Lazy Salvation

For the family, the event of their mother giving birth to a new life was exciting, but not enough to make a big fuss over.

It happened every one or two years, after all.

But for Ashen, this was the first birth for his mother after him and his twin sister, so he momentarily forgot about the manaweave in his excitement.

“AHHHH—!”

“Keep pushing, mother! You’re almost there!”

“Huk–h-hukk!! Ahhhhhh—!!”

“Deep breaths! Deep breaths! Don’t forget to breathe…”

Evidently, staying behind a door with the rest of his sisters, hearing the heart-wrenching screams of his mother, sapped much of the excitement.

“Good job, mother! They are healthy twins!”

Finally, the ordeal seemed to have passed, and the rest of them were allowed inside to celebrate the two new lives.

Ashen, however, despite his happiness, was tilting his head in wonder.

‘Twins again?’

Was there truly so much luck in the world? Back-to-back twins… his mother truly deserved the title of ‘mother’ more than anyone else.

As Ashen filled his mind with weird thoughts, it was finally his turn to see his newest siblings, and the moment he did, he froze in place.

“Ashen? What’s wrong, baby…?” His mother, in spite of her pale face and labored breathing, noticed his expression and asked worriedly.

“No… nothing. They are… beautiful.”

“Right? This time they took after your father’s looks more, though.” His mother gently caressed their little heads as she spoke. “White hair and pink eyes… just like him.”

“White hair… pink eyes…”

“Yes. You, on the other hand, take after me. Look at that glossy black hair, and those lovely golden eyes… though yours are much more golden than mine, hehe…”

Ashen did not answer immediately. His eyes were still glued to the baby girl, as he kept repeating her characteristics in his mind.

‘It can’t be… right?’

The observant mother noticed his look and put on a meaningful smile. “It seems that you have taken a liking to little Lapis? That’s good. This would surely make things easier… hmhm ♪.”

“...Her name is Lapis?”

“Yes. This is Lapis, and her twin brother is Cain.”

“…”

‘This can’t be a coincidence, right?’

Ashen’s mind was in turmoil. And that made him miss his mother’s strange remark.

‘What are the chances… no, this is probably my sister.’

Finally, his mind settled as he reached the conclusion.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He couldn’t deny that his own hopes played no small part in reaching it, but sooner or later, he was going to confirm it as she grew up and they started interacting.

So he allowed himself to dream.

…and his dreams, for the first time in a while, came true.

◉◉◉

The family that Ashen was part of took Hunt as their last name, and they could be distinguished rather easily due to their striking physical characteristics.

They either had white hair and pink eyes, much like the father of the family, or black hair and yellow eyes that ranged from hues that looked almost brown to the most striking gold. And if they did, that meant they took after the mother.

That was also why Ashen kept doubting his guess that Lapis was his sister from the real world, even after seeing the obvious tells.

There was no shortage of sisters with the same colors as her, after all.

But those doubts were dashed after a couple of months of observation.

The toddler was unusually active. Her eyes were too intelligent to belong to a mere infant, and above all else, he had caught her trying to practice a breathing technique when she thought no one else was looking.

When he got closer to her and whispered, “Lapis Hart,” in her ear, the eyes that swiveled toward him were so intense that she might as well have screamed, ‘bro bro!’

From then on, whenever he got close, she crawled toward him, and she even started deliberately crying until he came to soothe her personally.

Not even their mother was able to figure out this mysterious phenomenon. But a few meaningful looks started getting thrown at him whenever this happened, and Ashen couldn’t make any sense of them.

‘Honestly… what a brat.’

Regardless, with his sister now by his side, it was one less worry haunting him, which let him turn his focus toward other things, such as his manaweave-raising project.

Truthfully, Ashen did not understand much about plants and how they were raised beyond what he had learned from the instructors at the Tutorial City.

That would have been the case if not for Seraphine and her love for the subject. Whenever they relaxed together, she would often bring it up, with interesting facts and tidbits, and he would listen the same way someone listens to an intriguing tale.

So while not an expert, he had something to get on with.

The first thing he did was separate the plants in a corner away from the others, soil and all. Then came watering, fertilizing, and grooming, among other things.

Those were taught to him by their resident farmer, big sister Monica, at the steep cost of letting her play with his cheeks however she liked.

A noble sacrifice.

Beyond that, he had to remember what Seraphine said about manaweaves.

“Let’s see… what was it again? Ah! Yes…”

Ashen thought it was best to start off with the more common enerleafs and then list off the differences between them and manaweaves, since he had more knowledge of the former.

‘First, whether they were enerleafs or manaweaves, what differentiates them from other plants is their ability to retain mana after taking it in alongside oxygen…’

‘They also have the capacity to hold concepts based on their surroundings and how much they were affected by said surroundings.’

For example, if a plant was able to survive near a volcano for a period of time, it wouldn’t be strange to see it hold concepts of fire.

‘But there are two stark differences in the way they hold their concepts. Enerleafs hold them in a manner that, no matter how they are consumed, would never grant such concepts to the consumer.’

Ashen tilted his head, trying his best to remember. ‘What did she say again…? Oh yeah…’

His eyes lit up. ‘Enerleafs could only hold elementary concepts, such as fire, water, and other elements of nature. But manaweaves could hold much more.’

‘It wasn’t just much more.’ Ashen shook his head. ‘It was everything. Every concept that could be learned could be held by a manaweave, as long as a corresponding environment was prepared.’

‘And what’s more outrageous is that it could grant the concept it held when consumed.’

A plant that compressed the decades one would spend comprehending a concept into the simple action of eating a plant.

It was much like humanity’s system, but more efficient and instantaneous.

Of course, this was not always the case. There was a degree of luck and compatibility to it. But the simple chance of it happening would drive anyone crazy to obtain it.

‘But here they are… masquerading as innocent weeds in this place…’

Sigh.

Ashen could only be glad that he arrived before the poor plants were weeded out by his tyrannical cheek-pinching sister.

‘Now, what kind of environment do I want to raise these plants in…?’

Ashen looked around, then looked back at the plants. There were three in total. One was shaped like a flower, another like a miniature tree, and the last was a round, closed leaf.

‘Well… I don’t have much to work with, so I’ll just feed them my mana infused with my care and love and hope for the best.’

He nodded twice to himself, as if that made any sense.

…it seemed that for all his fretting over the plants, he turned out to be not much different from his ‘tyrannical’ sister.