TPOK 06

Chapter 06

“When the Big King locks himself in his room, he doesn’t come out. He also hates other people entering his room…”

“The Big King’s room…”

I jumped up from my seat.

“Oh, you’re leaving already? You still have time before snack time, you know.”

“I’m sorry. I promised Uncle Thunder King that I’d have a lesson today, but I forgot.”

I hurried back to my room, grabbed some colored wax and paper, and then headed not toward the Thunder Palace, but toward a towering, enormous tower that rose high into the sky.

This might be my chance to find records about my real father.

The Big King’s room was easy to find.

A few days ago, the Clown King had taught me where it was, and besides, the tower was so incredibly tall that it would probably be visible from a hundred miles away.

The massive door was locked from the inside.

But…

“I won’t be stopped by something like this.”

Even back at my old home, whenever I was locked inside the storage room, I could pick the lock with nothing but a hairpin. I was so good at it that eventually they had to lock me inside a tiny toy box where I couldn’t even move my arms.

“There.”

It took some time, but eventually the latch fell to the floor.

The huge door had such a wide gap between it and the floor that, for someone as small as me, it was enough to slip in even my pinky finger.

“Wow.”

The Big King’s room was filled with countless books.

The smell of books filling the room.

Today was the first time I realized that the scent of paper could be this intense.

“How am I supposed to find anything here?”

Despite being extremely tall, the library didn’t have a single ladder.

It was as if it was saying, “Why waste space on a ladder when you could fit one more book?”

The books were clearly arranged according to some kind of rule, but to me—someone who didn’t know that rule—they were nothing more than a maze.

“Ah, seriously… damn it, damn it, damn it…”

From the center of the maze came a low voice.

“This one too. And this one…”

I carefully rose onto my tiptoes and approached the source of the sound.

The floor of the tower was smooth and completely free of moisture, so it wasn’t difficult to silence my footsteps.

I peeked my head out from behind one of the bookshelves, and there he was—the enormous man I had seen a few days ago—flipping through books and looking irritated.

“This one too…”

It was the Big King.

He looked even larger than when I saw him last time.

Though perhaps that was because of his hair.

When I saw him before, his hair had been neatly slicked back, as if it had been pasted flat against his scalp. But now it curled wildly upward, sticking out like the wool of an old sheep.

The room was surrounded by piles of papers.

The pile of documents in front of me seemed to have been recently taken out, because it had that distinctive smell of an old book being opened after a long time.

Judging by the sticky note attached to it, it said something about records from several years…

Um, several years…

I didn’t know the word.

But if the Big King was searching through it right now, then it had to be the information I was looking for.

I picked up the book on top.

Rustle.

“Ah!”

A mistake.

The enormous tower of paper made an unavoidable noise as it collapsed.

Apparently, what I thought was a book was actually a stack of loose papers that hadn’t been bound together.

“Who’s there?”

The huge voice shook the library.

Startled, I sat down behind the papers and hid.

And then—

Silence.

I couldn’t even hear footsteps.

Had he decided he imagined it and ignored it?

“Who did I ask that to?”

“Eek!”

The second question came from directly above my head.

Wow.

He only had to stretch his back while sitting down, and he could see where I was hiding.

Someone named the “Big King” really was big.

That completely useless thought flashed through my mind faster than any thought of impending doom.

“…A child.”

“I’m sorry.”

The man glared at me for a moment before letting out a sigh.

He seemed to be suppressing his anger.

His already enormous chest rose and fell, then expanded like a balloon before he released a huge breath.

“Why are you here?”

“I heard you were busy looking for my father…”

I rolled my eyes around, searching for an excuse.

“I wanted to help.”

“It’s fine. The work is finished. I’m just wrapping things up now. About that… thing… I looked through all the documents I needed to, but…”

He hesitated, his face slightly red.

“I couldn’t narrow down which of the four could be your father. They were all quite diligent…”

He mumbled awkwardly.

Apparently, he was so innocent that even saying the word “kiss” embarrassed him.

“Anyway, how did you find my residence?”

“Because you’re the Big King, and the Clown King told me you lived in a big tower.”

“That bastard…”

The man muttered.

I take back what I said.

A grown-up who used bad words in front of a child was definitely not a nice adult.

The unpleasant adult frowned and sighed before continuing.

“My size is also because of him. Damn it, the reports explaining all the trouble he caused alone would fill three floors of this tower.”

“What does that have to do with you being big?”

“The more documents there are, the taller the bookshelves become. The taller the bookshelves become, the bigger I have to become.”

He pointed at himself.

“Because I’m a librarian.”

“…What?”

“Yes.”

The adults here really did say strange things sometimes.

Well, adults often said strange things.

“Clown… You… are you already close with the Clown King? No, wait. Are you already close with him?”

I nodded.

“I see. So that’s how it is.”

The Big King sighed.

“No… this was my mistake. I should have paid more attention.”

The giant king closed the book he was holding with a thud and carefully returned it to its original place.

“You’re wearing three watches.”

I said it without thinking.

When he stretched out his arm, I saw three watches lined up on his wrist.

“You must really like watches.”

“Watches— No. Watches are…”

The man, who had finally calmed down, suddenly became excited again.

“Listen. A watch is meaningless unless you wear at least three of them!”

“Why?”

“Why, you ask?!”

Although he sounded angry, he looked strangely happy.

It seemed like he enjoyed giving long lectures about this topic.

“Think about it. If you wear only one watch, what use is that? For example—let’s say you’re wearing one watch, and the hands point to 3:30. What does that mean?”

“It means it’s 3:30 right now.”

“No! You don’t know that.”

He shook his head seriously.

“A watch is more reliable than most humans, but that’s all. How do you know the watch isn’t broken?”

“Is that so?”

It wasn’t a particularly interesting topic.

But since he seemed to have completely forgotten that I had secretly entered and messed up his organized papers, I let him continue.

“So what do you do? You carry another watch. Since it’s unlikely that both watches break at the same time, if their times are different, you know that at least one of them is broken. Perfect plan, isn’t it?”

“That makes sense.”

“Wrong!”

He immediately rejected it.

“If you carry two watches, you can know that one of them is broken, but you still can’t know which one is correct and which one is wrong! That’s why you need at least three watches.”

“Hmm…”

I thought carefully before speaking.

“Wouldn’t that still have a high chance of being wrong?”

He raised one eyebrow without saying anything.

“Even if you carry three wristwatches, you still only have two wrists. That means at least two watches have to be worn on the same wrist.”

“…That is not an incorrect observation.”

“And then… wouldn’t the two watches on the same wrist have a higher chance of breaking at the same time?”

I continued.

“They would be shaken the same way and hit the same things.”

The Big King listened silently, still frowning with one raised eyebrow.

“―The reason wristwatches go out of sync is usually because of shaking. Meaning, two out of the three watches could easily break around the same time.”

I looked up nervously because his gaze from above was intimidating.

“If that happens, even if two out of three watches show the same time, it would be… difficult to say that they are definitely correct.”

The Big King stared at me.

“…You really do seem to be my descendant.”

He said it with a serious expression.

“At least you’re definitely not the Thunder King’s child.”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem offended.

“Hmm. Good. Correct… Then perhaps I should wear one watch around my neck.”

He nodded to himself.

“Yes, that would be better. Left wrist, right wrist, neck. Perfect. I’ll need to get a pocket watch…”

“Can’t you just ask someone else to show you their watch?”

“Someone else’s watch?!”