Tie walked another fifteen minutes and stopped between the mighty trees, lost in thought.

"Trouble!"

She had set out because she needed to go to the Capital.

But no matter how far she walked, the Capital was nowhere in sight.

"Hii, in Jongno-gu you walk just a little and there’s already a huge city..."

It seemed the Capital of this world was much farther than she had thought.

"What should I do......"

Birds chirped overhead.

"If only Tie had wings — whoosh, and I’d fly there."

Wait, wings?

"......"

Her eyes suddenly shone brightly.

Tie carefully turned toward Kkamani.

Kkamani stood about five steps away, arms crossed, leaning his back against a tree.

"Blackfang, you know..."

"I’m not carrying you."

"Ah, I see......"

Tie’s face immediately fell.

She had hoped she could ride on his back, and now she felt disappointed.

Now that she looked closely, the wings of Kkamani — the legendary Puppetmon — did seem a little small.

But Tie did not give up and came up with another way.

"Blackfang, then......"

"I can’t use teleportation either."

"Ah...... really?"

That was quite shocking.

Wasn’t he the legendary Puppetmon?

And hadn’t they come here from the Republic of Korea through Kkamani?

As she stood there with a confused expression, Kkamani added:

"I’ve already stretched my power to its limit. Do you think it was easy dragging you here?"

Tie covered her mouth in surprise.

Now that she looked closely, his face really did seem pale.

"To save your Father, I had to touch the dimension, and then even find a place where you could sleep while..."

Kkamani trailed off and muttered, "......why am I even starting to explain this."

But soon he looked at Tie again as if it did not matter.

"In any case. Right now, I can’t do anything."

Tie pressed her lips together.

She suddenly felt ashamed in front of Kkamani.

Kkamani was her benefactor.

The one who saved her Father, whom they had almost lost forever, and returned Tie to her homeland.

"......I shouldn’t be ungrateful and whine endlessly."

It was already enough that she had been a burden to Father. She did not want to become a burden to Kkamani as well.

Tie hesitantly approached him.

"Blackfang, maybe I can massage your shoulders?"

Kkamani made a strange face.

"What?"

"I learned parent massage in kindergarten! First place in Quail Class!"

"No need."

She stretched out her hands, but Kkamani abruptly stepped back.

And still with an awkward expression, he added:

"There’s no need. Even if I had strength left, I still wouldn’t be able to use high-level magic."

"Huh?"

"High-level magic. Especially spatial movement — those spells leave traces and are easily tracked."

At the word "tracked," Tie’s face went blank.

Whenever the word "tracking" appeared in newspapers or on the news, Father always grew gloomy.

In fact, Tie knew why.

"If magic is tracked, Father will be expelled."

Expulsion meant being thrown out.

She did not know why Father might be expelled, but adults said that if he were expelled, Father and Tie could end up far apart from each other.

Tie shook her head sharply.

No tracking, no expulsion.

Absolutely not.

They had come this far.

She had returned to her homeland where Father was alive.

Tie hurriedly raised her head.

"Blackfang!"

She was about to tell him that he absolutely must not use magic, but—

"Blackfang?"

The place where Kkamani had just been standing was empty.

Tie quickly ran there and saw a black stone among the leaves.

With stunned eyes, she picked it up.

Then she opened her kindergarten backpack, which she had brought just in case.

"Blackfang......"

He had said he spent a lot of strength. It seemed he had fallen asleep.

Puppetmon, when they exhaust their power, return to the Puppet Ball and rest.

"Blackfang, don’t worry."

With a serious face, Tie placed the stone into the inner pocket of her backpack and zipped it up all the way.

Then she carefully checked twice and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} put the backpack on her back.

"Even if it’s hard, I still have to keep going!"

She remembered the advice of Grandma 107.

In life — even if nothing works out, you still have to keep moving forward.

Tie stepped onward very, very energetically.

Completely unaware of what awaited her ahead.

"And it tastes damn awful."

Basto chewed wild carrot and muttered.

He understood this was not the time to be picky about food, but gnawing on the same thing for three days straight was starting to get tiring.

He leaned against the trunk of a tree and quietly looked around.

It had been two hours since he set the traps, but there had been no signal of prey.

"......Damn Magical Beasts."

Once, this forest must have been teeming with rabbits, deer, and other wildlife.

The fact that it had become empty was, above all, the doing of magical creatures.

"Whether mercenaries or the Imperial Holy Knight Order — no matter how many you kill......"

Suppress one Magic Stone — another appears.

Suppress that one — a new one emerges. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The creatures that should have been wiped out completely kept crawling out endlessly.

"Tch."

Basto spat out the carrot and stood up.

When he stretched his stiff body, his joints cracked one after another.

He ran a hand over his overgrown beard and with his rough palm pulled a map from beneath his armor.

[Brioud]

He was in a medium-sized forest, five days south of the Capital.

The forest spread wide, as if embracing the Capital from afar, and three red dots were marked clearly on it.

Basto took out a piece of charcoal and crossed out one of them.

Last night he had suppressed a small Magic Stone there.

"Yesterday I really almost died."

Recalling yesterday’s brawl, he crookedly smiled.

Even a small Magic Stone was still a Magic Stone. When a flying Magical Beast suddenly appeared, he had been caught off guard.

Sometimes he felt sick of this work, where he had to stake his own life.

But......

"......Enough."

Basto shook off the thoughts and secured his armor again.

No matter what, only one thing mattered — he had survived again.

Wandering alone as a traveling mercenary.

Killing Magical Beasts like a butcher and drenching himself in their blood.

Someday, when his breath stops, all of this will end with him.

"I’ll dismantle the traps and gradually head back to the Capital."

He was just about to put away the map and step forward.

Then—

Ting—

A quiet but familiar sound pierced his hearing.

The sound of a slackened taut rope meant prey had been caught in the trap.

Basto grabbed his weapon — a warhammer — leaning against the tree and ran toward the trap.

"I thought there were no forest animals left here."

A rabbit?

Or a rat, a marten?

A boar or a deer would be best, but honestly, even a rat would do.

Not exactly tasty, and the bones were troublesome to separate, but rat meat was more edible than it seemed.

But at that moment—

"......hic."

His hearing caught another sound.

It definitely came from the direction of the trap.

Basto slowed slightly.

"Sounds like a human......"

"Hic!"

Basto frowned.

He was right.

From the direction of the trap came hiccups.

He quieted his breathing, crouched, and swiftly slipped between the trees.

If a person had ended up in a forest where there were as many as three Magic Stones, it was most likely a mercenary or a knight.

But he could not lower his guard.

If it were truly a person in the trap, they would be shouting or asking for help.

Or they would have already cut through the net with their weapon and escaped.

But without shouting, without asking.

Only hiccups.

He had never seen that before.

Finally reaching the trap, Basto quietly parted the bushes and looked.

The net he had woven hung from a high branch.

He wanted to check what was inside.

And froze.

"......hic."

Inside the net.

Bright green eyes met his.

Someone trembled in the net and looked at him.

A small child.

Terrified to death.