Chapter 19

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The one more surprised than Veil was Tie.

“Wh, wh, wh, what is this?!”

At the sudden bloodshed, Tie sprang to her feet in shock.

At that moment, something appeared before her eyes.

A small, pitch-black body.

Coldly gleaming red eyes.

“K-Kkamangi?!”

The small creature before her was unmistakably Kkamangi!

[You told me to get up quickly, and it was just to show me something like this?]

But the Kkamangi she was seeing again after so long started by grumbling in a somehow displeased voice.

[You can’t even handle one little insubordination like this, and you think you’re going to lead a mercenary company……]

Tie stared at Kkamangi, so startled she forgot even to breathe.

It wasn’t just Tie.

Everyone in the inn was staring at Kkamangi with wide eyes.

Then Veil’s voice was heard.

“Hey…… brat, you.”

Veil was still frozen in place, holding up the hand that was still dripping blood.

“Did you just…… order your familiar to attack me?”

Tie opened her eyes wide in shock.

“Tie, Tie didn’t do that!”

Tie truly hadn’t even known Kkamangi had woken up!

“Veil, stop it.”

At that moment, for some reason Mister Basto hurried over to Veil.

Then, pressing a cloth to his injured hand, he said,

“You heard it from Nordix. Tie only awakened her power recently, so it’ll be hard for her to control it. Looking at it, the wound isn’t deep either. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

“No, but even so!”

“You’ll lose.”

Veil closed his mouth.

Standing beside Tie, Kkamangi twisted her mouth in a slanted smile as if she had been waiting for that.

Tie stared at that sight, then grabbed Kkamangi up at once.

Kkamangi looked at Tie as if asking what, but after glancing once at Veil’s bleeding hand, Tie said sternly,

“Kkamangi, you…… with Tie, to the room of truth.”

Then she ran straight up to the second floor.

* * *

A room where it was only Tie and Kkamangi.

Tie clutched her forehead and groaned.

In her head, she was thinking of Hyuna from Quail Class, who had once hurt a friend.

‘Teacher! Hyuna pushed me and scraped my knee! Waaaah-!’

Hanbit Kindergarten in Jongno District, which Tie had attended, had one very, very important rule.

‘Absolutely do not hurt your friends!’

If it was an accident, you could get out of the room of truth after getting only about one sad sticker.

But if you did it on purpose?

Then it was a different story.

“Kkamangi, you…… how could you make Oppa Veil bleed?”

Tie was grave, but Kkamangi looked bored.

Because she was sprawled out flat on the floor and only her eyes were looking at Tie.

“When Tie is talking, who said you can sit like that?”

[It’s my choice.]

“……!”

A massive shock swept through Tie’s mind.

‘B-but usually when the teacher scolds you, you’re supposed to say you were wrong……?’

Because the punishment was horrifying enough as it was.

A child who deliberately hurt a friend had to stay in the room of truth for as long as ten whole minutes.

If you sat in the thought chair reflecting, the teacher would come in and give you two sad stickers.

While everyone else got good job stickers, getting sad stickers all by yourself……

Tie straightened her heart.

Then, imitating the teacher, she stared seriously at Kkamangi.

“No matter whaat kind of circumstance! you mustn’t hurt people.”

[You bit that bastard too.]

Tie’s cheeks flushed red.

‘Oops. Come to think of it.’

Oppa Veil had been acting mean, so he bit his hand without thinking.

“B-but I didn’t bite haaard……?”

But Kkamangi only snorted.

Tie’s face drooped a little.

It was when silence had settled in the room.

[Still, you did well.]

At that moment, Kkamangi spoke.

Tie looked at Kkamangi in surprise.

[You did well. Biting that bastard, and the other things too. Honestly, I didn’t expect you’d manage this much on your own.]

Tie asked timidly,

“……Really?”

Kkamangi stared at Tie with red eyes.

[Yeah. I’m honestly kind of amazed you made it all the way to the gate without me. I thought you wouldn’t be able to do anything alone.]

“……”

[Actually, the pathetic one is me. I only twisted the timeline a little, and I still ended up going dormant for this long.]

Tie quickly waved both hands.

“No! Do you know how amazing what you did was! You said back then you twisted dimensions and everything? And that twisting dimensions is originally super hard, you……”

[It’s not because I used too much power. It’s just because I’m weak.]

Tie closed her mouth.

Kkamangi was silently staring at the ceiling.

His face somehow looked tired and complicated.

Just as Tie hesitantly reached a hand toward her, Kkamangi turned her gaze back to Tie.

[So I think you’d better keep doing what you’re doing now.]

“Mm?”

[Hide your identity. And, if possible, hide my identity too.]

“Y-your identity too, Kkamangi?”

Kkamangi nodded.

[Yeah. It seems everyone thinks I’m about your familiar, so just let them keep misunderstanding that.]

Tie’s eyes grew huge, then her heart began pounding hard.

“I will!”

Kkamangi was Tie’s friend.

And it also felt like Kkamangi had some kind of complicated circumstances.

‘At times like this, Tie has to protect her!’

If people thought she was the familiar of secretly-strong Tie, Kkamangi too would probably be able to move around this world a little more comfortably.

Tie wriggled her bottom and moved closer to Kkamangi.

“Kkamangi, don’t worry! The fact that you’re a legendary Puppetmon, I promise I’ll keep it a secret……”

“Lucarion.”

At that moment, the sun appeared outside the window.

When she shut and reopened her eyes against the glare, the black-haired boy she had seen on the first day was sitting in front of Tie.

Tie’s lips parted slightly.

‘Six years old…… no, seven.’

She hadn’t known on the first day, but now that she looked, Kkamangi looked about the same age as the older girls and boys in Flower Deer Class.

Kkamangi spoke again.

“My name. It’s Lucarion.”

“……Lucarion.”

Tie repeated the name without realizing it.

And as she kept meeting Kkamangi’s eyes……

Jongno District came to mind.

That night when it had felt like her heart got soaked through by the pouring rain.

That moment when she had opened Daddy’s box of belongings, Tie had thought that maybe falling alone into a cold swimming pool felt like that.

Her eyes, her heart, and all ten of her fingers hurt with cold, so much that if there were a deep burrow, she would have wanted to hide in it and not come out for a hundred days.

But then Kkamangi, no, Lucarion had appeared.

“Lucarion……”

She had brought Tie to this world, and given her the chance to meet Daddy again.

“Lucariooong!”

Without realizing it, Tie flung herself at the boy in front of her and hugged her tight.

“Thank you, Lucarioong!”

It was the thank-you she hadn’t properly managed to say on the first day.

Lucarion stayed quietly in Tie’s embrace.

Tears started to trickle out, and worrying that he might smear tears and snot on Lucarion, Tie hurriedly pulled away.

Then, grabbing Lucarion’s hand, he grinned.

“Thank you so much for helping Tie……”

Lucarion was looking at Tie with a surprised expression.

“You know, tomorrow we’re going into the imperial capital! They say now that we’re an official mercenary company, we can go in!”

“……Really?”

“Mm-hm! Since Daddy was a holy knight, if we go to the imperial capital we’ll be able to find him quickly!”

Lucarion nodded.

“Once we find Daddy, Tie will repay your kindness! And if things get hard from now on, you can always go into my bag and rest! Aaaand, from now on you’re my familiar, so in front of people it would be better if I just call you Kkamangi, right?”

“That’s a bit……”

“Kkamangi really is the best after all!”

“……Then why did you ask?”

“Kkamangi! Let’s go!”

Lucarion got dragged along unwillingly by the hand pulling him.

By the time they reached the doorway, he had changed back into the form of a young dragon.

In her field of view, she could see Tie’s small hand gripping her front paw.

The ruby-colored eyes sank quietly.

‘……As expected.’

Through the skin where they were touching, he could feel something pouring wildly into Lucarion’s body.

It was the power filling Astie’s body.

It’s still nowhere near enough, but……

Watching Tie’s soft hair bobbing, Lucarion’s eyes gleamed.

‘It really was you.’

Now he could be completely certain.

That day.

The one who woke her was definitely Astie.