Suddenly, a woman wearing a veiled hat settled into the seat opposite Aya Tone.
Her voice suggested she was quite young, likely in her early twenties.
Yet, to Aya Tone, her voice sounded incredibly familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.
However, the veiled hat she wore subtly obscured her face, preventing Aya Tone from immediately recognizing her identity.
He then spoke, “I’m here. Is there something you need?”
“Fire Finch sent me to lead the way for you. My name is Li Jia.”
As she spoke, Li Jia slowly lifted her head, revealing her expressionless face.
It was clear she was displeased that Fire Finch had made her take a detour to pick up this man, who happened to share the same name as Aya Tone.
‘Li Jia!!!’
In that instant, Aya Tone’s brain surged with dopamine, desperately attempting to comprehend how such a situation had come to pass.
Yet, the very next moment, he replied with a smile, “Hello, my name is Aya Tone.”
‘Who cares, he decided. For now, he would simply pretend not to know Li Jia; they were merely strangers.’
‘Moreover, there was no doubt Fire Finch was behind this whole charade.’
“Aya Tone—” Li Jia stared meaningfully at the man holding the child before her.
‘The same name, yet a different person.’
‘Then, this child…’
Li Jia’s gaze lowered slightly, settling on Aya Jiu, who was happily biting on a straw.
‘Oh no!’
Aya Tone noticed Li Jia’s gaze lingering on Aya Jiu, and his heart instinctively clenched.
Fortunately, Li Jia merely glanced at her before looking away.
“Mr. Aya, there’s no time to lose. We should head into the village now; the mountain road is still quite a distance.”
“Alright.”
Seeing that Li Jia made no further moves concerning Aya Jiu, Aya Tone breathed a sigh of relief.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Li Jia in over a month, and reflecting on it now, he felt rather apologetic towards her.
‘It was all Fire Finch’s fault for telling him not to go to the guild.’
The phone had been eaten by someone…
“Just keep driving straight along the mountain road, and we’ll arrive in about half an hour.”
“Aren’t you driving?” Aya Tone asked, his hand still extended with the car keys, even as Li Jia had already settled into the back seat.
‘No.’
‘He didn’t know the way, and “Sparrow God Village” wasn’t even searchable on the navigation system.’
‘Otherwise, why would he be waiting here for Fire Finch to come find him?’
“There’s only one road; just drive, you won’t get lost,” Li Jia stated, showing no intention of getting out of the car.
“Fine then…” Adhering to the principle that a good man doesn’t contend with women, Aya Tone quickly tapped a few times on his phone, then put it away and slid into the driver’s seat.
After he started the car, the phone he had set aside vibrated softly.
Aya Tone glanced at it, then ignored it.
However, Li Jia, sharp-eyed from the back seat, noticed it. “Mr. Aya, do you need to reply to a message first? I’m not in a hurry.”
“No need. It’s someone I’ll see shortly, so there’s no reason to reply now.”
Though Aya Tone didn’t explicitly name the person, how could Li Jia not know?
‘Compared to that…’
Li Jia lowered her head, glancing at the message on her own phone.
[10:26 Are you there?]
It was now 10:35.
‘No reply?’
“Sister, why are you always looking at your phone?” Aya Jiu, having settled back into her special car seat, hugged the white egg and curiously looked at Li Jia.
Ever since this sister had gotten into the car, she had been staring at her phone.
“Papa said that people who play on their phones all day are the most empty and lonely.”
‘Although she didn’t understand what “empty and lonely” meant, she knew it must be something bad.’
‘Mhm!’
In Aya Jiu’s little mind, Li Jia had already become synonymous with emptiness and loneliness.
‘Poor big sister.’
“Oh~?”
Li Jia first glanced at Aya Tone, who was focused on driving, then leaned against the child’s car seat with a hint of interest.
“Little cutie, what’s your name?”
Hearing this, Aya Tone, who was driving, felt a sudden tightness in his chest.
But then, he relaxed.
‘He wondered if he was overreacting. Li Jia and Aya Jiu had a good relationship, so why was he guarding against her like a thief?’
‘Even if Li Jia knew his identity, it shouldn’t be a big deal.’
‘At most, it would just be a bit troublesome to explain.’
‘Ever since they met, he had been worrying about this and that. What an idiot he was.’
Having come to this realization, Aya Tone decided to let things unfold naturally.
Aya Jiu’s large eyes blinked. “My name is Aya Jiu, and I’m four years old this year.”
After saying this, she held up the white egg in her hand. “This is Egg-Egg, and this year… um…”
Aya Jiu wrinkled her cute little nose, as her kindergarten teachers hadn’t taught them how to calculate time.
Therefore, Aya Jiu didn’t know how old Egg-Egg was.
“Four years old, huh? Can big sister call you Xiao Jiu?” Li Jia was utterly charmed by the child’s adorable actions.
A radiant smile involuntarily bloomed on her face.
“Wow, big sister, you look so pretty when you smile!”
“Really? Am I as pretty as your mommy?”
“Mommy?” Hearing this unfamiliar word, Aya Jiu tilted her head.
‘Many children at kindergarten had used that word, but what exactly was a mommy?’
‘But there had never been a mommy at home, and Papa hadn’t taught her what a mommy was either.’
“I don’t have a mommy.”
“…”
The smile vanished from Li Jia’s face instantly. After a moment of silence, she murmured, “I’m sorry… big sister shouldn’t have said that…”
Heart-stricken, she reached out and embraced the poor child.
Aya Jiu, whose head was unexpectedly embraced, thought Li Jia was unhappy, so she began to comfort her: “Big sister, why are you saying sorry?
Papa said only children who do something wrong have to say sorry, and big sister didn’t do anything wrong.”
‘…What an understanding child…’
‘Li Jia truly wanted to go back and slap herself twice. Why had she needlessly brought up such a sensitive topic?’
‘She deserved to die!’
“Big sister, don’t be sad. You can hug Egg-Egg.”
Li Jia gazed at the white egg offered to her, pausing in slight bewilderment.
Instantly, her self-reproach deepened.
‘Two slaps weren’t nearly enough; she should atone with her life!’
“Thank you, Xiao Jiu. Big sister isn’t sad, I just really, really like Xiao Jiu.”
Li Jia accepted the white egg Aya Jiu offered her, feeling the pure spirit of a child imbued within it.
‘Hmm?’
However, the moment Li Jia took the white egg, her expression abruptly changed.
‘How could this be possible!’
‘She could actually sense Aya Tone’s magical power emanating from this white egg!’
‘Aya Tone… Aya Jiu…!!’
‘Could it be!?’
Li Jia subtly glanced at Aya Tone, who was driving, seemingly oblivious to the commotion behind him.
“Xiao Jiu, where did you get this egg?”
“Papa gave it to me~” Speaking of Egg-Egg, Aya Jiu happily shared her egg-hatching experience with Li Jia.
Even though many days had passed without any sign of the white egg cracking, it didn’t deter Aya Jiu from recounting her tale to her new big sister, using the limited vocabulary she knew.
“Your Papa, huh~” Li Jia’s lips curved into a smile, as if confirming something.
Aya Tone, who had been driving the entire time, listened to the conversation between the adult and the child behind him, feeling as if tens of thousands of capybaras were screaming wildly in his heart.
‘Daughter, is it really okay for you to sell your dad out like this?’
‘You just answer whatever anyone asks…’
‘Never mind.’
‘Ultimately, it was still Fire Finch’s fault. He was tired. Let everything be destroyed.’
Capybaras?
anything against capys?