“Push more! More, oooover there!”

Tie kicked her legs, waving them in the air.

Theseos let out a heavy sigh and, holding Tie by the side, pushed her a little deeper into the subspace.

Then Tie flailed her arms and finally grabbed something from inside.

“Got it!”

A heavy bag made of stiff leather appeared from within.

Theseos quickly took it.

“Vice Leader, you’re so strong!”

Amid Tie’s excited cheers, Theseos set both the child and the «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» bag down on the floor.

Tie immediately waddled over, dragging the bag toward Chae Boksu and Jeong Myeongcha.

“Grandma, Auntie, there’s more! Tie is rich now!”

Jeong Myeongcha blinked in confusion.

Chae Boksu also frowned as she watched Tie untie the cord on the bag.

“Tie, you know, got very strong! Crushed lots and lots of magic crystals! And with rewards, even bought a house!”

With her small hands, Tie deftly loosened the knot.

Then she pulled the mouth of the bag wide open and shoved her hand inside.

“And I have looots of this! Do you know what this is?”

A thin, flat piece of gold appeared in the child’s hand.

“Pure gold!”

Chae Boksu’s mouth fell open.

From behind, Theseos, who had been sitting, corrected her:

“Not entirely pure. But the gold content is high, that’s certain.”

“Mm-hmm, lots of gold!”

When Tie placed the gold coin on the floor, it rang out with a clear “clink.”

The child reached into the bag again and pulled out another handful of coins.

A few slipped between her short fingers and rolled across the uneven floor.

Chae Boksu instinctively reached out and caught one that was already rolling under the refrigerator.

“Grandma is the best!”

Tie clapped happily, while Chae Boksu looked back and forth between her and the coin in her hand.

And quietly muttered, as if she couldn’t believe it:

“...Gold? Real gold?”

“Lots of gold!”

“Sister... it looks like it’s true.”

Jeong Myeongcha said nervously.

Chae Boksu blinked in confusion.

Then she turned the coin in the light.

A moment later, she bit the edge lightly—and jerked her hand back.

“...It’s real. Real, damn it!”

Tie quietly began dividing the pile of coins into two.

“Yeah. So this, and this.”

She took out another handful from the bag.

“And this too......”

Two small piles of gold formed on the floor.

“Since Tie has a lot, one for Auntie and one for Grandma, if......”

“That’s enough!”

At that moment, Chae Boksu suddenly shouted.

Tie flinched and opened her eyes wide.

Jeong Myeongcha also stared at her in surprise.

Anger surfaced on Chae Boksu’s face.

“Even if I live like a beggar—so what? You think I’ll take your money? I won’t! I can’t take it!”

“Gra... Grandma......”

Tie’s eyes widened in fear.

Jeong Myeongcha grabbed Chae Boksu’s arm.

“Sister, what are you doing! You’re scaring the child!”

“If you’ve earned that much, then live properly with your father.”

Chae Boksu’s eyelids trembled.

“Why did you come back again. All that happens is we end up seeing things we shouldn’t...!”

The veins bulged on her wrinkled hand.

Suddenly, Chae Boksu grabbed Tie by the shoulders.

“Go! Go back to your own home!”

“Gra... Grandma?”

Tears finally welled up in the child’s eyes.

But Chae Boksu only looked at her more harshly.

“You have everything there! A house, people, money! Everyone acknowledges you there, and your Kim family too!”

“Hic... hic......”

Tie began to sob pitifully.

But Chae Boksu continued:

“Go live there! And don’t you even think about staying here! Do you understand?!”

She pressed her lips together.

“This is all nonsense too!”

And she swept away the gold coins Tie had laid out.

The piles scattered, coins flying across the floor.

“You’re still young, you don’t understand, do you? Who are we to you? Who are we that you’re giving us something like this? We’re strangers! Strangers!”

The child’s crying abruptly stopped.

Tie stared at Chae Boksu in shock.

“We are, huh?”

Her voice caught, and she took a deep breath.

“You live however you want on your own. It’ll even be easier for us—we’ll just wash our hands of it.”

“Sister!”

Jeong Myeongcha covered the child’s ears.

Chae Boksu, her face darkened, stood up abruptly.

And pushed Theseos in the back.

“Go! Take her to the second floor, let her sleep there tonight!”

“......”

“Didn’t you hear me? Go quickly!”

In the end, Theseos stood up.

“Let’s go.”

He carefully lifted the stunned Tie into his arms.

From the corner, Marbas, who had been watching, cautiously crawled out and said:

[What should we do with that bandit? Put him into subspace for now?]

The man from the second floor was still lying unconscious.

Theseos nodded, and Marbas, manipulating mana, pulled him into the subspace.

Then he crawled into Tie’s palm.

[Master. You need to close it......]

At last, focus returned to the child’s eyes.

“......”

With a dim expression, Tie directed her mana, and the gaping opening of the subspace began to close.

[Let’s just close it for now. We’re not planning to kill him or keep him forever, so don’t worry.]

Marbas even tried to reassure Jeong Myeongcha.

“Go! Go!”

Meanwhile, Chae Boksu gathered the coins back up and shoved the bag into Theseos’s hands.

The moment he stepped out the door with Tie in his arms—

the iron door slammed shut behind him with a loud bang.

“......”

A cold wind swept through the night alley where the rain had already stopped.

Watching Tie’s face, Theseos turned left.

Beside 107.

Climbing the narrow old staircase leading to the second floor, they soon arrived at 203.

Even when they reached the door, Tie said nothing.

Theseos set the bag of gold in the corner, laid Tie down on the already spread blanket, and quietly said:

“That was to push you away.”

The child, lips tightly pressed together, raised her large eyes to him.

Without thinking, Theseos stroked her forehead.

“Did you grow fond of them? That’s why you wanted to stay here?”

Tie quietly inhaled.

Some time passed.

Finally, a weak sob slipped out from her clenched lips:

“U... sniff......”

And Tie burst into tears, clinging to Theseos.

“Tie wants to stay here......! I want to always live with Grandma and Auntie, waaah!”

“......”

“But I also want to see Uncle Basto, and Brother Bale, and Grandpa Nordix, and Raul, and Brother Enzo, and Kkamani, and sir, and the uncles, and the chairwoman, waa, sniff!”

“...I understand.”

Theseos fell silent with a strange feeling.

He looked at the child’s tear-streaked face.

‘Some kind of... unpleasant feeling inside.’

Astie had cried in front of him many times before.

But it had never felt this heavy.

His chest tightened so much it was hard to breathe.

A strong urge to stop her crying.

A desire to take on everything she carried......

‘A familiar feeling.’

As if entranced, Theseos held the child tighter.

And suddenly, something became perfectly clear.

At this moment, Astie was holding onto him.

Which meant he had to protect her.

Astie was someone he was obligated to protect.

A sharp pain pierced his head again.

A new flood of memories rushed in all at once, and his expression became even more complicated.

Meanwhile, room 107.

“Sister, seriously, what are you doing! You scared the child!”

Chae Boksu yanked her arm free from Jeong Myeongcha’s grip.

“Didn’t you see her eyes?”

“What?”

“Do you think I don’t know Tie? That look! If she wants something, she’ll get it at any cost!”

Chae Boksu roughly wiped the tears that had already formed in her eyes.

“If this keeps up, she’ll abandon her own home and stay here! Right now, we’d only be tying her down!”