Episode 08
“Ugh! You, what the hell!”
Ron scrambled up, thrashing like a fish pulled from the water.
It seemed he had finally found the nerve to confront me. I beamed at him and answered his question.
“Yep. My name is Tania.”
Ron wiggled away, scrambling off the sofa. He maintained a distance from me, like a wary stray cat, and shouted with agitation.
“That’s not what I asked!”
I tilted my head, answering nonchalantly.
“Oh? Then what were you asking?”
“About you sitting on top of me!”
“Ah, that. You were being rude during our first meeting, so I thought you wanted us to treat each other comfortably.”
At that, Ron ruffled his hair wildly, looking utterly affronted.
“Good god, did Father bring home a crazy kid?”
“Haha, you’re cute when you’re huffing and puffing with that foul mouth.”
He must have grown up receiving an abundance of love from the Trading Post master—thoroughly coddled, to say the least.
“Who are you calling cute? You’re a whole head shorter than me!”
Ron glared at me, panting with a face flushed red.
Ah. Is he the type who can’t handle praise? Seeing his adorable reaction, the corners of my mouth crept up. A kid is just a kid, after all. I couldn’t hold back the laughter bubbling up inside.
“Puhaha, then if you don’t like being called cute, what do you want instead?”
“Forget it, just get away from me!”
The response was, as expected, a rude retort, but I kept smiling and tilted my head again.
“But I like you, Ron, so I want to keep staying by your side.”
“W-what…?”
Perhaps it was the first time he had heard such a direct expression of affection from a peer; he looked truly flustered. With a personality like that, any girl who had liked him must have left in tears. That was only to be expected.
I curved my eyes into crescents and replied.
“Of course. Because you’re very cute.”
“Ugh! I told you not to say I’m cute!”
“The way you’re throwing a tantrum is cute, too.”
“You really…!”
Seeing Ron so incensed, I considered offering a different descriptor.
“Hmm. If you don’t like ‘cute,’ how about ‘pretty’?”
“I’m not talking to you!”
Ron, who had been throwing a fit, eventually turned and ran. I hopped off the sofa to trot after him.
“Whyyy~ come play with me.”
As I handled Ron with such ease, the employees who had been watching us whispered in admiration.
“Wow, I’ve never seen a kid handle Ron while smiling so brightly.”
“Me neither. Never seen that ill-tempered brat get pushed around like that.”
Just then, as if their conversation had concluded, the Trading Post master and Aiden descended the stairs. Before they had even finished, I ran to them and asked, “So, have you reached a conclusion?”
The Trading Post master parted his lips, looking less than pleased.
“I checked the mercenary tally he was carrying; it belongs to Geumeunhwa.”
The Geumeunhwa Mercenary Corps. A place where a legendary mercenary king had once belonged—a sanctuary for proven elites. Their mission success rate was staggering, and unlike other mercenaries who thrived on brawls, they were known for their impeccable reliability.
I smiled broadly.
“See? You can trust them, right? I told you, my eye for people is top-notch.”
The Trading Post master flicked my forehead firmly with his index finger.
“Even so, your behavior of blindly entrusting yourself to a stranger’s house was reckless.”
“Yes, yes, I was wrong.”
As I raised both hands in a gesture of reflection, he let out a small sigh.
“You seem to have your own reasons, so I won’t stop you. But if your precognition ever warns you of a dark future, come here at once.”
“Um, if you say it that loudly, I think Aiden will hear everything.”
“I intended for him to hear it.”
I glanced at Aiden; he didn’t seem offended. If anything, he wore a look that suggested he found the precaution entirely natural.
“But Tania.”
“Yes, Trading Post master?”
“Everything is fine, but why is he like that?”
At the end of his gaze, Ron was curled into a ball like a cat on the sofa, glaring at me. I gave a light shrug.
“I told him he was pretty because he hated being called cute, and now he’s like that.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That night.
Tania was lying in bed before she wiggled and sat up.
*I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t have room to think about anything else, so I just took over the man’s bed…*
Thinking about it now, if she were sleeping in the only bed available, where was he supposed to sleep?
Sure enough.
When she carefully opened the room door and stepped out, she saw Aiden trying to catch some sleep while leaning against a chair.
Right. This house didn’t even have a sofa. Did he sleep like this on an incredibly uncomfortable chair yesterday, too?
Tania let out a small sigh, clutched a pillow to her chest, and made a tearful face like a child who couldn’t sleep.
“Aiden.”
When she called him in a small voice, he slowly lifted his eyelids, as if he had been awake the whole time.
“…What is it?”
“I’m scared of sleeping alone.”
“For someone who says that, you slept just fine by yourself yesterday.”
She had been hit in the bullseye. But Tania still had a trump card to stir his emotions. She drew circles on the floor with her toe and said gloomily.
“…Then, what if I said I was envious of kids who got to sleep with their parents?”
Aiden’s expression crumpled immediately. He had guessed that the absence of her parents was a heavy burden, but hearing it directly from her mouth was a completely different matter. An unspeakable sense of guilt raced down his spine.
He tried to suppress the emotions threatening to burst out like a broken dam and murmured in a low voice.
“…I will stay with you.”
As Aiden stood up, Tania beamed and trotted into the room. She went to the edge of the bed and patted the empty space beside her, as if it were only natural.
“Right here!”
Carrying the wooden chair he had been sitting on, Aiden looked at the empty side of the bed and raised an eyebrow.
“I said I would stay with you, but I don’t recall saying I would lie in the bed with you.”
Tania, however, ignored his words and looked at him with sparkling eyes. She knew that just dragging him into the room was already half the battle won.
“Even if you stare at me with those bright eyes…”
“Uuung?”
“What’s impossible is imposs….”
“Uuuuung?”
*It’s possible, it’s possible.*
Aiden squeezed his eyes shut. To be looked at with such a face—she was truly devious. How was he supposed to refuse?
In the end, he was the first to wave the white flag.
“…Alright.”
Aiden slowly laid his body down at the very edge of the bed, trying to put as much distance between them as possible. Tania watched him intently and let out a giggle.
“Hehe.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Just, just… everything.”
The fact that the man who had died was alive and breathing in front of her. The fact that even though their first meeting was different from the past, his attitude toward her remained the same. She felt relieved to the point of tears.
Aiden closed his eyes, finding it difficult to watch Tania, who looked genuinely happy.
“Stop with the sappy talk and go to sleep.”
“Yes. Goodnight, Aiden!”
“…Yeah.”
The sight of the child feeling happy just because she was lying on the bed next to her guardian was agonizing. Every moment he spent with Tania, he felt like a great criminal.
How much time had passed since he closed his eyes?
When her breathing became rhythmic, Tania seemed to think Aiden was asleep and quietly opened her lips.
“Aiden, you know. They say that the more you try to forget bad memories, the more they come to mind. So, instead of trying to force yourself to forget, it’s better to create lots of good memories to cover them up.”
Just like how she had been able to escape her terrible nightmares in the previous timeline.
“So… I’ll become that kind of person for you.”
*So that you can even laugh about your failed first love.*
With that final word, Tania fell asleep without any regrets, as if she had poured out everything she wanted to say.
Noticing that her breathing had become steady, Aiden clutched his heart, which was tightening painfully.
*From the moment I first held you as a newborn, you were my everything. You don’t have to try to become that person; you are already that to me. I am simply grateful that you are alive like this.*
He wanted to embrace her until she was crushed and tell her that over and over again. But unable to put it into action, he looked down at Tania’s small, round forehead and gritted his teeth.
Tania.
What on earth must I do to protect you?