"Squad leader, forgive me. Milady... kh... I promised to take responsibility and protect..."

"You foolish woman! What were you even thinking?!"

"Al... Alleric... is he dead?"

Father could not answer.

He only held Tie tightly to himself and looked down at the red-haired woman.

With an empty smile, the woman said:

"Enough... it’s fine anyway. Just don’t mind us and leave. The leader has milady..."

"I’ll handle it myself, so be quiet. Close your mouth and breathe slowly."

Father dropped to one knee.

Her vision lowered, and the red-haired woman’s face became clearly visible.

Blue veins on her neck throbbed horribly.

"Ha-ha... honestly, I already think I’ve come far enough. A back-alley boy who used to slit pigs’ throats, running across battlefields together with the leader... that alone is an honor."

Father’s hand holding Tie trembled faintly.

"And not just me... kh. Everyone thought so. And Basto... and Alleric, and Victor, everyone..."

The woman’s gaze paused on Tie for a moment.

"When beautiful milady was born... we killed those black creatures every day, and then looked at your sweet little face..."

Tie even forgot to babble and stared at the woman.

It was impossible to look away from her eyes filled with tenderness.

"I wanted to see milady walk... I thought maybe one day you would call my name too... kh."

The woman inhaled heavily and gave Tie a weak smile.

"Milady. Always stay healthy. Laugh a lot with the leader."

"..."

"And always... always be perfectly happy..."

But Livia’s voice, growing weaker and weaker, at some point faded completely.

Tie, frozen, looked into her eyes.

The light in her pupils went out entirely.

"Uu! Uuu—!"

Tie jerked, and Father pressed her tighter to himself.

He leaned down and removed Livia’s mercenary registration token from her neck.

And then slowly, then faster and faster, he walked in the opposite direction.

"It’s all right, Tie. It’s all right."

Father muttered as if bewitched.

Not so much to Tie as to himself.

"We’ll get out. We’ll get out of here, get out..."

But soon even his voice fell silent.

Tie looked anxiously in the direction of his frozen gaze.

"Krrr—"

With a short, dreadful sound, creatures began appearing from all sides.

Huge, grotesque Magical Beasts surrounded them.

"Ha!"

Tie woke up, soaked in sweat.

It was dark around her, and lights from the square flickered behind the curtains — apparently it was already evening.

"A... strange dream..."

Tears were ready to spill again, but Tie clenched her fist and held them back.

With the back of her hand she wiped sweat from her forehead.

"Milady. Always stay healthy. Laugh a lot with the leader."

The image of the red-haired woman still stood before her eyes.

She had not had such a vivid dream since the nightmare with the tyrannosaurus.

Tie breathed deeply, trying to calm her pounding heart, and suddenly froze.

"And not just me... kh. Everyone thought so. And Basto... and Alleric, and Victor, everyone..."

She suddenly remembered the woman’s other words.

"She said ‘Basto.’"

The woman had clearly spoken the name "Basto."

Goosebumps ran down her back.

"It wasn’t just a dream?"

No matter how she thought about it, there had been too many strange things in the dream.

People called Father the squad leader.

Uncle Basto’s name had been spoken.

There had been Magical Beasts.

"And Tie was a baby."

She blinked and murmured:

"...It was in the past, probably."

She finally understood what exactly she had seen.

"It was before Tie and Father came to the Republic of Korea...!"

Tie jumped to her feet.

And began pacing around the room in circles.

"All right, friends from Quail Class~ Today we will again learn how dreams appear. What did Teacher say yesterday? Our Yevon raised her hand? Go on, tell the friends."

"A dream is when the memories in a child’s head get put onto shelves!"

"Correct~ Our brain organizes memories from the day or from earlier, and that is why we dream."

"Teacher! Chunsu said he dreamed about when he was in his mom’s tummy!"

"Ah! That’s not true!"

"All right, all right! Quiet~"

That day Tie had raised her hand too.

She talked about the subconscious.

Teacher praised her, surprised that she knew such a difficult word.

"Hm, hm! The subconscious is when your head is full of things, even if you yourself don’t know. Sometimes what’s in the subconscious can appear in a dream!"

"Wow! Tie learned a hard word? Good job!"

"Yesss! In Tie’s head in the subconscious there is chocolate. That’s why Tie sees chocolate dreams every day. And if you put candy there? Then you can see candy and chocolate, two dreams at once? Right?"

Teacher had not answered then.

But Tie clearly remembered what she learned that day.

"You can see in a dream something that happened long ago!"

Just like now.

But it was strange.

"Why did everyone call Father the squad leader...?"

The head of the Holy Knight Order is usually called not "squad leader," but "commander," Grandpa Nordix had said. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"And Uncle Basto is strange."

According to Father, Uncle Basto was also supposed to be a holy knight.

He had been Father’s subordinate.

But Basto did not look like a holy knight at all — rather the opposite, he seemed to dislike them.

And now he was even working as a mercenary together with Tie.

"And also..."

Father, whom she had missed at the harbor, wore a gray cloak.

Holy knights usually wear silver armor with lavish decorations.

So Father had looked more like not a holy knight, but...

"No, no. Maybe it was an undercover mission."

Tie remembered the police uncle from the slums who often worked undercover.

He knew that Tie was illegal, but he was the only one who turned a blind eye.

He knew that Tie lived in Gold Apartments, in apartment 106, and sometimes deliberately patrolled nearby.

Not in uniform, so as not to frighten people, but in a simple worn T-shirt.

"Maybe Father too..."

But no matter how she tried to piece it together, everything still turned out confused.

"It was an accident."

That accident Father had spoken about long ago — was it not that terrible scene from the dream?

When all of Father’s comrades died, and Father alone remained with Tie among countless Magical Beasts?

"Father... then he defeated all those creatures?"

And that was why he survived and fled to the Republic of Korea?

But one could not claim that everything seen in a dream was true.

"Ehuuu, what is what...!!"

She slapped her forehead and frowned.

"Tie!"

The door flew open, and someone rushed inside.

It was Basto with a worried face.

"Uncle."

"Are you all right? Does your body hurt? Are you hungry? Bale went to get food."

Basto immediately sat Tie on the bed and began examining her, turning her from side to side.

Nordix, who stood slightly behind, also approached.

And in a serious voice said:

"Tie, we want to ask you something."

Tie nodded, and Grandpa continued.

"You know that we are searching for your Father?"

"Yes. I know you are helping me."

"But to find him, we need to ask a few questions."

"What kind...?"

"Can you tell us your Father’s name? And where you used to live together?"