Chapter 3

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Super Skinny Kid Searches for Dad 102

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“Ve-Veil, big brother...”

Tiye flinched involuntarily.

But even as she did, the screams kept coming.

In the end, Raoul turned to Basto with growing impatience.

“...We need to hurry!”

The five of them, including Tiye, quickened their pace.

But the screams only grew louder the further they followed the fence.

“That’s the one with the brown roof!”

Adelin finally spotted the stable and cried out softly.

Raoul and Enzo nodded and swiftly moved to the back of the stable.

With practiced ease, they scaled the fence, clung to the wall, and began climbing onto the roof.

“Aaaah! Pl-Please, spare me... Hic... Please...”

The pleas leaking from inside the stable grew even clearer.

Tears welled up in Tiye’s eyes as she buried her face in Basto’s shoulder.

At the same time, Enzo let out a short whistle from atop the roof.

It was a signal that no guards were visible nearby.

Basto and Adelin nodded and were just about to climb the fence when...

Raoul and Enzo leaped down from the roof to the opposite side of the stable at the same time.

“Lord Veil!”

But the two froze in place almost immediately.

Basto, Adelin, and Tiye, who had rounded the stable, also widened their eyes in shock.

“H-Huh... What, did you come to rescue me?”

Inside the stable.

Veil, one arm shackled in iron chains, pushed himself upright.

And right in front of him,

“U-Uwaaaah! Let go... Pl-Please...”

a knight gripped by the leg by Veil was writhing and begging in agony.

“Veil, big brother!”

Spotting Veil, Tiye scrambled down from Basto’s back.

The child dashed past the pile of hay on the floor straight to Veil.

“...Kiddo?”

Veil was covered in blood.

His face was so swollen from blows that it was hard to recognize, and one eye was bloodshot from burst vessels.

His body was in the same state.

Especially his right wrist, which looked like it had broken free from the chains— the injury there was severe.

Veil quickly hid his mangled wrist behind his back.

“K-Kiddo. It’s nothing, I’m fine.”

But Tiye couldn’t say a word.

Instead, tears brimming, she scanned Veil from head to toe.

Fine? What about him was fine?

His whole body was covered in wounds.

Tiye bit her lip hard and pushed past Veil.

She rushed to the stone wall and began yanking at the chains connecting to the stable.

“Kiddo. You...”

Veil’s surprised voice came from behind.

But Tiye kept tugging at the chains even harder, tears streaming down her face.

“Let’s go quick. Let’s get back to the inn quick...”

She had half-expected it ever since seeing him get captured by the knights.

That Veil might be hurt.

But now that she saw him truly injured, no other thoughts crossed her mind.

“You’re hurt so bad... You need treatment quick...”

Her legs gave out, and the child plopped down onto the ground.

“Hold on. I’ll do it!”

Raoul snapped to his senses and rushed over.

He struck the chains with all his might using his scabbard.

But the chains didn’t budge.

Veil, watching, muttered.

“No use. Need the key. That’s what I was searching them for.”

He nodded toward the knight sprawled on the floor.

There wasn’t just one fainted knight on the ground.

“There were four originally. Once I took down the two closest, the rest came rushing.”

Basto shook his head as he listened.

Veil was surprisingly strong in close-quarters combat.

Not by overwhelming brute force, but by agile, nimble movements that gave him the edge in brawls.

“Kiddo, don’t cry. Huh?”

Veil approached Tiye and started soothing her.

“Did you hear on the way? That wasn’t my scream, I swear? It was the bad guys’ screams?”

“Ugh, big brother’s hurt too! I said the one who gets hurt is a dummy! Big brother’s a dummy! A stupid stinky poop dog!”

“...Yeah. I’m a dummy stinky poop. So stop crying. Huh?”

But Tiye couldn’t stop her tears easily.

With a heartbroken face, she gently touched Veil’s one shackled wrist.

“Can’t really get this off? Big brother, you can’t escape...?”

Veil finally fell silent for a moment before asking quietly.

“If I cut it off, will you stop crying?”

Tiye’s mouth fell open.

Soon, deep shock filled the child’s eyes.

“C-C-Cut it off...?”

“Astie, incoming!”

It was then.

Lukarion, who had been keeping watch from a distance, came running.

“Heard the screams. More than one or two.”

Enzo and Raoul’s faces darkened at his words.

They had just been about to grab a large rock to smash the chain’s connection to the wall.

“Enough. Everyone, out.”

Basto, who had been silent the whole time, stepped forward with a sigh.

Everyone stared at him in bewilderment.

But Basto brushed past Adelin and stood before Veil.

Moments later, he gripped the chains with both hands and took a short breath.

“...Hoo.”

The next instant, veins bulged starkly across his forehead and thick hands, as if about to burst.

And then.

Snap, crack—the thick iron chains snapped.

“...Cr-Crazy.”

Veil stared at Basto in disbelief.

“B-B-Basto, sir?”

“What did I just see...”

Raoul and Enzo were equally frozen like statues.

Lukarion, leaning crookedly beside Adelin, muttered with interest.

“Useful.”

Basto dusted off his hands and stood.

“Let’s go.”

He quickly knelt in front of Tiye, showing her his back.

“Tiye, hop on.”

But for some reason, Tiye didn’t climb on.

Instead, she had been scanning the surroundings with a strange expression since moments ago.

By then, everyone else had already exited the stable.

“Tiye, come on, hop on.”

Basto urged her again.

But Tiye still didn’t move.

She just stood there, staring intently at something.

“Tiye!”

The child tilted her head.

Deep inside the stable.

The right corner piled high with haystacks.

The spirit that had guided them here stood there.

“Uncle Basto.”

“Tiye, I don’t know what it is, but we don’t have time!”

“No, it’s...”

The spirit moved its lips as if saying something.

With a very sad and desperate expression.

Tiye pursed her lips and furrowed her brow.

She couldn’t make out what the spirit was saying at all.

“Over there! Grab them!”

Right then, a group of soldiers rounded the corner not far from the stable and appeared.

Spotting the Agaveert group, they picked up speed.

Each armed to the teeth.

“Tiye!”

Basto finally grabbed Tiye’s arm.

But Tiye,

“Tiye—!”

shook off Basto’s hand and bolted toward the corner of the stable.

“A will! It’s a will!”

At Tiye’s shout, Lukarion, Veil, and Adelin waiting outside turned back.

Tiye yelled again.

“There’s a will here!”

Then she frantically started digging through the haystack.