Childcare Diaries - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Getting on his horse, Taylor sprinted out. Followed by other knights, he was recently promoted to vice-captain, and now he had earned the qualifications to take the lead in the Knights order.

As he ran, he could see his men in the distance surrounded by his children. After stopping at a suitable place, he got off his horse and walked towards it.

“You’re here.”

The knight who found Taylor greeted me.

He nodded his head and looked around the children. They saw him running from the front on horseback, and the children cringed because they were afraid.

“It’s okay. Feel free to tell me what you saw.”

When he smiled and spoke, they seemed to have finally calmed down. The children showed him where they had seen Jaz.

“That’s right, it’s the fifth bridge on the Chad River. Would you like to go with me?”

As the children nodded, Taylor gave orders to the other knights.

“Half goes between Bridge No. 5 and Bridge No. 6, and the rest go with me. He may notice us and run away, so approach him with as little sign as possible.”

“Yes, vice-captain.”

The knights moved in unison. The children also followed the knights and began to move as quietly as possible.

Taylor, who came under the bridge, wasn’t feeling very well. Although he was not in the mood to look at these things now, he could see that children and the elderly were exposed defenselessly in places that seemed vulnerable to safety and sanitation at first glance.

As a poor commoner, his heart became more uncomfortable than anyone else.

‘…For now, let’s focus on catching Jaz.’

Having captured his heart, he and the children cautiously approached Jaz.

“It was there.”

A child murmured and stretched out his arms towards the place where there was a weird blanket. Following the child’s hand, he turned and saw several people covering their worn-out blankets. The child pointed to the blanket that sticks out the most.

Taylor approached it alone. He then quickly removed the blanket.

“Jaz!”

He shouted and shouted. However, there was nothing but a pile of garbage.

‘He ran away.’

Taylor frowned and shouted behind him.

“He wouldn’t have gone that far. Follow me now.”

Before joining the knights, he told the children his name and that they would reward them if they found him at the County.

Taylor turned around and set off to find Jaz.

***
“Hehehe”

Jaz was watching the knights of the County, letting out a strange laugh. He was just watching the two groups of knights. He laughed at them, possessed by a strange sense of superiority after running away from him.

‘It was good to keep a close eye on those little ones walking around.’

The children who had been paying close attention to him for a while were watching him with interest. He got a strange feeling and ran away, though it was a good thing.

‘Now that I have a place to go.’

The client replied to a letter from him where he stated that he wanted a place to escape and finally, found a place to hide.

‘…It was a very unexpected place.’

It was Count Bent. For some reason, he felt like he was meeting the middle boss of the organization that he was digging into through the client.

‘If it’s a family like that, I might be able to take over the family in place of Siege later… No, I might ask to raise the rank in the family.’

Dreaming of a bright future different from his own, Jaz fled after looking at the county’s knights for a long time.

***
“…I’m ashamed of myself.”

Taylor bowed his head towards Kentrail.

“If he already knew and ran away, there’s nothing you can do,” Saying so, Kentrail patted him on the shoulder.

Still, he couldn’t help but sigh.

“I guess we’ll have to look the other way.”

If they seemed to be one step closer to the culprit, he quickly moved away.

‘…I think we should find something in common between Jaz and Brielle’s aunt.’

It wasn’t easy, so he wanted to make sure of one thing.

“I think we should approach Count Bent.”

“Count Bent?”

Taylor asked, puzzled.

“Yes, I think we need to find out if the uncle’s side has absolutely nothing to do with this case.”

Approaching his uncle’s knight, as mentioned earlier, was too risky, so he had to make a detour. His uncle’s son, his own cousin, Count Bent, would know something.

“Taylor, your face is well-known, so leave it to a reliable newcomer.”

“Yes, Master.”

Taylor went out to carry out his orders, and Kentrail leaned on the sofa. Closing his eyes for a moment, he remembered the fact that he had been feeling uneasy for a long time.

‘But, why did I want to destroy the Kingdom…’

His troubles deepened.

***
“Hehe, that’s great.”

Brielle, who had been spending time with Marie after a long time, laughed.

“Me too, me too.”

Ellie, who took the seat next to Marie in Kentrail’s absence, was also smirking. They didn’t do anything, yet it was good that they only had such a touch of warmth. The children were busy digging into Marie’s arms with blushing faces.

She had to scream with happiness in giving her arms.

“Ellie, sister, it’s heavy. Young Master, it’s tickling.”

Then, the same words erupted from both of them at the same time.

“Hold on a second!”

A laugh escaped Marie’s mouth as she hugged and shook Brielle and Ellie once. The children burst into laughter and rolled around the bed in excitement.

How much time had they spent before a knock rang out?

“Yes”

In response to Marie’s answer, the door opened and the chef entered.

“Marie.”

He kept her head down and couldn’t look into her face.

“chef.”

“I’ve been wanting to come, but I’m sorry that I’m not brave enough now.”

“No. What’s wrong, chef?”

“I should have taken good care of my staff…”

No matter how careful he was, they would somehow have dug through the cracks.

“I’m really fine.”

Even as she said so, his expression darkened, and his head was not lifted. In the end, Marie decided to lighten the chef’s heart a little.

“If that’s the case, I have one request…”

The chef raised his head and looked at Marie. He was ready to listen to anything.

“Can I ask you for the samgyetang I ate last time?”

“Anytime…!”

Hurriedly, he nodded his head to the point of breaking his head and ran out.

“Marie. I’ll help, too.”

Then, Brielle called the chef and ran like he was going to do it like last time. The only person left, Ellie, again searched for her arms and dug into them.

“Sister smells good.”

Hearing her words, Marie stroked her sister’s hair. How anxious the child must have been, she was sorry.

“Hey, sister, I’ll play the piano later.”

“Piano…?”

“Yes. I wanted sister to hear it while you were down.”

“Yes.”

“Also, if I become a teacher quickly and earn this much money, I’ll buy clothes for my sister and also shoes…”

Ellie stretched out her hand a little out of Marie’s arms, and she drew the largest circle she could draw. She promised that she would buy everything.

“…So, you should always be by my side.”

And then, she spat out the last words she wanted to say.

“Of course. Sister will definitely be by Ellie’s side from now on.”

Marie felt sorry for her and she hugged the child, who had always been trembling with anxiety, tightly in her arms.

“Do you know how much sister loves Ellie’s?”

“Yes, more than the Count?”

“What?”

A strange word came out of Ellie’s mouth. When she finally understood the words, and Marie’s face turned red. It seemed that everyone in the mansion really knew. To see these words coming out of the child’s mouth…

“Of course.”

Marie answered and put her own face on Ellie’s head.

“But, when are you going to tell the Young Master? That you’re dating the Count?”

“…Ellie, since when did you know?”

Even though she had long been embarrassed to say this to her younger sister, she was curious.

“Ummm… I thought it was going to be like this when the Count was so jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Oh, you don’t know. The Count heard from the Young Master that sister was going on a blind date, and his expression was no joke.”

“Did he…?”

She simply thought that he had misunderstood, although it seemed that he was not.

“Yes. He looked like the angry dragon from the young master’s book.”

At that, Marie burst into laughter. She thought she knew what that book was. Though he had that expression on his face, her heart raced with joy.

‘…It’s nice to hear that he’s jealous.’

The two hugged each other until Brielle came to visit them again.

***
Kentrail came to see Marie. It was time for the children to go to sleep.

“Count.”

His expression darkened, and she predicted that finding Jaz was not going well.

“It looks like he ran away.”

The subject was missing, but Marie, knowing it, nodded her head.

“Where did he go?”

“I asked the guards to increase security for those who leave the capital, so there is a high probability that he will be in the capital.”

As she nodded her head, the atmosphere subsided in an instant. Kentrail had offered to put her to bed and leave as if it was not on his mind to only give her all these worries, who was not yet fully healed.

“Then, please sing a lullaby.”

Said Marie, who had never heard him sing a song.

“Lullaby?”

It was always her job to sing a lullaby to Brielle, so he was embarrassed.

“I don’t really know anything…”

“You’ve heard me sing it to the young master.”

“I do, still…”

“Come on.”

He couldn’t win at her urging, and he fell into agony. Eventually, he dug into the seat next to Marie first.

‘Huh?’

She didn’t know that Kentrail would sit like this next to her, so her heart started beating rapidly.

“Why? Shall I go out?”

Noticing her condition, he asked. Marie grabbed his clothes, who was about to go out, and rolled the blanket.

“No… Stay where you are.”

Kentrail’s face reddened as she answered that. He smiled and turned the lights down before moving over the hair that was clinging to her forehead.

“Can we lay face to face?”

When he asked for her permission, Marie couldn’t help but nod her head. He carefully laid down next to her. Then, he turned his head to face her. They both couldn’t take their eyes off each other’s eyes.

In an instant, his face came closer.

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