‘They look very intimidating!’

A dark and sinister aura filled the area around the carriage.

They were like jaguars, lions, and tigers surrounding a small, snowwhite rabbit. They were hiding their fangs, but they were swallowing their saliva, looking at Father.

What’s going on? Why are they acting like that? Their gaze was suspicious.

“Ah, Sien. It’s your first time meeting them?”

I needed to gather my senses. Even if I were thrown into a tiger’s den, if I keep my wits about me, both Father and I could survive.

I nodded solemnly.

“Hmm.”

“These are friends who help your father. Say hello.”

The scary men quickly started speaking one after another.

“Hello!”

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Sien!”

“Nice to meet you!”

I swept them with a suspicious glance.

“Everyone… what do you do?”

“Hehe, I’m a very kind hunter.”

A man gave a laughing snicker with a smile that looked like he could kill.

Among the ten who all looked very scary, the two standing next to Father, seeming like his closest associates, looked the most terrifying and monstrous.

‘Those people are strange! One of them is wearing a ribbon that I could use for my hair, and one has a face that’s too shiny!’

A bald man with a pink ribbon tied to his head caught my gaze and grinned toothily.

I clenched my sunflower seedlike molars together.

‘…Are they really Father’s friends?’

They were very scary, just like muscular maids.

They had fierce physiques that would suit an axe over their shoulder.

With faces like big rocks and powerful jaws that seemed to chew iron.

Did they notice my doubtful look? They split their lips into even more terrifying smiles.

I quickly hid my doubtful gaze.

Being a proper villain required excellent control of one’s gaze.

Of the two people I was staring at, the man with the strange glitter on his face nodded at me.

“It’s nice to meet you for the first time, Sien.”
The manners seemed correct, I guess.

I was the daughter of our father, and I was in a position not to be underestimated, so I spoke sternly, lowering my voice.

“Well, hello.”

He responded to my words with a wavering smile. I discreetly averted my eyes.

‘Scary! He looks too terrifying!’

Then father patted my head with a simple smile.

“They may lack a bit, but they’re good people.”

“Hmm, hmm.”

“Hahaha. Am I a bit inadequate?”

Looking at him chuckling, his muscles flexed in and out.

We shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance, but he looked like a very scary person.

This could be my prejudice, but that’s how it seemed just by the look of him.

I could feel my father puzzled as I was deeply thinking with my small head.

‘Huh, this doesn’t seem right.’

I hid my hands behind me and coughed.

At that moment, a kind heart raised its head, reminding me that we shouldn’t judge people only by their appearance.

‘The muscular maid sisters looked scary too. But they had good personalities under those fierce faces, didn’t they?’

“Hehehe.”

But seeing them sweat profusely and continuously give strange laughs at me, it was suspicious.

“Haha, there’s no one as good as me in the world.”

“That’s true.”

They even began to sing strange songs out of nowhere.

‘Are they fools? Or are they scary people pretending to be fools?’

My mind was in chaos. I squinted my eyes and stealthily observed them.

‘Those guys, if they have evil intentions and are attached to our father…!’

If they were after our kind father, they might experience a real nightmare.

I, who was smaller than a kitten, glared at them with all my might.

After parting ways with my father’s confidants at the front of the carriage, I climbed into the fourwheeled carriage that my father had prepared for me.

Sitting on the warm and cozy velvet chair, leaning on my father’s arm, I sank deep into thought.

‘Those people from before, why do their faces seem so familiar? Their faces seem like I’ve seen them somewhere.’

I held onto my father’s hand tightly and stared at them.

‘This situation really feels strange.’

No matter how much we shouldn’t judge people by their appearances, there was something strange about those men.

“Dad.”

“Yes, my daughter.”

“Are those uncles really good people?”

A crack appeared on my father’s expression.

For some reason, my father asked in a chilly voice.

“Why? Are you suspicious?”

“Um……. a bit? They look scary.”

“I see. That’s a problem…….”

Hearing my father mutter under his breath, I made up my mind.

I held my chin, grabbed my father’s arm and said.

“It’s not a problem. I’m not scared at all.”

“Alright, they’re not scary people, so relax, okay?”

I shook my head back and forth.

My father, who was looking at me as warmly as the sunlight, opened his mouth firmly.

“Those people, they’re really good people.”

I was reminded of a fact I had forgotten.

My father was a person who believed everyone was good and had no suspicion in his character.

I shouldn’t trust my father’s judgment.

No matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t going to work.

At today’s hunting contest, I will find out whether those guys, no, whether those people are really good. The thought began to creep in.

On the other hand, the atmosphere among Matthias’s closest associates was more akin to a funeral parlor.

They were following the fourwheeled carriage where Matthias and Sien were sitting, and they were spewing out criticism at each other.

Especially, the criticism was focused on Mele, the ‘mad dog of the Hessian continent’.
“Didn’t I tell you not to wear that horrendous ribbon?”

A horrendous ribbon. To be honest, it was a cute ribbon. That would be the case if Melodia didn’t wear it.

“……Ha, you must have been shocked?”

She managed to raise Sien’s suspicions.

The bigger problem was Lord Matthias. His icy gaze swept over her. Just thinking about that cold and icy look, doubting her own confidante who couldn’t even properly act, made her shiver.

“Right. Since Lord Sien saw something ugly, that delicate person would naturally be shocked.”

“Apologize with your death.”

Melodia muttered.

“……Ah, we just have to remove the ribbon!”

Riding his black horse leisurely, he stuffed the ribbon into his pocket.

Then, with a gratifying expression to himself but terrifying to others, he proudly pinned the Starlight Brooch to his chest. It was a Starlight Brooch that cute and innocent civilians often bought, meant for charity organizations.

“Is it done now?”

Unlike when he introduced himself as a hunter to Sien, he was a law enforcer befitting his nickname ‘Mad Dog’.

He introduced himself as a righteous judge who kills sex offenders, murderers, and the like.

There were as many tattoos on his vicious wrist as the number of evildoers he had personally executed.

Therefore, his savagery wouldn’t be concealed by a Starlight Brooch or anything of the sort.

However…

“It’s much better.”

“Lord Sien would like it too.”

Villains, in fact, had a rather low standard for ‘goodness’.

“Let’s do better. We still have a chance to make amends.”

“Well, there is the hunting contest.”

“Then we should only show the good things.”

“So, let’s brace ourselves!”

They decided to act better in the fullfledged hunting contest, proud of each other.