I’m the Strong Youngest Daughter Here to Save My Family from Darkness - Chapter 17

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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 17
“Wow! I got one!”
Arienna pulled a round orb out of the jar.
It was so cold that it felt like ice that refused to melt.
“This is a Guardian Orb. It drives away phantoms.”
Arienna’s eyes went wide.
‘So it chases away phantoms. Whatever those are!’
Kyle murmured as he looked at the Guardian Orb.
“It lets you see the truth of unclean things. Good. We’ll go with this one for now.”
She had no idea exactly what the orb could do, but Kyle seemed pleased, so Arienna beamed from ear to ear.
And above all else…
“Thank you. For letting me keep living here with my grandson.”
Grandpa Jeremy smiled.
Jondo, clinging to his grandfather’s back, saw Jeremy smiling and smiled along.
Those two, being so happy to be together, look truly like a family.
‘I feel so warm and happy inside.’
If I find my family, will I be able to smile as happily as those two?
Like the people of Wish Village, holding hands tight with Mom and Dad, living together.
Hehe…
Just imagining it made happiness spread through a corner of my chest, *chiiing*.
“Look over there, the Spirit has returned!”
“Huh!”
Arienna looked ahead.
The Spirit of the Wish Tree was a girl no bigger than a fingernail, with a tiny sprout sitting atop her head.
The moment Arienna’s eyes met the Spirit’s, which was fluttering above the altar.
Rustle, rustle.
A warm breeze blew.
The breeze was so gentle, as if it were urging her to come over here at once.
Arienna and Kyle headed toward the altar. Kyle gazed at the large tree near the altar and muttered.
“So this is the tree where the Spirit is said to dwell.”
Arienna, knowing nothing, repeated his words back to him.
“So this is the twee where the Spirit is said to dwewwl.”
Kyle clicked his tongue.
How on earth had such a powerful force settled into a fool who could do nothing but parrot other people’s words?
Seriously, how?
Arienna, of course, had no way of knowing what he was thinking, and only kept smiling brightly.
“Now I’m taking the Hero’s Oath!”
* * *
Leaving Kyle behind, Arienna stepped onto the altar alone.
‘Wow, it’s warm~.’
The moment she stood on the altar, a cozy energy like standing in the sunlight slowly rose from the tips of her toes.
As if to welcome Arienna, the leaves rustled gently.
Just then.
Ding!
With a notification chime, words appeared before her eyes.
[Tuntuni, to become the Hero of Monster Island, place your hand on the branch!]
Arienna did as the words instructed and pressed her hand firmly against the branch.
[The Hero’s Oath now begins.]
A brilliant white light began to spread slowly from beneath her feet.
Arienna clenched both fists tight.
‘I… am a Hero!’
Just as she was tensing up, eyes wide open, something gently patted her head.
*Pat-pat-pat.* She could feel someone stroking her hair.
“Mozi?”
Arienna lifted her head, but she couldn’t see anything.
Then a prim little voice came through.
-That was a pat on the head.
Arienna instinctively knew it. The voice was flowing out of the tree.
‘But a pat on the head has nothing to do with an oath!’
In that instant, her body floated up lightly, and the tips of her toes lifted off the altar.
Up they went, a hand’s width at a time, then drifted back down again.
It felt as though someone had scooped Arienna up, lifted her high, and then set her down with great care.
When she finally settled onto the altar, a mark appeared on the back of her hand.
It was shaped like a small leaf.
-And so you’re a proper Hero of Monster Island now.
“Wow! Yes!”
Arienna wriggled with sheer delight.
The tree continued.
-The Oath’s effect lasts exactly one hundred days. Within that time, you must outdo every other challenger and defeat the strongest monster on South Island.
Tuntuni’s fingers? Ten in all.
So a hundred is a whole, whole lot!
‘Of course I can do it within that!’
Arienna shot one hand straight up, announcing it like a schoolchild answering a question.
“So if I just beat the strongest monster, that’s enough? Then I’ll skip all the other monsters!”
At that, the tree let out a rustling laugh.
-Well, here’s a hint: it’s better to meet the other monsters as well.
“Why?”
-Because in the course of facing the other monsters, you’ll gain the strength to stand against the monster of South Island.
“Oh, I see. Then I’ll do it!”
-You’ll also gain a reward you truly need.
The leaves rustled gently, as though eager to help Arienna.
“Mm-hmm. I can do it!”
I came all this way to see Mommy and Daddy again, after all.
Tuntuni can do anything, anything at all!
-Yes, child who protected my village. Let me first grant you a small blessing.
It felt like a kiss pressed to her forehead.
I don’t know what it was, but I felt as if I’d received something.
Before long, light began to flicker and fade slowly before her eyes.
-From the moment you leave Wish Village, remember that you must never let your wish slip out of your mouth.
Arienna pressed her lips tight and nodded vigorously.
-And since you have helped the children of my village…
The Wish Tree whispered as though foretelling something.
-I will bend causality, just a little, so that your family, the ones who follow you, can find your traces.
“Huh?”
-My power is faint, but as far as it reaches, again and again. Again and again.
* * *
After finishing the Hero’s Oath and coming back down.
Another tree beside the altar caught Arienna’s eye.
“Wow! What’s that tree?”
Countless slips of paper hung from every branch of the small tree.
Each time the wind blew, the papers fluttered and flapped.
Kyle, who had been watching Arienna complete the Hero’s Oath, spoke up.
“That’s the Note Tree of Wish Village.”
“Note Tree?”
“It’s a tree where you hang slips of paper with your wishes written on them. Oh, and it has nothing to do with the Hero’s Oath. Just because you hang a note there doesn’t mean your wish comes true, either. There’s no spirit in it.”
“Oh.”
“It’s just superstition, that’s all.”
“But now I’m not supposed to say my wish out loud!”
“Here in Wish Village, it’s fine.”
“Oh, phew, right.”
Kyle asked Arienna, who was squirming about with impatience.
“What, you want to make a wish on it too?”
“Yep!”
Arienna quickly pulled a sheet of paper and a quill out of her worn bag.
And after quite a while.
Arienna held up the paper high.
“Here! Please hang this note up!”
“Sure thing.”
Kyle deftly slipped the paper from Arienna’s hand.
[I don’t remember the ‘mani mani’ thing, but I do remember the ‘hana’ thing, ugh…
Our daddy is so strong!
Tuntuni poked him with her baby finger, just a teeny bit, and
Daddy went “Hnnngh,” and fainted dead away.
Tuntuni only touched Daddy a tiny bit, and he almost kicked the bucket!
Tuntuni is super strong, and Daddy is super weak.
Daddy, you’re the weakest in the whole wide world…
Kyle checked the wish note and shook his head inwardly.
‘Seriously, just how weak is this guy?’
The kid hadn’t even put any strength into it. She just poked him with a finger, and he nearly died.
‘Ah, is the father terminally ill or something?’
Even after being exiled to Monster Island, I’d never once missed the relatives I’d left behind in the Imperial Palace. So until now, Arienna’s wish to find her family hadn’t really resonated with me.
But now I finally understood, more or less. Why this kid was so desperate to find her family.
She’s already searching for her father, and if he’s dying, I suppose desperation makes sense.
‘Still, a father who’s terminally ill, and his kid is this strong. What a shame.’
Kyle resolved that once he returned to the Imperial Palace, he would find some effective medicine for the kid’s father, no matter what.
And so Kyle’s misunderstanding of Arienna only grew deeper and deeper…
“Kyle! Quick, the note!”
Kyle held the note out to Arienna again and shook his head.
“But this isn’t a wish note, you know.”
“Huh! Kyle saw it, Kyle saw it!”
“Wishes you hang on the tree are fine to look at.”
“Hmph. But the Spirit told me to be careful, though.”
Arienna pouted her lips and stuffed the paper back into her bag.
Then she wrote another wish on a small note and tied it firmly onto a branch.
“What? What did you write?”
“Secret! You can’t look this time! Absolutely not!”
“Hmm, fine. …It’s a secret, all right. If anyone asks you from now on, just say it’s a secret.”
“Okay!”
Judging by the contents of the earlier note, I’d guess it’s probably a wish to find her family.
‘I wonder if this tree gets looked after. Won’t these notes all wither, tear, and blow away? I hope the kid’s wish stays put.’
And then…
‘I wonder if anyone will ever actually read them.’

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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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