A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad

Time began to breathe again.

Like mist rising over a pond at dawn.

"Papa! Tie did this at kindergarten!"

The image surfaced of a child running toward him with a sketchbook.

"Papa is mean! I hate you more than anything in the world!"

That angry expression followed—cheeks puffed up in resentment.

"Don’t go. Today just stay with Tie, hic... play...!"

Those small tantrums that made it impossible to take a single step.

"Papa will live with Tie for a long, long time."

And the promise he had never managed to keep.

"...Papa?"

A quiet voice sounded again in the room.

In the dim light, Tesetan’s Adam’s apple slowly bobbed as he looked at Tie.

"Papa...?"

The word she spoke again was no longer "squad leader," nor "hey."

It was the word Astie had learned before she even learned Tesetan’s name.

The very first word she had ever spoken in her life.

In an unfamiliar world—something she had clung to all her life.

"...Ha."

In the end, a sob escaped from Tesetan’s chest.

He himself had taken that word away from the child.

"Let’s fight."

So foolish.

"You... are you pitying me?"

Absurdly stupid and ridiculous.

"Even if my wrist is cut off, I’m not going to crawl under you."

Again and again, he had driven nails into a fragile heart that was already wounded and worn down.

And yet—

"Papa is very sick, so now he doesn’t recognize Tie..."

He didn’t even realize what he was doing.

"Ah, Papa..."

At that moment, he felt a warm touch on the back of his hand.

Lowering his gaze, he saw Tie anxiously stroking his fingers, which had turned pale from tension.

"Don’t do that. It hurts."

Tears welled in the child’s eyes.

Her frightened green eyes quickly moved across Tesetan’s face.

As if she were desperately trying to read his thoughts, to understand what he was feeling.

Tesetan held his breath.

He covered the child’s hand with his own.

And in a barely audible voice, with difficulty, he said:

"I... promised... that I would make you smile..."

Tie fell silent.

"When we go back home..."

"..."

"I promised that I would make you smile."

"Someday, we will definitely go back home."

"And I will make it so that our Tie smiles."

A conversation with Papa from the distant past flashed through the child’s mind.

It was true.

In Room 106, the two of them had lain together and talked about it.

There was no way to forget that.

How could anyone forget?

How many times had Tie thought about that promise.

On the day Papa disappeared.

On the day the notice of his death arrived.

On the day she returned to Tallocium and met Papa from the past again.

"...Hic."

How many times had she longed for those words, how many times had she cried because of them.

"Hic...!"

But.

Just now, Papa had said that promise again.

Papa remembers it.

That means—

"Idiot! Papa is a dummy!"

Her small shoulders trembled.

Pressing her lips together, Tie hit Tesetan in the chest.

"You forgot Tie! You said you loved me the most, and then you forgot!"

Through her tear-blurred vision, she saw Papa’s face.

A sad face.

Papa looked very, very sad.

Just like Tie, large tears were endlessly streaming down his cheeks.

"Tie, it hurt so much...! In Pearlcity, hic, Papa... left Tie and went away!"

No matter how many times she called, he didn’t turn back.

"Tie, Tie was so...!"

So much so that the hope that had soared to the sky shattered in an instant.

Papa, who had coldly averted his gaze.

"My heart broke...!"

After that, whenever she heard a ship’s horn, cold sweat would cover her.

Her heart would pound so hard she wanted to hide in the darkness.

"Why... why..."

Tie lowered her head.

Between the loose strands of hair, hot tears fell—drop, drop.

"Why did you forget Tie..."

She felt a hand touch her back.

Breathing heavily, Tesetan suddenly pulled the child into his arms.

"I’m sorry."

His voice was filled with pain.

"Papa was wrong, I’m sorry..."

Tie’s crying grew even louder.

"I won’t do it again. Papa will never, never again..."

His voice trembled just as much—no, even more.

At last, the child’s arms went limp.

"Hic, waaah...!"

Crying, she buried herself in his embrace.

'I thought I would laugh and be happy.'

When Papa remembered Tie, they would jump around happily while holding hands.

But now, for some reason, she could only cry.

Her thoughts seemed to have stopped and would not move.

"Don’t forget..."

Tie pleaded,

"Don’t forget Tie anymore, hic... don’t leave...!"

It felt so good—and so painful—that she started hiccuping.

She wiped her tears again and again when she heard the reply:

"I won’t forget. Until the day I die—no, even if the world collapses, I won’t forget."

Holding back his emotions, Tesetan stroked her back over and over.

"Don’t go..."

The child was still sobbing in a hoarse voice.

At last, Tesetan gently took her by the shoulders.

"...I won’t go. I won’t go anywhere. I promise."

He said it like a vow to himself.

"I will stay here."

Only then did Tie fall silent.

Sniffling a couple of times, she nodded.

Reflected in Tesetan’s eyes was a small hand clutching tightly at his clothes.

Afraid of losing her again, he pulled the child closer and lifted his gaze.

Beyond that strange—no, no [N O V E L I G H T] longer merely strange—landscape, the night was slowly passing.

"Papa, do you remember this too?"

"What?"

"When Tie fell from the stairs and hurt her knee."

"I remember. Papa scolded you then. Said you shouldn’t jump from the stairs because it would hurt."

"And this one?"

"What?"

"When Tie! Got into a fight with Hiyeon at kindergarten!"

"I remember. It was Hiyeon’s fault."

"...!"

Tie’s eyes widened.

The corners of her lips could not hide her joy.

'It’s Papa...!'

The Papa in front of her was the real Papa.

Younger than before, but still the same Papa who remembered all four years they had spent together in Korea.

"...Good."

Tears welled up again in Tie’s eyes.

Looking at the child who could not contain her happiness, Tesetan let out a soft sigh with a smile.

Dawn was already breaking outside the window.

"It’s good and all, but shouldn’t our daughter sleep a little more?"

He said it gently, but the child immediately puffed up her cheeks.

"I don’t want to! I’m not sleepy at all!"

Tesetan fell silent.

There was truth in Tie’s words.

Last night, she had fallen asleep and woken up repeatedly.

Then again, Tesetan himself had not closed his eyes either.

That was only natural.

He had spent the entire night trying to make sense of the returned memories and the current situation.

'But can this even be called “memory returning”?'

In his view, it was closer to "synchronization."

More precisely—he had received the memories of himself from another timeline.

Tesetan quietly pondered.

'No matter what. The first thing to deal with is Lucarion.'

He looked at Tie again.

The child was still chattering, "Do you remember this?" "Do you remember that?"

Every time she clumsily waved her arms, the printed Tanifang on her pajamas trembled.

And in his hand was a yellow stone.

His thoughts shifted to something similar.

'...The World Tree.'

The being that had suddenly emerged from the child’s chest and shown him everything.

Whether it was coincidence or intention—first, he needed to understand that fragment.

'After all, it was what brought us to Korea back then.'

Through the synchronized memories, the moment of his death in the canyon surfaced.

The spatial magic activated by Lucarion had transported Tie and Tesetan to Korea.

That power had been so great that it completely healed his wounds.

But.

At the same time, it erased from his memory the moment before the magic was activated.

'Still, at least now I understand the situation.'

"Papa, Papa. Do you remember this?"

At that moment, Tie tugged on his hand again.

Tesetan smiled and was about to answer—

[It’s filling! It’s filling up—!]

Suddenly, Marbas jumped out from under the blanket.

[Master! Master’s father! Look! The Harmonium is filling up at an incredible speed!]

At Marbas’s words, Tie lifted her gaze toward the ceiling—her eyes widened.