Chapter 36
“Hey, Mister, are you really a paladin?”
In the orphanage’s backyard, Theodorus was tightly surrounded by a group of young boys, unable to move an inch.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
A paladin from the capital, clad in dazzlingly white armor. On top of that, he was tall with a strikingly handsome face. It was a combination that couldn’t possibly be unpopular with young children.
The boys looked at Theodorus with eyes full of admiration, hanging onto his thick arms or touching his armor while chattering excitedly.
“But Mister, why are you wearing such stiff clothes? Who gave them to you? Doesn’t it get sweaty fast? How do you wash them? Do you do it yourself? And why did you come here? How do you go to the bathroom in clothes like this?”
Theodorus was breaking into a cold sweat under the barrage of rapid-fire questions coming from all directions like arrows. He was making an effort to answer each of the children’s questions sincerely and carefully.
The problem was that he wasn’t given enough time to answer.
Just as he would begin to stutter a reply, the children had already moved on to the next topic and were showering him with another round of questions.
And there was someone watching the paladin’s suffering with great amusement.
Ibeon and Obok, who were moving to the annex after finishing meal distribution.
“Pfft…”
The man who always seemed like an impregnable fortress whenever she met him was now flustered and cornered by children barely waist-high.
Was there ever a sight more entertaining than this?
While she was peeking out from behind a tree and giggling…
Theodorus, who had let out a small sigh and turned his head, locked eyes with her directly.
“…!”
Flustered, Ibeon instinctively gave an awkward nod. The man’s expression froze coldly.
“Kehaha, Master’s been caught red-handed now!”
Obok chirped excitedly beside her.
They say a sister-in-law who restrains is more hateful than a mother-in-law who hits. She felt like punching Obok right then.
“Hah, I wasn’t trying to peek…”
Like a thief with a guilty conscience, even though Theodorus hadn’t asked anything, Ibeon started spilling the details of the incident unprompted.
That’s when unexpected reinforcements arrived from an unexpected quarter.
“But, Mister! Who would win in a fight between a demon and an angel? Have you ever seen the god Plurra for real? Why not? If you’re a paladin, do you have to pray all the time? Ugh, that sounds really annoying. But why aren’t you there today and here instead? Don’t you want to go? Why? Will you be here tomorrow too? Until when?”
The ‘question mark assault,’ which had briefly lulled, resumed.
“Eh? Ah, well that’s…”
Wow, he’s really flustered.
That very Theodorus Raytner, who usually radiated an icy chill.
*Thank you, children.*
Now was the perfect opportunity to escape this critical moment.
Just as Ibeon was about to pick up the laundry basket and head for the back door…
“Kyaha, it’s that pretty meal teacher from earlier!”
*Snatch!*
Someone grabbed the hem of her dress.
“Ah, kids, the teacher needs to go to the laundry room now…”
Ibeon looked back at the children with an apologetic smile.
But she was already surrounded on all sides by the girls.
“Teacher, you’re actually a princess, right? I saw it in a storybook. All the princesses in there are as pretty as you, unnie! I wanna do your hair, like a princess!”
“Me too, me too! I wanna do it too!”
“No, I’m fine… I’m really busy…”
Before Ibeon could finish her response, her long hair was already in the children’s hands.
“Quick, sit here! Here!”
“Wow, we’re styling the princess’s hair!”
“…”
The children soon gathered various kinds of flowers.
White daisies, yellow golden plum blossoms, pink cosmos, and other colorful wildflowers…
“Stick one here like this… and another here…”
Soon, flower blossoms were tucked here and there into her purple hair.
It looked as if a beautiful wave of flowers was being drawn along the undulating strands of her hair.
“Hey? Mister, look over there. It’s a fairy, a fairy.”
“Huh?”
Following the child’s words, Theodorus turned his head and slowly closed his mouth as he noticed something.
Where his pitch-black gaze landed was Ibeon, wearing the floral crown the children had placed on her head, smiling brightly.
“Wow, the flowers are really pretty, right?”
“The teacher is prettier!”
In the breeze that softly blew, her hair and flower petals scattered together.
Amidst the fragrance shed by the flowers and the innocent laughter of the children dancing lightly in the air…
“…”
Theodorus’s expression, watching this scene, stiffened peculiarly.
That strange feeling he had experienced once before was stirring inside him again.
A feeling that was ticklish and slightly hot—this strange sensation.
Was this perhaps an omen of calamity?
“You’re really, really pretty, Teacher!”
“Really? You all look even prettier to me! Now, it’s my turn. Come here.”
Ibeon’s eyes, like blue coral reefs, gently turned towards the children.
Now it was her turn to adorn and decorate the children’s hair with flowers.
The girls sat around Ibeon with expectant eyes.
“Kyak! That tickles!”
Ibeon tucked a flower behind each child’s ear.
A small violet.
A fragrant lilac sprig.
And a cosmos with a warm hue, casting a soft shade on each child’s head.
“Braid my hair too, please!”
Ibeon meticulously braided the children’s soft hair downward.
Whenever her white fingers brushed past, small petals nestled between the strands of hair, creating beautiful floral paths.
As she wrapped the long, side-braided hair like little crowns around the children’s heads, satisfied laughter erupted here and there.
“Mister, do you like that noona?”
At the sudden voice, Theodorus reflexively lowered his head.
The boy who had called Ibeon a fairy-like being was looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
“What?”
“I saw it all. Mister, your ears turned red just now while looking at that pretty teacher.”
“What are you…”
That’s when it happened.
“Hey, they’re dating, you didn’t know?”
Another boy suddenly cut in.
His tone was as if he had known Ibeon and Theodorus as peers for a long time.
“No, we’re not.”
“Yes, you are?”
“Are you blind? Didn’t you see them constantly glancing at each other? Seriously no sense of awareness.”
“You’re the blind one? Mister was the one peeking one-sidedly, I saw it all!”
“…”
The problem was that their conversation reached Ibeon’s ears as well.
The girls sitting around her soon began whispering among themselves.
“Teacher, are you really dating that mister?”
“Are you married?”
“When?”
“Do you have a baby?”
“Did you give birth?”
“How old is the baby?”
“…?”
At the child’s sudden, out-of-nowhere question, Ibeon and Theodorus’s heads turned simultaneously.
What on earth is this about?
“Hey, kid?”
“Yes!”
Ibeon asked the child in a slightly amused tone.
“Do you even know how babies are made?”
“Huh? Of course.”
The child answered calmly.
“Hmm?”
“From the male’s penis…”
“…”
“Teacher, you’re an adult and you didn’t know that?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“Ah, no, that’s right! That is biologically correct, but…”
Ibeon, who had been stunned by the rapid-fire answer delivered like a rap, startled and replied.
“That’s correct? Then congratulations to both of you!”
“…?”
“…?”
“What?”
“You just said it’s correct.”
“No, that means what you said is correct.”
“I asked if you two were having a baby.”
“No, I meant the next thing you said was correct!”
The conversation was spiraling into chaos.
Ibeon glanced at Theodorus with eyes pleading for help, but he was already avoiding her gaze, looking at a distant mountain.
His earlobes and neck were flushed bright red.
*Wow, things were already awkward between them, and now it’s going to be even more awkward.*
Someone needed to step in and clarify the situation.
“Kids, that knight and I are not that kind of relationship. We’re strangers, strangers.”
In truth, they were less than strangers, but…
However, none of the children were listening to Ibeon.
“Wow, I wanna see Teacher’s baby.”
“It must be really pretty, right?”
It seemed the answer was already decided among the children.
Suddenly finding herself with a husband and a child, Ibeon felt her head spinning.
“Teacher, I want to marry a cool knight too when I grow up! How do I do that?”
“No, we’re not marri—!”
Ibeon, about to strongly deny the child’s words, stopped short.
She was caught by the innocent, sparkling eyes asking the question.
*Well, since it’s come to this, there’s no choice. Let’s just gloss over it with a general explanation.*
Ibeon hurriedly corrected her answer.
“Marriage is a very special ceremony where you promise to spend your life with someone you love. The person doesn’t necessarily have to be a knight.”
“No way.”
“Huh?”
“I’m definitely going to marry a knight.”
Ibeon felt a slight embarrassment at the child’s firm answer but tried to act natural and continue speaking smoothly.
“Hmm… It seems our Ari really thinks knights are cool. But in this world, there are wonderful people with all sorts of jobs besides knights—”
“I’m definitely going to marry a knight!”
That’s when it happened.
“You idiot! How can kids raised in an orphanage without parents marry a knight?!”
