Chapter 173

An uncertain look passed over Lucarion’s face.

“Are you asking whether it’s really impossible for your dad to remember you?”

“Yup!”

After thinking, Lucarion asked back,

“Why are you asking something like that?”

Tie lowered her gaze, hemming and hawing.

“It’s just, Dad seems like he got a liiittle nicer to Tie.”

“Got nicer?”

“Yup! When I told her Tie is a child, she treated me better than before! He doesn’t say bad things, and he doesn’t glare at me scary either!”

“……”

“So doesn’t that mean there might be hope……? One day Dad might remember that Tie is actually Dad’s daughter, right!”

Silence sank over the room.

Tie waited only for Lucarion’s mouth to open.

After a long while, Lucarion said,

“Honestly, the possibility is low.”

Tie’s eyes grew wide with disappointment.

Lucarion took Tie’s hand like that and drew her toward the soft sofa.

“But your dad may unconsciously recall memories of the Republic of Korea.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah.”

Lucarion opened one hand before Tie.

Then black dots gathered above it and turned into several sheets of old paper.

“I tore these from the imperial palace library.”

Tie swallowed hard and lay down on the floor.

Lucarion lined the papers up in a row on the floor.

On the faded papers, crooked letters Tie did not know at all were densely written.

“They’re written in ancient language, but…… it’s about dimensional magic, and more precisely, time magic.”

Ppuppu and Marbas, who had drawn close before anyone knew it, also lit up their eyes.

Lucarion pointed to the paragraphs on the paper one by one and said,

“If you look here, the words ‘Orta’ and ‘Rundel’ appear.”

As Lucarion’s hand passed by, ink marks were made over the words on their own.

Tie forgot even to blink and concentrated on Lucarion’s explanation.

“Orta. One born riding the original flow. And Rundel. One changed while carrying the gap in time.”

Lucarion looked at Tie.

“Tie, in this world you are Rundel. Because we came from the future.”

Tie’s eyes spun round and round.

However, a little later the child answered boldly.

“Tie knows too! Here, Tie hasn’t even been born yet, right?”

“That’s correct.”

Beside the paper Lucarion had been explaining, he pointed to the next paper.

“So naturally the people here don’t know you. And naturally your dad can’t remember you either. But.”

“……”

“If you look here, it mentions errors that occur because Orta and Rundel have the same essence.”

Tie’s lips parted.

When Lucarion raised one hand, the papers spread out in the air with a chrrrk.

Complex diagrams and symbols rapidly passed before Tie’s eyes.

“On the day of the duel. You absorbed Tesetan’s mana, didn’t you?”

Tie nodded frantically.

That day, Tie had felt a force rippling around Dad as if it would burst.

Dad had been suffering terribly because of that force.

When Tie ran over to help Dad.

Tie naturally drew in that force.

“Actually, at that time you didn’t only absorb your dad’s power.”

“Th-then……?”

“At the same time, you also shared your mana. Because your father unconsciously took back part of your power in order to balance holy power and mana.”

Tie’s lips fell open.

“Of course, because your amount of mana is so large, you probably didn’t feel it. But it says here that a situation like that causes a ‘time magic error.'”

One of the papers spinning round and round stopped before Tie’s eyes.

“‘The moment the aura of a Rundel from the future becomes mixed with an intelligent being of this world. That being, at a very faint probability, sees what will happen in the future. Because it is something that will happen in the future, and at the same time, it is Rundel’s memory.'”

Tie’s eyes grew large.

The child, who had been holding his breath, asked,

“Then, did Dad remember too?”

Tie grabbed Lucarion’s hand and opened her mouth again.

“Aura means mana, right? Because Tie’s mana got mixed with Dad’s, did she remember that in the Republic of Korea Tie and Dad were family? Hm?”

Lucarion seated the child on the sofa.

And answered calmly.

“I don’t know. You saw it, it says ‘at a very faint probability.'”

Tie’s eyes grew sullen.

But the child soon muttered,

“No. Dad will remember! If Tie gives mana again and takes Dad’s back……!”

“That isn’t something that happens just because you keep exchanging mana.”

“Then……?”

“The error occurs only in that one moment when the two kinds of mana are mixed for the first time. Your mana and your dad’s mana already mixed once on the day of the duel. Even if you exchange mana again now, it won’t work the same way as the first time.”

Tie’s mouth closed.

So mana was like color.

Tie had learned with watercolor paints during drawing time.

Once two different colors were mixed even once, they could not be separated again.

The problem was that Dad’s mana and Tie’s mana were the same.

‘Because they mixed once on the day of the duel.’

It meant the time magic error too could occur only once that day.

Lucarion patted Tie’s back.

“If the error occurred on the day of the duel, your dad will begin to remember something little by little. Then we’ll be able to know.”

Tie nodded weakly.

“It’s okay, Tie. Even if it doesn’t work out, I’ll find a way.”

“Kkyuu……”

Marbas and Ppuppu rubbed their heads against Tie’s leg as if upset.

For a moment, a gloomy air drifted through the room.

But at that moment.

“……No! Tie will do something before that.”

Tie abruptly rose from her seat.

Marbas was bounced away and rolled around on the floor.

With an uncertain face, Lucarion asked,

“What are you going to do?”

Tie put on a triumphant expression.

“You’ll know if you see tomorrow!”

Then he darted out of the room.

“……”

Inside the room where only Ppuppu, Marbas, and Lucarion were left.

At the end of a short silence, a pure white light suddenly covered the room.

Red fog rose where Ppuppu had been, and soon a long-haired man revealed himself.

Scattering silver hair, Ppuppu, no, Krazar, removed the elephant mask.

“Lizard.”

Dark blue eyes like the Milky Way were revealed.

When he raised his hand, the papers Lucarion had summoned flew into his hand.

Picking one of them up with his long nails, Krazar spoke in a voice sunk in worry.

“Is Mother vanishing?”

Lucarion raised his gaze.

Krazar continued speaking.

“It is clearly written here in this ancient record. The moment Orta and Rundel come to coexist, Rundel vanishes. What do you intend to do?”

“……”

“Do you intend to prevent the future Mother, the Orta of this world, from being born? Yet even then, the result that Mother vanishes will not change.”

If Tie were not born on this timeline, then future Tie could not exist.

In the end, whether Tie was born seven years later or not.

It meant the Tie of now had no choice but to vanish.

Krazar’s voice shook with grief.

“There is exactly one way for Mother to remain in this world without vanishing.”

“……”

“That is to live alone and forgotten without meeting any person in the world.”

From between Krazar’s teeth came the sound of grinding.

“Then Mother must leave her family again. At that time, it cannot even be promised that they will meet again.”

“……”

“Family. Not to mention the members now, the moment she meets even a single person in the world, she will turn to dust and vanish.”

Krazar’s sunken eyes flashed.

“Lizard. Why did you bring Mother to this world? Why did you take away Mother’s life in that world? If she had remained in that world, would she not at least have been able to live seven years or more!”

Lucarion’s expression darkened.

After a long while, he answered in a shaking voice.

“……Astie didn’t want that.”

“……What do you mean by that?”

“Astie said that rather than remain alone in that world, even if it was only for a single day, he wanted to be beside Dad.”

Lucarion, clenching his fist tightly, turned around.

At once black smoke swallowed him up.

Lucarion, who changed back into the form of a young dragon, looked back at Krazar.

“I’ll find a way. So you just keep your mouth shut and wait.”