How Can You Pay Back The Kindness I Raised With Obsession?

“Lunabel Blaine, the meal isn’t finished yet, where are you going?”

Without a word, Elliot silently followed Luna as she took Luca’s hand and walked out the restaurant door. He didn’t know how many times he had repeated their parents’ request not to make a loud noise on the way down the hall,

“Get out! I don’t even want to look at that! The cake he made was rotten!”

“Bad?? My cake…”

When she tried to run away from home, Luna dragged Luca to her room. Elliot stood with his arms folded at the door, watching the children as they built their own fortress with pillows and cushions.

“Guys, there is no dinner today as a punishment for being rude.”

It was a reward for children who didn’t want to eat. Luna teased him with a long tongue out, and Elliot added, belatedly noticing.

“I know you won’t even have chocolate for a month.”

“I don’t need chocolate!”

“Pyroh… Seriously…?”

Wasn’t that also a punishment? While Elliot furrowed his forehead in agony, Luca looked up at Luna with a distraught face.

“Bring our nanny!”

“You kicked her out.”

She was a newcomer who had been hard to find on the other side of the empire. Even the most notorious children were successfully raised, and after persuading a retired woman many times, they managed to bring her in…

“It was a wonderful occasion to reflect on my life as a nanny almost all my life, Your Grand Duke.”

Saying that she had never seen these children before, the nanny turned about ten laps and left the Grand Duke in a week.

“I mean bring Hazel instead of that nanny!”

When Luna shouted out what she said every day, Elliot asked the question she always asked.

“What the hell did the witch do?”

No matter who was the nanny, the children hated them as if they were enemies of their parents. Luna even called her nanny the Grand Duke’s spy’ because of where she learned the difficult word mole.

“Snap me up.”

Luca jumped up from the bed and thrust his butt towards Elliot and patted him with his hand.

“Did she hit you?”

The maids said there were no bruises or wounds on the children’s bodies. He asked for more details, but the children only said what they already had.

“I had to rest, and you should do the same.”

“Hazel doesn’t nag like brother.”

Comparing that evil witch to her own brother. Elliot’s brow furrowed.

“And Hazel seduced you with a sweet house made of biscuits and kidnapped you. That’s something I don’t do.”

“Nope! Don’t you dare to frame Hazel.”

“Fara… Fare… Flame? Don’t do it!”

At that point, he suspected that the witch had really used brainwashing or manipulation magic.

“Then how do I explain that you with good heads didn’t know that there was a witch living in the Black Forest, so you went to visit her on your own?”

“Because there’s a sweet sweets house.”

“What?”

“We went because we were hungry.”

“So you went to the house of a witch who eats people. Even though you knew it’s a trap.”

Elliot snapped his tongue shortly, stunned.

“Look.”

Luna stood up, stretched out her arms, and spun around.

“Have we been ripped off? Eh? Did Hazel eat us?”

“If you give her flowers, she won’t eat you. Give her flowers!”

Elliot let out a deep sigh. Luca crawled down from the bed and jumped. It was the first time since they came back that he had been alone with them every day and then Luca rushed up to him and hugged him. He was about to hug him as she clung to his leg when Luca squeezed the hem of his pants.

“Furniture too! Big brother, buy it for Hazel. She is worth it.”

“No way, Luca.”

“No say no, why are you doing whatever you want?”

Elliot gritted his teeth as Luna squinted.

‘Do you think I live only to do what I want to do?’

Ever since their parents died, he had to abandon his dreams and do only what he didn’t want to do. Only for those kids. It’s a difficult and bad story for children. Elliot took a deep breath, trying to swallow his ragging emotions.

‘I’m an adult and I’m the guardian of these kids.’ He was the only protector they had. It was a moment when he repeated the same words.

“Go back!”

They were told to go on expeditions as when the children ran away from home. He didn’t want to go and the whole time he was out, he was just thinking about those kids.

Luna’s sharp words became a dagger and landed in Elliot’s heart. It wasn’t easy for him to try to pretend that he was an adult, just like a moment ago. Anger cools easily, but hurt takes time to heal. He was the only one who would protect them as an older brother, as an adult, and as the head of the Grand Duchy.

Reminding himself of his duties once more, Elliot straightened his brow furrowed and smiled casually.

“If you try to run away from home again, I’ll have soldiers stationed in front of the witch’s house.”

Luna glared, smirked, and then held out her hand.

“Luca, come here.”

Luca noticed his brother and sister and eventually ran to her. Again Elliot’s purple eyes looked tired as he watched the children build walls with pillows and cushions between them.

“It’s hard.” 

Raising his siblings was more difficult than ruling the Grand Duchy, avoiding the threat of assassination, and making a single mistake the difference between life and death.

* * *

When one lived alone, one talked to themselves a lot.

“Lunabel, Lucas. Your name is pretty.”

She muttered to herself, carving their names into the corner of her handkerchief.

“But why did they only teach me nicknames?”

It was a bit sad. The handkerchief was a gift for the children. She was going to finish

it that day and send it to them… She casted her gaze out the window. Thick raindrops knocked on the window indifferently.

When it rains, they send crows as messengers. She put her handkerchief on the table and lay down on the couch. Daisy, who had been sitting on her lap, shifted to her arms and burrowed into her arms.

[When are the little ones coming?]

“Well…”

Daisy still hadn’t given up hope that the children would return. It was a pity to sit in front of the fence of the hut every day, staring blankly at the spot where the children had disappeared. She even overlapped her childhood as she sat at the front door of her house, waiting for her mother to return…

In fact, a few days ago, Daisy was sent to the Grand Duchy. She was relieved that there was plenty to eat, the house was large, and the children were well. But it looked like Daisy would never see the children again. The man who took the cake recognized Daisy and kicked her out. She went back the next day, but was caught off the wall and kicked out.

She stared unfocused out the window, as she felt. The confectionery house had holes in it, but it had not been repaired for a while.

‘Oh, so lonely.’

Every time she told herself she was lonely, Lady who used to give her a pint to have a relationship was quiet. She was just curled up on her ass with her tail pressed. Lady also looked demoralized, unlike her usual dodge.

[Oh, get rid of them. Focus on something else, stop picking up weird things.]

At first, she pretended to annoy the children, but Lady must have been actually affectionate with them.

“I’m scared, really.”

[Adopt.]

Lady, who had been silent for hours, finally opened her mouth.

“Who would give a witch a child for adoption?”

[Fool them, say you’re not a witch.]

“That’s a bit… I have to ask the child’s doctor.”

They might be fingered for being a witch’s child. The three sullen lumps huddled together on the couch and let out a long sigh.

‘How are you? You haven’t forgotten me already, have you?’

Originally, the more lonely she was, the more energetic she was. But that time, for some reason, the more she moved, the more depressed she became. A few days ago, there were no children to feed them anymore, so before the meat went bad, she ground it into sausage or smoked ham.

All the while, she thought about her children and whimpered. She lied when she said that she cried because the smoke was spicy, but both Lady and Daisy seemed to know. Speaking of which, even her favorite carrot cake hasn’t been baked since the kids left.

“I can’t eat carrots anymore…”

* * *

‘Father, mother. Why did you leave me with this ordeal?’

Elliot sighed deeply, looking up at the huge portrait that occupied one wall of the Oval Office. His parents, who were complained under the guise of a question, were surrounded by three children in the picture, smiling happily. By the time that portrait was painted, Luca had barely taken his first steps. Unlike now, Luna had been following Elliot around all day, living with the word brother on her lips. It was a happy time. He didn’t know it at that time. It was a happiness that would never happen again.

When his gaze landed on his face, which was brighter and younger than it was now, Elliot turned his head.

Who is to blame?

As a caregiver, he had to blame himself for his inadequacies. The Little Demons of the Grand Duchy were adorable angels when their parents were still alive.

As soon as he sat down at his desk with a heavy heart, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and as expected, his lieutenant, Daniel, entered. But what Daniel delivered was beyond Elliot’s expectations.

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