After the hunting competition ended, Larisa looked at the pile of animal carcasses floating above the carriage with a slightly disgusted expression.

“Are we taking that with us?”

“Yes. It’s all yours.”

“M-Mine?”

“I offered you the flower crown earlier, didn’t I? It means I’m offering you all the game as well.”

Guinevere smiled with satisfaction. She had her own thoughts on the matter.

She could have sent everything back to the mansion via teleportation, but she intended to ride the carriage like this, openly advertising that she was the winner of the hunting competition.

That way, everyone would know that Larisa was the owner of the flower crown, and those who tried to look down on her for not having a noble title yet would disappear.

Unaware of these thoughts, Larisa made a pitiful face.

“You don’t have to give me that… Can’t you just give me the flower crown?”

“Don’t say that. It’s yours, so think about how you want to handle it.”

The 7-year-old Larisa desperately racked her brain. She couldn’t think of anything. Hedel smiled kindly and said,

“It’s fine to freeze everything and put it in cold storage, so Miss Lara doesn’t need to worry.”

“Cold storage?”

“If we preserve it with magic, we won’t need to buy meat for about a year, right?”

Though that reassured her, Larisa continued to worry throughout the carriage ride.

The pile of animal carcasses floating above the carriage and following along. The screams of surprised people at the grotesque sight could be heard even inside the carriage.

‘Lady Guinevere is a good witch, but people are misunderstanding again.’

Larisa cautiously asked,

“Um… are you really giving all of that to me?”

“Yes.”

“Then can I do whatever I want with it?”

“That’s what I said. You keep asking the obvious.”

“Then can I give the meat away to people?”

When Guinevere looked at her as if she’d heard something strange, Larisa became discouraged.

“I-I’m sorry. But if we pile it up in front of the mansion and say it’s free, I’m sure many people would come take it.”

“Give it to people, you say?”

“Y-Yes…”

Larisa quickly nodded, afraid Guinevere might say no.

After thinking for a moment, Guinevere spoke.

“Why not.”

“Pardon?”

“You can do as you wish.”

Guinevere too had once survived on bread and meat distributed by wealthy people during her impoverished days.

‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

Naturally, the selfish Guinevere Rodante had never given away her own possessions to others in her entire life.

But hearing Larisa’s suggestion, it seemed like a good idea. It would be a good way to advertise Larisa Rodante’s existence throughout the city, after all.

“Then it would be good to set up a relief station in your name. Hedel.”

“Yes, Master.”

“How long would it take to prepare starting now?”

“Three hours should be sufficient.”

“I’ll trust you on that.”

Hedel was capable. In less than two hours, a relief station was set up in the capital’s largest central square. He not only obtained permission from the imperial palace and government offices, but also gathered all the butchers and tanners in the city.

“Well done.”

“It’s nothing.”

Hedel puffed out his chest. His master was usually stingy with praise, but when it came to anything related to Larisa, the praise was abundant.

Thanks to that, he was finding joy in his work these days. His rock-bottom self-esteem, from thinking he was incompetent compared to his master, was being filled thanks to Larisa.

“Uncle Hedel, how did you do this? It’s amazing.”

“This is nothing.”

‘Our little lucky charm.’

Hedel patted Larisa’s head with a fond smile.

“But what if people don’t come?”

“There’s no need to worry about that either.”

Hedel said, puffing out his chest proudly. At his signal, the Rodante family’s magicians began chanting spells. Then they started shouting in unison.

[Miss Larisa Rodante is distributing meat at the central square.]

The magicians’ shouts rode the wind and scattered to every corner of the city. People looked around feeling as if someone was shouting nearby, but couldn’t find anyone.

Starting with curious people living nearby coming to take a look, the relief station began to get crowded.

[Miss Larisa Rodante is distributing meat at the central square.]

The poor who came to the central square just in case were moved to tears. It wasn’t the kind of smelly meat that nobles would salt and only give to the poor when it became inedible.

It was fresh meat, and large game like deer and wild boar that only nobles could usually taste.

[Miss Larisa Rodante is distributing meat at the central square.]

“Lara! It really is you!”

Among them, one of the slum dwellers who remembered her from her street rat days recognized Larisa, but was stopped by Hedel.

“It’s okay, Uncle Hedel. Auntie, it’s me, Lara. Marina’s daughter, Larisa.”

“Yes, it really is you. I thought you were a princess…”

The woman who was about to take Larisa’s hand hid it, wiping her dirty hands on her apron. Larisa hugged the woman and said,

“Are you doing well? I’m doing well thanks to Lady Rodante’s grace.”

“Are you really doing well?”

Seeing the worried look in her eyes, Larisa felt a lump in her throat.

“Yes, she treats me like her own daughter.”

The woman whispered softly,

“If anything happens, you can run away anytime. Everyone in the back alleys has a story, you know? Like your mother… Hiding one person is nothing.”

Larisa nodded slightly. The woman then took the meat without hesitation and left.

However, a small question arose in Larisa’s mind.

‘Like my mother?’

Larisa fiddled with the locket around her neck as she thought. Did my mother have a story too? But… she never told me anything.

*

When William returned home for the weekend, he confronted Guinevere as soon as dinner time came.

“Why are you doing things you never used to do?”

“Things I never used to do?”

“Mother, you usually don’t even look at event invitations, right?”

Not only that, they had never had dinner together before. Suddenly changing as if someone had come back from the dead, having dinner together every weekend – William was having trouble adjusting.

Guinevere took a sip of wine in response to her son’s snarky question.

‘Who do you think I’m doing these bothersome things for?’

It seemed her son’s unpleasant temperament undoubtedly took after her own.

“Why suddenly taking Lara… Sigh.”

William swallowed an impatient sigh. He had heard that his mother had attended the hunting competition with Larisa.

He’d also heard how she had nearly wiped out all the game with an enormous wide-area spell, ruining the competition.

When he heard that she had even offered the flower crown to Lara in the midst of it all, he felt rather overwhelmed himself.

“Why are you really doing this?”

“What.”

Sensing from Guinevere’s attitude that she had no intention of answering, William closed his mouth. To begin with, insisting on having dinner together was unlike Guinevere.

‘I feel like I’m going to choke.’

William gulped down water while glancing at Larisa. Larisa was eating well, munching away.

‘Looks like I’m the only one who can’t adapt.’

He had also heard that afterwards, kind Larisa had distributed all the game to the poor. With the magicians’ voices spread throughout the city, it was impossible not to know.

[Miss Larisa Rodante is distributing meat at the central square.]

How much he had been harassed by his classmates because of that…

‘Who is Larisa Rodante? Is she your sister?’

William couldn’t bring himself to say no or yes, and just evaded the question.

‘She’s the daughter of my mother’s friend… Her friend passed away…’

‘So she’s an adopted daughter?’

‘She’s not adopted yet…’

‘Not yet? So she will be soon?’

William couldn’t bring himself to answer. What could he say? That she wasn’t an adopted daughter, but his future wife?

‘I think I’m choking.’

Unable to continue eating, William put down his utensils. Larisa looked at him worriedly and said,

“William, why aren’t you eating?”

“I think I’m choking.”

“Then shall we go for a walk together?”

“Okay.”

When William came out for an evening walk alone with Larisa, he felt like he could breathe again. Of course, the completely transformed garden felt like someone else’s house rather than the familiar home he knew, but at least it was a good atmosphere for a walk.

Larisa followed along obediently as William led the way and asked,

“Is there one here too? A dog hole?”

“Yes. If we go a bit further that way…”

“Your mother still doesn’t know, right?”

“Probably. Just in case, I put up a barrier so it can’t be detected by my blood, but there’s no sign of the barrier being broken.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!”

Larisa clapped her hands even though she didn’t fully understand what he was saying. That level of social skills was nothing for a child from the slums.

“How about you? Are you doing well in school?”

William asked worriedly. Larisa looked at William with a slightly strange expression and said,

“Willy-willy, you seemed like a elder brother just now.”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t have any siblings, so I’ve always envied kids with older brothers or sisters. But when you ask like that, you really seem like my elder brother.”

William, who had been lost in thought until just now, felt self-loathing.

‘Right, this is how it should be. I should be a good elder brother for Lara…’

Yet he didn’t know why he felt bitter inside.

“How about you, William? Is the academy fun?”

“Yes.”

William, who chose the Knight Department as his major and Alchemy as his minor, was among the top students at the academy these days.

Having proven his skills in the first exam of the new semester, he was smoothly enjoying his school life. Of course, there were times when teachers from the Magic Department would come and ask if he really had no talent for magic, but…

‘I don’t, as I’ve said.’

When William glared at them saying this, they backed off nervously. He had never felt his mother’s presence as strongly as he did these days.

“Mother has suddenly changed… It’s a bit strange.”

“Why?”

“Everyone tiptoes around me, and it’s… burdensome, since it’s not because I’m actually great or anything.”

Why am I confiding these worries to a child? William sighed.

“Why, William is great.”