A white, plump hand reached out toward Alan. The hand smacked Alan’s nose hard.

“Ouch!”

“What’s that sound?”

“It’s Alan.”

“Stubborn fool, nyeh.”

One of the boys who had been pushed by Alan extended his arm and hit Alan’s nose.

Normally, this situation would lead to a furious outburst and a chase, but Alan, with tears in his eyes, couldn’t take his gaze away from Bonita’s drawing.

Bonita held out the completed drawing to Maya.

“This is a gift.”

Maya, as if completely forgetting about the ruined drawing from earlier, happily received the gift with a joyful expression.

Maya and Alan’s eyes met.

Bonita observed the two of them.

One had red eyes, and the other had a red nose. It looked quite comical, but the individuals involved were serious.

Alan’s neck turned red as he felt the gaze of the two girls. He hesitated for a moment and then mumbled.

“Uh, well, um. I, I…”

“I?”

“Mimi?”

“Alan’s face turned red!”

“Oh! You guys!”

When the surrounding children began to mimic Alan’s words and tease him one by one, Alan shouted again.

“Stop it.”

Then Bonita spoke.

“Don’t make fun of someone who’s trying to apologize.”

Upon hearing this, the children fell silent.

Bonita’s gaze turned to Alan. Alan, who met her rose-colored eyes, flinched.

“……”

“……”

Inside the cookie house, it was unbelievably quiet with more than twenty children.

Alan broke the silence.

“……Sorry.”

Alan, facing Maya, added with his fingers fidgeting.

“For tearing up your drawing and not properly apologizing for it, and for shouting earlier. Sorry.”

“Wow…”

Derek admired the stubborn Alan’s apology.

And Maya, who received the apology, said.

“It’s okay.”

“You forgive me?”

“Yeah.”

Maya nodded her head.

She showed the drawing she received from Bonita.

“I got such a wonderful gift. I’ll brag about this to my mom.”

Alan’s awkward expression, which had looked uncomfortable all along, softened.

Cassis, who had been watching from behind, sighed in admiration.

He mumbled.

“He’s really something…”

“Now, like this. And…”

After that, Bonita continued to draw. The children gathered around her, either watching Bonita or sitting down to draw with crayons, following the crooked lines.

“It’s been a while.”

While drawing, Bonita felt a somewhat nostalgic feeling. Sitting still and concentrating on a drawing seemed like a long time ago.

In fact, she drew every day.

In the house without Aria, after finishing the housework, Bonita had nothing else to do.

There were only a few occasions when she looked at the pictures in a fairy tale book with unreadable text.

Naturally, she started to draw along.

The drawings she felt embarrassed about were hidden under the wooden floorboards, not shown to Aria separately…

“Incredible!”
“Next time, draw the castle where the princess lives! And also the prince riding a white horse!”

“No, I’d prefer a handsome knight.”

“Wow.”

Because of this, it was the first time she heard such a direct and overt compliment.

Blushing at the praise, Bonita’s cheeks turned red, but it felt embarrassing yet incredibly pleasant.

Someone knocked on the gingerbread house’s door when Bonita completed her fifth drawing.

“Young master, young ladies, it’s time to return home now.”

The person who opened the door was one of the estate’s servants.

Determined to hear screams and shouts resembling little beasts, he was perplexed upon seeing the children gathered in a circle.

‘What’s going on?’

At this point, it was the perfect timing for two or three of them to be engaged in a heated argument over a trivial matter. But today, no one was crying or yelling.

It wasn’t just that.

He approached the center, paying no attention to him arriving to signal the end of the social gathering, and was surprised to see everyone deeply engrossed in something. In the midst of the circle was a girl with pink hair.

‘The Lady of the Renaissance?’

Was it fascinating for the children to have the only young lady of the duke among them?

His gaze turned to the drawing Bonita and the children were looking at.

‘Did Madam arrange the drawings separately?’

Well, hiring a skilled artist among the nobles to paint on the walls was a common practice. Was there a rule against calling it a gingerbread house?

With such thoughts, he smiled and addressed the children again.

“Young ladies, young masters! The ladies of the house will be here soon. You should be ready to return home in 10 minutes. Please prepare your hearts.”

The reason the steward came in advance to inform about the time without the mistresses present was simple.

It was because the children wouldn’t simply listen to the suggestion of going home quietly once they heard it. There were common occurrences of whining that they wanted to stay here longer, clinging to the pillar like cicadas, or hiding somewhere secretly.

However, by giving them the time and slowly announcing it in advance, he could minimize such non-rebellious resistance.

It was much better than abruptly stopping them in the middle of a ‘crucial play.’

“Ah, got it.”