TYHL 162

~Chapter 162~

“First of all, I think he completely failed at finding the right path. He’s not in his right mind right now. The magical beasts destroyed his favorite biology exhibit, so he’s going through an age of chaos.”

“Oh no.”

I didn’t understand his problem at all, but I pretended to sympathize, lowering my eyebrows.

In the end, Void couldn’t stand seeing Liam wandering blankly toward the pond and shouted, “Agh, seriously!” before rushing over to drag the eldest brother back.

“Little fairy… come here.”

Liam stretched his hand toward me with a gloomy expression, wobbling unsteadily.

“Sit next to me in the carriage on the way back. I’ll give you the chance to cheer up a sad older brother.”

“No thanks!”

I yelled loudly, then suddenly tilted my head.

“But… you two are going back too?”

“The academy collapsed, so it’s vacation! Until next year!”

“What…?”

Winter was going to get noisy again!

“Hahaha! My penalty points stopped! They reset next year!”

Watching Void be ridiculously happy, I made a decision.

‘The day to submit the Lifestyle Investigation Report… has finally come!’

Time to submit all the evidence I had collected!

“Ah.”

Come to think of it—what happened to the ancient library?

What about Professor Yuliophe?

‘I have to go! I still have things to do!’

I tied my shoelaces tightly and ran.

“Rubi! Where are you going!”

“I’m busy!”

“What the—?!”

Out of habit, I almost called Khalid to help me escape, then suddenly froze.

“Oh. Right. I’m not supposed to run off alone.”

I slowly turned and stared at the grand mansion of the duke—standing tall like a painting.

Leviathan was organizing documents in his office when he lifted his head.

He recognized the quick, familiar footsteps outside.

‘3, 2, 1…’

Bang!

But instead of the office door flying open—

“Dad! Father! It’s me! Rubi! Knock knock knock!”

Her sharp voice rang from behind the door.

Leviathan let out a short sigh, stood up, and opened the door. A round little head appeared.

“Who taught you how to knock?”

“Self-taught! Anyway—”

Her sparkling eyes reflected him, leaning against the doorframe.

Her small hand clutched his clothing.
Her round eyes curved sweetly.

And from her lips came the words Leviathan loved most.

“Dad, help me!”

A precious child.

Dad called Professor Yuliophe out of the ancient library.

“It’s been a while, Yuliophe Molton.”

“Ah, y-yes… parent.”

Yuliophe cleared his throat awkwardly. He was busy repairing and restoring documents today as well.

“I heard you taught my daughter how to jump rope.”

Dad lowered his gaze at the professor and muttered:

“Share her progress with me.”

“…Sorry?”

“She’ll be doing special training in the north.”

“What…?”

The professor’s brows twisted tightly, but Dad did not let go of him. With every step Dad took forward, Yuliophe was pushed further away from the library.

“There are various techniques, right? One-leg jumping, and that kind of thing…”

“Please just ask your daughter!”

When Dad gave me a small signal, I quietly slipped into the library.

Since I wouldn’t be coming to the academy for a while, I even wore my school uniform properly for the last visit.

“Oh, so that’s a typical parent distraction tactic.”

“Hurry.”

Khalid, already ahead, urged me.

Heh… things were easy today.

Maybe because Dad helped.

“Still, I’m glad the ancient library is intact.”

I looked around and said.

Other buildings were destroyed badly…

“So what? All the documents that woman gave you were blown away.”

“Hmm…”

Before we knew it, we were standing under a big tree.

“We can restore them!”

“…?”

I used my magic.

In my hand was the scrap of parchment Second had given me—completely blank.

When the Magic King appeared, I instinctively erased the letters on that paper.

Just in case they realized I had obtained the record.

‘But…’

Just like I restored my hair color, I planned to restore the letters on this paper too.

‘Wizeria will help me.’

Even though the sea sometimes didn’t listen, when it was something important, it always supported me.

Fwaaah—

Magic lit up, and soon the erased characters floated back onto the parchment.

‘Of course, I can’t use time magic whenever I want.’

Wizeria only drew magic circles for me when absolutely necessary.

“…That’s amazing. So you restored your hair color like that too.”

Khalid let out a disbelieving sigh.

“Well, let’s read it.”

I planned to copy all the place names into a big notebook.

I sat on the floor, shining a magnifying glass I brought, reading slowly.

“…Why are you reading like that?”

“Huh? What?”

“Well, your finger is moving the opposite way.”

Khalid pointed at my finger tracing the text.

“Oh, that’s because of this arrangement. Ancient language has many character orders.”

“…You don’t read them all the same?”

He whispered as if talking to himself.

“Yeah. Why? Do you need to read something?”

“…No. Just read that first.”

Strange. Why ask then?

Anyway, I buried my nose back in the document.

Soon—

“Just as I thought… To complete the breaking circle, we need to find the hidden magic formulas.”

“And… those formulas are somewhere in the continent?”

I nodded.

“And the words you’re copying now?”

“They’re place names. This letter means… Bamiless…”

I turned around and looked at the large seal tree and the stone beneath it.

“Unfortunately, Bamiless didn’t contain the formula.”

It was a magic circle that moved time.

“But there are so many words here.”

“Yes… except for Bamiless, all the others seem to be ancient place names. But the problem is—I don’t know which region they refer to now…”

“It’ll take a long time.”

“Probably.”

We had to identify the place names and search the continent.

“I’ll search the continent. You translate the ancient language.”

Khalid suddenly said.

“Huh?”

“You know I’m good at wandering around.”

He walked toward me, moving away from his slouched posture.

His eyes landed on my slightly crooked ribbon tie. He slowly untied it.

“I said I’d find everything you needed.”

He neatly straightened and tied it for me again. My throat made a small gulping sound.

“And you’re not going to forbid this too, right?”

“Well… not that…”

I bit my lip lightly, let go, and sighed.

“But I don’t like being separated from you…”

Khalid grinned.

“That’s true.”

At that moment, sunlight flowed from the courtyard and glowed on his face.

…Oh. What was that?

“My heart dropped—”

“What?”

“M-My ribbon is dropping! I said the ribbon!”

“…Our conversations always follow this pattern.”

Khalid scratched his cheek and tightened my ribbon.

Pop pop pop—
It felt like fireworks were bursting somewhere.
What was this?
Why did he suddenly look so handsome today?!

‘Am I excited because he said he’d find the magic circle for me?’

If someone buys me candy, will I think they’re cool too?!

‘Wait…’

Suddenly, I realized this pounding feeling was familiar.

And that this emotion could be connected by a big arrow to the word “fluttering”…

“K-Khal… I feel awkward a bit…”

“What? Again?”

No, this wasn’t awkwardness…

At that moment—

Riiip—

“Right. You two need to feel awkward.”

Suddenly, Khal and I were pulled far apart.

“…Dad?”

Dad appeared out of nowhere, picked me up, and placed me far away.

“Why am I so worried about your future?”

“Huh? Whose future?”

What was he talking about?

“It’s going to be thrilling. Very thrilling.”

Hmm… was he talking about his future?

“I don’t understand…”

Dad folded his arms, smiling in a complicated way.