I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 22

22. I Will Offer You Small and Cute Animals, Cien

2023.02.14.

I watched the intimidating men on black horses charge forward before my eyes.

‘Wow, their momentum is really scary.’

I couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of the villains, nearly two meters tall and weighing over a hundred kilograms, rushing out in droves. It was enough to make even crying children stop.

Even when we were baking bread in the countryside, Dad used to say that even gnats were precious because they were living things. Because of that, I remember lying in ambush and swatting bugs with a fly swatter.

I glanced at Dad, who was checking his attire before heading out.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Dad could even catch a single rabbit.

‘If Dad can’t catch even one rabbit, I should still praise him and tell him he did great.’

Because he might be upset.

“Cien, Dad’s going now.”

“Okay, come back safe!”

“Be careful. Don’t cause any trouble.”

Seriously, Dad seemed to think I was going to get kidnapped or something.

Dad, who looked at me with eyes as gentle as a cow until the very end, soon put a large sword next to his waist and strode down from the platform.

As the ladies watched Dad go down, they picked up the handkerchiefs in their hands and stood up.

Come to think of it, there was a tradition of wishing good luck to the participants in the hunting competition. It was to attach a handkerchief to the knight’s sword who was going out.

‘No one told me, so I didn’t prepare in advance!’

Equipped with all sorts of artifacts, I wouldn’t get hurt unless a great villain came. But I didn’t know about Dad, who looked defenseless at first glance.

I stamped my feet and hurriedly rummaged through the pockets of my dress. Fortunately, it was a simple dress, so there was a spare handkerchief in the pocket.

‘Ah, this is my bib handkerchief…….’

I saw the ladies sitting in the guest seats carefully approaching Dad as if to hand him a handkerchief. I looked at them once, and then at the pure white horse that resembled Dad, once.

‘I still have to give it to him!’

I pushed past the ladies and dashed out like a bullet.

“Dad!”

Dad looked down at me from the horse as if he had been waiting.

As soon as I arrived, everyone around Dad parted as if the Red Sea had parted. Feeling a little embarrassed, I walked up quickly and stood right in front of Dad’s horse. Then……!

“Take this!”

I handed Dad the white bib with a red face full of embarrassment. Dad, who was on the horse, smiled clearly and took my bib handkerchief and hung it on his sword.

‘Is it too shabby?’

The ladies seemed to have embroidered theirs.

“Dad, you can wrap other people’s handkerchiefs around it!”

It seemed like Dad’s already precarious authority would be further diminished by the bib handkerchief dangling from his fancy sword.

Belatedly, I came to my senses and reached out my hand. But Dad shook his head firmly and replied.

“Dad only needs Cien’s handkerchief. It’s so cool.”

As expected, my idiot dad seemed to lack aesthetic sense. I sighed deeply and replied cheerfully.

“I’ll give you something cooler next time!”

In fact, those things are nothing.

“Okay, I understand.”

Dad smiled brightly and nodded. It was the kind of smile that seemed like he had gained the whole world.

I waved my hand at Dad.

“Then come back carefully!”

“I’ll bring you the prettiest animal, Cien.”

“Okay!”

‘But, what is the prettiest animal that Dad is thinking of?’

A slight doubt flashed through my mind, but there was no time to delve into it for long.

While Dad is away at the hunting competition, I have to work hard to observe the aides here!

I walked up to the large altar again and sat back in my seat. And, avoiding the eyes of the maid sisters, I secretly took out my secret weapon, the small marble-shaped video orb that Grandma had given me.

She had slipped it into my pocket, saying that with this video orb, I could see the general scenery of the Rochehern Forest, and that I should deal with any spies immediately.

If anyone does anything suspicious, I will be able to jump out and stop them right away.

I clenched my fist tightly and began to look at the video orb.

In the video orb, I began to see Dad’s closest aides leaving for the hunt with great ambition.

But something was strange.

They were riding their horses around the forest, wandering aimlessly.

***

Having become Matthias’s closest aides, they were merely hiding their true nature, and they originally liked to show off their power.

So, they usually annihilated all the animals in the forest when hunting. Because it was quite convenient. Capturing alive is a hassle.

But unfortunately, they couldn’t do that today.

It was because of the order of their lord, Matthias.

“What is it, how do you capture them alive anyway?”

Come to think of it, they had never captured anything alive before.

They just kill.

One of the villains narrowed his brow with a troubled expression.

“I caught a rabbit with my hand, but it crumbled into powder.”

A warrior shouted roughly, stopping the horse from neighing because it couldn’t run properly.

“……Hmph, I barely picked up a cute goblin. I’m thinking of roasting it whole and giving it to him.”

Everyone around him was amazed.

“That weak goblin…… You’re amazing. If he likes small and tiny things, he’ll definitely like it the most. Because goblins are so small and cute.”

They were talking on slowly walking horses, and then they all sighed deeply as if they had planned it.

Capturing alive is more difficult than killing, and they are powerful villains with ambiguous distinctions between good and evil.

They were struggling with a difficult goal after a long time: ‘To offer Cien small and cute animals.’

***

I, who was secretly observing the hunting competition through the video orb that didn’t transmit sound, became even more uneasy.

“These uncles are weird.”

“Yes, Cien-nim?” [Nim is a Korean honorific suffix]

“They keep killing only rabbits. Pretty rabbits.”

They kept catching rabbits, and just passed by scary monsters or magical beasts.

They seemed to be talking to each other, but I couldn’t hear them well.

Moreover, it was strange how they ran away quickly as if even encountering monsters was terrible.

‘Could it be that they are afraid of monsters? Maybe those people are weaker than they look? I thought they were definitely great masters.’

Besides, our dad seems to be walking around alone all the time…….

I sniffed and swallowed my snot, staring intently at Dad.

The more Dad is alone, the more I have to protect him!

I clenched my fist tightly and squinted my eyes.

‘Fortunately or unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anything problematic yet.’

They didn’t really do anything in particular. Usually, hunting competitions are meant to emphasize prestige, so everyone is desperate to catch the most wonderful and best magical beasts.

I carefully examined the situation and thought to myself.

‘……Could it be that I have to protect even these uncles?’

I blinked my confused eyes and swallowed hard.

I just had a strange feeling.

‘Wait a minute. I think I see someone strange…… Did I see it wrong?’

Originally, in games, characters with a lot of cash items are strong.

Normally, I wouldn’t have felt anything, but despite not having magic power, I, who was covered in all sorts of artifacts, felt a subtle sign of unease.

I felt strange.

There was a month left until the deadline, but I didn’t know what would happen to my life within that time.

I looked up from the video orb and slowly looked around. At that moment, the armor that Grandma had given me flickered once.

‘There must be some kind of dangerous substance around me. Is it a traitor? An assassin?’

I began to scan the area around the platform with sharp eyes.

Someone was definitely casting a spell on me.

Whoever it was, they seemed to be overlooking the fact that I was just an ordinary child.

But I wasn’t an ordinary child.

I smiled slyly inside and touched my shoulders, which were now as soft as glutinous rice cakes but would become harder than shields in the future.

I smiled very, very scarily and coldly, like potato dumplings that had been hardened by a lot of cold wind.

The state-of-the-art artifact attached to my body flashed green and then turned off.

‘I don’t know what the purpose is, but what’s certain is that someone is there. And…….’

I took a step forward.

The anklet that looked like an accessory on my foot was quite cute, but in fact, it was a scary magical tool that could identify enemies.

I recalled what Grandma had said when she put the artifacts in my pocket during training and before coming to the hunting competition!

She had told me, ‘If you handle the artifacts well, not having magic power is nothing, baby!’

It was exactly as she said.

After learning how to handle artifacts from Grandma, I was able to pretend to be a magician even without magic power.

I smiled slyly and looked down at the anklet.

‘Unless they are as skilled as Axel, I can find them with this artifact. It vibrates when there are dangerous people nearby.’

I looked at the maid sisters, feeling the vibration ringing from my round, rice cake-like ankle.

“There’s a bad person here.”

“Yes?”

The silence was brief.

The maid sisters did not dismiss my words as those of a child.

Instead, they clenched their fists and looked around.

“Hmph, the time has finally come for me to show my power.”

“I’ve been waiting for today.”

“All the bad guys must die.”

The maid sisters began to emit murderous intent with the most villainous expressions.

The maid sisters’ murderous gaze scattered below the platform.

It was a ferocious momentum that would destroy anyone, no matter who they were.

With murderous intent added to their already scary faces, the surrounding temperature seemed to have dropped by 2 degrees.

‘……People seem to be disappearing from the guest seats as the sisters look down at the surroundings.’

While the sisters were exuding their ferocious momentum, I activated the earring artifact.

Using an artifact that I had never used before was a bit difficult, so I fumbled a few times. But soon my hand was able to find the appropriate artifact activation location.

‘She told me to press the earring stud firmly.’

When I pressed the stud of the earring with my thumb, my earring beeped.

It meant that it had found the target.

‘If I, who has no magic power, can track their location using artifacts, then they must not be very dangerous spies. Are they small fry?’

I narrowed my eyes and looked beyond the forest.

The maid sisters’ eyes flashed when they saw my gaze heading towards the forest.

“It’s the forest. I’ll bring them back alive.”

“Catch them alive!”

“No.”

‘It’s almost time for them to know where they are.’

It was at that moment.

Something began to sparkle in the distance with a bang!