Chapter 05
A massive question mark stamped itself in Basto Paerix’s mind, one after another.
What were the odds of a young child wandering into a forest teeming with monsters at night?
And what were the odds that child would get caught in one of his traps?
And furthermore…
“Ah, mister, hic! Ti-Tia, hic! Is, is okay! Hic, cup!”
What were the odds that the child wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t whine, but instead reassure him that she was fine?
“…Ha.”
It made no sense.
It wasn’t that he was strange—this whole situation was strange.
Basto, who had been clearing the net on the ground, eventually furrowed his brow and straightened up.
The child sitting on the ground flinched noticeably.
“You…”
“I’m okay! Hic! Tia really, really is okay! Hic!”
Basto stared at the child with a bewildered look as she repeated the same words.
The child couldn’t even meet his eyes, her hands clasped tightly together.
Unable to hold back, Basto asked.
“Where are your parents?”
The child looked to be at most three or four years old.
There was no way she’d come to the forest alone—she must have come with her parents.
“Ah, Dad is, hic! Re-really close by…?”
Just as he thought, the child answered.
Basto nodded.
“I see. Around here?”
“Ye-yes… If Tia screams, he-he’ll, hic! Come running right away, he’s, he’s really close…”
That made sense.
Basto knew well how curious children of that age could be.
Even if parents only took their eyes off for a moment, children would disappear—it was hard to keep perfect watch.
A short laugh escaped Basto.
‘What a brave little thing.’
If her parents were close by, she could have just called for them, couldn’t she?
But she just kept hiccupping, so anyone would have mistaken her for some new kind of thief or thug.
Basto smiled and joked.
“Then you should have cried loudly. When you were caught in the net.”
“…Hiccup.”
“Cry even now. Let’s see if your dad comes.”
But for some reason, the child kept her mouth tightly shut.
Then,
“Sn-sniff… I, I was telling the tru-u-uth…”
She began to cry, tears like beads of water streaming down her face.
Basto looked at the child with a startled expression.
She hadn’t cried when she should have, but now that he was trying to help her find her parents, she was crying—it was baffling.
“…Why are you crying…”
“Waaaaah! Waaah! Kkamangpang! Kkamangpang! Help me-!!”
He took a step forward to soothe her, but for some reason, the child cried even louder.
She had even stopped hiccupping and looked like she might have a fit, so Basto stopped in his tracks.
“No, why…”
Then it suddenly dawned on him.
He remembered what he must look like to the child.
Dried monster blood from yesterday was caked in his hair, and his unwashed body reeked.
On top of that, he’d been hiding in the bushes checking his traps and made direct eye contact with her.
“Waaah, waaaaah! Kkamangpang! Help me! Save me! Waaaaah-!!”
Basto scratched his head with a troubled expression and took a step back.
The crying child flinched and checked his movement.
Basto deliberately took a few more steps back.
Then he even tossed the weapon hanging at his waist toward where the net was.
“Sniff… Sn-sniff, Kkamangpang…”
The child looked at him with teary eyes, hugging her pink backpack tightly.
“I’ll stay here, so you go. To your dad.”
The child blinked with a wary expression.
“Go to your dad quickly. You said he’s nearby, right?”
The child fidgeted with her backpack hesitantly.
Then, in a timid voice, she asked.
“Yo-you’re not going to catch me…?”
“Why would I catch you?”
“Because you’re a kidnapper…”
Basto swallowed a sigh and answered as calmly as possible.
“I’m not a kidnapper. I was just trying to catch a rabbit because I was hungry.”
The child’s face filled with even greater shock.
But before long, the child hesitantly stood up.
Basto watched the child squirm as she put on her backpack and thought.
‘…I’ll have to follow at a reasonable distance.’
From the looks of it, he couldn’t take her directly to her parents.
He planned to trail behind until the child found her parents on her own.
If she couldn’t find them and night fell, things would become troublesome.
“Hurry up and find your dad. It’s dangerous to be alone in a place like this.”
The child nodded timidly.
Then she quietly turned around and began trotting between the trees.
“…Oh!”
Before she’d even taken three steps, she fell to the ground.
The fallen child sniffled and turned her head.
Their eyes met in midair—Basto and the child.
“…”
In the silence, Basto stared at the child with a tense expression.
She was clutching her left ankle, her lips pouting—it seemed she’d hurt her leg when she was caught in the net.
Before long, a pitiful voice came.
“M-misterrr…”
Basto was only able to dash over after hearing her next words.
“Ti-Tia’s leg…”
—
“Mister, are there rabbits here?”
Basto, who had been wrapping a compression bandage around the tiny ankle, looked up.
“Yeah.”
The child’s eyes went round.
“What do they taste like? Like beef?”
“Meat all tastes the same.”
“No it doesn’t! Pork and beef and chicken all taste different!”
Basto chuckled.
‘She talks about meat like a noble’s child, but…’
Yet it troubled him that she was alone in such a remote forest.
And that her father, supposedly nearby, still hadn’t shown himself.
“Why hasn’t your dad come? You cried so loudly earlier.”
He asked carefully, afraid the child might burst into tears again, but the other side was quiet.
When he looked up, the child was staring at him with a cautious expression.
Basto added, trying to reassure her.
“I’m asking so I can take you to your dad if you tell me where he is.”
The child pursed her lips.
He could see her hands fidgeting as she hugged her backpack.
“Actually, he’s in the capital…”
Basto’s brow furrowed.
“The capital?”
Nod, nod.
A short exclamation escaped him.
He’d thought her parents were nearby, but they were in the capital.
“Then why did you say your dad was nearby earlier?”
“Because if I said that, Mister wouldn’t kidnap me…”
“If I was that scary, why did you say you were okay in the first place?”
“That’s because the kindergarten teacher said not to provoke kidnappers…”
Silence fell between them.
At a loss for words, Basto heard the child whisper as if sharing a secret.
“Mister, if you ever meet a kidnapper, you shouldn’t yell ‘Help me!’ either. That makes things worse.”
“…Why?”
“Because provoking the kidnapper makes it more dangerous. You have to slowly figure out what the kidnapper wants and open up the possibility of negotiation and cooperation.”
Basto was speechless.
He swallowed a groan and answered.
“Things like that… I’m fine.”
The child went “Huh?”
“Look. Does anyone look like they’d kidnap me?”
Then, following his words, the child’s mouth fell open.
Her bright green eyes scanned him from head to toe: his hair crusted with monster blood, his scruffy beard, his imposing frame.
When the child nodded in understanding, Basto felt oddly uncomfortable for some reason.
“…Alright, all done.”
As he finished bandaging, the child looked at her ankle with curious eyes.
Basto stood up and looked down at her.
‘She said her parents are in the capital.’
Regardless of the truth of her words, the child was injured.
Moreover, the sun was slowly setting.
Briowood was a forest relatively close to the capital.
And these days, the area near the capital was swarming with refugees filtered out at the gate.
With such crowds, it wasn’t uncommon to find young children separated from their families at the gate.
Basto’s gaze fell on the child’s pink leather backpack.
It was small but not worn out.
She seemed to attend some kind of academy that taught proper procedures for kidnapping situations.
A child who seemed to be raised with love, from a family that could afford to buy that kind of bag.
Basto reached a conclusion.
“Come with me to the capital.”
He needed to stop by the capital anyway to report on the newly besieged magic stone.
“I’ll take you there.”
As he saw the child’s eyes widen, he felt something catch in his chest.
Once upon a time, he too had a child he prayed would return safely to his arms.
Though that child had now gone to a place beyond reach.
“Your dad must be waiting for you so anxiously.”
At Basto’s words, a bright smile spread across Asteia’s lips.
