Black-Haired Dad Isn’t Something You Reap - Chapter 198

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 198. F.O.E Stands for Fxxking Overpowered Enemy (6)
“Nanakda! Croa! Get out here! Nanakda! Meoweong meoheoreong!”
I called out with mangled pronunciation, my voice half-sobbing, and Nanakda burst from the bathroom with wet hair while Croa came running with a kitchen knife in hand. When I explained what had just happened, Croa let out an “Ouch!” and swung the knife at Nanakda.
“You lunatic! Are you trying to kill me?!”
“My apologies. I thought you might be a ghost.”
Nanakda and Croa started grappling by the hair, wrestling with each other. Well, seeing them fight so comically confirmed that neither of them were ghosts.
“You said monsters can’t enter if we lock the doors at night, right? What time is it now?”
“Hmm, it’s just past 8 PM.”
“Does it count as night once the sun sets?”
From now on, I should check the clock regularly and retreat to the room by sunset. We double-checked the locks and ate the dinner Croa had prepared. It was jerky soup with stir-fried jerky strips. Simple, but delicious.
“Why is this so tough? I can’t swallow it no matter how much I chew.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t eat it.”
“Who said I wasn’t going to eat it?!”
So Nanakda had learned to appreciate food. He was about to hit me for saying I wouldn’t eat it. It’s strange to say, but after being cast out from the Empire, the boy has truly become human.
I recalled Little One crying while eating potatoes, and I smiled warmly and nodded. Both Croa and Nanakda became displeased with me for different reasons.
“What, don’t act like you’re the only adult here. It’s annoying.”
“Pisha, please don’t form some shared understanding that only I’m unaware of. It’s frustrating.”
You two are just the worst, you rotten creatures. I brushed my teeth diligently as the Head Attendant Grandmother had advised, and spread out my bedding to sleep early. Just as I was about to slip under the covers, Kisomalos said something unnecessary.
“Hey, but doesn’t something like this always happen—monsters crawling out from under the bed while you’re sleeping?”
“Ugh, why would you say something so unsettling!”
I jolted awake and peered under the bed. It was empty, but the shadows where the light didn’t reach were unsettling and gave me chills.
“I’ll turn off the light.”
“Wait!”
“Hey, hold on! Didn’t you hear what I said about monsters under the bed?!”
That Croa is unnecessarily loud. How could he turn off the light after saying something like that? I was grateful that Nanakda was just as much of a coward as I was.
“Look, Croa. At this rate, we won’t be able to sleep.”
“What if we just eliminate the space under the bed entirely? We could push it to one side and lower the mattress to the floor.”
“Perfect! Nanakda, you’re brilliant!”
After laying the mattress on the floor, I pushed Nanakda and Croa aside and shoved the bed into the corner with all my might.
Excellent! If we all sleep on the floor, we won’t have to worry about monsters crawling out from under the bed!
“Croa, since you’re so brave, you can sleep over there by the pushed-aside bed!”
“Right! You’re not afraid of anything anyway!”
“Sigh….”
Croa looked at us as if we were inferior creatures, but I didn’t care. It was far better than tossing and turning and accidentally making eye contact with a monster under the bed.
“Then Pisha and Kisomalos can lie beside me, and Nanakda, you go sleep by the door over there.”
“What are you talking about? I’m sleeping next to people too.”
“You can sleep at my feet.”
“Princess Vishnabel, I’m scared! Let’s hold hands while we sleep!”
“Stop playing around!”
“Be quiet! I’m genuinely terrified!”
Let’s just lie down side by side and sleep. There wasn’t a shred of deception in Nanakda’s fear. I calmed Croa down and stretched out to rest. Nanakda absolutely refused to lie next to me, so we ended up with Kisomalos in the middle and Nanakda holding my hand, but eventually everyone fell asleep in a configuration that satisfied us all.
Thud. Boom.
About thirty minutes after closing my eyes, I heard banging and things falling from various places. It sounded like the poltergeist phenomena I’d only heard about, so Nanakda and I made miserable faces and shook Croa awake.
Whether she’d been deeply asleep or not, Croa rubbed her eyes and sat up, pulling a small hammer from her embrace.
“Let people sleep! Humans are supposed to rest at night, aren’t they!”
Croa climbed onto the bed and hammered the ceiling with all her might. As she shouted with genuine irritation, the banging sounds gradually lessened and eventually ceased entirely. Croa, who’d exorcised the ghost using what amounted to an inter-floor noise complaint method, climbed back under the blankets.
“We need to wake up early tomorrow morning, so please get some rest.”
She was dependable. Before entering the Labyrinth, I never could have imagined it, but I didn’t realize Croa would become someone so indispensable. Croa was the best. Even Choco couldn’t have beaten a ghost like that. With Croa, it seemed possible.
“Hey, I think becoming family with her would be pretty nice.”
“You’ll get beaten to death by Croa doing that.”
“If we get married and adopt her, wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“She doesn’t even need to curse you—you’re no match for her.”
He’d never been hit before, so he didn’t know how scary Croa was. She could grind paving stones to dust with her inline skates. I warned Nanakda not to be cheeky and lay back down. In all this chaos, Kisomalos slept soundly. That kind of thick-skinned composure was something I should probably inherit as his descendant.
I envied the golden sheep, squeezed my eyes shut, and about thirty seconds later, I was snoring away with a deep rumble.
When I woke up, I could see Croa preparing breakfast while throwing open the curtains, and Nanakda with dark circles under his eyes.
“Ugh, I don’t think I slept a wink and my mood is ruined!”
“Hey! You’re a Princess and you snore like that!”
“There’s no law saying Princesses can’t snore.”
“Please preserve my innocence!”
“You’re all grown up.”
With a visage nearly thirty years old, what innocence was there to preserve? As I grumbled, Nanakda did what he always did—grabbed my cheeks and pulled them. I was used to it by now. I whined and twisted his nose in retaliation, then greeted the beautiful weather.
“At least it’s not humid and stuffy, which is nice!”
The weather was pleasant and the blankets were fluffy and fresh. Even the towels were soft and fluffy, making me feel refreshed.
We had breakfast, packed our things, and continued exploring the Labyrinth. Following Kisomalos’s guidance as we headed deeper, the weather outside gradually grew gloomy, and rain began to fall in drops.
“Ugh, how depressing, my mood is terrible, it’s stuffy, my body feels heavy.”
“To be honest, from the moment you said the weather was nice this morning, I anticipated this would happen.”
“It’s like when a shop owner says business is slow and then customers suddenly flood in.”
You were an Emperor’s Son—what kind of analogy is that? When I pressed Nanakda for clarification, he told me stories from when the temple was still just a small neighborhood shop and he was out doing missionary work. This guy had gone through quite a lot too, apparently.
“Huh?”
While I was shuddering at the dampness seeping into my hair, I noticed the carpet ahead of us was slightly pressed down. But there was nothing there—why was it indented?
“Could this also be some kind of eerie phenomenon or ghost like yesterday?”
“If it’s a ghost, it’s strange that it has a physical form, isn’t it?”
Looking closer, the indentation looked exactly like a human footprint, and it continued moving. When I touched it, I felt something like a human leg against my hand.
“Is it an invisible person?”
“Hey! Can you hear us talking?”
Since the Mortal Realm uses only one common language, communication should work unless we’re in an area with extremely thick dialects. But there was no response at all. We didn’t pay much attention and just kept moving in whatever direction they were heading.
“Oh, there are more footprints now.”
“It looks like there are two of them over there.”
“Should we follow them?”
Our only guide was Kisomalos anyway, so as long as he agreed, we could follow them.
“As long as we’re heading in the same direction, traveling together should be fine, don’t you think?”
Very well, let’s proceed that way. We decided to follow their footprints, and remarkably, no strange phenomena occurred while we trailed them. We did notice traces of things being destroyed or shattered—but what was this? It was as if someone had deliberately cleared obstacles from our path beforehand.
“Hm.”
After days of following nothing but footprints, they suddenly scattered in frantic directions before settling again. Then, on the wall, bold handwriting appeared—written in what looked like pen.
Are there people who entered the Labyrinth besides us?
Yes, yes, there are! These people must be that Labyrinth Designer who entered a year ago, right? We shouted enthusiastically to signal our presence, but our voices never reached them. Nanakda, Croa, and I huddled together to think, then I carved our names into the wall with my dagger.
No response came immediately, but days later when we returned to that wall, black pen marks had appeared with new writing.
There exists a space that shouldn’t exist according to the Labyrinth’s design.
It seems there’s roughly a two-day time gap between them and us.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————