Chapter 19
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess — Episode 19
"Now where could she be? Is she over here?"
I muttered under my breath and slowed my steps. I could see the girl hiding behind the supply cart holding her breath. I pretended not to notice and slipped right past her.
Lillia was nowhere in sight. Not bad. I was scanning the low bushes and creeping closer when a rustling sound suddenly came from beside me.
"Aah!"
The one who burst out of the bushes was none other than Lillia. She'd apparently been lying in wait to startle me, but in the end she was the one who got excited and screamed first.
"Aaaah! You scared me!"
When I played along, Lillia burst into giggles and ran as fast as she could toward the tree on the opposite side. Her short legs pumped busily against the ground, making her look just like a baby rabbit from behind.
The children had beads of sweat forming on their faces even in the evening breeze. When I popped a piece of dried fruit into each of their mouths, their faces instantly melted into grins. I handed one out to the winners who had escaped well too, and everyone beamed.
"Rosana, let's do it again! Again!"
"We'll do it again tomorrow. That's all for today."
The children stamped their feet in disappointment. It was unbearably cute.
Just then, a familiar voice cut in from somewhere.
"Lady Rosana? What are you doing here?"
It was Vanessa. She'd apparently been passing by and got drawn over by the racket the children were making. She stood there with her arms full of laundry, eyes wide.
Vanessa set the laundry down and sidled over. The children, who had been eyeing the unfamiliar face with curiosity, ended up dragging Vanessa into the game as another seeker.
Vanessa was obviously clumsy. She couldn't even find a child hiding in plain sight, and the children clutched their stomachs laughing at her flailing.
"Vanessa, not that way—left, left!"
"H-huh? Where?"
Then one more person quietly joined in. It was Seraphine.
"What exactly are you doing? This doesn't look like you're just playing with them."
Seraphine hit the nail on the head. Unlike Vanessa, she wasn't floundering or getting swept up by the children — she was watching with a hawk's eye. As expected of the female lead. I'd figured she'd catch on quickly. Maybe because she naturally liked children, her lips were already curved into a smile. The children were laughing, so she was laughing along with them.
"I thought it would be good for the children to know how to run and hide from monsters."
"......Ah. How did you come up with this?"
Seraphine turned to me with wide eyes. I shrugged.
"Not long ago, Lillia nearly went through something terrible. At the very least, I wanted to teach her how to break a nose in a situation like that."
Seraphine stared at me blankly, mouth open. I shrugged at her. What? Small but mighty, as they say.
Seraphine let out a small laugh, then quietly watched the children running around for a moment.
"But since you're teaching them anyway, how about establishing some signals as well? There must be useful ones for urgent situations."
Oh-ho. That was a good suggestion.
"For example, a single hand gesture could tell them which way to flee. They use hand signals like that on the battlefield too."
I was intrigued. The hand signals I'd drilled to exhaustion in my past life came to mind. I could borrow a few of them.
"Good. Then let's do this."
I held up one finger.
"This means scatter to the right. Two fingers means left. And if I make a fist?"
"How about dropping flat and hiding on the spot?"
I nodded at Seraphine's suggestion.
"And if I spread my palm wide, freeze and don't move."
"If I draw a circle, everyone gathers together. That should be enough. What do you think, Seraphine?"
Seraphine nodded. It seemed I'd have to teach them this tomorrow. Fortunately, the children were taking all of this training as nothing more than play. They weren't connecting it to the monsters that would become their nightmares.
* * *
The next day, Seraphine and Vanessa joined us for a new game. We were teaching the hand signals we'd discussed the day before, and the children seemed to treat them like motions in a game—something like Red Light, Green Light.
When I raised my hand, the children froze in place and rolled their eyes. Watching the children burst into giggles, Vanessa and Seraphine were laughing too.
We were in the middle of practicing signals under the guise of play when several knights standing guard nearby approached with curious expressions.
"May we join in as well?"
"The knights too?"
"We've just finished our shift, so we have some time to spare."
There was no reason to refuse. If anything, I was glad. With several adult seekers, it would be far more realistic training for the children. Monsters wouldn't come one at a time — they'd swarm in groups.
When three or four knights joined in, curling their hands into claws and pretending to be monsters, the game instantly grew into a much bigger affair.
The children flinched at first at the sight of the large knights. But when the knights deliberately moved slowly and made silly noises, the tension quickly melted away.
"Grrr!"
As they approached, deliberately making monster sounds, the children shrieked with laughter and fled. If they had been real monsters, no one would have been laughing.
The children shouted to one another and checked the signals. Thanks to being completely absorbed in the game, the hand signals were already becoming second nature to them.
Children scattering this way and that at the signals, adults clumsily prowling after them. The small clearing turned boisterous in an instant.
One large knight tried to catch the children, only for three of them to surround him and latch onto his legs.
"I lost, I lost! I surrender!"
When the knight flopped backward with exaggerated drama, the children gleefully climbed on top of him. When I held up one finger, the children scattered to the right in unison. Seraphine, who had been watching, nodded with a satisfied expression.
"At this level, it should work in a real situation."
Approval from Seraphine herself. There was no greater triumph. Her eyes shone with approval as she looked at me.
Ha, looks like I managed to win over the heroine, huh? My future's smooth sailing now.
I shyly sidled up beside Seraphine. The moment I saw her arm, packed with solid, finely honed muscle, I was certain. This one was a winning stock. Seraphine was so cool.
* * *
Kael, too, witnessed the scene as he came out after inspecting the military supplies.
Children's laughter like droplets of water, shadows tangling together as they ran. Kael stopped. There was no mistaking what they were doing.
It looked like play, but the children were effectively being trained. They giggled as they ran, moving in perfect unison with Rosana's hand signals as they fled and hid.
With Seraphine and several knights joining in, the whole scene looked even more organized.
And then there was Vanessa. Seeing her out of her uncomfortable dress, wearing trousers, a shirt, and military boots, he nearly let out a hollow laugh.
All of this was a miracle created by Rosana. Yes, this was a miracle.
"......Was this even possible?"
Kael answered Millus's question.
"As if I would know."
He also couldn't believe that the sharp glare that had cornered the merchants in Willow and the utterly gentle expression she now wore around the children belonged to the same person.
She moved freely between those extremes, captivating everyone like a firefly gliding through the black night sky.
Not only Kael but the exhausted onlookers were watching the scene with smiles. Rosana showed a different face with each passing day.
"Your Highness?"
"......Let's go."
Even as he turned away, his heart could not easily leave that clearing. The children's laughter seemed to follow behind him for a long time.