I became a father with a genius face in the game

Three hours later.

After being more or less escorted by the knights who rushed in, I found myself sitting in the bathroom of the lord’s mansion.

More precisely, I was sitting in front of the full-length mirror in the bathroom.

“A face that looks kind… A face that seems to have kind thoughts… A face that definitely doesn’t look like a villain…”

Every time I moved a muscle on my face, the man in the mirror awkwardly smiled as well.

It seemed like the muscles used for smiling hadn’t developed at all, as if he had never smiled in his life, but even that awkward expression was extremely handsome.

“Whoever designed this is amazing, seriously.”

I had become the person I had designed.

It seemed like an absurd thing to say, but the various painful experiments I had undergone in the carriage over the past three hours had proven this was not a dream, but reality.

‘At this point, I want to pray that if this is a dream, it never wakes me up.’

I sat on the edge of the large bathtub, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

Seymour Mausoleum.

True to his name as the villain, his face looked cold and composed. Especially with black hair and golden eyes, it reminded one of a leopard lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike at the neck.

‘What does that mean?’

It means he’s handsome.

No matter what expression he made, it suited him.

Even if I just stared blankly at the night sky, it would likely be described as, “His eyes, soaked with melancholy, were counting the stars in the night sky. Was that shining star his golden eyes, or Venus in the heavens?”

“It was worth the trouble.”

The face I had carefully crafted after numerous revisions was indeed worth it.

At the time, I had cursed the art director who kept rejecting my designs, but now, I’d bow deeply to them. After all, that face was now mine.

I rubbed my chin and admired my reflection in the mirror, murmuring to myself.

“Handsome really is the best. Every time I look in the mirror, it’s always new and exhilarating.”

I had thought my face back on Earth was decent, but compared to the characters in the game, it was nothing.

As I lowered my gaze slightly, I saw not the worn-out body from late-night work and midnight snacks, but a satisfying body, packed with muscles.

“Ugh…”

Looking in the mirror, I pronounced the sentence I had thought of countless times over the past three hours.

“A handsome face and perfect body given without any effort.”

How beautiful a sentence this was.

Though I had quite a deep understanding of literature, I could say that there was no sentence more beautiful than this in any book.

The even more beautiful fact was that this sentence had a second verse.

“An enormous amount of money and power given without shedding a single drop of sweat.”

Just pronouncing it made my tongue feel sweet. It was sweeter than any love words my first love had whispered in my ear.

I was starting to worry that I might develop diabetes at this rate.

“Hehehe…!”

I couldn’t control the villainous laugh that kept bubbling up.

– How did you end up possessed in the game world?

That’s not important. Honestly, I didn’t care much about it.

There are so many principles and laws in the world that I don’t understand, so I just thought one of those must have been at play.

– Then why were you possessed in the game world?

Right. The truly important question is “why?” And I know the answer.

It was the prayer I made just before I died on Earth. God answered it.

– “Please let me be born as a property owner in my next life. Let me do nothing but enjoy life and live off the riches.”

And so I became it.

The richest man in this empire.

And not just any man, but a young, handsome, and healthy one!

“Hehehe…!”

I had been a low-wage worker on Earth, but now, in this new world, I was a handsome platinum spoon who was in the top 0.001%?

Something as absurd as the title of a novel had happened to me.

“Hahahaha!”

Villainous plots? Scheming? Opposing the protagonist? Why bother?

I’m just going to live peacefully and die old.

Congrats.

A villain doing nothing.

The unprecedented declaration of a villain strike.

With this, both I and this world would surely achieve a peaceful, happy ending.

***

After my bath, I came out to the bedroom and waited for Lucis.

Lucis, who had returned to the mansion with me, had gone into the bath with a few maids.

As I waited, admiring the furniture, Lucis entered the bedroom after his bath.

But for some reason, the head maid beside him was completely drenched in sweat and bathwater.

Considering that the Mausoleum family was wealthy, I wondered if she had been the only one to help with the bath, and as I looked on in curiosity, the butler whispered quietly in my ear.

“Other maids were scared and refused to help with the bath.”

“Ah… I see.”

It made sense.

If someone suddenly told you to help bathe a dragon, let alone a young dragon whose intelligence was unknown, fear would be the first thing to come to mind.

“Even so, she refused to let anyone touch her, making it very difficult to help her with the bath.”

That was probably because dragons were known to have strong pride.

Especially until they became old and decrepit, dragons only allowed a very select few to get close to them.

‘If it were a ferocious hatchling, it might have been furious just at the thought of a human trying to bathe it.’

After guiding Lucis into the bedroom, the head maid bowed slightly and left the room.

As I approached, Lucis stared at me with a blank expression.

‘He looks even cuter after a bath.’

The child already had a cute and noble appearance, exuding a sacred aura, and after being washed clean, he looked even whiter, almost blindingly so.

I crouched down in front of the child and asked, “Lucis, would it be alright if I picked you up?”

“….”

“I thought it might be more comfortable for you to sit on the bed and talk.”

The child stared at me silently.

As I gazed into his large golden eyes, it felt like my soul was being seen through.

‘Is this the power of the dragon race?’

These eyes seemed like no one could ever lie while looking into them.

Thinking about it, Seymour, who used this child and ultimately planned to kill him, might have been impressive in his own way for different reasons.

At that moment, the child reached out his arms toward me.

For a moment, I didn’t understand what it meant.

“…Ah!”

Only then did I realize that it was a positive answer to my question.

I gently slipped my hand under the child’s armpits and carefully lifted him into my arms.

Whether the child was light or Seymour was strong, I couldn’t feel any weight at all.

Sitting on the bed while holding the child, I tried to place him down beside me.

“Hmm?”

But the child, as if he had no intention of leaving my arms, clung to me tightly.

Unlike the head maid who hadn’t even dared to touch him, the child seemed very content in my embrace.

‘Is it because of the Mausoleum blood running through me?’

The Mausoleum family had originated from a dragon of the same name.

The family began with the dragon Hyeomoryong Mausoleum, who transformed into a human and had a child with a woman through affection.

And the child in front of me was the daughter of that Mausoleum.

‘We’re very distant relatives.’

I looked at the child in my arms, and the child stared at me in return.

As we both gazed at each other, the butler chuckled softly.

“You two really resemble each other.”

Well, that would be true.

We were relatives, and most of all, I had designed it that way.

‘Especially the golden eyes, one of the symbols of the Mausoleum family.’

The child, perhaps liking my eyes, stared intently into them.

The child’s arms moved. They were chubby, like sausages.

I quietly watched as the child’s hand slowly moved toward my face, beginning to gently touch my eyes and cheeks.

I, too, cautiously curled my index finger and softly stroked the child’s cheek.

“Wow…”

I couldn’t help but let out an admiring sigh.

What should I say? It felt like I was touching cotton candy. The soft kind that seemed like it could melt away at any moment.

Lost in that addictive sensation, I absentmindedly stroked the child’s cheek and smiled. The child, perhaps tickled, let out a small laugh.

Even the way the child curled up their neck and giggled was angelically cute.

The child looked up at me with slightly sparkling eyes and opened their mouth.

“…Papa?”

The word “Papa” caused my heart to tighten, unexpectedly.

The child’s father, Mausoleum, had died a thousand years ago. As he passed away, he sealed his daughter, Lucis, in his mausoleum.

The child’s new father, Seymour Mausoleum, would eventually kill this child in the original story.

“…”

I was momentarily speechless. Seeing my sudden silence, the child tilted their head in confusion.

It was then.

Bang!

Without a knock, the bedroom door was thrown open roughly.

***

The loud shouting made me momentarily lose my bearings.

“Seymour! What on earth are you doing?!”

“How dare you enter the family’s sanctuary without permission!”

“Even if you’re blinded by the title of Count, how dare you break the family tradition?!”

“This is something we cannot overlook! The Black Dragon Society will make an even bigger issue of this!”

It seemed the people who had arrived were members of the family.

‘Now that I think about it, my younger sibling, who was scolding me in the mausoleum, mentioned that the collateral branches would cause a ruckus.’

Seymour’s backstory also involved the collateral branches.

However, since it was a minor part of the story and not very significant, it was only briefly mentioned.

– The first thing Seymour Mausoleum did after becoming a Count was to purge all the collateral branches.

This was set up to show Seymour’s cruelty…

Looking at the people shouting at me, I could understand a little now.

‘These people are just trying to take my title as Count, aren’t they?’

The previous Count, Seymour’s father, had died ten days ago.

The next Count should, by law, be Seymour, but the collateral branches would never allow that.

‘No wonder they’re an evil family.’

The Black Dragon, the Empty Dragon, the Betrayal Dragon, the Massacre Dragon.

All the negative nicknames for dragons in this world exist because of the Mausoleum family.

True to being a family that venerates the founding dragon, Mausoleum, they had a long history of shady dealings and backstabbing.

In such a family, Seymour, who couldn’t even use magic, would never be allowed to smoothly inherit the title of Count.

‘Seymour must have entered the mausoleum illegally and made a pact with Mausoleum to overcome this situation.’

The family’s sanctuary, Mausoleum’s mausoleum.

A place where even dragons dare not enter, yet Seymour took the gamble of walking in alone.

‘The problem with the collateral branches is that this gamble succeeded.’

Not only did Seymour gain magical power, but he also succeeded in awakening Mausoleum’s daughter.

At this rate, the title of Count will belong to Seymour. That’s why they are barking loudly, trying to manipulate the situation in their favor.

“Seymour, give us that hatchling now. Then we’ll use our power to smooth things over.”

“You know I have connections with the dragons, right? One letter and the Black Dragon Society will let this slide.”

“So listen to us. You’re still young and don’t understand.”

I listened to the words of the collateral branches without responding.

It was laughable.

‘When people become desperate, their emotions are so transparently visible.’

I could read many emotions from the eyes of the collateral elders as they babbled nonsense to me.

In this sudden situation, it seemed like their experience and social skills were failing them. While their mouths spoke of persuasion, their eyes were dripping with desperate desire.

‘People who almost had everything in their grasp, only to lose it, make these kinds of faces.’

It was quite a new experience for me.

Having been an orphan who never received a dime of inheritance, where else would I have encountered something like this?

I was intrigued, curious to see how this conversation would unfold.

“…Ugh.”

But it seemed the child thought differently.

“Quiet.”

Just those two words.

And the room fell silent.

“…”

“…”

“…”

I tried to swallow.

My frozen throat moved several times before I finally managed to swallow.

…gulp.

The sensation I struggled to swallow was not saliva, but something akin to acidic chemicals, and all I could feel was pain as my throat froze and dried up.

‘What was that?’

A sudden silence descended, as if I had fallen into space.

Even the faces of the collateral branches had turned pale, as if they had seen something terrifying.

Thud.

One noblewoman fainted and collapsed.

Rustle…

An elderly gentleman, standing, had inadvertently soiled himself.

It was only then that I realized.

‘Dragon’s blood.’

No matter how delicate, small, or cute it seemed.

The child in my arms was, after all, a supreme being.