~Chapter 49~
“Huh?”
She’s nearby?
I quickly looked around with sharp eyes.
Soon, I spotted Shiz sitting inside a large cafeteria.
But she wasn’t alone. Some unexpected people were with her.
“Shi… Shiz?”
“Mom!”
Shiz jumped up and ran toward me the moment she saw me.
“You came to save me!”
“Ah, hello, Ma’am.”
The people with Shiz were two detectives.
‘And one of them is Felix Guifero…’
This strange combination left me speechless. I had told Shiz that if she ever got lost, she should look for a detective, but—
‘Of all people, it had to be him…’
Still, she was safe because she found a detective. I tried to think calmly.
Just then, the other detective quickly stood up.
“I’m glad you reunited safely. I’ll go look for Sion and Alt now!”
And just like that, she hurried out of the cafeteria—clearly wanting to get away from this awkward situation.
“Nasha unnie ran away…”
Even Shiz mumbled softly, seeming to feel the same.
Now it was just me, Shiz, and Felix.
A weird silence filled the air.
“What happened to your hair?”
Felix was the first to speak, picking on my hair color. I didn’t want to explain I’d used magic to disguise myself for Shiz’s sake, so I made something up.
“I just wanted to try a different color.”
“It doesn’t suit you.”
I looked him up and down. He was one to talk—with his messy appearance, clearly from another fight.
“You’re not looking so great yourself. Did someone beat you up?”
“Did someone beat me up…?”
Felix’s brow twitched. When he stood up, it felt like the whole room got smaller.
I braced myself, thinking he was about to start another fight. But unexpectedly, Shiz jumped in.
“Detective mister!”
“Uh, huh?”
“What did you promise me earlier?”
Surprisingly, Felix quieted down.
“You did promise, right?”
Shiz gave him a fierce look, trying her best to be intimidating. It wasn’t scary at all, but for some reason, it seemed to work on Felix.
He swallowed hard like he was holding back his feelings.
“…Haa, fine.”
He rubbed his face and looked at me again, his expression softer than before. I had no idea what kind of promise they’d made, but it clearly worked.
“Hey, Mage.”
“W-What…?”
“The capital is a mess right now, and you lost your kid? What if she had run into someone worse than me?”
I closed my eyes tightly. Ugh, I really didn’t want to admit it, but I owed this annoying detective.
“D-Do you think taking care of a kid alone is easy? I thought I had her safely with me!”
“…Alone?”
His expression changed slightly at my words. Did I say something I shouldn’t have?
“Anyway, thank you for looking after Shiz. I was really worried, but it looks like she was safe because of you.”
I quickly picked Shiz up, ready to leave.
“I’ll be sure to repay you for this later.”
“No need. That kid drank two chocolate lattes. No—maybe three.”
Felix nodded toward Shiz.
I looked down at the little girl in my arms. She turned her eyes away. With that tiny belly, she sure drank a lot…
“How much was it?”
I asked, ready to pay, but Felix shook his head.
“No need. Just make sure you brush her teeth well.”
“Oh…”
That caught me off guard.
So today, this Felix Guifero actually looked after my (not real) daughter, even bought her drinks, and didn’t want money?
‘Is he sick or something?’
This wasn’t like him. I stared at him in confusion as he leaned down to meet Shiz’s eyes.
“Don’t go running around again. Stay close to your mom. You got lucky this time, but next time could be dangerous.”
Then he poked her cheek with his finger.
“Ah, that hurts!”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
Huh? I looked at them, completely baffled.
‘Why do they seem close? What happened between them while I was gone?’
I had no idea—and that just made it more confusing.
What a strange afternoon.
***
Meanwhile, outside the cafeteria—
A red-haired father and son stood side by side, peeking through the window.
“Dad, isn’t that Uncle Felix?”
“Looks like it.”
“But didn’t that little girl just call him ‘Dad’?”
“She did.”
The man was Oscul Guifero, the eldest son of the Guifero family and an alcohol producer, visiting the capital for the first time in a while.
And he had just accidentally discovered his younger brother’s “secret.”
Oh wow, an out-of-the-blue child?!
“…I need to write a letter to Mother.”
“Aren’t you going to say hi to Uncle?”
“Nope! I have to report this right away!”
Holding his son’s hand, Oscul quickly walked toward the nearest post office.
And just like that, a huge misunderstanding had begun—without anyone knowing.
***
Later, at home—
Now that summer had truly started, I sent a heartfelt thank-you letter to the Duchess of Willovis.
‘I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about Shiz’s clothes anymore…’
I felt a bit guilty, but until now, Shiz had been wearing the same few outfits again and again.
I had been too focused on sending her back quickly, and since I’d never raised a child before, I had no idea how many clothes they needed.
But thanks to the Duchess’s generous gift, Shiz now had so many clothes that I had to get her a separate wardrobe!
‘Well, the duchy has always supported orphanages and child welfare centers, so…’
Even if they suddenly ordered a lot of children’s clothes, no one would think it strange.
Anyway, Shiz was Shiz, and I still had my own work to do.
I looked down at my old diary, which I’d recovered from two crack sites.
This was the same diary I had used as a medium for the time-travel spell. It still had faint traces of the magic I had cast.
From there, I needed to work forward and figure out how to send Shiz back to her original timeline.
‘Easier said than done.’
It was like trying to reassemble a broken mirror, piece by piece.
I also had to find and reclaim my diary from every crack that would appear in the future.
Just thinking about it made me sigh.
‘Still, it’s not all bad news.’
After a few days of research, I made an important discovery.
I pulled out two diary pages and laid them side by side.
[Today in art class, I drew a bird. It looked sad because it was stuck inside the picture.]
That was from the gallery crack.
“Why do kids have to eat vegetables? I hate them. I wish all the veggies would run away.”
That one was from the previous village—I hadn’t noticed it before.
In Para, the angel baby from a famous painting had come out of the canvas. In the previous village, vegetables were running away.
The common point was clear:
‘Everything written in the diary came true.’
More precisely, the things I wished for when I was a child were now becoming reality.
In all of magic history, there hasn’t been much information about these “cracks.”
But we do know a few things:
They’re caused by errors in the timeline.
They usually bring about serious disasters.
But lately, we’ve only seen things like walking plants or moving drawings. Barely dangerous at all.
‘I always wondered why the recent cracks weren’t so serious.’
Turns out, it’s because they’re coming from the diary of a six-year-old girl.
For me, that was incredibly lucky.
As long as this rule stays true, even future cracks won’t become serious disasters.
It was unlikely, but I might even be able to predict what kind of effects each crack would cause—
‘If I can remember what I wrote in my diary at that age…’
Still, having a clue gave me new energy.
“Yes, I can do this.”
As I got used to this crazy situation through each event, I also tig
htened up Shiz’s studies, which had become a bit loose lately.
But lately… this little girl has been acting a little strange.
