I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 42

42. Just as Naive as Her Face

Except for the boy referred to as the leader, the other children blinked. The smallest of them spoke up.

“Th-th-that means…”

“Means what?”

At my question, the boy called the leader stared at me with sharp eyes. He didn’t flinch or say a word even when Deadri cracked her knuckles. Instead, a boy next to the leader mumbled.

“Hey, anyway, who, who are you guys! Our leader did nothing wrong! It’s all this guy-.”

Deadri whispered ominously.

“That ain’t got nothin’ to do with me. All that’s needed is an apology to our Little Miss.”

“No…”

The smallest boy pouted. Deadri Unnie’s [older sister/female honorific] expression turned even more ominous.

“Kid, do I have to hit you before you listen?”

The boy called the leader glared at us and then opened his mouth.

“Red. Step back.”

He spoke calmly, unlike someone who was about to resort to violence.

“I’m too heated to apologize. But my opinion won’t change. If it’s not your business, leave.”

I confidently replied to the leader.

“It is my business.”

“What?”

Seeing the leader’s rare look of bewilderment, I grinned.

“I came here to play today! No, I came to play with you guys!”

As his face flushed with embarrassment, I quickly flung the door wide open.

Stepping inside among the many standing boys, I strode confidently toward the boy in the center and held out my hand.

“Come here! Hand!”

The boy who had been lying on the floor grabbed my hand tightly without even wiping off the dust. I didn’t realize it while he was being ganged up on, but his grip was surprisingly strong, leaving a red mark on my hand.

I struggled to smile, trying not to show any signs of pain.

“…”

The brown-haired boy silently took my hand and got up without any words of thanks.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yeah, well.”

I awkwardly nodded, giving the boy who was glancing around as if gauging the mood a once-over, then straightened my body.

Inside Room 201, the space was already divided in half as if sides had been chosen.

On the left side were me, the attacked brown-haired boy with a perm, and Deadri Unnie. And on the right were the leader and about half a dozen boys who had been bullying him.

I stiffened my body and carefully whispered to Deadri Unnie.

“Unnie, but…”

Deadri Unnie was glaring at the boys as if worried that I might be hurt.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

I mumbled, looking at her bulging muscles.

“…Why are you talking like that…?”

Realizing her dialect in that moment, Deadri Unnie’s eyes widened.

“Heup.”

She brought her hand to her mouth, blushed, and stamped her feet.

She said she was so angry that her Pteu Territory dialect came out.

***

About ten minutes later. Room 201 of the Gypsy Orphanage was submerged in an ambiguous atmosphere.

The brown-haired boy who had been subjected to the group bullying was initially aloof, but after realizing how great my identity was, he kept bowing to me. He was almost being obsequious.

“You’re a noble, right?”

“Huh?”

“You’re strangely dressed up, but I can tell. Street kids know. Your face has a bit of soot on it, but you definitely smell good…”

His eyes gleamed strangely.

“Ah, sorry.”

“Umm, yeah…”

I awkwardly nodded and grabbed Deadri Unnie’s sleeve.

‘Something’s weird…’

I had certainly saved a boy from violence, but I didn’t feel as good as when I saved Acid. I felt strangely uneasy.

‘Violence is definitely bad. So, saving him was the right thing to do.’

Just a normal five-year-old’s brain and an adult’s brain were fighting.

But the intuition that had been internalized over the years always came to life easily.

‘But something feels suspicious. Should I at least hear the side of those who were committing the violence?’

I’m just a normal volunteer, but the people in Room 201 probably aren’t.

I wondered if I should go find that leader and hear his reasons.

“Wait here for a sec!”

“Uh-oh…?”

“Little Miss!”

Before the brown-haired boy and Deadri Unnie could stop me, I quickly got up and ran toward the leader as fast as a squirrel. As he glared at me, who had quickly arrived in front of him, he muttered as if chewing his words.

“If you’re just going to say violence is bad or something, get lost.”

“Huh? That’s not it.”

I wanted to say that I was a fan of violence too, but instead of saying that, I spoke solemnly.

“Let’s do something fun together!”

“You hate me.”

“Umm…”

I asked him sternly.

“I don’t hate you yet! Why did you bully your friend earlier?”

The leader didn’t seem to want to say anything. He smirked and mocked me.

“If I tell you why I did it, would outsiders like you even listen properly?”

“Yeah!”

I nodded vigorously, but the leader still only sneered and didn’t seem to want to talk.

“You’re lying. Do you think I’d tell you, someone I just met today, all my circumstances?”

“Umm…”

“Just as naive as her face.”

I tilted my head inwardly, looking at the leader who was full of distrust.

Come to think of it, the kid who grabbed my hand earlier had a stronger grip than I thought, and he didn’t seem to have any bruises or scars.

‘The atmosphere is suspicious.’

I stared at the leader boy with a crooked head and blinked.

Was it because of the sunlight? His bluish hair kept looking brown and then not.

‘First… let’s open these kids’ hearts and properly set my original goals.’

I took small steps backward and nodded to the maid unnie. Then, I carefully whispered my wicked thoughts to her as she put her ear to my mouth.

I saw Deadri Unnie’s eyes widen.

“How could you think of something like that?”

“Yeah!”

Tears welled up in Deadri Unnie’s eyes. She quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand, probably worried about muscle loss. But I could see it.

“So…”

“This small, squishy mochi [Japanese rice cake] is so admirable…”

I wondered if it was something to cry about. But Deadri Unnie nodded vigorously with an expression overwhelmed with emotion.

***

The Mirmod family’s patissiers appeared in the orphanage kitchen.

They proudly appeared inside the orphanage, carrying huge sacks of flour and butter, and bowed to me at a 90-degree angle.

‘We greet Sien-nim!’

They chuckled as I blushed and felt embarrassed.

But as expected of professionals, they were amazing, tidying up the kitchen and filling it with the aroma of bread and butter while still finding me cute.

It goes without saying that the orphanage children saw all of this. They whispered to each other and looked at me.

I smiled, thinking about today’s plan.

It was the Sien’s One-Day Bakery!

I remembered the conversation I had with the orphanage director earlier.

‘You’re from the Mirmod… family?’

She quickly knelt down. I waved my hand at her and said.

‘You’re going to create a one-day bakery for the gypsies here? You’re going to make bread with the children and give it away to the gypsies for free… that’s the idea, right?’

‘Yeah! Sien will pay for the ingredients!’

‘We’ll need a patissier…’

I smiled brightly and said.

‘I’ll bring them from home!’

‘…Haa, I hope the children will get to know each other better through this opportunity.’

‘Right? The kids will be nice!’

At my words, the orphanage director smiled bitterly and nodded. Like someone with a hidden secret.

I didn’t think she would tell me, so I pretended not to know and only thought specifically about my plan.

To be exact, my plan is as follows.

In prisons, they make young people bake bread to rehabilitate them.

There are research results that making and eating bread makes you feel a sense of accomplishment, improves your mood, and reduces aggression.

I heard that the gypsy orphanage children know a lot of information because they wander around this alley and that alley.

So, it’s good in the long run to become friends with them through this plan and make them my informants.

If the rumor spreads that this orphanage is giving away free bread, there’s a high probability that the sorcerer will visit this place.

According to Melodia in the original story, this sorcerer is a hungry person living in the back alleys.

That’s how Acid, Ted, the orphanage director, and the maids gathered in the kitchen according to my plan.

While the patissiers were busy transporting the ingredients, they were about to toss me in the air, praising me.

I hesitated and stepped back.

“For such a soft person to have such precious thoughts.”

“And still so young…”

“It seems she was worried about the orphanage children fighting earlier.”

“There’s no need to be so concerned, but as the director, I’m reflecting. I only thought of her as a child…”

In their conversation, I was portrayed and packaged as a saint who was ‘deeply concerned about violence, creating a one-day bakery for the children, and helping their rehabilitation and reformation.’

Especially Acid…

“I also lived on the streets, but Sien-nim picked me up.”

It was loud enough for even the leader and the boys, who were peeking at what we were doing from outside the kitchen, to hear.

I frantically smoothed my frizzy hair and covered my reddened face. It was as if my face had turned completely red from the excessive exaggeration.

***

Although no one in that place cared, there were people here who were deeply and excessively impressed.

They were Pat and Mat, who were in charge of monitoring Sien according to Matthias’s orders.

Pat and Mat saw and heard everything Sien did.

They even eavesdropped on her words.

And they were in shock all day today.

How could this be?

That little child, living in a villainous family, the daughter of the ultimate villain Matthias Mirmod!

She saved an orphanage child and even gave away bread for free.

Like villains, this was the first time they had ever seen such a purifying sight.

But they swallowed hard. They were by no means such shabby villains that they would be swayed by a child’s good deeds.

It was when Pat and Mat, who had barely come to their senses, bit the inside of their cheeks.

Sien, who had run over, grabbed the leader boy’s hand tightly.

Pat and Mat watched that scene with wide eyes.

They wondered if Sien would insult and mock that gypsy kid, the leader, who had mocked and insulted her, in the same way.

If she was the daughter of ‘that’ Matthias-nim, she would be able to insult him harshly. Because he is someone who can kill people with words and kill people with a knife.

The minds of Pat and Mat, who recalled the situation when Matthias cut down the monsters when the monster gate opened, turned cold.

But… Sien was different.

“Leader!”

She smiled brightly and reached out her hand to the leader first.

Perhaps, is she trying to reconcile with that leader kid?

She really is a baby angel.

Without knowing that they were thinking the same thing at the same time, Pat and Mat coughed urgently.

But the thoughts that arise unconsciously and the words that are actually spoken are different.

“Y-yeah, I still hate little kids.”

As Pat muttered without realizing that he was stuttering,

“…T-that’s… right. I feel the same way too.”

Mat received the next words without knowing that he had opened his mouth with difficulty.

Their inner selves, still stained with evil, coldly ignored that fact. Pat and Mat made an effort to make expressions full of wickedness and muttered lowly through their teeth.

They didn’t know it now. That consciously trying to hate Sien was their last resort.

Once this fortress collapses… they didn’t know what would happen.

They fixed their eyes on Sien.

But something they hadn’t noticed until now because they had been staring at Sien came to mind.

“That kid, the leader.”

“Huh?”

“Doesn’t he look familiar?”

They looked at each other and frowned. They had traveled all over the country, so they should have known who he was. But they couldn’t remember.

He definitely looks familiar… It’s like someone is reflected in that face.

It was as if someone had painted their heads black with a marker.