BSS 119

chapter 119

The city gate was right in front of us—what kind of lightning bolt from a clear sky was this? This was exactly why I hated kids.

Honestly, I felt like abandoning her right there on the road and leaving.

“Are you serious?”

“I don’t need some academy! I want to stay with Mom! I wanna go back! Waaah!”

“…Hoo. Your sister probably won’t like that.”

“Hng… hic, sob.”

Hold it. Hold it in.

She’s a kid. I felt my filthy temper flare up and rear its head, but I forced it down.

I walked over to the bushes and held out my hand to Aini, who was in the middle of bawling her eyes out.

“Come on, let’s go. Once you wash up and eat properly, you’ll feel different. You’re just tired from the trip right now—”

“I’m not going!”

You little brat.

The hand she slapped away with a loud smack didn’t hurt so much as it was embarrassing.

I’d been as kind as I possibly could, but having that rejected left me with no idea what else to do.

Aini had picked the wrong person to throw a tantrum at. I was more immature than she was.

“Fine. Don’t come.”

[Are we leaving without her, Master?]

“Let’s go, Rai.”

[Khahaha! Honestly, that brat was annoying anyway!]

I looked down at Aini quietly, then turned away as if it didn’t matter.

I caught a glimpse of her face going pale, but I didn’t stop. I knew she’d follow once I started walking.

And if my prediction was right, she’d burst into tears within three seconds.

Shall we count? Three, two, one.

“Waa—! Hic… waaah! Waaah, uuuuh!”

When I glanced back, she was rubbing her tear-soaked face with the back of her hands and crawling after me.

[Ah! She’s following. Want me to chase her off?]

[You demon. Let her come.]

[So we’re taking her? Ugh, I don’t like it……]

Rai hated kids. In that sense, maybe we were compatible.

I gathered the reins and started walking slowly toward the city.

Riding would’ve been much faster, but if I did that, I might really lose the brat.

I figured I’d leave her be for a bit, then once she surrendered, I’d put her on the horse.

Since I could hear her crying the whole time, I didn’t need to look back to know she was following properly.

One thing was certain.

I had zero talent for taking care of kids. Taming dragons was way easier.

Suddenly, I missed Magi.

That thing tried to eat me, sure—but at least it didn’t cry.

When we entered the main road where several side paths converged, the number of passersby visibly increased.

Mielta was a key transportation hub of the west, and this area was crowded with people heading through Mielta toward Elan or Dmitri.

It was also the city where you could see the most tribespeople.

As if I’d never seen so many people before, I let my eyes wander over the diverse crowd passing by.

Then I turned around to make sure Aini was still following. With the crowd growing thicker, I was worried I might lose her.

Just moments after declaring she wasn’t going, Aini was trudging along behind me, thoroughly sulking.

Then she got startled by a merchant’s wagon rushing past and fell flat on her own.

Honestly, what a pain.

[Rai.]

[Yes?]

[Take that wagon’s wheel off.]

I’m sorry! I was wrong! Please take me with you!
Why is saying that so hard? You’re great at throwing tantrums!

“Waaah, hic! Waaah!”

Whether it hurt badly when she fell or she just felt miserable, Aini’s sorrow exploded again.

She sat down in the middle of the main road and cried so hard she could barely breathe. Her wailing was so pitiful that everyone passing by turned to look.

It was a kind of protest directed at me.

She wanted me to comfort her—to pick her up, put her on the horse, and forgive everything.

But I had no intention of indulging her in the slightest.

I wasn’t her mom. As a guardian, I’d take responsibility for her safety—nothing more.

Wrapping her in love was beyond what I could give.

I steeled myself not to give in until she reflected on her behavior, and turned my gaze back toward the city gate—when a voice ruined my resolve.

“Hey! Young wife! Take your kid!”

Huh. Surely that wasn’t directed at me. I chose to believe that.

“Little one. Why are you crying?”

“I miss my mom… The big sister… Mom…! Hic!”

“Oh dear… Looks like her mother left her behind.”

“Hey! You, in the gray cloak with the mutt! Young wife! Take your daugh—”

I cut off the unknown man mid-sentence, yanking off my hood and shouting.

“Look properly! Who are you calling a young wife?! And don’t emphasize it twice!”

[Rawr! Who are you calling a mutt?! Who?!]

The meddlesome man had the misfortune of making both Rai and me his enemies.

Rai bared his gleaming white fangs and growled viciously, and I marched toward the man with fury in my steps.

If I had fangs like Rai, I would’ve done the same.

“She’s got a kid with her, so I thought she was a young wife.”

“I’m nineteen.”

Among the three travelers surrounding the crying Aini, a particularly large man stepped in front of me and shrugged.

He was probably the one who’d called me a young wife.

He was at least two heads taller than me, built like a fighting bull.

“Too young to have a kid this big? No—she’s barely grown herself.”

“The way you talk is irritating.”

“And the way you glare is irritating.”

“Are you crazy? Why are you picking a fight?”

I couldn’t stand guys who relied on their size to throw their weight around.

“I can’t just watch someone abandon a kid on the road.”

“Do you have a hobby of sticking your nose into other people’s business?”

We ground our teeth at each other.

We disliked each other at first sight. As we talked, our faces drew closer and closer—so close it wouldn’t have been surprising if one of us headbutted the other.

“Grrr!”

Rai shoved himself between the man and me, baring his teeth as if ready to pounce. If the man’s companions hadn’t stepped in to stop him, I would’ve grabbed him by the collar first.

“Chad! Stop it.”

Until then, all my attention had been fixed on the big man in front of me. He was hard to miss.

“You saw it too, Ash! She started it first!”

“No. You were rude.”

“You’re always like this with me!”

“Chad. Apologize.”

The man named Chad glanced back, then bared his teeth with clear reluctance and offered an apology that barely qualified as one.

“Well, uh… sorry about that?”

It didn’t even register.

“Whatever. Move.”

“What?”

I shoved the big man aside and stepped right up to the man called Ash.

He had the most ordinary face imaginable—the kind you’d see a hundred times walking down the street.

Brown hair, brown eyes, eyes neither big nor small, a nose neither high nor low, a face neither thin nor fat. So unremarkable it was almost embarrassing to describe.

The kind of person whose face you wouldn’t be able to recall later, no matter how hard you tried.

And yet, from that painfully plain face, I felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

Was I just being sensitive?

Or was it simply the name “Ash” that bothered me?

“Your name is Ash?”

When I asked out of the blue, he looked puzzled, unsure why my attention had shifted to him.

At some point, Aini had slipped snugly into his arms.

She was perched comfortably against his arm, clinging to his neck—looking far closer to him than to me, who’d trudged through the forest with her for over ten days.

He must’ve treated her kindly.

“Yes?”

“Full name?”

“…Yes.”

“Commoner?”

As I fired off questions with a raised brow, a bespectacled man beside him stepped forward, openly wary.

“Excuse me. What do you think you’re doing? Conducting a background check on someone you just met?”

“Sorry. He has the same name as someone I know.”

“You don’t look sorry at all…”

Honestly, even I could tell I was being rude.

I’d been momentarily distracted by the name Ash, but soon remembered how common and ordinary it was.

“I’ll apologize. Give me the kid.”