Chapter 5

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Inside Basto Faerix’s head, enormous question marks were engraved one after another.

What were the odds that a small child would be inside a forest overflowing with monsters at night?

And then what were the odds that this child would happen to get caught in the trap he had set?

And then, on top of that……

“M-mister, hic! Ti-Tie, hic! is o-okay, okay! hic!”

What were the odds that this child would neither cry nor whine, and would instead say she was okay and try to reassure him?

“……Huh.”

It made no sense.

It was not that he was the strange one. This situation itself was strange.

While tidying the net he had lowered to the ground, Basto eventually straightened up with a frown.

The child sitting on the ground visibly flinched.

“You……”

“I’m okay! Hic! Tie is really, really okay! Hic!”

Basto looked at the child, who kept repeating the same words, with an absurd expression.

The child could not even meet his eyes and only had both hands tightly clasped.

Unable to just watch any longer, Basto asked,

“Where are your parents.”

The child looked to be at most three or four years old.

So there was no way she had come to the forest alone. She had obviously come with her parents.

“M-my daddy, hic! is, is really close by……?”

Just as expected, the child answered.

Basto nodded.

“I see. Nearby?”

“Ye-yes…… If Tie yells, h-he’ll come r-right away, hic! He’s super close……!”

Thought so.

Basto knew what the curiosity of children that age was like.

No matter how careful parents were, it was difficult to keep perfect control over a child who vanished the moment they took their eyes off them.

A short laugh escaped Basto’s mouth.

‘For such a little thing, she’s brave.’

If her parent had been close by, she could have just called for him right away.

Since all she was doing was hiccuping, he could only mistake her for some new kind of robber or suspicious person.

Smiling, Basto threw out a joke.

“Then you should’ve cried loudly. When you got caught in the net.”

“……Hic.”

“You can cry even now. Let’s see if your daddy comes.”

But for some reason the child pressed her mouth shut.

Then,

“Hng, hng…… It-it’s trueee……”

she started shedding round tears in big drops.

Basto looked at the child with a surprised expression.

It was bewildering that she had not cried in a situation where she should have cried, but now that he was trying to find her parents for her, she was crying.

“……Why are you crying……”

“Waaahhh-! Waaaah! Kkamangpang! Kkamangpang! Save me-!!”

He took a step to soothe her, but for some reason the child started crying even louder.

At the sight of her having even stopped hiccuping and looking as if she might go into convulsions, Basto stopped where he was.

“No, why……”

Then it suddenly dawned on him.

Because he remembered what sort of state he was in as he faced the child.

The monster blood he had gotten splashed with yesterday had dried in his hair, and his unwashed body gave off a stale smell.

On top of that, he had been hiding in the bushes to check the trap when his eyes had met the child’s directly, hadn’t they.

“Wah, waaah! Kkamangpang! Save me! Save meee! Waaaah-!!”

Basto scratched his head with a troubled look, then for the moment took a step back.

He could see the crying child flinch as she checked his appearance.

Basto ostentatiously moved back several more steps.

After that, he even tossed the weapon hanging at his waist toward where the net was.

“Sniff…… sniff, Kkamangpang……”

The child looked at him while sniffling.

Clutching her pink backpack tightly.

“Mister will stay here, so you go. To your daddy.”

The child blinked with a wary expression.

“Hurry and go to your daddy. You said he was nearby.”

The child fidgeted with her bag.

Then, in a tiny voice, she asked,

“Y-you’re not coming to catch me……?”

“Why would I catch you.”

“Because you’re a kidnapper……”

Swallowing a sigh, Basto answered as calmly as possible.

“I’m not a kidnapper. I was hungry, so I was trying to catch rabbits to eat.”

An even bigger shock spread across the child’s face.

But before long, the child hesitantly got to her feet.

Looking at the child fidgeting as he put on her bag, Basto thought,

‘……I should at least follow her from a distance.’

From the look of things, he would not be able to find her parents for her directly.

He intended to shadow her until the child found her parent herself.

If she failed to find him and night fell, it would become troublesome.

“Hurry and go find your daddy. It’s dangerous to be alone in a place like this.”

The child nodded weakly.

Then she slowly turned around and began trotting away between the trees.

“……Ueeng!”

Though she collapsed to the ground before taking even three steps.

The fallen child sniffled and turned her head.

Basto’s gaze met the child’s in empty air.

“……”

In the silence, Basto stared at the child with a tense face.

The child, clutching her left ankle as if she had hurt her leg when she was caught in the net, had her lips jutting out.

Before long a sorrowful voice was heard.

“M-misterrr……”

Only after hearing the next words could Basto hurry over.

“Tie, Tie’s leg……”

* * *

“Mister, are rabbits tasty?”

Basto, who had been wrapping a compression bandage around the tiny ankle, lifted his head.

“Yeah.”

The child’s eyes went round.

“What does it taste like? Cow taste?”

“All meat tastes the same.”

“No it doesn’t! Piggy and cow and chickie chicken all taste different!”

Basto let out a small laugh.

‘Judging by how she talks about meat, she almost seems like a noble.’

But then it bothered him that she was alone in a remote forest.

And that the father she said was nearby still had not shown himself.

“Why isn’t your daddy coming. You cried that loudly just now.”

He asked carefully in case the child burst into tears again, but the side opposite him stayed quiet.

When he raised his head, the child was looking at him with a face that seemed to be watching his mood.

Basto added, trying to reassure the child,

“I’m asking because if you tell me where your daddy is, mister will take you there.”

The child pursed her lips.

He could see the hand clutching the bag fidgeting.

“Actually, to the imperial capital……”

Basto’s brow narrowed.

“The imperial capital?”

Nod nod.

A short exclamation escaped his mouth.

He had thought her parent was nearby, but the imperial capital?

“Then why did you say earlier that your daddy was around here.”

“Because if I said that, mister wouldn’t kidnap Tie……”

“If I was that scary, then why did you say at first that you were okay?”

“Because the kindergarten teacher said not to provoke kidnappers……”

Silence fell between them.

To Basto, who was at a loss for words, the child whispered as if telling him a secret.

“Mister, if you ever meet a kidnapper too, you shouldn’t say please save me! Then it’ll get even worse.”

“……Why?”

“Because if you provoke a kidnapper, it gets more dangerous. You have to slowly figure out the kidnapper’s demands and open up the possibility of negotiation and dialogue.”

Basto was left speechless.

After swallowing a sigh, he answered,

“I, for things like that, am fine.”

The child let out an Huh?

“Look at me. Do I look like someone who’d get kidnapped.”

At Basto’s next words, the child opened her mouth in a small o.

The bright green eyes carefully swept over his clotted-with-monster-blood hair, thick beard, and massive build in order.

When the child nodded as if he understood, Basto felt strangely displeased.

“……There, all done.”

When he finished wrapping the bandage, the child examined her own ankle with fascinated eyes.

Basto stood up and looked down at that sight.

‘Her parent is in the imperial capital.’

Whatever the true meaning of her words, the child was injured.

And besides, the sun was already gradually tilting down.

Briowood was a forest relatively close to the imperial capital.

And nowadays, the area near the imperial capital was crawling with refugees who had been filtered out at the gates.

With so many people gathered, there were sometimes children who got separated from their families at the gates.

Basto’s gaze fell on the child’s pink leather bag.

Though young, she looked carefree.

She also seemed to have attended a proper academy that taught her what to do if she was kidnapped.

A child who seemed to have grown up loved, in a family that could buy her a bag like that.

Basto made his decision.

“Come with me, to the imperial capital.”

He had to stop by the imperial capital anyway to report the newly conquered magic stone.

“I’ll take you there.”

The moment he saw the child’s eyes grow round, one side of her chest tightened.

Once, he too had had a child he prayed would safely return to his arms.

That child had now gone to a place he could no longer reach.

“How much your daddy must be waiting for you.”

At Basto’s words, a bright smile spread across Astie’s lips.