First of all, she did say something other than a positive expression, but it didn’t seem like she was evil and it was vague. However, she couldn’t think of anything to complain about, and since her purpose was to spend money anyway, she decided to act accordingly.
“Is this really all you can do?
“I can’t even scratch the walls of the Duke’s vault like this.”
“Why the vault wall…”
“I asked you to spend some money and what is this? Aren’t you just buying grass and feeding him with it? You have to buy meat.”
“Oh, no. We also feed them plenty of meat. Rather, they don’t want to eat vegetables, so I give them a mixture.”
“Do kids just eat that tough stuff?”
Oh, was this showing that she cared too much?
“Do it yourself. Because I’m not interested.”
“It’s already the children’s meal time. Would you like to join us?”
“Hey, didn’t I just say I wasn’t interested?”
Julie’s gaze became softer for some reason. She was a little curious as she went ahead as if to guide Ellie, so she followed behind to see how the money was spent.
She didn’t go far until she arrived in front of an inn with a fairly large yard. Unlike the all-gray buildings that stood erect around the main street, the inn, built haphazardly with a mix of bricks, mud, and wood, looked very dangerous. Building this on three floors? Although it seemed that safety insensitivity exists everywhere, the large pot in the yard and the old table in front of it seemed to have their own assortment.
As she watched the children sitting in rows at the long table eating soup, they looked joyful and happy. Even though it was an unintentional scene, Anthea felt at ease.
Every action the small children took, moving their spoons with the intention of burying their faces in a large bowl, looked so cute, and a warm feeling rose up from within her heart.
The day she returned from mistreating the children, she was actually still worried. There was no need for her to be called a villain even by commoners, but she felt bad that she had overdone it for no reason. When she saw the scene where the maids interpreted things however they wanted and fed the children, she was relieved to think that things were going well.
In any case, the money to feed the children was only a small amount of money, and it was only a small good deed that Anthea worked hard to accumulate, but it had no effect on her evil deeds. As she made up her mind to just be nice to the kids, the smell of the savory soup caught her attention.
‘It must have been northern meat, but it tastes good. Is it soft because they use different meat for the kids?’
Anthea, who was looking at the children happily, looked closely at the large pot that still had more than half of the soup left, and Julie, who was quick to notice her, brought a bowl of freshly made soup.
“You might not like it, but would you like to try some?”
“Well. If only a little.”
Julie stretched out her hand to the bowl she was holding. She decided not to worry about the sanitary condition of the wooden spoon in the rough bowl. She took her first bite without hesitation. No matter how much she tasted it, standing up and eating it was not noble-like, but Anthea didn’t care. The two maids watching also had kind eyes, as if they were looking at an innocent girl. The children also looked at Anthea, a noble girl dressed like a doll, in wonder as they ate the soup they were eating. Although her gaze was burdensome, Anthea, who was lightly chewing the meat in her mouth with the intention of asking what kind of meat it was if it was really soft, stopped.
In response to Anthea’s stiffening reaction, Julie quickly put down her bowl and took out her handkerchief.
“You can spit it out. Don’t overdo it, because we all know your wife’s beautiful heart.”
“It doesn’t suit your taste, does it? sorry. However, thanks to my lady’s help, the children were able to eat plenty of meat every day and gain energy.”
Julie and Ellie took turns trying to tell Anthea that her children’s environment had improved thanks to her words. In fact, Anthea, the main character of the story and her partner, could not say anything because her teeth were throbbing.
Anthea spat out the tough meat into her handkerchief, which was barely held in Julie’s hand. She gently touched her chin and looked at the children who were spooning her soup with relish.
‘…I thought this was going out. How do you chew this?’
The children who were militantly eating the ingredients in the soup almost looked like the strong demons she had only heard about. Look at that, that. “It’s three times bigger than the one I just spit out, but you’re just eating it.”
Just chewing it once was enough to make her gums tingle.
‘How do you open that? Is the North born strong from the start?’
Did this mean that in order to live in the North, even a child needed to know how to chew and tear off a piece of meat like this? Without even bothering to inquire about the source or type of her meat, Anthea turned around.
Since the children were all wearing new clothes and eating enough to gain weight over a few days, she had no reason for Anthea to interfere. Julie and Ellie also followed Anthea and turned their backs on her children. When the two familiar maids suddenly left without saying goodbye, the puzzled children began to follow them.
Anthea, who was looking back thinking it was not right to go with children on a leash and not a man playing the pipe, ended up hearing the children whispering.
“Shall we go pick flowers?”
“Huh. The roads have all been filled so there is nothing to do.”
“I want to go too. I’m bored.”
Were they going to pick flowers because they were bored? Those flowers that probably no one would buy?
“Is it selling? Are those flowers sold at least once a day?”
Anthea could not bear to hear their startled voice and asked a question to the children. The children shook their heads at her without the slightest hesitation. There was a reason why their knees and sleeves seemed to be covered in dirt and grass even when they wore new clothes. She nodded at Julie and Ellie, who were looking at the children with pity.
“Buy the kids some toys and give them to them.”
“Yes? Is it okay to spend money like that?”
“Huh. That’s why you can just use it.”
“Even if I robbed a toy store, it wouldn’t even be worth the amount of cloth I ordered today.”
“That’s not true, ma’am.”
“There are more high-end items than I thought.”
Contrary to Anthea’s expectations, there seemed to be a lot of expensive items, even if they were toys, perhaps because it was a central area. It didn’t matter though, but the two of them couldn’t even come forward even with Anthea’s permission.
Anthea became frustrated and motioned for her children to return to the inn.
“You guys, when you go back to the inn, you and your sister here are giving her a toy as a gift. She looks no different from tying her rubber band to a piece of wood lying around on the street.
“I’d like to see something a little more luxurious.”
Today, her goal was to overspend. Even though they didn’t say anything, the two quick-witted maids led Anthea back to the main street.
The new store she arrived at when she felt like her legs were getting a little tired was more fancy than she expected.
In fact, it seemed like the dressing room had to be decorated like this, with glass windows visible from the outside and various toys displayed at children’s eye level. However, since it was located slightly further in than the main street, there were not many people coming and going. In particular, no adults were seen bringing the child out. The plan here was good, but the sales method seemed to be unsuited to the local situation. Even so, it was already a wealthy store that opened a store close to the city center.
Before Anthea went inside, she calmly looked around the glass window where this wealthy store owner must have invested a lot of her money. When she looked closely, she saw that in addition to toys, there were also quite a few items that women would like, such as music boxes and jewelry boxes.
“Ah, I have bad memories of the music box. No, it hasn’t happened yet, so I guess I should say it’s not a memory but a plan.”
“Ma’am, music boxes are good for storing memories.”
“If it’s a bad memory, you can burn it.”
The maids nodded and responded to Anthea’s unexpected words. It had been a while since she had been window shopping like this, and without realizing it, Anthea fell in love with looking at the items through the window.
“I’ll buy that for the kids and send this to the Countess as a gift. Oh, I guess I’ll just buy them all.”
While Anthea was in distress, one of the two maids who was watching behind her noticed something on Ellie’s side and pulled Julie from her.
“Julie, wait a minute.”
Julie, who had been quietly watching her Anthea, blinked her eyes as if wondering what was going on at Ellie’s sudden call.
Julie turned her head in that direction, puzzled, as Ellie’s finger pointed to one side of her and stamped her foot. At the unexpected scene she saw like that, Julie hurriedly pushed Ellie’s back and came close to Anthea’s side. She clung tightly to Anthea as if she didn’t want her to see anything even if she turned around.
“Huh? Why? Is there anything you want too? Take your pick. It’s my reward for bringing you to a fun store.”
Oh, then I have a brooch in the jewelry box… Oh, no. Madam, you need to see more. Look more closely.”
“Thank you, ma’am. We would like to take a close look at this precious opportunity.”
Even though Anthea saw Julie’s hand quickly piercing Ellie’s side and slipping away, the two people casually said different things. Anthea’s green eyes, which seemed to be embracing her buds, were pinched between her narrowed eyelids.
“Hmm, what? It’s so blatantly suspicious that I can’t pretend not to notice.”
“Ma’am, I like the stuff in there. Why don’t we get inside before someone else takes it?”
Julie, who was always calm, seemed to be making an effort to remain calm even though she was in a hurry. She glanced at the escort driver standing a few steps away and saw that he was calmly looking around with the same expressionless expression as always. This means that there are no particularly dangerous factors nearby.
Although the maids’ desperate actions were admirable, curiosity took precedence.
“Get out of the way.”
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Translator Note:
I got a job!! Sadly until I get used to my new schedule my releases will be irregular so… please be patient.
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on July, 10.
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