Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 110

Chapter 110

After Uncle Pofina's older brother left by carriage.

We moved deeper into the alley and put on our cloaking cloaks just in case.

Olive kept fidgeting with this cutting-edge magical tool, clearly coveting it.

'I'll have to give him one later.'

Uncle Modi said.

"Pofina, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"That was my second brother."

"Were you close?"

At my question, Uncle Pofina nodded.

"He was the only one who supported my dream of becoming a chef."

"I see..."

"The shouting from the building earlier was my father's voice. It seems the two of them had a big fight."

At that, Ian asked.

"Were they always on bad terms?"

"No. In fact, he was closest to my father among all the siblings."

Uncle Pofina was one of four siblings.

After the eldest brother and sister formed a succession rivalry, the second brother stepped aside and was actually favored by the Octo Trading Company's chairman.

"Is this that kind of situation?"

Verity muttered.

"We came here to solve the orphanage problem, right? To find out if the Octo Trading Company is involved. And now suddenly a close father-son pair is having a conflict?"

Oh dear.

'I see.'

I understood what Verity was getting at.

There's only one conclusion we can draw from the current situation.

"Factional conflict."

The Emperor's faction versus the Clavis faction.

"Huh? Our family was destroyed, though?"

"That's just an example. The question now is who's helping the Emperor..."

Verity paused mid-sentence, finally glancing at Uncle Pofina.

Then he offered a useless consolation.

"At least we can save one of them, so let's think of it as a blessing."

"Verity oppa, shut your mouth before I sew it shut."

Just then.

"Woof! Woof!"

"Grrrr!"

Poppy and Chuchu suddenly started tugging at Olive's cloak and shaking it.

Olive, caught off guard, gave me a look asking for help.

I pulled the harness straps to separate them.

"Huff! Stay still..."

Then the dogs tapped my shoe with their paws.

"...Sir Olive."

Realizing what that meant, I said.

"Take out that shoe we found at the orphanage."

Only then did the others seem to grasp the situation.

I held out the small shoe Olive handed me to the dogs.

After sniffing it, the dogs took the lead, and the harness straps went taut.

'That direction...'

It was the same direction Uncle Pofina's second brother had gone.

'Wow, this is really bad.'

As we all fell silent.

"Woof."

Chuchu tapped my leg with her black paw and pointed her small nose at the Octo Trading Company building.

'No, the real trouble was something else.'

The scent of the orphanage child was also coming from inside the trading company building.

'The bigger problem is that we might lose both the father and the second brother.'

---

Ceblis Octo.

The second son of the Octo Trading Company, he brushed back his luscious pink hair and closed his tired eyes.

He hadn't slept properly for the past few days.

'This is going to be a real problem.'

Ceblis's carriage headed to a small mansion he'd recently purchased.

Officially, it was for independence, but in reality, it was a cover to hide something.

So the mansion only had two trusted staff members.

"We've arrived."

"You've worked hard."

"Will you be going out again later?"

"No, that's been canceled."

Entering the mansion, Ceblis gave a brief greeting to the butler and went to his room.

As he handed his outer coat to the butler, he asked.

"How was it today?"

"We confirmed that someone broke into the orphanage."

"Was it them?"

"There seems to have been a scuffle. We found bloodstains but no bodies."

"......"

"To the chairman..."

"He already knows. And don't contact them for a while."

Ceblis said firmly.

The butler bowed and replied respectfully.

Alone after the butler withdrew, Ceblis sank into the plush, smooth leather sofa.

The cool texture calmed his impatient heart.

"Sigh..."

His handsome features quickly recovered with a moment's rest.

He was just beginning to doze off.

Suddenly, a loud commotion startled him awake.

'What's going on?'

He was about to open the door and go out, but paused.

"......"

After a moment's thought, he turned and pushed the bookshelf against the wall aside. A hidden passage was revealed.

Entering the passage, Ceblis pushed the bookshelf back into place and descended the stone stairs.

He arrived at a comfortably furnished basement.

There, a young woman was reading a book to the children. All the children were around ten years old.

"Everyone, get up!"

Ceblis shouted.

He tossed the children's outer clothes that were hanging on the wall.

Frightened, the children couldn't even put on the clothes they'd been given. Some were so overwhelmed that they just trembled, trying not to cry.

"Why, why are you doing this...?"

Ceblis couldn't answer the woman's question.

'Where should we go? Should I contact someone? But there's no time...'

Just then, he felt a stinging sensation on his back.

Followed by the feeling of something being injected into his body.

Like a shot you'd get when you have a cold.

"......"

Barely turning his weakening body, Ceblis saw.

"Wow, shit."

A little girl he'd never seen before stood there, holding a syringe.

"Seeing you look like the dignified Uncle Pofina pisses me off."

"W-who are you..."

"Sleep forever, kidnapper."

The child pressed two fingers together and wiggled them near her eyebrow.

The chilling words, delivered with a playful wink, were cheeky.

Ceblis collapsed unconscious.

---

'How dare you do bad things with a face that looks like our uncle...'

Ah, saying that sounds like I have a weird taste.

I tossed the syringe I'd used to inject Ceblis with the anesthetic into my subspace and clicked my tongue.

For the record, this wasn't the same syringe I'd used on the men who attacked us yesterday.

I may willingly violate medical laws, but Verity is so thorough that he never reuses a syringe.

'Anyway, this guy is really insane.'

Kidnapping orphanage children and their teacher in his own basement.

And the basement, from what I'd seen, was better furnished than most houses.

Cute wallpaper, toys children would like, small beds, and low chairs. Even the bathroom and toilet were designed with children in mind.

'...Is this bastard a pervert?'

Having lived in a harsh world, I couldn't help but suspect that.

Just then.

"Waaah!"

"Waaah! Huuu!"

The children suddenly burst into tears.

'They must be scared.'

They've been locked up, so they must have been terrified.

I was about to say it's okay, we're here to help.

"Uncle! Waaah!"

"Uncle! Wake up!"

"You're bad! Why did you hurt our uncle!"

"Give us back our uncle! Give him back!"

"...Huh?"

For some reason, the children started blaming me.

'What? Stockholm syndrome?'

Flustered, I could only stammer, but the woman who had been comforting the children asked me.

"Who, who are you?"

"I'm here to help, but..."

"Here to help?"

"I came to rescue you."

"We're not being held captive."

"Pardon?"

"He's..."

Just then.

"Mr. Pofina! Calm down!"

"Let go! Let go of me!"

"Calm down, brother!"

"Just let him go. Those kinds of people are better off dead anyway."

Three desperate voices and one indifferent one.

"My Lady, are you alright?"

One demon who only cares about me.

Pitter-patter.

Pitter-patter.

And the light footsteps of two dogs.

A huge commotion descended into the basement.

"Whoa."

I gaped in surprise.

Uncle Pofina, his face covered in tears, was running toward me like a madman with a knife in his hand.

"Aaaargh!"

"Waaah! Aaaah!"

The terrified children burst into tears, and I felt like I was in a different world.

"Brother Ceblis! I can no longer stand by and watch your fall! So I, the brother who loved you most, will end it! That is the only atonement for the victims..."

"That man is not a kidnapper!"

The sharp blade stopped just above Ceblis's chest.

"Mr., Mr. Ceblis is..."

The woman shouted, veins bulging in her neck.

"He helped me and the children! If it weren't for him, we would have been taken by strange men!"

---

Thankfully.

'No one died...'

There were a few minor injuries, but none of us killed anyone in this mansion.

'I almost drove a wedge between us and Uncle Pofina.'

After moving the unconscious butler and maid to separate rooms, I made them drink the Dulcevia medicine I'd brought.

They'll be much healthier when they wake up than before they collapsed—I hope that's enough to settle things.

Ceblis was also moved to his bedroom.

"Sigh, my Lady."

Verity put a cat band-aid on the injection mark on his back.

Poppy and Chuchu growled, displeased with the band-aid.

"What if you'd injected the wrong thing?"

"You put the syringe in my hand!"

"Anyway..."

Uncle Modi asked the woman, looking tired.

She introduced herself as Edul, the orphanage teacher.

"Ceblis Octo isn't a kidnapper—he helped you?"

"Yes."

Edul, clenching her fists, desperately explained what had happened.

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