Ch.395[Episode 395] Little Ones

“What’s going on..?”

“!”

Alice approached Demon Lord Teu Le Vante and Hero Po Ru Jak and asked what the problem was.

Fortunately, Alice was one of the few people who could understand the high-dimensional language of Demon Lord Teu Le Vante and Hero Po Ru Jak.

“!”

“So, you drew a map for your errand, but suddenly your two maps are pointing in different directions?”

“!”

“Then you should just check what stores are nearby.”

“…!”

Demon Lord Teu Le Vante couldn’t help but admire Alice’s wisdom.

The same was true for Hero Po Ru Jak, who immediately acknowledged Alice’s intelligence and showed her the map he was holding.

Considering that maps are treated as top-secret for military purposes, Po Ru Jak’s action was essentially a declaration of complete trust in Alice.

…Or perhaps he just showed her the map without such deep thoughts.

Alice looked at the map Po Ru Jak handed over for a moment.

After briefly looking around, she pointed to a store.

“Seeing that there’s a claw machine store over there, we should go this way.”

Alice pointed to a path using that store as a reference point.

According to the map, it was the path going to the right.

“!”

“…?”

Po Ru Jak looked at Teu Le Vante with a triumphant expression, as if to say “I told you so.”

His soft cheeks pushed upward, clearly showing he was smiling proudly.

In contrast, Demon Lord Teu Le Vante tilted her head and kept staring at the map she was holding.

“…!”

Her eyes widened as she realized she had been holding the map upside down.

Demon Lord Teu Le Vante, seemingly hurt in her pride by this situation, suddenly began to tear up.

“Uh, uhh? Don’t cry. They say if you cry, hair will grow on your bottom!”

“!”

Alice panicked and tried to stop Teu Le Vante from crying, but it was no use.

The sound of Demon Lord Teu Le Vante’s crying echoed through the street, and people turned their heads to see what was happening.

Alice tried her best to calm Teu Le Vante down, while Hero Po Ru Jak just stood there confused, not knowing what to do.

Fortunately for Alice, a savior descended from the heavens for her.

“Alice? Why on earth is Alice here?”

“Master! …?”

Alice immediately turned her head at the sound of Sir Dominic’s voice from behind her.

Surely her experienced master would be able to handle this situation well.

The flustered Alice looked at Sir Dominic with that thought in mind.

However, Alice couldn’t help but be twice as confused.

Because what Alice saw was a round, chubby Sir Dominic.

“Master…?”

“What on earth is going on?”

Sir Dominic asked Alice about the current situation, but Alice was too shocked to answer him.

Of course, the shock Alice was about to receive wasn’t limited to this.

“Baa?”

Alice turned her head toward Sir Dominic’s sleeve at the sudden baby sound.

There, for some reason, was a small child who looked similar to Sir Dominic.

A suddenly crying Demon Lord. A round, chubby Sir Dominic. And a baby resembling Sir Dominic.

Alice, still a minor, couldn’t possibly understand this situation…

“A-Alice?”

“…!”

Her brain overloaded, and she collapsed.

…

“So, it seems this child is presumed to be Sir Dominic’s child from the future?”

“That’s right.”

Alice’s fainting spell wasn’t very long.

Alice was an apprentice training under Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica with the goal of becoming a knight.

In other words, she had trained to have some resistance to such abnormal states.

Alice rested her chin on her hand and looked at the small child as she listened to Sir Dominic.

This little child, whose name was still unknown, was surrounded by Demon Lord Teu Le Vante and Hero Po Ru Jak, who seemed fascinated by this tiny life form and were touching its still soft baby fat.

Even though their own cheeks were just as soft as the child’s, the softness of their two-head-tall forms and the softness of an ordinary child felt somewhat different.

“Baa…”

“!”

Eventually, the child, unable to bear it anymore, whimpered and approached Sir Dominic, hiding behind his legs.

However, the child only whimpered without bursting into tears, and Sir Dominic somehow thought that the child resembled someone.

Though he wasn’t sure who.

When Sir Dominic’s expression hardened as he looked at the child, Demon Lord Teu Le Vante and Hero Po Ru Jak, thinking Sir Dominic was angry, began flapping their hands and feet and making what seemed like excuses.

“!”

“…!”

“They say they weren’t trying to make the child cry. They just did it because the child was so soft and cute…”

“Ah.”

Sir Dominic realized he had caused a misunderstanding by being lost in thought.

“That’s not it. I just have a lot to think about…”

“?”

“They’re asking what you have so much to think about.”

Alice continued to translate the words of the Demon Lord and Hero for Sir Dominic.

“I’m just anxious because I don’t know this child’s name or personal relationships.”

When Sir Dominic spoke to the Demon Lord and Hero, Teu Le Vante and Po Ru Jak looked at each other and then looked at Sir Dominic with proud expressions.

“!”

“!”

“They say you can find all that out if you go to the Executive branch. They say you can look it all up there…”

Sir Dominic looked at the Demon Lord and Hero, who seemed suspiciously knowledgeable about Gachaland’s administrative procedures.

Come to think of it, since the child had appeared in Gachaland, they would be affected by the Gachaland system.

If that was the case, their personal information would naturally be recorded in the Executive branch.

If even Sir Dominica from a parallel world had personal information, why wouldn’t someone from the future?

Having reached that conclusion, Sir Dominic immediately spun around.

“…? Where are you going?”

“I’m thinking of going to the Executive branch. I need to find out the child’s name right away. And their relationship too.”

When Alice tilted her head and asked about Sir Dominic’s actions, Sir Dominic said he was going to the Executive branch immediately.

Then Alice spoke to Sir Dominic again, as if something was strange.

“The Executive branch is closed for two days starting today. No one will be there if you go.”

“…?”

“Today is the weekend, and tomorrow is a substitute holiday.”

Sir Dominic heard the term “substitute holiday” for the first time while in Gachaland.

“Substitute holiday?”

“Yes. When an existing public holiday overlaps with a weekend, people who work get one less day off, so they get a day to make up for it.”

Alice recited the knowledge fluently, as if she already knew it.

Of course, this was possible because she had just learned about substitute holidays at school yesterday.

Thank you, teacher!

With that thought, Alice looked at Sir Dominic and continued speaking.

“Anyway, even if you go now, there won’t be anyone at the Executive branch. They’ll all have gone to rest.”

“Hmm…”

Sir Dominic suddenly thought of the coders at System Industries.

Or more precisely, he looked at a hollow-eyed coder passing behind Alice, Teu Le Vante, and Po Ru Jak.

The coder muttered quietly, “If it’s a day off, they should let us rest, why create another bug…” and disappeared into an alley.

It seemed that coders didn’t have substitute holidays.

“Then what should I do…”

Sir Dominic frowned at the news that the Executive branch was closed.

At the very least, he needed to know the child’s name.

He couldn’t just call the child “you,” “hey,” or “look here.”

Sir Dominic was troubled about how to handle this situation.

Fortunately, the worry didn’t last long.

The trio who were well-versed in Gachaland—Alice, Teu Le Vante, and Po Ru Jak—put their heads together and came up with a good solution.

“!”

“Th-they say there’s a way to check online.”

“…?”

“But they say there’s a fee…”

“!”

“And they say you can only check personal information related to yourself…”

Sir Dominic listened to Alice, Teu Le Vante, and Po Ru Jak and immediately turned on his mobile phone.

He searched for “how to check personal relationships” and clicked on the first search result.

And according to that result, he opened the app store—

That’s when it happened.

Sir Dominic suddenly felt a tug on the hem of his clothes.

When Sir Dominic turned his head, there was a little lady with bright eyes looking alternately at the claw machine and Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic glanced at the claw machine and then began to ask Alice for a favor.

“While I check this, would you play with the claw machine with this child?”

Sir Dominic took out an enormous amount of Credit and Gacha Stone from his inventory and handed them to Alice.

“I will, Master.”

Alice gulped as she looked at the enormous amount of money Sir Dominic had given her.

With this much, she could buy about one hundred and eighty of her favorite chocolate snacks.

Alice, Teu Le Vante, Po Ru Jak, and the little lady stuck to the claw machine and began inserting Credits.

At the same time, Sir Dominic opened the app store, searched for the Executive branch app, and began downloading it.

And only after installing a complex array of X activator programs and security programs was he able to check the information about the little lady.

Fortunately, since the lady was indeed related to Sir Dominic by blood, he could immediately check the certificate of personal relationship.

“…”

Sir Dominic carefully examined the certificate of personal relationship.

Very carefully, about the lady’s name and relationship.