Chapter 28
Chapter 28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Asked How Much That Sweet Potato Costs
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sent the maid sisters and the cat off to a distance, I sat down on the bench in the garden.
While doing so, I had a few conversations with Acid.
‘Your name is Sien, huh…….’
‘Yeah! Call me that.’
‘……I’m a street kid, so I don’t have a name.’
I’d been about to ask if he didn’t have the name Acid, but I stopped myself. His resentment toward his brother seemed deeper than I’d thought.
‘Ah…….’
‘P-Please don’t go anywhere.’
From the words that came up during our talk, I realized something.
Acid’s anger toward the brother who’d abandoned him ran deeper than I’d expected, and he was showing some signs of separation anxiety.
‘He looks like he’s been through a lot, living alone for so long.’
“Um……. You hate your brother a lot, nya?”
“……Yes, because he abandoned me.”
I froze.
Ted hadn’t abandoned Acid, but Acid firmly believed Ted had thrown him away.
Maybe it was his defense mechanism.
Was this something I should pry into?
I cautiously tapped the ground with my foot and answered softly.
“Yeah…….”
But Acid was sharp, like any slum kid.
The boy fidgeted with his hands and opened his mouth.
“……You’re giving him a chance to explain himself, aren’t you.”
“No, kids don’t have to do stuff they hate. We’ll think about the tough stuff later.”
“……I thought you brought me here to give Ted a chance to explain.”
I shook my head vigorously.
“That’s not it! I just!”
Acid’s gentle eyes stared straight at me. I bit my lip and murmured quietly.
“I just want you to be happy. Like me. If it’s hard to accept Ted as family……. I think you don’t have to force yourself to.”
The boy’s blue eyes gazed at me.
His gemstone-sapphire eyes, sparkling like jewels, were trembling.
“Happiness…….”
Hearing him murmur quietly, I stared at his face. After getting him washed and fed properly, Acid looked quite handsome.
“Yeah!”
“……The fact that there’s someone in this world who wants me to be happy…….”
I stared at him as his eyes gradually reddened, and emphasized again.
“No tears allowed! Let’s eat something warm first and think about the good stuff!”
He gave a small smile as he looked at me.
“You talk just like a grown-up.”
Seeing him change the subject, it seemed he needed a little more time to think.
I nodded pretending not to notice. My twin pigtails shook with a swish.
“Good. Let’s stop the bad thoughts now and play Get Stronger!”
‘When you’re feeling sentimental, nothing beats Get Stronger!’
At my sudden topic change, Acid bit his lip and asked.
“Huh?”
I pulled a big water balloon out of my pocket.
“Ta-da! The slow one gets splattered with water balloons!”
No goblins, but hey, chicken instead of pheasant!
Gotta be at least this tough to get stronger.
I bared my sharp fangs like a villain.
“Yeah. I’ll do that game and think more about it.”
Acid smiled softly.
“It’s a scary game that builds courage, you okay with that?”
“Yeah. If it’s with you, Sien…… I like anything.”
Looking at Acid, who seemed resolved, I pulled out water balloons from my pocket.
***
Matthias looked down from the window, watching Acid and Sien play. Fortunately, she seemed to have lost interest in the goblin.
Of course, pure and innocent Sien wouldn’t like goblins anyway.
It was probably just curiosity to see it again.
“Waaah!”
Matthias’s expression twisted for a moment at the boy’s excited shout, then regained its calm.
……So it didn’t matter.
He’d expected noises like that. His daughter had the cute ability to disarm anyone, no matter who.
Matthias looked down at his prostrated subordinate and whispered languidly.
“Tell me what you investigated.”
……The ‘real’ knight Sien mentioned would be the same.
Before the dinner with Sien, he’d sent an assassin to get a report on her activities.
Sien had said she met a normal holy knight from the temple, Ted.
Worried that he might have seduced Sien, he’d sent a mediocre spy to put him in his place.
“The holy knight subdued the spy I sent in an instant.”
“At least he’s more skilled than you.”
“Yes. I’m ashamed…….”
Unexpectedly, the ‘real knight’ Sien had chosen seemed quite capable.
Matthias’s mood soured, and he twitched an eyebrow. The one who’d sent the spy prostrated silently.
“He asked me to deliver this letter.”
Matthias gave his subordinate a cold glance, then snatched the letter.
[If you sent an assassin with no presence, it must be Matthias, father of Lady Sien Mirmod. Please don’t take offense.]
Extremely offensive.
Matthias’s eyes moved downward.
[I’m just a lowly holy knight, but I have no intention of harming Lady Sien Mirmod. On the contrary, I want to help her. I mean this sincerely—I could even swear a truth oath to the gods.]
Far from helping, he was causing great harm right now. To Matthias’s temper, that is.
However…….
‘He mentions a truth oath, huh.’
For a holy knight, a truth oath was staking one’s life to prove one’s words were true. Wanting to help Sien, whom he’d met only once?
[I might even be able to swear a knight’s oath.]
The handwriting looked like it had been written after much deliberation.
Matthias rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. A holy knight swearing a knight’s oath to the daughter of the infamous villain family Mirmod?
‘What nonsense.’
But the letter ended there.
Matthias crumpled it in one hand and asked his subordinate.
“The temple holy knight Ted?”
“Yes, that’s right. According to the maids, the child Lady Sien picked up is this holy knight’s brother. She probably feels grateful for that.”
Matthias slowly closed and opened his eyes.
To face Axel Mirmod, Matthias needed someone exceptional with divine power.
And coincidentally, Sien had brought home a knight with divine power.
Coincidence?
“On paper, he’s just an ordinary holy knight, so how did he detect the assassin instantly?”
“From my experience……. He was incredibly skilled. Specialized in divine power, it seemed.”
The empire’s self-proclaimed villain family, Mirmod.
Naturally, the family’s abilities, based on demons or dark powers, were quite vulnerable to divine power.
‘I was already looking for a temple defector among holy knights brimming with divine power.’
He hadn’t even considered recruiting one, thinking no skilled holy knight would loyally serve a villain family.
But recruiting a capable holy knight would make an effective tool against Axel Mirmod or Delphia Mirmod.
‘And now a holy knight rolls right in?’
It felt strange.
Like clueless Sien was paving a beautiful flower path for his future.
As if.
And it shouldn’t be that way.
Matthias pushed away the subtle emotion stirring in his heart and looked at him.
“Delphia Mirmod returns tomorrow.”
He decided to deal with Delphia first.
The half-mad woman with snow-white hair and sea-clear blue eyes.
The protagonist of the succession struggle who’d sent spies to Sien.
He spoke lightly, as if announcing tomorrow’s dinner.
“The moment she arrives, I’ll strike.”
He planned to crush Delphia and fully absorb her faction.
A bloodless war would save his forces, so even better.
But as everyone knew, family power struggles normally involved bloodshed.
‘I shouldn’t let Sien out tomorrow.’
Delphia might target Sien, so letting them meet would be trouble.
Matthias thought so and flicked his eyes.
A signal to send his subordinate out. The subordinate bowed even deeper, showing loyalty.
But right then.
“Daddyyy!”
Having finished the water balloon fight, drenched Sien came in.
“Sien’s bored! Let’s buy a goblin…… Huh?”
Sien tilted her head, looking at the kneeling subordinate, then at Matthias.
“……Huh?”
Question marks popped up in Sien’s eyes.
And cold sweat trickled down Matthias’s back.
A dark, unlit room.
A subordinate prostrated on his knees before him.
The subordinate’s face was covered in scratches.
Objectively, Matthias looked like a total black curtain boss right now.
Matthias quietly swallowed a groan. He could see Sien staring at him in confusion.
“Daddy? Why’s this uncle like this?”
Raised in a small rural village, Sien pondered deeply, looking puzzled.
“Or maybe…….”
In the silence, Matthias—who’d never tensed before—clenched his fist. Had Sien found out he wasn’t really an honest farmer?
Sien glanced at the subordinate and scurried over, whispering in Matthias’s ear.
“That uncle’s kneeling ‘cause he wants to buy potatoes?”
Fortunately, his honest potato farmer persona still held up.
He opened his mouth quietly. Sticking to potatoes forever felt off……
“Yeah. This time it’s not potatoes, it’s sweet potatoes.”
Sien’s face puffed up. Like when she wanted to say ‘Daddy’s a total pushover!’
“Phew.”
Sien ground her little milk teeth and scurried to the kneeling subordinate. The subordinate stared at her in bewilderment.
“Hey, you! How much for the sweet potatoes!”
“Y-Yes…… Pardon?”
Sien puffed out her chest sternly and asked. Her chubby baby belly peeked out briefly.
“S-So…… cute…….”
As the subordinate unconsciously clenched his fist, Sien squared her shoulders and asked haughtily again.
“Hey! Say it’s scary!”
The subordinate stared at the even more shiny, plump, adorable baby belly and murmured, entranced.
“Sc-Scary.”
“Good. Well done. Remember that from now on. Unlike generous Daddy, I’m super scary.”
Matthias crossed his arms over his chest and watched how far Sien would go.
The moment the subordinate said ‘scary,’ a pink blush colored Sien’s fluffy cheeks. That was her excited, happy face.
‘She likes being called scary, huh…….’
He was gradually realizing the villainous influence this family was having on Sien.
Swearing, goblins, changing tastes.
A triple combo.
Matthias ground his teeth.
Unaware the air around her daddy had dropped a good five degrees, Sien was intently observing the subordinate.
“Good. I asked how much that sweet potato costs.”
The subordinate’s eyes darted around. Maybe looking even more vicious, Sien pouted her lips. Seemed like she was muttering ‘He looks scary!’
Of course, the subordinate wasn’t even listening, deep in thought. He didn’t know sweet potato prices, but he wanted to impress Lady Sien, daughter of the master.
Meeting Sien’s intense gaze, the subordinate swallowed dryly and answered with utmost respect.
“Th-That, 100 for…… 1 silver? About that.”
“What?”
Sien’s eyes went wide.
Meanwhile, the subordinate smiled to look good to her. Threatening to anyone else, but his best effort.
Matthias silently watched the standoff between Sien and the subordinate.
A tense moment.
Far more than any family succession struggle…….