Candy house?

Bonita blinked at the unfamiliar term.

But as she approached a little closer, she could see that “candy house” was indeed an honest description.

The fence surrounding the candy house was made of giant crackers. Bonita touched the white cream sandwiched between the crackers.

Her fingers were covered in sweet whipped cream. Alan, who had been trying to run away until just now, urged in a slightly excited tone.

“Try eating that!”

…Would it be okay to eat?

Bonita hesitated. But there wasn’t much time to ponder as the sweet smell of milk and sugar kept wafting from the cream on her hands.

Lick.

Bonita stuck out her red tongue and licked the cream on her hand. Her eyes widened in surprise.

‘It’s real whipped cream!’

The cream was moderately rich and smooth. It seemed to have been made by whipping freshly squeezed milk with sugar.

Bonita licked all the cream off her hand in an instant. Alan even broke off a piece of cracker, held it in his hand, and tore into it.

Every time he moved his mouth, there was a crunching sound. After quickly devouring a cream-covered cracker, Alan now pointed towards the house.

“You can eat that too. It seems quiet right now-”

But before Alan could finish speaking, the sound of children chattering began to be heard.

“Kyahaha! Try to catch me!”

“You! Give me back my stone!”

“I don’t want to, why don’t you try to catch me!”

“Elder brother. Can I eat this?”

“Ssup. Jiji, Jiji.”

The screams and laughter of children each saying their own thing echoed from inside the candy house. What was certain was that most of them seemed to be terribly fond of that candy house.

Bonita opened her mouth and examined the candy house.

The pillars of the candy house were all made of hard biscuits. Between those biscuit bricks was chocolate cement that gave off a thick, sweet smell.

And below that, colorful candies were placed like foundation stones. The large candies repeating red, blue, and yellow showed traces of being broken and eaten by young children.

And the garden.

Colorful rocks were arranged in the garden. Cassis glanced at Bonita, who looked as if she was dreaming, and suggested casually.

“Why don’t you try eating it?”

He pointed to a rock.

Bonita, still feeling dazed, poked her finger into a green rock.

The rock jiggled elastically. Only then could Bonita tell what the white powder covering the rock was.

“Wow…!”

It was jelly.

On the opposite side of the sugar-powdered jelly rock, teeth marks were visible where someone had torn off a bite.

Bonita carefully bit into a clean part of the rock. Then her mouth was filled with the sweet and sour taste of green apple jelly.

Bonita’s eyes sparkled brightly.

Of course, the duke’s estate was also another world to her, but this place was a completely different world. It felt just like being in a fairy tale land.

Bonita, who had been carefully nibbling on the rock, glanced slightly at the boy standing still and soon gathered her courage.

She strode towards the entrance of the candy house.

The biscuit door was tightly closed, but it was also heavily sprinkled with sugar powder. Because of that, the house shone brilliantly white as if covered in falling snow.

Bonita pressed her ear close to the door. She could clearly hear the children making a ruckus inside.

Bonita carefully grabbed the doorknob, then was startled. The doorknob was only half there.

Looking down, she saw traces of someone having taken away part of the dark chocolate doorknob. However, strangely enough, the chocolate hadn’t melted at all and remained dry. Even though the spring weather was quite warm, at this level it seemed like chocolate made with some special technique.

Bonita carefully grasped the doorknob and was about to open the door- when.

“Where the heck did these kids… Huh? Who are you?”

It was a brown-haired boy who looked quite a bit older than Bonita.

The boy looked down at Bonita, who was looking up at him with a puzzled face, then soon discovered his younger siblings behind her and shouted.

“Ah! Alan, Cassis! Do you know how long it’s been since you went out?”

“What, how long has it been.”

Alan grumbled. Cassis quietly looked at his elder brother and said.

“Alan was trying to go out through the dog hole again. It’s not my fault.”

“Dog hole? …Ah! That.”

Derek, the eldest son of the Viscount Hyacinth family, soon remembered the existence of the ‘dog hole’ and let out an exclamation.

He clicked his tongue in regret. The candy house was nice, but secretly sneaking out of the viscount’s estate was also a very fun game.

But now wasn’t the time for that. Derek asked his two younger brothers.

“But what about the duke’s daughter? Weren’t you supposed to bring her?”

“She’s right there.”

“Huh? Where? Where?”

He turned his head around, imagining a girl with black hair and black eyes who looked like she had a bad temper.

But all he could see was a harmless little girl who reminded him of a small rabbit or hamster. She looked about five or six years old.

Derek tilted his head.

“I don’t see her.”

“What are you talking about?”

Alan frowned.

Only Cassis looked like he understood. In fact, he too hadn’t imagined she would look like this at all until he saw the duke’s daughter in person.

After all, wasn’t she the daughter of that terrifying duke? So soft and cu… cu… anyway.

Cassis put his hand on Bonita’s shoulder and said.

“Here, miss duke’s daughter. She’s right here.”

“…What?!”

Derek, who had been silent for a moment, exclaimed. He involuntarily took a step back and carefully took in Bonita’s whole appearance.

No matter how he looked at her.

“She doesn’t look like the duke at all!”

“…You don’t look like father at all either. You look like mother.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Derek mumbled, rubbing his chin.

It’s certainly possible to resemble one parent. Just look at him and Alan who take after their mother, while only the youngest Cassis has a prickly impression resembling their father.

But the reason he was acting like this was because Duke Lisianthus had such a strong presence. Compared to the image he had created in his imagination, the girl before his eyes was too small… and cute.

He couldn’t remember what the late duchess looked like, so it couldn’t be helped.

He wiggled his fingers in the air.

“Uh, I’m Derek. Derek Hyacinth. I’m their eldest brother.”

“I’m Bonita Lisianthus.”

“Wow, so you really are a Lisianthus. That scary duke is your father, right?”

At the words ‘scary duke’, Bonita immediately nodded her head.

Luke would be very upset if he knew about this reaction.

“Alright, all of you come in for now. I’m about to die of exhaustion looking after these kids right now.”

Derek was playful in front of Cassis, but the children gathered here were mostly three to seven years old.

Even seven-year-olds are a bit better. The three and four-year-old babies were completely uncontrollable, so Derek, the eldest at ten years old, was having quite a hard time.

It wasn’t for nothing that Alan had tried to abandon this candy house and run away.

As soon as he went in with the three children, a three-year-old baby with a bib clung to him.

“Derek elder brother! Cas keeps, taking what I was going to eat!”

“What?! I called dibs on that from the start, Maria!”

“No way!”

Derek closed his eyes tightly at the fight between the three-year-old babies. His young face was clearly showing signs of fatigue.

He muttered with a soul-drained expression.

“Ah… I hate social gatherings…”

Seeing that, Alan frowned and whispered to Bonita.

“See? There are too many kids here. The really young ones are hard to play with because their level is too low. I should’ve run away earlier.”

Even Alan, who said that, was only eight years old, but certainly to an eight-year-old child, a three-year-old would just seem like an annoying baby.

Cassis shook his head and went into a corner of the candy house. He picked up a thick book from the chocolate bookshelf and started turning the pages while nibbling on the lamp next to him little by little.

Of course, it didn’t last long.

“Elder brother Cassis! Build blocks with me!”

“Hey, you said you’d do blocks with me. Elder brother Cassis is always too annoyed to be any fun!”

The two boys who had been talking to him soon started arguing among themselves.

…Right in front of Cassis.

Bonita burst out laughing as she watched Cassis, who was annoyed but ended up building blocks with the four-year-old children anyway.

With the commotion as a backdrop, she began to examine the interior of the candy house in detail.

Although there were traces of baby drool and young children’s fist marks here and there, the candy house was still maintaining its shape well due to its large size.

Bonita marveled at the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

‘I wonder what that’s made of?’

Unfortunately, the chandelier was hung too high for short children to check directly.

Bonita gave up on reaching for the ceiling and examined the wall.

Like outside the house, there were various decorations on the wall that young children would likely enjoy.

Bonita, who had peeled off a bird made of white chocolate, suddenly wondered how many candies, sweets, and chocolates were used to make this house.

Bonita munched on the chocolate and tapped on the biscuit wall.

‘How did they bake such a large biscuit? How is the chocolate so hard?’

The chocolate sticking the biscuits together was clearly quite different from the ordinary kind Bonita knew. Perhaps they added some kind of glue…

As Bonita fell into serious contemplation.

“Y-y-you stupid idiot! It’s all your fault!”

Alan’s shout echoed loudly through the candy house.