I’m the Strong Youngest Daughter Here to Save My Family from Darkness - Chapter 20

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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 20
So, as I was saying, the two little heroes, Kyle and Arienna, had been captured by a terrifying, muscle-bound man.
And so they found themselves locked away in the dark, damp, musty depths of the orphanage…
Splash!
‘Splash? Why splash?’
Arienna squeezed her eyes shut as a sudden rush of water hit her, then blinked them open again.
“Come on, come on, get into the soapy water, you grimy little rascals!”
Strange.
He’s clearly a scary person (a monster), isn’t he?
So why isn’t ‘Danger Detected’ popping up, and why are we being dunked in soapy water?
Arienna sighed softly, cupping her hair, which had been thoroughly tousled into a mess of soap suds.
Kyle was just as bewildered.
His expression had long since twisted into something sour. Kyle clenched both fists tight.
“Kids! You’ve got to scrub yourselves clean!”
That’s right.
Arienna (currently 5 years old, formerly Tuntuni, Baby No. 1).
Kyle (currently 7 years old).
The two children were each plunged into the old bathtub of Somang Gadeuk Orphanage.
And then they were mercilessly scrubbed clean, that’s what happened, ahh.
They were supposed to be on the journey of a great hero… so why were they being treated like filthy little children!
Arienna rolled her eyes, then coughed, spluttering out a “puh-eh” sound.
Just then, the giant who had been standing outside came scurrying over and wrapped Arienna in a dry towel.
“Ugh, look at all this grime. There, how does that feel? Nice, isn’t it?”
“Nice…? There’s no way it’s nice.”
Kyle, who had been about to agree without thinking, mustered what little willpower he had left and pushed back against the giant.
“Why! It’s incredibly nice!”
“Y-you, get away from me…!”
Kyle tried to resist the giant, but Arienna was different.
Arienna shivered all over and murmured,
“Wow! It feels super, super nice!”
Children are honest.
Arienna broke into a wide grin.
Bubbly, foamy bath, the first of its kind! It was so much fun!

The man introduced himself as Walter, the director of Somang Gadeuk Orphanage.
There was no way Kyle was going to accept that quietly.
“A director? Liar. Isn’t this place unlicensed?”
“Of course it’s unlicensed. Monster Island is under extraterritorial jurisdiction!”
The man was far too confident for his own good.
A towering figure of six foot three, with a rugged face, and a man with some meaningless tattoos scrawled across one forearm.
‘He’s drawn so many pictures on his arm. Doesn’t he have a sketchbook?’
Arienna tilted her head.
Kyle sidled up to her and whispered, making sure the giant wouldn’t hear.
“Plenty of the monsters on Monster Island disguise themselves as humans. And that giant seems stronger than he looks. So let’s wait for an opening and aim for a weak spot.”
Arienna nodded, nod, nod.
Then Kyle added, very seriously,
“If I’m so out of it that I’m playing with bubbles from the shampoo, then that guy must have some seriously incredible power.”
Is that so?
‘But Kyle Chick looked pretty happy earlier.’
And there was no sign of any risk of a Rampage either.
‘Danger Detected’ hadn’t come up, either.
On top of that, Director Walter didn’t seem to have any intention of tormenting Arienna and Kyle for the time being.
The moment the bath was over, he handed them a heaping pile of meat, after all.
“Hmm-hmm~ Now I should go fetch the babies~ I’ll give the feeding dishes a good wash too~”
After laying out a full table of food in front of the two children, the giant vanished.
Arienna and Kyle put their heads together.
“There were traces of monsters all over the orphanage. I’m pretty sure that guy’s a monster, right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“He looks almost exactly like the Snow Mountain Fiend I read about in that book. If he isn’t a monster, it doesn’t make sense. What on earth is this monster’s power? Is he trying to bewilder us? I’m feeling way too good right now.”
Arienna nodded as she scooped soup into her mouth with a children’s spoon.
I’d been living on jerky, so this was incredibly, unbelievably delicious.
“Hehe.”
As Arienna tasted the soup with a blissful look on her face, Kyle gave the back of her hand a pinch, gentle enough not to hurt.
“Snap out of it. Look at you, all dazed! Even someone like you, the strongest of the strong, gets bewitched.”
“Hyeek!”
“Keep your guard up, in case he pulls something. Damn it, the orphanage kids are being held hostage, so we can’t exactly take him down either.”
We couldn’t see any children, but judging by the mountains of food supplies and the play room, there seemed to be other kids here too.
Arienna tried her best to keep her head clear. Kyle was incredibly smart. So Kyle couldn’t possibly be wrong.
Walter the director is definitely a monster!
So why isn’t ‘Danger Detected’ popping up?
‘Did my ability really break?’
Why, why would it break already, oh gods!
‘This is terrible. Why are my glasses just sitting there doing nothing?’
That was when it happened.
The door swung open with a bang, and Walter the director strode in, beaming from ear to ear.
“Let me introduce you to the children of our orphanage! What adorable little rascals they are~”
Arienna and Kyle exchanged glances.
Right, let’s meet the kids and gather some information!
But.
* * *
“Scrub-a-dub! Walter’s Scrub-a-dub is the best!”
Kyle thought it over. Something about this was really strange.
This was Monster Island.
Sure, the island had small settlements here and there, like Wish Village.
But those places were safe from monster intrusions thanks to the Wish Tree, which is what made it possible to build a village there. The other settlements had their own ways of keeping monsters out.
But this place was practically deserted, and wide open to monsters with no defenses at all.
There was no reason for children to be living in a place this dangerous.
And yet there were ten of them.
‘This is so strange. This is a seriously strange place!’
On top of that, the children’s speech was painfully slurred.
They looked about seven years old, yet they seemed unable to speak properly.
Whether or not she sensed Kyle’s unease, Arienna giggled and played with the kids.
“Waaah.”
One boy, who looked like he’d be over ten judging by his build, clumsily patted Arienna’s hair.
“Scrub-a-dub is.”
“Hm?”
“Hair like this, like this.”
“Hu-huh…”
“Tie it.”
The boy tied Arienna’s hair up with a round hair tie.
Arienna giggled, “Hehe.” At that, the other children wiggled their way over to her side, one after another.
Then they handed her a feather pen with its color already applied.
“Ooh, you want to do coloring together?”
“Do it together!”
They also held out their sketchbooks, one by one. Arienna beamed and lifted a colored pen.
“Hehe! I’ll draw a little chick for you~”
Their speech was slurred, but they really did seem like ordinary children.
‘What on earth is this uneasy feeling?’
Of course, this feeling had nothing to do with the little brat being so friendly with everyone other than him.
Could that hulking brute have kidnapped the kids and brainwashed them?!
The situation was suspicious, yet that idiot kid was just sitting there giggling away with the children, carefree as can be.
‘That guy is strong, but his mind is fragile. I’ll have to step in.’
What should I do?
As Kyle pondered for a moment, his eyes suddenly snapped wide open.
‘Wait a second, now that I think about it.’
Thanks to Arienna’s exploits, they had one item in their possession.
‘Right, if I use that item.’
We’d be able to find out what the monster really is.
* * *
Meanwhile, Arienna forgot all her worries and had a wonderful time playing with the children.
Having never played with other kids before, she was bursting with excitement.
In the front yard of the orphanage, she rode the swing and played ball.
‘Unlike Tuntuni’s body, which always ran a fever! I can play ball, I’m so sturdy!’
After playing for a good while, sleep began to creep over her.
Everyone gathered and lay down under soft, warm blankets.
Though Walter’s absurd, utterly jumbled lullaby stirred her from her drowsiness a little.
‘Maybe the Soman Holding Gun isn’t so strange after all!’
Of course, while Arienna played with such enthusiasm, Kyle’s lips stayed pressed tightly shut the whole time.
Just as Arienna was loosening up and about to drift off with a soft snore, that very moment came.
[Danger Detected!]
Arienna’s eyes flew wide open, and she jolted upright.
Around Arienna and Kyle, ten children had crowded in close.
Just a moment ago, I saw them all fall asleep.
The children huddled together in a tight ring, and somehow they felt frightening.
Worse still, the shadows of the children on the wall were slowly warping out of shape.
The outlines of the shadows crumbled, melting down like lumps of wax.
‘What is this?’
Just as Arienna, flustered, began to open and close her lips in a stammer—
A large hand clamped down on Arienna’s shoulder. The slick, jelly-like feel of it sent a shiver racing down her spine.
“Why aren’t you playing?”
“We said we’d play together, didn’t we?”
“Let’s play! Let’s play, let’s play!”
The children’s voices, pleading to play, cracked grotesquely and echoed back over one another.
“W-what?”
Kyle, who had hold of the flustered Arienna, raised a small marble toward the empty air.
It was the marble Jeremy the old man had handed over in Wish Village.
This marble held the power to drive off illusions.
Kyle spoke to the children.
“Snap out of it, all of you. You’re being deceived by that fiend right now.”
Surely at this point the children’s brainwashing had to break.
And then the true face of Director Walter could be exposed.
But…
The children vanished.

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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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