“Why is that, my lady?”
“You have no children.”
“Maybe it hasn’t come out yet?”
“No. Something is wrong.”
The feeling was somehow strange.
I quickly approached the place where members of the police and circus were gathered.
A few familiar people were shivering on their knees in their Underwear.
And as soon as our eyes met, he averted his gaze and lowered his Head.
Among the people I encountered earlier, I approached a large man who looked like a captain.
“Where are the children?”
“Yes yes?”
The man stuttered in response.
“I heard there are more children.”
“Yes yes. There is. The children are all me, in that barracks over There!”
The man pointed to a barracks with his finger.
I squinted at William and told him to go.
Then William quickly headed to the barracks and returned, but his expression was not good.
“I have no children.”
“No?”
“Yes. There was no one.”
“Oh, that can’t be! It can’t be. All the children stayed in that Barracks!”
Looking at the man’s eyes, it seemed that he was not lying.
And above all, there was no reason for them to steal the children.
Of course, he wouldn’t have known that the security forces would come in today, and he had to leave soon at dawn.
‘Then who took the children….’
Who is it?
Who took the children?
It seemed like it would take a long time to walk around and search around.
I thought about what to do and then closed my eyes.
And I focused my strength on my eyes.
After a while, I opened my eyes and felt heat on everything I could See.
It was the ability to sense the heat of a person or object using the power of fire.
I quickly took a wide sweep of my surroundings.
Then, other than those here, the heat of small figures and a few adults was sensed from a little further away.
“Sir, please finish here.”
I put my eyes back to normal.
And after telling William to finish tidying up the place, he quickly jumped out.
“Miss!”
I heard William calling me from behind, but I ignored it and ran at full Speed.
However, despite running at full speed, when I arrived at the place I sensed, no one was already there.
I tried my best again and found several footprints on the dirt floor.
Again, as I sensed, there were a mix of adult footprints as well as children’s small footprints.
Realizing that someone must have taken the children, I hurriedly followed their footsteps.
However, after ten minutes or so, no one was seen, let alone children.
It was the moment when I decided that I would not be able to find it by doing this, and was about to close my eyes again.
Suddenly, a man appeared in front of me from a few steps away.
‘I didn’t feel the presence at all….’
“Who are you? Who are you chasing us?”
It was pitch dark, so I couldn’t see the man’s face properly.
However, judging from the shape, the man was tall and had a good physique, but strangely, the man’s voice was not unfamiliar.
“Are you the one who stole the children?”
“There is no reason to answer that. Please return here.”
But at that moment, when the moonlight, hidden in the clouds, lifted its head, the man’s face, which was difficult to see in the pitch-black darkness, was clearly visible.
I realized that he was the person I bumped into at the circus performance earlier.
The man’s eyes widened in surprise as if he had finally looked at my face closely.
“You are….”
Suddenly, it dawned on me that it might not be a coincidence that I ran into the man near a circus performing.
So, was he deliberately wandering around the circus at that time?
“Why are you kidnapping children?”
“It is not kidnapping.”
“If not kidnapping, how would you explain this situation?”
“That….”
The man seemed to be hiding something, hesitating whether to say something or not.
“I came to rescue the friends of one of the children belonging to the circus troupe at the request. So I raided the barracks with the police,
and the children disappeared. But being kidnapped by other people is not right. So send the children to me.”
I persuaded him by explaining at length why I was here.
He didn’t seem like a bad person, but as expected, people shouldn’t be judged based on their appearance.
‘This handsome man was a kidnapper….’
“That’s not okay.”
I tried to end it by talking nicely without using force, but the man didn’t want to listen to me at all.
“Are you trying to kidnap these children? Then I won’t be able to stay still any longer.”
This was about being polite to the kidnappers.
No matter how beautiful he was to the point of admiration, the criminal could not be forgiven.
The crime against the child, and not against others, could never be Tolerated.
“Miss!”
But then I heard William’s voice calling me from behind.
William quickly stood beside me.
“What about finishing?”
“I have asked the police to arrest all the circus performers and hold them accountable.”
“Good job.”
“By the way, who is the author?”
“Hijacker.”
I briefly introduced the man in front of me to William.
“If you are a kidnapper, where are the children?”
“I’ll have to ask that guy from now on.”
I glanced at William.
The two of them worked together to catch the man.
And William, who read my eyes, was about to step out when the man opened his mouth.
“I think you misunderstood something for a while. Let’s talk.”
I raised my hand and gestured to William to pause.
“There is no need to talk. You just have to leave the children and go to the security guard with us.”
“I am not a kidnapper. I am not taking children to cause harm.”
From a while ago, he kept saying that he was not a kidnapper, but he was a perfect kidnapper in my eyes, as he tried to take the children Away.
“Come out.”
But the man suddenly gave an order to someone.
Then, an adult man and four children came out from behind a large tree and grass on the left side of the road.
“Guys!”
Looking at the condition of the children, fortunately, the children appeared to be safe with no injuries.
However, the attitude of the children was strange.
If the man in front of them was really a kidnapper, the children’s eyes should be filled with fear, but instead, they looked at me and William and tried to hide behind the man they were supposed to have been with.
I looked at the man I was confronting earlier with a puzzled Expression.
“What are you going to do with the children?”
The man immediately asked me.
“Of course I have to hand it over to the security guard. The security guard will take care of the children’s whereabouts.”
That was all I could do for my children.
Since I couldn’t continue to take care of the children, I had no choice but to leave everything after that to the police.
“Don’t you think that’s too irresponsible?”
“Yes? what now-”
The man’s words were dumbfounded, so I was speechless.
Are you calling me irresponsible?
“I don’t know why the lady was trying to save the children of the circus, but if we turn them over to the police, these children will return to the circus someday.”
“You can send your children to an orphanage. The security forces will send the children to an orphanage. But why, how and in what
sense do you go back to the circus?”
Right now, the man was looking at me as a pathetic person who did things blindly without thinking about what happened next.
“It’s a place where the security guard is said to be. Are you saying that the security forces aren’t doing their job properly?”
The man was speechless.
That meant affirming my words.
The man spoke immediately.
“The police force in such a small town is like that. They take money and take care of people’s convenience. Even the circus troupes that roam the continent must know that. And maybe at dawn, against the Lady’s wishes, they will be released and take the children back.”
“How did that happen….”
No.
If you think about it, corrupt organizations existed everywhere.
The world I lived in and the world I now live in were no different.
“Then what are you going to do with the children?”
I asked him directly.
“I am….”
He had a similar expression as before.
It seemed that he was thinking again about how far he would tell me.
However, the man looked straight into my eyes and opened his mouth.
“I rescue children belonging to the circus troupe and send them to the orphanage I sponsor. It is safe because I am in charge of it.”
“But how can I trust you?”
The man’s expression didn’t look like he was lying.
However, the work of the children could not be judged only by their
appearance and expression.
“I don’t just take my kids. It just gives kids a chance to choose first.”
“That’s right! We followed you!”
Then a red-haired girl interrupted our conversation.
“This man saved us! You saved us!”
“That’s right!”
Other children also began to join in.
Listening to the children, contrary to my arbitrary judgment earlier, the man didn’t really seem like a bad person.
“The kids are talking that far, but I don’t think I’m constantly interfering. But I need to check, so please tell me which orphanage is it.
If you cheated on me, I will definitely never forgive you.”
“All right.”
The man smiled as he answered.
It occurred to me that the handsome man was also very pretty when he smiled, but he shook his head, saying that this is not the time to think about it.
“Then when do you leave for the orphanage?”
“I will leave right away tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, then I have a child with me. He was a kid from this circus troupe, so he said his number was number 5-.”
“No. 5?”
“Are you talking about brother number 5?”
At the sound of number 5, the children around them became noisy.
“Where is brother number 5 now? Are you not hurt? Are you alive?”
Each of them was asking me if the child was safe, if he was okay, and if he was not dead.
“Huh. Alive, not hurt at all. I have it now.”
I made eye contact with each of the children and answered them.
“So, by the way, I want you to take that child with you.”
And at the end, he looked up at the man and said.
“Where is the child now?”
“It’s at the inn I’m staying at.”
“Then I’ll go pick you up.”
“Well then, wait a minute. To be honest, I still don’t fully trust you.
So, can my escort driver stay with me until the kids leave tomorrow?”
I glanced at William and he nodded slightly.
“Great. Then ask my men to follow you, and the children will lead you to the inn where you will be staying until tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, I like it. Then I will go with you to the inn where I am staying.”
“All right. Derrick.”
It seems that the name of the man who stood by the children all along was Derek.
When his name was called, he bowed his head.
“Did you hear everything? Set off.”
“All right.”
“Sir William.”
“Yes, lady.”
“Thank you for your hard work. And….”
Instead of telling him to keep an eye out for any nonsense, I signaled him with my eyes.
So we scattered towards our respective destinations.
I was walking with a man to the inn where I was staying.
For a while there was silence between us.
It wasn’t uncomfortable, but walking around without saying anything was boring, so I talked to him first.
“What’s your name? Uh, so I think I need to know to check later.”
For some reason, asking for his name seemed to show a personal interest in the man, so he hurriedly added a reason.
“This is Eden.”
“Either….”
I murmured the man’s name involuntarily, and he stared at me Intently.
“What is Lady’s name?”
“I am Bell.”
“Bell….”
A man named Eden also heard my name and quietly spat it out. Maybe you’re thinking the same thing as me.
Both the man and I were aristocrats from the looks alone.
Just as I recognized that he was a noblewoman at a glance, he must have recognized that I was a noblewoman at a glance.
That’s why when I say my first name without saying my last name,
I’m a bit suspicious and understand that there must be a reason for That.
“How did you come to do this?”
When there was still silence between us again, I asked him the question I had been curious about the most.
Apparently, it was quite unusual for a noble to go out directly for the children of the circus.
Of course, I also got caught up in my work, but in my case, it was a situation created by chance.
However, although he hesitated when I asked earlier, it was clear that men do this often, judging from the fact that they send their children to orphanages without hindrance.
“There is no reason. I just happened to find out that children were kidnapped and abused by circus troupes, and I just couldn’t let them go.”
“By chance…You mean?”
“Yes, it is.”
The answer was unclear, but it was a question without justification or meaning to ask.
I just hope that this man is not an impostor and that the children live safely in the future.
“Then, did you bump into me earlier around the concert hall to check on something?”
“Yes. Come to think of it, I thought there was no child who was walking on a tightrope earlier, but the lady has one.”
“That’s right. I happened to be walking down the street and saw the child being beaten by circus performers and saved it.”
I said, emphasizing the word ‘Accidentally’.
After saying that, I was walking towards the front, but I felt the gaze of the man next to me stinging.
“I wouldn’t think of getting involved in something like this, but the lady is also amazing.”
“Is that so? I think anyone would have acted like me.”
“No. No one would have acted like a lady.”
I turned my head to the side and glanced at him.
For some reason, his eyes felt warm and soft.
“It is overrated. It’s kind of embarrassing to hear that from someone who seems to be doing a greater job than me.”
After a few words of conversation, he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would take the kids and do something.
“So you always rescue the children of the circus like this?”
“We cannot rescue all children. There are dozens of circuses roaming the empire, and it’s impossible to find them individually.”
“I guess so. Uh? It’s all here. There he is.”
Gracias 💕