Chapter 137: A Child from a Rich Family
In the knights' headquarters, it wasn’t unusual for a child to suddenly appear. As mentioned before, sometimes knights are sent away on missions far from home. When that happens, and there’s no one to care for their children, those kids often get temporarily left with the knights' headquarters.
Armand had taken care of children before, so even when he got off the carriage carrying Rachel in his arms, no one thought it was strange. People just assumed another knight had been called away on a mission and left their young child behind.
Rachel was used to staying indoors doing research, so being around a crowd made her a little uncomfortable. Still, even though she looked like a little girl, her mind was that of a fairly mature adult, so she didn’t show any fear or shyness. She quietly stayed in Armand’s arms while the knights around them greeted their captain, and she took the chance to observe all the knights walking by.
Before this, she had worked under the Second Prince for money and alchemy materials, which meant she had to avoid knights loyal to the First Prince’s faction. She always saw them as dangerous enemies who might capture her and have her executed. But now that her situation had changed, she found they didn’t seem so scary anymore. Even though some of them looked tough or had scars on their faces, they didn’t feel as frightening as they once did.
“We're heading upstairs. That’s my office. Be quiet once we get there, okay?”
Armand greeted people while carrying Rachel upstairs. Rachel, who used to bow and flatter people all the time just to get by, suddenly found herself in a situation where everyone was respectfully greeting her because of Armand. She felt a strange sense of pride bubbling up. This feeling of being above others was unexpectedly... enjoyable.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet,” she replied, leaning against Armand’s chest. The taste of milk candy still lingered in her mouth. She didn’t know the candy had expired, and although it tasted a little weird, she just assumed it was a special flavor.
Knock knock knock.
Even though the door had “Captain’s Office” written on it, Armand still politely knocked a few times before turning the handle and walking in with Rachel.
The title “Captain of the Royal Knights” sounded grand, but the office itself wasn’t as luxurious as Rachel had imagined. It looked a lot like Armand’s office at home. A desk, a chair, some bookshelves, a sofa, a coffee table, and a potted plant. Nothing more.
As someone who loved money, Rachel had expected the office of someone powerful and favored by the First Prince to be glittering with gold, like a mini palace. But instead, the simple and calm design was a bit disappointing.
Still, there was one thing that stood out. There was someone already sitting at Armand’s desk.
A man with long white hair, looking like a noble gentleman, was sitting in the chair, bathed in the morning sunlight.
“Morning, Carle.”
As usual, the vice-captain Carle was sitting in Armand’s seat, with a cup of chilled tea on the side, working hard on the knights' headquarters’s weekly tasks.
“Morning,” Carle replied casually, lifting his head and glancing at the child in Armand’s arms. “Whose kid is that? Do we have any knights on external missions right now?”
He wasn’t surprised to see a child in the knights' headquarters. When Armand was away on campaigns, the place sometimes felt like a daycare. Things only quieted down when Armand and the others returned.
As he spoke, Carle pulled out a document from the pile in front of him. It listed the knights’ mission assignments in detail.
“Oh, this little one? She’s mine.”
Armand sat down on the sofa with Rachel in his arms. He chose a bottle of room-temperature water over the teapot and poured himself a glass. Then, he poured Rachel a cup of black tea with sugar.
“...Huh?”
Hearing Armand’s reply, Carle raised an eyebrow and looked closely at Rachel. Her short platinum blonde hair and green eyes didn’t remind him of anyone he knew, and she didn’t look anything like Armand. She couldn’t be some secret love child, right?
“Someone from your house staff?”
That was the conclusion Carle came to.
He figured the girl was just another kid someone had asked Armand to take care of, and Armand had simply brought her along.
“She’s Eve’s.”
“Eve… Evelia?”
Carle paused to think. From the ballroom, he did recall the two of them having some kind of romantic spark, but…
Wait, how did they already end up with a child?
“Armand, don’t tell me you’re kidnapping someone else’s child? I know you two are close, but taking in a kid this big is a bit much, isn’t it?”
That line made both Armand and Rachel struggle to keep a straight face. Rachel, of course, had to keep pretending she was just a young child, so she acted like she didn’t understand what they were talking about, swinging her legs and playing with her fingers on the couch.
"What are you talking about, Carle? How could I possibly be picking up someone else’s responsibility? Do I look like that kind of guy?"
Armand gave Rachel’s head a light pat, making her sit properly on the sofa, then walked over and leaned against Carle’s desk.
"You always do things no one expects. Who knows what you’ll do next?"
If a gossip reporter heard that, they’d probably write an article titled “Vice-Captain Calls Out the Captain’s Wild Behavior!”
"Alright, alright, I’m not messing with you. This kid’s name is Rachel. Eve and the old butler found her next to a trash can near the manor."
…Well, that was blunt.
—Rachel, still pretending to play with her fingers on the sofa, couldn’t help but complain in her head.
"Hmm..." Carle capped his pen and focused on Rachel. "She looks normal. No visible disabilities. A lost child, maybe?"
Carle seemed to slip right into work mode, like he was about to pull out a form for Rachel to fill out.
"She was probably abandoned. She says she doesn’t remember her parents at all."
"An abandoned child…" Carle rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It’s a miracle a kid this young could survive in this world."
Hearing that, Rachel's heart skipped a beat. She started to think Carle wasn’t someone easy to fool. If he asked about her background and caught a single inconsistency, she could be in real trouble.
"...You’ve had a tough time, huh."
But to Rachel’s surprise, Carle didn’t press further. His sharp look softened, and he gave her a rare, gentle, slightly emotional gaze.
After all, Carle was a father too, and Rachel looked about the same age as his daughter. He’d thought before that if he ever slipped up in his official duties, his daughter could end up a homeless child too. Rachel was lucky to have been taken in by Armand. If something ever happened to him, his own daughter might not be that lucky.
It was only natural for him to feel sympathy for such a pitiful child.
"Yeah, she’s amazing, right? I even think she’s smarter than other kids her age. Look at her, don’t you think she’s smarter than your daughter?"
Armand, proud as ever, started bragging about Rachel like a dad who couldn’t wait to show off how great his kid was.
"If you’re going to start comparing kids, I’m not going to let it slide," Carle said seriously. Even though he and Armand were close friends, when it came to comparing children, Carle wasn’t backing down.
"Exactly why I came to you, to ask you to help find her a few teachers."
That’s right, the person Armand had said he was going to talk to yesterday was Carle. Since Carle also had a three-year-old daughter, he would know how to handle this. In fact, Rachel might even be able to learn together with Carle’s daughter, which would be very convenient.
"Teachers?" Carle looked thoughtfully at Armand, then glanced again at Rachel. "She’s only three years old, and she just came out of living on the streets. She’s probably just now starting to feel stable. Honestly, I don’t think now’s the right time to get her teachers."
"—Eh?"
Rachel was the most shocked at that. She had been counting on getting teachers to help her restart her alchemy work. If Carle’s words made Armand drop the idea, who knew how long she’d have to wait to gain some real freedom again?
"U-Um… I heard you also have a daughter... I… I want to learn like her too...! Is that okay?"
To win Carle over, Rachel put on her best innocent, pitiful, and cute expression, hoping to move the man who seemed harder to deal with than Armand.
"Learning? No, my daughter hasn’t started that yet. I plan to let her just play for a few more years. I haven’t found any teachers for her."
"Huh?" Armand turned to look at the calm-faced Carle. "Aren’t you afraid of those old nobles saying your daughter’s not educated enough? You know how crazy those noble kids get just to show off, right?"
"She’s only three. There’s no need for that. And I’m not the kind of guy who’d put pressure on my daughter just for pride."
Carle clearly had no patience for such nonsense. On the topic of nobility, he and Armand were pretty much the same. They both hated the meaningless rules and ego contests among noble families.
"Besides, I’ve got enough money. I’m not like those nobles who break their backs trying to keep their family businesses going. Even if my daughter never studies a day in her life, our family wealth is enough to waste for several generations."
"Wha—"
Hearing that rich man-style “bold declaration,” Armand couldn’t help but let out a small gasp.
"Wow..."
Even Rachel was stunned by Carle’s words.
This guy is that rich?!
Is it too late to start calling him dad instead?!