Children of the orphanage

Even though Sian had smiled as friendly as possible, it seemed to have frightened the children.

"W-We're here to save Emily from you!"

In contrast to his brave words, Orion was walking backwards with an anxious expression.

While thinking about what to do, Sian felt someone poking at his leg. Looking down at Emily's side, there was Agnes, the little goatkin girl with white hair.

"Are you a bad guy?"

Unlike the other children, there was no fear or anxiety in her, all Sian could see in her huge blue eyes was curiosity.

Before Sian could respond, Orion shouted, "He is, get away from him!"

Without moving a muscle, Agnes just looked at Sian innocently. But without any warning-

She kicked his shin.

At that moment, the only noise in that place came from Emily chewing on the crunchy cookies. The children in the orphanage seemed to have held their breath as they remained motionless.

Without feeling troubled at all, Sian brought his hand to his waist and put on his magic bag.

Although it was not his intention, this simple action seemed to have frightened the children so much that they seemed ready to run away at any moment. Probably the scene of Tina pulling a stick out of a small bag had been remarkable in a bad way to them.

But ignoring them, Sian took out a small bowl of cookies and placed it in front of Agnes and smiled amiably.

"Want cookies?"

"I do!"

"You can eat as many as you want, but you can't kick me anymore, okay?"

"Okay!" Agnes shouted in approval, but before she could get the cookies, Orion pulled her back.

"Y-you can't, he's a bad guy."

"Daddy's not bad!" Emily shouted.

"Is that your dad?" Agnes looked at Sian curiously.

Emily nodded her head as she grabbed Sian's legs.

With a cheerful expression, Agnes called out, "Be my Da-"

But before she could finish what she wanted to say, Gina covered her mouth with her hand and took her behind the other boys.

"Th-the adults may have let you take her because of fear, but we are not afraid of you!"

Despite the grand words, the voice and the trembling legs seemed not to be of the same opinion.

"I know you're worried, but don't worry, I'm not going to hurt her."

"You will do it!" Sian replied. "The day you went to the orphanage, she hid in fear of you."

"It was just a misunderstanding, just look at her and you will see how happy she is."

Sian pointed to Emily, who was clinging to his leg as she devoured the cookies.

"She's a glutton, it's very easy to fool her with food."

"Although you may tax me as a bad guy, I adopted her through legal means." Sian waved the adoption certificate in front of the children and pointed to the seal on it. "I didn't bring her in by force. Charlotte personally stamped the adoption certificate."

"You must have threatened Lady Charlotte, there's no way she would have let our sister be adopted by someone like you," Orion said stubbornly. "I heard our teacher saying that you were a scum among the nobles and were very dangerous. Because of that, Lady Charlotte agreed to your request for the sake of the other children and her own family."

"Wait, I'm not that wild," Sian said.

"There's no way that's a lie," Orion said. "The last time you visited the orphanage, all the adults were scared."

"But I didn't do anything," Sian shrugged.

"You did," Orion stated.

"The teacher said that Baron Peris' son ran out of town because you were here."

'Damn teacher!' Sian cursed her in his mind. 'I don't even know who the son of this Baron Peris guy is, so how can I be blamed?'

"I may even be dangerous, but- nah, never mind." Giving up arguing, Sian puffed out his chest and smiled proudly at the children. "Even if you don't accept it, I'm already her father."

Even though it was simple, Sian's action seemed to have frightened the children to the point that they hid behind Orion, who also seemed to want to hide, but had nowhere.

"G-G-give her back to the ous!"

"Ous?"

"U-us!" Orion shouted. "I said give her back to us!"

"All right, pay attention," Sian said to the children and looked at Emily. "My little princess, what am I to you?"

Finishing swallowing a cookie, she tilted her head. "My Daddy?"

"Err... Why did it end as a question?"

"I don't know," she replied.

"But do you like me?"

"I like a lot like this!" She opened her little arms widely.

"What about your mommy, do you like her too?"

"A lot!" She smiled happily.

"That's my little girl, come here," Sian crouched down as he opened his arms. "Give Daddy a hug."

Jumping up to Sian, Emily grabbed his neck and passed her little legs around his chest.

Standing up with Emily clinging to him, Sian asked. "Do you want to continue living with Mommy and Daddy?"

"Yes!" She rubbed her face against his shoulder.

At her cheerful response, Sian turned to the children with a wide smile. "See? If she were afraid, she wouldn't be so happy."

"Y-You definitely must have done something to her. When we find out, we'll take her back with us." Orion turned around, preparing to leave, but due to his nervousness, he ended up tripping and fell on his stomach on the ground.

Holding back his urge to laugh, Sian put up his hand to keep Emily from falling and reached over to help him up.

Just as Sian's hand was about to reach for Orion, he suddenly saw a pair of small yellow horns before his eyes.

More specifically, Agnes had jumped toward Sian's face while pointing her short horns at him.

But since her speed was nothing to him, Sian simply passed his arm around her waist and lifted her up.

Looking at the little girl under his arm, Sian laughed out loud.

"Even though you have a lovely face, you are way too wrong if you thought you could take me by surprise twice in a row."

Possibly frightened because of Sian's laughter, the children began to run.

"Don't leave me with the bad guy!" Agnes screamed and started biting Sian's arm.

Due to his well-trained body, all Sian could feel was her drool wetting his arm.

Trying to teach the violent little girl a lesson, Sian laughed cartoonishly. "Kakakaka! Hey, my beautiful daughter, looks like we'll have goat meat for dinner today.

"Yay!" Unaware of the situation, Emily squealed with joy. "I like meat!"

"Hiiii--" With a strange yell, Agnes' arms and legs suddenly stretched and her body stiffened.

"Eh?" Seeing the little girl's rolled eyes, Sian got surprised. "I guess I went too far..."

"H-he killed her! He killed her!" One of the boys cried.

"No-No!" Sian quickly denied as he saw that the children were looking at him with a look of despair. "She just fainted, even I wouldn't kill little children."

While looking to see if the little girl's heart was okay, Sian noticed that the girl named Gina was running away and the other 5 surrounded him while holding rocks in their hands.

Sighing with relief at seeing that the little girl was okay, Sian looked at the children. "You guys want to fight me?"

"We will save our sisters from you and hold you until the guards arrive," Despite his trebling hands, Orion tried to respond bravely.

"Well, being honest, that's a rather naive thought of yours." Thinking that he should teach these children how hard life was, Sian continued. "Come to me, I will play with you guys!"

As if Sian's teasing had been a sign, they ignored the fact that Emily and Agnes were in his arms and started throwing stones.

"Kakakaka," Sian laughed cartoonishly as he easily dodged the rocks. "You guys are too naive if you think you can hit me with just that."

Each time he dodged a rock, Sian used magic to shoot a ball of water at the children.

"Yihihihihihi~" Not understanding the situation at all, Emily continued to cling to Sian's neck while seeming to have the most fun.

Due to the abysmal power difference, the children never had the opportunity to hit Sian. To further increase the despair of that poor souls, in addition to dealing with the devilish laughter of father and daughter, the other person they wanted to save was not having the good will of cooperating.

After Agnes regained her consciousness, the children had to endure her 'Gyahahaha~' every time Sian jumped or spun to dodge the rocks.

Luckily for the poor children, they only continued to be tormented until Charlotte arrived.