A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 128
Chapter 128
“Flint Cove, I too have heard of it.”
When even Nordix added his voice, the expressions of the members became serious.
“Though it is an underdeveloped area, its public security is fairly good on its own, and as the Great Commander said, there seems to be no place more suitable for Tie to attend a childcare facility.”
Flint Cove was a small district on the inner side of the Isera River.
It lay separated from the commercial district by only a single street, and for an underdeveloped area its crime rate was low too.
“You’re saying that in that Flint Cove or whatever it is, nobody would recognize the kid?”
At Veil’s question, Nordix nodded his head.
“There is a high probability of that. In the imperial capital, and especially in central regions like these, mercenaries are not spoken of much.”
The commoners gathered in Flint Cove were, in a word, the working class.
Short-term contract laborers who built buildings in the imperial capital, laid roads, or repaired broken sewer pipes.
And the beneficiaries of the work they did were, naturally, mostly nobles.
“You can tell just by looking at the newspapers published in Flint Cove. They mainly contain the exploits of Holy Knights, and no stories of mercenaries. If they must emphasize that the upper class is great and wonderful, would not the commoners be made to work more docilely?”
At the absurd story, Veil’s face twisted.
But that was not the end of Nordix’s words.
“In contrast, for mercenaries it is the complete opposite.”
The imperial family believed that the more the need for mercenaries came to the fore, the more the honor of the Holy Knights would be shoved into the ground.
Because unlike Holy Knights, mercenaries were beings even commoners could become if they wished.
Though they had to risk their lives, mercenaries could besiege magic stones and accumulate more wealth than nobles.
And they could gain even greater honor than those nobles as well.
The imperial family wanted such facts not to reach the ears of the residents of Flint Cove.
Because at times, useless hope made laborers rebellious.
It was for this reason that news about mercenaries was reported in minimized form in the imperial capital’s central regions.
“Of course, nobles will hear tidbits of news about mercenaries one way or another. They each have their own information networks. Some among them even quietly place personal requests……”
But the commoners of Flint Cove could not hear news of mercenaries.
Because no one told them, and there were no people who openly talked about mercenaries in front of them.
Besides, they believed only that outside the Boundary of the Old and New was tremendously dangerous because of magic stones.
Under these circumstances, the information they got at best was one-dimensional news such as hearing that some mercenary company or other had visited the Central Branch of the reward office.
“To sum it up.”
Nordix, wetting his throat with a glass of water, added,
“Whatever the case, at least in Flint Cove, it means that Astie would not have to worry about the eyes watching him. At least compared to outside.”
Silence drifted through the banquet hall.
While Veil picked up his utensils again with a dubious face.
Valentis said to Tie,
“If you wish it, I shall look into it. Whether there is an academy in Flint Cove that would suit you.”
Tie’s eyes grew round, and everyone’s gaze turned to Tie.
The child set down the bread he had been eating, then sank into thought.
“Frint Cove……”
A place where, they said, people who built buildings, made roads, and fixed clogged sewers gathered and lived.
A neighborhood where, they said, wages were low and people were only looked down on by bad nobles living in the imperial capital.
‘……Sometimes it was like that in the neighborhood where we lived in the Republic of Korea too.’
‘Goodness! Mister Park, what happened to your face again?!’
‘It’s nothing, you see, I went all the way to Pyeongtaek but they wouldn’t pay the substitute-driver fee. When I asked them to pay it, they lunged at me……’
He remembered the time when Mister in Unit 103 had a big bruise on his face.
At that time, the lady in Unit 203 had stamped her feet in distress.
‘He was drunk and spouting nonsense, oh dear. Saying, “That’s why you live doing substitute driving”…… I shouldn’t even repeat it. When the police came, only then did he quiet down.’
‘No, what do you mean there are ranks to jobs? There really are a lot of crazy people!’
‘Exactly. This time I might quit substitute driving and go back to construction sites. My back has gotten a lot better too……’
‘I told you that doesn’t mean it’s fully better, didn’t I? The doctor said that if possible it’s best not to use it to the end. If you do that, something really bad will happen!’
‘I can’t go begging my children for money when I’m this old. Your situation’s not much different, lady.’
Tie was young, but she could still feel the sorrow in the adults’ conversation.
There were many kinds of jobs in the world, and unless they were bad or illegal jobs, all of them ought to be respected.
That was why Daddy, who had had the job of ‘earning today’s food for today,’ had always been the person Tie was most proud of in the world.
“Tie is going to Frint!”
When he finally made up his mind and cried out, everyone made surprised expressions.
Tie gulped down her milk and added,
“Tie is going to Frint and is going to become friends with the people there. Just like I became friends with governor-nim, and young-masters mister, and Sister Adeling! And I’ll play with kindergarten friends too……”
The corners of Valentis’s mouth, which had gone blank for a moment, once again curved in a faint smile.
Before long he answered,
“Good. I will gradually think about a concrete plan.”
* * *
After the meal ended.
Tie and the members shut themselves up in the great conference hall again.
Tie began reading the second volume of the Empire’s organization chart, and the members mainly reviewed the materials of the other continents.
But this time too, until the sun went down, there was no particular harvest.
Tie, after looking through about two-thirds of the second volume, said she wanted to go rest in her room for a little while.
As she trudged toward the room, Ppuppu, who had climbed up on her shoulder before she knew it, comforted Tie.
“Kkyuu……”
Even Lucarion, who had been going around quietly the entire time since entering the ducal family, said,
“It’s fine. He’ll show up in the remaining volumes.”
But Tie could not easily shake off the troubled feeling.
“Kkamang, Tie is having a very, very scary thought now.”
“What thought?”
“A very, very scary thought that Daddy isn’t even in the master organization chart……”
Lucarion could not easily answer.
Because even he could not guarantee that that man would really appear in the master organization chart.
In the meantime, Tie let out a sigh and opened the door to her room.
But soon he opened his eyes round.
“Huh? This isn’t Tie’s room?”
The scene spread out inside the door was not the place where Tie had slept yesterday.
An old but antique piece of furniture gave off a faint smell of wood.
Because she had grown curious, Tie moved her steps farther inside.
After passing the soft carpet spread on the floor, a desk appeared, one that even Tie looked as though she could sit at.
“Waaah.”
Tie pulled the chair and sat on top of the desk.
The grain of the wood was shining smooth around the places that had been touched a lot.
“Lucarion, look at this. The desk is super pretty!”
Tie, grinning, opened the drawer in front and then made a huh? sound.
That was because something like a thick leather notebook came out from inside.
Tie picked up the notebook and turned it around this way and that.
The notebook was a state where thick leather had been added to the outside of a bundle of pages bound from parchment.
In small writing at the lower right of the front was the name ‘Theseos’ too.
“It has a snap! It’s exactly like a Taniping sticker book.”
Excited, he opened the buckle, and the notebook spread open in half.
Tie naturally began reading down the writing inside it.
Before long, the child’s lips slowly started to part as she read the sentences.
I hate seeing the pain of my family.
But enduring pain has become something I am accustomed to.
Should I rather not have returned alive from that place.
I will only continue to be an obstacle to my family forever.
I do not want to think about how much more I will ruin my family going forward.
If only I could make all thought stop…….
“Th-those are super bad words……!”
It was when Tie, having read one full page, was flustered and rising from her seat.
“What are you doing here?”
Someone weakly grabbed Tie’s wrist.
When Tie lifted her head, startled, the notebook fell from her hand.
Before his eyes stood bird-poop mister, Leonardo, standing with his back to the door.