Chapter 28
Chapter 28: How Could It Be Him
***
“You children are really bold, don’t you know what the Central Workshop is?”
Hearing the Duke’s words, the chattering children were frightened into silence, looking at him with timid eyes.
“We… we heard from the Sister nuns that it’s… a place with many powerful weapons…”
“So you just came here? Do you know what would happen if you got caught?”
“…Would we, be hanged?” The words were spoken with trembling hesitation.
“That’s right.”
The Duke put on a stern face with furrowed brows, and in an instant, the children were scared speechless.
“Actually we just wanted to… wanted to take— borrow weapons when you weren’t looking, we would return them afterward… please don’t kill us, wuu—”
“Then will you dare to do this again?”
“No… we won’t dare.”
“Actually… we didn’t want to do this, but that strange person has guards protecting him, without weapons we can’t beat him…”
…You think you could beat them with weapons?
Their bodies were generally thin, probably unable to wield even the lightest exotic weapons smoothly.
Only their eyes were bright and pure.
“This afternoon, several people surrounded David and dressed him up prettily, he might be sent away soon.” The little girl wiped her nose as she spoke, then grabbed my skirt with her small hand, “Big sister, can you help us?”
Her eyes showed a pleading look.
I looked at this brown-haired girl with freckles on her face, named Elle.
Her gaze was somewhat similar to that brave and kind young girl in that small village far away.
I can help you, that’s not a problem. But could you not wipe your snot-covered hand on my skirt?
Look, I can’t even swat your hand away… Can I? I really want to give it a swipe.
Enduring that uncomfortable feeling, I turned to look at Duke Scalliger, seeing his eyes meet mine, I raised an eyebrow at him.
You understand what I mean, right?
The Duke nodded, then said to the two Workshop Hunters standing aside: “How about this. You two go with them and see what’s going on. If the situation is really as the children described… detain the person first. If you encounter fierce resistance, prioritize the children’s safety above all else, and if absolutely necessary, you may kill them. I will give the Church an explanation.”
“Yes!” The hunters who were called out bowed and responded.
“Yay——!!”
“Great!”
Hearing that hunters would go with them, the children were overjoyed with beaming smiles, eager to leave with the hunters.
Seeing them about to leave, I quickly took out a handkerchief and hastily wiped where Elle had touched, then straightened my skirt.
“I’m going too!”
It was too stuffy here, I had already thought about running off earlier. Now that there was a legitimate excuse, if not now, then when?
“Wait, Peipei!”
Just as I took two steps, I was stopped by the Duke. I turned my head and looked at him puzzled.
“It’s already dark, you shouldn’t go, leave it to them. I’m almost done here, let’s go home together, Catherine must have dinner ready.”
“Yes, Peipei. Why do you want to go with them?”
The Duchess’s dinner!
I suddenly hesitated, wanting to quickly return to Shanter Castle, while also unable to resist the urge to go to the orphanage. After struggling with indecision for a while, I still shook my head.
“I’ll just, take a look, I’ll return by myself.”
The Duke seemed somewhat helpless.
“Then you must be very careful. Recently Winter City… nevermind, Pagos, take Peipei to get a weapon for self-defense first.”
“Sure thing.”
“No need.” I immediately waved my hands at them, “Don’t need weapons.”
Then without waiting for them to say anything more, I took two quick steps running out, quickly stopped, turned back to take the paper bag from the table and hugged it to my chest, then turned and ran out again.
“This child……”
…………
The sky had turned dark.
Two crescent moons cast the faint wisps of haze at the horizon into a splendid spectacle of flowing light.
The entire Winter City was covered in silver and snow, seeming to take on a dreamlike aurora-like color in the fine snow and luminous haze.
Perhaps because of the weather, although the huge city was bright with lights everywhere at this time, there were very few pedestrians to be seen on the streets.
I followed behind the children with two Workshop Hunters, making crunching sounds as we stepped on the accumulated snow.
Opening my small mouth, “Ha——” I breathed out a white mist forward, feeling very happy in my heart.
“Hehe.”
I like this dark city, like this world of ice and snow.
“Miss Peylo, I think you should go back to Duke’s side. If the situation is really as the children described, there might be some unpredictable dangers. In that case……”
The hunter didn’t finish his words, but I could understand the implied meaning, wasn’t it just treating me as a burden, worried that if something unexpected happened, they would not only have to fight but also have to divide their attention to protect my safety?
The daughter of Winter City’s ruler and Central Workshop’s master, Duke Scalliger, if anything were to happen, they couldn’t bear this responsibility.
But how can I make you understand that I’m a good child who won’t cause trouble for others?
I can’t possibly demonstrate Frost Order to you here, that would be too stupid.
So I could only smile and shake my head at them.
“It’s fine, I’ll stand far away.”
The two hunters exchanged glances, showing quite helpless smiles, obviously treating me as one of those mischievous disobedient little girls.
I don’t mind either.
The orphanage was unexpectedly close to the Central Workshop, I think this was one of the reasons why the children considered coming to steal things from the workshop.
Their thinking was quite simple, feeling it was close and the weapons were good, they naturally came over, without considering the consequences at all.
What a lovely bunch.
“Big sister, that’s the orphanage over there.”
Elle, walking in front, suddenly turned back and pointed at a dark building not far away.
I fixed my gaze on it.
Winter City’s orphanage was smaller than I had imagined, it was just a completely black, very ancient Gothic building that looked quite old, surrounded by iron railings, from which faint sounds of childish laughter could be heard.
“Let’s go this way!”
A little boy led us around the orphanage, walking towards deeper alleyways behind it.
“Last time when I secretly followed the director, I saw that strange person here.”
The alley wasn’t particularly mysterious, just an ordinary residential lane, clearly lacking the atmosphere of villains conducting secret deals.
“Should we, wait here?”
“Mm, they should come soon.”
I looked around, not finding any good hiding spots. Fortunately, the terrain here wasn’t completely flat, the houses in the alley were of varying heights. We walked along a slope to the end of a row of higher houses, seeing a platform below with a clear view where people could stand.
The two hunters jumped down first, then looked up and called to the children: “Only one person needs to come down, the rest should stay up there.”
The children hesitated for a moment, then all turned their gazes towards Lucas.
“Lucas, why don’t you go down?”
“I… I’d better not?”
“Why?”
“I… I’m afraid of heights.”
Lucas trembled looking at the platform over a meter high.
“Tch, coward.”
I clicked my tongue, throwing him a contemptuous look.
With such courage you still want to save someone? You probably wouldn’t dare use weapons even if given them. I thought you could barely count as manly, turns out you’re just all talk.
“What did you say? You, you flirtatious woman!”
Probably because my look hurt the child’s pride, his face turned red as he shouted at me.
I frowned, feeling somewhat angry.
“You dare insult me?”
“So what if I insult you, don’t think I’ll be afraid of you just because you’re from a noble family!”
“I’ll go down. Lucas, don’t argue with big sister.” Seeing that we were about to fight, Elle quickly spoke up, then used both hands and feet to grab the edge of the platform and jumped down.
“Do you dare go down?”
“Of course! Just afraid you don’t dare.”
“Then let’s jump together……”
Several other children probably felt it was boring standing above, comparing with each other as they all jumped down.
“Hmph, coward.”
Although I was angry inside, after all he was just an immature little boy in my eyes, I didn’t want to stoop to his level, so I just snorted lightly and ignored him, crouching down preparing to jump.
“You, you ugly freak!”
My jumping motion stopped.
“What did you, call me?”
“Ugly freak!”
“…Dare to, say that again?”
I walked to his front.
“I… so what if I said it?”
“Say it.”
“I, you… you can’t scare me!” Lucas swallowed, his face still red and not daring to meet my eyes, but raised his voice as if to build courage, “I, Lucas, even if I die! Even if I jump down from here, I won’t be afraid—”
“Then go down.”
I gave his buttocks a kick.
The little brat was really infuriating.
This young lady has heavenly beauty and is clever and quick-witted, yet you dare call me an ugly freak?
“Ah——”
Lucas let out a miserable cry, stumbling from my kick, wavering at the edge of the platform trying to maintain balance for a while, but finally jumped down.
That anger in my heart was largely vented, I let out a long breath.
I had controlled the force of that kick very well, he certainly wouldn’t be hurt from a height of just over a meter, just that he would definitely lose balance going down, now sitting on the ground in a daze.
I also jumped down after him, landing beside Lucas, not paying him any more attention as I moved closer to the hunters.
We didn’t wait long before there was movement on the road in the distance.
“Looks like someone’s coming…”
“Is that the director and David?”
“Looks like it.”
“Ah, it’s that strange person, he brought guards again!”
I looked in the direction the children were pointing.
In the dimly lit deep street, two groups of figures met there, seeming to be discussing something.
Among them, there seemed to be a familiar figure.
“Hm?”
I rubbed my eyes, somewhat incredulously looking again.
Yes, it was Carlos.