A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Basto fell into thought as he looked at Tie’s back.
‘Is this a relief?’
Because she had put on the uniform at the end, Tie was in a state where only her face peeked out over the black cloak.
Naturally, none of the clothes he had prettily dressed up in for once could be seen.
Of course, since the situation was that information brokers would follow wherever they went, it was better for him to stand out a little less no matter what, but……
“Wow. A clock tower!”
Tie, sitting at the front of the cart, cried out softly.
The child had been looking here and there at the streets with curious eyes since a little while ago.
At this moment, there was a reason the child had obediently climbed onto the cart.
Last evening.
Basto had made a space where Tie could sit at the front of the cart that would carry the cores.
When Tie saw that this morning, she immediately asked with a worried face.
‘But, if the Necromancer King goes riding in a cart, doesn’t that look like a baby?’
But Basto quickly shook his head.
‘No, not a baby, he’ll look like a king.’
‘A king……?’
‘Yes. They say that in the place where I used to live, long ago kings used to ride in things like this. It’s fine.’
At those words Tie immediately let down her guard and made an excited expression.
‘Tie is riding in a palanquin…… then His Majesty the Necromancer King?’
He did not know what a palanquin was, but anyway, it was a relief that the child had changed her mind.
If Tie had stubbornly insisted on walking again, it would have worried her in various ways.
And on the other hand.
In Basto’s opinion, it seemed Tie no longer needed to try so hard to pretend to be an adult.
Because,
‘The rumors about Tie too have now spread as far as they can and have caught a current.’
These days the rumors surrounding Tie were enough to create new rumors themselves.
Enough that even if a relaxed Tie showed childlike behavior outside, most people would think this.
‘That Necromancer King, isn’t she really creepy?’
‘Of course he is! Would any normal human go around like that?! Pretending to be a child when he’s a fully grown man, give me a break!’
‘But say, could he perhaps really be a child?’
‘Hahaha, would a child siege a large magic stone? Would a child deal with the monster that even that Valentis Luminen struggled with for five days? Don’t talk nonsense.’
‘I guess that’s true?’
‘Yes. And there are an enormous number of people who say they’ve seen the Necromancer King’s true form, you know? They say he’s five times the size of an ordinary person.’
Basto, wearing a complicated expression, pushed the cart.
‘Is this going well, or not going well.’
People believed without question in the fabricated image of Tie as the Necromancer King.
For some reason, testimonies saying they had seen Tie’s true form were even continuing to come out.
‘That can’t be.’
From his skin being blue, to his height being abnormally large.
To his having three arms, or changing his appearance every time so no one knew his real identity.
‘Tie’s true form is just Tie…… is it because the Marquis Waveril house has steadily been doing work under the surface.’
If nothing else, it was certain that the situation was taking a strange turn.
It was then.
“Mister Basto! There’s the reward office over there!”
Tie cried out from the front.
At the child’s face full of a bright smile, Basto ended up snorting with laughter.
Tie looked brighter and happier than at any point she had seen recently.
Even if he did not say it, it seemed he was inwardly happy to have arrived in the imperial capital and found a place to stay.
“Right.”
Perhaps because they had come out early in the morning, there were not many people in the streets.
It seemed to be because the crowds who had enjoyed the festival until late last night had all gone home.
Just as Tie and Basto stopped the cart in front of the Central Branch of the reward office.
“What’s that?”
The child tilted his head.
In the distance, a group of Holy Knights came into view, turning around from the right side of the office.
“Your Excellency!”
Just then, someone who had run out from inside the office ran toward the man standing at the very front of the group of Holy Knights.
When the man turned his head, the emblem of the Holy Knights fastened to his chest came into view.
Judging by the fact that there were a lot of things attached to it, he was unquestionably a knight in quite a high position.
“Has the core been processed?”
Cold green eyes were revealed beneath swept-back blond hair.
“Yes! They say tabulation was delayed a bit because of the festival period, but there won’t be a problem!”
“I see.”
As if his tension had been released, the blond man let out a short sigh.
He stared silently at the reward office, then dusted off the dirt on his uniform.
“Then let us stop by Holy Knights headquarters and disband.”
And he looked at the dozens of Holy Knights gathered in front of him.
“You must all have been flustered by the sudden mobilization during the festival, but you all worked hard. As of this hour, the summons is lifted……”
But it was then.
Plop.
With a small but distinct sound, some whitish thing fell onto the man’s right cheek.
The Holy Knights, who had confirmed what it was, only just managed to keep their mouths shut.
“Mister Basto! That mister got hit by bird poop!”
Tie’s voice rang out softly in the quiet front yard of the office.
Tie was pointing at the holy knight who had been hit by bird poop as if feeling sorry for her.
“Tie saw it, a magpie pooped on that mister’s head, bad magpie.”
Of course, Tie was doing her best, in her own way, to lower her voice.
But a child’s voice basically had a high pitch range, and because of the silence that had settled over the surroundings, it could be heard even more clearly.
“Y-Your Excellency.”
Meanwhile, the faces of the Holy Knights who saw their superior struck by bird poop turned white.
On top of that, their superior was, at this very moment, being reminded of that fact by a child for no reason at all.
“……Is there nothing to wipe it with.”
The commander of the Holy Knights said in a rigid voice.
His subordinates fumbled through their pockets.
“Commander! Perhaps at least this……!”
Before long one knight pulled a handkerchief from inside his tunic and offered it to him.
But,
“Gasp. It’s blood……”
Just as Tie said, the handkerchief was filthy all over with blood.
Judging by the dark red color and the blackishly gleaming edges, it was unquestionably monster blood.
“Tie, shh.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Basto finally cautioned Tie.
Then he turned his gaze away from the stiffly frozen commander of the Holy Knights.
“We’ll just go in…… Tie?”
But Tie was already no longer there.
When he turned his head, he saw the back of the child already some distance away.
The elaborately braided twin pigtails were swaying before the commander of the Holy Knights of unknown identity.
“Mister, use Tie’s!”
The commander of the Holy Knights flinched and turned his body.
There was a slight bewilderment in the gaze with which he looked down at the child who was not even half her size.
“Who are you……”
“Here, please use Tie’s handkerchief!”
But Tie, undaunted, held out her handkerchief to the commander of the Holy Knights.
‘The handkerchief I even lent to Grand Commander-nim!’
That handkerchief with a deer drawn on it was a precious possession Tie had brought from the Republic of Korea.
“It’s clean! Tie blew her nose with it, and washed it yesterday!”
The holy knight’s pupils shook slightly.
If he was going to say it was clean, why bring up that he had blown his nose with it?
Making people feel all gross.
But then the child opened her eyes wide and said,
“Oh? The bird poop is running!”
In the end, he hurriedly accepted the handkerchief.
And slowly wiped the thing that was truly running down his cheek.
“Uuung……”
Watching that sight, the child narrowed her brows all the way.
His little mouth was already tightly pursed and sticking out.
It seemed that, in his own way, he also felt a little bothered that the handkerchief he had lent out was getting bird poop on it.
Leonardo, the commander of the Holy Knights, finally let out a sigh.
Then, after folding the handkerchief in half and wiping his cheek one more time, he opened his mouth.
“……Thank you. As for a reward……”
Afterward he was about to put the handkerchief into the pouch hanging from his belt, but
“Gasp! That’s Tie’s!”
The child came closer and swiftly grabbed Leonardo’s wrist.
Tie looked back and forth between Leonardo and the handkerchief, his brows drooping.
“Mister, give it back. Tie didn’t give it to you, Tie lent it to you.”
Leonardo froze for a moment.
With his brows furrowed, he asked slowly,
“That has gotten stuff on it though? You’re saying you’ll take it back?”
The child nodded his head vigorously.
“Yeeng.”
Then he quickly snatched the handkerchief from Leonardo’s hand.
“It’s okay. If I go home and wash it, it will get clean!”
It was when, so dumbfounded, Leonardo was staring blankly at such a child.
The child, after putting the handkerchief in his bag, gave a little bow as if his business was done.
“Then goodbye, pleage rest!”
Leonardo stared fixedly at the retreating back of the child’s head without a trace of hesitation.
“Your Excellency, are you all right?”
His adjutant asked in a flustered voice.
Leonardo kept his mouth closed, then opened it again, and belatedly nodded his head.
“……Yes. I’m all right.”
He looked at the child going into the office, then turned her body.
“Keep the carriage waiting. I will go to the mansion.”
At his waist, a small dog tag swayed.
On it was the name of House Luminen’s second young master.
The words ‘Leonardo Luminen’ were clearly engraved there.