A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 111
Chapter 111
* * *
Inside the carriage.
Lucarion, with a sullen expression, looked at Tie, who was sitting across from her.
For a while now, Tie had been leaning against the wall and humming a tune.
“Love is a frozen dooorr~”
At the incomprehensible lyric, Veil muttered,
“What do you keep freezing from earlier? Squirt, do you even know what love is?”
“Yes!”
Seeing Tie’s bright expression, Veil let out a hollow laugh.
“Know it, my ass. Play house twice and next you’ll be saying you’re getting married too, huh?”
The bright green eyes of Tie grew round in an instant.
“Tie really is going to get married though?”
“Hahaha!”
Nordix, who had been listening, burst into hearty laughter.
With a benevolent smile, he asked,
“Astie. Do you want to get married later, when you’ve grown up?”
“Yees!”
At the brave answer, Raul and Enzo turned their heads with curious faces.
Tie hugged the teddy bear orb she had been holding, then puffed out her chest and answered.
“Tie, when Tie gets married later, Tie’s going to wear a princess dress.”
“A princess dress?”
“Yees! Two of them, even! For the procession dress, Tie’s going to wear the fluttery one underneath, and when greeting people, Tie decided to wear the mammoth dress!”
“Mammo, what?”
“The mammoth dress!”
At the members’ bewildered looks, Tie tilted her head inwardly.
Come to think of it, wasn’t it a mammoth dress?
Anyway.
The child made her eyes shine again.
“And then Tie and Tie’s spouse are going to live together for a super, super long time.”
For something made up by a four-year-old, it was a more concrete plan than expected.
Exchanging glances with the others, Raul asked,
“By the way, Commander, where did you learn all of that?”
Tie at once put on a dignified expression.
“Tie heard moms talking about it at the playground. And marriage is in fairy tales too, and on TV too.”
“TV?”
“Yees! But….”
Tie unconsciously shut her mouth.
That was because a few wedding scenes she had seen on TV suddenly flashed through her mind.
Marriage on TV was, how should one put it.
In a different way from the kind that appeared in Disney animations or fairy tales, it was incredible.
Tie opened her mouth, making her voice serious.
“If the groom cheats and they divorce, then after that they marry again. Then the first wife cries and cries.”
Everyone’s eyes widened, but Tie shrugged and went on.
“Then they grab hair like this and say, hey! Did you steal my husband! Ohhohot! Then you should’ve managed your husband properly! And they fight.”
Raul, swallowing wrong, cleared his throat.
Veil added as if dumbfounded,
“Wh, what in the world is TV that it’s teaching you filthy romantic drama like that, huh?”
Tie looked at Veil as if asking how he could not know.
“Oppa. It didn’t teach it, it showed it. And it isn’t like TV having lots of problems is something that only started yesterday or today.”
After that, she copied the tone of the grandmother in Unit 107 as if to say no more needed to be said.
“The world is harsh, you see….”
As Tie shrugged and began humming again, the members fell silent.
Before they knew it, the child was once again looking out the window with a bright face.
At that moment, the sky was wonderfully clear.
‘It was raining when we first arrived at big sister Adeline’s village, though.’
Now even the chilly weather had eased to the point that it was not cold even with the window left open.
‘Now if we sleep just three more nights, the imperial capital!’
Thinking that, Tie laughed, saying, “Ehehe.”
Before they left Caldenvine Ridge, Basto had said,
‘The food, the drinking water. We’ve packed just about everything, and Veil has recovered too, so we plan to depart immediately.’
‘Waa-!’
‘If we go without resting, we should arrive within four days.’
When she heard those words, Tie’s heart beat so hard she almost couldn’t stand it.
It had already been quite a while since Kkamang had brought her into this world.
She had stopped counting the days, but it was certain that at least thirty, no, well over forty nights had passed.
‘But now all Tie has to do is go to the imperial capital, go to High Commander-nim’s house, and then check the Holy Knights organization chart.’
Then, at last, she would be able to learn what Daddy’s real name was.
And where Daddy was now would be revealed too.
‘When Tie meets Daddy again… Daddy won’t recognize Tie.’
But that was okay.
Because with Daddy in this world, everything would be starting over from the beginning.
Tie promised herself that she would no longer feel hurt over that kind of thing.
After all, every relationship needs time.
If even making new friends at kindergarten is like that, then how much more so?
Her heart pounded.
‘Grandma in Unit 107 said that if you do things one by one, slowly, everything works out.’
So Tie would live bravely.
Taking care of the members as a mercenary, until the day she could tell Daddy all the truth someday!
The child hugged the teddy bear tightly and rested her chin on the window ledge.
Both rosy cheeks were full of anticipation.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the Central Branch of the Imperial Capital Reward Office.
“What’s this?”
Director Ornel, who was reviewing the documents that had come up from the east, furrowed his brows.
In his hand was a single sheet of paper with the word Agabert written on it.
“Who are these people that their projected ranking jumped this much? From 39th to 12th.”
Mercenary companies whose ranking rose this steeply were rare.
Even when Trevaga had been in its prime, it had not been this much.
At last Ornel ground out the cigar he had been smoking against the saucer under a flowerpot.
Then he waved the document above his head.
“Remi. If there are any attached documents for this, bring them here.”
At those words, someone popped their head out from between the bookshelves opposite.
It was a young woman with hollow eyes beneath them and messy hair.
“Agabert attached documents… just a moment, where did I put that.”
The woman poked around at one desk and another, then let out an ah!
He clipped the paper he had found into a file and brought it to Ornel.
“It looks like it got omitted because it came directly from headquarters this morning.”
Stamped large on the paper she held out was the emblem of the Holy Knights.
It meant that the document in question was, remarkably, one that had been reviewed by the High Commander of House Luminen, who commanded the entire order.
“Let’s see, official headquarters document. Document number 3393….”
Ornel’s eyes grew serious.
Sure enough.
Inside the document was content regarding Agabert’s ranking increase.
But among it, one word in particular caught his eye.
“Krazar?”
Krazar was supposed to be an enormous monster that even Valentis Luminen had struggled with for five days long ago, wasn’t it?
And yet such a monster had revived,
“And the Necromancer King alone destroyed it….?”
At that mutter, the subordinate staff member who had been turning away froze in place.
And it wasn’t only Remi.
Everyone in the Central Branch who had been in the middle of work looked at Ornel.
Ornel calmly continued reading the document.
“H, headquarters has reached a conclusion regarding the recent controversial ‘occurrence of subspace’ and ‘reappearance of an ancient monster,’ based on in-depth review and reports from related institutions….”
[Headquarters has defined the relevant matter as ‘the revival of the ancient monster Krazar.’
The one who handled and concluded this matter is Agabert’s Necromancer King (alias), and that action is to be classified as the individual conquest of a large-scale magic stone.
The Reward Office (Central Branch) is to take measures regarding future changes in Agabert’s ranking in accordance with headquarters’ instructions.]
Ornel swallowed hard.
Hesitating, he picked up Agabert’s file again.
On the document.
The number written beside the words, ‘ranking change for the applicable quarter,’ was clearly visible.
“From 39 to 12.”
He stared blankly at the paper.
Was this possible?
If it was, then their growth trend was faster than that of Trevaga, wasn’t it?
At last, only after a long while, Ornel lifted his seal with a dazed face.
Soon the sound of the stamp slamming down on the signature line rang out through the office.
It was the moment when Astie’s ‘fresh mercenary company,’ Agabert, settled into 12th place in the continental rankings.
And, four days after that.
Under the night sky over the center of the imperial capital, where the moon shone brightly.
Agabert’s carriage, running along the paved road, jolted.