Chapter 45: Cherish Kids

Dwon.

Youve had enough?

I got Bart to put me down because hed been holding me this whole time. Then I was snatched by Alistair and held once more.

Lei!

Alistair hugged me tightly.

Dwon, he finally put me down when I said that.

So thats Albans daughter? I turned towards the voice and saw the mayor looking at me in interest.

Im Leiwa Awbansh.

I probably dont have to hide anymore.

Mayor asked me after I introduced myself, Why didnt you follow them?

No magwic. Noth person from Wingdom.

The mayor, who asked an infant why she didnt follow the men, had a strange expression. Even so, he looked at me in amazement and said, You-.

Im Lei. I reminded him and the mayor corrected himself, Lei, do you know about magic?

I wnow.

Magic isnt visible but I can feel it.

For example, do I have magic?

Yesh.

How about this person? He pointed at the person who had shown us here.

A withthwe.

I looked at Bart and his crew, Yesh.

I looked at Alistair, A woth.

Oh gee.

The mayor put his hand on his neck and looked up at the ceiling. Then, he adjusted his position and leaned forward.

Then-,

At that moment the door suddenly opened with a bang.

Father! The guests have left, right?!

Wheres Alistair? He came, right?!

A blonde brother and sister came flying in. The mayor looked up at the ceiling again. The person, who guided us, shook his head helplessly.

You guys, the guests are-,

Bart and his crew arent guests.

Ah, there he is!

The two of them were like a wild storm as they interrupted their father. The brother asked Bart, Bart, its fine for Alistair to come play right?!

Its up to Alistair, Bart smiled wryly and replied as if he was used to this.

Alistair, come on!

No, Im-, Alistair tried to refuse because he didnt want to go but, Building blocks is really popular in town right now.

Building blocks

Yes, it seems like hes interested.

Alistair likes to build blocks. Or to be more precise, he liked woodwork. He was good at assembling boxes, but he also liked to make different shapes with building blocks.

Hey.

Alistair, youre hopeless.

I looked at Alistair warmly because he was tempted by the building blocks.

Hey.

I have to listen to this conversation with Bart.

Hey, you can hear me right?

The brother went to Alistair and for some reason the sister was coming to me.

Whath? I replied reluctantly.

Come here. She stretched out her hands.

What is it?

Come with us.

Whats with this annoying kid?

I looked at Bart for help, Baarthh.

Its fine. You can go with them, With Barts permission, Alistair and I were kidnapped by the kids who were like twin tornadoes and were forced to play with them.

We were talking about the messenger being fake right? So why does it seem like Ive come here to play?

(Barts POV)

The only defect of the ironclad mayor, huh.

Hey, hey. Isnt it weird to say that ones own children are defects?

The mayor shrugged at my words and spread his arms out.

Its a defect if you dont cherish your kids, right mayor? I condemned him severely.

Why did those dodgy arseholes want to take Lei away?

They werent trying to take her away. And its obvious that I, a mere mayor, wouldnt know what the signature of one of the Four Marquises would look like.

I certainly saw that he wanted to dismiss them a few times because they were annoying.

Ive also been told to hand Alistair over.

The fief capital is still saying that?

Alistair has certainly refused them before. The mayor intertwined his hands together and put them on his chin while still seated as he said nonchalantly, I heard a rumour that theyre trying to activate the old barrier box again.

Old barrier box The legend?!

It was a fairy-tale that everyone who lived in Frontier knew of. It is said that each town had a barrier box that spanned their whole town before Kingdom was established.

Come to think of it, the barrier boxes for individual use got bigger and they progressed to making barriers big enough to cover an entire kingdom, so it was more suitable to have bigger barrier boxes. But even if someone does have a box that big, theres no one in Frontier that has enough magic power to activate it.

So thats why they want Alistair?! Kyaro shouted. Like Alistair had said, they only wanted him for his magic, so there was no way we could send him there.

Regardless of whether the messengers are real or fake, the fief capital will soon receive information about Lei. No, they might already have information on her. So now its Leis turn.

Kyaro crossed his arms.

If the messengers are real, then the best thing we can do is give her back to her pops.

Mills is right. It doesnt seem like Alistair wants to give her back, but its best for kids to be raised by their parents.

I know that Alistair and Leila are important to you guys. They are as equally important to you as my children and this town is to me. If its concluded that they mean harm, then thats as far as it goes, the mayor said calmly.

It cant be helped.

But, about those messengers-.

What about them? The mayor continued quietly, Its not just the two of them. Theres actually five of them staying at the inn. Ive heard that they have more people in the next town.

According to the mayor, there were people scattered around various cities looking for Lei.

If theyre putting in this much effort, then does that mean theyre real? Kyaro asked in confusion.

Leila said theyre not. She said they didnt have any magic and that they werent nobles.

Thats it! The mayor stood up. I forgot about it because the children stormed in, but what is that infant? Shes completely different from my children when they were younger. I mean, it wouldnt be strange for her to forget about her parents because shes been separated from them for three months, but she hasnt!

The crew and I looked at each other.

She is a strange baby, but it was fine since shes cute.

Alistairs smart too. The Four Marquis Houses are like that, right? Mill said as if he didnt care.

But she decided that she wouldnt go with them because she didnt know if they were real or not. Is there an infant like that in this world?

What can you do about it since she exists? Thanks to that, your children werent given to a weird group and stigmatised, so isnt it fine? I said flatly. The mayor was about 15 years older than me, but its true that he didnt take any honourable actions this time.

The mayor didnt say anything and sat back down onto the sofa. Then he sighed and spoke again, Im curious about her, but fine. I wanted to tell you that its dangerous outside of town, so do you want to leave Alistair and Leila here for the time being?