How to Raise a Sentinel Cub

[Upcoming novel: When You Share Senses with the Top Student in School. Please add it to your collection!]

Synopsis:

How does a single Guide raise a three-and-a-half-year-old Sentinel cub?

Qin You planted his hands on his hips and looked down at the curly-haired, blond kid, both of them staring at each other.

In the first year of the Interstellar Era, the Federation's need for Sentinels and Guides surged, so it introduced a new policy:

Every New Human had to take in a government-assigned child between the ages of 19 and 21 and teach them how to adapt to their awakening period.

Newly appointed ace soldier Qin You didn't think much of it.

How hard could it be to raise a Sentinel? Just grab their mental web and give them a good beating. They'll fall in line soon enough.

Reality taught him a lesson.

In just three months, the two of them turned each other's lives upside down.

Chu Xuyang was three and a half, had lost both his parents, and was very mature for his age.

On the first day he met Qin You, he cried his eyes out after Qin You upset him:

"I wanna go back!"

In the chaos, Qin You's spirit animal, a male, stubbornly treated Chu Xuyang as its own cub, and kept thinking about licking his fur every day.

Three months later, Qin You sent the child away with a huge sigh of relief, then found a glowing egg in his room.

Good news: The cub had awakened as a Sentinel.

Bad news: The cub had left his spirit animal, still unhatched, on Qin You's pillow.

Years later, the two met again. Chu Xuyang had become a troublesome new recruit under Qin You, but refused to admit his embarrassing past no matter what.

No problem.

Major Qin sneered and pulled out a photo album

Chu Xuyang: That's hilarious. Who can't photoshop?

Qin You kindly pointed at the floor, where someone's spirit animal was blissfully rubbing itself against his calf.

They say the three things in the world that are hardest to hide are poverty, a cough, and a spirit animal's love.

Important:

There is no romance while the child is young. The two are not related by blood and have no teacher-student relationship.

Setting:

The age of the great planets, when New Humans awaken.

Sentinels have five powerful senses and exceptional physical abilities. They are natural-born warriors.

Guides have powerful empathic abilities. They protect the fragile mental defenses of Sentinels and are also rulers of the mental realm.

Worldbuilding:

1. Sentinels and Guides awaken between the ages of four and eight. The sign of awakening is hatching their spirit animal.

2. Spirit forms are considered higher-dimensional beings, made manifest from the mental worlds of Sentinels and Guides. Their form and classification depend on many factors, including their owner's personality, abilities, and childhood experiences.

3. The overall tone of this novel is cheerful and lighthearted. The first third is about raising a child, and time skips become the norm in the middle and later sections.

This synopsis was written on February 16, 2023.

Upcoming novel: A High School Boy's Daily Life Living with Ghosts

Synopsis:

Song He inherited an old house and transferred to a high school in a small town.

The caretaker bluntly told him that the house was "unclean." With nowhere else to go, he could only grit his teeth and move in.

Lu Chuan moved out of his uncle's house with his younger brother, Lu Yu. They slept under a bridge and scraped by with part-time jobs. When they unexpectedly stepped into Song He's home, the strange noises in the courtyard abruptly stopped. It turned out he was naturally gifted at driving away evil spirits.

After encountering another ghost, Song He was so scared that he fled in the middle of the night and ran to the river to find the brothers. An idea struck him: "Want to rent my house? Five hundred for a single room!" Seeing Lu Chuan look stunned, he hastily lowered the price. "One hundred! One hundred is enough!"

Lu Chuan furrowed his brows but still didn't answer. Song He went all in and raised the offer: "Room and board included! I'll tutor your brother for free!"

"Deal."

But after they moved in together, everything was completely turned around!

The room and board Song He had promised became him being the one who ate. He slept in every day until the last possible moment, while Lu Chuan, who had been begged to move in, wore an apron to fry eggs and heat milk, then had to ask Lu Yu to go wake him up with a look of exasperation.

The free tutoring took place at night. Song He casually went to the bathroom and "happened" to call Lu Yu along. With his hands in his pockets, Lu Yu exchanged a helpless look with his brother leaning against the doorway, then stood guard outside.

"Lu Yu, you're still there, right?"

"Yeah, " He rolled his eyes.

Sure enough, nothing in life comes for free.

Note: This novel is about three high school boys living together in a friendly way. It's mostly slice-of-life with a mildly frightening backdrop.

An optimistic, lively uke x a steady, fatherly older brother | a younger brother who's tough on the outside but soft at heart

Theme: Treating others with kindness is treating yourself with kindness