Chapter 47

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Skinny Kid is Looking for Dad Chapter 142

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“Marrr!”

Tiye rushed over and scooped up Marbas.

The lion head attached to the statue stared at her in bewilderment.

Tiye's eyes sparkled as she spoke.

“Marrr, you said you could evolve stuff earlier, right?”

Marbas gazed at Tiye with a terrified expression, then hesitantly nodded.

“Then you can evolve the transfer circle?!”

Interest flickered across the members' faces.

They were curious if the statue brought to life by Tiye could really pull off something like that.

Under the weight of all those stares, Marbas felt his shoulders lift ever so slightly toward the sky.

Attention like this always sent a thrill through him. He hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth to reply.

“Think it'll work? You couldn't even copy a single transfer circle.”

Veil shattered the mood.

Marbas bristled and shouted.

“......Huh, Marrr. You did?”

Marbas sniffled, inwardly wiping away tears.

He flicked his eyes toward the distant window sill.

There was the single transfer circle Marbas had copied, half shoved under a side table.

Tiye bobbed her head vigorously.

“Yeah! Marrr's the best! Tiye believes in you!”

Marbas slowly raised his head.

Then he hopped down from Tiye's palm.

He bounded onto the table.

Standing atop the stack of transfer circles, red beams began pouring from Marbas's eyes.

“Ooh. Looks a bit more convincing than before?”

“Quiet, Veil. He's a spirit, you know. Stop teasing him like that—it's disrespectful.”

“Now that you mention it, he's kinda pathetic. If that's a spirit, then I'm the spirit granddaddy.”

Marbas ignored Veil and Basto's voices, focusing his mind.

Before him, the intricate incantations of the transfer circle began to take visible form.

“W-Wowww.”

As Tiye marveled, Marbas reinforced the circuits.

He breathed his own ability into each engraved rune, bolstering their stability.

In the final moment, Marbas shuddered his wooden body and mustered every ounce of strength.

And at last.

“Gasp! The transfer circle really changed!”

New incantations had been etched along the edges of the two top circles in the stack.

Tiye snatched up the softly glowing transfer circle.

“Marrr, this is like it evolved into a Puppetmon now, right?”

Marbas nodded unsteadily.

“Waaah!”

Tiye dashed to Basto, clutching the transfer circle.

“Uncle Basto! Marrr did it! Let's use this one, okay?”

But Basto didn't respond.

Tiye grabbed his sleeve and shook it again.

“Let's go to the mana stone together, pleeease? There are two, so let's see if it really works!”

Finally, Basto nodded.

“Fine. But you stay here with the old man, Tiye.”

Tiye's eyes went wide.

“Why, whyyy?”

“It's the test phase, plain and simple. We're not a hundred percent sure it's safe yet, so wait here.”

Tiye stared blankly as the members took the two transfer circles from her hands.

The group formed a loose circle a short distance from Nordics and Tiye.

“I know a spot for the coordinates.”

Enzo nodded at Basto's words.

“The small mana stone in Briwood that hasn't been sieged yet. 383 Eteron east... 12 Lunax south.”

Enzo tore the transfer circle in half.

A brilliant light erupted in the air.

When Tiye squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.

Basto, Veil, Raoul, and Enzo were gone without a trace.

“Waaah!”

“......Don't cry, Tiye.”

Lukarion quietly comforted her.

But Tiye's tears wouldn't stop.

'Did you hear? That Matthias sub-baron guy—his hand got cut off.'

The transfer circle accident from a few days ago clung stubbornly to her mind.

She trusted Marrr, but what if the evolution hadn't worked right?

What if there'd been some mishap and the members got hurt...!

“It's Tiye's fault! Tiye's the one who said to test it today!”

“How's that your fault? We had to test the enhanced transfer circle sooner or later.”

“But...”

Lukarion patted Tiye's back soothingly.

Selina gripped Tiye's hand tight without a word.

Marbas piped up too.

“Kyuu.”

Ppu Ppu tapped the floor with its nose, as if to say shut up already.

Marbas clamped his mouth shut.

“Tiye, still moping?”

Right on cue, Nordics approached with two cups of steaming hot milk, heading straight for Tiye.

He handed a cup to Tiye and Selina each, then spoke.

“Nothing'll go wrong. It's a small mana stone nearby, and they've all got emergency funds just in case it glitches.”

Tiye nodded glumly.

Then she scampered over and hugged Nordics tight.

Nordics chuckled and scooped her up with practiced ease, patting her back.

“Nothing in life's a walk in the park, huh?”

“Yeees...”

Tiye had never voiced it before, but since arriving in this world, she'd learned so much.

Choices came with responsibility.

To reap rewards, you sometimes had to shoulder risks.

Nothing came easy in this world.

“Why's just scraping by gotta be so tough...”

Even back in the Gold Apartments, Grandma in 107 and Auntie in 203 would gripe about it whenever they met.

Life's a grind, living's bitter, all that chatter.

“But that's life.”

Still, Tiye spoke with firm resolve.

She wriggled out of Nordics' arms and downed her milk with grit.

“Tiye believes in Marrr! So everyone's gonna be okay!”

White milk foam clung to her upper lip.

And five hours later.

“Uncle Basto...!”

A flash of transfer circle light blazed once more on the mansion's first floor.

“Kiddo! We're back!”

“Captain, the transfer circle works perfectly! No worries needed.”

The light died down, revealing the members.

Each clutched a sack brimming with monster cores.

“So you're saying it really teleported you right up to the mana stone?”

Basto nodded at Nordics' question.

“Yeah. No explosive clash from the mana collision either.”

“......Got it. Was sieging the mana stone manageable?”

“No issues.”

Basto jerked his chin toward the back.

There, Tiye was neatly stacking sacks of monster cores into a cart.

“Selina, tomorrow morning, wanna hit the reward office together? We'll cash these in!”

“Never been to the mercenaries' reward office. Should be fun.”

“Yeah! It's a blast! Just... don't tell 'em Tiye's a kid, okay?”

Basto glanced at Nordics.

“Things are about to get busy.”

“Sure looks that way.”

Tiye didn't seem to grasp it, but the enhanced transfer circle was revolutionary.

A technique unheard of in the world.

The key to slashing siege times to absurd levels.

All because Tiye had awakened Marbas.

Basto's eyes gleamed.

“Now I'm wondering how the top-tier mercenary corps will respond.”

Other groups aside, Trevaga had never faced a real threat to its spot.

But if Agaveert Mercenary Corps kept up this pace...

Basto's eyes burned with long-forgotten competitive fire.

The next day.

As the noon bell tolled, a crooked banner scrawled by Tiye hung on the central courtyard wall.

And true to the banner, the members marched out once more.

This time, bound for a medium-sized mana stone.