A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 146

Chapter 146

Basto had no time to stop him.

Tie naturally slipped in among the old people and took a place in the middle of the stall.

People soon flocked near the child who had come in from outside.

“So tiny. You said you’re four? Looking at your size, you seem more like three.”

At the words of a woman who looked to be around sixty, Tie immediately puffed out her cheeks.

“No, Tie is four, and I’ll be five soon too!”

“Oh ho ho, for something as small as rabbit droppings, you do speak well. How did you end up coming in from outside, hm?”

First Tie politely raised one hand.

“Well, so……”

“Tie. Get up now.”

But then Basto, who had been standing some distance away, came over.

Basto was looking around with a wary face.

She held out her hand to Tie.

“Let’s go. We don’t have time to linger here.”

But Tie could not readily get up.

Instead, he looked around anxiously.

“But the grown-ups asked Tie why she came……?”

Going to the academy was important.

Of course, it was also what Tie had been longing for all the time since she came to this world.

But.

‘Whether it’s academy or school, home education is a hundred times more important than those things, that’s right.’

Looking at the grown-ups here, for some reason he was reminded of the grandpas who played baduk in the alley every time he waited for the kindergarten bus.

‘Tie, even you can see that, right? Since you were smartly and properly taught home education at home, that’s why you greet these old grandpas properly every morning too, isn’t it. Here, until the kindergarten bus comes, you try making a move.’

He had only greeted them properly, just as the adults had taught him.

But the grandpas had adored Tie.

Sometimes they even gave Tie devil candy that tasted like red ginseng, and sometimes they handed her baduk stones telling her to try making a move in their place.

Tie usually placed the stones wherever she wanted to place them.

Like putting one at the end of a long line of stones, or in a corner, or completing the shape of a face.

‘Hahahaha! What a brilliant move, this is truly a brilliant move!’

‘Really! Mr. Choi will find a way out thanks to Tie. Haha!’

Of course, the grandpas liked it no matter where Tie placed the stones.

‘Yes. Greet grown-ups properly, and answer politely!’

Looking at Basto, Tie said in a dignified voice,

“Mister, you don’t leave when grown-ups are talking. Since polite home education is more important than kindergarten!”

Several people nearby burst out laughing.

While Basto looked troubled, Tie gave the answer he had not finished earlier.

“The reason Tie came is because I’m going to the academy!”

“The academy? Here in Flint Cove?”

“Yes!”

The crowd stirred.

Two old people who looked advanced in age stepped forward and asked with interest.

“Where is your home?”

Basto once more pushed his way into the crowd.

“Tie. No more answering, and……”

“I live on Rosewobel Street!”

“Roseobel…… Rosewobel?”

A man leaning against the corner wall immediately straightened up.

Looking around at the people nearby, he said,

“Isn’t that the street where the great nobles live? The ones who all supposedly have money rotting away……”

People’s gazes swept over Tie again.

But no matter who looked, Tie did not seem anything like a noble.

For one thing, his way of speaking, stripped of all flowery words, was like that, and the black cloak he wore over himself was far too rough to be noble clothing.

‘More than anything.’

People muttered as though they found it strange.

“A noble child wouldn’t come to a place like this and talk with us……”

“Right, right. In the first place, aren’t outsiders not allowed into the underground passage?”

“Child, you’re not lying, are you really living on Rosewobel Street?”

“Since he came in, the district chief must have given approval, though.”

Tie, listening to the flood of questions, once again smartly raised her hand.

“As for that, it’s because Tie has very compwex circumstances.”

“Complex circumstances? How complex can the circumstances of a four-year-old be.”

As though saying they knew nothing, Tie let out a sigh.

“It’s because grandmas and grandpas don’t know. They said Tie can’t go to academies outside. Because there are too many eyes watching.”

This time people’s gazes turned to Basto.

Instead of answering, Basto was clutching his forehead.

‘Ha, this is a problem.’

It was fine that they had entered this place with the district chief’s permission.

But it was not yet confirmed whether it would be all right to tell the people of Flint Cove Tie’s identity.

No matter how cut off from the outside this place was, there was no guarantee that Tie’s secret would truly be protected……

At that moment.

With an even more dejected face, Tie added,

“Tie will probably get chased out of the imperial capital if I go to the academy in Print Cove and get found out……”

At the words chased out, one old person, unable to contain curiosity, stepped forward.

“What have you been talking about since earlier? Why is there no academy outside for you to attend. If you live on Rosewobel Street, you could even have entered the Imperial Academy.”

“Tie can’t go. They said I have to hide my identity.”

“Hide your identity?”

“Is it that?”

At the moment the crowd was stirring.

The young man whose eyes had lit up earlier at the words Rosewobel Street slapped his knee.

“You’re an illegitimate child! You’re an illegitimate child being raised by those noble bastards on Rosewobel Street!”

“Illegiti……?”

Tie tilted her head.

But the people were already all excited, nodding emphatically to one another.

“No wonder he said he had to hide his identity!”

“Those rotten bastards! If they’re going to raise one in hiding, then they shouldn’t have given birth in the first place! Why are they taking out what they can’t be proud of on a child!”

One after another, people lamented and looked at Tie as though she were pitiful.

Clicking their tongues, they went on.

“Even if they hate him, he’s still their own child, and they sent him all the way to such a remote place to raise him in hiding, so how much pain must that little one be in……”

One grandmother stroked Tie’s head.

Tie opened her eyes round with a puzzled face.

She did not know what an illegitimate child was, but now everyone in the underground passage was looking at Tie as though she were pitiable.

“You say they won’t send you to an academy outside? They say if your identity gets found out they’ll throw you out?”

Tie hesitantly nodded.

“Umm, yes.”

Valentis had told him.

That Tie could not recklessly attend an academy outside.

The reason was that if Tie’s identity were exposed while she was attending an academy, it would be a serious problem.

If something like that happened, Tie would not merely be chased out of the imperial capital.

“They said they’d take Tie far away and make me hurt a lot!”

He had been talking about being dragged to the Order and interrogated, but for some reason everyone’s complexions turned pale white.

“M-my, my, my goodness! This little child!”

Tie was still watching that with a puzzled face, then carefully raised one hand and asked,

“But, Grandma. What is an illegitimate child? Tie isn’t an illegitimate chi……”

“That is right. An illegitimate child.”

But then.

Basto cut in.

With a tragic face, Basto let out a sigh and looked around at the people.

“The child wants to learn, but outside we simply could not find an academy at all, so we came here.”

Several people clicked their tongues.

The older people muttered things like, “Poor thing……” as though they had known it.

Basto continued.

“This is a hard-won opportunity obtained through discussion with the district chief. From now on, it seems he will be attending every morning by this path, so please cooperate.”

“Yes, yes!”

People came right up and patted Basto on the shoulder and back without hesitation.

“Don’t worry. The young man has a very strong sense of responsibility. It looks like those terrible people still attached one proper person to the child’s side, doesn’t it? Judging by your build, what, do you chop firewood or something?”

“I chop firewood, and clean. And do childcare. I do this and that.”

“Good heavens…… seeing a child neglected by his parents from the side, how much your heart must ache.”

People lowered their voices in case Tie might hear.

Then they began whispering among themselves.

Blinking, Tie looked back and forth between them and Basto.

He was curious what they were talking about, but one was not supposed to recklessly interrupt adults’ conversations in the first place.

Tie sat quietly and waited.

A few days later.

A strange rumor began spreading through the imperial capital.

“Have you heard the news that the Necromancer King has a problem?”

“Ah, the rumor that he has strong-liquor dependence? That he goes to the tavern every single day without fail?”

“Yes! They say he drinks heavily there until evening? Apparently his more terrifying necromancy only starts when he’s somewhat drunk.”

Agabert’s ranking rose again.

Of course, the more that happened, the faster the rumors spread as if they had caught fire.

Of course, Tie,

“So then, what Tie did at the academy today was……!”

was enjoying his extremely exciting academy life without knowing any of that at all.