Chapter 175.
When I stepped into the Angel"s House, the paladins surrounding the area stared at me bluntly. Strangely enough, they didn’t seem to have any interest in Lisbon, but I could feel all kinds of vigilance and hostility towards me from their gaze.
This feeling was very similar to how the paladin looked at me when I was with Hillis at the casino. Haha, there’s no way someone at the level of a saintess is in such a shabby place...
"Huh! Den?"
...There was. Hillis, sitting with an open children’s book among the kids, looked at me and waved with a delighted look.
"Do you know each other?” Lisbon looked at me curiously.
"Yes, she’s a friend."
The moment I said she was a friend, I felt as if the gaze of the paladins watching from outside the window were burning fiercely. Even though her position made it impossible to escape from, I still felt sorry for Hillis having to deal with being surrounded by such overprotective paladins.
"Long time no see. I didn"t expect I would meet you in a place like this."
Hillis smiled like a rascal and said, "Ayy, you don’t have to speak formally between friends; speak informally. You spoke informally to me when we parted last time, right?”
While Hillis was speaking, the paladins outside exuded divine power as if they were saying they would kill me if I spoke informally.
However, Hillis signaled them once with her eyes to calm the fluctuating divine power. I put on a smile similar to Hillis’s. "All right, since you’re insisting, I’ll speak informally. How are you?”
Once again, the paladin’s energy fluctuated with my informal speech, and Hillis was once again enjoying it.
As I thought that she and I were truly the same type of people, a young nun came to us and said, "Brother Lisbon-nim, you have arrived?"
While the nun welcomed him, she also drew the cross. Lisbon also greeted the nun by drawing a cross. "Yes, it has been a while, Sister Riemann."
"The children have been looking for Brother Lisbon-nim because you have not come for a few days."
For children who have supposedly been looking for him, I couldn’t find any children approaching.
"And this person is...?”
When Sister Riemann looked towards me and asked, Lisbon introduced me with a smile. "He"s my friend who lives in the same boarding house. Didn"t I bring ten silver coins during New Year"s Day from my friend’s donation?"
"Oh, yes! Then...”
"Yes, this is him."
Sister Riemann said thank you, holding my hand with a grateful face. "Thank you very much, Brother-nim. Thanks to Brother-nim, we were able to stay warm in the winter."
I don"t know if I can be thanked like this because I got the money from gambling.
"Haha, I"m glad the children had a warm winter.”
Sister Riemann shook my hand as if she was moved by what I said and smiled. Then, as Sister Riemann was friendly with me, the children began to approach us little by little. Oh, maybe they didn"t come near us because they were wary of me.
At that time, a child plucked up his courage and jumped at Lisbon. "Lisbon hyung!"
Starting with that child, the rest of the children rushed to Lisbon.
"Wah! Lisbon oppa!”
"Hyung!"
"Where have you been?"
I took a step back when I saw the children jumping forward like puppies seeing snow for the first time. Hillis also looked embarra.s.sed when the children surrounding her left as well. I sensed that she was a little upset by this.
The children clung to him, and Lisbon gave them an intimate hug as he said, "Hahaha, I"m sorry. I left the capital for a while because I had work to do."
They’d probably go nuts if they knew he went to partic.i.p.ate in a war. The children clinging onto Lisbon were still wary of me. I wondered if the children were normally this cautious, but resolving the children"s wariness wouldn’t be too difficult.
I took a box of candy out from my pocket and asked, "Who wants candy?"
At the rattling sound of candy in the box, the children looked at me like meerkats standing on guard. While swallowing their saliva, the children looked at Sister Riemann beside them.
“Oh, why did you buy such expensive things?” Sister Riemann felt so sorry that she didn’t know what to do.
I just shrugged. "I didn"t buy it, but rather an old gentleman gave it to me on the way here, asking me to give it to the children."
"An old gentleman?"
Sister Riemann tilted her head, and I pointed to the back door of the Angel"s House. "Yes, he went to the back door to see the head nun about some business...”
"Oh! Him! He comes around this time of year. I didn’t realize it was already that time, but he has been a great help to our Angel"s House." Sister Riemann seemed to know about the old gentleman.
"Do you know who that old gentleman is?" It was definitely my first time seeing him, but it felt strange because he seemed familiar.
Sister Riemann shook her head. "No, I don"t really know. I only know that he lives far from the capital, and he"s rich compared to how he looks. I think the head nun has known him for a long time, perhaps...”
Then a child pulled Sister Riemann"s skirt and interrupted. "Sis, Sister-nim."
The child"s eyes were directed at the candy box in my hand.
It seems as the conversation grew prolonged, the limit of their patience arrived.
I asked with a smile, "Is it okay to give the candy to the kids first?"
"Oh, yes! Just one each is fine."
When Sister Riemann gave her permission, the wary children began to approach sneakily.
Sister Riemann clapped her hands and put the children in line. "Come, everyone! Get in order!"
I started handing out candy to the children in line, and before I knew it, Hillis came next to me and looked at me discontentedly as she said, "It"s cheap to buy favor with candy."
At Hillis’s whining, I responded with a smile. "Hut, this is called the strategy of an adult with financial power.”
Well, if you get technical about the results, it wasn"t actually candy that I paid for.
* * *
"All right! It"s lunchtime!"
After playing hard with the children in the yard, Lisbon gathered the children into the Angel"s House at Sister Riemann’s call.
"Wow, I’m tired." Hillis could not overcome the children"s stamina, and she was sweating while exhaling exhaustedly.
When I tried to hand her a handkerchief as she sat on an old wooden bench, a paladin hurriedly appeared and gave a handkerchief to Hillis. "Here you are."
"Oh, thank you, Albatoss."
After being thanked, the paladin named Albatoss looked at me with a proud face and quickly went back to where he originally stood.
"Put, childish, huh?" Hillis asked with a slight smile.
I sat next to her and answered, "Well, it doesn’t seem to match his age."
At my words, Albatoss’s aura flinched, and Hillis laughed out loud. "Puhahahaha!"
"Hahahaha!" I also laughed, infected by her amus.e.m.e.nt.
After laughing for a long time, while browsing through the places where the paladins were hiding around, Hillis asked, "Have you heard anything from Ms. Rosellis about me?”
I shook my head at her question. "No, I haven’t heard anything.”
Hillis smiled at my answer, and her laugh was a little pretentious. "Seeing your skills at the casino, you seem pretty smart. So, you’ve probably guessed that I’m someone with a high position, right?"
You would be a fool not to notice after seeing her excessive protection. In that respect, Lisbon was a real fool. How could you not feel the fluctuating energy around you? Oh, was it because I overworked him in the morning?
I nodded without saying a word, mentally convinced, and Hillis continued, "Actually, I have almost no friends because of it, and I also feel guilty about faking my ident.i.ty."
Hillis hesitated and opened her mouth. "I don"t know if you"ll continue to be friends with me after hearing my ident.i.ty, but actually, I’m-”
"A saintess?" I interrupted Hillis.
Hillis looked dumbfounded at what I said. "You, how? You said you didn"t hear anything from Ms. Rosellis."
"Yeah, I didn"t hear about that.”
"Then how?"
I spoke casually to the bewildered Hillis, "A young woman a.s.sociated with the temple with high status and outstanding skills is always escorted by paladins. At the casino, you told me that the place you were staying was a secret. Rosellis also didn"t know where you lived, so she asked the guild director. Combining all that, I found out easily."
Actually, when I first saw her, I overheard the paladin named Albatoss calling Hillis the saintess.
Hillis looked at me, surprised. "Then, did you speak informally while knowing that?”
"You told me to."
"No, but still."
I don"t know why you"re surprised when you made me do it. If you knew that I had noticed you were of high status, wouldn"t it have been better if you had just glossed over it in the first place?
"Why? Do you want me to speak formally again? It"s comfortable for me to speak formally because I’m always speaking formally to others."
"No, keep talking informally."
I readily agreed to Hillis"s request. "Okay. Oh, but I"ll still speak formally in public. Well, I don"t know if there will be a day when a civil servant will meet the saintess in public, though."
When I spoke playfully, Hillis smiled, concealing her inner thoughts.
"Den~! Come and eat!" After gathering all the children into the Angel"s House, Lisbon waved his hand and called me over.
"Let"s go eat."
* * *
The Duke of Asteria arrived at the small cafe written on the note. The cafe had curtains closed on its windows as if it was not operating even though it was almost lunchtime. There was also a sign on the door saying "Closed." After checking the note once more, the duke pushed on the closed door.
Cling, cling!
A clear bell rang, and the door pushed open. The duke opened the door and went into the cafe. Inside the cafe, a middle-aged woman with black hair was boiling water.
"It has been a long time since we met, Your Highness, the Duke."
"Long time no see, did you say your name was Talaria?"
She nodded lightly at the duke"s question. "Please call me Big Mama now."
"I see. It seems you’re using the information agency very well. Thanks to you, damage from the demon’s territory has reduced substantially every year.”
Talaria shook her head modestly at the duke"s words. "No, you provided a lot of help in creating the Big Mama Information Agency. And Your Highness, the Duke, is one of the top executives in the Big Mama Information Agency, so please feel free to access the information you want at any time."
He had the t.i.tle of one of the top three executives because the duke financed the establishment of the Big Mama Information Agency.
"Haha, thank you for that.”
Talaria smiled and pointed upstairs as the duke thanked her and looked around, saying, "The person who you are looking for is waiting up there."
"I see. I should go say my greetings. Excuse me."
The duke went upstairs. On the second floor of the cafe, an old man with slightly graying black hair was relaxing and drinking tea as he sat.
As soon as the duke saw the old man, he took off his hat and showed his manners. "It has been a long time, Zendia Blade-nim."
The duke"s appointment was with the former chief of the Crow Tribe and the grandfather of Denburg.
Zendia rose from his seat to greet the duke with the same courtesy. "Haha, it’s been a long time, Your Highness, Duke of Asteria."
Then the duke smiled and waved his hand. "It"s too much of a burden to receive such courtesy from the chief of the Crow Tribe."
"It"s the same for me."
The duke smiled and gave a suggestion at Zendia’s playfulness, "Then let’s refer to each other with comfortable names."
"Okay, let’s do that. Have you had lunch, In-law?" [1]
The duke sat opposite Zendia and answered, "Haha, not yet, In-law."
1. In-law here referring to the parent of one’s child-in-law.