Chapter 11

===================

Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Shiver, shiver.

Tie was, in the most literal sense, shivering as he pressed her body flat against Basto’s back.

In front of her was the entrance to a cave with a sinister atmosphere.

The name of this cave, not far from the gate, was Tenebraum.

“It used to be used as a food storage site. Then a magic stone formed inside and it became a monster base.”

At Veil’s added explanation, he swallowed hard.

At this very moment, Tie’s head was full of only one thought.

The thought of a tyrannosaurus leaping out of the cave with a terrifying roar.

If it opened its giant mouth wide, there would be a hundred jagged teeth in there……

“Sc-scary……”

Her body shrank on its own.

Tie watched Basto and Veil cautiously.

In the end, Tie ended up being excluded from this conquest.

Because Basto had stubbornly opposed it, saying it would be dangerous even if it was only a small magic stone.

At first, he had thought about trying to pester Mister Basto over it.

But after hearing the tyrannosaurus story, she could not push any farther.

‘Maybe…… conquering a magic stone isn’t something as easy as I thought.’

Looking back, Daddy had said things like that too.

‘There are many kinds of monsters to begin with. That makes their attacks hard to predict.’

Flying monsters, monsters shaped like humans, even monsters with five legs.

‘That’s why letting your guard down when conquering a magic stone is forbidden. If you loosen up even a little, you get badly hurt. Actually, until now Daddy was toning it down so Tie wouldn’t get startled, okay? Remember this. Monsters are incredibly scary bastards.’

In the end, she had no choice but to admit it.

‘Tie was being way too careless.’

She had only heard about them with words. Tie had never actually seen a monster.

And in that state, he had said he would blindly follow Mister Basto and Oppa Veil.

‘I can’t be a spoiled child!’

It seemed Mister Basto had also told Tie to wait outside because of that.

“Then, Astie.”

Just then, Basto bent one knee to the ground.

When Tie got down from her broad back, Basto said seriously,

“Wait outside with Grandpa Nordix. We will return before daybreak.”

Tie turned her head.

A few steps away, an old man in a gray robe was wearing a kind smile.

“Don’t worry too much, child. Up until now, not even once have the monsters come outside the cave.”

The old man’s name, whom they had met at the gate and come here with, was Nordix.

He was apparently an old friend of the inn grandfather, and his job was, what was it again?

A wo…… for…… who looked at stars and predicted the future……?

“A fortune teller, idiot.”

As if he had read Tie’s thoughts, Veil cut in.

Veil curled up one corner of his mouth and sneered.

“That stuff about you being smart was all lies, right?”

Tie froze in shock, then flared up.

“It, it’s not? Tie is really smart, okay? Teacher and my friends all said Tie is smart, and just now I only forgot for a second……!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Veil interrupted while scrubbing Tie’s crown with his hand.

“While you’re waiting, just stay here and listen well, all right~? Don’t cry just because I’m not here.”

“Tie doesn’t cry! Because I’m not a little kid!”

Veil’s eyes went round, then his whole face took on a mischievous look.

“You’re definitely a little kid, though? When you first met Basto, you were dripping tears and snot everywhere while asking him to save you, right?”

“Eek……!”

With both eyes blazing up, Tie thrust out her chest and stamped her foot.

“Tie is a child! Not a little kid, a! child!”

Veil tilted his head.

“……And what’s the difference between that and a little kid.”

“It’s different! A little kid, no, a child is.”

Her head spun round and round.

A little kid was what adults called Tie when they were dismissing her.

And child was what they used when they were respecting Tie!

But when she actually tried to explain it, it was complicated and her tongue got twisted.

“A, a little kid is what you say in ‘a spoiled little kid’! And a child is……”

“Pfft, then what about little one? What about baby? Then young thing is different from little kid too? And old man and elderly person are different too, I guess? Why don’t you just say youngster and young person are different too, squirt.”

“Th-that!”

It was the moment Veil doubled over laughing at the sight of Tie’s dizzy eyes.

“That’s enough, both of you.”

With a sigh, Basto stepped between them.

Tie, though offended, kept her mouth tightly shut, unlike Veil, who stuck out his tongue at her to the very end.

Basto bowed his waist to Nordix.

“I entrust Astie to you.”

“I wish you good fortune.”

The forest had already grown dark.

That meant the time when monsters would move was drawing near.

Tenebraum was a rather deep and large cave.

Inside, where it was shaped like a maze, there were small magic stones scattered here and there.

Basto and Veil were planning to conquer one of them, but

‘Honestly, I’m a little uneasy.’

Veil knew too that Basto was skilled.

Last night, just in case, he had even gone so far as to buy information on him at the black market.

To his surprise, Basto Faerix really did have quite an impressive background.

After losing his family in Ban-Anra Village, he had become a wanderer, but before that he had been the vice-captain of Death Hound.

‘Personally it’s unfortunate, but it might be good for me?’

In this line of work, there is a level only those who have lost something precious can reach.

When a warrior finally throws away his very self.

That level one reaches when one excludes emotion and entrusts oneself only to primal instincts like vengeance and rage.

For no reason, Veil said to Basto,

“Just so you know, I’m going to do my absolute best.”

“The same goes for me.”

Before entering the cave, the two men looked at Tie one last time.

Tie was staring at Basto with a somewhat gloomy face.

“Goodbye, Mister Basto……”

At that face which said he was worried sick, Veil flared up.

“Hey! What about me!”

Only then did Tie turn her gaze toward Veil.

And she gave a small, reluctant wave.

“……Come back safe too, Oppa.”

Veil resisted the smile trying to form on his lips and stepped inside.

‘Yeah, well.’

There was no point dragging things out any longer at the gate anyway.

As he stepped deeper in, Veil switched on a searchlight powered by a magic crystal stone.

From far ahead, the cry of something unsettling echoed out.

* * *

Tie settled down under an elm tree about five minutes away from the cave.

Even though Grandpa Nordix’s back was bent, he was someone who could pitch a tent just as neatly as Basto.

“Jax gave me some jerky.”

For dinner, he ate two whole pieces of jerky that Grandpa Nordix held out.

That jerky, which he said the inn grandfather had given him, was very salty and savory.

When darkness had settled over everything and stars rose in the sky.

The fortune-teller grandfather began nodding off.

Tie, on the other hand, could not fall asleep easily.

He knew Mister Basto and Oppa Veil were both really strong, but……

Needlessly worried, she hugged the kindergarten backpack holding Kkamangi.

It had already been a week since Kkamangi returned into the stone.

‘At first I thought he’d come out again really soon.’

The longer Kkamangi stayed asleep, the more uneasy Tie became.

When she secretly opened the bag without Grandpa Fortune Teller noticing, she saw the black, shiny stone.

“Kkamangi, wake up quickly.”

I’ve got so much to tell you.

She had been staring at the stone for quite a while when.

Rumble-

Suddenly, heaven and earth shook.

Startled, Tie put Kkamangi into the bag and raised her head.

She saw a red light flashing over there.

Just as she was fixing her gaze on that light as if entranced,

“Child!”

Suddenly Grandpa Nordix grabbed the back of Tie’s neck and yanked.

Before she even had time to be surprised, Tie tumbled backward and rolled across the ground.

Kwaaang-!

And the next moment, a giant fireball crashed down right in front of her.

Tie was so startled that she forgot even to breathe and froze rigidly in place.

The place now roaring with flames because of the fallen fireball was

the very place where Tie and the grandfather had been just moments before.