Sikar Blake punched his forehead once as if his head was throbbing, then ordered Durion to order chocolate cake. I clapped my hands to get the children’s attention focused on me.

“Kids! You’re going to get to eat chocolate cake! Right here, this incredibly handsome and valiant knight is going to go buy it for you!”

Durion, who had suddenly become an incredibly handsome and valiant knight, stared at me with a bewildered expression. So, I’m sorry, but I took slight advantage of Durion’s simple personality.

“Right? Valiant Sir Durion.”

As soon as Durion received the children’s expectant gazes all at once, he straightened his shoulders and chuckled heartily.

“Y-yes. Kids. Brave me will go buy chocolate cake, so stop crying now.”

The children, seemingly hearing nothing but the promise of chocolate cake, immediately stopped crying.

“R-really…?”

“Right now! I’ll go get it. Wait! You can’t cry until I come back, okay?!”

Thinking they could eat chocolate cake, the children quickly stopped crying.

Soon, a generous amount of cake arrived from the bakery, and Durion kindly smiled as he distributed chocolate cake to the children.

I picked up cake boxes and placed one each into Vika Lamberst’s and Sikar Blake’s hands.

“What are you doing just standing there? Come on, quickly help Durion distribute these together.”

Vika Lamberst, who received the cake box from me, looked at Sikar Blake with an incredulous expression and said,

“Do I really have to do this kind of thing?”

“My wife’s command is my command. So whatever she tells you to do, just do it without complaint. I’m doing it too.”

Vika Lamberst was no different from Sikar Blake when it came to hating children. Since Vika disliked not only children but humans in general, he pursed his lips toward Sikar Blake.

“You must have seriously messed up something in the future, huh? That’s why you’re stuck living like this.”

“If you understand, then work without complaint. If I mess up, you’re finished too, thanks to our oath.”

“I never asked for your help in the first place.”

“Your grumbling is louder than the children’s noise. Stop grumbling and just hand out the cake.”

Vika’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Feels like diving headfirst into a battlefield.”

Vika trudged forward with the cake box as if forcing himself to move reluctant feet.

The three of them looked utterly flustered as children reached out their hands demanding cake.

Watching the worst villains of this world being tormented by children was both amusing and satisfying. Felt like rehabilitating villains?

Kian Blake seemed equally pleased, smiling brightly as he watched the three.

‘Then maybe I’ll try saving these three a little.’

I clapped my hands to draw the children’s attention.

“Kids. To eat cake, you must follow order. Line up one by one. You all know how to line up, right?”

“Yes!!!”

“Then now, form a long single line in front of the mister and miss over there. Understood?”

“Yes!!!”

The children confidently answered and formed a long single-file line.

Durion, who had suddenly gone from valiant knight to “mister,” gave me a thumbs-up. Vika Lamberst, who had abruptly become “miss,” snorted slightly as if saying, “Is that all you’re doing?” Sikar Blake exhaled a long breath as if finally getting some breathing room.

“Let’s help distribute too, Kian.”

Kian had been beaming with a smile since earlier, looking utterly pleased with everything.

“Yes. Mother.”

After we helped the three distribute cake, we sat in a circle with the children around the table and ate cake together.

While the children laughed and chattered, intoxicated by the taste of cake, I quietly asked Sikar Blake,

“How were the children’s memories? Were they abused by the director at all?”

“Physically, they were pinched a lot. If you lifted their clothes right now, you’d easily find pinch marks on their backs or sides. More importantly, the children were severely underfed. Here, they’re supposed to get two meals a day, but even those weren’t proper meals. Forget about cake—sometimes they didn’t even get a full slice of bread per meal. Half a slice of bread and watery soup was all they got.”

“How could anyone do that to little children!”

I clenched my trembling fists tightly.

“Don’t worry too much. The law here is strict—the director’s crimes will be heavily punished. More severely for embezzling noble donations than for abusing the children.”

That makes sense. Ideally, I’d prefer punishment for the former reason, but even if it’s for the latter, the fact that the penalty will be severe is quite satisfying.

Fortunately, the children seemed completely immersed in chocolate cake, as if washing away all the resentment they’d suffered under the director.

“Speak up if you need more. Kids, today’s the day you can eat cake until your stomachs burst.”

“Waaaaaaah! Really?!”

“Yes. The Duke here will pay for everything.”

The children looked at Sikar Blake with doubtful expressions, and Sikar Blake, looking utterly exhausted, glared at me and replied,

“I’ll rot all your little teeth.”

The children’s hopeful expressions instantly froze. So I smiled brightly at them and clapped.

“He means he’ll buy you so much cake you can eat your fill!”

The children immediately cheered with joy. Their faces, smeared with cream as they indulged in sweetness, seemed to have lost all their shadows.

Without Kian, we wouldn’t have saved these children. I gave Kian a thumbs-up, impressed.

“Our son, you’re so cool.”

Kian also gave me a thumbs-up.

In the original story, it ended with Kian becoming a great king after seizing the throne, but how great a king he’d become was never specified.

But now, I felt I could be certain just how great a king Kian would become.

‘Also, I hope Sikar earned some points with Kian thanks to this incident.’

“Mother is cooler.”

“No, Kian. Without the Duke’s help, we could never have saved these children. Shouldn’t we give our Duke a thumbs-up too?”

Kian seemed to ponder briefly, then said with a lukewarm expression,

“Fine.”

Then he called out to Sikar.

“Um. Hmm… Duke?”

But since Sikar was distracted and didn’t respond immediately, Kian robotically stomped over to him and tapped his shoulder.

Perhaps in this world, Kian was the only person brave enough to casually tap Sikar’s shoulder like that.

When Sikar turned around with a “What?” expression, Kian showed him a very robotic thumbs-up, then abruptly turned and walked back to me.

Of course, Kian wouldn’t suddenly open his heart fully to Sikar just because of this. But I hoped, even a little, that his wariness toward Sikar had eased.

Sikar looked utterly dumbfounded, but somehow, I found their interaction quite pleasant to watch.

We stayed with the children until they declared they were too full to eat anymore.

Durion and Vika Lamberst had cream smeared all over their mouths, thanks to the children feeding them cake. Meanwhile, a few mature children wiped the cake off Vika’s and Durion’s mouths.

“Feels like being turned into a doll.”

Vika grumbled, but didn’t stop the children.

The children seemed afraid of Sikar and didn’t dare approach him. So, in this chaotic scene, only Sikar sat comfortably, sipping tea.

The rest fell under the capital city hall’s jurisdiction, so our job ended once we captured the director and handed him over to the guard.

Since the director was immediately imprisoned, the orphanage would be managed by the city hall for a while. In the meantime, a clergyman from the monastery would temporarily take over the vacant director position.

We watched the clergyman arrive, then said goodbye to the children before leaving the orphanage.

When we said our goodbyes, the children’s eyes welled up with tears. Sikar stood up with a face that clearly said he hated crying kids.

“I’ve done my part, so let’s get going. We’ve wasted enough time here.”

“You have to say goodbye before leaving.”

“Then I’ll wait in the carriage. Finish quickly and come.”

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

“Me?”

Sikar looked at me as if questioning my sanity, but I pushed him toward where the children stood.

“We can’t just leave crying children behind. More importantly, Kian will be terribly disappointed.”

It was hilarious seeing Sikar’s flustered expression as he stood before the crying children. Since he was usually described as someone who never got flustered—an antagonist—it made the scene even more entertaining.

Not knowing what to do, Sikar glanced at me, then awkwardly half-raised his hand and waved at the children.

But Sikar’s face didn’t look like he was saying goodbye—it looked like he was about to sell the children somewhere.

“Smile at the children. They’ll get scared and cry more.”

Sikar tried lifting one corner of his mouth to smile, but as expected, it didn’t look like a smile at all—just like he was mocking the children.

After a few attempts, and seeing the children kept crying, Sikar finally gave up and lowered the hand he’d been waving.

“Goodbye ends here.”

Sikar said that and briskly walked out, and I didn’t ask anything more of him. I knew very well how much effort this was for him.

And even this much from him was significant progress.

The next day.

Everyone, including me but excluding Sikar, looked ten years older with dark circles hanging down to our eyes. It felt like our minds hadn’t returned yet after being completely drained watching the children.

I’d planned to watch Kian play spirit games with Vika Lamberst today, but unexpectedly, an unforeseen visitor arrived at the Duke’s mansion—Jeremi Iker.

“Welcome, Master Jeremi.”

“Have you been well, Duchess Blake? The Duke requested something, so I’ve come to see you.”

Even as he said this, Jeremi grinned mischievously at me. His smile was so innocently mischievous that I felt compelled to grin back.

“I see. I’m glad to see you again.”

“They say there’s a magic room here. Do you happen to know where it is?”

“Oh, you mean the training room. The Duke happens to be there now, so you can go directly. The servants will show you the way when you leave.”

“So it’s the training room. I suppose that’s why he asked me to create various simulations there.”

Jeremi coming to Sikar’s house to cast magic—considering he’s fated to be killed by Sikar in the original story—was quite a strange occurrence.

“Then, good luck.”

“Um, Duchess. Excuse me, but where is your hometown?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because you have mysterious black eyes.”

“If the Duke finds out you asked me such a personal question, he’ll be very angry. Please be careful.”

I mentioned Sikar partly because I found the question awkward to answer, but truly, if Sikar had been here, he would have drawn his sword on Jeremi.

He’s the kind of person who’d say, ‘Say that one more time, and next I’ll separate your head from your body.’

Jeremi seemed to understand, smiling faintly.

“Understood. My apologies, Duchess.”

As I turned to leave, I remembered Jeremi had been short on money lately.

Then perhaps… could I also obtain information about Reidox from him?

Since I urgently needed to get Lucy and Kian to meet soon, befriending Reidox quickly was my top priority right now.

“Um, Master Jeremi.”

“Yes?”

“Can I buy information about Duke Yukandar?”

“Hmm…”

Jeremi looked slightly troubled.