Chapter 3
## Episode 3
* * *
Iri had boldly pushed through the powerfully strong maids and successfully entered a large room in Ortejo Castle!
But unlike her tremendous ambition to "become a hero and save the world."
She had been trapped for over ten hours in a pure white, bread-like Magi Blocking Suit.
"We have to wrap you up tight so the magi doesn't corrupt you."
"......?"
"And attach magic tools all over your body......"
She was rolling her eyes around like a snowman, round and puffy all over.
That's when the muscular maids surrounded Iri and clumsily tidied her up with awkward hands.
Murmuring things like "She's too small," "Ugh, I don't know how to grab her."
At that moment, the Head Maid—the only one who seemed to make any sense—knelt on one knee and spoke regretfully.
"It's because your immunity is weak. We're so sorry, little one. If we'd had more time to prepare, we could've brought better magic tools......"
Hold on a second.
Iri looked at her with trembling eyes.
*'I'm weak? Me, who even went to the national taekwondo headquarters?'*
The taekwondo instructor himself had acknowledged her as the top poom belt among nine-year-olds!
"I-I'm strong."
But it seemed her shout didn't reach them.
And so, Iri's body ended up completely wrapped in the pure white, round suit.
Her arms and legs were tightly bound.
Only her face poked out.
At that moment, one of the maids looking at her in the mirror roughly undid the top of her uniform and pounded her chest in excitement.
"Damn! You're too cute! Roundy-Roundy-nim!"
......?
*'Roundy-Roundy-nim... is that me?'*
Iri rolled her eyes to look at the maid.
The maid was pounding her chest like a gorilla.
As if she had no idea what she'd just said.
Iri gave the maids a somewhat dubious look before gazing into the mirror.
*'I know what this is.'*
It was just like the white rice cakes her grandma from her previous life had made so diligently!
That's right.
Iri had become a round rice cake.
"Um, c-can't you unwrap this for me?"
"No, we can't."
*Boom.*
Iri's pupils shook from the massive shock.
*'Why......?'*
"The others don't wear this bread cake."
"B-Bread cake... you say?"
"Yes."
Bread cake. A compound word Iri had just coined, combining bread and rice cake.
The maids didn't know, but children originally had the ability to freely mash up words and use them.
Iri said seriously.
"Why do I have to wear what no one else wears?"
"Well......"
Could it be that Iri was some kind of outcast here?
Her textbook said you shouldn't bully friends......
Iri clenched her tiny fist and muttered softly.
"Tell me honestly. I'm not some weak kid who gets hurt by stuff like that."
She spoke so earnestly, but the surrounding maids' expressions turned strangely peculiar.
Ignoring them, as she tensed up her body...
The Head Maid, who had been staring intently at Iri, took a deep breath and carefully recited.
"It's because you're not an immune."
"Immune......?"
"Yes, an immune."
The maids gazed at Iri with pity.
Iri blinked her eyelashes as she listened to the explanation of "immunes."
"Got it. Because I'm not an immune, I have to wear this bread-cake suit and absolutely have to go back after a week......"
Now everything made sense.
Iri was different from the people of the North.
That's why, unbefitting a hero, she had to be wrapped up round and tight like a newborn in swaddling clothes.
Iri curled her body up even more like a little bean and muttered.
"I get it, I'm okay."
Because a great hero doesn't get discouraged over something like this.
She wasn't five years old—she was nine.
So she didn't want to show any weakness.
"So everyone, you can go now."
The maids and manservants tried to console Iri but ended up sighing heavily and closing the door as they left.
They seemed to think she would be heartbroken.
*'I'm not heartbroken! I'm a poom belt!'*
A cool poom belt second dan who would never get discouraged over something so trivial!
Iri glared fiercely at the empty air.
Then she pulled out the memo she'd prepared of what she needed to do in Ortejo Castle.
[Iri's Ultimate Goal]
Eat lots and lots of yummy food with Hammuni!
※ Super happy!
※ Lots of greens! Lots of veggies! Lots of turkey!
[To do that?]
I have to save the world. So Hammuni, the person I love most in the world, doesn't die.
[How?]
The North's bad 'magi.'
Get rid of it all!
[Method?]
I don't know exactly. But they say it goes away if I touch it!
Iri tried to clench her fist.
But it slipped away.
*'Hng, my hand.'*
......Maybe because she was trapped in the bread cake, her head felt woozy.
Iri let out a big sigh.
Still, she'd made it into Ortejo Castle.
Her heart fluttered a little with excitement, somehow.
Iri pulled the fluffy blanket over herself and curled up a bit.
*'I miss Hammuni.'*
Whenever Iri curled up to sleep, her grandma would always hug her tight.
But today was the first time ever sleeping without her grandma.
No grandma from her previous life, no grandma from this life.
Lying on the cold bed made her heart feel like an empty tin can.
*'But a hero has to endure it.'*
Iri bravely rolled herself into a round blanket burrito.
And so, the first night in Ortejo Castle passed.
* * *
The next day, at the foremost frontline guarding against Northern monsters.
The news of Iri's arrival had reached the monster frontlines as well.
"Duke Your Highness, congratulations!"
"What. All the monsters dead? Head home?"
"No, that's not it! The monsters are right in front of us."
"Ah."
Declan Ortejo, Grand Duke, boldly sliced through the elephant-like monster that had approached right up to his nose.
The man who had been looking at his master as if he were utterly heartless.
Viscount Raspen, the Grand Duke's chief aide who coordinated his duties, smiled brightly once more.
"Lady Iri has come to visit the North! I don't know why, but shouldn't you hurry and go see her?"
A normal father would be delighted at the news of his daughter visiting.
But Grand Duke Ortejo was different.
His expression twisted.
"My daughter came?"
"Yes, she's preparing to pay respects to Duke Your Highness!"
"Why the hell is my daughter coming to this soon-to-die land."
"W-Well, she insisted she absolutely had to see Duke Your Highness......"
He swung his arm roughly, his face full of annoyance.
"Tell her to go back. Go to her grandma, I'm not seeing her."
She was a child who'd been preciousy raised in her maternal grandmother's arms.
On the other hand, Declan's body was riddled with accumulated magi.
Among the five stages divided by severity, he had reached the most critical, five-star level.
A normal human would rampage and die just reaching three stars.
At four stars, even powerful ability-user immunes would emit magi at monster levels.
And......
The five-star stage of complete magi takeover.
It was akin to a human becoming magi itself.
Even other immunes found it burdensome to stay by his side.
He was barely clinging to life thanks to his immense mana and explosive abilities.
If such a man met a non-immune child, she'd die in an instant.
So he absolutely wouldn't touch her, wouldn't even look at her.
After the child was born and entrusted to the South.
The letters he'd written through sleepless nights......
He hadn't given them because his hands had touched them, as if they never existed.
They had to become non-existent to each other.
"......Contact the South and find out why she came. And tell the kid to hole up in some corner. Like a small, precious bean."
"Pardon? What do you mean holing up like a small, precious bean?"
"And after a week—no, 168 hours—roll her back to the South."
"Roll her?"
"Yeah."
Raspen, who had been jotting down "roll," gave a puzzled look.
But Declan was firm.
He didn't know the child's face.
He only vaguely remembered the round, bean-like bundled body he'd glimpsed right after birth.
So to him, the child was just a round bean.
But it was different for Raspen.
"Rolling a child around violates child protection laws."
"......Do whatever it takes to keep that bean out of my sight."
After barking that out roughly, he turned his head.
*'She leaves in a week. Then I can wipe out monsters here for another week before heading back.'*
The face of the child who'd grown to five years old.
How much her round body had stretched vertically.
He wasn't curious.
No reason to find out, either.
Unless the child caused some massive incident, that is.
