NOVEL WEB Chapter 9
“Aaaaa…”
Bang.
I smacked my forehead against the low ceiling and promptly collapsed in a sitting position.
As always, every time I come in, I have to whack my head.
I shut the door and stumbled over to the storeroom—or rather, the inner part of the house.
The ceiling was both low and narrow, and the boards let the wind whistle through, but this was my only place of peace.
Here, at least, I didn’t have to worry about someone suddenly grabbing my hair or touching me.
“Meowwaaaaa! Uuugh!”
“Yeah. Your mom’s here. Thanks for the warm welcome, trash…”
As soon as I arrived, cries of joy.
When I try to leave, more cries of despair.
You’d think all you little shits do all day is squawk and scream.
I let out a defeated laugh as I headed toward the makeshift bed built from stacked blankets.
Based on the wailing tone, it sounded like I was being ordered to clean up after the kid’s latest bowel movement.
And the awful smell confirmed my suspicion.
So while I was enduring all sorts of insults at work today, this little snot-nosed brat spent the day doing his business.
Ah… Now that I think about it, today was the day I couldn’t take it anymore.
I got home much later than usual for that exact reason.
I lost my temper and got slapped hard on both cheeks by that pig-man’s wife.
And even after that, she wasn’t satisfied and kept kicking me while I was down until she grew tired.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.
I also had to foot the entire bill for the drunken idiot’s drinks and the damages caused.
And since I obviously didn’t have that kind of money, the innkeeper covered it and added it all to my debt.
Onlookers said the pig-like woman was crying and pleading for him to stop hitting me, which suggested she was quite enamored with me.
Under normal circumstances, they’d try to strangle me to death.
Still, thanks to her, I’ve earned about three days off.
If I show up to work bruised and battered the next day, it’d only raise suspicions, so I have no choice but to pretend to recover.
Even though this unpaid leave coincides with mounting debt, a vacation is still a vacation.
The only problem is that I can’t fully relax during these days off because I have to put up with this screaming little monster.
“What a feast you’ve left me. Huh? Looking at your dirty bottom, you seem ready for a feast of a different kind.”
“Whaaaaaaa!”
“Shit, I’m cleaning you right now. Stop crying already. Do you want me to think you’re the devil’s spawn?”
There’s definitely some special power in these kids’ cries.
Just hearing it gives me a headache and makes me incredibly irritable.
They say parents find their babies’ cries endearing, but that’s all nonsense.
“Ugh. Damn it. My hands are dirty again.”
Even though I was being careful, my hands ended up dirty.
I usually don’t make mistakes like this.
Must be the alcohol from earlier.
With this done, I decided to finish it up quickly and just move on.
“And now I have to wash this again. Life… is just so…”
When I finished cleaning my hands, a wave of exhaustion hit me.
After going through all that effort at work, I still have so much to do here.
Why should I, who’s struggling so hard just to survive, have to take care of a kid?
“God, this is miserable…”
Why doesn’t this world have disposable diapers?
Every time this hour comes around, I find myself pondering this.
How is it that in a world with heating, hot water, modern plumbing, and flush toilets, they haven’t managed to invent this simple, obvious item?
For all its modern conveniences, when it comes to raising children, this world remains stuck in the medieval era.
Because of this, I have to wash cloth diapers, patch up rags to make children’s clothes, and wrap several large swaddling cloths around the baby just to carry them.
I have a pretty good idea why this world is so backwards.
No doubt the protagonist of this story never had a kid.
Since the protagonist doesn’t have a child, and never writes about raising one, there’s no need for any advancements in childcare.
Such a convenience-driven setup.
“Whaaa! Whaaaaa!”
“Oh. What’s the matter now?”
“Whaaa! Whaaa!”
“You’re hungry, aren’t you? Yeah. After all that pooping, you must be starving. Ugh…”
The little hands flailed upwards towards me.
The baby ignored everything I said, his gaze locked solely on my chest.
When I brought my fingers near his mouth, he grabbed them and started sucking hard.
“You only care about my chest too. Just like all the men out there. You’re all the same…”
I cradled the monster’s head and offered my breast.
When he sucked hard, I couldn’t help but let out a faint groan.
It seems like his strength has already grown significantly in just one week.
His head feels heavier too.
Do babies usually grow this fast?
Compared to the kid who was screaming his head off just a moment ago, it’s surprising how silently he now devotes himself to sucking, which makes me sigh.
“Why are you so strong for someone so little…”
I’ve heard that newborns can die suddenly if you take your eyes off them for even a moment.
They can suffocate if they can’t roll back over after rolling onto their stomach.
Their airways can get blocked by their own saliva.
They can get brain injuries from falling off something and hitting their heads.
Yet this kid has been left alone practically all day, but he shows no signs of dying.
In fact, despite me being too busy to feed him for more than half a day today, he’s still kicking like normal…
“Would it just be easier if you’d die already?”
I looked down at the creature who was greedily suckling at my chest.
The small horn on his temple was still there.
A baby like this, so fragile, could be killed with a simple twist of the neck.
He could be easily suffocated by covering his nose and mouth.
“But… no. Maybe I should die instead…”
After all, if I die, it could be the only way to return to my original world and my original body.
“I can’t… I just can’t…”
But I can’t bring myself to do it.
I lack the courage.
I can’t kill him because I lack the courage to kill myself afterward.
The only reason I’m still alive is…
Because I can’t die.
Because I can’t kill him, I have to take care of him.
And so, I’m still shamelessly alive.
*
“Damn, she’s really irritating…”
“…”
Late afternoon in the waiting room.
The insult slipped out from the lips of a fox-eared woman, who was tapping a piece of cotton against her cheek.
Her gaze was directed at a silver-haired girl sitting blankly in the mirror’s reflection behind her.
“Who on earth has nothing to do but linger around in the waiting room?”
“Exactly. I never would’ve imagined it back in my day.”
“Ah. I could just kill her right now. Is she that clueless?”
“…”
As sarcastic comments began popping up from all over, the girl finally realized they were talking about her and jumped to her feet.
Once she trudged out of the door, the woman clicked her tongue.
Because of this, her makeup had smeared and now she had the added trouble of having to redo it from the start.
“Ah, this is stressful. Seriously, wouldn’t it be great if I could beat her half to death? No, I just want to press a cigarette into her cheek once…”
“That girl signed a contract with the boss. A one-year contract. If we disfigure her face, we’ll all get fired.”
“Damn barmaid, who gives a shit about contracts? Acting smart…”
That irritating woman.
To the barmaids, Julia was an unlucky and annoying person.
Out of nowhere, she just appeared, without lifting a finger, and stole all the regular customers’ requests.
She didn’t sell her body, but she flirted so much that the customers spent whole nights drinking with Julia alone, which meant no one went out for second rounds.
If she had any sense, she wouldn’t be doing these kinds of unsavory things.
On top of that, who knows how, but Julia never even bothers with makeup or styling her hair, yet her sharp features and flowing locks stand out naturally, giving her a passive attractiveness.
Of course, that’s all she had going for her.
Other than her slightly pretty face, she was just an ordinary woman.
No one understood why she was so popular, even though she didn’t go for seconds.
She had even caused a major commotion once by hitting a customer, yet…
Normally, any woman who makes that kind of mistake would either be strangled to death or buried somewhere and never allowed to work again.
When she casually asked one of the regulars, he said Julia’s fiery personality was part of her charm.
Men were truly baffling creatures.
“Hey, did you know, sis?”
“What?”
“Julia, you know, she lives in that small warehouse we used to use for storage, right? So, I followed her once when she kept disappearing during her breaks, and guess what? She was going in there.”
“Is she keeping a puppy?”
“It’s not a puppy. I could vaguely hear a baby crying from inside.”
“She’s raising a child?”
“…”
Seeing the other woman nod without a word, a faint smile creased the corners of the fox-eared woman’s lips.
“Haa… This shameless woman…”
Despite always looking so innocent with those big eyes that said, “I don’t know anything, I’m so pure, I’m so innocent,” it turns out she’d had a child.
What an incredible performance.
Clearly, it was more likely she had carelessly played around and ended up with a kid whose father she doesn’t know.
She secretly raised the baby in the storage room without telling anyone.
But now, she’s been found out.
As she pondered how best to use this information, a mischievous grin spread across her face.