Surprised, Rieta opened her mouth to let out a scream.

Thief! It’s a thief!

But the thief’s movements were amazing. Faster than her by far.

With the speed of a trained knight, he quickly approached her in order to clamp a hand over her little mouth.

“Shh. Be quiet, kid. I’m not a suspicious man.”

His words went hand in hand with the sentence “I’ll buy you a toy, will you come with me?” It was the fixed line of a shallow villain.

Rieta thought that the other person was very suspicious.

The thief yanked the scarf away from his face so she could see him if she raised her head.

“Look at these innocent eyes. I look like a very nice grandfather, don’t I?”

Where in the world were the good-looking eyes?

His face had two eyes, neither of them anywhere near ‘good’.

When Rieta shook her head, he frowned sharply.

“At least it’s a much better impression than Duke Mayer . . . isn’t it?”

Rieta shook her head harder.

He raised his lips sullenly.

“Sheesh. What’s with that ugly face?”

While the thieving grandfather grumbled, Rieta’s body made a very loud noise.

Growl-

To be exact, it was her stomach that made the noise.

I can’t take it anymore, please give me something to eat.

He looked at Rieta in shock, then clicked his tongue.

“. . . Tch. Didn’t that damn Mayer give you anything to eat?”

The grandfather removed his hand from Rieta’s mouth and took a small piece of chocolate out of his coat pocket.

“I was going to eat this if my sugar went down, but damn it. Eat one, kid.”

He kindly peeled off the wrapper of the chocolate and slid it into Rieta’s mouth.

“It’s a big deal when you get older and your sugar goes down,” he murmured over and over again.

Of course, Rieta did not understand the imperial language for ‘sugar goes down’.

“. . . Thank you.”

Rieta, who had unintentionally accepted the thief’s chocolate and ate it, softened her vigilance towards him.

“But you can’t steal things from here. This is the family room. It is a room that the people of the Duchy . . . cherish very much.”

Rieta stuttered somewhat, and the grandfather looked at her intently before smirking.

“Listening to that flat pronunciation, I presume that you’re a kid from the Kingdom of Liz?”

When a very proficient royal language flowed from his tongue, Rieta was startled.

“. . . How, how did a Liz man come to the Empire and become a thief?!”

“Don’t be stupid. I’m an Imperial person.”

Perhaps the Empire had been suffering from a job shortage for a long time.

A highly-qualified person who could speak foreign languages had no choice but to make a living by stealing.

“And you’ve been calling me a thief. A real thief wouldn’t even come to this place!”

“Why?”

There were a lot of very expensive and good items in this mansion.

Rieta, who came from the Kingdom of Liz, saw this mansion as a golden residence.

“There’s nothing to steal in this mansion. Once upon a time there was a very precious treasure.”

“A very precious treasure . . . ?”

“Yes. In the Empire- no. The most precious, the greatest, the most beautiful and wonderful treasure in all the world.”

“Is there anything so great in this mansion?”

“There isn’t. Didn’t I say there isn’t just now, you difficult kid?”

Just then, another growl was heard from Rieta’s stomach.

“It’s really dangerous to run out of sugar,” he muttered and took out another piece of chocolate.

“Well, then.”

Rieta mumbled something, finding something strange in his story.

“Even though you knew that the treasure wasn’t here anymore, you came all the way to this mansion anyway?”

“. . .”

The rather chatty grandfather did not answer anything this time.

In fact, he seemed completely wordless. Quiet.

Rieta realized that her question had hurt him badly.

She didn’t know why.

“. . . Sorry.”

“Hmph.”

The grandfather snorted and turned his head slightly.

“That’s it. The owner of this mansion didn’t set a good example. The Duke is a stubborn man who knows nothing but himself. I’m just worried that the kids in this house will grow up like him.”

“Darrell and Noel?”

“Yes. For children born of that dirty-eyed man, they actually look quite alright. Truly, the heavens took care of them.”

Rieta was going to say that the Duke was also wonderful, but stopped for the time being.

She thought it would be better.

“Darrell is very kind.”

“I guess so. Besides, I heard that he was doing pretty well at the academy. Like his mother, he’s smart and a hard worker. He’s a great kid.”

“. . . How do you know that?”

“Who do you think I am? Intelligence-”

He inadvertently tried to say ‘intelligence department’ and bit his tongue before he could divulge any more.

“Intelligence?”

“Anyway, I can’t believe he’s that man’s child.”

“Noel is a bit stubborn, but cute.”