Today was a very strange day for Eisel.
After finishing lunch as usual, she tried to sneak a cake behind her maid's back, but due to a housecleaning day, she got caught by the maids.
While secretly reading comic books in her hidden spot, a cat barged in and startled her, which made her scream and get caught.
Moreover, she wanted to play ball today for so reason, so she played alone, but when the ball flew over the fence, she went to retrieve it and got tangled in a special magical barrier, losing her way back.
As she wandered through the forest, she encountered a terrifying wolf demon.
She really thought she was going to die.
How many tis can a seven-year-old child feel the emotions of fear and despair from a life-threatening situation?
Her lips turned blue and her whole body trembled. And her heart pounded wildly, but now she could at least calm down a bit.
A masked stranger.
Although she didn't know his na or face, she strangely felt safe being with this person.
".... So, are we going the right way?"
Baek Yu-Seol, who was following behind, asked.
Eisel was confidently leading the way and hurriedly nodded.
"I-I think this is the right way."
"The direction you ntioned earlier is northeast, but this is northwest. The directions are different."
"T-That can't be!"
Eisel appeared confused and rolled her eyes. She was sure they had co this way, so why was the direction different?
"Sigh...."
It couldn't be helped.
In the future, Eisel might be smart and capable of everything, but right now, she was just a seven-year-old.
It might even be a bit scary if she were overly smart at that age.
While Baek Yu-Seol was contemplating how to handle this situation, a ssage was transmitted through the Sentient Spec.
[Analysis complete]
[The forest is equipped with the 'Wanderer's Rule' magic that reduces the sense of direction of living creatures.]
"... What?"
Baek Yu-Seol's eyes widened in disbelief.
Although he had the knowledge from the spec, he had also studied magic to so extent and knew how absurd that statent was.
'Are you saying the entire forest is covered with magic...?'
Wasn't that too crazy?
Then, a sudden thought struck him.
'Wait... Disorientation magic?'
Magic.
'Then it's possible to analyze it, right?'
[It is possible as your sensory abilities vastly exceed the barrier.]
[Analysis complete.]
After a short wait, it seed like the forest split open, revealing a clear path before his eyes.
"Oh... Sothing..."
[Starting route guidance.]
[Go straight for 7.3 km.]
[Then turn right.]
'... Is this a navigation system?'
It felt like his mood was completely ruined. Anyway, finding the way was no longer a problem.
"Hey, follow ."
"Wha...?"
When Baek Yu-Seol, who had been following behind, suddenly took the lead, Eisel hurriedly followed him with a bewildered expression.
"W-Wait! My dad said that outsiders would get lost in this forest."
"You got lost too."
"T-That's because... I forgot the thod my dad taught ...."
Well, at that age, kids tend to half-listen to what their dads say. She probably didn't focus properly and forgot the thod.
"That's really dangerous......."
Despite Eisel's nervousness, Baek Yu-Seol continued walking confidently.
Occasionally, dangerous beasts or demons would appear, and he would defeat them with a single strike, causing Eisel's eyes to widen in amazent.
"Wow..."
It felt gratifying, like a cousin bragging about his ga ID to a younger cousin, but then he realized this power wasn't truly his and felt a pang of self-deprecation.
'... When I return to the present, I won't eat and just focus on training.'
How long had they wandered through the forest?
When Baek Yu-Seol, who was leading, suddenly stopped, Eisel questioned him.
"Is there a problem?"
"Looks like your friends are here."
"Huh?"
Soon, the bushes parted, revealing a group of magical knights in blue uniforms.
Baek Yu-Seol recognized the crest of the Grand Duke Morph Family instantly and smiled.
"... Identify yourself."
A man who appeared to be the highest-ranking knight among them approached, pointing his staff at Baek Yu-Seol.
Baek Yu-Seol lowered the staff and pointed his thumb at Eisel.
"She got lost, so I was escorting her ho."
The knight looked at Eisel as if asking if this was true, and she hastily nodded.
"It's true. He even took care of all the demons!"
"I see. Miss, please co this way."
At the knight's words, Eisel ran over to him. However, just because she vouched for him didn't an the questioning was over.
"Then, I'll ask again. Identify yourself."
"Baek Seolgi."
"... That's a rice cake na."
"That's why I dislike rice cakes."
The knight frowned with the intention to interrogate further, but Eisel pulled on his sleeve, stopping him.
"Don't! He really helped !"
"But, miss. This is... the Morfran Forest, which can only be accessed by the blood relatives of the Grand Duke Morph Family. Outsiders cannot enter through ordinary ans. We need to investigate how he got here..."
"I'll tell my dad!"
"Ugh."
She played the dad card.
The 'I'll tell my dad' from the eldest daughter of the grand duke's family was an SSS-rank technique, sothing a re knight couldn't afford to contend against.
*'I should have known this was such a place when Eisel ntioned it as 'the front yard of her house.' *
An area off-limits to outsiders.
It seed like getting a al here was out of the question.
Still, he had saved the young Eisel from a tragic fate in the past, so he figured he had done his part.
"I took a wrong turn. If you could show the way out, I'll leave quickly."
Baek Yu-Seol thought it was better for both him and the knights if he just disappeared, but...
"Wait. Hold on."
A deep voice resonated through the forest.
Thud! Thud!
The entire group of magic knights imdiately turned around and knelt on one knee to soone.
... No way. Baek Yu-Seol broke into a cold sweat as he looked at the man who had co to the forest.
Eyes as blue as Eisel's, yet he possessed brown hair completely unlike hers.
The very person whom the protagonist of this world always trusted and relied upon.
'Isaac Morph.'
The legendary figure appeared before him at that mont.
"You saved my daughter in the forest?"
His tone was light, but it didn't feel that way to those listening. His voice carried overwhelming mana.
Although history treated him as rely an Class 8 mage, one might think that if he had lived a bit longer, he could have reached the Class 9, given the imnse mana pressure he exuded.
'What a terrifying man...'
His presence was so imposing that Baek Yu-Seol didn't even feel his approach. Or rather, he had felt it long before the man arrived, but he didn't realize it was Isaac Morph's mana.
'If I fight with this man, I'll be in big trouble.'
Isaac glanced at Baek Yu-Seol, then smiled warmly and opened his arms towards his daughter. "My daughter. Got lost in the forest?"
"Daddy!"
Eisel ran to him. This made Baek Yu-Seol increasingly uneasy. His intuition was warning him to leave this place as quickly as possible.
"I'm glad to see the reunion of father and daughter. I'll be going now."
"Hm? Haha, no. You're the benefactor who saved my daughter; I can't just let you go like this. It's just about dinner ti, so please join us for a al."
"... I'm not very hungry."
"Is that so? Then at least join us at the table. If I let you go like this, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."
It was clear he had no intention of letting him leave easily. If he refused now... Isaac would probably force him to stay. It would be better to comply while he was still being polite.
"Alright. I'll join you at the table."
"Great! I'll have them prepare the Habri Mu potato salad loved by our princess!"
"Wow!"
Eisel's childish excitent and Isaac's seemingly ordinary deanor made it hard to believe he was the Grand Duke of Morph.
Why did everything feel so surreal?
And another thing. Why had he traveled back 10 years in ti and t those people specifically?
'The Grand Duke of Morph, 10 years ago...'
Even Baek Yu-Seol, who wasn't interested in the story, knew of the major event.
The dark magic corruption of the Grand Duke of Morph.
And the betrayal.
It seed he was caught in the ti when that incident occurred.
The dining room was quite modest for soone of the grand duke's stature.
While it was more splendid than that of other nobles, it was much smaller than the al he had seen at the Adolveit Royal Family.
After all, a al shared daily between a father and daughter need not always be grand. They usually ate simply in the private study, so today's dinner might be special.
"Yum."
"Our princess, you're getting food all over your mouth again."
"Don't call princess!" Eisel appeared embarrassed by the term, and she glanced at Baek Yu-Seol each ti she heard it.
"You used to like it..." Isaac looked hurt but then smiled again as he wiped the Habri Mu sauce from Eisel's cheek.
If he rembered correctly, this sauce was made from Habri Mu mushrooms, similar to truffle mushrooms on Earth. The aroma was so strong that rely watching them eat was torturous.
But he couldn't remove his mask just for a al.
"You're really not eating?"
"Yes, I have my reasons."
"Hmmm, what reason could there be for rejecting a al? Perhaps you can't remove your mask?"
"Yes. That's correct."
Even a child could sense the obviousness of the situation. He didn't lie.
"Very well, then. I won't force you to take off your mask. I have no intention of threatening my daughter's savior. However, I can't help but be curious about you. Could you perhaps tell what you can?"
They say the Morfran Forest was thoroughly sealed off by a special magic barrier to prevent just anyone from entering. It wasn't because there were great treasures hidden inside, but rather because a terrible beast was slumbering there.
It had been sealed for over a hundred years now, so it had been quiet, and because of that, the vigilance had lessened and no one noticed Eisel entering the forest.
It was an intrusion from within the mansion, not from outside, which made it all the more understandable.
Of course, the guards on duty probably lost their jobs due to Eisel's accident.
"Hmm... Are you talking about ?"
"Yes."
'What should I talk about? I definitely shouldn't ntion that I ca from the future, but saying I'm still a student feels off.'
"I'm just... A wandering adventurer."
The most common, easily disguised, and hardest-to-identify profession.
An adventurer.
In other words, a beggar, an unemployed person, or a holess person.
"An adventurer. A profession filled with romance."
"Thank you."
"I heard from my daughter that you slayed a Sharp Wolf with a single stroke."
"Yes."
"A sword... I've seen many adventurers who use swords, but I've never in my life seen anyone who could hunt a Sharp Wolf with a single swing of sword."
That's a natural thing. It was common sense that a sword couldn't properly cut through the skin of a beast enveloped in mana.
Baek Yu-Seol could only do it thanks to his Mana Accumulation Retardation.
"Even with a good magic sword, at best, you could handle a Danger Level 2, or maybe a Danger Level 3 if you're working together... That's typically what street adventurers can hunt."
"That's right."
"But the beast you hunted was a Danger Level 5, a threatening demon. Even veteran magic warriors need to be extrely cautious when hunting such creatures."
'Ah! I see the intention behind the question.'
"Furthermore... There's sothing strange about you. Typical mages tend to leak a bit of their internal mana. I have a special ability to sense that."
Was there such a thing? There were hardly any records about Isaac Morph even in the Sentient Spec, so he didn't know.
"But I can't sense any mana from you at all. It's as if you are soone disconnected from the world. Even that mysterious aura surrounding you, I can't fathom what it is."
By now, Isaac Morph had put down his fork and knife, clasped his hands, and was staring at Baek Yu-Seol intently.
"Who exactly are you?"
What should he answer here? The only option was to repeat what he said.
"... As I said, I'm an adventurer."
"I see. I understand."
He nodded as if he had sorted out his thoughts, then turned to Eisel with a gentle smile.
"Princess. Are you done with your al?"
"Yes. I want to go to my room."
"Call for the maid, Pescila."
Eisel glanced at Baek Yu-Seol and then left the dining room with the maid Pescila. Even as she was leaving, she kept looking back at him as if sothing was bothering her.
"Now that my daughter has left... I have one straightforward request."
A request from Isaac Morph. Sensing the weight of the atmosphere, he nodded with a serious expression.
"First, I need to tell you this."
After a brief silence, he spoke.
"I won't live much longer."
"... What?"
His sudden statent left him speechless for a mont.
"What do you an...?"
"I hope you understand that I can't explain the reason. However, please know that this request is sincere. I won't be able to protect my daughter for long. If she stays by my side, it might harm her. When that ti cos..."
Duke Isaac Morph looked directly into his eyes.
"Could you protect my daughter even if just for a little while? Until she can stand on her own... No, even if she just stays alive, that would be enough..."
His request was so sudden, absurd, and out of the blue that Baek Yu-Seol could only listen in silence without any response or reaction.
"Do you know why I'm asking such a favor of soone whose identity and face I don't even know?"
Baek Yu-Seol thought for a mont, but he couldn't figure it out.
"... It's because I'm that desperate."
"..."
It seed Isaac Morph knew about his fate. That's why he was preparing like this.
Baek Yu-Seol couldn't bring himself to look into his sorrowful eyes and bowed his head.
"I can understand a person's nature by talking with them. You may be eccentric and free-spirited, but you don't have a bad nature. Rather... You could be called righteous."
Isaac sighed, stood up, and looked at the wall. There hung a family photo taken long ago with his wife, who had departed to the heavens, and his only daughter.
"So, I'm asking you this favor. If you refuse, there's nothing I can do..."
"I'll do it."
"...!"
Baek Yu-Seol had tried his best to avoid getting involved with future connections.
But... falling into this specific ti period where such a significant event happens and eting Eisel and Isaac Morph, was it really just a coincidence? Or was it fate?
He didn't believe in either coincidence or fate. Even so, if he had the courage to refuse in this situation, he would be a heartless person.
"... Thank you. Truly."
Isaac nodded briefly and stared blankly at the frad picture. Then, as if reciting a spell, he muttered sothing in a small voice.
"It can't be helped. It can't be helped. But... Even for the greater good, I can't sacrifice my daughter..."
He wasn't talking to Baek Yu-Seol. But to himself. Isaac Morph was hypnotizing himself.
What could be so terrifying that soone like Isaac Morph would tremble and go to such lengths?
If he didn't know anything, it might have been better, but knowing a bit about him made his heart ache.
There was probably nothing Baek Yu-Seol could do.
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