My father Lucian carried me back to my siblings, while keeping a stern eye on me. He stands tall, his jet-black hair, tousled and thick, falling right above his piercing deep chestnut eyes. He has the rugged look and chiseled face of a seasoned lumberjack, with a rich tan skin, a testament to countless hours spent under the sun, toiling away at chopping down trees. He’s strong, with his broad shoulders, a strong chest, and powerful arms trained from striking down an innumerable amount of trees. At first, he seemed intimidating to me with his stone-cold glare and perpetual frown. However, I learned that he was actually just bad at showing his emotions and that he was very gentle. His frightening aura and silence were simply the result of his nervousness and his inability to move or talk comfortably.

He put me down as he flicked both Arthur and Elaine’s foreheads, while softly rebuking them. “Didn’t your mother tell you to watch Beric closely?”

“But we did!” Arthur exclaimed while rubbing his forehead.

“He always crawls away the one moment we don’t watch him.” Elaine pouted.

Dad squatted down to talk to them face-to-face. “Let that be a lesson. A mere second-long mistake can lead to a disastrous outcome. What if Beric harmed himself, because no one was there to watch over him?”

“....Sorry.” Arthur mumbled while keeping his head low.

“I’m sorry too.” Elaine added with a shy look.

“It’s alright, you two. Beric is very mischievous for his age. For example, he’s probably crawling away while we’re not watching him.” Dad turned around to see if his guess was right.

He was right.

You seriously couldn’t have waited until he was gone?

Dad got back up and went over to carry me back to my siblings. He lightly flicked my forehead while saying, “Beric is certainly the adventurous type.” He looked over at Arthur and Elaine. “Is it that difficult to watch over him?”

“Not really. It’s just boring. I wanna play tag…and freeze tag……and shadow tag.” Arthur listed while racking his brains for more.

“We play other games too.” Elaine said with an eyebrow raised at Arthur.

“If that’s the case, then why don’t you include Beric in your games? Most likely, he’s bored of staying in his crib, and he wants to move around. You can also keep a close eye on him while playing.” Dad offered.

No, I’m actually….. really fine with not being included in their games.

“What would we even play? He can't run so tag’s not possible.” Arthur stated.

Dad pondered for a bit, before coming up with, “How does hide and seek sound?”

Bad.

Both Arthur and Elaine had a perplexed look, before going away and huddling together. It seemed that they had a very serious discussion on whether to play hide and seek or not.

Dad and I awkwardly waited for them to finish, sensing a tense atmosphere emanating from the two. What could a ten year old and an eight year old possibly be discussing so intensely?

The lore of Skibidi Toilet.

……….

….. I'll stop talking.

Eventually, the two finished their discussion, and returned to Dad and I with bright smiles.

“Hide and seek is perfect.” Arthur declared proudly.

“Beric can either help the seeker or hide with the hider.” Elaine added.

Dad let out a barely noticeable smile while putting me down next to them. “I'll be helping your mother with setting up dinner.”

Dad went to the kitchen, and Arthur sat down in a thinking position. “Who's going to be the seeker?”

Elaine sat with him, and the two began to think furiously over what to do.

While they were deep in thought, I decided to take this opportunity to find any scavenging insects to absorb. I crawled in their blind spots, keeping an eye on them. I then turned around and slowly crept away, as quietly as my little arms and legs could take me. This time, things were different.

“Where are you going, Beric?”

I turned around to see Elaine, standing up, looking right at me. Her raven black hair cascaded down her back, with her sharp molten brown eyes staring right at me. Her eyes were narrowed, paired with her light tan arms crossed, visibly showing her annoyance.

I tried playing dumb and donned a typical “baby face”, but Elaine promptly picked me up and carried me back to the main room. Arthur didn’t even realize I was gone, and he was still trying to think of who to be seeker. His unruly chestnut brown hair gleamed with the evening sun, which let his bright green energetic eyes shine. His light tan skin took on a small red hue, due to running around earlier.

“Why are you always trying to get away?” Elaine complained as she put me down. “Do you not like being with us?”

My main answer would be “to get stronger”.......but Elaine wasn’t too far off from that second question. Truthfully, I didn’t really feel at ease being around my new family. There was of course, the question of, did I overtake this body? If I never made that deal with Death, would Beric still be born? And if he still were to be born, what happened to the original Beric? Did I take over his body, and in turn, caused his soul to be lost? Another thing that caused my unease was the fact that I was even in this body. A seventeen year old in the body of an infant. That alone is worthy of raising some eyebrows, discounting what would happen if my family were to find out. Would they feel surprised?.....Of course they would feel surprised. What am I thinking? A better term would be “betrayed”. The son they so lovingly raised, the baby brother they grew up with, was just the puppet of another being. Am I really their son if I retain memories of a previous life? Am I really Beric if I forcefully took over this body? Am I even….. human anymore? Does not the life I already had and encounter with the afterlife prove I'm no longer capable of being a normal human again?..... Perhaps that's why I'm so uncomfortable being around them. I know that I don't belong in this family. I understand that I will have to eventually reveal the truth to them. Maybe my act of running away and attempts of not growing closer to them will lessen the pain when they uncover the truth.

Blah blah blah. Just pick the seeker and get a move on. I'm getting bored of this.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

…….You can't even let me have a monologue?

Hell no. I'm not here to hear about your emo and depressing thoughts on life or whatever. I already had enough of that earlier. What I'm actually here for is to see you grow and develop your soul magic, and to entertain myself by watching your future fights and achievements. A better example would be an average Joe reading a fantasy isekai manga, to self insert himself into the story, and to escape from the dreary truth that is his life. Kinda like what you're doing right now.

I hated to say it, but Sys was right. It was boring waiting for them to think of an idea, and I would probably get more opportunities to soul absorb other insects if I was the seeker, so I decided to take matters in my own hands. I crawled up to Elaine and pointed my pudgy finger at her.

Elaine was confused as to why I had suddenly pointed my finger at her, but Arthur had a completely opposite reaction as his eyes lit up.

“Let's let Beric decide!” Arthur announced.

“.... Beric?” Elaine asked incredulously.

“Yeah, Beric. It's perfect. We both don't want to be the seeker, so we can just leave it to him to decide for us.”

“That sounds good but….. Beric’s just a baby. Are you sure he can even choose one of us? It's not like he can understand us.”

“Then why did he point his finger at you?” Arthur objected.

“He's probably just angry that I caught him crawling away.” Elaine guessed.

I kept my finger pointed at her.

“He's still pointing at you.” Arthur mumbled.

Elaine got up and walked over to me with an intrigued look. “Beric, can you understand us?”

It would probably be best for me if I didn't reveal that I could, so I didn't answer and kept my position.

“.... Looks like he can't. If he did, he would probably do something else to show it.” Arthur reasoned.

Elaine kept her eyes focused on me, scrutinizing for any possible sign that I did understand them.

“Technically, he still picked you.” Arthur quietly said.

“.....What?” Elaine said, turning around to face Arthur.

“I mean, he chose you to be the seeker.” He said, raising his hands in a surrendering pose.

“...... Fine. I'll be the seeker.” Elaine grumbled.

“Sweet!” Arthur said as he started running to look for a spot.

Elaine then carried me as she sat back down. She placed me next to her and covered her eyes while counting to 30. I hesitated on taking this chance and crawling away again, but the sense of a malevolent energy stunned me. Finding out that the source of it was Elaine’s left eye glaring at me from the side made me wait patiently.

The two of us started searching. I had to follow Elaine closely, but that was fine. I wasn’t planning on absorbing souls with her yet. I would instead scout for any possible places for ants to be, places that I would go to when I would be seeking with Arthur. It took Elaine a while, but she finally found Arthur hiding behind a table. Elaine and I then switched over to be hiders, so I followed Elaine as she chose a spot. We hid near the kitchen, using a door as coverage. There wasn’t much I could do, so I simply laid down and waited. All I really wanted to do was just find ants to absorb.

When we had begun this, I figured that this would just be a boring “side-mission” to complete before I could continue my journey. I didn’t really play hide and seek growing up, let alone with any siblings. I was an only child, so I didn’t have anyone to play with at home. I would just watch t.v. and eat by myself while waiting for the next day. I had thought at first that this would bring me that same level of boredom, that hide and seek was just an ordinary game used to pass time. Except, it was different. When Arthur started to rush around from being unable to find us, Elaine quietly giggled. I wasn’t amused to that extent, but a small smirk did come out. When Arthur thought he had found us, and yelled out when he realized he didn't, I let out a small snort. When Arthur finally found us and started jumping around in joy, I smiled.

When it was my turn to seek with Arthur, I shared struggles with him trying to find Elaine. My main focus was on the ants, but I reasoned that I could at least help out with finding her. Despite our best efforts, we had to give up. Elaine wouldn’t let that die down, and she shoved it in our faces. She made sure that we wouldn't forget about it for a long time. I wasn’t too affected by it, but when Sys had mentioned that I was a deadweight, I knew I had to lock in.

If you manage to find her in under 5 minutes, I’ll increase some of your stats.

Deadass?

*Assigned the quest “Find Elaine"*.

I went straight to work. The entire house was within the game’s limits, so Elaine could have been anywhere. However, I had figured out a pattern. Elaine never went back to her old spots and Arthur’s spots. She would always be in a new spot. With this in mind, I disregarded the main room along with the kitchen. I crawled my way to the bedrooms as fast as I could. Arthur was too busy searching for Elaine, and since he wasn’t exactly the type to focus on multiple things at once, he forgot about watching me. It would have been smart, better even, to use this time instead to search for other insects. Would the quests’ rewards be better than absorbing the souls of insects? I couldn’t tell…..besides, I just didn’t want to accept the fact that I was a deadweight, especially since Sys had said that.

4 minutes left.

I had reached the bedrooms, but there was a problem. There were two, Arthur and Elaine’s, and my parents’. Both doors were closed. It would be impossible for me to open them on my own, so I had an idea. I cried out loud, hoping that Arthur would remember me and come running towards me. Both mom and dad weren’t in the kitchen, so I had assumed they were probably outside. A couple of seconds had gone by, until I heard the fast footsteps of Arthur barreling towards me.

“What’s wrong?!” Arthur gasped out.

I pointed my finger to the bedroom doors.

Arthur looked up at them. “Do you want to nap?”

I nodded my head. Arthur stooped down, picked me up, and opened the door to our parents’ room. Before putting me in the crib, I nudged him to put me back down on the floor. Arthur was a bit annoyed, but he still did it. I then zoomed around, trying to find Elaine. It took Arthur a bit to realize that Elaine could be hiding in one of these two rooms, so he joined me.

2 minutes remaining.

Shit. If only I could walk. However, I couldn’t worry about unimportant things like that. I needed to focus on finding Elaine. Both Arthur and I searched for a good bit, before we had figured that Elaine wasn’t here. Arthur then moved to his room, with me following close behind.

30 seconds.

I checked under the beds. Nothing. I checked in the closet. Nothing.

10 seconds left. Looks like this is going to be your first failed quest.

I cursed at myself for being too young, but I stopped. There was a pile of clothes on the ground, a pile that looked suspiciously big. Both Elaine and Arthur didn’t have that many clothes, being that we were common people. I also thought that Elaine would think that Arthur wouldn’t notice the difference in size of a seemingly normal pile of clothes. What if….. It didn't matter. I hurried over, almost tripping over my chubby legs.

5

I reached out my hand.

4

I grabbed a shirt.

3

I tried pulling on it.

2

My strength was weak, but it was enough.

1

I pulled off the shirt, revealing the laid figure of Elaine, smiling back at me.

“You found me!” Elaine squealed, with a beautiful heartwarming smile.

Quest completed.

I let out a sigh of relief as Arthur hobbled over.

“This is where you were? No wonder why I couldn’t find you. You’re always complaining about how I smell, so I would never think that you would hide under my used clothes.” Arthur muttered, but the trace of a slight smile betrayed his voice.

“Good job on finding me, Beric.” Elaine said as she pulled me in. She then gave me a big hug, as she squeezed my little body.

……....Why am I smiling?........Did I actually……find this fun? I thought back to those days when I was a child. I remembered my gray days as I sat in front of that blaring t.v. I thought back to elementary when no one would invite me to play with them. I thought back to when……I asked my parents for a brother……or even a sister. Is this what having siblings felt like? Because if so……….I would’ve liked it.

That being said, my smile quickly went away. Why? Well……would Elaine still smile at me like that when she finds out who I am? Would she ever smile at me in the future, 20 years from now, knowing that the 20 year old brother she knew and loved, housed the soul of a 37 year old man? Would she even…..love me anymore?........If we ever played hide and seek again in the future as adults, would she still be happy being found by me?