The Youngest Member Filming a Parenting Show is Adorable - Chapter 239
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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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Part 2, Chapter 46 (239)
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Bone dust crumbled beneath my feet.
With each step producing a sharp cracking sound, I was struggling to make any progress at all.
“This is strange. Why isn’t anyone attacking us?”
Maximilian was beginning to notice the unsettling discord emanating from this Tower of Hell.
In truth, he was merely voicing what everyone else was already thinking.
“It might be reacting to specific conditions. Since everyone is exhausted… shall we set up camp here?”
Cecilia Fasayen was the only one who answered.
The others were far too drained to even muster a response.
Maximilian surveyed the Young Lady whose complexion had turned ashen and the Girl whose lips had gone pale, unable even to weep, and silently swallowed a sigh.
They were managing to hold on, but it was clear their mental fortitude had reached its limit.
Instilling hope that they might escape alive would only work for a day or two.
Such words were useless now.
‘At least we can endure without eating. That’s something to be grateful for.’
Since entering the Tower of Hell, they had forgotten hunger.
Though they habitually thought they should eat something, they had no provisions and felt no pangs of hunger.
Their throats had grown dry occasionally, but it was bearable.
“These bones appear quite sturdy.”
Even so, Cecilia Fasayen found a place to rest without so much as a frown.
She was learning more here in this moment than she had attempted to learn alone throughout all the years before.
“Indeed. The black smoke isn’t leaking out particularly either.”
“Resting here would be best.”
At Cecilia’s declaration, everyone collapsed to the ground one after another.
Yet Maximilian remained standing, vigilant of his surroundings.
His legs ached, certainly, but he had no desire to show weakness or complain.
While the one with the ability to erect barriers constructed a defensive wall, Maximilian reinforced the perimeter using Small Soldiers.
With this, they would immediately detect anything that approached.
“The 1st Floor had a River, the 2nd Floor a mushroom field, the 3rd Floor a bone grave… they certainly live up to their names.”
Cecilia muttered with bitter irony. Maximilian silently agreed.
After all manner of hardship, we finally found the stairs leading up to the 3rd Floor, only to be greeted by a feast of bones the moment the stone door opened.
Whether they were the remains of ancient creatures or something else entirely, impossibly massive bones formed a disorienting forest.
Some had rotted away, others had crumbled, yet some remained intact and gleamed with an eerie blue light—honestly, it was terrifying.
An indescribable stench of decay—whether blood or spinal fluid rotting, who could say—permeated the air, and ghostly flames occasionally flickered into existence, causing everyone to shriek and scramble about.
Barely managing to gather them and push forward, the path to the 4th Floor remained nowhere to be found.
‘I’m supposed to protect these people.’
Can I truly do that?
My confidence erodes in real time.
I had always thought I lived a harsh life, but coming here made it painfully clear how sheltered an existence I had been living all along.
‘Damn it.’
What would you have done?
Would you have found an answer in this situation…?
Maximilian, who had been leaning loosely against bone and washing his face roughly, found himself thinking of Superti.
Among the people I knew, she was the strongest, most confident, and most unyielding.
A woman who knew nothing of retreat, whose momentum never faltered.
It was inevitable that someone with miraculous power came to mind in such dire circumstances. But at the same time, Maximilian felt something else.
That this wouldn’t do.
‘There’s no one here to help me. I have to solve this with my own hands, my own strength alone.’
That girl would probably have taken care of everyone with spirited determination.
She would have infused them with strength, never showing a hint of her own exhaustion.
‘Then let me try to follow her example first.’
Don’t try to run away, don’t try to evade.
If I simply mimic what that girl would have done, wouldn’t something change?
“Everyone, don’t give up.”
Maximilian cleared his throat and straightened his posture.
Leaning against the wall like that would make him look exhausted.
If one of the two leading this group showed weakness, everyone would tremble with anxiety.
“It’s alright. We’ve already reached the third floor, and when we reach the top, there will be a way out.”
It’s alright.
Those words sounded hollow to the ear.
Because it couldn’t possibly be alright.
Some people wore expressions reflecting that, but Maximilian quietly shook his head.
“You will survive. You’ll live to see your families again, hold the hands of people you’ve missed, and share an evening meal with them. Everyone think about what you want to eat right now.”
As I continued speaking slowly, I dimly realized something.
That hope must first be believed in by no one but myself.
That only then would my words carry weight.
“What was the most difficult thing you’ve faced in all your years living? I’m curious—tell me one by one.”
At his transformation, a spark of interest flickered in Cecilia’s eyes.
In truth, Cecilia was going mad inside.
Only internally.
Because the years she’d spent as a commander had seeped into her bones, she never wavered on the surface.
It was fortunate that Maximilian followed along better than expected.
Still, she could feel the morale dropping, but what’s this? Maximilian did something unexpectedly commendable.
“I’m… writing, and my submission was accepted recently. I’d been rejected thirty times, you see.”
Among those who had been silent and observing, someone finally spoke quietly. From there, stories of hardship and tales of survival poured out from here and there, and before long, a vitality had taken hold.
“My dog had puppies not long ago. I’ll definitely go back and see how much they’ve grown.”
“That’s good.”
Maximilian listened to all of it. With genuine attention.
The stench of decay still lingered around them and a foul odor was beginning to seep from people’s bodies, but thanks to the reversed atmosphere, even that became bearable.
Remarkably so, at that.
“Um, well, you see. I’ve been bothered by something since earlier…”
At that moment, the only young child in the group raised his hand.
As the atmosphere lightened somewhat, Maximilian smiled and acknowledged him, as if the boy had seized the opportunity to speak up.
“Go ahead, speak. What’s been bothering you?”
“Well, um… everyone’s only looking at the ground.”
“Only the ground?”
“No one’s looking up above their heads.”
The girl was remarkably sharp and clear.
Her name was Elodia Greenbell, if I recalled correctly.
The memory of her correcting her age—saying she was nine, not ten—brought a faint smile to Maximilian’s lips.
“Um, so what I mean is… that thing up there above your head.”
“Yes.”
“A spine… isn’t it?”
At first, he had listened out of mere politeness, wondering what she was getting at.
But in the next instant.
Maximilian’s head snapped upward toward where the child was pointing.
“A spine…?”
“Yes! I saw it in an encyclopedia. There was a picture of ancient animal bones, and it looked similar!”
As Maximilian turned the child’s words over in his mind, he shuddered.
The path he had searched for endlessly finally seemed to reveal itself.
“A spine!”
When Maximilian cried out, the people’s eyes widened.
Sensing they didn’t understand, he launched into an excited explanation.
“Where there’s a head. We need to go where the head is. Then there’s definitely going to be a door to the next floor!”
In this world, there exists a clear law.
We simply haven’t grasped it yet.
Knowing that a definite law existed—even if it was unfamiliar and defied common sense—brought a sense of relief to his chest.
“We can escape. I’m certain of it.”
Perhaps because of his words, spoken with more conviction than ever before, light began to shine in the people’s faces.
It was only moments later that Maximilian paused, calculating the distance where a head might be based on the spine.
‘The Small Soldiers’ presence has vanished all at once.’
The total number of Small Soldiers he had sent out for reconnaissance was fifteen.
Could they all disappear at once like that?
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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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