A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 108

Chapter 108

* * *

Sniffling, Tie shoved a third tart into her mouth.

“Tie, you should be eating porridge. How many snacks have you eaten already?”

Basto scolded, but Tie only shook his head from side to side.

“Tie doesn’t want carrot porridge.”

Then, lest someone snatch it away, he quickly pulled the plate with the tarts into his arms.

The tarts were piled high with figs cooked down in honey.

To Tie, it was an enormously delicious snack, the first she had ever eaten in her life.

“Tarru is way better.”

“…It’s not tarru, it’s tart.”

Veil corrected him, but Tie just shrugged.

Tie had only stopped crying a short while ago.

It had happened when the food Adeline sent arrived in the room while he was still sniffling in Veil’s arms.

‘Whether that woman got to meet her mother or not, what does that have to do with you, huh? I keep telling you not to help other people while wrecking your own body when you can’t even take care of yourself, and yet you keep stepping up saying you’ll help other people and end up sick like this…!’

The tears Veil showed in front of the members for the first time lasted longer than expected.

For quite a while she held Tie tightly and cried.

Of course, Tie in no way lost even against a crying Veil.

‘But Tie lost family too, just like big sister! Don’t you know that losing family is so sad that you have to help?’

Looking at Tie, who was going through mana depletion and yet still talking back point by point, Veil let out a sigh.

But in truth, Tie had been badly startled too.

Until now Tie had not known exactly what mana depletion was.

Because the strength he felt inside his body had never once been lacking or overflowing.

But today something had been different.

‘Is it because Tie had a cold….?’

Or because he had recently begun sharing mana with Ppuppu, who had newly joined them?

The very moment he manifested Stasia, an unbearable chill had come over his body.

Would it feel like that if one starved for a hundred days, a thousand days, and had not even the strength to move a single hand?

Still, after sleeping and waking, she felt much better, so Tie had been able to reassure the members.

It was then that someone knocked on the room door where the members were resting.

When they opened it, a servant was standing before the room with a tray piled full of food.

“His Lordship said to send this up. She is in the middle of handling the situation downstairs and asked me to say she will come see you as soon as the business is finished.”

Tie soon understood the situation.

Now that she had regained her position, Adeline would surely have many things she needed to do.

According to what Basto had said, Adeline had already called in the villagers and was repairing the underground prison.

Because they would need to repair the prison in order to confine Reginald and the bad soldiers.

After wiping her runny nose, Tie looked over the food.

The thing that stood out most on the tray was without question the steaming hot soup in the large dish.

But….

“Why is this orange?”

The problem was that the soup was a vivid orange color.

The servant answered with a very benevolent smile.

“This is the kitchen head’s special menu, carrot soup.”

“No… no thanks.”

At this point one had to wonder why carrots existed no matter where he went.

Tie’s dislike of carrots had a long history dating all the way back to the Republic of Korea.

And yet the first day he crossed over into this world and met Basto, there had been carrot soup.

The meal he had nearly been forced to eat at the gate inn had been carrot soup.

And now, the food he was being given after waking from his first experience of mana depletion in his life was carrot soup too….

Tie climbed down from the bed with a grave expression and looked over the lower tier of the tray.

And he found several other foods that seemed to be desserts.

As a result, the thing finally chosen by Tie was this tart.

“All done!”

When he set the plate down, Veil shook his head.

Then he brushed away the crumbs at the corner of the child’s mouth and asked,

“You said you were hungry. Does dessert fill you up?”

Tie grinned.

“Uung, because it’s sweet and nice.”

“…You’re going to get excited and run around mindlessly again later.”

Whenever Tie ate sweet things, she tended to become happy very quickly.

There had been more than one or two times when, suddenly full of extra energy, he made the members’ lives difficult.

In the end Veil let out a quiet laugh.

‘Is it because he’s so small.’

The idea that just a little sugar could give him enough energy to bounce around was somehow cute.

He soon picked up a steamed potato from another dish on the tray and held it out.

“At least eat this too. No matter what, you can’t stop after eating only snacks.”

Though grumbling, Tie accepted the potato Veil held out.

It was as the child took a big bite out of the cooled potato, easy for her to eat.

Noise suddenly rose outside the door, and someone flung it open.

“Astie!”

The one entering, sweating profusely, was Nordix.

“H, how did this happen? I heard there was a battle at the lord’s castle!”

All the members looked at Nordix with startled faces.

“And what is this about Reginald being captured! I knew nothing, I was just asking the villagers for help and changing the carriage wheels! To run away at once the moment Veil returned….!”

Silence fell over the room.

Having set down the potato, Astie looked around in bewilderment.

“Didn’t anyone tell Grandpa Nordix we came here?”

Everyone dazedly looked at each other.

“We, well, we were going to.”

“I’m sorry. I forgot that I was supposed to go bring him….”

“Old man. Are you all right?”

Nordix looked around at the members with a dumbfounded face.

Soon his legs gave out, and he dropped down in the doorway.

* * *

While eating the carrot soup Tie had left behind, Nordix said,

“The villagers are quite skillful.”

He was emptying the dish at tremendous speed, perhaps because he was hungry.

“Perhaps grateful that Veil gave Reginald what he deserved, the young men all came in a crowd. They put metal rims on the wheels, and even reinforced the axle with fine oak from who knows where.”

Basto’s eyes grew round.

“Is that really true?”

“Yes. One carriage the governor gave us, they completely redid the internal structure. They stripped the floor of the cargo compartment and laid straw down. It’s a bed compartment now.”

At the word bed, Tie’s mouth fell open.

“Then can we sleep in the carriage now?”

“Yes. Though we’ll have to use it in turns.”

“Waaah…!”

It was then.

“Then when will we depart for the imperial capital?”

Raul asked.

Looking at Veil, who was wrapped in bandages all over, he added,

“Since Sir Veil’s injuries are severe, I don’t think it would be bad to rest a little longer before we leave.”

Nordix stroked the tip of his chin.

“That is the problem. I also think it might be better to stay a little longer, but when I think of looking for a base in the imperial capital, it also seems that time may be somewhat tight.”

Enzo nodded.

Indeed, to purchase a mansion they would surely have to spend at least three days looking around from place to place.

“If we don’t have a place to stay, we’ll end up wandering inns again….”

Nordix looked steadily at Tie.

“And if that happens, I think Astie will end up drawing all kinds of attention.”

Draw attention?

Wouldn’t that be good then?

Astie’s eyes grew round, but the other members were sunk in serious thought.

“True enough. Considering what we’ve done until now….”

Ever since passing through the gate.

Agabert had, quite literally, been constantly getting entangled in one incident after another.

“…What happened in the weapons district does worry me.”

Of them all, the biggest incident had, as Veil said, been what happened in the weapons district.

The incident where it became known that Astie had destroyed Krazar’s core.

“Obviously information brokers are going to swarm. And there are many eyes in the imperial capital, so we’ll have no choice but to pay attention even to small things….”

‘How is it any different from binding a child so that he cannot even freely act spoiled in front of people?’

More than anything, the words Velugon had said in the weapons district remained on their minds.

It was when the members were each falling into thought.

“Don’t worry. There is a place where you can stay right away.”

The door opened, and Adeline appeared.

She entered, taking off the cloak she had been wearing.

“The townhouse in the imperial capital that I said I had bought. I kept feeling troubled that I had only left it empty all this time….”

As she looked at Tie, a complicated smile came to her face.

“Maybe it was only waiting to find its owner like this.”