuli. Exactly the shade of blue I loved.

His long golden eyelashes moved rhythmically, then shyly hid the blue light.

"You seem to be thinking foolish thoughts."

At the familiar voice, my eyes snapped open. The two little ones who'd been sleeping on either side of me were gone, and the nanny was gone too.

Unlike the previous dark surroundings, crimson sunlight was streaming through the study window.

He, wearing Rayan's face, was reading the storybook I'd been reading to the two of them.

"I told you not to make wishes. Do you want to die that badly?"

"I haven't made one yet."

"But you were planning to."

"...Then what am I supposed to do? You said incomprehensible things however you pleased, then left like that."

"I told you to wait."

The word "wait" made anger surge up. Rather than exploding, I swallowed it down and took a deep breath to calm myself.

"If you properly explain things this time and make me understand, I'll wait."

"...I don't know much either. All I can do is wait too. Last time, I just came to meet you once after learning you could use divine power. If you use your power recklessly in that young body, it won't just be getting sick—you might drop dead one day. So promise me. Promise you won't use your power until you're at least fifteen. Your life must be precious to you."

Not particularly precious, actually. But I sensed his sincere worry, so I nodded without saying that.

Once he'd extracted my promise, he sighed and said he'd answer what he knew, so I should ask what I was curious about. He'd been quite irritating last time, but today he was kind.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Fate."

The words "waiting for fate" made me snap my mouth shut. Because I knew the fate he spoke of was the original story.

"But then you appeared. You, who don't exist in fate. This time I'll ask the question you asked last time. Who are you?"

He dropped the storybook to the floor and approached me. He knelt on one knee before me and stroked my cheek. As always, his hand felt rough and dry, like his voice.

"Who are you, that you can escape fate and use divine power?"

"I'm..."

I absolutely couldn't say I might be this world's god.

"I don't know either."

"..."

"All I know is that I have to save someone. But I don't know who that someone I need to save is."

"This thing about needing to save someone—who told you?"

"No one told me. I just suddenly realized it."

"Right, gods are always like that."

"..."

"If you don't know who to save, then choosing who to save is your responsibility."

"My choice?"

"Yes. I'm not certain, but that's what I think. If the choice really is yours, who will you save?"

He asked who I would save, but asking that question while wearing Rayan's face was no different from asking whether I'd save Rayan or not.

Save Rayan. Change the original story. If I changed it, the world might be destroyed.

Would I abandon the protagonist to save the world, or abandon the world to save the protagonist?

An inescapable dilemma now.

"I..."