The Precious Baby of the Bandit Leader Chapter 10

Trusting my instincts, I tensed my arms, furrowed my brow, and exerted all my strength.

 

“Keuuuuuung—!”

 

Toes, calves, knees, legs! Put strength into them! I can stand.

 

I—can—do—it!

 

“Kuh, kuh, ugh….”

 

Nope. I can’t do it. 

 

As I completely collapsed like melting butter, at that very moment—

 

“Ha…” 

 

I heard a sound, like someone letting out a breath they’d been holding. 

 

Huh? I tilted my head up, my eyes wide with confusion.

 

Bam-bam-bam-bam-!

 

Then, as if they had all agreed beforehand, everyone swiftly turned their heads.

 

‘Since when have you been watching?!’

 

I suddenly became embarrassed, and my face flushed bright red.

 

‘But why won’t they make eye contact with me?’

 

It felt a bit strange, but I decided not to worry about it.

 

So I tried once more, gathering strength in my legs and straining to stand up.

 

“Keugh…” 

 

Tak—!

 

The moment I leaned my back…!

 

‘I stood…!’

 

Wobble—!

 

‘I’m falling right now?!’

 

The next moment, my body toppled backward, and just as I was about to land on my bottom—

 

Tak—!

 

The chief’s large hand stopped me just in time.

 

“Phew!” 

 

It was when I exhaled heavily and lifted my head.

 

I noticed that the gazes of the bandits around me had changed from usual.

 

“Heuph.” 

 

Despite his large build, he had red-rimmed eyes like a girl and was sobbing with his fist pressed to his mouth. 

 

Then, suddenly, he sprang to his feet.

 

“Chief! I can’t stand it any longer! How can you just watch the baby struggling like this?!”

 

The muscular bandits stamped their feet and looked at me with excited faces.

 

‘I thought everyone was too busy with the meeting to notice, but could it be that they were watching from the very beginning?’

 

I felt a little embarrassed.

 

Feeling awkward, I brought my hand to my flushed cheek and fidgeted with my lips.

 

“If we’re not allowed to step in, then at least you, Chief, please step in!”

 

“At this rate, I can’t focus on the meeting!”

 

“That’s right. At times like this, you should step in and guide them a bit, okay?”

 

Seeing the bandits widen their eyes and raise their voices again, the chief let out a faint sigh.

 

Swish.

 

The chief stood up, approached me, and bent one knee to sit down, bringing his eyes level with mine.

 

“You standing all by yourself is impressive.”

 

Press.

 

Then the chief took my tiny hand gently in his own.

 

“Here.”

 

In an instant, I was frozen in his grasp.

 

“Bu?!”

 

Startled, I widened my eyes and looked at the chief, who spoke with a subtly playful expression.

 

“Then, let’s try it together this time.”

 

“Bu?!”

 

I widened my eyes and stared at the chief.

 

With him holding my arm, he gently pulled me as if guiding me, and instinctively, my foot stepped forward.

 

Plop.

 

Even though I swayed as if I might fall at any moment, my feet still moved.

 

It was my first step. The very first in my life.

 

I pressed my lips and furrowed my brow, concentrating with all my might.

 

“U-uh, ung….”

 

My legs and feet felt so weak that it seemed they might give out at any moment.

 

Even though I had walked for many years, it felt like I was learning for the very first time.

 

Above all, it was the unfamiliar feeling of someone holding my hand as I tried something new that made me even more nervous.

 

I took another step.

 

And just as I was about to take another step,

 

Slowly, the chief let go of my hand. By some stroke of luck, my foot stepped forward on its own.

 

Plop—!

 

Almost as soon as I took that first step on my own, I lost my balance and toppled over.

 

Swish—!

 

Fortunately, the chief’s arm caught my stomach and held me steady.

 

“Heubyaa…!”

 

The thought that I had almost fallen again made my heart pound.

 

As I lifted my head, feeling a twinge of disappointment—

 

The chief was looking at me, smiling quietly.

 

As if he were genuinely delighted that I had taken even just one step.

 

“Very well done.”

 

“…”

 

“Don’t be afraid of falling. Only then can you move forward.”

 

The chief was probably just trying to show the bandits how to properly handle a child.

 

“Don’t worry. If you fall, I’ll catch you. Understand?”

 

Looking at me with such warm eyes.

 

‘As expected, he really is a strange person.’ 

 

I clenched my fist tightly. For some reason, my stomach felt unsettled.

 

* * *

 

After that restless strategy meeting ended, it was time to move on to the real bandit childcare training.

 

“But Chief, how are you so knowledgeable about parenting?”

 

“You can find this in the book.”

 

“Are you saying this is even in the book?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Like a top student who studied only from textbooks but still became the school’s number one elite.

 

The chief truly displayed the skills of a childcare master.

 

The types of childcare training the chief had prepared were far more varied than I had imagined.

 

“At this temperature, add the rice. Then stir it—like this. Don’t stir too hard. Understand?”

 

“Yes! Understood, Chief!” 

 

He taught them how to make baby food.

 

Jingle, jingle.

 

“Just play with it like this.”

 

He even shook a bell hanging from a tree branch right in front of me. I stared at it, completely mesmerized.

 

That’s the nature of a baby’s instinct. No matter what, anything that makes noise or sparkles naturally captures their attention.

 

“Peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo.”

 

The chief even played peekaboo, covering his face with his hands and then revealing it.

 

It was clear that he had studied childcare from books—the seriousness and precision in his movements left a strong impression.

 

I’m not that age to find fun in games meant for babies.

 

“Heh…”

 

‘Is that a bit funny?’

 

Wait… how can a person make such a weird expression?

 

Has he built up muscles not just in his body but in his face too? He really can pull off bizarre expressions so well.

 

“Pf, hehehe!”

 

“She laughed?!”

 

When I couldn’t hold it back, the bandits all rushed over and started playing peek-a-boo.

 

Just as I was about to lose my mind from the crowd gathering like clouds, the chief parted the bandits and approached me. 

 

“And it’s good to teach people what they don’t know.”

 

He took me in his arms and began walking around the mountain lodge, teaching me things.

 

“This is snow. Touch it. Isn’t it cold?”

 

“That’s a scops owl. Aren’t its feathers beautiful?”

 

“This is a pine cone. It looks like this. Go ahead and touch it.”

 

“This is the sky and the earth. This is a tree, and here is a mountain. That is a star…”

 

I heard him holding me and explaining things gently.

 

It wasn’t particularly a gentle or loving voice

 

Moreover, they were things I obviously couldn’t be unaware of.

 

But watching him introduce this and that, explaining the texture, feel, and uses so earnestly… somehow gave me a strange feeling.

 

And it tickled me.

 

‘Has there ever been someone who earnestly taught me something like this?’

 

I tried to find an answer to the question that suddenly came to mind, but it wasn’t easy.

 

No matter how much I thought, no one came to mind except the boss in front of me.

 

While learning and observing this and that, I think I dozed off in the boss’s arms.

 

* * *

 

When I opened my eyes again,

 

I was lying on the chief’s bed. Right next to him, sleeping! 

 

I turned over and studied his face.

 

“Bya…?”

 

After a day spent handling various matters in the mountain and giving the bandits childcare lessons, he was sound asleep from being overly busy.

 

‘It’s the first time I’ve seen you sleeping.’

 

Honestly, at first, I just thought he looked really scary.

 

Seeing him like this while asleep, though, it somehow doesn’t seem that way anymore.

 

I carefully looked at his face: his black, thick hair and full, well-shaped eyebrows.

 

His long eyelashes and prominent eyes, nose, and mouth. The strong lines and masculine contours of his face and neck.

 

‘Come to think of it, your expression was really funny earlier when you played peekaboo.’

 

He really used his facial muscles so skillfully, didn’t he?

 

I forgot about the situation and chuckled.

 

Thinking of him abandoning the dignity of a stern and serious boss to take on teaching made me laugh again.

 

“Don’t be afraid of falling. Only then can you move forward.”

 

Suddenly, his words came to mind.

 

The image of myself, endlessly falling in my dreams, came to mind like an afterimage.

 

‘If someone had told me this when I was young, maybe things would have been different.’

 

Before I became a detective, I spent quite a long time feeling fear and wandering whenever I tried to challenge something.

 

After being so frustrated that I thought I had lost everything inside me, I decided to live on again.

 

The reason was simple: I wanted revenge on the world that made me this way.

 

After being so frustrated that I thought I had lost everything inside me, I decided to live again.

 

The reason was simple: I wanted revenge on the world that made me this way.

 

But in truth, I felt lonely.

 

Perhaps my heart couldn’t get back up from the point of collapse.

 

I had lived my entire life trying to escape hell.

 

‘If someone… had supported me when I fell and helped me up.’

 

I watched the chief’s face for a moment, then braced my arms and legs and began to crawl.

 

Swish. 

 

I turned to the chief’s side.

 

Just like a puppy approaching its owner, wanting to snuggle close.

 

I dug into the chief’s arms.