"Maybe you should let them play with other kids a little?" he asks, frying a few vegetables over a pan, "Letting a child wander around the kitchen like this isn't a good idea, lots of dangerous things."

"I don't trust Hotel near other kids," I cut up a few mushrooms with deadly efficiency and swipe them into a bowl, "They can cut themselves on a few knives, they will be fine."

I can hear a nervous chuckle from him, "That was one of the things I said you should avoid doing when raising a child, if you're lucky it'll just be a cut, but if they put it near their eyes..."

"I'll just put a bandage over it," I give him the bowl of mushroom before they mix it with the rest of the vegetables.

He just sighs in response, his warm smile not leaving his face for a second. He reminds me of Trin a lot, someone that keeps a fake face on them at all times to comfort whoever they talk to, although I did get to see the real Trin eventually. I wish I was as good as them when it came to faking emotions.

Now that I think about it, when's the last time I looked at myself in the mirror? I change bodies so much that I rarely bother, but I wonder what my default expression is. I make a mental note to-

Right, hold on.

DIARY/NOTES

MODE: GENERAL NOTES ADD NOTE

NEW NOTE: Check myself in the mirror.

PRIORITY: LOW

I did say I would use that note menu again, didn't I? It's perfectly incorporated into my UM now...mostly.

Actually, my UM has been kinda weird recently, I don't know if it's getting old or if it has genuinely been messed up by Hotel when it forced its way into my soul, but it sometimes just stops working or takes way longer to do certain things that would usually take seconds. That's kind of bad for a multitude of reasons, but what annoys me the most is that it's really hard to fix the problem when I don't know what the caused it.

Ho, I also named the kid "Hotel" because...yeah, you can guess. It's a nickname of course, I can change it later if necessary, but it was getting annoying to refer to them as 'that kid' or 'the freeloader'. I'll also call the cute guy in charge of the orphanage the caretaker.

Coming back to the subject of my soul being all messed up, I'll stay in the orphanage until I can figure out a way to cut my soul from Hotel properly, unfortunately, there are a few issues, namely:

1. Hotel's tendrils are pretty deep into my soul, cutting them too brutally might have side effects, the worst possible one would be their soul suddenly imploding or expanding.

2. If I do end up disconnecting Hotel from me properly, it won't change the fact that their soul is still really powerful by this world's standards. I don't know what they will do once I'm gone, but I have to make absolutely sure they don't turn into a terrible person when I'll have to leave.

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3. My UM has been--as mentioned previously--really unreliable, I don't know why, and that means that any skill I use with it could be compromised. I could do everything manually, but that has risks too.

There are a lot of other issues that make this whole thing a lot more complicated than it was originally. It was hard enough back in Hotel's universe, but I think our souls got entangled even further when we both died, so now it's even more spaghettified and even a single mistake could permanently doom this universe and/or Hotel, it might even affect ME in unforeseen ways.

The best solution I came up with is making Hotel cooperate to take its tendrils out, but that requires them understanding the whole situation. I think they are still mostly working on pure soul instinct and a tidbit of intelligence, making them rather unpredictable.

In short: I need to take it slow, as I can't just leave without consequences for once.

"Leave?" The caretaker interrupt my thoughts, "Hotel almost drank olive oil straight from the bottle, I'm used to dealing with kids but...I'd appreciate it if you helped a little." I can tell he tries his absolute hardest to not sound condescending, but irritation slips into his voice whenever I forget to look over Hotel.

I grab Hotel by the waist and lift them up to make sure they don't touch anything else. Honestly I don't think the olive oil would have done much, but I'm not sure if I can explain to the caretaker why. Hotel actually has the same stats as me, so their endurance is more than enough to withstand a little bit of food poisoning, but I don't think it's a good thing for them to chug every single liquid they find out of curiosity.

A teenager enters the kitchen with a yawn as he makes his way to the fridge, "Frustration and Perseverance are done duking it out, so I think outside's safe again," he says before grabbing a water bottle and leaving the kitchen without another word.

"Remember, one bottle per person!" the caretaker shouts as the teenager leaves, he then turns to me. "Our water supply is a little bit limited, plumbing is all messed up, and we barely have enough funds to fix it."

"Can't you do it yourself?" I ask as I slowly lower Hotel on the ground, making sure to keep an eye on them this time.

"I have, but it often ends up breaking again because of my lack of expertise and...collateral damage. I thought of asking inadequacy to protect the pipes against magic, but that's a lot of work, and she's busy enough as it is," he opens the fridge, counting the water bottles that are still in it, "We'll just have to hope it rains again and filter the rainwater."

"At least you have electricity."

"That's the one advantage of living in a high magical crime district, we can scoop up a bunch of mana residue and use it to power up nearly everything! We're saving up a lot on electricity bills thanks to this."

While I was chatting with the caretaker, Hotel somehow managed to slip out of my sight again, I'm...really not good at this. I just get distracted easily, alright?

I tell the caretaker I'll be right back, and he simply waves me away with a smile. I make my way to the main room of the orphanage, it's technically the dining room, but there's enough empty space here to do a lot of things other than eating. The kids are a lot louder than they were yesterday, but it's not so loud you can't hear yourself think. Scanning the room with both my eyes and my soul, I eventually find Hotel.

They are speaking to a ten-year-old girl at one of the tables. Of course, Hotel is talking in broken english, or whatever my translator is translating english into.

The girl's white eyes are glassy and unfocused, she somehow speaks in even less words than Hotel, although her sentences are a lot more coherent by comparison. I'm not entirely sure what exactly they are talking about--I can hear the words just fine, mind you--it's just that the topics are about things specific to this world that I haven't heard of. I think they are talking about certain books, but how would Hotel know-

Oh.

Oh no.

I speed walk to Hotel and quickly cut the tendrils that had already made their way inside the poor girl's soul. I don't think there was any lasting damage, but I might have to do a check-up later to make sure.

The girl hasn't noticed and continues the conversation as if nothing happened, Hotel looks at me for a few seconds with their empty eyes before speaking with her again.

Ugh, 'let them play with the other kids' he said, 'it'll be fine' he said.

I stop every tendril from reaching her until Hotel finally gets the message and stops. But I still look over them just in case, I can't let my guard down again.

Being a parent sucks.