“……I did, and then he looked at me……”

“Yesterday…… So in the end……”

Listening to the children, each loudly speaking their own mind, the man silently smiled.

“Ah, move over! It’s my turn!”

“You move over! I’m first!”

While a few of the wornout children fought over clinging onto the man’s leg, the slowspeaking child finally opened their mouth, and the man’s eyes lit up momentarily.

“My mom cries every night these days, saying it’s tough because we have no money……”

Finally.

Isn’t this the story he’d been waiting for?

The disadvantaged grasp at straws, no, they grab onto cobwebs that descend from the darkness.

That was exactly what the man was aiming for.

If one cannot even see a single step ahead, they cannot reject even a suspicious and strange offer.

Furthermore, if the one who always lived on the edge disappeared one day, it wouldn’t be a missing case, but a case of running away.

The man, who had separated the children fighting over his legs, smiled benignly.

He extended his hand towards the child who said their mother was struggling, harboring terrible malice and a stubborn intent.

“I’ll help you. Let’s go together.”

Around the time when the sun, hanging above people’s heads at noon, began to tilt towards the west.

Olivia was facing Arien.

“I greet Your Majesty. May the empire have eternal glory and……”

Olivia, who had been quietly listening to the lengthy greeting, asked.

“You were told to invite Duke Taren.”

“Yes! My father is dealing with some work in a place where he cannot return in a day, so I came instead as a representative of the family!”

Upon hearing the reply, Olivia closed her mouth.

Not because of the perfectly normal response, but due to the abnormally heightened state of Lady Taren.

The pink hair shaking from the fluttering shoulders and the unclouded smile.

And the sparkling eyes that were oppressively bright.

Even someone who had no sense could tell that Lady Taren in front of her greatly admired Olivia.

“Lady Taren.”

“Yes! Yes! Please speak!”

Olivia opened her mouth once more, but still received an abnormally passionate response.

Facing the sparkling Arien, Olivia could only feel puzzled.

As far as she could remember, she had no personal encounters with Arien Taren, and she had not achieved anything to the extent that Lady Taren would react so passionately to whatever she said.

However, she didn’t dwell on it for long.

There were quite a few young ladies from the families who fostered fantasies about the ‘royalty’.

Especially since the current royal family was not the Bolsheviks.

A family as old as the history of the continent itself, the protagonists of the fairy tales read by children, the plays on the street, and the legends.

There would be no one who grew up without hearing stories of the Bolsheviks.

It wouldn’t be surprising for someone to admire the Bolsheviks after hearing those stories.

However, Olivia’s assumption was soon shattered without mercy.

“Lo… Love is really magnificent, I feel it anew every day through Your Majesty!”

Upon hearing Arien’s shout, which seemed to rise and cheer, Olivia blinked her eyes rapidly.

Love? Suddenly?

She had no idea what to say, and as Olivia fell silent, Arien started to chatter with sparkling eyes.

“Love at first sight, overcoming the barrier of status……”

Ah, she was talking about that.

Olivia listened to Arien’s epic of love with her eyes glazed over for a while.

And the moment Arien stopped to catch her breath,

“Lady Taren.”

“Yes! Oh, I apologize, Your Majesty. I got excited, I’m really sorry.”

As Arien, who had been hopping around, suddenly stood up and bowed, Olivia raised her hand.

“I have heard your thoughts about love, but unfortunately, I must tell you! I am not the protagonist of that love. There will be a competition to prove that soon.”

“Yes! …….Yes?”

Olivia didn’t blame Arien for asking reflexively.

She just kept repeating the same answer.

“I am not the protagonist of that love story.”