🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 10 Working Experience Type (5)
As soon as the wall of fire was quickly dispelled, small children came into view.
They were too far away to see clearly.
‘I can’t really see them well from here.’
Except for the blond kid, they were all children I was seeing for the first time since being reborn into this world. Even that realization felt strange—two years had already passed. It really made me realize just how much my parents had been shielding me and keeping me close.
“Ian! Leon! How did you get here?!”
“Father! Leon is—he, he got burned….”
They looked about seven years old.
Lord Lloyd rushed over quickly.
Lloyd crouched down.
“Leon, are you alright? Try standing up.”
“I-I’m fine….”
“If it hurts, you can say it hurts.”
Lloyd rolled up the sleeve of the child who had fallen to the ground. I couldn’t see it from where I was standing, but if he had been hit by that flame earlier, it likely wasn’t a small injury.
‘Should I throw some healing clay?’
Without realizing it, my fingers fidgeted, and a lump of healing clay formed in my hand. If I aimed well… it might reach them.
Even if I called it “clay” for convenience, if I thinned its density, I could spread it like slime. I had done exactly that when I covered the mansion. But now my parents were right beside me, so I felt conscious of their gaze.
My parents—especially my mother—absolutely, really, extremely hated it when I used healing abilities. They thought it was harmful to my body…
“Sir Lloyd, are the children badly injured? Oh dear….”
“There are no burns, but they seem to have twisted their legs after falling in panic.”
“I’m fine!”
One of the boys, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly stood up and shouted loudly after my mother approached.
My father walked over while holding me.
“You don’t need to force yourself to lie. Just tell the truth. This is our fault.”
“It’s my mistake.”
“If it’s your mistake, it’s my mistake too. Sir Lloyd, did you call a healer?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“We should still have them checked just in case.”
“It’s only a simple fall. Leon, Ian—right?”
Father clicked his tongue.
“Sir Lloyd, if you say it like that, the children won’t be able to speak honestly even if they’re hurt. Step aside.”
“A-ah, no! We’re really fine!”
“It doesn’t hurt!”
Wow, they’re really strict…
Being held in my father’s arms, I kept hesitating over whether I should use the healing clay.
Twins, huh.
The two boys standing side by side looked exactly alike and were incredibly cute. What the—total angels.
‘Is everyone in this world just good-looking by default?’
Looking at Lloyd, that didn’t seem entirely true. It wasn’t that he was ugly—far from it. His features were sharp enough, but he looked like someone who belonged on a gym poster rather than a celebrity magazine cover.
Still, he was handsome enough that I decided the average appearance level in this world must be quite high.
Unlike the rugged-looking Lloyd, the two children—Leon and Ian—had matching reddish-brown hair tied neatly into ponytails. Their bright blue eyes were especially cute.
However, they seemed quite mischievous. Small scratches and marks were scattered on their cheeks, arms, and necks.
‘If left like that, they’ll scar.’
As I was thinking that, I made eye contact with one of them.
“Hmph.”
Huh.
Did that kid just “hmph” at me? How rude—he saw me for the first time and already acted like that. What did I even do?
He turned his head away with a snobbish expression.
And yet…
‘He’s way too cute…’
I want to tease him.
“Are you really sure you don’t need to show your leg to the healer? Even if you don’t feel pain right now because of the shock, it might hurt later.”
“We appreciate your concern, but falling like this happens often during training.”
“But this happened because of my mistake.”
“No, technically it was these two.”
Lloyd smiled slightly and looked down at his twins. Their faces stiffened instantly.
“It happened because they sneaked in without listening to instructions.”
“We’re sorry!”
“We were wrong!”
It was easy to see how strictly Lloyd was raising them. Well, considering how mischievous they looked, a strict hand was probably necessary.
In front of me, he had always seemed mild and somewhat comedic—but it appeared he was different when it came to his own children.
“That’s enough. I’ve already heard that your children often come into the training grounds. But you should correct their habit of entering restricted areas.”
“Understood.”
My mother glanced at me briefly.
“They’re usually not the type to disobey instructions… I will make sure to discipline them properly.”
“No need for discipline. Let’s hear why.”
“Pardon?”
“You said they usually don’t disobey. If this was an exception, there must be a reason.”
My father spoke.
‘These kids… they really like Father.’
Their eyes sparkled the moment he spoke, like everything was written on their faces.
The more I looked at them, the cuter they seemed.
Lloyd asked, “Ian, Leon. Answer His Grace’s question.”
“Well…”
The twins exchanged looks, then nodded as if they had made up their minds.
“We were curious.”
“About what? Magic?”
“No. About what Father always talked about.”
They naturally continued speaking together.
“Lady Shana.”
“We heard she would appear….”
Huh. Me?
“Didn’t Father say so? That when we grow up, we should become knights serving Lady Shana….”
“But we’ve never even seen her.”
“We couldn’t meet Lady Shana even when we came to the mansion.”
“So we came because you said she would appear this time.”
“We can’t accept being asked to serve someone whose face we’ve never even seen.”
“Father says we should become stronger for Lady Shana, endure for her—but…”
“If we don’t even know who she is, how can we do it?”
Every word they said made sense.
“What are you planning to do after meeting her?”
Mother asked sharply, almost childishly stern toward the children.
The twins answered at the same time.
“We wanted to decide if she’s someone worth serving!”
“Y-you kids….”
Lloyd looked quite flustered, worried their bluntness might have offended me or my parents.
‘Aren’t they kind of right?’
My parents weren’t the type to be hurt by something like that.
‘Besides, I’m only three years old.’
What are they even trying to judge?
Thinking about it, I realized the twins had probably heard my name so often from Lloyd that they’d been driven a little crazy by it.
“Dad! Dad, put me down!”
“Shana?”
My father carefully set me down. My mother still looked displeased, but she didn’t stop him.
If they came to see me, I couldn’t just stay in his arms.
I walked toward the twins.
Ppuk, ppuk!
“Agh, seriously…”
I was trying to be serious here, but this was not helping.
As I walked forward, my shoes making loud puk-puk sounds, the twins—who had been answering adults confidently until now—looked stiff.
Hey, what?
Why do they look scared?
‘Wait… do I look scary?’
To me, I only looked cute and pretty. I felt slightly shocked. Maybe aesthetic standards in this world were different.
Suppressing my disappointment that my face—supposedly like my mother’s—might actually look frightening, I reached out my hand toward one of them.
“I’m Shana.”
“I know.”
Lloyd shouted, “Leon! Use proper speech!”
Proper speech? I’m three years old…
So this is Leon—the one who snorted at me earlier.
“What’s your name?”
“…Leon.”
“Yeah, Leon. And?”
“Ian.”
“So you’re Ian.”
Despite their attitude, they answered obediently—probably because they were careful around adults. I wanted to become friends with the only kids close to my age I had met since coming to this world (excluding newborn days—that doesn’t count).
They looked about four years older than me, but that was fine. We could still talk.
I grabbed both their hands.
Leon was on the right—the one who fell earlier. Ian on the left, also covered in scratches. They flinched slightly but didn’t pull away.
How nice.
I smiled.
“I don’t like serving either.”
“W-what….”
“So don’t do things you don’t want to do. Don’t listen to the old man—just do what you want!”
The twins’ eyes widened.
They clearly never expected me to say that.
Honestly, how are kids supposed to decide their future like that? Lloyd was definitely wrong here.
“W-we… don’t like….”
“How are kids supposed to protect me anyway? I don’t need anyone protecting me, I’ll handle it myself!”
“Our Lady Shana speaks so clearly… she’s only three years old….”
“Exactly, let Sir Lloyd protect you!”
“Hahaha! Indeed!”
Hey, old man… what are you doing…
“I also don’t like people I don’t like. That’s it.”
“You… you know how promising our future is?! You’ll regret this!”
“I’ll decide that too.”
I applied healing clay onto their visible scratches. It felt a bit bad, like throwing clay onto people, but a soft glow spread as the wounds melted away.
“Shana, you again…!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
The twins looked shocked. I looked up at them and said clearly:
“So don’t get hurt just to come see me. Do what you want, Leon, Ian.”
“Ugh…”
“….”
Suddenly, both of them started crying.
Huh—did I make them cry?
I’m not actually a kid… I’m an adult… a working professional, even.
‘Wait.’
Do I… actually look that scary?
