Side Story 3

***

Aymon slowly wagged his tail.

The black-haired baby, Anish, giggled as he flailed his hands to catch his father’s tail. The blonde baby, Thilai, also flailed his limbs with a giggle when the tip of Aymon’s tail brushed his forehead.

「…….」

Aymon stared blankly at the babies’ glistening hair.

How can there be such cute, little creatures in this world?

None of this made sense to him, even if they were his own babies.

Belinda, who leaned on Aymon’s body, lifted his tail and began to tickle the babies’ necks gently. The babies giggled all day long as if they never got tired.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” Belinda asked with a voice filled with laughter.

“Ammama!”

“Mamama!”

The babies were babbling as if answering her.

The baby with black hair and purple eyes is Anish. The baby with blond hair and silver eyes is Thilai. It had been months since Aymon and Belinda’s children, Anish and Thilai, were born.

Contrary to baby deer who run right after it is born, the babies who couldn’t even flail their limbs at first had grown into considerable size now.

The babies usually like to touch Aymon. The babies’ favorite hobbies were yanking their father’s fur all of a sudden or hitting him in the snout.

At first, the children were born in human form, which was most likely influenced by Belinda’s divine power.

Lucy was so moved that she even cried when she first saw the child beaming in divine power.

“Belinda! I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight in the world!” She exclaimed as if she had given birth to her own child.

Soft rays fell over the babies.

Perhaps it felt good to them, Anish and Thilai looked around the surroundings with their wide eyes and wriggled their toes. Then they fell asleep shortly after Belinda sang them a lullaby and patted them on the chest.

Belinda stroked the babies’ plump belly with a gentle touch. The babies’ bodies were tiny, warm, and fluffy.

“So pretty.”

Belinda, who watched the babies with loving eyes, soon closed her eyes as well.

Leaning heavily on Aymon, she buried herself into his dark fur. The sun was warm and the house was filled with the sweet smell of milk.

It was such a beautiful day.

***

The peacefulness was short-lived.

A year after Anish and Thilai were born. The babies who smiled like an angel began to rebel.

“Ababababa!”

“Bubaba! Uwaa!”

A flood of gibberish sounds broke out between the babies who faced each other. The two were pointing their fingers at something.

A small sparrow was seen at the end of their fingers. Mazetto was sitting blankly between them, half of his soul left his eyes.

“…….”

Mazetto, who had always been talkative, was rendered speechless by the babies’ gibberish attack. His cattery beak was also closed shut.

Before the babies were born, Mazetto was depressed.

What if the affection for me disappeared? What if you don’t love me now?

But when the babies were actually born, it became a problem when he received too much love. Because Mazetto always got caught in the middle of fights between Anish and Thilai. The two swung their arms and cried in order to get the little sparrow’s affection.

“Umyaa! Umya! Bwa bwa!”

“Woowabwa!”

“…….”

The babies stomp their tiny feet to the ground. Mazetto’s feather was slightly blown up by the gentle breeze. Anish and Thilai reached their arms toward Mazetto.

“Ayayaya!”

This cute, little uncle sparrow is my uncle, not your uncle!

When Anish reached his hands to Mazetto, Thillai pushed his hand away, and when Thilai bent over to Mazetto, Anish hit Thillai’s head with his tiny hand.

And then.

“Uaaaang! Mama!”

“Aaaaaaaa! Pampaa!”

An inevitable uproar occurred.

The babies’ cheeks were blushing like peaches as they called out Belinda and Aymon, and then began to cry.

When Anish, with his hands clenched, burst into tears because he was unable to own Mazetto, Thilai also began to cry along with him.

“Belinda, Aymon, save me…..”

Mazetto couldn’t possibly leave the crying children alone, so he flew around to soothe the children.

At that time, with full confidence, Mazetto said, ‘Leave the children to me!’ because he was being thoughtful of Belinda and Aymon, who was up all night to take care of the children.

But they are only able to close their eyes for a while. As soon as the children burst into tears, they opened their eyes as if they were hypnotized. Because the children’s cries struck them like lightning even at the moment when their consciousness faded.

「Are you hungry!」

“Are you sleepy?!”

A large black leopard and a human ran toward the children in a hurry. They didn’t even realize that their eyes were still blurry from sleepiness.

But what they saw after running in a hurry was two black leopard cubs, not human babies.

「Meoww!」

「Meow!」

Two baby leopards, which are a little bigger than Belinda’s palm, were attacking each other. The two cotton balls were hitting each other with their paws and rolled around the floor.

They were born as humans, but a Shinsu is still a Shinsu, after all.

Anish and Thilai would turn into black leopards whenever their emotions intensified. For example, when they were hungry, sleepy, or annoyed. It was during those moments.

They were so surprised when Thilai, who was giggling as he played with Aymon’s tail, suddenly turned into a leopard and bit Aymon’s tail.

Since they were born as humans, she thought they’d walk on two feet for the rest of their life. Unlike the Shinsu, they don’t have transformation jewels on their forehead.

Meow! Meow! The babies were still rolling around, baring their fangs that were smaller than their own nails. They wrinkled their noses to look as threatening as possible, but the problem was they became cuter than anything else.

“…….”

「…….」

Belinda and Aymon stared vacantly at their sons. They slapped each other with their small paws. Every time that happened, a growling sound burst out of them.

Should I stop them or not? Should I just leave them be for now since they’re cute? Should I just drop them off somewhere to play when their rage dies down? What should I do? What do beasts do at times like this?

“Aymon. Shouldn’t you stop them?”

I don’t really know about the beast’s approach. I’d stop them first if they were human, but aren’t they leopards?

As if noticed her worries, Aymon whirled his tail around Belinda’s calf and answered.

「Let them be. That’s how they grow up.」

“Indeed, you fought a lot with Shanti and Hala when you were a baby.”

「…….」

Belinda laughed as she recalled her first meeting with Aymon. A small cat was growling alone in a small grass. She picked him up as he was groaning from his injured leg and treated him.

If Aymon didn’t get hurt while fighting with his friends back then, they probably wouldn’t have met.

“Isn’t it fortunate that you fought with Hala and Shanti back then?”

That’s how you were able to meet me.

She said with a smile. Perhaps feeling nostalgic, Aymon also smiled as he tickled Belinda’s ankle with his tail.

「 You’re right. I did a good job rolling down the cliff 」

Even at that moment, the small beasts were biting each other’s tails. Mazetto was twittering as he flew around on top of the babies’ heads.

“Stop it! Stop it, you beasts!”

Belinda nudged Aymon’s tail gently. It was a signal to stop those little beasts. Recognizing her intention, Aymon began to move slowly.

Aymon approached the children, who were rolling and tangled up on the carpet, and pushed the cubs lightly with his front paw.

Meoww! The two cotton balls that were overlapping fell off. Black little beasts were rolling over the floor.

Grrrr…..Aymon purred.

Perhaps they were startled by their father’s warning, the cub’s fur stood on end as they cowered in fear.

It seemed like those little munchkins are a beast after all because they seemed to instinctively fear Aymon’s light warning.

Soon Aymon bit their necks and moved slowly. He was thinking of taking them to the meadow and dropping them there to chase butterflies.

When Aymon left the mansion, Mazetto settled on Belinda’s shoulder. An exhausted voice rang next to her neck.

“Ah….raising children is really tough….”

Mazetto’s cute lament finally made Belinda laugh out loud.

***

Shanti closed his eyes as if praying.

「It can be overwhelming sometimes….」

Shanti mumbled alone as a small baby leopard was hanging on his paw. The baby was clinging to Shanti’s front paw, which was as big as a wooden bucket, and chewed on it. That small beast was his two years old daughter, Carrie.

When the Shinsu raided the Imperial Palace under Joseph’s control, Halla, who was pregnant with Carrie, was in a nursing home away from the forest. This timely coincidence had brought the child into the world safely.

「I don’t mind, though.」

As Aymon answered casually, something fell on Aymon’s head. It was his son, Anish. Thilai was currently climbing on top of his head, down to his neck, and finally sliding down his back.

Aymon’s nose was twitching briefly.

「…….」

「…….」

Shanti with a blank expression and Aymon with a flat expression, both looking at each other in silence. They could sympathize with each other simply by exchanging implicit glances.

Child-rearing pain.

Other beasts would feed themselves and grow up well simply by leaving them alone, but as for Shinsu’s cubs, they were highly intelligent and need lots of attention, so babysitting them one by one was necessary.

Shanti’s child, in particular, has learned to speak and ask questions without a break. Shanti even whined that his energy was depleted and his body became listless each time he answered.

「Daddy! There are raspberries over there! 」

Carrie yelled, gliding past Shanti’s foot.

「 Ah, okay. Let’s go.」

Shanti trudged slowly with a dazed expression. He even forgot that he was talking to Aymon. If his precious daughter wants to pick raspberries, then he should do it. She seemed to really fond of raspberries just like her mom.

「 Daddy! There are raspberries over there! But what is raspberry?」

「Raspberry, food. You know what is it」

「What is raspberry?」

As the child vivaciously repeated the question, Shanti gave in and dazedly answered.

「Food. It’s sour and sweet….delicious….」

「 What is raspberryyyy?」

「But more than raspberries, a leopard should eat meat….」

With such a monotonous answer, Shanti led his daughter for a walk. His giant body staggered off as if he was sleepwalking.

Aymon watched Shanti walk away and then turned his head. He saw his children jumping around on top of his body. So Aymon asked his sons.

「Do you want to eat raspberries, too?」

「Meow!」

「Meeeow!」

The children responded first without even knowing what a raspberry is. Recently, they began to babble and speak, actually, they were probably closer to meowing rather than speaking.

At last, Aymon got up. A big shadow fell on the ground, and two cotton balls rolling on his body fell to the ground.

Aymon lightly nudged the children with his front paw and walked off first. With their small fangs, the children bit Aymon’s tail as he walked away and clung to him.

Two small bodies that were hanging on Aymon’s tail began to move as if they were getting dragged along. Perhaps they were having so much fun, that the children wagged their tails and laughed.

Aymon kept walking without a care in the world, even if his tail was bitten. It seemed like having two cotton balls on his tail was his daily routine now.

The feeling of grass leaves tickling the bodies. The wild scent of greenery. A huge dad who resembles a mountain in front of them. There were many reasons for the children to laugh happily today.

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