I'll Protect the Tyrant Daddy! - Chapter 42

Except for the boy referred to as the leader, the other children blinked their eyes. The smallest boy among them spoke up.

“S-s-so…”

“So what?”

At my retort, the boy called the leader stared at me intently with sharp eyes. He didn’t even flinch or speak when Deadri twisted his joints. Instead, the boy next to the leader mumbled.

“Hey, anyway, wh-what are you! Our leader did nothing wrong! It’s all this guy’s-”

Deadri whispered ominously.

“That’s none of my business. Forget everything else and apologize to our young lady.”

“No…”

The small boy pouted. Elder sister Deadri’s expression grew even more ominous.

“Child, do you need to be hit to listen?”

The boy called the leader glared at us and then opened his mouth.

“Red. Stand back.”

He spoke calmly, unlike someone who was about to use violence.

“I’m too upset, so I apologize. But my opinion hasn’t changed. If it’s not your business, get out.”

I boldly replied to the leader.

“No, it is my business.”

“What?”

Seeing the leader’s rarely flustered expression, I smiled broadly.

“I came here to play today! No, I came to play with you!”

As his face turned to bewilderment, I quickly flung the door wide open.

Entering among the many boys standing there, I briskly extended my hand towards the central boy.

“Come on! Hand!”

The boy who had fallen to the floor grasped my hand tightly without even dusting off his dirt-covered hand. I didn’t realize he was being lynched, but his grip was stronger than expected, leaving a red mark on my hand.

I tried hard not to show the pain and smiled with difficulty.

“…”

The brown-haired boy got up holding my hand silently without any particular words of thanks.

“Are you okay?”

“…Well, yes.”

After helping up the boy who strangely seemed to be examining me as if checking his surroundings, I straightened up.

Room 201 was suddenly divided in half as if taking sides.

On the left side were me, the attacked boy with curly brown hair, and elder sister Deadri. And on the right were about five or six boys, led by the leader, who had been bullying.

I stiffly straightened my body and then whispered carefully to elder sister Deadri.

“Elder sister, but…”

Elder sister Deadri was glaring at those children as if worried I might get hurt.

“Hey. What’s the matter?”

I muttered, looking at her tense muscles.

“…Why are you talking like that…?”

Suddenly realizing her way of speaking, elder sister Deadri’s eyes widened.

“Hup.”

She put her hand to her mouth, her cheeks turning red, and stamped her feet.

It seems her Peuteu region dialect came out because she was so angry.

[This is the timeline separator]

About ten minutes later. Room 201 of the Gypsy Orphanage was enveloped in an awkward atmosphere.

The brown-haired boy who had been subjected to group lynching was initially aloof, but then seemed to realize my identity was impressive and kept bowing to me repeatedly. It was almost as if he was trying to flatter me.

“You’re a noble, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“I can tell even though you’re dressed strangely. Street kids know these things. Your face has a bit of soot on it, but you clearly smell nice…”

His eyes gleamed strangely.

“Ah, sorry.”

“Um, yeah…”

I awkwardly nodded and grabbed elder sister Deadri’s sleeve.

‘This is a bit strange…’

I clearly saved a boy suffering from violence, but I didn’t feel as good as when I saved Acid. Somehow, I felt uncomfortable.

‘Violence is definitely bad. So saving him was the right thing to do.’

Just an ordinary 5-year-old brain and an adult brain were fighting.

But instincts honed over the years always come alive easily.

‘But something feels suspicious. Should I at least hear the side of those using violence first?’

I’m just an ordinary volunteer, but the people here in Room 201 are not.

I thought about going to that leader from earlier to hear his reasons.

“Wait here for a bit!”

“Huh…?”

“Young lady!”

Before the brown-haired boy and elder sister Deadri could stop me, I quickly got up and ran towards the leader like a swift squirrel. Glaring at me as I quickly arrived in front of him, he muttered through gritted teeth.

“If you’re going to say something like ‘violence is bad anyway,’ get lost.”

“Huh? That’s not it.”

I wanted to say I was a violence enthusiast too, but instead of saying that, I solemnly said.

“Let’s play together!”

“You don’t like me.”

“Um…”

I solemnly asked him.

“I don’t dislike you yet! Why did you bully your friend earlier?”

The leader didn’t seem to want to talk. He sneered mockingly and said as if ridiculing me.

“If I tell you why I did it, will outsiders like you really listen properly?”

“Yeah!”

I nodded vigorously, but the leader still just sneered and didn’t seem to want to talk.

“You’re lying. Do you think I’d tell all my circumstances to you whom I just met today?”

“Um…”

“You’re as naive as your face.”

Looking at the leader full of distrust, I tilted my head inwardly.

Come to think of it, the grip of the child who held my hand earlier was stronger than expected, and he didn’t seem to have any bruises or scars.

‘The atmosphere is suspicious.’

I stared quietly at the leader boy tilting his head askew and then blinked.

Maybe it was the sunlight, but his bluish hair kept appearing brown and then not.

‘For now… let’s try to open these children’s hearts and properly set my original goal.’

I took small steps backward and then nodded slightly to the maid elder sister. Then I carefully whispered to her as she put her ear to my mouth. I revealed my wicked inner thoughts.

Then I saw elder sister Deadri’s eyes widen.

“How did you come up with such an idea?”

“Yeah!”

Tears welled up in elder sister Deadri’s eyes. She quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand, probably worried about muscle loss. But I could see it.

“Too…”

“This small, soft rice cake-like person, so admirable…”

I wondered if it was really something to cry about. But elder sister Deadri nodded vigorously with an expression overwhelmed with emotion.

[This is the timeline separator]

Mirmode family patissiers appeared in the orphanage kitchen.

They appeared majestically inside this orphanage carrying huge sacks of flour and butter, and bowed 90 degrees to me.

‘We greet you, Lady Sien!’

As I blushed and became shy, they chuckled.

However, it was amazing to see how they, like true professionals, filled the kitchen with bread and butter while organizing it, even as they found me adorable.

Needless to say, the orphanage children saw all of this. They whispered to each other as they looked at me.

I grinned as I recalled today’s plan.

!

I remembered the conversation I had with the orphanage director earlier.

‘You were… the young lady of the Mirmode family?’

She hurriedly knelt down. I waved my hands at her and said.

‘You’re going to make a one-day bakery for the gypsies here? An idea to make bread with the children and give it out for free to the gypsies…?’

‘Yeah! Sien will pay for the ingredients!’

‘You’ll need patissiers…’

I smiled brightly and said.

‘I’ll bring them from home!’

‘…Hah, I hope the children will become friends with each other through this opportunity.’

‘Right? The kids will become nice!’

At my words, the orphanage director nodded with a bitter smile. Like someone with a hidden secret.

It seemed she wouldn’t tell me about it, so I just focused on thinking about my plan in detail.

To be precise, my plan is as follows:

In prisons, when rehabilitating young people, they have them make bread.

There are research results showing that by making and eating bread, they feel a sense of achievement, their mood improves, and their aggression decreases.

From what I heard, the gypsy orphanage children know a lot of information because they wander around alleys.

So if I become friends with them through this plan and make them my informants, it will be good in the long run.

If rumors spread that free bread is being given out at this orphanage, there was a high probability that the sorcerer would visit here too.

According to Melodia in the original work, this sorcerer is a hungry person living in the back alleys.

That’s how Acid, Ted, the orphanage director, and the maids all gathered in the kitchen according to my plan.

While the patissiers were busy transporting ingredients, they looked like they were about to carry me on their shoulders, being praise bots just for me.

I hesitated and stepped back.

“To think such a soft person would have such a precious idea.”

“And at such a young age…”

“It seems she was concerned after seeing the orphanage children fighting earlier.”

“There’s no need to go this far, but as the director, it makes me reflect. I only thought of her as a young child…”

In their conversation, I was repackaged and dramatized as something like ‘a saint who was deeply worried about violence and created a one-day bakery for the children to help their rehabilitation and reformation.’

Especially Acid…

“I used to live on the streets too, but Lady Sien picked me up.”

It was loud enough for even the leader boy and others, who were peeking from afar outside the kitchen to see what we were doing, to hear.

I frantically rubbed my spiky wool-like hair and covered my reddened face. I felt like my face had turned all red from the excessive exaggeration.

[This is the timeline separator]

Though no one there was paying attention, there were others who could be deeply and excessively impressed.

They were Pat and Mat, who were tasked with monitoring Sien on Matthias’s orders.

Pat and Mat saw and heard everything Sien did.

They even eavesdropped on all her words intently.

And they were astounded all day today.

How could this be possible?

That tiny child, living in a villain family, the daughter of the greatest villain Matthias Mirmode!

Not only did she save an orphanage child, but she’s even giving out bread for free.

As villains, they had never seen such a purifying scene in their lives.

But they swallowed hard. They were certainly not such incompetent villains as to be swayed by a child’s good deeds done with tiny hands.

It was when Pat and Mat, having barely regained their senses, bit the inside of their cheeks hard.

Sien ran over and tightly grasped the leader boy’s hand.

Pat and Mat watched this scene with their eyes wide open.

They wondered if Sien would mock and insult that leader gypsy boy who had mocked and insulted her in the same way.

If she’s the daughter of ‘that’ Lord Matthias, she could insult him scathingly. That person can kill people with words and kill people with swords.

Pat and Mat’s minds went cold as they recalled the situation when Matthias had cut down monsters when the monster gate opened before.

But… Sien was different.

“Leader!”

She smiled brightly and extended her hand to the leader first.

Could it be that she’s trying to make up with that boy called the leader?

She really is a baby angel.

Not knowing they had the same thought simultaneously, Pat and Mat hurriedly cleared their throats.

But unconscious thoughts and actual words are different.

“W-well, I still don’t like young kids.”

Pat muttered, unaware that he had stuttered,

“…Th…at’s right. I feel the same.”

Mat followed up, not realizing he had struggled to speak.

Their inner selves, still steeped in evil, coldly ignored this fact. Pat and Mat tried hard to maintain expressions full of malice and muttered softly through their teeth.

They didn’t know now. That consciously trying to keep disliking Sien was their last bastion.

Once this bastion crumbled… they didn’t know what would happen.

They fixed their gaze on Sien.

But something they hadn’t noticed until now while staring at Sien came to mind.

“That kid called the leader.”

“Huh?”

“Doesn’t he seem familiar?”

They looked at each other and frowned. Having traveled all over the country, they should know who he was. But they just couldn’t remember.

He was clearly a familiar face… it seemed like someone was reflected in that face.

It was as if someone had scribbled all over their minds with a black marker.