Griseo, Who Never Grew Up?

Belle carried Griseo up to the third floor of the video store. Only after expertly putting her shoes on did she let go.

Originally, Random Play had only two floors.

The first floor was a video store on the surface, while the back room housed the HDD system Wise and Belle used for Proxy work. The second floor was Belle and her brother Wise's bedroom.

So when Griseo first arrived, she could only squeeze into a room with Belle.

Whenever she painted, she had to set up an easel, and paint often got smeared everywhere.

As a result, that period had been rather inconvenient for all three of them.

But before long, the Cereal Siblings witnessed Griseo's terrifying charm and earning ability.

In just a few months, Griseo had become Sixth Street's beloved darling, adored by everyone from retired gang bosses to school students.

Whether human, Thiren, Intelligent Construct, or Bangboo... no one was spared!

Even more surprisingly, Griseo's paintings were not only beautiful—the hidden editions carried incredibly magical effects. Everyone who got one sang their praises!

One day, while balancing the accounts, the Cereal Siblings stared blankly at the balance in their bank card for quite a while.

There was no other reason: Griseo earned more Denny in a month than the two of them made from a year of gray-income Proxy work.

Griseo had no clear concept of whether money was a lot or a little, so the Cereal Siblings kept it for her!

Until half a year ago, the Cereal Siblings withdrew all their savings, took out a loan, and renovated the video store.

The newly built third floor was entirely for Griseo's bedroom and studio.

Belle pushed open the door to the third-floor studio.

The afternoon sunlight was just right, slanting in through the floor-to-ceiling windows and falling across the scattered drawing boards.

The scent of paint mingled with the smell of sunlight, making the entire room feel soft and warm.

Griseo was crouched by the window, mixing paints. Barefoot beneath the afternoon sun, the soles of her feet gleamed with the luster of mother-of-pearl...

"Griseo."

Griseo looked up and saw the shoes in Belle's hands. Her little lips immediately pressed together.

Griseo had always been reluctant to wear shoes.

She wanted to struggle a little, but surrendered under Belle's unwavering gaze—obediently extending her feet and letting Belle slip the shoes on.

"Let me measure your height." Belle walked to a corner of the studio and stopped beside a simple scale. Height markings had been drawn on the wall beside it.

Griseo put down her brush, pattered over, and stepped onto the scale.

Belle bent down and stared at the wavering numbers for a while.

"Thirty-nine kilograms, and her height..." Belle looked up at the markings on the wall, her brows knitting slightly. "One hundred and forty-five centimeters?"

Belle looked at Griseo again, then at the markings, muttering in confusion, "That's strange. She hasn't gotten taller or heavier in a year?"

Belle was utterly baffled as she looked at the exact same numbers from a year ago!

Didn't people say children grew quickly?

And their meals had certainly been good this past year!

If the neighbors found out about these numbers, they would think she and her brother were mistreating Griseo!

"Belle, what's wrong?" Griseo tilted up her little face, her sky-blue hair hanging softly by her ears.

Hearing Belle's words, she instinctively rose onto her tiptoes and stretched her tiny body upward—then her hair reached the 147-centimeter mark on the wall.

Belle froze for a moment. The sight of the little girl standing on tiptoe filled her vision, and she could not help but laugh.

She reached out, gently rubbed Griseo's head, and said, "It's nothing. I'm just jealous that Griseo can grow without gaining weight."

The afternoon sunlight slanted across the studio, bathing every painting. Those artworks seemed to come alive.

Officer Mewmew hung on the wall, along with Master Chop from the ramen shop, Master Tinman from the coffee shop, and their own Bangboos, Eous and Little 18...

Belle looked through them all, then stopped.

"Wait!!"

She frowned, pointing at the paintings as she wondered what was wrong!

"Officer Mewmew, Master Chop, Master Tinman, Eous, Little 18... Why are they all neighbors from the street? Where are my brother and I?!"

"So my brother and I rank this low in Griseo's heart!"

Having found the problem, Belle drew out her words, clutched her chest, and put on a heartbroken expression.

Griseo blinked, looking at Belle in confusion. Her little face was full of incomprehension. Then she slowly raised her hand and pointed toward the window.

"Hm?"

Belle followed the direction of her finger and saw a line of writing beneath the blinds—

Thank you, Princess of The Stars. Let's trade again next time!

At the end was an eyepatch, beside a sparkling heart.

Belle stared at that line for three seconds.

"Th-This was Trigger? When did she come?"

Griseo tilted her head and thought back seriously. "Um, Trigger was here all night yesterday."

"!!!! How did I not know? And then?" Several exclamation marks seemed to rise above Belle's head.

"When Trigger left today, she said she wanted all the portraits of Brother Wise."

Belle opened her mouth.

"You gave them to her?"

Griseo nodded.

"And there was a buy-one-get-one-free offer, so I threw in Sister Belle too."

Belle's expression froze. She complained, "...What do you mean, you threw me in? Am I that worthless?"

"Sister Belle, do you know what color that was?"

Griseo's gaze fell on the line by the window as she asked, "When Trigger looked at Brother Wise's portrait... it was red and warm, more scorching than hope, deeper than Despair!"

Sunlight leaked through the gaps in the blinds, laying streaks of light across her sky-blue hair.

Belle stood where she was, looking at Griseo's profile. Suddenly, she could not say anything.

After a year together, she had come to understand what some of the colors in Griseo's words represented.

"It should be... love!" Thinking of her brother's absurdly good luck with women, and the story between him and Trigger, Belle gave her answer.

But if "more scorching than hope" was romantic love, what was "deeper than Despair"?

Twisted love? A yandere's possessiveness? Or a lovestruck pervert's obsession?

After all, when properly attuned, Griseo's paintings could come to life.

"Love?"

Hearing Belle's answer, Griseo immediately entered a state of realization. Fortunately, Belle reacted quickly enough to catch her.

"Persistent flowers never lose their color to a storm, blooming their True Self in desperate straits♪"

"From this day on, stars shall shine, because I have now been here."

"From this day on, a hundred flowers shall bloom, because I have never left."

While Belle was still dazed, Griseo quietly repeated something.

A point of pink light lit up between her brows, then slowly condensed into a pink crystal flower.

[Pure and Flawless]—that was the first phrase that came to Belle's mind.

At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded from the stairway.

"Belle, that pink light just now?"

It was Wise. He stopped at the doorway, his gaze falling on Griseo.

The siblings watched the crystal flower floating above her, neither of them moving.

A moment later, the crystal petals turned into tiny motes of light that gently fell into Griseo's brow and vanished.

The studio fell quiet. Everything was exactly as it had been a few minutes earlier, except Griseo was peacefully asleep in Belle's arms.

"It's fine, Brother. Griseo probably awakened some kind of power again."

Belle skillfully carried Griseo into the bedroom, then quietly slipped out and gently shut the door.

Wise was still standing in the studio. Seeing her come out, he nodded as well—clearly, this was not the first time they had seen something like this.