“Are you a p*dophile?”
“What kind of question is that, Archduke of Hell?”
During a break after training with Changyeom, I once heard her say something strange.
“I’m just asking. Are you a p*dophile?”
“Of course not.”
I’m definitely not a p*dophile.
“But what if I suddenly become all ‘soft and squishy’, how would you treat me then?”
“Is this about the [Soft Suppression Incident]?”
I had a vague idea why Changyeom was asking this.
“Is it because, in the original, Esdinas of Heaven, there wasn’t anything catering to that kind of taste?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Esdinas of Heaven.
A bishoujo RPG game that some people claimed, “This isn’t a proper bishoujo game!!”
The reason for such comments? There were no heroines under 150cm tall.
-“Where… is my soft and squishy?”
-“I don’t care if it’s C-rank! Just give me one soft character…”
-“It’s frustrating that the Vinyudan exist but there’s no Squishy Squad.”
For some people, [Soft and Squishy] was untouchable content.
It had everything—Black people, disabled people, LGBTQ characters, even other races, non-human beings, and machines as supporting characters—but it didn’t have one particular group.
-“They have the Apocalypse for furries, but where’s the Apocalypse for the squishy ones?”
-“Well… [Esdinas of Heaven] is a Korean game…”
Many fans of that particular taste shed tears of blood when they realized Esdinas of Heaven originated in Korea.
If it had been published in Japan, despite censorship issues, there might have been a few soft and squishy characters, even with yellow or red rating stickers.
But Esdinas of Heaven wasn’t like that.
“Maybe it wasn’t the producers’ or the dev team’s preference? The game was set in a high-society academy from the beginning.”
“Those people said, ‘Even if it’s high-society, just give us something squishy!'”
“Something like this?”
Changyeom snapped her fingers.
“How about now?”
She became soft and small.
“I’ll set aside the fact that you’re in an office lady outfit, but didn’t your appearance just change drastically all of a sudden?”
“It’s because I’m small now.”
Changyeom had shrunk so much that her head barely reached my stomach.
This was, of course, done by manipulating and compressing her body through mana.
If she kept her head the same size and only adjusted her body, she would’ve still had the form of an adult.
“My question is this: if one of the heroines ended up like this, cursed with [the Softness Curse], what would you do?”
“The Softness Curse? That’s from the [Twisted Santa] storyline, right?”
“Yes.”
Changyeom and I often reviewed the original game’s various villains and monsters, with Changyeom leading the conversation, trying to remember and think of ways to deal with them.
The Twisted Santa was one such case.
“A power that forcibly turns someone into a child.”
An event boss.
Even though the game was offline, the developers regularly updated it to give players new experiences.
One such experience was [Twisted Santa Claus], a mysterious boss that tormented the protagonist and made players grin for a brief moment during an event.
The heroine would become soft and squishy.
To be precise, the boss placed a curse that caused characters to revert to a state of childhood, where they still believed in the existence of Santa Claus.
It was clearly a way to make money off the heroines’ childlike forms, but I still ended up pressing the buy button.
“Back then, I thought it was an achievement.”
“Yeah, yeah. Nice excuse. The skins had nothing to do with achievements!”
I checked to see if the shrinking into a 7-year-old child’s form was counted as an achievement in the game, just to confirm.
It wasn’t related to achievements at all. It was just a reflection of someone on the development team’s preferences, or maybe they were showing another side of the heroine—
-“I just wanted to show what kind of daughter the protagonist and heroine might have if they had a child together.”
They claimed it was meant to depict the love between the protagonist and heroine resulting in the birth of a daughter.
-“So you could have a daughter…”
“A lot of people took that the wrong way, didn’t they? Those who had been closely watching Esdinas of Heaven started mass-producing fanworks featuring the heroines as children.”
“It was horrifying.”
The dev team quickly made an official statement saying they didn’t endorse such content, but it had already spread everywhere.
In Korea, it became a huge topic, with people asking, “Isn’t this crossing a line?” The amount of disturbing content became overwhelming.
In the end—
-We aim for a healthy and bright youthful boy-meets-girl teen love story.
The development team made it clear that they would avoid anything soft and squishy when it came to Esdinas of Heaven.
The situation resolved itself before any serious incident could arise from crossing the line.
Everyone decided it would be better to practice self-restraint.
However, that was in the original game, and this world operates under different rules.
“Surely someone will show up, right? Someone or something that wasn’t revealed in the original but exists here in this world.”
“I couldn’t find anything when I was living as Regif.”
“But you didn’t live as Regif for, like, 10 years or anything. Can you really claim to have grasped everything about this world in such a short time?”
“…I suppose not.”
Changyeom gave me a warning.
“If someone we haven’t recognized ends up becoming a candidate for an Angel, and that person happens to be a soft one, what will you do?”
Where do I draw my ‘line’?
“…Just enough to avoid getting fired?”
The so-called ‘light mode’ that Twisted Santa left as a gift would remain in effect for various reasons.
“Even if they appear soft and squishy, as long as they’re a fully developed adult, we could pass it off as just dwarfism.”
“Hmm… like those incredibly big and amazing cases you remember?”
“If it’s a non-human character, like a beast-woman or a mix of dwarf and elf traits, then all the more likely.”
Something like a dwelf, perhaps.
“When they look like an older sister when standing alone, but appear small when standing next to other characters.”
“If that’s the case, is it possible?”
Changyeom lightly tapped her lower abdomen.
“If the only way to stop them from becoming an Angel is through something ‘cutesy,’ will you intervene?”
“…As long as ‘that’ isn’t touched, it’s fine.”
‘That.’
“The last bastion even the developers couldn’t breach. Whether such a divine entity exists, I don’t know, but if I had to name it….”
“A-CHUNG.”
“Right.”
A soft, squishy adult is acceptable.
But not a girl.
“Do you really think such a thing exists?”
I underestimated it.
The developers’ knack for marketing. I forgot how far they’d go if something made money.
Yes.
Even in a game where ‘thick’ was the default, there were still soft, girl-like characters.
As long as it wasn’t too vulgar, they could sell anything, and I had overlooked that fact.
* * *
While having tea with Princess Evangeline di Ercy after meeting her again at a café.
“Let me say this upfront: I will not wear the Academy’s uniform.”
As soon as she sat down, Princess Evangeline made this declaration, almost like a proclamation of war.
“The same goes for swimming classes. I prefer not to reveal my skin.”
“Princess Evangeline, the Academy’s standard curriculum applies to everyone.”
Instructor Esta gently warned the princess, respecting her status while also reminding her she was a student.
“No matter how much of a princess you are, you must follow the Academy’s rules.”
“I understand, but if I recklessly reveal my skin, it could cause a huge disturbance among the male students.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am cursed.”
At Princess Evangeline’s words, Ludvecia and Esta frowned.
“If I expose my skin or wear clothes that reveal my figure, men who see it become ‘enchanted’ by me due to this curse.”
“An enchantment curse…? But that…”
“It’s a kind of charm. And this charm… could possibly destroy the world.”
I understood.
While her words might sound odd to some, I fully grasped the gravity of what the princess was saying.
At the same time, I realized that the princess could be a serious issue for me.
“Phoenix?”
“What?”
“I’m surprised you’re speaking casually on a first meeting, but please don’t take it too harshly.”
With a serious expression, the princess bowed her head toward me.
“If you happen to gaze at my body and feel ‘lust’ or anything like that, the curse could activate, and you might become someone overwhelmed by twisted desires and madness.”
Her face was full of sincerity as she warned me.
“Once again, please don’t harbor any strange thoughts about me. Understand?”
“Strange thoughts, huh.”
I knew the princess was concerned, but…
“Like this?”
Since the princess was a ‘special admission’ student, I felt it necessary to test something.
How?
“Kyaah?!”
I immediately lifted Princess Evangeline.
“W-w-what are you doing?!”
“You’re cute. It feels like having a younger sister who’s about 10 years younger.”
I held her up like an airplane, gripping her waist with both hands and raising her high into the air.
“Let go! This, this is so improper…!”
“How’s the air up there?”
“What, what did you say?!”
Evangeline’s face quickly turned red with anger.
“How are you even walking with all that weight? Want me to carry you? Or maybe you’d prefer a piggyback ride?”
“You… you…!”
What if I treated her like a niece instead of something soft and squishy?
“This is outrageous!”
Evangeline flailed her legs in the air, trying to resist.
She grabbed my head and started kicking me in the chest.
“Let go! Let me down!”
She was practically screaming with her entire body, demanding to be released.
“Hmm… Princess, you’re acting like a little brat.”
“How dare you!!”
This was the most effective way to counter anything remotely p*do-related: treating her like a child.
“Oh my, you shouldn’t go around kicking and pulling on adults, little one.”
Treat her like a kid.
And then…
‘Physical contact.’
I ended up confirming it.
‘Mana Scan.’
The identity of a heroine.
I was looking for the empty space where the special mark for an Angel, the [Glory Mark], would appear.
It’s a mark that would be etched on the lower abdomen of those destined to become Angels.
“…”
Oh no.
I saw it.
The possibility of a heroine—XXI.
‘So, she’s No. 21.’
A new, unknown heroine had just appeared.
