Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Those Scary Uncles Are Dad's Friends?
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Ten minutes before meeting Dad's closest aides. My heart was swollen with happiness.
‘Seeing Dad, doing the hunting contest—it's been so long, I'm thrilled!’
I was hopping along with the maids toward the carriage.
My little legs were small, but I could run just as fast as the muscle maid sisters. It had been ages since I'd bounced around like a tiny kitten—or no, like a snow-white snow hare. It felt so good.
“Our cute Lady Sien.”
“You look just like a baby fawn!”
I could see the muscle maid sisters making long faces.
‘Hmph, you silly sisters! A baby fawn? I'm as scary as a baby lion!’
But I didn't say that. If the maid sisters got scared of me, it'd backfire.
Honestly, my looks were a bit intimidating, so I shouldn't say intimidating things. I held back, feeling like a villain hiding their power.
“Are you excited about going to the hunting grounds?”
“Yep!”
For the sake of the maid sisters, I grinned like a cute, ordinary baby and bounced all the way to the front of the house.
About a hundred paces from the fence in front of our house, where the pretty rose flowers bloomed, I spotted people gathered outside. They were too far to see clearly, but they looked like Dad's friends.
It'd be good to make a great impression on Dad's friends. After all, they were on Dad's side. We had to make sure they stuck firmly to our side.
But I had no idea why my heart was pounding like this.
It felt like I'd drunk coffee, or like a bad premonition. Was I nervous? I pressed my chest and repeated to myself over and over in my head.
‘Don't chicken out, Sien Mirmod. You're going to be a villain!’
Like a pufferfish, I puffed out my cheeks scary-like and kept hyping myself up.
The maid sisters standing on either side of me looked down at me curiously.
But now I had no time to worry about them.
Just in case, I checked my outfit one more time.
My ponytail braids, each strand tied with care by my little fern-like hands, the tiny red ribbon perfectly pinned to the side of my forehead, the blush blooming on my snowy-white cheeks.
‘Phew, I look too sweet! I need to look a bit scary too.’
I'd hidden the skull in my pocket for now, but that might not be enough.
I grinned slyly and thought of my other items.
I had tons of items. Especially the health supplements for the maid sisters—they were essential for taming them. I shook the health supplement in my hand and said,
“Hey, sisters!”
“Yes!”
Gulp.
I heard the sound of them swallowing.
Roll roll.
I could almost hear their eyes rolling.
I chuckled softly to myself.
‘These sisters are totally eyeing the health supplements!’
With arms softer than cotton candy on my hips, I looked at each of them.
‘Meeting new people must make the sisters nervous too?’
They were the type to swing fists without a care for anyone's gaze, but anywhere they went, they might get... looked down on.
“Hey, if Dad's friends look down on you sisters, tell me!”
“Pardon?”
“I'll protect you!”
“Ho, could it be...”
“...you're thinking of us?”
Before I knew it, my patented mercenary arts were starting to shine.
The maid sisters knelt on the dusty ground with proud looks in their eyes and hugged me tight. Their iron-strong arms patted me gently.
This was the moment to drive it home when they were so moved.
“Yep! I always think of my sisters!”
The maid sisters nodded solemnly. I could see their loyalty rising with my own two eyes.
I slipped the health supplement into a maid sister's pocket and let out a villainous chuckle.
A true villain always takes good care of their close aides.
“Alright, now let's head to the carriage!”
Now I decided to run out there with renewed determination.
‘Dad didn't have many friends in our village. I hope the people we're meeting this time are good ones. They must be, right?’
Actually, it wasn't "almost none"—he had none at all.
Dad was too busy taking care of just me.
I didn't know what Dad's aides were like, but they say birds of a feather flock together, so they probably weren't much different from Dad. Super innocent, easily scammed, total idiots.
‘I have to protect my little kind Dad and his pure friends!’
Having another "prey" to protect after Dad made my shoulders feel so heavy. ...Or so I thought...
***
Instead of running out yelling ‘Daaad!’, I walked calmly, maintaining the dignity, grace, and poise befitting the daughter of a viscount.
And I stood tall, head held high, until Dad spotted me first.
Just as my snowy-white face sparkled in the sunlight, Dad noticed me and strode over.
“Sien?”
Seeing Dad's pure yet poignant brush-flower-like smile, I clasped my hands in front of me and bowed politely.
“Daa... No, greetings, Viscount.”
Dad whispered affectionately.
“Our Sien, learning manners too—such a good girl.”
I put my hands behind my back and greeted him with elegance and grace.
And while curious about Dad's friends I'd never met before, I glanced around.
Where were the innocent, cute Dad friends I was supposed to protect...
“Gasp.”
Flustered, I rolled my eyes side to side, not knowing where to look.
‘What, what is this? Are those really Dad's friends?’
About ten aides came into my view.
They all looked over two meters tall. Plus, they had weird hides draped over their shoulders, and most of all...
‘Their faces are terrifying!’
A sinister, scheming aura filled the area around the carriage.
It was like jaguars, lions, and tigers surrounding a herbivore snow-white snow hare. They hid their fangs, but they were swallowing hard while looking at Dad.
What was with that attitude? Their eyes looked suspicious.
“Oh, Sien. You haven't met them before?”
I had to pull myself together. Even if I was thrown into a tiger's den, if I kept my wits, Dad and I could both survive.
I nodded sternly.
“Yep.”
“They're Dad's helpers. Say hi.”
The scary uncles hurriedly chimed in one by one.
“Greetings!”
“We've been dying to meet you, Lady Sien!”
“Pleased to meet you!”
I gave them a suspicious once-over.
“What... do you all do?”
“Haha, I'm just a kind-hearted hunting groundskeeper.”
One uncle laughed heartily while grinning like he could kill a man.
All ten were scary-looking, but the two standing closest to Dad, who seemed like his top aides, were the scariest and ugliest.
‘Those guys are weird! One's wearing a ribbon fit for my hair, and the other's face is way too shiny!’
The bald uncle with a pink ribbon tied on his head caught my gaze and grinned ear to ear.
My sunflower-seed molars clacked together.
‘...Are they really Dad's friends?’
They were scarier than even the muscle maid sisters—scary in all the right ways.
Hulking builds that'd look perfect with an axe slung over the shoulder.
Rock-like faces with jaws that could chew iron.
Did they notice my suspicious stare? They tore their lips into even scarier smiles.
I quickly hid my suspicion-filled eyes.
A proper villain always hides their gaze well.
Of the two I'd been staring at, the one with weird glitter on his face bowed to me.
“Pleased to meet you, Lady Sien.”
His manners seemed fine.
I was Dad's daughter, in a position no one could underestimate, so I lowered my voice and spoke sternly.
“Yeah, hi.”
He grinned with his gums at my reply. I slyly looked away.
‘Scary! They're too scary-looking!’
Then Dad patted my head with his innocent smile.
“They're a bit simple, but good people.”
“Ahem, ahem.”
“Hahaha. Simple, you say?”
I glanced over—tendons were twitching in their muscles.
You shouldn't judge by looks, but they seemed super scary.
This might be my prejudice, but that's how they looked.
As my little head puzzled over it hard, I felt Dad looking at me curiously.
‘Phew, this isn't good.’
I slipped my hand behind my back and cleared my throat.
At that moment, the good-hearted thought that you shouldn't judge people by looks reared its head.
‘The muscle maid sisters looked scary too. But they had kind hearts under those faces?’
“Heh heh heh.”
But seeing them sweating bullets while looking at me and laughing weirdly made me suspicious anyway.
“Haha, there's no one as kind as me in the world.”
“That's right.”
They even started singing some weird song.
‘Are they idiots? Or scary people pretending to be idiots?’
My head was a mess. I narrowed my eyes like a mudskipper and peeked at them.
‘If those guys have bad intentions and stuck to our Dad...!’
If they messed with my kind Dad, I could give them a proper nightmare.
I ground my tiny milk teeth, smaller than a pinky nail, and glared at them.
***
After bidding farewell to Dad's aide uncles in front of the carriage, I climbed into the four-wheeled carriage Dad had prepared for me.
Sitting on the warm, cozy velvet seat, head resting on Dad's arm, I fell deep into thought.
‘Why do those guys from earlier look so familiar? Like I've seen their faces somewhere.’
I gripped Dad's hand tight and looked at them.
‘This whole situation feels off.’
No matter how much you shouldn't judge by looks, those guys were weird.
“Dad.”
“Yes, my daughter.”
“Are those uncles really good people?”
A crack appeared on Dad's face.
His voice sounded oddly cold as he asked,
“Why? Suspicious?”
“Um... a little? They look scary.”
“I see. That's a problem...”
Hearing Dad mutter lowly, I made up my mind.
I grabbed Dad's arm and said,
“It's not a problem. I'm not scared at all.”
“Good, they're not scary people, so relax. Okay?”
I shook my head side to side.
Dad, who had been looking at me like warm sunlight, opened his mouth with heavy emphasis.
“Those people are really good ones.”
I recalled something I'd forgotten.
Dad was the type who believed everyone was good, with not a shred of suspicion in him.
I couldn't trust Dad's judgment.
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't.
The thought crept in that at today's hunting contest, I had to figure out if those guys—no, those people—were really good.
***
Meanwhile, the mood among Matthias's closest aides was like a funeral home.
Riding horses and following the four-wheeled carriage with Matthias and Sien, they spat blame at each other.
The blame especially focused on Melle, the ‘Mad Dog of the Hessian Continent.’
“So I told you not to wear that hideous ribbon.”
Hideous ribbon? Honestly, it was a cute ribbon. If Melle hadn't worn it.
“...She must've been shocked?”
Lady Sien was suspicious of them.
The bigger problem was Lord Matthias. Just recalling that cold, icy gaze doubting his aide who couldn't even act properly made his body shudder.
“Yes. She saw something ugly in our eyes, so that delicate lady must've been shocked, of course.”
“Atone with death.”
Melle grumbled,
“...Ah, just take off the ribbon!”
Riding his black horse slowly, he stuffed the ribbon into his pocket.
Then, with what he thought was a pleased expression—but what others would see as terrifying—he pinned a starlight brooch to his chest like a medal. It was the kind cute, kind commoners often bought, for volunteer groups.
“Better now?”
Unlike how he'd introduced himself as a hunting groundskeeper to Sien, he was a punisher of lawbreakers, fitting his ‘Mad Dog’ nickname.
He called himself a judge of goodwill who executed sex offenders, murderers, and the like.
His brutal wrist was tattooed with the number of villains he'd personally executed.
So a mere starlight brooch wouldn't hide his ferocity.
But...
“Much better.”
“Lady Sien will like it too.”
Villains actually had pretty low standards for ‘kindness.’
“Let's do better. We still have a chance to make up for it.”
“Right, there's the hunting contest.”
“We have to show only good sides then.”
“Yeah, let's steel ourselves!”
Proud of each other, they resolved to act even better at the main hunting contest.