Ch#78
"How do you know that?"
Tie's mind began spinning.
Who all had she told Dad's name to?
Only the members including Basto and Veil, and the governor of Pearl City?
"We have a system in place."
Valentis said, relaxing his posture.
His hand still firmly gripped the railing Tie was leaning against.
"In an organized group, information flows and reports move swiftly. Efficiency is the most important thing in handling duties."
"......"
"And all information ultimately reaches the top brass of the organization—me. In a way, it's not surprising at all."
Even so.
Tie's heart pounded unprecedentedly.
'This is like...!'
It felt like telling a secret to her closest friend with 'Don't tell anyone else, okay?' only for the president to suddenly know it.
"That's why I thought you'd ask about him first."
"Huh?"
"Rather than worthless questions like why I cried or why I was sad, I figured finding that knight would be more urgent for you."
In truth, the Lumenen Leader was right.
The first thought Tie had upon hearing Valentis Lumenen was coming here was that.
'I should ask this person about Dad.'
No one would know better than the leader of the Holy Knight Order whether Dad was inside or not.
Tie looked at Valentis hesitantly.
Platinum hair the same color as hers.
Slightly darker eyebrows, and the deep blue eyes beneath them.
The buttoned-up pajamas to the top, his sturdy build, and his impassive expression.
'A little scary... but he doesn't seem like a bad person.'
In truth, she'd thought him unapproachable at the meeting and given up.
But seeing him crying at the railing gave her a strange feeling.
Maybe because he resembled Dad so much, her guard kept slipping?
"Then... can I really ask?"
As she hesitated, Valentis replied.
"Of course. The freedom to ask belongs to the asker."
"Is there really no Kim Young-su in the Holy Knight Order?"
"There is not."
Tie's eyes drooped slightly.
"Didn't you already know? That no holy knight by that name exists in the order."
"That is......"
Right, she did know.
Raoul and Enzo had said so first.
That if a holy knight with such a unique name existed, they would have known first since they were at headquarters in the Capital.
"I know. So I thought maybe the name is fake too."
If the Dad she met at the pier was really here, he would be living under a different name than Kim Young-su.
And that name would probably be Dad's real one.
"In the end, you don't even know the true name of the person you're seeking."
"......"
She hated to admit it, but he was right.
Tie was a pathetic child who didn't even know her own dad's real name.
"Then do you know his face?"
At the next question, Tie snapped her gaze up.
And nodded vigorously with an excited face.
"I know his face!"
She could draw it with her eyes closed.
Her dad's face, seen dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times, smiling together.
Valentis replied.
"Then, there is something called the Order's Total Roster at Capital headquarters."
"Total Roster...?"
"A document recording the faces, names, ages, and personal details of all holy knights distributed across Talochioum—no, the entire world."
Tie gulped.
With such a roster, she might finally find Dad, who was surely hiding well.
"Of course, it's not a document anyone can view."
Her eyebrows drooped at Valentis's following words.
As Tie silently clenched her fists,
"However, if you can confirm a few things for certain, I could permit you to view it as Lumenen Leader. Making a capable mercenary group friendly toward us is part of my duties as well."
Her lips parted wide.
If she confirmed just a few things, he'd show her the roster?
Tie unwittingly grabbed Valentis's sleeve.
"I'll do it!"
"......"
"Tie will confirm those things!"
Desperation filled the child's eyes.
"Show me the roster, okay? Tie has to find that person and meet him again......"
Valentis, gazing steadily into Tie's eyes, nodded.
"Then what is your relationship to him?"
Tie blinked in bewilderment.
It was a simple question, answerable in one word.
But......
'If I say Dad.'
Wouldn't it reveal she was really four years old?
Then her powers would be suspected, and the entire mercenary group endangered?
But Valentis remained calm.
"The reason you're seeking him. What exactly are you hiding to become Sovereign King?"
Tie's gaze met Valentis's.
Unlike Tie's trembling, panicked eyes, Valentis's blue eyes were serene.
"Only one who opens their own door can open another's."
Tie took a short breath.
Then bit her lip and pondered deeply.
A long while later, Tie parted her lips.
"That person is......"
Then gripped the Sanctity of Oblivion tightly with one hand and answered haltingly.
"Tie's dad."
* * *
Sanctity of Oblivion.
The bracelet perfectly fitted to Tie's wrist, a relic left by the sea god Seradin.
The name Tie had given it herself: 'Super-Duper-Strong-Memory-Eraser-Princess Bracelet'.
"Tie's dad, and Tie is four years old. We lived in Jongno-gu, Republic of Korea. And then......"
Valentis silently looked down at Tie as she poured out all her secrets.
The spilled information was jumbled, but piecing it together made the meaning clear.
Valentis first drew a long timeline in his mind.
Then began organizing the events based on Tie's words.
"I had a dream off, and Dad was siege-breaking a huge magic stone."
At the time when the Sovereign King before him was a newborn infant.
Her father, Kim Young-su, was siege-breaking a magic stone in Talochioum.
"Then we lived four years in Jongno-gu."
But due to a series of subsequent events, father and daughter moved to another world called the Republic of Korea, living there four years.
"Dad, on a rainy day...... death notice......"
Then the Sovereign King's father died.
And the Sovereign King awakened mana and returned to Talochioum.
Valentis looked down impassively at the Sovereign King, who had finished speaking and now looked glum.
'Is this possible?'
If everything was true, then the child before him was not a grand mage pretending to be a kid.
She was simply a four-year-old who had suddenly become a grand mage.
Suddenly, he recalled the burly mercenary who had guarded the child at the meeting.
And the other members who had welcomed her back to the lodging with smiles.
'If it's all real, is it because of them?'
The reason the child, who had essentially fallen into a lion's den, had stayed safe until now.
Why she hid her identity and didn't spill her situation everywhere.
In Valentis's view, they were each helping the Sovereign King's well-being in their own ways.
"So now you'll show me the roster?"
Then a bold question came from right in front of him.
Lowering his gaze, the child was staring at him with eyes full of wariness.
Valentis's gaze shifted to the bracelet the child had been fiddling with since earlier.
He nodded.
"Good. I'll allow you to view it."
"Really? For real? Promise?"
"Yes, promise."
The child jumped to her feet.
Then hesitated for a long moment before suddenly hugging Valentis tightly.
It looked like a simple hug from the outside, but Valentis could sense the child's palm pressed firmly against his back.
More precisely, the palm on the side with the bracelet.
