The atmosphere turned chilly after a light-hearted declaration. Approximately after about 3 seconds of silence, the aides quickly opened their mouths, trying to cover it up.

“W-Well!”

“It must be a joke after all. Haha, right. His Grace, the Little Duke, also has a sense of humor!”

“He’s excellent! Hahaha!”

They were laughing as if they were people who had to force a laugh at their boss’s jokes, but inside, it was darkening completely.

Even though they had committed evil deeds, and Matthias Mirmode was an unprecedented genius in the field of villainy, their opponents were the temple and the palace.

There was a chance of dying while trying to eliminate them, like a shrimp caught in a whale’s blowhole.

However, their attempt to pass it off as a joke quickly failed.

“A sense of humor?”

Matthias stared at the men before him with a cold expression. A huge man, as thick as three generals combined, looked at him with wide eyes and questioned.

“W-Well. Are you serious?”

Standing next to Matthias, a relatively small man with tattoos all over his body, though petite compared to others, jabbed the giant’s side with his elbow.

“Haha, mate! Does that make sense! Let’s not take a joke seriously… I mean…”

He trailed off, looking at Matthias with a vague tail to his words. Matthias stared at them with a cold gaze. It was a face that often appeared when he felt uncomfortable. When he made that expression, at least one castle had been smashed.

The aides trembled in fear and stammered.

“Y-Yes!”

After all aides quickly answered and lowered their heads, Matthias suddenly spoke.

“Did I seem like I was making nonsense?”

Without continuing his words, Matthias stood up. The clattering sound of his heavy boots gradually approached. The giant man, trembling, stood still as he saw the smooth toes of Matthias’s shoes in front of him.

They were Matthias’s.

Him moving personally meant… It was ‘quite’ uncomfortable.

“W-Well. Sir Matthias?”

One of my aides, who was watching Matthias with a fierce look while clattering his teeth, gently smiled and raised his chin.

“It’s not right now. Since I’ve diverted Cyan’s attention, we have to clean up the trash in the family first. The beginning is…”

Matthias cheerfully moved his foot a few times. However, the aides’ spines were still sweating. Whenever Matthias’s voice felt excited, the wind was blowing.

One aide hesitated to speak, unable to raise his head. He mumbled.

“W-What do you mean by the beginning…”

They stared at each other in the office, and their expressions changed as Matthias, who had been staring at them with a chilling gaze, gracefully left. The aides left in the office looked at each other with a gloomy expression.

“I didn’t expect to clean up the family’s trash so thoroughly.”

“…It’s good to be able to stretch your body after a while, but it looks like there will be overtime for a while?”

They had always possessed an obsessive notion that they should not reveal their wickedness to Cyan.

Following Matthias’s orders, they had been engaged in actions that did not suit their temperament. Going to volunteer at children’s organizations, donating 10% of their salary to orphanages, and so on…

As they did not usually engage in such charitable acts, it looked muddy, but they were also acting as Matthias Mirmode’s closest aides, true to their villainous roles.

“…No, why on earth did he change so ruthlessly like a wild beast?”

“Originally, he didn’t look that unpleasant.”

“Is there something uncomfortable about him?”

“…Cleansing the family’s aides, he would usually say it with a smile.”

At that moment, an astonishing story came to one aide’s mind.
“Miss Sian went to the academy for the first time today…….?”

“……What?”

“Then, um, really?”

The aide, who had a momentary enlightenment, opened his mouth wide. At that moment, the person next to him raised his head, trembling, and said.

“Come to think of it, when she left earlier, didn’t he say, ‘I miss Sian’?”

Gradually narrowing down their deductions, they shivered as they realized that Sian’s photo in the reception room had disappeared.

“Is it because he is genuinely uncomfortable?”

“Is this the heart of a school parent?”

“Is Matthias worried that Miss Sian won’t adapt well to the academy?”

“…Well, Matthias wouldn’t think like that. Stop having such unkind thoughts!”

In their minds, the image of Matthias, who used to embrace Sian and pretend to be a naive father, emerged and disappeared.

“But it seems to be true…….?”

At that moment, just as the aides suspected, in Matthias Mirmode’s mind, there was only Sian. For the growth of his daughter, it was important to eliminate the undesirables in the family, but more importantly, Sian’s safety was paramount.

So he would appoint bodyguards to accompany her to the academy, even though the Crown Prince might be angry for a while. Because safety came first.

‘Sian, though, needs to be a bit……’

“Abba! Try XXX!”

Proficient in swearing, no, no. Lively and cheerful, and……