Chapter 3

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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* * *

Tie sat with her back against the wall, tightly hugging her knees with both arms.

And she bravely stared back at the stone that had been watching her for a while now.

At first it had been scary, but the more she looked, the more certain she became.

‘……It’s a Tanipang.’

It transformed, and it even used magic.

It looked a little different, but it was definitely a Tanipang.

Having gained courage, Tie scooted herself a little farther forward.

Then, with her eyes sparkling, she began observing the stone closely.

‘It’s black from head to toe.’

Her heart pounded.

Maybe what Daddy had said about coming from another world had actually been true.

What if Daddy really had been a holy knight and had kept a fairy with him?

What if that fairy was the stone in front of her, and it had come to save Daddy?

“Kkamangpang……”

At the dreamy voice that slipped from her lips, the stone tilted its head.

What Tie asked for at that moment was this.

“Please save him!”

The child crawled closer on her knees and clasped both hands desperately.

“Lord Kkamangpang! Please save my daddy!”

[Should I save him?]

At first, she did not believe it.

After all, even Tie knew that dead people could not be brought back to life.

But that was for ordinary people, wasn’t it? If it was a fairy?

‘Daddy can be saved.’

Doubt turned into conviction, and conviction turned into hope.

It felt as though wings had grown on her sad and miserable heart and it was flying far away.

But just then, as she waited for an answer with desperate anticipation.

[To save your daddy……]

The fairy, which had lightly risen to its feet, looked straight at Tie and asked,

[You’ll have to leave this place behind. Are you okay with that?]

Tie’s expression went blank.

She could not clearly tell what exactly “this place” meant.

Did it mean the room where she had lived with Daddy?

Or this alley?

Ah, did it mean she would not be able to go back to kindergarten?

[All of it. You’ll have to throw away all the time you’ve lived here.]

As if reading her thoughts, the fairy answered.

Tie’s expression darkened.

If it meant all of it, then it meant both the good things and the bad things.

It meant she would have to leave behind Grandma in unit 107, the lady from unit 203, and the happy memories she had built here with Daddy as well.

While she could not easily continue, the fairy took one step closer.

[Even so, if that’s what you want, I’ll return it to you.]

“……”

[The place where you were born. The place where you originally should have been. The place where that man is alive.]

Tie drew in a small breath.

It was difficult, but there was one thing that was certain.

The person most precious to Tie had always been Daddy.

Not once until now had that fact ever changed.

“……I’ll go.”

The moment she nodded.

As if they had been waiting for it, all the streetlights illuminating the alley went out.

The window of unit 106 rattled in the wind.

The neatly folded bedding, the crayon drawing attached to the wall.

The two toothbrushes of different sizes stuck in the rinsing cup vibrated faintly.

When the streetlights came back on, unit 106 was empty.

As if no one had ever been there from the beginning.

* * *

“Mmm……”

Tie opened her eyes on top of something soft and fluffy like cotton candy.

And the moment she came to her senses, she was startled.

‘It’s not cotton candy?’

The place Tie was lying on was a soft, fluffy blanket.

Only then did it suddenly dawn on her.

“……Daddy.”

As what had happened before she fell asleep came back to her, her heart pounded.

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice came from right beside her.

“You’re awake.”

Startled, Tie sprang up from where she sat.

A boy she had never seen before was standing beside the bed.

But when Tie, who had been about to pull the blanket over herself and hide, found something familiar about the boy, she tilted her head.

“Kkamangpang……?”

Hair black as the night sky.

Eyes shining like jewels, and even ears slightly sticking up above his head.

When the boy shook her head, the ears disappeared, but Tie was certain.

“Kkamangpang! You can even turn into a person!”

The boy’s expression immediately turned awkward.

Then the boy said in a dry voice,

“Me?”

“Hm?”

“You don’t mean that this Kkamangpang you’ve been calling since earlier is supposed to be me, do you?”

Tie tilted her head.

She had thought he was smart because he used magic and even said he would save Daddy.

But Kkamangpang unexpectedly seemed to be the same type as the kids at kindergarten who got her name wrong every day.

“Mm-hm! Because you’re a fairy……”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not Kkamangpang.”

Tie made a little gasp and closed her mouth.

No wonder he had kept making uncomfortable expressions. It seemed Tie had misunderstood something.

Well, come to think of it.

She had never seen a Tanipang that transformed into a human and even brought the dead back to life.

‘Kkamangpang, no, Kkamangi must be an even more amazing fairy. Like one from legends and stuff……’

Gasp, then could he maybe be a Puppetmon instead of a Tanipang?

In the case of Puppetmons, once you got to legendary rank, there were incredibly strong ones that even time-traveled.

‘I’m sure of it.’

Tie began looking around with a wary expression.

She had definitely been at home before she fell asleep, but when she opened her eyes, the surroundings had changed.

That meant Tie had teleported.

At first glance, this place looked like an ordinary room if you only looked at the big bed and the fluffy bedding, but……

‘It’s inside a tent.’

When she saw the fluttering canvas above, she could tell that this place was inside a tent.

“Kkamangi. What kind of tent is this?”

“Kkaman…… forget it.”

For some reason Kkamangi let out a deep sigh.

Then he folded his arms and answered,

“Your daddy’s hometown. You said you wanted to come.”

“……Daddy’s hometown?”

“Yeah.”

Tie’s eyes slowly grew wide.

‘Daddy’s hometown, Talochium, is a beautiful country. He said it was even prettier before the magic stones erupted…… anyway, it’s way bigger than here, the air is better too……’

Whenever Daddy talked about home, stars had sparkled in his eyes.

Tie knew a lot about Talochium because Daddy had told her about it so often.

“The problem was that not even I could bring your daddy back to life.”

But then Kkamangi’s next words scattered Tie’s recollections like drifting smoke.

Tie looked at Kkamangi with a rather tense face.

‘He couldn’t bring Daddy back to life?’

Then does that mean he couldn’t save Daddy?

Does that mean I came to Daddy’s hometown without Daddy and by myself?

She was startled by the unexpected fact and her body tensed, but

“So we came to the past.”

at the next words, all the strength drained right back out of her.

Tie blankly repeated,

“We came to the past……?”

“Yeah. If you just turn back time, everything gets solved.”

Tie furrowed her brow with all her might.

And she began turning her brain as hard as she possibly could.

Time goes back into the past.

Tie, who had been in the original world, in other words the future, moved to the past!

Which meant,

“Then there are two Ties?”

Kkamangi burst out laughing.

Then he went to the entrance of the tent and opened the flap.

“Nice try, but you’re off. Right now it’s long before you were born.”

Tie stared with her mouth hanging open at the scene spread before her.

A forest.

What lay outside the tent was a forest she had never seen in her life.

As if entranced, she stepped forward, and the forest at dawn came into clearer view.

Conifer trees growing straight as if to pierce the sky.

Between them, small leafy trees, vines, dew-soaked moss……

“In this world, you won’t be born for another seven years.”

Birds began to chirp.

“Even if you meet your daddy, that man won’t know who you are.”

Tears slowly welled in Tie’s eyes.

“To begin with, there’s no guarantee you’ll even get to meet him. This place is wider than you think.”

“I can find him!”

Tie spun around.

A bright smile hung on her tear-filled face.

“If Daddy is alive, I can find him!”

Even if Daddy did not recognize her, that was okay.

Even if he treated her coldly as some child he had never seen before, it did not matter.

If only she could meet him again, if only she could see him healthy again!

Breathing in bravely, Tie rolled her eyes around.

‘Daddy definitely said so. That he was a really strong, strongest holy knight.’

And dutiful daughter Tie, who had listened carefully every night to the stories Daddy told her, knew.

“Let’s go! Kkamangi!”

that the headquarters of the Imperial Holy Knights was in the imperial capital.

But Tie soon had no choice but to realize it.

That life was not as easy as she had thought.

“Huff, huff…… Whaaat……”

It felt like she had definitely come a long way.

But when she turned her head, the tent they had left was still visible a little way off.

“Why did I only get this far……?”

For some reason, Kkamangi let out a deep sigh beside her.