A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 129
Chapter 129
* * *
Tie hurriedly got down from the chair.
And after looking back and forth between Leonardo and the fallen notebook.
“Tie did something wrong!”
Quickly stepping back, he hastily picked up the dropped notebook.
Holding out the notebook to Leonardo, Tie said,
“Tie will hurry and go out?”
“……No, wait a moment.”
But Leonardo, looking somewhat flustered, stopped Tie.
Then, for some reason furrowing his brow, he said,
“There is no need for you to leave. That is not what I meant.”
Tie tilted her head.
“But Tie came in however Tie wanted……?”
“However you wanted? You came in because the door was open. If anything, it is my responsibility for not having locked the door.”
Tie’s mouth fell open.
The child hesitantly stared at the notebook in Leonardo’s hand.
“Then is it okay that Tie saw mister’s secret notebook?”
Leonardo looked at Tie with a strange expression.
Then he answered calmly.
“It’s fine. It isn’t mine anyway.”
After that, walking over and sitting on the sofa on the opposite side, she signaled the seat beside her to Tie.
Tie, hesitantly, walked over and sat beside Leonardo.
Kkamangi and Ppuppu were leaning against the desk in front of them and keeping watch over Leonardo.
Aware of them, Leonardo said,
“……To go around with two permanent familiars at that age, that’s impressive.”
A little pride slowly spread across Tie’s face.
The child let down the brief new wariness and grinned.
“Bird-poop mister is impressive too! You have super lots of subordinates!”
On Leonardo’s face, recalling the day they had met in front of the reward office, there appeared a slightly embarrassed look.
Without realizing it, he touched his cheek and asked,
“……Thank you. That handkerchief from then, did you wash it well?”
“Yeees, Auntie Marshall helped me and it became white again!”
“I see, that’s a relief.”
“But then, whose is that notebook from before?”
At the bright question that came then, Leonardo looked down at the notebook in his hand.
Before long he answered slowly.
“It belongs to my younger brother.”
“Younger brother? Mister Alexsunder?”
At the strange name reborn from the child’s mouth, Leonardo laughed.
Softly, he shook his head.
“No, another younger brother.”
Tie’s lips parted a little.
By now, while eating yesterday, Tie had roughly grasped the ranking of the three Luminen brothers.
‘They said huge hyung is lantern mister, and next hyung is bird-poop mister. And the youngest hyung is Mister Alexsunder.’
Before long, Tie’s eyes grew huge.
“Ah!”
Come to think of it, Grand Commander-nim had four sons, not three.
Tie cried out with a bright face.
“So it belongs to number 4 mister!”
Leonardo laughed once more.
“Yes, it belongs to number 4 mister.”
“But then why isn’t number 4 mister at home?”
Leonardo closed his mouth.
Rubbing the cover of the notebook two or three times with his thumb, he answered,
“Because now he doesn’t live with us.”
“He’s family, but he doesn’t live together?”
Leonardo nodded.
Tie opened her mouth, and before long muttered to herself with a wistful expression.
“I see, number 4 mister became independent like Tie.”
Tie did not know the detailed circumstances of the youngest young master of Luminen.
But to become independent while leaving behind such a cool house, a strongest dad, and older brothers.
It was certain that there was an extremely complicated and difficult background.
“As expected, life is……”
You couldn’t know even one inch ahead.
In order to comfort Leonardo, Tie patted her knee gently.
“Bird-poop mister, don’t worry. Number 4 mister will come back quickly.”
Something like interest rose onto Leonardo’s face.
“Really? Why?”
Tie flapped her hands.
“These days house prices are super expensive, right. So the grown-ups said city people all become kangaroos. What a kangaroo is, is that to save money they keep living together with Mommy and Daddy.”
One of Leonardo’s brows furrowed.
But a faint smile was spreading around his mouth.
“……Yes. It would be good if it became so, even in that way.”
After recalling brief old memories, he turned his head.
At her side, Tie was still looking up at her with bright, clear eyes.
Without realizing it, Leonardo stroked Tie’s head.
“Thank you. For comforting me.”
Even as of this morning, he had still thought that all of this was madness.
But now it seemed he could dimly understand as well.
‘Was this what Edmund and Alexander were like in the morning too.’
At the warmth of the child touching her fingertips, one corner of her heart strangely welled up.
Every night.
He came into this small room dozens and hundreds of times.
And then, in front of the desk where the young Theseos would have sat alone, he would idly spend time.
Leonardo watched Astie for a while longer.
Because somehow, the smile that had risen over the child’s face seemed to calm her long-standing pain.
* * *
The next day.
Tie and Agabert sped up even more.
After evening had passed, the three young masters of Luminen, who had each finished their work and returned, joined in as well.
Thanks to that, the review of the materials ended sooner than expected, but
“……Kid, are you okay?”
From Tie’s eyes, thick teardrops were already just about to fall.
“Commander……”
Leaving the members calling out to her behind, Tie unsteadily got down from the chair.
And after passing everyone, he went behind the curtain in the corner.
“Astie.”
Nordix called, but Tie hunched his little back and sniffled.
“Tie…… wants to play alone a little.”
At the voice that had no energy at all, the members exchanged flustered looks.
It was when Veil, unable to bear it, stepped forward in order to go to Tie.
“……Leave him be. Even if he is a child, he needs time to sort out his emotions.”
Nordix stopped him.
With a serious face, Nordix looked around at the members.
“For a while, it would be better if only Basto remained and the rest of us went out.”
In the end, the members hesitantly nodded.
Before long, everyone but Basto left the great conference hall.
When the door closed, the sound of Astie sniffing grew louder.
Tie buried her face between her knees.
‘……He’s not there.’
Even after searching through the Holy Knight organization charts of Talochium, no, of every country in this world, Daddy still wasn’t there.
Then where in the world was Daddy?
He had come this far only to find Daddy……!
But at that moment.
Suddenly, a short thought passed through his head.
‘No, it’s not that Daddy isn’t there.’
Daddy was definitely there.
Because Tie had seen her with her own two eyes at the port of Pearl City.
Then a small mutter leaked from Tie’s mouth.
“That dream……”
The dream he had had the night he missed Daddy.
Though it had already been quite a long time ago, the dream that for some reason still remained vivid in his head came to mind.
‘In the dream, people called Daddy commander.’
At the time, Tie had only recently come to this world.
So he was not used to the forms of address for Holy Knights or mercenaries, and more than anything, he believed what Daddy had told him.
What Daddy had told him, that he was a Holy Knight.
But Tie now knew for certain.
First, Daddy was not in the Holy Knights.
Because even after searching through the master organization chart in its entirety, he had not appeared in the end.
Second, commander was not a form of address used for a Holy Knight.
It was used when calling the leader of a mercenary company.
‘And also……’
Third. Basto had also appeared in that dream.
In the dream, Basto was Daddy’s subordinate.
If Daddy really had been a Holy Knight, then Basto would have been a Holy Knight too.
Tie sprang to her feet.
And coming out from behind the curtain, he ran to Basto.
“Mister Basto!”
Seeing Tie with tears welling up, Basto hurriedly used his hand to wipe the child’s cheeks.
“Yes, yes. Tie.”
“Have you ever wanted to become a Holy Knight?”
At the sudden question, bewilderment passed across Basto’s face.
But before long he shook his head.
“Not even once.”
“Why? If, say, you could become a Holy Knight from now on, would you still not do it?”
“I would not.”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because though at first glance a Holy Knight seems like a better job than a mercenary, it lacks the most important thing. Freedom.”
Tie closed her mouth.
“Unlike mercenaries, Holy Knights must obligatorily serve the religious order and the imperial house. But I dislike being bound to something I cannot acknowledge. Rather than becoming a Holy Knight, I would sooner……”
Basto, who had been about to say he would choose death, stopped speaking.
It was just when she was checking Tie’s reaction, wondering if she had used words too rough for a child to hear.
“Tie!”
Suddenly, Tie burst out through the door and left the great conference hall.
Then right away he collided with Valentis’s butler, who was standing outside the door, and fell over,
“Akoko…… huh?”
Onto the child’s face, still wet with tears, one sheet of paper the butler had dropped stuck flat.