Episode 07
“If you have no intention of using my abilities, why are you being so good to me?”
“I should be the one asking that. What made you trust me enough to fall asleep here without a single doubt?”
“I’ve spent two years living on the streets. I can distinguish well enough whether someone is going to harm me or not.”
“Something as trivial as that…!”
“Above all, I have the ability of foresight.”
At the mention of my ability, the man softened his angry expression somewhat. Still, he spoke with a firm face, as if scolding me.
“No matter how much foresight you possess, trusting a stranger is dangerous.”
“When I’m on the verge of starving to death, what does danger even matter?”
If I could, I would have sold my very soul.
At my self-deprecating words, his eyes turned rigid, as if he had been struck hard.
Trying to shift the atmosphere, I curled my lips and asked,
“I think the reason I stayed here has been explained. What about you? Why are you being so good to me?”
For a moment, his throat constricted; he couldn’t say a word.
How much time had passed? He parted his lips slowly.
“You resemble my first love.”
“……Pardon?”
“If she had given birth to a child, I imagine she would have had the exact same face as you.”
“Ohh……. She must have been a beauty.”
“She was.”
A bitter trace lingered at the end of his faint chuckle. It must have been a love that never came to be.
Since orphans are everywhere in the back alleys, I had occasionally wondered why he chose to take me in, of all people.
I never imagined there would be a backstory like this.
Is that why he hated it when I called him Dad? Because it reminded him of his unrequited first love?
Just as I was lost in thought, munching on my food with a somewhat gloomy heart, the man reached out and tucked my messy hair behind my ears.
“You must have been very hungry. To think you were even chewing on your hair.”
“Ah….”
At that small gesture, my sorrow melted away, leaving only a soft, warm sensation behind.
I laughed playfully and purposefully chewed on my hair. Then, as if asking for more, I leaned my face toward him.
“Hehe, here too.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Having finished breakfast, we headed to the shopping district to buy necessary items.
Sure enough, the man was wrapped in a robe that covered his entire body, the hood pulled down low.
He must have chosen this method knowing that wrapping his face up tightly would only make him stand out more.
A life spent being chased by someone every minute, every second. That was the life he led.
……In this life, I must ensure he can live proudly without needing to hide his face.
I reached out to grab his hand, but realizing it had only been a day since we met, I pulled it back.
Sensing my hesitation, he quietly reached out his hand.
“……It’s crowded.”
At his gesture of goodwill, I beamed and took his hand.
Though there was a significant difference in our hand sizes, so I was only holding two of his fingers.
“Come to think of it, is it really okay for you to spare this much time for me?”
“I don’t have any requests coming in right now, so it’s fine.”
“Even if there are no requests, I feel bad that my presence might be messing up your schedule.”
“That is not something you need to worry about.”
Just as I was about to say thank you anyway, my gaze rested on the golden-brown skewers at a street food stall.
“Do you want to eat that?”
“Yes. It looks delicious, so three, please.”
“I like that you don’t hesitate.”
With a satisfied expression, he handed a silver coin to the stall owner.
Perhaps having overheard our conversation, the vendor opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.
“Three, you say? Haha, for a child who looks so thin, she has quite the appetite!”
*Gasp.*
Aiden-ajussi really hates being treated like we’re a father and daughter!
I glanced at him and saw his face slowly hardening at the word ‘daughter,’ so I hastily interjected.
“He’s not my dad.”
“What?”
“Look at this young, handsome face. He’s clearly a bachelor, so where on earth do you see a father?”
“O-oh, is that so?”
“Besides! The only things we have in common are that we both have eyes, a nose, and a mouth, so I don’t know how you could possibly mistake us for father and daughter!”
“I-I see. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”
I puffed out my breath and looked at Aiden-ajussi with a look that said, ‘I handled it well, didn’t I?’
“Thank… you.”
He had a somewhat sour expression on his face.
Thinking his anger had completely vanished due to my perfect handling of the situation, I accepted the skewers with a proud expression and left the stall.
We were walking around the shopping district with skewers in both hands when—
“Tania?”
Surprised that someone knew me at this point in time, I turned around to see a familiar man standing there.
“Oh, Mr. Merchant?”
Both the merchant and Aiden-ajussi looked at me, wondering who the other person was.
I caught on quickly, gave an awkward laugh, and introduced them.
“Ajussi, this is the person who helped me reach the capital. Mr. Merchant, this is the person I’m currently staying with.”
At my introduction, Aiden-ajussi seemed to have resolved his confusion, but the merchant’s expression was not good.
“Tania, didn’t you say you were going to enter the Abilitator orphanage?”
“Ajussi said it was fine for me to stay at his place, so I postponed it a little.”
“What?”
At my answer, the merchant looked at me with a grave expression, as if asking what on earth that meant.
“Tania, come here.”
The merchant took my hand and pulled me behind his back.
“I thought you were a bright child, but you’ve done something incredibly dangerous. What made you trust a stranger and stay at his home?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
Aiden-ajussi, whom I thought would show his displeasure, rubbed his temples as if agreeing with the merchant.
“I was worried sick about how to persuade the child, but my worries were in vain as she readily thanked me.”
Excuse me, ajussi, aren’t you supposed to be on my side?
The merchant seemed taken aback by his response, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke with a firm, decisive tone.
“Thank you for taking care of the child until now. From here on out, I will take her to my merchant guild and take responsibility for her.”
At the mention of taking me away, Aiden-ajussi’s eyes changed instantly into those of a beast.
“That is not allowed. While it is true that you helped Tania for a while, that does not mean you can be entirely trusted.”
The merchant asked with a displeased expression, as if interrogating him.
“I should be the one asking if you are a safe person. What is your profession, if I may ask?”
“……I am a mercenary.”
“And, do you have any children of your own?”
“……I am unmarried.”
“Then you expect me to entrust a young girl to a mercenary who is away from home for long periods of time and is a single man?”
“That is…”
Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, I stepped in to mediate between the two.
“Excuse me, you two? If two men with such menacing expressions start fighting over who gets to take a child, people are going to misunderstand.”
Only then did the two of them start to become conscious of the surrounding gazes.
Perhaps because it was a crowded shopping district, a great deal of attention was focused on us.
“*Ahem!*”
“……I would like to have a private conversation in a quiet place.”
“Fine. Let’s head to my merchant guild.”
The merchant led us straight to the guild he operated.
The building was quite large and clean, suggesting that his sales were decent.
As we opened the door and walked in, the sound of a bell ringing was accompanied by the voices of employees.
“You said you had business, but you’ve returned early, sir.”
“Oh, isn’t that Tania next to you?”
People I had become familiar with while traveling to the capital greeted me.
While I waved my hands at them, the merchant lightly ignored them and said what he needed to say.
“I’m going to have a talk with some guests. You lot, get back to work and stop slacking off.”
He then gestured somewhere while heading upstairs with Aiden-ajussi.
“Ron, you stay by the guest’s side in my stead. They are valuable guests, so treat them with kindness.”
It seemed this was the son of the merchant he had mentioned earlier.
Ron was a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, possessing the appearance of a young noble.
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say this about a child, but he had the style of a playboy gigolo who would make many women cry when he grew up.
How old was he? Ten or twelve?
Well, whatever his age, I had no intention of speaking honorifically to him, so it didn’t matter.
Watching the merchant and Aiden-ajussi disappear to the second floor, I greeted Ron, who was lying lazily on the guest sofa.
“Hello.”
However, what I got in return was an expression that screamed he was annoyed to death, and a rude remark to match.
“If you came here to suck blood like a parasite from my father, don’t try to act friendly with me and get lost upstairs.”
Haha, this is amusing.
Thinking that the merchant’s ‘harvest’ of children had met with a bad year, I sat down right where Ron was lying on the sofa.
That’s right.
I meant that I sat right on top of him.