Reforming the Villain Family - Chapter 58

The next morning, I greeted Sophia and Delma with puffy eyes.

“Young miss, it looks like you can’t see.”

“Mmm, no. I can see everything.”

“What are we going to do with your eyes so swollen?”

Sophia carefully placed a cold ice pack over my eyelids.

Unlike Sophia, giggles could be heard from beside me.

“Delma.”

“Pfft, ah, I’m sorry. But young miss, your eyes have become completely puffy.”

The culprit was, of course, Delma. When our eyes met, she bit her lip hard to hold back laughter, but it didn’t seem to have much effect.

“I absolutely won’t laugh, hic!”

Still, with Sophia applying the ice pack, my eyes opened a bit more easily.

Thinking I had improved a bit from before, I left the room, but that seemed to be my misconception.

“Oh my, young miss’s eyes!”

“Goodness, how did her eyes get so puffy and round?”

“Your eyes have become so round!”

Every servant passing by immediately noticed my swollen eyes.

‘Sigh, I don’t know either.’

At first, I lowered my face a little, but now I just walked with my head held stiffly high as if to say, look if you want to.

Before entering the dining room, I took a deep breath for a moment. The reason I had left my room this morning was to have breakfast in the dining room.

As I nodded slightly, the servant opened the dining room door for me.

The Duke and Clemens had already arrived.

I clenched both fists and spoke deliberately.

“Father, good morning! Elder brother, good morning too!”

There was no response. Clemens, who met my eyes, started coughing lightly.

When I turned my head, the Duke had tightly closed his lips and averted his gaze.

I stared at them blankly for a moment before speaking up.

“You can just laugh.”

At my words, a burst of laughter spread.

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‘I didn’t know I’d be this swollen.’

This was all because I had cried so hard yesterday.

“You look like you slept very well.”

The Duke took out an elegant handkerchief and gently wiped around my eyes. After hesitating for a moment, I nonchalantly entrusted my face to his hand.

“Is that better now?”

“Yes.”

Meanwhile, Clemens was deboning fish and placing it on my plate.

“Diane, try this. It’ll suit your taste.”

I stabbed it with my fork and put it in my mouth in one bite.

As Clemens said, it was a dish that suited my taste perfectly.

“It’s delicious!”

“I’ll give you more.”

Clemens gave me a bright smile. I grinned back at him.

This was the second family meal I was having since coming to the Duke’s mansion.

Actually, we did eat together when Clemens came, but after that day, we didn’t have a chance to have meals all together.

The Duke was very busy, and even when our schedules happened to match, I avoided joining by making excuses about taking naps.

But now there was no reason for that.

I wasn’t afraid of the Duke and Clemens anymore.

After filling my stomach with the fish Clemens lent me and the meat the Duke cut for me, I brought up the conversation I couldn’t finish yesterday.

“By the way, those kids who were trapped in the auction house yesterday. Where are they now?”

“In the annex. We’ve sent almost all of them back to their parents. Philen worked hard.”

No wonder I didn’t see Philen at all after coming to the mansion yesterday. He must have been busy finding all of their parents.

‘There must have been at least a dozen of them.’

To have found the parents of so many children in just one night. Indeed, it was no exaggeration to say he was a talent that the Magic Tower coveted.

But they probably didn’t find everyone. There was likely one that even Philen’s abilities couldn’t locate.

“You didn’t find parents for all of them, right?”

“We found most of them.”

“So there’s still a child whose parents weren’t found.”

When I asked for confirmation, Clemens raised one eyebrow. At that moment, he looked surprisingly similar to the Duke.

‘Is this why Clemens is the heir to the Duke’s family!’

“Where is the child whose parents weren’t found?”

“First floor of the annex, Reception Room 1.”

Reception Room 1 was the room at the very end of the hallway. I jumped up from my seat, but the Duke blocked my way with his long arm.

“You can’t go alone.”

“And absolutely no sneaking off later.”

It seems my solo trip from the auction house to the warehouse had been quite a shock to these two.

‘But they’re not stopping me from going.’

I smiled at the two who had given permission.

But it seems they weren’t giving permission so easily.

Instead of the Duke who couldn’t follow me all the way due to work, Clemens chased me to my room and questioned me thoroughly.

“Why are you trying to go to the annex?”

“What are you planning to do by seeing that child again?”

“Should I come along?”

At his last words, I shook my head firmly.

“No.”

Clemens narrowed his eyes in displeasure, but I ignored him and took out some candy to give to the child.

‘He’ll probably go back.’

Shen Ke has nowhere to go back to. His parents didn’t raise him properly like normal parents, and they just abandoned him to the guild.

Probably this time too, Shen Ke with nowhere to go will choose only the thieves’ guild.

‘If he goes back in this time, he won’t be able to easily get out.’

Within the guild, he was young and had no backing, so he was destined to be pushed around.

Nevertheless, through his innate talent and effort, he was to become an outstanding thief surpassing his parents.

‘Becoming friends early with a child who’ll be a famous thief…’

As I was about to leave the room with light steps, I stopped abruptly.

One question popped into my mind.

‘Does that child really need to become a thief?’

In the original work, it didn’t explain in detail about the process of Shen Ke becoming a thief.

But I could tell from the scenes where Shen Ke occasionally confessed his past to Elizer.

How cursed he thought his life was.

‘If I could go back, I’d want to live normally. Not a life of sneaking through sewers avoiding people’s eyes, not a life I can’t talk about to anyone, but a life where I can say I protected someone.’

Shen Ke wanted justice. In fact, even as time passed, he didn’t give up his desire to pursue justice.

Later, he risked his life to appear before Elizer and volunteered to become his companion.

He also said that even if he went back, he would have made the same choice.

Because he knew that there was only one choice given to him.

If another choice was given to someone like him.

If he was given a path to choose something other than being a thief.

Having made up my mind, I turned to Clemens.

“Elder brother, I have a favor to ask…”

“Yes, tell me.”

After hearing my words, Clemens thought for a moment. In the end, he granted my request.

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I moved to the annex with Sophia and Yan.

Holding the candy I had asked Sophia to prepare beforehand.

‘First floor of the annex, the room at the very end.’

A servant was guarding the front. I carefully opened that door.

There was only one child left in the room who couldn’t find their parents, Shen Ke.

The room where he was staying was spacious. On one side was a soft bed, and next to it was a leather sofa where one could rest at any time.

However, Shen Ke was crouched in the most corner of the room.

“Shen Ke.”

At my call, he slightly lifted his head. Soon his head drooped lifelessly onto his knees.

“I heard you haven’t eaten anything since this morning.”

“I wasn’t hungry.”

‘Liar.’

All the other children had found their families and gone home yesterday. That means Shen Ke had to spend the night alone in this room since last night.

He must have been lonely. Tired and exhausted.

Quite ironically, I spent the least lonely night of my life last night. And it will always be like that today and in the future.

How could someone like me say anything to him, I couldn’t easily open my mouth.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before finally plopping down beside him.

Shen Ke asked gruffly.

“Shouldn’t a noble young lady not sit on the dirty floor?”

“It’s not dirty here, it’s clean, that’s why you’re sitting here too.”

“…”

The Duke’s employees cleaned and cleaned again every day so that not a speck of dust remained in the mansion.

That’s why I had never seen dust even when touching any ornament or window frame.

Unable to refute my words, Shen Ke tightly closed his mouth. I fiddled with the candy I had brought and slightly held it out to him.

“Do you want to eat this?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“This is a really delicious strawberry flavored candy…”

At the mention of candy, Shen Ke suddenly lifted his head. He snatched the candy from my palm.

“I’ll eat it since you’re asking.”

He grumbled as he carefully tucked the candy into his pocket. I carefully began to speak.

“Did all the other kids go home well?”

“Yeah, thanks to someone.”

“I’m glad.”

I said sincerely. Shen Ke, glancing at me, asked gruffly.

“You didn’t come here just to ask that, why did you really come?”

With an expression that said, you could have asked the servants about such trivial things, couldn’t you? He stared at me.

“I heard from Sophia, you said you would go to the monastery.”

“It’s none of your business.”

Shen Ke replied sharply.

There were no orphanages in Hesera. Not just Hesera, but most of the imperial territories were like that.

Orphanages were facilities that could only be managed directly by government offices. It was natural that there were no orphanages in territories without government offices.

Therefore, in territories without orphanages, monasteries managed by believers dispatched from the central temple took care of the children.

If Shen Ke really went to the monastery, I might not have felt this way.

However, Shen Ke spends most of his childhood in the underground guild. Even if he goes to the monastery this time, he will probably escape from there for some reason and head to the thieves’ guild.

He will make that choice that he will regret for the rest of his life.

“Don’t go.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s none of your business.”

“You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you go.”

I spoke without thinking. Startled by my words, Shen Ke narrowed his eyes.

“You…, you talk as if you know something?”

Ah, again without realizing it.

I swallowed hard. This mouth of mine, I need to be careful.

On the other hand, I pretended not to know anything and spoke up.

“I came because I have a proposal.”

I gestured to Yan standing outside the door, and Yan strode towards us.

Yan was tall. I know from the original work that he is a kind and gentle person, but if you see him with his mouth tightly shut, you wouldn’t easily imagine such an image.

‘And my knight is handsome too!’

I looked at Yan with a proud smile. Yan, meeting my eyes, approached me, bowed slightly, and stood at attention.

“Yan, I called you because I have a request.”

“At your command.”

Unlike when we were alone, Yan replied briefly in a businesslike manner.

It was the perfect image of chivalry. A spark of light flashed in Shen Ke’s eyes as he looked at Yan.