The Golden-Handed Baby Fixes Everything! - Chapter 1

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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 1
Prologue
A pitch-black flame flared up.
“S-someone, help!”
“Fire! Everyone, run!”
Mana-fed flames, sprung from nowhere, began to devour everything around them greedily.
People screamed and scrambled away in a panic.
And me.
“Take me with you! Take me tooooo!”
Clutching the iron bars that wouldn’t budge, I was the only one left, wailing pitifully.
‘No, if you locked someone up, you’re supposed to take responsibility until the very end!’
It had been about half a year since I was dragged into this unknown place and locked away.
I was a beggar, an orphan from the start.
I was born inside a prison, so I didn’t even know who my parents were, and I spent my childhood in that very cell.
When the prison closed its doors, I was sent to an orphanage, and that was—
‘Hell, that’s what it was.’
Every day was spent under abuse and violence.
And then, the year I turned eighteen.
I was practically kicked out of the orphanage with nothing but the clothes on my back, and since I couldn’t find any proper work, I had to survive by begging on the streets.
Turning eighteen and becoming a beggar.
‘I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse than this back then.’
As if.
Life was not about to go easy on me.
One day, as I wandered the streets with an empty stomach, as usual.
“Melloni?”
“Who’re you… mmph!”
I was abducted by some unknown thugs and ended up locked in this prison-like place.
What a miserable life.
Ah, I’m so wretched that tears are pouring out.
I swiped at the tears dripping down my face with the back of my hand, roughly.
“…All of this is because of this useless Power.”
Still sniffling, I glared resentfully down at my hand.
I focused on the frayed hem of my dress, and with a strange light shimmering, the fabric became as good as new.
This was the Power I possessed.
The power to repair broken objects.
Commonly known as the ‘Power of Repair.’
It had manifested out of nowhere a few days before I was brought here—
“An orphan with a Power? I never imagined we’d get such a splendid test subject.”
“And it’s not the Power of the three great clans, either. It’s an entirely new kind!”
That was also the reason I’d been brought here.
After locking me up here, they began testing my ability every single day.
“Today, put your strength into this object.”
“To think you can repair something this size.”
“Then, can you fix something that’s completely destroyed?”
Even when the strain made me bleed from the nose or pass out, the next morning they dragged me back to the laboratory all the same.
Having endured that for over half a year, I felt like I was going insane.
‘I’d rather go back to begging on the streets.’
Even as a beggar, at least I was free.
Being locked up here was miserable and suffocating by comparison. It was as if I’d become an animal in a circus.
Still, I clung to the faint hope that I might someday escape this place.
But.
‘And this is how it ends.’
To be burned to death alone, in misery.
Cough, cough.
I was hacking up a cough from the acrid smoke when—
Thud.
In the silent prison, the sound of heavy footsteps reached my ears.
‘A person?!’
I stopped coughing and lifted my head with a jolt.
I didn’t need to look around searching for the owner of that sound.
Pale white face, golden eyes gazing into nothing.
A man with an unsettling air, the sort of handsome that makes you uneasy, was looking down at me.
‘That man…’
I knew that face.
A few days ago, he was the man this mysterious group (I call them the , because the walls had a snake painted on them with pointed fangs) brought in, claiming they wanted to test whether my power worked on humans.
‘…He was in terrible shape.’
His entire body was covered in cuts and scars.
Seeing him looking ready to breathe his last, I poured everything I had into my Power.
But the result was failure.
No matter how hard I strained, nothing changed in his body.
In the end, it was me who collapsed first, blood running from my nose.
It was the first time I’d seen him since then.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t heal you, but thankfully you survived.’
He seems to have recovered quite well, even.
Like this-.
‘Well enough to set a fire.’
Even at a glance, the man before me was clearly the one who’d started this fire.
I could tell right away.
Blue-hot flames were circling around him, swirling in a steady loop.
Gulp.
I swallowed hard.
It was my first time seeing an arsonist, and my heart pounded a little.
But then, in the next instant.
The man who had been staring at me blankly slowly raised his hand to the iron bars. And then.
Kwaang!
“Dwaaai-ssi!”
He tore the iron bars right out of the wall with his bare hands and flung them aside.
The bars went flying with a roar, and the empty wall crashed down with a thunderous clatter.
I clutched my pounding chest and stared at the collapsed wall.
And then I was stunned.
‘…Huh? What’s that?’
Where the wall had caved in, there was, to my surprise, a hidden staircase.
The man pointed toward it with trembling fingertips.
“Go. Run.”
His voice was strange.
It was as if two voices had been layered over each other.
‘Wait-.’
Is he talking to me right now?
“Hurry, run, I said.”
Apparently, he really was talking to me.
When I slowly got to my feet, the man nodded encouragingly.
Questions rose up in me until they reached the very tip of my tongue.
‘…Why?’
Why was he helping me?
Because he pitied me as a fellow test subject?
Because I had healed him?
No, that’s not it. I failed to heal him.
“Um, excuse me…”
I was just about to ask him something.
“Bring back the test subject!”
“Somehow… get through the fire…!”
Voices of people rushing toward us drifted through the wall of flames.
Now they want to bring me back, after they abandoned me like this!
‘…I have to run.’
Whatever it took, getting out of here came first.
I couldn’t let this chance to escape, a lifeline in the desert, slip away.
If they caught me this time, I couldn’t guarantee how long I’d be locked up again.
As I staggered forward and ran out, the flames parted to either side and opened a path for me.
‘It really isn’t ordinary fire.’
Is it fire made by magic?
Then does that man count as a mage?
I ran without stopping, following the path the flames had carved out for me.
I kept my legs moving, climbed the stairs, and pressed my hand against the door handle, which was locked tight.
Huff, hah.
I gulped down the breath I’d been holding and glanced back.
The man was still standing exactly where he’d been, watching me.
Something about his blank face made him seem strangely lonely.
“Hey!”
“…”
“…Thank you!”
At my belated thanks, the corners of the man’s mouth lifted.
“Because I… promised to keep you safe.”
He muttered something, but it was too quiet for me to catch.
“Anyway, if I get the chance, I’ll see you again!”
With that shout, I turned back toward the door.
I had no idea who he was, but one thing was certain.
‘That man must be my luck.’
In a life stuffed with misfortune, luck like this came around only a handful of times.
I threw the door open with all my strength.
The cold night air rushed into my lungs.
Ah, the outside air felt this refreshing!
Tears welled up for no reason.
‘Let’s try living hard again.’
Because I’d learned that even a life I thought would be endlessly unlucky could still hold good fortune.
Once more, I’ll live my life hard…!
“Well, well. I nearly lost an important test subject.”
Thud.
With a hideous voice, something sharp pierced through my chest.
“I never imagined the test subject we brought from the Temple would go berserk. I thought it was a finished piece, but it turns out to be scrap.”
“Guh-hk.”
A low voice echoed dully in my ears.
“Still, I’m glad we salvaged the most important test subject.”
…No.
‘I have to run—’
He told me to run, didn’t he.
This was the luck that had finally come my way.
So I’d decided to treat it as a precious chance and live my life to the fullest, and yet…
“S-save me—”
“Right, let’s go.”
The man, who gave a small laugh, gathered me into his arms.
At the same time.
‘…A ring?’
Moonlight slipped through a gap in the storm clouds, and the ring on the man’s finger glinted.
The ring had a distinctive shape.
A serpent with a sword driven through its head.
Somehow, it felt as though that serpent was glaring at me. Or sneering.
And that was my last memory.
‘I don’t… want to die.’
As my vision blurred little by little, I closed my eyes.
* * *
…Yes, that’s exactly what happened.
‘How am I still alive?’
The moment the sword pierced me still feels crystal clear in my mind.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
“…Sony jaja.”
My hands were small, my feet were small, and everything about me was stubbily short.
And on top of that.
“Barum-du jom iSang-hagu.”
My pronunciation was all lisping and slurring, like a little child’s.
‘Wait a minute. A child?’
A sudden flicker of doubt made me dash over to the mirror nearby.
Then I caught my reflection, and the moment I did—
“…No way.”
I couldn’t hold back my shock.
White hair and violet eyes.
A stubby four-head-tall body with tiny hands and feet.
‘No matter how I look at it, this is my childhood self.’
What on earth is going on?
Ah, could this be a dream?
After being run through with a blade, am I just lost in some dream?
I took a deep breath and gave my squishy cheek a good, hard tug.
“…Ow, that hurts?”
Which means this isn’t a dream.
1. I was kidnapped and died while trying to escape.
2. I thought I was dead for sure, but I’m alive.
3. And I’m a little kid.
There’s not a single connecting piece between these events, is there?
I was standing there dazed, my mind frozen, when—
Creeeak.
With the sound of a door opening, a woman stepped into view.
“What’s wrong, Melloni?”
“…Uh, huh?”
“I thought I heard a scream or something. Did you have a nightmare?”
She came toward me, her eyes full of worry.
‘Huh. Wait a second.’
This face is definitely—
“J-Jeanne, unnie…?”
“Yes, unnie is right here.”
What? It’s really Jeanne-unnie?
Her answer came so naturally that my jaw could only drop.
Jeanne-unnie was the older sister who had lived with me back when I was in the illegal prison ‘Brambshua.’
Which means…
‘No way, did I regress?’
Before I died—and, on top of that, back to my childhood?
“Melloni, what’s wrong? You look pale.”
Huh, hah.
“Y-you know, unnie….”
“Yes, Melloni?”
I reached out with my tiny hand and patted her shoulder lightly.
“Remember this, unnie.”
“Remember what?”
“…The world really is a crazy place.”
The world truly is a wonderland of strange things, unnie.
With those words, I drifted off and lost consciousness.
“Melloni? Melloni! Snap out of it, Melloni!”
Beyond my fading consciousness, I heard Jeanne-unnie’s cries.

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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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