The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Male Lead Went Crazy for a Wicked Woman 019
“Where could she be? Is she here?”
I murmured low, slowing my pace. Behind the cart, I could see a little girl holding her breath. I pretended not to notice and slipped past her.
Lilia was nowhere to be seen. Impressive. I crept slowly between the low bushes, when suddenly a rustling sound came from beside me.
“Aaaah!”
It was Lilia who burst from the shrub. She’d been waiting silently to startle me, but apparently she got so excited that she shrieked first.
“Aaaaaah! You scared me!”
Playing along, I matched her energy. Lilia laughed with delight and bolted toward the tree on the opposite side with all her might. Her short legs pounded the ground so eagerly that she looked exactly like a baby rabbit.
I placed a piece of Dried Fruit into the mouths of the sweating children, and their faces broke into grins within moments. When I handed one to each of the successful runaways too, they all beamed with unbridled joy.
“Sister, again! Again!”
“Tomorrow too. That’s enough for today.”
The children stomped their feet in disappointment. Their pouting was utterly endearing.
Just then, a familiar voice cut through.
“Lady Rosana? What are you doing here?”
It was Vanessa. She must have been passing nearby and drawn over by the children’s cheerful commotion. Her arms were piled high with laundry, and her eyes were wide with curiosity.
Vanessa set down her laundry carefully and crept over. The children, intrigued by this new face, promptly dragged her in as their next seeker.
Vanessa’s clumsiness showed immediately. The children laughed until they held their sides as she blundered about, unable to find even the children who were hiding in obvious spots.
“Sister Vanessa, not there—left! It’s left!”
“Where? Where?”
Then one more person quietly joined in. It was Seraphine.
“What exactly are you doing? This doesn’t seem like simple play.”
Seraphine had hit the mark. Unlike Vanessa, who stumbled about and got swept up, she watched with the keen eye of a hawk. She was the heroine, after all—of course she’d catch on quickly. Perhaps because she naturally liked children, her lips were already curved in a smile. When the children laughed, she laughed with them.
“I thought it would be good for the children to learn how to run from and hide from Monsters.”
“…Ah. How did you come up with that?”
Seraphine’s eyes widened as she turned to face me. I shrugged.
“Lilia nearly had a terrible accident not long ago. At minimum, I wanted to teach them how to break a nose if that happens.”
Seraphine stared at me with her mouth half-open in surprise. I shrugged again. Well, why not? After all, small peppers are the hottest.
Seraphine let out a soft laugh, then watched the children playing quietly for a moment.
“But since you’re teaching them anyway, wouldn’t it be good to establish some signals? There must be some useful ones for urgent situations.”
That’s actually a good suggestion.
“For instance, a single hand gesture to show them which direction to run. Battlefields use those kinds of Hand Signals all the time.”
I perked up. The Hand Signals I’d drilled endlessly in my past life came to mind. I thought I could adapt several of them.
“Good idea. How about this?”
I held up one finger.
“This means scatter to the right. Two fingers means left. And if I make a fist?”
“Drop down immediately and hide in place?”
I nodded at Seraphine’s suggestion.
“And if I spread my palm flat, stay still and don’t move.”
“A circle means gather together. That should be enough. What do you think, Seraphine?”
Seraphine nodded in agreement. It seemed I’d need to teach this to the children tomorrow. The fortunate thing was that the children treated all this training as mere play, with no connection to the Monsters that lurked in their nightmares.
* * *
The next day, we were at it again—Seraphine and Vanessa had joined us for this new game. We were teaching the Hand Signals we’d discussed yesterday, though the children seemed to treat it more like a rhythmic dance, similar to something like “Flowers Bloom.”
When I raised my hand, the children froze and rolled their eyes. Watching them giggle, Vanessa and Seraphine laughed along.
As we were practicing signals under the guise of play, a few knights who’d been standing guard nearby approached with interested looks.
“May we join in?”
“You knights?”
“We’ve just finished our shift and have a bit of free time.”
There was no reason to refuse. In fact, I was glad. Having several adult seekers would make the training far more realistic for the children. After all, Monsters didn’t come alone—they hunted in packs.
When three or four knights joined in, clawing their hands like monster claws and making beast-like sounds, the game exploded in scale.
At first, the children flinched at the sight of the burly knights. But once the knights deliberately moved with slow, exaggerated steps and made ridiculous noises, their nervousness melted away.
“Grrrrrowwwl!”
As I approached making genuine Monster sounds, the children shrieked with laughter and scattered. Had it been a real Monster, they would never have laughed.
The children shouted to one another, confirming the signals. Through their immersion in play, the Hand Signals were already becoming second nature to them.
Children darting this way and that at the signals, followed clumsily by clumsy adults in pursuit—the small clearing had erupted into a delightful chaos.
One bulky knight tried to catch the children but ended up surrounded and tackled by three of them, grabbed by the legs.
“I surrender, I surrender! I give up!”
The knight flopped dramatically onto his back, and the children scrambled excitedly onto him. When I held up one finger, the children instantly scattered to the right. Watching them, Seraphine nodded with evident satisfaction.
“This should work in actual combat.”
Seraphine’s approval? There’s no greater victory than this. Her eyes sparkled with favor as she looked at me.
Ha, it looks like my heroine affection quest was successful. My future’s bright from here on out, doesn’t it?
She approached Seraphine shyly. The moment she caught sight of Seraphine’s forearms—corded with lean, defined muscle—certainty seized her. This was a sound investment. You’re so cool, sister.
* * *
Kael, too, had witnessed the scene while emerging from checking the supplies.
The laughter of children like droplets of water, shadows tangling as they darted about. Kael’s steps faltered. He couldn’t possibly fathom what they were doing.
Though it looked like play, the children were undergoing training all the same. Giggling as they ran, they moved in perfect unison to Rosana’s Hand Signals, scattered at her direction, and hid on command.
With Seraphine and several knights joining in, the whole affair took on an air of genuine organization.
And then there was Vanessa. Seeing her stripped of that cumbersome dress and dressed instead in trousers, a shirt, and military boots nearly drew a laugh from him despite himself.
All of this was a miracle Rosana had wrought. Yes, this was nothing short of a miracle.
“……Was this truly possible?”
Kael answered Millers’s question.
“I didn’t think so either.”
That he couldn’t reconcile the piercing gaze with which she’d cornered merchants in Willow with the face now so openly softened before the children—that they belonged to the same woman—was almost beyond belief.
She traversed that boundary with fluid grace, enchanting all in her path. Like a firefly gliding through the dark of night.
Not only Kael but the weary soldiers too watched the scene with smiles playing at their lips. With each passing day, Rosana revealed yet another face of herself.
“Your Highness?”
“……Go on.”
Even as he turned to leave, his heart lingered in that clearing. The children’s laughter seemed to follow him long into the distance.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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