A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad

A little earlier.

"It’s alright. The fact that you weren’t hurt is already a huge relief."

At Tesetan’s gentle consolation, Tie lowered her head.

"But stiiill...."

"Papa understands too. Mel Lucien has fallen for our tricks more than once already, right?"

Tie hesitated slightly before nodding.

"Yeah. And he also believed Tie was dependent on Silentium."

But what good did that do now?

'Bad Mel still escaped.'

With her brows drooping gloomily, Tie recalled the past few days.

Throughout all that time, Agavert’s plan had gone even better than expected.

Because Nordix had finished the antidote exactly as promised.

On the third day, he returned from the Roxe Forest after gathering all the necessary ingredients.

Then he quickly mixed them together and produced enough antidote.

'It tasted super awful, but it was really weird.'

The medicine genuinely worked.

If you took the antidote beforehand, no matter how much food from the Communion Hall you ate, your mind stayed clear.

But—

'When someone is poisoned by Silentium, certain symptoms appear, child. Cold sweat, fever, things like that.'

To deceive Mel completely, they had needed to cheat a little.

'So I had no choice but to add some poisonous herbs that induce those symptoms.'

When Nordix said that, his face had looked very sorrowful.

As though it hurt him that Tie had to go through such things.

But Tie herself had not minded.

'It’s not only hard for Tie. Everyone’s struggling and busy right now too....'

Before the battle against Luciano.

Everyone was exhausted.

'And it’s all because of Tie. Because everyone’s protecting Tie.'

The little girl’s face became gloomier and gloomier.

And then.

"There it is again. That look again."

Tesetan wrapped an arm around Tie’s shoulders as though scolding her.

When she looked up, Papa was staring at her with troubled eyes.

"What is it, hm? Still upset because Mel escaped?"

Tie hesitated before shutting her mouth.

"We expected this. Mel is Luciano’s closest subordinate."

"..."

"A villain who’s spent decades doing all kinds of disgusting things—did you really think he wouldn’t prepare at least one escape plan? Did our daughter even watch any feature length movies properly?"

Tesetan playfully poked her nose.

"Don’t worry. We lost him for now, but we know where he ran to. And the Roxe Forest was already somewhere we needed to go anyway."

Tie slowly nodded.

But the gloomy look still refused to leave her face.

At that moment, Bale, who had noticed her expression, stopped walking.

"What’s wrong, shrimp? Planning to bury yourself underground again?"

Tie flinched and immediately puffed out her cheeks.

"N No I’m not!"

"Oh, come on. It’s written all over your face."

Hearing the commotion, the other squad members gradually gathered around them.

While Tie blinked in confusion, Bale casually scooped her into his arms.

"Alright, listen carefully. I’m seriously really truly explaining this for the last time, got it? You only need to remember three things."

He folded his fingers down one by one.

"First. None of this happened because of you. It’s all that crazy psycho pope’s fault."

"Not psycho pope. Psychopath...."

"You’re the one who taught me psycho pope first. It already stuck to my tongue, so give up."

"..."

"Second. Whatever happens from now on isn’t because of you either. If we don’t stop Luciano, the world’s finished. So we’re fighting for our own survival too. Got it?"

Tie eventually closed her mouth in silence.

"And third. There isn’t a single person here who wants to run away or leave the mercenary squad right now! So stop asking already."

Tie’s eyes widened.

Then she immediately shouted in protest.

"That’s a false accusation! Tie didn’t say that just now!"

"But you kept asking it over and over these past few days, didn’t you? And if we waited a little longer, you were about to ask again too, right?"

"Eeeek....!"

Tie clenched her fists tightly.

But soon her shoulders drooped weakly.

"...Bale oppa’s right."

Even though it annoyed her, it was true.

While staying in the pilgrims’ quarters, Tie had asked every member of the squad the same question.

Whether they wanted to leave the squad.

Whether they wanted to leave the Central Continent.

'Because they can’t get hurt because of Tie....'

But none of them wanted to avoid this battle.

Basto had said everyone who could leave had already been filtered out long ago, yet Tie still felt heavyhearted.

And then.

Bale muttered quietly.

"Hold on. Actually, now that I think about it."

He stared intently at Tie.

"If you think about it, all of this happened because of you in the first place, shrimp."

Tie lifted her head.

Her huge eyes grew even rounder than usual.

"Look. If it weren’t for you, how would we have ever learned what Luciano was planning?"

"That’s absolutely true, Sir Bale."

"Exactly!"

Raul and Ribia immediately backed him up.

"And how would we have learned that Magic Crystals are infected spirits, or how to communicate with them? Isn’t that right?"

"...Tie really did play an important role." freewebnσvel.cøm

At that moment, Basto was laying a rescued child down on the floor.

"Because we managed to ambush Mel unexpectedly, we were able to save the children. Even with that unexpected variable at the last moment."

At those words, Tie remembered what had happened only a short while ago and wriggled her fingers.

At first, Tie had only wanted to quietly escape the laboratory.

But when Mel awakened his stigma and spread a holy circle across the floor, she changed her mind and decided to fight him.

'For some reason, it felt like running away wasn’t allowed.'

At that time, the squad members upstairs had been fighting the Dark Spirit Squad.

If Tie had run away, Mel would definitely have shifted his attention there instead.

And then the flow °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of the battle would certainly have changed.

"Speaking of that, how exactly did you block his attack? With those tiny spirits the World Tree gave you?"

At Allerik’s question, Tie nodded uncertainly.

"Yeah. Tie already became really close friends with the yellow pompoms...."

The instant she said that, the pom poms that had been darting around the labyrinth immediately flew toward Tie.

Seeing that, Basto smiled.

"No matter how it was done. The important thing is that you defeated Mel and forced him to flee, Tie."

Basto nodded behind him.

The rescued children and squad members were lying there in neat rows.

"We’ve already saved thirty four children who were on the verge of death."

Tie’s face brightened a little.

Noticing that, Tesetan exchanged a glance with Basto before speaking.

"And the way you lowered Mel’s guard was amazing too. Since when did our daughter become such a good actress?"

Tie scratched her head.

Tesetan took her back from Bale’s arms.

"If this were Jongno, talent agencies would already be fighting to call you. What a shame."

"...Talent agencies?"

"Yep. Our daughter acts better than the child actors on TV."

"Then Tie could become a celebrity too?"

"Of course. You’d practically become a national actress."

"And Tie could meet Luna and Jenna from the kids’ chirp chirp quiz show too?"

"Naturally. I think Luna and Jenna would run over asking to meet you first."

"Haaak."

Tie gasped softly.

Luna and Jenna were the hosts of her favorite quiz show.

And the thought that those older sisters might actually want to meet her themselves.

Before she knew it, the corners of the little girl’s mouth had spread into a smile.

Embarrassed, Tie quietly whined:

"Eeeing...."

Then she rubbed her face against Tesetan’s shoulder.

Soft smiles appeared on the squad members’ faces.

"So stop thinking such gloomy thoughts already, alright?"

Tesetan slowly lowered Tie back onto the ground.

Then he carefully tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ear.

"First, we need to get everyone out safely. Understood?"

"Yeah!"

"Good. Then Papa...."

"Papa’s going to save everyone again! And Tie’s gonna quietly wait with the pom poms, Pupu, and Marrrr!"

Tesetan blinked.

Then he let out a quiet chuckle and stood up.

The moment Papa turned away, Tie, whose mood had visibly improved, pressed herself against the wall.

So she would not get in the way while the squad members ran through the corridor.

When the little girl crouched down, the pom poms immediately swarmed into her palms.

"Yellow pom pom, you were sooo cool!"

The moment she praised the pom pom that had summoned lightning earlier, all the pom poms trembled together in delight.

Watching this, Marbas hopped up onto Tie’s shoulder.

"Master."

"Hm?"

"Perhaps because they were revived by the World Tree. But the hidden power inside these spirits truly is extraordinary. And it made me think of something."

With a serious expression, Marbas added:

"Would you like to conduct an experiment with me?"