Became the Villainess’s Guardian

Interspersing the palace vacation with various events outside the city.
Edan occasionally met professors and magicians from other universities through Professor Magni’s introductions, occupying his time.

As a result, he couldn’t devote much attention to Freugne, prompting him to consider hiring someone, but she had declined.
Well, she did seem to be living independently, cooking her own meals and keeping herself productively occupied.

“Mister, over here.”

“What’s this?”

“The task you entrusted me with.”

Freugne handed me a neatly compiled stack of papers upon my return from the business trip.
Glancing through, it listed orphanages, charitable facilities, and impoverished educational institutions within Londinium that could use support.

I hadn’t expected her to be so diligent.
Perhaps she had felt bored in my absence. Or it could be interpreted as a sense of responsibility.

“Well done. I’ll give it a positive review.”

Of course, I would need to cross-verify the details myself.

“Ah, and is it possible to sponsor individuals directly, regardless of their affiliation?”

“Yes, if necessary.”

“Then I have a few people I’d like to recommend-”

She proceeded to rattle off names she had heard through the grapevine from friends.

A child forced onto the streets to escape domestic violence. A young breadwinner caring for immobilized parents after an accident. An orphan drifting between factories, unable to gain admittance to an orphanage.
It was an impressive lineup that could easily rival Freugne’s and my own backgrounds, testament to her thorough investigation.

Such tragedies were commonplace in Londinium.
Disposable laborers strove tirelessly to avoid termination, making accidents more likely the harder they worked.

If the parents had been millionaires, the orphaned child might have become a Batman figure. But in such dysfunctional environments, the parents would never have perished in the first place.
And taking the Robin approach wasn’t exactly a high survival rate option either. After a brief contemplation, I nodded in affirmation.

I couldn’t entrust Freugne with all responsibilities. After all, she was still in her mid-teens.
But at the very least, I was confident she would not misappropriate funds out of selfish motives.

And Freugne’s sincerity had exceeded my expectations. It was a fortuitous development amidst my busy schedule.

“You’ve done well. If it’s not too much of a burden, I’d like to entrust you with more tasks. Would that be alright?”

“Yes, yes!”

Freugne nodded eagerly.
If only she could maintain this initial fervor.

Some time later, during Freugne’s second winter after enrollment.
I, having received endless acclaim the previous summer, now faced the crisis of becoming the era’s pariah – the root cause of environmental pollution and a has-been in the making.

But not a chance.
I, knocking on the Royal Academy’s doors, was ever prepared.

“Thank you to all the investors gathered here today.”

“I shall now present Ceres Palace’s performance for this year, including the winter quarter.”

As always, taking the mic as Ceres Palace’s representative, I began with the numbers they would be most interested in.

Not everyone in survival-of-the-fittest Londinium was genuinely enthusiastic about ‘having children work at my factory because I love them so much’ in embracing child labor.
It was simply that children commanded wages a tenth to at most a fifth of adults’, making them cheap labor.

However, there were still a few indispensable professions, unavoidable even with that mindset.
One such job was chimney sweeping.

This is a fantasy world with Bluetooth faucets. Of course Bluetooth stoves existed too.
Naturally, such magic devices were available, but certainly not affordable. And they required periodically summoning fire mages for maintenance, incurring replacement costs.

Ultimately, people had to weigh money against living free from soot,
and most Londinium residents were forced to forfeit the latter.

Hence.

“Mom, don’t we have a stove made by the palaces?”

“Quiet down and just fetch the firewood.”

Moreover, the chimney flues barely wider than A4 paper required regular cleaning.
Neither could fully grown adults fit inside, nor could chimneys be demolished annually, so children were shoved in instead.

The smaller, the better, so malnourished orphans with stunted growth were preferred.
And the younger they were, the tinier their frames, so some were deployed in active duty as early as four years old. Had I grown up in a neighboring orphanage, I might have ended up a chimney sweep too.

…Ugh.
Peering too deeply into the abyss might induce speechlessness, so let’s return to the original topic.

“Allow me to introduce to you all.”

-Wheeeeeee

“What is that?”

“Ah, this is called a [vacuum cleaner].”

“I see. And what differentiates it?”

“Existing sweepers simply blew air. While suitable for clearing leaves, the resulting dust dispersion was an undeniable inconvenience. However.”

“Surely not.”

“This device sucks in air.”

People didn’t exclaim, ‘Sucking in air, what an ingenious concept!’ or the like.
But neither were their brains stuffed with udon noodles instead – the only reason such an obvious concept had not been realized until now was:

“Has the motor output finally reached that level…?!”

“It was somewhat anticipated ever since the air conditioner’s invention.”

But this body, capable of swiftly assembling guns from scrap in the ruins of Londinium, was blessed with dexterous hands.
Coupled with its expendable nature for unbridled exploitation, what was impossible?

“With this, Ceres Palace has undisputedly established itself as the preeminent leader in electromagnetism!”

“Waaahhhh!!”

“Ah, we’re also offering chimney sweeper vacuum rentals, so please avail yourselves. And spread the word about the half-price promotions in impoverished areas through the Edan Foundation.”

Ending with a charitable organization plug.
The rising stock prices had minted many new wealthy patrons, so the more donations received, the smoother operations would proceed.

At East School, Freugne was a well-liked child.
Of course, envy and jealousy were unavoidable, but the world was not so cruel as to spew vitriol before this pure capybara’s countenance.

And that uneventful school life was gradually nearing its conclusion.

Basic education was quite literal – students learned reading, writing, basic math, history, and geography.
Having accumulated a certain level of knowledge independently, Freugne could easily catch up to the three-year gap with proper support.

Thus, it was time for her to embark on higher education.
Trivial details like grades or education duration were swiftly resolved with the installation of an air conditioner in the school auditorium.

And so.

“Freugne, you’re here?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“I called you to discuss your future plans.”

A career counseling session – a rare, student-like event.
Her usual dark queen persona had simply overshadowed her legitimate student status.

“Shouldn’t I be discussing this with my patron instead?”

“He said he would respect your wishes.”

“……”

In fact.
At some point, she had realized Edan’s claim that this support was for patronage was a lie.

Patronage, by definition, was not about freely nurturing like raising a child, but cultivating talented youths for exploitation according to one’s preferences, was it not?
Even actual parents would mostly groom their offspring to inherit the family business or pressure them into better occupations.

Listening to her peers’ stories at school, she heard:
‘You must inherit your father’s shoemaking business.’
‘At least receive a better education than me and become an artisan.’
‘With your grades, you should aspire to become a magician,’ and so on.

Oblivious to such realities during her secluded orphanage days, a few years had been enough to gain ample awareness.

Not that Edan had any particular aspirations for her outwardly.

At best, a request to assist with the charitable organization’s operations?
Clearly, not taking on a major role would have been perfectly fine. This task too had been self-initiated, not an imposition.

To be blunt, even if Edan abruptly parted ways like total strangers, she was confident in her ability to achieve success independently.
She lacked neither funds nor connections despite her youth, and above all, she possessed an extraordinary ability.

And yet, why did she choose to remain by his side?
Not just tomorrow, but the following month, the year after, and beyond – in every future she glimpsed, she orbited around Edan.

“…Um, mister.”

“What is it?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Even with some semblance of parental experience, she could only vaguely speculate, as Edan too was immune to such profundities.
After prolonged contemplative stammering, Freugne decided to shelve such trivial musings for later.

She had a premonition that with more time, these feelings would solidify.
Not a vision from her foresight, but an inexplicable intuition.

For now, it was time to focus on more pressing matters.
She had been sowing seeds for nearly two years, so the time for reaping results must be nearing. Penning dozens of letters weekly, left-handed no less, had been quite the arduous task.

But without any cards in hand, it would be difficult to gain the upper hand.

“Mister, I’ll be stepping out for a bit.”

“Very well. Just return before sundown.”

“Yes.”

Before leaving, Freugne gave his hand a light tap.

While diligent usage had allowed her to somewhat control the vantage point of her visions, perhaps her desire to glimpse too far into the future had backfired.
Instead of witnessing her own abduction of Edan, the image that surfaced was them grocery shopping together in the near future, a small, contented smile on her face.

The shopping list itself was irrelevant, but at least she understood the purpose behind her strenuous efforts.
Leaving the house, Freugne made her way to the facilities housing children sponsored by Edan.