I was sitting on the mud wall of a house full of blooming flowers, waiting for my dad.

My mood brightened as the sunlight touched my plump, white cheeks like fluffy wheat bread, my soft pigtails like a blanket, and my round, flat legs.

‘Dad said he’d buy meat! Meat!’

I smiled excitedly, constantly shaking my short, round arms and legs like toilet paper rolls.

‘Today is a beef party!’

Sitting on the wall with just my head peeking out, waiting for Dad, would be boring for anyone. Moreover, even though I’m on my second life after reincarnation, I was physically much less mature than other children due to the penalty I received from the gods when reincarnating.

They say a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body.

For me, it was the opposite. In exchange for retaining memories of my past life, I was born with a body younger and more immature than others.

Unfortunately, the immature body often negatively affected my mature mind. It meant that occasionally, my mind would align with my childlike physical age.

It was the same now.

I was about to puff up my cheeks while clenching my round hands, but I stopped.

‘Oh no, that’s too baby-like behavior!’

I tried to censor myself, but strangely, today my body wouldn’t listen. With the good weather and the breeze on my cheeks, I even started to feel sleepy.

‘It feels like I’ve really become a baby. I’m sleepy, so I hope Dad comes soon.’

Besides, on a day like this, it’s too difficult for a baby to resist drowsiness…

On such a day when the sunlight is drowsy, the air is cold, and both cheeks are flushed, I dozed off on the wall.

How many hours had I dozed like that?

“Little one.”

I blinked my closed eyes hurriedly and looked ahead.

“Yes?”

I tilted my head with my round eyes wide open. Knights holding spears or swords were surrounding our house, the small mud wall, and me. I tilted my head as I looked at the armor glinting in the light.

“Isn’t there an adult here?”

“An adult?”

“Yes. The mister who lives here. Isn’t he around?”

The mister who lives here seems to be referring to our dad.

Instinctively sensing the danger of this situation, I lied.

“That mister went to work.”

“By any chance, is this mister… blue-eyed with black hair? About thirty years old…?”

The knight tried to sound friendly as he spoke.

His eyes were gleaming. It reminded me of the look con artists often had when they were about to swindle our dad out of money, and I felt repulsed.

‘No matter how I look at it, these people seem to be looking for our dad. Suspicious?’

Speaking of our dad, he’s the kindest and most naive…

sucker in the village.

He’s so soft-hearted that he gives money to villagers under the guise of donations, goes around doing work here and there without accepting payment, and always laughs with a big grin.

Thinking about my dad, who’s so soft he makes even my insides feel like a burst steamed bun, I suddenly had a bad feeling.

‘Has Dad finally gotten involved in something so big that even scary knights have come running? Or maybe he’s been falsely accused of someone else’s wrongdoing?’

Dad is smart, but he’s so kind that he always ends up at a loss. He would even go as far as cosigning loans for others.

Whenever that happened, I would hold out a plump little potato from our yard, charm them with my cuteness, and then have them cancel the cosigning. I’m famous around here for being cute, so when I sparkle my eyes and ask if they can’t cancel it, they all melt like the egg in ramen, pat my head, and disappear.

The question was whether my aegyo would work on these knights too.

‘I wonder if my aegyo will work on these knights too?’

I sighed, puffing up my cheeks that had shrunk like a deflated cream bun, and said:

“I don’t know. No such person here.”

And then I used my secret skill of blinking my sparkling eyes to look up at them.

The knight who met my gaze tightened his lips. Thinking I had failed, I was about to squint my eyes when the knight spoke.

“But, you’re really cute.”

It seemed my cuteness worked everywhere in the world after all.

I smiled inwardly like a true villain and shamelessly replied:

“I know!”

“Th-that… Could I just hold your hand once…?”

Looking at the knight who was opening his mouth like a fool and slowly reaching out his hand, I shook my head.

“No touching.”

The knight quickly came to his senses and shook his head several times, then nudged the man standing next to him.

“What should we do now?”

“We definitely got a report that he was here, this is troublesome.”

“Should we retreat for now? Come back tomorrow?”

Pretending not to hear their words, I kicked my legs idly and thought.

‘Phew, fortunately, it seems our dad is out of suspicion.’

The murmuring knights were glancing at me from time to time, but… that’s not important!

I pouted my lips and thought with sparkling intelligence in my eyes.

‘I should ask Dad what happened tonight and suggest we run away if it’s serious.’

There’s a reason why running away has become one of the thirty-six stratagems.

When dangerous guys appear, running away is the answer!

But it was right at that moment, as I was pressing my lips together and thinking about the future of me and my dad.

“Sien!”

… Oh no.

‘Isn’t that our stupid dad’s voice? Why did he come back so quickly? I need to send these knights away first!’

I widened my eyes and quickly turned my head towards the direction of the voice. Seeing my head turn, the knights also turned their heads in that direction.

“Sien! I bought meat…”

“Hup. Shh!”

I quickly inhaled. Waving my hands to shoo them away was an added touch.

But Dad ignored my emergency rescue signal and narrowed his eyes. Then he quickly ran over.

The problem was that Dad’s steps were as fast as a swordmaster’s.

Dad may be gentle, but his physical abilities were unparalleled. Because he was so diligent in farm work, he had bulging pectorals.

‘Dad approaching like that looks like he’s threatening the knights!’

It wasn’t good to provoke the knights, this was trouble.

The last time I was almost caught by a threatening monster chicken, Dad had displayed superhuman abilities.

Today was the same.

Perhaps thinking I was in danger, a resolute light gleamed in Dad’s innocent eyes.

‘Dad, you’re so fast!’

Dad, running hard with a black bag full of meat, in the dangerous moment when the knights were clustered.

My one and only ally in the world, our Dad, rushing over quickly as if to protect me.

“Who might you be?”

Dad narrowed his eyes and asked with stern dignity.

I let out a long sigh.

‘Why did you come now, stupid Dad!’

Those knights could be very scary guys. I was going to fend them off with my cuteness, but coming so quickly meant I couldn’t save Dad.

But it was right then, just as I was about to kick the knights in front of me.

“We greet the First Prince of Mirmod, Lord Matthias Mirmod. We bring a message that it’s time to end your amusement and return.”

My foot, which was about to kick the knights, stopped midway.

‘…Excuse me? What did you say? Mirmod?’

The Mirmod family.

They were the scourge of this empire, involved in all sorts of fraud, illegal activities, and evil deeds.

It was said that each member of this family, which had grown based on all kinds of crimes, specialized in magic or swordsmanship, and casually committed crimes including murder.

‘These knights must have made a mistake because their eyes are blurry. Mirmod, scarier than tigers.’

I was about to clench my plump fists and shake my head. No. Our dad has nothing to do with even the ‘Mi’ in ‘Mirmod’. So get out of here.

But it was right then.

Dad asked sternly, as if it were only natural:

“End my amusement and return?”

At that moment, a red flush spread across my pale cheeks.

Responding so coolly made Dad seem like he really was the Mirmod prince. I blinked in confusion.

***

…Surprisingly, it seems our dad really is the prince of ‘that’ Mirmod family.

Since the knights left, our modest country mud house has disappeared, turning into dry earth.

And…

Dad and I were dragged to this strange and dangerous Mirmod ducal castle.

This ducal castle looked very gloomy and eerie.

My little head was already struggling to grasp the fact that Dad wasn’t actually a simple country farmer.

So let me try to organize this.

Apparently, our dad was actually the first prince of the Mirmod family. He was banished from the duchy for unspeakable reasons, but finally, the banishment order was lifted, or something like that.

‘Our kind-hearted dad is a member of the Mirmod family? The Mirmod family is the villain family in the novel. This is really unbelievable.’

This was inside the novel I had half-read, “The Life of Melodia”. It’s a story about the beautiful love between the crown prince and Saint Melodia, but since the protagonist was the crown prince, political intrigue often appeared as well.

The strong villainous presence in that novel was undoubtedly the ‘Mirmod family’, the crown prince’s political rival. A place that used all kinds of dangerous methods including fraud, evil deeds, violence, gambling, etc. A typical villain family that everyone feared and revered…

Moreover, endless internal wars kept breaking out in the Mirmod family. To become the heir, to become the duke, to possess dangerous but powerful magical tools and sacred objects, they killed each other.

A place where news of deaths came every day. And a place where that wasn’t strange at all.

In the end, a villain family that gets annihilated by the crown prince.

The problem is this.

Our dad’s name, ‘Matthias’, didn’t even appear in the novel.

In other words, our dad is an extra who got killed off without even appearing?

‘Ah, someone as kind as our dad wouldn’t fit well with a villain family. But why was he called back…?’

Maybe Dad retreated to the countryside on his own because he didn’t fit in. Our dad doesn’t have the temperament to be an heir. He’s not ruthless enough to fight for succession, and he’s the type of person who would readily step aside and even cheer on someone else if they wanted to be the heir.

‘Don’t tell me they brought Dad back to eliminate future troubles?’

The modest mud house where Dad and I had been living was already demolished.

We, father and daughter, have now become wanderers with nowhere to go.

If villains try to harm our dad in this situation…

A warning light flashed in my head.

Just like in the original work, innocent people like us are bound to become food for villains if we’re not careful.

My snow-white cheeks turned pale as I pondered deeply.

‘Will Dad and I be able to survive?’

All sorts of worries invaded my mind, making me feel like I couldn’t eat or sleep well.

The one who keenly noticed my state was none other than Dad.

“What are you thinking about, my daughter?”

“Sigh.”

I let out another big sigh and looked around.

This place seemed to be used as a meeting room by the villain family members, and it looked quite gloomy and scary.

‘It looks like there are skulls scattered here and there on the floor. It must be my imagination. Surely it’s my imagination.’

Dad, who was sitting casually on a scary chair with skull patterns, pulled me onto his lap and hugged me, patting my shoulder.

“It’s okay, my daughter. You must be very tired? Let’s just have a quick talk and go to sleep.”

Dad stroked my hair, making a silly laughing sound.

Survival is the issue right now. Yet Dad is just grinning cheerfully after entering this dangerous family.

‘This is unbelievable!’

Suddenly having to worry about survival with my foolish dad, I felt frustrated and heartbroken. I had only been looking forward to catching crayfish today and eating pork tomorrow.

‘But there’s nothing we can do now that it’s come to this.’

I drooped my shoulders and tapped Dad’s arm that was holding me on his lap, saying:

“You know, Dad.”

“Hmm?”

Dad made a warm laughing sound as he fiddled with my pigtails.

The pigtails that Dad had beautifully braided this morning had come a bit loose while entering this family, which made me feel sad.

I leaned my small body against Dad’s flat chest, letting out a long sigh.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you, Dad!”

This place felt like a sinister area full of poison. It’s a place where villains could appear at any time.

My chubby arms, like plump champion sausages, started to tremble like aspen leaves, but there was no helping it.

I glared fiercely into the air.

Soon, a villain family member would appear from behind that curtain, right?

Then I would have no choice but to protect Dad.

‘You scary and dangerous monster villains, step aside! I’ll protect our dad!’

As I was psyching myself up, Dad tightened his grip on me and whispered:

“You don’t have to protect Dad, Sien.”

There was a slight hint of laughter in his voice.

“Dad will protect you. My daughter.”

The arms wrapped around me, full of thick muscles and covered in mysterious scratches, seemed quite sturdy, but considering Dad’s soft personality, they didn’t look that strong. My soft, chubby arms might seem more reliable?

I let out a heavy sigh.

I’m really worried about the future of my foolish dad and me…