I’m the Strong Youngest Daughter Here to Save My Family from Darkness - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15
“Hmm……”
Figuring he had nothing to lose, the old man narrowed his eyes and tried to calmly retrace the past in his mind.
“There was a pitch-black mist clinging to the base of the tree. It was so thick, I couldn’t see a thing inside it.”
“So the mist kept you from getting a good look at the tree?”
“No, it’s not just hard to see. Every time I tried to get closer, I got bounced back. As if I’d run into an invisible wall.”
“Could it be a Barrier, then?”
“Ah, yes. A Barrier! Looks like that mist is serving as one.”
“A Barrier, huh.”
Kyle wore the look of someone turning something over for a long while, then finally spoke.
“Hey, kid.”
“Yep!”
Arienna answered briskly.
Kyle, clearly having guessed at something, lowered his voice and spoke.
“Let’s get ready to do some digging. Follow me. And, old man, can you spare a shovel or two from the village?”
“A shovel……?”
Jeremy tilted his head, looking bewildered.
“Yeah, a shovel. So, what’ll you give us if we fix the Wish Tree?”
“You two? Heh, if you can fix the tree, I’d give you anything you want.”
“You promised. I’m holding you to it.”
Then Kyle added, briefly.
“Oh, and give us two shovels. One’s for me, so an adult-sized one. The other’s for this baby, so a child-sized trowel.”
Kyle held out his hand, firm and steady.
The old man still looked utterly puzzled. Kyle’s hand was far too small to belong to an adult.
* * *
The next morning, right after the villagers had entered the Pocket Dimension.
Kyle handed Arienna a tiny trowel and hoisted an enormous shovel for himself.
“Listen carefully.”
Cowed by the chick’s commanding presence, Arienna nodded with all her might.
“So what are we supposed to do now?”
“I told you yesterday. Digging. If you want to save a tree, you have to check its roots first.”
Arienna’s eyes went round.
“Roots?”
She raised her trowel and pointed at the Wish Tree. Black mist rippled at the base of the trunk.
“You said we couldn’t get close because of that!”
“Yeah. So that’s what we get rid of first. We need to see what’s inside, don’t we?”
Kyle set down his shovel and raised one hand. A blue glow bloomed at his fingertips and stretched toward the black mist.
Crack, crack-crack.
White frost spread across the surface of the mist, and then it froze solid all at once.
Kyle clenched his fist, and the frozen Barrier crumbled to pieces with a crash.
“Whoa!”
Arienna’s mouth fell wide open. Kyle shrugged and grinned, raising his hand.
“I’m Kyle. I’m pretty good at this stuff, you know.”
Ice crumbled away from the tips of his fingers with a crisp crackle.
Yet as he picked the shovel back up, Kyle’s hand trembled slightly.
“Kyle? Are you okay?”
“Me? I’m fine. Thanks to you, I won’t be going on a Rampage anytime soon, so I’ve been feeling pretty good lately.”
Looking at Kyle, Arienna tilted her head to one side.
Because……
[ Kyle might be in danger!]
Just then, that very text had popped up above Kyle’s head with a *ding*!
‘Huh? Does it show up because he’s Tuntuni’s friend?’
Arienna rolled her eyes around. Then she felt the Transparent Glasses settle onto her eyes with a *plop*.
In that instant, through the glasses, Kyle briefly looked like a half-plucked chick……
‘Oh no, the glasses vanished!’
……and then he was human again.
Arienna, now faintly puzzled, made a bewildered face once more.
“Is the chick Kyle in danger?”
“What? Where’s a chick?”
Arienna raised her short, chubby index finger and pointed straight at Kyle.
“Right here.”
Kyle stared at Arienna with a dumbfounded look, then let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“I’m fine, I told you.”
Then he added, briefly,
“Honestly, I’ve been sick all the time, so I don’t really know what being sick feels like. But I’m in pretty good shape right now. Don’t worry, kiddo.”
Arienna carefully took hold of Kyle’s sleeve and clutched it tight.
“But…”
“But what.”
“But, from where I’m standing…”
Kyle gazed straight at Arienna and spoke.
“It’s fine. Didn’t I promise to make you a hero?”
His expression was so resolute that Arienna could only move her lips silently, mouthing nothing.
‘If I get sick again, I’ll just give him a big hug!’
Arienna pressed herself close to Kyle’s side. Kyle carefully scraped away the soil at the base of the tree with his shovel. The roots revealed beneath the earth were rotting black in patches.
“Gasp, the roots…”
“So that’s why the tree is withering.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes as he pushed the shovel in beside the roots.
“What’s this?”
The shovel wouldn’t budge, as if it had snagged on something firmly.
“Huh! W-what is this?”
Arienna stared in alarm as something writhed upward through the soil.
“Gasp… th-that thing is…”
An earthworm!
“It’s a massive earthworm!”
Flesh swelled grotesquely at every segment. Arienna covered her eyes at the sight of the wriggling worm.
At that, Kyle snorted with a grin.
“It’s not an earthworm.”
“…?”
“It’s a monster.”
With those words, Kyle unleashed his Flame Special Ability. The worm burrowing into the roots of the Wish Tree burst into full flame.
‘Tuntuni and Kyle’s plan worked!’
Punishing the wicked monsters that were gnawing at the Wish Tree’s roots.
“I think we got rid of the source, so that’s a relief, but why on earth would the Wish Tree have something like this…”
Kyle muttered with an uneasy look, but Arienna didn’t care. She proudly planted both hands on her hips and shouted.
“I beat it!”
Just then, Kyle rubbed his eyebrow and muttered.
“That line sounds like a flag, you know.”
No sooner had Kyle finished speaking than—
Bang, kwang!
With a tremendous roar, black mist began slowly rising again from the tree’s roots.
The true monster that had been gnawing at the Wish Tree’s roots appeared in midair.
Jet-black antlers, a rotting, decayed face, and eyes glowing a steely blue…
A colossal deer slowly lowered its head and leaned its body toward Arienna.
Kyle quickly raised a hand to dispel the deer, but his hand was tangled with blue light and crimson force.
He had used too much of his power and had come dangerously close to a Rampage.
“Why now of all times!”
Meanwhile, Arienna, frozen with terror, trembled violently and crawled backward on her hands and knees.
‘I’m scared.’
I want to run away.
But.
But…
‘I have to take the Tuntuni Hero’s Oath. Only then can I find Mommy and Daddy.’
So, so…
Even if I’m terribly, terribly scared, I have to push through. That’s why I came back from the Baby Star.
Arienna barely clenched her two tiny, pea-sized fists and looked ahead.
In that instant, the colossal deer lunged straight at Arienna.
Just then.
[Tuntuni, danger detected!]
[ activated!]
Light spread across the transparent lenses of the glasses that were perched firmly on the bridge of Arienna’s nose.
At the same moment, the deer’s grotesque wail vanished in an instant.
Then a gentle breeze swept through with a soft *hwiing*.
Arienna’s eyes snapped open.
The deer looked like an adorable little “thing.” The terrifying creature that had been about to pounce on Arienna was nowhere to be seen.
Behind her, Kyle’s anguished cry rang out.
“Little one, I’m coming, I’m—just wait a little, just a little longer!”
But Arienna shouted back at him instead.
“Trust me and wait a sec!”
“Arienna leapt off the altar and glared straight back at the deer.”
Now Arienna and the deer were on the verge of colliding.
To Kyle’s eyes, it looked as though a five-year-old child was about to be trampled beneath a monster’s hooves.
“N-no…!”
Kyle let out a piercing scream. This had not been part of his plan.
Yet Arienna wore the most serene expression in the world.

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