Surprised by the sight, Nia, who had been startled, shook both hands with rabbit eyes.

Then the paper moved again, exactly as she did.

“Whoa, whoa! It’s the same as Nia…! Amazing!”

“Humph.”

Although Heath chuckled at the child’s enthusiastic reaction, he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

Soon, something came to Nia’s mind, and she suddenly began to run somewhere.

“No. Nia, that way is not the way home.”

Despite her mother’s dissuasion, the quiet child gestured with her hands in the distance.

“Mom…! Nia wants to do it like this! Can you stay away like this?”

As Lucia nodded at the abrupt action, Nia’s bright laughter revealed her pretty front teeth from afar.

And the child ran back and bowed her small hands in front of Heath again.

“…Igo, Nia wants to make it too…! Please help me!”

Although it was quite a polite request, the boy chuckled.

“A fool like you can’t make it.”

…!

The child seemed disappointed at Heath’s rejection but quickly understood.

‘Niya is not a magic user… What can you do? Hardy…’

“…I want to make it and give it to friends….”
As the child murmured about really wanting it but being unable to say it directly, Lucia, who had just roughed up Heath’s back, smiled softly.

“Yes, as expected, it seems regrettable.”

“Nia, come here.”

Lucia lifted the slowly approaching child.

Then, looking alternately at Heath, she thought, ‘…Now, we probably have a lot of time to be together. There is a few years’ age difference. About 15 years old. Then… elder brother.’

“You may not be able to make it yourself, but instead, Heath oppa will make it. How many?”

At that, Heath, who showed displeasure at a specific word, furrowed his brow sharply.

Niya, in her mother’s embrace, saw Heath’s reaction.

After hesitating for a while, she spread out her left hand, saying, “…Five.”

“What? Five? You have a lot of friends.”

Niya was surprised by that, gathered the hand she was spreading out, and buried it into her mother.

Then, a chilly atmosphere felt only by Heath and a low sound ringing in his ears.

“…Are you going to make it right away, oppa?”

At this moment, feeling like it might be better to just sleep outside, he shivered.

“…Yeah.”

To Heath’s trembling answer, Niya, who quickly descended from her mother, expressed overwhelming joy on her flushed cheeks.

The child, who was brimming with joy, grabbed the boy’s clothes carefully.

“Heath, thank you. Elder brother…! Niya loves your hair so much…!”

It would have been better if they could go together more, but that would be greedy.

Even if the child, who felt that Heath, who seemed to dislike her, would go with her, seemed to find a small comfort in that.

The next day, in the small greenhouse of the kindergarten.

It wasn’t much of a greenhouse, with many seedlings planted, giving it a strong feel of a field, and the door wide open.

Children, who had come in to avoid the cold of early winter in thick outerwear for class, took off their outerwear one by one, standing in line for the horticultural experience, one of the nobles’ hobbies.

After taking care of the children until the end, Teacher Emily shook hands with the person in the middle of the greenhouse.

Then, an old man approached with leisurely steps.

With sunburned skin, holding a small shovel, the man had a kind smile of an amiable farmer, and he said, “Nice to meet you. It seems precious guests have come.”

“Kids, greet. This person is Mr. Thomson, the gardener who takes care of the grass, flowers, and trees in our kindergarten.”

When Emily introduced him, the chicks, who were looking around the unfamiliar environment, finally focused and greeted him warmly.

And as the class began, Gardener Thomson, along with Emily, handed out 13 prepared envelopes to each child.

“Huh? What’s this, and is it edible?”

It was a question from a child looking into the envelope.

Before the gardener could answer, another child frowned.

“Ugh, I know. It’s trash. Edible leftovers!”

“Hehe, you’re smart, little master. But this is not just trash.”
Despite the child’s negative reaction, he calmly started crushing eggshells and dried fruit peels in a wooden mortar.

Sprinkling the resulting powder around the plants, he explained, “If you sprinkle it like this, it becomes good soil that helps the plants grow twice as fast. It’s like magic.”

Roy, with his ears perked up, got excited. “Wow! Is it magic powder?”

“It could be. Clever little master. Hehehe.”

Upon Roy’s words, the children’s disgusted expressions changed. Afterward, without any choice, they enthusiastically began pounding in the mortar to obtain the magical powder.

And when some children started hitting vigorously for fun, Emily lightly warned the children.

“Oh, my, kids. You have to make magic powder with a pure heart.”

“Why? We want to make it quickly and play.”

When Ivan responded to that without missing the opportunity, Emily’s suffocating dilemma of not making excuses began.

But the savior in such situations was Roy.