Just 10 minutes before meeting my father’s closest aides. My heart was bursting with happiness.

‘I’ll see father, have a hunting competition, it’s so exciting after a long time!’

I was jumping and running towards the carriage along with my maids.

Despite my small legs, I could run as fast as the muscular maid sisters. It felt good to bounce around like a little kitten, no, a snow-white rabbit after such a long time.

“Our cute Lady Sien.”

“Like a tiny baby deer!”

I could see the muscular maid sisters making sad faces.

‘Hmm, such silly sisters! A baby deer! I’m as fierce as a baby lion, you know?’

But I didn’t say that out loud. It would be counterproductive if the maid sisters became afraid of me.

Honestly, since I have a somewhat intimidating appearance, I shouldn’t say threatening things. I tried hard to hold back, feeling like a villain hiding their power.

“Are you excited about going to the hunting ground?”

“Ung!”

For the sake of the maid sisters, I hopped like a small, ordinary baby, smiling “hehe” all the way to the front of the house.

When we were about a hundred steps away from our house’s fence with its beautiful roses, I could see people gathered outside. Though they were far away and not clearly visible, they seemed to be father’s friends.

It would be good to make a good impression on father’s friends. After all, they were on father’s side. We had to make sure to keep them firmly on our side.

But I couldn’t understand why my heart was pounding so much.

It felt like I had drunk coffee, and I also had an ominous feeling. Wondering if it was nervousness, I pressed my chest tightly and kept repeating in my mind.

‘Don’t be scared, Sien Mirmode. You’re going to be a villain!’

I puffed up my cheeks fiercely like a pufferfish and continued to psych myself up.

The maid sisters standing on either side of me looked down at me curiously.

But now I had no time to pay attention to them.

Just in case, I checked my outfit one more time.

Twin braids tied with tiny hands, a small red ribbon tied neatly to the side of my forehead, a blush on my snow-white cheeks.

‘Phew, I look too kind! I should look a bit scary too.’

I had hidden a skull in my pocket, but that might not be enough.

I smiled mischievously as I thought of other items.

I had many items. Especially the health supplements for the maid sisters, which were essential for training them. I waved the health supplement in my hand and said,

“You know what, unnies!”

“Yes!”

Gulp.

I heard the sound of swallowing.

Roll, roll.

I could almost hear the sound of eyes rolling.

I laughed quietly to myself.

‘These sisters, they’re eyeing the health supplements!’

Placing my arms, softer than steamed buns, on my waist, I looked at each of them.

‘Since we’re meeting new people, the sisters must be nervous too?’

Although they’re the type to throw punches without caring about others’ reactions, they might… be disrespected somewhere.

“Listen, if father’s friends disrespect you, tell me!”

“Huh?”

“I’ll protect you!”

“Oh, perhaps…”

“…Are you thinking of us?”

My Sien-style mercenary tactics were already starting to shine.

The maid sisters knelt on the dusty ground with grateful looks and hugged me tightly. Their iron-like strong arms were patting me.

When they’re this moved, it’s time to put the finishing touch.

“Ung! I always think of our unnies!”

The maid sisters nodded seriously. I could see their loyalty increasing.

I slipped the health supplement into a maid sister’s pocket while laughing “huhu” like a villain.

A true villain always takes good care of their closest aides.

“Now, let’s head to the carriage!”

I decided to run out with renewed determination.

‘Father had almost no friends in our village. I hope the people we’re meeting this time are good people. Surely they will be?’

In fact, it wasn’t that he had almost no friends, he had none at all.

Father was too busy taking care of just me.

I don’t know what kind of people father’s aides are, but they say birds of a feather flock together, so they probably won’t be too different from father. Extremely naive, easily scammed, foolish.

‘I must protect my small and kind father, and his pure friends!’

With another lump to protect after father, I felt my shoulders getting really heavy. …Or at least, that’s what I thought…

***

Instead of running out yelling ‘Father!’, I walked calmly, maintaining the dignity and grace befitting the daughter of a viscount.

And I stood tall and proud, waiting for father to notice me first.

Just as my snow-white face was sparkling in the sunlight, father spotted me and strode over.

“Sien?”

Seeing father’s pure and melancholic iris-like smile, I bowed politely with my hands in front.

“Fa… No, I greet you, Viscount.”

Father whispered affectionately.

“Our Sien, you’ve learned manners too, how admirable.”

I greeted gracefully and elegantly with my hands behind my back.

And curious about what father’s friends, whom I was seeing for the first time, would be like, I looked around.

Where are the naive and cute father’s friends I’ll protect…

“Gasp.”

Flustered, I rolled my eyes back and forth, unable to find a place to rest my gaze.

‘W-what? Are these really father’s friends?’

About ten aides came into my view.

They all looked like extremely tall people over 2 meters. Moreover, they had strange leather hanging on their shoulders, and above all…

‘Their expressions are incredibly fierce!’

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

It was like jaguars, lions, and tigers surrounding a snow-white rabbit, a herbivore. Though hiding their teeth, they were swallowing their saliva while looking at father.

What’s this, why are they showing such an attitude? Their gaze was somehow suspicious.

“Ah, Sien. Is this your first time seeing them?”

I had to come to my senses. Even if dragged into a tiger’s den, if you keep your wits about you, both father and I will survive.

I nodded solemnly.

“Ung.”

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

The scary uncles hurriedly spoke one after another.

“Hello!”

“We’ve sincerely wanted to meet you, Lady Sien!”

“Pleased to meet you!”

I eyed them suspiciously.

“What… do you all do?”

“Haha, I’m a very kind gamekeeper,” one uncle laughed with a smile that looked like he could kill someone.

All ten of them looked very scary, but the two standing on either side of father, who seemed to be his closest aides, were the scariest and most monstrous.

‘These people are weird! One is wearing a ribbon big enough for my head, and the other’s face is too shiny!’

The bald uncle with a pink ribbon tied to his head grinned when he caught my gaze.

I gritted my sunflower seed-like molars.

‘…Are these really father’s friends?’

They were scary-looking uncles that would put the muscular maid sisters to shame.

A fierce build that would be perfect with an axe on the shoulder.

A strong jaw on a rocky face that looks like it could chew through iron.

Did they notice my suspicious gaze? They smiled even more frighteningly, stretching their mouths.

I quickly hid my doubtful expression.

A proper villain should be good at hiding their gaze.

Of the two people I had been staring at, the man with strange sparkles on his face bowed his head to me.

“Pleased to meet you, Lady Sien.”

He seemed polite, but still.

As I was the daughter of our father and in a position that absolutely shouldn’t be looked down upon, I spoke in a low, solemn voice.

“Yeah, hello.”

He flashed a toothy grin at my response. I quietly turned my eyes elsewhere.

‘Scary! He looks too scary!’

Then father stroked my head with a naive smile.

“They’re a bit lacking, but good people.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

“Hahaha. Am I a bit lacking?”

As I glanced, I saw muscles and tendons moving back and forth.

I shouldn’t judge people by their appearance, but he looked like an extremely scary person.

This might be my prejudice, but that’s how it seemed based on appearance alone.

As I was thinking hard with my little head, I could feel father becoming puzzled.

‘Phew, this doesn’t seem right.’

I cleared my throat, subtly hiding my hands behind my back.

At that moment, the kind-hearted notion that one shouldn’t judge people solely by their appearance raised its head.

‘The muscular maid sisters looked scary too. But they had good personalities despite their bad faces, right?’

“Hehehe.”

But seeing them sweating profusely while looking at me and making strange laughs, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

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

“That’s right.”

They even started singing strange songs.

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

My mind was confused. I narrowed my eyes like a mudfish and peeked at them.

‘Those guys, if they’ve attached themselves to our father with bad intentions…!’

If they were people messing with our kind father, I could show them a proper nightmare.

I glared at them, grinding my tiny baby teeth hard.

***

After meeting father’s aide uncles in front of the carriage, I got into the four-wheeled carriage that father had prepared for me.

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

‘Those people from earlier, why do they look so familiar? They look just like someone I’ve seen somewhere.’

I held father’s hand tightly and looked at them.

‘This situation really is strange.’

No matter how much they say you shouldn’t judge people by their faces, those people from earlier were somehow strange.

“Father.”

“Yes, my daughter.”

“Are those uncles really good people?”

Father’s expression cracked.

Father asked in a voice that somehow sounded cold.

“Why? Are you suspicious?”

“Um… a little? They look scary.”

“I see. This is a problem…”

Hearing father’s low murmur, I made up my mind.

I grabbed father’s arm and said,

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

“Yes, they’re not scary people, so feel comfortable. Okay?”

I shook my head.

Father, who had been looking at me like warm sunshine, opened his mouth as if to emphasize strongly.

“Those people are really good people.”

I reminded myself of a fact I had forgotten.

Father had a personality that believed everyone was good, without an ounce of suspicion.

I shouldn’t trust father’s judgment.

No matter how I thought about it, this wouldn’t do.

The thought crept in that I should find out if those guys, no, those people, were really good people at today’s hunting competition.

***

Meanwhile, the atmosphere among Matthias’s closest aides was close to that of a funeral.

They followed the four-wheeled carriage carrying Matthias and Sien on horseback, hurling blame at each other.

The blame was particularly focused on Mele, ‘the mad dog of the Hessian continent’.

“Didn’t I tell you not to wear that horrible ribbon?”

Horrible ribbon, indeed. To be honest, it was a cute ribbon. If only Mele hadn’t used it.

“…Ha, you must have been shocked?”

They had aroused Lady Sien’s suspicion.

The bigger problem was Lord Matthias. His cold gaze had swept over him. Just the thought of that cold, chilling gaze, doubting his aide who couldn’t even act properly, made his body shiver.

“Yes. You showed something ugly to Lady Sien’s eyes, so of course that delicate person must have been shocked.”

“Atone with your death.”

Mele grumbled and said,

“…Ah, I can just take off the ribbon!”

He, who had been slowly riding his black horse, stuffed the ribbon into his pocket.

And while making what he felt was a pleased expression, but what others saw as a terrifying one, he pinned a starlight brooch to his chest like a medal. It was a starlight brooch often bought by cute and kind commoners for volunteer organizations.

“Is this okay now?”

Unlike how he had introduced himself to Sien as a gamekeeper, he was actually a punisher of criminals, befitting his nickname ‘mad dog’.

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

His ferocious wrists were tattooed with the number of evil people he had personally punished.

So there was no way a mere starlight brooch could cover his brutality.

However…

“It’s much better.”

“Lady Sien will like it too.”

Villains actually had a much lower standard for ‘goodness’.

“Let’s do better. We still have a chance to make up for it.”

“Right, there’s the hunting competition.”

“We should show only good things then.”

“Well then, let’s steel our resolve!”

They resolved to act even better at the actual hunting competition, feeling proud of each other.