Chapter 28

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Tie was conflicted.

Questions like what his name was and where he lived were sensitive questions for a child.

“Y-you’re not supposed to ask things like that though?”

The world these days was a very scary world.

So scary that if you saw someone saying they’d give you something tasty and asking you to go with them, you had to report it to the police!

‘But……’

Grandpa Nordix and Mister Basto were not bad people.

Tie knew that better than anyone.

Even while conflicted, Tie asked just in case,

“But why are you asking that?”

“I suppose I can say it’s because there are so few clues about your daddy that time seems to be getting delayed.”

Goodness, so that was why.

Tie nodded.

Come to think of it, from Grandpa Nordix’s and Mister Basto’s point of view, it probably would feel that way.

‘Tie really didn’t tell them much proper information about Daddy.’

Besides, the two of them were Tie’s companions now.

That meant, whether she liked it or not, they were people who would keep living with her from now on.

“Actually……”

Having made up her mind, Tie opened her mouth.

“Tie lived with Daddy in Jongno District! Gold Villa, Unit 106, 1st floor!”

Without realizing it, she ended up imitating the way the lady from 203 talked.

The lady from 203 always said “2nd floor, Unit 3!” instead of just 203.

Feeling like she’d become an adult like that lady, Tie gave a little ahem, but Nordix asked back,

“What, what did you say?”

“Tie. Jongno District?”

Basto looked just as bewildered.

Tie nodded.

“Yees, you and grandpa probably don’t know it? Jongno District has Gyeongbokgung, and there are lots of doggies by Cheonggyecheon, and the twisted doughnuts at Gwangjang Market are tasty too!”

But the more he talked, the more confused Nordix and Basto seemed to become.

Veil too had apparently brought the food in at some point and was standing frozen in the doorway, looking at Tie with an absurd expression.

As if telling them to wait, Tie gathered her breath and continued.

“Sooo this is how it happened: my daddy was a super strong holy knight, and then all of a sudden Tie and Daddy ended up in the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Korea is a country shaped like a tiger like this and China is up above it too!”

“……”

“Then we lived in Jongno District there and Daddy……”

At the part where she should have said Daddy died in an accident, her lips stuck shut.

After hesitating, Tie glossed over it.

“A-anyway, I suddenly got separated from Daddy, and then Tie was sad at night and met Kkamangi with a poof and came here.”

Silence fell over the room.

Setting the tray down on the side table, Veil muttered, “This is driving me crazy.”

How long did that silence continue?

Nordix finally asked hesitantly,

“So then…… the Republic of Korea is called Jongno District?”

“Yes!”

“And you lived there?”

“Yes! The world is Seoul! Seoul is the world!”

“What’s Seoul again?”

“I don’t know.”

Basto and Veil were exchanging meaningful glances.

Growing frustrated, Tie held up her Hanbit Kindergarten bag from the bed.

“Nooo, look! There’s Hangeul right here too. Han. Bit. Kin. Der. Gar. Ten.”

Basto, Veil, and Nordix tilted their heads.

“That wasn’t just a pattern?”

“No!”

“Wait, everyone calm down a little.”

At that moment Nordix stepped forward, raising one hand.

Then she knelt on one knee in front of Tie and met her gaze.

“Then, what is your daddy’s name?”

Tie’s eyes grew a little bigger.

Daddy’s name.

Tie was four years old, but that didn’t mean she could forget Daddy’s name.

When they wrote their parents’ names at kindergarten, Tie had written Daddy’s name more neatly and prettily than anyone in Quail Class.

“My daddy’s name is……”

“His name is?”

Tie smiled brightly.

“Kim, Young character, Su character!”

Veil, who had gone rigid, couldn’t hold back and cut in between Nordix and Tie.

“Are you crazy? His name is Kim Young character Su character?”

“Nooo, it’s Kim, Young character, Su character!”

“Brat. Answer properly. We’re not joking around with you right now.”

Tie’s mouth fell slightly open.

With a discouraged face, she made a little Eeing sound and answered,

“I’m not joking though……? My daddy’s name really is Kim Young-su……?”

“A second ago you said Kim Young character Su character.”

“Mm-hm? Yeah! Kim, Young character, Su character.”

“No, and just now you said Kim Young-su again! Which one is the real one!”

“Uh……? They’re the same thing.”

“What?!”

“Come outside with me for a second, Veil.”

Basto stopped Veil.

Basto came calmly in front of Tie and asked,

“You said you came from a place called Jongno District to here. Do you know how you got here?”

Tie closed her mouth and rolled her eyes.

Of course the memory of that day was still vivid.

Daddy had ended up like that, and Grandma in 107 had come home carrying the box of belongings.

Tie had opened that box of belongings and met Kkamangi.

But……

‘I can’t talk about Kkamangi, can I?’

Kkamangi in this place was afraid of being “tracked.”

Just like Tie and Daddy had feared being tracked in the Republic of Korea.

‘He said Kkamangi’s power is a secret. That’s why we decided to say she’s Tie’s familiar.’

Tie had to keep the promise she made with Kkamangi.

She couldn’t talk about things like opening dimensions and coming here.

In the end, Tie answered hesitantly.

“It just happened somehow……”

Silence fell again.

After a long silence, Veil spoke.

“Old man Nordix was right.”

Nordix turned his head.

“It doesn’t seem like the brat is lying. But what kind of answer is that……”

“Veil.”

“Forget it. There weren’t going to be any clues even if we asked the brat anyway. Hey, brat.”

Tie flinched in surprise and looked at Veil, who was staring at her.

“Mm……?”

“Your daddy is definitely here, right?”

Tie nodded hard.

“Mm-hm! Tie’s daddy is here! Even before……!”

She had seen Daddy with her own two eyes at the dock.

But somehow, because the dream she’d had a little while ago still bothered her, she closed her mouth.

“Good. Then for now we’re handling this the same way we have until now. Let’s go to the imperial capital and look for the holy knight headquarters.”

“Mm-hm!”

“And then. If you find your daddy, are you leaving Agabert?”

Tie’s eyes grew huge.

“Huh?”

It was a strange question, asking whether she would leave Agabert.

“I’m asking if, after you find your daddy, you’re going to say you’ll live with him, throw us away, quit being the Necromancer King, and leave.”

Tie’s mouth slowly fell open.

Something about Veil’s words poked hard at her conscience.

“Th-that.”

Actually, at first that really had been the plan.

Tie had only become a mercenary in order to get inside the imperial capital.

She had been planning to quit being a mercenary once she found Daddy inside the imperial capital.

After all, in order to make sure Daddy never fell into the Republic of Korea again, she would have to stay with Daddy and keep watching him.

But……

‘Daddy isn’t the Daddy from before anymore.’

What had happened at the dock came back to her.

Daddy’s gaze, turning away from Tie as if she were looking at a stranger’s child.

In this world, Tie was no longer Daddy’s daughter.

The thought that she and Daddy would be able to live together had in truth been just Tie’s naïve misunderstanding.

And besides……

‘Wouldn’t it be selfish to ask Daddy to take responsibility for Tie all over again?’

Daddy in the Republic of Korea had suffered a lot because of Tie.

Tie knew that too, because she’d heard the people in Gold Villa talk about it so much.

‘That young guy in Unit 106 wouldn’t be struggling like that if he were alone.’

‘Of course not! For an unmarried father, he’s diligent~ In a situation where it wouldn’t have been strange at all for him to just send the child off to some orphanage.’

‘There you go flapping your mouth again because it’s someone else’s business! Everyone shut up already! I swear! I’ll sew those mouths shut!’

Everyone quieted down when Grandma in 107 stepped in, but……

After thinking for a while, Tie shook her head.

“……Tie isn’t leaving.”

“What?”

“Tie is gonna keep being the Necromancer King. Agabert is Tie’s mercenary company.”

Maybe, in a way, it was a stroke of luck that Tie had found her place in this world.

“Daddy is Daddy, and Tie is Tie……”

Veil froze with a surprised face.

“……Really?”

Tie nodded bravely.

“Mm-hm. Because now Tie is gonna become indepen-dent from Daddy.”