Chapter 415: Carrying Hands
They were adorable.
Unfortunately, Qiong Xing’s body was reaching its limit.
Looking down, Rui and Yue were clinging to each of his legs.
Lian was riding piggyback on his back.
He was carrying the still very young Hui in his arms.
Mayo and Mao sat comfortably on his shoulders.
They were heavy.
Very heavy.
Each child alone did not weigh much, and Mayo and Mao had shrunk themselves.
Even so, there were simply too many of them.
As a man, Qiong Xing was capable of walking while carrying children.
However, with all of them attached to him at once, his pace had become noticeably slower, his stamina was draining rapidly, and his knees were beginning to tremble.
"Mama isn’t as strong as your papas. Besides, instead of walking like this, Mama would rather hold everyone’s hands while we walk together."
Mayo and Mao were one thing.
But carrying all four children at once was simply too much.
"..."
After hearing Qiong Xing’s words, the children looked at one another for several moments before quietly climbing down from him.
Since they were already at it, Qiong Xing also asked Leander to carry Hui.
Who could have predicted that simply mentioning it was a little cold would lead to this?
The sudden lightness nearly made Qiong Xing lose his balance for a moment, but the freedom in his arms and legs was a welcome relief.
"Mama, hand."
"Ah..."
The children all held out their hands exactly as he had asked.
Unfortunately, Qiong Xing only had two hands.
As he wondered what to do...
"Lian, want to hold my hand?"
"With Big Brother Cari? Hmm... Okay!"
"Sounds good, sounds good. Lian, hold my hand too?"
"Ehehe. Okay!"
Seeing that Qiong Xing was clearly troubled, Cari and Albe kindly took Lian’s hands.
Qiong Xing thanked the thoughtful pair before taking the twins’ outstretched hands.
"Alright, let’s keep going. Be careful where you step."
They were still deep inside the dungeon, continuing farther and farther inward as though being drawn ahead.
Surrounded by stone walls, it was difficult to sense the passage of time, but a full night had already passed.
This was now their second day inside the dungeon.
They had already completed their request, so there had been no reason not to return.
However, the moment Qiong Xing suggested heading home, the children had protested.
They wanted to keep exploring.
There was no urgent business waiting for them outside, and their bags were still full of food supplies, so Qiong Xing had eventually agreed.
"Then let’s keep going deeper. Maybe we’ll even clear the dungeon."
"...Clear it? Are there riddles to solve or something?"
When Qiong Xing heard the word "clear," the only things that came to mind were solving puzzles or studying.
"..."
"Aren’t you a little too ignorant?"
While Qiong Xing was beginning to wonder if some difficult trial awaited them, his three mates all sighed, and Fenrisúlfr looked at him with exasperation.
There was really no way to argue against that.
Qiong Xing simply apologized honestly.
"Well... that’s just Qiong Xing."
They all accepted it with surprising ease.
For some reason, Qiong Xing found that rather hard to accept.
"So basically, you just have to make it all the way to the very end of each floor. There are apparently some strong monsters scattered around, but if you defeat them all, you’ll get something valuable... or at least, that’s the idea."
Although Joa knew a little about it, he had apparently never seen it himself, so he could not say it with complete certainty.
Still, the mention of something valuable made Qiong Xing’s heart race.
Would it be piles of gold and jewels like in storybooks?
Or perhaps a legendary sword or powerful equipment?
Even though he was long past childhood, he found himself remembering the picture books his mother used to read to him.
"...But I’m not exactly lucky when it comes to things like that. Do you think anything good will actually appear?"
The question suddenly crossed his mind, and Qiong Xing looked at Joa.
Seasonings like soy sauce had certainly been wonderful treasures in Qiong Xing’s eyes, but from an adventurer’s perspective, they were complete disappointments.
The towels and miscellaneous items that looked like promotional giveaways had proven useful too, but as dungeon rewards...
Well.
"..."
Everyone looked away at the same time.
The silence answered his question.
"Fenrir."
"W, well... treasure means different things to different people! If it makes you happy, then... that could be called treasure too... probably."
The obvious attempt to comfort him made Qiong Xing smile wryly.
He wondered if he was the first person ever to leave a Fenrisulfr so flustered.
"Well, it’s true that ordinary treasure doesn’t really interest me very much. I’d rather have something delicious that everyone can enjoy together."
Of course, having money was never a bad thing, and he certainly admired fine swords.
But if Qiong Xing owned one, it would simply go to waste.
He would much rather have something his whole family could happily share.
"Lian too!"
"Yue too!"
"Rui too."
The children all raised their hands enthusiastically in agreement, making Qiong Xing smile.
Mayo and Mao rubbed affectionately against his cheeks as well, apparently expressing their approval.
"That’s right. Today Lingxiao can eat with everyone too... Raon, can you actually see anything like that?"
"What do you mean? If you think I can’t see, you should be the one seeing a doctor."
When Qiong Xing turned around, he found Lingxiao plastered directly across Raon’s face.
He had no idea how that had happened, but judging by the way Lingxiao was trembling, the little one seemed to be frightened by something.
"It looks like a drop of water fell on his head earlier and startled him."
Iseul explained with a wry smile.
Since Iseul was holding Raon’s hand to guide him while Lingxiao blocked his vision, it seemed Lingxiao had stubbornly refused to let go.
"Hey, maybe he’s really not a dragon after all?"
Seeing how timid the little dragon was, Albe began to suspect once again that perhaps Lingxiao had actually been a dog all along.