“Mom, I want to go sightseeing!”

The bustling sounds of people enjoying the festival in the city could be heard all the way to the mansion.

After finishing her tour of the Paradel mansion in a few days, Eve’s interest naturally shifted to the excitement of the harvest festival.

“No, Eve. It’s dangerous to wander around freely.”

Louise grabbed Eve’s hand and tried to soothe her.

With the harvest festival underway, there were divine officials roaming all over Paradel City.

It would be safe if there was no contact, but she didn’t want to take the risk with a child who could run off anywhere.

Naturally, Eve’s rosy cheeks puffed up in dissatisfaction.

At that moment.

“Let’s go together. I was planning to look around Paradel after a long time anyway.”

A low and deep voice was heard.

Turning around, Sched was standing behind the corridor, wearing a black cloak.

“Villain mister!”

As if she thought her ally had appeared, Eve abandoned her mother and ran over to Sched, clinging tightly to him.

“Eve! His Excellency is busy.”

“I’ve finished all my schedules and am on my way back.”

Despite Louise’s dissuasion, Sched took Eve’s hand.

It was late afternoon when the meetings and harvest festival-related schedules that had started since dawn finally ended.

It was a time when he barely managed to catch his breath.

Louise’s eyes asked, ‘Is it really alright?’

Sched nodded his head nonchalantly.

“It’s actually good timing. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Paradel, so it wouldn’t be bad to look around.”

If divine officials were the problem, Sched could block them at his level.

“Get ready and come out.”

Sched tilted his head once as if to say he would wait at the main entrance and disappeared first.

As if not wanting to reveal his identity, Sched wore a rough white linen shirt and black pants.

He also covered his face with a shabby gray cloak, and Louise thought about what the purpose of such commoner’s clothing was as she looked at him.

It was because he stood out wherever he went due to his tall height and good physique.

To be honest, there was no one in Paradel Castle with a similar height and build to him.

At best, Baron Carlyle, who trained his body as a knight in the same Lupus, might be similar?

Louise worried that people would recognize him as soon as they went downtown.

But her worries shattered as easily as a thin piece of sugar.

Even walking with Sched, no one recognized him.

Perhaps it was because he slightly lowered his body and walked with a woman and child, but people didn’t seem to think he was the lord of this place.

After the broken engagement, rumors that the duke couldn’t fulfill his duties as a man had spread even more.

Because of that, no one could imagine the duke walking around holding a little girl.

Above all, Sched Lester’s usual image wasn’t gentle enough to hold a child…

Louise took in the sight of Sched holding Eve.

The father and child who didn’t know each other.

The sight of them together was strangely unfamiliar and also heartbreaking.

Why was Sched treating Eve so well?

Why was he endlessly cold, then hot again?

“Mom, why?”

Perhaps sensing Louise’s long gaze, Eve, who was nestled in Sched’s arms, tilted her head.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Louise shook her head and stretched out her arms towards Eve, who had been clinging to Sched’s arm the entire time.

“Eve, do you like being held by His Excellency? Don’t you want to come to Mommy?”

Then Eve clung tightly to Sched’s neck as if she would lose him.

“I like the villain mister!”

For the first time, Louise felt a slight sense of betrayal from her daughter.

Eve was stubbornly holding onto Sched, worried that if she went into her mother’s arms, she would tell her to go back home.

Louise understood her daughter’s feelings.

But it was still a bit of a shock.

It was the first time she had rejected her mother, saying she didn’t like her, and chosen someone else.

“It seems this child likes me more.”

Sched laughed, looking at Louise, who had her mouth open with a dumbfounded expression.

When he was with the child, Louise’s usually still expression became more varied.

At that moment, Sched sensed an unfamiliar gaze and turned his eyes towards the crowd at the festival.

The gazes that had been directed at them were caught, then quickly dispersed at his glance.

It wasn’t a hostile gaze.

However.

‘…I shouldn’t have had her dress up like that to come out.’

It was his mistake.

“Since it’s a festival, I thought it would be okay to dress up a little more than usual.”

The sight of her always wearing shabby clothes caught his eye, so he had a maid bring out a dress for her.

It was a cream-colored lace dress with small flower patterns embroidered on the hem.

It was an ordinary dress without fancy jewel decorations, but Sched thought it suited Louise well.

But it seemed Sched wasn’t the only one who thought that way.

‘The gazes of the insects are being drawn.’

Dressed up a little more than usual, Louise attracted attention wherever she went.

After all, wasn’t she the woman who, even when wearing a maid’s uniform and humbly lowering her head, was talked about for being pretty or not among people?

It was common for the servants of the Lester family to gossip about her appearance.

‘It’s quite annoying.’

Sched clenched his teeth at the gazes that stuck like flies and then fell away.

“Walk a little closer to me. Just in case.”

Sched, whose patience had run out, grabbed her hand and pulled her to his side.

The gathered gazes scattered again in embarrassment.

“Mom, don’t get lost. Hold hands tight.”

Seeing their clasped hands, Eve spoke in an innocent voice.

To a child’s eyes, it must have simply looked like a mother and child holding hands, or friends holding hands.

Louise let go of Sched’s hand out of concern for the child’s words.

A burning sensation seemed to spread in the hand that had been indifferent.

When they reached the plaza connected to the temple, Eve opened her mouth wide as she saw the huge tree in the center of the plaza.

“Mom, what kind of tree is that?”

Eve pointed to the lavishly decorated tree with her slender finger.

The large tree was laden with lemons, grapes, oranges, olives, artichokes, figs, ears of wheat, dried mushrooms, and even ribbons.

It was the strangest tree Eve had ever seen in her life.

Louise laughed as she looked at Eve, who couldn’t take her eyes off the tree.

“That’s the tree of abundance.”

It was a tradition to hang and decorate the tree with the year’s harvest in gratitude for the grace given by God.

When the harvest was hung on the tree like that, birds would fly in and peck at it, and it was believed that the more the birds and beasts ate, the better the harvest would be the following year.

“I want to eat too.”

Eve licked her lips as she watched the birds perch on the tree and peck at it.

Louise found Eve so adorable that she ruffled her blonde hair.

“Those are for the birds. Shall we go over there and look at yummy things with Mommy?”

Food and handicraft stalls were lined up around the plaza for the festival.

Eve ran towards the stalls with excitement on her two feet.

The area around the stalls was crowded and chaotic with peddlers, hawkers, and customers.

“Eve, you have to hold Mommy’s hand tightly and go!”

Louise grabbed Eve and entered the crowd.

There were so many people that Louise worried Eve might get kicked by their feet.

On top of that, there were so many people bumping shoulders as they passed by…

It was a dizzying experience that was hard for Louise to adapt to after living quietly on Zanna Island for a while.

At that moment, Sched shifted his body towards the people and wrapped his arms around Louise and Eve.

“Wait by the fountain. I’ll take her around.”

Sched picked Eve up again.

Strangely enough, even in such a large crowd, no one bumped into Sched’s shoulders as they passed by.

Moreover, thanks to his tall height, he was able to relatively easily navigate through the crowd.

With the need to squeeze through people just to reach a single stall, Louise raised her hands and nodded.

Louise decided to wait by the fountain and let Sched and Eve go.

After confirming Louise’s retreating figure heading towards the fountain, Sched looked around the stalls with Eve.

“I can’t see what’s there!”

Eve stretched her neck towards the crowded stalls and wriggled her body.

Sched sighed as if he had no choice and lifted Eve up, placing her on his shoulders.

“Is this better, little one?”

“Wow! I’m riding a horse!”

Eve tapped Sched’s hooded head, as if she had climbed onto a guard rail.

He frowned slightly at the child’s impudent behavior, but thought it was ridiculous to expect great manners from a mere three-year-old.

“Villain mister, I want that!”

Among the various stalls, Eve pointed to a crepe shop with a golden smell.

Sched strode through the crowd towards the crepe shop.

As the tall man approached, the owner’s hand, who was grilling crepes, flinched and fumbled.

“What would you like?”

The middle-aged man hurriedly pretended to be calm and greeted the customer.

“What will you eat, little one?”

“That one, cherry!”

Eve, riding on the duke’s shoulders, pointed to a crepe topped with red cherry jam and cheap cream.

“You sure pick something that looks like it’s for kids.”

He glanced over the letters and pictures written on the stall sign and spoke again.

“One cherry crepe. And one orange marmalade crepe too.”

“Yes, yes! I’ll make it right away.”

As Sched handed over the money, the boy who was manning the cash register next to him quickly took it and put it in his pocket.

While the owner was grilling the crepes on the wide iron plate, Eve was so excited that she sang a crepe song she made up on her own.

“Round and round, the mister is grilling~ Birds can’t eat the cherry flavor~”

Sched laughed at the song she was babbling, attaching a melody as she pleased.

Then the owner, who had been glancing at them, opened his mouth as if to break the awkwardness.

“You look a lot like your daughter.”

“…Daughter?”

Sched narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow.

“At first I wasn’t sure if you were father and daughter, but when you laughed, you looked exactly alike. Like stamped from the same mold, I tell you.”

The shop owner laughed heartily as he swirled the crepe batter.