I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 76

76. The Popular Young Lady

The atmosphere froze at the bombshell declared in such a light tone. After about three seconds of silence, the aides quickly began to chatter.

“Th, that is!”

“Surely, it’s a joke, right? Haha, really. Lord Matthias Mirmode, you certainly have a sense of humor!”

“Excellent! Hahaha!”

They were laughing like people forced to laugh at their boss’s joke, but inside, they were burning up.

Even though they were committing evil deeds, and even though Matthias Mirmode was an unprecedented genius in the realm of evil, their opponents were the temple and the imperial palace.

Trying to eliminate both at the same time could lead to them dying like shrimp caught between whales [an idiom meaning to be caught in the middle of a conflict between two powerful forces].

However, the attempt to brush it off as a joke quickly failed.

“Humor?”

Matthias stared at the men before him with a cold expression. A man as large as three grown men combined widened his eyes and retorted.

“Th, that is… Are you serious?”

A relatively small man with tattoos all over his body, who was standing next to him reporting to Matthias, nudged the giant’s side with his elbow.

“Haha, you! How can you take a joke so seriously…”

He trailed off, looking at Matthias. There wasn’t a hint of humor in Matthias’s eyes.

‘What’s with this feeling, like goosebumps rising from the back of my spine!’

The relatively small aide looked at Matthias and said,

“I, it’s a lie, right? You’re not really going to go up against the temple and the imperial palace, are you!”

“Why? Shouldn’t I?”

Matthias tilted his head. It was a look that often appeared when he was displeased. When he made that expression, at least one castle would be destroyed.

The aides trembled in fear and repeated.

“Y, you should!”

As soon as all the aides quickly answered and bowed their heads, Matthias suddenly spoke.

“Did I look like I was talking nonsense?”

Without saying more, Matthias stood up. The sound of his shoes clicking slowly grew closer. The giant man trembled slightly, then froze when he saw the sleek toe of a shoe in front of him.

It was Matthias’s.

That he moved himself meant that he was ‘very’ displeased.

“Th, that is… Lord Matthias?”

Matthias gently smiled and lifted the chin of his aide, who was chattering his teeth like a woodpecker.

“Not right now. Now that I’ve turned Sienne’s eyes away, I need to clean up the family’s trash first. Starting with…”

Matthias moved his feet lightly a few times. However, the aides still had cold sweat running down their spines. Whenever Matthias’s voice sounded excited, a bloodbath always followed.

The aide hesitated, unable to lift his head, and opened his mouth.

“Wh, what do you mean by starting with…?”

Matthias stared at them with a cold gaze, then gracefully left. The aides left in the office looked at each other with tearful faces.

“I didn’t know we’d be cleaning up the family’s trash so soon.”

“…It’s nice to be able to stretch my muscles for the first time in a while, but it looks like we’ll be working overtime for a while?”

Until now, they had been obsessed with not letting Sienne discover their wickedness.

Following Matthias’s orders, they had been doing good deeds that didn’t suit them. Volunteering at children’s organizations, donating one-tenth of their salary to orphanages, etc…

They had only seemed dull because they were doing good deeds that they didn’t normally do, but they were also villains worthy of being Matthias Mirmode’s closest aides.

“…No, but why, why did he turn into such a demon?”

“He didn’t usually look this unpleasant.”

“Is there something bothering him?”

“…He’d usually talk about purging the family’s aides with a smile.”

At that moment, an amazing idea came to one of the aides.

“Lady Sienne went to the academy for the first time today…”

“…Huh?”

“Then, su, surely?”

The aide, who had a flash of realization, opened his mouth wide. Then, the man next to him shook his head and said.

“Come to think of it, didn’t he say, ‘I miss Sienne,’ when he left earlier?”

As the reasoning gradually narrowed, they shuddered when they saw that Sienne’s picture, which had been in the reception room, had disappeared.

“So, is it really because he’s upset?”

“Is this a parent’s heart?”

“Is he worried that Lady Sienne won’t adapt well to the academy…?”

“…Su, surely Matthias wouldn’t be like that. Stop with the blasphemous thoughts!”

In their heads, the image of Matthias hugging Sienne and pretending to be a pushover dad floated up and disappeared.

“B, but it seems right…”

***

At that very moment, as the aides guessed, Matthias Mirmode’s mind was only filled with Sienne. Eliminating the family’s rebellious elements for the sake of his daughter’s growth was important, but Sienne’s safety was the most important thing.

So, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to select bodyguards to protect Sienne as she headed to the academy.

‘The crown prince will be lying low for a while, but safety is the top priority.’

So Sienne is a little…

‘Daddy! Try XXX!’

Good at swearing, no, no. Cheerful and vivacious…

‘Lady Sienne is running the merchant group very well, even though she’s only five years old.’

Genius…

‘Even at the age of ten, she has tremendous growth potential. She’ll do well even if she goes to the academy.’

She was definitely a smarter child than anyone else. It was as if she was more mature than her peers, like an adult.

‘My daughter is cute after all.’

He tried to hide his proud heart and opened the door.

Beyond the door, Leonhardt and Ashid were sitting with clear tension on their faces, having been called in advance.

“You know why I called you here today, right?”

“Yes?”

“N, no. More than that, why are you wearing such a bitter smile?”

Matthias frowned slightly at Leonhardt’s words.

He didn’t intend to wear a bitter smile, but it seemed to look ominous to Leonhardt.

‘Sienne liked it, calling it a pushover smile.’

He tried to smooth out his frown and stared at Leonhardt and Ashid. At least today, he wasn’t here to intimidate someone, but to ask Sienne’s friends for a favor.

Then Ashid and Leonhardt looked at each other with even more puzzled expressions. Matthias looked at the two kids and started talking abruptly.

“I’m going to give you a good opportunity.”

“…Yes?”

Instantly, Leonhardt’s face turned blue.

He was a boy who wore a mask that showed no emotion in any situation, but he seemed helpless in the face of Matthias’s notoriety. Ashid, who quietly lowered his head, seemed less embarrassed.

‘Unexpectedly.’

Matthias leaned back on the sofa and looked down at them, saying.

“I have something to tell you two.”

“Th…that is.”

“What’s going on…?”

Matthias looked at the little beasts in front of him and smiled beautifully, raising the corners of his lips.

“You two are going to the children’s academy too.”

“Children’s academy?”

They continued to look surprised, as if they had never heard of it before. Matthias nodded and replied.

“Yes, children’s academy.”

“That’s…”

Then Ashid carefully opened his mouth.

“Is Lady Sienne going too?”

“It seems you haven’t been informed yet. You’re going as Sienne’s bodyguards.”

As soon as those words were finished, Ashid and Leonhardt’s eyes lit up at the same time. Ashid nodded with his hands together, and Leonhardt wiggled his body and shouted, “Yes, I’ll go!”

‘Look at this.’

What kind of existence is his little daughter to these children? Both Leonhardt and Ashid were boys with dark pasts. It felt strangely good and bad that they were naturally drawn to Sienne’s sunshine-like human charm and were by her side.

He was displeased that Sienne wasn’t only precious to him, and he was subtly pleased by the good influence his little daughter had on other people’s lives.

‘Our baby is developing relationships with people other than me.’

He frowned like someone blinded by the sunlight and whispered.

“What you have to do is one thing. Protect Sienne.”

“I’m confident!”

“Cooperate so that Sienne can have a good time.”

Ashid nodded.

“Of course, I will cooperate.”

“But there’s a minor problem. The academy has entrance exams in February.”

Leonhardt folded his fingers one by one as if counting the months, then briefly sighed.

“Ah, it’s long past the entrance season!”

“That’s right.”

“Then how do we get into the academy?”

Matthias raised the corners of his mouth. His expression, with only the corners of his lips slightly raised, looked more like an ordinary dad with extreme helicopter parenting than a notorious villain.

It was around the time that Leonhardt was hesitating at the sight of a figure that he could never get used to.

Matthias put his hand inside his coat and took out a document.

Unusually, in his hand was a neat piece of parchment with the academy’s admission documents, schedule, and class hours written on it.

“Mid-term admission.”

“What is mid-term admission?”

Leonhardt and Ashid, who didn’t know about mid-term admission to the academy, tilted their heads. Matthias smiled cynically and said.

“It’s exactly as it sounds. Instead of formally entering the academy, you donate to enter in the middle.”

“It’s like a donation admission concept.”

“That’s right. I heard that mid-term entrants are treated badly.”

“…”

“I’m thinking of sending you three to the academy through donation admission.”

“Then…”

The white documents in his hand fluttered and scattered.

“Cooperate so that Sienne can have fun at the academy.”

Matthias would kill all the family’s cronies for Sienne’s happy time, while Sienne made friends like a child and played happily.

“Ah, and there’s one more thing you have to do there.”

“…Yes.”

Leonhardt and Ashid stared at Matthias with tense expressions.

“No one should tell Sienne about my notoriety.”

Then, Ashid, who had been quiet, suddenly opened his mouth.

“Are we… protecting Lady Sienne’s innocence?”

At the word innocence, the corners of Matthias’s lips rose as if drawn.

“Yes, innocence.”

***

“Hmph! Dad again!”

The next morning, inside the carriage.

I, who was sitting comfortably in the fluffy carriage, sighed deeply.

“…Oh, yes?”

The muscular maid gave a sullen smile. I said proudly, holding a magic tool in my hand.

“He contacted me again! The carriage to the academy hasn’t even left yet!”

It wasn’t like I was attending an academy boarding school; it was just going to and from school.

But seeing Dad acting like an overbearing parent already, I was very worried.

‘Is my dad going to become a helicopter parent later?’

The thought that it might actually happen made me shudder for a moment.

“That’s…”

“…What’s wrong, unnie [term of endearment for older sister or female friend]? You look like you’ve peed your pants!”

Indeed, she seemed to be trembling with fear. I tilted my head, staring at Deadri unnie. Then she whispered with a tearful face.

“I haven’t peed my pants yet…”

Bench unnie shook her head, wrapping her arm around Deadri unnie’s shoulder. Seeing her face covered in cold sweat whenever I just said, ‘Dad keeps contacting me! He’s such a worrywart!’, it seemed like something was definitely going on.

‘They keep acting like that whenever Dad is mentioned.’