Chapter 44

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Super Serious Kid is Looking for Dad 13

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“Hic.”

Astie couldn’t easily stop her tears.

But even amid her sobs, she swiped away the streaming tears and picked up the fallen jawbone from the floor, fitting it back onto the skull.

Veil and Basto stared at the sight, frozen stiff.

The child continued.

“Necromancer Grandpa too, hic! Don’t worry, hic! He ran far away, but he’s coming back here! He said there’s healing salve and bandages in Grandpa’s bag...”

“Tiye.”

Basto cut off the child’s words.

“...You. Your hand.”

Astie looked down.

Clack—

The skull’s jawbone fell off once more.

Astie fitted the bone back into place and looked at Veil and Basto.

“Huh? Bone Buddy?”

Veil forgot to even breathe, blinking vacantly.

Astie alone chattered on as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“You see, this one’s name is Bone Buddy, and he’s friends with Bone Buddy 2 and Bone Buddy 3. All the way up to Bone Buddy 23.”

The skull’s jawbone fell loose again.

Astie let out an annoyed eeeng and fitted it back.

Then she frowned, tilting her head to the empty air as if responding to something.

“What do you mean! That Veil oppa and mister could be Bone Buddies 24 and 25. You can’t say mean things like that!”

“...”

“You’re joking? But jokes only count if they make the other person happy too. If it makes them feel bad, it’s just being naughty.”

“...”

“O-Of course you know that, you’re so nice! Thanks for saving oppa and mister. I’ll pay you back later, even if I have to sell the house and three beams!”

Veil and Basto’s eyes met.

“You don’t know house and three beams? It’s a house, our home! Proverbs—you know proverbs, right?”

“...”

“Gasp, you don’t know proverbs either? Nah, it’s fine even if you don’t. Tiye’s got a whole mountain of stuff she doesn’t know.”

“...”

“Duh, of course! I’ll teach you one by one later. But hey, buddy, could you ask Necromancer Grandpa when he’ll get here?”

Veil’s heart pounded ever harder.

And that was why.

When an arm bone thrust up through the soil right in front of him, he nearly toppled over in shock.

When that bone pointed clearly at somewhere in the forest behind them, he thought his heart had flatlined.

Clack.

The bone, index finger raised, shook with a creaky squeak.

Tiye beamed innocently between the two men.

“Wow! It’s really Necromancer Grandpa!”

Far off in the direction the finger bone pointed.

Nordics, the necromancer with blood soaking his forehead, was truly walking toward them.

“Chew chew, no picky eating~”

The child’s bright laughter echoed through the cave.

Basto and Veil, bandages wrapped around their wounds, hadn’t spoken a word the whole time.

Nordics trailing behind was no different.

“Spinach, carrots, then beans! For strong bones!”

Tiye still clutched the skull in her hands.

Still talking to it all by herself.

“Gasp, Bone Buddy 18 got hurt?”

“...”

“Wow— Being underground heals you right up? Then you don’t need shots either?”

Veil and Basto exchanged glances.

Then they halted at Tiye’s next words.

“Huh? Mister, it’s right here!”

Tiye pointed precisely at where the magic stone had been.

“Look! No rift left at all!”

Basto stared blankly at the spot, rooted in place.

Tiye’s words were true.

The magic stones that had stood side by side in the darkness had vanished at some point.

The rifts around them had dissipated too.

“Bone Buddies are underground, so they know everything—it was true! The Bone Buddies must’ve taken care of whatever was left! Wow! We conquered the magic stones! Two of them, even!”

They swallowed hard.

Basto and Veil hadn’t wiped out every monster that poured from those rifts.

Just the fact that one Richelops had slipped out during the fight proved it.

So they’d never imagined the stones could’ve been perfectly conquered...

Basto turned away from the thrilled Tiye.

And fixed a grave look on Veil and Nordics.

“Listen. If I’m not mistaken, Tiye is...”

Veil and Nordics nodded.

By now, Tiye had plopped down right where the magic stone had been.

Skull laid neatly in front of her (likely because the jaw kept dropping), chattering about dentists or something.

“Y’know, back when I was in Jongno-gu, Grandma in 107 got implants! Implants make brand-new teeth grow right out. You should go to the dentist and get implants too!”

“...”

“Eh? No dentists underground? What then... Do you have insurance at least? No insurance and medical bills explode. Implants are crazy expensive.”

“...”

“Guess no helping it then. Truth is, I don’t have insurance either? Went to the hospital for a cold once, and Dad paid a fortune—I felt so bad. Auntie in 203 said it’s cheap with health insurance, but I didn’t have any...”

What in the world was an implant?

A dentist?

Health insurance? And who was this Auntie 203?

At times like these, Tiye really did seem like your average four-year-old.

Rambling on about things from her imagination, holding one-sided chats with things that couldn’t respond.

It looked like textbook kid stuff—no red flags at first glance.

“But the real issue is that it seems like she’s actually talking to that skull.”

Nordics and Veil nodded.

No doubt about it—Tiye wasn’t chatting with imaginary friends right now.

Something only she could hear and see.

Probably holding a real conversation with the ‘actual skeleton.’

“Ehehe! For real? Bone Buddy 15 stole a bad monster’s teeth—that’s hilarious! Tyranno’s gonna be pissed.”

“What do we do?”

Veil muttered, face drained pale.

“What’re we supposed to do here?”

But the other two were just as lost.

A necromancer straight out of legends had shown up.

And she was four years old, with no guardian in sight?

“...Huh? Oh, really? You need monster cores to pass the mercenary exam? Wait, for real? You’re gonna collect real cores for me?”

She didn’t even seem aware of what she was doing.

Basto chewed his lower lip, then turned toward Tiye.

Stepping up to the girl happily conversing with the skull.

“Tiye.”

Astie finally looked up.

Her purely innocent face made him swallow nervously for no reason.

“Your skel—er, I mean, your Bone Buddies.”

Her eyes went wide.

“Can you tell us how you called them out?”

Tiye cocked her head as if the question stumped her, then finally spoke after a long pause.

“Didn’t call ’em out...?”

“Then what? Huh? What the hell was it?!”

Impatient Veil jumped in.

Tiye tilted her head again, gauging their faces as she scratched the back of her neck.

“Just... met ’em...”

“Just met them? Skeletons? Where?”

“But Veil oppa, they’re not skeletons. They’re Bone Buddies.”

Veil clamped his mouth shut.

But soon he flashed the prettiest smile imaginable, teeth grinding as he asked,

“Right. Bone Buddies. So where’d you meet these Bone Buddies?”

“Well, in the forest, I was praying real hard that no one would die, and then I met them. My prayers were so loud they woke up from sleep. Bone Buddy 1 all the way to 23!”

Her beaming hehe left Veil speechless.

Suddenly, Nordics’ voice came from behind.

“...She was born with mana. Tremendously powerful mana, at that.”

Basto, Veil, and Tiye’s gazes all swung to him.

Nordics regarded Tiye with calm eyes and continued.

“Her powers awakened without her even realizing it. She’s so young, it’s only natural she doesn’t know what she did.”

“Tiye has powers?”

The child echoed back.

Leaving the frozen Basto and Veil behind, Nordics stepped forward.

“Yes. An extraordinary ability, by the look of it. Awakenings usually don’t happen until the teenage years, but you...”

Tiye’s green eyes grew huge.

She pondered deeply for a moment, then cried out with an ah!

The three men held their breath, hanging on her next words.

But what she blurted out, slapping her knee, was completely out of left field.

“Blood’s thicker than water!”

In the heavy silence that fell.

The skull’s jaw dropped again.