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Chapter 10
Neither Meidillion nor those Wyvern Gang thugs knew it, but Winter had a secret escort guarding her twenty-four hours a day.
There was no way the Duke would simply leave his unruly daughter—who could run off at any moment—unsupervised.
On top of that, Winter had already been declared terminally ill.
Since no one knew what might happen to her at any moment, the Duke had assigned twice as many guards as usual to watch over her.
They monitored her every move, so even though she had secretly slipped out of the mansion, they had undoubtedly followed her.
If she gave the signal, they would rush in immediately.
Just as Winter smiled and was about to speak—
“Hey, you there!”
Someone shouted from the end of the alley.
The members of the Wyvern Gang instinctively turned around, and their faces immediately went pale.
A gigantic man was striding toward them, snorting heavily, his massive silhouette alone enough to fill the narrow alley.
“W-What? Who the hell are y—…sir.”
“Shut that mouth before I turn you into minced meat.”
The burly, shaggy-faced man’s fierce expression twisted into a terrifying scowl.
At the sight of it, Big Eyes immediately shrank back without a shred of courage.
“Y-Yaah!”
With a pitiful battle cry, one of the men standing behind the giant rushed forward.
Without even turning around, however, the shaggy man simply reached back and grabbed Skinny’s head with one hand.
“How dare you…!”
His growling expression resembled that of a demon.
Facing him head-on, Skinny’s hands trembled violently, and the knife he was holding slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the ground.
It didn’t even take five minutes for the shaggy man to wipe out the Wyvern Gang.
“D-Damn it!”
“This isn’t over!”
Spouting the stereotypical villain’s lines, they fled as though their tails had caught fire.
Watching the enormous man defeat the entire Wyvern Gang with only a few intimidating gestures, Winter wore a thoroughly bewildered expression.
“This was supposed to be…”
This was where the original novel’s heroine was supposed to make her entrance.
The reason Winter had deliberately brought Meidillion all the way here was because she had been aiming for this very scene.
In the original story, the heroine was supposed to rescue Meidillion from danger here.
At this point in the timeline, the genius at using mana who ruled the back alleys…
The magical prodigy heroine.
Winter had secretly been looking forward to her appearance, but instead, some shaggy middle-aged man had shown up out of nowhere.
What on earth was going on?
The man who had appeared was an important character in his own right, but the scene Winter had eagerly anticipated had already vanished.
She glared at the shaggy man with subtle resentment.
Completely ignoring her stare, he hurried over to Meidillion, who was pushing himself up against the wall.
“Waaah… Your Maj— I mean, little guy! Are you alright?”
Completely unlike someone who had defeated most of the Wyvern Gang with a single glare, tears shimmered in his eyes.
His thick hands hovered awkwardly in the air, as though he didn’t even dare help Meidillion up.
“W-What in the world happened?! Your Maj— I mean, little guy’s precious face is covered in injuries! If Your Maj— I mean, little guy gets hurt, I might as well die too! Waaaah!”
The man babbled incoherently before bursting into tears.
He looked like a bear that had been forcefully awakened from hibernation.
Watching him, Winter’s expression soured by the second.
“‘Your Maj—I mean, little guy’? What kind of title is that? At that point, you might as well just call him Prince.”
“Sniff… This won’t do! I, Hanta, a man who stands for justice! I can’t overlook something like this! I shall escort Your Maj— I mean, little guy!”
Dropping to one knee, the massive man bowed deeply with complete sincerity.
It would have looked far more impressive if they hadn’t been standing in the imperial capital’s back alleys, and if the person he was addressing hadn’t been a filthy nine-year-old child.
Meidillion quietly stepped away from the sniffling Hanta before turning pleading red eyes toward Winter.
Seeing that helpless look tugged painfully at her heart, but she concealed it and simply said,
“Alright. Fine. Lead the way.”
“Sniff… Huh?”
Instead of the answer Hanta had been expecting from Meidillion, it was Winter who spoke.
He turned toward her in surprise.
Without realizing it, he had overlooked the little girl standing beside the precious prince.
“And who are you…?”
Tilting his head in confusion, Hanta suddenly saw Meidillion tightly holding the girl’s hand.
His face immediately broke into a harmless grin.
“I’ve been waiting for you. I’ll escort you both properly.”
Scooping both children into his arms, Hanta dashed off with astonishing ease until they arrived before a large building.
Jenima Trading Company
The two children read the neat lettering on the signboard, but their reactions couldn’t have been more different.
Winter simply nodded as though she had expected this all along.
Meidillion quietly clicked his tongue.
“Hey, Bailey! Bailey, where are you?!”
Throwing open the door, Hanta bellowed loudly.
Every person inside the trading company immediately turned to look at him.
“Hanta, what happened this time? The manager stepped out for a moment…”
A woman who had been serving customers hurried over.
Then she noticed Winter and Meidillion in Hanta’s arms, her eyes widening.
“Who are these children? Don’t tell me you just picked them up somewhere because they looked cute?”
“Hahaha! Of course not. Rachel, can’t you recognize this gentleman’s face? This here is none other than His Maj—”
Winter quickly clamped a tiny hand over Hanta’s mouth before he could reveal Meidillion’s identity.
Only then did Hanta realize his mistake and nervously glance around.
“‘His Maj…?’ What were you about to say, Hanta?”
“Ah… nothing! Hahaha! M-More importantly, this little guy’s badly hurt. Could you treat him?”
“Oh my! You’re right! Goodness, what happened to him? Hurry and bring him inside.”
Seeing the bruises beginning to spread across Meidillion’s face, Rachel gasped and quickly led them into the office.
“Little guy, you don’t have to worry anymore. I, Hanta, shall faithfully serve by your side.”
As he gently dabbed medicine onto Meidillion’s forehead with hands as thick as bear paws, Hanta spoke solemnly.
Who in the world pledged to serve a child they’d barely met?
Watching Hanta faithfully embody the simple-minded, honest fool described in the novel, Winter slowly shook her head.
“So? Isn’t Hanta here incredibly dependable?”
“More like overwhelming.”
Unable to bear Hanta’s nonstop self-promotion any longer, Winter teased him.
Hanta’s fierce eyes immediately turned toward her.
His appearance was so huge and intimidating that an ordinary child would have burst into tears long ago.
But Winter was far from an ordinary child.
She simply crossed her arms and smirked.
Faced with such a strange little girl, it was Hanta who looked away first.
Though not particularly bright, Hanta trusted his beast-like instincts.
This child named Winter…
She definitely wasn’t ordinary.
Meanwhile, Winter quietly opened the office door and looked outside.
The three-story building wasn’t merely grand in name.
It was genuinely one of the largest trading companies in the imperial capital.
After the young Meidillion encountered the people from the Jenima Trading Company who had been searching for him, he would use this place as his base while planning his return to the Imperial Palace.
“Hmm… not bad.”
Giving the place a brief evaluation, Winter sat back down.
Just then, the office door swung open without so much as a knock.
A woman with short blue hair walked inside.
Her name was Allison.
She was the recipient of the letter Meidillion had delivered not long ago.
“Ah, you’ve finally appeared.”
Seeing the person she had been waiting for, Winter smiled brightly.
“Hanta! Rachel said you kidnapped some children. Is that true?”
“Is that really what everyone thinks of me? Of course not!”
Hanta wailed indignantly.
“They were getting beaten up by some weird guys in the alley over there, so I brought them here.”
“Weird guys…?”
Tilting her head, Allison finally caught sight of the children hidden behind Hanta’s enormous frame.
The little boy with tearful red eyes…
He was definitely the one she’d read about in that letter.
“The Wyvern Gang.”
Winter suddenly spoke.
“The Wy… what?”
“They said their name was the Wyvern Gang.”
“The Wyvern Gang…”
Hanta’s eyes flashed.
Before long, those thugs would be beaten so badly they wouldn’t even be able to crawl.
At that moment, Meidillion tugged gently on Winter’s sleeve.
“Hm? What’s wrong, Mei?”
“It doesn’t really hurt anymore. So… let’s go.”
“What are you talking about? Your wrist is sprained too.”
Winter pointed at his swollen, reddened wrist.
Meidillion’s expression visibly fell.
“But I’m really alright, Mi…”
He stopped himself just before calling her Miss.
He remembered what Winter had told him earlier—that outside, he should call her by her name.
Watching him faithfully keep his promise, Winter smiled warmly and gently patted his head.
Meidillion grinned happily.
Hanta didn’t like the sight one bit.
How dare someone treat His Highness the Prince like a pet puppy?
Though Hanta glared fiercely despite acting childish for his age, there was no way Winter would be intimidated by something like that.
“Why are you making that face, mister?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Hanta clicked his tongue.
“Just who are you, kid?”
“Me? Winter.”
Watching the awkward atmosphere, Meidillion quietly muttered,
“They always told me… not to follow strange men…”
Seeing tears welling up in his eyes again, Winter gently patted the back of his hand to reassure him.
“It’s fine. We were coming here anyway.”
The one who found those words strange was Allison.
“You were planning to come here?”
“Yeah. I’m the one who wrote that letter.”
“…The letter?”
“The purple love letter you received a while ago. I was the one who sent it.”
Winter flashed a wide grin.
