Ch#13
“Hic.”
Tiye couldn’t easily stop her tears.
But even amid them, she wiped the streaming tears away—whoosh—and picked up the fallen jawbone from the ground, fitting it back onto the skull.
Veil and Basto stared at the sight, frozen stiff.
The child continued.
“Diviner Grandpa too, hic! Don’t worry, hic! He ran far away, but he’s coming back here! He’s got healing potions and bandages in his bag toooo……”
“Tiye.”
Basto cut off the child’s words.
“……You. Your hands.”
Tiye looked down.
Clatter—
Once again, the skull’s jawbone fell off.
Tiye fitted the bone back on, then looked at Veil and Basto.
“Huh? Bone Friend?”
Veil blinked vacantly, forgetting to even breathe.
Only Tiye chattered on as if it were nothing.
“Y’know, his name’s Bone Friend, and he’s friends with Bone Friend 2 and Bone Friend 3. Up to Bone Friend 23.”
The skull’s jawbone fell off again.
Tiye let out an annoyed “Eeeng” and fitted it back on.
Then she tilted her head at the empty air with a “Huh?” and furrowed her brow.
“What’s that supposed to mean! That Veil oppa and mister could’ve been Bone Friend 24 and 25. You can’t say mean things like that!”
“…….”
“A joke? But jokes only count if the other person feels good too. If they feel bad, it’s just being mean.”
“…….”
“O-Of course you know that, you’re really nice! Thanks for saving oppa and mister. I’ll pay you back even if I have to sell our thatched house!”
Veil and Basto’s gazes met.
“Don’t know thatched house? It’s a house, our house! Proverb, you know proverbs?”
“…….”
“Gasp, don’t even know proverbs? Nah, it’s fine, Tiye doesn’t know tons either.”
“…….”
“Riiight, of course! I’ll teach you one by one later. But friend, can you ask Diviner Grandpa when he’ll get here?”
Veil’s heart pounded harder and harder.
That’s why.
He’d nearly fallen over in shock when an arm bone burst from the dirt right in front of him.
And when that bone clearly pointed somewhere in the forest behind them, he thought his heart had stopped.
Clatter.
The bone raising its index finger shook with a creak.
Tiye beamed innocently between the two men.
“Waaah! It really is Diviner Grandpa!”
Far off in the direction the finger bone pointed.
Diviner Nordix, forehead drenched in blood, was truly walking toward them.
* * *
“Chew chew well~ No picky eating~”
Inside the cave, the child’s bright laughter echoed.
Basto and Veil, bandages wrapped around their wounds, had been silent the whole time.
Nordix trailing behind was the same.
“Spinach, carrots, then beans! Strong bones!”
Tiye was still holding the skull.
Still talking to it like before.
“Gasp, Bone Friend 18 got hurt?”
“…….”
“Waaah— Being underground heals you right up, huh. Then do you not need shots?”
Veil and Basto exchanged glances.
Then they halted at Tiye’s next words.
“Huh? Mister, it’s here!”
Tiye was pointing exactly at where the Mana Stone had been.
“Wow. No crack left for real!”
Basto stared blankly at the ground from his frozen spot.
Tiye was right.
The Mana Stone that had stood side by side in the darkness had vanished at some point.
And the cracks around it had disappeared too.
“Bone Friends are underground so they know everything for real! They must’ve taken care of the rest! Wow! We sieged the Mana Stone! Two of them even!”
They swallowed dryly.
Basto and Veil hadn’t eliminated all the mana beasts pouring from the cracks.
Just the fact that one Rikellops had escaped the cave during battle proved it.
So they hadn’t expected the Mana Stone to be perfectly sieged……
Basto turned away from the excited Tiye.
And stared gravely at Veil and Nordix.
“Hey. If I’m not wrong, Tiye……”
Veil and Nordix nodded.
Tiye had already sat where the Mana Stone had been.
Skull placed neatly in front (probably because the jaw kept falling), talking about dentist or something.
“Y’know, back in Jongno-gu, 107-room Grandmother got implants! Implants make new teeth pop up. You should go to the dentist for implants too.”
“…….”
“Eeeh? No dentist underground? Then what do we do…… Do you have insurance at least? No insurance and medical bills explode. Implants are expensive.”
“…….”
“Guess no choice then. Actually, Tiye doesn’t have insurance either? Got a cold and went to the hospital once, Dad paid a ton and felt bad. 203-room Auntie said it’s cheap with health insurance, but I don’t have any……”
What the heck was an implant.
What was a dentist.
What was health insurance, and who was 203-room Auntie.
At times like this, Tiye really seemed like a normal four-year-old.
Chattering about things from her imagination, talking to things that couldn’t converse back.
At a glance, typical kid behavior, nothing weird,
“The problem is it really seems like she’s talking to that skull.”
Nordix and Veil nodded.
Indeed, Tiye wasn’t talking to an imaginary friend right now.
Something only she could hear and see.
Probably conversing with the ‘real Skeleton.’
“Ehehe! For real? Bone Friend 15 stole bad mana beast teeth? Too funny! Tyranno’s gonna be mad.”
“What do we do?”
Veil muttered, face pale.
“What’re we supposed to do in a situation like this.”
But the other two didn’t know either.
A user of Necromancy, straight out of legends, had appeared.
And that person was four years old, with no guardian right now?
“……Huh? Oh, really? You need mana beast cores to pass the mercenary exam? Wow? Gonna collect real cores for us?”
She even seemed unaware of what she’d done.
Basto chewed his lip, then turned to Tiye.
And went before the child happily chatting with the skull.
“Tiye.”
Only then did Tiye look up.
Seeing her purely innocent face made him tense for no reason, swallowing hard.
“Your Skel—er, Bone Friends.”
The child’s eyes went round.
“Can you tell us how you summoned them?”
Tiye tilted her head as if the question was hard, then finally spoke after a while.
“Didn’t summon them……?”
“Then what, huh? What the heck was it!”
Impatient Veil cut in.
Tiye tilted her head, glanced at them, and scratched her nape.
“Just met them…….”
“Just met? Skeletons? Where?”
“But Veil oppa, not Skeletons. Bone Friends.”
Veil shut his mouth.
But soon he flashed a pretty smile, gritted his teeth, and asked.
“Fine. Bone Friends. Where’d you meet the Bone Friends?”
“Well, I was praying in the forest not to let anyone die, and that’s when I met them. My prayer was so loud it woke them up while they were sleeping. Bone Friend 1 through 23!”
Veil was speechless at her hehe smile.
Suddenly Nordix’s voice came from behind.
“……A child innately gifted with mana. Extremely powerful mana at that.”
Basto, Veil, and Tiye’s gazes all turned to Nordix.
Nordix continued calmly, eyes on Tiye.
“Her abilities awakened without her realizing. She’s still young, so it’s natural she doesn’t know what she did.”
“Tiye has abilities?”
The child asked back.
Leaving rigid Basto and Veil behind, Nordix stepped forward.
“Yes. Seems like she has a truly remarkable ability. Normally, awakening happens after entering the teens, but you……”
Tiye’s green eyes widened.
She thought hard for a moment, then went “Ah!”
“N-No way!”
The three men held their breath, focusing on Tiye’s lips.
But what she said, slapping her knee, was utterly out of left field.
“Blood’s thicker than water!”
In the sinking silence.
The skull’s jaw fell off again.
