[54]
The opportunity to meet the child who had been on his mind came sooner than expected.
“Those bastards. They skimped on my stuff again.”
It was still before sunset. Dahlia appeared with her brows deeply furrowed.
“I told them I get anxiety without those specific tampons.”
Mihir, beside her, gave her a sympathetic look as she spat on the ground.
“Hmm. This is happening almost every time now. Should I complain?”
“Forget it. I don’t want to be labeled as picky while on a mission.”
Dahlia irritably brushed her hair back.
“What about the child? Are you taking her?”
Child?
Chris listened curiously.
There was only one child in this abandoned factory district – Dain.
“Of course,” Dahlia said in a sarcastic tone.
“I need to hide the fact that we’re on a mission as much as possible.”
Mihir stretched, extending his shoulders.
“People are so stupid. It’s funny how they think parents raising a young child couldn’t possibly do anything bad.”
“Exactly.”
When Dahlia extended her hand, elongated vines opened the door of a warehouse next to Factory 4.
Walking with heavy steps, she drove out in a green car with slightly peeling paint.
“…I need to fill up the gas in town too. It’s running low.”
“Want to stay overnight?”
At Mihir’s question, Dahlia made a show of considering it with a “Hmm.”
“Maybe I’ll have a drink while I’m at it. It’s been a while.”
“Have fun.”
Chris could see Mihir winking. With his pronounced double eyelids, it was a particularly charming wink.
“Why don’t you come and take charge up there?”
“You still don’t trust me that much?”
“Well.”
Dahlia looked him up and down with lowered eyes.
“I’m saying you can come with me if you want.”
Mihir took a step back at the subtle invitation.
“We can’t both leave our posts. You know that.”
“You’re no fun.”
Dahlia shrugged.
“I needed an accomplice. Too bad.”
The woman got in the car and headed toward Factory 8.
Mihir watched her for a moment before returning inside Factory 4.
Arriving at Factory 8, Dahlia brought a child named Dain from the basement.
She grabbed one arm, practically dragging the child, and eventually picked her up and placed her in the passenger seat.
“Stay still. If you cause trouble or say anything when we get there… you know what happens, right?”
Chris could see Dain nodding in the seat beside her.
As Dahlia started the car, plants parted to create a path.
After carefully observing them leave, Chris quickly returned to his human form.
He went to the clothes he had left in a corner and operated a terminal while putting on his pants.
He was trying to call for transportation as quickly as possible.
Just as he fastened his belt and picked up his shirt, the terminal lit up.
-What is it? It’s not even time for you to return yet. Why are you calling?
Peter appeared on the other side of the screen. He gaped at the half-dressed Chris.
-Eek!
He spread his fingers over his eyes, though Chris wondered what the point was.
But instead of voicing his question, Chris said:
“I want to go into town right now.”
-Clothes! Put your clothes on first. I’m going to tell Yuri everything!
“…Hm?”
Chris looked at Peter with complete incomprehension.
-No, wait. I shouldn’t say anything. If I do, I’ll be the one who dies, not him.
He muttered timidly while slapping his own face.
Chris spoke in a firmer tone than before.
“I’d like you to open the door. Right now.”
-Yes sir.
Peter, finally coming to his senses, began opening the door.
By the time Chris finished buttoning his shirt, a black door appeared in the air.
“Where shall I take you?”
Peter’s eyes sparkled playfully.
“To the town closest to that factory.”
“Hmm. Let me see. According to the map, there are these two places…”
Peter pointed to two villages.
“The Esper from the factory drove south.”
“Then it must be this one. Voldrun.”
“I’d like you to open the door right away.”
“Why such a hurry? If they’re traveling by car, it would take at least forty minutes.”
“It’s an opportunity to contact someone from inside.”
A young child exposed to violent and unjust situations.
Even if immediate rescue wasn’t possible, Chris intended to extract the child as quickly as possible.
He had been keeping an eye out, but never expected them to leave the abandoned factory district.
“Ah. Then we should hurry.”
If he pretended to have arrived in the village first rather than following them, the target would be less suspicious.
If he had planned to tail them secretly, he would need to be more cautious.
“Oh, and next time, please be fully dressed when you call me.”
Peter opened a new door quickly and whispered in a lowered voice.
“That’s not a sight I want to see in broad daylight.”
“I’ll be more careful in the future.”
Chris responded indifferently to the pale-faced man and walked through the door.
After he disappeared, Peter asked through the half-open door:
“He doesn’t ask where you are?”
It was a subtle provocation.
“That’s how he is.”
Yuri replied without looking up from what he was copying from the screen.
He was like that before too.
Once given a mission, he wouldn’t look for Yuri until it was completed.
Only when he was certain Yuri was in a safe place.
It was also the result of Chris’s efforts to overcome his separation anxiety from that period.
“Why does Chris call people when he’s not even fully dressed?”
For the first time, Yuri took his eyes off the terminal and looked at Peter.
Being young, his emotions were still abundant and his expressions immediate.
Not to mention how he gave his heart away at the slightest provocation.
It was more amusing to humor him.
“Well,” Yuri said, turning his head back toward the screen.
“He probably doesn’t consider you significant enough to be conscious of.”
Peter’s lips contorted.
A complete defeat.
***
The blonde woman carrying the child added another candy to the counter.
“Oh my. I can’t charge for baby candy.”
The woman smiled gently at the shopkeeper who was waving her hands, and paid.
“It’s okay. It’s for my daughter. Don’t worry about it.”
The woman put the paid-for candy in the child’s mouth.
“I’ll come again next time. Goodbye, ma’am.”
She said to the girl in her arms:
“Dain should say goodbye too. Say ‘Goodbye~’?”
“G-goodbye…”
Her pronunciation slipped because of the candy in her mouth.
The child, apparently embarrassed by this, ended up folding her hands and bowing from the waist, then clung to the woman’s neck.
As the two went outside, Chris, who had been waiting with a newspaper and bread, placed them on the counter.
“Could you slice the bread for me?”
Noticing the knife behind the counter, Chris deliberately chose a couple of long loaves.
Holding the bread reminded him of going to the bookstore where Yuri was.
A day when he bought bread for breakfast and walked down a long block. The savory aroma rising from the warm bread in his arms had left a happy trace in his mind.
“Of course. Just a moment.”
After efficiently completing the calculation, the woman took Chris’s bread and began cutting it on a wooden board.
Chris pretended to look around with interest in the candy and then spoke.
“I’ve been driving for quite a while, could you recommend some candy?”
“We don’t have much variety. Oh, the one the child just took is our best-seller.”
“Cherry flavor, I see.”
For some reason, thinking of Yuri made Chris smile.
The woman who had been glancing at him showed a slightly more relaxed face.
Recognizing the right timing, Chris spoke.
“The child was cute.”
It sounded like small talk while waiting for the bread to be cut.
“Hoho. Isn’t she? The child takes after her mother a lot.”
“Is there a father too?”
Chris asked, recalling Dain running to a worker in Factory 4.
“Ah yes. She came alone today, but sometimes she comes with her husband on weekends.”
“I see.”
“I heard her husband works as an engineer in Babel City. Real estate prices have gone up so much that he only comes here on weekends.”
The grocery store owner said, resting her chin on her hand.
Judging by the description, it sounded like Mihir.
‘It seems Dahlia and Mihir use the child as a buffer and occasionally visit the village.’
Even with regular supplies, unexpected situations arise.
They probably came here to get necessities during such times.
The small, close-knit village where rumors spread quickly was fortunate for Chris.
‘Indeed, people are more relaxed here, making them less closed-off than in the Winter Continent.’
Such inquiries are not so easy in the cold winter lands.
“You don’t seem to be from around here.”
“Well… they probably live in the village near the abandoned factory district.”
Chris pretended to be surprised.
“So people live near the abandoned factory district? I’m surprised.”
“Oh well. This area was originally planned to be the center of a city. There were about five villages, but now only two remain. People who set up restaurants or built buildings expecting engineers and workers to come all went bankrupt.”
The shop owner clicked her tongue and shrugged.
Judging by her demeanor, her own situation wasn’t much different.
“Is there a separate lodging facility in this village?”
“The Holidays on the main road would be nice and clean. It has a restaurant attached.”
The owner soon said, “All done,” and handed over the bread in a bag.
“Thank you.”
Chris bowed his head and went outside, striding forward.
When Dahlia was talking with Mihir, he had clearly heard that she planned to stay overnight in the village.
‘Bingo.’
Arriving at the lodging called Holidays that the woman had recommended, he saw the green car with peeling paint.
After checking in at the front desk, Chris didn’t go straight to his room.
Instead, he sat on a sofa in the lobby, pretending to read a newspaper.
The manager brought him a cup of coffee. Though he was about to decline, Chris thought of something and nodded slightly in gratitude.
Throughout, Chris’s gaze was directed not at the newspaper but at the window across from him.
The window showed the outside, but more importantly, it reflected the shadows of people coming and going behind him.
Just as the coffee had completely cooled, Dahlia and Dain finally appeared from the stairwell.
Dain was holding a ball in her hand.
‘Lucky.’
Chris stood up immediately, cup in hand.
Simultaneously, he used a bit of telekinesis to push the ball Dain was holding.
“Ah!”
Dain, who had let go of Dahlia’s hand, ran forward.
And the girl collided with Chris.
Moving back to avoid hurting the child, Chris deliberately spilled the cup on himself.
Coffee flowed down his clothes.
“Oh!”
Dain staggered significantly.
“Oh no!”
Chris pretended to be surprised and gently lifted the child.
Accustomed to being held by adults, Dain wrapped her arms around Chris’s neck.
Just as he was about to put the child down, worried about getting coffee on her, Chris’s body stiffened.
‘This is…!’
This child is a Guide.
