Episode 004
Just when I thought, “Knowing her, she might actually do that,” Estelle clasped her hands together and held them out to me.
“Luna, Luna. There’s something I want. Please give me some allowance.”
“Something you want? What is it?”
“Well, um… uh…”
Estelle hesitated to answer, then raised her index finger to her lips and winked one eye.
“A girl’s secret!”
“……”
“Aww, come on, Luna. You’re rich now. Give Estelle some allowance. Please?”
“Alright, fine.”
I took three coins from my pocket and placed them into Estelle’s hand. Exactly 300 luce.
“Is that enough?”
“…Hmph? Just this?”
“What do you mean ‘just’? You can buy two pieces of candy with that.”
“Estelle doesn’t want candy! Estelle wants…!”
“Yes? What does Estelle want?”
When I narrowed my eyes and looked at her, Estelle couldn’t answer easily and just pursed her lips.
“Tell me what it is you want. If I decide it’s something appropriate for you to have, I’ll buy it for you. But I won’t give you money.”
“Why not!”
Estelle was the one who gave me the winning lottery numbers, so it was only fair for her to claim her share.
But she was far too young to handle such a large amount of money. At the very least, she needed to be an adult.
“For a five-year-old, that amount is just right for an allowance.”
“But Estelle isn’t an ordinary child!”
“Right, you’re a special child who knows the future, aren’t you? But it’s too late now, so let’s go home. I’ll walk you back to the orphanage.”
“Estelle’s going to live here!”
“If Estelle lives here, Luna will have to live in prison.”
“…Ugh!”
Thankfully, it seemed Estelle didn’t want to see me go to prison, so she quietly held my hand and left the house.
But I had a feeling that today was the only day she’d give up on her plan to become my daughter.
“Just wait and see. One day, I’ll definitely live in Luna’s house too.”
“Yes, I hope that day will come someday.”
Since I was walking Estelle back to the orphanage anyway, I figured I might as well meet the director.
I needed to see with my own eyes what kind of environment this child was growing up in to become so bold.
***
The next day.
“Tch, Luna is such a dummy.”
Grumbling to herself, Estelle, who had eaten just a piece of bread early in the morning, quietly slipped out of the orphanage.
Walking from the orphanage located on the outskirts of the capital’s western district to the bustling city center was a harsh task for a five-year-old child.
But Estelle walked on bravely, lightly tapping her sore legs with her fists.
She had a single purpose.
“If Luna gets a husband, then she can adopt me, right?”
Estelle kept recalling the contents of the dream that had felt so vivid and real.
It made her seriously wonder if she had really died at the age of twenty and come back in time.
“In that dream, Luna didn’t have a husband.”
More precisely, she had married once but divorced. Something about her ex-husband being trash, or whatever.
No matter how desperate her situation was, she couldn’t possibly let such trash get back together with Luna.
There was only one way.
“I’ll choose the man who’ll become my dad myself.”
She had already narrowed down the candidates.
The reason Estelle left the orphanage so early in the morning was to go meet that potential dad.
Though, that wasn’t her only purpose.
Ding-a-ling—
“Welcome to… huh? A little kid?”
Estelle pushed the large door open with effort and stepped into the building. The person who greeted her was a young man wearing a jet-black cloak.
He adjusted his large glasses, which covered half his face, and crouched down to meet Estelle’s gaze.
“Young lady, what brings you here? Did you get lost or something?”
“My name is Estelle. I’m five years old.”
“I see. Miss Estelle, where is your guardian?”
Perhaps thinking that a child couldn’t have come alone, the young man glanced behind her.
It was only natural he’d think that way. This wasn’t a candy store—it was a magic tool shop.
But Estelle, who had made it all the way here on her own, boldly drew his attention back to her with a loud voice.
“I don’t have a guardian. I came alone to buy a magic scroll.”
“You came alone, at five years old, to buy a magic scroll?”
“Yes!”
The young man, taken aback by her loud reply, adjusted his glasses again.
“Um… do you have any money? You might not know this, but magic scrolls are very expensive. Even the cheapest costs a million luce.”
“I know.”
Estelle pouted her lower lip in frustration.
“If only Luna had given me more allowance, I could’ve bought it easily…”
But after throwing a little tantrum, all she managed to get was ten coins.
And she had already spent that money on candy and juice on her way here.
Would Luna give her more allowance if she stopped by her house on the way back to the orphanage?
“Hmm, she might scold me for spending it all in a day…”
There were plenty more things she needed money for, and she was already struggling with just ten coins. How would she manage from now on?
Estelle let out a long sigh.
“To be honest, I don’t have a single cent right now.”
“Oh… I see. Then I’m afraid you can’t buy the scroll.”
“But I have something to trade. Well, it’s more like an exchange of knowledge?”
“Knowledge exchange?”
“Yes.”
Estelle nodded, took off the rabbit backpack she was wearing, hugged it to her chest, and unzipped its head.
She reached deep inside and pulled out a notebook that had been carefully hidden.
“I know the true identity of the real owner of this shop.”
“What?”
“That person has been suffering for five years because they can’t solve a single formula.”
“…How do you know that?”
The man suddenly stood up, staring at Estelle with confused and wary eyes.
“Who are you? What’s your identity?”
The sharp magic radiating from his body prickled Estelle’s skin painfully.
If Estelle had been an ordinary child, she would’ve burst into tears from the sting.
On the other hand, if she had been a 20-year-old adult like in the dream, the man’s reaction wouldn’t have stopped at just this.
With trembling hands, Estelle held out the notebook toward the man.
“This is the hint to solve that formula. If I give you this, will you give me the scroll?”
“You…”
“You’re suspicious of me, right? I get it. But isn’t saving your master more important?”
At that moment, the wariness in the man’s aura turned into hostility.
The magical energy overflowing from him began forming sharp blades in response to that hostility—until.
[Let her in.]
A voice echoed in the air, and the magical blades surrounding Estelle melted away like the first snow.
“Master?”
[What a bold child… I have questions to ask her myself. Bring her to my room.]
“Yes, understood.”
From the moment the master gave the order, this child became the master’s guest.
With that decision, the man withdrew all the hostility and magical pressure he had directed at Estelle and guided her toward the inner part of the store.
“This way, guest.”
Pretending not to notice the suspicious gaze of the man, Estelle followed behind him, letting out a sigh of relief inside.
“Good, I’ve cleared the first step.”
Now came the important part.
To purchase the magic scroll that would be essential to saving “that man,” whose survival would determine the course of future war. And also—
“If everything from the dream really is what will happen in the future…”
The old master of the magic tower would one day become her mentor.
“I’m sorry, Estelle. If only I had broken this curse a little sooner…”
“I’ll save my teacher myself!”
With determined steps, Estelle entered the room.
***
Receiving a proposal from a five-year-old child to be her mom, winning first place in the lottery…
Was it because of these unbelievable shocks that I’d been experiencing lately?
I’d started having restless dreams.
I usually didn’t dream at all.
“If I’m going to dream, I wish it’d be something nice.”
But the protagonist of the dream wasn’t me—it was Estelle.
And in that dream, Estelle was—
“I found him! Thank goodness, I’m not too late. I can save him!”
“Huh… That’s strange, why is all my strength leaving my body…”
“No, I have to save him…”
She didn’t just get hurt—she lost her life.
