Kian also gave me a thumbsup in response.

The original ended with Kian becoming a great king after usurping the throne, but it was unknown how great a king he became.

But now, it seemed that I could be sure of how great a king Kian would become.

‘I hope that Sicar also gets some points from Kian through this incident.’

“My mother is cooler.”

“No, Kian. Without the help of the Duke, we would never have been able to save these children. Should we also give a thumbs up to our Duke?”

Kian seemed to ponder for a moment and then said with a grim face.

“Okay.”

And then he called Sicar.

“Um… ah… Duke?”

But when the distracted Sicar didn’t answer immediately, Kian walked up to Sicar like a rickety robot and tapped Sicar’s shoulder.

Perhaps the only person in this world who can so fearlessly tap Sicar’s shoulder is the protagonist, Kian.

As Sicar looked back at him with a questioning expression, Kian showed a thumbsup with a very robotic face and walked back towards me.

It’s unlikely that Kian would completely open up to Sicar because of this incident. But I’m hoping that his guard against Sicar has loosened, even if just a little.

Sicar looked utterly dumbfounded, but for some reason, I liked the sight of the two of them.

We stayed with the children until they were so full that they couldn’t eat any more.

Durion and Bica had cream smeared around their mouths thanks to the cake the children fed them. Meanwhile, a few mature children wiped the cake off Durion and Bica’s mouths.

“I feel like I’ve become a doll.”

Bica grumbled, but she didn’t stop the children.

The children were scared of Sicar and didn’t even dare to go near him. So, in this chaotic scene, only Sicar was able to sit comfortably and sip his tea.

The rest was under the jurisdiction of the City Hall, and our job ended with catching the director and handing him over to the guards.

The director was immediately incarcerated, and the orphanage would be managed by City Hall for a while. An ecclesiastic from the cathedral would temporarily take over the vacant position of the director of the orphanage.

We said goodbye to the children before we left the orphanage, having seen the clergyman arrive.

When we said goodbye, the children teared up. Sicar stood up from his seat with a disgusted face at the sight of the crying children.

“I’ve done all I need to do, so I should get up. We’ve wasted too much time here.”

“We should say goodbye before we go.”

“Then I’ll wait in the carriage, so finish quickly and come.”

“What are you talking about? You should say goodbye too.”

“Me?”

Sicar looked at me as if asking if I was sane, but I pushed him towards the crying children.

“We can’t just leave the crying children. More than anything, Kian will be very disappointed.”

The face of Sicar, standing in front of the crying children, looked so confused that it was too funny. As a villain, who is described as never getting flustered, his expression was even more amusing.

Not knowing what to do and just watching me, Sicar awkwardly halfraised his hand following me and waved it towards the children.

But the look on Sicar’s face wasn’t that of someone saying farewell to the children, it seemed more like the expression of a person intending to sell them off somewhere.

“Try smiling at the children. If you scare them, they’ll cry even more.”

Sicar tried to lift one corner of his mouth in an attempt to smile, but it didn’t look like a smile. It only seemed as if he was scoffing at the children.

After several attempts, as the children continued to cry more, he seemed to think that it wouldn’t work any longer and dropped the hand he had been waving.

“That’s enough of farewells.”

Sicar said that and went out bluntly, and I didn’t ask him any more. I knew very well how much effort he had made just to get to this point.

And that was a big step forward.

The next day.

Dark circles under the eyes seemed to have aged everyone except Sicar by at least ten years. Because of the children, I was so lost that my mind didn’t seem to come back yet.

I thought about watching Kian playing with Bika and the spirits today, but suddenly an unexpected person visited the duchy. It was Zeremi.

“Welcome, Mr. Zeremi.”

“Hello, Duchess Blake. The Duke asked me to do something, so I visited like this.”

Zeremi said that and looked at me, grinning cheekily. The smile was so innocent that I had to smile along.

“I see. I’m glad to see you again.”

“I heard there’s a magical room here. Do you know where it is?”

“Oh, you’re talking about the training room. The Duke is in the training room right now, so you can go there. The servants will guide you when you go out.”

“It was the training room. So he asked me to create various simulations there.”

The fact that Zeremi came to Sicar’s house and did magic. Considering that in the original work he was killed by Sicar in the end, it was a very surprising event.

“Well, take care.”

“Excuse me, Duchess, may I ask where you’re from?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you have mysterious black eyes.”

“If the Duke knew that you asked me such a personal question, he would be very angry. Please be careful.”

There was a part of me that brought up Sicar because it was difficult to answer, but if Sicar was here in this place, he would have drawn a knife on Zeremi.

‘I’ll decapitate you if you say that one more time.’ He’s a man who would say such lines and be respected by others.

Zeremi also seemed to understand my words and smiled subtly.

“I understand. I apologize for the rudeness, Duchess.”

I was about to turn away when I remembered that Zeremi was having a hard time with money these days.

Then maybe, can’t I get information about Leidox’s recent condition from him?

To introduce our heroine Lucy and Kian as soon as possible, I had to get closer to Leidox as soon as possible, so that problem was the most urgent for me now.

“Mr. Zeremi.”

“Yes?”

“Can I buy information about the Count of Yukanadar?”

“Hmm….”

Zeremi had a slightly troubled expression.