Ch. 11
Chapter 11. Restia Pulls Out Her Little Notebook and Jots Down the Key Points!
"Giselle, let's head back!!"
Yan glanced around at the now completely empty surroundings and spoke.
It seemed today's goal of helping his little sister "make friends" really couldn't be achieved.
"Mm-mm! Big bro-ther, hug!!"
The girl stretched out her arms expectantly, showing no objections at all.
She simply wanted to be carried by her brother again.
With a soft chuckle, Yan bent down and picked Giselle up.
The two made their way home...
Meanwhile, Restia also jogged all the way back to her house.
"Papa, Mama... do you know how to make friends?!"
Holding a little notebook and a pen, Restia blinked innocently at her parents the moment she stepped inside.
"Make friends?"
Her father and mother, who were busy preparing lunch, looked at each other. In both their eyes flickered a trace of surprise—and concern.
‘Could it be... that this child still hasn't made a single friend until now?’
"Well, anyway, just beat them up and that'll do!"
Forcing down his inner worry, the young, handsome, silver-haired father deliberately put on a hearty smile, clenching his fist as he spoke.
He rolled up his sleeve to show off the muscles on his arm.
Restia nodded her little head in thought, then carefully wrote it down in her "little notebook."
..."Key point!"
Father said: You can use force to make someone your "friend." If they don't listen, just beat them up.
Though she didn't really like such violent methods, Restia told herself seriously: If my own approach fails again, I can always try Papa's way.
"Is it a boy... or a girl?"
Mother didn't answer directly, but instead asked back.
".....!"
The first people that came to Restia's mind were Yan and his sister.
Compared to Giselle, "Yan" was undoubtedly closer to the kind of friend she wanted to make.
In fact, she believed that—since Yan was seen by others as a "monster"—he might be easier to accept her than his sister would.
"A... a boy!"
Restia's little face flushed as she whispered the words.
Because of her sharp senses from her past life, Restia would sometimes "overhear" the maids' hushed conversations and gain bits of insight into the lives of "ordinary people."
The maids always carried dreams of being noticed by some noble, like Cinderella becoming a princess overnight.
When they chatted about men, it was almost always about princes or high-ranking lords.
Sometimes, their talk even drifted into physiological topics between men and women—
... And so, under the influence of such conversations, Restia's concept of "friendship" between a boy and a girl had become somewhat distorted, no longer so innocent.
Making friends with a boy = huh!?
Now recalling some of those "secret" things the maids had whispered about, Restia's face turned red again!
Thus—
When her mother asked her, Restia didn't want to lie, but the honest answer left her feeling unbearably shy.
"Ah~!! A boy? Has my little girl already reached that age? Ohh... Mama is so touched!!"
The beautiful silver-haired mother's eyes went wide for a moment, then she covered her cheek with one hand, closing her eyes and blushing in intoxicated delight.
"Well then, if it's about how to make a certain kind of slave~!!"
Mother suddenly slipped into some kind of bizarre state.
Steam practically shot from Restia's forehead.
‘Mama, just what are you even talking about—’
As an endless string of indescribable words poured into her mind from the silver-haired beauty's lips...
Even though she had been rather pure in her previous life, Restia wasn't completely ignorant about relationships between men and women.
So, when she left the house again, her whole body was dizzy and lightheaded.
Her little mouth muttered things like "bondage," "whips," "wax dripping"... while her face was as red as an apple, steam puffing nonstop from her head.
Already a complete novice in matters of the heart, this daughter seemed to have become an even bigger novice under the flood of her "unusual" parents' words!
‘Oh right—’
‘Before I left, Papa's expression didn't look very good.’
‘I wonder why…’
Restia tilted her little head in confusion.
With her shallow grasp of emotions, she couldn't possibly figure out the real reason.
But she did notice something keenly—Papa's strange reaction... seemed to begin right after Mama started explaining those "methods of making friends"!
......
"Did that monster leave?"
Back at the empty playground—after Restia and the Yan siblings had both departed—the group of brats secretly snuck back again.
"Someone saw him heading that way!"
One child pointed toward the direction Yan and his sister had taken.
"Damn it, is that guy making fools of us?"
Among the children, a few new faces had appeared without anyone noticing—taller ones, already at the age of young teens.
It was one of these boys who spoke.
"Big brother, you have to stand up for us! That demon was way too much!!"
Sniffling, one of the little brats clung tightly to the boy's thigh.
"Anyone who dares bully our younger brothers and sisters deserves a real lesson. Let's go—he shouldn't have gotten far!"
Another boy spoke up with a displeased, hostile look.
These were the older brothers and sisters the brats had gone to fetch as reinforcements.
... And now, Yan was being targeted!
Even though Yan hadn't done anything from beginning to end—
In the brats' eyes, the one who had "taken over" the empty playground was none other than Yan, the hateful "demon."
To them, stealing the playground was no different than snatching away their beloved toy.
They were too afraid and resentful to confront him directly, but they were clever enough to go find their older siblings.
As members of the Conjurer, most children in the village were natural-born mages. By the time they reached their teens, these "older siblings" had already learned a few basic spells.
Not that they were truly malicious—they only intended to use some magic to give Yan a good scare, make him suffer a little loss, and then force him to apologize to their younger brothers and sisters. That would be enough.
Of course... none of them had actually bothered to find out what really happened.
They simply assumed Yan had bullied their siblings and came ready to "teach him a lesson."
Completely unaware that they had all been tricked by those brats.
A whole group of children, brimming with righteous fury, marched off toward the Clovis household.
Adults along the way looked on with surprise and puzzlement.
"What's going on...? Why are so many kids gathering together? Where are they headed?"
But the adults didn't think much of it. As long as the children didn't run out of the village, they couldn't be bothered to interfere in whatever games the kids wanted to play.
Meanwhile, Restia—who had just run back breathlessly—stood wide-eyed in front of the now deserted playground.
"...? Eh?"
The girl looked around, but couldn't find a trace of Yan or his sister. Still holding her little notebook and pen, she froze blankly in place.