A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

45 – Orphanage Princesses (3)

The father’s actions are like a runaway airship.

Especially in terms of motherhood and love, it is unrivaled.

Isn’t the mother secretly crossing the border and buying what she wants to eat during her pregnancy at the Imperial Night Market?

Once a father makes a decision, it cannot be stopped.

Even me.

If there’s one thing you didn’t expect-

“How can a building like this be completed in just one week?’

At this point.

“Lord Mente. Wasn’t this just flat ground when I came here a week ago?”

“Someone even mobilized knights to build it. It’s a wooden building, right? It’s like a log cabin or something.”

“It’s a log mansion, right?”

“All the engineers have to do is precisely cut the parts that the carpenters tell them to cut.”

“…….”

Because it is a wooden building, it is understandable that it was built early.

The appearance is a bit rough, and the aesthetically monotonous form clearly shows that no attention was paid to anything other than being built quickly.

It was as if someone had come into this wooden building and made them stay there.

That is actually true.

Kang, Kang, Kang!

A little far away from the nursery, construction workers are driving new rebar into the ground.

Instead of the rebar left over from the elevator installation work, the rebar purchased by the County of Gibraltar itself is driven into the ground.

“You’re trying to build a temporary building in just 7 days and build the main building at the same time. I’m so…”

“Do you think there isn’t enough room to welcome the princesses?”

“…….”

“You look very unpleasant. Well, your father suffered a lot during his time at the academy.”

Sir Mente nodded his head with an understanding look on his face.

“When I opened my locker, love letters poured out. There were women who followed me even on my way to the bathroom. There was even a young lady who broke into the dormitory disguised as a man.”

“Did your father just leave that behind?”

“No. It wasn’t like that at first. That was because the barrier that was blocking it no longer worked.”

Sir Mente raised his hand and waved it up and down.

“Princess Carmen, who was her fiancée at the time, was cutting off all the women who were around the Count, but after breaking off the engagement and switching to your mother, everyone started rushing towards her.”

“Once you change your mind, you can have a chance too? I guess you thought so?”

“That’s right. Thanks to you, I also had a lot of trouble.”

“Sir Mente?”

“It was the student council.”

“Ah.”

I understand.

With such chaos happening at the academy, there is no way the managers would not have a hard time.

“Maybe the Margrave doesn’t want you to go through that kind of trouble.”

“Isn’t it the opposite? You should try hard too, something like that.”

“If that were the case, they would have left him alone until he was 17 and then thrown him into the academy. Who would want their son to suffer more than they did?”

“The imperial family of the empire?”

“Ah, yes. I guess they are like that. What did they say…”

“A lion throws its own child off a cliff. That’s what the current emperor said to the crown prince.”

You must grow up strong from a young age.

This is the tone of the imperial family.

“In reality, a lion is not that kind of animal.”

“Really? Is that in the newspaper too?”

“The newspaper contains quite a lot of content. How about reading it together?”

“That’s it. A knight just needs to be good with a sword, and a guard just needs to protect himself, right? I’m too old to learn anything new.”

Sir Mente waved his hand and joked.

“If you were a man, you would call him an uncle. No, an ajumma? hahahaha.”

“I won’t say anything.”

Even if you say that as if you were mocking yourself, if you ask that question carelessly, I will stop you right away.

“Let’s talk about the orphanage. My father is in that building, probably-“

“Should we use it as a children’s dormitory under Noir?”

“…Yes?”

My thoughts were mixed.

“Aren’t they the new orphans coming to the orphanage? Sir Mente. Have you heard anything?”

“No, I didn’t hear that, but these new girls are really orphans. They’re all around 10 years old?”

That’s right.

But-

“Wouldn’t it be better to let the girls stay in a better place? Even though it is a wooden building, it will be good training for them.”

“…I need to discuss this with my father.”

As the person in charge of the nursery.

* * *

Study.

“Did Sir Mente speak?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t say anything so carelessly.”

“I know everything about the inside of the mansion. In particular, I check the orphanage every day.”

I met my father separately in the study and interrogated him.

“Is it true that the Empire has decided to give up a room in the orphanage for the girls who will come?”

“That’s right.”

“Then the existing children will have to leave their rooms.”

“It’s just weeding out.”

My father pushed the list in front of me with a somewhat stern expression.

“The quota is limited, and the budget is also set. You said there is a way to utilize these children, but it is right to get rid of children with no potential early on.”

“It’s different from what I heard. I thought Noir’s knight candidates would be housed in a temporary building made of logs.”

“We also planned that for self-discipline training. But it’s also true that we want to organize personnel.”

The father had already marked some of the children’s lists in red ink.

“These kids need to vacate the room so kids like the next Ethan Cesar won’t come in.”

“……I understand.”

My father is currently planning efficient personnel management.

“You just have to get rid of all the ordinary kids and fill their seats with people with potential.”

“If there is an alternative, please tell me.”

“They are incompetent, have received penalty points, or are misbehaving just because they are in daycare. It is definitely desirable to kick out these children.”

Because we do not care for children with love, but rather take care of them in order to sell the country.

“But if we just send them away like this, there is a high possibility that these children will harbor resentment toward Gibraltar.”

“There’s no need to worry about it anyway.”

“If these children let the enemy know about Gibraltar’s daily life, all that trivial information would come together and form a plan. An assassination plan.”

“Hmm….”

I don’t have to say anything more, my father will understand what I mean.

Even if the children who were kicked out said that they were rescued from the orphanage, it would be of some help to the assassins coming in.

“So even if you send the children out, you must not send them out with hostility.”

Gibraltar will have many enemies in the future, and the already large number of enemies should not be increased from within.

“So, if you’re going to export them, it’s better to sell them in a way that benefits Gibraltar. Oh, it’s not human trafficking.”

My father flinched for a moment, so I cleared my throat to get his attention.

“The children on this list are the average or untalented children in this orphanage. They tend not to be worth investing in.”

“Okay. How do you plan on selling it?”

“On a mountain full of tigers, a fox is a henchman, but on a mountain full of rabbits, a fox becomes a tyrant.”

I pointed to the kingdom map decorated on the wall of the study.

“New orphanages are being built all over the kingdom. Let’s send a dispatch there.”

“Dispatch?”

“Yes. Even if the foxes don’t know anything else, they know the system of this orphanage and how it works. They sell that experience.”

“…I learned about the imperial company some time ago.”

My father pointed to the camera next to the desk and the books written in the imperial language.

“There is a concept of a ‘branch manager’ sent to each branch. Are you suggesting we adopt that?”

“That’s correct.”

Children raised in Gibraltar orphanages have experience living in orphanages for as long as three years and as short as about three months.

“New orphanages are springing up all over Nostrum, but they are not run like ours.”

“You sow seeds without clearing the field, and hope that they grow like the world tree in the elf forest.”

“Yes. We are selling this system to those people. The operating technology we have built up over the past three years. Children who have grown up and experienced it themselves in orphanages.”

And this is a valuable experience that cannot be imagined at other orphanages.

“Should I call him or her a ‘manager’ of running a daycare center?”

“Is that an imperial term?”

“Yes. Or, to make it easier to understand, we should call them deacons. These deacons, scattered throughout the region, support the operation of the orphanage and select talented children.”

“…And send those selected children to Gibraltar?”

“Because they lived in the tiger’s den, the butlers will instinctively know.”

I wonder if I, a fox, can catch and eat a rabbit.

Or is it a tiger cub that might be eaten if it grows up even a little?

“There are ways to sell people like that, but in fact, the best thing would be for them to go all over the continent and spread public opinion favorable to Gibraltar.”

“It’s public opinion.”

“Yes. Actually, the ultimate goal is to spread malicious rumors about the incompetent king…”

Whether it is treason or treason, make sure that there is no major shock to the entire kingdom even if you take down the incompetent king.

“I think they have already fulfilled their role by simply informing us of the situation in Gibraltar. Noir-centered system.”

Talented children who grew up in orphanages were placed next to Noir.

“If you are the orphanage butler, you will have contact with the nobles, so you will be able to hear such stories from the nobles as well.”

“Yes. Moreover, they appear to be maintaining their relationship by sending and receiving letters on a regular basis? A nobleman secretly peeks at the contents of the letters and understands the situation in Gibraltar?”

“I guess it’s up to us to write the content.”

The father taps the table with his fingers and closes his eyes.

“It may seem useless right now, but that’s why we put it somewhere more useful. It’s like operating it as a scout and spy.”

“The most important thing is that pride in working sincerely for Gibraltar, even without knowing that they are spies, becomes loyalty.”

“…Gray.”

My father stopped his hand and looked at me.

“As expected, don’t leave that up to you.”

“Thank you. Then….”

“But I want to proceed with moving the children to a temporary building. It is your mother’s opinion that we cannot give the girls a shabby space.”

“…….”

“You don’t like it because it’s your mother’s opinion?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then….”

My father tapped his fingers rapidly on the table, as if he was having a moment of anxiety.

“Let me try to persuade Charlotte.”

“Yes?”

“It’s right to care about girls, but you can’t ignore the existing system. It’s the same as kicking out seniors and letting new people take their places, so Charlotte will understand to some extent.”

“…….”

Is this the first time?

My father took my side between my mother and me.

“It’s touching.”

“Like this?”

“Yes.”

Although it was a very minor detail, it was a moment that clearly felt different from before.

“Actually, I had the same idea as you. Putting the girls who would come from the Empire into a temporary building. When I mentioned that, Charlotte was against it.”

“Is it because it’s a girl? Well, if it’s the mother…”

“No. Because of you.”

“……?”

My father tapped the teacup with his hand with a sad look on his face.

“They say that if girls gather together in one place, they will take sides and fight to take over you.”

“…….”

“I thought it would be better to spread them out in each room and then try to get them together at the orphanage so they don’t take sides.”

“Hmm.”

As expected.

“I think it is the duty of a child to follow his mother’s will.”

Is it true that women know better?

“It still takes time for the furniture to come into the building, so I’ll think about it in the meantime. I’ll let you know when I make a decision.”

* * *

A few days later.

“Master. Well, a guest came to visit…”

“Guest? At this hour?”

“Yes. The Count told me to come quickly….”

“Father? Who on earth is he?”

I almost lost my mind when an orphan came without any warning.

“Princess Naria.”

“I am not Princess Naria, young master.”

Short golden hair cut beneath a tattered bun hat.

A shabby vest and sturdy suspenders.

However, green eyes and white skin cannot be hidden.

“So, it’s Goa City.”

“Yes, I am an orphan. I will do anything you ask me to do.”

“No.”

“Please take care of me.”

The princess who came to visit at random times-

“My name is ‘Jabeth’.”

She claimed to be an orphan with a pseudonym without any trace of her name.

“I grew up without a father, and my mother abandoned me here. Please have mercy.”

“…Does Queen Carmen have anything to say?”

It was only me and my father in the room.

“Yes.”

Princess Naria took out an envelope with a letter from her arms and handed it to her father.

“My mother left me here when she abandoned me.”

“The expression ‘thrown away’ is….”

“I’m sorry, Count. I need to keep saying this on a regular basis so I can keep reminding myself that I’m an orphan.”

“…Why send the princess to Gibraltar like this, disguised as an orphan?”

The moment my father opened the envelope of the letter, he frowned openly.

“You crazy bastard.”

“Father?”

“Look.”

My father handed me a letter, and I felt a chill down my spine as I read the letter that Queen Carmen had scrawled.

-Saint Geo was drunk and tried to kill Princess Naria.

“…Morgania is too close to the royal capital, so it cannot protect me. A crazy king would come running to Morgania and make a fuss demanding that I be surrendered.”

Princess Naria bent her waist to 90 degrees.

“For the time being. Please allow me to stay here for a while, Your Excellency the Margrave.”

At that moment, a trace appeared near Princess Naria’s neck, as if she had been cut by her sword.