“As the Imperial Princess… No, as a friend, I’m asking. Let her go. Please! Okay?”

“Roy too! Roy too! Please, please!”

“Please. Nia’s mother!”

The children clung to Lucia with enthusiasm, as if they were about to climb a cliff, but she, who still couldn’t grasp the situation, seemed uncomfortable and awkward.

So, watching this, Nia quietly approached her mother.

“Mommy, let Nia go to kindergarten. Because… because…”

Seeing the disappointed faces of the clinging children, Nia swallowed her disappointment as if it were a lump in her throat, and then she approached Hiss, who had been watching.

“Anniya, let Nia go to kindergarten. Please…”
Hiss snatched the child’s bag with an indifferent face and lifted it high.

Then, seeing this, the friends attacked Hiss fiercely.

“Why are you taking it from Nia!”

“Who do you think you are, daring to do that to the princess’s friend! What family are you from!”

Ignoring the children’s complaints, Hiss, who didn’t bat an eye, looked straight at Nia and said, “If you want to go, say it properly.”

Then, everyone’s gaze focused on Nia.

What could the child really want?

“…Kindergarten… want to go…”

“Louder.”

“…Want to go to kindergarten…!”

Nia took small steps, laboriously approaching her mother.

And, due to the friends’ influence, she carefully held up the crumpled side of her skirt.

“…Mom, with Ivannu, Junha, Caesar, Roy. Also, Evan, see every day… want to go to kindergarten… Yes, yes… Aaah…!”

“…”

It was the first time.

To put into words what the child wanted.

Perhaps, considering all the unfortunate lives she had, it might be the first time?

Lucia overcoming all obstacles for the child.

And letting the child choose what she wants.

Both are undoubtedly important, but the priority might be the latter.

“All right. Instead…”

“Don’t fight. Promise.”

“…Promise!!!”

The children with their small mouths shouted in joy, and Nia ran to her mother.

It was a heartwarming moment for everyone.

However, the only woman shedding cold tears here.

‘Even though I became a queen, I still have to go to kindergarten? My goodness, I have no luck at all.’

The first to hide in the classroom as she observed Lucia’s situation was Emily.

The next day.

Lucia sent Nia to kindergarten and departed for the kingdom.

Seeing her off were only Hubert and Leon.

There weren’t many who knew the day she would leave.

“Lucia. If it gets tough, come running anytime. Don’t worry because I’ve planted my direct subordinates at the kindergarten.”

“Yes. Anyway, I asked Hiss for the scroll. Your Excellency.”

“Good. You did well.”

It was severe treatment for her precious daughter and granddaughter.

However, Leon had no doubts about it.

Rather, it felt like his heart would burst before saying what he had prepared all night.

“…When winter vacation is over, I’ll come to take you…”

Lucia listened carefully to his muttering.

“…W, wait!!”

His voice suddenly rose.

Wait, wait again.

It was like the words he wrote in a dream.

Shocked by that wind, Lucia, who had been startled, took a step back and said, “Yes. Please.”

Now, finally, steps to put a proper master in place.

But there was something uneasy in those steps, so she turned around.

The two men shook hands.

Everything had been resolved, but there was something lingering in one side of Lucia’s heart.
‘Feels like I forgot something important…’

Unfortunately, what that something was didn’t come to mind.

The mansion of the Altroot Marquis family.

There, an elderly lady hummed a tune, welcoming her son with a wide smile.

“Congratulations, Vell! They said you’ve been assigned to the position of the Supreme Commander this time? You must be doing well, getting ready for your younger brother’s wedding party. Hohoho! …Oh my!?! Good heavens, what on earth is this!!”

Always impeccably organized, her son’s room was more like a pile of garbage.

Somewhere in that mess, a person was buried, with only their face exposed.

That man was the owner of this room, Vell Altroot.

“My soooon!!!”

Hurrying over, she began to dig through the pile of trash to pull out her son, who was as lifeless as a corpse.

Discarded chicken bones, fruit peels, clothes not washed for days, shoes, and more.

It didn’t matter what her elegant hands touched.

My son, my brilliant son…!!

“…Mother, leave it. I’m done now.”

“Yoouuu, you, you!! I thought you were dead!!”

Thinking he was dead, his mother, shedding tears, began to hit her son’s lifeless chest without energy.

“Cough, cough. Mother, stop… Anyway, I’ve lost the will to live now…”

“Ugh! Such loyalty sickness!!! Your father was like that too. Maybe there’s a Kluerger’s devotee in our family lineage!!”

As Lady Altroot spoke, Vell’s father, a devotee of Kluer, had been away on a long business trip to Hasnas for several years, leaving his wife lonely.

But because Vell didn’t dislike his diligent father, he opposed his mother.

“To compare me to a dog, Mother. Your words are harsh. Besides, the lord is clearly not someone from Kluer…”

“Tsk, enough! Just look at the mess in your room!”

“…Hmm.”

With a snort, she sharply glared at her son, then brushed off her hands and left the room.

With a proclamation not to clean anything given to the maids.

As the door closed among the embarrassed maids,

Those who had been hiding one by one began to come out.

From the large wardrobe, under the desk, under the bed, and even in the drawers.

That’s right.

In fact, it wasn’t Vell who messed up this room.

It was Gilli, Vernon, and some other members who secretly lived here, worrying about being beaten when they returned home.

Thus, Vell, like a statue facing them in the messy room, was buried in a pile of garbage.

“Veu, are you okay? I thought you were being murdered for real.”

“Wow, I didn’t see the Marquise that way. She’s got quite the personality.”

It was Vernon and Gilli who had been wandering, searching for an empty space in the garbage pile.

“…When will she leave?”

Without looking at them, Vell, with an indifferent expression, stood up, clearing one by one, and said.

After Lucia left, he was the one with a missing screw.

Seeing that, Gilli took out a candy from his pocket and added one more piece of trash, saying, “When will she shut up, really.”
“Platoon leader! Let’s not do that. There’s nowhere to go.”

“I’m not a platoon leader anymore. Considering I’ve been absent without leave from the Supreme Commander’s office, it might be the last time they turn a blind eye. It’s better for you to go back.”

“Why are you like this? The platoon leader isn’t going to come.”

“…….”

At the end of the silence, Vell hesitated to speak.

“So, after that declaration, has the commander not contacted you yet? Did I perhaps not inform you of the evacuation…?”

“No, I told them straight. But they didn’t care. And we foresaw this. As long as the general himself asked the chief directly to take care of us, there’s no way he would ever bring us back.”

“…….”

He lay back in the same spot, shaking his shoulders.

“Wow, Platoon Leader Vell is crying again.”

After a few times, some of the members who had witnessed it started teasing him.

After laughing for a while, Vernon brushed off the cookie crumbs on his clothes.

“Well, shall we slowly proceed with the next operation?”

Still turned away, Vell’s ears perked up.

“…Is there a way?”

“Of course. There’s a way that Vell Youngsik, who grew up so well-loved, would never think of. Are you ready to hear it now, Platoon Leader?”

Vernon’s eyes, known as the eyes of divine cunning, sparkled.