* * *
Ben reluctantly nodded while the twins stuck to him like glue, shooting daggers at Haimar with their eyes.
[Haimar’s mean!]
You didn’t need telepathy to get that message.
Hugging Ben’s waist like he was a lifeline, the twins looked up with watery eyes that seemed ready to spill over. It was almost painful to ignore.
Stuck between Haimar and the twins, Ben reluctantly spoke up.
“Don’t you think they’ve reflected enough by now?”
If there was any real wrongdoing to accuse them of, it was that they’d been too noisy for Haimar’s ears—but the man himself clearly had no intention of forgiving even that.
With a charming smile, Haimar drained his coffee cup and vanished from sight.
It wasn’t until Ben had eaten half the cream soup and bread Haimar had brought that the twins’ sealed mouths were finally opened.
“Haimar’s awful.”
“A nasty bully.”
Chewing diligently on the bread Ben had shared, they muttered their complaints in small voices, clearly trying not to get their mouths sealed again.
But since there was no way Haimar couldn’t hear, his quiet growl came in reply.
“Have I neglected teaching you too long while I was away?”
“We did put Ben to sleep without permission, buuuut—”
“Penka and Pinka just wanted to make Ben feel good\~”
With pitiful faces, they shot Ben a look full of the word “unfair.”
Ben paused, spoon halfway to his mouth, and gave an awkward smile.
The soup—rich with mushrooms and meat—was annoyingly delicious in the middle of all this.
“Penka and Pinka are sorry. You’ll forgive us, right?”
“Next time we’ll get permission before we put you to sleep.”
Whatever they said, they clearly knew Haimar would scold them, so they bowed their heads and apologized quietly to Ben.
How much more sleep did they plan to give him, anyway?
Either way, it was now confirmed—the twins had been the cause of his sudden drowsiness.
Still, since they’d helped him rest well, Ben decided to let it go.
“Please do so next time.”
“Wow, Ben’s such a good person! If it were Haima, Penka and Pinka would’ve been reeeally scolded.”
“Mm… but Haimar’s a lot more human now.”
Ben didn’t need to hear the rest to know what they meant.
He’d heard plenty about Haimar’s notoriety in [Integra], but it was always a little surprising to hear comments like this.
Still, it was a relief that Haimar could at least be considered somewhat human now.
Realizing a bit too late that they might have said too much, the twins nervously twisted their soft pink-blond hair around their fingers before slipping behind Ben’s back to cling to him again.
“Ben, don’t you have anything you’re curious about? Penka can tell you everything.”
“Pinka can tell you too.”
Using him as a shield, the twins regained their chatter.
The noise was enough to make Haimar roll his eyes, but Ben wasn’t about to waste this rare chance to ask questions.
Setting down his spoon, he asked:
“Which of you is Lem Penka, and which is Lem Pinka? Are you the same gender?”
Having only met the twins a few hours ago, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder.
To Ben’s eyes, there was nothing at all to tell them apart.
Beyond Haimar, who was clearing away the dishes, the twins exchanged glances, then turned to Ben.
“For Penka and Pinka, dreams are both a world and a bridge to others.”
“So gender doesn’t matter for Penka and Pinka.”
“Penka and Pinka are two-in-one, and one-in-two.”
What a cryptic pair.
That could only mean they were either hermaphroditic or genderless.
The answers rolled off their tongues as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and no matter what question you asked, the responses would probably be similar.
Gender?
That had just been simple curiosity—it didn’t really matter whether they were male or female.
And since they politely referred to themselves in the third person, there was no real need to figure out which one was Penka and which one was Pinka.
“Hmm… right before I fell asleep, I heard a voice in my head, kind of like telepathy… That counts as a type of ability, right?”
“Yup! As long as it’s an ordinary person, either Penka or Pinka can make them fall asleep. Once they’re inside, we can talk, too—”
“And we can also keep them from waking up. Doesn’t really work well on Haima, though.”
The twins openly grumbled, clearly annoyed that their powers didn’t work well on Haimar.
From the sound of it, dreams were basically a place where anything was possible…
“You’re just dying to show off, aren’t you?”
“…Sorry?”
The low voice that landed on Ben’s ears wasn’t aimed at him, but rather at the twins, and it was filled with disapproval.
“You can’t, Haimar? You won’t let us?”
“No.”
“B-but Penka has so much she wants to show Ben…”
Before Ben could even ask what they meant, the twins’ hopeful little wish was instantly iced over by Haima.
No, seriously—what is it?
Share it with the rest of us.
“Pinka and Penka have lots of things they want to show you in a dream, Ben. And if it’s in a dream, we can even make all your wishes come true—”
Twin #1, who had been clinging to Ben’s back, crawled up toward his neck and rubbed her face against him.
Judging from her tone, there was just too much she wanted to show him and she couldn’t hold it in.
Which… didn’t sound all that bad, did it?
“Sounds like a decent propo—”
“Sure, if you can handle the aftermath.”
“—…Actually, no. Bad idea. My mistake.”
Whatever that “aftermath” was, Ben didn’t know—and didn’t care to know.
What was he even thinking, for a second there?
Haimar’s voice was perfectly calm, without a trace of menace, but Ben knew better than to drop his guard.
Disaster usually began with that man’s mouth, so Ben kept himself from making any empty promises.
“Aw, but if it’s just for a week, Penka and Pinka can wrap it up quickly… Please?”
…What?
A week of sleep?
Absolutely not.
A week?
Looking at it now, Haimar Eilec was both a beast and a savior.
“I appreciate the thought, but I’ll pass.”
Ben firmly rejected the twins’ lingering hopes, brushing off their pleading faces.
Reluctantly, the two curled up demurely on the bed, and began staring blankly at Ben and Haimar as if watching TV.
Their prim little faces were distracting enough that Ben started looking for a question to break the silence—when Twin #2 suddenly tilted her head and made an odd remark in a sweet, clear voice.
“Haimar’s weird now. Softer.”
Ben thought that was a strange thing to say, but those amber eyes were completely serious, so he listened.
“He used to be all sharp and pointy, so you’d get cut and bleed… but now he’s all soft.”
“Pinka told you—Haimar’s turned into a person.”
…So you weren’t human before?
Ben had felt the change himself, so of course the twins, who’d known Haimar longer, would notice it even more.
Still, the magnitude of that change felt different to each of them.
To the twins, Haimar looked as though he’d shed a spiky, razor-edged shell.
His gestures now carried a kind of languid ease.
His tongue still dripped with biting sarcasm, but now there was a faint softness to it.
The once cold, unyielding body now radiated a steady warmth, and his gaze held a touch of kindness.
If before he’d been like a perfect, beautiful sculpture—ultimately just a well-made, lifeless doll—now he’d evolved into a dangerous kind of enchantress that could steal hearts.
What would you even call that?
Charm?
Yes—that was it. The kind of allure you could only feel from a person.
Haimar now had a pull that came not from special powers or a manufactured smile, but simply from existing.
Just his presence alone could capture someone completely.
It was still the same face of Haimar Eilec, yet to the twins, he looked entirely different—and the fact that Ben was at the center of that change made them snicker to themselves.
[When we get to Integra, everyone’s gonna be shocked!]
[Pinka and Penka are totally telling everyone at Integra!]
“Haah…”
The sigh that escaped Haimar was half exasperation, half fatigue.
These troublemakers never shut up.
“Penka got caught!”
“Pinka got caught too!”
As he was seriously considering tossing them out, the giggling twins—Penka Reablem and Pinka Reablem—suddenly stopped and leaned identical faces toward Ben.
In a flash, they shifted tactics, rolling their eyes around as if searching for a way out of trouble—apparently, their survival skills were getting sharper.
“Ben, Ben. Penka has a question.”
“Uh-huh, Pinka too.”
Ben blinked in mild confusion but gave a vague nod.
He knew they weren’t asking out of pure intentions, but there wasn’t much reason to stop them.
After all, just as he had the right to question them, they had the right to question him.
With Haimar’s disapproving gaze and the twins’ eager stares both fixed on him, Ben tried his best to act unfazed.
He was going to get holes burned into his face at this rate.
“Ben, did you imprint?”
* * *
