Chapter 45

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Child Hiding Their Power Searches for Dad - Chapter 140

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"What's your name?"

Tiye's question prompted a spirited reply from the puppet.

"I'm Tiye!"

Tiye held out one hand.

Marbas hesitated for a moment before bouncing forward with a thump, thump, bumping its head against her palm before pulling back.

Tiye watched in fascination and then asked,

"By the way, Mar Mar, are you really a spirit?"

The puppet flinched and glanced at Lukarion and Ppu Ppu.

Then it hurriedly replied,

Ppu Ppu grinned contentedly at the puppet's rigidly disciplined posture.

It snorted approvingly, tapping its trunk against the floor with a thud, thud.

Tiye stepped up to Marbas.

"Got it! But Mar Mar, why were you stuck in there?"

Marbas drooped its lion head and let out a heavy sigh.

"Ibra... what Dynasty?"

"The Ibranis Dynasty, Tiye."

Nordics approached.

He sat beside Tiye, peering at Marbas with curious eyes.

"The Ibranis were an ancient dynasty. Once the most prosperous in the world. Records say they mastered both magic and mechanical engineering. Which is why even today..."

Nordics's eyes gleamed as he gazed at Marbas.

"...there's talk that their wisdom actually came from something non-human."

"Non-human...?"

Tiye's gaze shifted back to Marbas.

The child asked in a voice brimming with curiosity,

"Mar Mar, did you give wisdom to the Ibra... whatever Dynasty? Is that why they sealed you?"

Marbas let out a deep sigh.

Then it spoke in an uncertain tone.

Before the conqueror sealed Marbas into the wooden puppet.

As Tiye had guessed, it had maintained contracts across generations with the dynasty's members.

The reason was to share knowledge.

When Marbas provided blueprints to the dynasty, the Ibranis people hailed it as a god.

Marbas loved the adoration.

But one day, trouble arose.

The Ibranis Dynasty began wreaking havoc on neighboring kingdoms.

They started crafting weapons with the technology from Marbas.

Human greed knows no bounds, it seemed. The dynasty waged reckless wars of conquest.

Countless lives were lost in the process.

Even Marbas, who hadn't thought much of it at first, realized something was wrong by then.

As it pondered how to fix the situation...

A conqueror came, reduced the dynasty to ashes, and sealed Marbas into the wooden puppet.

So much time had passed since that Marbas had forgotten all its old memories.

It couldn't even remember who had sealed it.

A human? No, maybe not human... A dragon?)

Marbas looked down at its body in frustration.

A limbless wooden puppet.

A curvaceous torso like a human woman's and a roughly carved lion head.

A grumble slipped out unbidden.

Hearing that, Tiye's mouth fell open in an O before she shouted,

"Mar Mar, you're a boy!"

Marbas wiped away an imaginary tear in its mind.

The doll had no arms, so it couldn't actually do so.

Just then, its eyes met Ppu Ppu's.

"Kyuu."

At the look that said What're you staring at?, Marbas hurriedly averted its gaze.

For some reason, just looking at that elephant made its heart race like it'd eaten something bad.

Did I have bad blood with that thing in my forgotten past?)

Was it the elephant that destroyed the dynasty and sealed me?!)

But Marbas shook its head.

Its memories were already spotty enough without adding delusions.

"So Mar Mar, you're Tiye's subordinate now, right? You'll play with Tiye?"

Marbas looked up.

Right in front of it, its benefactor—who had awakened it—sparkled her green eyes.

Oddly enough, its benefactor already had an eerie elephant and a young dragon as her lackeys.

Commanding those two with their extraordinary auras like subordinates.

She's the real deal, a true powerhouse.

In truth, Marbas's seal couldn't be broken easily.

It required power superior to the sealer's mana.

After some deliberation, Marbas nodded inwardly.

Yeah. I'm sticking with her.

Though the seal was broken, Marbas hadn't returned to its original form.

Having been sealed so long, it seemed to need time to reconstruct its body.

If she has mana strong enough to break the seal, just being near her might help.

Decision made, it bounced eagerly in front of Tiye.

Tiye tilted her head.

Marbas continued brimming with confidence.

Tiye pondered deeply.

Then, as if struck by an idea, she dashed off somewhere.

Soon she returned dragging a single teleportation array from the cart.

"Okay, Mar Mar! Make me one million two hundred thousand of these!"

The squad members' eyes went wide.

But Marbas boldly positioned itself before the array Tiye had set down.

Golden energy gathered in Marbas's eyes.

The energy swelled to the size of Tiye's fingernail before shooting toward the array with a pop.

But.

"Huh? Did it do anything?"

As Tiye said, the power fizzled out like heat haze upon reaching the array's edge.

Marbas bounced frantically around the array.

Why isn't this working?)

This was odd.

The blueprint in its head was definitely correct.

It hurriedly recalled the blueprint again.

It gathered power once more. But,

Sizzle... crackle...

"Kiddo. Remember that spirit we met before? The one that gave you the Sanctity of Oblivion."

"Yeah! Princess Seradin's spirit!"

"Was that one as dim as this guy?"

"Nope! Super pretty!"

Marbas trembled.

Pop—sizzle crackle...

Pop—sizzle crackle crackle...

But three tries, four—it was the same result.

Marbas collapsed in shock, rolling across the floor.

This can't be.

In its prime.

Teleportation arrays were child's play for it.

Marbas was a genius versed in both mechanical engineering and magic—there was no blueprint it couldn't create!

It struggled back upright.

And mustered its last strength, firing at the array.

Boom—!

Finally, a similar-looking duplicate appeared beside the original.

Marbas bounced high in excitement.

But it quickly shut up.

"Selina, what's this thing?"

"No idea. Seems like it plays music when you open it. Daddy brought it back from some island..."

No one was paying attention to it anymore.

Evening, after dinner.

"Okay, let's start the meeting now!"

Tiye, flanked by Veil and Basto on the sofa, hopped down.

The child toddled to the table and plopped her chin on the pile of teleportation arrays stacked atop it.

Mimicking her kindergarten teacher Miss Isoljae, she announced,

"Listen up, Agaveert folks! Starting tomorrow, we're laying siege to the mana stone!"