🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 08
“Ghk! Y-you—what are you?!”
Ron flailed like a fish freshly pulled from the water and pushed his upper body up.
It seemed he’d finally decided to acknowledge me. I smiled brightly and answered his question.
“Yep. I’m Tania.”
Ron struggled free of the sofa.
Keeping a certain distance from me like a wary alley cat, he shouted in agitation,
“That’s not what I was asking!”
I tilted my head slightly and replied calmly.
“Is it not? Then what were you asking?”
“You sitting on top of me!”
“Oh, that? You were rude to me the moment we met, so I thought we were being casual with each other.”
Ron ran a hand roughly through his hair, looking utterly dumbfounded.
“My god. Did my father bring home a crazy kid?”
“Haha, you’re cute when you get all worked up with that foul mouth.”
He must have grown up being thoroughly doted on by the guild master.
In other words, he’d been spoiled rotten.
“Who are you calling cute?! You’re a whole hand-span shorter than me!”
Ron glared at me, his face flushed bright red as he fumed.
Ah. Sensitive to compliments, huh?
Seeing how cute he was made the corners of my mouth creep upward.
A kid really is just a kid.
Unable to hold it in, I burst out laughing.
“Puhaha! Then what do you want to be, if not cute?”
“Just get out of my face!”
The response was, as always, nothing but harsh words, but I kept smiling and tilted my head again.
“But I like you, Ron. I want to stay by your side.”
“W-what…?”
Perhaps it was the first time he’d ever heard such a direct expression of affection from someone his age—his face showed rare fluster.
With that personality of his, any girls who’d liked him probably all left in tears. No wonder.
I curved my eyes into crescents and said,
“Of course. You’re really cute.”
“Grr! I told you not to call me cute!”
“Even the way you throw a tantrum is cute.”
“You really…!”
Seeing how much he hated it, I thought about trying a different descriptor.
“Hmm. If you don’t like ‘cute,’ how about ‘pretty’?”
“I’m not talking to you anymore!”
In a huff, Ron finally turned tail and ran away.
I stood up from the sofa, about to trot after him.
“Why~ come play with me.”
As I dealt with Ron so casually, the staff who had been watching the whole exchange whispered in admiration.
“Wow, I’ve never seen anyone smile so brightly while dealing with Ron.”
“Same. First time I’ve seen that foul-tempered brat get completely thrown off.”
Just then, as if their discussion had ended, the guild master and Uncle Aiden came down the stairs from the second floor, one by one.
Before they’d even finished descending, I scurried over to the stairs and asked,
“So, have you reached a conclusion?”
The guild master opened his mouth with an expression of mild displeasure.
“We checked the mercenary token he was carrying. He belongs to the Gold & Silver Coin group.”
The Gold & Silver Coin Mercenary Company.
It was the group once associated with the legendary Mercenary King, and only proven elites could join.
Their mission success rate was extremely high, and unlike other mercenary groups that frequently caused trouble, they were known for never stirring up incidents—making them highly trustworthy.
I smiled gently.
“See? Reliable, right? I told you, I’ve got a great eye for people.”
The guild master lightly pushed my forehead with his index finger and scolded me firmly.
“Even so, it was wrong of you to entrust yourself to a stranger’s home without thinking.”
“Yes, yes. I’m sorry.”
When I raised both hands in a show of repentance, he let out a small sigh.
“It seems you have your own reasoning, so I won’t stop you. But if you ever see a bad future with your foresight, come here immediately.”
“Um… if you say that so loudly, won’t Uncle Aiden hear everything?”
“I meant for him to hear.”
I glanced at Uncle Aiden. He didn’t look offended—in fact, he seemed to think it was only natural.
“By the way, Tania.”
“Yes, Guild Master?”
“Everything else aside… what’s wrong with him?”
At the end of his gaze sat Ron, curled up on the sofa like a cat, glaring at me.
I shrugged lightly and answered,
“He said he hated being called cute, so I tried calling him pretty instead. That’s the result.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That night.
Tania stirred and slowly sat up in bed.
“I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t think about anything else and just took over Uncle’s bed…”
Now that she thought about it, if she slept in the only bed, where in the world had he slept?
Sure enough.
When she carefully opened the door and stepped out, she saw Aiden leaning against a chair, trying to sleep.
Right. This house didn’t even have a sofa.
So had he slept like this—on an uncomfortable chair—last night too?
Letting out a small sigh, Tania hugged a pillow to her chest and made a teary face like a child who couldn’t sleep well.
“Uncleee.”
When she called him in a small voice, Aiden slowly lifted his eyelids, as though he’d been awake the whole time.
“…What is it?”
“I’m scared to sleep alone.”
“For someone who says that, you slept just fine by yourself yesterday.”
A direct hit.
But Tania still had her emotional trump card.
Tracing a small circle on the floor with her toes, she muttered gloomily,
“…Then what if I say I was jealous of kids who sleep with their parents?”
As expected, Aiden’s expression immediately twisted.
He’d suspected that the absence of her parents must have weighed heavily on her, but hearing it directly from the child herself was something else entirely.
An indescribable sense of guilt raced up his spine and spread through his entire body.
Forcing down the emotions threatening to burst out, he murmured in a low voice,
“…I’ll stay with you.”
As Aiden stood up, Tania beamed and scampered back into the room.
She went to the edge of the bed and, as if it were only natural, patted the empty spot beside her.
“Right here!”
Aiden, carrying the wooden chair he’d been sitting on, raised an eyebrow as he looked at the empty side of the bed.
“I said I’d stay with you. I don’t recall saying I’d lie down in the bed with you.”
But Tania ignored him and stared up at him with sparkling eyes.
She knew that just getting him into the room already meant she was halfway to success.
“No matter how you look at me with those big, innocent eyes…”
“Mmng?”
“…Some things are just not—”
“Mmmnng?”
…Fine. Fine.
Aiden squeezed his eyes shut.
Staring at him with such a cute face—she was far too crafty. How was he supposed to refuse that?
In the end, just as Tania had planned, he was the first to raise the white flag.
“…All right.”
Trying to stay as far away from her as possible, Aiden slowly lay down at the very edge of the bed.
Tania stared at him and let out a soft, amused giggle.
“Hehe.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing… just everything.”
The fact that he—who had died—was now alive and breathing right in front of her.
That despite their first meeting being different from the past timeline, the way he treated her hadn’t changed.
It was so reassuring it almost hurt.
Meanwhile, Aiden found it hard to keep looking at Tania, who seemed genuinely happy, and closed his eyes.
“Enough nonsense. Go to sleep.”
“Yes. Good night, Uncle!”
“…Good night.”
The sight of a child being so happy just from lying side by side in bed with her guardian was unbearably painful.
Every moment spent with Tania made him feel like a criminal of the highest order.
How much time had passed since he closed his eyes?
Thinking Aiden had fallen asleep, Tania quietly opened her lips.
“Uncle, you know…”
“……”
“They say that the more you try to forget bad memories, the more they come back. Instead of forcing yourself to forget, it’s better to cover them up by making lots of good memories.”
Just like how her past self had escaped a dreadful nightmare.
“So… I’ll become that kind of existence for you, Uncle.”
So that one day, he could laugh and talk about his failed first love.
Having said everything she wanted to say, Tania fell into sleep without a shred of hesitation.
Noticing that the child’s breathing had evened out, Aiden clutched at his painfully tightening heart.
From the moment I first held you as a newborn, you became my everything.
Without even trying, you’re already that kind of existence to me.
I’m just… grateful that you’re alive like this.
He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her again and again.
But unable to act on it, he clenched his teeth and only stared down at Tania’s small, round forehead.
Tania.
How on earth am I supposed to protect you?
