The Villainess Doesn't Want Love - Chapter 62

On a late afternoon street where people were hurrying home.

A boy who looked about 9 years old was holding his younger sibling’s hand tightly.

The child whispered to his sibling with a determined expression.

“Philip. Get ready. It’s almost time.”

“Okay! Elder brother Dino, I’m ready!”

Philip answered in a firm voice.

There was a place that always persistently reached out with tempting hands whenever they passed this street.

Usually, Neina would have protected them from those tempting hands.

But today she couldn’t come because she was taking care of sick Mitchell.

So today they had to steel their hearts and escape the temptation on their own.

‘We can do it!’

The two held hands tightly and took a step forward.

As soon as they moved, the savory smell of butter stung their noses.

‘Here it comes!’

It was the smell of fluffy, delicious bread being made.

“……!”

Just smelling it made their mouths water.

Dino swallowed his saliva and shook his head.

‘No. I won’t fall for this level of temptation.’

But as they got closer to the bakery, the smell grew stronger and stronger.

Philip and Dino unconsciously peeked inside the store where delicious bread was displayed.

They could see people choosing bread from the display case and sitting at tables eating it deliciously with tea.

Dino was staring blankly at the scene when he snapped back to attention at the sound of the baker speaking to him.

“Hello, little one. Did you come to buy bread?”

There were a few tin coins in his pocket from running errands, but this was money they weren’t supposed to use.

“Ah, no!”

Dino shook his head vigorously, hurriedly gathered Philip and steeled his heart again.

“Philip. We need to go now.”

“Okay……”

Philip, who had been contentedly sniffing the bread smell, became dejected at Dino’s words.

He reluctantly took a step away, as if not wanting to leave.

“Let’s hurry back to the orphanage. When we get there, let’s ask for something delicious to eat.”

“Okay!”

Philip’s expression brightened again at Dino’s coaxing.

As they were walking lightly, they heard loud noises from far away.

“Wow! Give me one too!”

“Me too!”

Children were raising their hands or jumping up and down asking for something.

Some children were going with their mothers’ hands and shyly receiving something.

Dino and Philip became curious about what was happening.

“Should we go see what’s going on?”

Philip nodded.

“You have to hold my hand tightly, okay? Don’t let go.”

“Okay! Okay!”

Young Philip answered determinedly with a bright smile.

“Alright, one at a time, in order.”

There were lots of people, or more precisely, children gathered.

They overheard adults standing nearby talking.

“They’re handing out food to children on Lambert Street.”

“I heard it’s to let children eat what they want.”

“That’s a good deed.”

“My child got some too. He’s been pestering me to buy him snacks, but this should keep him quiet for a while.”

The children around the adults were deliciously eating bread and cookies they took out of paper bags.

“Wow.”

Young Philip salivated watching them.

Just then, a child passing by put a handful of chewy-looking dried fruit from his paper bag into his mouth and chewed.

Dino also swallowed hard watching this.

After hesitating for a moment, Dino asked the closest child.

“Excuse me, how can we get those?”

“These? They were just giving them out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s true.”

The child pointed to the stall where lots of children were gathered.

“Children, come here and get one of these each.”

A plump-faced woman with a good figure was smiling brightly and calling children over.

Scary-looking men standing on either side of the woman were handing out paper bags to the children one by one.

Though their fierce looks were a bit frightening, seeing the children in front receiving paper bags made them think they could do it too.

“Philip. Do you want to eat that? Should we go get some too?”

Philip nodded shyly.

Dino gathered his courage and went to the stall to ask.

“Can we get this without paying?”

The woman laughed ho-ho at those words and said.

“Of course. Any child can get one.”

“Really?”

“We want to let children eat whatever they want. Here, take one each.”

Dino and Philip each received a paper bag.

The woman smiled kindly at Dino and Philip who had received the bags and said.

“We’ll be here tomorrow too, so come again.”

“Tomorrow too?”

“If you bring friends, they can get some too.”

“For friends too?”

Dino asked, unable to hide his excitement.

“Of course! So bring lots and lots of friends.”

“Okay!”

Dino answered in a loud voice.

Dino diligently took care of Philip as they left.

“Wow!”

Dino and Philip exclaimed when they saw the contents inside.

There was an assortment of soft white bread that was usually hard to come by, chewy and sour-looking dried fruit, cookies studded with nuts, and crispy biscuits.

“We can take this back and share it with everyone.”

“Yeah!”

Dino and Philip smiled with sparkling eyes.

“Let’s hurry!”

Dino and Philip excitedly rushed on their way to the orphanage.

They carefully held the paper bags close to their chests so as not to drop them.

With each step, the delicious smell rising from the bags tickled their noses.

After walking energetically for a while, Philip’s steps slowed.

“Elder brother Dino, I’m hungry.”

“Huh? You’re hungry?”

But they were still some distance from the orphanage.

And where they were now was the forest path leading from the city to where the orphanage was.

There was nowhere around to get food.

“Um……”

After pondering, Dino finally opened the paper bag a little.

“It really looks delicious.”

Dino and Philip swallowed hard.

“Then should we eat just one thing each?”

Philip’s expression brightened instantly.

Dino and Philip each took out a piece of bread and cookie they wanted to eat.

Just as Dino was about to put the bread in his mouth.

He saw a mother bird on a tree sharing food with her chicks.

Dino’s action of taking a big bite of bread stopped.

Seeing that scene, he was reminded of Aiden who always took care of them first.

“……”

Dino closed his widely opened mouth as if he had made some decision.

“Actually, I’m not going to eat this and give it to elder brother Aiden.”

Dino put the bread he had taken out back into the paper bag.

“Mmm…… me too.”

Philip, who had already taken a bite of the cookie, mumbled with his mouth full.

But because his mouth was full of cookie, it wasn’t proper speech.

“You’ll give it too?”

Nevertheless, Dino understood Philip’s words perfectly.

Philip nodded.

Philip tried to put the bitten cookie back into the paper bag.

Seeing this, Dino laughed ha-ha and brought Philip’s hand back to his mouth.

“Let’s do that. But you already ate this, so just finish it. I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Okay!”

Philip answered energetically with a big grin as he chewed hard on the cookie in his mouth.

Dino brushed off the cookie crumbs on Philip’s mouth.

Philip, who was quietly receiving Dino’s brushing, held out the cookie he was eating to Dino.

“Elder brother Dino too.”

“You want me to eat too?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm……”

Dino, who had been pondering, smiled brightly.

“Then just one bite.”

Dino took a bite of the cookie Philip gave him.

The cookie was so delicious.

Between the crispy and sweet cookie, nutty nuts crunched.

The more he chewed, the nuttier and more delicious it became.

“This is our secret, okay?”

Dino put his finger to his lips and made a shushing sound.

“Yeah! Secret!”

Dino and Philip smiled happily as they shared one cookie.

Honestly, half a cookie was far from enough.

But they endured, shaking their heads firmly.

“Aiden will be so happy when we give him this, right?”

Philip nodded vigorously with an expression that said of course he would.

Dino and Philip, who had finished eating the cookie, started walking again.

After walking hard for about 20 minutes, they could see the orphanage in the distance.

And in front of it, they saw Aiden.

“It’s elder brother Aiden! Let’s hurry!”

“Let’s go!”

When they saw Aiden, Dino and Philip started running excitedly hand in hand.

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“Elder brother!”

“Elder brother Aiden!”

Two small boys bundled up in clothes came running across the snow.

“Dino and Philip?”

Aiden, who had been clearing snow in front of the orphanage, called out when he saw the children running up breathlessly.

“Hey, you two! Don’t run! What if you fall?”

“We won’t fall!”

Dino grinned, showing his teeth, and ran up in one breath.

“Elder brother! Guess what I brought?”

Dino asked in an excited voice as he stood in front of Aiden.

Seeing Aiden’s clueless expression, Dino giggled.

“Here!”

Dino proudly held out the paper bag he was carrying to Aiden.

“Elder brother Aiden! This is a present!”

“Me too, me too.”

Philip, who was next to him, also held out the paper bag he was tightly gripping in his small hand.

Then he smiled shyly, looking for praise.

“What is it?”

Aiden chuckled and took the paper bags, looking at the contents inside.

Inside were an assortment of expensive bread, dried fruit, and biscuits.

“You two…… Where did you get this?”

Aiden asked with a hardened expression.

Contrary to their expectation that he would be thrilled, Dino and Philip looked uneasy at Aiden’s lukewarm reaction.

Just then, young Philip squirmed and held up one finger.

“We only ate one……”

Philip finally confessed the truth.

But Aiden’s expression didn’t soften.

The two looked at each other uneasily before opening their mouths.

“Some people were handing them out on the street in town.”

“……!”

As soon as Dino finished speaking, Aiden grabbed them both and scolded with an angry expression.

“You two! I told you not to follow anyone even if they offer you food!”

“……!”

Philip’s eyes immediately welled up with tears, startled enough for his shoulders to jump.

Dino, flustered, desperately denied it.

“N-no. We didn’t follow anyone. They just said we could take it for free……”

Dino hesitated before continuing with a pout.

“They said it was like a charity to let children eat what they want. Lots of other kids got some too and adults said it was a good deed. It’s not weird.”

Dino protested as if wronged.

Aiden had also recently heard related stories.

‘Giving food to children without asking for anything in return.’

As soon as he heard it, he thought it was suspicious.

When he mentioned this story at the flower shop, Selena’s reaction wasn’t very good either.

Rather, she told Aiden to be careful that the orphanage children don’t get involved with it.

With those words alone, Aiden realized.

‘These aren’t people who would do this kind of charity for no reason.’

Aiden said with a stern expression.

“We don’t need to accept these things anymore. The Duchess is helping our orphanage a lot, right?”

“I know, but……”

Dino’s fading voice became increasingly tearful.

“I wanted to give it to you…… You don’t eat well because you’re always taking care of us……”

Philip, younger than Dino, was already sniffling beside him.

Seeing this, Aiden’s heart was also heavy.

He was grateful for his younger siblings’ intentions.

Nevertheless.

“Don’t accept these things anymore in the future. We especially need to be more careful.”

‘Because we don’t have parents to help us if something happens.’

He didn’t say the last part out loud.

He didn’t want to say that much, knowing it would be a big hurt to his young siblings.

But he had to say it clearly.

Aiden knew the reality of orphans very well.

When things went missing, they as orphans were suspected first, and even things they were actually given were often later accused of being stolen.

Having experienced such things several times, Aiden didn’t want his siblings to go through the same.

At least in his case, the former director had stepped in to protect him, allowing him to get through safely a few times.

But now the former director has passed away and is gone.

Of course, he thought of Karina, Mikhail, and the flower shop people who had helped him.

‘I don’t want to cause them trouble over something like this after receiving so much help.’

Moreover, the Duchess had just recently been caught up in a hostage situation.

He thought they just needed to be a little more careful themselves.

“Don’t forget what I said and take it to heart. Understand?”

Aiden said firmly without softening his expression.

“……Okay.”

“Uh-huh……”

Dino and Philip answered with hiccups.