Chapter 45: Cherish Kids
“Dwon.”
“You’ve had enough?”
I got Bart to put me down because he’d been holding me this whole time. Then I was snatched by Alistair and held once more.
“Lei!”
Alistair hugged me tightly.
“Dwon,” he finally put me down when I said that.
“So that’s Albans’ daughter?” I turned towards the voice and saw the mayor looking at me in interest.
“I’m Leiwa Awbansh.”
I probably don’t have to hide anymore. Mayor asked me after I introduced myself, “Why didn’t you follow them?”
“No magwic. Noth person from Wingdom.”
The mayor, who asked an infant why she didn’t follow the men, had a strange expression. Even so, he looked at me in amazement and said, “You-.”
“I’m Lei.” I reminded him and the mayor corrected himself, “Lei, do you know about magic?”
“I wnow.”
Magic isn’t visible but I can feel it.
“For example, do I have magic?”
“Yesh.”
“How about this person?” He pointed at the person who had shown us here.
“A withthwe.”
I looked at Bart and his crew, “Yesh.”
I looked at Alistair, “A woth.”
“Oh gee.”
The mayor put his hand on his neck and looked up at the ceiling. Then, he adjusted his position and leaned forward.
“Then-,”
At that moment the door suddenly opened with a bang.
“Father! The guests have left, right?!”
“Where’s Alistair? He came, right?!”
A blonde brother and sister came flying in. The mayor looked up at the ceiling again. The person, who guided us, shook his head helplessly.
“You guys, the guests are-,”
“Bart and his crew aren’t guests.”
“Ah, there he is!”
The two of them were like a wild storm as they interrupted their father. The brother asked Bart, “Bart, it’s fine for Alistair to come play right?!”
“It’s up to Alistair,” Bart smiled wryly and replied as if he was used to this.
“Alistair, come on!”
“No, I’m-,” Alistair tried to refuse because he didn’t want to go but, “Building blocks is really popular in town right now.”
“Building blocks…”
Yes, it seems like he’s interested. Alistair likes to build blocks. Or to be more precise, he liked woodwork. He was good at assembling boxes, but he also liked to make different shapes with building blocks.
“Hey.”
Alistair, you’re hopeless. I looked at Alistair warmly because he was tempted by the building blocks.
“Hey.”
I have to listen to this conversation with Bart.
“Hey, you can hear me right?
The brother went to Alistair and for some reason the sister was coming to me.
“… Whath?” I replied reluctantly.
“Come here.” She stretched out her hands. What is it?
“Come with us.”
What’s with this annoying kid? I looked at Bart for help, “Baarthh.”
“It’s fine. You can go with them,” With Bart’s permission, Alistair and I were kidnapped by the kids who were like twin tornadoes and were forced to play with them. We were talking about the messenger being fake right? So why does it seem like I’ve come here to play?
☆ ☆ ☆ (Bart’s POV)
“The only defect of the ironclad mayor, huh.”
“Hey, hey. Isn’t it weird to say that one’s own children are defects?”
The mayor shrugged at my words and spread his arms out.
“It’s a defect if you don’t cherish your kids, right mayor?” I condemned him severely.
“Why did those dodgy arseholes want to take Lei away?”
“They weren’t trying to take her away. And it’s obvious that I, a mere mayor, wouldn’t know what the signature of one of the Four Marquises would look like.”
I certainly saw that he wanted to dismiss them a few times because they were annoying.
“I’ve also been told to hand Alistair over.”
“The fief capital is still saying that?”
Alistair has certainly refused them before. The mayor intertwined his hands together and put them on his chin while still seated as he said nonchalantly, “I heard a rumour that they’re trying to activate the old barrier box again.”
“Old barrier box… The legend?!”
It was a fairy-tale that everyone who lived in Frontier knew of. It is said that each town had a barrier box that spanned their whole town before Kingdom was established.
Come to think of it, the barrier boxes for individual use got bigger and they progressed to making barriers big enough to cover an entire kingdom, so it was more suitable to have bigger barrier boxes. But even if someone does have a box that big, there’s no one in Frontier that has enough magic power to activate it.
“So that’s why they want Alistair?!” Kyaro shouted. Like Alistair had said, they only wanted him for his magic, so there was no way we could send him there.
“Regardless of whether the messengers are real or fake, the fief capital will soon receive information about Lei. No, they might already have information on her. So now it’s Lei’s turn.”
Kyaro crossed his arms.
“If the messengers are real, then the best thing we can do is give her back to her pops.” Mills is right. It doesn’t seem like Alistair wants to give her back, but it’s best for kids to be raised by their parents.
“I know that Alistair and Leila are important to you guys. They are as equally important to you as my children and this town is to me. If it’s concluded that they mean harm, then that’s as far as it goes,” the mayor said calmly. It can’t be helped.
“But, about those messengers-.”
“What about them?” The mayor continued quietly, “It’s not just the two of them. There’s actually five of them staying at the inn. I’ve heard that they have more people in the next town.”
According to the mayor, there were people scattered around various cities looking for Lei.
“If they’re putting in this much effort, then does that mean they’re real?” Kyaro asked in confusion.
“Leila said they’re not. She said they didn’t have any magic and that they weren’t nobles.”
“That’s it!” The mayor stood up. “I forgot about it because the children stormed in, but what is that infant? She’s completely different from my children when they were younger. I mean, it wouldn’t be strange for her to forget about her parents because she’s been separated from them for three months, but she hasn’t!”
The crew and I looked at each other. She is a strange baby, but it was fine since she’s cute.
“Alistair’s smart too. The Four Marquis Houses are like that, right?” Mill said as if he didn’t care.
“But she decided that she wouldn’t go with them because she didn’t know if they were real or not. Is there an infant like that in this world?”
“What can you do about it since she exists? Thanks to that, your children weren’t given to a weird group and stigmatised, so isn’t it fine?” I said flatly. The mayor was about 15 years older than me, but it’s true that he didn’t take any honourable actions this time.
The mayor didn’t say anything and sat back down onto the sofa. Then he sighed and spoke again, “I’m curious about her, but fine. I wanted to tell you that it’s dangerous outside of town, so do you want to leave Alistair and Leila here for the time being?”