The Side Character Got Promoted To The Villainness!

Chapter 4: Duke Wolfram of Lumine

A man in his mid-40s stood in front of a door made of mahogany and coated in dark colours. The man was dressed very neatly, too neatly in fact. He pulled out his pocket watch and watched as the second hand moves clockwise. As it almost reaches 12, he swiftly put the pocket watch away and knocked on the door.

"Enter." A man's voice came from the room.

The man gracefully opened the door, making as little sound as possible. Once he entered, he greeted the two people in the room.

"Greetings to my lord, young master." 

In front of him, an older man sat behind the table while a young boy stood at the opposite of him. The boy resembles the man to a certain extent that it would not be an exaggeration to call it a copy. It was not hard to guess what relations they have.

Both of them have jet black hair and striking yellow eyes, as if they could pierce through a person's soul just be gazing at them. They boy was no more than a child, yet he displayed such discipline and nobility.

"Then, I shall pardon myself, father." The young boy spoke in a manner that was too mature for a child, yet it was to expected from him.

After all, he is a son of Duke Wolfram.

The young boy left as silently as the man from before.

"Report."

"Yes, my lord. The cases of disappearance of children in the fief has increased drastically these few weeks. The children that were missing were mostly children from the orphanages. There are 5 out of the 6 orphanages had children missing. This is a list of the missing children." The man reported such an incident with such calmness to the point that it could seem cold-hearted. He proceeded to lay out a map with indicators that had been drawn on.

"If we were to track these cases, they most likely will strike in between these areas." The man pointed to the circled area in the map, giving his opinion and after that, he stood and waited for a reply.

The man simply read through the list of missing children and was deep in thought for a moment. After a brief silence, the man looked up from the papers and gave his order.

"Prepare the carriages. I will investigate this personally. Inform Elliot's squadron to be ready."

"Yes, sir." The man bowed deeply and without another word, exited the room.

***

Jun's P.O.V

From what I have observed, this orphanage is self-sustaining. They do not hire caretakers. In fact, the sisters and Father were in charge of the education.

The children are divided into 2 groups, the younger children around 4 to 7 year old, and older children around 8 to 12 years old.

Every day, new chores will be rotated within the children. The children will be paired with a partner (Usually more younger children will be paired with an older child) to finish the task under a sister's supervision. Through these menial tasks, the children will learn how to work together and take care of themselves.

My task today is going shopping and my partner is the boy that kept on glaring at me during breakfast, Corwin.

This is really awkward......

I wanted to ask why but he kept running away before I get to have the chance. I kept looking through the memories as well but could not find anything that might trigger this.

Perhaps he likes Astria? After all, they say that boys only bully the girl they like. But he's just glaring at me and not doing any bullying though......

And so, I've decided to do the adult thing I always do--

Just smile and pretend everything is fine!

"Alright, we almost have everything we need." Sister Jeanne who was in charge of supervising us chirped happily while crossing out the things on her checklist. "All that's left is to pick up he book Father ordered."

As we walked along the street, I saw many posters of missing people stuck onto walls and poles. Some of them looked worn out while the others newly placed. Now that I look closely, all of them are children......

The bookshop was just around the corner. However, the store forbids bringing any groceries in. We could only wait outside while sister gets the ordered book.

Both of us stood in silence and quite a distance apart. This is just fine for me.

"U-Uhm......"

Hmm? This voice? Is Corwin speaking? To me??

"Yes?" I forced an awkward smile.

"I-Is your head......uhm......t-the bump......" Corwin was stuttering so bad that I could barely understood but I patiently waited for him to get it out.

You can do it, Corwin! Don't give up!

"......I'm sorry......" He finally apologized!

Wait, apologized?

"Corwin is sorry?" What I meant to ask was what is he sorry for.

"Y-Yeah. I accidentally t-threw the ball t-too hard, a-and it h-hit you......" Corwin finally gave some context.

So all this time, he wasn't hating me, but was just feeling bad?

"It's okay! Ria is not angry!" I tried my best to cheer him up. "Corwin play ball with Ria next time."

After I said that, Corwin doesn't seem so dejected anymore. That means I've put him at ease.