The Golden-Handed Baby Fixes Everything! - Chapter 10

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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 10
Blink, blink.
Her tear-wet eyes blinked a couple of times.
“…Melloni good?”
The mumbled question sounded like she was hesitating over something.
‘What is that tiny head always thinking so hard about?’
Conti’s hand ruffled the white hair again.
“Yeah. Such a good Melloni.”
“G-good Melloni….”
The child’s face suddenly turned resolute.
“Put me down, pwease.”
“Put you down?”
“Yeah.”
The child thumped Conti’s arm and, looking at Ricky, spoke.
“Melloni good, so Melloni gonna help Ricky.”
* * *
‘Right, I have to help.’
There’s no one but me who can help big brother.
The Power of Repair I possess.
If I use it, I can fix big brother’s medicine good as new.
I climbed down from Oliver’s arms and headed toward Ricky.
But now that I was about to use my Power, hesitation rose up in me.
‘Is this really the best choice?’
Second life, and the one thing I’d sworn to keep was never using my Power.
If I used my Power, I’d find myself in danger again.
This damned Power would grab my ankle again. But—
‘If I don’t use my Power, big brother’s little sister….’
Caught in a confusion where I could neither move forward nor back, I clenched both fists tight.
“Big brother.”
At my cautious call, big brother’s eyes landed on me, then slid away.
His vacant eyes looked just like a fish that had been pulled onto dry land.
Parched and shriveling, like a fish about to die.
“…Lina. Our Lina.”
“Big brother, your hand’s bleeding.”
Gulp, gulp.
Big brother’s hands, which kept dazedly calling only ‘our Lina,’ were covered in cuts.
Blood was seeping from several spots.
He must have tried to gather the crushed medicine with his bare hands, and the broken glass had scraped and sliced him.
Looking at those hands, the bridge of my nose stung again.
‘Ah, I’m going to cry again.’
But I have to hold it together.
I can’t cry.
I was just rubbing my nose hard with my knuckles when—
“Is that… Epaitos?”
The mutter came from behind me.
The man staring at the crushed medicine clicked his tongue, tsk, and spoke.
“Someone got their hands on something damn hard to find. Even I’d need years to get another one….”
No way.
‘Even an investigator can’t easily get this medicine.’
If it takes years just to get another, that’s a problem.
Before we can even get the medicine—
‘Lina might not be able to hold on.’
What do I do.
What should I do.
I kept fidgeting with the back of my pale hand.
‘Is it right to use my Power right now?’
Maybe there’s another way to help that doesn’t involve my Power.
Let me think. If I think hard enough, something might come to me…!
But in the very next moment.
“Help me….”
His desperate voice made my heart drop like a stone.
Oh.
‘What am I doing right now?’
There’s no time to waste, and yet here I am, agonizing over it.
Hide my Power, or cure big brother’s medicine.
If I have to choose one of the two-
‘Of course I have to help big brother.’
Yes, of course I do.
Big brother means more to me than anyone.
Among all the people I’ve known in my life, he’s one of the precious few.
The one who turned Brambshua into a paradise.
The one who gave me happiness, if only for a little while, in a life that had been nothing but misfortune.
In my past life, whenever I was exhausted and worn down, I used to think of Brambshua.
Jeanne-unni. Ricky-oppa.
Even though their faces had grown hazy, I never forgot the warmth they had shown me.
Every time I wanted to give up on everything, that warmth got me back on my feet.
So.
“Brother.”
At my small call, his blurred gaze turned toward me.
I looked into his tear-soaked eyes and smiled brightly.
“Don’t cry. I’ll help you, okay?”
“…Help? You’ll help me?”
“Mm-hm. Do you trust Melloni?”
“Melloni…”
“Mm-hm. It’s me, Melloni. Just trust me.”
I thumped my chest twice and crouched down.
‘Maybe this is a foolish choice. Maybe I’ll regret it someday.’
But I can’t just turn a blind eye to big brother’s misfortune.
I don’t want to leave big brother alone.
Because no one knows better than I do how agonizing it is to live alone in this world.
‘I hope big brother doesn’t end up living like me.’
I hope he lives healthily and happily for a long time with his family.
I reached toward the scraps of medicine big brother had gathered.
At the same time, a strange pattern began to bloom.
It was the mark of my ‘Power of Repair.’
“W-what is that?”
“Isn’t that a Power?”
Hmph.
‘Figures they’d recognize it.’
I’d been hoping they might not be able to tell.
Well, it’s common knowledge that using a Power produces a unique mark and light.
They say that once you reach a certain level, you can use Powers without any mark or light, but my body was only four years old.
Aside from checking whether I had a Power, I hadn’t used it at all.
‘In the end, I’m using it in front of all these people.’
Sigh.
I let out a sigh, but I didn’t stop channeling my strength.
My Power works on the basis of imagination.
First, I lined up the broken pieces in my mind like a puzzle.
And then.
‘Reassemble!’
Shing-
Within the flickering light, the shattered glass vial and medicine fragments began to stir and creep.
As I kept imagining, the pieces settled into place and slowly reclaimed their original shapes.
Whew.
‘This is harder than I thought.’
After being kidnapped in my previous life, I had used Power countless times as a test subject, but I had never struggled like this.
I suppose a child’s body just can’t fully accept the Power.
But.
‘I have to pull this off, somehow.’
Somehow!
Huff, huff. Ragged breaths tore out of my mouth. My forehead and back had already soaked through with sweat.
I don’t know how much time passed like that.
The dazzling light and the markings began to fade.
At the same time.
“…Look at that.”
“W-wasn’t it smashed to pieces just now? And it’s perfectly fine?!”
Just as they said.
Where the light had faded, the glass bottle and the medicine lay, restored to their flawless state.
As if they’d never been broken at all, looking perfectly whole.
The medicine was even back inside the glass bottle, just as it had been before it shattered.
‘…Thank goodness.’
I really am relieved.
I wiped away the sweat trickling down my face and picked them up.
“Hey, Ricky Oppa.”
You did say to trust only Melloni, didn’t you?
At my goofy grin, Ricky stared at me with a look that said he couldn’t believe it.
“Melloni….”
I pressed the vial into his trembling hand.
“I promise you. Lina’s going to get better.”
Tears spilled from Ricky’s eyes in big, heavy drops.
“Thank you, *hic*. Thank you, Melloni. You’re… you’re my hero.”
“Aw, geez. A grown-up crying like that, huh?”
I patted his shoulder, and he gave a faint smile.
I’m glad.
‘He’s back to being his usual self.’
That alone was reason enough not to regret it.
Of course.
“Well, now. This is getting a little too interesting.”
At the voice behind me, I did feel a flicker of something like regret for just a moment, a very, veeery brief one.
“A new kind of Power, hm?”
Flinch.
“Marshmallow, you’re going to go down in history.”
Flinch.
Oh, come on, don’t go making it sound that grand.
Heh, heh-heh….
I put on my most vacant smile as I turned around.
They say you can’t spit on someone who’s smiling.
Not sure that’s the right saying for this moment, but….
‘It’s not like I’ve done anything wrong.’
I’m still worried about what’ll happen once we step outside, but that’s a problem for later.
So what I need to worry about right now is:
“Th-that’s, that’s the thing….”
Just the fact that I deceived all these people.
That I’d been hiding my Power and pretending to be an ordinary child.
‘Because grown-ups hate liars.’
Back when I lived at the orphanage.
I once broke a withered flowerpot in the hallway.
I was so terrified of getting scolded that I tried to hide it secretly, but….
“Children who lie must be punished.”
“You clever, precocious little liar! Kids like you will only grow up to be con artists! Even God must regret having made a child like you!”
I got caught by the director, who was drunk.
The teachers, having heard the news, came rushing over and vented their anger on me.
I could do nothing but tremble and keep repeating, “I’m sorry,” over and over.
‘In the end, I got beaten badly that day.’
Dinner was taken away, and they even locked me in the punishment room.
At the horrible memory, I clutched the hem of my skirt tightly.
I forced myself to endure as my smile began to fade.
“Melloni, she, she did a good job, yes she did.”

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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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