Chapter 55

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Powerhouse Kid is Looking for Dad 14

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Veil narrowed his brows as he watched Tiye whine while aligning the skull's jaw.

What did the saying "blood is thicker than water" have to do with this?

But he soon figured out why.

"Actually, Tiye's dad..."

The whispering child added,

"He's super strong."

As if it were some tremendous secret, the kid kept vigilantly scanning her surroundings.

"They say he's the strongest in the world. A super strong holy knight!"

Basto's face hardened.

He recalled Tiye's words from the day they first met—that her dad was in the capital.

At first, he'd thought the child had simply gotten separated from her family near the checkpoint.

But somehow,

"Tiye must have incredible abilities too, having inherited her dad's blood! Like father, like daughter!"

After hearing the story, the thought crossed his mind that it might not be such a simple situation.

Meanwhile, Veil's expression had darkened just the same.

'If the kid's dad really is the strongest holy knight...'

Something didn't add up.

The abilities one could awaken in this world were mainly two kinds.

Holy power and magic power.

Holy knights awakened holy power among them and wielded their swords with that strength.

But Tiye had just awakened magic power moments ago.

'Of course, I know such cases happen occasionally.'

Like a mage being born to parents who'd awakened holy power, or a child awakening holy power in a mage family.

But those were events rare enough to appear only in legends or myths, and the perception of them was poor at best.

There was even a superstition from ancient times that a child born with the opposite power of their parents would bring ruin and destruction to everyone around them.

'And moreover...'

The part about Tiye's "strongest holy knight" stuck in his craw.

If there was a family in the empire with someone worthy of being called the "strongest holy knight," there was only one.

The Lumen ducal house.

A lineage that produced knights with pure holy power generation after generation, their noses held so high they practically pierced the heavens.

They were nobles who had never once truly hit rock bottom.

As if sharing the same thought, Veil and Basto's eyes met.

Basto nodded and quickly lowered himself to match Tiye's eye level.

"You're sure your dad is a holy knight?"

"Yes! A super strong holy knight! The strongest in the world!"

The two men's faces grew even darker.

Assuming the child's words were true, there was only one possible conclusion.

The Lumen ducal house, which had produced holy knights generation after generation.

And from it, Astie had been born—with magic power strong enough to activate necromancy.

"Actually, I wasn't going to say this, but..."

Just then, Astie parted her lips with a sullen expression.

"Tiye was actually living with her dad until just recently, in a small but cozy house, but..."

"The house was small?"

Tiye nodded at Veil's interruption.

"Yeah! About this big~."

What Tiye pointed to was a space barely large enough for two grown men to lie down in.

"There was a bathroom at the end here, but ugh."

Tiye suddenly shrank back.

When they shot her a questioning look, the child hesitated before answering.

"It was super cold in winter. Warm water hardly came out..."

Veil's eyebrow twitched, but Tiye kept going.

"Still, Tiye loved it so much. Even just with Dad, it felt like having a hundred family members—it was really, really great."

But soon, a faint mist gathered in the child's previously bright eyes.

"...But Dad left."

Basto and Veil both froze.

"That's why Tiye was alone. In the forest, with Blackie..."

"Blackie?"

Tiye opened her bag to show them.

A black stone lay inside.

"It sleeps here, but Blackie's super strong, you know? So together, we can find Dad."

Veil and Basto's eyes met once more.

Tiye, who had activated necromancy, calling that being "Blackie."

And that being was slumbering in the black stone.

'Obviously a permanent summon.'

Tiye had apparently summoned it in the past without realizing what she was doing—but she had no idea what it was.

"Once Blackie wakes up, Tiye can find Dad! If Uncle Basto takes Tiye to the capital. Of course, Dad won't remember Tiye..."

"Won't remember you? What do you mean by that?"

Veil cut in again.

Tiye rolled her eyes.

"It's hard to explain..."

She pondered for a moment, then hesitantly continued.

"There's a situation like that..."

"What kind of nonsense is that? It doesn't make sense. What father wouldn't remember his own daughter?"

Tiye's face fell again.

This time, she looked even more aggrieved than before.

Soon, a deflated voice leaked from her small mouth.

"...It's not because Dad wants to."

"..."

"Dad wants to see Tiye too. But because of magic, Tiye got erased from Dad's mind..."

Veil stiffened.

Basto did too, as did Nordics.

Tiye was talking about Blackie's time magic.

Meaning that since she'd returned to a time before her birth, her dad wouldn't recognize her.

But amusingly enough, to Basto and Veil, her words rang out entirely differently.

'Magic to erase the kid from her dad's mind, right?'

'Such a savage act...'

In the three men's heads, the situation grew ever clearer.

The noble, exalted, great holy knight house of Lumen.

A child born within it, brimming with magic power.

'Tiye was actually living with her dad until just recently, in a small but cozy house.'

Her father had probably fled the house with the young Tiye in tow.

Hiding out in a tiny shack fit for livestock suggested he'd been trying to conceal and raise the child in secret.

But,

'Because of magic, Tiye got erased from Dad's mind...'

Someone had wiped Tiye from her father's memory.

And so the four-year-old Astie had been left alone in the forest.

Silence stretched on inside the cave.

Soon, a low curse slipped from Veil's lips.

"Have you ever seen such beastly bastards...?"

"Is it possible? Erasing someone from their mind like that?"

Veil's whisper echoed between the three men.

Basto silently clenched his fist, while the reverse sorcerer Nordics maintained a solemn silence.

"It's obvious! They saw the kid as a thorn in their side and tried to get rid of her—no doubt about it!"

He'd once worked as an assassin and thought he'd seen every piece of trash the world had to offer.

But stealing a child from her own father?

And even wiping her existence from his mind?

"You crazy Lumen bastards. Think money and power let you do anything? Even filthy deeds beasts wouldn't touch?"

"Calm down, Veil."

Basto cut him off.

He spoke calmly to the fuming Veil.

"Nothing's certain yet. We can't jump to conclusions based on her words alone. It could be a misunderstanding—and above all, Tiye's still just a child."

"Jump to conclusions? Look at any imperial legend—mages born into holy knight families are branded as ill omens! It all fits perfectly!"

"Veil. Basto's right. Calm down first."

With even Nordics stepping in, Veil clamped his mouth shut—but he was still huffing with anger.

Spotting the kid off in the distance only fueled his rage further.

She somehow looked even more pitiful and forlorn than before!

"For now, we need to meet someone from the Lumen family."

Basto took charge of wrapping things up.

"And in case they really did something like that, we should keep Tiye's identity hidden for the time being."

"What, stating the obvious? Those guys definitely tried to kill the kid before. She was all alone in the forest when we first found her!"