The knight looked up at the sky with a daze expression in my stern answer.
The night was so deep that the moon was still bright and clear.
It was obvious that it wasn’t a good time for a walk.
“He asked me to go out for a walk. Oh, you heard the rumour, right? The dog I raise.”
Only then did the knight’s gaze turned to my feet.
The butler spent the whole day searching the premises for the possible owner of Harry.
The knight must have known about Harry as well.
“Arf!”
As the knight’s eyes reached him, Harry move briskly as if he had waited for this time.
‘It is a dog that has never been heard of before.’
Harry didn’t stop there.
Like what was told in advance, he moved busily and grabbed the hem of my skirt.
“As you can see, he’s been whining at me so I can’t sleep well.”
“But it’s too late. If you leave it to me, I’ll take him for a walk and come back.”
The knight said so and reached out to take Harry. Of course Harry didn’t just wait and let it happen.
“Grr!”
Harry growled fiercely as if he were going to bite the hand that was reaching out, the knight withdraw his hands in suprise.
“Harry, you can’t do that.”
I patted Harry on the head, pretending to be strict on him.
The knight’s mouth opened wide at the sight of Harry, whose fierce attitude had dissapeared when I touched him.
“He must have chosen the owner. I don’t think he would follow anyone else. It’s going to be difficult to entrust his walk to you.”
“But as I told you. It’s too late to go outside, and no one can take the fire with them. The baron ordered—— “
“So I can’t go out?”
“Yes, it is.”
The knight looked at me and said firmly. He looks pretty weak, but he was a lot tougher.
‘I can’t help it. There’s only one way to get away with it.’
I used my pair of stiff legs to show the villain’s lethal moves.2
I also did not forget to put my arms together with a haughty expression.2
And when I made the expression, the knight who looks weak breathed in, “Hiik!”
“Hey, Sir. Are you blocking my path? I’m Yvesria Oberon.”
“Oh, no, no! How can I stand in your way!”
“Then you can get out of my way.”
“Well, um, I can’t get out of the way…”
“Are you trying to stop me or you will get out of my way?”
“Hi-ik!”
When I opened my eyes and ground my teeth, the knight looks sick as if he will faint.
“I, I, I, I’ll get out of the way so please don’t cut my fingers! My future as a knight!”2
“Finger?”2
The threat seemed to work, but the direction was a little strange.
‘I never said I’d cut your finger.’
What kind of creative intimidation is that?
Emma whispered carefully to me, who was standing and shivering .
“There’s a rumour that you’re cutting and stuffing fingers of someone you don’t like.”
“……what does it mean of stuffing cut fingers?”
“I’ve never had my fingers stuffed, so I don’t know.”
“I’ve never done it before, so I also don’t know.”
“What? Have you never tried it?”
asked Emma, with her eyes wide open. She seemed to have a strong belief that the rumor was true.
“…I’m sure I know exactly how my rumors came out.”
Originally, rumors were inflated as they were passed from person to person.
From the south where the capital is, to here from the north where Erell was.
How many people made the rumour exaggerated while the story was told?
‘Should I be glad it’s not a rumor that I’m cutting fingers and baking them?’
I sighed and waved my hand at the knight.
“I’m not interested in fingers, so be relieved.”
“Then, yo, yo, you’re gonna cut my neck…”
“I don’t care about your neck! I just need you to open that door.”
“But you really shouldn’t go outside.”
The conversation came back to the first one, and I was dying of frustration.
“I wanted to make it work, but I can’t.”
I sighed exaggeratingly and ordered Harry.
“Harry, bite that knight’s finger off.”
Harry, who was looking at me and the knight’s confrontation with boredom, was delighted.
[Really? Can I eat his fingers? Can I eat all his limbs and head?]
[Do you mind? I’m just threatening him, just pretend to bite his finger.]
[Kett. It’s not funny.]3
Harry grumbled, but he approached the knight at my command.
Harry leapt at the knight which threatened to bite his hand at any moment.
“Oh, oh, I get it! I’ll open the door for you!”
The knight opened the gate with a whimper. He also mumbled, “I can’t or I’ll get scolded by the boss.”
‘I see why you’re still guarding the door at this late hour.’
I licked my lips past the gate and escaped out of the mansion. Emma followed suit.
“Where were you going with the fire? Take me there, Emma.”
“Yes, miss!”
Emma nodded her head with a bright face.
She was moved to come out of the house with the fire, that tears are also coming out in her eyes.
Emma walked in front, and me and Harry followed.
But there was an another footstep that should not have be behind.
“Why are you following us?”
It was the extra knight who got out of the entrance and got into a scuffle with me.
He was still sniffing behind me.
“It’s too late, and it’s too dangerous to send the miss and the maid…”
“So you’re going to escort us?”
“Yes, it’s the knight’s duty.”
The knight puffed out his chest with a proud face.
Of course, it was not reliable at all.
“That’s a wonderful thing to say.”
Before I knew it, I pointed to the gate of the house which was completely distant and almost invisible.
“That door, aren’t you’re guarding it alone?”
“That’s right.”
“Now that you’ve followed me like this, who’s guarding that door?”
In my question, the knight turned his eyes from side to side.
When his pupil came back and forth a couple of times, the knight’s face turned pale.
“Uh, uh, uh, what should I do, miss? The gate is empty now!The baron told me to keep it safe!”
“You should have thought about it from the moment you followed me.”
This knight is somewhere short of every thing that is born as a villain but somehow fail in everything he do as an extra.
‘Cause I’ve felt an odd sense of homogeneity, should I help you a little this time?’
I comforted the shoulder of the knight with a light pat, who was crying and panicking.1
“Don’t cry, it will be all right. “
“Huh. Is everything all right?”
“If anything happens, tell them I blackmailed you. Then he won’t ask you for your fault.”
“But you never did it.”2
“It’s scary of getting in trouble. There’s no one here to scold me, so just sell my name. I’m proud to have you followed out to protect me, so Im lending you my name.”
“Ah, miss. ……”
The tears of the knight who had died down from my words burst again.
“No, why are you crying when I’m helping you?”
“Thank you so much…… if I’m kicked out of the Order and don’t need a finger, I’ll give it to the miss. I will give you all my ten fingers!”13
“This guy really… I’m not really interested in fingers! Stop crying and escort us properly. That’s why you followed us.”
I took a handkerchief out of my arms and handed it to the knight. The sniffling man naturally wiped his tears from my handkerchief.
“Yes, miss. I will protect you!”1
The knight shouted with tears and a runny nose. It was a face that looked so unreliable.
***
The knight’s name was Lionel Dilph.4
He said he was the youngest of the Oberon family’s Frost Knights and the Fifth Division Knights deployed in the North.
He did his best to protect us. It was obvious that he worked hard.
The problem was that he worked really hard.
[What is he doing?]
Harry, who was following me, looked at Lionel and dragged his tongue as if he were pathetic.
[He’s full of holes. He can’t even protect himself, let alone protect you. ]
I could tell for sure that he was ignorant of swordsmanship.
On the way, he stumbled on a rock and dropped the sword that was hanging from his waist…4
[If a human being was made into paper, it’ll be stronger than that.]2
With Harry’s acrimonious assessment, we arrived at our destination.
It was a small-scale guest house that was located in a narrow, dark alley.
“This is where I spent my childhood.”
Emma smiled brightly and looked at the lamp in my hand.
“If it’s an adult, they can somehow withstand the cold, but it’s jut the kids here so I’m worried…..”
As soon as Emma came inside familiarly, the exterior of the room caught my eye.
Of course, the fireplace was cold.
“Sister?”
When Emma entered the darkness with the light, a girl stood up.
The children were all gathered in one place and wore thin pieces of cloth.
‘Maybe they were sharing their temperature and trying to endure the cold nights.’
But that would not have been enough.
If Emma hadn’t brought the fire, someone here might have froze to death. Children are very weak.2
“Sister!”
“Sister!”
One child’s cry spread to the other children. The children in shabby clothes crowded into Emma’s presence. Emma patted the children affectionately.
“It was very cold, wasn’t it? Wait a little. I’ll start the fire right away.”
“You can’t make a fire. There’s no wood.”
Emma lifted the black iron into the faces of the child.
“Why we have no wood? Here it is.”
It was true that black iron wood was overflowing in the estate, and what I picked up on the way was already filled on Emma’s arms.
The children who saw it laughed.
“Ay, that’s black iron. It’s not burning.”
“No. I brought a fire that can burn this, so trust me.”
Emma stroked the children’s head and approached the fireplace.
The children’s attention turned to Harry and Lionel as Emma filled the fireplace with the black iron she had picked up on her way.
Among them, Harry was the most popular.
“Wow, dog!”
“Owowow!”
The children screamed and rushed at Harry.
Harry shouted as he looked at the children hugging, petting and kissing him.
[Oh, what the hell! What the hell? I’m suffocating!]
Lionel was also surrounded by children.
“What is this? Is it a knife?”
“Hey, don’t, don’t touch it! It’s dangerous!”
“Why do you carry dangerous things with you?”
“I’m a knight, so It’s fine. “
“Ai. You’re lying. Knights don’t look like this!”5
“……doesn’t I look like a knight to you?”9
It was empty around me.
‘They’re scared of my villain’s face, so they can’t come near me.’
I walked toward the fireplace with a lamp, and the children blocking my way opened the way with a suspicious face.
It was then that it happened.
“Tak!”
The girl who had been avoiding me in a hurry tripped and fell forward.
It would have been a small incident if she had just fallen, but the problem was that she fell and hit the lamp in my hand.
The lamp hit by the girl’s hand floated in the air and fell to the floor.
The fire, which was burning faintly on the candle, had already died out in the air.
Emma’s behavior on her hard work on the fireplace became stiff.
“Fire……. the mysterious fire…”
Looking at Emma, who repeatedly called fire like broken, the girl who fell became sad.
She doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but she must have felt that she caused an accident.
“What should I do, miss? It’s a fire from the mansion… …that some kind of fire…”
Emma sat down in front of the fireplace. Tears welled up in her eyes.
“The fire … that’s the only way the kids would be warm.. …uwa.”
“Uh, sister. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Huh?”
The fallen girl patted Emma quickly.
It made Emma cry more. She hugged the girl and began to cry bitterly.
Then in an instant Emma’s crying spread to the children.
First, the girl Emma was holding, then the boy next to her, and then the girl next to her…
This spread of crying filled the house.
I could not help but laugh at the sight of ten children weeping at the same time.
‘This is crazy. Why am I meeting so many people crying today? Am I destined to be a babysitter today?’4
I scartched my cheek and stood in front of Emma who was crying with the loudest voice.
It was to soothe the sorrow that spread.
“Don’t cry. The kids are crying because you’re crying. “
“But, fire, children, freezing, uwa!”4
I was in no mood to stop their crying. There was only one way to end this noisy situation.
‘I can’t help it.’
I called Harry in with a wink.
Harry, who had barely escaped from the children, stumbled and stood beside me.
I bent over and looked at the fireplace, tidying up Harry’s hair. It was full of black iron wood.
[Harry, I need a fire. Just like before.]
1
Txx:
I will change the MC’s name, Everia to Yvesria. The pronounciation was ‘ibeulia’. Harry’s title of Archmage will also be changed to Great Wizard.